Choosing a Web Host, Web Host Feature Comparisons & Web Host Reviews

Budget Hosting - Web hosting prices start at about $2 to $20 per month, there are lots of them out there, all scrambling for your business and trying to keep costs down.  Expect a variety of hosting features and pricing schedules. Also expect alot of fly by night web host companies.  Read reviews, study the features, call them and ask questions.  Is support available 24/7?  Definitely look for a 30 day (or more) money back guarantee.

If reliability is an issue, contact their support by email and phone to gauge their responsiveness and professionalism and ask for an uptime guarantee/warrantee.  Also ask web host if they have any independent 3rd party company who can substantiate the uptime guarantees they are making.  Most budget hosting companies will only have reliability claims, no third party proof.  Also ask if there is a webpage or discussion group that will shows the current status of their servers and expected schedule for software upgrades.

Recommended Budget Web Hosts with 24/7 Support- Here is a list of recent  budget web host reviews, comparing features, prices, and technical support. I currently use 1and1, and also favor Lunarpages due to their great discussion community.  This host comparison is for hosts running Linux, although many of these hosting companies offer packages on windows servers, as well as dedicated servers, I did not research those hosting packages.

Hosting Company	Package & server type	Price in $US/mo	Disk space	Bandwidth	24/7 Support	Maximum Domains	Host Features, Comments, Review
1&1	beginner (linux)	3.99	10GB	300GB	yes -phone	unlimited	90 day money back guarantee, 1 free domain name, ftp, one of the biggest and oldest host companies around. Support by email slow, but always reachable by phone.
1&1	business (linux)	9.99	250GB	2500GB	yes -phone	unlimited	ssh, basic stats, proxy SSL, 90 day money back guarantee, 3 free domain names , ftp, one of the biggest and oldest host companies around. Support by email slow, but always reachable by phone.
1&1	developer (linux)	19.99	300GB	3000GB	yes -phone	unlimited	ssh, basic stats, Dedicated SSL, 90 day money back guarantee, 5 free domain names, ftp, one of the biggest and oldest host companies around. Support by email slow, but always reachable by phone.
Lunarpages	basic (linux)	6.95	350GB	3500GB	yes - email	10	no ssh, ftp, stats, great discussion forum, great for beginners, e-commerce, 1 free domain name, ftp, 30 day money back guarantee, many happy and loyal customers. I had problems reaching support after hours by phone, but email seemed responsive.
StartLogic	prologic (linux)	5.95	300GB	3000GB	yes - email	10	no ssh, 30 day moneyback guarantee, credits for google/yahoo adwords, 1 free domain, e-commerce. Support hard to reach by phone.
iPower	Pro	7.95	50GB	750GB	yes	6	stats, ftp, 1 free domain, e-commerce, $30 google adwords credit
HostGator	Baby	7.95	600GB	6000GB	yes - email	unlimited	ftp, stats, proxy SSL, 1 free domain, discussion forum includes customer reviews, 30 day money back guarantee, their 99.9% uptime guarantee may be questionable.
Yahoo	Starter (linux)	11.95	5GB	200GB	yes - phone	1	ftp, stats, proxy SSL, 1 free domain, very reliable, good for beginners, but may be restrictive for a web pro. Price does not include $25 setup fee, but does include  $150 in credits to Google Adword & Yahoo Marketing Ads

Other Budget Web Hosting - REVIEWS COMING SOON - I have not personally reviewed the below companies yet, but they may be viable candidates.

REVIEWS COMING SOON !!!

Choose a Web Host based on your budget and website requirements (disk space needed, bandwidth, reliability, programming features). There is no "Best Web Host", but there may be a "Best Web Host for you".

Most people don't need very much disk space or bandwidth unless you will be hosting video or an awful lot of music and photos.  Each of my many websites have been 2-20 MB in size, and require less than 5 GB of bandwidth (per month).  You should leave some room for growth.

Free Hosting

Many free hosting companies are available, however the catch is that free hosts will litter your webpage with banner ads and/or popup ads.  This will cause your site to be slower than without the ads, as well as not very professional looking, and in some cases downright annoying.  For personal websites it may not be an issue.  Free Web Hosts also don't offer as rich of features as paid hosting.  If this is all you can afford, make sure it has the disk space and bandwidth you will need.  It is also not a bad way to test out your webpage, the price is right !

Summary

Many professionals say that for hosting, you get what you pay for.  I think that is true for the most part, as long as you use what you pay for.

This List last updated 11/2/2007. If you have further opinions, correction, or to vote on your favorite host please contact me and I will try and update accordingly.

  Next Step:  Search Engine Submission