With such an overwhelming number of web hosting companies offering such a wide variety of services, it is very difficult to find the best web-hosting package for you. So try not to take a hasty decision and sign up with any web-hosting provider. Instead, first find out what web hosting features are essential so that you have a better idea of the web-hosting package that's best for your needs.

In the current scenario, free web hosting is gaining more popularity. But at times it fails to match the clients' requirements. Majority of the free web hosting services are reliable, but sometimes they tend to disappoint. Various web-hosting companies provide minimum free services and compensate by charging for the expanded services. If your company is amateur and requires only a home page then this it is the best option to go for. Before selecting a web hosting company it is sensible to do a market research about the company's reputation and reliability.

When choosing your web hosting package, you want to know about disk space. If you're going to be building a big site, they you will need a lot of disk space. The range is usually from 5 MB up to 300 MB. So even if you're starting out small, make sure your web hosting provider has the ability to grow with you as large as you want to go.

You also need to take into account email accounts when signing up for a web-hosting package. Make sure you have enough email addresses to get started, and that you aren't being charged for more than you need. Again, know how many you need, but choose a web hosting service that can offer as many as you need as you grow and know what the charges for additional email accounts will be.

One important factor that should be kept in mind while selecting a web hosting company is the support provided by them. Majority of the people having websites are not aware of the latest technology. So they require a superb technical support in all the technical issues. You should be aware of the fact that the chosen web hosting package provides you a 24/7 support. It is sensible to check their downtime reputation too.

So for a final look there are few important web-hosting features, which can be included in your package, or you may require them at the time of expansion.

FrontPage extensions

FTP directory

Daily backups

Hit counter

Website statistics

Redirect URL

File manager

SSL

Shopping cart

Auto responder

Access logs

Mailing Lists

Customized error messages

Unlimited bandwidth

Your own CGI-BIN

Site search engine