Guide To Finding A Cheap But Quality Web Hosting Service Tips for Choosing A Low Cost But Reliable Web Hosting Company	Visited: 1050 Not rated Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Alan Liew May 28, 2007

When you search Google or any other search engine for cheap web hosting, there are thousands of companies who all promise that they are able to offer the cheapest option for hosting your website, but many have a lot of hidden extras to pay that can really push the price up.

There are a number of basics that you should expect from a hosting company to ensure that your site is visible to surfers, and to be able to ensure that it can develop over time to include new features.

The first thing that you should make sure of when finding a cheap web hosting provider is that they do not plaster their own adverts on your domain, or force you to place links on your pages. Your web site is your own work, and you should be the one to make money from it, not the company who provides your server. If a company places adverts on your pages, the chances are that they will not let you do the same, which rules out your site as a source of income.

The next thing that you should ensure is that the hosting package that you choose includes the ability to use scripting on your pages.  Most cheap hosting is done on servers that run on Linux.  As an absolute basic, you should expect the hosting company to support PHP and offer access to a MySQL server to allow you to produce dynamic pages.  Some companies only offer this functionality on their more expensive packages, but there are many that include it in their basic price.

You should make sure that the ownership of your web domain is in your name.  This will allow you to move your hosting easily if you find that you can get a better deal elsewhere, and also protects you in the event of a dispute with the service provider.

It is a sad fact that many smaller cheap hosting companies go bust all the time, so it is worth finding a provider who have been established for some time, and are able to offer you stability.  If the hosting company you deal with go bankrupt, then your site will be off line for as long as it takes for you to find a new hosting company, and when you have to transfer your domain from one place to another, this can be a long and drawn out process.

Having access to a support service is absolutely essential.  If something goes wrong and your site goes down, you need to be able to get in touch with someone fast in order to get it back up and running.  Some hosting companies subsidize their cheap hosting packages by charging premium rates for phone calls, and this can result in a large phone bill when trying to sort out a minor problem, so try and find a company that make getting in touch easy.