When you are spending your money every month for web hosting, think of it as an investment for your future - regardless of whether it is a personal or business website. After all, you should be spending your money wisely with a good web host rather than having to suffer from stress because of the lack of confidence or incompetence of your web hosting company. By doing your homework web hosting companies, this will lead to your online success.

Here are things to look for when you are comparing web hosting services:

Up Time

Make sure you choose a company that has great network up time. Up time would mean that your website is up, and down time means that your website is down - not because of your own doing, but because the web host just cannot cope. Try and look for companies that have at least 95% up time - some companies even boast 98 - 99% up time! It is not possible to get a 100% up time because web hosting companies do have to do maintenance once in a while, which would therefore affect your up time. The good news is that this will only take a few hours or so.

Customer Service

You may have met a good sales person at a web host... but have you considered their customer service? Make sure that check them out thoroughly on the Internet about their ratings and customer feedback, and check the Better Business Bureau online for any complaints.

Storage and Bandwidth

There are several companies that promise 'unlimited' storage and bandwidth options. When you sign a contract, make sure that you do get the option to upgrade so you are not locked into a contract for a certain usage for an extended period of time. Most good web hosting companies will not lock you in for a contract if you wish to upgrade though.

Providing Scripts

In order to get your information on your website, pick a company that runs the same operating system that you do. Picking a company that runs the same operating system will mean that they offer the type of script you need. Those needing Perl and CGI scripts will need Linux and Windows operating systems. However, if you need Access for forms, then you will need a web hosting provider that just runs a Windows operating system.

Statistical Software

A great tool that all web hosting providers should have is a good statistics reporting software. Without this, you will not be able to track your sales and marketing plans, as well as how much bandwidth you are using per month. This is great because you will know whether your website's campaigns are profitable before it turns into a complete financial disaster.

Control Panel

Control panels are very important because this is your web hosting's back-end interface. Some back-ends are a bit tricky for beginners, while others are completely user friendly. A good control panel is CPanel which runs scripts that are easy to install.