How to choose a good web hosting plan

There are numerous web hosting providers and it is important to select good web hosting plan.

• Based on the type of website, a shared web hosting, dedicated server or a virtual private server can be selected.
• A shared web hosting is preferred for information or entertainment websites.
• A dedicated server web hosting can be used for busy ecommerce sites. This can be expensive. They handle more bandwidth which means more traffic can be handled.
• A VPS, or virtual private server allows each server to run on its own, with its own dedicated machine. This is more secure.
• You need to decide on amount of space required for website. Photos and video clips consume more space.
• Another factor is number of domains that you will be allowed per hosting plan. Some providers have unlimited domains in one plan.
• FTP is another factor in selecting web host. You need to make sure that the FTP software you are using is compatible with the web hosting plan.
• cPanel is good choice for many web hosting control panels. This program allows for web designers to log in and make changes easily while communicating with web hosting server.
• cPanel runs on Linux, CentOS, FreeBSD and Windows server 2008 platforms.
• Web hosting support is very important.
• PHP and CGI are two common scripting formats. You need to make sure that the web hosting provider does not have any limitations on scripting language.
• Find out how security is maintained in plan.
• Discuss with hosting provider about how multiple domains can be split up in single plan.
• Find out how many domain based emails are allowed.