If you have decided on having Joomla as the content management system for your website, it is crucial that you pick a web hosting service that will give you everything you need to use Joomla to its full potential. Most of the major web hosting companies has Joomla available for installation but it takes a lot more than that to be considered a good Joomla hosting service. Joomla tends to take up more disk space than other common content management systems such as WordPress and Drupal so a good Joomla hosting provider should have unlimited disk space, especially if you plan on producing a lot of content on your site.
Many hosting companies say they have unlimited disk space and bandwidth but the truth is, very few of them actually do. But 99% of customers don’t need unlimited disk space bandwidth so the hosting providers can get away with not being honest about their services. 99.9% uptime guarantees are also a little bit misleading because they do not count the downtime for scheduled maintenance. But for about 99.9% of customers, 99.9% uptime is more than enough so don’t pay too much attention to uptime when analyzing hosting services. Many web hosts also now offer a free domain to new customers. If you have not registered your domain yet, then it would be wise for you to select a web host that offers a free domain since then you will only have to pay for hosting.
Features To Look For
If you are relatively new to Joomla or are technologically challenged, you should also make sure that the hosting provider has 24/7 live chat support for Joomla, or at least a large knowledgebase and wide selection of tutorials that you can learn from. The hosting provider should also have the following list of features:
- PHP 5.2.17 & MySQL 5 based on Apache 2
- Unlimited MySQL Databases and phpMyAdmin
- 1-click Joomla installation
- Money-back guarantee
- Knowledgebase and tutorials on Joomla
- 24/7 live chat support
There are some hosting companies that specifically cater to webmasters using a particular CMS. For example, WPEngine caters to those using WordPress. It would be a good idea to use a hosting company that caters to Joomla so that you can receive hosting that is optimized for Joomla. This type of company should have their web servers perfectly configured for Joomla so that downloading and installing new Joomla updates in the future will be a breeze. Note that it will also be more expensive since the costs are higher for the company when providing hosting to a limited audience, but if you are new to Joomla and need the technical support, it will be well worth it for you.
Reputation is also a key factor when it comes to picking the right Joomla hosting provider. It is important that the company lives up to the hype and doesn’t disappoint customers once they have committed. That is why you should always ask for second opinions from your friends or from around the Internet before committing to a particular web host. Reading reliable third party reviews is the best way to determine the true quality of a hosting provider.
Depending on the type of website you want to create, you might need access to special features such as Cron Jobs, PostgreSQL Databases, CGI Library, Ruby on Rails, SSL Secure Server, etc, which many web hosts do not provide. Before searching for a hosting provider, write down a list of all the features you will need first so that when picking a hosting provider, you know exactly which one fits your needs. There is nothing more frustrating than picking a web host and hen later realizing that it doesn’t meet your requirements because then you have to find a new host and transfer all your files to the new provider, which take a very long time and cost money, not to mention it also might keep your website down!
Last but not definitely not least, a good Joomla hosting provider should always have a money-back guarantee. This not only reduces the risk for the buyers, but it also gives them assurance in the hosting company because it shows buyers that the company feels confident about the quality of its service.
Some Popular Web Hosting Service Companies: