How to choose a reliable hosting for the website

Hosting is a platform for storing and managing site files. Hosting providers rent a place on the server, providing the site with the necessary capacity and ensuring its smooth operation 24 hours per day.

Which hosting to choose for the site? The answer always depends on your needs, goals, expected traffic, resources, etc. First, you need to learn about the main varieties and differences of hosting.

One of the stages of hosting assessment is the analysis of its technical options. They must meet the requirements of a web project. In particular:

• hosting compatibility with a CMS site;
  
• sufficient disk space and number of databases;
  
• high server performance, which can handle the expected traffic and load on the site;
  
• availability of technical functions necessary for the implementation of the project objectives.
  

When searching for a hosting provider, there are often tempting offers with low prices or even free ones. Perhaps you want to run a business card site in test mode — free hosting in this case will help to save costs.

However, if a web project is designed for a large audience and the risks are extremely undesirable, in the first place you should be guided by the reliability of the supplier, the quality of its services, and not the price.

Even the best free hosting will not guarantee you the absence of some typical problems in use. Let's consider them in more detail.

Failures in the site are extremely unpleasant and require urgent solutions. A free server for the site will not allow you to fully protect your resources from crashes, lags and errors in the work.

When choosing a cheap or free hosting, there is a chance to encounter poor-quality feedback or its absence. The solution to important problems is delayed. It may seem that your letters are going nowhere.

If problems and complaints arise, it will be difficult to get justice from a dubious organization. Free use of hosting does not fit into the standard contractor-contractor scheme. Consequently, the responsibility to the client for low-quality services will be minimal.

In the process of setting up a site on a free hosting, you can detect the absence of important functions, for example, PHP, MySQL, email. The lack of a host with PHP support will not allow you to use popular CMS and create your own — such a hosting may be suitable only for single-page business card sites with a simple implementation.

Free hosting without any restrictions will be able to place advertising on the client's site. And suspending it is usually not so simple.

When choosing a hosting, it should be evaluated in terms of technical capabilities, flexibility, and compared with your web project.

The most popular type of hosting. The principle of its work is to host multiple sites on one web server. A separate place is allocated for each web resource, while the sites use common software.

Shared hosting has limitations on the size of disk space, traffic, the number of sites in one service package. At the same time, it is a good and economical choice when you need to choose hosting for small sites.

The client places its own server on the site of the hosting provider. The executing company ensures the connection of the server in its data center, its uninterrupted operation, technical support, and site data security.

In this case, all server resources work for a specific web project. It is also allowed to use any software and run several projects at the same time.

A virtual dedicated server is similar in management to a physical one. If shared hosting is provided for shared software, then VPS allows the use of alternative options. In addition, a site on VPS is guaranteed to gain access to a physical server, without the need to compete for its resources with other sites during periods of increased load.

In cloud hosting, servers are clustered. Using multiple servers expands the capabilities of the site and increases the capacity potential. Also, the presence of several active servers is a safety net for the client. If one server fails, another will continue to work.

Cloud hosting is characterized by the flexibility of allocated resources. Their volume may vary depending on the loads. At the same time, the payment for cloud hosting services depends on the consumed capacities, so you can not waste time choosing or changing the tariff.

A reliable provider company is officially registered as a state of emergency or LLC. It provides services based on a license. Also, most stably and successfully working hosting companies have an office. You should check if his address is indicated in the contact information.

As in any field, those who have long been in the service market are more trusted. It is not superfluous to pay attention to the date of the company's foundation on the site or to find out the age of the domain independently. For complete confidence, pay attention to the reviews about the provider and estimate its market share in the domain zone using a statistical resource.

On the site of most hosting sites, there are contacts for feedback. It's important to know how quickly tech support responds to a problem. A good sign is the availability of online chat on the provider's website or 24-hour support. This is especially true when solving urgent issues.

Good hosting is responsible for storing data that the client has entrusted to it. Reliable providers data centers are equipped with high-quality serviceable equipment and a security system. The hosting work is controlled by technical specialists, and actions in critical situations are thought out as much as possible.

The key to customer peace of mind will be a permanent backup site. Ideally, data is backed up daily.

FTP makes the process of managing site files on the hosting more accessible. Everyone who has access passwords can copy and delete files. This is especially true when several people are working on the site.

The breadth of the proposed options and the user-friendly interface will allow you to implement the tasks of the site in a short time.

When choosing a pricing plan, you need to correctly assess the required amount of disk space for the site. The golden mean is important here — to get enough hosting space and not to overpay for unnecessary megabytes.

The amount of disk space should be calculated with a margin. A beginner online store can have a relatively small number of pages. However, over time, the scale of the site can significantly increase due to modules, image files, databases, etc.

When calculating the conditional disk size, one should take into account the average page size and their total number, as well as predict the development potential of the site. Choosing a service package often provides a forecast of the expected web resource traffic.

Hosting consultants provide detailed advice on current tariffs and their differences. If the company allows the test use of hosting, do not rush to pay for services for a long time to come. This is a good opportunity to evaluate the quality of the provider and the correctness of the selected tariff.

Reseller is an intermediary between hosting and customers, reselling services of several providers at once. Often this type of activity is the starting point for a hosting company. Possible disadvantages of resellers include technical support, which is inferior in quality to large suppliers. At the same time, resellers have fewer customers; therefore, less price and more attention to each customer.

After the launch of a new site or for many years of working with a hosting, objective reasons for changing the provider may appear. Many site owners are concerned about how this will affect the operation of the resource and whether it will lead to loss of customers.

Since changing a hosting does not mean changing a domain name, moving a site boils down to copying the structure of files and databases from one server to another.

It is also possible to move a working site without closing it for visitors. If the new hosting provider gives a technical domain, then you can test the exact copy of the site on the new hosting without stopping the main version.

After identifying and eliminating errors in the test version, you can proceed to copy the site data and make the necessary settings. The last stage is the change of DNS addresses, and the site will begin to open on a new hosting.

The choice of hosting should be approached comprehensively. Trust your site only to reliable providers, evaluate the technical capabilities of the site, and choose the best option for a web project. A site placed on a good hosting will work as a streamlined mechanism, which will save the owner's time and nerves.