Your favorite web host

[Larwee]

Selecting the right web host is very important and often very difficult. There are so many web hosts from which to select. No hosting company is perfect, but some are very good.

It might be helpful to members and visitors if some 5 Star Affiliate Marketing Forms members would list their favorite web host.

When it comes to web hosting companies I personally like to go with large ones that have been around for a long time and have a proven track record. I have two favorites.

Web.com started in 1995 as Interland. They sold their dedicated hosting and now only offer shared hosting. They also have VPS. A couple of years ago they bought web host Web.com and Interland changed their name to Web.com

They are host to 318,000 hostnames and Web.com has about 200,000 customers.

Web.com and Website Pros will merge later this year. As of now it hasn't been decided if they will use the name Web.com or Website Pros.

Here is the link to Web.com Web Hosting, website design and domain name registration services so you can see if they might be what you are looking for.

pairNetworks has been in business since 1996. They offer shared hosting, VPS and dedicated hosting.

Over 192,000 sites are hosted with pairNetworks.

Here is the link if you want to see if pairNetworks is for you pair Networks - World Class Web Hosting

I have used both of these and I'm very pleased with them.

How about you? What web hosting company is your favorite?

[Linda Buquet]

Very timely since I'm hosting shopping right now.

I like Pair's age and reliability but they wont move my sites and set them up.
I need that.

Right now I'm torn between some VPS and dedicated server companies that are all very highly rated at WebhostingTalk. They all have awesome reviews and no down-time problems.

Anyone have any feedback on these? I'm looking at a couple others too
but at this point I think these are my top 3.

Liquid Web
ZONE.NET
WiredTree

I need fully managed, Cpanel and lots of RAM but more than anything
good support and 100% uptime.

Logging off now to go call them all and put them through the ringer.

[Larwee]

Most people want to have a host that is reliable since that is one of the most important considerations. There are, of course, some people who don't consider reliability and are only interested in the host with the lowest prices. That might not always be a good idea.

People can probably talk best about their own personal experience. I've only had experience with 3 hosting companies: Verio, Interland (Web.com) and pairNetwork.

Verio was my first host. I started using them in 1995. I started using Interland in 1999. I used pairNetwork in the late 1990's and from 2002 to 2005. I last used Verio in 1999, so don't know how they are now from my own personal experience.

In my first post I mentioned that Interland (Web.com) and Pair Network are my two favorite. I also said that Web.com (Interland) no longer offers dedicated hosting. Web.com offers shared hosting and they have VPS (Virtual Private Server). PairNetwork has that and they also have dedicated hosting.

Even though I have used pairNetwork a couple of times and am not a customer at the present time. But they are still one of my two favorites based upon my personal experience with them. I have used Interland (Web.com) since 1999 and I am still with them.

Other people are going to have their own personal favorites based upon their experience with them and it is good to hear from different people. I hope some people will add their favorites to this thread.

When it comes to reliability, one of the best sources is information provided by Netcraft. They provide a daily report and a monthly report. There are some changes each month. Looking at their reports over a long period of time can be helpful in the determination of reliable hosting companies.

Here is a link to their report of the 10 Most Reliable Hosting Companies for the month of June, 2007 as well as the method they use to determine reliability Netcraft: Tiscali is Most Reliable Hosting Company In June 2007

[fitnfree]

I've been extremely happy with GoDaddy.com -- lots of add-ons and such and the few times I've had to deal with tech support so far they've been great.

[Larwee]

Here is another source that can possibly be of help in trying to determine if a host has good uptime.

You can also check live outage reports. They call it live. It is updated every 30 minutes.

Here is the link
Web Hosting Providers Page 1 - ordered by number of monitored sites descending - Uptime @ Best Hosting ratings

[andrewwee]

100% uptime?

I don't think anyone offers that.

The best QoS I've seen is 6 "9's", eg 99.9999%.
If I recall correctly, that's 5 mins of downtime a year.

I check webhosting talk to find out what webmasters think about the services.

I was initially thinking of a media temple grid host, but the comments seem to say their customer service doesn't seem so hot.

Maybe kartika?

another name that keeps popping up is the planet...

I haven't been DS or VPS shopping recently, and will keen to hear the outcome, Linda.

[Linda Buquet]

Andrew, ended up going with a LiquidWeb Dedi.

NOTE: added 8/4/07 Cancelled LiquidWeb - BADDDDD EXPERIENCE.
See this post on next page.


I decided and was told by lots of people a VPS just wouldnt get it with this forum load and WP which is pretty resource intensive too.

Got a X2 Dual Core 4600+ with 4 GB Ram and two 160 GB hard drives plus offsite 50Gb backup. Went with LW for lots of reasons. They are like RackSpace as far as very solid rep but not quite as expensive as RS and they have own datacenters and a good 10 years in biz. I called support like 4 times today with questions and I kid you not every time the phone was picked up before the 2nd ring. So fingers crossed!

[andrewwee]

Hi Linda,
Great to hear.

BTW, WP has plugins like WP Cache which cache the PHP files as HTMLs, so there's less server load.

I believe there might be something similar for vB also...although I dont fool with forum software much.

I'll keep you and Larry in mind for a second opinion when it comes to getting a dedicated.

Offhand a grid host configuration looks like it'll take traffic burst better though, but it sounds like there're a number of tech issues to resolve...

[Linda Buquet]

Good point on the WP cache plug-in. After I get moved to new server, I'm having Teli totally tear apart, upgrade and optimize the 5 Star blog, so can add that to the list.

[oziman]

Have had a LW VPS For a while - great support, always nice to call and get a RLH (Real Live Human) on the phone.
used Pair back in the day - also have a rock solid reputation.
oziman