I think it's about time that I give back to WF. Here's a little "article" on how to do research on a host and decide whether or not they're worth it (and to find out more about them).
I'm going to keep this very basic and to the point.
When choosing a web host, you need to look for three things. Reliability, Redundancy, and Support. These are the primary three points that you will need when keeping a "high traffic" or "mission critical" site up - or a landing page.
Every minute that your website is down, potentially is costing you hundreds or thousands of dollars. Whatever host you purchase from, make sure that they have a uptime guarantee. READ THE FINE PRINT! A Network Uptime Guarantee does not guarantee that your site will stay up! If they do not clarify that their guarantee is for one or the other, ask them.
For an example I'll use SpeedEXEC - Unleash Your Inner Website (my web hosting company) - Notice on the footer image on the first page you see "99.9% Uptime Guarantee" but also "100% Provider-Given Network Guarantee"? There IS a difference between these. The 99.9% uptime guarantee means that your website, assuming you have done nothing to interrupt it's availability, will be down no longer than 43.2 minutes a month. Now what's the catch with this - there are two.
1) The terms of service. Some providers will say that they will compensate you your plan price, divided by the number of minutes in the month, times the number of minutes of downtime. In other words, the first 43.2 minutes are on you, then you may get a few cents back. Try to clarify this with providers, because you shouldn't stand for that. The kind of TOS you want to see is like this: "5% of the monthly cost of the account per 30 minutes of downtime after the monthly uptime has fallen below 99.9%. The reimbursement may not exceed the monthly cost of the account." (from my TOS) - Instead of you getting a few cents back for an hour or two of downtime, this will get you 40 cents per 30 minutes on a 8 dollar account. This is much better reimbursement. Look for TOS like this that offer a percentage.
2) You have to prove the downtime. Your typical "I couldn't load the page" excuse will not work. Trust me. I've heard that so many times over the years that I have a canned response to this already. Get a free downtime account with HyperSpin.com, HostTracker.com, or SiteUptime.com. There are pros and cons to these. Pros: proves downtime. Con: incorrect number of minutes on downtime, due to one failure in one 30 minute check does not mean 30 minutes of downtime. Paid accounts are as quick as a check every 2 minutes, which is pretty much the industry "best standard".
Now that reliability is covered, it's time to check redundancy. Check for backups. Make sure they do backups. If they do backups, ask if they are off site. Off site does NOT mean in the same data center. Off site means across the country. One tornado that takes a DC out will take out your backups as well unless they are across the country (obviously not always true, but the rule I live by). If they don't, use BQBackup.com. Their prices are amazing, and reliable. When I used them, I noticed no problems with them what so ever. Great support and staff.
Ask if they have RAID on their drives. Raid 5 and 10 are both good, 0 and 1 are a little more interesting to look out for. My company uses Raid 10 for the extra reliability. This is what I consider to be the best. Raid is the only thing standing in the way of destruction when a head crashes on the hard drive. Then it's the 24 hours to replace the server (if you're lucky), few extra hours to tweak the site information, and 24-48 hours on a DNS re-provision. Good luck on that! Raid being on the drives, we're talking about a good 0 seconds of downtime as it's fail over directly to the second drive, with the same information on it. Will it run slower, yes. Will it be worth it, yes.
Next, check the support. If you do not get a response within an hour or two, it's not worth it to mess with the company. If it's a BS canned response without a follow up within 4 hours, do not mess with the company. If it seems like they're reading a manual and looking up your question in the table of contents, do not mess with the company. Some companies outsource their tech support, which is not bad at all, however they just don't do their job. You need a company that's within reach. Look for a company with an emergency contact pager or cell phone number to a technical/staff.
That's my little guide to "choosing the right web host". Obviously I didn't make it pretty with colors, but I figured raw content is what people wanted. I put it in plain English, like I'm talking to you one on one. I hope this helps someone.
PS - Resources for troubleshooting etc:
WebHostingTalk.com - Look up background on the host. It will help! I promise!
DNSTools.com - Speaks for itself.
Whois.sc - Quick domain information website
Have a good day guys, if you have any more questions about web hosting or how a web hosting company works, feel free to reply and ask - I'll answer it as soon as I can.
I'm going to keep this very basic and to the point.
When choosing a web host, you need to look for three things. Reliability, Redundancy, and Support. These are the primary three points that you will need when keeping a "high traffic" or "mission critical" site up - or a landing page.
Every minute that your website is down, potentially is costing you hundreds or thousands of dollars. Whatever host you purchase from, make sure that they have a uptime guarantee. READ THE FINE PRINT! A Network Uptime Guarantee does not guarantee that your site will stay up! If they do not clarify that their guarantee is for one or the other, ask them.
For an example I'll use SpeedEXEC - Unleash Your Inner Website (my web hosting company) - Notice on the footer image on the first page you see "99.9% Uptime Guarantee" but also "100% Provider-Given Network Guarantee"? There IS a difference between these. The 99.9% uptime guarantee means that your website, assuming you have done nothing to interrupt it's availability, will be down no longer than 43.2 minutes a month. Now what's the catch with this - there are two.
1) The terms of service. Some providers will say that they will compensate you your plan price, divided by the number of minutes in the month, times the number of minutes of downtime. In other words, the first 43.2 minutes are on you, then you may get a few cents back. Try to clarify this with providers, because you shouldn't stand for that. The kind of TOS you want to see is like this: "5% of the monthly cost of the account per 30 minutes of downtime after the monthly uptime has fallen below 99.9%. The reimbursement may not exceed the monthly cost of the account." (from my TOS) - Instead of you getting a few cents back for an hour or two of downtime, this will get you 40 cents per 30 minutes on a 8 dollar account. This is much better reimbursement. Look for TOS like this that offer a percentage.
2) You have to prove the downtime. Your typical "I couldn't load the page" excuse will not work. Trust me. I've heard that so many times over the years that I have a canned response to this already. Get a free downtime account with HyperSpin.com, HostTracker.com, or SiteUptime.com. There are pros and cons to these. Pros: proves downtime. Con: incorrect number of minutes on downtime, due to one failure in one 30 minute check does not mean 30 minutes of downtime. Paid accounts are as quick as a check every 2 minutes, which is pretty much the industry "best standard".
Now that reliability is covered, it's time to check redundancy. Check for backups. Make sure they do backups. If they do backups, ask if they are off site. Off site does NOT mean in the same data center. Off site means across the country. One tornado that takes a DC out will take out your backups as well unless they are across the country (obviously not always true, but the rule I live by). If they don't, use BQBackup.com. Their prices are amazing, and reliable. When I used them, I noticed no problems with them what so ever. Great support and staff.
Ask if they have RAID on their drives. Raid 5 and 10 are both good, 0 and 1 are a little more interesting to look out for. My company uses Raid 10 for the extra reliability. This is what I consider to be the best. Raid is the only thing standing in the way of destruction when a head crashes on the hard drive. Then it's the 24 hours to replace the server (if you're lucky), few extra hours to tweak the site information, and 24-48 hours on a DNS re-provision. Good luck on that! Raid being on the drives, we're talking about a good 0 seconds of downtime as it's fail over directly to the second drive, with the same information on it. Will it run slower, yes. Will it be worth it, yes.
Next, check the support. If you do not get a response within an hour or two, it's not worth it to mess with the company. If it's a BS canned response without a follow up within 4 hours, do not mess with the company. If it seems like they're reading a manual and looking up your question in the table of contents, do not mess with the company. Some companies outsource their tech support, which is not bad at all, however they just don't do their job. You need a company that's within reach. Look for a company with an emergency contact pager or cell phone number to a technical/staff.
That's my little guide to "choosing the right web host". Obviously I didn't make it pretty with colors, but I figured raw content is what people wanted. I put it in plain English, like I'm talking to you one on one. I hope this helps someone.
PS - Resources for troubleshooting etc:
WebHostingTalk.com - Look up background on the host. It will help! I promise!
DNSTools.com - Speaks for itself.
Whois.sc - Quick domain information website
Have a good day guys, if you have any more questions about web hosting or how a web hosting company works, feel free to reply and ask - I'll answer it as soon as I can.