Cheap website hosting does not necessarily have to mean poor or substandard website hosting. There are lots of low cost web hosting companies out there that provide satisfactory to above average hosting services. All you need to do is understand what to look out for. One very important consideration when choosing a web host is uptime. In web hosting, uptime refers to the amount of time that a server has stayed up and running, and is typically listed as a percentage, for example 90 percent. Of course the ideal uptime is 100 percent however that never actually occurs. A dependable hosting provider will allocate some downtime so that server maintenance can be carried out. This guarantees that you get steady and high quality service. Choose the cheapest web hosting service with an uptime of more than 99 percent.
Another important consideration when choosing cheap website hosting is platform. A website hosting platform is the operation system on which your site will run. The commonest operating systems to run sites are Microsoft (MS) windows and Linux. The platform you choose for your website might be crucial in the kind of scripting languages that you can employ to design your web pages. For example, you need an account which runs on MS Windows operating system, if you are utilizing the ASP language. However if you use PHP language, then you will require a Linux website hosting server.
The kind of platform you choose for your website is also important with regard to safety of your files as well as that of your website. Because there are many malicious programs and hackers that can attack your computer or the server, server security is a vital component when selecting the cheapest web hosting service. In this regard, Linux web hosting servers are somewhat ahead of the rest. This is due to the fact that nearly all malicious programs and hackers target servers and computers which run on Windows operating system. No matter how protected your MS Windows web hosting is, it’s still more susceptible to attacks. Another important consideration when choosing a service is the location of the host servers. The location of the cheap website hosting provider can determine the network facilities available to you as well as the ultimate accessibility of your site.