CMS Security Handbook: The Comprehensive Guide for WordPress®, Joomla!®, Drupal™, and Plone®

Selecting the Right Hosting Option

Choosing a hosting provider and a plan can be a bewildering experience. You don't want to buy too little or pay too much. Add in the fact that technological capabilities are always changing, often increasing potential while dropping costs, thus making your entry point a tough decision. You may be wondering what direction you should go, or even whether you are on the right path. The only constant with technology is that it's always changing.

Let's take a look at how you can choose the right hosting for your situation.

Budget Considerations

To be in business today most likely means that you need a website. Very few exceptions to that rule exist. Spending a few dollars or hundreds of millions of dollars a year on a website is a business and budget decision. As a business owner, you can have your site online for as little as $75 a year, including the domain name and website. Establishing a budget is really driven by your business needs.

The first part of your budget you may want to establish is domain names. Several top-level domains are available — .com, .org, .net, and even the new .co. Many more exist for various countries and specific applications such as .mobi.

Determine how many top-level domains you need beyond your normal choice — such as example.org or example.mobi. Each of these carries with it an annual commitment cost of registration. Depending on your registrar, you may pay from $9.00 a year or more. Remember, this does not include any ...