If you are thinking of starting up your own personal website you will probably be looking around for a good deal on personal web hosting. However if you are new to running your own website, you may be uncertain as to what features you require and what would constitute the best person web hosting for your needs.
While there are countless web hosting deals out there, not all of them are suited to a personal website. Some are better for business use and provide a range of features that you will not require but will be expected to pay extra for.
This helpful guide will give you all the information that you need to make an informed choice as to which is the best personal website hosting for you.
Is Personal Web Hosting the Right Choice for You?
Before making any financial commitment, you should first of all assess whether personal web hosting is the right choice to meet your needs. There are lots of different types of web hosting available, but personal web hosting would be the perfect choice if you are only requiring the resources to host a small website with limited usage.
If you are starting up a website to promote yourself for employment purposes, this would be a good example of a personal website. You may wish to upload your CV, evidence of your accomplishments and other information about your skills and experience which would require only very basic web hosting provision. Alternatively, you may be thinking about starting a personal blog or journal, or perhaps starting up a website about your favourite pastime or hobby, and any of these would again be suited to personal web hosting services.
The best personal website hosting providers are a good choice for anyone who does not expect to see a lot of traffic passing through their website and do not intend to sell products from an online shop.
If, on the other hand, you are considering beginning an e-commerce enterprise, or expect to see large numbers of visitors coming to your website, you should consider opting for a small business web hosting service instead as personal web hosting will probably not meet your needs.
What Personal Web Hosting Features are Essential When Starting a Personal Website?
Personal websites require fewer features than a small business website and therefore you can look for a relatively inexpensive and basic personal web hosting service. Here are some of the main features that you should be looking for:
Shared Web Hosting
For a personal website there is no need to look for an expensive Virtual Private Server as these are more suited to the needs of larger companies. Shared web hosting is much cheaper and will be perfectly adequate for the needs of a personal website as you will not require much space and therefore will be fine sharing a server with several other websites and will not require a dedicated server of your own.
Disk Space
For a personal website you will not require a great deal of disk space, and 500 MB is most likely going to be more than enough to meet your needs. If you are considering uploading a large number of videos or images however you will have a larger disk space requirement.
Bandwidth
A personal website will usually not see a great deal of traffic passing through and the number of visitors to your site will be relatively low. That means that you will not require a great deal of bandwidth, so around 15-30 GB will probably be sufficient to meet your needs.
FTP Accounts
When you are operating a personal business account you will probably only need one or perhaps two FTP accounts. These are accounts which enable the user to upload their files to their web host. You will only require one FTP account if you are running everything yourself, but if you have a Webmaster on board, you may require a second one.
MySQL Database
If you have a personal blog, you will be using a content management system like WordPress, and assuming that you are working with more than a single page you will require a database like MySQL to manage it easily. You will not need more than one however.
Consider Futureproofing Your Website
While a personal web hosting may be ideal to suit your needs at the moment, depending on the nature of your website you might want to think about futureproofing it. Is your website likely to become a small business in the future? If that is likely then you may want to look at what your options would be regarding your web hosting should an online business take off. You need to know how easy it would be to upgrade to another package, and if you are likely to need to sell online at some point you should investigate whether your web hosting provider has the security features necessary to accept credit card payments online safely.
Pay Only for the Features you Need From Your Personal Web Hosting Provider
The best personal web hosting providers will not charge you an extra fee for features that you have no need of. There are lots of deals in the web hosting marketplace which may appear to be a good offer however when you look more closely you discover that in fact you are being offered functions that you will never use or require when developing a personal website. There is no point in paying extra charges for unlimited bandwidth for example if you are only expecting a small number of visitors to access your site every month. Price is a major consideration when you are only running your website for personal enjoyment as you will not be looking to make a profit from an online business and therefore will want to keep your costs to a minimum.
Simple and User Friendly Interfaces
Starting out for the first time with your own new personal website can be a steep learning curve, so unless you have a lot of prior technical knowledge you will probably want to choose a personal web hosting that has a user friendly control panel and that is simple to navigate. The best personal website hosting providers allow one click installation of popular softwares like Joomla and WordPress and make it really easy to complete tasks such as managing your emails, backing up your data and handling your site’s security without having to have any advanced computing skills or experience.
Is it Possible to Access Customer Support When you Need It?
From time to time when operating your own personal website you will run into problems and issues that you will not be able to rectify yourself. If you are a novice to running your own website there may be all kinds of questions that you will need addressed, and therefore you should choose a personal web hosting that offers good technical support to customers. If you want to be sure that your chosen provider offers a good quality support service, try calling them at different times with a range of queries to find out how satisfied you are with the solutions that they give before making your final decision of supplier.
When it comes to choosing the right personal website hosting to meet your needs, you first need to clarify exactly what it is that you require and then compare the best personal web hosting providers to see which can offer you the features that you need at a price that fits within your budget. If you choose wisely, you are sure to be able to find the best personal website hosting which can get your blog, online journal or personal website off to the best possible start.