Choosing the right web host
When you are looking to build a website, you should spend some time searching for the right web host, at the right price. You may find somewhere where you can host your website and get your domain for a reasonable price. When you are purchasing hosting, most companies will throw in a free domain. Most of the time your web host will also control your email.
Find a webhost that has its servers in the country you will do the most business in. This is because users will find your website faster to use.
Make sure the package they offer meets your minimum requirements.You should find web hosts that offer the following AS A MINIMUM:
- Ones that offer cPanel or Plesk, Fantastico and have WordPress built in. Fantastico allows users to install wordpress with one click. Cpanel and Plesk allow you to make change to the hosting system without having to request extra features or go through tech support. This is why hosts like Melbourne IT are NOT very easy to deal with. Also they are VERY expensive for what they offer.
- Disk Space measures the amount of space your website will take up on the web. Most websites will be at least 50MB but we recommend getting at least 100MB. Most web hosts now go up to GIGs of space, which is fine, but if you are trying to save money you probably won’t need that much space. We developed a website that has 50 pages and nearly 40 videos online and the total space used is about 120MB.
- Bandwidth measures the amount of disk space accessed by someone using your website. We recommend getting at least 500MB per month.If your website is used by 5 people per day, and they access 3MB of data, (say a 1MB Pdf, a 1MB video and some images), that means you are using 465MB of bandwidth a month.
The following web hosts offer a package that meets the minimum requirements. They also have responded to our enquiries in the past and we have never had any problems with them.
| Host | Based | Space | Bandwidth | Cost per month |
| Blue Host | US | Unlimited | Unlimited | $6.95 |
| DreamHost | US | Unlimited | Unlimited | $8.95 |
| JustHost | US | Unlimited | Unlimited | $3.95 |
| mdwebhosting.com.au | AUS | 10GB | 30GB | $22.95 |
| webcity.com.au | AUS | 10Gb | 50GB | $6.95 |
| deasoft.com | AUS | 2GB | 5GB | $4.95 |
| hightekhosting.com.au | AUS | 250MB | 1GB | $1.91 |
| webhostingnz.com | NZ | 200MB | Unlimited | $9.95 |
| kiwiwebhost.co.nz | NZ | 100MB | 4GB | $14.95 |
| Webbase.co.nz | NZ | 200MB | 2GB | $8.95 |
| freevirtualservers.com | UK | 150MB | 500MB | £1.30 |
| uk-cheapest.co.uk | UK | 1GB | 2GB | £2.49 |
If anyone has information about web hosts that fit the bill, let us know.