I have short-listed the hosting services I initially liked down to the following:
1. FatCow
2. An Hosting
3. Host Excellence
4. Netfirms
5. StableHost
6. A Small Orange
Which of them would be most suitable for me. I am about to start a small online business: two websites and a couple of blogs.
I am after proven reliability, 24/7 support, no down time and many resources (which most do anyway).
I know this is like comparing apples to oranges but I've never been on a VPS.
So am wondering, given the following plans, which would you choose?
I mean, for $5 more, you get VPS, more bandwidth, more space.
A2 Hosting Core VPS (128mb) Hosting - $15/mth
A Small Orange Medium Shared Hosting - $10/mth
Assuming 2 wordpress blogs with 1000 uv/day.
How did A Small Orange get the name? Years ago Tim Dorr, owner/operator, used it as his AYM screen name. There's a great interview with him from 2005 here. Even have a look around if you want.
"A Small Orange" is an Atlanta based web hosting company with a great attitude. It began as my backup host for my web based voiceover site and now it is my main host. I first read about them on this forum where they came highly recommended. When I first joined they would only accept 25 new accounts a night to ensure the best customer experience.
It took me two nights to get mine and I'm still there. Don't worry, they haven't done that in years and you can sign up any time.
The first thing I check when selecting a new host are their forums. A Small Orange (ASO) has a very active one that has "support" members who post, and even Tim himself. "Pre-sales Questions" is a popular area.
Not that this takes the place of a superb tech support who won't quit until the problem is solved. I've found them to be very patient with folks who may not be the most tech savvy. That would be me. There is a thorough Knowledge base online as well as an ASO Wiki written by staff and customers. Plus, step by step demonstrations of CPanel functions. The only issue I've ever had happened a couple of weeks ago. I had a problem with a disappearing sub domain. It was a CPanel code problem. Tech support was nothing short of amazing.
Their plans are very reasonable. All have the same features. Even their "Tiny plan" with 75 MB of space and 3GB Bandwidth at $25 a year has all the features of their most expensive "Super plan" with 4500MB of space and 100GB Bandwidth. Turn any account (except Tiny) into a Reseller account for $5 more a month. You can easily upgrade or downgrade as needed. Plus there's ASO Extreme which is just for file sharing. No scripts, e-mail or Cpanel. But, you get 1500MB of space and 100GB Bandwidth for $20 a month.
As far as up time, I don't think my site has ever been down for longer than a few minutes. The time I caught it they were doing some server maintenance. I'm always on my site since one of my web pages is my browser start page. I've hosted two sites with them, one for me and one for a local band. They were on different servers and both had the same great performance and reliability. ASO's business concept is to not overload shared servers. Period. I can go online any time and check my hosts status from a web site and CPanel. If there's any problem it's corrected quickly.
ASO offers CPanel and the latest updates and features. I like to check my stats often and use a lot of subdomains. Latest Visitors and AWStats helps me keep tabs of things. It has everything you'd expect from CPanel.
Believe me, I'm no expert. But, I do recognize a friendly attitude and willingness to help when I see it. The most important thing is that my web site up and online. If it didn't work well and consistently, I wouldn't be there. If that ever changes you can bet I'll be the first to leave. So far I am very impressed with A Small Orange.
Does anyone have a preference for Host Excellence compared to Blue Host?
Do you think their basic offers are the same?
This is for just a couple of simple domains and sites to be hosted.
I host about 30 sites for clients who don't want to manage their own hosting. All of the sites are low-traffic. Almost all use FrogCMS or Wordpress /w minify and cacheing options. All of my clients use Google Apps for email.
I guess I'm looking for a reasonable host (nothing unlimited) more storage than ASO would be nice - I'm looking from something from $10-20 monthly and I can purchase for a year at a time.
Sharkspace, downtown host and host gator seem a little "dreamhost-like"... but have good reviews.
Also, I'm in Montreal so a datacenter on the east-coast would be nice
Is Fat Cow any good? I think I have my hosting down between Fat Cow and Hawk Hosting. Is there any others I should look into?
View 8 Replies View RelatedVery new....need a webhost for my 2 small businesses:
business 1: consulting. need to put up examples of my work that are photo heavy & graphic heavy. would like to use a diy template like rvsitebuilder or something similar business 2: ecommerce...something easy to use as i am not tech savy
i've researched and inmotion has a lot of good reviews, but sitebuilder does not seem that customizable. Also found Arvixe, but not true 24/7 support....
Also, being able to send large files through email is important.
I have had an account with a small UK hosting site. Now about two days ago I submitted a ticket to them here we are and no reply yet, I even emailed the admin, yet to no reply.
View 14 Replies View RelatedI just want to make a little information site with about 5 pages, nothing fancy, there will just be a very small amount of traffic. What is the cheapest reliable web hosting company or package out there? I am in the U.S. if that matters.
View 24 Replies View RelatedI've been using Siteground.com for a few months and they suspended my site because I was using proxy scripts. I had to remove the scripts to get my site back, but now a main function of my site is missing.
My site does not take up that much space (only 100MB), but it gets accessed frequently and especially with the proxy script it can sometimes be a burden on the server.
I need a lenient web host that allows proxy scripts and other things like CRON jobs, PHP, MySQL (with PHPMyAdmin, preferably, and multiple DBs) and email capabilities (400/hr is okay). I'm used to Linux with CPanel, so staying with the stuff I know would be best.
I need to find a reliable host that can meet these needs.
Which hosting service is best in terms of SPEED and COST for hosting numbers of small sites?
View 24 Replies View RelatedI am currently facing a move from my existing web host, as they are altogether incompetent. Four of the last five days, my site has either been down, showing a suspended page, or redirecting to the main page of the host. (I am a legitimate business - not selling penis enlargement supplements)
So now, I need a good host, who will provide maximum value for dollar spent. My requirements are fairly simple. I need 5 SQL databases, the ability to install and configure a CMS of my choosing, and a site that is based in the US. (I need my site to be US based and listed, for very specific reasons)
I have used Rochen in the past, and am very happy with them. However, I want my sites on a different host, as several of my other sites are cross linked.
Finding services in such a competitive field is overwhelming. It's getting too hard to cut through the BS.
My client would like to go for a real hosting company. However, he has some concerns about his archived emails. He want to move all those email to the host.
View 10 Replies View RelatedI would like to find a host that could handle 2 or 3 domains but without bells and whistles... everything with shared hosting is $25 a month and up! All 3 sites are under 1mb (not likely to go over 3 mb), written in good old HTML; I would prefer a File Manager but FTP is OK too. Must be US based and have a reasonable uptime guarantee.
View 10 Replies View RelatedI am a bit confused about both. Are they the same company?
View 14 Replies View RelatedFollowing a conversation with a sales representive of fatcow.com I think they should rename themselves madcow here is the conversation:
Thank you for contacting support.
Please be prepared to answer your Security Question when we begin chatting. To enhance our security protocols, we'll need you to provide the answer to your Security Question at the beginning of our conversation. If you have not yet set your Security Question and Answer, please log into your account now to set it up. Thank you.
Please hold for the next available operator to respond.
You are now chatting with 'Rosie Dean'
Rosie Dean: Hi Stu, My name is Rosie Dean, how are you today?
stu: hello rosie
Rosie Dean: How can I help you today?
stu: how many clients to you roughly have
Rosie Dean: Could you please let me know whether you have hosting account with us?
stu: no I havent
Rosie Dean: Could you please let me know our Web site link you have used to contact us?
stu: I see your site on wht
Rosie Dean: Okay. I need that URL.
stu: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=695921
Rosie Dean: I mean our Web site URL.
stu: you need your own url lol
stu: http://www.fatcow.com/fatcow/fatcow.bml
Rosie Dean: Thank you for your interest in FatCow.
Rosie Dean: We have around one lack customers.
stu: lack?
Rosie Dean: Yes.
Rosie Dean: How can I help you today?
stu: I asked how many customers you roughly have?
Rosie Dean: Yes, we have around one lack customers.
stu: Wiktionary, the free dictionary.To lack something is to not have it.
stu: can you write this in figures please
Rosie Dean: Okay. [5min pause]
stu: I take it you cant answer my questions have a good day.
Rosie Dean: Hold on for two minutes.
stu: ok
Rosie Dean: I apologize for providing the inaccurate information.
Rosie Dean: We have around 25, 000 customers.
stu: ahh thank you for being able to answer, sorry it was abit of a complex question.
Rosie Dean: No problem.
stu: have a good day thank you for your help
Rosie Dean: Thank you for chatting with us. Please feel free to contact us at any time. We are available 24x7.
Chat session has been terminated by the site operator.
their pricing of $66 per year is decent going by the features.
please share your experiences with fatcow.com and how is the support?
I was looking for a webhost with adwords credit, and cheap.
When I went to Bluehost and Hostgator, the more well-known sites they had $50 adwords credit each but couldn't get their price down to less than 58$ a year. With Fatcow seems to be $44 a year and also have $50 adwords credit.
Does somebody know their reliability? I was searching google and the host seems to be a new person in town and that might be a problem.
Preferably I was searching for $20 a year webplans but I can't seem to find one with adwords credit. I want to use the adwords to drive quick traffic to a new site. I am not sure should I go for the adwords credit+ hosting or hosting seperate + adwords seperate. The keywords I'm gonna use only have 1,000-10,000 max visitors a month. If the credit is only valid for a limited time than I'd maybe better off with a both seperate.
I am looking for a host for a website I am working on.
It is for an association of about 200-300 members, and I do assume that not all of them will visit the site.
The site consists of mainly text, and one weekly podcast.
Considering this kind of usage, I have been looking around for hosting.
I first looked at JustHost and FatCow.
JustHost sounded great because of the price at 2.95/month and free domain for life, but if I decide to change host, I wonder what they will do to my domain. They also promise "unlimited features" and that is usually too good to be true. Although they have amazing reviews all around the internet, not only the biased ranking websites but I snooped deeper, I am not quite sure they are what I need.
Same thing for FatCow, but I do have a little bit more confidence in them because they have been in business for 10 years I believe where JustHost has only been there for a year. FatCow was at just under 5$/month. Plus, its 100% wind-powered...
Last option I found was SharkSpace.com. I found it, being a sticky in one of the forums here. I am interested in the Hammerhead Shared Hosting package. I believe they do not oversell, and its not UNLIMITED webspace and bandwidth. They have been in business since 2004 so its still longer than many other hosts. They also have amazing reviews, I have yet seen a negative one. And finding a coupon for 3.98$/month is also a really good deal for something that looks more reliable. But to that I will have to buy my domain elsewhere as it is not included. 10$/year = 4.81$/month.
Longest lasting business: Fat Cow, Also most expensive.
What I believe is the most reliable: SharkSpace
Cheapest Price: Just Host
If you know another host that you know is reliable, fast, and trustworthy, in the same price range. Let me know too.
I found out today that FatCow, Dot5 Hosting, PowWeb, and iPower Hosting are all part of the smae hosting conglomerate. The parent company is called Endurance International Group. It seems that the companies have gone out of their way to make their connections unpublished, which is very misleading to their customers. However, I recognized some similarities of their websites, and spoke with a representative over the phone who admitted that they were all connected. There are probably other companies too, but they wouldn't give out any more info.
View 14 Replies View RelatedI signed up with Orangewebhosting.net a couple of months ago and as of today morning - my server is down, there is no support response and the mail I wrote to support@orangewebhosting.net bounced!
Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
support@orangewbehosting.net
Technical details of permanent failure:
PERM_FAILURE: DNS Error: Domain name not found
I was wondering if anyone else has the same issue - is there an issue with them or was this a complete scam and I got taken in? They had / have good cheap dedicated servers for $35 / month which is why i jumped at it but this outage is ridiculous!
They have over a million sites hosted with them. I reckon they must be fairly reliable and good.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI have just found the webhost netfirms.com .They ofer great plans but maybe they're too good to be true? What do you think?
View 5 Replies View RelatedI got a website hosted with Netfirms now, But i want to start another website with GoDaddy (i found out they were cheaper). But, to avoid multible billings, i want to transfer my netfirms website to Godaddy. Before i want to start an account with GoDaddy i want to know how to do this.
View 7 Replies View RelatedHow is netfirms.com hosting? Is this a good and reliable hosting company?
View 5 Replies View RelatedI recently ran into some problems:
- They doesn't support custom installation of PHPMyAdmin on their servers (You MUST use their own admin panel/pre-installed PMA or activate remote connexions)
I'm not sure to understand why PMA doesn't work, but when you create a PHP Script, you must use "MYSQLHOST" as the server host, instead of the usual "localhost". I think that PMA doesn't use the mysql_connect way to connect to the database. So maybe they doesn't allow TCP or Socket connection.
Anyway, that said, if you don't need a custom installation of PMA, you're OK for that point.
- They doesn't support the PHP FreeTypeLib, if you plan to generate image with the GD lib and add some text into it, it may be hard to get a decent result. ( Here I'm thinking of anti-bot confirmation code )
- They doesn't offer any uptime guarantee, and they have no policy in case your server will encounter sporadic down time (just the one I used did for the past 2 weeks)
... And it would be so much a problem if they where offering a reliable service and/or if they where standing behind their costumers. For that, I've been a little deceived.
{
More about the down time experience:
So we have contacted the support team, who said that the site is working well at the moment where we called. They doesn't seem to understand what an intermittent problem is.
They said that, as they doesn't see the trouble at the time of the call, they canot do anything (I was expecting them to place an http probe/monitor or something)
They asked us to take a screenshot of our browser next time that we encounter a down time. ( yes, I'm NOT kidding... a screenshot ! That's what I call technical support
}
I'm not ready to say that they are a bad hosting service, but, they are a little special as you see.
I saw Netfirms new promotion 250 GB Host with two free domains for $20 1 year. I just wanted to ask you guys what do you think of there hosting service? I've tried there domain for couple of years and they were incredible. Did anyone host with Netfirms yet? or does anyone took there promotion?
View 14 Replies View Relatedprovider to colocate my mid-size tower (not rackmount) somewhere in Orange County, CA. The uses will mainly be for web serving but also some game servers as well.
View 2 Replies View RelatedPreferably in the Irvine area.
Requirements are simple:
Two AC outlets
1U server
5 IPs
256kbps or 60GB transfer
No 24/7 support needed
No monitoring
Was paying $49/mo, but my rates were recently jacked up.
Im having bandwidth problems with NetFirms. Using FTP I can get 700KB/sec but when I download from my website using http, it seems to be capped at 160KB/sec. Has anyone else had this problem?
This is ridiculous. I should be getting the same speed, or at least close.
Anyone having first hand review of Netfirms ....
They are offering 250GB storage , 2000GB transfer ( Sure, Overselling ) at :
netfirms.com/max
The above link will give me a whole year for $10,
Just want to inquire about "first hand review of Netfirms" and no criticizing on there price's and overselling plans.