What to consider when choosing the best Christian web hosting company?

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Like any other service provider, each web hosting has its pros and cons and it is always wise to consider and compare these services with other web hosting providers.

The following are the factors to consider when choosing the best Christian web hosting company.

The nature of your website- If you are creating a website for a big organization that will be publishing thousands of articles a month and hosting their videos on the server, then you need to consider a managed VPS. However, if you have the skills to handle unmanaged VPS you should consider it as it is cheaper.

The price- is the price budget-friendly? Also, compare the sign-up price with the renewal price as most web hosting providers are guilty of skyrocketing their renewal prices after the first year. You don't want to pay for unnecessary add-ons, choose something that meets your needs but is within your budget, and look out for hidden costs.

Security- when choosing a Christian web hosting provider make sure they guarantee the security of your website files. You should consider a web hosting provider that offers a free SSL certificate, DDoS protection, and malware scanning. They should also have a proper backup system for your files.

Uptime- A website’s uptime is the measure of the amount of time your website is available or accessible to users online. You must consider a hosting company with high uptime of up to 99.99% - 100%. You do not want to lose online sales because your site is inaccessible.

Backup- Choose a hosting provider that offers you daily automated backups of your website files. You can also consider using a plugin to achieve this functionality. Sometimes you can make a mistake and end up losing all your files. However, if you have an automated backup in place you will simply switch to your previous website version, saving you time and resources.

Availability of customer services- You want to choose a hosting provider with excellent and available 24/7 customer service. Sometimes things may go wrong and you may end up requiring some expert help from customer service.

Hosting features- You want to choose a web hosting provider with most of the web hosting features out of the box. This way you won't need other third-party’s software to achieve the same goal. This reduces the number of plugins you need for your website, consequently increasing website speed. Most plugins add bloat to your website, reducing its performance.

Server performance- When choosing a web hosting for your Christian website, you want a server that is fast with in-built custom caching to accelerate your website loading time. They should be using the latest server operating system and software.

Storage and bandwidth- Choose a hosting provider that offers NVMe SSD storage and unlimited bandwidth. SSD storage is better and faster than HDD storage devices. The bandwidth determines the amount of traffic your website can receive at a given time.

Free CDN- CDN stands for content delivery network. Choose a company that offers free CDN to accelerate your website load time hence passing the Google speed test out-of-the-box. You can also consider Cloudflare’s free CDN. Most web hosting providers are already integrated with Cloudflare, hence there is no need for extra plugins.

The ability to scale up - Scalability is vital when choosing a hosting provider for your Christian website. View your website as a business, and every business needs to scale up at one point. You may begin with 200 web visitors and with time accelerate to 5000-10,000 visitors per day. You will need to scale up your hosting plan to accommodate your website needs.

The refund policy- Most hosting providers have a 30-day refund policy. Dreamhost has a 90-day refund policy, giving you enough time to test their hosting services. This gives you the ability to make the right decision without a rush.

Free domain name- Most web hosting providers offer a free domain for the first year reducing your cost. Why pay for a domain name when it can be provided at no cost for a whole year?

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