When choosing a Managed Hosting provider there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration. These include price, security, support, bandwidth and disk space.

Price

We often here the phrase "you get what you pay for". It is not usually quite as simple as paying more for a better service though. Just because you are paying more doesn’t mean the service you are getting suits you. It also depends on the quality that your require. Some require an expensive solution but other only need a more basic one.

Everyone has a budget and you have to consider yours. It is likely that there is a certain figure that your simple can’t afford, and no matter what the standard of hosting is, you cannot afford to go above this price. Although price shouldn’t be the only basis of a decision it needs to be considered.

Security

The importance of security varies from site to site. For some it is relatively unimportant. A purely information site, for example, may not contain anything that is particularly likely to cause any security issues. It shouldn’t be completely ignored though, as there is always the possibility of your competition wanted to hack into your website for malicious purposes.

For some websites security is one of the most important considerations. There are websites that contain databases with confidential information and websites that deal with payment details. For these sites security has to be considered very carefully.

Support

Although all Managed Hosting packages are managed, some are more managed than others. The definition of Managed Hosting can be a little blurred, and can mean 100% fully managed or only certain aspects being managed. It is important to know how much support you can expect from your hosting provider. You may only want certain things managed, or you might want everything managed. Make sure you are getting the service that you need.

Bandwidth

The amount of bandwidth designated for a particular website can vary greatly. It is important you know how much bandwidth will be available for your site and what this means for your website. You don’t want to be paying for more bandwidth than you need, but also don’t want to be caught short. The amount of bandwidth you have affects the amount of traffic and downloads (if relevant) your website can cope with. You should overestimate a little, as it is better to have a little more bandwidth than you need than not enough.

Disk Space

The disk space allocated to your site affects the content your website can deal with. As with bandwidth, you want to get the balance right between not having too much disk space but making sure you have enough.

Limits

Unlimited hosting is often advertised, with unlimited bandwidth and disk space. However, this is impossible as there are always limits. Unlimited hosting works by offering more bandwidth and disk space than websites are likely to exceed, but it is important to make sure you are certain you won’t exceed this.

Andrew Marshall (c)