1. What type of web hosting to choose?
This is the first question you should ask yourself when looking at a comparison for the best web hosts. This step will allow you to determine if the supplier offers an offer that meets your needs. In this article, we will identify a total of four types of web hosting.
Shared web hosting
This web hosting plan allows you to share a server with several other clients. This is the best choice if you want to host a personal website or blog at a reduced cost. Most of the suppliers in our comparison promise unlimited disk space, depending on the package you choose.
This proposal gives the impression that it is possible to develop very large-scale projects with this plan. But in practice, there is a limit that you cannot exceed. So it is not the best choice for you if you need a huge storage space.
You will find this plan at most of the suppliers in our comparison. But each of them tries to add a personal touch to their offer to make it the best.
Hosting with a dedicated server
By choosing this web hosting solution, you benefit from a server specially dedicated to your website. Security performance here is better since you can develop your own operating system.
If you want to give visibility to your e-commerce or your business, this solution should suit you. However, it is more expensive than the shared plan. You must, therefore, make sure that this choice is the best one concerning your real needs. This solution is also available from the best suppliers in our comparison.
VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting
This type of web hosting has the same mode of operation as the previous one. The difference lies in the fact that here the dedicated server is partitioned into several independent virtual servers. Each of these virtual servers has its own characteristics and runs on a single operating system.
The advantage of a virtual dedicated server or VPS is that pooling the offer considerably reduces its cost. Development opportunities are also better.
All this makes this solution the best in our comparison for a company that aims to multiply. The best web host in our comparison offers, in addition to the VPS plan, cloud hosting.
Cloud hosting
The principle is the same as with the shared web hosting of our comparison. However, here several virtual servers are used instead of a single physical server. Your site then benefits from better availability and flexibility.
In other words, cloud hosting adapts to your needs. Depending on your site’s traffic, for example, you could be allocated more or less bandwidth.
As you can see for yourself, each of the suppliers’ solutions in our comparison has its advantages and disadvantages. The next step in your research to find the best web hosting plan should be the provider’s choice. But first, you still need to determine your needs.
All the above solutions can be below the needs of your site. In this case, a dedicated over-vitamin server will perform better than a cloud server. But very high availability hosting will guarantee the permanent availability of your site even if the number of visitors explodes.
2. What are your web hosting needs?
Why is it essential to determine your web hosting needs? Each plan proposed by the suppliers of our comparison includes several formulas with different resources. It is, therefore, necessary to know what exactly resources you will need before you get started.
Have you indeed estimated the daily traffic of your site as well as its evolution over time? Therefore, the best choice for you in our comparison is a formula that takes this evolution into account. If you still choose the basic offer, remember to check that the transition to a Premium plan will be effortless.
You also need to decide what level of security you want to provide to your site and its visitors. These criteria will allow you to eliminate the supplier from our comparison from the start who does not meet your requirements.
You now know what your web hosting needs are. So let’s see how you can choose your web hosting.
3. How to choose a web host?
The supplier of our comparison that you must choose must offer the web hosting solution that you are looking for. The first criterion for selecting the best web host 2020 is, therefore, specialization.
The specialization
It is crucial to choose a supplier specializing in the solution you are looking for. Each of the web hosts in our comparison offers at least three of the above plans. But, they are better at each in their field.
You must, therefore, first identify the suppliers who offer the solutions that interest you. Then you can compare their performance and decide which is the best of our comparison for you.
You must also consider the offers of the supplier and especially the possibility of moving from one plan to another as soon as possible. An extended quarantine because your traffic has exploded a colossal loss of money.
You should also remember that hosting your site is not the only service that you will ask a web host from our comparison. He must be able to create a domain name for you or to have it migrated and also to optimize your referencing on search engines.
Whatever the specialization of your provider, the best web host must meet rigorous selection criteria. For our comparison, we have selected the most important for you.
Reliability and connection speed
The availability of a web host’s servers is used to determine its reliability. The best suppliers in our comparison offer availability of between 99% and 100%. The gap seems small in terms of numbers, but this is not the case for your site. 1% represents at least three days a year of unavailability of your website.
If this is not really alarming for a small personal blog, the losses can be considerable if it is e-commerce. The best web host must, therefore, be able to offer you availability between 99.8% and 99.99% … and this is the case for most of those in our comparison. One of them can even provide you 99.999% uptime on WordPress.
The connection speed of your provider’s servers is directly related to the speed of the display of your pages. Therefore, it is an excellent point of comparison to find which is the best web host of our comparison.
It should be noted that your pages’ loading speed directly impacts your traffic, the performance of your site, and allows better SEO. In other words, search engines like Google consider the speed at which your pages are displayed as a fundamental criterion of SEM.
Technical resources allocated
The technical resources allocated by the suppliers of our comparison vary from plan to plan. To ensure a better performance level for your website, you must ensure that you have a minimum of technical resources.
The best web host in our comparison must, therefore, offer you at least 50 GB of space, 10 GB of database storage, PHP and WordPress support, several email addresses, and secure FTP access.
Technical support
It is crucial, even essential, to quickly contact your web host’s technical support. Indeed, you may need to ask a technical question or have a professional help you set up your new web application.
The best web host in our comparison must, therefore, offer customer service available 24/7. But the reactivity time is also critical because a technical problem could make your website for several hours or several days.
To end technical support, you need to check if there are several ways to contact them (chat, phone, email, ticket). You should also not hesitate to test your reactivity yourself.
Our comparison of 2020 offers in web hosting has retained for you only providers with the best level of security. They also regularly back up your data, sometimes even on a separate server.
Integration possibilities
When choosing the best web host, make sure that it offers the CMS used by our site. The suppliers of our comparison, for example, use content management systems such as WordPress, Joomla, and Prestashop.
Datacenter locations
The location of the physical server on which your site is hosted is a significant SEO criterion. This is certainly not the most crucial referencing criterion. But then, which is the best web host of our comparison for your project? We recommend that you choose a server with physical servers in your target country.
In other words, to ensure better positioning for your site in your target audience’s search results, you must choose a physical server close to them. The location of the servers also has a direct impact on the connection speed to your site.
Most of the suppliers in our comparison have servers in France and Canada. They are, therefore, part of the best choice if you target a French or European audience.
Security and data backup
We come to a fundamental selection criterion that you should not neglect for any reason. We recommend that you compare the security protocols used by the suppliers in our 2020 comparison.
Which is the best web host in our security comparison? Your provider should be able to offer you an SSL certificate and an IP blocker. The latter is particularly useful in combating hacking and pirate attacks (DDOS most of the time).
The regularity of the backup of your data is also a critical selection criterion for our comparison. Be aware that a malfunction on your server can cause you to lose all of your data and, therefore, a lot of money.
The cost
The cost of your plan is essential. You must absolutely avoid overly attractive offers. It’s not about paying your subscription more than it’s worth. What you need to aim for is the best value for money in our comparison. It is, therefore, impossible to determine this without having read the previous selection criteria.
To determine what is the best price for your web hosting, we recommend that you compare web providers from our comparison. Despite their proximity to the price plan, each of these web hosts offers a little extra that could make all the difference in price.
For example, you can check whether there are additional costs or not to switch from one plan to another. You can also watch what it will cost you to re-subscribe, as this is an inconspicuous detail.
4. Consult the opinions of other customers
To better understand the differences between suppliers’ offers, you can read some comparisons. However, it is also advisable to read customer reviews and comments on each other’s performance.
To review objective comments on a web host from our comparison, it is best to take a look at Google. This is the only way to gain access to feedback from customers who have been disappointed with a supplier’s services, as they cannot be censored.
Even if you are a beginner, you are now able to choose a quality supplier. To make it even easier for you, our comparison offers you five of the best web hosts of the moment. Each of them takes into account the criteria that we listed above.
Muhammad Shoaib is a freelance writer who offers blogging, ghostwriting and copywriting services. He works closely with businesses providing digital marketing solutions that increases brand awareness and search engine visibility. He’s currently writing a product reviews and buying guide on Reviewsbite.com.