Fastest transition to another webhost?

June 9, 2010 8:43 PM

My Yahoo small business account (webhosting) was closed because my autopay credit card expired. I called to try to reopen and was led to believe that my website would be put back up like old times once I signed up for another year of webhosting. This does not now seem to be the case and I am now going to cancel the order within the 30 day period. Who do you recommend as the best webhost provider for a very small service business? (HTML5 capability would be nice.) I need to get up and running with someone else asap before i miss more emails/potential clients. Also, should I use the new webhost provider for email or something like googleapps? Thank you for any advice.
posted by DB Cooper to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

I'm using Geek Storage and haven't had any problems that weren't because of me being an idiot. I've also heard good things about Nearly Free Speech, but since I haven't used them I can't give you any personal experience.

For the email, I'd go with Google. I tried using the hosting email before and after using Gmail it just seemed so archaic.
posted by theichibun at 8:50 PM on June 9, 2010

Best answer: I've had no problems with Dreamhost. I know some people have, but they have so many users that some problems are bound to exist. For e-mail, I'd recommend using Google Apps for your Domain (links to standard edition) - I've been really happy with it.

HTML5 is client based, but if you're looking for your basic PHP, Mysql hosting, I think Dreamhost will be fine.
posted by backwards guitar at 8:51 PM on June 9, 2010

Gmail for domains is pretty foolproof. Dreamhost used to be really great, but they've been a little flaky lately. I hear very good things about Media Temple. Personally, I do my own hosting. HTML5 is not something your webhost needs to support explicitly. It's all markup, any webhost should have the capability of doing HTML5.
posted by signalnine at 8:52 PM on June 9, 2010

I have switched a bunch of domains to BlueHost for hosting, and I'm very happy with them so far. I would also n:th Google Apps for your domain - it's made my life so much easier.
posted by gemmy at 9:07 PM on June 9, 2010

I'd suggest Laughing Squid any day of the week. Their admin portal is a little weird, but the hosting is top notch and their support is A++.
posted by GilloD at 9:10 PM on June 9, 2010

I recommend A small orange

My company had a ton of trouble with the geniuses (not) at Media Temple

If you wanted to go dedicated I would recommend ServInt
posted by lakerk at 9:17 PM on June 9, 2010

I have had fantastic experience with InMotion. My switch from (shudder) Network Solutions was quick, painless, and a friendly person on the phone walked me through all I'd need to do.
posted by xedrik at 10:36 PM on June 9, 2010

So far we've had good luck with Rackspace for web hosting, and I'll nth Google Apps for handling your domain's mail (and calendars, and docs, and hell, Wave if you feel like it).
posted by mumkin at 12:04 AM on June 10, 2010

TextDrive/Joyent hosting has served me quite well. My experience with email hosting is that it's quite difficult for most webhosts to get 'it' absolutely 100% right, which is why I have my email (inc. IMAP access etc) done via Google Apps for your Domain.
posted by dance at 12:19 AM on June 10, 2010

I've been all over the map. Anything but Godaddy is workable.

Nearly Free Speech is excellent---but their backend is a little archaic and I don't like it much.

Bluehost is great too---with more features than most.

My personal favorite (that I use and resell) is A Small Orange. Fast, great tech support when/if needed, Cpanel/WHM, etc. Seriously, your emails are answered by a person, and usually within the hour.

Switching to Gmail for domains is SUPER EASY if you've got Cpanel (so that you can change your MX records, that's pretty much all there is to it.) Lots of hosts make it damn hard to change MX's (and/or CNAME's, etc) so you can't screw your site up. I've converted lots of non-profits to use Google Apps/Hosted and everyone is super happy w/ it.
posted by TomMelee at 5:05 AM on June 10, 2010

Best answer: I currently use and recommend Dreamhost and MediaTemple. Dreamhost is super easy for people who do not have command line skills.
posted by cp7 at 7:02 AM on June 10, 2010

Response by poster: OK, I'm going to try Dreamhost and am definitely sold on Google app based upon the responses. Thank you to all that replied. I appreciate you all!
posted by DB Cooper at 6:32 PM on June 10, 2010