You will find tons of web hosting providers emerging daily on the web. Locating the appropriate provider for your needs will be overwhelming. For the novice webmasters, who are susceptible to look at the costs ahead of other more central aspects, can easily find themselves trapped into a long-term contract with web hosts whose labor backfires on the expansion of your site.

So let's start with the imperative features of web hosting.

At the moment, basic web hosting overheads rarely go over $10 per month and can get to as low as $3-4 per month.

Depending on the sort of project you are planning to plant on the web, you can opt for a shared hosting plan, a virtual web hosting plan or a dedicated server plan.

Disk space is a crucial factor to consider when considering a web hosting provider. Most providers will offer enough space to host a site with only pictures - something with no or few video files, for example. But disk space becomes a major factor for Flash sites which can take up a lot of space. If file-sharing is part of your site or a file downloading service, it is your disk space which will count. ecommerce sites, for example, generally have large databases which require a lot of disk space to store their data.

Bandwidth must be considered. If you are planning a site for your family and friends, bandwidth will not be an important factor. If you predict a heavy flow of daily visitors, bandwidth provided by the provider must be large enough to accommodate to your visitors. A site must load fast enough so as not to deter your visitors, so your bandwidth must accommodate to your visitors. Hosts will clearly stipulate the amount of bandwidth each hosting plan will offer per month. Look at the cost of additional bandwidth too - there are months where you may need a little extra.

But to the new online entrepreneur there is another point to consider carefully. Many web hosts allow you to build a number of domains under a single account. When building more than one domain in your account, the limits on your bandwidth and disk space must be considered. But you should also be looking at the scripts provided to help you build your sites, as well as design software. Today, most web hosts include a good number of scripts to help you build blogs, forums and e-commerce sites hassle-free. Consider this carefully because it will save you a lot of time!

To finish try out the host's support desk. Problems arise. Servers crash. Your databases may be damaged. Web hosting providers should provide prompt support to customers, especially those who depend financially on their sites. The majority include an email support form. But ideally, you will have someone to call directly. Test out their support desk. Good support is without a doubt the most important part of the service to look at before signing the dotted line with any host.

In conclusion, the price your web hosting provider charges should have somewhat of an effect on your decision, however there are other attributes that are far more important.