I need some web hosting advice…
So I’m a Flash Guy, but here’s my current dilemma.
Currently I have no site of of my own. I used to host JakeFreeberg.com off a machine at home, but that’s just a bad solution. It allowed me to play with WordPress and MovableType installs and learn a few things, I really need to put some cash down and get myself a real web host.
I’m posting here in with the hope that someone here will recommend the perfect hosting solution for my needs, which I will list below:
- It need to be affordable (None of what I plan to do with it will generate any revenue, but I am willing to sign up for a 2 year term and pay upfront if it’s a really good deal)
- I’d like to start a new WordPress Blog at Jakefreeberg.com
- I’d like to do a Drupal install with the hopes of building a site for a friend of mine who’s running for chair of an organization.
- Both of the above require PHP and MySQL databases.
- I’ve already purchased a .mn domain name for that campaign and need name server hosting to point that domain at the Drupal install.
- I’ll most likely end up hosting other domains in the future and I’d like to have the ability to host many domains within this same account.
- Knowledgeable, friendly telephone-based technical support is important
- Easy to use Tools that allow me to manage file permissions, email, domains, etc.
- I will probably end up hosting some video and audio which will require a lot of server space.
Things that I don’t care as much about:
- Bandwidth (I probably won’t be getting that many hits)
- Microsoft Server Software (I’ll avoid ASP and .Net)
- Email accounts (most people have a half dozen already, but forwarding would be nice)
- E-Commerce (If I sold anything I’d probably send people through Paypal or something)
So that’s about it.
I’m wondering who people have used, and what they’ve like and disliked about the services.
All help will be appreciated.
16 Comments
Locally, I’d totally recommended BlueEarth.net. They’re local (yay for Minnesota businesses!), they’ve got excellent support and they’re competitively priced among their competition.
Beyond that, I can’t think of anyone else I’d recommend above GoDaddy and Dreamhost.com - both good in their own ways and certainly able to meet your web needs.
I’ve been pretty happy with GoDaddy–I can host multiple domains on a single hosting account. With a Linux account, you get PHP hosting and MySQL databases. Above all, the basic account runs I think $2.95/month–even less with a longer term purchase. Make sure that you Google “GoDaddy coupon” and get at least 10% off of your order.
I’m a big fan of TextDrive. Definitely not the cheapest, but they focus on developers, have a great community behind them, and are very responsive.
From their forums:
You might try our site:
http://www.webhostingunleashed.com/
We are still working on it but we have over 5,000 user reviews and you can research just about any host plus see a list of hosts who have more then 15 reviews and 90% user recommends, as well as the worsts hosts.
Let me know what you think,
thanks, Ben
I’ve moved all of my hosting to Dreamhost and GoDaddy, both of which are great places that provide a lot of options. Dreamhost tends to be better on the technical side, giving you more flexibilty on what you can install and run. GoDaddy tends to be better on the customer support and responsiveness angle. Still, either would be a good solution that would probably give you what you’re looking for.
I’d highly suggest looking at A Small Orange hosting..
dreamhost is awesome. look for a coupon code and you will end up paying about $4 per month that includes absolutely eveything you would ever need, including php & mysql. their customer support is fantastic as well.
Stable:
I’ve been using FutureQuest for about a half-dozen projects over the last seven years. All my active projects use Drupal.
See: http://futurequest.net
(Is there a limit on comment lengths or something? The system rejects my complete comment.)
Competent:
They offer solid LAMP shared environment with a custom replacement for PHP’s “safe_mode”.
See http://www.futurequest.net/Safe_Mode_Off.php
Database:
The smallest account ($9.95/month) includes MySQL.
(Whatever. This is what I really wanted to say. Forget the rest.)
Good ethics:
Unlike the cheap hosts who sell 5,000 GB for $5/month, FutureQuest will not oversell their resources.
See http://www.futurequest.net/Beware/
Dreamhost all the way. Technical aspect as well as the support - I’ve been with them for more than two years now - all my domains [ and some of my friends' domains ] are with Dreamhost - I’ve written a long spiel about them as well - http://www.aside.in/blog/dreamhost - I’ve got a coupon code that’ll give you a huge discount - feel free to use it if you decide to sign up with them.
Cheers!
Wow, So much feedback. This was definitely the place to post this question.
It sounds like Dreamhost is Winning based on feedback here, but I guess the obvious follow would be, Has anyone had problems with them?
I read a few reviews over at bwb’s site:
http://www.webhostingunleashed.com/
and it sounds like there could be some issues with downtime… which I’m not super worried about but if anyone wants to add a little extra about this, that would be awesome.
I’ll probably end up doing the sign-up this weekend.
I’ve all my websites on StartLogic, BlueHost, GoDaddy and Powweb. So far so good. I haven’e experienced downtimes. And the install scripts are easy to use! Wordpress installation was quick and easy. And I get free marketing credits too which offsets the yearly payment!
The gold standard of web hosting appears to be http://www.mediatemple.com.
Soon as I can afford to sever my other hosting contracts, I am going to sign up for their grid server, which is kinda like Amazon’s Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2).
this has been working well for me:
hostmonster
i like Lunarpages web hosting. Great service and support. Affordable, too.
http://www.lunarpages.com/id/educa20