Make a Website Great

The Web hosting market is full of choice. However, unless you know you have very specific requirements, such as a particular piece of server-side software that runs only on a certain operating system, then it’s best to stick to Web hosting companies that offer the leading industry standard platforms. And luckily, or actually by definition, the number of leading industry Web hosting standards is small. I suggest you pick a host that runs cPanel on a Linux server.

I will go one step further and let you know that this site is hosted by Host Gator, which I highly recommend because it meet all my requirements (see below) and has great customer support. This way you’ll save a lot of time by not having to sift through the vast number of hosting companies out there. Whether you’re looking for shared hosting or dedicated hosting, Host Gator is very competitively priced, and unless you have super special hosting requirements, it has all the features you need.

At any rate, as I mentioned above, I recommend you go with a Linux server with cPanel. In case you’re unfamiliar with these two terms, let me explain both:

Linux – Linux is an operating system based on a very well established and powerful OS first developed in the 1960′s called Unix. Linux is an open source operating system that runs on PCs, and this translates to cheap and dependable. Windows is another example of an operating system that runs on PCs, but it is proprietary to Microsoft.

cPanel – cPanel is a very popular Web hosting control software that runs on the server and lets users easily manage their accounts. The hallmark of cPanel is its ability to integrate separate software tools and operating system services into a single, easy to use, control panel, and hence its name. Some of the types of tools it integrates include database access & querying, Web mail, a script for adding domain names to your account, etc.

Since it’s inception, Unix was designed to manage time sharing, multi-user computer systems. Unix was managing multi-user, multi-tasking computer servers for many years until Microsoft finally came out with a version of Windows that can do the same. Consequently, unlike the desktop PC market, the server market is dominated by Unix based systems. And with the advent of Linux, a popular open-source Unix variant that can run on cheap PCs, there is no good reason to run a Windows based server, unless you specifically need it to run software based on Microsoft technologies. Furthermore, the open source nature of Linux sprung a world-wide effort to crate free open-source tools for Linux. And consequently, any Web host offering Linux, can also provide a vast array of tools and options based on software that doesn’t cost them a dime.

cPanel is very good at integrating all those tools, and if you pick a hosting company that offers it, you’re guaranteed to have a large set of these tools and technologies conveniently available to you. So instead of trying to keep track of all the acronyms, CGI, PHP, RoR, Perl, MySQL, SSH, SSL, etc., you just need to look for one thing, cPanel, and you’ll know you have all the standard technologies and tools. Of course, if have special requirements, then by all means, verify that the hosting company supports those.

Okay, so now that you know to get Linux and cPanel, here’s the list of things to look for when choosing a Web hosting company:

1. 24/7 customer support – Trust me, if you need help after normal business hours, you don’t want to get a voice mail message telling you to wait until the next morning.
2. Guaranteed up-time – Most Web hosting companies guarantee 99.9% server up-time, however, if they do not live up to their promise, don’t expect to be compensated for anything more than your hosting fee for the month. It’s not much if your site makes big bucks, or otherwise very important to you, but it’s at least some incentive to keep the servers in good working order.
3. Money back guarantee – You should be able to test drive your account and the host’s reliability for at least a month, and if you don’t like it, get your money back.
4. A reseller account or unlimited domain option – Technically, a reseller account is supposed to be used by people who want to run a virtual Web host business. They obtain hosting clients of their own, and set them up with separate accounts under their own main account with the hosting company. But a reseller account is also a very convenient way of separating your projects out completely, yet not have to sign up for another hosting account. It comes in very handy, for example, if you have your own projects, and then decide to work on another project with a partner. You would then want to give your new project a separate account as to not give your partner full access to everything else you’re doing. You might not need a reseller account, but it’s a good option to have with your hosting company should you need it. Another advantage of a reseller account is the ability to host an unlimited number of Web sites under your account. But if you don’t need to completely separate out your projects but still want to be able to have many sites, you can go for a hosting account that offers unlimited domains. It’ll be significantly cheaper than the reseller account.
5. A good backup strategy – You should keep a copy of your site on your local computer for backup, but with dynamic, ever changing sites, it could be cumbersome to keep a local backup constantly up to date. Therefore, make sure the hosting company you choose backs up their servers at least once a week.
6. Linux with cPanel – Last but not least, and previously discussed.

My current choice for Web host:
Host Gator – Host Gator has superb customer support and meets all the criteria on my list. That’s why I use it to host this site. Host Gator has great reseller, unlimited domain, and dedicated server plans.