There are a lot of web hosting companies around the web that offer many hosting plans. Before you choose one you should consider a few things before purchasing. A few things that you should consider are how reliable the company is, how much space are they giving, and do they have the features that I need.
Reliability should be the main focus when looking for a web host. The host that youre considering should have a guarantee uptime of ninety-nine percent. If your host is not reliable then youre losing traffic to your web site that you have worked so hard on obtaining. One way of finding out if the host is reliable is by going to a search engine and searching for reviews for that host. If people are giving positive reviews about this hosts uptime then is probably a reliable host, but the only true way will be to test for yourself after you find these reviews.
Another thing that points out when talking about web hosting is disk space. How do I know how much disk space I will need? For the basic user a web site is less than 7mb. If your not a heavy user or not going to have a lot of files stored on your host you will not need a lot of space. For people that are doing big sites and incorporating video, audio and large graphics in their site would need a lot more space than other webmasters. There is no need to pay more for space that youre not going to use. If you need more space check and see if the host offers a upgrade plan for if your site was to grow larger than expected.
How much bandwidth should I look for? If your just starting out, not getting a lot of traffic the basic bandwidth should work for you, however if your using video, audio, and larger graphics you may require more bandwidth. I would recommend that you start with the basic bandwidth and upgrade as need.
Also when looking for your web host check to see if they offer the features that you need. Some features that you may want to consider is do I need to use sever side scripting such as PHP, JSP, ASP or any other scripting language that you program in or would like to use with your web site. Cpanel is a feature that I find very useful when working with web hosting servers. Cpanel offers a user interface to applications on the server, such as setting up FTP, email, etc.