Web Hosting Providers - 2 Good Ones
By Ryan TohWebmaster & Certified Software Programmer
Listed below are 2 web hosting providers which were picked out of over 60 web hosting providers whose offerings I have considered. (Links below to web hosting providers' website will open in a new window.) Below, I explain how and why these 2 were chosen.
HostGator - Definitely among the most value for money. HostGator is not only affordable but also has the following features which makes it among the best choice:
- 99.9% Uptime Guarantee - while most hosts just guarantee network uptime and not server uptime, HostGator guarantees both (for shared hosting. For dedicated hosting, understandably, guarantee applies only to network).
- HostGator allows unlimited domains/web sites to be hosted on a single account - most hosts still limit the number of websites you can host.
- personally experienced their quality 24-hour online chat support. Quality email support - some host do not have live chat support and even those who have, they are not "ON" or available round the clock.
- Among the lowest prices around. Eg 5GB space, 75GB bandwidth, for only USD9.95 a month and other packages.
- Does not "force" you to pay minimum 1 year up front, like what most hosts do. In fact, from my research, HostGator is the only host that encourages you to pay month-to-month and yet you get to enjoy free setup & good monthly pricing !
- Apart from the usual payment method, HostGator also allows payment with PayPal.
Micfo - The packages Micfo offers are also very value-for-money. If not, it would not have "survived" my elimination and be in this recommended list.
- 99.9% Uptime Guarantee.
- 1 account hosts unlimited domains/web sites
- Affordable prices.
- Need to prepay for only 6 months (not the usual 1 year or 2 years for most web hosting providers) to get setup fee waved and also good monthly pricing.
Choosing the right and good web hosting provider is not easy at all. Having many choices and competition is good for you but too many choices and competition can also give you headaches ! And this is exactly the situation in the case of web hosting providers.
While choosing the right web hosting provider, I listed down the criteria which I think a web host must meet before it can even be considered. These are :
- 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
- 1 account hosts unlimited domains/web sites
- reasonably affordable -below USD 10 a month.
- No/Zero setup fee.
- excellent support, must have 24-hours online live chat support and good email support.
- Unlimited MySQL database.
- IMAP support for email
Other extras which I considered when I did my selection and elimination are :
- Fantastico
- cPanel control panel
- searchable knowledge base
- and many other criteria.
Actually my research on web hosting providers is much more extensive than the criteria listed above. I just listed down a few criteria to let you have a rough idea as to why these 2 web hosting providers were chosen. After trying them out, I personally find that these 2 web hosting providers are good, honest, affordable & value-for-money.
Ryan Toh is an experienced webmaster & a certified software programmer. He is often asked by many which hosts he had tried and would recommend. To answer those who had asked and those who will ask, he writes this mini tutorial. He updates this page regularly - as the dynamic web hosting scene evolves, so will this page. He is glad to be of help to those who are new to web hosting by answering questions they may have. He answers web hosting questions in online forums & via his email at - Ryan.Computing at yahoo.com.