This website is a guide to web hosting companies, services and domain name registrars, enabling readers to take good decisions for renting out server space for their websites and blogs. This website will also provide technical help for common issues that one usually encounters when setting up the hosting or managing it. Some of the information covered in this website includes information about Windows, Linux hosting, technical details of dedicated and virtual dedicated (VPS) servers and also about various cloud platforms like Amazon ECS and Windows Azure. This site also provides reviews, offers, what is cheap & what is best in the web world. Here is a list of some of the most popular hosting companies in no particular order; please note that the author is an affiliate of some of these companies. Please take your own informed decision when choosing one for your site or blog; the viewpoints provided in this site are the author’s personal views.
GoDaddy;
GoDaddy is the world’s largest domain registrar and probably the biggest web-hosting company as well. They provide a wide range of services such as domain auctions, search engine visibility, & shopping carts apart from the usual plans. Their shared plans have a feature in which WordPress can be installed directly in your space without requiring uploading the files and setting the database properties. One thing that you will notice in their website is that there will be a lot of up-sells for other products. Some people might find them useful but some might not like the idea of a lot of up-sells popping up every-time you try register a domain. GoDaddy also provides email support for shared plans while dedicated & VPS plans can also avail the instant chat facility apart from phone support. From the author’s previous experience with GoDaddy, there have been a few outages (downtime) once in a while but the variety of services and value adds available.
Hostgator;
Hostgator is another popular company in the world of servers. Their plans start as low as $3.96 per month (subject to conditions). With this plan, one gets unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, web templates for your site and also 1-click installation scripts. The shared plans provided are the hatchling plan, baby plan and the business plan, the last allowing one to have an unlimited number of domains (it comes with private SSL and IP).
BlueHost;
BlueHost also has plans which offer unlimited web space and value-added services like site builder. They also provide cPanel access which can be used to control the settings of the hosting (like adding email accounts, databases etc.). They offer an up-time guarantee of 99.9%. As of the time of writing this article, their plans start from $6.95 per month.
Here is a list of a few more popular companies;
- RackSpace (high end servers)
- HostMonster
- Just Host
What are the things to consider when going for a shared hosting plan?
- Is the company reliable? How long have they been operating? What is the popular opinion about them on the internet?
- Is the cost per month variable? (some companies offer free or cheap plans for the first month and then charge a higher amount for subsequent months)
- Is database support like MySql, MsSql provided free of cost?
- What is the guaranteed up-time?
- Is a control panel like Plesk or cPanel provided for easy administration?
- What is the number of email accounts and bandwidth offered?
- Does the plan support multiple domains?
- What are the programming languages and frameworks supported? (Example: ASP.net, PHP, Perl, Python etc.)
- Are stats like awstats provided free of cost?
- Are pretty URLs supported (helps in SEO)?
- Is root access allowed (for Linux)?
- Does it allow sub-domains and domain forwarding?
- How about customer support and turn-around-time? (Phone, email or chat?)
- How much bandwidth and disk space is offered?
- Can additional bandwidth or disk space be purchased without requiring buying a new plan?
- Is Webmail supported?
- How about value add-on like SSL certificates, exclusive IP addresses?
- Are backups provided and are they free of cost or should extra payment be made?
- What is the maximum number of parallel connections supported?
VPS, Virtual Dedicated & Dedicated Servers;
If you are looking to host multiple websites, it is better go for a VPS rather than a shared plan. This is because a VPS allows you to remotely connect to the server and manage it. You can also host an unlimited number of domains on a VPS. Most VPS are available for less than 50$ a month. If you are an internet marketer or someone who is into reselling, you might want to strongly consider going for a virtual dedicated server (VPS) or a dedicated server. It allows you to collect your own rates and payment from customers and change the settings in the server as required. Some 3rd party web based software, components etc. require admin access on the machine (for example IIS settings might need to be changed) and hence a VPS is preferable. Another advantage is that you can install desktop applications or custom software directly on the server. Because you are renting out a whole server, there are no restrictions like amount of available memory your website can use.
Reseller Plans;
Some of these companies also offer reseller plans for managing multiple clients and at the same time earning money by selling the reseller plans. For example, GoDaddy offers a reseller plan in which they provide APIs as well as an end-to-end integrated website in which you can sell close to 50 products. Payment information is also integrated in the website and all you have to focus on is to drive traffic and potential customers to the website.
Tips & Guide;
Whichever plan you choose, make sure that you take a regular backup of all your website files. Make sure that you set auto-renewal of the plans so that even if you forget, you won’t miss the payment (your credit card or PayPal account will be charged automatically). You might also want to consider protecting your privacy by buying whois guards and protection options so that the identity of the owner of the domain remains anonymous.