Choosing a webhost

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andychristian

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Oct 4, 2007
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Windsor, UK
Hi all,

I'm back again... Apologies for all these questions but I figure this is the best place to ask (seeing as the domains & webhosting forum is a bit sh*t to be fair and seems to only be about domains).

I was hoping to have successfully signed up to a webhost today but have had a nightmare trawling my way through various webhosts, blogs and stuff and just want to know if anyone here could recomment a reasonable webhost that offers decent service?

To begin with I'm looking for a reasonable solution that has a record of decent service just to get started... Having said that I don't want to save $2 a month for a complete sack of sh*t.

I am just starting and will be running a wordpress blog with affiliate adds. Being my first site and never having done this before I have no idea how much bandwidth/transfer limits would be fair... I don't want to pay for the minimum and end up with the site going offline for exceeding any limits.

A few blogs I read recommended namecheap.com (http://www.namecheap.com/learn/webhosting/web-hosting.asp) - anyone had any experience with these?

Obviously, when it really kicks off I'll move to a managed host solution but I'm not committing to $200 a month just to start with.

I'd appreciate any recommendations and think this would be useful to know for any other noobs here just starting out. I'm looking at spending no more than perhaps £5 - £10 a month ($10 - $20 a month).

Andy

p.s. No affiliate links in the above domain
 


Come on man, I'm a newbie here too but try and google "webhost reviews" and there will be plenty out there.

It's not hard. Plus from what I can tell ALMOST ANY host will suffice for now. Especially if you'll be paying monthly. Until you get a lot of traffic you shouldn't have any issues concerning bandwidth.
 
rileypool said:
Come on man, I'm a newbie here too but try and google "webhost reviews" and there will be plenty out there.
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I disagree with this. Web hosting commissions are usually $50 and up. Most of those review sites are simply there to make money. I wouldn't take any of their reviews seriously.

What I would do, however, is search this forum- because there are probably 100 threads asking this same question- each of them with many many opinions and experiences.

P.S.- If you're looking for month to month hosting for cheap- I'm using GoDaddy for some stuff right now and it works. There's a little less control, but I don't think you need it at this point. I've also used 1and1.com (.co.uk in your case) and hostmonster.com with no problems. 1and1 is like $10 a month for a decent plan (pay every quarter). And Hostmonster really depends on how much you pre-pay for, but as low as 5.95 a month for a shit load of space/bandwidth, etc..

I would get the best plan I could get for under $10 a month if I were you. You definitely won't exceed your bandwidth any time soon unless you put up a viral video of girls eating each other's shit and puke out of an icecream cup.
 
For shared hosting, I've used: LunarPages, GoDaddy, and HostGator. Out of the three, I like HostGator the best, and GoDaddy the least. GoDaddy actually had good customer service, it was just a lot of little things that I didn't have control of that annoyed me. Lunarpages was great, had them for a couple years. Forget why I don't have them anymore. I think I forgot to pay my bill, or something. Anyhow, I've got Hostgator now, and as shared hosting goes, they're pretty decent.

Unfortunately, I'll probably drop them because I recently got a VPS with LiquidWeb and I love it! Won't go back to shared ever again. But, if you're on a budget, it's $75 per month vs. $10 per month.
 
Jondoe0069 said:
I disagree with this. Web hosting commissions are usually $50 and up. Most of those review sites are simply there to make money. I wouldn't take any of their reviews seriously.
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How can you? I've done it and I just would look over a few of the top search results reviews and you'll get a good jist of who's good or not. Which commissions are you talking about? Example being what... Dreamhost's $99 coupon thing they have or used to have?

PLUS, with him just beginning and probably only going to be paying monthly he'll figure out what he likes/doesn't like pretty quickly with his particular host. And with him just starting I doubt he'll even notice or have a need for most of the advanced features that you guys all have a need for.
 
If you're looking for cheap I've also tried powweb.com $7.77, they have pretty good support as well, not bad.
 
I voted Hostgator. Have been with them for a while. I can say their support kick-ass. I have several problems and then just contact their live support, they see the problem right away and have been kindly helped me fast.

Google "hostgator coupon codes" and you could start your first month for a cent with baby plan.

You think you'll get helluva traffic? Go with their swamp plan if you're still under budget.

Other recommendation for adult webmaster is YellowFiber.net
 
Jondoe0069 said:
I disagree with this. Web hosting commissions are usually $50 and up. Most of those review sites are simply there to make money. I wouldn't take any of their reviews seriously.
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I agree with you on this one! I didn't want to go buy some affiliate marketeers website reviews based on the simple fact their opinion may be swayed by how much commission they'll receive from each web host.

This is why I'm asking here and I also prefer independant recommendations from people who have actually experienced the service rather than some price comparison site.

Thanks for the replies folks!

Andy
 
just beware that most of the hosting review websites rank higher those hosts that pay higher commissions
by the way, for affiliate sites etc most of the major hosts are ok
I've used hostgator, hostingzoom, powweb and all of them are ok
just a thing you might consider, if you want to be able to move your sites away with the less effort possible look for a host that has cpanel, this will make things easier when moving away (considering that it's the most used control panel)

and not getting the domains with the host, but with a separate registrar like godaddy or namecheap (I like this best, their interface is pretty easy and fast) is good, this will make things easier if you decide to move away from them, but you shouldn't have problems with most of the big hosts on this aspect
 
Try Eleven2.com they have been around for years and are quite nice :) they have a fantastic Control Panel too.
 
Hostgator generally have good reviews here and I've had no problems with them (though I hardly use my account there). I've also found bigwetfish.co.uk to be good - they had some great deals on eBay.

For a really cheap deal, it might be worth checking out Strato-hosting.co.uk (the guys in my sig), until the end of this month it's only £1 for the first year - 20Gb space, 100Gb transfer and registration of 10 domain names. The won't take my card so can't give any feedback yet, but not heard anything bad about them.

I've been lazy on this, but I'll be putting a quid on someone else's card in the next few days, worth it just for the domains in my opinion.
 
Has anyone tried LiquidWeb's shared hosting plan? I want to eventually get a VPS or dedicated package from them but I don't have the cash flow or hosting requirements to necessitate something above shared just yet. Figured it would be easiest to start out there with a shared plan instead of a shared plan somewhere else if I intend to eventually upgrade.



LazyHippy said:
For a really cheap deal, it might be worth checking out Strato-hosting.co.uk (the guys in my sig), until the end of this month it's only £1 for the first year - 20Gb space, 100Gb transfer and registration of 10 domain names. The won't take my card so can't give any feedback yet, but not heard anything bad about them.

I've been lazy on this, but I'll be putting a quid on someone else's card in the next few days, worth it just for the domains in my opinion.
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Are there any strings attached or other fees involved? Can I get their enterprise level package for the £1 for 12 months and then cancel before rebilling without incurring any other fees? If so I'll hit your link and give it a whirl.
 
Lucidity said:
Are there any strings attached or other fees involved? Can I get their enterprise level package for the £1 for 12 months and then cancel before rebilling without incurring any other fees? If so I'll hit your link and give it a whirl.
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No strings from what I can see, the renewal is quiet high, but you are not tied into anything after 12 months. I don't know, but I would imagine that you prob can't easily/cheaply transfer the domains - but that's just a guess, maybe you can.
 
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