How can I Save Money Choosing a Web Hosting Plan ?

There is so much competition in this market right now that it can be difficult for the newcomer to ascertain which is the right affordable web site hosting plan. To get help to find the right plan for you, you need to determine what you need. If you need minimal space you might be able to get away with one of the cheap website hosting options, and if you need more space you might need to go with something that costs just a bit more.

One really great way to save money when you are thinking of building a website is to look for free domain name registration. Many companies that you come across offer free domain registration cheap web hosting packages that will allow you to get everything done in one shot. When you get all of these things done in one place at one time it will not only save money, it will also save time. Many worry that free domain registration is not legit, but many companies can afford to give you this service for free, especially when you opt for hosting services at the same time. The bottom line is that you can get free domain name registration if you want it, so keep that in mind if someone tries to charge you too much for this service.

Multiple domain hosting is another good way to save money. This is the ability to host more than one website on one hosting plan. Basically what you do is register as many domain names as you want, and then you can use the space for your hosting plan to host as many websites as you want. Multiple domain web hosting makes more sense because it allows you to pay for hosting once. Depending on the hosting plan you choose, with multiple domain hosting you can host many different domains on one space for very little money. This is great for those that are starting up new e-commerce businesses as well as for those that want to create personal or family websites, as well.

Self Hosting is a New Way of Web Hosting. Is it the future?

Traditionally, hosting companies and ISPs have provided facilities, equipment, and software that allow individuals and entities to host their websites and web-services with them. Continuous availability, high bandwidth, large storage space, and reliable equipment traditionally made hosting with ISPs an attractive option.

The evolution of infrastructure and technologies however raises the question whether we are at stage where one can directly web-host from any internet connected PCs and even PDAs – sort of self-hosting. The voluminous growth in the quantum of user-generated content and advances in technology (web 2.0) makes self-hosting attractive. Firstly, user content is never required to be stored on third party servers, and secondly, there is no need for repeated uploads to third-party servers.

three other barriers traditionally dissuaded individuals and small entities from hosting off their home / office PCs.
1. Internet Addresses
2. Security
3. Ease of use

Internet Addresses
Individual PCs and Handheld computers usually do not have network addresses (IP address), which are required to connect PCs and handheld devices to the internet. In many cases, IP address is dynamically assigned and therefore change every time the computer connects to the Internet. (This is known as dynamic or non-static IP). A computer without an IP address is incapable of web-hosting.

Security
Another barrier to self-hosting is the sensitivity to issues around security and vulnerability of the computers. Home / Office PC owners are typically averse to hosting from their personal computers because this requires them to open ports on their machines. This can make them targets of malicious security attacks over the internet, and it calls for investment in security software that guard against viruses, spam and other malware.

Ease of Use
Lastly, maintaining and managing web-servers is viewed as a technical exercise by many common users, who therefore prefer to host with ISPs.

Why Are There Different Web Hosting Prices For The Same Package?

Like in any other business, web hosting industry also has a small number of scamsters who want your business at any cost. They believe that they can sell you anything at any price “from Eiffel tower to the Kitchen sink”. Some of these will give you web hosting prices that are much higher simply because they think that they can convince you to pay more. Others will offer the world for very-little and hope that you will be satisfied with whatever they dish out.

However, a majority of web hosting providers may have genuine reasons for higher / lower web hosting prices. Here some significance of the real factors that can affect the price of a web hosting package. Awareness of the same may clear the confusion cloud generated by huge web hosting price variations.

1. Hosting Support: This is perhaps the single most important factor that determines price. Hosting Companies that provide responsive technical support and are quick in fixing problems have a higher-ratio of “well trained employees” TO “customers”. Due to the costs incurred in maintaining a larger number of efficient support personnel, they usually charge more from their customers. “10 satisfied customers will automatically become a 100 in 5 years time”. Many web hosting providers who do not believe this axiom offer throw-away web hosting prices and generally their businesses do not last long.

2. Web Hosts’ Network: Most web hosting companies put their servers in different datacenters across the world. For a high quality network (with redundant fast connections and reliable back up power) a web host has to pay more to an advanced datacenter. In turn they charge you more for their hosting packages to maintain reasonable profit margins.

Some other factors are:-

Web Server power: Another factor is the speed of the machine your website resides on. A Dual Xeon can serve pages and handle applications faster than a P-IV. Web hosts who spend less on fast reliable servers charge less from their customers.

Loss Selling: Sometimes hosting companies sell at loss to expand their client base and hope to sell other products at a later date to the same customers. For example, some hosts price hosting packages at lower than base cost and hope to sell services like web design, ecommerce solutions, search engine optimization etc. While there are benefits to attracting customers with unbeatable web hosting prices, it is still a gamble. If the gamble backfires they may not be able to maintain quality of service in the long run.

Some more factors-

Over Selling: “The supreme gift of a good artist is to know when to stop”. Hosts that follow this principle usually restrict the number of domains-per-server to a decent number. This ensures that they can maintain ‘Quality of Service’ for their clients by offering sufficient server resources to each. It also means that this host will have to charge more to recover the amount they pay to their datacenter. Then again, there are providers who sell 400 accounts of 1 GB each on a hard disk of 80 GB !!! (You can smile at this point of our study) These companies hope that most customers will never use their full allocation of resources. What if the customers actually start using full resources allocated to them?

Web Hosting Features: Windows, Linux and other server operating systems have different base prices. Features like database support, JSP, scripting languages, SSL support vary from package to package. A web hosting provider who offers more features (in a similar hosting plan) is likely to have a higher web hosting price.

Low cost web hosting services are many. Free hosting packages are even more, and look lucrative. After all you need to have your web site up and running on the internet with no financial burden. All you need is create your site, sit back and let your hosting provider set it up for you.What are merits and demerits and which might be better off choosing a low cost web hosting package or free hosting ?

There are a lot of web hosting companies that will offer free space. So, opt for this choice and you create your site (many ISPs will help you do this too via their software), upload it and they give it a home on the web. Sounds too good to be true? Well, for many people it is – and they move very quickly to a low cost web hosting package instead.

Always avoid from free host.

A free hosting package isn’t a bad option for some people. It’s an OK solution for personal web sites, can be used to test out your site and the response it gets and works for some small business owners. However, before you opt for free hosting, you should take a look at whether a low cost web hosting package might suit your needs better.

The problem with free hosting is that it has limits. You may well say that low cost web hosting has limits too – but they’re generally not as restricting. The first issue you’ll come across is space. Your free hosting provider will only offer small space for your site. You’ll be limited on the number of pages you can have and the design, images and technical packages you can use.

There is none of the uptime guarantees and support services that you’ll get if you pay for a hosting service. After all, you’re getting this for free, so your provider doesn’t have to make any commitment to sort out problems quickly. Find yourself with slow loading times because there are too many sites on their server and too much traffic. They don’t have to do ANYTHING about it.

Low cost web hosting packages also have another big advantage over free ones – advertisements. Opt to put your site on a free service and you’ll have to have any banners, adverts, pop-ups and pop-unders that they want appearing on your site. This is how the hosting provider makes the money that you aren’t paying them for the service! There isn’t a bigger advertisement out there to your site visitors that you’re on a free package.

I don’t have a lot of money, can I get someone to host my website cheap?

Happily, yes. Depending on your web site’s requirements, you may be the perfect candidate for a budget web hosting account.

cpwebhosting.net web hosting plans starts from only $3.95

Does budget hosts offer quality service and uptime?

In general budget hosting is simply a cheaper hosting plan offered by hosting companies for people or business that don’t require high amounts of disk space, bandwidth or programming. The plans usually contain many of the commonly required features and are a viable hosting option. Our budget hosts offer quality service and many have 99.9% or higher uptime guarantees.

What features can I expect to get with budget web hosting account ?

To be honest, cpwebhosting.net offer quite an impressive package at a budget price. Features like database support, scripting, shopping carts, and email processing are available. More advanced features are available at some hosts, but usually at an additional cost.

What platforms can I get budget hosting on?

You can find budget hosting on both the Unix/Linux platforms, and the Windows platform. Services among the two are very competitive, since most offerings and features are available for both operating systems. Web server software is commonly Apache for Unix/Linux, and IIS for Windows.

What if I start with a budget hosting plan and then later require more?

cpwebhosting.net offer budget hosting can, upon request, upgrage your account to one that better satisfies your requirements.

What is Managed Hosting?

Managed Hosting is for customers who prefer to have their web host provider maintain and monitor their dedicated servers, operating system and all supported applications. Companies or individuals who do not have the required system administration resources on-staff, commonly choose this option to augment their dedicated hosting service.

When do you need a Managed Server?

Managed Hosting is an excellent solution for mid to high level hosting needs. Designed to host busy e-commerce sites and dynamic, database driven Web pages, Managed Hosting offers small and large business owners a fast, powerful, reliable and professionally maintained Web presence. If you have a need for a dedicated server, and don’t have the IT resources, expertise, or time to manage your own servers, then Managed Hosting is for you.

What databases are available for Unix websites?

That depends mostly on the web hosting provider you select to host your website. There are many flavors of databases that run on Unix, but the most prevalent among web host providers are mSQL, MySQL., and PostgreSQL. These databases are all relational in nature, and allow highly optimized communication with your website for quick retrieval of information.

Is it more or less expensive to host my site on a Unix or a Windows platform?

That depends on what you mean by “hosting your site”. If you plan to host the site yourself, and you own the web servers or the software on them, then Unix (or Linux) would definitely be a less expensive option. If you plan to sign up with a web hosting company, and they own the servers and the software installed on them, you will find that there are excellent hosting options available for each platform at very comparable prices.

What is Database hosting and Who needs a database host?

Database host is a specific kind of dedicated server, which is going to be used to run a database intensive application. The server can either be just for the database itself or it could also run the web site too, it really depends on how much system resources will be needed by the database. A system setup to run intense database applications will have a significant amount more RAM than a regular server. For example, if you are looking at a regular web-hosting server and you think 512 Megs will be enough then you would probably be looking at between 1 Gig to 2 Gigs for a database server.

Anyone who is using a database intensive program like a CRM, ERP, or a custom made application should look into a database host because they have more memory, which will increase the speed and reliability of the application.

What are some applications that might run on a database server?

Some examples of applications that are used on database servers are CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems.

Can a database server only be used for a database?

No a database server can be used for anything but it is a specific kind of dedicated server that is setup to get the maximum performance out of a database or applications that rely heavily on a database. To do this the server has a large amount of memory and a few other configurations are done so that the database is the priority over anything else running on the system.

I want to host my E-commerce site. Does my E-commerce site need a database host?

I think you do not need a database host for your E-commerce site, you probably just need a web-hosting package/plan that gives you access to a database. The difference here between a database host and having access to a database is significant. When doing database hosting the database is the most important part of the entire application and is where all the processing is done.