My Top 3 Choices for Affordable Web Hosting

Posted on August 16th, 2007 by thetshirtnexus.
Categories: Showcased Posts, Website Tips, General Business.

I’ve had a website of one sort or the other since the early 90’s. In the course of that time I’ve personally used both free and paid hosts as well as used others on behalf of clients.

So just a few weeks ago, my all time favorite web host was taken over by another company and things started going downhill fast. So fast that I had to authorize an emergency switch to a backup hosting site when they kept one of my shops down for nearly an entire day. I thought to myself, “Boy am I glad we had a back up to go to!”

So on that note, I’m making this post about not just my web host of choice, but 2 others as well, in case you want to have your own back up hosting service.

The criteria I have used to pick these hosts:

  1. Features. Good storage and bandwidth. MySQL database. Ability to run cgi scripts. Ruby on Rails a plus. “One click” installs of popular applications also a plus. All the basics included (webmail, ftp, etc).
  2. Price.
  3. Reputation and Reliability. Downtime, customer service, etc.

So on to the hosts:

3rd Place: 1&1

I hosted with them for awhile when they gave me free hosting for 2 years. No problems with downtime. Good features, not so intuitive interface but still nice. I nearly kept hosting with them since their plan was still priced nicely but though my programmer liked them well enough, I just couldn’t get used to their interface.

2nd Place: Lunar Pages

I have not personally used them but have friends who have been using them for years. They have a great price for the features they offer and though they have had some problems, they seem to have been minimal.

1st Place: Dream Host

This is my present primary host. Their services and prices are nearly identical to Lunar Pages, but they beat them out if you can find a promo code. Since I officially moved over to them I have had some network slowness with them and one hour of actual down time but my friends who have been with them for years say this is very unusual. I’m sticking it out partly because the price was so cheap but also because I like their interface, the control the web developer has, and their customer service. I have been thinking of opening an account with Lunar Pages to act as a back up host though.
So there you go. My top 3 choices.

If you’d like to sign up with Dream Host yourself, here are some promo codes:
“DOMAINAND20OFFYR” - Get one extra free domain name and $20 off of the L1 year plan.
“20OFFYR”- Get $20 off the Yearly L1 plan.

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