My homeowners' association is planning to buy a Web domain and hosting services. I'm looking for reliabilty and affordability. I'd also like to have other communities to be a sub-set of the domain.
My Thoughts:
When you're planning on putting up a Web site, getting a domain and Web hosting is often one of the first things people do. Some of the things you (or your homeowner's association) should consider are:
- What do you consider affordable? Domains can cost anything from a few dollars a year to $30 or more a year. And Web hosting ranges from free to several hundred dollars a month. What's affordable to me might be completely unreasonable to you. I would recommend coming up with specific numbers, but be ready to adjust them if your requirements merit it.
- How much space do you need? The more space you need the more the hosting will cost.
- How many hits do you think you'll get in a month (bandwidth)? Higher traffic sites need more bandwidth and that costs, often a lot more than space costs.
- What services do you need? Do you need programming? Database access? Shopping carts? Email addresses? The more services you need, the more the price goes up.
It can be very tempting to focus only on price when trying to choose a hosting provider and DNS service. But free services and services that are offered for nearly nothing often have hidden costs. For example, nearly all free hosting providers pay for their services through advertising. And most low-cost DNS providers make it very difficult to switch away from if you need to later.
Your cheapest option is to go with a free Web hosting provider and use a domain redirect service to get your domain pointed there. But for a business a better solution is to use a standard Web hosting provider and a DNS registry for your domain. Sometimes these are the same company, but most people use two different services for DNS and hosting. Larger small businesses that want more control over their Web site might go for colocation and manage their own Web server that way.
More Resources
- Types of Web Hosting
- Finding a Hosting Provider
- Web Host Reviews
- Windows versus Linux for Web Page Hosting
- How to get a Domain Name
- How to Register a Web Site Domain - Video
What do you think?
What are the things you look for when deciding on a domain and hosting solution? Do you have any specific recommendations for esmudd?
Help out esmudd and others trying to find good Web hosting services. Post your comments to the forum.
Personally I use http://www.UKReg.co.uk otherwise known as http://www.fasthosts.co.uk they are really reliable and respond to support requests really quickly.
.co.uk costs just £2.95 per year
.com costs just £8.89 per year
Very reasonable prices and very reliable, can’t go wrong with these guys. I’d never use anyone else.
The previous comment was regarding domain registration. I can’t vouch for their hosting but if their domain registration is anything to go by it will be very good.
For hosting I use mediatemple $50 a month for a virtual dedicated server. Pretty reasonable I thought and reliable. Their support is brilliant too.
I can back up what Tim says about UKReg, cheap reliable and helpful.
I’ve also used fashosts (UKReg’s parent company) for hosting, both with a dedicated server and a standard hosting package at 5GBP per month.
I’ve had absolutely no issues with either hosting package. Even on the standard hoting there are a good number of advanced facilities and good support for some fairly intence server side scripting and databases.
As far as I can see there’s nothing for free.. If a hosting provider is offering a free package you can expect some form of advertising forced on to your site and a l;ack of facilities. But for only a small monthly fee you can get good clean hosting.
I use ICD Soft, Ltd. for my hosting and domain – they have 24/7 ticket support with a guaranteed 1 hour response time. The longest I’ve waited is less than 10 minutes unless they had to research a case further. In that case, they communicate with me about the delay. The sites have a 99%+ uptime and the hosting is generous and has most everything one would expect from a good hosting company.
They support my issues with scripting by helping me trouble shoot problems that arise. They are always there and I love working with them!
I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a good hosting company.
Fees: $6/month for hosting + $2.50 for the domain if ordered together. Additional domains $10.
They have a $10/month account with double storage but I’ve not yet had the need to go with that package – the basic is very generous!
The servers are in the U.S. and Hong Kong.
I use http://www.awardspace.com. It’s absolutely free and there’s absolutely no ads on my site. I get a few things you’d normally pay for with no ads: ftp, subdomains et al. You do get some restrictions on bandwidth, storage etc, but it’s easily sufficient for a small site.
Fasthosts may have built up a good reputation over time, but they have recently ruffled a few feathers after locking users out of their hosting account by resetting passwords following a security breach.
Tony,
Your absolutely right. I’ve got 5 different accounts with UKReg / fasthosts and it was a bit of a panic when I couldn’t get in, however I would say that when I eventually got through to them on the phone (you can image how busy thier support line is!) that they sorted me out quickly and efficiently.
Obviously we would all have preferred not to have the security issue, but from what I have seen, as a client, they are dealing with it pretty well.
I use InMotion Hosting. I have a virtual dedicated server that costs me $49.95 per month. To register a new domain name, I spend a measly $7.95 per name (per year).
Tech support with InMotion Hosting responds pretty fast, and at any hour. I have emailed them between 2am and 4am and get as quick of a reply as when I emailed them between 2pm and 4pm. I have contacted them many times for “how to” questions.
The only down side could be if you ask for admin privlidges on your account, they expect you to ‘know what you are doing’. I would strongly advise you to discuss all your needs with them upfront to avoid any misunderstandings.
Other than that, I currently run three sites on my account so far (www.isabelleslighting.com, http://www.lighthousechristianchurchvt.org, and http://www.hectorisabellefamily.com) and have NEVER had and any down isses. They are VERY reliable. For the same monthly fee ($49.95), I can add as many sites as I want on my account. This may make no difference to you unless you are developing someone else’s site besides your own or if you just want to pool your resources with someone else you know as a means of cutting your overhead expenses (each paying only $25 / month). Be aware that doing this will also cut into the amount of server resources you have available per site. That being stated, one of my sites is an e-commerce lighting store and another has streaming audio. Though I had to get InMotion Hosting to make some minor adjustments in my server’s settings, there has not been any conflicts or shortages in server resources.
My advice:
1. Be very specific and up front with any hosting company you decide to go with. Tell them what your short and long-term goals and needs are.
2. Remember that no hosting company owns you. You can switch at any time, but doing so may be a very tiresome process.
3. So to avoid any major headaches, shop around a LOT and don’t make a hasty decision.
I hope that helps!
Best,
~ Tom Isabelle
Lighting Specialist & Web Designer
http://www.isabelleslighting.com
I use netwhoted – http://www.nethosted.co.uk. IMHO, you won’t beat them! Good price, support literally in minutes using the ticket system.
I have used , or rather, my client is using it. I haven’t heard of any problems. I suppose that prices are moderate. Their promotion is what I would call mainstream (this isn’t for geeks!).
Sorry, I need to practice my HTML! The company is GoDaddy. See http://www.godaddy.com/
Thanks
I have been using http://www.streamline.net, an Australian hosting company and have not had any issues yet. Their £33.99 yearly subscription with unlimited MB, free domain name and sql database is a good deal. Expect 24hours delay when posting a ticket
I use DiggityHost.com for all my needs on the internet. Email addresses, domain names (I own about 50 now), hosting, virtual hosting etc…
Anyone can feel free to drop me a question on my blog if they need someone that is ‘in the know’ about these sort of things. The great thing about putting it on my blog is that others can find the question and answer and find themselves a little bit of help perhaps.
Cheers!
Wayne
I highly recommend “hands-on web hosting.” Their prices are better than most, their customer service is unexpectedly responsive and helpful, and the services they provide are plentiful. As a professional web designer and developer, I’ve used them to buy hosting for at least 10 of my clients.
Here is an easy link:
http://billing.handsonwebhosting.com/aff.php?aff=013
I use Neighborhood Link
It’s a nice free option. I was suspicious about it really being free at first, but other than some minor advertising, on some of the pages, it really is free. At least no catch I’ve found in the 8 years I’ve used it.
It’s an easy solution that allows even our computer-illiterate board members to post our HOA events, post the newsletter, have online discussions with the neighbors and even have easy discussions with people in other neighborhoods on Neighborhood Link – that has been really helpful at times!
Checkout the actual page we created: http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/denver/congress/
I use http://www.neighborhoodlink.com
It’s a nice free option for HOA websites. I was suspicious about it really being free at first, but other than some minor advertising, on some of the pages, it really is free. At least no catch I’ve found in the 8 years I’ve used it.
It’s an easy solution that allows even our computer-illiterate board members to post our HOA events, post the newsletter, have online discussions with the neighbors and even have easy discussions with people in other neighborhoods on Neighborhood Link – that has been really helpful at times!
Checkout the actual page we created: http://www.neighborhoodlink.com/denver/congress/
I use awardspace.com and I am satisfied with the overall performance of their service at the beginning I started with a free account just to test the water, after that I upgraded and now I can see that they have 20% off coupons and I think of buying a new account with them.
I have been with http://www.ultrawebsitehosting.com for quite some time now and really do feel like I’ve gotten the most for my money. They are extremely reliable and very affordable.
I have tried several different web hosting companies over the years. I switched over to http://www.BrainHost.com recently. I like them a lot better than any of the hosting companies I have used in the past.
I use godaddy,its got a catchy name, and i got a website there.