Thinking of building the next Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Reddit? Or maybe you’d like to come up with a niche social media site that is focused on a specific crowd?
No matter which type of social media site you are planning to launch, you need to find the right web host. It could very well make or break your entire website, so you need to be absolutely clear on what to look for in a web host for social media.
Faster is Better
The speed that your site can load will be based on several factors, including the web design, bandwidth, server load, hosting location, and more. In other words while you need to look for a web host that is fast – that is easier said than done.
As far as the web host is concerned, your priority should be to make sure it is able to handle the demand that is placed on it in terms of the bandwidth and server load. That is especially true if your social media site allows users to share videos and images.
The server location is only important if most of your users are from a specific geographic area. If they are not, using cloud servers that are spread across the world may help.
Make Sure It is Stable
Nothing is more annoying for users than when they want to check the latest updates on their social media but find that it is down. It will put users off, and make them less inclined to use your site.
The web host that you choose must be able to guarantee a close-to-100% uptime. On top of that it should be set up so that you are notified immediately and can take action as soon as your site is down.
Choosing a web host that provides 24-hour support all 7 days of the week can be a big help in that regard.
Will it Scale?
Most social media sites start small but then grow by leaps and bounds. As they do they require more resources in terms of bandwidth, storage, RAM, and even processor usage.
Suffice to say the web host needs to be able to meet your expectations not only when you first launch your social media site, but also for several months or years to come. Needless to say that will put you in a bit of a spot, which is why social media sites often prefer web hosts that are easy to scale.
The three most common options are VPS, cloud, or dedicated server webhosts. Compared to other types of hosting services, they are normally easier to scale and will enable you to purchase additional bandwidth, storage, or even upgrade the server resources in other ways.
Must Be Secure
If you’re running a social media site you’re going to be handling a lot of data that users consider personal. Because of that you must ensure that your platform is secure, and take that into account when you choose a web host.
To put it simply, any web host for a social media site must provide you with the tools that you need to make it as secure as possible. That typically includes access restrictions, network monitoring, firewalls and firewall checker, SSL, DDoS prevention, malware detection, and more.
At the end of the day your goal should be to make sure that the information users share is protected and remains private.
Final Words
In addition to the things listed above, there are many other factors that you may want to take into account when you choose a web host. Some may be specific to the type of social media site you want to launch, or the software that you need to run to facilitate it.
It should be noted that large social media sites almost always opt to use dedicated servers of their own so that they can customize and tailor-make the hardware based on their specifications. However smaller social media sites may be able to get by with VPS servers or cloud hosting.
All said and done it boils down to a question of the type of social media website you want to launch, as well as its scale.
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