Cheap Web Hosting: It Pays to Know the Real Deal

If you are considering a cheap web hosting plan, there are a few vital factors to consider before handing over your credit card information and signing up for a year or more of hosting service. Before making your decision, find out the answers to the following questions:

Does the web host charge fees to set up your account?
If you are asked to pay separate set-up fees for your website, this should raise some red flags. The best cheap hosting plans simply charge a monthly, quarterly, or yearly price for web hosting which is renewable annually.

Some of the smaller cheap web hosting services are nothing more than individual brokers that are reselling account hosting from their individual web hosting account and making a percentage off of you. They are working through a much larger web hosting company and receiving the cheap web hosting rates that you are actually entitled to. Always be somewhat suspicious of very small, local web hosting companies.

Does your web hosting company offer a money-back guarantee?
Generally, paying annually will give you the cheap web hosting you are really looking for. An annual rate will work out to a few dollars less per month than if you opt for a monthly payment plan.

Occasionally, things just don’t work out and a client would like a refund. Does your web hosting company offer an unconditional 30-day money back guarantee? Cheap web hosting sites that are reputable and reliable always offer some type of money back guarantee. This gives you, the client, peace of mind that if things go wrong, you can always back out.

Is your first domain name free?
Sometimes additional, hidden charges crop up when you have to pay an annual fee to keep your domain name. Make sure to clarify this in the beginning. The best cheap web hosting plans offer a free domain name for life, which essentially means that you will keep your domain name, free from annual charges for the entire time that you use a particular web hosting company.

Another important question is to find out what will happen to your domain name, should you decide to switch to another cheap hosting service. Find out if the company will charge any extra fees to release the domain name and transfer it over to your new hosting plan.

These are just a few of the reasons to consult with an expert, such as myself, before selecting a cheap web hosting service. The comparison sites online are not enough to base an intelligent decision on. Many of those review sites receive money to create shining reviews for web hosting services that may completely disappoint the unknowing client.