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Post by Tela on Nov 8, 2011 11:55:30 GMT -5
I've been looking at different web hosts. There are so many to choose from. What are your opinions?
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laura
Full Member
Posts: 177
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Post by laura on Nov 9, 2011 4:24:29 GMT -5
If I were to move my personal projects to a new host today, I'd go back to Arvixe. Or expand on QHT. Your choice will primarily depend on how you build your website, what software you want to use. For a typical situation it's probably Linux with at least one MySQL database available (more is better if you plan to host more than one website there or install extra software, e.g. forum). If you know what software you'll be using, check server requirements (php and mysql version, other features), but these are pretty standard. Unless of course you have some special soft (or need extras). At the moment my domains (and the ones I'm taking care of) are spread over three hosting companies - two local and one in the USA. I'd love to ditch at least one local hosting as soon as my pre-paid money runs out, because they just don't care enough. I don't need to be patted on the head on the regular basis, but reliable customer support is important, and it's crazy when you can reach them only on business days and working hours. It's insane when they don't offer daily backups, and the ones they have cost extra money to get. Local server (that is physically situated in the country) offers SEO benefits for local content (search: server location SEO), but I'm sick and tired of my local host. Another local hosting is more or less ok, and the price is right, so I might keep that for local websites and small projects. They have some theoretical email support outside business hours, the server uptime is ok, and the admin panel is usable. Plus the price  (They bought the other small and cheap hosting company that I was using several years ago, and kept the old prices for that company customers - it's roughly fifty percent off their regular price) The US hosting I recently moved to is QHT.com. I moved one website with the ecommerce installed. My shop was shut down twice without prior notice on the local hosting because of "excessive use of server resources" and I just couldn't take it any longer (add no backups, no usable support..). Reasons for choosing QHT - reliability and speed. And also the fact that I knew the guy that runs it from the said ecommerce software support forums. What I didn't know and what came as a nice surprise is that they are super serious about backups and there's no chance you could lose your website (they also store daily off-site backups on removable media). It's not the cheapest option out there, but they are really serious about what they do. About Arvixe - I used them in the past and the experience was perfect. They have 24 hour support that actually works, the uptime is excellent, and I have seen only good reviews about them. The price is great too - 4usd/month and you can apply a 30% coupon. (I had to abandon them because at that moment I could not afford to "feed" several hosts). |
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Post by Tela on Nov 9, 2011 8:05:18 GMT -5
Wow, Laura, thanks for such a great reply. I hadn't even heard of those. I was looking at GoDaddy and was not impressed with their excessive dumbed down marketing and price schemes. That was the only big name I could think of. I had a website years ago, when I had to do my own html in notepad LOL! No, php, databases etc. I have to relearn everything from scratch.  |
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laura
Full Member
Posts: 177
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Post by laura on Nov 9, 2011 9:56:15 GMT -5
I use GoDaddy to register and manage domains, but I'd never host with them. I'm overly irritated with their promo "deals", and constantly trying to sell me stuff I don't need/want. And I feel it's too huge to be comfortable... Who wants to be "too small to matter"? If you search for Arvixe, it's actually quite well known and has excellent client feedback (I've chosen them based on reviews the first time). The QHT in my eyes is "small and personal", I'd never discover it and probably would not jump onboard if it wasn't for the "personal" factor (meeting the guy behind it on support forums), flexibility and attention. Also, my ecommerce software has "special needs" and I knew he's the guy I could trust, especially when it comes to hosting this piece of soft. And the backup scheme is just wow. By the way, if you want to practice and play with websites, you can install WAMP on your computer and have a "sandbox" private server where you can install different software and then break it  |
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(They bought the other small and cheap hosting company that I was using several years ago, and kept the old prices for that company customers - it's roughly fifty percent off their regular price)
