16) Don't Use Luck As the Tool For Choosing the Right Web Hosting

The astronomical popularity of the internet and the development of millions of websites have created a huge demand for web hosting services. This demand for hosting services has led to thousands of web hosting companies being created to meet the demand. These companies offer a wide range of options in terms of price, features, disk space, customer support, and other aspects of web hosting. With so many options available, it is a major effort to determine which web hosting company offers the best hosting plan for your website. In order to choose a web hosting provider, there are a number of things to consider.

The first thing to consider is the feature set being offered. However before you spend any time feature shopping you need to have an idea of how much disk space you need for now and the future and how much traffic you expect to receive. You should also know if you need databases, how many and whether or not you will be building more websites in the future. These are difficult questions to answer especially if you are new to website development. To help make selecting a web hosting service plan easier the following is a rule of thumb guide that can lend some direction for making an educated choice.

• Small websites (1 - 5 pages) with low traffic volume, no need for a database and limited future expansion can use free and the cheapest hosting service.
• Sites that have 6 - 50 pages, use graphics/videos, a database or two, a few forms, with a moderate level of traffic should opt for the next higher level of hosting services. This generally ranges from 3.49 to 8.99 per month and is typically the most appropriate hosting plan for most sites. If you are planning on adding more websites in the future make sure the hosting plan will allow multiple domains.
• Sites that have 6 - 50 pages or more use lots of graphics/videos, lots of content, high level of user interaction, maybe offering lots of downloaded information with a high level of traffic, and plans to add more sites in the future, need to select a higher level of hosting. You will find this level of hosting will be in the range of 6.99 to 17.99 per month.
• For sites on the upper level of capabilities which include perhaps 100's of pages with heavy use of graphics/videos, content, interactivity, high level of security, extreme level of traffic (lucky you), plans for future growth, need to select the highest level of hosting services. For sites like this, generally you need dedicated services. Pricing ranges from 14.99 to 99.00 per month.
  
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