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I was just wondering if anyone had any insight into the budget web hosting world. I'm currently on a Comcast consumer Internet plan (no static IP) otherwise I'd host my own, but looking at the costs, most of the budget options are pretty reasonable, and would be cost effective in the short term anyways.

My main plan is to host owncloud (http://owncloud.org/) and expand it into a website for myself, but I'll probably try to do most of the web design for the site before making any purchases.

A quick Bing search shows that webhostinghub.com, ipage.com and bluehost.com are all pretty good, but I wanted to see if the TR community had any recommendations one way or another.

Thanks!

I've had a good experience with A2Hosting, and (just checked) they have OwnCloud available to install.

I believe several people here have reported good results with DreamHost, but I don't have any direct experience.

use like dyndns or something and have it point to ur dynamic ip....

Depending on how much you want to know about servers themselves Amazon might be an option. Their "free tier" basically covers 1 micro linux server, 1 micro database server, some bandwidth, disk access and a selection of other amazon specific odds and sods to play with.

You usually end up paying for something but the micro server I have running half a dozen small websites only costs me between $1-$3 per month.

This is only an option if you're prepared to get stuck into the command line and do all the config and maintenance yourself, though installing a web control panel like virtualmin is actually pretty straight forward it's not for the absolute beginner and AWS is fairly intimidating too.

I use Dreamhost for my light duty webhosting needs. You are kind of limited to PHP and MySQL, but aside from that they, have lots of extras. You get ssh access, one free domain with a hosting plan, backup space, Google Apps integration, and an XMPP server. XMPP is an odd perk, but it's pretty cool. The management stuff is straight forward, but some of the documentation is out of sync, like the section on the one-click installs.

I have an account with Rackspace if I need a VPS. I've only used that account when I need to do some external testing at work, which is infrequent, so I'm not sure about the prices on a production website. The management interface is straight forward, and it's pretty easy to do what you want it to do.

XorCist wrote:

use like dyndns or something and have it point to ur dynamic ip....

This may be an option if it is a personal / low traffic site. If you expect a lot of traffic, or are setting up a commercial site, you'd technically be in violation of Comcast's TOS.

What is your budget? Or is it just "as cheap as possible"?

cheesyking wrote:

Depending on how much you want to know about servers themselves Amazon might be an option. Their "free tier" basically covers 1 micro linux server, 1 micro database server, some bandwidth, disk access and a selection of other amazon specific odds and sods to play with.

You usually end up paying for something but the micro server I have running half a dozen small websites only costs me between $1-$3 per month.

This is only an option if you're prepared to get stuck into the command line and do all the config and maintenance yourself, though installing a web control panel like virtualmin is actually pretty straight forward it's not for the absolute beginner and AWS is fairly intimidating too.

Thanks! I'll definitely look into this as I'm not afraid to do it all myself, the experience would definitely be good, and it's free!

XorCist wrote:

use like dyndns or something and have it point to ur dynamic ip....

Not an option unfortunately, as I share they connection with several others and I'd rather not risk violating the TOS.

Budget is less than $5 a month. If not less.

If you are hosting only static content (use disqus for forums etc), google app engine is free up to a gig per month. I use it for my home page. It actually doesn't have to be static but I don't care to use their GAE api right now.

Also appfog allows for 2gb of ram free per month. It supports node and I think PHP and rails.

I use nearlyfreespeech.net and they are awesome. The UI is minimal, which is good or bad depending on how technical the user is. The cost is pay-per-use and for low-bandwidth sites can be very very cheap. I also like their business ethics. As their name suggests, they try to protect free speech and have refused to take down pages just because some big-entity threatened them. For example, see this: http://blog.nearlyfreespeech.net/2012/10/06/official-uk-government-attempt-at-censorship/. UK govt tried to intimidate them (without proper legal notices) and they did not budge. They also respect your privacy.

edit: They have also been in business for a while so they are well-known like the others you mention. The downside I see is that their support options are basically all paid, and those support costs are in addition to the hosting plans. The support plans are optional though, and I have never needed paid support.

I'd suggest Pair.

They have a basic plan that will likely meet your needs.

I've been using dreamhost for 10 years and been very happy with them. There was a time when they were super flaky but that was years ago. Overall, I am extremely happy with the service. YMMV, as my web hosting needs consist of a few wordpress blogs for myself and family members so my requirements are very light.

I realize this post isn't very recent, but I thought I'd chime in with my 2 cents.

A quick Bing search shows that webhostinghub.com, ipage.com and bluehost.com are all pretty good

Actually, the reason you saw that is because they're all owned by one parent company - Endurance International Group. And there are many horror stories about EIG-owned web hosts all across web forums. The reason the "professional review sites" still speak highly of them is because EIG pays one of the highest money per "affiliate sale" generated by such review sites. If you look beyond that, you'll quickly find that EIG has a history of acquiring popular web hosts and turning them into trash by sacking their staff and moving their data to their terrible datacenters in Utah and a few other places. This has happened to BlueHost, HostGator, and more recently A Small Orange, among countless other hosts.

I've been using SiteGround for the past 2 years, and one of the primary reasons I shortlisted them was because they were independently owned (not part of any holding company like EIG). I browsed a few forums like WebHostingTalk looking for user reviews, and also read a few in-depth reviews on blogs, and was finally convinced about signing up with them after checking the performance and uptime data. I'm glad I did, as my experience with them has been nothing like what I'd experienced with iPage (an EIG-brand). On top of everything, their support department isn't outsourced to some third-world country, and they actually go above and beyond in solving user problems (sometimes even script-specific problems, like WordPress issues, which they aren't supposed to be providing support for).