Newbie's Guide: Is your website hosting cost effective?

Choosing the right Web hosting company is an important aspect in cutting your Web hosting costs down. The Web hosting industry, boasting several thousand web hosts, is still young and growing at a remarkable pace; hence finding the right host...

Choosing the right Web hosting company is an important aspect in cutting your Web hosting costs down. The Web hosting industry, boasting several thousand web hosts, is still young and growing at a remarkable pace; hence finding the right host is not only difficult, but very time consuming. Fortunately though, it is worth the time and effort. There are a few things to keep in mind when exploring and when deciding to form a partnership with the host. Below are just a few things to consider, which directly attribute to final cost.

Bandwidth — Figure out approximately how much bandwidth (data transfer) your website requires. As above, ensure you get more bandwidth than your site uses. For example, if your website uses 8GB bandwidth per month, then choose a plan, which offers at least 8 or 10GB bandwidth per month. This again will prevent ‘spikes’ of over-usage, leading to higher extra costs. As a reference, an average
website should pay no more than $3 per GB for bandwidth usage.

Disk Space — Knowing how much Web space your website needs and compensating for a bit extra, for growth. For example, if your website needs 200 MB of disk space, look for the plan which offers at least 250 to 300 MB of Web space; this will prevent a large unexpected bill at the end of the month when high priced costs, charged by most Web hosts for extra disk space usage, are added on to your bill. As a rule of thumb, an average website should cost you no more than $1 per 10 MB.

Add On — Ask the Web host if they have “Add-ons” facilities for purchasing projected extra disk space or bandwidth. But, be careful, if your website needs only 2GB extra bandwidth, you may have to buy an extra package in blocks of 5GB bandwidth; in this case, look for the host which will allow you to purchase extra disk space and bandwidth allowance as per your needs — this is crucial to cost savings.

Caution: Ensure that you know the over-usage allowance rules; you need to know what happens if your website uses more disk space or bandwidth than you have been allocated. The Web host who informs you of possible over-usage well in advance, allowing you to take measures to reduce or budget for extra usage, is ‘worth their weight in gold’.

No. of Websites — If you have more than one website, sign up an account with a Web host who provides multiple domains hosted on one account; this will work out a lot cheaper than an account per website.

A good tip would be to ask your friends and colleagues if they want to host their websites with you on one account. For example, at M6.net a person or persons with 4 websites can save roughly $20 per month by signing up an M6-2, multiple hosting account.

Databases and Scripting Support — Ensure that all the applications your website uses (FrontPage, ASP pages, databases, CGI, PHP, etc.), are supported within the chosen account type. Find out if there are any extra fees for particular applications or associated database support. For example a lot of Web hosts charge extra set-up fees to install FrontPage, which may be avoided by choosing another host offering the same features with no extra costs.