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There're more than 100,000 hosting providers on the planet and new brands are being created everyday. Because of the amount of choice, we always find it hard to determine the best service plan. But it's always wise to do business with a mature hosting provider. There we can enjoy all expected services for less complaint. But what makes up a mature hosting? We can easily judge by following points.

Honest Hosting Plans

Whatever service the company provides, honesty is the basis of success. For hosting providers, honesty refers to server system setup and hosting plan features. If you advertised DELL server then you should setup the structure instead other alternatives. If you announce to support unlimited website hosting then you should not charge extra in case people want to launch a new site. What you described on website must be offered to every client with clear explanation.

It's common to see many hosting plans with unlimited support for everything but when you like to take such advantages we're prompted for billing requests. That's the secret of lots of cheap hosting service. Once we get into their system, we'll be billed for various stuff.

Reliable Management System

It refers to billing and account space management from both support end and client end. Almost every reputable hosting group has developed their own softwares for service automation. They applied various security solutions to ensure your data is in safe place. The company must have direct access to data center space for quick server configuration, thus it's important to have their own data centers. In this way they can easily setup monitoring and protection systems to keep everything under control.

Reasonable Price

Don't always look for low price. Those reputable mature hosting plans are always configured with reasonable price based the features. The IT industry got huge improvements in the past 10 years and greatly reduced the hardware costs. However it's not cheap to maintain a stable system and working staff employment. Those super low cost hosting service are either heavily overselled or with less support.A mature hosting plan will not try to persuade people to sign up quickly but guide people to learn their structures and let us to make final decision.

Clear AUP/TOS policies

Any limitation or restriction are clearly stated from terms of use with easy to understand words. There's no confusing statement or hard to read words. A novice will be able to understand what it is by quick view. It's common to see lots of hosting providers hide their rediculous rules in TOS by small size words. When problem occurs, they will just send out those terms directly to people. A mature hosting provider will never do this because they want to do long term business.

Professional Support

Mature hosting service always provides leading hosting support. The big difference comparing to other service is their responsive and professional communication. They never send out something too professional to let us guessing. Instead, they can describle problems and their requests in plain and clear text. They will try to get problem fixed in short time by quick and professioal communication.

A mature hosting service is just the same as mature man, he will think about how to build up a steady business but not play jokes like a kid.

We have multiple choice after website outgrew regular shared web hosting service, like VPS and dedicated server. Several other options are also provided before you have to get a server. Semi dedicated hosting is one of the most popular choice. How is the service being offered? Is it better than VPS or dedicated server hosting?

The term Semi dedicated always guides people to VPS but they work in completely different ways. Following is an indepth comparison between semi dedicated hosting and VPS server.

• Performance. VPS provides better performance since you receive guaranteed server resources. You have full access to configure server end service by your best practice skills. Semi dedicated hosting is completely managed by hosting provider. We just get more server resources to support the extra traffic on website.
• Hosting Features. Semi dedicated hosting brings more features than VPS. A semi dedi service simply works the same way as regular shared server with even more features provided such as separated servers for database, website and email. We also receive extra support for some specific service like dedicated IP and SSL certificate. A VPS server is just a basic server system and we have to configure most stuff by our own.
• Server Access. We don't get server root access for semi dedi hosting but we do for vps server. We only get a hosting control panel via semi dedi service or probably get limited SSH access to server space but it's not possible to get root permission. Instead, we fully control over vps server including OS.

The above difference is caused by the different server configuration. While vps is virtualized from host server, the semi dedi is 100% located on physical server system, no virtualization included. That's the main difference comparing to a vps server. So basically it's a upgrade of shared hosting but with the same management.

Who provides semi dedicated hosting plan? Actually very few hosting providers offer this service nowadays, the semi dedi term was popular in the past. If you're looking for this service for the moment, siteground is the best choice. Their server specification and hosting features are even better than most vps servers.

The siteground Gogeek semi dedicated hosting service is configured on these server specifications: RAID10, SAS HDD, MySQL on separate SSD, 24 CPU cores and many other leading server features. They guarantee 4 times more server resource than regular shared service. They also configured the semi dedicated server for PCI Compliant plus a free SSL for the first year.

Go to siteground and view plan details http://www.siteground.com

Because semi dedicated is an old term, based all its features and advantages, more hosting providers offer similar service on enterprise or business hosting plans. Most of those hosting plans are configured with similar features. They announce to put less customer accounts on server space to generate better performance on customer websites, they also provide extra support such as priority backup and extra bonus for website hosting. The best experience we have for business hosting service is from Arvixe(www.arvixe.com) and we actually use it for the moment. Our website webhostpark is hosted on their business server since 2011. Their server and support people are so far so good in supporting our account. I would highly recommend if someone would like to get better web hosting experience with less problem fixing requests.

Who should use semi dedicated or business hosting?

As we learnt from the service features, it's setup between shared and VPS plans. Means if you have outgrew shared environment but not ready to manage a server by yourself yet, you can choose such semi dedicated hosting because you get further upgrade with no change on management system.

Also, since it's shared by less clients with lots of extra features, it's idea choice for ecommerce applications. Especially when you need online check out from website, performance and security are extremely important for both clients and store owners. Except for the ability to handle extra traffic, semi dedicated hosting is more secure than shared hosting. Even you got account failure for any reason, urgent backup/restore can be provided to make sure you're always online in safe place.

When we look for a potential web hosting service, we have various channels to start with. We can do quick search from google or refer to some professional webmaster forums. However, if you have compared your search results you will find most recommendations are for those big groups who have been in business for years. Very few reference to small providers. So here the question is, will big hosting companies provide us better service than small ones?

Well, to answer the question, we must understand what kind of service we needed. It's hard to tell directly which is better choice. But we can compare in following sides.

Reliability

The primary and most essential consideration for web hosting service. You don't want to deal with server down multiple times per day. A big hosting company always has its own data center and all hosting facilities. They get side by side control over their service and be able to respond urgently in case problem occurs. Also, because a big group is serving large amount clients in various industry, hosting group must prepare a powerful server system and leading monitoring solutions to make sure their service is always up. For example, they might configure RAID disk storage, load balancing and even cloud environment for max availability.

But we can't get too much information from a small hosting. Because they're either too new or very limited clients being served by their service. We have to try out by ourselves to answer all questions. Because of this, it's more safe to start with a big service provider if you're completely new in hosting industry.

Security

The comparison could vary based the points we focus on. As about server end security, we have enough reasons to believe in a big provider because they have full access to physical server and data center space. However, problem happens on people. For example the previous hostgator employee hacked into hostgator servers after left the group and caused terrible security issue. Because there're always lots of workers in such groups their group leaders might not train every staff so well. So basically, we might get better server protection from big hosting company but we're also in risk of internal hacking!

Similar issues also apply to small providers. But we believe a small group wants to grow up and they have tried everything they could to protect your account data. Actually, because there're less people in the group, maybe two or three people there, internal hacking issues never reported yet.

Scalability

Small group should serve you better. Everything is configured as it is from those big services. They provide every customer the same service to ensure server performance and security and they don't want to make custom configuration based client requests. A single modification might cause incompatibility with their maintenance plan. Their huge system is always automated by scripts or softwares like daily updates/backup etc.

Things are little different from small server providers. Because they don't have that many clients yet, they can easily configure maintenance plans and do customization for different clients. For example if you need a server end installation or global configuration, they can evaluate quickly then satisify your as more as they can. It's extremely helpful when you're web developer and program different websites to people. You always need some customization on server end to support your projects. You might find how hard it is to make a change from big hosting service but how friendly from a small provider.

Support

A big group provides multiple support channels for 24*7. However, with our editorial experience, most support beyond regular business hours are sales support. Tech support is not always, you have to wait hours to get a response. Also, more and more big groups outsource their support to third party providers which might lead to potential security issues.

On the other side, those small hosting brands are always created by webmasters and they know how bad it is when people can not browse their website. They might could not guarantee 24 hours live support but they'll respond to you as long as they're not asleep. They monitor and fix problems carefully to satisfy everyone as much as they could. Because they want to get more business so they deal with each problem seriously and never outsource to another provider.

As we see, both big and small hosting groups have their own spotlights. You must evaluate your requirements carefully before you make a quick decision. Generally, a small provider is more developer friendly since they can adjust server settings according to requirements. But a big group may bring more trusts because they're serving a large amount clients.

VPS is more and more popular choice by webmaster for its unbeatable advantages over other hosting solutions. But how do you know if your server is brand new or secondhand product? Because more and more cheap VPS server service provided, it's necessary to identify what kind of server products we received.

Normally, a decent and high performance server always comes high costs because it's big investment to prepare all hardwares and virtualization platform. How is cheap vps server offered? it's either because of overselling on host server or simply secondhand products that're used by other clients before, they just load a new OS to offer you service. We have collected a list solutions to check what kind of server you work with.

Hardware specification

Most VPS server providers announce to have Raid 10 configured for host server to ensure the best security and performance. How do we know? We can do hdparm check over server disk I/O as below

hdparm install: yum install hdparm
Disk check: hdparm -t /dev/sda(your server disk device, it can be /dev/xvda or /dev/sda1 etc)

If it's Raid 10 disk, the reading speed should be above 100 MB/sec. If you can't get this speed, either your server is experiencing some problems or simply not Raid 10.

Http Load Testing

It's important to know how many concurrent connections your website can handle. There're lots of tools to use which is explained in website stress testing tools article. For simple and quick testing out, we highly suggest use webbench, a light weight but pretty powerful tool under linux. It can simulate 30000 requests to your site and report your server abilities.

download: http://home.tiscali.cz/~cz210552/webbench.html
Usage: webbench -c connections -t time URL
for example:
webbench -c 5000 -t 120 http://www.yoursite.com/

It will tell us the requests per second and data ammount. If you have multiple servers on hand, you can easily compare the http load abilities using this tool.

Overall Score testing

We highly suggest use UnixBench to get your VPS overall performance testing. The purpose of UnixBench is to provide a basic indicator of the performance of a Unix-like system. It will test your server overall performance based CPU, RAM, Hard disk and OS then provide a total score.

UnixBench documentation and downloads: https://code.google.com/p/byte-unixbench/

After above tests, you should have a basic understanding of your vps server configuration then determine if you should continue with the service. If you have ordered a enterprise vps server for business applications, it's necessary to do these tests because you're going to put your business there. Many server providers sell their space multiple times by the same configuration. That's the secret how they can still profitable via low price. If you do above tests on your hosting server, you will understand what kind products you received.

Shopping cart is the main purpose by more and more websites. Either you're operating a physical store or doing retailer, a website will always expand your business opportunity. You might have tried to search for a perfect shopping cart hosting plan. However, there's not a web hosting plan dedicated for shopping cart purpose. Hosting group can only optimize their hosting server as much as they can to work with those scripts. We have compiled a list of shopping cart hosting FAQs based our practice and user feedbacks.

What's shopping cart hosting?

Shopping cart hosting is a server service where you can install various cart softwares on your website. It's always provided under shared hosting plans.

How hard it is to install a shopping cart site?

Not really, most popular shopping cart softwares can be installed via one click installer in hosting control panel such as simplescripts, softaculous etc. These installers have great scripts library and updated frequently for new softwares.

Is windows server better for shopping cart management?

No. Actually most shopping cart softwares are developped under linux server environment via php/mysql technologies. Only few popular cart softwares programmed on windows server. Also, since over 80% users prefer to use linux, you get more advice on how to optimize your cart site.

What's the best shopping cart software?

There're over 100 shopping cart softwares on the web and new solutions being provided every few periods. You can check out the ecommerce hosting page for some most popular choice. Basically, if you prefer to windows solution, nopcommerce is by far the best one. If you need powerful enterprise solution on linux platform, magento is perfect one.

What're some rules in selecting a perfect shopping cart hosting plan?

Every hosting providers announce to be compatible with various shopping cart service. However it's hard to find a service where you can manage your store smoothly. Check the following when you're looking for a decent shopping cart hosting plan.

• Server/network specs. Hosting servers must be setup by up to date hardware configurations and software updates. DELL server is a must with RAID 10 disk array. SSD is best choice but not a must because of pricing. At least two data centers in the behind for guaranteed network availability. Generally, a small hosting group can not provide these facilities so you can filter a lot of providers at the beginning.
• Company Overall reputation. Always check how people talk about the company on internet and learn both advantages and weakness. If all you see is bad experience and various downtime complaints then you should avoid such service.
• Risk free opportunity. Check if you get opportunity to try out the service before you pay. In this way you can check side by side to learn if it will work with your requirements. Not too many hosting providers can offer this opportunity because they are not so confident to keep your business. Arvixe can offer up to 30 days try out service for one cent. Such offer smartly filtered those people who need completely free service and spammers, just people who really need long term service will sign up.
• Support availability. Support is top concern by most people nowadays because you always want someone to be available when you seek for help. Especially when you can't login to website or your hosting server is not connecting, a responsive support assistant is quite importnat.

Where do I get merchant account?

Merchant account is normally provided by your bank who can accept online transactions. Some shopping cart service also provide merchant account service with some fees. You can accept payment fastly by their solution.

Is there any fee included for online transaction?

Yes, it's always billed for every online transaction. The fees vary based different merchant service. You have to consult to the actual service provider.

What if I need to accept different currencies?

You just need a proper shopping cart software which is configured to deal with different currencies. Many softwares have bultin support for multiple currencies and can be scalable by new modules or plugins. Some leading shopping cart softwares like magento, opencart and oscommerce etc are all multi currencies compatible.

Your shopping cart is your online business center. You should take care of it seriously like your baby because it brings you profit. Find the right cart software and hosting plan to give it a nice home.

​VPS server is the best choice when you need to get guaranteed server resource or when you like to learn more about hosting server configuration. However, it's not cheap to get a secure and high performance vps. If you have tight budget on hand, it's necessary to reduce server investment as much as possible. We have collected a list of methods to save money for vps server hosting.

The cost of a vps server includes the following: Virtualization platform, Server OS, System management software and after sale service. Here we're going to introduce each point on how to reduce costs.

Virtualization platform. The most popular choice by vps hosting providers are XEN and OpenVZ. From technical point of view, XEN is better choice because it more professional in maintaining a stable system. However the XEN server is licensed product and not cheap to purchase. On the other hand, OpenVZ is completely open sourced software that can be downloaded by everyone for free. The direct effect is on server costs. XEN VPS is always more expensive than OpenVZ VPS for the same system configuration.

You will need to evaluate what your purpose is for VPS server, if performance and availability is extremely expected, XEN VPS is better choice. If you just want to save investment for practice purpose, OpenVZ is good enough.

Server OS. Unless you have been Microsoft developer who requires windows server system to work with, we highly suggest choose linux OS because its first choice by over 80% users. The high cost for windows is not just because its licensed OS but also most system softwares like sql server and mail server etc. But you get all of those for free under linux platform. Because not so many people prefer to windows server, it costs more for ISP to maintain a healthy environment. If you're not scripting ASP or .net and don't have to get a GUI for server management, linux should be your primary consideration to reduce server costs.

System Software. The primary system software we need to consider would be hosting control panel. There're lots of control panel softwares to choose from. cpanel is always provided as primary choice for additional fees. But there do have multiple good and free solutions. We have introduced a list of popular free hosting control panel softwares in the past. If you need the same powerful management from cpanel, we highly suggest install Kloxo which is recognized free cpanel alternative. If you need simple and security choice, ISPConfig should serve you well.

Except for control panel software, most others are provided for free on linux server. Unless you have to use some commercial solutions, you can always make full use of open sourced service and reduce the overal server costs as much as possible.

After sale service. Various after sale service is offered by server providers like dedicated IP address, backup storage, extra bandwidth etc. You must have a good plan to select the proper server so you don't have to purchase those additional resources after some time. Normally, it costs more when you purchase those services separately, if you select the proper plan which has all those pre-configured, you pay much less.

Another point in reducing cost is to search out potential server providers in United States. This area has the fastest internet connection and competitive business market. Especially for hosting products, you really can't find better price with the same level service. If you don't have to use a local server service, US hosting should be your primary consideration either for better price or better performance.

It's important to find a good VPS service for guaranteed performance. But it's important too to reduce the investment. The above points are generated by our personal experience from multiple vps hosting providers in the past 5 years. Follow the ones that suitable with your needs and comment on if you would like to add more.