Questions to Ask When Choosing Hosting Provider

When searching the web for “best hosting“, Google returns about 19,40,00,000 results.  You need to know Questions to Ask When Choosing a Hosting Provider. With this plethora of information at your fingertips, you would think that finding the best web hosting provider would be relatively easy and fun. However, there is no guarantee that a hosting provider that proclaims itself as the “best” may even be all that good. Instead of choosing a hosting provider as you would shop for grocery, you first need to understand what goes behind making a good hosting provider. In order to sort out which web hosting provider is the best, you must practice your due diligence by asking important questions. Below, check out some questions that you should ask a hosting provider in order to better understand how their services align with your requirements.

What kind of server reliability and uptime scores do you offer?

A web host needs to operate 24/7 in order for your business to be fully operational all the time. The recommended uptime score is 99.5% and uptime below 99% is unacceptable. You can validate the authenticity of the hosting provider’s claim with server monitor tools that can help you track the hosting provider with regards to server reliability and uptime scores.

What is your security policy?

A hosting provider should have proper security measures and policies (SSL certificates etc.), in place to ensure the security of your data. They should also have regular malware/virus scanning as well.

Do you offer a range of hosting offers? How easy it is to scale up/down?

Every business has a set of distinct requirements. Ask the hosting company in regards to what kinds of hosting products they offer and their policies when you want to scale up or down. Seek for a hosting provider that offers a variety of hosting products. The better variety of products offered will prevent you from going through the hassle of finding a new hosting provider if your requirements change.

Do you provide SSL?

Ask if the hosting provider offers SSL certificates. It should cover all your security bases.

Do you provide Multiple Add-on Domains?

Often times, people own more than one domain, so choosing a hosting provider that allows you to add multiple domains is a better choice. You should check for domain capacity before making a purchase. Usually hosting companies offer up to 25 domain add-ons, but some hosting provider may allow only one domain.

What’s your downtime history?

Ask for the downtime history the hosting provider may have faced in the past. For those who do not know, downtime is when a website is inaccessible to users for a period of time. Ideally, the answer should be no, but negligible downtime should not affect your decision as even the best hosting provider will face downtime occasionally.

What is your back-up policy?

Back-ups are essential to save and protect data.  The service provider should have an iron-clad backup policy to ensure that your data is being saved. Some hosting provider offers back-ups more than once a day and some do it for only once a day. Understand their back-up policy and also confirm whether they back-up the database instead of just files.

Are you accountable for an outage?

Thoroughly inspect to understand whether the company hold itself responsible and to the extent of their responsibility in case of an outage. Fully understand whether they take accountability when the outage is beyond their control and whether they would be willing to suspend the charges during that time.

How responsive are your customer service and tech support?

Ask for their average response and resolution time in order to know whether they are available 24/7/365 including holidays. You may even want to ask the service provider for reference of other clients or might get in touch with the tech support team to understand their support method and response time.

What if you are not happy?

Ask the hosting provider whether they offer a trial period or a guarantee. There is various kind of satisfaction policies available. Based on their answer you can make the important decision of signing up with that certain hosting provider.

If you are looking for a reliable hosting provider, InterServer is the best option. As an industry leader, InterServer is able to provide its customers with innovative products and services designed to complement your existing business needs. InterServer provides services to customers ranging from individual freelancers to Fortune 500 companies in many countries. Over the years, InterServer has built a strong reputation for its commitment to security, dependability, technical expertise and solid customer support. They treat their clients excellently and strive to provide uninterrupted service, comprehensive resources, and all the tools required to run a business.

Please feel free to contact us in order to better understand why InterServer can meet all your hosting needs.