I have worked as a freelance programmer and web developer for the past several years and I know from personal experience that finding a decent hosting company can be a bit frustrating. So I thought I would share some of my experiences for those who may not know where to begin.
First of all the "cheapest" is not always the best. Many times you get what you pay for. There is nothing more frustrating than spending alot of time building out a website and then taking it live only to see your site down most of the time because your hosting company sucks and then have to move the site and transfer your domain over to a new company hoping they will be better.
On the other hand hosting services is a very competitive industry so there is no reason to pay to much either. The goal is to find a reliable host with the most features at an affordable price.
Now many years ago when I first started out in web programming, I used a company called CrystalTech because they were referred to me by another web developer that I knew at the time. At the time I was new is this business so I didn't really do alot of shopping around. I was with them for several years then a while back the company changed owners and with that the reliability dropped as well as the convenience of most of their features in their Control Panel. And when I started looking around for other hosting options I discovered that I had been paying way to much for what they had to offer. So I would not recommend them to anyone.
A little over 3 years ago I started doing alot of sub-contractor work for a web design company out of Ohio. As a sub-contractor I didn't have any say as to which hosting companies to use and just had to work on whatever servers they had their client set up on. The two main companies they used were GoDaddy and BlueHost.
GoDaddy is without a doubt the WORST hosting company that I have ever had to deal with. Their servers are extremely slow, many common services are not available, and if you want to run any kind of eCommerce then get ready for a headache. Most eCommerce programs out there have an alternate version of their code strictly for use on GoDaddy servers to "try" and overcome GoDaddy's lack of concern for their customer's needs.
BlueHost seemed like a decent hosting company at first. They offered alot of useful services at a really cheap price. And as a result they grew very fast. In fact they grew faster then they had the knowledge and ability to handle the business. We actually had to move our clients sites that we had set up there due to extremely poor performance. So I would not recommend these guys either.
Finally, I found the company that I use now not only for my own sites but for my clients sites as well. The company is called HostGator. I have had no performance issues whatsoever with them. They have a 99.999% uptime guarantee and they take that very seriously. They have 24/7 tech support by phone and live chat. I have only had to call tech support a couple of times and each time the problem ended up being on my end rather than their's but they were very helpful in tracking down the problem.
Their cPanel is very user friendly and the features and services that come with your account will accommodate everyone from the beginner who has no experience putting up a website to the advanced programmer who is creating a complex custom programmed site.
You can get hosting for as low as $8.95 a month if you want to pay month-to-month or as low as $4.95 if you pre-pay in advance. I can not say enough good things about these guys. After several years working in web development, this is the best hosing provider that I have seen. They have the most services, best reliability for the best price.
First of all the "cheapest" is not always the best. Many times you get what you pay for. There is nothing more frustrating than spending alot of time building out a website and then taking it live only to see your site down most of the time because your hosting company sucks and then have to move the site and transfer your domain over to a new company hoping they will be better.
On the other hand hosting services is a very competitive industry so there is no reason to pay to much either. The goal is to find a reliable host with the most features at an affordable price.
Now many years ago when I first started out in web programming, I used a company called CrystalTech because they were referred to me by another web developer that I knew at the time. At the time I was new is this business so I didn't really do alot of shopping around. I was with them for several years then a while back the company changed owners and with that the reliability dropped as well as the convenience of most of their features in their Control Panel. And when I started looking around for other hosting options I discovered that I had been paying way to much for what they had to offer. So I would not recommend them to anyone.
A little over 3 years ago I started doing alot of sub-contractor work for a web design company out of Ohio. As a sub-contractor I didn't have any say as to which hosting companies to use and just had to work on whatever servers they had their client set up on. The two main companies they used were GoDaddy and BlueHost.
GoDaddy is without a doubt the WORST hosting company that I have ever had to deal with. Their servers are extremely slow, many common services are not available, and if you want to run any kind of eCommerce then get ready for a headache. Most eCommerce programs out there have an alternate version of their code strictly for use on GoDaddy servers to "try" and overcome GoDaddy's lack of concern for their customer's needs.
BlueHost seemed like a decent hosting company at first. They offered alot of useful services at a really cheap price. And as a result they grew very fast. In fact they grew faster then they had the knowledge and ability to handle the business. We actually had to move our clients sites that we had set up there due to extremely poor performance. So I would not recommend these guys either.
Finally, I found the company that I use now not only for my own sites but for my clients sites as well. The company is called HostGator. I have had no performance issues whatsoever with them. They have a 99.999% uptime guarantee and they take that very seriously. They have 24/7 tech support by phone and live chat. I have only had to call tech support a couple of times and each time the problem ended up being on my end rather than their's but they were very helpful in tracking down the problem.
Their cPanel is very user friendly and the features and services that come with your account will accommodate everyone from the beginner who has no experience putting up a website to the advanced programmer who is creating a complex custom programmed site.
You can get hosting for as low as $8.95 a month if you want to pay month-to-month or as low as $4.95 if you pre-pay in advance. I can not say enough good things about these guys. After several years working in web development, this is the best hosing provider that I have seen. They have the most services, best reliability for the best price.
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