Hmmm Do you like your web hosting company..

intruth's picture

They have: 61 posts

Joined: Dec 2005

hello I'm a friend of intruth Im also the one that told her these web master forums could help her learn how to build web sites... I also helped her get started one her site...

Ok any way here is my story and why Im posting here.....

..I use to build websites 5 years ago but had some props when my web host sold his web hosting company. After putting what seemed to be thousands of hours into this website my house caught on fire and I lost all my saved work.

Thinking I had all my files uploaded on my server I delt with my house problem.

Only to find out 4 days later that my host had sold his company. The new owner had lost all my files and wanted to charge me 20.00 dollars more a month..

So I just quit working online with building websites till now.

A friend needed a site built to tell her story.

I just bought a new domain name for myself today and will start building my site again.. I am here in hopes of finding a good low cost monthly server that never plans on selling his web hosting company....

After helping Sonja build her site I kind of got the bug back.

also Im posting here because it seems that webhost always give themselves good reviews. So I want reviews from people that are not web host but rather customers. Ill need to host 3 domain names on the same server and account... Thanks much... John

She has: 120 posts

Joined: Oct 2000

hostingmatters.com

They are wonderful hosts.. and you can easily host 3 domains on the same account for less than $10 a month (if you pay yearly).

They have: 6 posts

Joined: Jan 2006

Hey do you have any experience with them?

bluegrassjeff's picture

He has: 6 posts

Joined: Jan 2006

First of all...not pushing my hosting, just looking for feedback...

Do any of you find the old addage, "you get what you pay for" to be true with hosting companies? It seems that many companies have turned hosting into a commodity, but with commodity pricing, I just wonder about service.

My company does programming for web designers, and as an added service to them, I've started offering reseller accounts. The hosting income is a nice padding to the hourly project fees, so I'm considering marketing my hosting to other designers...but I don't think I could ever offer the same level of service I give to my current clients at $10/month. (That's the rate I offer to small non-profits in my area as a community service.)

I pay a lease on dedicated servers and get top-notch, 24-7 service on the hardware. I take care of administration on the server, and get the pages at 3am when someone writes a bad query and hangs up their database. I've run my development company with the notion that providing quality service will grow my business. I'm just wondering if the same will hold true for the hosting service.

Any thoughts?

James's picture

He has: 127 posts

Joined: Dec 2005

bluegrassjeff wrote: First of all...not pushing my hosting, just looking for feedback...

Do any of you find the old addage, "you get what you pay for" to be true with hosting companies? It seems that many companies have turned hosting into a commodity, but with commodity pricing, I just wonder about service.

My company does programming for web designers, and as an added service to them, I've started offering reseller accounts. The hosting income is a nice padding to the hourly project fees, so I'm considering marketing my hosting to other designers...but I don't think I could ever offer the same level of service I give to my current clients at $10/month. (That's the rate I offer to small non-profits in my area as a community service.)

I pay a lease on dedicated servers and get top-notch, 24-7 service on the hardware. I take care of administration on the server, and get the pages at 3am when someone writes a bad query and hangs up their database. I've run my development company with the notion that providing quality service will grow my business. I'm just wondering if the same will hold true for the hosting service.

Any thoughts?

Interesting post.

I feel that the "you get what you paid for" has a funny way of being true in the hosting world as well - but not always. It's mostly true however. Whatever the circumstances, quality hardware in quality network is going to cost a lot of money. To sell this kind of hosting at a low low price is virtually impossible, without the use of the infamous - overselling. Use your imagination about overselling.

Regarding servers, well, the trouble with leasing those is that you need to know how to properly manage them. True, a lot of providers will get you a "semi-managed" service. But in these cases you must request for the every job you need done.

There's a lot need to be done and which can be done on a server, to tweak mysql, apache, php performace. Security is paramount One must keep updating the software, OS and kernels, install firewalls, hacker prevention tools, and close server monitor scripts.. the list just goes on and on..

In my experience the following people have to spend less of their time worrying about their servers having problems. I've included a rough price guidline as to how low and how high it can go.

1: Lease a reliable unmanaged server, or any server semi-managed or managed if it's more to your liking. (100 - 300 USD, can be much higher of course)
2: Hire an experienced server admin to monitor and 100 percent manage your server. (35 - 125 USD)

Best of luck

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Contact me for a quote today and discuss your requirements.

She has: 120 posts

Joined: Oct 2000

I do love Hosting Matters, and yes I have several of my sites there as well as almost all my clients. Superior support. Always. Friendly staff, great forum support and well I could just go on and on. Check them out and see for yourself.

"Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight- 'Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight." - Bruce Cockburn

Busy's picture

He has: 6,151 posts

Joined: May 2001

For several domains you should be looking at a reseller account.

Some companies charge less if you don't need your hand held setting everything up, like email, ftp, adddons ...

I used to believe in you get what you pay for, but have been with a few hosts (cheap and expensive) and find the lower end (not the lowest) the better hosts. There is more competition down that end so they try give you everything. The downside is there are some rogues that oversell and lie about their specs.
My host now I have been with for about 5 or 6 years, only pay $10 a month and have only needed help twice in that time (one for server paths and the other cause I couldn't delete a 114mb log file).

I also used to believe in the forum for webhosting, but after having first hand experience believe it is run by hosts looking out for themselves and not the users best interest.

When looking for interest watch the hosting companies forums, watch how many posts get deleted (and they do), sure there are messed up people looking for everything on a plate and cry blue murder if everything isn't perfect but if you follow the forums you will get an idea of how the owners/employees really are.
Don't even waste your time with an email to them asking about services etc, all pre sales emails get answered 1st, it's once you've signed up then your emails get added to the list.

They have: 13 posts

Joined: Jan 2006

I adore my hosting company! If you don't adore your's MOVE!!!
Never buy hosting based on PRICE.

DC_Sara's picture

She has: 392 posts

Joined: Jan 2002

We are with Host Affection which is part of Steadfast Networks. They are pretty good, been with them for a year now and the downtime in that year has been about 1% or so. Smiling

~*Sara*~

They have: 161 posts

Joined: Jan 2005

I <3 my host. I have wrote a little "review" type thing which can be found here.
You can go to the host's site by going to www.HostGator.com. Smiling

They have: 10 posts

Joined: Jan 2006

I love my host!!! Oh wait, I am my host Wink

Seriously though, don't ever forget how much competition there is out there. There is NO reason to pay for hosting that you are not happy with, there are always 100 other hosts frothing at the mouth to please you and make sure you get every penny's worth.

Point is: shop around. And this from an owner of a web hosting company.

dk01's picture

He has: 516 posts

Joined: Mar 2002

I just found my favorite so far to be dreamhost.com. Right now I am getting 20gb of space and 1TB of transfer/year for just over 24 dollars PER YEAR! Its a newcomer special but to get the same thing for a whole year is only about 99 dollars. They also register you a domain name when you sign up! So far I love not having to deal with cpanel also. Their control panel gives me complete control over my site and I can even add more sites to my profile should I want to for only a few bucks a month. This is nice as it means I don't have to worry about reseller hosting prices.

They have: 3 posts

Joined: Feb 2006

WestWaterHosting.com

They are a little more expensive than some of the others, but YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

Their service and reliability is top notch - they are by far the best host I have ever been with.

They have: 30 posts

Joined: Mar 2006

http://www.servermatrix.com/

Service is mediocre, but one of the cheapest dedicated server hosts.

They have: 2 posts

Joined: Mar 2006

The answer is simple:

The best in the business is RackSpace, they are very pricey, but worth every penny!

A cheap solution is Hostica, they are good and reliable and offer some customer service for "Free"!!

I used Hostica for many years, then switched to Rackspace. Hostica is great for a starter company, doesn't offer the support a serious business needs though!

They have: 20 posts

Joined: Mar 2006

I heard rackspace is good , any one try before ?

_________________________________________________________

James
Industrial Rubber products manufacturer : Manufacture rubber molded products
Hong Kong web hosting : Reliable hosting provider

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