Below are the top five general purpose cheap web hosts selected
for September 2005. All of the following hosting plans include a
web control panel, a cgi-bin directory, php, perl, and at least
1 mysql database. Many offer a number of additional features.
Our ratings are re-evaluated monthly, with a major re-evaluation
of customer ratings every three months. About the CWHR Rating:
This number (from a low of 1 to a high of 10) is a weighted
average of customer ratings of the web host (80%) and the staff
evaluation of the web host (20%). Customer ratings are
themselves weighted by the length of time the person has been
using their web host. Customers who have hosted with a company
for years count more than a customer who has hasted there for a
couple of months. As our rating is mainly determined by
customers of web hosts, our rating is less likely to be gamed by
staff evaluators playing favorites or web hosts giving our staff
special treatment. The CWHR Ranking determines the sites we list
each month and the order in which we list them. A CHWR Rating of
"NA" means not enough customers rated this host for a meaningful
result. This rating is only found in the special needs hosting
section. Top Five General Purpose Cheap Web Hosts for
September 2005 #1 -- Dre
amhost http:/
/www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zdreamhost.php Price: 1m:
$9.95 1y: $9.95 2y: $7.95 Setup: 1m: $49.95 1y: Free 2y: Free
Bandwith: 120 GB Disk Space: 2400 MB Mailboxes: 600 CWHR Rating:
9.6 Special Features: 75 shell/ftp accounts,
php4/php5/cgi/fastcgi/ unlimited mysql databases, ruby-on-rails,
zend optimizer, Frontpage available, host 3 domains and 15
sub-domains, 1 free domain name. Excellent customer support
(with public customer forum). Comments: Dreamhost has long been
-- and still is -- listed as the best affordable web host for
unusual content (as they will host just about anything legal) in
the Special Needs Hosting section of this report. Improvements
in their plans in the last year have made them very competitive
in terms of bandwidth, web space, and features offered for the
price, and they are extremely well-rated by their customers. New
and improved features are announced in the Dreamhost newsletter
almost every month, for example, the June 2005 newsletter
announced the availability of PHP5 and MySQL 4.1 and the July
2005 announced the availability of Ruby on Rails, FastCGI, Miva
5, the Zend Optimizer and bandwidth/disk space amounts that grow
slightly every week you are with Dreamhost (by 1 GB and 20 MB
disk space for the account listed here). Dreamhost's customer
support is the best we've seen in the low cost hosting industry.
If you are looking for low cost, high quality web hosting with
few content restrictions, truly excellent tech support, and very
friendly people, check out Dreamhost. Dreamhost offers a 97-day
money back guarantee, see their web site for details. (The Cheap
Web Hosting Report hosts with Dreamhost.) #2 -- Lu
narpages http:
//www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zlunarpages.php Price: 3m:
$9.95 1y: $7.95 Setip: 3m: $30.00 1y: Free Bandwidth: 40 GB Disk
Space: 1000 MB Mailboxes: unlimited CWHR Rating: 9.1 Special
Features: Storage can be increased to 3000 MB in steps,
php4/cgi/1 mysql database, Frontpage available, host 1 domain
and 15 sub-domains, Fantastico script library. JSP and ASP
available for additional charge. Public customer forum.
Comments: Lunarpages has been in the low cost web hosting
business since 2000 when Add2Net expanded into shared hosting.
While their customer rating fluctuates more than most hosting
companies we list, it is alway high and long time customers seem
very loyal. Their support for controversial content is second
only to Dreamhost among low-priced web hosts. Lunarpages offers
a 30-day money back guarantee, see their terms of service for
details. #3 --
InMotion
http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zinmotionhosting.php
Price: 6m: $9.95 1y: $9.95 Setup: 6m: $30 1y: free Bandwidth:
100 GB Disk Space: 8000 MB Mailboxes: 400 CWHR Rating: 9.0
Special Features: php/cgi/5 mysql databases, Frontpage
available, host 1 domain and 5 sub-domains. Comments: InMotion
Hosting is an employee owned and operated company founded in
2001. Their employees average over 4 years of hosting experience
while their senior staff average over 10 years of hosting
experience. This shows it their higher than normal customer
rating. The Power plan listed here is actually InMotion's
intermediate plan. (InMotion offer an ever lower priced plan,
Launch, but it lacks some features most people consider
critical, such as access to your web sites log files for traffic
analysis.) The Power plan offers evey features most web sites
need and comes with InMotion's reputation for reliability and
toll-free telephone support. InMotion offers a money back
guarantee, although its terms are somewhat unclear -- if these
terms were not so vague, InMotion's CWHR Ranking would be
slightly higher. #4 -- Ho
stRocket http:
//www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zhostrocket.php Price: 3m:
$11.95 1y: $7.95 Setup: 3m: Free 1y: Free Bandwidth: 50 GB Disk
Space: 1000 MB Mailboxes: unlimited CWHR Rating: 8.1 Special
Features: php/cgi/10 mysql databases, Frontpage available, host
1 domain and unlimited sub-domains. 50 preinstalled scripts.
Comments: Founded in 1999, HostRocket is a popular web hosting
company that is well-rated by its customers. They greatly
expanded their offerings in 1994 and are now very competitive in
bandwidth, disk space, and features. HostRocket often runs very
nice short-term specials, check their web site for details.
HostRocket offers a 30-day money back guarantee, see their terms
of service for details. #5 -- Netf
irms http://
www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/znetfirms.php Price: 1y: $9.95
Setup: 1y: Free Bandwidth: 100 GB Disk Space: 2000 MB Mailboxes:
100 CWHR Rating: 7.8 Special Features: php/cgi/10 mysql
databases, Frontpage support, two free domain names, free CD
with NetObjects Fusion 7. Comments: Founded in 1998, Netfirms
rapidly acquired a reputation for affordable, reliable web
hosting. Although aimed at business hosting, Netfirms hosts
sites of all types" personal, hobby, business, weblog, and more.
Their Netfirms Advantage plan is full of useful features and
should handle almost any personal or small business web site.
Netfirms offers a 30-day money back guarantee, see their terms
of service for details. Honorable Mention The following
web hosts also rated quite well in customer ratings and might
also be worthy of consideration: * BlueHos
t (CWHR Rating: 7.4) http://
www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zbluehost.php * PowWeb
> (CWHR Rating: 7.1) http://ww
w.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zpowweb.php * APlus
(offers both Unix and Windows hosting; CWHR Rating: 6.5) http://www
.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zaplus.php * iPower
Web (CWHR Rating: 5.8) http:/
/www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zipowerweb.php * Start
Logic (CWHR Rating: 5.6) http:
//www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zstartlogic.php Special
Needs Cheap Web Hosting Fewer Content Restrictions Dre
amhost http:/
/www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zdreamhost.php Price: 1m:
$9.95 1y: $9.95 2y: $7.95 Setup: 1m: $49.95 1y: Free 2y: Free
Bandwidth: 120 GB Disk Space: 2400 MB Mailboxes: 600 CWHR
Rating: 9.6 Comments: In an effort to avoid arguments and
complaints, most web hosting companies are fairly restrictive on
questionable content -- to the point that some will terminate a
site for displaying a picture of a classical (but bare breasted)
statue from ancient Greece. Dreamhost not only has an excellent,
cheap web hosting package but is far more liberal than most web
hosts on acceptable site content. Basically, if your content is
legal in the US, Dreamhost will probably have no problems
hosting it. For more information on Dreamhost, see the
description above. Windows Hosting Easy
CGI http://w
ww.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zeasycgi.php Price: 1m: $9.95
1y: $7.96 Setup: 1m: Free 1y: Free Bandwidth: 50 GB Disk Space:
3000 MB Mailboxes: 50 CWHR Rating: NR Comments: Easy CGI
provides Windows 2000 servers instead of the standard Unix
servers. Their accounts come with ASP and one Access Database.
They are one of the most affordable and most popular Windows
hosting providers. Customer service reports are spotty, however.
Most people report excellent service but minority report major
problems Virtual Dedicated Server Hosting (Root Access)
Jump
line http://
www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zjumpline.php Price: 1y: $9.95
Setup: Free Bandwidth: 5 GB Disk Space: 500 MB Mailboxes: 75
CWHR Rating: NR Comments: Jumpline uses special technology to
provide each account with its own virtual server. You have your
own Apache web server, your own email servers, your own database
server, etc. and you have root access to the virtual machine
running them. These types of accounts can be more stable and
provide better control, but are best used by Unix experts who
understand the ins and outs of running servers. Dedicated
Server Hosting
ServerPronto htt
p://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zserverpronto.php Price:
1m: $29.95 Setup: $149.00 Bandwidth: 200 GB Disk Space: 40 GB
Mailboxes: unlimited CWHR Rating: NR Comments: A dedicated
server gives your site its own physical computer as a server.
The upside is that you have full root access so you can install
whatever software you want on it and have very few restrictions
on scripts (even if they hog CPU time). The downside is that you
have to maintain the system yourself. ServerPronto has some of
the most affordable dedicated server prices we have seen (and
they often have sales that cut the price of the setup fee),
although there are many options that can increase the monthly
price or the setup fee. Windows and Windows 2003 dedicated
servers are also available at higher prices. The information in
this report was checked for accuracy on August 31, 2005. Web
hosting companies, however, can change their pricing and plans
at any time so the information may no longer be accurate when
you read this report. The Cheap Web Hosting Report and its staff
are not responsible for errors nor for what use you may make of
this information. For updated information, check The Cheap Web
Host Report web site at http://www.cheapwebh
ostingreport.com/ Looking for more information on designing,
hosting and promoting a web site? Download a copy of our free
ebook/newsletter, the CWHR Web Site Design Guide. This guide is
updated monthly with additional articles and the current edition
of The Cheap Web Hosting Report's current monthly report.
Download it at http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/freewebdesignguideebo
ok.php Notes: The prices listed are the monthly price
based on the shortest prepayment period offered (1m = one month,
3m = three months, 6m = six months) and for annual pre-payment
(1y = annual rate) The setup fees listed are for the shortest
prepayment period offered and for the annual pre-payment plan.
----- You are free to publish the September issues of The Cheap
Web Hosting Report on your web site or in your newsletter, so
long as all links are included as published here and are
clickable if this article is placed on a web page or in an HTML
newsletter. Minor corrections of spelling or grammar are allowed
so long as the article's intent is not altered.
About the author:
Randall Stukey is the chief editor of the monthly The Cheap Web
Hosting Report (http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/) which
lists the top five low cost web hosts and several special
purpose web hosts along with articles on web hosting, web site
design, and site promotion.
|
