Cheapest web hosting

danilou21 · 1 June 2011 at 8:36PM

I am looking to start a small business soon and need to sort out a website. The thing is I really dont know where to start with purchasing a domain name and hosting package.
Do I need a business package if I want to sell items or can I just get a normal package and use something else to do the 'shopping cart'
Please help!:eek:

mizzbiz · 1 June 2011 at 8:55PM

You can buy normal hosting and get ecommerce seperate. There are quite a few recent threads discussing this if you have a look over this and the next few pages.

Hosting and domain names - well, don't buy your domain from the hosting company, they're usually much more expensive this way. You can get .co.uk from 123-reg for about £3 plus vat for 2 years, whereas my hosting co charge $10 for one year!! Don't buy anything other than domains from 123-reg - they're a good company but for hosting, ecommerce, emails etc you pay through the nose, whereas your hosting company will give you much of it included.

Personal preference for me is Bluehost for web hosting. I know some people prefer UK based hosting, and that is fine. I think 1&1 get good reviews on here. For my hosting, I get unlimited space, can host as many websites as I like, as many emails and variations as I like etc etc. I pay £50 per year and get a domain name as part of the package. I then just add-on my own domains that I purchase through 123-reg.

One other thing, sometimes web designers will offer you a full maintenance package, including hosting. If you're savvy, you'll do it yourself. If not, you can pay a monthly fee and have somebody else maintain and host. I personally could not do this as I am hands on and wouldn't stand for having to contact someone else to make a change to my site. Also, you will find hosting much more expensive this way.

HTH

mizzbiz · 1 June 2011 at 8:58PM

ETA looks like things have got more competitive since I last bought hosting (end of last year!) Just checked out 1&1 and their deals for hosting and domains look very tempting!

greatfloyd69 · 1 June 2011 at 9:13PM

Having absolutely no clue what I was doing, I bought web hosting with Justhost.com, yes american but good never the less. You log in and have acces to your CPanel, which has a handful of web building softwares to choose from. The main draw back, which I've learnt with experience, is that yes shopping carts are good, but I found its like building a 2nd website and having to start again.... This was a bit soul destroying for me as I'd spent so much time on my first website only to find I'd have to redo all the pages on my shopping cart!

steve1980 · 1 June 2011 at 9:18PM

Don't forget with 123 you pay VAT on top of everything.

danilou21 · 1 June 2011 at 9:32PM

Well the design bit is no problem- as I am quite a 'creative' person and know how to use dreamweaver etc - its the techie stuff that baffles me!

steve1980 · 1 June 2011 at 9:42PM

What do you mean by "techie stuff"?

easyhost · 2 June 2011 at 4:03PM

mizzbiz wrote: »

You can get .co.uk from 123-reg for about £3 plus vat for 2 years, whereas my hosting co charge $10 for one year!!

when did you last get a domain.

123-reg a .uk domain is £2.99 + VAT a year with min 2 yrs registration (£5.98 + VAT) and a .com domain is £9.99 + VAT a year.

For my hosting, I get unlimited space,

they may say that, but in the hosting industry their is no such thing as unlimited space.

you look at this a host purchases a server for £200 a month and then decides to sell unlimited space hosting for £10 a month, in effect you could use up all the space on his £200 a month server for your £10 a month.
this is the same as you going to pcworld and asking for a Hard Disc drive with unlimited space, you wont be able to get 1 as these dont exist

so the advice of a host with 10+ years experience is stay away from any host that offers you unlimited space or bandwidth

pitkin2020 · 2 June 2011 at 4:57PM

I use one and one for both my domains and basic hosting. I also use godaddy for hosting simply because they are cheaper than one and one for other packages than just basic. I will also add Godaddy's customer services is outstanding!!! One and one's not so good but bearable.

easyhost · 2 June 2011 at 5:10PM

trouble with 1 & 1, godaddy, 123-reg and several others, they are basically domain registrars and not web hosts, so their support are usually geared up to offer support for domain related queries only.

paddyrg · 2 June 2011 at 5:29PM

I would suggest you don't just look at price when choosing a host, but also consider the quality of the hosting, support, space, speed, etc. For instance, if you try to stream video off most shared hosting packages you will be disappointed, yet if you talk to a proper hosting company, they will make sure you get the hosting that best suits your needs.