Despite the common misconception, there are huge differences from one web hosting company to another. Don’t just grab the first host you come across. Take your time, do some research, and choose a host that works best for you. These hints should help:

You should avoid any downtime when switching to a new host. You can do this by keeping your old account and uploading your site to a new one. Change your DNS settings once your site is successfully uploaded to the new server so your domain name redirects to the new server once everything is ready.

If you wish to switch to another host, you should not cancel your current account right away. Take the time to look for another service and upload your website to their servers. Perhaps you will have to make a few adjustments before finally redirecting your domain name to your new address.

Become proficient in talking about the process of web hosting before you begin your search. Web hosting has its own language that can be very off-putting to those people who never took the time to study it prior to choosing a web host. With just a little studying, you can find yourself ahead in the game when it comes to choosing the best hosting company for you.

Guaranteed uptime is important, but read the fine print carefully. From your perspective, a guarantee of 99.9% uptime means that your site will be available and running 99.9% of the time. That is usually not the case. It generally means the web hosting company is available 99.9% of the time. Your site may be down, but the company is not responsible if they are running well.

Pay attention to the control panel of any web hosting service you are considering signing up with. This panel will give you easy and immediate access to all the features that you will need to update and monitor your website. Try out different companies who offer free trials and be prepared to choose accordingly.

Make sure that you choose a host that has support 24/7. You don’t want to run across a problem or an issue and not be able to get a hold of somebody quickly. This could harm your business or personal en devours. Once you’ve picked a host, try calling them at an odd hour to see is support service is available.

You should always back up your data on your own, instead of relying on your web host to protect your information. The more backups you keep of your data, the more protected you will be. Before paying a hosting provider, ask them about their backup services and how much redundancy protection they have available.

Find out what other programming services your potential web host offers. You don’t want your sites to be limited to CSS and HTML. The best web hosts offer the ability to code sites using PHP and ASP as well. Even if you don’t think you need these languages, you should use a web host that offers them. As your knowledge of web design grows, you might want to use these languages to help your site reach its full potential.

Always read the terms of service carefully before sending any money. You will find that a lost of hosting services have hidden conditions and charges. If you do not have a clear idea of how much you will be paying every month and what kind of features you will have access to, look for another service.

You can choose to have multiple web hosting service providers if you would like in order to maintain IP address diversity. This is important to some people’s business to pad security and other reasons. There are several ways to do this, so if it is also your concern, look into using multiple web hosting services.

Be wary of web hosting companies that claim 100 percent uptime. While more uptime is better, there is a limit. It is possible to achieve 99.9 percent uptime. However, even the fastest, most reliable servers must be rebooted occasionally in order to apply important security patches. Any company claiming 100 percent uptime is either lying, or has servers that are not up to the latest security standards.

If you want to use a shopping cart software, make sure it is compatible with your web host. A good web host should support certain features such as Web scripting, dynamic content or executable files. These features will allow you to add different ways for your visitors to interact with your website, for instance by leaving feedback.

Do your homework on the web hosting service before you dedicate your business to them. Sometimes, even the largest and most prominent hosting companies are struggling and in fact, can more easily declare bankruptcy if they overextend themselves. You will have little recourse if this should occur. Always ask how long they have been operating and whether ownership has changed hands frequently.

Make sure that you have backups for your website! You can find a hosting company that will backup all of your files every night, and you really need to have this. You want your website files, databases, e-mails, and your home directory backed up on a consistent basis just in case something goes wrong.

Factor in your future site plans when choosing the amount of space or bandwidth you need from your hosting company. You may not be adding videos, voice recordings or large images and graphics to your site right now, but if you will be adding these components in the future, you will likely need quite a bit more space.

Find a host that offers customers a lot of web space, especially if you have a blog or a site that you are constantly adding information to. Every time you post something new to your site, it takes up some of your web space. If you have limited web space, you will only be able to post a limited amount of information.

Now you really understand the difference between your average host and great companies that have racks filled with servers, all running dedicated memory for hosting your files. Review these tips when your contract is up for renewal, or whenever you’re ready to choose a better host.