Web hosting reviews

Website hosting can be really confusing. You practically need a dictionary to figure out what some of the terms used mean. And there are many hosts, plans and features to go with each plan. So what’s the best web site hosting package to choose?

I would say the most confusing term when you talk about website hosting is probably “bandwidth” because it can mean several things. It can mean the size of the Internet connection that the physical web server has leading to it. It can mean how much allowed data transfer you have with your plan. And it can also mean how much space a rock band uses when they are up on stage performing. Ok, sorry… I am just kidding about the last one… although a drum kit does take up a lot of room.

In the world of web hosting, bandwidth is mainly going to mean data transfer but let me briefly mention the Internet connection that connects with your web server. You can think of that connection as a water pipe. The larger the pipe, the more it can handle. So you do want a connection that can handle a lot of data for when you do get traffic spikes to your websites. Make sure your website hosting package does have a decent Internet connection or “pipe” leading to it.

Web hosting bandwidth is data transfer and it is the data going through the pipe. Think of it as the water meter on your house that the water utility comes out to check. How much data goes through it depends on what kind of data you are sending and how much traffic your web sites get. If you have a standard web site with text and images, then that’s not large chunks of data. If your web site has things like audio and video files on it, then those are much larger data chunks. When people come to your site to get audio and video files, that’s more going through the pipe and the meter goes up.

There are basically two kinds of bandwidth packages allowed in web hosting packages: allowed bandwidth and unlimited bandwidth. Some plans give you an allowed amount of bandwidth per month and if you go over that amount, then you have to pay extra for it. Other plans give you an unlimited amount of bandwidth.

When you go with a web hosts that offers fixed, allowed bandwidth (usually measure in gigabytes), you are usually getting a website hosts that gives you some kind of management service and has really good uptime, These hosts are usually a lot more reliable. They will also give you some sort of web control panel where you can login and see how much bandwidth you have used for that month. And instead of overages, you can often pay in advance for some added bandwidth if you think you may go over. This will save you some money but you have to start watching it near the end of the month.

If you are looking for unlimited bandwidth, then those hosting plans are often cheaper but their reliability can typically be lower. They sometimes are just going for volume and will fill their servers with lots of accounts in order to make a profit since they are eating their bandwidth costs. These types of plans are perfectly fine for a lot of sites that are not considered mission critical. So they are a perfect fit for a lot of people and these plans that offer unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domains and unlimited space are very affordably priced at about $10 per month.

When choosing a web hosting plan, the bottom line is that you will get what you pay for. If your website is mission critical to your business, then you definitely do not want the cheapest website hosting plan out there. You’d be shooting yourself in the foot and take it from me, that really hurts. A website that is down all the time does not get traffic. More expensive hosting plans may or may not offer unlimited bandwidth but that is fine. Just make sure you find out what the costs are for overages and watch how much bandwidth you are using.

So good luck looking for a web hosting package and the right size band on stage!

Tags: affordable web hosting
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