AAM: Web Hosting Question

For the first time in a while we have a non-Mac-related question this week, but a question that will benefit a lot of people who are looking into designing websites.

Hanushka Master has asked the big question this week: which Web host shall I pick and what plan should I go for?

The difficult thing with websites is that it’s hard to work out how much space you’ll need, how much bandwidth you’ll end up using, and how much traffic you will end up drawing in. With a bit of luck you’ll have plenty of traffic within the first 6 months, so you’d need a host that offers a decent amount of bandwidth per month for a reasonable amount of money. It’s also important to note at this point that bandwidth will be used up when you upload and download files from your server (host), as well as actual traffic by your viewers. As far as the amount of space needed, you’ll really need to create the entire website locally (on your computer) first and see at the end how much space you’ve used to build the site—and don’t forget about wanting to update and upgrade your site at a later date (as you may need more room again for images and video files).

Anyway, this week’s answer comes from a rather new Apple Matters forum user, JustG, who has offered a bit of advice along with a website to give Hanushka Master and other website designers a head start.

Hope it helps!

Question of the Week

Website Issues

By: Hanushka Master

I am about to design a website with pupils of a school as a school project. Before I purchase a hosting plan, I have no idea what space i will need. I must purchase the plan before I design the website for various reasons. I have found some websites that are pretty much similar to what I have in mind. Is it possible in any way to go to a website and find out the size of that website, or have a rough estimate of the size of an entire website?

By: JustG

With most budget hosting plans these days, you don’t really need to worry about the size of your site; it’s really quite difficult to use all the space you’re allocated, unless you fill it with huge multimedia files. A website is just a collection of text and generally very small (file size-wise) images, so you can really fit a lot into just 10MB. Considering that most budget hosting plans now include several hundred MB of space, it shouldn’t be a concern.

When it comes to budget host recommendations, you’ll find as many who praise as you will who curse a particular host; that’s just the nature of the business. Before committing yourself to a plan, do your research at www.webhostingtalk.com.. Look up the host in which you’re interested and see what people are saying about them. It’s tedious and time-consuming, but when you end up switching hosts five times in a year, you’ll realize that the initial investment of time is worth it.

Have a technical question? Drop by our dedicated forums and leave a message. You’re sure to get a reply from one of our regular readers or even a member of our staff.