Searching for the perfect Christian web hosting company can be daunting unless you know exactly what to expect from the web hosting company you decide to go with. Most of the hosting companies you’ll find on the Internet provide a wide range of services, from small low-budget hosting packages to larger, more advanced and expensive features. Fees for Christian web hosting services can range from as low as $ 3.95 to as much as $ 395 per month. There are some that may provide free hosting services if you allow them to post ads on your page. One important thing is to make sure you have enough in your budget to afford the amount of bandwidth and disk space you will need for your site. There are other factors to take into consideration when shopping around for a good Christian web hosting company.
Charitable Component
A company that provides Christian web hosting services should be one that has a charitable component.
Companies like Brinkster and Hostable both donate a percentage of their revenues to various charities and non-profit organizations. For many people, a visit to your church’s website is their first step toward a closer relationship with God. Seeing that your site is hosted by a company with a strong sense of charity and helping others would leave a very strong impression.
Declaration of Christian Focus Within About Us page
The ideal Christian web hosting company should have an About Us page that emphasizes a Christian focus or a focus on humanitarian efforts and charitable causes. Brinkster’s About Us page lists several of their charitable causes and humanitarian contributions to various organizations. A web hosting company with a strong social and religious conscience is more appealing to a potential Christian client.
Page Dedicated to Christian Web Hosting
Don’t primarily target your search to Christian web hosting companies. Other web hosting companies can meet your church’s needs just as well. When researching these companies on the Internet, look for a page that solely dedicated to Christian web hosting.
Member of Christian Web Hosting Group
Companies that provide Christian web hosting services know the importance of joining Christian web hosting groups on social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. The Internet is a powerful business tool, and Christian web hosting groups are a good way for these companies to find clients and for clients to find them.
Member of Christian Web Hosting Facebook Page
If you’re not on Facebook, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Most people under age 40 use the Internet for information on just about everything, even a good church to attend. A Christian web hosting company that wants to reach the largest Internet demographic has a Facebook page. You may even be able to find a good web host provider on Facebook more quickly and easily than by doing a search.
Other Concerns
A good Christian web hosting company is one that can provide you with a statistical analysis package for site traffic reporting like Webalizer, Getstats and Analog. Ideally, your host should be able to provide access to a raw log file. You should also look to see if the hosting services include site statistic tools you can use to evaluate site traffic and plan future site development. If the company you’re considering doesn’t offer this, keep shopping.
Before you start shopping around for a Christian web hosting company, jot down what features you want for your website. This will help you streamline your search to those companies that offer the features you need. While you want the most for your money, don’t be cheap. You don’t want to break the bank, but penny-pinch too deeply and you may end up getting exactly what you paid for.
Find out what the web hosting company will charge if you go over your allocated disk space and bandwidth per month and decided if it’s worth it. Make sure that your Christian web hosting company offers sufficient support, backups and guaranteed up time. If they don’t offer free support, pass. If they don’t offer 24/7/365 technical/customer support, pass. If they can’t guarantee at least 99 percent up time, then keep shopping.
Find out where your Christian web hosting company keeps their servers. It should be one central location, whether it’s in someone’s basement or in a professional server facility with adequate security and quality bandwidth. If the hosting company refuses to divulge information on their data center, security and bandwidth quality, they’re not the one to choose. There are lot of good Christian web hosting companies for you to choose from, and with the right amount of due diligence, you will find the ones that’s perfect for your church.
