I can’t believe how many times I’ve seen companies select a hosting service for all the wrong reasons and then end up with severe server issues as a result. When selecting a hosting service it’s important to focus not only on the fact that you want to deploy your site, but also how you want to manage it.

There are typically three levels of hosting services:

  • Shared Server: The cheapest option, this is typically targeted to small sites where traffic load will be low.  Your site will be hosted on a physical machine that is shared with other customer’s websites. All of the sites on that machine will be sharing the same memory, so if one of those other sites use up all the memory through high traffic load, your site will  be affected.
  • Virtual Server:  The moderately priced option gives you dedicated memory usage on a shared server.  This is a good option for sites that need dedicated memory and bandwidth but do not need the high power of their own server.
  • Dedicated Server: This option is the highest priced option, but also gives you maximum flexibility.  You typically will get to configure your server as you see fit and you know that if your server goes down, it was your site that affected it.

No matter what level of services you have, make sure that your service provider can guarantee an acceptable level of uptime.  A good quality service provider will guarantee at least 99.5% uptime. The best will guarantee 99.9% or higher. Also make sure there is 24×7 support.

Make sure that your hosting service is an expert at managing the type of operating system your site runs on.  If your server is a Linux server, don’t host with a pure Microsoft shop.  You want to ensure that the person taking your call when your site goes down knows how to fix it quickly.  You should be able to expect 2 hour or less turnaround on issues, especially with the higher service level packages.

Remember, you get what you pay for. So, if you are paying less than $10/month for hosting and you want to run an e-commerce site on that. Don’t be surprised if your site is offline or slow running.  Just like with anything else, you will get what you pay for.