Comparing Web Host Providers

[punky]

I know this might hurt a couple of people's feelings, but i'm looking to start up a business venture i've been thinking about for a while. I've come across a few hosting companies in my time, and none have really set me alight.

Anyone know of an good, independent site that compares companies' reliability and plans? http://www.hostchart.com seems to do it, but it is a bit big, and not easy to get answers out of it.

Ideally, i'm looking for a plan that can grow to quite big storage and transfer rates, if it ever does take off (i'll be aiming to store and offer files for download, although due to practicalities of this, I might change policies), so that'll influence the plan most. But I will also need good PHP, MySql, password protectable realms, and a very configurable control panel too.

Cheers in advance.

[Richard M]

www.webfusion.co.uk is expensive but high quality hosting.
Stay away from uk2.net.

[SMHarman]

indeed Iwebs 99% uptime must now have fallen by the wayside. But that still allows for 87.6 hours of downtime a year.

Its the IBM 99.9999% uptime guarantee that amazes me. That means 9 minutes of downtime a year!

[Alanmelon]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

indeed Iwebs 99% uptime must now have fallen by the wayside. But that still allows for 87.6 hours of downtime a year.

Its the IBM 99.9999% uptime guarantee that amazes me. That means 9 minutes of downtime a year!

But recent events are not as bad as they seem...that downtime only affected one server, so the percentage impact will be much less when considering all the other sites on the other servers (like mine )

[SMHarman]

and mine, but a little worrying as I am planning to put the commercial site on there and a couple of days down time would mean a couple of days of 0 sales.

[Darren Wilson]

I use http://www.34sp.com for all my hosting and the only downtime I have had on over 40 sites hosted there is when they upgraded the Plesk server control panel software (10 minutes total) in 3 years! Solid service and very quick response times to queries or account changes/setup.

[KingPhoenix]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

and mine, but a little worrying as I am planning to put the commercial site on there and a couple of days down time would mean a couple of days of 0 sales.

Your commercial site is on kestrel

[goldoni]

I can recomend Exploit http://www.exploit.co.uk/ the cost is £79.00 per 12 months for that you get a cpanel to control your own space and email pop3 the guy who runs it is away for a while. My sites have been stable with no downtimes as the same information is on another box. have a look at at the url above and it will give you a quote. The above price also includes the nic costs.

Will send a screen shot of the cpanel if requested

[Chris W]

Originally Posted by goldoni

I can recomend Exploit http://www.exploit.co.uk/ the cost is £79.00 per 12 months for that you get a cpanel to control your own space and email pop3 the guy who runs it is away for a while. My sites have been stable with no downtimes as the same information is on another box. have a look at at the url above and it will give you a quote. The above price also includes the nic costs.

Will send a screen shot of the cpanel if requested

I-web's deal for CF members: (see ad in KingPhoenix's sig above)

100 MB of Web Space
2000 MB of Bandwidth
100 Pop3 Accounts
Unlimited E-mail Aliases
5 MySQL Database
5 Sub Domain

2 Parked Domains
Web Mail Access
Spam Assassin Spam Protection
Frontpage Extenstions
cPanel Control Panel
Fantastico Auto Installer

£10.69 per year for CF members

[goldoni]

There must be something missing with that price as I only get one MySQL database and to give you a bigger Yikes I pay that for each domain I have. This year I have parked one domain ARD.co.uk which cost me £35.00. What about the NICs charges every two years, my hert-plumbers.org.uk was due in June and I received a letter from the registration company asking for £70.00 plus vat but as exploit are members they only pay £5.00 which is included in the £79.00 inc VAT. The Goldonian.org domain is due to run out at the end of July so please tell me more there must be other charges????? Not Just £10.69 per year ,,,Yikes

I have heard of these sort of prices but when you are just about to move over you find a bloody big spanner if you know what I mean

[Florence]

Originally Posted by goldoni

There must be something missing with that price as I only get one MySQL database and to give you a bigger Yikes I pay that for each domain I have. This year I have parked one domain ARD.co.uk which cost me £35.00. What about the NICs charges every two years, my hert-plumbers.org.uk was due in June and I received a letter from the registration company asking for £70.00 plus vat but as exploit are members they only pay £5.00 which is included in the £79.00 inc VAT. The Goldonian.org domain is due to run out at the end of July so please tell me more there must be other charges????? Not Just £10.69 per year ,,,Yikes

I have heard of these sort of prices but when you are just about to move over you find a bloody big spanner if you know what I mean

Move the domain to www.123-reg.co.uk it will only cost you around £6 for 2 yrs co.uk domains and you can point it to any hosting you wish bith of mine are there now.

Originally Posted by goldoni

There must be something missing with that price as I only get one MySQL database and to give you a bigger Yikes I pay that for each domain I have. This year I have parked one domain ARD.co.uk which cost me £35.00. What about the NICs charges every two years, my hert-plumbers.org.uk was due in June and I received a letter from the registration company asking for £70.00 plus vat but as exploit are members they only pay £5.00 which is included in the £79.00 inc VAT. The Goldonian.org domain is due to run out at the end of July so please tell me more there must be other charges????? Not Just £10.69 per year ,,,Yikes

I have heard of these sort of prices but when you are just about to move over you find a bloody big spanner if you know what I mean

no nothing missing, just a great deal & fantastic customer service. Like Kits said you don't have to use I-Web for the domain registration, but for a hosting solution I have found them to be brilliant.

[goldoni]

Now please feel free to call me thick but I have just followed some of the links given and when you add it all up it comes within £20 not including the NICs charges which changes for the domain designate. The best so far is MBs recommendation with I-Web Solutions I just need to confirm the NIC charges for a .org domain.

All the other companies have charges for talking to a person at the end of a landline, and charges for Front Page extensions, which brings the yearly cost about the same.

Regarding Parked domains is that equal to what is called park and ride??? Which I am paying £35.00 for one domain ARD.co.uk that gives me email forwarding, pop3 accounts and domain forwarding?? I have attached a screen grab of my Cpanel, the last file I attached was not very clear so I hope these are a little better.

[Richard M]

Originally Posted by goldoni

I have attached a screen grab of my Cpanel, the last file I attached was not very clear so I hope these are a little better.[/font][/size]

We have cPanel on I-Web too:

[goldoni]

I like the way its laid out on your Cpanel and if the costs work out as posted that will be cool. One thing I take it Cf is hosted on the same server, last week I kept on getting page not found for CF was that a little hitch with CF or the servers??? I like the unlimited bits not that I would use them all as you can see from my sceen grabs, or is that because you have a top account???? What about the NICs fees