After having moved from one hosting service to another, disappointed with the services and their failure to keep their commitment, I decided to look into some of the most reputed ones and document them here.
For the ones running their small business and depending on the internet for generating new customers and serving more, the requirements are quite simple.
Availability of the service - this is also known as the uptime, which means how long in a period of a week or a month, is your website available. Hosting service providers tend to keep costs low by using unstable hardware and software, unreliable connectivity and unplanned maintenance on their equipments. Each of these would make your website hosted on any of their servers unavailable to your visitors. This causes you to lose business, both in the short term and long term.
These hosts are known to have extremely high availability.
They provide you with a host of very attractive features:
Features
- Free Domain Name
- Site Promotion Package
- Free eCommerce/Cart
- Free Blog, Forum, Board
- Top Notch 24/7 Support
- Plus Free Advertising Credits from time to time
- Afforable pricing of Web Hosting - $6.95/mo!
Bandwidth & Storage - more than storage, bandwidth is very critical to your business. While Storage indicates how much of data you can store on your hosting server, bandwidth indicates how many visitors can use that information at any time.
Typically, even with a large number of large size files, you will not be able to use up much of the space. And with improvements in the storage technology, you could have storage for as cheap as a buck for a GB! It is the bandwidth that becomes a restricting factor. Larger the bandwidth, more and more visitors can view your website.
These are the modern web hosts who give you reliable bandwidth:
Features
- 600 Gigs of Web Hosting Space
- 6,000 Gigabytes of Bandwidth
- Host UNLIMITED Websites
- FREE Instant Setup
- 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
- 45 Day Money Back Guarantee
- CGI, PHP 4 & 5, RoR, Perl
- MySQL, SSH, SSL, IMAP, POP
- One Click Install for Over 52 Scripts
- FREE Site Builder
- cPanel Hostin24/7/365 Upgraded Support
- No Contracts or Hidden Fees
- Build Your Site Online With Site Studio Template System! Easy to Use!
Features
- Trusted with over 74,000+ domains!
- WebHostMagazine.com Highest Recommendation
- Rock Stable Network
- Fast Enterprise Servers
- JSP Hosting Services
- Money Back Guarantee
- Powerful SPAM Protection
- 24/7 True Support
- Free Web Templates
- Free SEO/SE Tools
- Free Web Scripts
- Free Shopping Cart
- Free Secure Server
- ImHosted.com Web Hosting
There are a few of the all round affordable hosting service providers that provide good reliability, that is, high availability of servers, sufficient space on web servers, good bandwidth and all the tools to create your website and blogs and effective anti virus and anti spamming technologies. They are affordable on your pocket and could come at around 5 to 7 dollars a month. Some of them run seasonal discounts, so check back from time to time.
Features
- 300 GB of Disk Space
- 3000 GB/mo of Data Transfer
- Easy-to-use Site Creation Tools
- Unlimited E-mail Accounts
- LegenDairy Moo Crew Support
- Easy-to-install Blogs and Forums
- Wizards to Add Open Source Apps
- 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
- E-store Builder by ShopSite
- FatCow $88 Plan - Click Here for Moo Details!
Features
- Unlimited Storage!
- Free Domain Name
- 24/7 Award Winning Support!
- E-Commerce Ready
- Shopping Cart
- Unlimited Databases, Email, FTP Accounts
- Blog, Forum & Photo Gallery
- Fantastico (Over 35 Scripts)
- JSP/ASP Available
- Spam Protection- IMAP Support
- Microsoft® Frontpage® Compatible
- Unlimited Add-on Domains Included Free!
- 1 Free Dedicated IP
- Free SSL Installation (Save $24.95)
- Ruby on Rails 6, PostGReSQL
- MySQL 4+, PHP 4+
- MySQL 5 & PHP 5.2+ Available!
- 1500GB of storage and 15000GB of transfer for only $6.95
All of the above Hosting Service Providers are top class in their services and customer satisfaction. Over and above the normal technical requirements, there are a few other points that you should bear in mind while opting for a host. All these above providers have these built into their service and plans:
- Shopping cart softwares - this will allow you to quickly install and connect to your customers and enable you to sell from your website and blog
- Forum and chat softwares - these are tools to allow you to engage with your customers at a deeper and more personal level. Having these softwares as a part of the plan could let you install and run them in a moment’s notice
- Antivirus & antispam - this is very crucial for your business’s continuity. Strong anti virus protection from your service provider will let you plan for an effective business continuity plan
- Fast & knowledgeable customer support - they offer live help and their technical support staff is courteous and knowledgeable. Having someone to listen to your problem at the middle of the night and patiently resolving the problem is a big part of the service.