Over the last few years, I’ve been swapping hosting companies, looking for the perfect one. I’ve always used UK based hosts, since I felt it was best if I ever needed to phone them for support. I’ve always used Windows hosting, because I’ve used various bits of ASP in my online projects.
Over the last year or so, though, I’ve been getting comfortable with PHP an MySQL databases, and since getting in to blogging using the venerable WordPress, it’s opened my eyes to the world of open source web applications. Whilst this blog is hosted by the admirable LiquidSix (which has wonderful support, and very reliable), I’m edging towards Linux based hosting to give me the flexibility I’m after (I want permalinks for starters). Quite a few WordPress plugins won’t work on Windows, which is a shame.
If you want Windows hosting - go with LiquidSix, I can’t recommend them enough (and some of my domains will continue to be hosted by them). But if you want a Linux host, I’ve been recommended Dreamhost, who are based in the USA, and have an admirable record for email support. I’m looking at one of their shared hosting accounts.
Although they advertise a basic package for $7.95 per month, that’s if you buy 2 years of hosting in advance - on an annual basis, it’s $9.95 per month with a $49.95 setup fee. In a very geeky way, my eyes popped out of my head when I saw what they offer in their ‘basic’ package (as of 15th Feb):
- Web based control panel
- 20Gb disk storage (increases weekly by 160Mb!)
- 1Tb Bandwidth (increasing weekly by 8Gb)
- Host unlimited domains
- Custom DNS
- One-click WordPress install (apparently!)
- One-click install for loads of open source web goodies
- ImageMagick for on-the-fly image processing
- Absolutely everything…
All rather tempting if you ask me!
