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What You Must Know Before Purchasing Any Web Hosting For Business…
Published: February 12, 2008
You already know that choosing the right web hosting company for your business is a very important decision. Your website is often the first exposure a customer will have to your company… and if they search for you and find it down it is likely that you will lose that customer for good.
But something else many business owners fail to consider is just how important it is to pick the right hosting company the FIRST time…
Once you are set up with a web hosting, changing companies can be a real pain.
You are often looking at hours or even DAYS of downtime, which I don’t need to tell you equals lost clients and profits.
Sometimes business owners get stuck staying with a company they DON’T like, simply because switching can be such a hassle (not to mention that many of the companies lock you into ugly contracts). Not fun!
How To Pick The Right Web Hosting Company The First Time…
There are literally thousands of web hosting companies to choose from, and obviously not all are created equal. But fortunately there are a few that are really GREAT… and here at Business-Guides.org we’ve made it our mission to find out which companies are REALLY the winners and which are simply all talk.
The 5 Factors We Looked For:
1) Quick, well thought out customer service responsesDoes a live person answer the phone 24 hours a day? And are they actual trained employees that are able to answer your questions and help you with a problem?
2.) Fast Servers
Do the pages load quickly and consistently? For a new customer a couple seconds can make the difference between a sale and clicking the back button.
3.) Reliability
Downtime will hurt any business… but it can REALLY crush you if you are using paid search engine advertising to send customers to your site.
4.) Scalability
Can they handle large increases in traffic without crashing? You never know when your business might get mentioned on tv or on a site that has major traffic. If someone is kind enough to send that traffic your way, can your company handle it?
5.) Storage (or “Bang For Your Buck”)
While in most businesses you “get what you pay for”, web hosting can be the OPPOSITE. There are some companies out there that over-charge their customers dramatically for a very small amount of bandwith and storage space… while on the bright side there are other companies that give you an INCREDIBLE amount of bandwith and storage space for pennies!
To figure out what companies were really the best of the best, we decided to put them to the test…
Our Shocking Discovery…
Sadly, after our extensive testing of nearly 100 of the top web hosting companies on the internet, we discovered that the majority were simply not worth the money.
Sure, most weren’t intentionally doing their customers wrong, but in this competitive industry there is no reason to pay more than necessary when some of the LEAST expensive companies are the BEST in all 5 important areas.
Many of the lesser companies are simply resellers for the better ones, which means they take the rates that you would get if you went “direct” and add fees on top of them. But what’s really dangerous about using one of these re-sellers is that if you are ever to experience a problem and try to get help, you are left talking to a “middle man” who in most cases has neither the knowledge or the power to solve your problem.
Others companies will make a lot of claims and then trick you with the fine print… you have to “upgrade” your account if you want the promised benefits. But what’s REALLY shocking is that many of these hosting companies are big names in the industry… the same companies you see in those 5 page magazine ads. All marketing and no service.
Fortunately after our extensive research we now know once and for all which web hosting companies stand above the rest. These are the companies that have the most efficient customer service, reputations for having little to no downtime, more than adequate storage space, the ability to handle lots of traffic, and of course the most competitive prices.
Start Logic - $ 5.95/month
Overview:Start Logic has been in business since 1998, and since then has provided hosting services for one hundred thousand business and personal web sites. Their facilities are located in Los Angeles, CA, and they are a 1st Tier web hosting provider, meaning they host their client’s sites “in-house” as opposed to being a re-seller of a parent company’s services.
Value: 10/10
Start Logic’s pricing plan is among the most aggressive in the industry, featuring a free domain name for life along with free private registration in the event that you do not want your personal information exposed to hackers and wrongdoers (this can cost as much as $16.99 through other providers). In addition, Start Logic offers unlimited add-on domains, meaning should you decide to start a new website there is no need for you to purchase an additional hosting package – simply add it in to your current plan without spending any extra money.
They also offer unlimited email accounts, unlimited sub-domains, unlimited parked domains, 25 MySQL databases, and even free Message Board programs should you decide you would like to add a discussion forum to your site.
And as if that weren’t enough, they have also arranged deals with Google and Yahoo in which their new clients receive a $50 no-obligation advertising credit – you get $50 in Google and Yahoo Pay-Per-Click ads, which is a fantastic way to get some initial visitors to your site.
>>> UPDATE<<< Start Logic is currently running a special promotion in which they are offering their Professional Hosting Package: ProLogic for just $5.95 a month. Upon receiving our bill we were pleased to discover that there were no hidden fees or “surprise” costs tacked on… surprising considering this package includes nearly every feature competitors are offering in their “industrial” packages at 3 or 4 times the price!
Reliability: 9.9/10
Start Logic leads the pack in terms of reliability for both business and personal websites, to the point where they actually guarantee uptime. You read that correctly – Start Logic guarantees the best uptime rate in the industry, thanks to their sophisticated 24-hour site monitoring tools and high-powered Xeon Servers. In fact, Start Logic was one of the only services we tested in which we experienced zero downtime… even when intentionally bombarding our testing sites with extreme amounts of web traffic.
Technical Support: 9.8/10
We’ve discovered – often the hard way – that what really separates the good hosting providers from the great is customer support, in both the billing and technical department.
Start Logic is unique in that they have separate service departments for Billing and Technical issues… which can save you a lot time.
We were also pleased to find that Start Logic offers live in-house 24-Hour Technical Support (including weekends and holidays). Since they don’t farm out their support to phone-answering services, their reps are friendly and knowledgeable. Yes, you read that right: they can actually help you solve a problem without having to have you call back the next day or bouncing you around to 10 different departments.
For simpler questions, Start Logic offers 24/7 Live Chat support, along with extensive photo tutorials that show you how to do everything from getting your website online to how to add in your own CGI scripts.
Start Logic Live Billing Support is available from 6am – 10pm MST, which is very reasonable as billing issues are typically much less likely to be as urgent as a technical problem.
Functionality: 9.8/10
Start Logic hosting packages include vDeck 3.0, the most popular and easy-to-use site management platform in the industry. Users can easily check their visitor statistics, send and reply to emails, manage their sites and domains, and even submit your website to search engines. It integrates seamlessly with blog software, shopping carts, and of course more sophisticated alternatives, meaning there is no limit to what your site can do.
But perhaps the best part is that Start Logic makes it easy to have your website up and running in days or even hours!
Conclusion:
Frankly, we very were surprised to find that Start Logic passed all of our tests with flying colors. It’s not often that a hosting company with rates this low really has it all together… but after extensive testing we can now safely say that Start Logic really is the best of all worlds. If you’re looking for a company that provides you with excellent customer support, reliability, “bang for your buck”, and an all-around amazing value, Start Logic is the company for you.
We were pleased to name Start Logic as our number #1 web hosting provider for 2007, and it is highly likely they will take the crown in 2008 as well. To learn more about Start Logic and to get your website online today click here.To read another review and see side by side comparison of Start Logic, check out webhosting-solutions.org
-------Second Choice
IX Web Hosting
Overview
Next on our list is IX Hosting. This was another web host that went above and beyond. Just like Host Monster they have great customer service, competitive pricing, and reliable servers. We didn’t get as many recommendations for IX Hosting as we did Host Monster, but once we started investigating their offer, we quickly discovered that they too are one of the best on the internet.
Comments:
IX Hosting is a little more expensive (for the business plan) then Host Monster and offers almost all the same features. The main difference between the two is that IX uses the H sphere control panel opposed to Host Monster’s Cpanel. Also IX only gives 6 addon domains, opposed to Host Monster’s unlimited addon domains.
Technical Support: 9.7/10
Just like Host Monster, IX Hosting has both email tickets and free telephone support.
Telephone support was very good, every time we got a courteous professional to help us work through the problem. They did have a slight accent, but still it was easy enough to communicate and solve our problem. Hold times were generally 5 to 10 minutes, with 10 minutes only during busiest times of the day.
Their email ticket system was also very helpful. IX Hosting claims to always give a response in under an hour, and they held true to their word. Sometimes we got a very quick response (15 minutes) others it took up to 45 minutes to hear back.
Value: 9.2/10
The $6.95 price is for IX's business hosting plan, they do a have a cheaper price at $3.95 per month, but you don’t get all the same features. For example the $3.95 hosting plan does not come with any my SLQ data bases, which if you want to start a blog for your website you must have at least one SLQ data base. The $6.95 business plan is by far the most popular one IX offers.
Functionality: 8.9/10
IX Hosting uses the program X Sphere to let you manage and run your hosting account. X Sphere lets you do everything Cpanel does; it just works a little differently. Now most people do use Cpanel, we recommend that if you’re already familiar with Cpanel, Look at our top choice Host Monster, that’s what they use. It’s easier to just stick with it rather than learn a new hosting interface such as X Sphere. If you’re just starting out, X Sphere will work just fine.
Reliability: 9.8/10
IX Hosting guarantees 99.9% uptime. They boast have a 700 server fleet backed by multiple diesel generators in the case of a power outage. They also have an extensive multi layer security system to combat against hackers.
Summary
IX Hosting is another Hosting company that beats out the competition in service, features and price. If you want to use the X Sphere user interface, this is good company to choose. If you’ve read our Host Monster review you can see why they’re not our first choice. Right now Host Monster just has too good of an offer to compete with. But never the less IX Hosting is still a really good choice compared to the rest out there. If you buy their hosting, you’re sure to get a great service for years to come.
--------Third Choice
Host Monster
Overview
Last on our list is Host Monster Hosting. Again we really like these guys for amount of the features they offer for the price. They have just about everything the big boys do… just for a bit less money. If you’re on a budget, Host Monster could be your perfect host.
Comments
Host Monster is a great web host with little risk that offers tremendous value. They are the best choice for someone who is not quite sure if they want to invest a lot of money into an online business just yet. The yearly fee comes out to less than $50 for the first year. (After that you’ll have to pay $6.95 per month.) So if you’re not sure if you want to fully dive into to an online business, Host Monster could be a good choice. Then after the year is up, hopefully your business with be profitable and the $6.95month price tag will not be a problem.
Technical Support: 8.0/10
Unlike the others, Host Monster does not have telephone support. Instead they opted to focus only on an email ticket system. But because they choose to focus only on email support, they give very fast response times. Our experience was typically under 10 minutes, many times under 5.
Comments
Some people find it easier to just email, others need to phone in. If you’re a person that likes to talk to a customer service representative personally, we recommend you look at our top choice Host Monster.
Functionality: 8.9/10
Host Monster uses C Panel to run and manage the behind scenes operations of your web host. C Panel is thorough system that has more than 200 tools and services to run your website with.
Comments
We really like C Panel it has a clean layout that’s relatively easy to use for new comers and veterans.
Reliability: 9.9/10
Host Monster ensures ultra high speed load times, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. To accomplish this they use Xeon Servers connected to the internet with ultra high capacity fiber optic lines. In the case of a power outage, they have UPS generators on standby to back up the servers and keep connectivity. The plant is located in Los Angeles, CA and maintained professionally by their in house staff.
Value: 10/10
Host Monster is extremely cheap for the first year, then the offer jumps up to $6.95/month. …Which is still cheap if you consider all the features you get for that price, many of the other guys charge as much as $12.95 for that same service. We say if you’re unsure about web hosting for your business right now, you can sign up with Host Monster for an extremely small investment. Then, if after the first year you decide this not for you, you’ve spent the least amount of money to find that out.
