When signing up for a web hosting account, price is always an important factor. Sometimes, it is unwise to base your decision solely on price. But we can never ignore price as it is a business cost. You end up having to pay a monthly fee for the hosting. So where do we draw the line? What is a good price for a web hosting account? These are important issues to consider.

Before figuring out the right price point to go for, you must first understand your own needs and goals. Ask yourself how you are going to use the server. What kind of website are you setting up? Some companies have plans to setup sophisticated and complex software on the servers. These may be enterprise level software and a dedicated server may be a better option. If you intend to start a huge site right from the start, be sure you sign up for a better hosting option that provides you with adequate resources. Otherwise, your account may be flagged or suspended for abuse.

Next, take a look at your existing options. Traditionally, you can either sign up for shared hosting accounts or dedicated hosting accounts. Unfortunately, there is a huge gap between the two. A shared account can cost just $10 a month but a dedicated server can cost $200 a month and more. So most webmasters tend to go for a shared hosting account, even though a shared environment may not be the most appropriate.

Today, you have VPS (or virtual private servers) which acts as the in-between. For a more affordable fee, like $60 a month, you get dedicated resources for your website. A VPS is actually hosted on the same machine, but using special hardware and software, dedicated resources will be allocated to your account. The entire behavior of a VPS account is just like a dedicated server. If your account goes down, it won't affect the rest of the sites that are hosted on the same machine. Once the resources have been allocated to you, other people can't use those resources. That is why a VPS is more expensive when compared with a shared hosting account.

Once you are clear about your options, it's now time to tackle the price issue. If you are clear about your goals, you now know which hosting option is best for you. Focus on those packages and start comparing features and prices.

To save more, visit review sites and see if you can find any discount coupons. Hosting companies are well known for giving away special discounts for first time customers. But you need to enter the discount coupon when checking out. Sometimes, coupons may be expired. So be prepared to try a few discount coupons. You will see the discount being applied to your final checkout pricing if the coupon is working.