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A good host for blogging?

A good host for blogging?

Duncan Riley> Time for a quick bleg because I’ve got a problem (it seems to be one of those days). I need a new web host. I’ve currently got blogs scattered across two web hosts, one of which has no control panel support and which I pulled The Blog Herald off because although they had great customer service, they didn’t handle traffic well and tended to blame me for “scripting errors” every time there was a problem, and the second host is offering great value and reliable service (where the Blog Herald is now) but has really slow customer service and a terrible billing system. We’ve all been through good and bad hosts, but I’d welcome your comments for my own use and for others if you’d like to share. My specifications are
1. Shared is fine, although atleast 1 unique ip should be available in the package.
2. Fairly low cost: I don’t want to pay lots of many (does any one!).
3. Should preferably take Paypal for payment, although this is not compulsory for the right deal (its just easier to use my blogads payments this way)
4. Atleast 20gb in the package each month, more if possible (the figure just gets bigger every month)
5. Should be able to host multiple domains at no extra cost as part of the package, shared in the 20GB, this is vital for me, I have lots of domains and a number of projects and sites hosted for myself and others. I can accept say 5 or 10 domains in a package and then pay a small amount for each additional, but I think paying for an individual package for each domain name is ridiculous
6. Should naturally be able to host blogware, WordPress in particular, but also MT and others. Also be able to host CMS packages like Mambo
7. Generous SQL accounts
8. Preferably have control panel access like cPanel, and preferably is running AWStats for the stats tracking

Leave a comment or drop me a line at [email protected], I’m happy to sign up if your an affiliate somewhere so you can benefit from the deal, but I need to know that the hosting is reliable and meets my needs.

View Comments (17)
  • We use onsmart.net. We melted several hosts with our traffic before making the switcheroo – now we get 50GB transfer per month, and they’re quite reasonably priced. And the tech support guys have been very patient and kind with us, especially during some really nasty spam attacks directed at our old MT software that was crippling their servers.

  • Hi Duncan. You might want to check out http://www.ehosting.ca, based in Vancouver, BC — the company has a really good reputation in Canada.

    For $30 (CDN) a month you get unlimited transfer, 10 MySql databases and 1 G of space. I believe you can have unlimited domains and subdomains on your account. The one thing you cannot do is host streaming media files (i.e. no podcasting).

    Customer service has been great. I’m using the Drupal CMS and it has been working out fine.

  • just msg’s my host with your details – if he can help he’ll get in touch I’m sure. He’s great value and offers a great service on a very powerful server.

  • Thanks to everyone suggesting sites, if you’re just reading this, keep posting them here because I’m still looking. A couple of comments
    1. Hosting review sites suck, what would be nice is a hosting review site like Darren Rowse does his digital photo blog, reasonably balanced, most sites basically push their advertisers
    2. I’ve tried out most of the sites above. Caz, thanks for the tip, you host is really good except that it doesn’t allow multiple domains without an high extra charge, and this was the only draw back (and it is a deal breaker)
    3. To those that have tipped Textdrive, I’ve heard good things, but to be honest they are really expensive for what they offer, the $40 plan is the closest for me, and its more than double the next site I’m looking at.
    4. Im waiting for Darrens host for a price, I can’t say whether they are good or not yet, but I’ve been totally impressed with the email correspondence to date, first rate, my only concern is that being in NZ even if they are half as bad as Australian hosting sites they’ll be real bad. Australian hosting sites are a total rip-off, and that’s pretty much nearly across the board. Give me the US any day for hosting
    5. Ploghost has some good offerings, but I’ll need to do some background checks and check the TOS etc. prices are really good though, but I’d recommend they offer a price in USD, don’t get me wrong, I converted the price to AUD, but its easier to work out for me if its in USD.
    6. I’m giving serious consideration to Site5.com, they’ve won some awards and their top plan should do me for years to come, however I’m concerned because the feedback is just toooo good (I’ve done the standard checks, everyone loves them) and their TOS is very restrictive (ie I’ve got a domain that may have some light adult content (bizarre stuff, oddweblog.com), and I think they won’t host it). If anybody knows the company I’d appreciate the feedback
    regards
    Duncan

  • Duncan. Sorry to hear textdrive is too hightly priced. A few months ago you could have bought a lifetime hosting account like I did. FWIW you get what you pay for. Unlimited bandwidth is rarely unlimited.

  • Dreamhost @ http://www.dreamhost.com/ does offer a lot of value for money.

    Currently they are having a sale where you can have a Level 3 account for a low price. This plan has 7GB diskspace, 192GB traffic and unlimited MySQL databases. Plus they have a very advanced (homemade) control panel. You can even install WordPress with one click from the Control Panel.

    Drawbacks: occassionally slow, though they’re quite open about this and always sem to work hard to fix this. No support by phone (though they do provide call backs).

    I’ve been hosting a few domains at them for the past half year and I am getting happier and happier with them.

  • Thanks everyone for their help. At this stage I’ve gone with site5.com for two reasons, they were middle of the range for price (although the features are great) and then due-dillegence on them was like nothing I could find elsewhere. Optimum Internet (http://www.optimuminternet.co.nz/), who host Darren Rowse and Problogger where a very close second, and I think had I not been so picky and demanding in my requirements they could have landed it. Certainly my dealing with Regan their were first rate and I’d happily recommend keeping them on your list when your looking at hosting.

    Regards the comments on textdrive, particularly from Darryl, couldn’t agree with you more, you do get what you pay for and I wasn’t, nor did I expect an unlimited plan, nor have I gotten one with site5. Textdrive has bloggers behind and provides a great service for bloggers and others, particularly in providing blog specific support, its just that this extra level comes at a price, which might I add is great for most bloggers, I’m just a lot more difficult to please :-)

  • Duncan –
    How has hosting with site5.com gone so far? You should be a couple months into it by now. I’m curious because I’m still trying to find the right host. Site5 looks great, almost too great. Just curious about how it has gone for you.

  • I couldn’t be more happy with it. I’m a particular fan of their control panel setup, easiest I’ve used and it lets me do everything I could possibly want to without having to email a request through (chron jobs, SQL and FTP accounts are particular favorites) plus I can set up access accounts for specific sites so the editors can access their sites as well. There’s only been one small downtime in the 3 months, and the response time on questions is good, not the quickest I’ve seen but a lot better than others (they claim av response time of 14 odd minutes, I’d say this was about spot on) but having said that I’ve not needed to email for support nearly as much as with previous hosts.

  • Duncan-
    Just thought I’d follow up on my earlier post…
    I ended up going with Site5 and I have been very happy with it. I think I’m hosting 7 or 8 different sites and have encountered very few problems. The ones I have run into were solved by their tech support quickly.

    Hope this helps anyone out there looking for a host.

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