Best Web Hosting

I've been designing web sites since 1996 and have used many different web hosting companies over the years. I remember in the early days, thinking that all web host companies were pretty much the same, the price is what really made the difference. How naive I was back then! Through the years, I can't even venture to guess how many times I've been asked Who is the best web hosting company? It's sort of like asking What is the best car?

So What are the Best and Most Reliable Web Hosting Solutions and Services?

This really depends on what your needs are. I've compiled a list of the Top Web Hosting companies below that have earned a reputation for reliability, customer service and affordabily. Along with each, I've provided a review that should help you better understand which service will work best for you. A link to each site will allow you to learn more about the company and determine if their hosting service is best for you.

Blue Fish Hosting - Offers a very generous web hosting package for a mere $6.95 per month. Far more than you might expect with 6 gig of file storage and 100 gig of monthly bandwidth. This plan features far more than needed for a beginner web site with plenty of room to grow. It would be very hard to outgrow this plan and the price is just right. Excellent choice!

IX Web Hosting - I really like their web hosting plans here. If you are looking for a simple hosting account to host your personal web site, or a small business web site, I highly recommend the Expert Plan. At $3.95 per month, you simply cannot beat it! It features everything you need plus a lot more. Best of all, you can upgrade your hosting if you decide to create more web sites over time. An area for people new to web hosting, toll free number and displays awards they received from peers. Definitely a top pick!

Blue Host - At $6.95 per month (as of this writing), Blue Host offers generous features typically found in more expensive web hosting plans. They also include free domain registration with every account. Additionally, they have a demo setup where you can login and see exactly what it looks like and how the control panel works. The help center offers a list of frequently asked questions about web hosting and serves as a trouble ticket center where you can submit questions if you run into trouble. Also offered is a toll free number to call for support. Excellent combination of support, information and features at a very afforable monthly rate!

An Hosting - These guys have been around for a long time (in internet years). Their web hosting plans are superior, featuring generous bandwidth and file storage space typically found in VPS packages that cost far more than the $6.95 per month plan they offer. Along with this plan, you get Google Adword and Yahoo Ad credits to help get traffic going to your site. Additionally, they offer free domain registration with your account and an online site builder. An online site builder allows you to pick a pre-built web design you like and allows you to add your site content through their easy-to-use web interface. This is highly recommended for those new to creating a web site with features that any pro would be anxious to use. Very well thought out hosting plan for both the novice and the expert user.

ProStores - ProStores is an Ebay company that specializes in ecommerce solutions. If you are new to the internet and looking to create an online store for the first time, I highly recommend ProStores. Here's why; the cost of development of a new ecommerce store can easily run several thousand dollars at a minimum. I myself charge a minimum of $1,500 for an osCommerce store and that's without setting your products up and marketing. That's just a base cost without web hosting! It will take quite some time to recover these costs. ProStores is all-inclusive. The software, the site design, web hosting, everything, is already done for one low montly payment. You simply add your products to the store through their online interface and you're ready to go. They can even take care of your online merchant account if needed. If you are looking to expand your store online and start selling tomorrow, ProStores is your solution today!

Lunar Pages - Lunar has been around for a long time and I've read many great web hosting reviews them. At their base level, for $6.95 per month, you get 3500 GB of bandwidth, 350 GB of file storage, hosting up to ten domain names, plus on free domain for life. If that isn't enough to convince you, currently they are offering $700 worth of free Coffee Cup software. Coffee Cup offers some of the best web software available. Lunar is definitely a host to check out. They have a variety of plans from starter all the way up to dedicated server.

Host Gator - If you've spent any amount of time on the web, you've heard of Host Gator. One of the most widely known web hosting companies out there. Host Gator offers three no-nonsense plans; Shared, Reseller and Dedicated. Starting at $6.95 per month with unlimited domain hosting, it's right in line with hosting plans from others listed here. Excellent support, a well-aged company that's been around a long time.

Top Five Things to Know When Selecting a Web Hosting Solution

1. Service and Support - Price isn't going to matter much if your web host provider doesn't provide adquate support. I learned this the hard way in the early days. You get what you pay for. Let's say that again...you get what you pay for! That doesn't mean you have to pay the most, but if you came across a post on a forum somewhere, where someone is offering web hosting for $2.95 a year and 50 people have claimed :sold:, you might want to think twice about this! Yes, I've actually seen these.

In reality though, virtually any web host provider worth their salt will have a support forum on their site. It's here that you can browse through posts on their support forum to get a feel for how they treat their customers, how responsive they are, etc. Don't be overly alarmed if you see a few negative comments. There are some people who live for nothing more than posting negativity and simply cannot be pleased. We've all been around these types of people and they are easy to spot.

2. Understand What you Need - It may seem easy, but if you are unfamiliar with the terminology, understanding what you need isn't always simple. Here are a few examples. You are new to the web, this is your first site and you are anxious to get it going. Great! You need a simple web hosting account for one domain with minimal file space and bandwidth. Most hosting companies offer this at $7.95 - $10.95 per month and it's perfect for what you need with plenty of room to grow in the future. You have multiple websites, or plan to host a few websites for friends/family. This is how I got started! You need a simple reseller account. With a reseller web hosting account, you can have multiple websites/domains and create new hosting accounts for each, from your reseller control panel. It's fairly easy to work with and doesn't require a lot of expertise. In fact, these days, most everything is menu driven with easy to read/understand selections to setup a new account.

3. Avoid Free Services - Say this with me...avoid free services! See item one above; you get what you pay for. So how do these work? Big companies offer you free web hosting, usually at the expense of showing ads on YOUR web site, so they can earn money. You get minimal space and bandwidth and the site is not portable. Meaning that, a year down the road you decide to get your own domain name and really kick your site up a notch. All that hard work is down the drain now. You have to start over. Don't fall into the mentality that everyone on the web should be free.

4. Domain Name Registration - If you choose a web hosting service that offers to register your domain name through their site, fantastic! Just make sure that it is registered in your name. This is important. It's not uncommon for web hosting providers to offer this service, but they register the domain name you pay for in their name. Down the road, you decide this hosting company isn't the right choice for you and opt to switch to a different hosting company. Guess what? If the domain name is registered to the hosting company, and more importantly, you don't have access to update the DNS server information, you are at their mercy. If an argument ensues, they may take their sweet time in helping you (knowing they are losing a customer) or worse, just keep your domain. ALWAYS, always make sure you have full control over your domain name and ONLY you have the ability to login and change settings.

5. Control Panel Access - Virtually every web hosting company offers this in some form. The most popular control panels being Cpanel and Fantastico. What are they? They are control panels that you can login to, to control everything about your hosting account. Check your daily logs to see how your traffic is doing, create new email accounts, view your emails while on the road, setup new programs, upload files, set file permissions, create databases and much more. They really make things simple and easy for the novice user to have some control over their web hosting account and make minor changes, without having to go to the provider every time you need something.