Vision - Designing Dreams that Work

You cannot do everything.

Similar to any other business, it makes sense to concentrate on your strengths and outsource a small portion of your business to people who are specialised in those areas. We do not host our own servers. Infact, this very site that you are browsing is hosted by a trusted partner.

Through the years, we have used a few web hosts and our experience is this:

Cheap does not always mean good.

Here are some factors that we recommend that you consier when you are choosing a web host:

1) Where are they located?

There are many web hosting companies located in other countries that offer "too-good-to-be-true" rates for their web hosting services. Some of them even offer free domain name, fee web design or have ready made templates that you can use to do up a simple website. Think twice before signing up with them. There are a few considerations here:

can you call them if you encounter problems? calling an overseas support line may cost you an arm and leg.

are they even awake when you need help during office hours? time difference in countries can make life difficult for you when your site is down.

do they understand english? misunderstandings can lead to errors and frustrations.

do you really own the "free domain name"? chances are that you will have to pay a penalty (or transfer fee as they put it) if you decide to change your web host. what is that amount? is the savings in monthly payment worth the risk and the trouble of setting up a new website?

So how do you know if you own the "free domain name"?

One way is to ask them. Most web hosts will tell you the truth if they know that you are aware of such schemes. They are not cheats(as what they do is perfectly legal, it's all in the contract). The other way to find out is that you will receive 2 separate sets of userids and passwords after you sign up. One set is for your web hosting service, the other set is for your domain name management. If you own the domain name, you should be able to log in and change the hosting server name settings as you wish (meaning you can switch your web host freely).

will they disappear into the thin air after some time? any business will need to survive. if your website is hosted with a company that sells itself too cheaply, there is a high chance that it wil not survive. If your web host folds, all the information you have on the web may not be albe to be retreived unless you backed them up somewhere (e.g. with friendly web designers like ourselves). =)

2) What is the support like?

Any web server will be down at one point or another, unless we are talking about dedicated servers with mirror sites. When you need help, how can you reach them?

many web hosts have technical help lines (local phone number)

in addition, some have 24-hr email support with ticket numbers issued so that all emails are tracked and response is fast.

a good way to find out what is the level of support that a company gives is by calling their support line at different timings to see if anyone picks up the line, if they don't pick it up now, there is a high chance that they will not pick it up later.

3) What is included in the package?

There are some things that you will need when you first start a webiste, there are some things that you will need as your business or web site grows.

for a start, you should at least have the following:

at least 5 POP3 email accounts
web mail (should you need to access your mail from web browser)
spam filtering
email virus scanning
web based control panel
50 MB of storage space
free set up

you should be paying around $120 per year for web hosting plan, if it is too low, make sure the web hosting company is making money. visit their office, find out how long they have been in business

beware of people who host their servers at home! that is a no-no. these start ups usually fold within a year.

4) Ask friends and relatives who own websites for recommendations.

No one will really know how reliable a web host is unless they have tried it for themselves. Ask for recommendations, if the web host has been doing a good job, your freinds will be glad to recommend them to you.