When looking to purchase web hosting for the first time there are a few things you need to weigh out. First I will assume that you have already ruled out free web hosting.  Free hosting can be a good option for many but paid hosting is much better overall-Using free hosting can be okay but with the small costs paid hosting is a better option.

When looking at multiple web hosting sites you need to look at what you are going to do.  Like if you are going to setup a proxy site you must make sure the host will allow it.  Many web hosting companies will not because of the traffic they take up so make sure.  With almost any other web sites you will be good on almost any host. You need to look how much traffic you will be bringing at first. If you are not sure about traffic most new websites will not bring in much.  Next you are going to need to decide how much space you need.  Are you going to be running a blog?  Is software going to be able to download or are you going to have plenty of pictures?  When you figure out these two questions space and traffic then you need to estimate how much bandwidth you are going to use.  If you have no idea you probably are not going to use a lot.

When these questions are answered you will have one more question to ask. How many domains do you believe you will host at the same place.  Most web hosting companies will allow you to have unlimited domains but some lower accounts will put a limit on the amount.  Once you have the answers to these questions you will be able to get the best web hosting that will best for your web sites.