If you create a blog or a small site, then at first (somewhere up to 1000 hits per day) protection against DDOS attacks is not needed (tested in practice). As the audience expands, I would advise you to install at least a mirror or a firewall. If you are now thinking about whether to take hosting with DDoS protection right away, then this is a moot point - often this item increases the amount of the monthly rent at times, so I recommend renting hosting without DDoS protection, and then purchase separate protection. All of the above only work if you have control over your hosting and are not renting shared hosting.

What exactly is DDOS? Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks are when multiple systems, often compromised, flood a server with a massive amount of traffic. The goal is to overwhelm the server, making it unable to respond to legitimate requests, effectively bringing your website or service offline. It's like trying to walk through a doorway when a thousand people are trying to push their way in at the same time—nobody gets through.

Now, onto the crux of your question: is DDOS protection essential when selecting a hosting provider? The short answer is: it depends on what you're hosting and who might be interested in taking it down.

For high-profile sites or those dealing with sensitive information—like e-commerce, banking, or popular blogs—DDOS protection is quite important. If your site goes down, you not only lose visitors but potentially revenue and reputation as well. For these kinds of sites, not having DDOS protection is like leaving your front door unlocked in a bad neighborhood.

However, if you're hosting a smaller, low-traffic site, or something like a personal blog, the risk of being targeted by a DDOS attack is significantly lower. Many hosts in this space don't offer DDOS protection because the chances of such an attack are minimal, and even if it happens, the impact might not be catastrophic. In these cases, positive reviews might stem from good performance, reliability, and customer service, which are equally critical factors in hosting.

That said, there are alternative ways to mitigate the impact of a DDOS attack without built-in host protection. For instance, content delivery networks (CDNs) like Cloudflare can absorb a lot of traffic and shield your origin server from getting overwhelmed. Another option is to use rate limiting or IP blacklisting, though these methods can be less effective against large-scale attacks.

In addition, there are some hosting providers that don't offer specific DDOS protection but still have robust infrastructures that can handle a reasonable amount of traffic spikes. These might not be true DDOS defenses, but they can still give you some level of resiliency against smaller attacks.

So, to sum it up: if you're running a mission-critical site, then yes, DDOS protection is a crucial factor, and you should look for a host that provides it. But if you're running a smaller site with less risk, other factors like uptime, support, and general performance might weigh more heavily in your decision. It's also worth considering a hybrid approach—using a host with good performance and adding external DDOS mitigation through a service like Cloudflare.
It's all about understanding the specific needs and risks associated with your site. Not every website needs fortress-level security, but for those that do, skipping on DDOS protection could be a costly mistake.

Yes, DDoS protection is crucial when selecting a web host. It ensures your website remains accessible during attacks, preventing downtime, loss of revenue, and damage to your reputation. DDoS protection also safeguards sensitive data and maintains user trust by keeping your site secure and functional under potential threats.