Web Hosting Columns

Serverintellect.com is a Microsoft Gold Partner that offers Windows web hosting. They offer four webhosting plans which are: The Base Hosting Plan starting at $9.95 a month, the Tier 1 Hosting Plan that starts at $14.95 a month, The Tier 2 Hosting Plan starting at $39.95 a month, and the Tier 3 Hosting Plan starting at $69.95 a month. They offer virtual private servers starting at $99 and they also offer virtual dedicated servers starting at $149. You can also go with a dedicated server and this starts at $199 and goes up to $499.

They also offer managed services which can be tailored to your need depending on your website(s). All billing can be handled monthly, quarterly, semi annually (6 months), or annually. On the last two, semi- annually and annually, you can save 5% and 10% respectively.

An advantage of this host is the fact that they are a Microsoft Gold Partner. They can provide you with premium Microsoft tools and services that you need to keep your site up and running effectively. They offer a wide variety of dedicated servers, and I mean a lot of options. It is no surprise of why they won the 2007 top 10 Web Host awards for their dedicated server service. This way if you are in need of a dedicated server you can choose the one that fits best for you. They also offer live chat on their site so you can receive help with any questions you might have.

Their managed services is also interesting because you can choose a combination of services that monitor what is going on with the status of your server. When choosing a hosting plan you also have the option of choosing which SQL server suits you best, 2000 or 2005. Excellent services and choices provided by this web host.

One of the potential turn offs of this host is its prices for their different plans and services. It’s true that you are getting a lot, but not all users need a lot. There is really no plan designed for someone that just needs a basic hosting plan. Their basic hosting plan is $9.95 a month and for most users that want to host a blog or small site will not pay this much for it. This host is tailored for professional sites, for advanced users that need this type of service.

If you are someone that is looking for dedicated Windows hosting, then this is the host for you.

Overall rating: 4/5

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Servepath.com offers both Windows and Linux Web Hosting. They only offer Windows Dedicated servers and Linux Dedicated servers when it comes to hosting plans. They do not offer shared hosting. Their Windows Dedicated service plans are as follows: BusinessPath starting at $199.99 a month with a setup fee of $249.99, AdvancePath starting at $399.99 a month with a $499.99 setup fee, UltraPath starting at $599.99 a month with a $799.99 setup fee, and finally EnterprisePath starting at $1,799 a month with a $999.99 setup fee for an application server and a $1,499 setup fee for a database server.

All setup fees are waived choosing the yearly billing prepaid plan, and you also receive 2 free months if you select this billing plan. All plans are the same price for Linux Webhosting. They also offer Grid Series Internet Hosting services. Billing plans are monthly or yearly.

One of the really neat advantages of Servepath.com is the different dedicated server plans which they offer. You can customize these plans to your liking as you order. For example you can select if you want 1 Gig of Ram or 2 Gigs of Ram. You can select what operating system and processor you want. You can select if you want a secondary hard drive. You can select what control panel software you want.

With so many choices and options for your hosting plan, you will surely find something that works best for your website. They also offer both phone support and live chat support for any questions or concerns that may arise. They are a Microsoft Gold Partner so you can count on the reliability of the services and tools that they provide from Microsoft.

A disadvantage of ServePath.com is the fact that they don’t offer shared web hosting. This means that they are strictly a corporation type webhost provider. They offer great services and options but they have steep fees that no little guy can pay. This is for no small or even medium type website owners. This is strictly for large heavy traffic websites.

Overall Servepath.net is a solid web host. They provide multiple options for their dedicated server plans. They have large customers that they have been hosting for some time which assures you that they aim to give the best service possible. They simply have to do it because of their hosting prices. However, they are reasonable for the services and features they are providing.

Overall rating: 4/5

It is said if it sounds too good to be true…but one web hosting company has managed to prove it can be true. IPowerWeb, a US based company with a unique one price, one package policy, has stood by its offer for over 5 years.

One Price Plus Google…and Yahoo!

IPowerWeb boasts its $7.95 price for a large amount of space and bandwidth. Just what hosting-hungry webmasters would want. But IPowerWeb sweetens the deal with a sugary $30 worth of Google. You also get free $50 Yahoo! Search Marketing Credit advertising.

One customer posted that he was “even Googled in” by the IPowerWeb. Yet this service seems to be a copycat push from pioneer Godaddy and other companies.

Solid Service, Secured Environment

iPowerWeb is backed by AT&T Global whose data centers are protected from intrusion and failure by multi-layered security, full redundancy, diversity, and rapid response recovery measures. They ensure no single point of failure throughout the backup power system. iPowerWeb rates best when it comes to connectivity and speed. They recently formalized a partnership with AT&T to be their new upstream provider.

Customer Service

But no company can become great without effective communication and support, and In terms of customer service iPowerWeb is not bad, but not too great either. Their team can be reached 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But when you need immediate assistance, they tend to be a bit slow on the speed. Some clients have complained of emails taking up to 24 hours to get a reply.

But iPowerWeb also provides a telephone service. This is usually helpful for questions that are not too technical. Their customer service is well trained and is friendly. More technical questions will place you in a queue or you may be asked to call back.

Yet, many clients have pointed out that they are nonetheless happy with the overall support that they have come to appreciate with iPowerWeb. One prominent webmaster pointed out that “when they fixed a problem it stays fixed”.

99.9% up Time

Like most webmasters, we want to sleep with a sound mind and let our website work while we snore. Here is where iPowerWeb scores high again and I was unable to find a complaint regarding down time. So clients seemed very satisfied with this.

The main reason could be the strong communication maintained by this service provider. Clients are made aware of any possible outage well in advance. But coupled with new AT&T backup servers, who can go down.

Finally, We give them four Stars and we do recommend that you get powered up with iPowerWeb.

Overall rating: 4/5

Host Gator has been around since 2002 and currently serves over 100 million websites on their shared and reseller hosting plans. They offer great customer support and are one of the leading hosting companies in the world.

So, what do they offer?

They offer Web hosting, Reseller hosting and Dedicated Servers. They have over 150 employees that keep the company in the top 10 hosting companies in the world. They have three web hosting packages on Linux servers.

Hatchling - 350 GB of disk space, 3,000 GB bandwidth and one domain.
This is their most basic package and offers simple hosting. You get unlimited SQL databases, sub domains, FTP accounts and POP3 accounts with this package and all the basic things you need to have your website online.

Baby - 600 GB of disk space, 6,000 GB bandwidth and unlimited domains.
This is their most popular package and is the middle level hosting package they offer. You get the same as above only with unlimited domains, unlimited add-ons and parked domains. You get everything you need with this package to run unlimited websites from the same account.

Swamp - 1,000 GB of disk space, unlimited bandwidth and unlimited domains.
This is their largest package and offers a large amount of extras, including anonymous FTP. You get everything in the above two packages and an amazing 1,000 GB of disk space and unlimited bandwidth allocation. This package is perfect for someone running an online empire.

They will soon be offering windows hosting as well so as you can see they keep up with the changing times.

What support do they offer?

They have over forty support veterans that can assist you 24/7 365 days a year by either chat, phone or ticket system. You can even request to speak personally with the owner of Host Gator if you say so in your ticket request. Their support system is fantastic and they do offer a lot more than other companies and they prove that they do it as well. It’s not just all talk with Host Gator they do help you and their support is great. They also offer a guarantee of 99.9% uptime for your website.

What’s the pricing like?

To start with every web hosting plan comes with a 45 day money back guarantee and considering the amount you get with the largest package it’s hard to believe that it’s only $12.95 per month.

Hatchling - $4.95 per month if you pay for 3 years in advance
Baby - $7.95 per month if you pay for 3 years in advance
Swamp - $12.95 per month if you pay for 3 years in advance

All very good prices and there are no hidden fees or contracts you only pay what you sign up for. The prices do go up slightly if you choose to pay monthly but they really don’t increase that much. Compared to other hosting accounts Host Gator is very competitive in terms of price. It is quite hard to find someone else that offers what they do for the price they do.

Overall I think Host Gator should be highly considered when choosing a hosting package. They offer great support which is what you need if you are not too up on the lingo for hosting and web design.

Overall rating: 4.5/5

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GISOL, Global Internet Solutions, is a hosting company that offers two hosting packages: Premium for 5.95 a month and Unlimited for 7.95 a month. They also offer you a Windows control panel or a Linux Control Panel. The first thing that got me from this company is the Unlimited plan. Usually when a hosting company offers you and “Unlimited” plan it’s a sign of trouble. Sooner or later they will not be able to uphold that plan as more and more people start signing up with different websites.

This company’s support is terrible, it’s practically nonexistent. A hosting company’s support is tested once you start having problems with your site. It should be their number one priority to get you up and running as soon as they can. GISOL doesn’t do this. When you contact their support they answer back with excuses of why they can’t fix your problem(s). This is a huge turn off when you are trying to select a hosting company.

Another thing I found ridiculous is their setup fee. The only way you can avoid this fee is if you sign up for their one or two year prepaid plan. Often the best thing that one can do when trying to choose a company is try them out for a month or two and see how it goes. If you choose this route you have to pay for those months plus the setup fee. The setup fee for a month or three month package is $19.95, which means you are practically paying 3 months worth of hosting when compared to their premium plan of $5.95.

GISOL also offers the option of registering a domain thru them. The problem with doing this is when you decide to leave them they give you problems when you try to transfer the domain over to another hosting company. With this company it’s just problem after problem. They just don’t provide you with the type of service a hosting company needs to provide you with. They are highly unreliable and you need your hosting company to be reliable. Facing the facts with GISOL you are pretty much just paying $5.95 or $7.95 a month for problems. They have numerous server issues and some clients report a lot of downtime of their websites and no technical support whatsoever for this type of issue. I would recommend for you to stay away from GISOL.

Overall rating: 2/5