How to Buy Web Hosting

This guide is for people that would like to buy web hosting, but don’t know if the company is a fraud/scam. This 6 rule guide will teach you how to spot fraud/scam hosts or hosts that are likely to have huge downtime. This will also provide questions that you could ask the host before buying.

We’ll start with

Rule number 1 of buying web hosting: Always read the TOS:

Before you purchase, read the TOS. Make sure that it is OK to host what you are intending to host and that there is no sneaky clauses in which they could use to terminate you for no reason (Quite a few hosts do this these days). If your in doubt about something, Ask the host before purchasing. Don’t ever just think you may get away with it, as you probably wont.

Rule number 2, Unlimited does not exist:

You will see many hosts offering unlimited space/unlimited bandwidth. This is a big no no if the host is new or charging like $10 per year, as they are probably on an unlimited reseller/master reseller account themselves, although there may be exceptions to this (Take IwhiC.com for example) as some actually have good business plans and can afford to support it, but unless they have been a host for a year (Learn how to check a web host’s age below) then it’s not worth it unless you want to be shut down after the first month.

Rule number 3, Make sure they are a complete host:

One of the huge warning signs of buying web hosting is if a host doesn’t have a complete site/support/billing system. If the host doesn’t have a site/incomplete site then they are obviously not prepared and not safe to buy from. Also, if they don’t have a proper method of support in place, such as an email/ticket system (No, MSN/AIM/GTalk is not a valid support method!). Another thing to make sure of, is if they have a billing system or not. If they don’t and just have a PayPal subscribe, or just a pay button then they are not organized and should not be purchased from.

Rule number 4, If it seems too good to be true, it probably is:

I’m going to take the following example from HostGod (a now dead host):

Unlimited Space
Unmetered Bandwidth
Unlimited Add Domains
Unlimited Parked Domains
Unlimited FTP Accounts
Unlimited Anoymous FTP
Unlimited MySQL Databases
Unlimited POP3 Email Accounts
Unlimited Mailing Lists
Unlimited Auto Responders
Unlimited Mail Forward
WHM/cPanel
Monthly @ $3.95 OR Yearly @ 19.95
Now, note the price. Generally a server these days cost $70 per month for a low end server. That’s $840 per year. Now even if this host does sell enough accounts to pay for this server, it’ll be highly overloaded and slow as they’ll need 42 or so accounts just to pay for the server! And then that price doesn’t even include, staff wages, enough money for emergencies (such as HDD failure) and support/billing systems which ALL hosts need to provide a quality service.

Rule number 5, Check how long they have been in business:

Before buying web hosting you should always check how long the host has been in business. This can be done by doing a Who Is check on their domain. To do this, go to www.who.is, type in the domain name of the host. You will then see the following:

Expiration Date: 2008-12-16
Creation Date: 2007-12-16
Last Update Date: 2008-02-13

Pay close attention to the creation date. If it is less than a month old be very cautious and do lots of research before you buy. If they offer unlimited or something close to unlimited do not buy from them. There is a 75% chance you will be scammed.

Rule number 6, Do your research:

A main thing you must do before getting hosting, is research. There are many places that you can find info about hosts, but these are just a few:

Google
WebHostingTalk
FreeWebSpace
DigitalPoint

Just use the search functions on each of these sites and you will find what you need. If you find a bad review, read it and decide whether it look legitimate or just an angry ex-customer. If you find multiple bad reviews, find a new host. It’s not worth risking your data with a dodgy host.

And that’s it :), Here are a few more things you can do before buying:

Ask the host some questions, here are a few: