Choosing a Church Web Site Hosting Plan

With the competitive environment of the Internet, there are numerous companies offering great deals on hosting plans that will fit almost every church’s needs.

Here are some tips for picking the right hosting company and plan:

• Disk Space: At least 500 MB and up; especially if you are planning to post sermon audio. If you want to post an entire sermon audio library from several years, then opt for more disk space.
• Monthly Data Transfer: This is the amount of data that your plan offers for transferring data from your site (the host servers) to individual Web surfers who access your site. For instance, when a person goes to my site, they, in effect “download” my graphics and files to their computer. That information and data must be transferred from the hosting server to each computer. That’s transfer. Get at least 500 MB and up; or more if you have a lot of multimedia (sermon audio and video).
• Email Accounts: At least 10-20, depending on the size of your church staff
• Server Operating System: Windows or Linux, depending on the “bells and whistles” of your site. For instance, it matters if you’re going to use a content management system that requires Linux (i.e. Wordpress). Make sure you have a choice of which platform to use.
• Monthly Cost: Between $10-30 a month; there are several good plans available for as low as $4 a month with great amenities [My plans here]
• Support: Go with a host that has a good support department; check out their “Uptime to Downtime Ratio”; 99 percent “Uptime” is acceptable. You don’t want your site going down longer than that timeframe. Also, do they have a knowledge database, email support and customer service phone numbers?

Keep in mind, these are generation suggestions and specifically aimed at small to mid-size churches.

With the assistance of your Web team, Webmaster and designer, you will need to assess your individual site’s needs and determine which hosting plan is best for you. And these recommendations are for base hosting. It doesn’t include a content management system or other fees added. It’s just what some suggestions for what it takes to rent the computer space (where your files are stored) and bandwidth for a Web site.