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Hello, I recently ended my web host subscription with bravenet as the prices were too high so can anyone recommend some other, cheapish, hosts? I've looked at clikpic but dont need templates and help building the site as it already exists, i simply need a host. Thanks, Harry.
I use 123reg.. about £26 a year £10 set up fee
Had no downtime in two years
Dave
I've been using AR Hosting for about 3 years now and they are excellent. Although you can't speak to tech support on the phone, their email response is very fast and efficient. Prices start from only £10.00 per annum.
Clicky
There are a number of factors to consider when choosing a webhost
1. do you want customer support over the phone. Many (not all) of the hosts above have call centres in the Philipines, and thier staff have to ask a supervisor for the simplist questions regarding thier own systems
2. How easy is it to leave the host. You would not belive how many hosting disputes I have dealt with in the last 3 months. One of the hosts mentioned above is absoloutley terrible in this respect
3. What is the real long term performance: I have moved customers away from 2 of the hosts allready mentioned, because thier performance and account management was abysmal. Example - one of the hosts migrated 1000's of customers to another server, and told them thier FTP passwords had changed as a result. The bumbling idiots also reset the SQL passwords, bringing down a lot of stores galleries and forums, over a weekend, where most of the webdesigners were unavailable to edit the config files
4. What are the limitations: be really explicit about this. We host movie clips for a specific clinet because thier host either shuts the site down and/or charges an exhorbitant rate when the bandwidth is exceeded. Its really bad when this happens, as it is an indication of a really busy site
5. What versions of PHP,SQl and other technologies are in use? Again we moved a customer form a Huge US host as they were only on PHP3!! dont mention the lack of patching
6. Have you got full Cpanel acces? and is it "non cryptic"
7. Can you set your own emails up for your doamin as you want... i.e. full po a ccess, webmail, auto responders, forwarding etc etc.
8. Can you set teh DNS records exactly how you want too
9. Where are the physical servers? If they are on a dual backbone, on a really fast internal network, with 24H staff - thats better than in a garage with 8 Hour coverage on a good day
10. if you program a lot of PHP, what are the memory limits, can you alter them?
I deal with a lot of very good hosts, and a lot of rubbish ones. the thing that stands out the most is service. Can you get a bod on the phone that instantly knows what they are talking about. From experience, normaly if they achieved that, the rest will just slot in place
Quote: There are a number of factors to consider when choosing a webhost
1. do you want customer support over the phone. Many (not all) of the hosts above have call centres in the Philipines, and thier staff have to ask a supervisor for the simplist questions regarding thier own systems
2. How easy is it to leave the host. You would not belive how many hosting disputes I have dealt with in the last 3 months. One of the hosts mentioned above is absoloutley terrible in this respect
3. What is the real long term performance: I have moved customers away from 2 of the hosts allready mentioned, because thier performance and account management was abysmal. Example - one of the hosts migrated 1000's of customers to another server, and told them thier FTP passwords had changed as a result. The bumbling idiots also reset the SQL passwords, bringing down a lot of stores galleries and forums, over a weekend, where most of the webdesigners were unavailable to edit the config files
4. What are the limitations: be really explicit about this. We host movie clips for a specific clinet because thier host either shuts the site down and/or charges an exhorbitant rate when the bandwidth is exceeded. Its really bad when this happens, as it is an indication of a really busy site
5. What versions of PHP,SQl and other technologies are in use? Again we moved a customer form a Huge US host as they were only on PHP3!! dont mention the lack of patching
6. Have you got full Cpanel acces? and is it "non cryptic"
7. Can you set your own emails up for your doamin as you want... i.e. full po a ccess, webmail, auto responders, forwarding etc etc.
8. Can you set teh DNS records exactly how you want too
9. Where are the physical servers? If they are on a dual backbone, on a really fast internal network, with 24H staff - thats better than in a garage with 8 Hour coverage on a good day
10. if you program a lot of PHP, what are the memory limits, can you alter them?
I deal with a lot of very good hosts, and a lot of rubbish ones. the thing that stands out the most is service. Can you get a bod on the phone that instantly knows what they are talking about. From experience, normaly if they achieved that, the rest will just slot in place
I don't know if this is frequently offered by web hosting companies, but Streamline offer a fully operational 3-month free trial (I have no affiliation by the way!) - this is a good way to test all points mentionned above. The size limit (500 Mb) seems tiny compared to other companies but if you have a website with photographic galleries it will not take a lot of space, I used less than 5 % of the space I am entitled to.
Bertrand
The thing you cant test is how very tricky it can be leaving a host. You are often lured in with a cheap as chips domain registration, which can take days and weeks of agro to get back
Some very sound advice from Richard, there are a lot fo rogues (and school children) offering hosting, without really knowing what they are doing. Then agaim, some of the bigger names in the glossy mags fall in to that category some times as well. A few things to watch out for:
1) Unlimited - There's no such thing, there is always a limit. If someone says unlimited disk space or data transfer, read the small print - usually excludes things like galleries, downloads etc. Or they use the, "You're using too many server resources i.e. CPU" line to get rid of you.
2) If they don't have their business status i.e. Are they a register company, sole trader etc. clearly displayed along with full contact details (including address - required by law) and their VAT stauts and number (if appropriate - again required by law) then avoid them.
3) Make sure you're not stuck at the bottom of a chain of suppliers 10 deep. A lot of times you'll go with a company, and they are a reseller of another hosting company which is no bad thing, but then you find that company is renting servers from another company who resells for the company who owns the servers, who then rents equipment space from another provider, who then rents space from a larger provider, who rents the space from the company that owns the facility. Sounds unlikely, but you'd be amazed how much it goes on.
4) As has already been aluded to, watch out for hosts that make it tricky to leave them - especially charges for releasing your domain name. We've seen upwards of £40/domain to release them before now.
5) Above all, if it sounds too good to be true, it most probably is.
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