I need a website but I don’t know where to begin (Part 3) : Purchase Hosting

A hosting service package is where your website will live, in our analogy, it’s the plot of land where we build our home. For a basic website you might need just a few megabytes, but for a larger website, we might be talking gigabytes. Most small businesses are in the former category. But also take into consideration email. You’ll want a nice, shiny new business email address (e.g. Mike@MandMPlumbing.ca or Sales@MandMPlumbing.ca) and space for emails will also be part of your overall package. I used to recommend hostinger.com but unfortunately they have recently changed their policy and have started charging for email. At the time of writing there appears to be a good selection of vendors. I would avoid Hostinger, Bluehost and SiteGround

TIP : At this stage, you might want to stop and consider a web design company. Why? Because purchasing a hosting provider, which is the next step, can involve some technical insight. For example, how much bandwidth on the site do you need, do you need WordPress, what about backups, email, security etc.

TIP : Start with a very simple, basic package, so you’re not stuck with a 3 year, enterprise-ready expensive contract when all you need is a 1 year starter pack. It’s easy to upgrade services and difficult to downgrade them and if you’re not happy with your hosting company, you’re not tied to a long-term contract.

Mike and Michelle have decided to do it themselves, the visit Scala and choose the most basic package available.

They now have a plot of land on where to build their website. They’re almost there.

Mike and Michelle have their domain name (Part 2) and now they have somewhere to host it. It’s time to start building. Let’s move on to Part 4