Web Hosting Providers

This question comes up within my earshot at least a few times a week, and it saddens me when someone doesn’t do their homework, or isn’t familiar with all of the options out there — or even what to look for.  I try to help or chime in when I can, but other times it’s a lost cause.  That’s the reason for this blog post.  Perhaps I can direct a few people here, or maybe it’s just a way to vent my frustrations.  Either way, I’ll feel better.   

What are you really looking for?

Most web hosting providers these days provide more than enough storage, bandwidth and email addresses than you’ll ever need.  I mean, come on… who is actually going to use 600 email accounts with their domain name?  No one.  If you are, then you’re more likely to look at an in-house enterprise solution than a hosted platform.  So what are you really looking for?  In the 20 years I’ve been doing this, it should really come down to the following:   

1. Features
2. Reliability
3. Control Panel
4. Tech Support
5. Price

In that order.  If you know what you want your website to accomplish, then you already know what features you’ll need to have.  So that is your first priority.  Second is reliability because no one wants a website that goes down all the time.  So, once you found the few hosting providers that have the features you want, find out which ones are the most reliable.  Third is the control panel.  I’ll explain this in more detail below, but without a good control panel and the ability manage all of the aspects of your hosted server, then this can be the largest source of frustration for you… and for your web developer.  Fourth is tech support — hopefully you’ll never need them, but if and when you do, they need to answer the phone within a few minutes, speak english, and solve your problem.  Finally, when the first four are in alignment, you can shop for the best price.   

What Features are Important?

There are core features to every host provider that everyone looks at: storage, bandwidth, number of domains included, email POP accounts, etc.  But more important are the development features that your web developer is going to be interested in.  Things that are very good to have are:   

SSI: Server-side-includes.  If you have SSI enabled, your web-developer can code common elements (like the header, navigation, and footer) in one file, and call it from each page.  This makes global changes very quick and easy — saving you money in the long run.   

PHP/Perl: PHP & Perl are scripting languages that provide interactivity to your site, and real-time page renderings based on other conditions.  Ask your web-developer what languages you’ll need your host provider to support.  In most cases, you’ll need to look at the upgraded packages in order for Perl or PHP support.    

Cron Job Support: If you have data that needs to be processed in the background at certain times and intervals automatically, then you need cron job support.  These days, this is mostly used for establishing cache files for Blogs, News Lists, or anything processed from a database.   

There are many other features such as CMS (Content Management System Support like Drupal, Joomla, DotNetNuke, Mambo, Wordpress and others), Sql Databases, DNS Management (external domains, masking, forwarding, etc.), and you can investigate these based upon what your website will need.   

Reliability

In my opinion, there are really only a handful of popular hosting providers out there that can (and do) claim 99.9% uptime.  I say popular, because there are thousands of hosting farms out there that only handle a handful of large clients that are out of this and your) scope.  What I’m talking about are the large hosting providers that have over 250,000 customers and advertise nationally.  I’m talking about GoDaddy, 1and1, ValueWeb, HostGator, JustHost, and about 15 others.  The rest are really just resellers or affiliates of one of these top 20 providers.   

Control Panel

This is what separates the boys from the men.  I’ve seen ad-hoc home-grown control panels, 3rd party control panels (cPanel is the most popular), and others.  Then there is the level of access each hosting provider gives it’s users.  Here’s the real skinny: The control panel should give you 1-click access to EVERYTHING at any time.  Did you get that?  Because most hosting companies don’t.  In fact, of all the hosting companies I’ve worked with (probably over 20 or 25 of them), only ONE company believes in 1-click access to everything — and that’s 1and1.  One of the worst is GoDaddy.  GoDaddy’s control panel is split between two major areas (as in two different adminstration panels) and users don’t have access to all of the features — which means more calls to tech support.  Finally, some of the administration options, especially DNS management, can take up to 48 hours to complete (compared to 1and1 only needing 30 minutes for the same operation).  I’ve been around control panels for over 15 years, and sometimes I can’t even figure out where to find stuff in GoDaddy.  I’ll say it again — GoDaddy has one of the worst adminstration control panels I’ve ever encountered.   

Tech Support

Now that I’ve just bashed GoDaddy for their dismal adminstration control panel, I feel like I’m on a roll now, but the truth is that their technical support is very good.  In the last 4 or so years, I am always talking with a knowledgeable tech within 5 minutes.  One one occasion, a tech from GoDaddy gave me the wrong procedure for a DNS change, and it cost me and the client 2 days of downtime.  The follow-up tech apologized and updated their internal knowledge-base.  One time in 4 years though isn’t bad.  1and1 has great technical support and I haven’t had any issues with them in nearly 9 years.  Of  late, I can usually talk with a tech within 3 minutes.   

Price

I’ve been highlighting 1and1 and Godaddy much of this post because they really are the top two hosting providers on a national scale at nearly the same price-point.  I’ve worked with 20-25 hosting providers in my lifetime to date, and these two are really at the top of everyone’s short-list.  It wouldn’t do good to do a line-by-line comparison between the top two providers out there, because their pricing changes all the time, and their always running some sort of a sale.  What I can say is this: 1and1 consistently beats GoDaddy every time when comparing simliar packages with similar features.  As of this writing, 1and1’s beginner package is $3.99/month whereas GoDaddy is $4.99/month — and factor in the 1and1 offers unlimited bandwidth, 2 gb of email storage versus Godaddy’s paltry 100mb of email storage and 300gb of bandwidth (don’t host video here folks).  Now in fairness, with video hosting services out there, you’ll never have to worry about hitting 300gb of bandwidth.  Also if you use POP accounts, you’ll never come close to your 100mb email limit since it’s removed from the server everytime you check your email.  That said,  in my experience, the frustration of using GoDaddy’s control panel and the fact that many DNS features are “hidden” (those are their tech’s words, not mine), and the fact that 1and1 does have more space and  bandwidth (even though I may never use it), keeps 1and1 at the top of my list.   

What about those Website Building Tools (Templates)

Templates? I love ‘em if they’re used correctly.  In other words, if a company is on a low-budget and is forced into the template alternative, then find a template that works for your industry, and populate it with your content.  You’ll still probably need a web developer to tie all the loose ends and code in the specific content to some degree — but you can (and will) save thousands on the template design, which is one of the most expensive parts of a web development project.   

Website Builders are another story.  GoDaddy has “Website Tonight”, and 1and1 has “Website Builder”  Both are dismal.  Yes, they have pre-canned templates and anyone can build a website without any knowledge of html or “behind-the-scenes” scripting and CSS.  Have you ever seen any of those websites built that way?  Of course you have — you can spot them right away and they all look the same… terrible.  Amatueur. Unprofessional.  It always amazes me how a start-up business jumps on one of these quick-and-easy solutions and wonders why their potential clients don’t take them seriously.  I don’t care what profession you’re in -  sales, construction, legal, medical, whatever.  If your company is touting professional and quality service, yet your most basic marketing collateral isn’t, that speaks volumes as to how you will conduct your service.  Sometimes I see those labels at the bottom of the website (powered by Website Tonight) and I think, here we go.  This company didn’t have any budget to scrape together for their own marketing collateral – does that mean they didn’t have the time or budget to create a business or marketing plan?  Are they taking their business seriously?  Are they going to be around next year?  Now I know that some entreprenuers are very good at what they do — and that’s my point.  Why aren’t they outsourcing their marketing?  Their web development?  Their brand?  It’s because of their budget, and their budget priorities… and that’s my other point.  If a company doesn’t have the capital and/or priority to invest in themselves, then how the hell can their customers expect that same company to invest in them?  They can’t, they don’t, and that’s one of the reasons why so many businesses struggle.   

Conclusion

1and1, GoDaddy or any hosting provider isn’t right for everyone.  And I’m certainly not captive to 1and1 or any provider.  I do find though, that for many small to medium-sized company, that 1and1 fits the bill.  It’s why over 80% of PGM clients are hosted with 1and1.  And as a web developer, their control panel is an excellent choice for 1-click acccess to EVERY feature that a company could want.  Stear clear of the website builder tools, and go with the “template” route if you’re on a budget.  The template is just the frame-work and style guide.  Most importantly, take time to make sure your website is actually working hard for you.  Check your logs, or analytics.  Track your visitors and tweak your website content accordingly.  In the end, your website needs to do what it was designed to do: Educate, Entertain, Sell, or perhaps some other purpose.    

Talk to us about how we can make your website work effectively for you.