Free domain names are the easy part for a person or business that wants to launch a website; you either get one or you don’t. (We’ll focus on the web hosting providers that do offer free domain names.)

Cheap website hosting is the real challenge though. Yes, cheap web hosting is cost-effective and preferred, but you should select your web hosting company based on cost and the kind of hosting services you require.

For example, “shared hosting” is generally the cheapest web hosting package available because your website will share hosting space on a server with other websites. Because of the low monthly cost, shared web hosting is ideal for personal websites, and small businesses.

“Dedicated hosting” is more expensive, but only your website will reside on one particular website hosting server, which is usually only necessary for hosting websites with extremely large numbers of visitors or unusual hosting support requirements, such as video or MP3 based websites.

Hosting servers are also differentiated by the type of programming languages available. Does your website require PHP hosting or MySQL hosting? If so, you will have to pay close attention when selecting your website hosting package. If you’re shopping for website hosting for your business, make sure to ask your web developer which programming language your site requires.

You should also pay attention to the amount of web space and transfer allowed. Web space is just like the hard drive on a computer; there is a limit to the number of files you can save.

Transfer, also known as bandwidth, is the amount of information downloaded when someone visits your website. This is critical if your website gains a significant number of visitors or includes large audio or video files.

Web hosting providers will jack up the fees if your site goes over the allowed web space or monthly transfer limits, similar to the charges for using extra minutes on a cell phone.

A couple of assumptions before we get to the top three cheap web hosting companies: I’m going to assume that you’re looking for the absolute cheapest web hosting available, based on cost, and that you’re O.K. with a “shared hosting” plan. With that in mind, let’s move on to the top three free domain name and cheap web hosting packages.

#1 Free Domain Name and Cheap Web Hosting Package

Host Monster. Host Monster has everything! They simply dominate cheap web hosting with tons of web space (50GB) and an extremely generous amount of monthly transfer (999 GB). The 24/7 tech support is an absolute must for any website hosting service and Host Monster has that too.

All that aside, what really pushed Host Monster to the top of our Cheap Web Hosting list is the $4.95 monthly plan, one free domain name, and the ability to host unlimited domain names! That’s right, Host Monster allows you to host an unlimited number of websites for only $4.95 a month.

Basically, Host Monster is the best value we’ve ever seen for cheap web hosting, hands down.

#2 Free Domain Name and Cheap Web Hosting Package

StartLogic. Decent amounts of space (50 GB) and transfer (750 GB), but are slightly less than Host Monster at $4.95 a month. Start Logic also boasts 24/7 tech support and will throw in one free domain name, but only allows a total of 10 domain names per account. As you can see, Start Logic and Host Monster are very similar, but the smart move is to get the unlimited domains and higher transfer with Host Monster for the exact same price. Really, there’s no reason to choose Start Logic.

#3 Free Domain Name and Cheap Web Hosting Package

1&1 1and1. They are the cheapest web hosting service in terms of monthly cost at just $2.99/month, which is insanely cheap. In fact, it’s the cheapest cost per month I’ve ever seen on website hosting. 1and1 also gets high marks for reliability, customer service and being the largest website hosting provider in the world. Another benefit is one free domain name is included, but the storage (5 GB) and transfer (250 GB) are the lowest on this list and only allows a total of 10 domain names per account.

1and1 does offer some great features such as free blogging tools, a website builder and a photo gallery. If you’re new to website hosting, or are strictly looking to build a small website without video or audio files and little traffic, this is an excellent place to start, just be aware of the storage and transfer limits.

One should expect to receive 5-75 GB of disk space, which is more than adequate for most people, and you might find that you can get as much as 100-600 GB of bandwidth per month, which also is not bad for such a great price. These cheap websites are often on Windows or UNIX servers, which is also ideal for most web hosting needs.

While all of these things are great, you might feel limited because you might not be offered the ability to host sub domains with these cheap web hosting services.

Cheap web hosting services usually have limited parking and reselling features, if you have any at all. You may not be given any or very limited POP3 email accounts, which can be a deterrent for many. While these things are not necessary for some, they can be the difference between the cheap web hosting opportunities and the ones that are more moderately priced.

Cheap web hosting is more than enough for a great deal of people, but some people simply need more. Most of the companies that offer cheap plans will offer you the ability to add on certain functions to your account so that you can customize your hosting plan to meet your needs. This can be good and bad because you get what you need, but then you really need to consider how cheap the program is.

Often when you add on features you will pay more than you need to, and this is what these supposed cheap hosting services bank on. Ask yourself how cheap is the cheap web hosting service? Are you paying more than you need to for add ons? Or, are you simply paying the price in the features that you are giving up? Sometimes, you really do get what you pay for, and sometimes you need to pay a little bit extra for that.

For more information on cheap web hosting visit http://www.websitehostingworld.com/.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Benni_Jenyfari

Your primary factor when searching for cheap web hosting should not be price. Yes, price is one factor but you need to take consideration into other factors before deciding.

Here are a few factors you should consider as well besides the price:

1. Customer Service

Ever had a problem with your hosting and no one to turn to? It can be frustrating when you have a problem with your hosting and cant find anyone who can offer technical help.

It doesnt matter how much traffic you get if your website is down and you cant get anyone to respond to it. Good web hosting companies should have a support telephone line, live chat, email support and should be able to respond to any support case in less than 30 minutes. If not, move on to other web hosting.

2. Reliability

Most web hosting companies have an uptime guarantee. Look for those that have at least 99.5% and above uptime guarantee. If its not stated on their website, call or email them to find out. If you cant find the information, move on to the next web hosting.

It doesnt reflect very well on your business or on you if your website is always down from time to time.

3. No hidden charges

Make sure everything is stated out clear and in black and white. I have seen shady web hosting companies who have hidden charges such as extra charge for transferring a domain name out from their web host, extra charge when adding email or ftp accounts, extra charge for adding another subdomain.

While I understand some web hosting do charge extra for bandwidth and disk space and others, it should be made clear on the website and not after you already have brought their hosting package.

4. Ease of use

Depending on your technical skills, you should choose web hosting that suit your comfort level. Most web hosting companies uses cpanel for website management. However a few such as godaddy uses their own proprietary management interface which can take some time to adjust to.

Taking into account all the factors above, how do I go about finding a cheap yet reliable web hosting?

The best way to find is to find web hosting reviews sites and forums and see what others have to say. Beware of some web hosting reviews sites who are biased because they have been paid by the web hosting company to provide a favorable review.

One of the places I visit often is webhostingtalk.com. It is a large web hosting forum where you get unbiased reviews of web hosting companies usually from customers. Its also a good place to find bargain web hosting offers.

However, at the end of the day, you still need to make up your mind which web hosting you want.

Ricky Lim recommends using Site5 for cheap web hosting. Visit his site for more info on the best cheap web hosting.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ricky_Lim

If you really consider the price of a web hosting, it is a good idea to consider cheap web hosting that offers the same level of services compared to more expensive hosting packages. However, dont just grab any cheap web hosting deals just yet.

You have to understand three important details to ensure that a cheap web hosting package can perform as you prefer. First, research and ask around about how a certain company is able to offer cheap web hosting, without compromising their quality of service. Second, you need to determine if the features offer on a cheap web hosting package is up to the standard that you require. Lastly, research on techniques on how you can prepare your website when the price compromises quality.

Things to Consider with a Cheap Web Hosting

Many people are unaware that it is possible for a hosting company to offer cheap web hosting with great quality and still make substantial profit. These companies are able to this because of high volumes of clients, which eventually result in lowering of prices with the same level of service.

Companies that offer cheap web hosting manage well because they provide great service, which attracts more and more clients giving them more returns than other companies that provide high expensive web hosting.

However, whether you prefer an expensive or cheap web hosting solution, you should examine several factors that are equally important for you websites health. Before anything else, you should consider the reliability of service by weighing the time a system is up and when it is down. When your website is down most of the time, then your cheap web hosting package is not a good deal after all.

Another factor in picking a cheap web hosting is to determine the speed of hosting. This is important to ensure that anyone who is visiting your website will be able to navigate the web pages instantly. Otherwise, you could lose a potential client when he or she becomes impatient and switches to other websites.

Other factors in choosing a cheap web hosting is technical support, excellent reputation and a guarantee that you will be given quality service without unwanted interruptions at an affordable price.

Hyun Kim is a freelance writer who writes about home audio and website related topics. He loves Branica.com since it is a quality and cheap web hosting provider as well has free web counters and free seo tips.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hyun_Kim

Lots of people are looking for cheap hosting solutions. It is also true that the price of hosting has decreased over the past few years. It is now more affordable than ever to host your website. One should be careful however, of opting for the very cheapest that you can find. Most often, these providers do overselling. This basically works on almost the same principle as airlines that do overbooking. Because airlines realise that about 10% to 15% of people who book their tickets will actually never make it to the plane, the allow overbooking of tickets of up to 10%.

The trouble comes when EVERYONE decides to pitch up and use their tickets. That is when you get long queues, grumbling passengers and air hostesses that seem to have smiles pasted onto their faces….

The problem is that hosting providers often sell large amounts of hard disk space and bandwidth for very cheaply, knowing full well that you will never use the space. The problem comes in when everyone starts unexpectedly using all their space and bandwidth allocated to them. Then everyone suffers.

But let’s look at the principles of shared hosting - what it is and who it works for.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is the best solution for most small and medium websites. The most important advantage is cost. Shared hosting is much cheaper and affordable than hosting on dedicated servers.

Even though in theory you should just sign up for the features that you will really need and thereby avoid paying extra costs, the truth is that web hosting packages are really becoming more and more feature rich while becoming cheaper at the same time. You will therefore GET a lot of features whether you need them or not. This is not a bad thing since it does mean that you can easily upgrade your account or install new software when you find that you are requiring more functionality than when you started.

Shared hosting is also good for web hosting companies. It can host hundreds of small and medium websites on a single server. This reduces the installation and maintenance costs, and gives the hosting company a higher return on investment.

Because of the danger of overselling however, you should ensure that the company uses state-of-the art servers with high processing power. These servers should be connected to the Internet on high speed bandwidth lines so that there is no choking when the traffic spurts. Most of these companies do advertise the type of servers that they use. If they do not disclose their server specifications, it might be better to steer away from them. Ask a friend, family member or Internet expert for assistance in trying to understand which servers are good and which are not.

You should be able to upgrade easily between packages should the need arise to move to a larger server or more bandwidth.

The web host must also offer 24×7 toll-free technical support rendered by experienced and professionally trained technicians.

You especially need to check whether the hosting company owns servers or is reselling hosting solutions. The latter situation is not conducive for your needs because the web host is only a middleman and is not in control of the solutions that he is selling. You may find that the services provided are not in keeping with the promises made.

Your exit strategy

You must always have a backup plan in case your web host goes bankrupt. This should include maintaining a backup of all your data you post on the web site. You should not depend on the backups done by the hosting company themselves but should make sure that you run your own backups through the control panel (and you definitely SHOULD have a control panel!)

This is also why you should always register your domain name with an independent registrar and not with the hosting company itself, since if they do go bankrupt, you might not only lose your website content, but your complete domain.

Christine Anderssen is the owner of Tailormade4you, offering Webhosting and Web Design - Web Development services to small and medium businesses. Visit our websites for free tutorials on how to use Joomla, or read the original article on http://www.internet-web-hosting.co.za/webhosting-info/cheap-web-hosting-shared-web-hosting.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christine_Anderssen

Cheap web hosting companies come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from the big online corporations to small, mom and pop type businesses. As long as these companies offer a few basic things, any of the choices are generally pretty good ones to help a person or business get established on the World Wide Web.

When looking at cheap web hosting options, its a good idea to determine what is actually needed. Even if a price is good, if the service doesnt offer all the options required, there really isnt a bargain involved.

Cheap web hosting companies can offer a variety of services, but what is needed by you, the client, will determine the best route to go. As you look at different options, consider these things:

* Do you need a cheap web hosting company that will create the web site for you, or at least provide templates and creation programs?

* Do you require a cheap web hosting company that will also register your domain name and ensure its paid and up to date?

* Would you like a cheap web hosting company that provides extra services and advice, such as articles that will help drive traffic to your site?

* What kind of payment options are you looking for in a cheap web hosting company?

* How much traffic do you expect to face? A lot of traffic requires a greater bandwidth, which can cost more, but that doesnt mean there arent cheap web hosting options out there to accommodate.

* Is brand name important for you when it comes to cheap web hosting, or are you fine with a lesser-know entity?

Many people who are looking for cheap web hosting companies will find there are a lot of options out there. There are some companies that will do almost everything for their clients and charge only modest fees, while others offer the tools and tutorials necessary for even novices to build their own sites. Still others will only provide hosting services and clients must bring everything, including the domain name, to the table to get started. How much service and support you require will really help you determine what options are best for picking a good cheap web hosting company.

For more information on cheap web hosting try visiting http://www.thewebhostinginfosite.com, a website that specializes in providing advice, tips and resources on web hosting and frontpage web hosting that you can use to help you get your website online as easily as possible.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Neil_Day

Like in any other business, web hosting industry also has a small number of scamsters who want your business at any cost. They believe that they can sell you anything at any price “from Eiffel tower to the Kitchen sink”. Some of these will give you web hosting prices that are much higher simply because they think that they can convince you to pay more. Others will offer the world for very-little and hope that you will be satisfied with whatever they dish out.

However, a majority of web hosting providers may have genuine reasons for higher / lower web hosting prices. In this article we will study significance of the real factors that can affect the price of a web hosting package. Awareness of the same may clear the confusion cloud generated by huge web hosting price variations.

1. Hosting Support: This is perhaps the single most important factor that determines price. Hosting Companies that provide responsive technical support and are quick in fixing problems have a higher-ratio of “well trained employees” TO “customers”. Due to the costs incurred in maintaining a larger number of efficient support personnel, they usually charge more from their customers. “10 satisfied customers will automatically become a 100 in 5 years time”. Many web hosting providers who do not believe this axiom offer throw-away web hosting prices and generally their businesses do not last long.

2. Web Hosts’ Network: Most web hosting companies put their servers in different datacenters across the world. For a high quality network (with redundant fast connections and reliable back up power) a web host has to pay more to an advanced datacenter. In turn they charge you more for their hosting packages to maintain reasonable profit margins.

3. Web Server power: Another factor is the speed of the machine your website resides on. A Dual Xeon can serve pages and handle applications faster than a P-IV. Web hosts who spend less on fast reliable servers charge less from their customers.

4. Loss Selling: Sometimes hosting companies sell at loss to expand their client base and hope to sell other products at a later date to the same customers. For example, some hosts price hosting packages at lower than base cost and hope to sell services like web design, ecommerce solutions, search engine optimization etc. While there are benefits to attracting customers with unbeatable web hosting prices, it is still a gamble. If the gamble backfires they may not be able to maintain quality of service in the long run.

5. Over Selling: “The supreme gift of a good artist is to know when to stop”. Hosts that follow this principle usually restrict the number of domains-per-server to a decent number. This ensures that they can maintain ‘Quality of Service’ for their clients by offering sufficient server resources to each. It also means that this host will have to charge more to recover the amount they pay to their datacenter. Then again, there are providers who sell 400 accounts of 1 GB each on a hard disk of 80 GB !!! (You can smile at this point of our study) These companies hope that most customers will never use their full allocation of resources. What if the customers actually start using full resources allocated to them?

6. Web Hosting Features: Windows, Linux and other server operating systems have different base prices. Features like database support, JSP, scripting languages, SSL support vary from package to package. A web hosting provider who offers more features (in a similar hosting plan) is likely to have a higher web hosting price.

Points to remember: The adage “You get what you pay for” is generally true. Please be aware that leaving aside the scamsters, there do exist genuine factors that affect web hosting prices. The highest price may not give proper ROI (return on investment) and the lowest may not help your online business grow. Prioritize your needs, ask the right questions, avoid unscrupulous web hosts and choose wisely.

1. Support.

Look for a hosting company that provides 24 hour technical support. In addition, do your research and see what current customers are saying about the company’s support. For example, if you do your research and find that the company’s customer support is slow and ineffective, you might be dissuaded from utilizing that company’s services.

2. Reliable.

Look for a company that is reliable. One of the main factors that should go into your decision making process is to consider a hosting company’s uptime. Generally a company’s uptime should be at minimum 98%. For example, Dreamhost - one of the top hosting companies in the U.S. has an uptime of 99.97% for 2007.

3. Features.

Look for a company that has built in features such as web scripts, unlimited sub domains, mysql databases, etc. Furthermore, these features should be accessible from a control panel or some type of centralized location. It is important to note that these features often cut down on the amount of time it takes to perform certain tasks. For example, using my control panel within Dreamhost, I have the option of using a one-click install feature, a feature that allows me to install applications within a matter of minutes.

4. Prices.

Look for a company with reasonably priced hosting plans and packages. Fortunately, prices for basic web hosting remain low; do in part to the amount of companies offering hosting services. For example, there are thousands of web hosting companies out there, that help drive the average cost for a basic web hosting plan to approximately $4 a month.

5. User friendly and Easy to use.

Look for companies with easy to use and user friendly control panels. The control panel is the mechanism or tool that allows you to manage all of the items offered within your package in one centralized location.

Clarence Wolfe III
President
OTB INTERACTIVE
http://www.otbinteractive.com
List: JP’s Real Estate Inspections
Purple Ink

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Clarence_Wolfe

There are several types of hosting you can opt for in Chicago. Free web hosting service is free, advertisement-supported web hosting, and is extremely limited in nature. Shared web hosting service place your website on the same server as many other sites. Reseller web hosting allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Virtual Dedicated Server will make you feel that you are on your own dedicated server, although actually you are sharing a server with many other users. Dedicated hosting service provides to you, your own Web server and you can have full control over it. Colocation web hosting service you own the server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. Clustered hosting having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization. You can choose from the type you want to.

When you take service of the web hosting companies, you will get specific web services like file hosting service, image hosting service, video hosting service, blog hosting service, one-click hosting, shopping cart software etc. To find a web hosting company, there are searchable directories that can be used. In Chicago you can find so many web hosting companies working. Find them in the directory. You can also search in the Internet about the companies, their schemes and your benefit.

Obtaining hosting in Chicago

There are many free and paid providers offering web-hosting services. As a customer, you should evaluate the requirements of the application to choose what kind of hosting to use. Take into consideration like database server software, scripting software, and operating system. Most hosting providers provide Linux-based web hosting which offers a wide range of different software. Web hosting packages often include a Web Content Management System, so the end-user doesn’t have to worry about the more technical aspects. When you choose web-hosting provider, make sure you choose a company with experience, reliability, and support. In Chicago, you can get hosting packages with comprehensive features. You can get them at lower prices also. They may offer you, high speed connections with direct fiber optic connections. They will also manage all aspects of your website and your account using our web based Site Manager. For selection of a web hosting company, you should keep in mind a few factors like quality Up-Time, flexibility, privacy, security, fail-Safe Procedure.

Quality Up-Time Find out what percentage of time will the website be kept online by the web site hosting company. Poor hosting services may leave your site offline for hours several times over the course of a year. Then nobody will come to your site and you will lose the customers. A company should be able to keep 99 % up time, leaving aside the inevitable reasons. During business hours they should be able to keep your site online. Chicago web hosting companies should have technical support staff available at any hour of the day or night to help troubleshoot any issue.

Flexibility The web hosting company, that you want to take service from, should be flexible and should be able to handle different websites. As every website is built a little differently. You may have some special features, such as shopping carts or online videos that require extra resources from the servers that they are hosted on. So, find out what features the Chicago web-hosting companies will support. Privacy Find out which web hosting company in Chicago can keep your secret and information private. Do you have information being put onto your site that you want to be kept private? If so, decide on such a company, which offer you this service.

Security For web hosting in Chicago, search for the secure web hosting companies. You may have some sensitive information, which you may not like to get by others. So, find out the security offered by the web hosting company. It is very important, as without this you will not be able to perform business, smoothly with your customers.

Self Web Hosting: Is it the future?

Will the continuous fall in pricing of reliable bandwidth and computing Equipment, along with the simultaneous explosion of ‘user-generated content’, Augur a transition towards ’self-hosting’?

Traditionally, hosting companies and ISPs have provided facilities, equipment, and software that allow individuals and entities to host their websites and web-services with them. Continuous availability, high bandwidth, large storage space, and reliable equipment traditionally made hosting with ISPs an attractive option.

The evolution of infrastructure and technologies however raises the question whether we are at stage where one can directly web-host from any internet connected PCs and even PDAs - sort of self-hosting. The voluminous growth in the quantum of user-generated content and advances in technology (web 2.0) makes self-hosting attractive. Firstly, user content is never required to be stored on third party servers, and secondly, there is no need for repeated uploads to third-party servers.

Improvement of Retail Infrastructure

Retail/home internet connections have rapidly become faster and have high uptimes. Broadband connections routinely deliver 1Mbps rates both ways, and provide uptimes in excess of 99%. Similarly, Personal Computers today are more powerful and reliable than the ‘Server’ machines of barely a few years ago. For many non-mission-critical applications, the uptime and reliability of home equipment is adequate to host websites and web services thereby making a case for self-hosting.

Apart from the infrastructure improvements mentioned above, which have more or less tilted the balance towards self-hosting, three other barriers traditionally dissuaded individuals and small entities from hosting off their home / office PCs.
1. Internet Addresses
2. Security
3. Ease of use

Internet Addresses

Individual PCs and Handheld computers usually do not have network addresses (IP address), which are required to connect PCs and handheld devices to the internet. In many cases, IP address is dynamically assigned and therefore change every time the computer connects to the Internet. (This is known as dynamic or non-static IP). A computer without an IP address is incapable of web-hosting.

Security

Another barrier to self-hosting is the sensitivity to issues around security and vulnerability of the computers. Home / Office PC owners are typically averse to hosting from their personal computers because this requires them to open ports on their machines. This can make them targets of malicious security attacks over the internet, and it calls for investment in security software that guard against viruses, spam and other malware.

Ease of Use

Lastly, maintaining and managing web-servers is viewed as a technical exercise by many common users, who therefore prefer to host with ISPs.

Summary

Technical innovation coupled with better and cheaper infrastructure now makes it feasible for individuals to directly web-host from PCs in their homes and offices. There are no limits to what or how much they can host. A greater adoption of new technologies would not only make available a much larger amount of content on the web, but also free it from limitations imposed by intermediaries.

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