Recommended Web Hosting Options
Note: Some of this information is out of date. I will try to update soon. 2/12/10
I often get asked by clients and readers which hosting service I recommend. Honestly, when it comes to shared (discount) hosting, there are a number of companies which are essentially the same. They all have flaws and people who have sworn never to go back to them. But they also all have people who’ve never had a problem and recommend them to all their friends.
Out of all the options out there, I’ve narrowed four whose customers I’ve worked with and which I consider pretty good companies. They all offer such basics as unlimited domain/subdomain hosting and easy installation options which allow you to install Wordpress and other software in only a few steps. I’ve organized them in a chart below to help you get an overview of what each plan’s advantages and disadvantages are. If you’re looking for more in-depth analysis, I suggest visiting Compare Shared Hosting.
I currently host with Dreamhost and have two Dreamhost discount codes: DISCOUNTOF%) ($50 discount off your purchase) and 2FREEDOMAIN (2 free lifetime domain registrations). If you sign up with Dreamhost, I suggest using one to get either a discount or extra features. Clients, ask me about discounts for signing up with my links or discount codes. As a note, Dreamhost majorly screwed some stuff up for me and I’ll be moving off there soon. They ended up fixing it, but the whole situation was just too much.
Sale: LunarPages is having a winter sale, $4.95/month for either 1 or 2 years of hosting.
| Dreamhost | Bluehost | LunarPages | HostMonster | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rates: | $9.95/mo for 1 year, $8.95/mo for 2 years, $7.95/mo for 3 years, $6.95/mo for 5 years | $7.95/mo for 1 year, $6.95/mo for 2-3 years | $4.95/mo for 1 – 2 years (fall special!) generally $7.95/mo for 1 year and $6.95/mo for 2 years | $6.95/mo for 1 year, $5.95/mo for 2 – 3 years |
| Storage: | 500 GB (increased every week) | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Register Domain: | $9.95 | $10.00 | $9.95 | $10.00 |
| WHOIS Privacy: | Free. | Free. | $7.95/year per domain | Free |
| Databases: | Unlimited MySQL. | 100 MySQL and 100 PostgreSQL. | Unlimited MySQL and PostgreSQL. | 100 MySQL and 100 PostgreSQL. |
| E-mail: | Unlimited e-mail addresses, POP3 and IMAP, Gmail hosting option. | Support for 2500 e-mail addresses using POP3 and IMAP. | Unlimited e-mail accounts, POP3 and IMAP. | Unlimited e-mail accounts, POP3 and IMAP. |
Domain Registration
The price of registering a domain (for 1 year) with or transferring a domain to your host. If your domain is registered elsewhere, you can also just point the DNS to your new host.
WHOIS Privacy
Because anyone can use a WHOIS service to find information about a domain registrant’s name and even address, most hosting plans offer WHOIS privacy. This shields your identity and is particularly useful for anonymous bloggers.
Databases
To run software such as Wordpress, you need the ability to create MySQL databases (don’t stress, though, most hosts do it automatically when you try to install the program). This means that if you have a limited number of databases, you can only host a certain number of sites which use software that needs databases. Fortunately, most people will never approach the need for 100 MySQL databases.
Other Hosting Plans
Some clients have asked my about GoDaddy’s hosting. I don’t recommend it for most bloggers, because it offers far fewer options than the plans above. While it has one plan which is similar to those above (“Premium”), that option costs more than any of these. Also, I don’t recommend HostGator simply because it doesn’t offer anything exceptional and has higher domain registration and whois privacy fees.
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