# Looking for a good, cheap webhost--any suggestions? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 28, 2005, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-good-cheap-webhost-any-suggestions/292208 "2005-02-28T00:27:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LeeshaJoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@LeeshaJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeshaJoy)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-good-cheap-webhost-any-suggestions/292208/1 "2005-02-28T00:27:12Z")
At the moment, [my personal/professional website](http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~shed8216/) is being hosted through my college. However, I’m graduating in a few months and need to find another place to put my site. There are a lot of cheap web providers out there, but apparently very few of them are any good–I keep reading testimonials from disgruntled ex-customers about long periods of downtime, shitty customer service, etc. A few details: I don’t need a lot of space. A lot of providers are offering more than a gigabyte of space, which seems ridiculous considering that my entire website takes up only 27 megs (22 of which are MP3 downloads, which a lot of webhosts don’t allow anyway). I doubt that my site will ever rise to 100 megabytes, let alone 1000. I _might_ be adding a message board for my webcomic once I start updating it on a regular basis. I’m not certain what software I’d be using for that, but I’d like whichever host I use to be able to accommodate a message board. I don’t really need a “Web Control Panel” since I prefer to FTP things directly. I’m not entirely sure what a MySQL database is, but I probably don’t need it. I DEFINITELY don’t need FrontPage support. Any suggestions, Dopers? ---
**Author:** ![Myself](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@Myself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myself)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-good-cheap-webhost-any-suggestions/292208/2 "2005-02-28T01:14:06Z")
I use [Lunarpages.com](http://Lunarpages.com) and I’ve been thrilled with them for three years now. Help is plentiful either in documentation, or direct tech support–email or toll-free phone. For one price they include a long list of services, including a message board. (Note: tech support does not support the message board, but it doesn’t need much tech savvy to get it up and running. I know zero code, but I managed to customize the colors and artwork for our MB.) The Standard Web Hosting Plan starting at $7.95 a month includes up to 3000 MB storage. I spent a long time researching hosts, and these guys are the best I’ve found. G’luck, Myself ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-good-cheap-webhost-any-suggestions/292208/3 "2005-02-28T01:35:09Z")
I use [avahost.net](http://avahost.net). Reasonable prices, reasonably good service. $7.93/mo for what you’d likely choose, assuming you buy in 1 year increments. Earthlink has better service, and much higher prices. I used to use them. There’s one that’s WAAAAY cheaper if you’re using a lot of bandwidth, but I forget the name… and the way cheap one is the sloppiest hosting you’ll EVER see. ---
**Author:** ![Catalyst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@Catalyst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catalyst)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-good-cheap-webhost-any-suggestions/292208/4 "2005-02-28T08:00:24Z")
After registering a domain, [Maxipoint](http://www.maxipointservers.com/adult.hosting.php) should only cost you about $3.39 a month. You do have to pay at least $25 up-front, though. ---
**Author:** ![LeeshaJoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@LeeshaJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeshaJoy)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-good-cheap-webhost-any-suggestions/292208/5 "2005-02-28T08:04:11Z")
> [@Catalyst](#): > > After registering a domain, [Maxipoint](http://www.maxipointservers.com/adult.hosting.php) should only cost you about $3.39 a month. You do have to pay at least $25 up-front, though. Looks nice, but I have mixed feelings about getting an account with an “adult industry” webhost. On the one hand, I’ve read that they tend to have very reliable servers. On the other hand…ew. ---
**Author:** ![Catalyst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@Catalyst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catalyst)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-good-cheap-webhost-any-suggestions/292208/6 "2005-02-28T08:49:07Z")
> [@LeeshaJoy](#): > > Looks nice, but I have mixed feelings about getting an account with an “adult industry” webhost. On the one hand, I’ve read that they tend to have very reliable servers. On the other hand…ew. For what it’s worth, they host my girlfriend’s (non-porn!) site, and she’s had no trouble related to her choice of host. Hell, I only found out that it was an “adult” host when she sent me a link to their rates page. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-good-cheap-webhost-any-suggestions/292208/7 "2005-02-28T18:32:13Z")
Try [bluehost.com](http://bluehost.com). Been with them for almost a year, and am quite satisfied with their services and price. ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-good-cheap-webhost-any-suggestions/292208/8 "2005-02-28T19:30:17Z")
> [@LeeshaJoy](#): > > I doubt that my site will ever rise to 100 megabytes… > > I _might_ be adding a message board… > > I’m not entirely sure what a MySQL database is, but I probably don’t need it. You’ll need MySQL if you’re going to run any PHP scripts. Why would you want PHP scripts? Well, among other things, that’s one way to implement a message board. Most decent-quality webhosts should bundle a number of these pre-written scripts with their offerings, so something like [phpBB](http://www.phpbb.com) may thus already be part of your service plan. FWIW, the cheapest plan from [these people](http://www.jatol.com/shared.htm) is $30/year for 100 MB storage and 2 GB/mo. bandwidth, which appears to be sufficient for your current needs. However, an active message board may potentially suck away that bandwidth pretty quickly. I’ve been using them for about half a year so far and haven’t really had any problems, but the site I administer gets only a small amount of traffic, so YMMV. Finally, you may want to take a look around [www.webhostingratings.com](http://www.webhostingratings.com) and [www.webhostingtalk.com](http://www.webhostingtalk.com) to get a better sense of what’s available. ---
**Author:** ![Duderdude2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@Duderdude2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duderdude2)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-good-cheap-webhost-any-suggestions/292208/9 "2005-02-28T19:51:49Z")
I can’t recommend [E-hosts.net](http://E-hosts.net) enough. I had an account with them for years and never had any problems; one of my friend’s is also using them. You can get 100mb of webspace with 8,000mb of bandwidth for $4.95 [http://www.e-hosts.net/web\_hosting\_price.shtml](http://www.e-hosts.net/web_hosting_price.shtml)