Previously on this blog, I asked for some suggestions for a new web host for Alex’s and my growing empire of sites. (Few people know that Google is one of ours, for example. Man, the bandwidth charges last month were murder.) Topping our wish list: the ability to host a bucket of domains on one account.
Feedback from various sources has directed us to three promising prospects, and I’d be delighted if anyone who’s used them can give me a little first-person anecdotery:
Dreamhost: People love them. Love, love, love them. But they’re expensive for what they offer, require you to lock in for at least a year if you want a remotely reasonable price, and we missed a sweet deal last month. (If I’d jumped on it, we’d have had their el grando extra vast plan for the price of their vast plan. If we ordered now, all we’d get is double the usual disk space. Feh.)
Site5: Their clients have nearly as much love for them as Dreamhost’s, but Site5 lacks the forums and community of its competitor. On the other hand, it’s cheaper — and offers an unlimited number of domains. Not as much disk space, though… although it’s going to take us a while to ramp up even to four gigs.
Verve: I like the name better than the other two, and that has to count for something. Price-for-features, it falls between Dreamhost and Site5.
Any other suggestions?
Update: Apparently Dreamhost was clobbered by the blackout on Monday in L.A. Hmm.
Additional update: I’ve gone with Dreamhost. Comments on various hosts’ pros and cons are still welcome here, but please, no shilling for your affiliate “discount” code (and accompanying kickback). If folks want to find it, they can Google “discount”, “code” and the name of your host. Okay?
I’ve had terrible experiences with DreamHost (read about my experiences at Why DreamHost Sucks). I moved to Hosting ZOOM, which has redundant data centers. When the L.A. blackout brought down DreamHost, my site didn’t experience any hiccups.
Thanks for the suggestion, Robert. I’ll be sure to check Hosting Zoom out. (Glad to see they have a spotless, if young, record at the Houston BBB.)
Hi Rob,
I’m a very happy DreamHost customer too, and I strongly recommend them.
If you think DreamHost is too expensive, you can find some promo codes at dreamhost-promo-code.com, which will either remove the setup fee or give you two years for the price of one.
Most people promoting their promo code are not even using dreamhost.. it’s just one of the most profitable hosting affiliate system