Top 10 Questions to ask your future Web Host

Aug 26th, 2008 | By Dave | Category: Commentary, General Information

A lot of questions can be answered by browsing the Web Host’s site. In general, there are several things you must ask your Web Host they include:

  1. How many employees do you have?
  2. Do you outsource support, if so who do you use?
  3. What is the average wait time for the initial response to a support questions and what is the average wait time for resolving a support question?
  4. What procedures do you have in place if you have a data breach?
  5. What are conditions of eligibility for your money back guarantee? (If they offer one)
  6. How many accounts do you place on one server? (for non-dedicated plans)
  7. How scalable will my account be?
  8. How often will my data be backed up? Is the back up on site or off?
  9. Can you give me a few current customers I can contact to ask them about your services?
  10. Are there any restrictions for bandwidth and web space use? If so what are they?

When asking questions of a potential host, the length of time it takes for them to get back to you and the degree to which they answer is very important.

As a general rule of thumb, your average Host’s sales team will send you replies as fast as or faster than their support team (since they want your business). So keep that in mind.

Lastly you want to ask yourself questions once you get the reply. Did it answer your questions thoroughly? Are you satisfied with the response? These together might be even more important than the answers themselves. A sales team who goes above and beyond the normal yes/no type answers is a good find. If the host does give you customer to contact then you should make sure you do contact them regardless if you desire to host with the company or not.

Hope these help. Until next time, Happy Hosting!

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