Top Hosts

[liquidparallax]

Not to squelch the lesser known hosting companies, I'd like to know of major established hosts. I'd like to exclude owners and employees on this thread from advertising their companies. For instance, everyone has heard of godaddy, dreamhost, and 1and1. I heard mixed reviews about all of them, but I am more fed up with having to deal with unknowns and underdogs. In theory, I support the smaller business but I will not stand for lack of prestige and well known reliability anymore.

What I am really looking for is a normal/easy cPanel (Unlike servage), good uptime and response time, multiple domains, and low price. Of course the big contenders usually have many pricings and packages, so I have no price requirement. I don't need fantastico or Ruby support or extras. I don't really want oversellers either.

I'd like this to be expanded by this community to be a database of the popular hosts with reviews or important notes or facts. Then maybe this could get stickied.

I'll start (although I have limited knowledge):

Godaddy (http://godaddy.com)
-I heard they switched from hosting with linux to windows now.
-I have no experience with them other than domains, which are satisfactory and decent price.
-interface is supposedly quirky
-economy plans have php file limits and other complaints of sql technical difficulties.
Review from .NET dev (http://www.getyourcontent.com/1/7211-0/Deluxe-Godaddy-Hosting-Re.aspx)

Dreamhost (http://www.dreamhost.com/)
-Seems to be overselling, but I notice a good amount of popular designers and artists use them.

Feel free add more about these as well as other big hosts.

[kjavia795]

i heard registerfly is good, but personally i dont like them... hope that helps :)

[JewlzK]

According to your post 3 'established' web hosting providers come to mind

availnetworks.net
hostingdepartment.net
asmallorange.com


They are not bigger then godaddy.com nor 1and1.com, but I've personally read good reviews on all 3 of the above listed companies.

Larger Providers do not always = better service.

:-)

[Dan]

According to your post 3 'established' web hosting providers come to mind

availnetworks.net
hostingdepartment.net
asmallorange.com


They are not bigger then godaddy.com nor 1and1.com, but I've personally read good reviews on all 3 of the above listed companies.

Larger Providers do not always = better service.

:-)

Agreed 100%

[liquidparallax]

Larger Providers do not always = better service.

:-)

Very true, but there is usually a bigger audience to criticize it and they have to keep their reputation and brand by satisfying a larger group, which makes it easier to make such a list. It isn't much benefit to find a small host unless you want risk or know the owners. I have had enough risk after experiencing bad support and uptime with a previous underground host. The only way I'd do it again is if they were steady as a company for a while, and more than 1 person I could trust reviewed them well.

At least in this forum I can tell there are people who are experienced and know not to get fooled. Then there are loons who go to the largest bandwidth providers without any precautions. Hopefully everyone can collaborate and the numbers can help weed out bad choices.

I've never heard of the 3 you listed, but out of the three,
aSmallOrange (http://asmallorange.com) appears to be the biggest of them. According to StumbleUpon reviews...

by Ro-Serpens, Oct 25, 3:00am, 2006
I've been hosted by these guys for 8 months, and they've be fantastic always. Very positive compared to my last host. Cheap, and peerless in terms of the stuff you get. Every scripting language under the sun is offered regardless of your plan. Unlimited databases and so on. You pay for space and bandwidth. And they never take too many customers. Meaning that their big plans might not be available at times.

by kylekorleski, Apr 18, 2:53pm, 2006
Great tech support and a highly affiable staff, ASO blows the other web hosts out of the water!

by TheComputerMutt, Oct 15, 10:27am, 2005
Best. Web Host. Ever.

And this (http://nectarius.net/) is a website of one of the reviewers (assuming they are still using this)

[TSO]

Bluehost
Site5 (who I would stay away from at the moment!)

[kjavia795]

yes hostingdepartment is very cheap and reliable.

[liquidparallax]

Bluehost
Site5 (who I would stay away from at the moment!)

bluehost (http://www.bluehost.com/tell_me_more.html) seems to be offering a lot for a little. I'd be cautious.

[kjavia795]

ya that seems so unreal....

[liquidparallax]

And it appears that

1and1 isn't being well received in this forum with either hosting or domains. They seem to put you in a gridlock of payment/renewal despite wanting to leave. A quick google search for "1and1 hosting" yield bad reviews right off the bat. I won't go near them.

[AMC]

no, I agree, however one might have to give them a little benefit of the doubt a with such a large client list there are always going to be complaints , however, you are right, in the case of 1&1 you dont want to touch them if you are seriously going into the web bussiness, however if you would like my advice i have to say that Craigs hosting department are great, and they do have a lot of customers too ( not millions i dont think but hey :) ) if you are into vps i have to say that while i only looked into them just recently, www.spry.com seem to provide a great service.

If you are into dedi's i can suggest, availnetworks or possibly Galaxy Solutions :) i hop that helped

AMC

[Fahrenheit]

Hello.
I suggest create new thread and post there participants.
Rule
post one participant from forum username. (Username have to have more than 30 posts)
Than create a poll
What do you think guys?

[liquidparallax]

Hello.
I suggest create new thread and post there participants.
Rule
post one participant from forum username. (Username have to have more than 30 posts)
Than create a poll
What do you think guys?

Well I guess that would exclude me at the moment, and give you a 5 post cushion to lean on! No offense taken though.

[Fahrenheit]

Ohh... I'm sorry.... But what do you think about my idea in general?

[liquidparallax]

A few big hosts that slipped my mind are

Hostgator (http://www.hostgator.com/)
I know nothing about them, but I just tested the control panel, which is normal cPanel 10. Their website says "Be careful of hosts that force yearly payments!", yet the 1st shared (http://www.hostgator.com/shared.shtml) plan says it's paid yearly. *shrug*

I smell a hint of overselling as well, but have no experience at all.

Yahoo (http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosting/)
(but all I can think of is those cheesy geocities sites). I don't have enough info to judge yet.

[liquidparallax]

Ohh... I'm sorry.... But what do you think about my idea in general?
I'm not exactly sure what you are proposing,


I suggest create new thread and post there participants
Post which participants? You mean posts of people who are using a large host and their comments?

I'm not sure what this rule means either: "post one participant from forum username." As in 1 post per username? Sorry I am little confused:confused4 :-)

If you want to set up a new thread for your idea, then go for it. Maybe then I'll understand.

[Fahrenheit]

I can say hosgator to. As far as I know it is the biggest hosting company in the world.

[AvailNetworks]

hostgator has a great reputation as well as asmallorange.com. Unfortunately I haven't had much time to spend getting to know craig from hostingdepartment.net but he seems like a good guy who cares about his clients

the guy from availnetworks runs a tight ship but I hear he is a jerk :D