Better-Hosting.Com

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Shared Host?
What is a Dedicated Host?
What is a VPS Host?
How much bandwidth do I need?
How much disk storage do I need?
Should I pay annually or month-to-month for my web hosting?
How reliable are your recommended Web Hosts?
Is 99% uptime good?

What is a Shared Host?
A shared hosting service is one where you will be sharing a web server with other customers; this benefits you by keeping your costs low. On the downside however; should one of the other customers begin to take up more than their fair share of resources this can lead to the other sites operating on that server running slowly, though as our recommended hosts review and remove trouble making operators this is a rare occurrence.

Dedicated Host?
A dedicated host is for those who require the full resources of the server, or who cannot risk the chance of having their site affected by the actions of other customers (as in shared hosting) . With this service you will be the only site operating on a server and as such have 100% of the resources available.

What is a VPS Host?
VPS stands for Virtual Dedicated Server; this is a very new type of service that seeks to offer the benefits of a Dedicated Host at budget prices, under this service you do not have the whole server to yourself rather the host has installed software that will allocate a certain amount of server resources to each customer. It should be noted that this form of hosting is not recommended for the majority of customers and should only be entered into by those with a very wide understanding of VPS’s.

How much Bandwidth do I need?
Every time someone visits your web page they're downloading data; the larger your bandwidth allowance the more data that can be transmitted per month. This means that if your web site transfers 100 KB of data every time your web site is viewed and you get 10,000 visitors a month then you've transferred only 1 GB, or 1000 MB, of data for that month so when considering which host to choose don't necessarily go for the one offering the highest bandwidth as you will probably never come close to using it all up (especially so as the average data transfer from a simple light website is usually less than 10kb!)
(1 Gigabyte (GB) = 1000 Megabytes (MB) , 1 Megabyte (MB) = 1000 Kilobytes (KB) , 1 Kilobyte (KB) = 1000 Bytes)

How much Disk Storage do I need?
The amount of disk storage a web host provides is the amount of space you have to hold all the files that make up your website e.g. all the HTML files, CSS files, graphics and any multi-media applications you have. So when it comes down to deciding how much disk storage you need from your hosting provider you need to first decide what type of website you are going to create. As a rough guide an average website consisting of 2 screen lengths of text and 3 graphics will typically only occupy 20kb or less of disk space. Therefore a hosting package with only 10MB of disk space could still comfortably host about 500 pages, and as all our recommended hosts come with much more storage on offer you can relax and enjoy hosting multiple domains under one hosting package without fear of using up all your storage allocation.

Should I pay annually or month-to-month for my web hosting?
There are benefits and disadvantages to each option. When paying annually you can expect to receive reduced rates and no set-up fee, should you decide to set up a month-by-month payment plan then you have the option of cancelling and moving host quickly and easily, though can find yourself paying a bit more for the privilege.

How reliable are your recommended Web Hosts?
A good host will provide 99.9% uptime guarantee, ability to download backups, 24/7 phone support, 24/7 online support, and onsite backup generators in case of a power outage.

Is 99% uptime good?
Most hosts will guarantee 99% or 99.9% uptime, when choosing which host is right for you it is worth bearing in mind that 1% downtime a month is equal to 7 and a half hours, where as 0.1% downtime is only 45 minutes of downtime a month. If you are running a small site for your friends and family then 7 hours downtime may seem negligible on the other hand if you are running a commercial business site it could well be costing you a lot of lost revenue.