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What hosting service to use

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startupsold

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Hi, need help on choosing the right hosting service for a small business, shared hosting or vps? I understand vps is more secured, what do you normally use when your building sites for small businesses?
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Go to a few hosting review sites and read what people have said, there is a high chance that a host has written positive things about himself so you are looking for negative reviews because those will tell you the truth.

Not necessarily, no. Truth is that the negative reviews are highly misleading too and many people can make them out of spite. At one point this even reached a level where a client threats a host with negative reviews just because things are not going their way (client wants a bigger discount/free service, client abused the server resources etc.). A good thing in that matter is that people in forums have become more and more educated about how hosting works, simply because of the large flow of new information and cases discussed. This way, if a person writes a negative review, the host can check the case and if there is no valid reason for the bad review, they can easily explain the case publicly and the neutral viewer can see how the host operates and who is right or wrong. This is why a strong presence in the forums is a must for any ambitious host.

Another thing is that review sites in particular hold very biased information - most review sites are strongly dependent on affiliates and there are tons of positive reviews from people that never even tried the service they are so passionately praising.

Bottom line is that regardless of a positive or negative review - you can be mislead! And after all, why blindly believe what others think? Your case/website might be very specific and even if the host generally works well, it might be awful for a certain project. This is why, in your research, you should always check the Live Support the host provides, no matter if its chat or phone. This is how you get a clear idea of how helpful and knowledgeable the support can be for YOUR project, how fast and polite they are and if you can count on them in case of a problem. Because thinking you are capable enough to never need support is a scenario that almost never happens ;)
 
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Consider the age of a hosting company - how long they're on the market, what they offer, etc. Check reviews and offered services, also keep on mind, that 1 cent hosting plans doesn't mean best, it's always better to pay reasonable price to get a good service.
 
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you can start with shared hosting during development/testing/startup phase. Than as soon as it is not able to provide you with enough CPU cycles to cover your growing visitor base, you go -> VPS -> Dedicated route
 
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you can start with shared hosting during development/testing/startup phase. Than as soon as it is not able to provide you with enough CPU cycles to cover your growing visitor base, you go -> VPS -> Dedicated route

I'd add that it heavily depends what are you going to do with the hosting, what project do you have to run and what are the requirements in details.
 
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A consideration that is often overlooked is business level hosting that isn't a shared acct. per say, or a VPS for that matter. These types of accounts are growing in popularity with many providers. They offer many more resources over shared along with extra security features which businesses need. In lieu of a VPS you might consider a cloud plan. Cloud plans offer redundancy which can offer near perfect uptime and an enhanced level of security for your data.
 
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A consideration that is often overlooked is business level hosting that isn't a shared acct. per say, or a VPS for that matter. These types of accounts are growing in popularity with many providers. They offer many more resources over shared along with extra security features which businesses need. In lieu of a VPS you might consider a cloud plan. Cloud plans offer redundancy which can offer near perfect uptime and an enhanced level of security for your data.

This is a little tricky in its nature - a lot of the advertised Business Class or Cloud Hosting services are not Business or Cloud per se - they are just cleverly masked VPS machines. In the saturated hosting market everyone wants to get ahead, offer something new and unique and get a competitive bonus over the others. So sometimes they find no other way but resorting to clever (yet shady) marketing tricks. Because lets face it, 85%+ from the average hosting clients wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a Cloud and a VPS, and if they don't face any extreme issues they would never even have to. While I agree that some hosts come very close to their bold advertising, many just list it because right now Cloud is "cool and hip". ;)
 
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You may have to speak directly with the provider to check offer specs, clear out things what they propose, review customer testimonials and make sure you get best solution for your project.
Don't get blinded with loud "exceptional" and "unlimited" low cost commercials, better go with hosting plan which has strict limitations , so you'd know they care about resources and performance, and you select one, which best suit your needs.
 
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Hi, need help on choosing the right hosting service for a small business, shared hosting or vps? I understand vps is more secured, what do you normally use when your building sites for small businesses?

It depends if it's just a small website for a business then shared hosting would be sufficient providing the hosting provider does not overload the servers, However If you do have the budget to spend on a VPS then no reason why not to go for one and if you think the business website would requier one
 
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You may find with the big hosting companies (hostgator ect) they might reply quickly but it will be some untrained Indian guy copying and pasting responses. Go for a medium sizes company and I guarantee they will provide more personal help and be more willing to assist you in your needs.
 
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You may find with the big hosting companies (hostgator ect) they might reply quickly but it will be some untrained Indian guy copying and pasting responses. Go for a medium sizes company and I guarantee they will provide more personal help and be more willing to assist you in your needs.

I just read a part of a Hostgator chat another used posted in the WHT forums with exactly such a guy. I know for a fact that a very big percentage of live chat options that the hosts provide are quite unhelpful, but man, that one exceeded all my expectations. Customer came in with a pretty simple question - if I cancel after the 45 days moneyback guarantee would I be getting a pro-rated refund. As simple as that. It took something like 20 minutes and 10+ questions from the operator to even understand what was being asked. I could've let a dog watch a few youtube videos and it would be better trained than that!

To all you other hosts out there, please, please, PLEASE, if you want to have an option for a Live Chat, make sure to do it right or don't do it at all. It does you no good and same goes for your clients. Actually, scratch that, this advice goes for ALL the services one chooses to provide. :)
 
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Price is always a factor in choosing web hosts. You would be fooling yourself if you told yourself otherwise (unless you have lots of money to burn). However, higher prices do not mean that you'll get a good web host. Higher prices do, however, mean that you have a better chance of getting good support, since at least they will have the money to hire more staff if they want to.
 
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