Need advice please on hosting website!!

TurnaroundSue

Hi - I am currently in the process of setting up a website. I have bought my domain name and now need to get a website arranged and an e-mail address.

I have been advised that it will cost me £100+VAT to get an e-mail address and hosting of website. Now being a complete novice and not knowing anything about this sort of thing, could you good people tell me:

1) Do I need to pay for this or can I get it for free somewhere?

2) Would this be a one of fee or is this annual?

3) If I do need to pay for it, does £100+VAT seem reasonable?

Many thanks for any help/advice you are able to give. :beer:

wakandem

I have some websites hosted at https://www.3ix.com. 60p a month ain't bad. Some people on here will slate 3ix but I have never really had a problem with them

Badger_Lady

You can do a 3 month free trial at www.freeparking.co.uk - it's not the cheapest solution long-term, but I've had nothing but good experiences with them

dekh

I've used hostinguk.net for the last 4 years without any problems. They're a bit more than 60p / month. Their basic windows hosting is just under £60 but they are in the UK and have a geographic contact number.

I'm sure there are cheaper though.

Aliktren

you dont need to spend anything like a 100 quid, what sort of thing are you trying to set-up ?

As a maximum I'd assume a budget of 10 quid to get the domain registered and dont pay more than a fiver a month for hosting

I use 3ix as per the previous poster and though I havent been using them for long, they seem fine, and I've used people like fasthosts in the past who have also been fine and didnt charge anything like a hundred quid

My advice is, as the dollar exchange rate is so awesome at the moment, get yourself hosted in the US, not in the UK, it may take some search finesse in google to get a list of US hosts but there are lots of them out there

payless

supanames .. £33 will get you doamin name and 2 yrs hosting ( no outgoing mail server though- need to use own ISp)

weegie.geek

£100 a year just for hosting and a domain is mental. I don't know what you want to do with the hosting, but for that money you can get a low-end VPS for a year, never mind shared hosting.

http://www.a2b2xs.co.uk/ are fantastic. Really good quality hosting. The main guy, Russ, is pretty helpful too.

Aliktren

http://www.netpivotal.com/ - 3 quid a month

http://www.streamlinenet.co.uk/ - from £13 per annum

http://www.invisional.co.uk/ - from £5 (!!) per year for a minimum package

http://www.uswebhosting.com/shared_hosting.html - £15 quid a year

http://www.lypha.com/?gclid=CK3cjNeq8ZECFQ4ouwodhCVVqA - about £3.50 a month

TurnaroundSue

Many thanks for all your replies. As I say I am a complete novice and do not know ONE thing about hosting and websites. I have been given a contact name and telephone number by a guy who is doing my logos so this is all I have. At this moment in time I just want to be able to get an e-mail address as I have bought the domain name (cost £6.56 for 2 years) so I can get my stationery/leaflets printed and until I have my e-mail address can't get this done.

I do not know what setting up a website entails or what hosting means so really am in the dark. I suppose this guy would do all this for me in the £100, but if it is easy enough to do myself then I would. Could a complete novice do it?

Many thanks once again for all your help.

Aliktren

a lot of hosting packages come with templates and "set up your website in 5 minutes" type deals

It would help if you told us exactly what type of site you are setting up, a shop, a static page with your contact details, blog, etc

Aliktren

and yes, it can be very confusing so keep asking questions