3 Ways Your Web Host May be Screwing You

By: Erik Karey on Oct 11, 2011 | 2 Comments

With so many web hosting companies out there today it may seem convenient to go with the cheapest or the largest one you can find, but in doing so you may be getting the short end of the stick.  Not all web hosts are created equal and what sounds like a good deal may not always be so great.  Here are some things to look or think about when selecting your next web host:

1. Unlimited is Never Unlimited

Wow, for $8.95/mo I can have UNLIMITED space and UNLIMITED bandwidth…..my web hosting needs are solved for life!  Uh….not so much.   How much hard drive space does your personal computer have?  Maybe 300GB of space, maybe 500GB of space? Why not just go to your local computer shop and buy an “Unlimited” hard drive?  Oh wait, they don’t exist!  No matter what a hosting provider claims as their space and bandwidth allotments, you are never getting anywhere near unlimited.  This is called “Overselling” and it’s somewhat common in the industry.

Web hosting companies that offer these plans are banking on the fact that you aren’t going to use anywhere near that amount of space or bandwidth and on average no single customer will be doing so.   Therefore on average everything should be ok with their space allotments.  But what happens when Joe Shmoe decides to host his grandmother’s  70th birthday video for all of her friends to watch?  (she has 1000 facebook friends, she’s pretty popular trust me!)  Well Joe’s account uses a ton of bandwidth and server resources causing your site to run slow or worse yet for the server to go down!    The better alternative is to signup with a web hosting company that sells fixed packages of space and bandwidth and does not oversell!

2. Getting Charged for Simple Features

I’ve always found it laughable to see web hosting companies who charge extra for things like email accounts, mysql database, subdomains, etc.  The truth is these things really don’t add too much to a hosting accounts cost and they are simply charging because one, the consumer doesn’t know any better and two they can!  Any reputable host should be offering unlimited email accounts, mysql, subdomains and the likes….if you are paying extra, start looking elsewhere!

3. Convoluted Third-Party Control Panels

As a developer, I work on a lot of different web hosting accounts for client work.  I’ve pretty much worked on every platform there is and a few platforms just want to make me poke my eyes out!  The control panel is the area that the client uses to manage their website by adding things like domains, emails, and FTP accounts and check things like web traffic and bandwidth usage, etc.  Now a majority of sites on the web use a control panel called cPanel which is a great option that lets you easily do anything you need to your hosting account while a few others may use something called Plesk or webmin.  All of these are very valid and workable options.

The trouble comes when web hosts go rogue and develop their own control panels.  These panels are not only worse than these standard options, but they also are so very convoluted that they make developers want to poke their eyes out!  Places like GoDaddy in particular make it so unbearably difficult to do the simplest tasks that I generally try to suggest that clients move from them to a new host.  These “custom” control panels also make it much harder to move your site to a new host should you need to do so in the future.

So what is the lesson learned?  Be careful when selecting your next web host.  Not everything is as it appears and just going for the cheapest or biggest or most well known company is not always your best bet.  Should you be in the market for hosting , I would ask that you consider our hosting solutions at BlueLayerHost where we offer reliable competitively priced hosting packages together with professional support.

Related Posts:

1. Prosper202 Host Troubles?

Comments (2)

Walter Scott

Posted at 3:33 am on October 12th, 2011

When choosing a web host, it is important to know the background of that company. Research and read reviews.

Chrissy

Posted at 10:28 pm on December 5th, 2011

HA! did you guys write this blog after dealing with MY old web host?! (seriously, I think you did.) Thanks for being so great yourselves

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