Web Host Reviews

[David]

Since we started talking about web hosting this week and since most of us have experience of at least one web host, I thought it might be good to start a thread where we can review the pros and cons of the various hosts we have used.

We should consider cost, reliability, support, degree of control, transparency, features, included bandwidth etc.

[rob]

I have sites with both Streamline.net and namesco.co.uk

I have yet to experience any major problems with either.

The latter has good stats and control panel.

Streamline has been good for hosting some of the mixes I have for downloading.

[James]

I used to recommend Supanames as they were very cheap and reliable. Not any more. I've recently had the hassle of moving a site away from them (and they refused to refund me) because of lots of downtime. I argued that they were failing to provide the service I paid for, but their response was along the lines of "you took our cheapest package ... server reboots are to be expected."

I DO recommend Fasthosts. I now have two sites with them and I'm considering taking their reseller account. They are reasonably priced and have unlimited bandwidth. I have had a couple of issues where the support could have been better, but on balance I've been very pleased with them.

[David]

It's almost a year now since this thread began and I'm wondering if there has been any changes in the web hosts that we're using. As some of you will know, I've been with Clook (http://www.clook.co.uk/) now for a couple of years and have been very happy indeed with the service. They are not a budget option but the level of support and the quality of service has been exceptional. I have previous experience with both Fasthosts (http://www.fasthosts.co.uk/) and Supanames (http://www.supanames.co.uk/). I found them both to be "good enough" and would probably be fine for 80% of people.

[James]

Clook all the way for me. Best support (tickets normally answered in two minutes!). Very flexible (they will install PHP modules if you ask nicely). I have a reseller account and VPS account. My only complaint is that when I tell clients who provides hosting, they look at the Clook internet site which doesn't exactly inspire confidence (it had not been updated for years and now is offline!)

Also use Rackspace for cast-iron security and support - VERY expensive however.

[David]

My only complaint is that when I tell clients who provides hosting, they look at the Clook internet site which doesn't exactly inspire confidence (it had not been updated for years and now is offline!)

I think you're right James but they (Clook) are just about to launch a new website so hopefully it will look a little more reassuring. To be perfectly honest, they are not really bothered about attracting hundreds of new clients. To my knowledge, they have never advertised and exist purely on word-of-mouth recommendations. They prefer to grow their business in a sustainable and organic way. The reason they are off-line at the moment and not accepting new clients is that they are upgrading their internal systems in order that they can cope with future expansion. It's a curious business model but it does result in fantastically good service and support.

[Mia]

After trying several hosts, easyspace (http://www.easyspace.com - cheap and apparently accessible but frustratingly hard to get into nuts and bolts to make changes) and purple hosting (can't remember the URL - a friend's hosting service, lots of down-time) I now use Dream Host (http://www.dreamhost.com/) who are:


Reliable
Cheap (£80 for 2 years)
Massive bandwidth
A great help wiki
Easy to use with lots of control and support almost everything
An employee owned companyOk, enough of the advert, but I do think they are pretty good.

[Trudi]

I'm still with Web Mania - though on the expensive side they have met my needs to date - the only huge thumbs down is the awful invoice reminder mailouts - they start emailing you two months before renewal is due, and bombard you with reminders at a rate approaching viagra-related spam!