What is the difference in hosting companies?

To be completely honest, there really isn’t one. Most hosting companies are fundamentally the exact same. All of them aim for the highest achievable uptime, network transfer and data reliability. So why are the prices so different? And what are all of these other things that get thrown in for free?

Well I’m here to give you the 411 (are the kids still saying that these days) on what’s the deal.

• Why do prices vary from host to host?
  Unlike most other industries, Hosting providers do not have a set universal price point. It’s essentially what it costs to run your service, plus a little bit of mark up so a profit can be made. On top of that a lot of (major) hosting companies such as that Daddy, and that Gator, will include “bloatware” with your hosting account, much like when you buy a new computer and it comes preloaded with a bunch of software you immediately uninstall, because they get a cut of your subscription rate if you decide to sign up for said product. The only problem is most of that stuff is useless.
• What the #@&! is with all this junk?
  Another thing SOME (not all, and especially not here at Spark Rack) hosting companies have done in the past, is mine client data. When I say “mine” I don’t mean they ask for your permission and ask you a few questions to gauge your response. Some providers include tracking software on control panels and other owned software that will read your computers information, history, and other hidden gems to learn a little more about you, so they can market more products to you in hopes that you will buy them. Now as I said. Not all hosts do this, but it has happened, and for a while, was extremely common until it was forced to cease.
• Does maintenance and up-time even matter anymore?
  This is a double edged sword. If you are running an online business where 100% of your income is made from your website through orders, donations, traffic mining, etc. Yes 100% up-time matters. But you won’t find that cheap. But we’ll cover that in a moment.
• Why does no one offer 100% up-time anymore?
  Actually, 100% up-time is something that is extremely hard to achieve. And any host that says they can do it 365 days a year is either full of it, or will cost you a butt load of money to even sign up. The reason being is that computers are only as smart as the people who set them up or maintain them. And they’re electronic. After a while they die, or age out and won’t function as designed. In lieu of 100% up-time, look for High Availability. This means that your hosting provider has systems in place that mirror your system, so that if your primary server goes offline, your mirrors will automatically pick up keeping your services online and making it seem as if your system is always online. Spark Rack is moving towards high availability as of this moment.
• SSL. The age old question.
  Lots of hosting providers will tell you or sell you SSL even when you don’t need it. Spark Rack provides FREE SSL to all customers through “Let’s Encrypt“, a free and open sourced SSL certificate provider aimed at providing SSL for all websites. Now with browsers like Google Chrome saying “Not Secure” on websites that are not using SSL by default. More often than not website owners are trying to get hands on SSL certificates. Make sure your hosting provider (if it’s not Spark Rack) does offer a FREE SSL solution, like “Let’s Encrypt“.

Hopefully this gives you a little bit of an insight into what the difference is. At Spark Rack we do our best to stand tall above the rest to ensure a quality product and service. We hope to help you with your project in the near future.

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