Latest Articles on Web Hosting
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I don’t have a lot of money, can I get someone to host my website cheap?
Yes. Depending on your web site’s requirements, you may be the perfect candidate for a budget web hosting account.
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What is really considered a budget host?
A budget host, for the purposes of our comparisons, is defined as a web host provider that offers web site hosting services for $3/month or less. All the hosting companies listed on this website offer budget hosting options.
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Who should be looking for a budget host?
Budget hosting is used primarily for personal use and by small businesses. The best candidate for a budget web host is a site that contains mostly static HTML pages, with a small amount of traffic. Size matters as well, since web hosts offer limited amounts of disc space for the different services they offer. So, someone who has a large website, or a very heavily trafficked site would not benefit from a budget web host account.
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How cheap can I get a website hosted for?
It is not unheard of to see websites available for as low as $3.00/month, or lower.
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Do budget hosts offer quality service and uptime?
In general budget hosting is simply a cheaper hosting plan offered by hosting companies for people or business that don't require high amounts of disk space, bandwidth or programming. The plans usually contain many of the commonly required features and are a viable hosting option. Our budget hosts offer quality service and many have 99.9% or higher uptime guarantees.
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What features can I expect to get?
To be honest, there are a number of budget hosts who offer quite an impressive package at a budget price. Features like database support, scripting, shopping carts, and email processing are available through most budget hosts. More advanced features are available at some hosts, but usually at an additional cost.
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What if I start with a budget hosting plan and then later require more?
Most of the companies offering budget hosting can, upon request, upgrade your account to one that better suits your requirements.
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What platforms can I get budget hosting on?
You can find budget hosting on both the Unix/Linux platforms, and the Windows platform. Services among the two are very competitive, since most offerings and features are available for both operating systems. Web server software is commonly Apache for Unix/Linux, and IIS for Windows.
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What should I watch out for when selecting a budget host?
The key thing to look for in any hosting provider is reliability. When selecting a host, check to see how long they have been around. If the host has been around for a short time, it may not yet be an established company. If a web host goes out of business while hosting your site, chances are you are out of luck, especially if you paid a year in advance. Also, make sure your budget account includes technical support. Some hosts offer budget accounts for a good price, but charge extra for support.
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What shouldn’t I sacrifice in the name of price?
There are a couple of things to consider carefully when selecting a host. First, you want to make sure the hosting package you choose offers enough disk space to hold your web site. Secondly, depending on the size of your website, and how many visitors you expect to have, you want to make sure your host offers enough bandwidth for your site to operate. When you exceed your allotted bandwidth in a month, your host will charge you extra.
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What features should I sacrifice to save money?
The simple answer to this is ‘everything you don’t need’. Things like database support, shopping carts, scripting languages, and even web control panels are useful things, but not worth the extra money if you do not need them. A majority of the websites on the Internet today are nothing but HTML pages, and a few graphics. A website like this requires none of the bells and whistles offered by most hosts. It's a good idea to check exactly what features your site requires with your webmaster.
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What is Ecommerce?
Ecommerce stands for electronic commerce; we will use the term Ecommerce to refer to Internet sales of services and products. In particular we will use it to refer to doing the whole process online: from selecting what is being ordered to accepting payment.
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How do I know if I need an Ecommerce Host?
If you want to sell products or services online then you are going to need an Ecommerce host. Unless you want to take a chance that people will send you a check to order a product from a site. Just think about how many times have you sent a check though the mail to order something online from a web site; that number is probably zero.
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Do I have to accept credit cards?
Yes is the short and simple answer.
Ask yourself how many items a week you buy that which you really do not need. Then figure out how many of those items you bought using a credit card. In retail stores it is pretty well known that accepting credit cards increase impulse purchases between 50% to 80% and that is why any retail store you walk into accepts credit cards.
When a customer walks into a retail store the customer can pay with cash, check, or credit card. In the online world cash is not possible and no one ever sends in a check to buy an item from an online merchant. Accepting credit cards online is the only way to have a viable business.
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What is shopping cart software and do I need it?
Shopping cart software is software that runs on the web server that keeps track of the items or services the customer wants to purchase. Once the customer is done browsing and has selected all the items and/or services they want to purchase then they go to the checkout area. In the checkout area is where the customer will put in all their personal information and their payment form. Using shopping cart software allows the developer or owner of the web site to get the site up and running a lot faster than if they were to create the entire shopping experience from scratch.
You can get away without using shopping cart software if you only have 1 or 2 items and/or services to sell. However, if you have more than that, then you should seriously consider using shopping cart software. The great thing about shopping cart software is that most hosts will let you test the shopping cart software even before you setup your account with them. So make sure you test out all the versions you can find to figure out which one you like best.
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How do I accept credit cards?
There are two different ways to accept credit cards. One is to sign up for a service like PayPal where they actually accept the credit card and then they send you the money. This might be okay for a smaller site but if you are serious about doing Ecommerce then you should get a merchant account.
A merchant account is very similar to a bank account but it is only used to accept payments from credit cards and online checks. The money is then transferred into your normal business account. The time it takes to go from the merchant account to your business account depends on a few variables, which will need to be discussed with the company you setup your merchant account with.
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What is a virtual Terminal?
When a customer is in a store then the merchant has access to the credit card and can process it though a “terminal” right next to the cash register. In the online world that is not possible though. In the online world we have “virtual terminals” which is where users give all their personal information and credit card information. This information is used to verify that this is really the owner of the card. If the information the customer gave matches what the credit card company has on record then the sale will go though.
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Is PayPal a good way to accept credit cards?
Customers want to pay the way they want to pay so being able to accept PayPal payments is a good idea but it should not be the only way you accept payments. Having a number of different ways a customer can make a payment will increase impulse sales and that will significantly increase your bottom line.
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What is real-time credit card processing?
Real-time credit card processing is when a user enters their personal information along with their credit card information into the order form and they get a response as to if their credit card was accepted or rejected right away. Most merchant account and software combinations allow for this but some do not so make sure if you want to do this that yours has the ability.
The other option instead of real-time credit card processing is manual credit card processing. What this means is if a user enters an order at midnight then it would go into a queue, which you would then have to check in the morning. If the order looked legitimate you would then process the credit card. Doing the credit card processing manually just adds another step in the process and the more steps there are the more chances there are that a mistake will be made.
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Should I look into accepting checks online?
Yes you should; you want to increase the number of ways a person can pay because it will increase your sales. A good number of merchant accounts do check verification online so ask your merchant account provider.