“Can you give me advice on which host to go with to host my blog?”
It’s a question that I’m asked a lot – but one that I can’t offer a lot of personal advice on as my blogs have been successfully hosted on b5media’s servers for a couple of years now. We use LogicWorks at b5 but I’m interested to hear who you use and recommend to host your blog?
Who do you use to host your blog? Why do you use them?
No affiliate links in comments please – they will be deleted.
We use MediaTemple to host our site. Its reliable and fast and can scale to meet our needs.
I use freehostia.com
They give you pretty limited options, and very limited customers service, but I guess you get what you pay for.
Darren, would you mind taking me off the blacklist? I’m starting to get a complex ;-)
I’ve been wasting away in the moderation que while everyone else hop-steps over me.
You can delete this comment if you like. I won’t mind :-)
I use Host Gator. It’s the one recommended by Yaro Starak at becomeablogger.com. I learned about Yaro from Darren Rowse (oh! that guy from problogger.net? yeah, i guess he is ^_^)
I’m using Dreamhost :D
I use BlueHost. They’re cheap and have been pretty good. I got BoingBoing’ed a couple months ago and survived, so it must be okay! :-)
I use Future Hosting because their VPS’s are reasonably priced and their customer support is great! I highly recommend them.
I use Pappashop and I’ve noticed no one else mentioned it. Not sure why since it seems to be fairly good to me. But I do have a shop as well, so maybe that’s why. I actually used a wordpress template, from wordpress.org. and added it as a page to my shop. It all works fine, and Pappashop hosting is cheap.
jess
I use bluehost.com. It cost me about $150 for two years of hosting and domain name, but it’s reliable.
damn sounds intriguing, but I can’t afford $97 a month…even if its just a cup of coffee a day…I don’t buy coffee cause its too expensive!
That’s a lot of money!!
500 students by $97 = $48 500
Hmmm
Darren’s advice = free….yay!
jess
I use HostMatters for my two main sites — pretty satisfied so far, although their servers seem just a wee bit slow. Been using them for over 3 years.
I also use GoDaddy for several smaller sites. GoDaddy does not have a standard CPanel, which sucks, but it does offer good prices, abundant features, and I have never experienced any service outages with them.
I do like learning about other hosts, and this thread has sure opened up lots of other possibilities. Thanks, all, for the recommendations (good and bad).
I’m an imbecile
I had ten windows open and wrote my comment to the wrong post….
anyway forget it
sorry
jess
Yahoo.
I’ve had some serious problems with them in the past, but a wonderful experience today with a tech/cust svc. guy.
Guess I’ll stay with them…for now.
I use WordPress hosted on http://www.hostmonster.com.
I hosted my blogshowup.com at Godaddy and I am happy with this. Thanks
I use Servage primarily as they offer large storage and transfer along with unlimited domain hosting and email accounts. They are also very reasonably priced and are based in Europe (if you are looking for diversity in your IP addressing :))
They use their own cpanel setup and have auto-install for many popular platforms (wordpress, joomla etc)
I use Bizland (www.bizland.com). They have a simple install for WordPress, and offer real live personal support. I ran into a problem and was actually able to do a live chat with tech support as they walked me through the solution. I highly recommend them.
I have been using a couple of hosts in the past, yahoo, godaddy and some local.
Godaddy does not offer a c-panel, and yahoo won’t let you upload the .htaccess file, which is needed by wordpress, drupal and other php systems.
I’ve switched to http://www.ultrawebsitehosting.com [yet another aff link removed!] and so far i am 100% satisfied, as my site never went down.
Also, they have a free toll number, so you can talk to a human whenever you experience a problem ( i have none, so far )
Live support chat, C-Panel, Unlimited bandwith, databases, subdomains, 500 GB space, which suits me just fine for hosting all the applications i need online.
They allow you to place how many domains you wish, so you can host multiple blogs/applications, unless you run out from web space (500GB)
And it’s just 5.95$ per month, assuming that you subscribe for 2 years.
I’m with Doreo and with dedicated IP, just for a few bucks.
Before switching, got satisfaction endorsement from Daniel Scocco. Now I’m too satisfied.
My site is on Godaddy. I see No problems at all as of now.
I’m with Softlayer, a dedicated server provider. They offer rather high end features at middle of the road prices (not cheap, not expensive). My main server is a quad-core 2.4GHz with 4GB RAM, 2TB bandwidth, and is about $225 a month including CPanel and a few other things.
I have used http://webnet77.com for over 5 years now and am very pleased with the service.
I used to be with Cirtex Hosting, but then their services started going downhill and their downtime occasions started going uphill. :/
I’m currently with Holdfire Network and I love them to pieces.
thanks for posting my question Darren, I can’t believe that I can tweet you a question and see the answer just 24 hours later on your blog!
Going to check out a lot of the recommendations here.
I have been very pleased with BlueHost since I switched about a little more than a year ago. I’d recommend them to anyone who’s just starting out.
Before that I was using GoDaddy but my WordPress installation was having some issues over there. Also, I was very dissatisfied with GoDaddy’s technical support team.
I’m currently using Godaddy for my hosting. They’re cheap, reliable, and provide the technical flexibility I need for my widget service at Addoursearch.com
I have used Media Temple and 1and1 hosting in the past, here’s their reviews:
1and1: Cheap! But not flexible and very very poor customer service.
Media Temple: By far the best hosting I’ve ever used. But, they’re expensive. The server technology is second to none and the customer service is too.
At my day job, we use RackSpace, which is outrageously priced. But I swear to god those guys would drive to your house and walk you through a setup if they could. Their tagline is “Fanatical Support” This is one of the few times a marketing message is actually spot-on.
I tend to stick with GoDaddy simply because of their wordpress-friendly apps center but I frequently suggest HostGator and DreamHost to newbies starting out.
I still tend to put GoDaddy’s services above the others- they’re click to install and upgrade WordPress saves worlds of time and is easy to follow for even the most inexperienced users.
I was on Dreamhost for almost two years, but once the site began to grow, dreamhost could not sustain traffic and the site grew painfully slow.
I move the site to my own VPS provided by Slicehost and have seen no trouble and really fast load times for the site.
I still kept my Dreamhost account, since it is quite good for sites that are still growing and have lesser traffic, but once you grow I advice to get into a VPS or better hosting provider.
Ofcourse with Slicehost you need to be a geek or hire someone to setup the system since it only has the default operating system and rest of the things like web server, php, mysql have to be installed by the user.
OTTOMH, I’ve got blogs hosted at Mistral, ThePhoneCoop, 1and1, BlueHost and probably some others.
I will be trying to avoid blogs hosted with DreamHost, GoDaddy, HostEurope, OpticalJungle and Portland, based on past experiences.
I’m using green hosting HostPapa. No problems so far.
After being on several webhosts, BlueHost, GoDaddy, DreamHost, and a couple others Ive already forgotten, nothing beats HostGator. My websites are never down!! The support is very good online or by phone and its a great deal. I have 2 contracts with them and several sites in WordPress, Joomla, and now putting up a pligg site and then a phpizhabi site. They have fantastico as well to make set up a breeze. They have so many features its more than you can ask for with a shared hosting plan. Im not even going to link to them with an affiliate link like so many others are doing here. They are that good that wholeheartedly recommend them without any recompense.
I use bluehost and am satisfied. I have had my server go down. The first time was for a few hours due to a power failure. Unfortunately it happened to be during my sites peak hours right after publishing a big guest post.
The second was only brief, but I was working on my site at the time.
This is all good stuff. I’ve been unhappy with my present webhost. Their service has been unreliable. I have a few new options based on the comments above.
Thanks!
Rick
I’m currently using Hosti-can but will be moving when my time runs out as I’ve had numerous downtimes because of traffic spikes, and I’m not talking huge traffic spikes at all – certainly nothing to warrant their suggestion of moving to a VPS!
I’ve heard good reports about Hostgator for my smalltime blog situation.
I use http://www.bluehost.com it works great with wordpress, and customer service is the best
Like a few others on here, my company is a web hosting and development company, so I bet you can guess who I host with.
Customers say they like the fact that we are a smaller company because I give them a lot more personable help.
Right now I’m on Bluehost (okay) & Verio (great reliability) but we are moving everyone over to our own grown-up managed server at Rackspace.
I use NearlyFreeSpeech.net, because I originally built a site where free speech would be very important, but later stayed with them for my blog site also. They have been pretty inexpensive (it depends on how much bandwidth you use – I paid probably $2 for hosting last month) and I like their Respect My Privacy program if you buy a domain through them.
I love HostMonster. I’ve been using them for almost a year, and they’ve been divine. I have 300GB bandwidth/month, and 30GB all for me. I paid for two years and it cost me less than $200.
I firmly believe that free Blogger is the only thing you need for most blogs. Unless you are getting 1000’s of readers or require specific php or other backend database stuff, you will be paying for something Blogger offers for free.
Unlike free WordPress, Blogger gives you full control of your template and CSS. You can buy a URL from GoDaddy, direct it to your Blogger site with a click of a button and you can even remove that Blogger search bar at the top of the page if you want. There’s also easy integration with Adsense and other Google services.
Again, unless you are doing extremely well in terms of traffic or need some specialized backend service, there’s no reason to pay for hosting as a blogger and Blogger lets you do just about anything, gives you lots of space and tonnes of options for customization and integration.
I use Ultimate Marketing Center. They are very reasonably priced and the package include all the tools you need to run your onlne business. From autoreponders to affiliate management programs. I highly recommend it.
I use Top Hosting Center. So far so good. They are cheap, ever reliable SUPPORT, and they have fast pipes. :)
Hosting does play a big factor. I am running on Qoozz.com which is a pretty good company. Been with them for over 2 yrs.
Dreamhost.com – they have one click installation and one click upgrade of WordPress = super duper easy to run your own blog.
I use DreamHost. It’s cheap, fast, works awesome with WordPress, and even has a 1 click WordPress install and update feature. They also offer programs to earn money by referring them. Even WordPress recommends them.
Dreamhost. It’s good and reliable at low cost, I like it :)
As much as it pains me to admit it….I use Network Solutions and have actually had a very good experience. When my blog got a double-whammy of Reddit and Digg traffic (almost 200,000 users in less than 24 hours) not only did it stay online but page load performance was not an issue (wp-cache rocks!). Not bad for a sub-$20 per month hosting service.
I have been running a number of sites on a VPS solution from wiredtree.com. I have to say they have outstanding customer service. I have never had a time when I was not contacted with a response in 5 to 10 minutes.
The one thing I would say though for someone looking at a VPS, is do not even look at the intro package from this or any other VPS, as the RAM allocation is insufficient, IMO. I got the intro package and needed to upgrade after the first week. Be realistic about what your needs are and get what you need if you plan to make the jump to a VPS. I am hoping to move to a dedicated server with wiredtree in the coming months.
I have 2 blogs hosted in Australia with NS Hosting (shameless plug cos I work for them – but that means I can ensure that things always go right!!) but my main blog is hosted in the US with Fat Network (not even an affiliate plug!) who have been very reliable. (The cost of bandwidth I’d need for that blog is too prohibitive to host it here in Australia.)
I’ve been using Typepad, but I’m in the process of switching to WordPress hosted at InMotion.