Good Web Hosts

I'm looking at changing my web host since, lately, my host has been less than satisfactory (they claimed I used 90% of my bandwidth in 13 days, which is ludicrous considering how little traffic I get, so I told them to investigate it and they told me to f' off, basically).

Now, since I'm in the US, I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions. All I need is PHP4 and up, CGI (hard to get a server without either of those), one Sql database and I'm set. Shell access is nice too, but I would hardly use it.

My current host is 1 And 1 and I'm running off of their promotional Professional package (I'm going to download my entire site and burn it to a disc before I cancel my service though, so even if I have to pay I'm going to make sure everything is backed up locally).

Anyhow, shoot any suggestions if you've got any, just remember I'm in the US and dealing with UK hosts is not really an option.

http://www.powweb.com

I use them Noel and have never had any problems with them.

Hm, I think their hosting plan is overkill for what I need.

Pow Web is OK, great bandwidth and space, but I had A LOT of problems with them the first few weeks I had them.

I've had PowWeb for a little over 2 years. With a site like mine, I obviously notice even the minor problems, and problems have been few and far between. When they have had a minor problem, they're very honest about them, they tell me what's wrong and how long till it's fixed. They answer questions promptly. They help me when I need it. Best of all, every time I go back, they've added new features without charging me anything. In the 2 years since I've paid them any money, they've doubled my total space, doubled my bandwidth, added a ton of new features to the control panel, and recently added a huge number of features like forums, blogs, ecommerce, etc which can be installed automatically one a one-click.

You might be right that they're overkill in terms of space and bandwidth, but I'm not sure how much cheaper you can get without losing a lot of the other qualities they have. Particularly the responsive customer support.

hostforweb.net

the only place I will put my clients

Looking at them more they definitely look good, plus you've all had generally good experiences with them (aside from po's startup-problems, but I would get those regardless because I'm an idiot).

I'll probably sign on the 2 year deal and get the extra year and 2 months free if I can't find anything with a better offer.

Well, it wasn't that they were startup problems exactly, I just joined at the worst possible time. They just happened to have the worst server problem for years (apparently) and my site was down for a few days (they gave me 2 months extra compensation). Other than that, they have been perfect, and they are the best host I've ever had. Their support is the best (they have a chatroom with hired staff) and I always get something solved really quickly.

TotalChoiceHosting.com is very good, godaddy.com is OK and very cheap.
(I have my own site hosted at the latter)

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That's the same thing they did to me. I think they do that just to run you out when your preview is over. I ended up registering two domains under the home package with them. I have been pretty satisfied so far. They recently increased space from 1 to 5GB and traffic from 5GB a month to 25.

Well, my hosting is now officially dead. They pulled the plug on me shortly after I backed up everything onto a CD -- rather lucky considering I would have lost it all otherwise.

I'm shooting e-mails to a few other hosts before I decide on anything, as I need to get my site back up soon. In the meantime I'm placing everything on a free account on 5Gigs.com until I can sort this out (thanks to Stuart Morgan for the link to'em).

try BlueVoda.com Noel...they providing free tools for website building and design in order to use their web space..check it out anyway...by now I'm happy with it..6Gigz space for 100US$/per year plus free tools very easy to use..

Back on topic. Zen Internet are now doing good cheap hosting. £4.69 a month gets you their Bronze level service.

1G webspace, 3G bandwidth (I think, could be wrong), 5 MySQL 'bases, PHP, Fantastico (so you can get going very quickly) etc etc.

http://www.zenwebhosting.com/

I'm currently hosting http://www.stefanholmes.com/ there. Very good uptime and very very fast transfers.


**EDIT** My bad, they are a UK host. Mind you, I'm in the UK and I've used US hosts before. Never had a problem.

I wouldn't recommend Zen then. £4.69 UK comes to around $8 US. For $7.77 Noel could go with powweb and get a ton of features more than what Zen are offering.

I'm not putting Zen down or anything, what I'm saying is that Noel for the equivalant of £4.69 in US could get a whole lot more and cheaper.

Aye, for real.

US hosts tend to be able to offer more bytes for your $. One of those weird things I guess.

Hosting companies generally suck.

The ones that charge under $20 have to have everything automated - and no technical support (unless they host a gazillion sites).

If your site is revenue driven - it's worth it to take your time and find a really good hosting company. They'll charge more - but it's worth it.

For my clients (and my own ecomm sites) I do my own hosting - way more control that way.

For anything personal - or something I'm just messing around with I use Discount ASP (www.discountasp.com) - I've never had any issues with them -

I've had good luck with dreamhost.com

I just edited this thread to keep it nice and sweet. Please stay on topic.