The Top Ten WebHosts Compared

Our Recommendation for Best Overall Host!

Apollo Hosting offers a vast array of features and options to meet specific web hosting needs. Apollo Hosting offers a fantastic range starting with even the most basic package which is what I started out with a year ago. This includes unlimited MySQL databases, e-commerce ready hosting, pre installed blog software, streaming and podcast capabilities as well as 20 websites. Also for those just starting out, there is a site creator to get you a unique design quickly and easily. With Apollo, you can host up to four sites through a single account on Apollo's basic plan.
For those needing a little more, Apollo Hosting also offers VPS server solutions and dedicated servers both of which are very reasonably priced. Moreover, there is the offer of Red Hat or Windows Server 2003 at no extra cost which is certainly a bonus compared with the extra fees charged by some providers.
Apollo hosting offers what we consider the pinnacle of service for support. 24/7 toll-free support as well as 24/7 chat and a messaging service. Support is courteous and professional.
Apollo web hosting has been around in the industry for over five years. Their website might be boring, but they have unique offerings that other web hosting companies cannot match such as their software suite. Over the years, they have lowered their pricing and increased their offerings to keep up with the competition.
Conclusion:
Apollo Hosting offers a great level of service with a fantastic product that doesn't disappoint. If I had to find a flaw it would be that especially with the lower cost plans the bandwidth and amount of storage space you receive is fairly low and this means that those plans might not be suitable for more needy users. That said, the cost is generally low and so it is possible to scale up in terms of plans for a fairly low cost and still find a solution that is right for you.
Pros:
24/7 Toll-Free Support • Lots of Features • Spam Filter • Free Site Builder
Cons:
No Major Problems Noted

5 of 5 starsVisit Site

First and foremost, Bluehost offers a large amount of storage space and a contending bandwidth, making it a powerful host. They also offer several free script plug-ins such as, chat, blogs, polls, web auctions and bulletin boards. They support several languages including CGI, PHP, Perl, Front Page and MySQL Databases. The ecommerce tools include a free shopping cart and the ability to track website traffic.
Turning to customer service, there is telephone, email and messaging support which has become pretty much the benchmark for all hosting companies today. Their control panel is also great, offering a lot of options at your fingertips especially statistics which allows me to keep tabs on the number of people hitting my media sites.
Despite Bluehost's great features, it does not offer a money back guarantee like some of the other web hosting services.
Conclusion:
For an individual or small to medium business website, Bluehost is an excellent host. They provide a great service for customers who have a limited budget to spend on hosting each month but are looking for a highly reliable hosting solution. In our experience Bluehost has been a superb hosting provider, offering excellent technical support and high reliability which we can wholeheartedly recommend.
Pros:
Free Domain Name Forever, Free Website Builder, Host unlimited Websites on 1 Account
Huge Bandwidth Allowance
Cons:
At the time of this writing, no money back guarantee.

5 of 5 starsVisit Site

Most hosts love to create a one size fits all solution rather than allowing a basic solution to be built upon as and when a user needs it to be. In the market today there are perhaps a couple of companies that do offer this sort of add-on based hosting plan and one of these is easy CGI.
Their basic feature set is quite limited with no support for sub domains or a shopping cart. However, to balance that out there is support for ASP, Perl and PHP as you'd expect. But the real bonus of Easy GCI is their bandwidth and storage amounts. The basic packages comes with 1000Gb of bandwidth coupled with a ton of storage! For me this is perfect as it means storage will never be a concern and I'm not paying a lot of money for things like FrontPage support. I do realize for some the lack of these facilities would be an issue and as a result it's good that Easy CGI offers each of these features in other plans and via add-ons..
Fortunately, the stripped down approach doesn't apply to their unique control panel and customer service both of which are fantastic. The knowledge base and help section offers a lot of information and can help users out with a lot of their problems. Join this with 24/7 phone and email support you have a really strong package. Unfortunately there isn't a dedicated messaging support service, if there were then I'd be a lot happier but so far I've had email responses very quickly (typically 5-10 minutes) and the service has been good. Since easy CGI lacks features such as subdomains, a website builder and a shopping cart this places it under our top choices. Nevertheless, if you must have ASP (Active Server Pages), then Easy CGI, even with their basic package, can support this option.
Conclusion:
Overall, Easy CGI is an extremely flexible service that allows for add-ons and quick up grades if you should need extra storage or email accounts.
Pros:
Good database support, easy to contact technical support, near total control over domain/web site, fair prices and practices.
Cons:
Not visually stunning, no amazingly unique features.

4 of 5 starsVisit Site

First of all their price is extremely low with hosting starting from only $3.95 meaning that the hosting is affordable for everyone! Second, they provide a fantastic range of services. These include e-commerce facilities which are essential now that people increasingly want to earn money from their websites. On top of that they offer a site builder which makes it easy to get started without any experience whatsoever. They also offer a free bulletin board.
Furthermore, Fast Domain offers 1500Gb of web space and exactly the same amount of data transfer per month. For those of us that like to offer hosting for friend's files or perhaps run a video or photography based website such amounts of web space and bandwidth per month are vital.
Turning to email, there is support for over 2,500 separate accounts both POP3 and IMAP. My last project was for a games review website which required a lot of author contributions from different authors who all had to be contactable by the public. Having so many different accounts made this really easy. The same is true of the FTP accounts and Fast Domain offers one thousand per account meaning that you can allow a lot of people to have customized access to different parts of your hosting, meaning that Fast Domain makes it really easy for group based projects. They seem to be hot on email security, offering SPAM protection as a standard facility.
Conclusion:
Fast Domain hosting packages consist of 1500 GB webspace and 15000 GB bandwidth (data transfer per month). You can host unlimited domains under one account.
Pros:
The Price! Starting at only $3.95
Cons:
Very few hosting plans to choose from.

4 of 5 starsVisit Site

Some web hosts offers hosting plans that provide really simple ways to get seemingly complex things done, be it e-commerce with paypal or large shopping carts.
The only problem with some of these sites is that they limit you to sites made via their own site builder program and don't allow you to design your own site and develop from there. Obviously this is completely unsatisfactory for anyone wanting to develop any sort of even remotely advanced site! On the other hand I know I wanted some support in the beginning and still do, especially with things like e-commerce.
Fat Cow is a hosting company which fits these needs as tightly as any other. For small companies and individuals with more complex requirements, they offer one great package that fits all. Now I know that this may mean that some people will feel they're paying more than they have to for features they don't need but that is a criticism you can throw at most hosting companies and if you take a look at the features Fat Cow offers you'll find that most are relevant to most people. They include up to 1500 POP3/IMAP accounts alongside 150GB of bandwidth and 15Gb of storage. This is supplemented further by a public SSL certificate.
Conclusion:
FatCow recently made some improvements to a few areas which makes them more competitive and puts them right up there with the big boys. We liked the quick and friendly customer service, which is available 24 hours a day. Client satisfaction seems to be a priority with them judging from some of the feedback we have read. Also we like the fact they do daily server backups.
Pros:
A 30-Day Money Back Guarantee.
Cons:
None noted.
Current Promotions:
A Special $10 off "moo"pon !

4 of 5 starsVisit Site

The folks over at Good Avocado promise that all of their hosting is completely carbon neutral, through the use of wind and solar power. What's more - they say they'll plant a tree every time an account is opened. While that's all well and good, that isn't enough to sell a hosting company to me, they have to provide on features, price and customer support too.
In regards to the first, Good Avocado has a great set of features, the most impressive of which is their cluster technology. This allows the load of a high traffic site to be shared across many servers, allowing for a much improved response time. This is coupled with fantastic uptime - with no outages in my experiences with them. All plans are fully customizable and scalable thanks to the same technology meaning that the hosting can adapt as your circumstances adapt.
Also, their monthly transfer offering is unlimited, which is certainly something of a rarity today. What is more, this is matched by unlimited disk space as well as MySQL databases. Just to make this feature set even more extraordinary - Good Avocado claims you can host an unlimited number of sites as well.
While this all seems fantastic, it does lead to big fears of overselling and I'm not sure if you push them on the unlimited nature of their hosting, how they will respond. As for the price, Good Avocado certainly is not the cheapest at $4.95 for their basic solution. On top of that, they don't offer many features in terms of e-commerce so you would have to buy that individually which will push the price up.
The real downside to an otherwise great host is the customer support. At the time of this writing there is no email or even phone support and you're left to rely upon the knowledge base and their support ticket system.
Conclusion:
While we love the eco-friendly approach, we feel that the real need for improvement here would be customer service.
Pros:
Environmentally friendly hosting, great hosting features.
Cons:
No real time customer service.
Current Promotions:
Sign Up Now To Save $15 Off Any Of The Hosting Plans. Coupon Code:GAA931WU

3 of 5 starsVisit Site

Host Monster was founded by a group of guys who together have many years of experience in the web hosting industry, and it shows. First, their customer support is fantastic. Most knowledge bases contain the most basic information but with Host Monster you get some great info to help you do an awful lot more. Plus, they offer toll free phone support 24/7 and have email too - so if you've got a problem, you can get it solved quickly and easily.
The experience of the Host Monster team can also be seen in the reliability of their servers and therefore your sites. By building very strong servers, that aren't overloaded or oversold, Host Monster gives you fantastic uptime. What is more, backups are taken with incredible frequency so if somehow something went wrong with this great system, you'd be back up very quickly.
A few years back one of the big draw backs of Host Monster was a $30 setup fee for short-term contracts but now this has fortunately been removed and you will get a completely free set up and be paying only $5.95 for top service, fantastic reliability and a whole host of features.
One feature I forgot to mention earlier is the fact that all Host Monster plans come with cPanel. This is the industry standard in web hosting management, putting a wealth of features at your finger tips and is yet another aspect which shows that Host Monster really understands their user base.
Conclusion:
This company is devoted to providing a reliable service, proven by the airtight operation of their data facility. Your website data is stored on high-quality Quad Opteron servers and they are protected with redundant backups.
Pros:
Great features, excellent customer support. Overall knowledge and dedication to their customers
Cons:
None noted.

5 of 5 starsVisit Site

Hostgator is a privately owned company that was founded in the year 2002. Hostgator provides reseller web hosting and shared hosting solutions.
Host Gator gives you all the normal features you expect via the fantastic cPanel interface, including denying access to the site by IP, and providing instant blogs and forums. All of this is backed up with great support both by phone and by instant online messenger. This means that you can get instant support for any of your concerns from a staff that are polite and tend to know what they're talking about.
They don't have too many bells and whistles, marketing ploys, or anything of the sort. What you see is what you get and it's that simple. Also HostGator's terms of service is pretty standard, as is their order process. Marketing isn't shoved down your throat at every page and billing is simple.
The order process takes about 5 minutes and HostGator accepts both credit cards and PayPal (which is always nice), as well as debit cards.
Conclusion:
Host Gator offers a great service, with a lot of good features - perfect for people starting up! They also offer great services for those who want more; be it a reseller account or a dedicated server.
Pros:
Significant discounts for up front payment.
Cons:
None reported.

4 of 5 starsVisit Site

IX Web Hosting has a bit of a mixed reputation online and I wasn't sure if I'd go for it but after looking at their feature set I decided I might as well give it a go. The main selling point for me was the unlimited domains, data transfer and web space offered even with the most basic plan. However, this offer must always be balanced against the risk of overselling, and with IX Web Hosting I found that this was an issue. My site was sometimes slow to respond and I did worry that I might have missed out on some visits due to that.
In terms of reliability there was a similar concern, in that my site suffered a few bits of downtime, sometimes lasting more than 5 or 6 hours and frankly this really grated on me and I doubt whether in the future I'd come back. The story was the same even after a number of upgrades I was told about by IX Web Hosting and it made me think that upgrade just meant - broken in another way. That being said, I am sure that they are aware of any problems that webmasters may be experiencing, and would probably take steps to correct them in order to keep their client base and attract new customers. I wouldn't write them off just yet.
Conclusion:
With such problems it might come as no surprise that their support staff was courteous and efficient at all times - I expect they get a lot of traffic! I did get the feeling that they always tried to help me and often did. .
Pros:
Quality support.
Cons:
Excessive Downtime possibly due to overselling?

3 of 5 starsVisit Site

When I sign up for a web hosting plan one of the things I hate is to have to search for hours through dozens of plans to find the one I want. It's a waste of my time and I always expect to be disappointed when I find out later there was a better package for me or a cheaper one. So, when a web company simplifies their product down and makes it easy to understand - it certainly perks my interest.
Pow Web take this philosophy to heart and by developing a solution that suits nearly all needs. It offers unlimited hard disk space and unlimited GB monthly transfer limit which is a huge improvement on their 300gb of bandwidth and 12gb of disk space which hardly blew other companies out of the water.
All sites benefit from "Load Balanced Hosting" where the load for your site is spread over numerous servers by Pow Web so that each site can be accessed quickly, basically eliminating all single points of failure. This is the same thing that is done by major companies for sites that have to stay live all the time and shows Pow Web's dedication to providing a great service.
As far as price, at the time of this writing Pow Web is having a sale and their plan is $5.77 per month which is a great incentive to those who are just getting going online. In a similar vein they offer a script instant installer which they claim is better than Fantastico which can install Wordpress, phpBB and osCommerce quickly and easily - putting Web 2.0 at your fingertips.
Alongside this offer Pow Web is also offering a free .com domain with every account set up and a website builder - making it easier for everyone to get a site online!
Conclusion:
Powweb offers a single hosting plan for all of its clients. The intent is to simplify its hosting solution and provide a single standard set of hosting features that customers can easily understand without having to find a decoder ring to decipher the offerings.
Pros:
The best price with great features.
Cons:
Only one hosting plan available.

3 of 5 starsVisit Site