Pricing is really based on your own budget so it is hard for me to tell you exactly what price or range you should be looking at. I will just cover a few topics which you should consider when looking at the different prices on the packages you are considering. Remember to also consider customer service and server reliability aspects also when you are searching for your new web hosting company.
Pay your hosting company what they are worth
The saying “you get what you pay for” applies to web hosting too. If you want to have a good hosting provider that provides you with high quality, reliable service – than pay for it. Hosting is certainly a very important aspect of running a website. Without it there’d be no website to visit, no visitors, no money, no nothing. Take your time to find a reliable provider and pay them what they are worth. The fee for hosting is relativity low in comparison to what they provide, paying them an appropriate price for their service will keep your website online and your headaches away from dealing with not so high quality hosting companies.
Only pay for what you will actually be using
Each hosting company will try to offer you everything they think you need and what they think you might need in the future. You should only concern yourself with what you need now and possibly in the near future, not distant. A package that offers you only 20 features but includes all the features you need now is the one you should go with, over the one that offers you 50+ but does not come with what you need. If you are concerned about features you will need later, ask them how much it might cost to upgrade to that new feature instead of paying for it while you don’t need it.
Overselling on web hosting servers
We keep hearing this term over and over again to not buy from companies who are overselling. The technical meaning is that the company is selling more hosting packages than can actually fit on the server. Your regular phone company, cell phone companies, even your power company use the overselling model in their business. That is because it is very unlikely for all customers to actually use every resource they have paid for. With that said, overselling is not a ‘taboo’. It is essentially what just about every hosting company and most other service oriented providers do.
There certainly is a level of overselling that is unhealthy for a server. You can easily tell which these are by looking at the prices vs. resources. If the price is extremely low and the resources are extremely high, the level of overselling is probably too much. It is hard to give an example of pricing, because expensive packages could easily exploit overselling as well.
How much space and bandwidth do you really need
As web severs become cheaper to buy and maintain, hosting companies have transferred those savings onto their customers increasing their space and bandwidth. In some cases they lower their pricing too, leaning more into the overselling arena. The truth is that most websites use no more than 500mb of space and less than 5gb of bandwidth each month, so more space and bandwidth does not necessarily make a package a better deal.
Find out how much space and bandwidth your website is currently using each month in order to evaluate your new hosting company. If you are just starting out, keep in mind the general rule that most websites use no more than 500mb of space and 5gb of bandwidth. I stress this fact because hosting companies try to sell you on how much space and bandwidth they offer, when reality is that you will probably never use even close to that amount. Start out at your base and upgrade your package as you need more.
Questions to ask your new hosting company
The main thing to find out from your new hosting company is if they offer the features you need and what their costs is. Here are some questions you can ask your hosting company to get more familiar with their pricing policies:
- Do you offer custom packages?
- How many customers do you have on one server?
- What are you server specifications?
- Are there any extra costs for “X” feature?
- Any other extra costs I should know about?
- Is there a daily limit on how much bandwidth I can use?
- Are there any extra costs for upgrading?
- What are my upgrade options?
The pricing aspect defiantly is a hard one to research as it drastically differs from one web hosting company to another. It is much more cost effective to pay for what you will actually be using now and upgrade later when you actually need more resources. Research customer service and server reliability first and your pricing decision will be a lot easier to make if you are comfortable and know that your website will be taken care of properly.
The Insiders Guide to Buying Web Hosting Series
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Tell me about it.
I am going to switch to a US host after October methinks. The annoying thing I find is that UK hosts give you loads and loads of bandwidth, but skimp on the MySQL databases (i’ve got 5, and used them all).
Plus it’ll be cheaper, long live the strong pound!
Only pay for what you will be using couldn’t apply to my package more lol. I have over 2500 available e-mail accounts, 1000 ftp accounts, 50 SQL data bases, and 100 mailing lists. I will never come close to using half of this crap lol.
I keep hearing that good UK hosts are very hard to find, a lot of US companies are starting to offer UK servers so you might want to check into that when you are getting ready to move. With your current host, if you have been with them a while don’t be afraid to ask them to give you more mysql dbs. I’m sure if you are not a mysql hog they won’t mind giving you a few more. :c)
Tell me about it shuan, I have never used over 10 of anything really. I am sure some people do try to use all of their resources, it must be a real challenge!
Unfortunately, whenever I look for customer reviews for web hosts online, I never know if I can trust them or not. Their affiliate programs pay $75+ for referring a new customer, so someone could just make up a lot of good reviews about the host with the best affiliate program.
Sam, your right that these days views might be based on getting a good chunk of money by making a referral. I don’t really trust those websites at all myself. Instead I have mostly relied on those reviews I find at WebHostingTalk, Hosting Discussion, SitePoint, and other forums where people are not allowed to link to affiliate links. It cuts down on the fakers thats for sure!
You’ve offered some great tips on finding a good web hosting package. I second Shaun, I have way too many of all that he listed also…
This is a very useful article. People really need to realize that a small price is not what they should be after. A big price doesn’t mean better service all the time, but in many cases better service comes with a bit more money.
In a hosting account we need a great uptime, no lags, enough space to develop the site, but not GBs of unused space, just because it’s “cool” to have such a big hosting plan. I use a little space with my sites and it’s just OK. Buy as much as you need and don’t fall for “unlimited” (god this is untrue) offers. You won’t need that much .. still people fall for this
And a good support is also mandatory. And save servers and so on.
Again .. it was a good article. Hope it will open more eyes
[...] Jar - The Insiders Guide To Buying Web Hosting: Pricing Each hosting company will try to offer you everything they think you need and what they think you [...]
Uhm. I actually bought 300GB of space and 300GB of bandwidth. Guess the provider is assuming we cannot use so much - they have a Acceptable Use Policy.
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I’m suggesting that the guide include “Reading Terms & Conditions/AUPs/PP” as providers often have different policies.