Neowin's Top Hosts

[john smith 1924 Veteran]

I've created this sticky thread for members to post their hosts that they use for their website. Clearly, we arent really looking here for the free hosts- geocities, lycos etc - rather the ones you pay for. We want to know about your good and bad expierences, how reliable they have been, how flexable on bandwidth, and overall feature wise. Do it in this format :

host name :

Notable Features :

Pros:

Problems:

Overall:

Link:

So - i'll start of for my website Zeebit :)

host name : OLM

Notable Features : PHP /Mysql, lots of free cgi scripts, PuTTY access, Password protect directories, FTP access

Pros: Excellent tech support- like 5 min replies - and useful ones at that, gives basic stats, Always fast and i've never had the website down - good VFM in general.

Problems: Only 1 FTP account on my setup, No PHPMyAdmin for DB stuff, Have a few probs everynow and again accessing the control panel - which is fairly limited if i'm honest- i'd prefer Cpanel - but for the price- its ok.

Overall: Mainly good- but a few downsides.

Link: http://www.olm.net

I will edit this thread to keep it clean and to the point :)

[Xeon]

I suggest you this website http://www.thewebpole.com/ where you can find the hosting plan at cheaper price with the best features, support and pricing. You can get everything you need and it's very easy.

A GoDaddy design rip off and a domain forward? Come on now!

[nycmattw]

http://pyloth.com They provide 4 simple packages to choose from. The maximum amount of bandwidth and diskspace is 15GB disk and 150GB bandwidth. They also have professiona suppot staff. Pyloth is also having a give away for that package.

[Xeon]

http://pyloth.com They provide 4 simple packages to choose from. The maximum amount of bandwidth and diskspace is 15GB disk and 150GB bandwidth. They also have professiona suppot staff. Pyloth is also having a give away for that package.

I like the optional $5 pornography fee hahaha :laugh:

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

I just thought I'd add something good to this thread after long last.

I've been looking all over for a good host that isn't too expensive and doesn't skimp on the features - I tend to shy away from words like 'Unlimited' and other buzzwords - I'd rather have an exact measure of what to expect, and I'd like it cheap too, but I'd also like it to be reliable.

So, after a lot of comparison and searching I went with SharkSpace: http://www.sharkspace.com/

I got a Shared hosting package with 20GB Space and 500GB Bandwidth, with unlimited domains, subdomains, email addresses and MySQL databases, as well as all the other stuff you'd expect like PHP5 and cPanel.

Should have costed me about $120 a year, but I used a voucher code '50offlife' to get 50% off the whole thing, which brought it all down to $62.65 a year.

... Which is pretty gooooood. I saw them on WebHostingTalk (which is also where I found the voucher...)

As for reliablity I can't really vouch for it YET, but I'm able to view the site I bought and use FTP already and it seems nippy. Here's hoping.

[Kudos Veteran]

I just thought I'd add something good to this thread after long last.

<snip>

As for reliablity I can't really vouch for it YET, but I'm able to view the site I bought and use FTP already and it seems nippy. Here's hoping.

You just contradicted yourself. Finding cheap hosting is the easy part, the only thing people want to know is how reliable they are.

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

Actually, finding cheap hosting which is good is not that easy. You can get something thats like $5 a year but you will not get the bandwidth, webspace or other features that are important - and for me, ample bandwidth is as important as reliability.

That said, I didn't contradict myself at all. I didn't say anywhere that it was bad. And in fact is has been up 100% of the time since I've bought it. :)

[Kudos Veteran]

Actually, finding cheap hosting which is good is not that easy. You can get something thats like $5 a year but you will not get the bandwidth, webspace or other features that are important - and for me, ample bandwidth is as important as reliability.

That said, I didn't contradict myself at all. I didn't say anywhere that it was bad. And in fact is has been up 100% of the time since I've bought it. :)

If you're not there long enough to know it's reliable, you are not there long enough to know it's good. You're also not there long enough to know whether they'll allow you the CPU cycles to push the bandwidth you've been allocated. In hosting terms, good and reliable are synonyms, hence the contradiction.

Ideally, people posting in this thread should be with the hosting company they are recommending 6 months or more.

[Dazer]

Actually, finding cheap hosting which is good is not that easy. You can get something thats like $5 a year but you will not get the bandwidth, webspace or other features that are important - and for me, ample bandwidth is as important as reliability.

That said, I didn't contradict myself at all. I didn't say anywhere that it was bad. And in fact is has been up 100% of the time since I've bought it. :)

How's the reliability a month after use?

[Neowinuser1991]

Host name : Godaddy

Notable Features : Cheap

Pros: Very cheap domain registration and hosting. It's application database is also very useful.

Problems: It hates search engines. It screwed up my sitemap indexing with my blog. Support never fixed it as they couldn't find a fix :angry:.

Overall: Very fast, cheap hosting for blogs/forums/wikis. Just watch your sitemap :pinch:.

Link: http://godaddy.com

[Verdelite]

Host name : 1and1

Notable Features : Cheap

Pros: Cheap domain registration, solid uptime, control panel that works, 4 main packages from beginner to developer

Problems: None that I have found yet

Overall: Site is fast, easy to get into, packages are cheap, and the dev package even comes with a copy of dreamweaver cs4. Almost all of the linux mags that I have read (from the US and the UK) recommend them.

Link: 1and1.com

[Trepanation]

Just a heads up. I'm using site5 and the service has been pretty solid so far. Support has been fantastic too. I'm not too sure about the prices as I haven't compared it. It gets a (Y) from me!

[The Rev]

I've recently started a small Web Hosting company, "Shack Hosting Web Services," and offer cheap and generous hosting plans. I'd love to have a few Neowinians come on board!

Shack Hosting

[Unksi]

I've been running a company for quite a some time now:

Host Name: LemonEntry

Notable Features: PHP, MySQL, Ruby on Rails, SSH, ISPmanager -CP, Dual Stack IPv4/IPv6

Other: Customizable packages, fast support. Finnish host, servers in both US and EU.

Link: LemonEntry

[GeekTwo]

host name : Mediatemple

Notable Features : 24/7 Phone Support (quite helpful to boot)

Pros: Fast, brilliant control panel (Wordpress & Drupal 1 click installers too)

Problems: Nothing they haven't fixed swiftly, kinda

Overall: Wonderful.

Link: http://www.mediatemple.net

Really do love MT. Wouldn't move to anyone else.

Edit: Added pros:

Website setup's very easy, you add the domain, then point the domains NS to MT, and MT will do the DNS config. every website's root is just a folder with the domain (eg; neowin.net/html/) so if you need to quickly run with a different version of the website, you just rename the old folder, and put a new one in with the name, seems small, but it can be really handy when you're messing around with code and stuff.

[painejake]

http://swvps.com/ - I rent a basic VPS from these guys and run CentOS 5 on it with MySQL, PHP, Lighttpd, sendmail and the rest. Very good actually. In the past 3 years I've only had unplanned network downtime once in the US Texas datacentre.

I get 10GB disk space, 250GB bandwidth and a VPS with a 2.4GHz Quad Xeon and 1GB ram on a shared 100mbit connection. It's a great alterative to shared hosting if you want to manage things yourself. I just host my 'website' and a few for friends and friends of friends.

[Lilrich]

Not sure if it has been mentioned but i really recommend site5.com

[Olemus]

Been using luckhost.com for around a year now, or I say that. They appear to have banned me from accessing any website hosted on their server including my own because I got my cpanel password wrong a few times. I can't even get to their site to contact them. Suffice to say I won't be there much longer.

[Lilrich]

Been using luckhost.com for around a year now, or I say that. They appear to have banned me from accessing any website hosted on their server including my own because I got my cpanel password wrong a few times. I can't even get to their site to contact them. Suffice to say I won't be there much longer.

That can happen, they might have automatically added your IP to the firewall because you could be a hacker, at a guess they prob have the customer portal on the same server as the customers...

[Olemus]

That can happen, they might have automatically added your IP to the firewall because you could be a hacker, at a guess they prob have the customer portal on the same server as the customers...

It's not the banning from my own server that bothers me, I understand that its anti-hack protection or whatever but the blocking me from getting to any luckhost hosted website? That just seems extremely stupid surely there's better ways to stop someone accessing control panels than banning them from absolutely everything. The inability to even contact them is even more frustrating, I've emailed them and received a canned response saying I have to contact them via a web support form on their site...

[Tjcrazy]

Host name : Smooth-Host

Notable Features : Unlimited Subdomains, Unlmited FTP Accounts, Unlimited mySQL Databases & Unlimited Email Accoutnts

Pros: Great support, 99.9% Uptime Guarantee, Very cheap prices

Problems: None really, no 24/7 support.. its more like 12/7 :p

Overall: Very good.

Link: http://www.smooth-host.co.uk

[Carbon Fiber]

Host: Versio

Notable Features : Unlimitd subdomains, unlimited mail accounts, unlimited FTP accounts, unlimited databases (mySQL), host up to 25 sites

Pros: very stable host, 99.9 uptime, not very high but very cheap (30?/y), do what they promise, answer from support within 3 hours!

Problems: none yet, everything going fine!

Overall: Excellent rating! A++

Link: www.versio.nl

BTW if anyone is looking for hosting, I have the lowest package but I still have a lot of bandwidth and space that is unused. PM me.

[BookerT]

Host Name: Web Host Utility

Notable Features: Fast Server, cPanel, Linux, PHP/CGI/Perl/Python, MySQL, SSH, SFTP, phpMyAdmin, No setup fee

Pros: RAID10 Protected SAS Storage, PCI Compliant, 100% uptime

Problems: None

Overall: Very Good

Link: http://www.webhostutility.com

Location: London, UK

[AnthonySterling]

Not sure if it has been mentioned but i really recommend site5.com

Site5 is pretty awesome.

[remixedcat]

inetu---> they use very high end hardware, they are rated very good by netcraft, a site that monitors the top hosting companies, they take care of everything on the server. they also have fully managed backups as well in case something does go wrong. they even host sites like pokemon.com, bmw, king of prussia mall (the largest mall in the country and very awesome) they also do not accept sites that attract hackers and people that would DDoS attack. they are also PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant, so you don't have the drama that sony went through with data exposures. 1-hour hardware replacement & 30-minute emergency response SLAs! They use VMware virtualization products, cisco networking gear, and high end dell servers.

also you get a custom tailored hosting solution done to your needs.not tied to a package. completely custom and completely awesome.

[sys32]

Host Name: Zerigo

Notable Features: VPS, Cloud, DNS, and more. Recently bought by 8x8, a large company.

Pros: Uptime very high. Geographically distributed DNS servers. Lots of OS choices for VPSes and cloud servers. Support is very responsive. Hosts all the web services for http://www.15seconds.me/. See the performance for yourself.

Problems: None

Overall: Awesome

Link: http://www.zerigo.com/

Location: US