Comments on: web host reccommendations?

Question: web host reccommendations?

weaponsgradecarp — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 17:53:59 -0800

2ndWebHostFilterofthedayFilter: Some time ago, my friend gave me access to his FTP server, a luxury which I have enjoyed until now, when the server has become increasingly unreliable...so I pose the following question:

What is the best (from your collective MeFi experience) free or cheap (>$150/yr) web hosting service with FTP access, preferable a large chunk of it.
Basically what I'm asking is...what's the best cheap/free web host out there on the glorious intarweb...?
Also, this must be very n00b friendly...

By: null terminated

null terminated — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 17:57:09 -0800

Dreamhost.

(FYI, every web host will give you FTP access).

By: FlamingBore

FlamingBore — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 18:06:35 -0800

Depending on how reliable you need your host to be you can get something much cheaper than $150 per year. But, as in all of life, you get what you pay for.

Dreamhost is where I've recently transferred many of my own and my friends accounts to.

By: boaz

boaz — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 18:10:27 -0800

First of all, don't get a free webhost. It'll either have some crazy custom page setup to serve ads or it'll go belly-up on some random Tuesday.

Second, Dreamhost does indeed rock, but if you're looking for seriously cheap, you can find cheaper. Don't expect much tech support or perfect reliability* though. Check out the Webhosting Talk forums, specifically the Web Hosting Offers section.

* Though OTOH, Dreamhost hasn't been perfectly reliable recently either. But at least they've been upfront about the problems.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 18:26:32 -0800

Laughing Squid. Where else does a webhosting through a party for their customers? Sure, it's only in San Francisco, but still...

Rates are cheap too.

By: bpt

bpt — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 18:53:12 -0800

Hcoop, the Internet hosting cooperative. (It's about $5/month.)

By: boaz

boaz — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 19:50:59 -0800

BTW, You should know that Dreamhost pays a $97 / referral commission, which is the whole reason why sites like pickingadomainhost.com exist. Instead of going through something like that, if you know a friend on Dreamhost, use his referral name, and then split it/throw a big party/etc.

By: djgh

djgh — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 20:05:09 -0800

I used to use Pixelhosting for $2.50 a month, and it was actually quite good. However, I have since moved to Dreamhost. Interestingly enough, Dreamhost has had more problems (although as has been said, they tell you all the details etc).

If you can, try and sign up when there's a sale/special event. Dreamhost have cheap rates during their anniversary, and many places have limited time special offers (e.g $5 off a month). Then once you sign up during that window, you get that price for the duration of your hosting.

By: danb

danb — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 20:21:01 -0800

Ditto on the special events. When I signed up I got a year of hosting for $9.24. No setup fee or anything.

By: drstein

drstein — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 21:16:16 -0800

(Disclaimer: I own a web hosting provider, pbp.net - I run it as a side business.)

That being said, I'm kind of curious about what you're looking for in a host. What were you doing with the FTP server anyway?

Let us know what you need, and perhaps an answer can be found. :-)

By: madman

madman — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 02:03:24 -0800

Remember the adage: you pay peanuts; you get monkeys. :)

(In other words, if something is too good to be true, it usually is.)

So don't get down to anything ultra-cheap if reliability is a concern.

(Why does MeFi seem like a collective Dreamhost marketing machine sometimes?)

By: pollystark

pollystark — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 02:30:17 -0800

Dreamhost are ace - some slag them but I think they're reliable and have loads of features. Also, if you get a promo code (find one on the net), you can get a year's service for $120 - $97 = $23

Alternatively, if you want secure transfer (and ONLY storage with SFTP access), check out Strongspace.

By: hatsix

hatsix — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 03:10:34 -0800

madman writes "(Why does MeFi seem like a collective Dreamhost marketing machine sometimes?)"

quite honestly, because dreamhost has become one of the top providers for "we don't need a whole datacenter" websites....

They keep up with technology, with patches and upgrades regularly, they're usually ahead of the curve when it comes to fads, like wikis and Ruby...

I've always gotten the right answer, the first time, whenever I've had a support problem/question... though it hasn't always been within the 24 hours they advertise, at least they send out a "crap, it's been longer than 24 hours, we're really busy, and we promise we'll get back to you" email...

They're one of the few companies to offer real incentives for referrals (three referrals a year pays for my web service...)

They're run by a bunch of guys that like to have fun, and the monthly newsletter is hilarious (the one where everything was haiku cracked me up!)

probably more reasons, but thats enough...

By: antifuse

antifuse — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 04:31:33 -0800

I'm quite happy with Verve Hosting. I was previously using ShieldHost but they were horribly unreliable, and often took over 24 hours to respond to support tickets. Oh, and their backend SUCKED (Cpanel is the best!).

By: alasdair

alasdair — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 06:41:32 -0800

I've always been happy with One and One. Cheap, lets you do lots of stuff (bolt on domains, forwarding, Apache config files, Perl, PHP, FTP in of course...) Have several sites on there.