About Web Hosting

In this article I have listed almost everything you need to know about web hosting. You’ll find information about free web hosting, ideas on how to reduce the cost of web hosting, ecommerce options, the benefits of shared and dedicated web hosting, what to look for in web hosting support, reliability and more.

About Free Web Hosting

A free web hosting service is a web hosting service that is free, and is usually advertisement-supported.  Below I have listed some free web hosting tips, I give you an understanding of how free web hosting works and how to secure your web presence. Continue reading to learn more about free web hosting, and to see if it’s right for your needs.

Tips to Apply to Free Hosting

If you have been considering a free web hosting service for your website needs, you may want to think twice and prepare yourself to deal with pop-ups, pop-unders, third-party banner advertisements and other annoying elements.  You also have to keep in mind that common features such as PHP programming, MySQL databases, CGI scripts and FTP access may not be available.

You can embark upon a mission to look for a quality free web hosting service with no advertisements and useful features, but you will likely return disappointed once your search has concluded.  While you can never really expect any guarantees when it comes to free hosting, knowing what to expect will better assure that you do not end up with a terrible service.

Understand How Free Hosting Works

There are more than enough free web hosting providers to go around.  Unfortunately, most of them force you to place advertisements on your site or only provide you with the free service for a limited time.  Some do set you up with a quality service in exchange for carrying banners while others leave you to run your site on slow and insufficient servers.  In some cases, these servers fail to respond at all, leaving you with a website that is essentially useless.  So, if the service is impractical, how do free hosting companies make enough money to survive?

More and more, we are seeing free web hosts keeping themselves afloat by persuading their customers to sign up for paid hosting plans.  If they can provide a good service, this actually turns out to be a fair deal.  Premium hosting services are very affordable these days so purchasing service with a company you trust could prove to be worth your while.  The major downside is that even when upgrading to a paid service, your package could still end up lacking features that are commonly found on the professional hosting market.  For example, you just might have to pay extra for items such as FrontPage extensions and FTP support.  So even when you purchase service from a free web host, you still have to make sure you are getting your money’s worth.

Secure Your Web Presence

Should you find yourself in a situation where you must rely on a free web hosting service because of financial restrictions, there are a few things you can do to protect your website and identity. First, you can register yourself a domain name with a reputable company such as GoDaddy or Yahoo. Domain names are pretty cheap these days and only cost about $10 to $12 per year. Before registering the name, look out for domain features such as a control panel and URL forwarding. This will provide you with the ability to redirect your domain and change the destination to wherever you prefer. So if your free web host goes out of business or things simply are not working out, you can point the name somewhere else and move your website right along with it.

How to Reduce the Cost of Web Hosting

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There are many ways a customer can go about reducing the overall cost of a web hosting plan.  While some require you to do a little work, others are simply a matter of being smart and knowing what to look for.  The hosting market is very competitive and honestly, most companies are offering many of the same features.  This means that you simply need to discover how to get the most out of your dollars.

Shop the Market

One of the best ways to minimize how much you pay for web hosting service is to shop around.  Regardless of what you plan to buy, comparison shopping is always a sound approach that will help you save money.  You can find a lot of great deals online but do not be tempted by the first low priced package you run across.  Instead, take the time to compare and evaluate the services, looking at not only the cost, but reputation of the company providing it.  Keep in mind that the host that can give you the best price, may not be the one that can help you save the most money.

You can shop the market easily by using my Top 10 Web Hosting – Best Web Hosts list, and it will give you a good idea on what services and prices the best web hosting companies offer.

Look for Free Setups

Another simple way to lower the cost of a web hosting package is to sign up with a firm that offers free setup and activation of your account.  This is actually a common perk on the market, but not all hosts will provide you with this luxury.  In fact, the setup charges for a dedicated server can cost upwards of $100 if you are not careful.  Should you find a provider that advertises an attractive bottom line price, but forces you to pay exuberant fees upfront to even get started, it could possibly take you quite a while for that money to reflect in your monthly savings.

Identify Hidden Charges

Even when they exist, set up fees are pretty straightforward.  What you need to keep your eyes peeled for are other fees the hosts charges that may or may not be obvious.  For example, there may be services and features that you expected to be included in the package but are instead tacked onto your monthly bill.  When it comes to shopping for something as important as a website hosting provider, you simply cannot be too careful.  If you require additional services and features, look for a host that combines everything you need in a single package.  This will definitely help you keep some money in your pocket.

Know Who You’re Dealing With

One of the best ways to save on your hosting plan is to simply know more about the company you intend on signing up with.  There is nothing wrong with going after a low price, but you must also take critical factors such as support and reliability into account as well.  A bargain deal will only end up costing you more money when your site is unavailable and customers cannot conduct business.  Therefore, you should know that saving a couple of dollars is probably not worth risking your credibility.

Server Options for Ecommerce Hosting

There is a lot that must be taken into account when evaluating ecommerce web hosting solutions for your small business.  Among several key factors, reliability needs to be considered as well as security to make sure you web transactions and customer data are protected from hackers and criminals looking to commit identify theft.  It is important to know that there are many options available to you in regard to the type of service.  Two of the most common approaches involve running your small business on a shared or dedicated server.  Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, which we will discuss in this article.

Reasons to Opt for Shared Hosting

Shared hosting offers numerous benefits and several of them extend into the ecommerce sector.  For one, it is very affordable as you can easily find a feature-loaded plan for under $10 per month.  In addition to that, you typically receive all the tools and services you need to get your online storefront up and running. This includes shopping cart programs, web analytic tools and support for SSL certificates to secure your business transactions.  However, while shared hosting can provide you with a relatively secure platform, it can never assure the level of protection and reliability that can be obtained from a dedicated server.

The Dedicated Advantage

Though an advanced and often more complex hosting solution, a dedicated server is not exclusively geared towards larger companies.  In fact, it can deliver the same benefits to small businesses and entrepreneurs looking to establish and grow their presence on the web.  Leasing a dedicated server will cost you more than a shared hosting plan, but it can also guarantee you better overall security and reliability, both of which are vital for anyone who wants to be make sure there business is always available.  For many companies, their website serves as the revenue generator that keeps the business going.  If these are your plans, you need to make it a priority to invest in a solution that ensures your site can be accessed at all times and provides the secure environment your customers need to feel safe.

Capacity and Complexity

When leasing a dedicated server for your small business, you are assured a guaranteed allotment of essential resources such as disk space, RAM and bandwidth.  These features alone can give you a website that performs exceptionally better than it would in the shared hosting environment.  However, you should keep in mind that dedicated hosting is one of the most complex types of web hosting you can sign on for.  Unless you opt for a managed service, you will be responsible ensuring and monitoring security, performing configurations and backups, installing software and general maintenance of the server.

There are quite a few small businesses that can thrive with a shared hosting platform and several others that cannot.  Making a choice is difficult and the final decision will depend on various factors, including your budget, level of expertise and the requirements of your business.  Most importantly, it will boil down to the overall quality of the host providing you with service.

What to Look for in Web Hosting Support

It does not matter whether you lease a dedicated server or a typical web hosting plan, having a solution that comes equipped with excellent support is an absolute must.  From basic customer service endeavors to more complex technical issues, you need a host that can come through in the clutch to deliver top-notch support.  This article will explain why support is so critical and give you a few key factors to consider when evaluating service.

Peace of Mind

Just because you sign up with a reliable hosting provider, doesn’t necessarily mean that you will enjoy a flawless service.  Whether it is a power outage or a corrupt hard drive, anything can go wrong behind the scenes and for the most part, these problems are out of your hands.  Should something occur that brings your website down, you need to have the reassurance of being able to get in touch with someone immediately to find out what’s going on.  If the web host cannot provide you with speedy, quality support, you run the risk of enduring even more problems and losing visitors when technical issues are not resolved in a timely manner.

Putting the Support Staff to the Test

Before entering a service agreement with any web host, it is highly recommended that you test their level of support first.  You can do this by contacting the support staff with basic questions regarding uploading your files to the server or whatever concerns you the most.  By asking pre-sales questions, you will have a chance to evaluate the competency and overall effectiveness of the web hosting provider’s support staff.  This will ultimately help you determine if the host can provide you with clear, satisfactory answers to your questions in the future.  Of course nothing is guaranteed down the line, but first impressions can tell you a lot in this regard.

Evaluating Response Times

When evaluating the hosting provider’s support staff, there are a few things you will want to consider but most importantly, the time frame in which it takes to receive a response to your initial inquiry.   This applies for addressing matters via phone as well as email and support ticket.  If you can get in touch with the support team directly, evaluate how long it takes to get someone on the phone.  Some companies have incredibly long wait times so this is definitely something you want to take into consideration before making a commitment.  Depending on the nature of the problem, a support staff that leaves you waiting on the phone for ten or twenty minutes could be like having no help at all.

Anticipate Problems, Expect Great Support

If all of a sudden you begin to experience technical issues with a web hosting service, relax because you are not the first to hit such a road block.  Problems occur quite frequently and can range from subtle annoyances to catastrophes that result in some downtime for your website.  Though it is almost impossible to obtain a 100% trouble-free service, it shouldn’t be difficult to find a solution that comes with first-rate customer service and technical support.  As a customer that enables the business to exist, a web host needs to make you a priority by providing the assistance whenever you need it.  If not, they are not worthy of your business.

Emphasizing “Reliability” in Web Hosting

One would think that with all the web hosts on the market, picking a reliable provider out of the bunch would be an easy process.  Unfortunately, that is not the case at all.  Reliability is essential for a website, especially one that handles business transactions or other mission-critical functions.  In fact, it can make the difference in whether people become frequent visitors to your site, or simply make one trip and never come back at all.  While most companies advertise a 99.9% uptime guarantee and make the claim of being reliable, not all are in the position to provide you with a dependable service.

The Importance of Reliability

Why is it so important to invest in a reliable web hosting solution?  The easy answer would be the peace of mind that stems from knowing your site is always up and running.  Just imagine trying to log into your site to make updates or add new content and not being able to do so because the service is down.  These days, web users expect more and more from webmasters so if you can’t ensure accessibility, they will not be coming back to your site after suffering a bad experience the first time.  Many businesses have crumbled and never really get off the ground because their websites either ran incredibly slow or were not available at all.  If you are concerned about people being able to view your website, signing up with a host that can assure its availability is a must.

Aids in Credibility

Reliability is not only essential to your website, but your overall web presence as well.  On the hosting marketplace, 99.9% has become the standard for uptime so you should expect and accept nothing less from prospective web hosts.  Some even have infrastructures in place that allow them to exceed this figure.  If a hosting company cannot provide you with reliable services, the chances of you obtaining success online are very slim.  A website that runs slow or is always down because of technical difficulties is one that will send visitors clicking their way to competition and cause you to lose potential revenues.  The web host should be the partner that helps you succeed with a website or online business, not lose money and ruin your credibility.

Obtaining a Reliable Solution

Accessing a hosting company’s reliability can be difficult without actually being a customer.  In fact, most web host’s appear very professional and dependable on the surface.  However, there are a few approaches you can take before signing up.  For example, reviews serve as a great source of information as they tend to carry a lot of useful details about certain companies.  Aside from price and features, many of them also hint at the host’s reliability and overall quality of service.  A good mix of expert and user reviews can go a long way in helping you decide what companies are worth a closer look as well as those that should be avoided.

You can read all my web hosting reviews by using my Top 10 Web Hosting – Best Web Hosts list. You can use it to help you decide what companies are worth a closer look.

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Top 10 Web Hosting — Best Web Hosts

Completely independent reviews of the very best web hosting providers. The Lowest cost professional web hosting services under $10 a month; all webhosting plans include at least one free domain name registration and 30 day money back guarantee. Review your web host and let other webmasters know the very best and the worst!

Rank	Web Hosting Provider	Features	Bonus Features	Hosting Review
		Space: Unlimited Traffic:Unlimited Price: $4.95	Free Domain Forever, Unlimited Domains & $100 in Google Adwords Credit	HostGator Review Host Rating: 99%
		Space: Unlimited Traffic:Unlimited Price: $6.95	Free Domain Name, Choice of Data Center & Top Tech Support	Inmotion Review Host Rating: 99%
		Space: Unlimited Traffic:Unlimited Price: $4.95	Free Domain Forever, Unlimited Domains & $75 Marketing Bonus	JustHost Review Host Rating: 99%
		Space: Unlimited Traffic:Unlimited Price: $3.96	Free Domain Forever, Unlimited Domains & $100 Marketing Bonus	WebH.Pad Review Host Rating: 98%
		Space: Unlimited Traffic:Unlimited Price: $4.95	Free Domain Forever, Unlimited Domains & $75 Marketing Bonus	BlueHost Review Host Rating: 97%
		Space: Unlimited Traffic:Unlimited Price: $4.95	Free Domain Forever, Unlimited Domains & $75 Marketing Bonus	HostMonstr Review Host Rating: 96%
		Space: Unlimited Traffic:Unlimited Price: $4.83	Free Domain Forever, Unlimited Domains & $75 Marketing Bonus	FatCow Review Host Rating: 96%
		Space: Unlimited Traffic:Unlimited Price: $4.44	Free Domain Name, Unlimited Domains & $55 Marketing Bonus	Globat Review Host Rating: 93%
		Space: Unlimited Traffic:Unlimited Price: $7.99	Free Domain Name, Unlimited Domains & Free SSL Certificate	GoDaddy Review Host Rating: 93%
		Space: Unlimited Traffic:Unlimited Price: $4.95	Free Domain Forever, Unlimited Domains & Free $775 in Software	LunarPages Review Host Rating: 93%
		Space: Unlimited Traffic:Unlimited Price: $8.96	Free Domain Name, $100 Yahoo Credit, $50 Google Credit	Yahoo Review Host Rating: 93%

Web hosting providers are ranked by the best price-value ratio. Host reliability, uptime, key features, bonus features, customer support, user-friendliness, past and current user feedbacks and hosting awards have also been taken into account.

HostGator is ranked #1 as both a Shared Web Hosting Provider and a Reseller Web Hosting Provider. They are an excellent choice to use as your hosting company (MakeCashNow is hosted on HostGator), read my HostGator review.

Be sure to check out all my hosting reviews so you can make the best possible choice for choosing the right hosting company for your needs.

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Yahoo

Professional web hosting solutions by Yahoo! Web Hosting – Trust the technical details of web site hosting to them, so you can focus on your business!

Yahoo Web Hosting, under the name Yahoo Small Business, offers a suite of products for small businesses on the move. With no set up fee, unlimited disk space, unlimited data transfer and unlimited email storage, even Yahoo Hosting’s most basic plan provides all the flexibility business owners could ask for.

Yahoo’s name is very well known and trusted online, driven by many of their successful product offerings, which include search, directory, auctions, malls and shopping.

Packages offered by Yahoo Web Hosting are really not designed for power web users, but are more geared towards beginners. Their packages are a little more expensive when compared to some of the other top web hosting companies, but this is Yahoo and they offer a complete support team to help you get started. Yahoo offers the best reliability on the Internet, bar none. Given Yahoo Hosting’s  profile and the stability and size of its parent company, it’s no surprise Yahoo has the top servers and infrastructure going. Yahoo Is powered using redundant connections, assuring you of virtually no downtime. They generally surpass their guaranteed 99.9% uptime.
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Features include:

• Easy-to-use design tools
• Free domain name
• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited data transfer
• Unlimited email storage
• Unix operating system
• Snapshot backups
• Shared SSL certificates
• 24-hour customer service
• Reliable and secure hosting
• $50 Google AdWords credit
• $100 Yahoo Marketing credit

Tech support
Customer support
Reliability & Uptime
Traffic
Space
Software
Price
Quality
User-friendliness
Average Rating:[3.5]

My Review

Yahoo has made some big improvements in 2010 and appear to be upgrading and improving it’s services in every category. The biggest issues of concern the past 2 years were some outdated tools and features, but Yahoo has since addressed these issues. I completed my rating reviews in mid 2009, so when I complete the 2011 ratings you’ll see Yahoo rated as a top 5 web hosting company.

I recommend them to anyone looking for the best reliable online web hosting company, there uptime can’t be beat!

Visit http://SmallBusiness.Yahoo.com for full details.

See where Yahoo ranks among the best web hosting companies in my Top 10 Web Hosting – Best Web Hosts list.

What People Say About Yahoo

Very Happy

Great for simpler sites, but this isn’t the route I would go if you wanna get all fancy. Site building software is good for people who don’t know the ropes of HTML/CSS. So excellent for starters and an easy program for those with experience. Never had any uptime issues, specifically, email is the most critical feature to us and having never had any problems with that either, we are very happy.

Lightning Fast Servers

Best web hosting that exists, hands down! Lightning fast servers, affordable price, A+ support, highly recommended!

I Had To Get In

My business need to be advertised more and when I saw Yahoo’s sponsored search option was for online marketing I had to get in. This service is great as my traffic has increase to my site as well as my client base and revenue. Thanks Yahoo!

love Love LOVE YAHOO!

I love Love LOVE YAHOO! Yahoo’s mysql has allowed me to be very creative & make dynamic pages on my website, its also very easy to use 2, and I have never run into ANY set backs!

YAHOOOOOO

“YAHOOOOOO” that’s what I said when I found Yahoo! Webhosting. A great company that’s willing to talk to their customers to help them step by step. Their support staff know their stuff, they have studied their material well. It’s an awesome feeling to know that my webpage is safe with Yahoo!

Rocks My Socks

Whats next for Yahoo! They know what their customers want, and care about their customers. It’s fast, reliable, and knowledgeable customer support staff that rocks my socks, what more could you want.

It’s A Sick Tool

I hadn’t heard of a SiteBuilder before, but its a sick tool. My band really needed a website of our own but we don’t really have a ton money you know… (not yet haha!) so i thought id do it myself. The sweetest thing is how we can sell albums right from our site ( well, when we get them out we will for sure! )

Have you used Yahoo as your web hosting solution? Leave us a comment below and share your experience.

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HostGator

Hostgator, founded in 2002 is one of the top shared hosting companies, ranking consistently among the industries best by most of the review sites. What makes Hostgator stand out from the crowd is their excellent support and customer friendliness.

Recently hostgator went green, making them one of the first main stream hosts to do so. They purchase renewable energy credits up to 130% of their total power consumption.

HostGator Overview

Hostgator offers linux hosting only (even though they are expected to start windows hosting in the near future). All their packages come with all the features needed for a serious website. Baby and Swamp packages allow unlimited domains(add on), which makes a lot of sense if you have multiple websites. They use cPanel, which is the best control panel around. You get Fantastico script installer which will install most of the popular open source scripts with a few clicks.

They support PHP4 & 5, SSH, Cron jobs, Python, Ruby On Rails etc. Also, all the packages include enough POP3 accounts(20 for Hatchling and unlimited for others).

Hostgator host their sites on top-of-the-line Dual Xeon servers in their data centers (thePlanet) at Dallas. The data centers are well equipped and connects to 10 backbone providers. They offer 99.9% uptime Guarantee which is the industry standard.
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Shared hosting features include:

• Unlimited Disk Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Unlimited Email Accounts
• Cpanel and MySQL Databases
• 4,500 Free Website Templates
• Free SiteBuilder
• 1-Click Script Installs
• Shared SSL Certificate
• Free Web Hosting Transfers
• Guaranteed 99.9% Uptime
• 24/7 Toll-free Support
• 45-Day Money Back Guarantee

Tech support
Customer support
Reliability & Uptime
Traffic
Space
Software
Price
Quality
User-friendliness
Average Rating:[4.7]

HostGator Reseller Hosting Packages

You’ll be amazed at just how easy, inexpensive and profitable it is to start your very own web hosting company! Hostgator provides you with all of the tools and support you’ll need to have your business up and running in only a few minutes time. All of their reseller hosting plans will allow you to create unlimited web sites under your own brand name, with their own prices, packages and features. As a HostGator reseller you will keep 100% of the money you collect!

HostGator is the number 1 rated reseller web hosting company on the internet! Reseller hosting packages are listed below, see which one is right for you.

My Review

MakeCashNow.biz is hosted by HostGator and is my preferred web hosting choice, I also use them as a reseller web hosting company. They are excellent to use if you have a large website with lots of images and files, most other hosting companies consider your site being used as an online storage and ban you (something only mentioned in small print with almost all hosting companies). Support is excellent, I had a website I own hacked (thanks to a wordpress security issue) and have had multiple database related issues, and hostgator helped me resolve all these issues very fast.

They have also been very helpful in assisting with wordpress theme conflicts. I had some themes I have used in the past on other websites and had various issues with them functioning correctly, they were a big help in helping me diagnose the conflict and correcting it. If you are planning to use wordpress on your website, then you should definitely choose HostGator as your web host, because you’ll need to use customer support and theirs is A+.

If you want the best web hosting, I recommend HostGator.

Visit http://www.hostgator.com/ for full details.

See where HostGator ranks among the best web hosting companies in my Top 10 Web Hosting – Best Web Hosts list.

What People Say About HostGator

Way More Than Most

I have used several web host companies over the years including Bluehost, GoDaddy, Yahoo, Siteground, 1and1, and several others. Some were ok, but their “unlimited” plans weren’t really unlimited. Actually none of them are. Some hosts have a limited on “multimedia” files and everyone has a limit to a certain number of ionodes, or the number of total files you can host. Hosting companies advertiser unlimited space…. as in GB, but you have to read the fine print because there is always a limit on number of files. You could have one file on the server that is 500GB and your fine, or you could have 500k files that only take up 10GB and your account will be shut down. Most hosts have a 50k ionodes limit, but Hostgator allows 250k ionodes, way more than most. With Hostgator you can upload to the server and they don’t have a limit on multimedia files either… images, video, and audio files.

Their customer service is excellent as well. I would not use any other host if I had a choice. Unfortunately, as a web designer, I deal with many of the other web hosts daily when clients already have hosting. Hostgator is by far the easiest to work with.

Best Ever

Host Gator has been a blessing to me, I went through a lot of Hosting companies and found Host Gator to be the best of all of them!

Good Access Speed & Uptime

Hostgator is a quality host. Their uptime is great (did not experience any major downtime before). Support is effective (Problems resolved in a few emails).

Certainly will recommend to anyone who is looking for web hosting.

Excellent

Having moved from another hosting company because they let me down so much, Hostgator has been fantastic. Great, reliable and value for money.

Awesome Support

I have went through about 5 web hosting companies then thought I would try hostgator. I had no clue on what I was doing when trying to build a website. I would email support and within five minutes they responded back. Never have had to wait and they have been very helpful and got me up and running. I recommend them 100%

Very Impressed

I have over 200 personal websites hosted with hostgator. I’m very impressed with their super fast servers. I’ve been with hostgator for almost 3 years. My websites haven’t been down any since I signed up with them. They have 24/7 chat, 24/7 toll free phone number, you can submit a ticket if you need help. A very friendly user forum. I love the cpanel also. I highly recommend hostgator. I plan on being with them a long long time, all other hosting companies are not worth using when compared to everything hostgator offers.

MakeCashNow.biz Hosted by HostGator

MakeCashNow.biz is hosted by HostGator and is my preferred web hosting choice, I also use them as a reseller web hosting company. They are excellent to use if you have a large website with lots of images and files, most other hosting companies consider your site being used as an online storage and ban you (something only mentioned in small print with almost all hosting companies). Support is excellent, I had a website I own hacked and have had multiple database related issues and hostgator helped me resolve all these issues very fast.

If you want the best web hosting, I recommend HostGator.

Have you used HostGator as your web hosting solution? Leave us a comment below and share your experience.

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LunarPages

Lunarpages has grown into one of the internets premier web hosting firms, in large part because of their exceptional service. Even with their growth, they have maintained excellent support levels when compared to the rest of the web hosting industry. Lunarpages has earned a reputation as a provider with excellent customer support and an A+ web hosting data center.

They’re also affordable and reliable, having devoted a large portion of their resources into ensuring that they provide the absolute best reliability possible in the current hosting market.
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Features include:

• 350 Gb Hosting Space
• 3,500 Gb Monthly Traffic
• Dreamweaver Compatible
• Host 11 Domains on 1 Account
• Free $700 CoffeeCup Software
• Free Setup
• A Powerful File Manager
• Cpanel and MySQL Databases
• 24/7 Toll-Free Support
• 30-Day Money Back Guarantee
• Advertising Credits

Tech support
Customer support
Reliability & Uptime
Traffic
Space
Software
Price
Quality
User-friendliness
Average Rating:[3.5]

My Review

Lunarpages offers you a breadth of web services at your disposal, with everything from the most basic Blog hosting to business hosting with 3 terabytes of data transfer and beyond! All for the same price as the lowest priced competition, Lunarpages gives you just that extra bit more.

Lunar pages also offers you free logo creation software which is a real nice feature and comes in handy if you want to create your own logo, but on a down note they no longer offer a free domain for life. It was a good thing while it lasted, but Lunarpages is still a good hosting company to use for small websites and beginners. If your trying to build up a large website and have lot’s of images or files I recommend using HostGator for larger websites, excessive database usage will get your Lunarpages account suspended (high website traffic related).

Also on a down note the java.awt package is not supported by Lunarpages and it’s not recommend for jsp/java hosting, because their staff is not very knowledgeable in java code and will not be of much help to you if needed.

Visit http://lunarpages.com for full details.

See where Lunarpages ranks among the best web hosting companies in my Top 10 Web Hosting – Best Web Hosts list.

What People Say About LunarPages

I Highly Recommend LunarPages As A Web Host

I highly recommend lunarpages as a web host; I have been with Lunarpages for the past 4 months, and have never had any problems with the up time, or the support requests. I chose to join Lunarpages 3 days before Christmas Day 2008, and chose the wrong account to start with, i contacted support, and was able to move to the correct account, they where also happy to move my sign up domain to a sub domain, and the 200MB of data i had already uploaded as well. The site has very basic over view controls from the log in site, but once you get to your sites cpanel, it has every feature found in the latest version of cpanel. I highly recommend lunarpages as a webhost.

You Can Get STUCK

I already switched from Lunar Pages after just 2 months because of disappointments in support, webmail, user friendliness etc. Called to cancel and found out they refuse (no matter what) to give pro-rated refunds. If it’s after 30 days it doesn’t matter what the situation is, they will not refund. And I consulted a lawyer already I was so mad, and found that by law they have the right to refuse any kind of refund even if you won’t be using the services months ahead that is already paid for…unless they refuse to help you. They’ll help but it’s so much work to get help it’s not even worth it. I try to prevent hair loss and graying in my 20′s if I can.

Six Months And Everything Is Awesome!

I signed up for their basic 4.95/mo plan with unlimited storage and bandwidth about 6 months ago, paid for 12 months, got a free domain, etc… I am now running five different sites using that one plan, all of which php/mysql content, all of which run perfectly. The rare couple of times I needed tech help I just used the online/email system and they usually just fixed it on their end then emailed me a description of what they did so I could do it myself if I needed to in the future. Overall, I could not be more pleased. CPanel is a fantastic interface and combines with Fantastico I can go from zero to a whole new blog or forum in a couple of minutes. I could not be happier!

Support Sucks!!

If you call sales, you are contacted within minutes; tech support, you will wait until you hang up. Tried to contact tech numerous times and finally decided to switch to another hosting provider. Waited on hold for about 30 minutes until someone finally answered only to be notified that “the person who does that is not in”. Good God!

Unbelievably Unsound

Waste of money, have their hand out at every turn and dont tell you that their crappy banners will be on almost everything you buy from them.

I Hate Lunarpages

I have been with lunarpages for years, they used to be good. Not anymore. They suspended my account for no reason and tried to extort more money out of me. Their servers can’t handle CubeCart4. It’s still down 3 days later and now I’m left looking for a new host, right after they charged my credit card for another year. I have filed a complaint with the BBB and will see if I can deny the charge on my card. DO NOT HOST WITH LUNARPAGES! Uptime is ridiculous too. Maybe 80% on a good day. 5% uptime at least 2 days a month.

Years Of Great, One Year Of Terrible!

I have no idea what happened with them. I can’t get affiliate counts correct, with multiple email. Can’t get affiliate checks. Can’t get answers. Can’t get responses. I have 10+ accounts with them and am pulling each off, one at a time. They used to be great. They are so off their game now, with 5+ day response times to email that typically say something like, oh well, that’s not the way we do it.

Have you used Lunarpages as your web hosting solution? Leave us a comment below and share your experience.

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GoDaddy

GoDaddy.com hosting plans are ideal for most individuals and small businesses. They’re the affordable, reliable place to host your site, offering features like a 99.9% network uptime commitment, 24/7 support, and free access to their exclusive Go Daddy Hosting Connection – with EVERY hosting plan!
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Features include:

• 1,000 Email Accounts
• Host Unlimited Web sites
• 50 MySQL Databases
• Unlimited Email Forwards
• Forums, Blogging, Photos
• Go Daddy Hosting Connection
• $75 Google AdWords Credit
• $50 Facebook Credit
• $60 MySpace MyAds Credit
• 10 Fotolia Photo Credits
• FREE SSL Certificate
• FREE Website Add-Ons
• 24/7 Phone/Email Support

Tech support
Customer support
Reliability & Uptime
Traffic
Space
Software
Price
Quality
User-friendliness
Average Rating:[3.5]

Visit http://godaddy.com for full details.

What People Say About GoDaddy

Stay Away From GoDaddy

I am extremely disappointed with Go Daddy support, my site has been down for 18 hours, it is clearly a database server issue on the godaddy end, and I am still being told that could take up to 72 hours, WHAT KIND OF SUPPORT IS THIS? this is my production environment. My site has been migrated twice over the last 6 months, it has been down twice this month”March”. I have sites running on justhost.com, for up over a year now, I never ever had such a problem. I am just waiting till the problem gets fixed and I am moving all of my sites to a new webhosting company, with a better support/monitored environment.

Buyer Beware

I hosted with Godaddy for six years. Over the years, I’ve seen their customer service slowly go downhill. I’ve had them charge my credit card for services I didn’t ask for. I’ve had them block emails (they are notorious for this). When asked to unblock the isp, they claimed that it wasn’t blocked and asked for proof. I sent it to them. They told me that they had unblocked the isp…it was still blocked. It took my husband and I over SIX WEEKS to show these people that it was, indeed, still blocked. How can you block the largest isp in Germany? I will continue to keep my domains there (but I do not allow them to automatically charge my credit card for anything), but I have moved my hosting account. They need to move away from the slow, user unfriendly way they’ve gotten and back to the customer is no. 1. When asked, I do NOT recommend them.

Stick To Registering Domains Only

GoDaddy is great to register domain names. That’s about the only thing I left there. When I was getting constant reports from business partners that they sent me emails and I never received them, I knew something was going on. At first, I thought nothing of it for a few months until I decided it’s enough and that it has to be on my end. They block emails in the backend that you have no control over and you will lose TONS of important emails due to it. Their support will not fess up on this, but you can read this issue all over the Internet. When I switched, I started getting emails that previously never reached me. Beware for email and web hosting, that’s for sure!

Bad For Hosting. Good For Domains

I’ve been a regular customer at Godaddy, purchasing domain names. This time I decided to try their hosting services. However it turned out to be a disappointment. 1. Their hosting servers are too slow! Having lost both time and money, I decided to jump to a different provider now. 2. Similarly their web-admin interfaces are also very slow. Each page takes ages to load and administering the site becomes a real pain. 3. Their web interface is too cluttered. GoDaddy’s web site is too busy flashing hot supermodels and other distractions. I don’t care which super-models or sports-people are endorsing your service. What matters most is a lightning fast performance, simplicity and less clutter. 5. I would perfer the industry standard CPanel interface, instead of their non-standard admin interface. 6. Their web-mail service is also very slow. They don’t offer any options like: Squirrel Mail, Round Cube etc.

Go Away Daddy

Waste of money, have their hand out at every turn and don’t tell you that their crappy banners will be on almost everything you buy from them.

I Couldn’t Be More Pleased

Go Daddy has been wonderful to me, a beginner in web design. The customer service is excellent. They have been hosting my sites for about a year, and have never given me a single reason to look for another host.

Note: I use GoDaddy for registering Domain Names and Domain Transfers only, it appears by these and other comments that their Hosting Dept. could use improvement.

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Globat

Globat provides very reliable and affordable web hosting packages for both individual and e-commerce website hosting solutions.

Globat hosting:

• 1000 Gb Hosting Space
• 10 Tb Bandwidth
• Free Domain Name Registration
• Free $30 Google AdWords Credit
• Free $25 Yahoo Marketing coupon
• Unlimited email/webmail accounts
• 24/7 Customer and Technical Support
• 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
• FREE Site Builder Tool with Templates
• and much more!

Tech support
Customer support
Reliability & Uptime
Traffic
Space
Software
Price
Quality
User-friendliness
Average Rating:[3.7]

Visit http://globat.com for full details.

What People Say About Globat

Globat = Dissapointment

As a web designer I deal with many different webhosts. I recently had my first run in with Globat, and was shocked by just how horrible it is. No customer support, stone age upload times, and frequent down time. I will do whatever I can to never work with them again.

Globat’s Tech Support Is Horrible

For the most part the site is running fine. God help you though if you do have an issue with email or anything else. I have been with them for 6 years now with 5 domains. It has taken no less than ten days to resolve any issue. Each tech support person you chat with gives you different responses and all of them tell you they are escalating your ticket and it never happens. Do not ever try to call in for support!! Always use the chat. Trust me, you are lucky if you get through, if you do they are less than helpful and you are lucky if you can understand a word they say. I am currently researching another hosting company because I am going on day 10 now for my email issues AGAIN. I have several tickets opened and spoke to no less that 6 different reps all telling me they understand my frustration and they are escalating the ticket. I would steer clear of Globat. Look through the ratings and find someone with good customer and tech support.

Do Not Trust This Company

My sites have all been hacked several times! They advertise 24 hours support and you are lucky if you get through on a work day! Outsource everything and help with nothing. Stay far away from this low cost hosting–that is exactly what it is!

Globat Smells Like Dead Fish

Globat.com is the worst hosting company I have with which I have dealt. Several times during my three years with them my website would go off line for days on end. without explanation from the company. And the most infuriating thing about Globat is you are unable to get anyone on the phone EVER! They have a live chat problem solving line where the service rep talks like a computer and ignores your requests. The only time a human answers the phone is if you call the Sales Department, and then only the first time your number appears. And if you communicate by email they simply send your email back to you without a clear answer. I have had the worst time dealing with this company. And once you sign up with them they charge your credit card for upservices you never requested and then make you fight the customer service battle to try and get a refund.

Good Features – But Watch Out For…

Features are good; site is almost never down Customer service stinks – you will get a lot of canned answers that don’t address your questions and calling is a waste of time. But I could deal with all that if not for the “automatic upgrades” – which they apply to your account and then bill you for if you don’t opt out. Even if everything else were perfect, this should be enough to stay clear of this company! Added domains are also costly.

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FatCow

FatCow focuses on delivering the best possible value and customer service experience in Web hosting to the small business user.

• Unlimited Disk Space & Traffic
• Free Domain and Instant Setup
• 99.9% Uptime
• 30 day money back guarantee
• cPanel and Fantastico Script Library
• Excellent customer service featuring live chat
• 24/7 security monitoring, dual redundant M7I routers, 2 firewalls incorporating IDP technology cross-connected to the outside world with BGP border gateway protocol.

FATCOW OUTH – “When you have a question or technical issue, you want someone to be there for you, with an enthusiastic can-do attitude. That’s just what you’ll find when you contact our friendly Moo Crew! In fact, if we don’t deliver a positive support experience, we will give you a free month of hosting. It’s that simple”.

Tech support
Customer support
Reliability & Uptime
Traffic
Space
Software
Price
Quality
User-friendliness
Average Rating:[4.1]

Visit http://fatcow.com for full details.

What People Say About FatCow

Very Impressed

After being totally screwed by Hosting Matters, it was great to find a reliable host with friendly customer service.

Listed Price Is For The First Year Only

The listed price is for the first year only, they won’t tell you until you pay and view your account then you learn that they will automatically charge you credit card after 11 months for the next year double the original price. That means that the advertized price is fake!!! So if you paid $44 USD first year, your next year will have “regular” price of $88 USD. they won’t tell you when you pay until you view your account later on.

Service and Support.

After signing up with Fat Cow, I was a little trepidatious as my real propeller hasn’t spun in quite some time. Needless to say Dayna, helped me out and gave me a little shove in the right direction. WOW! I’m off to the races. So a big COW-Size thanks to Dayna and all the services reps there. I’m sure this will work out great, and please pay all the service reps an additional million dollars this year….hey, it worked for AIG!

Very Disappointed.

I have been a customer of Fat Cow for 6 years. Only to discover that some time ago they lowered their pricing but did not pass on the savings to their most loyal customers. I won’t lie, their technical support and customer service is excellent. But When I contacted Fat Cow regarding the pricing I got “sorry for the inconvenience, but there is nothing I can do” when I told them I was canceling, still nothing. Their cancellation policy definitely socks it to you. Even though I’m only in the first month of the year of service I paid for, I’ll only get back about half of what I paid. It’s still enough for me to get web hosting elsewhere for a year. (Hint: They ranked higher than Fat Cow and with the same or more services) Beware of Fat Cow and read all the fine print. I’m surprised in this economy they would rather lose a customer than give them what they are owed.

So Far So Good.

I recently canceled my Websitesource account after 7 or so years of service. I canceled Hosting Matters after a couple of days of service. Some fellow Apple users recommended Fatcow, so I took the plunge…very happy so far. 1 – For me, the annual cost is a bit more than Hosting Matters, and much less than websitesource. 2 – Interfacing with clients via FTP is MUCH easier than with Hosting Matters convoluted log-in methods. For someone working in audio/video, ease of use is IMPERATIVE. 3 – Tech support is LIVE and fast. The reps are very nice, ala websitesource’s reps a few years back. Also, the reps actually directly answer your queries unlike Hosting Matters, who seem to provide generic, unhelpful answers, and websitesource, who these days try to blame everything on you and/or hackers. 4 – Fatcow’s vibe is much more relaxed than other hosts, and they seem more concerned about helping paying customers. 5 – Within 3 hours of signing up, my site is running in all aspects! So far so good, but time will tell!

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HostMonster

HostMonster has been in the business of providing hosting solutions to thousands of business and personal websites since 1996.

Hostmonster professional hosting package helps businesses and individuals get high quality service at a fraction of the cost.

• UNLIMITED Hosting Space & Traffic
• Host UNLIMITED Domains on 1 Account
• SSH, SSL, FTP, CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MySQL
• 2,500 POP/Imap Email Accounts
• 2000/2002 Front Page Extensions
• Free Domain Forever!
• Free Site Builder (NEW)
• Best Support in the Industry

HostMonster specializes in customer satisfaction. REAL 24/7 Non-outsourced support with average hold times under 2 minutes. A sister site of BlueHost.

Tech support
Customer support
Reliability & Uptime
Traffic
Space
Software
Price
Quality
User-friendliness
Average Rating:[3.7]

Visit http://hostmonster.com for full details.

What People Say About HostMonster

Suprisingly Good Service

I’ve been with HostMonster.com for about a year now. I can honestly say I am always surprised by their high level of tech support–troubleshooting things like a Symfony installation using CLI–just stuff you wouldn’t expect such an inexpensive host to do! They even resolved my issue installing Interspire software within a matter of minutes. If you’re looking for best value with good support–I highly recommend HostMonster.com. If you need a higher level of control over your environment, I suggest looking at a higher priced dedicated host.

2 Years And Still Happy With HostMonster

I simply can’t say enough good things about Hostmonster. I give them a 5 out of a possible 5 rating on every criteria. If there was a way to rate them 10 out of 5, I’d do that too. I am so very impressed with their customer service reps and tech support reps alike I am constantly recommending HostMonster to my friends and colleagues. What a refreshing change from (I won’t mention actual names but maybe you’ll guess), GoFlatty where you are constantly solicited to upgrade, add on or prepay on every tech support call and then cheerfully ask if they can send you a survey – OR OLN who still uses faxes to update credit card information for hosting accounts – and well the list is 12 deep over the last 12 years. Thankfully I did some serious research and asking around in a lot of web design forums etc this time, and the people in the trenches told me “HOST MONSTER” Dude! You’ll never look back. And I haven’t yet.

Best deal for your money

Hostmonster is a US company with their customer support in the US. Many other servers offer unlimited storage and transfer, but do not support streaming media. Hostmonster does. As one of the top hosting companies for their price, I have found only three downfalls 1- although permitting streaming media, for other tasks, there is *limited CPU usage per request, 2- *physical location of servers are all in one place (with low possibility of destruction due to natural disaster) -3 limited number of databases. IF you can overlook those three details, Hostmonster has the best customer service and features for the price.

One of the Worst Host

There is nothing good to say about them. They lure and trick customers with unlimited bandwidth, but even a little traffic on your site will cause suspension any time without notice and you will lose patience as well as business. Nobody will listen. Keep away.

Hostmonster, be very careful

Hostmonster is just another name for BlueHost. Check out the web for the many many poor reviews of BlueHost. Why? Because they are disreputable. Check this out. Go to google and search for “best web hosting” Top of the list will be “www.Top-10-Web-Hosting.com”. In that site, Bluehost is praised! Now, do a whois on Bluehost (www.whois.com) and search the output for “Bluehost”. You’ll see that bluehost setup this review site to blow their own trumpet. That’s okay but they are trying to get you to believe the review is objective. If they will do this to get your business, they have more sinister ideas in mind once they have you hooked. STAY AWAY from these guys and their aka’s. You WILL be sorry.

You get what you pay for

What you get in first place is a terrible site performance, aborted jobs like backups. They lie in their sales process and their support is clueless. It was the worst decision I made in a long time to give this cheap “company” a try. Unreliable, slow, technically incompetent but cheap – if that is what you look for, go ahead, otherwise stay away from this waste of time and money.

Service note: In reviewing comments for HostMonster I found about 50% of the comments to be negative (100+ comments), it seems when your site starts getting a lot of traffic HostMonster gets rid of you. HostMonster is ok if you have a simple low traffic website, I don’t recommend using them for a business website.

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BlueHost

BlueHost has been in the business of providing hosting solutions to thousands of business and personal websites since 1996.

BlueHost professional Web Hosting plans include all the great features you are looking for at the very best possible price:

• Free Domain Forever!
• Host UNLIMITED Domains!
• UNLIMITED File Transfer (NEW)
• UNLIMITED Hosting Space (NEW)
• 2,500 POP/Imap Email Accounts
• 2000/2002 Front Page Extensions
• SSH, SSL, FTP, CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MySQL
• Free Site Builder (NEW)
• 24/7 Superb/Responsive Sales/Support

BlueHost internet hosting package helps businesses and individuals get high-powered service at just a fraction of the cost. A sister site of HostMonster.

Tech support
Customer support
Reliability & Uptime
Traffic
Space
Software
Price
Quality
User-friendliness
Average Rating:[3.9]

Visit http://bluehost.com for full details.

What People Say About BlueHost

Poor Customer Service.

They just started imposing a 50,000 file limit. They count every single file under your home directory. It makes no sense and after I sent and email i finally got a response by calling them. They were not very empathetic and said the account would be disabled in 14 days. They have horrible service. I would not recommend them anymore. Something has changed and they are not worth it.

Almost no complaints!

I’ve had Bluehost for 3 years. They are great because of their price. I notice that their uptime is a little less than desirable, so if you run an e-commerce site, be careful. Also, most of their services for managing your site are not SSL enabled, which in 2009, doesn’t seem acceptable. Otherwise, they are a great cheap service.

Unlimited Storage a sham

Bluehost does not offer unlimited storage unless those files are being used by your web site. So, any thoughts of you storing your personal files on your server which you paid for is an infringement of your service agreement. Stay away from them, it’s one of those “Too good to be true” deals. There’s a reason they stopped receiving any real web awards after 2005…

BLUEHOST Can’t Even Host 500 Uniques/ Day

DO NOT BUY FROM BLUEHOST OR YOUR MONEY IS LIKE THROWN IN THE TRASH BIN ! They could not host my SMF forum with no fancy graphics and no other resources eating stuff. ONLY 500 uniques /day and 5000 members totally! it worked for 3 months and then bang … your website eats our server’s resources .. bla bla .. I imagine that they have only one server and 20000 clients with simple html sites hosted on it! THEY ARE DISPICABLE AND THE TECHS ARE RUDE!

Getting Worse

I have my website hosted by bluehost for 2 years. I was very pleased with their service, but in the last months my website is unavailable very often. And when I say often is several times a day, every day. For people that are trying to host a business website, bluehost should not be an option. I get some other host.

Not Bad

BlueHost was the first web host I’ve used, and so far its gone well. I did have issues with my web browser. I’m on a mac, and was using firefox and everytime I would try to connect to the ftp I would receive a message that said the page did not exist. I did call in to the help line and went through various ways to try and connect, which included emptying my cache about a dozen times, and still didn’t get an answer. They genuinely seemed to be trying to find an answer as they had someone in the office connecting with firefox and it works fine on safari. It is a little messy at first, but after a while you get the hang of it. So far no big issues have happened that would cause me to advise against BlueHost.

Best

Best web hosting company. I switched from Lunar pages and I am very happy with Blue Host.

Service note: In reviewing comments for BlueHost I found about 50% of the comments to be negative (100+ comments), it seems when your site starts getting a lot of traffic BlueHost gets rid of you. BlueHost is ok if you have a simple low traffic website, I don’t recommend using them for a business website.

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