Video:How to Find a Web Host

Transcript:How to Find a Web Host

Hi. I'm Daniel Lazar for About.com. I will explain to you some basic thoughts about choosing your web hosting. To understand what web hosting is, think of a closet with a lot of drawers. You need to find and rent the most suitable place in that closet for your stuff.

Similar to that closet, web hosting companies provide space on a server they own or lease, and you have to find the most suitable one for you.

Questions to Ask About Web Hosts

There a dozens of hosting services and choosing between them can be overwhelming. Depending on your web pages structure you should ask yourself: Do they provide multimedia hosting? Do they provide 24/7 assistance? Or, are they able to handle my files in the way I want?

To help you choose try checking how long are they on the market, what other users say about their services, especially about uptime and client support. Compare offers, see if they have policies that restrict certain content which may be incompatible with your webpage. See if scripting languages, functions or uses are designated for you or not.

Pros and Cons of Free Web Hosts

Many people start out with only one criteria - the host must be free or cheap, which sounds convenient but on second thought may not be so. Usually it will be required that you allow the server to run tons of advertisements on your website. And also, all free services allocate your website address as an extension of the server's address. For example: www.thewebhost.com/yourwebsite.

If you want a easy to remember address like: www.yourwebsite.com, you will have to pay to register your own domain name. Beware that hosting and domain name are separate things and you will pay for each one.

Know What You Need from a Web Host

Before choosing your hosting services you need to think whether you need a long term hosting for a business. Then choose a paid one with your name to help you identify yourself, either a short term hosting or a non-business purposes, and then you can choose a free hosting if advertisement doesn't bother you and you don't want to spend money on hosting.

You may also start by choosing a target price for your web hosting, which usually costs between 8 and 12 dollars per month. Then start comparing offers and plan packages to see which one suits you best, so that you'll make sure you’re getting exactly what you need.

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