A website’s host server is the most vital organ in an internet venture. The heart that pumps lifeblood in to web pages to make the data appear online, a good server is healthy, energetic, and more stable than a warehouse constructed of reinforced steel.

One of the most important steps in setting up a business website is choosing what hosting plan to keep your website running. The server where documents and data that make up a website are stored can be shared with other websites or dedicated solely to your site.

Make Plans for the Future

When starting out, all entrepreneurs aim for business growth. When selecting a hosting plan, business owners should consider where the business is expected to be one year in the future. Hosting considerations should then allow for future expansion, as switching hosts can be time consuming – the last thing anyone needs to worry about when running a flourishing business.

Do you have many images or videos on your website? If not, do you plan to in the future as your business grows? Your product range may currently be slim requiring a low amount of pages on your website detailing each item - but this time next year do you plan to have expanded the range? Your website will grow accordingly with your business so it’s best to think ahead. Angelina Potapova, Operations Manager of PlanetDomain’s Customer Service department, says that changing hosts is not always easy (your site would be offline temporarily, the data would be disrupted). “Make plans for the future. Select the package based on your plans for at least one year in advance.”

Decide What Type Of Website the Business Will Be Run On

If your website is image-heavy with a lot of graphics or contains video content, you will need more space to host your website than a static or brochure site. A static/brochure site contains information about your products and services and the content of the site will remain the same for longer periods of time. Potapova says to think about who will be updating the website when you’re making hosting decisions. If you don’t want to pay a web developer, it is better to keep the site simple until you gain technical skills and feel more confident whipping up web pages.

If you want to update your site regularly with new content, images and video content, your hosting requirements will be higher. A dynamic or CMS site is the best option if you hope to include media-rich content.

Linux or Windows Hosting?

Linux hosting is the most common and easy to use, especially for beginners and the average website. Linux is built on an open source development system and is one of the most prominent forms of software to do so. Open source is a method of software development that allows communication and accessibility for many developers to contribute to the way the program is built.

Windows Hosting for ASP/.NET developers is a much more complicated system recommended for web experts only. Potapova recommends it only for users who have specific needs to run ASP/.NET applications. 

“In most cases we find that Linux Hosting is the way to go – and we select the type of hosting (Bronze/Silver/Gold/Platinum) based on the number of domains they will be running off the hosting package. If it’s just one – Bronze. If it’s more than 4 – Silver, and so on,” Potapova explains. Linux Hosting comes with a range of options for users who are new to creating websites. “The Fantastico option gives a simple single-click install options for dozens of various software,” Potapova says about the Linux option.

The operating system of the server does not affect what system the user needs to run on their website. The operating system of the server is nothing more than the framework in the backend of the site that looks after the files. “A lot of the time clients order Windows Hosting just because they run Windows on their personal computers and think it is required. It is not. Both types of packages are administered via an online web interface, and therefore they do not need to have anything special installed on their PCs,” Potapova explains.

What If I Need To Upgrade?

If your web hosting needs change dramatically and your site needs more or less than your current hosting plan offers, it is possible to upgrade. PlanetDomain customers can upgrade their hosting plan at any time if they are on an Annual plan. Monthly hosting can only be upgraded to an annual plan, to any level that is specific to the customer’s needs. It is not required to do Renewal of Service during the upgrade as the system calculates the prorata left on the current service and subtracts this amount from the upgrade.

PlanetDomain offers several different hosting packages, with an option to suit the needs of every business of any size.

Points to Consider When Selecting A Hosting Package

-         Make plans for the future

-         Decide what type of website the business will run on – static or dynamic?

-         Do you want to update it yourself, or employ a web developer?

-         Is the site going to host an online store?

-         Would you want simple Linux, or Windows Hosting for experts?

-         Are you expecting to have 1 domain name, or multiple sites?

-         How many email accounts will you need?

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