Web Hosting Advice

Most web developers grossly overestimate the amount of bandwidth and hard-drive space that their websites will require.  Unfortunately, this leads to many developers getting sucked into paying fortunes for web hosting - simply because they haven't done their research or they've been 'sold' by a slick sales advisor.

Here's a little practical advice to do with hosting and the launch process in general.

Good Hosting Doesn't Have To Cost The Earth

The biggest error that professional developers and entrepreneurs make, when it comes to choosing a web host, is to fall into the trap of assuming that:

"a seriously good website requires seriously expensive hosting"

That kind of assumption is wrong.  With a little honest research, it's very easy to find great hosting companies with excellent support - and all for the price of lunch.

What About 'The Cloud'?

Another thing to be cautious of is over-complicated, bleeding-edge hosting solutions. There are currently a lot of exotic hosting solutions being pushed - particularly by big tech companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon.  Some hosting packages on offer from these companies have incredibly complicated pricing arrangements in place.  For example, here.

Unless you really know what you're doing, it's probably best to avoid those kinds of hosting arrangements.  To be clear, they're not all bad.  For some users they might even be perfect.  However, if you are going to go with an exotic "bleeding edge" hosting solution then do some research first.  This means not only taking the time to calculate your hosting fees but also taking the time to check out a few customer reviews online. 

It's a much safer, easier and more affordable path to go with a simple hosting solution that puts an emphasis on good support, good hardware, tried and tested software (like cPanel) and - above all - clear pricing.

Even if you do require some kind of expensive or bleeding edge hosting solution, it's a smart move to start with basic, affordable hosting - run with that for a few months - and then upgrade once a clear need presents itself. 

Final Thoughts

Finally, don't be disheartened if your launch process takes a very long time.  Sometimes a website launch can take fifteen or twenty minutes.  However, for extremely large web apps (perhaps with massive databases or third party libraries), it's normal for the launch process to last up to two or three days!  

Take your time.  Don't rush your launch.  Once your site has been launched, test it on as many types of devices as possible.  Pay particular attention to mobile devices since most of your visitors will, almost certainly, be viewing on a mobile phone.

Above all, remember that the launch is not the end of the site building process - it's just the beginning.