Asking if there is a difference between web hosting companies is like asking if there is a difference between an apple and an orange. Sure, they are both fruit, but they are two totally different colors, textures, and tastes. The same theory holds true for web hosting companies.

While every web hosting company essentially offers to do the something for you, which is host your website so that it can be live online allowing for the cyber-masses to find it, many of them go about it in a much different manner. Here are some of the major differences you can expect to find with web hosting companies:

– Speed: Some web hosting companies will offer you an unlimited amount of bandwidth and others will limit you. What this means to you is faster or slower page loads. Obviously you want your web pages to load as fast as possible so that you are not going to lose the interest of the visitor before the actual web page that they are trying to look at loads.

– Features: Many web hosting companies will offer you an unbelievable amount of features so that you choose to use their services. This is often a good thing for you as these services can include crucial items such as an unlimited number of e-mails, or even a free domain name. The more you get, obviously, the better off you are.

– Customer Service: This is the biggie. Some web hosting companies will only offer customer service Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm. While that is great for those working at the call center, it can spell certain disaster for your website. What happens if your website goes down after hours, or on the weekend? When it comes to your website, it can’t make you money if it is down, so you want to be sure that you can get a hold of a real live person 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

– Reliability: Most quality web hosting companies will have over 99 percent up-time, which means they are up and running at least 99 percent of the time. However, there is a lot of room to play with between that 99 and 100 number so the closer you can get to 100 percent, the less problems you are likely to encounter with your website.

– Price: This is an easy differentiator with web hosting companies. Depending on which company you host your website with, you can expect to pay around five bucks a month for hosing all the way up to fifty bucks a month or more. Now, just because you are paying a lot more, doesn’t mean you are getting a lot more, so in this instance it really pays to do your homework.

Because there are now so many web hosting companies that you can go with, you really do have to take some time and conduct some thorough research. While there are probably hundreds of companies that are all technically web hosting companies, they are not all one and the same.

Author Bio: Jason Kay recommends reading reviews of cheap hosting sites to find an affordable, reliable web hosting service that meets your needs.

Category: Internet
Keywords: hosting, web hosting, compare hosting