As you can see, our site features many free web hosting reviews, but how do you use these properly? Many will come to a site like this, pick the top choice and move on. This is all fine and dandy, but with hosting, there is more to it than just choosing the top company from one of the many review sites out there.
If you really want to know how to use free hosting reviews, you have to understand what they are and how they can help you. Hosting is the most vital decision you will make for your website or blog and you need to get it right. Trying to build an online business on a foundation that is simply not that good will cause you more trouble than it’s worth.
Every website is a bit different and needs a different tools. Even though most hosting companies will offer plenty of tools for you to use, they may not offer the best hosting for those tools. Some specialize in blog hosting, while others cater to small businesses. Some even offer hosting for those using a MAC system, while others don’t.
Choosing the Hosting Company that’s Right for You
We rated iPage web hosting as our number one choice because they are a great hosting company. However, if you are running a business and you need more than just a shared web hosting package, we recommend you look at HostGator hosting. They offer tools that businesses can use and they also offer VPS and dedicated hosting.
Those looking to start a blog or a personal website will do great with iPage and you can even use them for a business website, but they don’t offer any options other than shared web hosting. Now, their shared hosting is great, but if you think you may need to upgrade to a dedicated server at some point, they don’t offer this option for you.
Choosing the right hosting requires more than just using the free web hosting reviews we have or any other site has. You need to start by figure out exactly what you want to do. Do you want to start a blog? What about a website? You can do both together with the right tools, which is a very popular option anymore.
Maybe you plan to add a forum or you want to start a membership site. These all require different tools and different types of hosting. If you need the highest level of security, you may have to look past shared web hosting and find free reviews on dedicated or VPS hosting. This doesn’t mean shared hosting isn’t secure because it is, but you do share a server with other hosting accounts.
Nearly everybody looking for hosting will do great with shared web hosting and this is why we have done all the research for you and can confidently recommend iPage website hosting for websites, blogs, forums, online stores and nearly any other online project you start. They offer great features and our iPage review covers all of them.
Back to Choosing Your Website Hosting
Once you get the features down, it’s time to move on to the website hosting reviews. These are only tools to help you decide on the best choice for you. Always start with the top choice on the list and read the entire review. If they sound like they will do the trick, hop on over to their website (the iPage Hosting Website is here) and check them out. If their site looks good, they give you everything the review said they would, you might just have a winner.
However, if you read the review and find out they don’t cater to the type of hosting you are looking for, move onto the second free hosting review. Maybe the second choice will be perfect, maybe not. If so, you know what to do, but if not, keep going down the list until you find the right company for you.
You can even take two that you feel fit your needs very well and compare them side-by-side with a list. This will help to ensure you get the right hosting for your needs without any issue. Since this is such an important decision, you want to be sure you are getting the right company to back you up and there is one last step you can always use.
The Website Hosting Support Test
Before we review a website hosting company we always do a support test. You may think this only tells you what you will have to deal with if you have an issue, but it tells you so much more. By doing a support test of the company you can find out if their servers are reliable, if the staff is friendly and professional and if they are an overall good choice or not.
Any hosting company that takes longer than 2 minutes to respond with online or phone support is dealing with server issues. This is why they are backed up and this is a good reason to cross them off your list. Most companies strive to answer your requests within 30 seconds and will occasionally take a little longer.
After you do get someone on the line, ask a few questions about the hosting and see how they respond. You want the most helpful and professional answers possible and you don’t want someone that seems like they are trying to get you off the phone as quickly as possible. We chose iPage as our top hosting company because they out-shined all the rest with the support test.
You can also test the email support, but they will take longer than a few minutes to get back through email. However, if it takes more than a few hours, there may be an issue with their support. They may not have the best email system and this could be a problem. Once you complete your support test, you will have all the information you need.
Now you can read all the free web hosting reviews and find out which hosting company fits best for you. Maybe it will be the top choice or maybe not. There are plenty of companies out there and you will find the right one for you by using all the hosting reviews provided by us and others.
