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9. "The prices of our
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There is a surprising number of very affordable web hosting companies who give you a tremendous bang for your buck. And at the same time there is an appalling number of web hosting plans that cost more but deliver less.
How do you tell the difference?
There is no mathematically precise way to rate all web hosting plans, although there is an objective element to it. You can certainly use a table to compare the cost of various hosting packages in terms of storage capacity, bandwidth, free tools and services. But that’s only part of the picture.
The subjective part involves knowing how reliable a web host is in terms of server and network availability, responsiveness to problems, flexibility in upgrading or downgrading hosting plans, easy to use web tools, etc.
Happy customers
A good way to get a feel for these subjective considerations is to ask around. Many web hosts today list customer testimonials on their home pages. You always need to take testimonials with a grain of salt but, for example, if the testimonial comes with an actual name, e-mail address, and/or web site you can contact a few of the customers directly. Find out how long ago they provided the testimonial and are they still thrilled with the service.
Another way is to check out the forums, either on the web host’s site or independent ones, to see what people are saying. Keep in mind, though, that the posts on forums are likely to be slanted toward the negative as people who are merely happy with their web hosting plan are unlikely to feel the need to announce it publicly.
Nevertheless, you may pick up on a common theme running through a number of posts, or you may even find a big red flag waving in the wind.
Of course, this is time consuming, albeit important, information gathering. We have already done the research for you and in our Top Host section, you’ll find a variety of affordable web hosting plans from providers who consistently deliver high quality service at discounted prices.
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