5 Things your green web host should offer

There are so many web hosting providers out there it’s hard to choose the best.  It is even harder to filter through all the gimmicks and “services” they offer to convince webmasters to join them.  In our opinion these five features should be offered by every web host, which may help you filter out the quality hosts from the chaffe.

1. Free, live support. – Live chat support is a HUGELY HELPFUL feature and can be the difference between getting your site back up and running in the shortest possible time.
2. Unlimited storage. – This is quickly becoming the standard among web hosts.  Although technically there is no such thing as “unlimited storage”, you should never be limited in terms of how much web space your host provides you unless it is a budget or economy web hosting account.
3. Unlimited bandwidth. – Bandwidth or “file transfer” is an often limited feature of web hosting accounts.  This is also a common way web hosts sneak in extra fees to nail you.  Unless you’re operating a file sharing service or video hosting website (two very bandwidth-intensive activities) you really should not be limited in this area.
4. Unlimited web sites. – If you stay within storage and bandwidth limits (if you are limited, see #2 and #3 above), you should be permitted to host as many websites as you wish.
5. Access to your root files.  Although you will rarely be granted access to the server root on a shared hosting account, you should be able to access files right down to the public_html folder which holds helpful files like .htaccess and robots.txt.

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