Thinking out loud here about web hosting. I’m pretty happy about the web hosting for djchuang.com at TotalChoiceHosting, but their basic service doesn’t offer multiple domain name hosting. So I’m starting to shop around for a new web host, and there are thousands of them out there. It looks like a very crowded playing field, and it’s hard to tell from the comparison websites whether those are just promotional deals or legitimate comparisons with objective ratings. My hunch is that people go with a web host that they first hear of, or get referred to. It’s difficult to make an easy apples-to-apples comparison b/c every web host lists their best features and conveniently hides the features that competitors do better at delivering. But here’s what I’m looking for at a price point of $7 per month with no more than 1-year pre-pay and no setup fee: WordPress hosting (PHP, mySQL), 12 domain names, sufficient web space and bandwidth (the going rate seems to be 10GB disk space and 20GB monthly bandwidth), domain POP email and webmail, FTP access, web-based admin, phpMyAdmin, weblog statistics, responsive tech support, reliable uptime.
I do prefer web hosts that are more transparent about their people and operations, such as having a support forum with open message board, CEO’s who blog, disclosure of data center and office locations.
Here are web hosts that have caught my attention, but don’t quite have all my wished-for ingredients:
- DreamHost.com allows unlimited domains for $7.95/mo 2-year pre-pay, and 1 blogger’s multiple database connectivity issue shouldn’t be a problem for me.
- BlueHost.com allows 6 domains for $6.95/mo 2-year pre-pay, has a blogging CEO, $7.95/mo for 1-year pre-pay.
- Site5.com has a Flashback function that automatically keeps older version of changed files so you can roll back changes, like that Undo button in a word processor, except for a website.
- http://www.globat.com/ allows 6 domains for $4.95/mo 1-year pre-pay, has a blogging CEO, but slower response time.
- StartLogic allows 10 domains for $4.95/mo, but one blogger had database connectivity problems and switched to HostGator — which has almost everything I’m looking for except price and space.
- GeekHosting.com has 10 domains for $5.95/mo with 6 GB space.
- [update] WebHostingBuzz.com has it all – $7/mo 7 GB space, unlimited domains (heard about them from Slacker Manager)
Am I being too demanding? It’s just a numbers game, in some respect, and I think my numbers are do-able.
This article about Overselling hosting is eye-opening; the whole website WHreviews.com has good stuff. Have to read more.. WebhostingTalk.com is an active discussion forum / message board that has more threads than I can read. HostingTech.com allegedly is a website for those in the web hosting industry.
A good friend of mine has $5/mth Word Press hosting. Check it out to see if it’s what you’re looking for. His name is Paul.
Unless you do dedicated hosting, speed indicators will not be helpful because it all depends on how many other customers your web host provider can jam you in with… If you got all newbies, then no speed hit there – but if you get slashdotted often, then you are toasted.
I and my next door cube neighbor split a dedicated host at 1 and 1 hosting for $25 a month and I hosted 13 sites of my churches and my other projects on it. But of course, I would pay more for something like the FlashBack feature you talked about there.
I don’t know if you can get 10 domains hosted for $7. But I have a brilliant idea for web stats. Try http://www.statcounter.com.
Cheers
Highly recommend dreamhost. Not only unlimited domains, but also a ridiculously high quota and bandwidth (increases weekly), offer. True, they have had some hiccups in the past (like the one you linked to), but they’ve been quite responsive in adding new features and fixing issues.
DJ, dreamhost has this crazy $97 off coupon for the first year. So you end up paying $22 or something for an entire year.
GNet Hosting is providing cheap affordable ecommerce web hosting with frontpage, php, stats, ecommerce and domain names support. Affordable web hosting without compromising quality. Free domain names for small business owners with free web site templates and mysql database hosting.
Business web hosting plan
15 GB space
300 GB data transfer
FREE Domain name registration
$5/month
Corporate web hosting plan
25 GB space
400 GB data transfer
FREE Doman name registration
$9/month
GOLD: Kingdom Blogging (10 April 2006)
A plethora of relevant and psuedo-relevant items from servants of the Kingdom of God.
This is the question Web Hosting Review strives to answer for you; we offer reviews on 15 of the best web hosting companies available.
[...] There are lots of web host lists. A number of guys on here have their own site with a list. Any site have a list of hosts with: Host, bandwidth, disk space, … Read More… [...]