Is cheap web hosting really reliable?

Posted by Felix Okoli on Sunday May 18, 2014 at 13:17:49:

Web hosting services are an absolute essential for people who want to do business online or even just own a blog. The good news is there is no shortage of web hosting companies to meet this need.

There are thousands of web hosting companies offering services to fit almost every budget. They all make promises of 99 – 100 percent uptime, great customer support and much more. However, there is a big difference (as most website owners have learned the hard way) between making promises and actually delivering what has been promised. Sadly, too many of them under deliver. For most people starting out in the website owning businesses, it is a general school of thought that cheap hosting is the culprit of all unreliable hosting. However, another school of thought says that other factors entirely are to be blamed for unreliable hosting.
The fact is there is no simple answer to the question of cheap hosting being reliable or not. However, a few pointers will definitely help you get started on the right path to choosing a host that is both affordable and reliable. The choice of a host mostly decides how smooth your journey will be in terms of uptime, glitches, glitch time fix duration etc.

So first of all, go online (like you just did) and search for reviews. Now the truth is, some customers have a bit of a hard time following the process and use the opportunity to do as much blacklisting as they possibly can just to ruin the company’s reputation even when the service is really not that bad. So, when you check for reviews online, check more than one site, then analyse the complaints to know how bad they really are. To be truthful, up to 98 percent of all web hosting companies have their strong and weak points. As a result, it is left to you to take the lesser of the evils.

From reviews online, you will find as we have, that not all cheap hosting is unreliable or reliable (although as mentioned above they all have their strong and weak points just like most expensive hosts).

First of all, try as much as possible to understand what it is the web hosts claim to offer as a misunderstanding ultimately leads to you being a disgruntled customer. Even when you read really terrible stories about a host, always remember there are two sides to a story and most of these reviews do not tell the other side of it. Thus, it is important to completely understand what is being offered. In cases where the information is not clear, confirm from the support before committing yourself financially. If the support does not reply within the frame of time they promise to, you already know what you should not expect prompt replies when you need them. You have to decide if you can afford to cope without support when you need it or not.

Another way of knowing how reliable a cheap web host is would be finding out how long they’ve been in operation. If they’ve been around for a long time, they’re probably doing something right. Be sure to check the kind of websites a host allows on their servers. If you plan on having a pharmacology based website on a host’s server when it is stated in their TOS that such websites are not allowed, be prepared to take whatever comes your way. Checking online for reviews is just one way of getting reviews. You could also ask webmasters you know about the hosts they use. If they are having it good, you should probably lean towards using their host as well.

In summary, some cheap web hosts are reliable, and some unreliable. You owe yourself the obligation of finding out which is good enough to provide what’s important to you.