Now it is time to share the resources I use to research and find excellent hosting companies throughout the years. Also many of these tools I have used to assist hosting customers and they have all come in handy when you want to know anything related to an ip address, server, or domain name.
Web Hosting Forums
Hosting forums are the best place to get the most updated information on any web hosting company. Members post frequently about their experiences and they are not afraid to dish out the good and bad about the hosting companies they use.
Server and Domain Research Tools
These are the tools I’ve been using for years as a hosting customer and customer service representative. If you want to know anything about a specific server, ip address, or domain name, these tools can find that information for you.
- What Is My Ip
- DNS Stuff
- DNS Reports (forwards to an area on dnsstuff.com)
- Domain Tools
Web Hosting Guides and Reviews
Keep up with the hosting industry with the following websites. Tutorials, reviews, news, and just about anything hosting can be found at the following websites. They all have RSS feeds too!
Web Hosting Recommendations
In the past 4 years I have not had trouble with any hosting company I have used and can even recommend each one personally as they provided me with great service and reliable servers.
- Alpha Omega Hosting
- ProNic Hosting
- HttpMe (currently using)
- Reseller Zoom (currently using)
- ServInt
Using a combination of the above tools, you will be able to research and locate a web hosting company that can provide the services you want. Feel free to share any websites or tools you currently use when researching web hosting companies.
The Insiders Guide to Buying Web Hosting Series
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I just used Hostgator… No research needed.
How come you are using 2 different types of hosting? What other sites do you have?
Anyway just wanted to find out what kind of hosting program you are on?
I have a reseller account at both HttpMe and ResellerZoom. I use 2 different hosting companies for my business websites and another for my personal websites. At first I had it like this so that my contact e-mail would not be on the same server as my sites (so httpme contact would be at resellerzoom email address and vs. for resellerzoom contact e-mail), because if they were down or another issues I wouldn’t get the e-mail.
Have not used HostGator, but they seem pretty popular and their blog is aswell. I would still advise to do research before you signup with any hosting company, especially reading their TOS.
[...] presents The Insiders Guide to Buying Web Hosting: Resources saying: “Now it is time to share the resources I use to research and find excellent hosting [...]
Sarah that is a very informative guide
Even after 2 years of my experience with web and all I am still in search of a good host and I think these tools that you have mentioned are really useful
BlueHost is my home for now though
I am thinking about trying BlueHost, I think it would be ironic to have bluejar hosted at bluehost. Haven’t done much research into just yet though, but a lot of bloggers are hosted there!
I agree with DJ Flush,
Great post Sarah, I have been with Hostgator since the conception of my site and blog. It allows for unlimited subdomains and 999 addon domains as well as unlimited databases and databases. I never had an issue with the server being down and for $9.95 a month it is a steal.
If I outgrow my server size, I can simply upgrade as they have more bandwidth.
Monika
[...] Sarah put up a great post about buying web hosting and I strongly urge you to check it out if you need a helpful hand. [...]
Nice post Sarah . I am currently happy with my current host . But when i decide to buy a new domain , i will remember this post .
Hi Sarah, great post.
I’m another Hostgator convert and have to say I’ve never had any problems with them. I have several websites and blogs all hosted there with different email accounts for each site and they have always been reliable. The bandwidth of 1,000 gigabyte a month is incredible for the money - I barely even scratch the surface of that!
Terry
Monkia and Terry, it is great to hear you are doing good at HostGator! I should start to tallly up the votes for these different hosting companies.
@Madhur: Glad to hear you are doing good with your host too, seems bloggers are darn lucky with their hosts.
Interesting post. I’ve heard many good things about host gator. So, are these your affiliate links?
There doesn’t appear to be any affiliate links in any of the comments and I don’t have any in my post either. You can check that yourself by hovering over each link. Most of those hosting companies don’t even have affiliate programs.
Thanks for the post, I am using godaddy and I’m not really all the happy with them. This came at just the right time for me.
[...] If you are looking for anything related to hosting or domain names, Blue Fur has put together a very useful list of Web Hosting Resources. [...]
I have seen many of the host providers talks about 99.99% uptime guarantee. I have seen in the past on one of the site that shows you uptime for the sites registered over there. But that was limited to registered sites. Is there any other way you can check the uptime for particular host? Thanks.
I just use blogger as it’s free. Why pay for it? I guesss some advanced bloggers who actually make lots of money would prefer to buy a domain but if you’re a newbie then free is the way to go. At least untill you know what you are doing.
Hi Sarah, great post. Thanks for the information about cpanel hosting providers.
I appreciate it.
Erica
P.S. You’ve got the best blog design I’ve ever seen. We love BlueJar!!
One more resource
Web Hosting Delhi [http://www.hostingdelhi.net/]
Hosting delhi is a premium Web Hosting company which provides hosting services with 9 years of hosting experience.Now offers professional hosting services at an affordable cost.
I cannot stress enough how much research needs to be done before choosing a web host. I found out to my cost by signing up to a host and getting scammed by them. As well as checking out review sites, just do a websearch for the name of the company you’re looking into.
The main thing I have found is to avoid companies that advertise “unlimited bandwith”. There is no way that they can live up to their promise.
I Just wanted to add to this great list!
Always test the support.
If the host you are looking at has a ticket system, try it out. Submit a sales ticket asking a few questions. When they reply, how professional and knowledgable are the staff? The same goes for live support, many people prefer this method, so give them a try. See how professional they are and also how friendly they are, o prefer a hint of both, but each to their own.
Ask for a test file.
If you ask, the host should ALWAYS provide you with a test file so you can test their network speeds. This is usually a 10 to 100mb file which you would download and monitor to see how fast the speeds are.
Always ping and tracrt the host.
Another good way to test a hosts network is to try pinging the domain and also do a trace route to check for any traces of network issues.
To ping a domain, go to your start menu and find the ‘run’ program. In the box that comes up type ‘cmd’. Now a black window should popup, in this window type ‘ping hostsdomain.com’ and wait for it to finish. If you experience ANY packet loss i would not reccomend using this host. Expect an average ping time of aroun 50-200ms, anything above that and you should probably move on.
Now, in the same window type ‘tracert hostsdomain.com’ and wait for it to finish. Again, if any of those ping times go above 200ms i would not reccomend going with that host. Also, timeouts show serious problems with the network, avoid as much as possible.
Using those tips along with yours can really help you find the right host. Also, i would always look for some sort of money back guarantee. That way you know if you decide you do not like the host when you have purchased, you can ask for a refund. Also, check http://www.webhostingstuff.com for reviews, uptime reports and other cool stuff.
I know i am commenting on an old post, but i just wanted to add these few tips.
Thank you for this blog, you have provided me with a few splendid reads.