Most Important Features & Factors
When choosing a Hosting Company

Are you Faced With a Hosting Decision?

Are you at a crossroads in your website journey, facing a crucial hosting decision? Choosing the right hosting service is pivotal for the success and sustainability of your online presence. We have put together a list of what we feel are the most important factors and a bit of information on each point to help you with this decision.

Best Hosting Review Sites

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What is cPanel Hosting

Cost of Hosting

For the majority of people, it seems the most important element is the price. Try not make price your main criterion because hosting is an investment in your website, and it's future. You will want to choose the company that provides the features and quality of service you need. When looking at price, we recommend calculating how much you will have to spend on the Hosting Service over a 2-year period.

Money-Back Guarantee

Web hosting services are generally offered with a money-back guarantee. This is done with the sole purpose of making the customer secure in that the service from a Provider will have no monetary risk and the customer will be able to receive the invested money back in case he or she is not satisfied with the provided services.
A 30 day money-back guarantee is what most companies offer. If you signed up for a year or 2 year contract and want to leave after 2 months, you may be out the remaining money. Always read the fine print.

RSH Web Services offers a 45-day money-back guarantee.

Renewal and Maintenance Costs

The Web Hosting industry is renowned for enticing newcomers with attractive deals during sign-up, often featuring discounted rates or freebies for the initial term. However, the allure fades when renewal time arrives, as many hosting providers significantly increase their fees, sometimes more than doubling the original cost. This common practice can catch customers off guard, leading to frustration and the feeling of being misled. It underscores the importance of carefully examining the terms and conditions before committing to a hosting plan and considering long-term sustainability over short-lived discounts.

Website Load Speed

One of the most frustrating experiences for anyone is waiting for a website to load. Everyone wants their website to load fast. Any delay in Loading Times results in abandonment rates of up to 87%. One of the best websites to compare loading time is at Google.

Support

Support is very often the most important factor when choosing a hosting service. Make sure that the Support department is "In House" and not been out sourced to another company or Country. We have seen that most phone numbers and Pop-up windows are all out-sourced. If your website stopped working or was affected by a virus. Would you want someone from a third world Out-Sourcing company to deal with? Another important factor is the way a support team treats you and your problem, as an individually or only by strict procedures and guild lines. We have found over the many years in this business that every support issue is different, and strict guidelines just do not work.

Website Backups

Cyber threats, hacking, hard disk failures, did you just make a mistake and deleted something you were not supposed to? Such acts often result in complete loss, such as the destruction or replacement of your website’s files. It is important that you only choose a host service provider that offers website backups. While the majority of hosting companies charge for this service, it has always been a standard free option with cPanel.

Reviews, Satisfaction, Reputation

Hosting Review Websites are a bad source of information. Why? Just about all of these sites are paid review sites that only promote a select few hosting companies. These sites operate on affiliate marketing models, where they earn a commission for every referral made through their affiliate links. Consequently, their recommendations are influenced by the commissions they stand to gain rather than the quality of the hosting services.

We especially do not recommend using Trustpilot for business reviews. We have heard reports that unless you pay for their monthly services they will limit and edit your reviews. How can you trust a review site like that?

Also, see our page on Web Hosting Review Website's and What is Wrong with Them
We recommend a diligent search on Google, DuckDuckGo or Bing

Here are a few examples to try:
FatCow Sucks
GoDaddy Sucks
HostGator Sucks
Bluehost Sucks

The Hosting Control Panel

The simplicity of the management of your website is especially important when you do not have any experience in scripting or Hosting Services. We have seen the intuitiveness of hosting tools is just plan poor, which means that users are always in constant state of confusion. Not everyone is tech-savvy, and the last thing you want is to be constantly contacting Customer Support in order to do the least little things. You should be able to modify your site, install WordPress effortlessly, set up your e-mail and your FTP Accounts easily and quickly. The best providers use cPanel or Plesk to make updating and modifying your site easy. See our blog on cPanel, with over 80 different features.

FTP and File Manager Access

FTP or File Transfer Protocol and the File Manager from cPanel are essential features, enabling users to manage their website files efficiently. FTP allows users to upload, download, and modify files on their web server remotely using FTP clients such as WinSCP, SmartFTP orCyberduck. This method is particularly useful for transferring large files or multiple files at once. On the other hand, cPanel's File Manager provides a web-based interface within the hosting control panel, allowing users to perform file operations directly through their web browser. This intuitive tool is convenient for quick file edits, creation, deletion, and organization without the need for additional software. Both FTP and File Manager access empower website owners with the flexibility and convenience to maintain their website files easily, whether they prefer a traditional desktop approach or a browser-based solution.

Hosting Security

Cybersecurity is of utmost importance to any website. But there is no single feature that makes one hosting service more secure than any other. It is essential to choose a web hosting company that offers proactive protection against malicious hackers and security threats. Look for the following hosting security features.

Security and Firewalls

ConfigServer Security & Firewall configures your server's firewall to lock down public access to services and only allow certain connections, such as logging into FTP, checking email, or loading website's.
Using the ConfigServer and Firewall is essential in tightening up security on the hosting Server . It allows only specific, vital connections, locking down access to other services and stopping hackers in their tracks.

Spam Filters

The Spam Filters option in cPanel, known as Spam Assassin, gives you the option to configure the spam filter settings for your Email Accounts. cPanel also has an option to reject or Blacklist emails from specific email addresses.

DDoS Protection

A "Denial of Service Attack" is an attempt to overwhelm Servers or Websites with thousands of malicious requests and connections. To help protect your website from this type of attack, your control panel or cPanel includes several DDoS mitigation tools.

Malware Protection

Malware is software created for malicious purposes. While it is commonly associated with computers, malware can also be used to attack and infect websites. Malware Scanners cPanel also supports ImunifyAV and Imunify360, a complete server security solution that includes an advanced firewall, intrusion and malware detection.

IP Blocker

The IP Blocker interface allows you to block access to your site for one or more IP addresses or fully qualified domain names. This option is great for stopping hackers and spammers

SSL Security Certificate

An SSL certificate is a type of digital certificate that provides authentication for a website and enables an encrypted connection. SSL certificates are what enable website's to move from HTTP to HTTPS.

Domain Name Privacy

Domain Privacy is the ability to mask the information you used to register your domain name. Without Domain Privacy, all of your contact details (address, phone number, name, and many others) are available to the public. This costs Domain Registrars nothing and should provide this service for free for all customers

Email Options

You will always look like a professional if you have your email linked to your website's domain name. In this case, when looking for the right web hosting company, chose one that provides email hosting as your Domain's primary email. We do not understand why some companies charge extra for this type of Service. Or even try to force you to use an off site email service like Google Workspace (Formerly G Suite) from Google which you will be charged $6.00 per month.

Top 4 Companies Compared to RSH Web Services

As of the posting of this article.

Summary

Hosting should always encompass a range of crucial functionalities that ensure smooth website operation and management. These include uptime, reliability, Security Measures such as SSL certificates and backups, scalability for accommodating growth, high-speed performance, responsive customer support, and flexible pricing plans tailored to varying needs and budgets, along with transferring of your website. These features collectively form the backbone of a reliable hosting service, empowering website owners with the tools and support necessary for a successful online presence.

Choosing a good hosting company is definitely not easy. We do not recommend making a hasty decision. A wrong choice here will lead to many problems in the future.

Author Bio: Adnan Moad

A guest blogger hailing from Switzerland, dedicated to assisting local companies in expanding their reach from regional to national and international levels. With a proven track record in...

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