The search for a great web hosting service can take time especially when you're looking for specific features that your website needs at a price that fits your budget. Let's say, you're planning to set up an online store selling handcrafted trinkets like key chains and bracelets that you've made yourself. However, your budget is just enough for a website with less than twenty pages. So, you'll want a cheap ecommerce web hosting plan, but with the right features for website security, credit card payments, and shopping cart management. Now that you know what you're looking for, the process of finding a web hosting plan is now cut down in half.

Understanding Website Security Features for Ecommerce Websites

For businesses that sell their products online and receive payments through their websites, the matter of Internet security is a big concern, especially with protecting their customers' personal and financial information from hackers. That's why you should pay attention, too, to the types of security software and protocols included in your prospective hosting plan. The Open Source software called Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is a standard feature in web hosting. It's strongly supported by another program called GNU Privacy Guard (GPG), which encrypts files aside from emails. These web applications work fine with any Linux operating system as well as Windows-run web servers.

Browsers and servers already use the standard 128-bit data encryption when connecting with each other via the security socket layer (SSL), which creates a secure channel for data to pass through unhindered. Other security protocols that web servers use to protect Internet communication via email, data transmission, and Instant Messaging is the Secure HTTP, which encrypts each data transmission sent instead of creating a secure connection between the website in the server and the browser in the desktop computer.

Integration of a Merchant Account with an Ecommerce Site

A merchant account is a type of bank account that can be set up to accept payments via credit or debit cards, mail order checks, mobile services, or online processors. It's not a savings or checking account, but a way for the bank to validate your customer's payment source and make sure it has sufficient funds. Once the customer's payment details have been cleared, the bank begins processing the fund transfer from bank to bank. Adding a merchant account gives your customers options other payment options than PayPal.

Shopping Cart Software for Ecommerce Sites

Theoretically, a set of plug-ins can turn a content management system (CMS) into an online store, but it's likely going to bog down when there's an increase in traffic as more and more customers visit the site. When looking for a cheap ecommerce web hosting plan, find out what shopping cart application you can install easily and get up and running as soon as possible. You'll need images and short descriptions of your products and a database of their retail prices and the discounts applicable to certain items in the inventory.

The most common shopping cart systems featured in ecommerce web hosting are OS Commerce and Agora, but similar OpenSource options include Zen-Cart and Magento. If you're willing to invest in proprietary software managed by a third-party service provider, then you have a choice among five plans that Volusion offers to its clients. Whatever software you decide to use, each has its strengths and weakness that you should figure out first before you installed one and had it live on site.

As a whole, the decision to purchase a web hosting plan is influenced by more than these three factors. Pricing is definitely a deal maker or a deal breaker depending on the customer's budget. Naturally, the cheapest plan has very limited features, such as a small disk space with equally sparse provision for bandwidth. These plans are more appropriate for personal blogs and not for ecommerce sites. In fact, the best web hosting plan for a business website falls somewhere in the mid-range with a price that's not too cheap or very expensive.

Building a business online is as difficult as putting up a company in real life. Business owners need an IT partner that can provide web hosting services tailored to their website's requirements. To begin with, check out cheap e-commerce hosting and find out the specific software and services included in the plans of http://www.optimalhosting.com/.