Webhost Wishlist

In these strange times, we, like many other hosting companies have never found ourselves so busy. We have seen the uptake of hosting plans rise considerably over the past few weeks. So, if you are thinking of hosting your own website – what should you be looking at in terms of a webhost wishlist?

Your choice fo web hosting is important, as once you have invested time and money in setting up a host, you really don’t want the fuss and hassle of swapping to a new one.

What are the things you should look for?

Main Things to Think About

When you are looking at was you need from a web host you should consider the following things.

Support

This is crucial, particularly in the early stages of setting up your web site. Each webhost is different, so even if it is not your first time at setting up a site, you need to have someone, on hand, to answer your queries quickly. Time is money after all!

You need to make sure the support is sensitive. One of the reasons I decided to set up Hipposerve, was because of poor, and patronising support from a previous company. I found myself being berated for asking an obvious question! – Well it wasn’t obvious to me.

I vowed, when I set up Hipposerve, that my support team would always treat every customer query with the respect that it deserved.

Uptime and Load Times

You need to make sure that your webhost’s uptime is good. No host can say they are up 100% of the time – factors beyond their control  will always put pay to that. Having said that it is not unreasonable to expect an uptime of 99.9%

Load times are important to. Making sure you website loads in a speedy fashion is critical to its success. Fortunately by employing a Litespeed web server, with bespoke caching, and cloudflare CDN on all our plans, we can offer load time’s that are unparalleled!

Take a look at our website performance enhancements here.

Pricing and Renewal Prices

The initial price of your web host is important, but it is not always the true picture. Many larger hosts entice you in with a really cheap looking headline figure, then they add on a load of “features”, whacking that price up. After that, their renewal price rockets.

We do have special offers to grab new customers – of course we do! But our add on pricing is transparent. You can add extra features – but only if you need them. Our renewal prices do change – but only depending on initial package that you purchased.

Security

I can’t emphasise how important this. Any web host that doesn’t offer even the most basic isn’t worth looking at. At the very least you should be able to get a free SSL certificate. This ensures that the communications between your site and its destination remain encrypted. A site without SSL, will not be looked on favourably by Google. Also, if you are planning on running an ecommerce site, many payment gateways won’t even touch you if you haven’t got an SSL Certificate.

Have a look at the other security feature your web host offers. Make sure that you see terms such as, Advanced Firewall, Proactive DDOS protection, Malware scanning.

You can find out about our security here.

Backups

Backups are vital if something happen and your website is rendered inoperable. Most host offer a basic backup plan where a site is backed up once a night and that backup is over written.

We offer additional backups for different types of services that give you backups that are stored for up to 90 days. See here.

What else to look for

Always check out the email availability. Most hosts offer basic email, but if your needs grow are there other solutions too?

Is there a good control panel that is easy to use to set up and manage your website?

Can you install apps easily. A common thing to look for is Softaculous software installation tool, that can get many website applications, including WordPress up and running with a few clicks.

Sitebuilder Access. What site builders are available to help you get started. Yes WordPress is popular, but there are additional tools that help here, such as the FREE Divi WordPress Web Builder, that we can offer. And what if WordPress isn’t your thing? Is there an alternative. We can now offer Weebly, in a range of product tiers, including one that is FREE.

In Summary

Don’t just go with the web host that appears first in a search engine. Do your research. It is after all an investment. WIth a bit of luck your website will take off and you will be with a good web host, with a good working and support relationship for many years.

About Us

Hipposerve has over 20 years of experience offering web hosting, VPS Hosting, domain names and pro email services to help you make your online statement. We offer outstanding customer support where you will always be treated as an individual - not just another customer. We also have a range of tools to help get you started.

Ordering

Ordering a hosting package is a fully automated process which can be completed from our website. If however you wish to discuss package options with us, or any other hosting related query;  just drop us a line at our support desk.

You can also phone us on 0330 043 1502.

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