Who to go to for web hosting

[David Harrison]

I've seen a few threads and posts in this forum where people have asked where to get hosting from, so I thought I'd make this sticky. If you have any recommendations or anti-recommendations as to who to go to (or not go to as the case may be) then this is the place to post about it.

I'll be heavily moderating this thread to make sure it stays on topic, if you want to talk to someone about something to get more details then do it via a PM, and maybe that person could come back and make an amendment to their post if neccessary. Remember, edit your already existing post, don't make a new one.

If I see anyone who's only post is in this thread then I will consider it advertising and delete it, if I see anyone who is obviously pimping their own hosting company then I will delete that.

Make sure that in your post you include details about the host you're talking about, 99.99% uptime and 6 TeraBytes of space for £1.99 per year doesn't count. While the hosting package and price is obviously worth mentioning it's not the be all and end all. Be sure to back up why you think they're good or bad with a short description of why you think that. I don't want to see recommendations for hosts that you're going to try out either, if you personally haven't used them then as a recommendation it doesn't carry much weight.

I'll start the ball rolling with an anti-recomendation, my current host is www.web-hosting.uk.com and they are ... not a good host. Quite often any pages that use ASP (which is pretty much my entire site) will simply stop working and no content will be sent to the browser. All normal .html pages will continue to be sent fine, I'm not sure if PHP pages still work during these "outages" as I've never had any to test. However, they are a pretty cheap UK based host and use the easy to get around helm CMS for their admin panel, so if you're just starting out and don't use a server-side language, they might be worth considering.

[JPnyc]

If you're in the U.S.A, godaddy.com. Best support around and it's 24/7. Great pricing/features. Website is a bit complex, but the support'll get you through that too.

[BeachSide]

Originally Posted by JPnyc

If you're in the U.S.A, godaddy.com. Best support around and it's 24/7. Great pricing/features. Website is a bit complex, but the support'll get you through that too.

I'm sorry but after developing two sites that purchased hosting through them (godaddy) I will never recommend them again.

1. They tend to lag especially their databases
a. Not specificlly talking about my queries either I'm talking about accessing it through their phpmyadmin
b. Linking up to their FTP lags as well sometimes
c. I run ADSL 3Mb/s down and have no problem with many many other hosts that I have sites I develop on

2. They use back handed measures to attempt to "steal" clients from me
a. I have had at least 3 clients who were pretty upset with GoDaddy after I referred them there to purchase their domain name and upon completing their purchase GoDaddy called them and basically harrassed them trying to get them to go with their hosting. Fortunatly for me the clients told them that they were perfectly happy with their hosting then promptly called me to tell me of their experience with GoDaddy's pressure tactics.

3. Their interface is complicated to run people who are not as "web savvy" as we are through. You ever try to explain the step by step instructions of how to navigate GoDaddy's UI to a person who at one time has said something like "I didn't know you sent me anything in the email, it didn't have a paperclip next to it"

Anyway not to sound disgruntled... If you want cheap cheap cheap then ya go with them.

[Jupac]

http://www.dreamhost.com/ a freind of mines has this its amazing

EDIT: A MOD TOLD ME TO EDIT THIS =)

Well the sign-up fee is pretty high, i didnt know about it because when me and my freind sign up it was wavied. The servers are realiable and fast. Also you get a free domain

[Sanim]

http://asmallorange.com

They have cPanel, unlimited subdomains (http://forum.mysite.com), unlimited email addresses, Fantastico (a part of cPanel that lets you install cool stuff on your site that doesn't have a flashy ad), and a lot more.

[Daniel T]

I use Mesopia and they have been very good.

If you desire ASP aswell as PHP, you won't be able to get their cheapest package, but their Windows hosting plans seem to be priced not excedingly high. And they also use Helm.

If you only need PHP, though, their Linux hosting plans start at $3.95/moth, and it uses cPanel

[jamesx521]

Originally Posted by Sanim

http://asmallorange.com

They have cPanel, unlimited subdomains (http://forum.mysite.com), unlimited email addresses, Fantastico (a part of cPanel that lets you install cool stuff on your site that doesn't have a flashy ad), and a lot more.

Does unlimited subdomains means that I can run 5-10 different websites under the same account and pay for one account?

Thanks.

[David Harrison]

James, yes it does, but you might run out of space if you keep adding on loads of sites.

[jamesx521]

The sites I'll run are 5-10-20 pages and probably wouldn't be more than 2-3 MB each. I doubt I'll go over 15-20 MB for all sites. If I can pay for one account and run 5 different sites, than that's great.

I currently use hypermart.net

I've been recently looking at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...st+web+hosting

Most of the top web-host reviewing sites rank Blue Host as #1. I think I read that some offer up to 5 free domains. But, that deal that the poster mentioned (look 2 postings before this one), offers unlimited domains. Is it even better?

P.S.
How do unlimited bandwidth compare with let's say 10, 100 or 500MB bandwidth? http://www.hosting-review.com/

[David Harrison]

When it says unlimited domains, it doesn't mean they'll give you as many domains as you want, it means they'll host as many domains as you want, you still have to buy the domains.

If you said that your sites are typically 2-3MB in size, then you won't need much bandwidth at all, and it probably isn't a concern for you, but then again, I don't know how many hits you get, so you'll have to work it out for yourself.

[webbo11]

Originally Posted by jamesx521

Does unlimited subdomains means that I can run 5-10 different websites under the same account and pay for one account?

Thanks.

No, it doesn't. Unlimited domains means you can have as many websites hosted under that account as you wish. But SUBdomains are just subsections of the same website/domain. for instance if you have your website http://www.james.com and say you have a bulletin board system on your website, you could set it up so that users would just type in say http://bbs.james.com and they would be sent to your bbs (bulletinboard system) site. this bbs site is actually just another folder inside of your website.

[Omaha100]

Try Lonex if your looking for a host, especially if you are new to web sites. What you get for $4.95/mo is a full service web hosting plan. I won't try to list all the features except to say site builder software comes with it and it is one of the best I've used. Service is fast and excellent although only through e-mail. I am very happy with it after setting up 2 sites. Go to www.lonex.com.

[cheersup]

i'll go for yahoo coz of the big name and they wavied the setup cost of $25. so around $11 dollars per month. it maybe more expensive than other sites , but it's more secure. i think it's worth to go for yahoo.

[intelligentfool]

my recommendation is Start Logic. My site's main purpose is for visitors to listen to streaming music, or download large files (30-200mb). I'm relatively novice when it comes to actual scripting code (php, asp) but their support for it seems excellent so far. Currently I pay 7.95/month for 5gigs of storage, 100gb of transfer, unlimited email, up to 20 databases. I've had them for 2 years now, and aside from their numbers, the other reason i picked them was that the first time i called their tech support (before i was actually a customer, just to check) i got thru on the first ring, and i can honestly say, unless you call at say, 9am est or 5pm est, then you'll get thru fast. I cant think of what else to say, but i recommend them to anyone getting a website. really top notch.

one con... i've noticed that when in dreamweaver, if i do a site wide sync, i get disconnected alot (and automatically reconnected with 2004 mx), but... i'm thinking it has more to do with dreamweaver than it does my server.

[smoker]

Hi,

I am reading this thread eagerly, as I came visitng with the exact same question. I have been with UK2.net for several years now and really need to change badly, they are ........... ! I wish I had changed earlier. I now need to transfer 25 domains because I am so sick and tired of their bad customer service and 'attitude'.

I have currently been trying to find out why 'Webdiversion' has stopped working on one of my domains, a simple task you might think, but I have been trying since the 15th of this month. It is not possible to contact them by anything other than e-mail, they never sign their names, their answers to client enquiries are blunt and often plain rude. Most of my mailed queries about the current loss of my webdiversion have been ignored.

When I first sent the query I had a one line reply which told me that my domain was not with them and so they could not help...... This was despite my domain being on my list of domains, on their nameserver, and if you did a search on it, it came up as "A UK2 domain", I transferred it in to them in 2003 and had the documentation.

Being rather puzzled by this response, I pointed out all of this to them; I was then informed that they had 'lost' my domain....... or it had been 'stolen', for the second time in two years, simply because they had not locked it despite it being a .com domain. I could go on and on, but it's too tedious.

They are utterly dreadful and I would not recommend them to anyone, they are cheap, but I guess this is a good example of the old adage that you get what you pay for.

Avoid UK2.net !