Good Web Host

Ah, see I dont really use webmail so it’s not an issue!

Third vote for TotalChoice Hosting – best and most responsive tech support for a value plan.

Out of curiosity — why is there so much of a difference in what people offer and price ? For example, some of the sites mentioned only allow a few MB of storage and a few GB of bandwidth for $5 – $10 – $15 a month … others (like a midphase.com or a bluehost.com) offer much much more for the same price or even less.

Is there such a discrepency in customer service and reliability (that is, bigger/cheaper sites providing poorer service than smaller ones) ?

Just curious, from someone who sees so many options and no clear means of discerning which is best. Or is it like buying from Sam’s Club or Staples versus buying from local grocer ?

Damon

It’s like in any business. Some go into business to be there for a long term, offering decent service for an affordable price… others try to rip off every client ??
Before I signed up with my host (LinkSky.com) I was shopping around for more than a month.

Some go into business to be there for a long term, offering decent service for an affordable price… others try to rip off every client.

And, some over-crowd their servers, while others do not.

HostDime is an example of over-crowded servers. They are a true “volume” host, with 1000s per sever. Their speed is horrible, UNLESS you have a dedicated server. HasWeb is also owned by these guys, so beware of them also.

Dreamhost is good, but if you do a lot of playing with MySQL, you’ll hate it. It can take upto 4 hours to get a MySQL DB to register, as they use subdomains to setup each one. Kinda lame.

TextDrive is the “bomb” if you’re “geek savvy,” as there is no CPanel or Plesk there…but you have total flexibility over your virtual server w/ shell access and Webmin. I have a life-time account with these guys as a backup.

LivingDot is a good host but pricey compared to others. You get what you pay for here though. Great uptime and support.

Total Choice is pretty good, but they are also a volume dealer, like HostDime.

MidPhase is pretty good, but beware of that “unmetered hosting” plan. If you read the fine print (which you really should when picking a host), they actually don’t give you unmetered space. On top of that, if you’re site doesn’t meet their criteria, you’ll be up/downgraded to another plan WITH metered bandwidth.

MediaTemple (mt) is very professional host with pretty good prices, but like LivingDot, they charge more than others. Use these guys if you have a big blog or site with lots of content.

Anyways…these are just some I’ve tried before. I’ve been around this gig for a long time and tried many differnt places. Many hosts will over a money back guarantee, so try them out if you have the time to keep moving your site around. Also, don’t be fooled by price AND pick a package that you REALLY think you’ll use/need. It’s like, “don’t go grocery shopping on an empty stomach.” Same thing here. Really shop around, read the forums, etc. See what others are saying before you invest.

Myself and a friend of mine have a dedicated server that we share the cost for because we were sick of dealing with “hosts”. We just bought CPanel and did it ourselves. Hope this helps and contact me if you have other questions…I don’t care to help.

I have hosted with Total Choice and DreamHost. I recently cancelled my Total Choice account and moved the domain I had there over to DH since they let you host unlimited domains. One reason is I had been w/ TC for almost 2 years and never got any longterm benefits. On DH your disk space and bandwidth grows every month.

That’s actually how I got into WordPress because DH has a one-click installer/updater for WordPress built-in to your account, it rocks! They recently increased their disk space and bandwidth (by about a factor of 4x or so!) so you get about 20gigs of space and 1 terrabyte of bandwidth for $8/month.

I have a promo code that is still valid that takes $50 off the price, making it about $5.78/month if you sign up for a year: DH50OFFNOW

Enjoy!

I can vouch for Total Choice Web Hosting too, they rock. I moved from them though to EmaxHosting for the same reason as above – I can host unlimited domains through emax whereas only one on Total Choice (in the same price range). I’ve been with emax for 2 years now (I think – maybe 3? lol) and they’ve been my most reliable and stable with great support. The price, space & bandwidth is sweet and I strongly recommend them.