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Help a newbie choose a web host
depricated
Member
I have a technical background but I'm totally new to web hosting. The sheer number of free and cheap shared hosting options have my head spinning.
Goals:
Create modern and simple websites that are (mostly) easy enough to maintain/update for non-technical family members
Learn, experiment, have fun with web tech
What I (think I) need/want:
shared hosting for 3-4 domains, 1-2 with a few subdomains (mostly personal profile sites, eventually 1 small business site)
Initially expecting low disk needs
Expect very low traffic
Email hosting optional, nice to have but I'd prefer a dedicated email host if needed eventually, meanwhile email forwarding might be quite sufficient
SSL seems like the way to go even if I'm not planning on any ecommerce or logins
Questions:
What's the difference between the free and cheap (< $1/month) hosting? I'm guessing both are loss leaders and highly overallocated. One difference seems like the paid ones avoid inactivity clauses. Is this correct? Specs are also more generous but might not matter for simple sites. Anything else?
How is the reliability of free hosting and how does it compare with cheap hosts? Reviews are all over the place.
Opinions on x10hosting, awardspace, webfreehosting, freehostingnoads, 5gbfree, etc?
Wordpress, joomla? ... Drupal?
Comments
A $1/month hosting node could still be as over allocated as a free node, but it's most likely a free node will be worse, with abusers etc. Most cheaper hosts will usually include free SSL (LetsEncrypt or AutoSSL)
If your websites are important to you or anyone else, I'd recommend a paid alternative. Also, Wordpress works good and is quite popular. Personal preference though, try them all out.
You can find free SSL and softaculous auto installer on packages I've recently posted
https://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/129689/us-uk-ho-ost-ssd-2-50-year-shared-2-00-month-reseller
HostRush.com has $9.99/year Web Hosting. They use Litespeed which is ideal for Wordpress. Loading speed is very good (I have an old iPage space that totally sux in comparison). You can host up to 5 domain there.
They had a little (a few hours) downtime in 2017, but otherwise it was smooth.
If you need total stability then RamNode.com has now webhosting too. A bit more expensive.
My advise would be, stay away from those that appear in all searches, iPage, Hostgator etc. The price difference to Ramnode is too small to really consider them.
For a CMS I recommend Wordpress, it's by far the most easy one to maintain.
Free hosting is generally riskier than paid, as the owner could disappear overnight as they're under no obligation to continue services. I would recommend paid hosting - even at the $5/yr level over free.
The one exception I would make for free hosting is @KuJoe's AFreeCloud - as you're talking about someone who runs a profitable business next to the hardware powering the free service. I would also suggest upgrading to the paid version though if you do, to support the service and get some extra benefits.
Mixed bag. Again, I'd avoid free except for AFreeCloud. On paid hosts, stick with more established providers. BuyShared (@Francisco), ImpactShared (@Awmusic12635), and VPShared (@Virmach) are all cheap shared providers I use and would recommend to others.
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WordPress. Ideally WordPress w/ a static site generation plugin for sites that don't get updated often. Will load quicker and not put as much strain on the host - cheap/free hosting plans generally won't be as performant as more expensive plans (although, of the ones on LET, the performance is more than adequate for your use case).
Buyshared fits your bill.. Alternatively, hostkoala.
Free very rarely is better than paid, but there are some paid services with really bad reviews.. Which shows that their servers are really poor n oversold.. Avoid those completely..
Most hosts provide free ssl n that is sufficient for low traffic sites.. As visitors will not get a warning if they visit your site.
@cam got you a cheap plan.
https://hosting.gullo.me/order/config/index/la-web-hosting/?group_id=6&pricing_id=117
Follow this topic
Many thanks for all the suggestions and comments, especially your insights from experience.
@Harambe AFreeCloud must have been a good find, as they're not accepting new signups presumably to avoid overallocation. I get the impression that cheap providers are recommended over free ones for anything more than practice websites.
Given the very competitive pricing, I prefer those offers that allow multiple domains (my own). Even then, deciding is really tough. Reputation and longevity of the provider will weigh heavily on my decision.
How meaningful is it to have a dedicated IP?
Aside, I notice several members have multiple providers. Why? Diversification of provider risk? Server redundancy? Segregation of websites? Irresistibly good deals? Curiosity?
If another user on your server attracts a DDoS attack, their dedicated IP can be nullrouted without taking down your sites in the process.
Because cheap and different IPs/locations.
Thanks for the recommendation but unfortunately I'm not taking new orders for AFreeCloud. VestaCP has gone to crap and switching over to cPanel is going to take more work than I expected so it's basically on hold for now until I figure something out.
Thanks for all the suggestions. After checking them out I've narrowed it to 4 options, plus a little bonus. Which has your vote?
BuyShared.net
$5/yr, 1GB SSD, 100GB bw, dedicated IP, SSL, unlimited (sub)domains
hostnegosyo.com
$1/quarter, 2GB SSD, 100GB bw, SSL, unlimited (sub)domains, Canadian datacenter *
hosting.gullo.me
$1/yr (with LET coupon), 1GB, 50GB bw, 3 domains (subs???)
hostrush.com
$12/yr, 12GB SSD, DDOS protection, SSL, unlimited bw**, 5 domains (subs???)
*seems to be reselling from CrocWeb
**I'm a bit wary of unlimited bw or storage even though I'm unlikely to run into issues.
Last but not least, I found out my ISP provides web hosting for free to clients: 150MB, 2GB bw, 1 domain.
Best part about this tiny offer is that I trust my ISP.
I'm leaning towards the first two. I would really prefer Canadian hosting (and billing if possible, any suggestions?).
Any reviews of hostnegosyo?
Both BuyShared and Gullo are well known - however, they have very different clientele.
If you want cheap, go for @Cam. You can't get much cheaper (if at all).
If you want your website to be up 24/7 even in a storm, go with @Francisco.
I've heard of hostrush, but don't care, and never heard of the other one.
I recommend someone with their own DC and solid uptime and administration. I've been using Superb Internet for my managed needs for over 8 years now and found them solid so far. Support is generally only a few minutes away, ticket, chat, phone, even on weekends.
Gullo seems unbeatable for price. BuyShared's reputation and dedicated IP, while still at the cheap pricing level, put it into a category of its own in my mind and worth the difference.
BuyShared has servers in LA and Luxembourg. How do the latencies compare to eastern North America?
HostNegosyo was PMed to me by @Frameworks. Based on the name, I'm guessing they're resellers from the Philippines. I like the specs on paper; it's the lack of reviews/reputation that make me hesitate.
@Ole_Juul, what compelling reason is there for me to get a $5/month service compared to the $5/year offers mentioned? It sounds like a different class.
Sorry about that, our customers are from the Philippines, most of them are students so I don't expect any reviews from them.
Well I didn't think that $5 per month was of much significance to most people's budget and so actually in the cheap category.
You can easily pay much more and get ripped off. But you're right, it is a different class. I suggest it because I think it is much better than cheaper ones and you will probably appreciate that difference.
Last time I had more problems with buyshared: @Francisco
Default mail function not work, but return 1.
I do not remember exactly, but i get bad pont mail-tester.com. (DKIM SPF OK)
PHPBech 3sec+. (RackForest 0,9)
Laravel and Composer cron not work perfectly, and i get strange errors.
If I have a lot of time for configuration problems, i try again.
I am a customer of BuyShared and do not recognize your story. I have multiple composer and laravel apps and they all run perfectly and without any additional configuration.
Queues and artisan schedule:run work perfect?
Check your enabled php modules in the php selector
Since you're totally new to web hosting, I'd recommend going for managed hosting. You'll pay a lot more, $30/m versus $5/m for instance, though some "unmanaged" providers may go over and above and help you.
Saying that, a shared hosting service is pretty much managed anyway. I'd go with shared hosting, or 'cloud' as it may be called.
The first results on this page list older, established companies that are used to dealing with people new to web development. Any would likely fit the bill.
Avoid free hosting.
I checked at that time, but i refund 5 month ago.
Now I run Laravel site on 3 different shared host provider, and I never had a problem.
widely recommended @buyshared @francisco they work perfect for me, good price, good support, they look for solutions, always online, all right so far I have 4 months,
Chill for 2 days; black friday is almost here!
This is to be expected- so it isn't abused. You generally need to open a ticket and ask for access to send mail.
PHP 7 doesn't have mysql; it uses mysqli. Someone was lazy with the config files, or didn't know what they were doing. Use PHP 5.
All of my stuff is with Dreamhost (https://www.dreamhost.com/), and I recommend it. Especially if you're going to just be running PHP. Python, Ruby, CGI, and FastCGI are supposed to be supported, but I haven't tried them. Their emails servers catch on fire at least once a year, but it's fine for low volume stuff that isn't critical.
Nearlyfreespeech.net (https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/) is interesting, and I may try them out.
Then there is Neocities (https://neocities.org/). It's throwback to Geocities and a playground for learning HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
If you want to do anything really custom, I'd grab a couple of OVZ/LXC deals and go to town on them.
For newbies is always recommended managed hosting because in the beginning things brake realy fast
. Go with Veerotech or CrocWeb. Avoid EIG providers such asmallorange, hostgator etc.
Try stablehost. They're amazing. They also have bf promotion running offering discounts up to 75%
Reseller for only $2.00 / Month. Still available?
I'm using only PDO.
I do not understand why i got a warning.
Conclusion: Previous cpanel hosting service provider all site work, on buyshared got more config problem.
Definitely buyshared. It fits your needs just fine and there's nothing better available at that price.