4 Game-changing Web Hosting Features You Should Look For Before Choosing a Provider

Finding the right web host for your online business can be a daunting task, especially with the sheer number of available services online.

However, while most reputable web hosting solutions can offer similar core features, each one has unique benefits and tradeoffs.

The key is to know the web hosting features that matter most to your business, so you avoid choosing services where you pay too much for functionalities you don’t need or miss out on the critical ones.

This guide gives you a quick look into four of the game-changing web hosting features you should consider when choosing a web hosting service.

What is web hosting?

Essentially, web hosting is a service that lets anyone who wants to run a website, such as online business owners, publish a web page or site on the internet.

Web hosting companies provide the services and technologies required for websites and web pages to be viewed on the web.

Websites are stored or hosted on servers that connect to internet users’ computers and deliver your web pages through their browsers.

Your web host keeps the server running, protects it from malicious attacks, and transfers your content (including files, images, and texts) from the server to the internet users’ browsers.

Subscribing to a web hosting service is like renting a space (or spaces) on a physical server where you store all the data, files, and other assets required for your website to work properly.

Because web hosting is one of the tech issues you need to be ready for when starting an online business, it’s crucial to know the different web hosting features to determine the ones that best fit your needs.

1. Supports your Content Management System (CMS)

If you’re planning to use a Content Management System, such as WordPress or Joomla, to build your website, check if the web hosting provider supports your CMS.

Find a web hosting service that lets you set up websites with your CMS using an easy-to-use interface and a step-by-step wizard to streamline your website-building process.

It should also offer extra tools, such as a discussion forum or eCommerce website, to help you tailor your site’s structure to your needs. These additional tools can help you customize your business with ease, including adding polls, social media links, etc.

Another vital web hosting feature is support for migration, so it’s easier to transfer your website from one CMS to another.

Automated migration tools, while considered necessary when transferring your website, such as moving your site to a different platform to build your sports apparel store, are rarely enough, particularly if your website has legacy codes.

Ensure the hosting platform provides support services to help you migrate your website seamlessly.

2. Levels of customization

Some web hosting providers offer basic website-level administration access only. While this might be suitable for basic use cases, it can limit you from expanding your site’s capabilities.

Choose a hosting provider that offers access and customization levels that can accommodate your business needs.

For instance, a web hosting service with a cPanel that includes File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and File Manager gives you access to your website’s backend, allowing you to make simple to advanced site changes.

Consider looking into the hosting platform’s more advanced features as well, including Domain Name System (DNS), email hosting support, and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate to go with your domain.

All these features come together to give you a central hub to manage everything related to your website and other benefits, including optimizing your WordPress website’s performance.

3. Subscription and maintenance costs

Your website’s resource requirements can change over time. You could attract a meager amount of traffic for the first few months of running your website and gain millions of visitors some months or years later.

This could mean switching to hosting plans that can give you dedicated servers to accommodate your regulatory needs.

Find a hosting service with flexible and reasonable pricing plans. This allows you to upgrade to more advanced features as your business grows without necessarily paying extremely high fees.

Web hosting platforms that are transparent about charges, inclusions, and exclusions ensure you don’t end up with a terrible surprise after your initial sign-up period expires.

Also, most hosting providers offer low-priced deals during sign-up and on the first payment. While these can be attractive offers, renewal charges can cost a lot more than the initial registration price.

This makes it crucial to carefully consider the hosting plan you invest in so you know all the costs involved, including maintenance fees, at the end of the trial or discount period.

Additionally, anticipate the costs that come with scaling your business and website by checking the price of upgrading to a higher hosting plan to suit your company as it grows.

While pricing is a crucial consideration when choosing providers, do a quick cost-benefit analysis. This helps ensure you end up with the best-fitting hosting plan that matches your business needs, and not just the cheapest one.

4. Security measures

Generally, you are responsible for your digital assets’ security, but a web host that offers basic defense measures will help increase your protection from common cyber threats.

Select a web hosting service that provides automatic updates for major CMS systems (at a minimum).

Also, consider a web host that offers patches for known vulnerabilities for services such as MySQL, Apache, and PSP to keep them secure since regular updates can be your first line of defense against common web attacks, including cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injection.

Other hosting platforms offer more robust features that can scan your web applications’ source code to check for malware and vulnerable coding patterns, which can be an added layer of protection for your website and business.

Cyber attacks can cause massive downtimes and data breaches, which can impact your business operations, sales, and reputation. Choose a web hosting provider that offers basic security measures to increase your protection against cyber threats.

Wrapping up

There is a wide array of features to consider when choosing the best web hosting platform for your business.

Know what hosting features are crucial to your business, and do some research on different web hosting services to find ones that suit your needs.

Besides the features, consider the hosting provider’s quality and reputation, since you’re investing in a service that you’ll likely use long-term. You can also try 4goodhosting.com for your all web hosting needs.