Many people assume that web hosting companies are all the same, but that is certainly not the case. There are many shady companies out there looking to take advantage of inexperienced website owners, and if you aren’t educated on what to look out for, then you could be out a lot of money. This article offers some helpful advice so you know if your web hosting provider is legitimate, and offers a quality service.

Make a priority list before shopping for a web host. Know what features you need for your site, and see whether each provider can provide these features. Making this type of list will help you avoid making a decision based solely on one factor, such as price, rather than finding the best deal for your needs.

Find out if your web host service supports videos. Videos take a lot of storing space and bandwidth, and you might have to spend a lot for a plan that supports videos. You can save money by uploading your videos to YouTube for free and embedding them on your website.

You should know that not all web hosting services support Flash plug in. Using Flash on your site allows you to create a more interactive experience for your visitors, for instance with videos, games and new design possibilities. If you are not planning on using Flash, this is not a feature you should worry about.

Don’t choose your web hosting provider based solely on price. Although using a cheap or free web host may save you money in the short run, these hosts might not offer the disk space or bandwidth you need. Price should be only one factor in your final decision so that you ensure that you get what you most need.

Make sure that you understand the difference between managed and un-managed web hosting. Those that are managed can be invaluable to you if you are not an expert yourself on the intricacies of maintaining a website. You will want to choose a managed one who has excellent availability of technical support teams.

Make sure that the web host you select has a very high uptime guarantee. Uptime is the percentage of time that a server is online. For instance, if a web host claims that their servers provide 99% uptime, then their servers are online 99% of the time. You don’t want to select a web host whose servers do not provide high uptime percentages. This is why uptime is so important when selecting a host.

A key factor for choosing a web host is available tech support. Should your site go down for any reason, you do not want to have to wait for tech support to be available during specified business hours. If a company is offering less than a full 24-hour support, 7 days a week, year-round, they should not fall under consideration. You need to know that someone besides yourself is concerned with keeping your site up.

As you can see, not all web hosting companies are the same. If you understand a few basic rules that make up a good host company, then you should have no worries about who is hosting your site. Apply the helpful advice from this article so you do not get hurt the next time you choose a company to host your site.