There are many reasons why you might one day wish to consider switching your web hosting provider. It could be that you have found their customer service to be poor, that the performance of your website is being compromised, or that they are increasing their hosting fees to a level that you find too high.
Regardless of the reason you wish to leave your current hosting company, before switching to another, there are several key considerations you must make. Failure to do so could mean that you end up with a hosting company that is no better than the previous one, or worse, one whose performance and service are even more lacking than what you were experiencing before.
To avoid either of those two undesirable scenarios and more importantly, to ensure that any new hosting company you move to can provide you with what you require for your website to function properly and be able to be managed effectively, here are some of the more crucial points you should consider.
What Specific Features Do They Offer?
This can cover a wide range of possibilities but in most cases, you need only focus on the more important ones. These include the following:
- Disc Space – How Much?
- Bandwidth – Limited Or Unlimited?
- Email Accounts – Offered And Are They Unlimited?
- Subdomains / Add On Domains – Unlimited?
- Which Platforms Can Be Used? WordPress? Joomla? Others?
If the answers to these questions are either positive or in most cases ‘unlimited’, then this is a good sign that this hosting service can provide the level of website functionality and management you need.
Do They Use cPanel?
There are some website hosting companies that use their own bespoke website management system within their hosting accounts. Now, this is not to say that this is inferior to cPanel, and if you have had a chance to look under the bonnet as it were and are satisfied you will be able to use it, then that is fine.
However, the vast majority of web hosting companies use cPanel, and given that these all operate in almost the exact same way, this is usually the preference. Also, if you are in any doubt, or are uncomfortable with the technical aspects of managing your website’s hosting, then you will want to choose a hosting company that uses cPanel.
What Uptime Guarantees Are Provided?
Each individual business will have varying degrees of reliance on its website, with respect to revenue generation. This means some will not suffer particularly if the website has a technical issue, or goes offline, but for others, it could mean that it is losing hundreds or even thousands of dollars every minute.
Most hosting companies offer an uptime guarantee which is usually 99.98 or 99.99%, however, when switching hosting it is not enough to simply take this at face value. Instead, you should do some research and try to ascertain if that guarantee is matched by the hosting provider’s performance. For this, you can check some hosting review sites which provide technical and performance data, and you can seek published client reviews that may shed some light on uptime performance.
What Forms Of Customer And Technical Support Do They Offer?
This is probably where you are likely to find the biggest differences between some of the web hosting companies that you might be considering. Whilst they will all offer support in some form or another, how useful that might be especially in circumstances where you have a serious issue with your website and you need immediate help, because the issue is causing your business to suffer.
At one end of the scale, you might have a contact form which you complete with the details of your problem and then you enter into a back and forth email conversation. At the other end is live support, which can be instantaneous either via a text chat app or better still, a voice call. Whichever form of support offered by a hosting company you feel is best for your business, should be the one that you opt for.