What makes a good web host?

A common request from colleagues and site owners is to recommend a reliable and low cost web host. My initial response was to go on location, so if you are a UK based site then going for a UK based host will provide you with a support department that’s open during your waking hours as opposed to one located in the States.

With the ever increasing number of web hosts and the improvement in reliability and support, location no longer applies.

So how do you decide?

This is difficult to answer. You ask 10 different sites and they will give you 10 different hosts. I could recommend ACME WEB HOSTS (please don’t Google them, I made them up… hang on… Yep , they don’t exist) and no doubt a quick Google search will find people who have had nothing but bad experiences with them.

My current host, who are absolutely brilliant, no down time and everything simply… works, are Slicehost. They are not for everyone as they are a Linux based VPS host. If you can brave command line Linux to get it all up and running then they are worth a look. The wiki has a wealth of information to help get you up and running and their support is near instant.

To begin with, you need to make a list of what it is your site will need. For example, If your site was built in .Net or ASP (and if it is ASP then we need to have a serious chat) then you obviously need a Windows host. Does or will it need any third party components, if it does then you need a host that already has them installed. If you cannot find one then your only option is either a Windows VPS host or, budget permitting, a dedicated server. Does it have a database? If so which? MSSQL, MySQL. Take a step back and look at your site and make a list of what it needs to function, this will help greatly in narrowing possible hosts.

Once you have a list, the next stop would be to make a short list of suitable hosts. Either by googling, asking existing site owners and developers, trawling forums such as Webhostingtalk. Finally, make a decision. Many hosts have a 15 or 30 day money back policy so if you end up with a real stinker then you can back out. Personally, I am not convinced that 15 days is enough time to get a real idea of how good a host is.

Here’s my tuppence worth:

Linux VPS host - Slicehost

Windows shared host - Titanhosts