Some tips for choosing a hosting provider

Kieran Jones, founder of hosting company Freethought, has some pertinent advice when it comes to choosing the right hosting provider.

“When selecting a hosting provider, don’t go to the cheapest. They might be cheap, and promise unlimited everything, but you get what you pay for. Select a hosting company that has strong customer reviews, is based in your country, and is contactable readily by phone. Don’t be afraid to give them a call before placing an order just to see what they’re like. If you get lost in a maze of menus then consider looking elsewhere. A smaller independent provider is likely to provide much better, more personable, friendly, and comprehensive service than a large multinational with rock-bottom prices and overseas contact centres. Your whole business relies on your website, don’t scrimp on the systems and provider that run it.

“Another tip when looking at hosting providers is asking about their systems: security isn’t just about hackers and passwords, it’s about operational security. Do they have backups? Where is the website physically going to be hosted? How long have they been in business? What are their support hours? Do they hold any accreditations such as ISO 9001 for quality management, or

ISO 270001 for information security?

ISO marks are stringent and hard to obtain so they’re a great sign of quality and reliability.

“Make sure you know where everything is registered and hosted. If an employee has set it all up for you, make sure you at least have a list of who suppliers are and what they supply.

Make sure you know where your domain is registered, and most importantly make sure you are the legal registrant and not your employee or even worse your web design firm. If your employee leaves, or you fall out with your web designer, you need to make sure you don’t lose your website and email at the same time, so make sure you as the business owner are listed on the account as a contact with full authority, and that you have login details.

“On the subject of designers, it is very rare that a designer absolutely has to host your website for you; they’ll often try and insist but it isn’t really necessary.

You can get a lot of operational security by keeping the designer and the host separate: that way if you fall out with the designer, you still have your website and they can’t just take it from you.”