Finding the right host can be a difficult task. There’s a good host for every need and budget, but there are also several crappy hosts. While I can’t tell you which one is right for you, I can give you several pointers for finding the right host.

Bandwidth and Disk Storage

Pretty much every host sells their plans based on those two numbers. Bandwidth is the amount of data that is transfered between your web server and the outside world, with disk storage being the amount of space your site occupies on the host’s server. While hosts sell on these numbers, this shouldn’t be what you’re basing your decision on.

When you’re looking at hosts, find a host that offers enough bandwidth and storage to cover your needs, but don’t buy based on the large numbers. There are more important things in a hosting plan than having 2TB of transfer. More often than not, the host may advertise that number, but never anticipate you using that much. So, what ever you do, do not purchase a host just because they offer a large amount of bandwidth or disk storage.

Hosting Features

An important thing to look at is what you’re actually getting with your hosting package. You’re going to want to look for the basic stuff like how many email addresses you get, and if you can have more than one domain. Any host that doesn’t offer you enough of the basics isn’t a host to use. Most of the basic stuff like email addresses and FTP accounts cost nothing for the host to implement, so if they’re imposing any limit which isn’t reasonable, look elsewhere.

With the web becoming more and more dynamic, you’re also going to want to have some scripting support. Be sure to look for the following: PHP, MySQL, and Perl. If your host doesn’t have those scripting services installed, doing anything dynamic is going to be a pain. Also, don’t just look to see if they have it; make sure they have the latest version or close to the latest version. Scripting programings like PHP have to be updated just like any other program, so if your host isn’t keeping up to date with the latest security fixes, that could become a major issue. Every good host should at least have PHP 4.x and MySQL 4.X, with an option to use PHP5.

Uptime

Uptime is another thing a host is going to push on you. Most hosts will claim 99.5% uptime or better. While they claim it, it usually isn’t a guarantee, so don’t count on it. The best way to find a host’s true uptime is to talk to the people who are on the host. Look for reviews or do Google searches to find people talking about the host’s uptime. While it may be difficult to find the details, it’s better to know before hand than find your site down all of the time.

Performance

Performance is perhaps the most under-researched thing when looking for a host. While a host may offer you a ton of space and features, if they’re hosting you on a machine that’s overloaded, it isn’t going to do you any good. Provided you’re looking for shared hosting, meaning the cheaper hosting where there are other people on your server, you have to make sure your server isn’t oversold. You also want to make sure the hardware can withstand what your site is going to bring to it. If you’re hosting mainly static material, you don’t need anything too fancy, but if you’re going to have a dynamic site with lots of traffic, you have to make sure the host has plenty of resources.

Once again, this is another one of those things where you are going to have to research the reviews. A host isn’t going to tell you how well they withstand a Digg, only the users are. Make sure people aren’t complaining about their sites being slow or having frequent downtimes; that’s a sign of an oversold host. As long as no one is complaining of that, you should be alright.

Support

Now for the most important thing to look for, a host’s support. While you may not think you’ll ever have to deal with support, you’re going to have to at some time. And when you do, you want to make sure your host can help you with your problem in a timely manner. Make sure the host has a convenient method for contacting them, and make sure it’s fast. Also, look for hosts that offer community forums. This is often a good place to find out what’s going on when issues arrive, and a great place for members to complain when things don’t work as expected.

The best way to test a host’s support is to contact them with a question before the sale. See how well they respond to your question and how long it takes them. Even if they’re quick to respond, that still may mean their actual support sucks, so once again check the user reviews. See if anyone is complaining about the time it takes for support to respond or the helpfulness of the technicians. You want to make sure you can count on the host when you’re in need.

Conclusions

I hope this article helps you find the host that’s right for you. If you manage to find the right host, just remember that no host is perfect. All hosts have occasional downtime, so as long as it isn’t too frequent don’t worry. However, if your host starts having trouble keeping your site up or they’re not being straight with you on issues, it may be time to look elsewhere.

While it would be nice if hosts stayed perfect forever, that’s not always the case. Eventually you’re going to have to switch to another host. My site has been through five different hosts now, and I’m just hoping my current host, A Small Orange, is going to be the last. Just remember, your site is going grow, and the host is going to change. It’s not going to be perfect for life. Pick the host which suites your site now and for the immediate future, and if things go sour, look elsewhere.