Web hosting help

skint_chick

I need some help from more technical types- I'm setting up my own business and need to get a web host for my website and I was hoping My broadband is through Virgin Media as part of a cable package and I only need a small site with about 5/6 pages and a couple of email addresses. Is there a comparison website for web hosting? I was hoping to keep my spend under £10 a month preferably less:D

I'd really appreciate any help at all at this stage because my to do list is getting longer by the minute:eek:

scottishf

Try this page for starters:

http://www.thetop10bestwebhosting.com/ukg

mikey72

I use vidahost.com

carolbe

I use M8 Internet (they're Heart Internet resellers and hosting starts from £1 per year).

the182guy

I use Heart Internet who I recommend, they run all of their own UK hardware unlike many webhosts who are just reselling another webhosts service. £2.49 per month with Heart for the base package I think.

Be careful of cheap hosts that reside in the US (even though may be UK pricing) because these can affect your search engine rankings.

skint_chick

Thanks for the advice guys - I think I'm going to go with the Heart Internet as it seems to have everything I need for £2.49 a month - and a lot of stuff I have no clue about!:o

Vuze

Heart Internet looks good overall but I was just looking over their starter 2.49 package and noticed that it doesn't offer subdomains or MySQL 5 for the databases. These can be quite essential for a website, depending on what scripts you host on there and if you wanted sub domains.

An American host that you can consider is Lunarpages, their starter package is about $3.95 a month

http://www.lunarpages.com/starter-hosting/

But if all you are hosting is a few static pages then Heart Internet might be simpler or cheaper depending on what the currency exchange rate is these days.

That-Guy

mikey72 wrote: »

I use vidahost.com

Another vote for Vidahost

Their servers are UK Based and their support is Amazing either by Phone, Email or Customer Forums, I use them myself.

You can also get a 10% Discount Code here:
http://www.chrislowthian.co.uk/vidahost-web-hosting-offer-extended/900/

You also get a Free Domain Name!

BandJB

skint_chick wrote: »

Thanks for the advice guys - I think I'm going to go with the Heart Internet as it seems to have everything I need for £2.49 a month - and a lot of stuff I have no clue about!:o

Before you jump, have a look at http://www.5quidhost.co.uk/hosting.php

Like you, I'm just looking but these are top of my list at the moment. I tried their support at 6:30pm last evening (Sat) with a genuine problem on their own site and had an immediate response followed by a fix within 30 minutes, so I was well impressed that help was forthcoming at weekends.

Re the comment about American hosting:
5quid offer UK hosting (Maidenhead?) at an extra cost, but I don't know how much. As I said, I'm just on the brink at the moment so I can't speak from actual experience. I'd be interested to know what you eventually decide and why.

skint_chick

Vuze wrote: »

Heart Internet looks good overall but I was just looking over their starter 2.49 package and noticed that it doesn't offer subdomains or MySQL 5 for the databases. These can be quite essential for a website, depending on what scripts you host on there and if you wanted sub domains.

Um excuse my ignorance but what is a subdomain? Is MySQL 5 a sequel server thingy? I don't think I'll have any databases online I was planning on keeping that kinda info on my laptop/external hard disk. All I really need is about 5/6 pages with some photos and writing/graphics - there's no video/interactive stuff - and my blog will be connected to it. I think my scripts will be quite basic stuff - how do I know if I need something more fancy?

timbim_2

Blog scripts will need databases, if you ever want dynamic content databases are the way to go. Which blog software are you going to use, we can see what the requirements are.

I personally host with 1and1, and although they get a lot of stick from some corners, I like them. Most of the criticisms I see levelled against them revolve around auto-renewing domains at expiry, which you do explicitly agree to when you sign up. They are pretty quick to send a threatening letter if you miss a payment, but as long as you sort it out straight away, they're fine with it.