For any business owner who does not have an unlimited budget, but who still wants the most reliable web hosting service available, an excellent option is to choose virtual private server hosting (VPS). VPS hosting provides an upgrade from shared hosting and thus many of the pitfalls that shared hosting has, such as limited resources and potential slow page load speeds, are all but eliminated.
This does mean that VPS hosting costs more than shared hosting, but the increased investment is more than worth it and is an extremely cost-effective way of securing reliable web hosting for your business’s website. If you have decided that VPS hosting is the right choice for your business here are 7 steps that will help you make the best choice of VPS web hosting service.
#1 Assess What Resources And Services You Require: The first step in choosing a VPS hosting service is to determine whether they can provide the resources and services that you require. Resources refer to the amount of server storage and server speeds as well as operating systems if this is important for the website you plan to host there. You also want to check what additional services are included and which cost extra.
#2 Check Their Reviews And Testimonials: As with purchasing any service for your business, you must research the web hosting company you are considering. This will include online reviews which you will find on their website, on social media and on independent review sites such as Trustpilot. Further research amongst business associates might identify one of their current clients where you can find out firsthand what their service is like.
#3 Check Their Verified Performance Data: Beyond reviews and testimonials, you should also be able to ascertain the performance data for a web hosting company from independent online analysis websites. One point here is to be careful with ‘Best of’ review websites as they often give glowing reviews based on commission levels only and without any data to back up their recommendations. Instead, look for websites that have verified performance data.
#4 Determine The Location Of Their Servers: For the sake of fast website load speeds, a business based in London should choose a VPS host with servers in the UK or at least in Europe, and likewise, a business in Australia should look for hosting services with servers in their state. A caveat is that this assumes that your target market is local. If it is worldwide, then this is not as critical an issue.
#5 Assess Their Backup And Security Protocols: One of the biggest variables between VPS hosting companies is the frequency of their backups and the level of security they provide. These factors can be hugely significant if something serious happens to your website, such as it being hacked. Therefore, make sure a web hosting company has backups and security well covered.
#6 What Technical Support Do They Offer?: Points to check here are what their support looks like, so is it email, live chat, 24-hour telephone support, or whatever? It also helps enormously if they have customer service representatives within your country, or at the very least, within your time zone.
#7 Managed Or Unmanaged?: Finally, there is the last step of choosing whether you want managed or unmanaged VPS hosting. Managed will cost more but what it does is take away all your responsibilities for the technical upkeep of your hosting, which VPS requires, and instead allow you to focus on managing your business.
