Most hosting regrets trace back to something nobody asked before signing up. The questions are short, and a decent provider answers them plainly.
What happens when I exceed the limits?
The most revealing question, because the answers differ enormously.
Some providers send a notice and give you time. Some throttle. Some suspend the account immediately.
You want to know which before it happens, not during. And the resource that binds is rarely disk. It is the processing allowance, which is the one least clearly advertised. Monitoring your hosting resources deals with what actually runs out.
What exactly are the backups?
Not "do you have backups": everyone says yes. Ask:
How often are they taken. How long are they kept. Can I restore one myself or must I ask. Does a restore cost anything.
Retention is the answer that matters most: a provider keeping two days of backups cannot help with a problem noticed on Friday that started on Monday.
And whatever the answer, keep your own as well. Managing backups explains why a copy you control is the one that counts.
Which PHP and database versions are available?
A platform offering only old versions cannot run current applications safely, and moving again in a year is the outcome.
Ask what is available now and how quickly new versions appear. A host still offering nothing beyond an unsupported PHP release is telling you about the whole operation. There is more on why you will need a current one in upgrading the PHP version of a WordPress site.
How is support reached, and when?
Ticket, chat or telephone. What hours. Whether those hours are yours.
Then test it before committing: ask a real pre-sales question and see how long the answer takes and whether it addresses what you asked. That is the same team you will reach at midnight.
Is a migration included?
Many hosts migrate one site free. Ask what that covers, files and databases usually, email frequently not, and email is the part that goes wrong.
Also ask who does it and whether they test before switching. A migration performed carefully with a DNS cutover is a different experience from one that copies files and changes nameservers the same afternoon. Planning a DNS cutover goes into what good looks like.
What is the renewal price?
Introductory pricing is normal and doubling at renewal is common.
Compare the renewal figures instead of the first-term ones, and check what a longer commitment actually saves. Estimating hosting costs walks through the items that are not in the headline price.
The question for the host you are leaving
Ask this before cancelling anything: exactly how do I obtain a complete copy of my account?
Files, databases, email and any DNS records they hold. A full backup you can download.
That request is straightforward while you are a paying customer and much harder afterwards, particularly if the relationship ended badly. Get the copy, verify it opens, and only then cancel. There is more on the rest of that order in what to do before you cancel or move hosting.
Two things worth checking yourself
Where the servers are. It affects latency and jurisdiction. Choosing a data centre location goes into when it matters.
Whether you keep control of the domain. A host that registers the domain in their own name has made leaving considerably harder. The registrant should be you. There is more on checking in managing a portfolio of domains.
Vague answers are answers
A provider that will not say what its backup retention is, or how support hours work, has told you something.
The questions above are ordinary and a competent host answers them without hesitation. Hesitation is the finding.
Where is it, and who actually runs it
Two questions that sound administrative and decide latency, jurisdiction and who you are really buying from.
dig example-host.com A +short curl -s "https://ipinfo.io/$(dig example-host.com A +short | head -1)" 2>/dev/null | head -12
A company reselling somebody else's infrastructure is not a problem in itself, and it does change what happens when something breaks, because the escalation goes through them.
Ask which data centre the account will be in, and confirm the answer matches where your visitors are. A host with an impressive location list frequently defaults new accounts to one place, and moving afterwards means a migration.
What happens on the day you leave
Every host is easy to join. The question worth asking is how the exit works, and asking it before signing gets a much straighter answer than asking later.
Three specifics. Whether you can generate and download a full account backup yourself without asking. How long the account remains recoverable after cancellation. And whether they will produce a transfer archive for a different provider on request.
A host that cannot answer the first one has told you something important. The ability to leave with your data, on your own initiative and without a ticket, is what makes every other promise negotiable. What to do before you cancel or move hosting covers the process.
Check the answers against the account you get
Sales answers describe the product. What matters is the account, and the two occasionally differ.
php -v | head -1 df -h ~ | tail -1 df -i ~ | tail -1 ulimit -u curl -sI https://yourdomain.example/ | grep -iE 'server|x-powered'
Run these in the first week, while cancelling is still simple. Compare the version, the disk allowance and the file allowance against what you were told.
The file count is the one most often omitted from the description and the one most likely to be reached first, particularly on a mail heavy account. Finding it now is a conversation; finding it in six months is a migration.