13 Tips for Choosing the Right Hosting

Have you ever been disappointed with a web hosting provider?

Maybe because the server is often down, server performance is slow or could it be because the support is poor?

Or the story is that this is your first time hosting a website and you are currently looking for references on what to pay attention to before choosing the best hosting provider Best Hosting?

Whatever your story, I'm sure you need this article, because when you manage to read it to the end, you will get a strong understanding of the things you need to pay attention to when choosing a hosting provider.

I will discuss it in full; starting from performance factors, price, reputation and support.

So that you don't choose the wrong hosting, so that you don't waste money, energy and thoughts and the most important thing is that the hosting you choose can really support your business.

A little story from the past

In the past, when I first created the ](/en/how-to-make-your-own-website-complete-guide/) website, I was also confused about choosing the right web hosting provider for my business needs.

I even chose the wrong hosting provider just because I focused on looking for a hosting provider with the cheapest price ](/en/5-best-cheap-web-hosting-in-indonesia/), but ignored other important factors because I didn't know the knowledge.

If you've experienced what I did, don't worry - you're not alone. In fact, many beginners are like that.

Everyone, especially beginners, needs the right knowledge so they don't choose the wrong hosting provider.

For many people, choosing web hosting may still be a complicated task, especially for those who don't have basic about web hosting.

Maybe later you will encounter difficulties when understanding several important things such as uptime and server performance.

Many people don't realize how important it is to understand these things, just because they want to get their website online as quickly as possible.

So, for your benefit, I suggest you read this article till the end so that you get a solid understanding.

By the way, you can contact me if you have any questions regarding hosting, domains and WordPress.

PERFORMANCE FACTORS

1. Minimum uptime 99.90%

Not many people know about uptime, especially users who are new to the world of hosting.

In fact, uptime is the number one important factor you should pay attention to before truly deciding which provider is right for you.

Because uptime is directly related to revenue.

What is uptime? Uptime shows the total time when your website is online and running as it should (not 'down'). Meanwhile downtime means the time when your website is offline or cannot be accessed by your visitors or potential customers.

This means that if your website can be accessed, it is counted as uptime. If your website cannot be accessed (due to a server error), then it is counted as downtime.

Ideally, the average uptime on a hosting server is 99.90% in one month. A score of 99.90% means your website will be offline (inaccessible to your potential customers) for 10 minutes per week or 40 minutes per month

The greater the uptime score, of course the better, but 99.90% is the minimum score that I recommend. And nothing is 100%, because even large websites like Google.com, Facebook.com and Amazon.com have experienced downtime for quite a long time.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to know the average uptime of hosting providers. No one will know unless someone monitors uptime.

Luckily, we at Hosting Advisor have been doing this for over 24 months now.

You can see the results of our research on the front page of .

That's right, but do they have monitoring data that really shows that the average uptime is in line with what they promised?

In fact, based on the 2020 case study, only 4 of the 19 Indonesian hosting providers we reviewed had an average uptime above 99.90%.

2. Choose a Hosting Provider That Has Been Proven to Have Fast Load Times

Basically, the speed of a website depends on the overall structure of the website.

However, hosting is the biggest factor that has the biggest impact on website speed.

Because when someone visits your website, the visit information is sent from the hosting provider's hard drive to your visitor's browser. This is the first obstacle encountered.

How the hosting provider manages the server network, infrastructure and technology used, all affect website speed.

Whatever optimization method you use will not have a big impact or influence, because (in short) your hosting provider can only provide speed within certain limits.

This means that if you previously chose the wrong hosting, there is no better choice except to migrate to another faster hosting provider or upgrade your hosting, for example upgrading from shared hosting to VPS.

• Technology used: For example, is it using cloud technology? Are you using an SSD or is it still traditional (HDD)?

• Web server used: There are several choices that are most widely used in the world, such as Apache, Nginx and LiteSpeed. Based on several sources I read, the LiteSpeed ​​Enterprise web server + LiteSpeed ​​Cache is a faster choice for WordPress websites.

3. Unlimited Storage/Disk Space and Bandwidth

Do you like limited quotas? I don't 🙂Even if there is a quota for an internet package, I sometimes get annoyed and use it sparingly in fear of running out before the period ends.Well, internet packages are different from hosting packages. Almost all hosting providers offer unlimited bandwidth and storage/disk space.

But, you should know this:

That actually unlimited resources themselves have "limits" that if you use them beyond the maximum limit, your website could be suspended.So, be a smart user, if you are confused about the rules for unlimited storage and bandwidth, please ask directly or read the terms and conditions of the hosting provider you choose.

My advice, if you want a good amount of storage and unlimited for sure, please use a VPS (Virtual Private Server):

• Definitely the number of resources
• Definitely better uptime and speed than shared hosting,
• And definitely more expensive than shared hosting :P

PRICING FACTORS

4. Reasonable Hosting Prices

A reasonable shared hosting package price is usually under IDR 50,000/month or cheaper than the price of one large glass of iced cappuccino (my favorite) at the Janji Jiwa coffee shop.

Unless you choose a package that is labeled by most local hosting providers as a "Business/Enterprise" package, but is still in a shared hosting environment, the price of which can reach IDR 90,000/month or even IDR 150,000/month.

Trust me, it's better for you rent a VPS than having to pay over 90,000 for shared hosting (remember the three points above?)

5. No Hosting Setup Fee

Oh yes, I found several hosting providers that ask for a setup fee when buying hosting.

My advice? Don't want to pay - immediately open a new tab - google - or not Hosting Advisor (recommended) and look for another provider!

Because almost all good hosting providers do not charge setup fees to new customers.Setup fee is a ridiculous fee that shouldn't exist.

6. Hosting Renewal Prices Are Listed Transparently

Nowadays, almost all hosting providers give big discounts when you first purchase or rent hosting.

You need to know, the discount only applies to the first purchase, it does not apply when you renew your hosting.

Good hosting providers are usually transparent about prices.

They will include the normal price you have to pay when you renew your hosting in the next period.

The point is, don't let yourself pay 3x more than the initial price (discount).

7. Free Domain?

For beginners, this free domain is very tempting and is usually bundled in certain shared hosting packages and you need to subscribe for at least one year.

What I want to say is:

Make sure that just in case in the future you want to change hosting, you can point the free domain to the new hosting and can also transfer it to another domain provider.

This means that even though you get domain for free, the function is still the same, it can be transferred to another provider and the hosting provider will not hinder the transfer process.

My advice regarding purchasing a domain:

• If you intend to buy many domains or you manage many websites and each website you manage is hosted on a different hosting provider, my advice is to place all your domains in one place. For example, you place all your domains with providers (my recommendation and favorite):

• Google Domain: because the DNS is fast and free privacy protection),

• Namecheap: because it's cheap + free privacy protection and you can buy the domain extension ".id")

• If you only buy one domain for your website, then for convenience, you can buy it from the same provider.

8. Minimum 30 Day Refund Guarantee and No Conditions

No one knows, maybe after buying hosting, then using it, you feel disappointed with the hosting provider's services.

Whether it's because of poor uptime, slow load times, poor support or other reasons that make you uncomfortable.

I always recommend choosing a hosting provider that provides a guarantee of at least 30 days without conditions.

This means that you can claim the guarantee without having to follow any terms or rules and the hosting provider should not ask the reason for your cancellation.

In fact, the standard guarantee in the hosting industry is 30 days, but there are also many local providers who only provide a guarantee of only 7 days, 14 days, 20 days or some even don't provide a guarantee at all or provide a guarantee but with very strict rules.

In my opinion, hosting providers who do not provide an unconditional 30 day guarantee are hosting providers who are not confident in their quality.

COMPANY REPUTATION FACTORS

9. Hosting Provider Age More Than Three Years

I personally don't want to waste time testing the quality of a hosting provider whose reputation has not been well established and is usually less than three years old, because it is usually riskier.

I'm sure you don't want to use a risky hosting service, right?

And never buy hosting from a provider that doesn't even have a business address. I guarantee it's more risky.

Choose a provider that has clearly proven to be good, not only based on the reputation they have built, but also that they are confident in listing their business address.

At Hosting Advisor, of the 25 hosting providers we tested, they were more than three years old. Some of them are even more than 15 years old. But, can experience or old age or you could say senior players guarantee that the quality is better?

Not really.

Or maybe the large number of users can be a benchmark?

May be. However, based on our research, the number of clients of a hosting provider is not directly proportional to quality.

10. Has many positive customer reviews

Another way to find out whether a hosting provider is good or not is to read customer reviews.

Happy customers will usually explain their good experiences at least on the hosting provider's social media. Or you can easily find detailed reviews on blogs that discuss hosting.

What you need to remember is to look for reviews based on customers who have actually used the hosting, because good reviews are reviews from user to user.

Meanwhile, customers who are disappointed, they are usually more motivated to tell lots of people, the point is, don't use that hosting, it's just bad!

There are two easiest ways to find out hosting review, namely:

• Type in Google: Review [name of hosting provider], and
• Search for the web host's social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram).

Based on my observations, currently there are lots of biased reviews scattered on the internet. Most of them are paid reviews that are deliberately carried out by hosting providers with two objectives:

1. Promote their services
2. And get backlinks for SEO purposes (usually anchor text such as: best hosting, cheap hosting, and the like

The way hosting providers get reviews like that is unethical (at least in my opinion), because firstly it is not natural (which violates Google's rules), secondly it can mislead beginners.

SUPPORT FACTORS & ADD-ONS

11. Support Services Available 24/7

The ideal is that the hosting provider provides support services 24/7 via live chat, because the support service system via tickets and email is sometimes unreliable, - generally you have to wait longer.

But your problem will be resolved quickly if the hosting provider offers support services via live chat.

Unfortunately, support via chat is not yet widely applied by Indonesian hosting providers. Generally, for technical problems, you need to send a ticket, except for easy problems, such as billing problems, pre-sales questions, and the like.

Oh, the Hostinger Group (Hostinger and Niagahoster) actually implemented this system, but unfortunately it didn't work well.

Another thing that needs to be considered in support points is support coverage. Each provider has different support coverage and methods

12. Must use cPanel or Plesk

cPanel is the most popular and most widely used control panel in the world.

The main reason is because cPanel was created specifically with a simple appearance and because it continues to be updated regularly, there are continuous improvements both in terms of convenience and security, most web hosting companies use cPanel.

Another alternative to cPanel is Plesk. Plesk is also great to use and is also recommended by many users.

There are several other options such as DirectAdmin hosting and sPanel. However, why do I say to use cPanel or Plesk?

Based on our research, hosting providers that use DirectAdmin, such as Qwords and WarnaHost, do not perform as well as those that use cPanel.

So, use cPanel or alternatively, you can use Plesk.

13. Has a Complete Knowledgebase/Tutorial

From most good hosting providers, I always find that there is a complete knowledge base (basic knowledge) for the needs of novice users who don't understand the basics of using hosting, domains, etc.

Such hosting providers are usually very concerned about their customer satisfaction.