Need recommendations for good web hosting - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

HiGHFLYiN9 · #1 (**permalink**) 12-30-2005, 07:31 PM

Ah the eternal question, what webhosting company will give decent service AND good features for a worthwhile price. I'm willing to spend up to $10 a month in a year long contract. I'll need my site to have pretty good bandwidth and room for videos (700+ megs worth). I'll also need domain hosting options. Thanks in advance

So far I've just taken a look at the sites Cnet has recommended, so Brinkster.com and Aplus.net, which seem fine as far as numbers go, but I'd like to see what else is out there, and possibly pay less than $10 a month.

dan1son · #2 (**permalink**) 12-30-2005, 07:48 PM

May I suggest bluehost.com.

I actually don't use them since I host it myself but I have a few friends that use and recommend bluehost. Not to mention the features are amazing for the price. 10gigs storage, 250gigs transfer, PHP, MySQL, CGI, etc. for $7 a month.

fr4c · #3 (**permalink**) 12-30-2005, 08:41 PM

so what are you planning to use this site for?

HiGHFLYiN9 · #4 (**permalink**) 12-31-2005, 03:02 AM

Thanks for the suggestion, those numbers are pretty impressive for bluehost. It will be used primarily for an art portfolio.

jjcapurro · #5 (**permalink**) 12-31-2005, 03:07 AM

I've used westhost.com since 1998 for various sites and clientel. Always have had good support and reliable, fast hosting.

And they have telephone support! Rare in todays market.

The Monkey · #6 (**permalink**) 12-31-2005, 05:05 AM

I've had good experiences with rochen.com.

Jeff Wong · #7 (**permalink**) 12-31-2005, 09:48 AM

This one got a rave review from Top Ten Reviews:

http://web-hosting-review.toptenrevi...eb-review.html

This is something I've been researching myself, as I plan on moving my site to a proper web server (as opposed to the space from my ISP) in the next day or two. My need for space isn't as great as yours, so, I may actually go with the budget plan from Go Daddy, simply because I have several domains registered through them (as well as an e-mail account for my site) - the billing will be simple. For less than $4 a month, as long as the server is doing its thing, it'll be sufficient for my current needs. I'd like to add some videos for the TV, film, and animation work I've done over the years, but, I don't even have tapes of much of it presently, so, it's not a pressing issue.

I have an art forum that is hosted by Host Rocket, and the site is up and stable most of the time (unlike some places we know) and costs about $150 a year.

Edwood · #8 (**permalink**) 12-31-2005, 11:28 AM

Whatever you do, stay away from Midphase/Thrillhost.

I've had so many problems with them, I've had to dump them.

So far so good with Dreamhost. Easier for beginners, but a little frustrating if you want to do anything more advanced. The one thing I really like about Dreamhost is that they register a free domain name, but they do it in your name, so that you won't run into problems if you want to transfer the domain name later. Beware of other hosts that offer "free" domain name registration and hosting. Often times they'll do it, but under their name, and will keep it hostage if you decide to leave.

-Ed

Jeff Wong · #9 (**permalink**) 01-01-2006, 03:07 AM

I bit the bullet and went with Go Daddy this evening. I was going to sign up for 2 years... as I clicked through to check out, there was an option to add another year, so the savings would jump from 20% to 30%, so, I thought, "Oh, why the hell not?" I entered a coupon code I found on the Web through Google and got an additional 10% off. So, 3 years of hosting is costing me $89.68. Hard to resist.

HiGHFLYiN9 · #10 (**permalink**) 01-02-2006, 04:19 AM

Godaddy is pretty cheap, I've noticed it gets moderately average ratings, but doesn't have the usual horror stories that pop up when you run the name through Google. Bluehost must be a fairly new company as there isn't a lot of review info to be found, however what is out there is good.

Westhost has nice numbers, but the reviews I've found have been mixed.

Rochen is a little sparse on space for my needs unfortunately.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I may settle on Bluehost unless something else pops up.

Jeff how has Godaddy treated you so far? Have you transfered your files over yet?

Stephonovich · #11 (**permalink**) 01-02-2006, 04:48 AM

I'm using Site5, myself. Got rave reviews everywhere I looked. I got burned by my previous one (was a scam... literally), and so I vowed to quit looking for cheap ones and just get quality. I got their Basic package, which is 5GB space, and 100GB/month transfer. Every software package and stats you could want, loads of subdomains, email, and the like. I think it's $60 a year. And the support is unreal. I've never had a response take more than an hour, any time of the day or night, 365 days a year.

Jeff Wong · #12 (**permalink**) 01-02-2006, 04:55 AM

I uploaded my site last night and everything seems fine so far. I'm not sure if it has propagated worldwide yet, but, within minutes of uploading it (here on the East Coast), my top level domain was tracing to Arizona where Go Daddy is. Setting up went smoothly and quickly (this might've had something to do with my domain already being registered with Go Daddy and that I've been using their domain forwarding to the site at my ISP's server.) Go Daddy says the servers are up 99+% of the time. We'll see. You can take a peek at my site via the link in my sig.