Figmint designs
goodly designs for the average tasteful chapChoosing a Web Host
If you're looking to start your own website, you'll have to find someone to host your site. There are countless options out there, some free, some not, but for the most part, they're similar enough that it's hard to really determine what the best option is. This guide should help introduce you to web-hosting terms to know, and give you some ideas about where to go to get your site hosted.
Things to Know
When choosing your host, be familiar with the terms below and have an idea about which are most important to needs. Different sites require different plans, and you don't want to be paying $20 dollars a month for more than you need.
- Uptime and Downtime: this refers to when your site is online and functioning, and when your host's server (where your website data is stored) is having difficulty and visitors cannot access your site. How important 100% uptime is depends on your site. I don't mind mine being down every once in a while, but if I owned, say, a hospital website with paying customers, I'd want my site online all the time.
- Domains: Your domain is the name of your site. For example: http://etsy.com/ Different extensions (.org/.net/.com) cost different amounts. Domains always cost money, whether you pay for it seperately, or if the cost is factored into the price of a hosting plan.
- Subdomains: Like a domain, but with a small appendage at the end, as in www.figmint.zzl.org or mysite.hostei.com. You can usually get these for free, or very cheap from individual site owners who want to make a little money hosting.
- Space (Diskspace): How much memory all the files of your site take up. Be sure that your host provides enough space! For reference, Figmint takes up about 450 MB, and a personal blog site'd probably take up a lot less, since I have an inordinate number of images hosted on mine.
- Bandwidth: The more vistors you have on your site ("traffic"), the more bandwidth you'll need. Not having enough can make your site slow. For a more detail explanation on bandwidth, go here.
- MySQL Databases: Databases are used to store information, and you'll most commonly need these if you're using pre-packaged software like Wordpress and Drupal that need to stash information like blog entries and comments.
comparing hosts
Here I've reviewed a short list of hosting companies recommended by my fellow webmasters at icecaves, and listed the different services they offer side by side. I've organized the information I found into two charts, one for companies with free hosting plans, and one for paid hosting only. Select the chart you'd like to view below, and click on the screenshot thumbnails to visit the company website.
| Hosts with Free Options | Freehostia | 000webhost | Bubble.nu | Zymic |
| Plan Prices |
From free to $9.95/month. You need do to purchase a domain for your "free" site. | Free or $4.84/month. | From free to $20/month. | Only free, no paid plan. |
Max Number of Email Adresses
(name@mysite.com) |
Free: 3 POP email adresses.
Paid Plan: Unlimited | Free: 5 email adresses.
Paid Plan: Unlimited. | Free: Unlimited
Paid: Unlimited | Email adresses not provided, but for $10, mail() function can be enable to allow forms on your site to send emails. |
| Domain | Need to already own or purchase a top level domain (TLD). | Can use a TLD you already own, or use the free subdomain mysite.hostei.com. | Can use a TLD you already own, or use a free sudomian: mysite.bubble.nu, .hugs.nu, .moon.nu, or .rain.nu. | Can use a TLD you already own, or free subdomain: mysite.zxq.net, .99k.org, .zzl.org, .zymichost.com, or .clanteam.com. |
| Support | Help guarenteed within 6 hours for free hosters, and within 1 hour for paying ones. | Forums and help pages available. Live chat and phone help for paying customers only. | Ticket, forum, and contact form available. | Forum and live help chat. |
| Uptime | Some downtime. | Very little downtime. | No known complaints. | Downtime every once in a while. Servers also broke once, permanently deleting some sites. (Be sure to keep your own backups.) |
| Max Space | Free: 250 MB
Paid: 90,000 MB | 1500 MB (upgrades possible) | Free: 500 MB
Paid: 10,000 MB | 5000 MB |
Max
Bandwidth | Free: 6 GB
Paid: 900 GB | 100 GB (upgrades possible) | Free: 15 GB
Paid: 100 GB | 50 GB |
Max MySQL
Databases | Free: 1
Paid: 50 | Free: 2
Paid: Unlimited | Unlimited | 3 |
| Other Notes | No service entirely free due to the cost of domain names.
Has something of a large corporation feel. | Company's website and plans are very straightforward and simple. They don't seem as intent on swindling money out of you as some other options. | Very small hosting company, with only a few hundred customers. Excellent service because of this, but also might have a bit more risk of losing your data since less is at stake than a company hosting thousands. | You can create as many sites as you want. No cost, unless you wish to purchase random additional things like the mail() function.
You cannot upload files larger than 15 MB to a Zymic site. |
| Hosts with Paid Plans Only | Hostmonster | Thinkhost | Dreamhost | HostGator |
| Plan Prices |
$5.95 to $19.95 a month. Backup and security services available for an additional $10 or so each. | $7.95 a month for a two year plan. | $8.95 a month with upgrades available for more money. | About $4 to $11 dollars a month. |
Max Number of Email Adresses
(name@mysite.com) |
Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited POP accounts |
| Domain | Can use a TLD you already own, or get a first domain name "free" (for one year I believe, details given were vague) with your paid plan. | Can host as many sites as you want using TLDs you already own. | One free domain comes with the paid hosting plan. You can host as many domains and subdomains as you like, but additional domains you do not already own cost $10/year. | Must pay money to register a domain, or use a TLD you already own. |
| Support | Live chat, ticket system, email, phone number and documentation available for support purposes. Some reports of poor service. | Documentation and ticket system. No phone support. | Forum, wiki, and email support available. | Tutorials, live chat, and email support. |
| Uptime | Reports of some downtime problems more recently. | Uncertain--there are some horrible and some wonderful reviews regarding uptime. Thinkhost claims 100% uptime, but you can never trust that. | Excellent. | Some problems, but decent overall. |
| Min & Max Space | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Min & Max
Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Min & Max MySQL
Databases | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Other Notes | Not as forthcoming with plan details as other hosts. | Has bad uptime and friendliness reviews. | Has the friendliest website of these. Feels less like a large corporation than the others. | $4 plan allows for only one domain to be hosted. |
Freehostia
000webhost
Bubble.nu
Zymic
Sites with free plans: above and left.
Paid plans only: right and below.
Hostmonster
Thinkhost
Dreamhost
HostGator
Bias and Reliability
Note that I found this guide particularly hard to write because many companies twist the truth about their plans a lot. I've based my information on a wide range of review sites, and the information provided on the companies' own websites, while keeping in mind bias.
I've also done this from the perspective of a small site owner. If I was writing this article for a large business where any downtime at all is not an option, it might look a little different.
Figmint © Frisby. Please enjoy and respect my work.
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