How Are These Hosting Companys

[designs12901]

I need shared hosting that will allow a blog & rss & decent bandwidth.
Storage is not that important.

I do not want a host that will shut me down if my blog starts getting
on the front page of some social bookmarking sites.


Banana Hosting
BlueHost
Blurstorm
Dynamic Hosting
HostNine
ICDSoft
Integra-Net
Lunarpages
PolurNET Webhosting
RealWebhost
Servage

[weslinda]

The key is your willingness to pay for the bandwidth that you use. No big deal if you get slammed on a day, just an understanding of bandwidth usage and what it may cost you.

PM to discuss in more detail.

[designs12901]

I went with Integra-Net for my hosting & they charge $2 for 1 gb of extra bandwith.

The reviews are great for the company & support seems
pretty good, I'll write a review after a month.

[kevan]

Hi,
I use Lunarpages for many sites. They are very cheap, support is excellent all of the time, and the deal is very good, up to 350GB for less than $8 a month etc. I don't have a bad word to say about the company, just praise.
Kevan
londonpublichouse.com

[DrTandem1]

Lunarpages is my favorite. Everything is very easy to use, lots of features, low prices, etc. One bad experience with them was when a server failed and one of my clients' sites went down. It turned out to be a lengthy failure (about three days). However, because they make it easy to make subdomains, I was able to quickly point (change name servers at GoDaddy) the client's site to a subdomain I created on my site and upload the files to my server.

[ronchalice]

I put up my first BlueHost site about 18 months ago. I now have over two dozen, spread across several accounts. I've been very happy with the available services (I use Fantastico quite a bit) and have yet to run across something they couldn't provide. Downtime has been minimal, and with the exception of one or two minor glitches, support has been prompt and solid.

I do music downloads and some audio of interviews and readings... no bandwidth issues.

They seem to be pretty judicious in resource planning; adding new services and raising limits aren't automatically applied to existing accounts, but all you have to do to get them is call.

I'm running over a dozen blogs (Wordpress) and a almost that many sites that have music/multimedia and/or content managment systems (Coppermine, Joomla!, and Drupal).

[KeeKee]

I have used Servage for a couple years without a problem. My site has not went down and the suppoet is almost immediate.
Their control panel is my only complaint, they say it's on my end that I get page cannot load. I never get that on the site only the control panel.
If you use a referral code from someone with an account you and that person get extra space and the last time I looked 2 free months. I know they give the free months cause they gave them to me.

[hostBrain]

The question you need to ask these hosts, is what happens if you actually use and/or exceed the allotted plan's bandwidth.

It's all well and good if a host has a hosting plan offering a billion gigs of bandwidth, but the question is, can they handle it?

The practice is called over-selling. Hosts offer big everything, knowing that 95% of clients will never hit those limits, so if you're one of the few that will or might, then this is going to be a concern for you.

It's also good practice to let your host know if you expect bandwidth spikes so they can be prepared.

[littlegiant]

I've always been under the impression that exceeding CPU usage limits is more likely to pose a problem than exceeding bandwidth allotment. I think that's why a lot of hosts offer so much bandwidth. It's not really that much of an issue compared to CPU usage.

[hostBrain]

Originally Posted by littlegiant

I've always been under the impression that exceeding CPU usage limits is more likely to pose a problem than exceeding bandwidth allotment. I think that's why a lot of hosts offer so much bandwidth. It's not really that much of an issue compared to CPU usage.

It's more likely, because it's more frequent.
But at the same time one can impact the other.
The more bandwidth you're pumping through, the more ram and cpu you are using :)

Good point, though

[bj]

I think littlegiant and hostBrain got it right. You probably don't want to be looking at "starter plans", no matter how generous the bandwidth allowance may seem. These kinds of traffic spikes can shut a server DOWN if you're one of 80-100 sites on a server. I'd venture to say it's time to start shopping for VPN hosting or dedicated. An $8.95 per month plan (or similar) just isn't gonna cut it for you, and you're going to end up in the same boat, no matter who you use.

You should consider posting whatever stats you have on Web Hosting Talk and let the pros there advise you. Otherwise you'll just have to migrate again when the same thing happens.

[Wildman93]

I switched to Lunar Pages in late 2004 based on a recommendation from one of our IT gurus at work and I can say I have been quite pleased. My old host (Ultimatehost.com) was $25/month and the service was painful. I switched to Lunar and they handled the whole transfer and set-up. I had to laugh when I received an email from Ultimate Host saying that the majority of people that leave them eventually return. What a joke! Lunar @$8/month pre-pay for a year with a free domain for life and MySQL DBs, several web analytics programs and quick support...what more could you want?

Thanks!
-Wildman
Search Engine Optimization Specialists

[DrTandem1]

Wildman,

I don't think a forum is the place to place your referral link to Lunarpages.

[SportsFan]

You may also want to check out appliedi.net. Plans start at about $8/month for 50GB. If you grow and need more bandwidth, they can handle anything you want to throw at them. If needed, they can set up multiple servers with load balancing and even connect you directly to the backbone if you need it. This is probably way more than you will ever need, but it is nice to know you can start for $8 have have plenty of room to grow.

[itispals]

I have been using Bluehost and i haven't faced any issues.
But if you are looking for similar solutions with a much lesser price, you may even take a look at
http://1and1.com and http://www.routhost.com. Recently i have started a blog at routhost and i am finding them comfortable. I am not yet affiliate of 1and1 and routhost, so feel free to check them and i am sure it may suit your needs, for they dont cost you more than 5$ a month...
Thanks,
itispals
http://www.buckleupnow.com

[johngroup]

Good results with BlueHost.

[MarkGatESS]

The front runners seem to be LunarPages and BlueHost.

Does anyone have an opinion on which may be better than the other, or not?

Just to throw this out there, anyone have a recommendation on a dedicated hosting provider that's less than $75/month for hosting??

[bj]

The WebhostingTalk link I already provided is the best place to find reviews and pricing for dedicated hosting, as well as other sorts of hosting. It really is the best web hosting forum around, and does save a bunch of heartache in searching for a host. They have strict rules about the hosting folks not being allowed to solicit business directly, but they do all post there and will give you good information about their own offerings and whether you're being sold a bundle of bulldoody by someone else. Hosting problems seem to surface here first.

I'd check out lunarpages and bluehost on WebhostingTalk as well.

Also, just googling a host name and drilling down through 8 or 9 pages of google returns will give you a lot of insight into how people have fared with them. Do that with the phrase "Godaddy Hosting" or "MediaTemple Hosting" and you'll see what I mean. ;)

Though I can't swear to it, I'm pretty sure I've seen dedicated hosting cheaper than $75/month.

[littlegiant]

My favorite way to scope out a host is to simply go to their forum (if they have one) and check out what users are saying and how they're treated by the web host's reps. That's how I finally settled on Lunarpages (been with them for 18 months now).

[arcon5]

Its not in the list but I strongly recommend HostNine (H9).

Im a customer of thiers and they are amazing!

See some reviews at:
http://www.webhostingstuff.com/review/HostNineCom.html
http://www.hostninereviews.com/

[radarseo]

You can also try slhost.com they have a great service and a fair price on VPS, and you will not have a problem if your site make it to the front page if digg...

[bobchrist]

Originally Posted by radarseo

You can also try slhost.com they have a great service and a fair price on VPS, and you will not have a problem if your site make it to the front page if digg...

Actually the OP is looking for shared hosting not VPS, however I guess he might have already found a host since the thread is almost five months old.

[nategeeze]

I always like Concentric.com they have a unique platform that can handle hits and their support people pick up the phone.