Hosting is one of the most competitive industries online. Often, companies will throw plenty of flashy offers and low prices in front of your face in an effort to convince you to sign up. However, there are five myths about hosting you need to understand before you sign up with any hosting company.
1. Free Hosting is the Best Choice
Free hosting is a horrible choice for about 99.99% of the people searching for hosting. The only benefit is the fact that it’s free. However, free is just the price tag.
When you choose free hosting, you are going to end up running somebody else’s ads on your website or you will be very limited. You may not even have control or ownership of your domain name. Free hosting will also provide a less than reliable solution for your hosting. You may be at risk for large amounts of downtime or you may see the host simply disappear, along with your website.
There are far too many cheap business hosting companies out there to risk it with free hosting. You can get good hosting for about the same price as that overpriced coffee you drink every morning. Whether you are starting a website for business or personal reasons, don’t risk it with a free hosting company.
2. Only IT Experts can Host Websites
You don’t need any technical knowledge or experience to host your own websites. In fact, most of the best hosting companies provide IT experts to help you by providing technical support 24/7.
Anybody can host a website and if you choose a host with a user-friendly control panel, it will be very easy. There are several tools to help you with building and designing your website, as well.
3. You Need a Host Without Any Negative Reviews
Yes, you should read the online reviews before you sign up with any hosting company. However, you won’t find one without a negative review.
People are about ten times more likely to leave a negative review than a positive review. You are more likely to find complaints and negative reviews than positive reviews about hosting companies. You shouldn’t just ignore these comments, but you shouldn’t be scared off by a few negative reviews.
4. Any Hosting Company will Do
The biggest mistake you can make is thinking that all hosting companies are equal. They may offer about the same features and a similar price, but they are certainly not equal.
Some hosting companies will not provide the server reliability you need and won’t give you a 99.9% uptime guarantee. You should never accept less than this type of uptime guarantee.
On top of providing server reliability, some hosting companies don’t provide very good site response speed. Google loves fast websites and you need to make sure you get a host with the ability to provide you with great site response speeds.
The worst part about thinking any hosting company will do is the support you may or may not receive. Some companies simply don’t provide good support after the sale. This is the number one complaint about cheap website hosting companies that you need to be aware of. Test the support before you sign up.
5. Cheap Website Hosting is Terrible
You do get what you pay for, to an extent, when it comes to website hosting. However, not all cheap web hosting companies are terrible. There are several providing hosting for around $5 a month with plenty of speed, reliability and great support.
If you do your homework, read the reviews and test the support, you can find a great budget-friendly hosting company for your needs.
As you begin your search for hosting, make sure you keep these myths in mind. You don’t want to just choose any old hosting company. Take your time, compare a few choices and settle on a hosting company you feel comfortable with.