Top 10 Web Hosting Plans To Grow Your Business

by Craig Hesser

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Here are the top ten web hosting operations as we see them today (March 2011). We currently do business with six hosting companies of various sorts for various reasons. Not all of our hosting companies manage to reach the top ten sites on our list. :-S For the record, this site runs on StartLogic for historical reasons. If you have any comments, please send them to us at jc [dot] admin42 [at] gmail [dot] com.

In order to rank in the top ten today, it is almost obligatory that the hosting organisation offers SSH, Perl, MySQL, Ruby-on-Rails, some sort of one-click script installation service like fantastico, FrontPage extentions, one or more web site builders, marketing credits, pHp5, some kind of eCommerce package, and some sort of direct contact support, either voice or chat. Most services have Linux servers with Windows servers at an additional price - if it's different, I'll note it in the description. Services below marked with a § denote organisations where Jimmy Craig Websites has active hosting.

I tried to find some inexpensive hosting outside the USA late in 2010, and I was surprised to discover that even in India, there were no hosting companies open to the public. Only some of the large private organisations there have servers operating in India. The Indian companies offering hosting were reselling space from the USA! There are a few operations in western Europe, primarily the UK, with a few in Germany and the Netherlands. Their prices are generally higher for two reasons, one is that they tend to operate as though they have a captive market (which they don't), and the other is that they have to charge European VAT (value added tax, similar to sales tax in the USA) to European residents at somewhere around 20%. Switzerland is not part of the EU, and the VAT rate is 8%, but the prices are higher.

Please note that the offers quoted below can be changed by the companies at any time!
Also please note that if you click on a link, Jimmy Craig Websites hopes to benefit from your purchase (if any).

1. § Host Gator
   HostGator is one of the strongest and most rapidly growing web hosting companies. They have two types of plans, for end-consumers and for resellers. Their range of services starts at $3,95 per month for single domain service to virtual server hosting and dedicated servers. They only require one month's committment from the straight hosting plans, and there are no setup fees or deposits for the basic plans in the end-user and reseller programs. "Unlimited" plans start at low as $4,95 per month. They use the cPanel with Fantastico. They have "green" hosting with "130% wind power" as they put it. Their servers are located in Houston, Texas, USA. The basic plan starts at $6.95. Their website's Alexa score is 242 (up ~150 in 18 months - in general, the lower the score the better they are at online business).
   
   
2. BlueHost
   A few year ago BlueHost was named the Best New Hosting Company and the Best Customer Support by some of the leading hosting review companies. Their hosting package includes a free Domain (1 and 2 year plan), free setup (1 and 2 year plan), unlimited storage space, unlimited transfer, 2500 e-mail accounts, and unlimited number of domains on one account. The basic plan starts at $6.95. Their website's Alexa score is 392 (almost 1/2 of their score 18 months ago - in general, the lower the score, the better they are at online business).
   
   
3. IX WebHosting
   IX WebHosting plans start as low as $6.95 per month on a 24-month term (but there is currently a promotion at $3,95/mon for the first term) that provides one free domain name, 2 dedicated IP addresses, and advertising coupons worth $100. They provide a 30-day unconditional money-back guarantee. IX WebHosting's servers are located in Columbus, Ohio, USA. If you decide to sign up with this company, look for the "secret link" on their site before you do the sign-up. Their website's Alexa score is 4156 (an increase of about 1500 in 18 months - in general, the lower the score, the better they are at online business).
   
   
4. § Host Excellence
   Host Excellence and IX WebHosting (above) appear to be joined together in some manner. The programs are essentially the same (except for the "secret link"), and the other technical and commercial systems as well. Their servers also are located in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Their website's Alexa score is 101487 (more than 2 times their score 18 months ago - in general, the lower the score, the better they are at online business).
   
   
5. EasyCGI
   EasyCGI offers 750GB disk space and 7500GB monthly transfer volume with their basic $7,96 Windows Server (either 2003 or 2008) package, including 50 MySQL databases, 500 POP3 email accounts, and $75 advertising credits. They also have Linux VPS hosting in their system. Phone and email support is available. Their server pool concept means that the first server available services the next incoming request. Their two data centers are located in the Boston, Massachusetts, USA area. Their website's Alexa score is 61958 (twice their score from 18 months agi - in general, the lower the score, the better they are at online business).
   
   
6. Lunarpages
   Lunarpages tends to be a leader in breaking (self-imposed) hosting limits. They've done it in the past with more storage allotted to accounts than the "industry" was doing. Now they say they are breaking the limits again in terms of pricing. They have a 15-question Wizard to help you chose the correct hosting plan for you. Why? Because they have a number of possibilities: Starter at $2,95/month with 5GB storage, 50 GB/month bandwidth. Basic at $4,95/month including 1 free domain, "unlimited" storage and bandwidth. Windows at $9,95/mon including 1 free domain, 5GB storage, 400 GB/mon bandwidth. "Quicksite" at $9,95/month 1 free domain name, online in 2 hours, 5 email accounts. Plus Business, Linux VPS, Windows VPS, Dedicated Hosting and Reseller Hosting. Their datacenters are located in Irvine, California (suburban Los Angeles), San Diego, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The site is in US and UK English and Spanish. Their website's Alexa score is 6690 (about 30% more than 18 months ago - in general, the lower the score, the better they are at online business).
   
   
7. § StartLogic
   The basic StartLogic package comes unlimited storage space, monthly bandwidth, and email accounts. The control panel is called the vDeck, and looks similar to a cPanel. The basic package is normally $6,95 but it is now available at $3,95 "on sale". It includes one free domain name and $75 in advertising credits. They have employee-supported green hosting, and the servers are located in metropolitan Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Their website's Alexa score is 13647 (more than 2-/12 times their score 18 months ago - in general, the lower the score, the better they are at online business).
   
   
8. Dot5 Hosting
   Dot5Hosting continues to be a leader in website hosting. Their offers are simple and transparent: four different payment plans for one hosting package. The hosting package includes unlimited domains on one account, storage, bandwidth, emails in various formats, sub-domains, FTP accounts, and MySQL databases, plus pretty much anything else you might desire. It all runs through a vDeck control panel. Also included are $75 advertising credits and one free domain with the 1-year and 2-year payment plans. The payment plans are 3 and 6 months ($6,95/month plus $30 setup plus $9,95 domain fee), 1 year ($5,95 per month, no setup, free domain), and 2 years (4,95/month, no setup, free domain). 30 day guarantee. Their two data centers are in the Boston, Massachuetts, USA area. Their technical details look very similar to EasyCGI and StartLogic, who are also in two data centers in the Boston area. Their website's Alexa score is 54314 (two times their score from 18 months ago - in general, the lower the score, the better they are at online business).
   
   
9. Globat
   Globat has in excess of 100'000 users and is selling only one conventional package - the GX01 - which features unlimited storage, bandwidth, domains on one account, and email accounts, and a free domain name and 50 MySQL databases plus all the other goodies. They normally sell this for $7,95/month but they have a special now and the package is going for $4,44/month with a 30-day money back guarantee and no set-up fee. The plan is an annual plan, so 12 x $4,44 is what you pay up front. Globat has its two servers located in the Boston, Massachusetts, USA area. Sound familiar? Yes, apparently Globat, Dot5, StartLogic, and EasyCGI all share the same technical facilities. The Globat website's Alexa score is 28965, about 4 times what it was 18 onths ago - in general, the lower the score, the better they are at online business).
   
   
10. 1&1 Internet
    1 & 1 Internet is based in Germany where it is also a major domain registrar, but has complete hosting facilities in the USA as well. They call themselves the "World's #1 Webhosting Company", basis unknown, but probably number of hosting clients or domains hosted. In the USA, they have four levels of hosting in Linux and that is parallelled in Windows, ranging from Beginner (US$ 3,99/month including 1 domain name, 300 email accounts, 25 sub-domains, 10GB storage and unlimited bandwidth in the Linux version), through Home, Business, to Developer and the same progression in Windows. Their USA data center is located in Lenexa, Kansas (suburban Kansas City). They have other operations with other packages and deals located in the UK, Germany, France, Austria, and Spain, and residents of those countries are required to join up in their 1 & 1 national operation (i.e. a resident of Germany must join the 1&1 Germany operation and may not join an operation from another country). My experience attempting to buy a dot-com domain name at 1&1 in the USA from Switzerland was that the 1 & 1 "know your client" measures were restrictive. Their website's Alexa score is 811 (about 500 below their score 18 months ago - in general, the lower the score, the better they are at online business).
    

Honorable Mention

1. 000 Webhost
   000 Webhost runs an operation that provides both free and paid hosting. They tell you up front that the free hosting is there to convince you that they have good service and so that, as your requirements grow, they will get your paid business as well. The only requirement for the free hosting is a unique email address; you can have as many free accounts as you want as long as you have a different email address for each. With a free account you get 1,5GB storage, 100 GB/mon bandwidth, 5 domains, 5 subdomains, 5 email addresses, 2 MySQL databases, 1 FTP account and a maximum of 10 scripts on their script installer (not fantastico). Their "premium hosting" costs $4,84 per month with unlimited everything (they say) except only 50 scripts on their script-installer (fantastico). They are located in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. Our experience with them is mixed - we maintain one non-commercial site with them but find that their site address time is not so great, and that they seem to be obsessive about site security and will drop accounts with no warning. Their Alexa ranking is 1290 (about 25% better than 18 months ago).
   
   
2. § NovaTrend
   If you feel you really need to have website hosting in Europe, here is one in Switzerland that is competitively priced, has their own infrastructure in the highly rated InterXion data center near Zurich, and over 10'000 clients. Their operations feel a little different from the American hosting operations, but you will not have any problems with the language - most of the site is in English (and German). Their least expensive program is for 4GB storage, 40GB/mon bandwidth, unlimited POP3 accounts, subdomains, and MySQL databases, and 5 domains for CHF 7,90/month (currently about EUR 5,00 per month). Their website Alexa ranking is 175'848 (about 15% better than 18 months ago).
   
   

About the author: Craig Hesser is owner and operator of Jimmy Craig Websites, is a partner in Sue & Craig Websites, and is the author of Webmaster-Resources-Info dot com. He has a 48-year history with computers and a long technical background in the petroleum business, upstream, transportation, and downstream. You can see an autobiography at Who Is Jimmy Craig dot com.

The reviews above are based on research, personal experience, and information from clients and colleagues.

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