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Web Hosting: 4 Factors
in Choosing a Hosting Company
by: Richard Martin
When choosing a web hosting company there are a whole lot of different
factors that should go into your decision making process. One of
the biggest factors should be:
- Phone support. Email support is nice, but email occasionally
falls in between the virtual cracks. Getting someone on the phone
when your site goes down can take a lot of mystery out of the entire
process. A lot of the bigger web hosting companies offer toll free
support and weekend hours to boot. Phone support is a great benefit
for any web hosting client.
- Another factor to use in deciding whether to use a particular
web hosting company is their history. How long has this company
been in business? Web hosting companies that have been in existence
for less than a year might not be the best choice. A hosting company
with a proven track record and a ton of happy clients is certainly
a good sign and might work well for you.
- How about the company's software? This varies widely between
web hosting companies. I am rather fond of Cpanel merely because
I am used to it, understand where the buttons are and what the
features do. It's much easier to stick with something you know
than switching to a new User Interface. Some web hosts offer Frontpage
features and others don't. Another specific area you might want
to research are the statistics programs. What sort of web statistics
software is included with your web hosting account? Is Awstats
included? This is one area you definitely want to heavily research
before signing up.
- Fees. I'd rather pay a little more to get all the features than
fight it out with a sub par web hosting company who I can't reach
if my site goes down. I've found decent web hosting for as cheap
as $4 per month but generally pay around $15 per month if I want
all the bells and whistles that I'll need to host a larger site.
A lot of people worry about hosting fees, but I've had the experience
that I generally get what I pay for.
Finally, I'd look carefully at the web hosting company's refund
policy. Most offer a full refund if you aren't happy with your service.
If you are paying for a full year of web hosting up front, you might
want to examine the company's refund policy in detail.
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RANK
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HOSTING COMPANY
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MONTHLY FEE
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SETUP FEE
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STORAGE
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BANDWIDTH
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EMAIL ACCOUNTS
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FEATURE GLANCE
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DOMAIN INCLUDED?
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COUPONS
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PRICE FOR ONE YEAR
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#1
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Start Logic Web Hosting |
$7.50 / Month
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FREE
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5000 Megs
(5 Gigs)
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100 Gig
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Unlimited Email Accounts
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• CGI, PHP, Frontpage
• e-Commerce enabled
• Frontpage 2000-2003
• 99.9% Uptime guarantee
• 24/7 Quality Support |
YES
With one year hosting purchase
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$90.00
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#2
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Pow Web Hosting |
$7.77 / Month
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FREE
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5000 Megs
(5 Gigs)
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300 Gig
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Unlimited Email Accounts
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• Load Balanced Servers
• Free Site Builder
• Toll-Free Support
• 99.9% Uptime guarantee
• 24/7 Chat Service |
YES
With one year hosting purchase
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Use coupon take5
and save an extra $5.00
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$88.24
(with
coupon)
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#3
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Blue
Host Web Hosting |
$6.95 / Month
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FREE
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4000 Megs
(4 Gigs)
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100 Gig
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2500 Email Accounts
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• SSL, FTP, Stats
• CGI, PHP, MySQL
• Frontpage 2000-2003
• Free Domain Name
• Toll-Free Support |
YES
With one year hosting purchase
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$83.40 |
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#4 |
LunarPages
Web Hosting
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$7.95 / Month
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FREE
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3000 Megs
(3 Gigs)
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40 Gig
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Unlimited Email Accounts
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• MySQL, Frontpage
• Dreamweaver, POP3
• Frontpage 2000-2003
• Web Builder Suite
• 15 Sub Domains |
No
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$95.40
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#5 |
FreeServers
Web Hosting
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$7.99 / Month
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FREE
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1000 Megs
(1 Gigs)
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20 Gig
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500 Email Accounts
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• Advanced Scripting
• Real Time Stats
• Search Optimization
• Polls, Form Emailer
• Free Templates |
YES
With one year hosting purchase
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$95.88
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#6 |
Easy
CGI Web Hosting
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$7.96 / Month
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FREE
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3000 Megs
(3 Gigs)
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50 Gig
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50 Email Accounts
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• Web Based Email
• Shared SSL Available
• MySQL, Frontpage
• CGI, PHP, Pearl
• Same Day Setup |
No |
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$95.52
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#7 |
Website
Source Web Hosting
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$6.85 / Month
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FREE
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1600 Megs
(1.6 Gigs)
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40 Gig
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1000 Email Accounts
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• Site Studio
• Chat , Guest Book
• Form Mail, phpBB
• Streaming Media
• Marketing Tools |
YES
With one year hosting purchase |
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$82.20
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#8 |
HostRocket
Web Hosting
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$7.95 / Month
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$29.95
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1000 Megs
(1 Gig)
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50 Gig
(with rollover)
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Unknown
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• 24/7 Live Support
• HUGE Scripts Installed
• Blog, phpBB, phpNuke
• OS Commerce
• Gallery, Xoops, phpList |
No |
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$125.35
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#9 |
SpeedFox
Web Hosting
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$6.94 / Month
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Unknown
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1200 Megs
(1.2 Gigs)
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20 Gig
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500 Email Accounts
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• ASP, Php, MySQL
• 1000 Templates
• DDos Protection
• OS Commerce
• Dedicated IP Ready |
No
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$83.28 |
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#10
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GoBlat
Web Hosting
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$4.95 / Month
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$29.95 |
5000 Megs
(5 Gigs)
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75 Gig
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5000 Email Accounts
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• Flash, PHP, Pearl
• MySql Database
• Web Based Email
• eCommerce ready
• Statistics Package |
No
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$89.35
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So what makes us qualified to
help you select a web hosting provider?
It's as simple as this. Our entire network of clients and sites spans
over 150 websites. We have used over 40 different hosting companies
over the last 9 years and we've had issues, thoughts, concerns and
successes!
The web hosting companies listed on this site are tested, reviewed
and endorsed by Deals On Web Hosting and all of our clients and websites.
All of the hosting services we reviewed are reliable webhosting services
supporting Apache, Python, PHP, MySQL, Microsoft FrontPage extension
and email (including webmail and pop3 mail).
Web Hosting services is a very saturated and competitive industry,
some hosts are giving very cheap web hosting rate (as low as $4.95!),
including reduced first year fee, free 6 months, discount coupons,
free fist years, rebates, etc. You can easily find a very cheap hosting
from $4 to $10 per month.
BUT, that's not the most important thing to consider if you are serious
about hosting solutions. Web Site Hosting Prices are certianly a
huge issue, but without a reliable host, there's not much of a point
of selecting them. That's where we come in. Deals On Web Hosting
provides you with the best mix of reliability and price. These web
hosting companies are the creme of the crop. |
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