No doubt that there are a lot of things to consider before buying a domain and hosting. With several service providers, it becomes difficult to choose and finalise the one. Companies like GoDaddy, Bluehost, Hostgator, Hostinger, etc., are providing the best hosting in India. But before finalising, one should take a note of the following things about web hosting. They are as follows:
- Different hosting types have distinct differences in features. You need to consider them on priority.
A web host’s website probably includes terms such as shared, VPS, dedicated, cloud, WordPress, reseller, and there are many others. Although not every web host offers them all, what do these features represent? They represent the different types of web hosting and their special features. Furthermore, each hosting type differs substantially from one another. So make the choice which suits your requirement the best.
- Data Transfer and Bandwidth – Both the terms differ!
Although the terms “bandwidth” and “data transfer” are frequently used interchangeably to describe the amount of data your website serves to visitors, they do not have the same technical definitions. They actually differ.
Data transfer refers to the amount of data that can be transferred over a given period of time (typically a month), whereas bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred at a given time. It is possible that your hosting plan can only allow 1GB of data transfer per month, despite your host’s maximum bandwidth of 5GB per month.
As a consequence, if your website’s data transfer limits are exceeded, then your web host may slow your website’s data transfer speed or charge you a fee as a consequence. You may even consider upgrading to a higher level of hosting.
- The trade-off between Hard Disk Drives and Solid-State Drives is a bit complicated.
Shared web hosting usually means that your website will be hosted on a traditional hard disk drive (HDD). The advantage of an HDD server is that it can offer large amounts of storage at a low price. When you move up the hosting ladder to more powerful offerings like VPS and dedicated hosting (SSD), you will have the option of building a site on a solid-state drive.
- Linux server is preferred mostly.
Almost every web host makes Linux available as the operating system for their servers. In fact, there is none of the web hosts available that didn’t use a free, open-source operating system. You don’t need to know anything about Linux to build a website, and you don’t need to do any special work on the back end. Building websites is a breeze with website builders.
There’s another advantage: Microsoft apps like Office and Outlook are simple to integrate with the Linux server.
Is there any consequence or drawback? Unless you do some tinkering, Windows servers are incompatible with Linux-based, open-source software. Furthermore, Windows servers are about $10 to $20 more expensive than Linux servers, but if you need Microsoft’s tools, it’s a small price to pay.
These are the four things that you must consider and know about web hosting. Always take them into consideration at the time of buying hosting.
