New to web hosting. I’ve been reading articles explaining the different types and what I should be looking for. The problem remains that every single site I look at or get a recommendation for also has loud negative reviews virtually screaming “avoid at all costs!”. My needs: very small business, low traffic, low space requirements. The most basic of basic packages, bascially. :). Just wanna upload my html, css and image files and be left alone. Maybe with such modest needs I really don’t need to be this worried and I can just go with any old web host?
I’m in the UK, all my customers (if I get any) will be in the UK… does it matter that the web host is a UK company? I see some sites saying the distance from the server doesn’t matter anymore, others saying never ever host a uk site in the us, for example.
I’m tempted to go with the ‘biggest’ companies rather than the best, since I just can’t figure out who to trust. So far I’m gathering that godaddy and bluehost are two of the bigger web hosts.
How do I tell whether a host is reliable or not, when there’s so many extreme conflicting reviews? Is there a reliable, trusted comparison site?
My only experience with a web host so far is “vistaprint”, which has the most horrible, overpriced, limiting WYSIWYG atrocity-of-a-control panel I’ve ever conceived of. Thankfully I’m not in the market for simple-wysiwyg editors and templates anymore. Time for a proper web host.
I would suggest going for a host in the UK, the main benefit of it is that you would be on the same timezone as them. I would recommend JustHost (just search for them on the web), they are dirt cheap and when I was hosting with them they were terrific.
I would recommend JustHost (just search for them on the web), they are dirt cheap and when I was hosting with them they were terrific.
They’ve been bought by a US based company (Endurance International Group). Their servers have always been US based as far as I know. My experience with Justhost hasn’t been bad, but, as is the case with many large companies, they have their fair share of critics.
The biggest benefit of going for a UK based host would be that the site’s performance would be improved. Secondly, if the domain used isn’t a .uk, the search engines can still guesstimate that the site is aimed at a UK audience.
So far I’m gathering that godaddy and bluehost are two of the bigger web hosts.
They are, but I would suggest you look for something else. Slow servers have been the norm rather than the exception, while I used them.
Honestly, from what you described you could go as cheap as certain free hosts, it’ll probably be more of an issue of what kind of support and downtime you get, especially as a business site.
Personally I have a small site on a hostgator server and it’s both cheap and functions pretty well, no sever limitations and I haven’t had any speed or downtime issues. There’s a large number of support venues available that seem to get a pretty decent rate of response.
If you’re looking for UK hosting, I have a couple of small sites hosted with ukhost4u.com and have no reason to fault them. (I moved the sites there after problems at another hosting company.)
If you don’t use a UK-based host, you can set your geographical preference within Google Webmaster Tools to indicate that your site is aimed at the UK.