Need a new web host – recommendations?
I’ve finally had enough of dealing with dreamhost. Love their features, but man, does stuff go down often. And today, not for the first time, all incoming email is bouncing. Just plain unacceptable.
I’m looking for a new webhost and could use recommendations. It doesn’t seem there is a decent source of web host reviews, and even the best i’ve found is thin – so I’ll hoping for advice from you folks, as you actually might care to see this site nice, stable and healthy.
My needs:
– I’m willing to pay more for reliability and decent support.
– WordPress is my life. Prefer hosts that understand WP, or offers it by default.
– Need medium level bandwidth support.
– Easy non-geek management a plus. I’m smart, but want to spend as little time in shell/Unix as possible.
I’d also love to find a website transfer service that, for a fee, moves all of my domains and stuff from one host to another. Am I in fantasy land?
Suggestions much appreciated – Cheers.
I’ve had very good luck with DrakNet (www.drak.net), having been a client since 1999.
You can look around their chat forums as a guest.
I’ve been using webhost4life for quite some time now, I did take my email off of their servers and setup a Google Apps account for free now my email all goes through the google apps mail (think gmail) interface, I also have it deliver my gmail account to the same address, very easy to setup.
You could probably do it with your current host, just need to have them add some dns records once you get the google apps (http://google.com/a) setup for your domain.
I use dreamhost too… but only to host our wordpress blogs. Never noticed a problem.
Google Apps for Your Domain does my mail. No problems to date. More importantly: free
If you’re just looking for a hosting provider for a WordPress blog, Laughing Squid is excellent. I’ve never had any issue with them, never had any downtime, and for any of my inquiries they have been very responsive and helpful.
They easily meet all the requirements you listed (except for the transfer part).
http://www.laughingsquid.net
HostMySite (www.hostmysite.com) is without question the best web host there is for this sort of thing. They have a 100% uptime guarantee and the best support staff in the business.
I’ve dealt with them on more than a dozen client accounts over the past 11 years (including at least a handful of WordPress accounts) and have never had a problem.
I’ve only needed to call them for help figuring out things that I’ve screwed up, and they’ve always been helpful in sorting through my issues.
I have recently done a survey of various hosting solutions as I wanted to migrate from Dziner solutions. My requirements may be different as I use a php/mysql solution and require these from my hosting provider, but bluehost won. They have an extensive list of default features including unlimited disk, bandwidth, and 100 domains. For someone that wants to play with multiple sites for the same cost, it is perfect. It has a very nice GUI interface to all features allowing you to control your sites.
I’d add aiso.net into your list. Their Linux plans include WordPress.
I’ve personally not used WordPress in any of the 4 setups I’ve done with them (the most recent is a virtual server for my work).
As far as reliability goes, they hosted the website for LiveEarth 2007 (http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/21829.wss) which is more bandwidth & uptime than I need.
They are also solar powered (located at a solar farm) which is a nice green touch.
http://www.aiso.net/
I’d second the idea of using Google Apps for Domain for email – that is a brilliant move (particularly for Blackberry or iPhone users who want web, desktop, and smartphone email kept in sync).
I use Slamdot (after trying GoDaddy and other “fine” products) and they are fantastic. Superb support, a good web UI and no downtime.
http://www.slamdot.com/
Rikard
I’ve found A2 Hosting fast and reliable. They do 43folders.com too, and that site is popular and always snappy and responsive.
Hi Scott,
I have moved from Dreamhost to Media Temple and never looked back. Check out their Grid service offerings, it seems that it’s what you’re looking for. I can’t vouch for their support (I never needed it), but uptime and speed are pretty good for me.
Good luck!
Media Temple – I think you’ll find they have everything you are looking for and they are well respected. WP even lists MT in top3 for hosts they recommend.
Sign up at wordpress.com and pay the extra money for a custom domain. If you need email hosting then pay $5 a month (maybe less) for Tuffmail, which is rock-solid email hosting.
I’ve been using and loving webfaction for a while now. great uptime (never had a problem in close to 2 years). wordpress installers built in.
If it’s just a single wordpress blog you’re looking to host, I second the notion of checking out wordpress.com + custom domain and css, and then maybe using Google Apps for email services.
scott – i’ve heard really excellent things about living dot. superb customer service and i believe they will facilitate you moving from one host to another (as long as “another” is them).
ed
For email I recommend Gmail. I went through several different hosts (including DreamHost) for email, and ended up liking Google’s offering the best. Standard Edition is free with Google Apps but you can upgrade to Premier for $50 a year per user, in which case they guarantee 99.9% uptime:
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/editions.html
For your web hosting, I haven’t found one in particular I can recommend. However, MediaTemple (http://www.mediatemple.net/) sounds intriguing. The cheapest package is $20/month and your stuff is stored and served from clusters, theoretically giving you high uptime.
I would go with MediaTemple
I recommend mediatemple.com
They’ve been very good to me and the pricing is pretty good. You could go with things similar to DreamHost where they offer you a bajillion gigs of space and bandwidth for $9 but it just isn’t reliable. I also like MT’s control panel, Its not the same standard control panel you get a DreamHost or Bluehost etc
I’ve used PowWeb.com for several years, and been generally very happy with them. Their up-time has been very good (better than 99%), although I’m admittedly not a big MySQL or PHP user (just starting to set up a wordpress blog). They’re upgrading and expanding their service all the time. I think there are better bargains today, but they were one of the best price values when I joined them. In spite of that, their service has never felt cheap or like they were cutting corners.
Regarding the site transfer – I don’t know if this is covered, but they (PowWeb) also do offer a “Web Concierge” service to help with technical maintenance. http://www.powweb.com/product/webConcierge.bml
Hey Scott,
Huge fan, love your work. For a web host, I strongly recommend Site5 (site5.com). It’s a bit pricier than some of the standard web hosts, but the uptime has been impeccable (I’ve been with them for 2 years), the bandwidth and storage unlimited, and the design of their online hosting software is terrific. The turn-around time for support has been consistently good as well.
It might be overkill for what you need, but I’d definitely check it out and put it in your comparisons. Good luck in your search.
So much suggestion love! More appreciated than you know – had a suckful day and the support from you folks was infinitely better than what I got from dreamhost. Thanks for taking the time.
So far media temple is the lead candidate. Stay tuned.
One larger lesson to take from this is that email hosting and web hosting are actually pretty different skills, and I think the people to tend to be good at one tend not to be so good at the other.
I left the dreamhost wagon a year ago for hostgator.com and have been nothing but pleased with their service. I administer three websites that are built on WordPress and hostgator makes it a simple process to set up a wordpress account. I highly recommend them!
I would go for mailtrust.com for email. For hosting, we run our own WordPress and Wiki using BitNami http://bitnami.org on Softlayer
I’ve been using webhost4life.com for more than 4 years now, and I’m completely satisfied. I’m hosting with them more than 10 website and running smoothly in all means: emails, up-time, support, speed… but I’m not sure about the WP thing :)
And by the way, speaking of the “decent source of web host reviews” i strongly agree with you, therefore I decided to build a website that has real smart formula to evaluate and rank Hosting Companies, considering user’s experiences. The website will have an advanced smart wizard that asks the user a series of questions and then it recommends the right hosting!
I’m still building the service, however, here is the link: http://www.HostingReviewsGuru.com
Hope that helps:)
Cheers,
Nabil
http://www.nabilorfali.com
P.S. I’m reading your book: Making Things Happen and would like to thank you a bunch for that great book.
I’d go with custom domain on wordpress.com ($10/year) for the blog and transfer all mail to google (google apps for your domain) and never worry about hosting/email problems again. Oh, and I’d pay some skilled (and trusted) administrator to move it all.
I use HostMonster.com. It works for me.
Have you tried Mosso? Mosso is a division of Rackspace and offers an innovative approach to hosting. Mosso.com
I’ve used 1and1 for quite some time with no issue. Go for a VPS account if you get lots of traffic and you should be fine. I don’t see much traffic so I use a shared server and it works fine. I have a buddy that gets some decent traffic on his blog and he stepped up to the VPS and hasn’t had a glitch since.
http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=11512437
Cool great a case of Mugli,if you know what I mean, bonus for this opinion.
Paul for what you pay at rackspace you can get 3 times more server and support with Server Intellect. Rackspace is a big waste of money. Who did you finally choose btw?
Bluehost rocks. Been with them almost 4 years.
http://www.BlueHost.Com/track/3dtg/tellmemore?page=tell_me_more.html
I am using bullten.com as my web hosting provider and its going well. They have 100% managed service and good customer support. You can try them if you want
I am using geekshosted.com web hosting and never had any problems. So I strongly recommend it.
If you are looking for a private local hands on host with a tweaked server, definately Website World in Knoxville, TN! http://www.websiteworld.com