What to look for in Shared Virtual Hosting

There are thousands of shared virtual hosting plans offered by web hosting companies from small businesses to large corporate enterprises. Even though price is an influencing factor, there are still fundamental elements you should look for in a shared virtual hosting plan., regardless of its platform

Storage Space
The typical average web site will rarely require more then 10 megabytes of storage place. As you browse the web sites of web hosting companies, you will notice how some offer unlimited storage space to entice you into joining up with them. Although web storage is cheap you should not need that much, of course there are exceptions, and quality web service providers will rarely offer that type of deal. Most basic web hosting accounts allocate at least 20 MB (megabytes) of storage space nowadays.
An average web page should not be larger than 40KB because you want your web site to be fast loading and not turn people away. In addition, since graphics are linked to html pages, they should be considered in the equation as well. If the web page takes too long to load, users will get impatient and leave the web site. With this in mind, there is a quick formula to calculate how much storage you need; firstly determine how many pages you initially have, multiple the numbers of web pages with 40KB (a good size average), and multiple that again by 5. For example, if you intend to start off with 15 pages, 15 X 40KB X 5 = 3000KB. This is less than 3MB (3000KB). The reason for the addition multiplication of 5 is for growth - allowing the addition of more web pages as required, and also because of raw log files. Some providers allow you access to your log files and place them in your account. This file or files can increase in size dramatically if visitors to your web site increase. Of course, you can delete them or old log files to free up space later on.
If you have intentions to store and serve large images or even video downloads, then you may want to look at a high-end account. If the Internet traffic to your web site is also high, then we suggest you look into changing to a dedicated/managed/co-located server hosting plan. These plans are able to use all the resources of a single server that is dedicated to your web site use only.

Operating System
The operating system is one of the first features you will notice when selecting for a web hosting plan. The most common operating systems used for web servers are Apple Mac, Unix, and Microsoft Windows platforms. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. The selection of operating systems really depends on what type of tools or applications you intend to utilise in conjunction with your web site. For example, if you wish to run PHP scripts then we recommend a Unix web host, or if you wish to run .NET applications we typically recommend a windows operating system environment. Generally, we recommend a Unix operating system because it is widely recognised in the web hosting industry as a mission critical platform, and offers rock solid stability.
It is commonly perceived that the Windows platform is less flexible and technologically less superior for tasks such as web hosting than Unix. But since the mid 90's, Microsoft has placed a lot of effort and investments in gearing their operating systems for web services. In particular, Windows 2000 and upward are fine examples of its efforts. Although, they have not managed to match the numbers who have adopted Unix and its variants for web hosting purposes, its adoption is increasing. With the unveiling of Microsoft .NET initiative, no doubt the adoption will be pushed along over the next few years.
AT&T developed Unix in the late 1960s as a multi-user and multi-tasking operating systems. Ever since, it has been modified and transformed into many variants of Unix to handle different tasks. Even it has been through tremendous changes, it is still maintained as one of the most stable and secure operating systems. Its adoption has been very rapid because most variants are freely distributed and the source code of the operating system is allowed to be modified by anyone under the GNU licensing agreement.
Apple Macintosh operating systems are considered to be stable as Unix platforms but simply lack the features and support of the other two operating systems. However, since the release of OS X (an Apple platform based on a Unix core), its popularity is slowing increasing.

Control Panel
This is a good feature to have with your web hosting plan. A web based control panel empowers you to control the tools and features of your web site. It will also allow you to make changes without contacting the system engineers every time, hence saving time. For instance, to make an additional e-mail alias, you simply make it happen with a few mouse clicks. Traditionally, you would have to e-mail the system support to create it or do it in a command-line based environment, which can be very unfriendly to users who are unfamiliar with it.
The introduction of the web based control panel allowed the inexperience to utilize features without editing configuration files or have the technical expertise to exploit it. In my opinion, if you are shopping for a web host, then we suggest you consider this feature as a much have! Most providers will allow you to test drive their control panels before signing on. I advise you test-drive this feature to truly understand the simplicity and flexibility of such an essential feature.

Bandwidth
It's most likely your web provider's business will soon grow and customer's base with it. So, make sure it has the resources to accommodate your web site's growth. This may be the further purchase of servers or Internet connection upgrades to increase bandwidth.
If possible, choose web hosting companies with the fastest network connections but the host should utilize less than 60% of available bandwidth on average. This makes sure the data pipe is not overburden, and still maintain adequate room for web traffic spikes during peak periods. In most cases, a T-3 connection that is lowly utilized will transfer data faster than highly utilized OC3 connection.

Data Transfer
Most web hosting plans come with a transfer quota. Transfer quota refers to how much traffic your web site (or server) is allowed to generate. Depending on how popular you web site will become, and whether you promote it will determine the amount of data transfer required. Initially, typical web sites with a transfer quota of about 500MB will often be enough. Even if you have a large number of web pages on your site, surfers will rarely browse every single page. On average, you will be lucky if people will view more than five pages on an average visit.
If you plan to have high-quality images or video downloads, then this type of exception will need some consideration. As you require higher transfer quotas, it will most likely increase your monthly hosting fees. So realistically estimate the number of visitors you will likely to receive then multiple your average web page size, and then multiple it again by five. The multiplication of five will give you some extra room to move if the web site traffic is higher than your original expectations.
If you select a web host provider because it has enticed you with "unlimited data transfers", we suggest you contact the web host and enquire the exact nature and specification of the hosting plan. Most plans with "unlimited data transfers" tend to have some form of condition attached to it. Even if the conditions satisfy you, see if you can have a free trial for 30 days to feel the quality of service they offer. If they do not offer free trials, sign on for a month. If they do not fit your requirements you can always leave after the first month. More often than not, what you pay for is what you get. If you can avoid "unlimited data transfers" plans then we suggest you do, and pay a little more for quality service.

FTP Access
Make sure you web host providers allows you to have FTP (file transfer protocol) access which allows you upload you web data onto their server(s). There are other methods of uploading files but FTP is one of the most common and is the easiest (combined with the appropriate software).

E-mail Accounts
E-mail plays a major role in communicating with customers and suppliers. It is fast and easy, and your host should support it. Commonly, when you are talking about e-mail accounts, they are POP e-mail accounts. POP accounts are where messages that are sent to you are stored. If you are the only person operating the web site then one POP account should be enough, however if you want each employee to have their own e-mail account, more will be required.

Web Site Statistics
If you wish to track how many visitors have been viewing you web page, then web site statistics are ideal to have. They establish where visitors have been coming from eg which country, what page they view the most, the number of visitors on an hourly or monthly basis and so forth. If you advertise or promote you web site in some way, this will help you to understand your targeted audience and where your promotion program is most successful.

Support
Before signing up, it is worthwhile to research what type of support they offer with the virtual hosting plans. Nowadays, there are two main types of support, which include toll-free and on-line (via real-time) support. Toll-free is a plus when technical problems arise and you want assistance from an expert. However, if the web company is located in a different country, this is altogether another issue. Toll-free calls do not extend across international borders unless it specifically says so. If any web hosting company that do not offer some form of support, then give it a big miss.

Price
Web hosting is slowly becoming a common commodity with literally thousands of businesses offering such a service. Some have even gone so far as giving web space away freely. Obliviously, the benefits of free web hosting is well-known, but paying for web hosting services is preferred because of the support and service qualities not found in free web hosting. Most free web hosting companies require you to display banners and logos on your web site - which can degrade your credibility and professionalism. If you intend to use your web hosting services for commercial activities, then it is crucial to show your potential customers that you are willing to invest in providing quality services. If not, why should they give money to you if you're not willing to invest in yourself.
The price of web hosting plans will depend on your type of hosting. Shared hosting can start from 5 dollars to hundreds of dollars. But typically, an average shared hosting plan should only set you back about 20 dollars a month, maybe even less with annual payment plans. But we do not recommend annual payment systems unless you have some experience with that web host provider.
For high-end hosting plans such as dedicated/managed/co-located servers, it can start from low as 100 dollars a month to thousands of dollars depending on the Internet traffic and resources required to handle your web site. Commonly, such plans average about $300/month with web hosting providers who provide acceptable levels of support, and can respond to unexpected events or disruptions quickly.

Final Words
If you have based your selection on the cost factor heavily, then we suggest you look at the web hosting services offered by your ISP (Internet Service Provider). Because you are already an existing client, they may offer lower than standard prices for web hosting. The benefits of such a deal will enable faster speeds for access to your web data and lower security risks since the web server is only a hop or two away from your end. On the other hand, you miss out the features and options offered by other companies whose only focus is on web hosting alone. Focusing on just one general service area permits the web host provider to gain an in-depth knowledge of the needs of a niche target audience, such as yourself.
Choosing the appropriate shared hosting package should not be difficult with so many web host providers offering competitive services. Nonetheless, the difficult part will be sorting through the shared hosting plans and selecting the features which you need and ones you don't. Common sense shall prevail if you have considered everything carefully.