While it is an industry norm to offer a lower introductory sign-up price, it is important to note that the renewal cost tends to be a tad bit higher. For instance, if the hosting sign-up price is somewhere around $1 to $4, depending on the package you choose, the renewal cost, in most cases, would be double of the sign-up price.

However, when choosing the best web hosting provider in India, it is important that you not based your decision solely on the price quoted and instead purchase a web hosting plan that best suits your business requirements.

For a newbie blogger or a small business, this criterion may not be worth pondering upon. However, for those who operate larger websites and have tonnes of media files & other large data files, running out on disk space could be a real crunch. Thus, while ‘unlimited’ disk space is a marketing ploy used by all web hosting companies, it is essential that you have a clear picture of what ‘unlimited’ entails.

Bandwidth would again depend on how much traffic your website gets. If you are running a personal WordPress site or a small website, then the ‘unlimited’ bandwidth that is offered with Shared hosting packages would suffice. But, if you own a medium to large business websites that are popular, then it is best that you choose a VPS or a Dedicated Server package that offers you more Bandwidth.

The processing power (CPU) of a hosting server determines how fast a query or a request is processed. Typically, in a Shared hosting plan, where several websites are hosted on a Single server, chances are that if the resources are not well allocated it could affect your site’s performance, as the server can slow down due to too many processing requests from other websites.

Thus, in short, for a seamless website performance, it is important that you look into how much processing power your business website requires before deciding on a hosting package.

There are 2 types of drivers – Solid State Drive (SSD) and Hard Disk Drive (HDD). While, most hosting providers offer HDD storage due to its low cost, for better site’s performance an SSD storage is a superior option. One of the hosting providers that offer SSD with its Shared hosting plan is InMotion Hosting. Hence, this is another factor that you need to consider when selecting a web hosting company in India.

Having an user-friendly Control Panel is extremely important, as it helps you to manage and make changes to your website. Without it, you will be left at the mercy to the hosting companies technical staff to make even minute changes. Thus, check whether or not, a hosting company is offering you a Cpanel on the purchase of a hosting plan.

Redundant Servers and low uptime can affect your site’s functionality and performance, which could hurt your site’s ranking as well as traffic. Thus, it is essential that you check what server infrastructure a web hosting company is offering as well as check what their uptime score is, in order to avoid any undue problems in the future.

This is a biggie. When choosing the best hosting in India, it is important that you check whether or not they offer reliable tech & customer support. This is crucial because in the event your website’s goes down for any reason or if you face any technical glitches, an experienced tech support will ensure that your website is up and running in no time. Likewise, a 24/7 customer support via phone, live chat, ticketing system etc, would ensure that a help is at hand whenever you need it.

For easy management, it pays to have your domain and hosting together. Moreover, many web hosting providers offer free domain registration on the purchase of a web hosting package, which will help you save money. Thus, while it is not a must-have factor, for hassle-free management of both Domain and hosting, look for a web host that offers both this service.

Another essential factor, select a web hosting company that offers Email as well as SSL service. While Email hosting will ensure that you have a personalized email id for your business, SSL Certificate is crucial for your site’s security as it helps keep sensitive data such credit/debit card details, customers information and other private information secure.

While a standard feature that mostly all web hosting companies provide, Auto Script Installers like Softaculous, makes the task of installing web applications such as WordPress easier, along with offering you a host of other features. It is a must-have feature and as such, ensure that it is a part of your hosting package when selecting a web hosting service provider.

The usual norm is to offer a 30-day money back guarantee. However, there are some other hosting companies like InMotion Hosting that offers a 90-day money-back guarantee, which is pretty awesome!

Before you sign up with a web hosting provider in India, it is critical to check what their refund policy says, as more often than, neglecting to read the finer prints, can land you into trouble later on. Hence, read through the refund policy to know what the cancellation charges are, other additional costs etc, before purchasing a web hosting package.