Owners of small businesses are often challenged when it comes to buying web related services. Some are so focused on their business that anything do with technological services become a bit fuzzy. Lack of understanding of the technological needs of web based services will often result in overpaying for services that are not needed. Buying website hosting is one such area, and the best service is one that meets the specific business needs - at a reasonable price!

What exactly do internet hosting services do and what is reasonable to pay? That depends on the type and scope of service, coupled with factors such as reliability, speed or uptime of a system, that is, the percentage of time the system servers are accessible and reachable.

Here are a few important things to consider.

1. Cost. The single most determining factor of any service seems to be cost. Though the lowest cost alone shouldn't completely inform your decision, it is often the most important consideration. How much should you pay? What is reasonable? That depends on the service, of course, but most services charge excessive fees for comparatively very little. It pays to shop around and compare services with the present and eventual needs you may require.

2. Needs. Most applications require a comparatively minimal amount of web space expressed in bandwidth usage. Personal pages and email comprise the majority of uses, but corporate sites might require e-commerce, or security (secure sockets layer, or SSL) and database support for content management systems (CMS) for larger, interactive sites or forums.

3. Types of Services There are many free services, which, of course are replete with banner ads and other distractions. For professional, uncluttered applications, however, a paid service is always better. There are shared web hosting services, in which hundreds or even thousands of sites share the same server, as well as RAM and CPU usage. Peak usage times might interfere with some heavily used sites, causing some difficulty for users, but for most normal applications, this service is quite adequate.The features available with this type of hosting service can be quite extensive and provide analytic tools and other services to streamline basic activities and interface through an intuitive control panel (C Panel). Dedicated and managed hosting services offers varying degrees of control and the resources are rented. There are now also "cloud" based services which offer potentially less disruption as the servers are decentralized.

If your company requires specialized services, it would be wise to use the services of a consultant to ensure the best service application as ongoing monthly costs can be considerable. One other factor is the actual physical location of the server for privacy reasons. The physical location might even contravene some privacy policies. For this reason it is always best to choose a small business hosting service that is located in your own country.

When selecting between the various web hosting services for personal or small business, always consider all of the various considerations. For most, businesses, however, a shared server will probably offer the service features most used and needed, and the best value.