Web Hosting Packages – What Do I Need?      

May 2nd, 2007

Looking for a web hosting package is not easy. Trying to compare each little feature from host to host can give you a real migraine! In this article, our goal is to give you a few of the features to look for in a web host. For most of you, you can just ignore the rest of the features. These are the ones to compare.

Disk Space/Web Space- This is the amount of space provided by the web host to put your website on. It’s kind of like a hard drive on your computer (well, really that’s what it is!). Most small businesses don’t need a lot of web space, but if you plan to host your own videos or pictures in will be an important consideration. LunarPages is one host that offers a boatload of disk space with their basic hosting plan. You get a whopping 350 gigs of storage space. Now that’s a lot of videos and pictures!

Data Transfer Rate – This is the amount of data that is transferred from your site to your visitors computers. If you’ve got a lot of storage space (like in the LunarPages example above), you will need a high transfer rate. In the LunarPages example, you get 3500 gigs of transfer. That’s a lot, trust us.

Email Accounts – Most hosts these days offer tons of email accounts (more than the average company or website will ever need). Just make sure you don’t use a host that charges extra for email accounts. They’re gouging you!

Domain Names – Many web hosts will give away free domain names when you buy a hosting package. This sounds good, but we recommend you keep your domain name purchases and hosting separate. This helps avoid any issues down the road if you decide to switch web hosts.

Entry Filed under: General