Web hosting makes your site accessible to online visitors by placing it on a web server.
How we test web hosting
Navigating the world of web hosting is complicated.
There are severaltypes of web hostingand thousands of companies to choose from.
There are also many technical terms and complex pricing structures that can leave you scratching your head.
Uptime
Uptime is the amount of time your website spends online.
Most web hosts offer 99.9% or 99.99% guaranteed uptime.
We use theBetter Stack Uptime Monitoring Toolto monitor a websites uptime over the course of one week.
Hosting services are then ranked on a scale of 1 to 10.
If the test site has under one minute of downtime during the week, the service receives a 10.
If our site has 1 to 2 minutes of downtime in that timeframe, the service receives a 9.
If the test shows 6 to 10 minutes of downtime, the hosting service gets a 6.
A ranking of 1 is reserved for hosts with 15 or more minutes of downtime in a week.
Speed
Website speed is how long it takes your website to load, measured in seconds.
Tests are conducted on different weekdays at various times and used to calculate an average loading speed.
That ranking is based entirely on how quickly our test site loads.
The buying experience
We look for two things in the purchase process: simplicity and transparency.
The primary factor in transparency is renewal pricing.
Some also charge extra for essentials like a secure socket layer –SSL— certificate.
These additional fees will be discussed when we look at the buying experience.
This includes viewing and managing domains and hosting plans.
Well also look at how intuitive it is to access your cPanel, or an equivalent site management tool.
Most hosts usecPanelas it’s affordable and easy to use.
When testing these hosts, we check to confirm the cPanel is functional and not missing any key features.
We look at four areas of value to give you a comprehensive understanding of each hosts value.
Next, we examinerenewal pricing.
This is how much youll pay to keep your plan after the first term.
The main thing were looking at here is how much the price increase diminishes the plans value.
Well also consider whether any discounts are available for longer terms upon renewal.
Well also look atother hosting types.
The main thing were analyzing here is how many other plans are available.
Finally, well considerhow the host compares to other options.
Well compare both the initial pricing and the renewal pricing.
Next, well interact with customer service through all available lines of communication.
Well ask them questions about how to perform common website management tasks through their host.
This will be considered separately from our rating of our own experience with customer service.
