Any suggestions for free/cheap domain name and web hosting services for a non-profit org?

January 13, 2005 3:54 PM

Any suggestions for free/cheap domain name and web hosting services for a non-profit org? [more inside]

Our organization’s web page is currently hosted by Geocities (yuck), with the ever-catchy address geocities.com/our_org_name. Does anybody know of any companies offering free or very cheap web and domain name hosting? Basically, we’d just like to get our_org_name.org/com/net with an email under that domain. We’ve found this company, but I can’t seem to find any other info on them, such as whether or not their service sucks. Any suggestions pointers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

posted by DakotaPaul to computers & internet (16 comments total)

yeah... like, $9-12 a year is standard for a domain name, and $4.95 isn't a particularly special price. Basically, they're just trying to advertise to suck in the non-profit market without providing any sort of special deal.

you pay for what you get for with web-hosting (the cheaper places are likely to have less useful tech support, though this isn't a hard and fast rule). It's doubtful you'll find someone who will cut you a break on it, but i'm sure you can find a reputable place that'll give you hosting and a domain name for less than $70 annually ... your nonprofit can afford that, right?

fwiw i've been happy with 24hostingnow.com.

whoa, the less than tag breaks things! YAY I FOUND A BUG < it puts in a br tagbr>
funky
posted by fishfucker at 4:01 PM on January 13, 2005

oh, 24hostingnow.com has sounds on their site! thus may not be work safe.
posted by fishfucker at 4:02 PM on January 13, 2005

I once used doteasy.com $0 Hosting plan. It's barebones, but good enough for simple brochure-like sites. There's no banner or pop-up ads either. I never had a problem with them, but for the price of $0, don't expect much in the way of customer service.
posted by icontemplate at 4:07 PM on January 13, 2005

Godaddy has inexpensive domain registration.
posted by AlexReynolds at 4:13 PM on January 13, 2005

Depending on how small your site is (single page) I can highly recommend the company I work for. $5 per year (not including domain name) gets you the MiniMoo.

If you need something more robust, you can get a good quality hosting service for $10 or less with more than enough space.

Make sure that the hosting company you choose is one that offers support in the way you are comfortable getting it. A toll-free number is ideal if you're US based. If you won't ever pick up the phone to call, it's probably not as important to you.

I'd be happy to field questions on particulars, including the competition. There are some really good companies that I refer people to if they are looking for particulars that we just don't offer.
posted by FlamingBore at 4:24 PM on January 13, 2005

I slid in under the 'free hosting for three years promotion' at one and one (linked at metafilter a while ago I believe). Their plans look pretty cheap, ~$5 a month for a basic account. They seem to work pretty good to me...someone who knows jack about programming, and if prices stay low I'll likely stick with them after the promotion is up.
posted by prettyboyfloyd at 4:32 PM on January 13, 2005

Vesana.com.
posted by grrarrgh00 at 4:38 PM on January 13, 2005

asmallorange.
$30/year, all the fixins, a goodly amount of space and bandwidth and so forth.

I don't recommend anything any cheaper though.
We found a great deal in webhosting. $20/year.

Then the host went under.

If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
posted by Count Ziggurat at 6:50 PM on January 13, 2005

Run as far away from one and one as possible, and don't look back. Unless you got it for free, awful. And as someone who has it for free, awful. If I remembered my logon info I'd give it to you.
posted by justgary at 7:21 PM on January 13, 2005

Dreamhost has been fantastic for me. $9.95/mo ($7.95/mo prepaid) for generous disk and bandwidth numbers, plus a free domain IIRC (I'm on a larger package there). They'll also handle your mail. I've referred a dozen people there since I moved there and all of them are still there.
posted by mendel at 8:44 PM on January 13, 2005

justgary - I've had great experiences with 1and1. I even upgraded one of my free accounts to a paid account. Does everything I need, and quite a bit that I don't. Five free domain names, some obscene number of email addresses, unlimited email forwards, and the server is quite fast. It's probably serious overkill for what the OP is looking for, though. The only thing I wish it had was bulk import of email addresses from a CSV into their email manager. Their customer service can be a little spotty, but I don't have very high expectations for web hosts anyway.
posted by socratic at 8:51 PM on January 13, 2005

Wow, lots of great suggestions! I think we'll definitely find something here that will work for us. Many thanks to all!
posted by DakotaPaul at 8:58 PM on January 13, 2005

I use Netrillium and have never had a problem with them. I pay $6.50 a month for one of the smaller packages to host one of my sites, and it's more of everything than I can ever use. The technical support is quick and helpful, although primarily helpdesk based - if you don't care for that, this may not be for you...but I personally adore my host.
posted by angeline at 9:12 PM on January 13, 2005

Surpass Hosting is my personal fave.

48 bucks a year gets 2 gig storage, 30 gig transfer per month, plus tons of widgets like site stats, subdomain creation, email management, and automated script installations for CMS and blog softwares (a nice timesaver). Whatever you get, do try to use a host that offers Cpanel, its quite handy.

I have found their technical support to be prompt and helpful, and they've always solved my problems. Hell, even though its shared hosting, for 20 bucks extra I was able to get SSH access.

It's probably way more than what you need, but you would be able to easily expand into multimedia, or even host other non-profits. At times it has been really nice to have that extra bandwidth lying around.

Joker is a good option for registering a domain name, and their prices are great too. I swear by them.
posted by tweak at 10:44 PM on January 13, 2005

I second DreamHost, with a couple of added points:

-the $9.95/7.95 plan mentioned by socratic allows you to host three domains, so maybe you can get together with some other non-profits and split the cost, or piggyback on someone else's account.

-I just enrolled and used the "777" discount code that DH used to advertise - it still works, or at least it did on Sunday. The promotion gives you a year at 77c/month instead of $9.95. It swings back up to $9.95 after the first year.
posted by flipper at 7:01 AM on January 14, 2005

Oops, mendel recommended DH, not socratic. My apologies.
posted by flipper at 7:02 AM on January 14, 2005