Good, cheap hosts?

[tahbikat]

When Mys. v1.4 comes out, I plan on switching to paid hosting and a domain. I've only tested out HostGator (expensive, site wouldn't update) and Godaddy (downtime a lot).

Are there any good cheap-ish hosts out there that you've personally used or have friends who've said good things about a host?

[Kyttias]

Did you know it's possible to use a domain on free hosting? Once you've purchased a top level domain name you can host it anywhere. But 'free'... eh... you get what you pay for.

Personally, I went with 000webhost when I needed some free space with access to PHP and MySQL. I even used a domain I was paying for so it never once looked like I was on free hosting, however... I can't say I super recommend it if you feel that you're going to grow. But because you're asking about cheap, not free: They also offer paid hosting through a slightly different name and I didn't think the price was that bad. (All in all, I logged on to a chat to ask questions about going from free to paid and a mod gave me a coupon, so-- I've had a pretty friendly experience.)

Also - I should be putting a shout out to 99webs because Nemesis from this forum owns it and I'm now staff there. We're super small - but we offer free hosting based on forum participation, and we're knowledgeable about Mysidia. The same theory as above applies - that you can buy a domain separately from your hosting provider. I've often found it cheaper to do so, but only if you're looking to skimp on the services provided.

General Advice, Though:

Again I'll repeat the 'you get what you pay for'. I'd look for something that isn't on what's known as 'shared hosting' because you're then competing for resources with other customers. If someone's site gets a lot of traffic, it slows everyone else's down with it if they're parked nearby. Often cheap hosts will still be 'shared' like free ones, but they'll do a much better job of providing space to everyone and not over booking. (Once I saw a hosting company, can't remember the name, that offered a different server based on the time of day, and even officially announced that users would have less downtime if they got on to the server that only added new users for only an hour just after midnight.)

If they're not showing you how many other people are signed up for the same mountain of resources, I'd be wary. Hosting companies own multiple servers, crowding hundreds of users together to struggle for the same amount of bandwidth -- and surprisesurprise, someone's site gets overloaded and goes down and you -all- have downtime until a technician reboots the server.

Think of it like an airplane. You never want to find out that your flight overbooked and now you can't fly out on time with that plane! But not everyone has the money to fly first class, and definitely not their own private jet. Be wary of sites specifically meant to review web hosts, they're often paid to promote the top results, or get spammed with false advertisements both positive or negative. However, if you can pick apart real reviews from fake ones, just reading around reveals that even the 'best' places have their horror stories.

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As a follow up bit of advice about domain names:

I definitely encourage buying a domain separately from your hosting and then hook it up via cPanel or however the hosting wants to do it. That way, in case you come to hate your host or want to move anywhere else for any reason, you can pack up and move and rest assured that your domain name can always move with you.

Don't get conned into hosting + domain package deals if your domain is going to be forever trapped with that host. What you thought was a discount becomes a nightmare when your brand name is forever contractually stuck with that host. (Because guess who owns it as soon as you don't renew/keep paying a monthly/yearly fee? Them. It won't just expire, they'll hang onto it or hand it over to a reseller. You only own a domain as long as you pay for it, so don't pay for your hosting packaged with your domain. Just... don't be tempted. Don't. I've had to let go of nice domain names before.)

If you do get trapped in this sort of arrangement, contact customer service immediately ask if they'll be willing to park your domain for a reduced fee with no hosting, or hand it over to you directly so you can move it. (You'd be surprised, but GoDaddy is notoriously awful in this department.)

[Hall of Famer]

Actually this is a very interesting topic to discuss. Mys v1.4.0 will have more powerful features, but it will most likely use more resource than Mys v1.3.x. I cannot really say how much it is compared to the old script, but if your server runs Mys v1.3.x fast you should be just fine. If Mys v1.3.x runs slowly on your site, chances are your server will not be good enough for Mys v1.4.0.

For a beginner's new site, a shared host should be sufficient. You can live with hosts like HostGator, Bluehost and so on. If you get tens or hundreds of users online every minute, you may need a VPS server. I have a dedicated server with WebhostingBuzz , I personally like it and will recommend it to others, its customer service is superb. But honestly I cannot speak for their shared hosting services since I am using dedicated server(and apparently, webhosts are much nicer to people who pay $100+ a month than $10 a month). Also note that some webhosts work well for certain people, you may just have to try them out to see which one suits you the best.

[Abronsyth]

The problem with virtual pet sites is that if your site gets very popular hosting simply will not be cheap. To start though (while still testing or before it's huge) cheap hosts I've used would be x10 hosting (kind of screwed me over though, so I avoid them now), Host-Ed is what I use right now, but they only work out for some people. Unfortunately we're just limited on "cheap" hosting.

[tahbikat]

Thanks everyone. (:

I did some research and I think I may try out Arvixe and/or Site5. From what I've read on various blogs and such, the bigger hosting companies like Godaddy, HostGator, BlueHost, etc pretty much buy the top spots on review sites which is why they are ranked so highly on said review sites.

Not sure if that's true, though I wouldn't doubt it, so I read some reviews on a bunch of blogs and Arvixe and Site5 were two that stood out in terms of service and support. I figured I'd try them out myself and see, and if I don't like them they have a money back guarantee!

Also on Kyttias' advice I'll buy the domain and hosting separately. I'm glad you told me this because I actually thought it was better to buy them together, haha! Do you suggest any domain name providers? I've heard of 1and1, domain.com, name.com, and Register. Not sure if they're reliable though.

Thanks again guys!

[Kyttias]

Mmm... I don't remember, but I think I'll trust this article on Digital Trends about the 'Best Domain Name Registrars' - the article is even from December 2013, so it's up to date.

A lot of it depends which top level domain you want. There are even some new TLDs as of this spring, but they're rather expensive. (I went with a .net because it was cheaper than a .com, but there are a lot of other great alternatives that can be really clever.)

I've heard that you need to be careful when searching if a name is available. This article ( link ) is from 2008 on the topic, but this one is from last April ( link ), both cover what I'm trying to say: Some places will buy your domains if YOU don't and then when you get confused as to why they're no longer available and visit them yourself to see what's up, you'll see a malicious domain registrar bought them first and want to sell it to you for an outrageously bad deal. Luckily, both these articles offer suggestions as to sites that are guaranteed safe to search. Sadly cybersquatting has been around for a long time and I'm dismayed to see that the practice is still occurring.

Buy from anywhere, just don't casually search availability anywhere!

[squiggler]

Whatever you do, I wouldn't use 000webhost. I'll copy my post from this thread:
I had a completely unrelated site that I tried to start with 000webhost. They terminated my free account because of the lack of visitors:

To save server resources and provide everyone with free web hosting we regularly remove inactive accounts. Account considered inactive if no website is uploaded or it did not received more than 10 visitors in 30 days. Website also should not contain text like `under construction` or similar.

The most frustrating thing about that site was that their site builder published your website if you hit save without even asking you. The only way to avoid this is to hover over the save button (which only has the word save on it, not save and publish) and click Save Draft. But of course this was not explained.

(Oh, and I checked- they do have a cPanel. I just didn't need it for that website.)

[tahbikat]

Thanks guys! I have the money for a domain now, so I think I'll go ahead and buy it to be safe, haha. And in the meantime while I get the funds for hosting, I'll continue researching good hosts.