Choosing the perfect web hosting service is not easy. If you are thinking about launching a website or need to transfer your site to a better host, read this article for some useful tips.

Do not sign up for the first affordable web hosting service you find. You need to take a few weeks to do some research on different services. Read through the official sites of the services you are interested in and look for reviews written by clients. If possible, take a look at the message boards of these web hosts and count how many people are complaining about technical difficulties. This should give you a good idea of how trustworthy each web hosting service really is.

Free web hosting services are a good way to cut down on costs when you launch your site but you should not rely on a free service once you start getting more traffic. Free web hosts rarely last for more than a year and you cannot count on them to upgrade their equipment regularly. Besides, most free web hosts will place ads and banners on your site. Your customers will not take you seriously if your site is covered in irrelevant ads. Upgrade to a better solution as soon as you can afford to.

You should never register your domain name through your web hosting service. You might save money by getting a domain name and a web hosting plan together, but you will lose your domain name if you ever decide to switch to a different web host. Some web hosts will even purchase your domain name when it expires so you have to keep paying them to use the same domain name. Use a separate service for your domain name and you will avoid a lot of complications.

Some signs should be red flags when you choose your web host. Do not subscribe to a web hosting service if the billing is not correct or if there is no secure ways to make a payment. If you cannot find any details on the web host’s policies regarding the kind of content you can upload, your domain might be banned along with illegal websites you end up sharing your server with. Stay away from web hosts that limit the languages and formats you can use for your content or put a restriction on your use of bandwidth.

You do not have to keep using the same web host if you are not satisfied. If your site is offline on a regular basis and the customer service is not helpful, it is time to start looking for a better option. Do not cancel your account until you have found a better solution and got your site uploaded to your new server. Find out about cancellation fees before you decide to switch. It might be best to wait until your membership expires.

Stay away from these common mistakes and do more research on web hosting before you start looking for a web hosting service. Take your time and compare several options.