Quick Review/Comparison of Some Major Web Hosting Services - GoDaddy, Webhostingpad, Hostmonster and Hostgator

Posted on December 19, 2007
Filed Under Free, Shopping, Tips |

With the internet being so much a part of life these days, understanding how web sites work seems to be something we should all be getting involved with. Putting up a website is a great way to learn about the web, and it also creates a “digital fingerprint” for you. Imagine, when you go for a job interview, and they ask you about your web skills, just tell them “go to www…. and see for yourself”. Very powerul persuasion.

There are many different ways that you can establish your web presence, and ther are many tools to assist you with this, including web site creation systems, blogging engines, forum systems and the like. But first you need to pick a domain name and a place to host your website (a webhost).

Is this expensive you ask? Actually not really. For well under $100/yr, you can establish a powerful web presence. Some webhosts like GoDaddy even will host your website free (albeit with ads) with a domain name registration.

So, how do you pick a web host? I have scoured the web sites of some major hosting companies and have come up with a quick review/comparison. Hopefully it will help narrow your choices down.

GoDaddy.com

This is what I use for this website, Over 25 Million domains under management!
Number 1 domain registrar in the country (or world?)
Cheapest Plan is $3.59/month for 12 months
Deluxe Plan at $6.29/month for 12 months
Free setup
Lots of higher end plans available (dedicated servers, etc.)
Lots of coupon codes available to cut costs
100 GB Space
1,000 GB Transfer
Unlimited web sites can be hosted under one account (I use this feature extensively!)
25 MySQL databases
Fast, reliable, good responsiveness
$25 Google, $50 Microsoft ad center
Supports all the major tools: Wordpress, Joomla, SimpleMachines Forum, etc.
Secure and ecommerce ready
Would recommend for individuals/small businesses who want to host a relatively small number of websites on one account (MySQL database limitation). However, GoDaddy.com is very scalable, so you can host bigger, more complex high traffic web sites here too, but I would recommend a higher end account for that purpose.

Webhostingpad.com

Seems to have one of the best overall deals going now
$4.95/month for 2 yrs committment
Free domain name
1,200 GB Space
12,000 GB transfer
Unlimited MySQL databases
Unlimited email accounts
Unlimited web sites can be hosted under one domain (the unlimited MySQL databases would be of great help here!)
Security and ecommerce support
$30 Google and $25 Yahoo advertising credits
Good application support Wordpress/Mambo/Joomla/etc
Would recommend for individuals/small business who want to host a bunch of websites on one account

Hostgator.com

Top 10 hosting company, with over 700,000 domains hosted
$7.95/month for mid level plan - no time committments!
$4.95/month for cheapest plan
High end plans available (dedicated server/etc.)
600 GB storage
6,000 GB transfer
Unlimited web sites per hosting account
Unlimited MySQL databases
Unlimited Email accounts
Full featured application support (Wordpress/Joomla/PHPlist/etc.)
Security and Ecommerce support
Recommend for individuals and small businesses who want to host multiple domains on one server. Seems to be highly scalable, so should support high traffic web sites as well

Hostmonster.com

Over 200,000 domains hosted
$5.95/month for 24 months
$7.95/month for 3 months + $30 setup is cheapest plan
600 GB storage
6,000 GB transfer
Unlimited web sites per hosting account
100 MySQL databases
Unlimited Email accounts
Full featured application support (Wordpress/Joomla/PHPlist/etc.)
Security and Ecommerce support
$50 Google and $50 Yahoo advertising credits
Recommend for individuals and small businesses who want to host multiple domains on one account, but watch out for MySQL limitation