As a first step, see if the web hosting service provider is offering round the clock customer support. Remember, in the game of servers, memory, and bandwidth, glitches can happen anytime irrespective of the name and fame of the service provider and what matters is how quickly and efficiently the provider could fix it in less time. To test this facility, you just ring them up, their customer care. On a general scale, you will be surprised by the number of unanswered calls you find in the process. Always go for those with 24/7 customer care facilities. It is always a prudent idea to take into account the reviews about a web hosting service provider, especially if it had been written by one of its previous clients. But, at the same time, don’t believe the writings found on the company’s forums or in the hosting directories. Most of the times, such reviews will be partisan or might be favoring the company.
Watch out for those web hosting companies that offer or boast a never ending backup of RAM and CPU. Another catch phrase employed by web hosting companies is ‘unlimited bandwidth and memory space’. But, one should be intelligent enough to realize that these are just games involving numbers and practically, none of the web servers on this earth has such features in place. Further, if the rate of a web hosting plan and the offer they put forward in terms of server resources are not congruent, it can be safely assumed that the plan is a scam. More server resources definitely cost more. The moral of the story is, don’t go by the plans entirely, but use one’s discerning senses as well, to full use. Finally, go for a domain that is reasonably old in business. Chances for new domains going bust in the fast paced web hosting business race is high. In fact, that is the trend witnessed in the hosting industry with about 95% of the players going out of business within their first year itself. It is easy to be a hosting company, but the difficult part is in sustaining the business.