Lots of times when we outline to our clients what is required to get their website up and running they are surprised that they need a hosting company at all -'but my ISP gives me hosting space with my access account', is often the statement we hear when talking about ongoing costs of getting your business online.

So why do you need a specialist hosting company and what should you look for in a hosting company?

Price - should price be a feature? Yes! Hosting companies have been refining their hosting prices quite markedly over the last 12 months and you need to ensure that you are getting value for money. However you need to ensure that you are getting what you need for that price - often the most expensive offering is no more appropriate than the cheapest offering. Be guided by your web developer and shop around.

Features - understanding what the various hosting packages offer and if they are appropriate for your website. Some of the items to look for in a hosting package include the following

. Site Statistics - if your hosting company does not provide a site statistics as part of their package - forget them! Tracking how many visitors to your site and where they are coming from are vital in the running of your website and hence the online arm of your business

. Email Addresses - how many are you entitled to and what features (such as anti-spam capability) are included with the email addresses. Many hosting packages provide unlimited email addresses with their hosting packages

. ASP (Active Server Pages or similar) support - if your website has any dynamic components at all (such as the ability to update content yourself) you most likely need your hosting company to provide ASP in your hosting package. Check to see whether ASP is included in the standard hosting package or whether you need to progress to the next package on their list of options

. File Size - how much data can you store on your website without incurring extra charges?

. Bandwidth charges - every time someone views your site it creates bandwidth activity on the host servers. A certain amount of traffic is included in the hosting package, check to see if there are limits on your account and what those limits are.

. Reliability and support - what are the hosting companies support and backup policies, when can you contact them?

We always recommend our clients host their websites with professional hosting companies, with the appropriate technical support and quality features that are required to successfully host your business online. Our experience is that your ISP is not usually the best place to host your site in the long term - ask your web developer who they host with and why.