One of the first things to consider when choosing web hosting plans is how well the particular service or company will meet your present and future needs. It may sound trite, but quite a few people sign on with the first company that comes up in a search or offers the lowest price. A few months down the road, one finds the features of a particular hosting company no longer fit well with their plans. The choices are to add expensive extras (i.e. more bandwidth, storage, etc.), or find another hosting company. Its much easier to get it right the first time and have all of the capabilities you need for future growth.

Many sites offering advice on hosting recommend one buy the minimum amount of hosting and then ad more features, etc. as needed. While there is some merit to this approach, we tend to disagree. Shared hosting is so inexpensive that it makes sense to take into account your future plans as well when committing to a hosting company. A few things to consider when evaluating your hosting needs:

While any basic hosting plan will serve basic needs, there are considerations to make with regard to the type of website(s) you plan to operate.

1. A personal website with ten or twenty pages can easily be handled by most hosting plans.
2. A site with a great many photos will require much greater bandwidth (file size transfer) and storage space than a text based site.
3. An e-commerce site may require checkout capabilities in addition to more scripting, database functions, and server space than a static site.
4. Will you require hosting for more than one domain? Some hosting plans will charge for more than one domain, while others may allow 6-8 domains to be hosted on the same plan.