These are the most important factors to consider before choosing a web hosting company.

cPanel

cPanel is a web based hosting control panel for website owners, allowing them to manage their websites from a web based interface. This program has a graphical interface to control and configure hosting and its features. The tools provided are designed to simplify running and controlling a website. It has many sections mail, logs, security, database, software etc. cPanel is generally accessed using https on port 2083 or simply by adding “/cpanel” to the end of the host name e.g. http://mydomain.com/cpanel or http://mydomain.com:2083

Diskspace

Disk space is the amount of data you can store on your web server or hosting account. HTML files does not take much space but if you have large images or videos, you obviously need more space.

Data Transfer

The data transfer refers to amount of data that is transferred to and from your website either by you uploading files, your visitors viewing (image/videos) and downloading files, and emails transported from the server to your computer.

Data transfer is measured in bytes (B), kilo bytes (1 thousand bytes or KB), mega bytes (1 million bytes or MB) giga bytes (1 billion bytes or GB) or tera bytes (1 trillion bytes or TB). If you upload 1MB file, and your visitors download the file 999 times, you’ve just transferred 1,000 MB or 1GB of data.

Database support

Linux based server provide mySQL and optionally PostgreSQL databases along with phpMyAdmin tool for easier database managemnt. Database support is required for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento, Forums and many other software.

One click app installation

Softaculous is a commercial script library that automates the installation of commercial and open source web applications to a website. Softaculous scripts are executed from the administration area of a website (cPanel).

Softaculous applications typically create tables in a database, install software, adjust permissions, and modify web server configuration files.

The Pro version provides one-step installation of over 280 applications. The free version supports the installation of over 50 applications.

Uptime

Uptime is the amount of time that a server has stayed up and running. This is usually listed as a percentage, like “99.9% uptime.” Uptime is a great measure of how good a web hosting provider is at keeping their systems up and running.

Support

There are various situations when you need support from web hosting company. Some companies take days to respond while a good company may respond in minutes, have support tickets, phone and online support.