Here’s the info on dedicated servers…they are great if you are going to get massive amounts of traffic (say 2000+ hits a day) and or you are going to be running complex scripts and web apps on your site. They are more important for web apps than traffic. Today’s modern shared hosting accounts can accommodate for high traffic.
If this will likely be a WordPress install, there’s no need to jump to a dedicated server just yet, wait until you launch and your traffic scales up…I use GoDaddy, and they have just upgraded their servers to GRID HOSTING, meaning they are quick. If you’ve noticed my site was slow in the past…view it again…loads much quicker and it’s because of the grid hosting, so I’d recommend it.
If you want, I’ll even host the domain for you…but you’re savvy enough you may want to sign up for your own.
Changing hosts isn’t complicated, I’ve changed over 12 hosts at one time on the GoDaddy servers…..done correctly you experience about 6 hours of downtime, at the most 24 hours. It’s an export import process with both all your website files, and the database files. It’s a technical transition, I could explain it, or do it at a later date but it’s a bit more complicated than hitting a few buttons.
If you’re not keen on GoDaddy, as they are one of the largest webhosts around, and have received as much insult as they have praise, I also recommend Hostgator…I’m a little less familiar with them, but have heard good things for years now.
