How to find cheap web hosting without compromising quality of service

You’d be forgiven for thinking that cheap web hosting and great support would be mutually exclusive.

Here’s the good news - the combination of ever decreasing hardware costs and the ever increasing number of websites is yielding economies of scale that mean that you can now find feature-rich cheap web hosting without having to dial ‘00’ when contacting your web hosting company.

That’s right, there are now plenty of UK web hosting companies providing cheap web hosting with full set of features for less than £20 per year.

So before you trade features for price and real support for FAQs, here are few key requirements you should focus on to find cheap web hosting without compromising quality of service:

1. Customer service and support

Can you get hold of your web hosting company when you need help? And what options do you have - telephone, web chat, ticket or all three?

Before signing up to any contract, look for prominent contact numbers for customer services and technical support on their website. If a contact number is not prominent, look for another hosting company

In short, satisfy yourself that you can get hold of the company when you need to, day or night.

2. Uptime

Just how reliable is the web hosting company’s service? What’s their uptime? (99.9% uptime is pretty common.) Ask about their data centre. Quiz them about whether they own their hardware or are they providing service through a third party. Enquire about their contingency plans in case of any fatal hardware or data centre failures.

3. Features

Don’t get distracted by features you might never need. Focus on the core items: storage space, bandwidth, mailboxes, databases, easy-to-use control panel (such as Plesk) and free tools (such as Sitebuilder) to create a professional looking website. Most other things are likely to be nice to have but not really necessary.

Blogs and forum facilities are becoming increasingly important. So look for these and also look for available guidance to help you integrate these into your website.

4. Platform

The choice here is fairly straight forward and driven by how your website might have been created. Most websites work under Linux platform. However, if you want to run Windows specific applications such as ASP.NET or MS SQL, you’ll need a Windows platform. If you are at all unsure, a simple chat with your hosting company should provide you with the answer.

Further information – if you have any questions regarding hosting, contact Freezone Internet on 0845 117 0366 or visit www.freezone.co.uk.