Where Should My Website Be Hosted?
August 28, 2008
If you are launching a new website, one critical decision is where to have the site hosted. A web host is the location of where your web site actually resides on the internet. It may help to think about this in relationship to a human family. They have many options where they may live, and there is just a single place that is there home at any given time.
Websites are the same way. Websites live on web servers, which are computers attached the internet and which store web pages for people to view. The computer which stores a website is called a “web host”.
One major decision is whether to use a free or paid web host.
Using one of the free sites is tempting, because not only are they free, they often include easy site building tools. While using a free site can be quick and easy (not to mention free!), you should not rely on them. Not only do many of them display ads, but you also do not have control over whether they decide to delete your site or shut down the service tomorrow. That being said, using a free site can be an effective marketing strategy. Some popular services include Blogger.com and Weebly.com.
If you hire a web designer, they may provide web space to you in a package, or you might purchase a hosting plan on your own. You should think about the following when selecting a web host:
Cost: what will they charge to host your site? And what addons may cost you more money?
Reliability: does the company have a history of problems with keeping sites up? Try and look beyond the actual out of pocket cost of hosting and gauge what it will cost if your site goes down for any period of time.
Cpanel: you should not consider any web host that does not offer cpanel for configuration.
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