11 Questions to Ask Your Host Before Signing Up

So here you are. You’ve got your site, or you’re ready to open shop and start reselling web hosting. Now it’s time to find a quality web host that fits all your needs. This process can be a daunting task, considering how many providers are out there and the vast differences in price and features, but with a little guidance, it shouldn’t be too bad.

First, it’s important to take into account you, or your team’s, level of experience — How technical are you? Have any of your team members managed a server before? Also be sure to consider things like, How much time do you want to spend dealing with the server itself? How important is personalized customer service? Or does your team need any customized solutions built into the server?

Once you know your stance on the above issues, the questions below should offer a reliable guide to be sure your new host offers everything you need (included in the advertised price.)

Customer Support

1 Is customer support available 24/7 in case of server downtime?
These days, you never know when your users will need to access to your server. As I’m sure you know, problems never seem to happen when they’re convenient, and that’s precisely the reason it’s important to know when your support will be available. Of course, I don’t know your specific needs, so how important 24/7 support is for you and your business is for you to decide.

2 Where should I email/call when I have an issue?
This question might seem pretty straightforward, but always make sure you know exactly who you need to contact when you’re experiencing an issue (especially if your provider has different contact information for off-hours support!)

3 How frequently are backups performed?
One of the many things that’s up to you to decide if it’s important. If you plan on making frequent changes to your site, or allowing your customers to make frequent changes to their sites, having backups performed (automatically, if you’re lucky!) can eliminate massive headaches before they even start.

4 How many and how long are backups retained?
Especially if you have a managed hosting solution, your provider will usually provide some level of backup support. Backups are useful if you need to recover a previous version of your site or if content gets lost, destroyed, or corrupted. Be sure to check with you new host about backup retention because frequently, the cause of a broken website is a change made to the site a few days ago.

If you don’t notice the issue for a couple days, or an issue doesn’t materialize until long after the change was made, reverting to a later backup won’t do a ton of good for you. Retaining backups for 5–7 days usually mitigates this issue enough, but a lot of hosts only keep 1–3 days worth, which can get a little dicey, especially on the off-chance that a backup fails.

5 How do I access backed up data and is that free?
Once you’ve figured out how many backups you get and how often they’re done, the next issue is — How the heck do I get my stuff back!? Surprisingly, some web hosts don’t offer free access to your backed up content, or won’t let you restore partial content. You don’t want to get stuck in a hostage situation. Make sure you know how to get all your stuff back online, so you can get back in business as soon as possible.

Pricing

6 Is there a setup fee?
Sometimes the leading price listed on the site is just your recurring fee, and the page will have one of those pesky little “*” to show you need to look into it further. Setup fees aren’t necessarily a problem if the host meets all of your other criteria, but it’s important to know before you get that surprise first bill!

7 Is this an introductory price? Will the price increase after my first month/year?
A similar trick, and unfortunately common, is a host only advertising introductory pricing. Of course, they have a disclaimer somewhere at the bottom of the page telling you that, “after your first 12 months, your price increases to $xy.zz.” So just make sure you know how much you’ll really be paying before you commit to sign up. In my opinion, this is probably a red flag that you need to keep your eye out for other disclaimers, because there’s a good chance it won’t be the only area that particular host is making more complicated than it needs to be.

Add-ons

8 What does the hosting for include for free?
We’ve talked about some add-ons in a our other article The Value of Full Server Management, but it’s always nice to know what’s available to you for free with your new host. You never know; maybe you can actually fall into some savings with something you were paying for or thought you would have to pay for!

9 What add-ons will I need to purchase separately?
If there are any add-ons you know you’ll need (e.g. email, virus monitoring, etc), make sure you ask your host if you’ll have to buy them separately. It is better to be prepared to make those purchases at the time your server gets set up rather than stumbling into it out later down the road.

Hosting Setup

10 How much will it cost to migrate my website?
This is often something people don’t think of when looking into switching to a new host. Intuitively, it seems like a given that it would be included in your new plan price (It’s free at SkyToaster, by the way, but that’s not the point!) However, many hosts see this as something that can be very time-consuming on their end and choose to charge for it based on complexity of the migration. While understandable, (and I wouldn’t fault them for that!) definitely check with your host before signing up, just so you’re prepared and don’t end up with some unexpected charges.

11 For more advanced users, ask your host if any special server add-ons you need are supported on their platform.
If you have a lot of server add-ons and use them regularly, you’ve probably already thought to do this, but hey! You never know. If you’ve been running specific add-ons or configurations on your current server, and you want to add packages that might help your business, definitely make sure your new host uses a platform that supports those add-ons. It would be a shame to have to switch just because you got a new server!

So there you have it. I’m sure there are a thousand other questions you could ask before switching to a new host, but if you make sure to hit on these 11, you’ll be in a great place to make your decision a whole lot easier!