Cheap Webhosting

January 27, 2004 12:24 PM

What's the best very cheap web- and email-hosting provider? Most packages are geared for small business, but this is for a personal site, so the web-hosting part of it is secondary to my primary purpose of using a less generic domain name (hotmail/yahoo don't cut it).

What I want is a solid combination of reliable pop and webmail at a domain of my choosing, with ~50MB space, for less than $5/month. I'm currently considering doteasy.com and netfirms.com, and doteasy is winning but for the 20MB space they provide.
posted by Sinner to computers & internet (28 comments total)

1and1 has a deal going right now at $3 per month. Use whatever domain you want (they bill registration monthly at $0.49/month) and they allow 15 email accounts (webmail, POP access, etc.). They have a template web package, not sure what the MB ceiling is.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:34 PM on January 27, 2004

Pair has a $5.95/month plan, and they're a pretty reliable provider.
posted by cmonkey at 12:35 PM on January 27, 2004

Oh, they also have a $4.99 plan that does everything you want (500mb webspace) plus a free domain.

As a bonus, I can tell you that as of this morning, the domain name slothdaddy.com was there for the pickin'. You can do better than doteasy!!!!!
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:37 PM on January 27, 2004

I love my blog host @ Small Packages. Packages small and large and great personal service.
posted by deborah at 12:39 PM on January 27, 2004

As long as you don't mind hosting your Data in the UK. From a previous post... CreativeSell I'm testing them out at the moment, and they seem OK. Linux more expensive than WinNT hosting, but it's all quite cheap. Price for 50Mb is $1.80 a month.
posted by seanyboy at 12:57 PM on January 27, 2004

Although, they don't seem to have webMail. But there's always mail2web.
posted by seanyboy at 1:06 PM on January 27, 2004

below10host.com

They've got several hosting plans catered specifically for people with plans like yours.
posted by lotsofno at 1:40 PM on January 27, 2004

I really like just virtual dedicated servers. It used to be 65535.net and Rus, the owner has been a great guy whenever I've needed assistance. For $7/mo you get 100 megabytes of storage, 5 gig of transfer/month, MySQL, php etc.
posted by substrate at 1:49 PM on January 27, 2004

I use php webhosting - $10/month unlimeted everything [well unless you are an ass, then they will email you]. When I have had problems, an email usually fixes it. 225 megs strorage to begin, unmetered transfered [unless you are an ass], MySQL, and the usual array of mail services.
posted by plemeljr at 1:55 PM on January 27, 2004

Another vote for Small Packages here.
posted by Orange Goblin at 2:37 PM on January 27, 2004

Consider this another vote for 1and1. Whatever you do, don't use Endore - I'm just now in the process of transferring my Endore domain over to 1and1, after a spectacular billing screwup that's left me without email or webspace, without any warning.
posted by vorfeed at 3:19 PM on January 27, 2004

I have been using 34sp.com (also UK based) for almost 2 years now, and they haven't let me down. It'll cost you £15 (roughly $23) per year. That's quite cheap, right? ;-)
posted by roel at 3:25 PM on January 27, 2004

I love my ICDSoft.
posted by taz at 3:27 PM on January 27, 2004

Add another vote for pair.net. I have used them for years and never had a problem, and you can use pairnic to manage the names.
posted by milovoo at 3:42 PM on January 27, 2004

I'd go with Pair. My experience with 1and1 was dreadful, even though they were free. Their interface is dreadfully slow and when I got sick of waiting on them I decided to change the DNS to point to Dreamhost (my fave host, but nothing for $5)... 1and1 refuses to alter DNS "as a point of policy." I therefore declare them to be evil. Free evil, but evil nonetheless.
posted by dobbs at 3:53 PM on January 27, 2004

flanders - I saw an ad for 1and1.com before, and was trying to remember their name. They're by far my lead contender right now. Thanks!
posted by Sinner at 4:24 PM on January 27, 2004

I've been using Lux Scientiae for e-mail to my lightly-used domain, and have no complaints. A basic POP e-mail package costs less than $5/mo, and web hosting costs only a few bucks more.
posted by blue mustard at 4:48 PM on January 27, 2004

I like HostFolks. $4.49 a month for 150MB and 5 Gig of transfer.
posted by MegoSteve at 7:05 PM on January 27, 2004

Best is really subjective. But cheapest is not something you really want to work toward. There are thousands of kids playing out of the basement offering 1 gig of space and 50gigs of transfer for only a couple bucks a month. My advice - go for value and a good reputation.

dr2.net is cheap ($40 a year for 150 mb of disk space & 5 gb transfer) and fairly reliable, but they seem to be plagued by problems lately, which is unusual. They offer script installation via their control panel which is nice if you want to run something like PostNuke.

FatCow offers both more and less than you need. $99 a year will snag you 500mb of disk space and 25 gigs of transfer, free webmail and toll-free US-Based phone support, should you need it. They also offer a $5/yr "MiniMoo" plan with a 'Coming Soon' page and a single email account. Webmail is included here as well, but no storage.

Stay away from Feature Price, CIHost, Dot5Hosting, HostRocket & C0ld Host.
posted by answergrape at 7:36 PM on January 27, 2004

I've had success with both logjamming and the aforementioned 1and1. Logjamming is $5/month, and I've had great service from them for over 2 years now. I got in on 1and1's intro package, which was free, so I don't know about their current pricing, but their service so far is great.
posted by bedhead at 11:10 PM on January 27, 2004

A warning about Yahoo: they had been hosting my site without problem for several years, but at the end of last year they just deleted my account without any prior warning. (When I inquired they cited "non-payment" as the reason, which still puzzles me - whatever the problem with the payments was, it was certainly caused at their end.)
posted by rjs at 12:10 AM on January 28, 2004

A word about 1and1. I've heard both 'Great!' and 'Nightmare' from a variety of people and it seems to depend on whether or not you are technically savvy in the web hosting realm.

So, if you know what you're doing and don't need their help they seem to be fine. If you need a little hand holding you might want to look elsewhere.
posted by answergrape at 6:08 AM on January 28, 2004

for $1 you can get 20mb email, 20mb webspace, and 20 mb home directory at freeshell. there is no smtp access at that level, but you still get pop access. there are other membership levels available also. A steal if you know (or are willing to learn) unix.
posted by clockwork at 8:38 AM on January 28, 2004

If you need handholding, 1&1 seems to NOT be the place to go. Their technical support guys are either swamped, lazy, or stupid -- I'm not entirely sure which.

For the past two months I've had a pending question for them, which they have completely failed to answer adequately (namely, how to set Alias and ScriptAlias variables; they don't seem to support the httpd.conf file at all.)
posted by five fresh fish at 10:12 AM on January 28, 2004

fff: I don't think you can modify the httpd.conf file, since that's only read when Apache is restarted. Oddly, they give you write permission for it, but since you can't restart Apache... (And the file is most likely auto-generated, like if you add a new domain.)

Have you tried mod_rewrite in a .htaccess file? That can do everything mod_alias can do, no?
posted by Khalad at 12:19 PM on January 28, 2004

Thanks folks. I'm reasonably savvy, but will be using these domains for very little - a 1994-era site and as email. All I need is a decent amount of space, reliability and both webmail and pop access. I got a 1and1.com package that will cost me $18/year with 5 50MB email addresses, plus registration, etc. I wasn't paying particularly close attention, however, and have just realized that that package has no web component, and I'm going to have to upgrade to the $2.99/mo package, which irritates me. Still, it beats the hell out of Verio/Earthlink at at $10-20+/month, and will take care of my email needs immediately.
posted by Sinner at 12:49 PM on January 28, 2004

I use Future Point, and am very happy with it. I use the basic $7 plan which gives 300MB of space, 10GB bandwith, unlimited email/FTP accounts, and everything I need and more like MySQL, etc... Also, to my knowledge, my website has never been down.
posted by swank6 at 2:20 PM on January 28, 2004

I've never been able to say enough good things about Verve. I don't even try anymore except to say - check them out, try them, use them, be assured of the most responsive, professional and prompt service you've ever had.
posted by Dreama at 5:19 PM on January 28, 2004