What are the main 5 features a hosting provider should have?

[arindamb]

According to you What are the main 5 features a hosting provider should have?

In my personal opinion then it would be

- Good Support
- Redundant Network
- Longevity
- Good Communication
- Wide variety of products and services

What about you? any comments? and why?

 

[SenseiSteve]

Support certainly ranks high in my book, but not just in how quickly they can resolve issues, but also how they treat you as a client. Their infrastructure needs to be sound and not offline constantly. And when they do have issues, they communicate with their clients instead of leaving them in the dark. Of course, they should have an assortment of hosting packages to select from, instead of locking you into just a few.

 

[Delimiter]

Delimiter

Just to expand on this, I think a proper upgrade path is important - at least on the managed side of things. So if you're starting with shared hosting then it should be pretty seamless to move onto a bigger package, VPS or dedicated server.

 

[WebmasterPhil]

1. Proven Track record. I prefer a business that has started out small and have matured over the years. Trust is an important factor on the internet. That's one reason why people still shop at Amazon and eBay.

2. Competitive pricing. Almost every web host use similar hardware and software, so I would like the price to be as low as possible.

3. Support. This is self explanatory.

4. Expandability. A good web host should offer various packages (shared, dedicated, etc.) Many people might start small but might need to upgrade one day.

5. Bang for Your Buck. How many features are you getting for the price you're paying. To me that is important.

 

[Developer]

In MY opinion, which don't mean much, lol, there are NO 5 (or any number) of main features any ONE person should look for. Every person will have different needs so the features they need will vary. I will, however, agree, that one feature which should NEVER be overlooked, is support as that is crucial no matter what your needs are.

 

[ulterios]

I have had so many different hosts and have been with good and bad hosts. In dealing with then all I have learned that to me the most important feature/thing that a good web host needs to have is great support. No matter who you are or what your capabilities are, sooner or later you will need support from your hosting company. That said, having good/great support is my main concern.

After that, here are some others and they are not in any particular order as needs change:

Reliable and Dependable Servers
A good amount of Resources (RAM, CPU, ETC.)
Good Value (not necessarily meaning the cheapest, but most resources, features, etc. for the amount of the service)
Consistency with their service/support, pricing, reliability and other features

 

[vishwa]

According to me the things should be consider before purchasing a web hosting is that the web host must have excellent customer support (Both pre and after sales), Have optimum amount of server allocation, No Unlimited plans, pricing must be affordable according to plans, Don't over selling their servers etc.. These are some of the prelims to check the efficiency of a web host. However these things many varies with requirements of the users.

 

[laceibanet]

Really depends on what you're looking for. Cause a person that wants an unmanaged server won't care about support at all. So really depends what you are looking to do with the service you're looking for.
There are people that only look for the cheapest deal available without looking into the specs they're getting.

 

[Mike001]

Wow that is a Great Question especially for the new members that are just starting out.

What I look for in a provider are the following:

1. Must meet 5 9's reliability. For anyone not aware of 5 9's that is 99.999 % up time. Most of the better ones do because of their redundant systems.

2. Must have excellent customer support, both Live Support and Ticket Support. I want to be able to pick up a phone if I have an emergency on a site and get someone on the other end that knows what they are talking about and is not following a script. I check all my service providers with a call at around 1:00 AM EST just to see how long it takes me to get through and how I get on the line.

3. I do not want limitations on the systems. No bandwidth limitations, no database limitations, no file size limitations, private SSL and IPs and a fair price. (At one time meeting these requirements was limited to a very few expensive providers, now most all will provide this for a reasonable price.)

4. I want to be able to control the configurations of the Apache Server and the PHP and PERL installations. (Again at one time this was hard to find, now not so much most everyone offers these abilities.)

5. I must be able to configure the back up routines for the server and have control of the backups offsite. The key there being backups offsite. The ones I use now allow me to back up to remote drives that I store in a remote location.

These may seem like pretty high standards and for some they may be. Most of my customers are in the Public Safety arena and there is no room for error in that environment. Speed and reliability are critical to response times and if you placed that 911 call for your daughter, soon or wife you would accept no excuses, neither will I.

Of course because of these requirements most of my servers are self maintained and privately owned. Just a few years ago that had to be the case because many of these requirements could not be met in a hosted environment. Not so much anymore, there are quite a few providers that will provide most of these requirements and give you a QOS (Quality of Service) guarantee. Some of my customers, to cut operating costs, have actually moved into these environments. I must admit I was skeptical when we first tried it but they are winning me over. The service is as good and the cost are much less.

The world of high tech, you gotta love it.

 

[arindamb]

Great advice! I didn't expect to have a series of your advice like this.

I would dig into your suggestions and discuss with extra info

3. I do not want limitations on the systems. No bandwidth limitations, no database limitations, no file size limitations, private SSL and IPs and a fair price. (At one time meeting these requirements was limited to a very few expensive providers, now most all will provide this for a reasonable price.)

So, if you go with a VPS then these problems can be solve?

4. I want to be able to control the configurations of the Apache Server and the PHP and PERL installations. (Again at one time this was hard to find, now not so much most everyone offers these abilities.)

You mean you want to control things installed on your hosting like Apache, PHP, mail server? why you don't want to a hosting support on this, they can control configurations for you?

For these points mentioned, I think you are recommending an unmanaged VPS which you can control everything on it as wanted.

 

[Mike001]

Arin,

Yes on most systems supplied now you will see no limitations on Bandwidth, file limitations and database numbers, many of the more popular hosting providers provide these now. BlueHost, Hostgator, iPage, etc.

Now one thing to keep in mind when they say no limitations, they mean reasonable limitations. No hosting provider is going to let you upload Tera-Bytes of information to their servers, not without a very hefty fee. That is just being realistic, if I have 50GB of dedicated storage, that is more that enough for a extremely large site. Now if you are hosting a PHOTO Studio site, Movie Studio Site, where you have very large files, you may expect to pay a little more for storage, just be realistic in your expectations.

Same thing with Databases, if I can set up 50 to 100 databases that is plenty for any large site. The key with databases is to make certain they are setup correctly and normalized.

On the control, on a shared environment you will not be able to control what is one the server, nor would you want too. I do not want anyone uploading applications that are running on my hosting server that have not gone through a ton of security and comparability checks with that server and ever piece of software that is installed on it.

What I do want to be able to do, is with the support software installed on that server, Apache, PHP, PERL I want to be able to set their configurations for my portion of the server. There may be certain error checking that I want enabled as I develop an application, there may be certain Cron Jobs I want to run at different times, all this is possible with a good provider. Again, most of the providers now, with the way that they setup the Virtual environments have no problem with offering this.

Of course, as a side not. Be careful what you wish for....

Having these abilities also come with some responsibility. I have brought down one of my own sites a couple of times changing configurations on the Server and the Database environment, trying to make things better, speed things up, and not completely understanding the unintended consequences os some particular settings. SO whatever you do, before you make changes to your environment.

1. Understand the change you are going to make.
2. Read, read, read on the impacts of the change.
3. Back Up your system, off the web server. (DO NOT store your backups on the web server, you may not be able to access it)
4. Make changes incrementally, one change at a time. Test the change, confirm the results, then proceed with the next change.

I hope this helps.

 

[Khileshhpandey]

Once you are sure about having found a web host service company that fulfills your requirements accurately, you need to check out for some basic demands before you sign the deal with them. In case the company falls short in any of the demands, they cannot be called the best. You can either choose to compromise with the functions they support or seek some other professional.
Here are some of the requirements that a good host provider should meet.

· If a web host service provider is named the best, they need to keep examining your web pages all the time.

· You should be made accessible all the software that is essential to keep your website site working.

· Any good web host service provider must maintain a daily backup function. It assists to save files in case of an emergency situation, where all files are deleted by error.

· Lastly, any best company must give you a support system such as a live chat service to address your clients problems .

 

[praveenk]

According to you What are the main 5 features a hosting provider should have?

In my personal opinion then it would be

- Good Support
- Redundant Network
- Longevity
- Good Communication
- Wide variety of products and services

What about you? any comments? and why?

I like following 5 features

1) Affordable hosting plan rates
2) Quality Servers
3) cPanel control panel
4) Reliable 24x7 support
5) 100% assured data backup

 

[jacobwallace]

1. price
2. support
3. quality of server hardware
4. Easy Upgrading system
5. good customer reviews

this is the five main features of a server hosting provider .