Basic Web hosting - 200 meg of file space, 21 GB/month traffic, 28 email IDs, name service for one domain. “Goodies” that I probably don’t need, but are there anyway, include MySQL, CGI, FrontPage extensions, RealMedia server and ParaChat chatroom software. - $20 per month.
Free domain transfer / registration for first year. $25/year after that.
Name service for extra domains - $2 each/month.
Extra email IDs - blocks of 4 for $1/month.
Service and support - stellar. Available 7 days a week, but not 24x7 - generally 7AM - 10PM. This is my current ISP, and the few issues I’ve ever had in three years with them have been resolved quickly and accurately. (“Have you tried rebooting?” doesn’t seem to be in their vocabulary.) If something goes really badly, they’re close enough I can pop over and see 'em face to face.
Our current contemplations are for two domains - Comes to something like $265 for the first year, then $315 per year after that, assuming prices stay the same.
Good deal? Can I do *significantly * better? I’ve seen “buck a month” type hosting offers, but with so many gotchas (Oh, you wanted more than four pages?) and add-ons, they get right back up to full price. “Is the website working” isn’t something I want to have to worry about either.
3GB space, 25GB bandwidth, 100 ftp/pop, 15 mySQL databases, 5 subdomains, 1 domain alias, SSI, PHP, CGI, SSH, and an neat control panel.
No hidden costs in fine print. Excellent tech support. Only drawback is that they don’t run RAID etc. so there’s no backup if the hard disk crashes. However, for the price it’s worth it to make your own backups daily/weekly.
The incredible thing is that you can run both your domains off the same $5 hosting. I am currently running 2 separate domains on the same 3GB $5 hosting. So my bill for 2 domains for the year comes to US$60 combined. Up until last year I was paying US$25 per month for the same thing. That’s a huge saving.
I use www.mydomain.com for domain registration. Excellent service, and US$8.50 per domain registration.
Discussion and reviews of hosting providers in these previous threads:
I’m happy with Seanic, have been with them for two years now. I have the standard package, which is $3.92/month and includes
Free domain name registration
150MG space
30 email accounts, with unlimited aliases and email autoresponders
6GB traffic/month
…but their gold package is only $8.92/month and includes
Free domain name registration
500MG space
up to 150 email accounts, with unlimited email aliases and email autoresponders
25GB traffic/month
So far, the contenders that I’ve seen mentioned are:
mydomain - same storage, half the traffic for the same price? Next!
fuitadnet - terrible website performance - took a minute for their home page to appear - doesn’t reflect well on their servers or backbone connection. No live support available at noon, Pacific time? On a Wednesday? WTF?! Next!
vervehosting - not bad. 50% more space, 40% less traffic, 25% less cost. A possibility.
tigertech’s another possible. More space, but a touch less traffic. Not a lot cheaper, but they’re also local.
dreamhost - if I can get the board of directors to cough up two years’ worth upfront, the “code monster” deal is pretty hot at $16 per month - 2.5 GB space and 64 GB traffic, 300 POP email accounts and a free ecommerce tool called Miva Merchant. Definitely some room to grow into here.
About the only thing that concerns me about dreamhost is their connection to the world - they say they have redundant 100 Mb connections - that’s what - regular Ethernet speed? Compare this to my ISP and their gigabit metro fiber rings and multiple OC-12 lines. Maybe I’m spoiled, but other sites hosted on them just fly down the line.
Did I mention that this site is for a small commercial venture? Nothing on the scale of amazon, where an hour of downtime could mean huge amounts of lost sales, but the principals aren’t going to be receptive to “we saved fifty bucks per year, but it’s not working today.”
So far, the only serious competition to my current ISP is Dreamhost. I just need some reassurance that their backbone has some backbone. (heh!)