One important thing we didn't discuss yet during this chapter is selecting a hosting provider that is capable of running your online store. We already mentioned that you should not expect performance for a couple of dollars per month. Magento will often still run at a cheap hosting service, but the performance is regularly very poor. So, you should pay attention to your choices here and make sure you make the right decision. Of course everything depends on the expectations for your online store. You should not aim for a top performance, if all you expect to do during your first few years is 10,000 dollars of revenue per year. OK, that's difficult sometimes. It's not always possible to create a detailed estimation of the revenue you may expect. So, let's see what you should pay attention to:
- Does the hosting provider mention Magento on its website? Or maybe they are even offering special Magento hosting packages? If yes, you are sure that technically Magento will run. There are even hosting providers for which Magento hosting is their speciality.
- Are you serious about your future Magento store? Then ask for references! Clients already running on Magento at this hosting provider can tell you more about the performance and customer support levels. Sometimes a hosting provider also offers an optimized demo store, which you can check out to see how it is performing.
- Ask if the hosting provider has Magento experts working for them and if yes, how many. Especially in case of large, high-traffic stores, it is important to hire the knowledge you need.
- Do not forget to check online forums and just do some research about this provider. However, we must also admit that you will find negative experiences of customers about almost every hosting provider.
Are you just searching for a hosting provider to play around with Magento? In that case any cheap hosting provider would do, although your Magento store could be very slow. Take for instance, Hostgator (http://hostgator.com), which offers small hosting plans for a couple of U.S. dollars per month. Anyway, a lot of hosts are offering a free trial period, which you may use to test the performance.