How does one sort through all the hosting options?

I am not sure if this is a good section for my post.

Trying to sort through all the web hosting companies can be mind boggling.

I would like a reasonable priced solution which allows php, mysql. I would also like an account which allows more than one domain to be hosted. I would also like the bility to possibly grow into a reseller account.

I would like good support (from the USA) and great performance.

Any ideas on how I can start to narrow down the process?

You might want to contact OZZU's supermoderator UNFLUX:
http://www.unflux.net

He may be able to provide what you are looking for. And I have a high degree of confidence in his reliability.

and if you don't chose that for some strange reason. there are lots of members here who own hosting companies *cough* what i told most people before i got my hosting site going is do a search on google. then find 5 or so you like then goto somewhere like webhostingtalk.com and or here and ask about them. it's also a good idea to search for the different hosts you chose on wht and see what was said about them in the past.

as far as hosting rating sites. most of them are paid and don't have unbiased opinions.

well anyway hope you find what you are looking for

SSH-Raj is correct. Many of our members do offer quality hosting. The good ones are easy to identify. You can identify them by their posting history. I think I can safely say that if the one's offering hosting have taken the time to be helpful to other members accross the board, you can probably consider them worth checking into. Not all may be able to offer what you need, but it gives you a fairly reliable starting point.

Hello mortgage-pro-seo,

Choosing a host can often be a daunting task - so many to choose from and so many horror stories to filter through.

Here is the best advise I can offer you:

1) Make a control panel decision first. All control panels are not created equal - and if you are looking to eventually move into the area of reseller hosting - you want to make sure you make the right decision from the start. You can easily change hosts - but, changing control panels is alot more difficult. After you have played with and thoroughly researched all of the control panels - then look for a host that offers your control panel of choice - this will immediately narrow down your search.

2) Look for a host in a clustered environment. Try to avoid the all-in-wonder servers. What I mean by this - is try to avoid a situation where all your resources are being hosted off of one server (ie control panel, DNS, email, mysql, etc..). In this scenario - damage to any one of these services can bring down all your services. In a clustered environment, redundancy and scalability are the name of the game. Worse case scenario is that an entire server will crash. If you are in a clustered environment - all this will mean is the temporary loss of 1 service (ie control panel, or web, or email) - however, all other services will stay up.

3) never go for the "best" offer you can find. Some of the super cheap hosts are actually pretty good - but most arent - no reason to play Russina Roulette when the odds are stacked against you.

Hope this helps and please make sure you come back here and let us know what you decided and how it turned out.

As previously suggested I STRONGLY suggest asking around at different forums before signing up, it is from past or present clients that you can get the real low-down on a host. You can find a list of good webmaster forums at http://www.lcrincorp.com/links.html

You may also want to checkout a website of mine that is still in its infancy changes but can help to steer you away from a few bad guys - http://www.badwebhosts.com

There are a lot of different companies that will offer these services the best advice for you is to ask around on a range of boards, ignore people plugging their own services to the extreme and consider all your options, rember that reseller packages can be bought later from a completly different company in fact it is often better to do that, rember that if your site goes down and your customers are with the same hosts how can they ever get in touch with you about the fact that they are loosing their service? Good luck with the development.

CartikaHosting offers good advice, dont be blinded by all the bells and whistles or a super cheap price. I myself have been ripped off by a number of cheap companies and have learnt my lesson the hard way.

Word-of-mouth is definetly the way to go!

Good luck with your search!

The previous members' posts offer great advise. I would just like to add, looking at your requirements, you should be able to find a plan under $10/Month.

I would say 10-15/month for a multi-domain plan with lots of space and bandwidth from a reliable provider is safer than most solutions under 10 bucks/month.

In addition to tips provided I suggest you pass over any hosts not offering at least a 30 day money back guarantee. Then email/call the hosting provider at various hours of the day/night to gauge their response time and make sure they answer all your questions. This will tell you how fast they respond and whether or not you are likely to enjoy effective communication with them.

Last but not least read the Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy and/or Service Level Agreement if they offer one. Do this even when relying on word of mouth. Then email the host any questions regarding the same. Just because one host is great for your friend does not mean that your experience will be the same. Your sites may require totally different resources which may weigh heavily on your experience with said host.

I think this is a dangerous statement. There really is no "right" number around cost.



Again - this sort of statement really isnt appropriate - IMHO.

What is Lots of space and bandwith mean? Relative to what?

"Safer then most solutions under $10/month? " Why? Using what criteria? Is this ALWAYS true?

When talking price WRT hosting, there are several factors which need to be considered.

What level of reliability are they looking for - ie) Just how many 9's do they want in their uptime stats? 99%, 99.9%, 99.99%, 99.999% ? Each of these 9's comes with additional cost - therefore blanket statements on overall budget cannot and should not really be made.

Does the customer require high availability via a clustered environment? Does the customer require 24x7 support? Does the customer require toll free support? Does the customer require comprehensive backup solutions? Does the customer require the increased spead and performance associated with SCSI drives and redundancy associated with RAID technology? Will RAID 1 suffice, or do they want RAID 5? , etc, etc, etc...

It is EXTREMELY difficult to place an actual dollar value around a hosting solution. For example - you can pick up a dedicated server from ThePlanet for a couple of hundred bucks a month, or you could pick up a dedicated server from IBM or DELL for several thousand a month. Considering the number of clients both IBM and DELL host, there is obviously some sort of value statement there to justify their price tag - no one (or at least very few) pay a 1000% higher price tag JUST for the Brand alone.

For the purposes of this thread, and assuming a "typical" customer for this market - a good cost structure would be:

$1/GB/month for a "reliable" service.

Expect to receive:
99.9+% consistent uptime
Proportional amount of diskspace to the bandwith you are paying for (proportions may vary between providers)
Above average support
Above average infrastructure
Thorough and Redundat BackUp policies/procedures

If you are paying according to the structure outlined above, and are not receiving the service you want - maybe start shopping for a different provider. If you are paying this much for your service, but expect more support or more redundancy, etc - expect to raise your budget.

If you are paying less then the amount indicated above. Do not expect the same level of support/performance/uptime. If you are paying less then the amount indicated above and are receiving the level of performance/support indicated above - consider yourself fortunate, but understand that eventually, if that host grows, they will not be able to maintain that cost structure & support/performance/reliability will drop.

When shopping for hosting - always determine what you actually need.

What amount of uptime can you live with? Is this just a hobby site? Does uptime and reliability not really matter? If uptime is important, how much downtime can you actually live with per month (1 min, 5 min?, 60 mins?) ? How much space and bandwith do you actually need? (most important question - do not purchase more then you need today as well as a reasonable amount for site growth - this is the best way to ensure quality, while staying within your budget)

If you would have read my post, you would have seen I didn't give a specific number or price. I just said he could find what he was looking for under 10 dollars a month.

And as Uncensored-Hosting mentioned, a few dollars more for multiple domains.

And if you would have read CartikaHosting's post, you would realize that he gave extremely good advice.

I've found web hosts that offer great support and 99%+ up time for under $10/Month. I must point out that this was for only one domain. After rereading Mortgage-pro-seo's post, I see that he is looking to host multiple domains. Sorry about that.

Hi Fawh,

No need to apologize - this is a good discussion.

Multiple domains aside - great support and 99%+ uptime again is a bit of a generalization.

How many resources are you talking about?
What is great support?
99%+ uptime really isnt that great. 99.9%+ is better, 99.99%+ is even better.

Remember, not all hosts care about multiple domains - and not all charge that way. Some charge based on resources and performance and reliability vs # of domains hosted.

Anyway - great conversation and thanks for your input...