“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.
I use go-daddy and they are very reliable. Customer service is great and since 2 years of using there is no single downtime.
I’ve been using Site5. I mainly use it from Korea and it provides quite good service and speed. However, sometimes it is unstable…
I used Host Gator. It has never failed me.
MacHighway
i use Micfo.com dedicated server. Quite reliable and reasonable price. They have very good online 24/7 chat customer services.
I have DreamHost, but I didn’t initially get the hosting plan to host a blog. I originally wanted to have a website to throw all my random work together, and I also want place that I can practice my PHP and database skills on. I went for it because it gave me the access, and had the power to create a bunch of user names and host a bunch of different sites at the same time. And those things did come in handy when I started hosting the site for a student group I’m affiliated with. Using it for my blog was an after-thought. So far I’ve been satisfied with them, even though it does go down or become slow every now and then.
http://dreamhost.com/
Stick with the best… :D
We are with TCH: http://www.totalchoicehosting.com
We use HostGator for our online store and our blog.
MediaLayer – great service and very reliable.
I actually just use Tumblr to host my blog, but most of my posts are actually being hosted by Triond.
I have a local host http://www.intranet-services.com/ – And they offer best services to me. My second choice would be networksolutions though I’ve never tried their hosting with free design package (Image cafe).
I’ve been with HostGator for nearly a year now and so far so good.
I’ve got my international stuff over at A Small Orange, which is both good and bad, like any other host.
http://asmallorange.com
I use bluehost and I like it …..
Originally hosted with a tinpot UK-based company which ended in near disaster when my sites were almost deleted. For the past three years or so I’ve been hosting with TextDrive, who in the main have been very good — not without their problems, and their Joyent merger/takeover still leaves me a little confused, but I’ve had no serious downtime, and I can run every bit of software I need to (mainly WordPress). Their web interface isn’t the best — painfully slow for doing things like adding domains, etc. — but thankfully I don’t have to use it much.
I don’t know how it compares to other packages for space and bandwidth, but I’ve never had any significant problems, the staff are generally very helpful, and it doesn’t cost the earth. Maybe geared more towards the developer than the everyday user, so there may be more user-friendly services out there, but generally I’m happy with it.
bluehost.com for me. They have outstanding customer service. I have had several screwups in switching from an iweb designed website to a wordpress website and they were able to help me get things straightened out right away.
They basically install wordpress for you and stuff like joomla if you like that sort of thing as well.
$7 a month or something like that.
Hertzweb.net mainly because they are based in the UK, and extremely cheap :P
All my blogs are 100% hosted on Dreamhost.
Since someone talk about registrars. All my .com names are on Godaddy.
Just writing about this as my blog broke last week. I had been thinking from switching from Hostgator, not any more
Friday night about 10pm , I was not able to change anything on my blog. I knew there was something wrong with the theme and wanted to change it.
Customer service gold stars. The online chat service was great and after they were unable to fix the challenge, they issued a ticket, which was emailed to me. I was told someone from Tech support would contact me in the next 3-4 hours. First we switched the theme to the default so my posts would show.
I then went to bed. When I checked my email, I was told of the problem and then I was able to change themes- so I say a big thumbs up for Hostgator
One more vote for media temple! Been with them a week and no downtime so far. Lets see how it goes :)
Btw, Kirk Warren – Blogger is definitely great in that it gives you a lot of freedom to play around but you have to keep 2 things in mind when it comes to Blogger –
1) You don’t have ultimate control. Blogger does. You may own the domain name, but they own your site. Ever consider selling your site? It’s a pain in the butt (apparently there’s a way to do it via transferring the login control) but that’s only if your site hasn’t been shut down in the meantime.
2) That brings me to the 2nd point to keep in mind – Blogger can shut down your blog ANYTIME. How do I know this? Because I too bought a domain through google/godady and started my blog at blogger. Because of a design issue, I happened to visit their help forum and that was when I saw the blogger help forum being littered with MULTIPLE ppl complaining that their blogs have been shut down, and not because of questionable content either (one lady has a blog on, wait for it, PARROTS!) The real problem comes afterwards when they don’t give you a single rhyme or reason as to WHY ur blog was shut down. You can email them repeatedly for weeks (like the ppl on those forums) and not hear a word back because they simply don’t have to reply to you (too bad blogger support isn’t like adsense support)
That very night, I moved my blog from blogger to wordpress and got hosting. Yes, it costs more, but I like knowing that I have ultimate control and ownership of my blog and not some cubicle deskjockey who happens to get a random complaint and decides to shut down my blog.
I will agree however, that if you don’t plan on getting 1000s of visitors, blogger will do just fine. But even then, I would get my own hosting because my site is my baby and just because it’s not too popular doesn’t mean I am willing to let someone else have the power to kill it
What were we talking about again? Oh yeah, Media Temple all the way!
I use dreamhost i think that is most reliable,i never had any problems with it for the last one year.
Hostgator.com hosts almost all my blogs. They have excellent online support and are very responsive.
Mikael
I use Hostmonster as well and it rocks! Hostmonster (Bluehost’s sister) provides probably the cheapest possible hosting solution for the kind of features they offer. For $5.95 (now 6.95) a month, I get unlimited domain hosting, unlimted storage space and bandwidth!
The other attraction is the goodies that come free ($50 adwords credit, yahoo search marketing credit etc)
The only issue I have faced so far is that the daily maintenance (I guess so) downtime of about a minute or so is at the wrong time for my timezone (though it’s good for US/Canada)
Another thing, they have ONLY shared hosting. So if your blog grows suddently and wants dedicated hosting, you need to switch your hosting provider. Hosting companies like LunarPages have both shared and dedicated services!
Cheers,
Ajith
I recommend not to user dreamhost if your target is spain
For WordPress platforms, Dream Host is a nice one to choose, One that am using. Specially for starters they are giving offers like extra space. One can get 1TB space and 1 domain for just $100/first year.
Hey Darren,
Great topic and timely as I am in the market for a new host. I think there is an add-on question that should go with the primary question and that is…how much traffic do you get?
I ask because some of the $5 to $7 dollar hosting firms are great, once you start building traffic you run into problems. So I wonder who is the better host while also getting good traffic or Digg spikes?
Use WordPress.com.
WordPress.com is the best website host I’ve used in three years of blogging. DIgg’s okay, but it’s not a blog. Twitter is very primitive. I’ve used over 30 different website hosts and WordPress is by far the best.
I got my .com domain as a present and it came to a GoDaddy free account. I got bored of ads and the fact my feed wasn’t displayed right in all readers because of some GoDaddy insertion in the blog code, so I decided to get myself some paid hosting.
A friend recommended tophostincenter.com. They were new at the time but definitely had a better offer than GoDaddy, so I bought a plan from them. I’ve had no major issues since moving there and for whatever minor problem I had, I got help from the support team quite fast. I like it that there’s always someone online on the chat support and that they help you with your problems.
I’ve been in the IT field long enough to know there’s no bulletproof service, so I decide on what a provider has to offer, what their support is like and the price :)
I’m using HostDime.Co.il.
I use Nearly Free Speech and have been happy with their service so far.
Hi, I used the services from Hostek for both my sites, which was actually a legacy from a previous web development that required coldfusion.
Now Istanbul Trails is still at Hostek, but as it happens I just moved The Forlanis to Bluehost yesterday. Too soon to tell, but so far I’m pretty happy with their services. I wonder if they will live up to the great customer service I’m used to at Hostek.
Cheers,
Max
Hostgator.com and proithosting.com, both give great service, I’ve had no issues.
dream host!
I think it’s important to emphasise the facy that it really depends what kind of user you are. This big long list of favourite hosts isn’t the end of the story because you have to decide on the features you need. I came unstuck because I didn’t realise this – some hosts only have very basic features, so basic that you can’t even install and run WordPress on them properly (a must for bloggers obviously).
Then again, some dedicated hosting packages give you the kind of muscle you will probably (regrettably) NEVER need as a small-time blogger.
So you really need to do some research. If you are not very technically knowledgeable, get some advice! You don’t want to start out like I did with, say Netfirms, only to realise that you can’t do what you wanted to do.
For my tuppence-worth, as I said before, I am very happy with Bluehost. PLENTY of features and capacity for not very much money, will probably satisfy your needs from small-time bloggers, right up to a small-to-medium business, or dozens of cheesy sites, like me :)
With the growth of the blog, i’ve recently switched to ServInt for my VPS. I picked servint from word of mouth recommendations and they have worked out well thus far.
I use http://www.jumba.com.au to start with, a nice reliable budget host, and then if traffic takes off I move them to higher grade hosting at http://www.aussiehq.com.au.
I try to stick with Aussie hosting companies.
I’ve had really good luck with Hostdogs.com. Less than 5 bucks a month, plenty of space, and their customer service is awesome.
I would be careful with Godaddy. I currently have a client who’s using Godaddy shared hosting, and a vanilla wordpress install is taking forever to load. Seems his MySQL server is a little overcrowded. He called them about it, and they basically offered no help at all and told him to “check his program for errors”.
I use Hostgator.
I can’t say which one to go to in confidence BUT i can say do not go to Aplus.net – horrible customer service and even worse tech dept sadly.
We use Lunarpages, and while we had some difficulties in the beginning (what do you expect for budget pricing) it has worked out nicely for our need so far.
http://www.hostmysite.com
they do a basic blog package for $45 per year with ftp access
or
more traditional plans – I have both
I should say that for hostmysite – the support I have received has been outstanding
Like Kirk stated above, I use blogger.com for my personal site, http://fredeppensteiner.com. I just bought my domain name from godaddy, and pointed it to my blogger URL. I’m not hardcore like a lot of you, it’s just a personal blog with my crazy thoughts about whatever, so I don’t feel like I need anything too serious. Easy integration with the other google apps like adsense, google docs, and Picasa. It’s a no brainer for me, and a lot of people could probably save themselves some money.
I use DreamHost and HostGator.
DreamHost:
Growing webspace and bandwidth. Perfect to store my digital products for my customers to download.
HostGator:
I need another webhost for backup. HostGator provides me with what I need. Cpanel and SSH connection.
I am using BlueHost for my wordpress.org blog. They provide some of the advanced features. And also their customer service is excellent.
I loved HostGator until my blog started getting traffic. Now I’m searching. Thanks for all the comments! I’ll be checking these out!
Long time reader, first time poster. :D
I’ve used GoDaddy for a little over two years now and have been very pleased. I started only hosting one site there and have since transferred all of my domains to a Deluxe Plan with unlimited domain hosting (I got a great discount by ordering over the phone). I’ve found that they sometimes run even better promotions and give better deals if you make a purchase over the phone. Buying two years in advance saved me even more… just over $3 a month… and I usually get domains for about $7.10.
The longest I’ve had to wait to speak to customer service has been about 2 minutes and the person I get has always been very easy to communicate with.
My one complaint is the navigation can be a bit difficult at times, especially with everything looking the same, no matter what you’re trying to do. I’m not a fan of the logo/design of the brand, but I’ve not found a host to beat their prices or service.
The Others:
I originally started out with deadserious and their billing was terrible and prices too high, so I switched to Yahoo! but their $11.95 a month is about three times the price I pay now. It’s great for someone just starting out that knows next to nothing about websites, but that only lasts so long. I also tried 1&1 for a short time and found their control panels to be difficult to navigate and service lacking. When I went to cancel service and transfer domains, I had to do it by SNAIL MAIL! Never again.
GoDaddy. I have 2 sites I host there. Never had any outages or other problems and they’re reasonbly responsive when I have questions.
I use BlogEngine.NET as my blogging platform–it’s an open source ASP.NET/C# project which I like b/c I wanted to be able to tweak my site at the code level. You don’t have to tweak it, but it’s something I know from past experience that I wanted the option to do.
I am new to paid hosting so I choose the cheaper one – 3ix dot org. Maybe you haven’t heard of it yet but it is one-dollar a month host, and so far it is doing well for me.