Introduction
This is a helpful guide for those looking to find the right PHP and MySQL web hosting package. Simply searching the web once for a professional web host will present to you thousands of options. Too many options in fact. There are literally thousands of hosting companies advertising on the Internet today. Which is the right one? One of the common tactics used by online marketers is the “Top 10 Web Hosting” trick where they make a list of ten affiliates hoping you will simply click on one of them and purchase. That is not the purpose of this report. This report is simply to help give you the facts and let you make the decision. After all, it's your money and it's your website(s).
What kind of Web Hosting are we talking about here?
In this report, we are talking about Unix hosting. The reason for Unix hosting is 1) because of it's low cost and 2) because of the ability to host PHP and MySQL. The explanation of the importance of choosing Unix hosting and in choosing PHP over another type of programming language is not the purpose of this report.
Dedicated Hosting and Shared Hosting
Dedicated refers to a dedicated IP Address for your hosting account while Shared refers to sharing an IP address with one or multiple other people. Shared Hosting is much less expensive because it costs much less for the hosting provider to maintain. However, depending on your preferences and your goals you have for your website(s) having your own IP address might be important. For the average webmaster however shared hosting is more than sufficient. A key indicator to look for with a professional web host is the ability to upgrade from a shared IP to a dedicated IP. That way you can start off with one, then upgrade to another if you ever need to in the future.
What Price Range are we talking about?
Competitive prices typically run anywhere between $4 to $10 per month for this type of web hosting. What you will typically see here is a difference in monthly cost depending upon the length of contract you sign. The longer the duration of your contract the cheaper the monthly cost is, and the shorter the duration of your contract the more expensive the monthly cost. You will almost always be paying for an entire year or two up front, rather than in monthly installments. It really doesn't make sense to get a host for a couple months. Too much of a hassle. Find what you want the first time around and stick with it. Important note: you should never have to pay more than $10 a month for shared unix hosting!
Storage/Hosting Space
The current standard for unix hosting is around 1,500 Gigabytes of hosting space. There's no reason why you should settle for much less. Depending upon other allotments, this amount of storage space could mean the ability for you to host hundreds of websites. You definitely want that capability because you never know how many websites you are going to build in the future. You may think you only need 1, but chances are you will have multiple websites someday. If you have a photo gallery or any type of Video or Audio on your website this storage space will prove to be valuable.
Bandwidth Allotment
Right now most competitive professional web hosts are offering around 15 Terabytes of transfer each month. That's equivalent to 15,000 Gigabytes. You definitely do not want to settle for less than this. You can get away with a lower storage space, but not with a lower bandwidth. You want to plan for mass amounts of traffic coming to your website(s). Think positively! And plan for the best.
Addon Domains
Addon domains are domains that you “Addon” to your web host account. This is how you add more websites to your web server, giving you the ability to manage multiple websites through one webhost. Many people manage anywhere between 10-100 websites through just one shared webhosting account. You should expect your choice of web host to give you Unlimited Addon Domain capabilities. If a web host is offering high amounts of storage space but limits your ability to addon domains, go ahead and call his bluff! This is a common tactic that many hosting companies use. They know that if they tell you they are offering an absurd amount of hosting space that you will buy from them. No knowing in reality they are limiting you with the amount of websites you can have. Why have 1,500 Gigabytes of hosting space when you can only host up to, say 25 addon domains?
Also, you should look for the capabilities to host an unlimited amount of Subdomains. And also an unlimited amount of Parked Domains.
User Friendly Control Panel
Your new choice of a professional webhosting provider should have an easy to use, user friendly control panel for you to manage everything from MySQL databases to Email accounts. Two of the more common professional control panels that are used amongst the top tier hosting companies are Cpanel and Vdeck. This is important because if you leave one hosting company to another, there won't be much of a learning curve because everybody is using the same control panel. There is much argument as to which one of these platforms is the best. But both are easy to use and user friendly.
Free Domain Name with Account
You should be able to get a free domain name when purchasing your new webhosting account. This is a marketing tactic that many of the best webhosting companies are doing that you should take advantage of.
Email Accounts and Spam Protection
Even though you might be hard pressed to use it all, your webhosting provider should allot you at least 2,000 email accounts. That way you have the flexibility to do marketing campaigns via email among other things. You should be able to manage Email Forwards, and also some level of Spam Protection. Your webhost must have some solid level of spam protection for all of your email accounts. If not, you have chosen the wrong web host.
You should have an easy to use webmail system to access your email online if you choose. The webmail system should be easy to use.
Shell Access (SSH)
Look for a webhost who will give you SSH access to your server account. You may or may not know what this is. Even if you don't chances are a web developer or programmer who does work for you will and will need it at some time.
PHP 5 and MySQL 5
Your webhost should be updated and support the newest active versions of PHP and MySQL. That being version 5 for both of them. Many of the best open source web based tools that you can take advantage of require these versions. A webhost who fails to keep up on this end of technology clearly shows it's inability to keep up with the times. That would be a bad sign for you as a customer.
Override .htaccess Support
The .htaccess file on your server has many many abilities. The most popular one of course being the ability to rename URL's. You webhost needs to provide this. Popular content management systems like Wordpress and Drupal need this to function properly. Make sure your webhosting provider has this level of support.
Custom php.ini Files
The ability to edit a php.ini file for any given website is critical. This will allow you to customize all types of things. For example, if you have a content management system you can increase the upload file size allotment through PHP. Common things that many software programs provide can be hindered in their effectiveness without the ability to customize the php.ini file.
MySQL Databases
Your webhost should give you the ability to host at the very least 50 MySQL databases. Any less than that is just not worth it. A majority of websites these days are database driven, so this allotment will become valuable.
Backup Utility
Your webhost should have some sort of a backup tool or wizard for you to manage your own backups. You should have the power to make a backup of your server when you want to.
Response Time & Customer Service
“Downtime” happens in web hosting. It's a part of the game. “Downtime” here refers to whenever your server goes down resulting in your website and email being down for any duration of time. You will never find a web host that has no history of downtime. What you do want to look for however is how quickly the webhosting company responds to server Downtime. How quickly do they resolve the problem? How much care and effort to they put toward making you feel like an important customer during such times? These are important questions when choosing a webhost. Things will go down, and when they do how quickly and efficiently does my webhosting provider respond?
Overall Uptime Stats
Even though Downtime does happen, it should only happen rarely. Over thee course of an entire year your server should be up at the very least 95% of the year. If it's any lower than that, start looking for someone else!
In Closing:
Don't sell yourself short when choosing a webhost. If you are currently working with a web design or development firm of any kind and they are hosting your website, then ask them to move you to a professional webhosting provider. It's safer, easier, and cheaper! If you are currently with a professional webhost but are not receiving any of these features or allottments, then swich to a provider today who offers them. The top professional webhosting providers have made it easy for webmasters to switch webhosts these days. It's easier than switching your cellphone plan!!!