Web Hosting Reviews
InMotion Hosting is great for a basic site. If you can commit to a full year of hosting, the set up free of $30 is waived. Then for $7.95 a month with their Launch plan, you get 4000 megabytes of space, 50 gigabytes of transfer and 200 e-mail accounts. If that’s not enough for you they have two larger plans. The Power plan is $9.95 a month for double the storage space, transfer amount and e-mails. With this option you also get the osCommerce shopping cart, 5 subdomains, 3 parked domains and access to your raw log files. If this still isn’t enough, InMotion has the Pro plan. With this plan you get 12,000 megs of storage, 1000 e-mail accounts, 150 gigs of transfer and you can host multiple sites under one account. This is the priciest option at $19.95 a month. All packages include FrontPage Extensions, PHP, password protected directories, Perl and C/C++. |
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PowWeb has exactly one plan and it’s pretty good. If you’re willing to sign up for a year or more the $30 setup fee is waived. Hosting comes out to $7.77 a month and you get a lot for your money. You get 5000 megabytes of storage and 300 gigs of transfer a month. Sub-domains, custom-error pages, and password protected directories are just the beginning of what’s included. PHP, FrontPage, Perl, and .htaccess are all supported in this Unix environment. If your looking to do some database work, there are 5 MySQL databases available per account as well as assess to phpMyAdmin. For those of you who are into tracking stats, you get Webalizer and AwStats built in and you have access to the raw logs for your favorite analyzer. OsCommerce is also enabled, so stepping into sales is much easier. All in all, it’s a good plan with lots of features, but it’s not super flexible. |
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Once again we’ve got three levels to look at: iPower Pro, iPower Pro Plus and Virtual Server. iPower Pro is $7.95 a month which includes 3 gigs of storage and 50 gigs of transfer. They have the same support of PHP, Perl MySQL and FrontPage Extentions as others do. iPower makes osCommerce’s shopping cart available as well Agora shopping cart. iPower has several credits available if you’d like to get involved with Google AdWords. They will also match a portion of your spend until you hit a certain amount. For $12.95 a month, you get sign up for the iPower Pro Plus plan which gives you 6 gigs of space and 80 gigs of transfer. The top package at iPower is the Virtual Server plan. For $19.95 a month you get 10 gigabytes of storage and 100 gigs of transfer. Really, the only difference in the three packages is storage and transfer. |
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Interland is nice because you can choose the type of machine you’d like to be hosted on. They offer both Linux and Windows. Unfortunately, your dollar doesn’t go as far. For $7.95 a month you get 1 gig of storage and 25 gigs of transfer on a Linux box. Perl and FrontPage are supported, but you can’t have PHP on the budget plan. But even on their low end plan, Interland gives you access to your raw log files. The next plan up allows you to have PHP and increases your disk space to 2.5 gigs with 100 gigs of transfer for $11.95 a month, again this on a Linux box. The top end Linux solution is $25.45 a month. You get 5 gigs of storage and 500 gigs of transfer. You also get ssh and shell access. This is nice for running scripts. If you’re a fan of windows servers, Interland has two packages for $15.95 and $29.70 a month. For $15.95 a month you get 2.5 gigs of storage and 100 gigs of transfer. IIS is included and you can pretty much run anything in Python, PHP or FrontPage. You have to go up to the top plan to get full .ASP access, but you also get 5 gigabytes of space plus 500 gigs of transfer. |
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Yahoo Small Business is a great option for starting an online store. They have three options for basic hosting, $11.95, $19.95 and $39.95. I don’t really want to focus on this since I don’t think this is the best service they offer. I really like their merchant solutions. Packages are a lot more ($39.95, 99.95, and $299.95 a month) but you get a great service. I’ve learned that shopping carts are a generally a pain. Each one has crazy nuances that are hard to overcome, and if you’ve never worked with one before, it is a daunting task. Yahoo Merchant solutions make setting up a store very easy. They have a GUI that allows you easily create a store, import products and cross sell items. If you are looking to set up a store, this is the one I’d go with. |
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ROCKETone, ROCKETtwo and ROCKETthree are the packages available from HostRocket. All of their packages offer nearly identical benefits. They offer PHP, Perl, JavaScript, FrontPage extensions, CGI, SSI and RealMedia. All packages offer unlimited subdomains, unlimited e-mail accounts, MySQL database capability, and are run on RedHat boxes. ROCKETone gives you 1000 megs of space and 50 gb of transfer. ROCKETtwo gives you 2000 megs of storage, 75 gigs of transfer and allows you to have a second domain on the account. ROCKETthree gives 3000 megs of space, 100 gb of transfer, 3 domains for the account and lets you have up to 2 extra domains pointing to your site. Not a bad deal for $6.95, $9.95 and $11.95 a month respectively. |
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StartLogic has three plans, too. For $7.50 a month you can start with ProLogic on a Linux server. CGI, PHP, Perl and FrontPage are all enabled. You get 5 gigs of space with a 100 gigs of transfer. If you’re a Unix hater then there’s a Windows option for you. Windows Logic plan is $9.95 a month and you get 500 megs of storage and 20 gigs of transfer. This package gives you access to .ASP and .NET along with all of the previously mentions stuff. If you’re looking for a virtual server, then for $14.95 a month you’ve got one! You get 5 gigs of storage and 100 gigs of transfer. Telnet is enabled and so is shell access. This is only available as a Unix system. |
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Globat’s three basic plans are a little bigger then most others. Their low end package is called the Gigabyte plan. You get 5 gigs of space, 5000 e-mails, 75 gigs of transfer for $7.95 a month. Commerce Starter is the next step up; with this package you get 7.5 gigs of storage space, 7500 e-mails, and 100 gigs of monthly transfer. That’ll set you back $14.95 a month. Globat’s biggest web hosting plan is the Commerce Pro package which gets you 10 gigabytes of storage, 10000 e-mails, and 150 gigs of transfer. This package is still affordable at $24.95 a month. Flash, PHP, Perl, SSI and FrontPage have all been enabled in all three packages, though if you want to run an ASP site, you’ll have to look elsewhere. ASP is not available at any level. If you want subdomains you have to pay an additional $19.95 a year, but then you have unlimited number of them. |
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Infinity Starter, Infinity Plus and Beyond Infinity are the three packages at Infinity Host. These three packages are all Virtual Environments. This gives you more flexibility without having to invest in a Virtual Private Server or a dedicated host. Plans are $7.95, $15.95 and $23.95 a month and offer plenty of perks like Flash, PHP, PERL, CGI, SSI, WML and personal Sendmail. But these features come with a drawback. Disk space is much less here then with other hosts. The Infinity Starter plan only gives 400 megabytes of storage. You still get 15 gigs of transfer and 400 e-mail accounts. The Infinity Plus plan gives you 500 megs of space, 20 gigs of transfer and 500 e-mail accounts. Beyond Infinity lets you have 600 megabytes of storage, 30 gigabytes of transfer and 600 e-mail accounts, plus at this level you get a free Miva Merchant e-commerce account. If you’re looking for shear space, this isn’t the host for you, but what they are unique in that they let you have a virtual environment. You gotta take the good with the bad. |
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Here’s something different: a hosting company with only two plans. LunarPages offers you the Shuttle Plan for $7.95 a month or the Voyager Plan for $22.95 a month. The shuttle plan can give you up to 3 gigs of storage, 40 gigs of transfer and unlimited e-mails. PHP, PYTHON, PERL, CGI, ASP, FrontPage and JSP are all enabled. You get one MySQL database with this plan as well as access to a script library and to your raw log files. The Voyager Plan bumps you up to 4 gigs of storage and 80 gigs of transfer. With this package you also get an additional 4 MySQL databases and up to 25 FTP accounts. Both packages let you have up to 15 subdomains, access to shopping carts and allow server side includes. |
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Apollo Hosting also follows the 3 package system. The Value plan is $7.96 a month. With that you get a gig of storage and 50 gigs of bandwidth. You also get one subdomain, 50 e-mail accounts and one MySQL database. PHP and CGI are enabled on the Value plan, but if you want ColdFusion, ASP, C and C++ you have to go to the Business or Ecommerce Pro package. The Business plan, for $15.96 a month, gives you one and a half gigs of storage, 70 gigs of transfer, 4 subdomains and 200 e-mails addresses. This package also includes merchant account setup and the ocCommerce shopping cart. To go along with that, you get 3 MySQL databases. The Ecommerce Pro package bumps you up to 2.5 gigs of storage, 100 gigs of bandwidth and 500 e-mail accounts. You now have 5 MySQL databases. You also get access to the more powerful Miva cart. All of that for $26.96 a month. |
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If you’re looking for a really cheap way to get some photos or a personal blog online, then check out Free Servers. If you’re only looking for a small amount of space and you don’t care about advertising, then check out their free plan. You get 5 megs of space and a file manager interface to upload. You don’t get any e-mail space, but what do you expect for a free service? If you want to drop a few bucks a month, check out the Starter Plus plan for $1.99 a month. You get 50 megs of storage, an e-mail address and FTP access. It’s not powerful, but if you just want a personal page, this is a great cheap solution. For those of you who want to spend the big bucks, the Value Plus Plan gives you 750 megs of space, 200 e-mails, PHP, PERL, CGI, MySQL and FTP access. It’s $9.99 a month. |
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NetFirms three packages are the Plus, Advantage and Business Plans. The Plus plan gives you 500 mb of storage and 10 gigs of bandwidth. With this plan you also get 10 e-mail addresses, domain forwarding, subdomains, PHP, PERL, SSI, FrontPage, .htaccess and custom error pages. This package will run you $4.95 a month. The next step up is the Advantage plan. For $9.95 a month you get 2 gigs of storage, 100 gigs of bandwidth, 100 e-mail addresses and all the features from the Plus plan. You will also get 10 MySQL databases, Commerce Pro and access to a secure area for transactions. The Business plan will run you $14.94 a month. With this package you get 3 gigs of storage space, 150 gigs of transfer and 200 e-mail addresses. And you can have up to 20 MySQL databases. |
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Who needs three different plans when you can have 8 unique plans to choose from? APlus.net gives you a choice between Unix boxes and Windows Boxes. If you’re a Unix fan APlus web hosting has the Solo, Solo XR, Pro and ePro plans. For $5.95 a month you get the Solo plan and 300 megs of space, 25 gigs of transfer, 10 e-mail addresses. For $9.95 a month you get 2 gigs of storage, 50 gigs of bandwidth, 500 e-mial addresses and script support for PHP, PERL, Python and C/C++. If you want to start doing online sales, you’ll need to check out the Pro Plan. For $19.95 a month, you get 4 gigs of storage and 100 gigs of transfer, you also get access to osCommerce shopping cart. The ePro package gives you access for the Miva shopping cart and a secure area for credit card transactions. That comes at a cost of $34.95 a month. If your stuck on Windows, APlus Web hosting has the Primo, Primo XR, Proxima and Maxima plans. For $9.95 a month, you get the Primo plan with 500 mb of storage, 40 gb of transfer, 50 e-mail addresses and not much else. If you up the package to Primo XR ($19.95 a month), then you get one gig of storage, 45 gigs of transfer, 250 e-mail addresses and access to a slew of services including ASP, XML and FrontPage. If you need PHP or PERL, you have to go to the $29.95 a month plan, the Proxima package. With this plan, you get 2 gigs of disc space, 75 gigs of bandwidth, 500 e-mail addresses and a credit card gateway. For $49.95 a month, you get the top package: Maxima. With Maxima, you get 4 gigs of storage, 100 gigs of bandwidth, 1000 e-mails and access to Miva. At this level, APlus, does daily tape backups of your site and stores them offsite, so in case of an emergency, your site it safe. It’s expensive, but the backups make it worth the price. |
Domain Registration Reviews
Domain-Maniac.com – At Domain-Maniac, domain registration costs a flat $15 a year for .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info and .us domains. If you want a .tv address, it’ll set you back $44.95 a year. If you’re looking for a .ca domain, it’ll cost you $29.95 a year and .cc domains are $39.95. Domain-Maniac also has some UK addresses available; .co.uk and .org.uk domains are available for $30 for two years. When you purchase a domain through Domain-Maniac, you get several free features. You’ll receive domain locking, a “Coming Soon” landing page, and free masked URL redirection. |
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Dotster lets you register about 50 different domain extensions. There’s too many to list individually, so click on the link to the left to get a full list of offerings and prices. If your set on a .com and your desired address is gone, Dotster offers third level TDLs. You can get domainiwant.us.com or domainiwant.eu.com plus about 14 other variations. This type of domain requires a minimum of 2 years and will set you back $79.95. Pretty much everything is else is an extra yearly charge. If you want e-mail forwarding, it’ll set you back $10 a year and name server hosing and $10 a year. If you want URL forwarding, there is a free option. You can receive free masked forwarding but you get stuck with a banner ad at the top of your page. If you want real masked or unmasked URL forwarding, there’s a fee of $5 a year. |
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GoDaddy.com offers you many different TLDs to register. GoDaddy’s prices are almost half of their competitors. $8.95 a year will get you a .com, .net or .org. GoDaddy also gives you lots of free features with a domain registration. You get up to 100 free e-mail forwards, a “For Sale” page if you want to sell your domain, domain locking, and free masked or unmasked URL forwarding. If you’re looking to stock up on domain names, you can get a bulk order discount on orders of 50 or more domains. |