A good webhost?

[Puguni]

I'm thinking about finally getting my own domain, but, having usually depended on being hosted, I have no clue what the best web host is out there.

Does anyone have any suggestions? It's not going to be a website that needs a lot of space, and cheapness is always a plus.

[Mithrandir]

Hmm... I think you might want to narrow down the field of hosts, a bit. He are some questions to help...

1. How would you define "best?"
2. How much bandwidth do you need?
3. Do you care if you have "banners" or "hosted by" tags?
4. Do you need your own domain, or will a folder somewhere work?

Those should get you started.

[Puguni]

Hmm... I think you might want to narrow down the field of hosts, a bit. He are some questions to help...

1. How would you define "best?"
2. How much bandwidth do you need?
3. Do you care if you have "banners" or "hosted by" tags?
4. Do you need your own domain, or will a folder somewhere work?

Those should get you started.

I don't think I need much bandwidth, because it's going to be an art gallery. I want my own domain; I'm looking for something new other than the hostsite.com/sitename thing I've always been doing. I definitely don't want banners.

I'm talking about the webhosts that make you pay for space, not the junk like Angelfire or Geocities.

[kryptech]

I recently bought my own domain name and hosting (like a couple weeks back). I got it through 1and1.com - the MS Hosting Beginner package. It is $2.99 USD / month and has a decent amount of space, bandwidth, and other features. I've not yet uploaded my site and got things running, but so far it looks pretty solid to me and my cousin's been using it for a couple years and recommended it.

[Esoteric]

I've heard good things about 1and1.com. The only negative thing I've heard is that it's not super user friendly. I use Bluehost...it's more expensive (around $10 a month) but I've had no problems. I also have all the features I'll probably ever need. Ever.

[Mave]

As a former 1and1.com user, I highly recommend it. The only reason I moved was because I eventually relocated to another part of the world and join forces with Psycho Ann (Huzzah!).

It's reasonably-priced, has good service and enough bandwidth/space to work with. For 2 years, there was never a downtime/major technical problem. If you already know basic website coding, this is for you.

[KBMaster]

I'll third 1 and 1. I've never had any problems with them and they have a lot of good features and a good price. It was recommended to my sister(who pays for my domain) by her former Web Masters teacher, so that was enough for us.

[MyrrhLynn]

Well personally I use Surpass Hosting because they offer huge plans for dirt cheap, and they have good support too. I think my site is bigger then what you will be having though. XD

I've also heard very good things about Dreamhost but I think they are a bit more $$$.


If it's going to be an art gallery you should probably look for a plan that offers quite a bit of space (images eat up space really fast) and one that offers automatic installs of image gallery scripts (like Coppermine Photo Gallery) so you don't have to mess around with setting that up yourself (unless you want to). That's another reason I love Surpass hosting so much!