Low cost web hosting offers the consumer the option of paying less for web hosting a business website however this can come with a higher price tag in the long run. You want to know ahead of time exactly what you are paying; no strings attached something many web hosting providers hide from you in forms of fine print, hidden in terms of service…

I currently have three web hosting servers which host an array of different websites I personally own. At first, a low cost web hosting provider looks very attractive; after all you can save money each month by going this route. The problem arises with a few issues ending up costing you, the consumer more than what you could be paying through a low cost reputable web hosting company! I have found this out over my fifteen years doing business online!

First, more and more low cost web hosting providers are offering unlimited disk space and or bandwidth. In order for this to be true, the servers would need to be magical ones.

As servers, just like your PC or laptop have a hard drive for disk space. Once you fill the space, you have no more room to add anything else to your computer. Hence the concept of unlimited disk space is simply a lure to get consumers to sign up with them. Somewhere in the term of service or other place on the website there is a limit to what the term unlimited refers too.

Unlimited bandwidth is another ploy to take consumer money. There is no such thing! Every webhosting company in their terms of service or other page will again state what is meant by unlimited bandwidth.  After all, the hosting company purchases huge packets of bandwidth from third party suppliers each month. Since they are paying for it, they are not going to give it away free or they would not be in business after a couple months. In fact if you end up using more bandwidth than the amount actually issued to your account, one of two things will happen. One your web hosting server will be shut down until the next month, or more than likely you will be contacted with the amount you need to pay extra monthly in order to bring your website back online.

Another lure used by some low cost web hosting providers is to offer a free domain name with your hosting account. Beware of these as many actually list themselves as the registrant for your domain name. After you spend time branding your domain and decide you want to go with another web hosting provider you are informed you do not own the domain name. I have known this to happen to several people in the past. Usually you can purchase your domain from the low cost hosting provider for a hefty fee from several hundred to several thousand dollars.

Many of your low cost web hosting providers also offer third party software, many of which are offered free online, through open source. The hosting providers just offer a simple point and click to install, however do not backup the software nor support it. This was an issue I ran across recently ending up costing 3 days of downtime and sales!

There are reputable low cost web hosts out there; however they are few and far between. What you want to look for is a low cost web host service which is upfront about what you are paying for. You want to be able to see exactly what the bandwidth is you are permitted per month along with the disk space offered. You also want to register your own domain, insuring that the domain is registered to you, the registrant! Lastly you want a web host provider that offers their own software which they personally support such as shopping carts for your online store.

One such company offering all these at a low cost is Order Your Domain. The pricing is broken down with the specifics you need to know. You do not need all the bells and whistles, but rather order À la carte obtaining only the software you need, i.e. web hosting, shopping cart, blog…

Order Your Domain also offers software developed and supported by the company and its associates. This is a major difference and something you will wish you had looked into in the event you ever have an issue with another low cost hosting provider later on down the road.