"This article outlines the most important considerations one should keep in mind while looking for a website hosting service provider. Let's take a look at some of them.

There are many things to consider when choosing a web hosting plan which suits your requirements. The 10 most important are listed below.

1. Types of Servers
2. Disk Space/Storage
3. Bandwidth or data transfer
4. Database support
5. FTP Access
6. Easy to use Control Panel
7. E-mail services
8. Cost
9. Customer Support
10. Added Features

First thing to do is make yourself clear about features you will use. If you are planning to make a complete static *.html based website you can go with either windows or linux server but if you are making a dynamic website i.e. Php then you need a server which supports PHP generally a linux of Unix server supports PHP. Webmasters using PHP probably will need MySQL database support & if it is a ASP based site then you need choose with a windows hosting server.

Disk Space/ Storage
Now we are clear about which server to choose and feature like PHP, MySQL supported... let's take a look at Disk Space/ Storage and bandwidth or Data Transfer. This usually depends on number and size of WebPages you want to host.

Bandwidth or data transfer
For an average user or a small company website takes 100 Mb of disk pace and 1 GB of data transfer is enough. But it is recommended to choose the web hosting plan which gives you at least 2 - 3 times higher bandwidth. As your website visibility will increase with the time you might need more bandwidth to coop up with your requirements.

Ftp Access:
FTP access is used to upload your files to the server or web space or to the hosting server. FTP access is provided by most web hosting providers. You may need more than one FTP account if you have coworkers working on your website from different locations.

Easy to use Control Panel
The web based control panel will help you in managing your web hosting account and website. Generally all web hosting providers provide a web based control panel to access and manage web site features. Ask for a demo of their control panel to check their control panel features. The control panel should provide access to features like creating new FTP and e-mail addresses, databases management and all other functionalities for effective web site management.
Plesk, Helm and CPanel are the leading brands of administration control panels.

E-mail services
Checkout the number of pop3 accounts and email space provided with your hosting plan .Choose a web hosting provider that provides both POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts, web-based e-mail, autoresponders, mailing lists, forwarding accounts, antivirus and spam filtering software.

Cost
It is very important that cost fits into your budget without compromising on features you require .choose a Web hosting company which provides multiple web hosting plans. So if in the future if you outgrow the selected hosting plan, you can upgrade another without changing the web hosting provider.

Generally the web hosting cost anywhere between 3 to 5 dollars per month for 100 MB of disk space .there are lot of web hosting companies on the web who provides web hosting as cheap as 1 dollar PM but you may need to compromise on some features like support ,bandwidth , number of email accounts and Uptime guarantee etc...

Some web site hosting companies charge one-time setup cost. This fees in additional to the ongoing monthly web hosting charges. While purchasing the hosting account findout the setup cost and their after monthly cost .

Customer Support
This is as important as the disk space or any other feature in web hosting. Ask your provider if it provides customer support whether by FAQ section, a knowledgebase, video and flash tutorials, toll-free support, e-mails support, live chat support or a community forum.

Try e-mailing the web host a couple of times to check how quickly they respond to your requests. This will help in knowing their response time and on the basis this you can decide which host to choose .

Added Features
Most of the web site hosting companies provide some added features or freeware to attract customers .these can be in any form like i.e. ash ,gift vouchers, free domain name, Free Site Builder ,one click script installers like fantastico, guestbook's, forms, surveys, newsletters, image-gallery scripts etc...

Last but not least read some web hosting reviews to discover how satisfied the customers of particular web hosting company are. Try to find their experience with technical support and server uptime. Discover how they are satisfied with control panel.

Some of the best sites to read web hosting reviews are:
Find all web hosting reviews here www.hostreview.com
Visit the www.webhostingtalk.com And this is a great forum to know more about web hosting www.webhostingtalk.com"