For many businesses, their website is one of the primary sources of information, lead generation and sales, which is why it must be online and functional at all times. One of the most crucial aspects that determine this is choosing the most appropriate hosting provider, and with a significant amount of providers prepared to offer you their services, how do you know who to choose?
To make this process easier, we have created this guide on the 7 most crucial questions to ask when you are choosing a hosting provider.
1. What kind of uptime can I expect?
The world never sleeps, so your website shouldn’t either. Having a 24/7 operating web host is one of the most crucial components that needs to be enquired about to guarantee that your website is visible to web users at all times. Of course, in an ideal world, the provider would have 100% uptime, achieving this though is a challenge and a case of any hosting provider working closely with you to ensure your code and setup delivers this.
2. Can I easily scale up and down if needed?
You can’t fully predict how many resources you will need in the future when you initially contact a hosting provider, so it’s a must that you question their scalability options. Whether it’s additional storage space, CPU power or anything else, it’s important to know before you get started with a provider what your limits are when it comes to scaling in the future.
3. What is your security policy?
For all web hosting packages, most notably shared or cloud hosting, you must be fully aware of the provider’s security policy. This is to guarantee that all data is stored on the servers is safe, protected and secure, as well as the physical servers. For reference, a typical security policy from a provider should mention SSL Certificates, virus & malware scans and automatic security scanning.
4. Are there protocols in place for any outages?
Linking back to question number one, it’s always recommended to know out of reference what will happen if there is downtime. As we have said previously, there is no predicting certain circumstances such as power outages, but good web hosting providers should have a protocol in place to guarantee minimal disruption.
5. What is your back-up schedule?
Ever forgot to save a word document before your laptop ran out of battery? Imagine losing a wealth of valuable customer data if an error occurs on your website. This is why there has never been a more important time to check that the provider performs regular back-ups operations. A full back-up of all files and data should be completed daily as a minimum, though in an ideal world it will be done more frequently.
6. How long have you been in business?
A lot of web hosting companies come and go, you need to be sure that your web hosting company is going to here to stay. catalyst2 have been provided managed hosting for 20 years and consistency is very important!
7. How responsive are customer service and tech support?
Finally, it’s also important to find out how responsive their customer service and tech support teams are. Customer service is important if you have any queries regarding the service provider or related issues, but having dependable tech support is also a must. To guarantee the very best support, providers that offer 24/7 technical support are recommended as they will always be on hand to assist if ever required.
Look no further
Before you start your search for your hosting provider, we will save you the trouble by recommending one of the highest-rated providers in the UK – catalyst2. Whether you are looking for a private cloud, dedicated server or managed VPS hosting solutions, we are certain we can be of service.
To find out how we can specifically help you, why not get in touch? By calling us on 0800 107 7979, you can confer with one of our experts about your needs and requirements, where we can then recommend the most suitable solution going forward.
