You’re looking for a place to put your website. Maybe it’s just a single page describing what your business is. Maybe it’s a blog. Maybe you’ve got the next best solution to ecommerce that you’re ready to build out.
There are so many web hosts and hosting alternatives that it’s almost impossible to tell one from the other, much less understand if they’ll be what you need.
There are a number of different types of web hosting and I’ll look at a few of them along with some specific recommendations. Each will have their pros and cons, and each will be suitable for different types of solutions.
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Free web hosting
There are some solutions which are actually free.
However, because nothing is ever truly free, there are often catches.
Free web hosting will often involve two things:
- Ads will be displayed on or around your website. This is the “cost” of free.
- You may be limited as to how much you can upload or how much bandwidth people visiting your website can use.
- You probably won’t have the ability to use your own domain name.
- There will likely be limitations on the technology that you can use on the site.
- There will be little or no support.
- You may be pestered with invitations to “upgrade” to a paid plan for more features or capability.
I’m not a huge fan of free web hosting, but in some cases, the limitations might not be an issue for you and it might prove a reasonable solution.
Free blog hosting
I need to call out blog hosting separately as there are now several solutions that are very reputable and quite popular for hosting blogs.
WordPress.com (not to be confused with .org) will allow you to create and run a blog using WordPress blogging software. In fact, while I keep using the term ‘blog’ over and over, many sites which don’t look like blogs at all are implemented using WordPress and some even on WordPress.com.
Blogger.com is very similar in that you can create blogs and websites using the content management system provided by Blogger. Blogger is owned by Google, and in fact, if you have a Google account, you already have a Blogger account and can create a website right away.
There are in fact many free blog hosts (just Google that phrase some time), including familiar names like Tumblr, LiveJournal, Blog.com, and more. Many are targeted at specific types of sites and/or specific audiences, but they’re worth checking out.
While some feel that living within the constraints of WordPress or Blogger or any of the other provider’s technologies is too limiting, the fact is that these are very powerful platforms on which you may find you can do a lot.
Hosting with your ISP
It’s very possible that you have some amount of “personal web space” available to you as part of your account with your Internet Service Provider. You’re already paying for your ISP account, so the incremental cost is technically free.
As with free accounts, there will probably be some limitations that might include:
- A fixed amount of storage, but usually enough for a small to medium-sized site
- An inflexible URL (usually http://yourISPname/~youraccount)
- Limitations on any server-side technology that you might want to use
- Possible bandwidth or usage constraints
While the limitations sound a lot like those of free web hosting, they often still compare favorably in that the allowances are usually higher and the pestering is usually less. Like free hosting, many of these restrictions can be adjusted or lifted – for an additional fee, of course.
Shared web hosting
Shared web hosting simply means that your website is on the same hardware as 10, 100, or 1000 other websites – you’re all sharing that machine. (Security in place makes it practically impossible for sites to access the information of another, so there’s really no risk worth worrying about here in most cases.)
In many ways, it’s a lot like the service you might get from your ISP. For a relatively low monthly fee, you get some amount of – or sometimes “unlimited” – space and bandwidth.
Shared hosting companies often provide better service than your run-of-the-mill ISP because hosting is all that they do. They’ll often offer assistance in doing things like getting and setting up your own domain name or other features.
Many, many websites are in fact hosted on shared hosting sites; you’d be surprised.
For most small businesses, organizations, and others looking to set up a website that will attract traffic and be an important part of the business operations, I typically recommend starting with shared hosting.
I often refer people to BlueHost, but there are many including DreamHost, Hostgator and others.
Your domain registrar
When you purchase a domain (for example, as I’ve purchased “askleo.com”), you’re often offered a wide array of additional services, including website hosting.
Some, such as my recommended SimpleURL offer good value and are often great places to start.
Others, however, not so much. In fact, in general I recommend that you avoid registrar-provided hosting with the major registrars. You are effectively purchasing shared hosting in such situations, and my experience is that dedicated shared hosts such as those listed above offer much better value and reliability.
Virtual Private Servers
Virtual Private Servers, or VPS’s, are a kind of hybrid between shared hosting and dedicated servers which I’ll talk about in a moment.
A VPS is nothing more than a virtual machine, sharing hardware with one or more other virtual machines. The VMs are separate and independant, and look and behave as if they were on their own dedicated hardware.
Ask Leo! is hosted on a VPS, as are all my sites theses days.
One of the neat advantages of VPSs is that some aspects can be reconfigured without needing to reinstall from scratch. For example if I want more CPUs, more memory or more hard disk space on my server I access a control panel and make the changes. The machine reconfigures, eventually reboots, and comes back
up in the new configuration.
I use and recommend Storm On Demand. Additional alternatives include The Rackspace Cloud (where I used to have a server), as well as Amazon’s EC2.
Virtual Private Servers are just that: entire servers that you end up managing and controlling completely. You can do pretty much anything, within the constraints of the hardware’s abilities, but you will need some knowledge of server operation.
Dedicated Servers
A dedicated server is exactly what it sounds like: a computer in a datacenter that you rent by the month that is dedicated to you.
Like VPSs it’s a server, unlike a VPS it’s not sharing hardware at all – it’s all yours.
As you might imagine, dedicated hosting is often more expensive than a VPS, but for many companies with more intensive server requirements it’s often a practical solution.
LiquidWeb, the parent company of Storm On Demand, is typically where I send people these days. Alternatives include RackSpace and others.
Not On The List: Your Own Machine
I get asked from time to time “well, couldn’t I just host whatever I want on my own machine here at home? It’s on the internet, after all.”
Technically: yes.
Practically: no.
You’ll quickly run into a number of issues:
- Your upload speed is the speed at which visitors to your home-hosted site would be accessing your website. Typically it’s significantly slower than you would want for that purpose.
- Your site visitors will be competing with you for your internet connection. In otherwords, they’ll slow down your ability to use the internet.
- You must leave your machine on all the time.
- You’ll need to deal with the fact that the IP address of your machine may change, or pay extra for a static IP.
- You’ll need to know how to configure your router properly for incoming connections to your machine.
- There are probably more issues I’m missing…
The biggest roadblock is often not technical at all: your ISP probably doesn’t allow it.
Though of course that restriction can often be lifted – for an additional fee.
If you have a little money to spend the options above are typically much preferable.
I followed your advice and found a great web host – citizen-hosting.com. They offer excellent service for a reasonable price. Thank you!
Amazing. You answered all my questions succinctly. Thank you!
Dear Sir please am a student of college i want to open a free hosting website please help me.
i thank u sir
waiting for reply
This question actually was to go on the page about IPs, bu I couldnt find it. My query is but a simple one:
A few days back, I had a dynamic IP, so (using IIS, with Win XP), I was able to view my site as http://localhost/, and consequently as http://[IP] wheneever I was online…
Now I have switched to a static IP. My site still finds itself at localhost, but with the IP, a window opens up asking for a username and password. In a word, I’m lost with the IP.
Do I need to download some special software to access my own server? I dont need to host a permanent website, I just need a server with IP access for a few stuff.
Oh, yeah, and the FTP dont work either.
Help Me,
Ayush
I found a excellent hosting-finder site.
hosting-finder.com
After much searching on google, I went to FindMyHosting.com and signed up with 3Essentials hosting (www.3essentials.com). They had excellent ratings, which was primarily why I chose them. Since I was a little hesitant, I called them to get some questions answered. They’re really responsive, I got someone of the first two rings.
Happy Host Hunting…
W.T.
i have a static ip,how can i host my website on my system.plz help me in access my file via ip address anywhere…
Hello, I would like to know is there a company that I can call that will help me with my key words to put me at the top. Also, is it a good idea to have more than one .com address for a business. I was told that some company have as many as 40
Dear Leo,
Thanks for all the help and the answers that you have posted. I’m an editor and i like to post a website for me including all my videos editing etc..like a demo reel.
I was wondering how much it cost by month or year? for a webserver to host my files. say for exemple i have 100mb or 200mb of data. is it very expensive and it’s better to do it from home if i have broadband cable 786kbs?
thanks
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There’s no single answer … it depends on your needs. It can be free,
inexpensive ($10/mo) expensive ($100’s per month) or more. My guess is for
someone starting out free or inexpensive will do just fine until you discover
you need more, at which point you upgrade. (It’s the path I took).
I do NOT recommend hosting it yourself on your DSL. Outside access will quickly
saturate your connection and make it slow for you to use.
Leo
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Found some pretty balanced reviews over at thebestwebhostingreview.com. Hope this helps.
It really depends on your needs. The site I just mentioned seems to only cover cheap, shared hosting.
I have changed a lot of host providers along the years, because their support was miserable.
The only host I could find, which is cheap and reliable, with 24h support is: eboundhost.com. Livehost.net used to be the best, but not anymore since Thomas left.
i know this topic is too old , but i reach to this article within my search , so i want to mention some companies which offer a wonderful free hosting such as byethost.com and of course these days we can’t forget blogers websites such as blogger.com , blog.com , blogspot.com , wordpress.com and more …
thanks leo…
This is the best place to go, they are such a help! lunarpages.com
I highly recommend Kionic: I have been with them for many many years, the hosting is reliable and customer service is excellence.
I use GotHosting.org and they have been wonderful from day one. The support responds reasonably and I don’t think my site has been down since I started. Very competitive packages. Secondly, I have heard great reviews for Hostgator
I like a site called dataflurry that offers cheap web hosting
I just wanted to Say that I found a webhost that i switched over to, I was using Dreamhost but i decided to go with hostgator because they are so much cheaper and I get a little more space and almost double the bandwidth. I would highly suggest checking this out.
Any questions please ask. Thanks alot! Enjoy!
A good web hosting provider (and one that I currently use) is WebHost4Life.com. Their performance is quite good. Their plans start at $4.99/mo. They have both Windows and Linux plans. They are currently hosting 200,000+ sites and claim a customer retention rate of more than 90%.
Good Luck
Ian
All i got to say is do you Havaweb?
I also recommend Havaweb. Their company designs your website for you for free if you host with them.
JustHost.com is a very good, cheap host.
HostMonster.com is another good, cheap host.
I have 62 websites hosted with havaweb, they built every website for me for free and paid for the domain names. If you want a custom website havaweb is the place to get it.
This is very good, it is free, but very usable with good control panel and many opportunities
http://www.000webhost.com
Really a nice Post on Web Hosting Importance,
I totally agree,
We have also worked on the Need of web hosting and worked hard behind it to get a list of Best Web Hosting. Which are best in the industry now.
And We compiled it together and assigned it in a proper RANKING.
So if you want a detailed Review and Analysis on all best Web Host you can also refer to : webhost2all.com
I have 9 websites with hostjaguar.com and pretty happy with their services. I wouldn’t touch free host, I simply don’t trust them.
I found this new site that I liked. It is Mycampushost.com. It offers some tuttorials and good rates on web hosting. It was perfect for me starting a new business. Very easy to use.
You can view or vote on a top ten web hosting provider here http://www.pageoptimiser.com/Hosting_Providers.htm however if you really serious you can join one of there discussion groups in which they evaluate and scrutinize the web hosting providers using the consumer data they collect its free really informal fun and educational I would highly recommend.
Very good description about Shared Web Hosting Services.
I have also a website which provide information about the Shared Web Hosting Services. Really it services are very good and it also take guarantee for the best services.for more information please visit on link… http://www.prestigetechnologies.com
A good place to find a good host is webhostingtalk forums. You may end up with hostgator, dreamhost, etc.
But there are other resellers out there offering cheaper packages but is still hosted in hostgator – Pinoguin.com It also offers building your website with cms like Typo3 or Joomla.
After lots of searching and failed attempts, i have found my host:
MingledHost.com
Cheap, efficient and great customer service. MUCH easier than hostng from a pc at home
I invite you to try our services at BoscoSoft Hosting:
boscosofthosting.net
15 most cheapest web hosting companies for WordPress and other websites
tips29.com/2009/11/15-most-cheapest-web-hosting-companies.html
Hello,
I have also a suggestion regarding good Web Hosting provide they should have good support, Good server quality and its always better to pay a bit more when you get such host..I have been with http://www.webhost.uk.net for year now ..absolutely no problem ..I feel they are the best UK Web hosting provider.
Well I usually just start googling various webhosting sites and then compare the features for the price. For the most part it works out for me :-)
Currently I’ve got a site on Awardspace.com …but only because they have a Valentines Day deal running at $.14 for 6 months…which is an awesome deal haha
[images removed]
I’m using Hostgator , i think it is the greatest. I’ve also used Dreamhost but i’m unhappy with.
Hostgator provice cpanel which is the best administration panel.
Here is a comparation between 3 good hosting companies: http://www.ipgp.net/2010/02/how-to-choose-a-good-hosting/
I use http://www.kwelhosting.com and never had any problems. They have lot of good and cheap services and also excellent support. I pay only $4.99 for web hosting a month and they offer 99.99% up time guarantee. With every new non-domain account they give domain name for just $3.99, and also have a big number possibilities for international international domain names registration
Their website address: http://www.kwelhosting.com
This is good web hosting service and I suggest it to all
Cheers!!!
I have hosted few of my site with http://www.indianetcraft.com , their service is best, they are close located in New Delhi India.
you can check their uptime… at
http://www.webhostingstuff.com/uptime/NetCraftIndia.html
their uptime is great and support superb… They may be new but The Best.
After many hours of googling + reading reviews, I’ve chosen this one:
HostGator.com
Im using it right now and I gotta tell you that it’s by far the best webhost out there!
Cheap,speedy,reliable and with excellent support.
Save yourself lots of time and money,by not
choosing a web hosting plan which you’ll regret doing so 1 hour later..Choose HostGator!
MY web site is http://www.doctorarshadmalik.com and never had any problems. They have lot of good and cheap services and also excellent support. I pay only $1.00 for web hosting a month unlimmted space and bandwith and they offer 99.99% up time guarantee. and 24×7 live help {tested}
For domain account http://www.HostSo.com give domain name for just $9.99, and also have a big number possibilities for international domain names registration and 24×7 live help {tested}
Their website address: http://WebHostingWorld.Net
This is good web hosting service and I suggest it to all
Best wishes of u!!!
Dr Arshad Malik Pakistan
http://www.doctorarshadmalik.com
Globat is one of the good and cheap services and also excellent support which provide effective Web Hosting Plans.
Emma.
I use http://www.worldtophost.com/
It has the best web hosting plan and good domain name registration.
I use seekdotnet it is a good webhosting
http://services.seekdotnet.com/aff.php?aff=092
Who wants to drain all their mind power?
As a striving new entrepreneur, finding the right Web Host is really mind wrecking! And this narrowed list helped a lot! Best Web Hosting Reviews http://www.best-webhost-review.com
Another good company is frogsplat.com
They’re new (I think) but they’ve been excellent so far. I’ve been with a few different companies over the years and there’s a few really good ones out there, Frogsplat are just as good as any of the better ones only they’re a little cheaper than most, hence the reason for me switching over.
Remember though, always look around for the best deals when getting yourself a host, set a price in your head and try not to go much over this, hosting and stuff doesn’t cost much these days so there’s no reason you should be paying crazy money anymore.
21-Aug-2010
http://my.hawksrv.co.uk/aff.php?aff=002
This is one that I use and am a part off, it’s very cheap and we offer a really reliable service with support for anything you’ll need to get set up. :)
I would use host gator they have very high quality hosting here link:
http://secure.hostgator.com/~affiliat/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=ralphs17
Here is a Coupon: gatorpeace
HostGator is one of the best hosts there is with completely un-metered hosting that allows you to host unlimited websites all from one host if you choose the Baby Plan.
You can keep up to date with the latest money off coupons from http://www.freehostgatorcouponcode.com
All coupons are up to date and verified working.
Hope this helps :)
There is noticeably a bundle to know about this. I assume you made certain nice points in features also.
I am a search engine optimizer and currently have my hosting through a company called vpswebserver, the guy in there is very helpful and available to sort out any problems (not that i have had any),. I previously used to host with dreamhost and also 1and1 but both companies let me down, transferring things out were a real pain as well, but the guy at vpswebserver did it all for free and quickly.
My view is that even thouh vpswebserver is a small hosting company, its actually a bit better than the big companies, there is a lot more effort and kindess from the company.My rating for this company is 9/10, extremely happy :)
I hope my review helps.
by the way their website address is http://www.vpswebserver.com/.
I believe that one of your adverts instigated my web browser to resize, you will probably want to place that on your black list.
11-Jun-2012
I know this guy who knows almost nothing about computers.( Fine, ok, thats me). I am trying to learn about web hosting and how an idiot can get started with the process and learn more about the advantages of computers. ANY advice would be so appreciated
06-Jul-2012
I have been using Mister.net for over five years for three websites I own and haven’t had a problem and they are cheap, $35.00 a year per site.
I know… I am a Mister.net customer myself. I have used Mister.net many years for the same reason. They have excellent up time, but their tech support is limited. When I compare them to other popular hosts, Mister.net is telling the truth when they say their ad-free hosting is “unbeatable”. I haven’t found that price cheaper anywhere else. You can have unlimited email accounts. However, you better hope that Google does not flag your site as being the victim of a malware attack because resolving that issue with Mister.net is a pain. I ran into a problem when one of my email accounts got hijacked and was being used by someone I don’t know to send thousands of messages. Consequently Mister.net shut down all my email accounts and threated to shut down my entire website! I was falsely accused, it was not my fault at all. I had no control over my email, so I eventually lost the whole domain.
Interestingly enough, hosting a personal server at home is not that hard, assuming you have a vested interest in the subject, you have the time and you are not using it for anything permanent.
Stuff like xampp is a good place to start on learning how you would host your own server. And if you wanted, you could use it to set up an actual online server.
Then, getting into domains isn’t that hard either, go to some place like dot.tk and set up the domain to point to your personal ip address. If you have a dynamic ip, get something like DynDNS, and use it to set up your domain to change whenever your ip does.
This will work as longs as;
1: You don’t worry about uptime
2: the speed of the server isn’t that important
3: and the whole project is academic.
Nobody wants to view a site that has terrible speed, and not much content, but there people out there who like to see what other people have done with their personal servers.
If you really just want a blog, i recommend WordPress.com, and if you don’t want to pay for anything but need more control i recommend 000webhost paired with a good free domain host. (dot.tk, co.cc, etc)
Good basic article, not getting into much detail. The way I see it, shared hosting rules the market because of people’s ignorance, they’re attracted to “unlimited” hosting plans which couldn’t be a bigger lie. Every website on those shared plans is limited – in speed – as websites compete with each other for resources of a single machine. You can test this – open some 100 applications on your PC. How fast are they now? Exactly. The same thing happens to your website on a shared hosting plan.
It isn’t any better than a free plan at 000webhost.com, which allows you to use your own domain name. For beginners, this is the way to go. No investment, other than the $10 per year for the domain name.
For profitable businesses which can earn over $300 per month, a dedicated server is a good investment. My favorite is the Finnish company Icebluehost.
Not all free web hosting companies allow you to use your own domain name, but there are many that do (and possibly some ISP supplied web hosts also). In fact, they often offer you that option themselves as that’s one way they make money. I had a web site with one of these, and when I was ready for an upgrade to a paid host, I was easily able to move my website to the new server and keep my URL.
For my blog, I was using funio but I’ve switched to fledgeling nginx hosting because it’s so much faster.
Many Tks Leo – great info
Many, if not most, free web hosting services allow you to use your own URL. In fact, many will even do the registration for you for a small fee.
A trick I used to get more web space was to move the larger files (eg .avi and .mp3) to DropBox and put a link to those on my page. Once I started paying for web space, this was no longer necessary, but this might be a viable option for people starting out.
Actually, I’m .net programmer for 9 years and I always find .net hosting provider. I have used many .net hosting provider, from godaddy, etc. But I only have good experience with 2 providers, they are http://asphostportal.com and http://hostforlife.eu. For past 3 years, I use http://asphostportal.com as my project require US datacenter. So, I use them and have very great experience with them. The price is good and their support is very friendly.
How about hostforlife? I just host with them for about 1 year and they are also good in pricing and support. They have good server and that makes my site running very good from Germany. I love them. :)