Web Hosting Columns

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

Gate.com is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that provides both Windows and Linux web hosting. They offer four plans: Mach1 starting at $9.95 a month, Mach 50 starting at $14.95 a month, Mach 500 at $29.95 a month and Mach 1000 at $49.95 a month.

They also offer virtual private servers starting at $29.95 a month and goes up to $69.95 a month. They also feature dedicated servers starting at $69 a month for a Linux dedicated server and $79 a month for a Windows dedicated server. They also offer a continuous data protection service for $14.95 a month and $2 per Gigabyte to back up all of files on your computer.

Billing can be done monthly, quarterly, or annually. You can save some money by doing the quarterly and annually payment. Clear advantage of Gate.com is the fact that they are a Microsoft Gold Partner. If you are looking for Windows type hosting then they can give you great service. They also offer domains for $6.95 a year so if you are in need of a domain and hosting you can save a couple of bucks going that route. They are business partners of Cisco, IBM, Macromedia, and Intel. These are all reputable companies that are known for offering reliable products and services.

They are also part of the Better Business Bureau Reliability Program. All of these features give you confidence in their services and peace of mind when it comes to reliability. They offer customer service thru email and phone. They have dedicated phone lines for virtual private server and dedicated server customers. These lines are available 24 hours a day. They also have a dedicated phone line for sales inquiry, which means you can get all the help you need and all questions answered before you decide to host with them.

A disadvantage of this host provider is the fact that it is geared for bigger customers with multiple websites or heavy traffic websites. This hosting company can be expensive for someone that has a small site. Many customers also report having trouble with their email services which can be a big pain. They use to be Hostsave.com and many claim that after changing to Gate.com they are having these types of problems.

Overall Gate.com offers decent plans for what they are charging. They don’t have many options when it comes to dedicated servers. Seems like an okay host.

Overall rating: 3/5

If you are looking for a web host that specifically provides the service that you want, then DiscountASP.net should be the first to look at. It targets a narrow market, thus allowing a wider scope of service that includes all compatible windows compatible scripts. It targets people who choose windows as their hosting server and therefore it is able to fully support their clients.

One of the things that I personally hate about web hosting companies is that most of them wear an image that they can do all, and provide all. They will tell you that they can handle all types of server hosting possible. Now you don’t need to be a genius to know that is too good to be true. Not only that they will make you believe that they can give the perfect service no matter what kind of hosting you need.

Some will give you an option of choosing servers between windows and Linux and will tell you that you will not have any problem or effect if you change servers later on. These are all lies, now how can you expect a service provider to serve your best interest if their marketing strategy dwells on misconception and lack of proper information? DiscountASP.net is not this kind of business.

DiscountASP focuses only on providing windows based hosting, the ASP.NET. They have the latest system in windows server hosting as well as its specialized sub-services. And because DiscountASP only allows windows server, you are guaranteed that their full system resources will always be dedicated in maintaining the server that you, as a client is in. You may already know how different allocation of server system resources into different server types such as Linux and Unix can cause performance fluctuations. This can clearly affect your data transfer speed as well as your uptime rate. So much for the 99.99% uptime that many web hosting promises, if they have multi server types, that uptime rate decreases a lot.

Aside from being non pretentious into telling you what they can and cannot provide, discountASP.net has a long history of reliability that it can prove. The domain itself is registered in 2002 and will expire as of this writing in 2012, and that’s a lot of time. The company is clearly serious about its business. It is not like other web hosting providers whose own domain is not even package registered. It protects its name and you can expect them to do the same to yours.

Their servers are secured in California, United States, and they don’t hide that. They are not in some small town of an unknown country. This assures you that they are backed with security and reliable servers that will guarantee your files, your websites and your business stable, up and running 24/7. Your server is truly there to serve you!

Aside from the many awards that DiscountASP.net has received, this service provider also boasts a long trail of positive feedbacks about their service. Reading through that will tell you that these are real statements from real satisfied customers, and not just a feeble attempt to market itself.
They also offer discounts and 30-day money back guarantee to their customers. Now that is something that is hard to refuse. How can you say no to a solution where you are the clear winner? Over-all I’ll give DiscountASP.Net an unquestionable five over five.

Overall rating: 5/5

Crystaltech.com is a Microsoft Windows shared hosting specialist. They offer four Windows shared hosting plans which are: ASP.net starting as low as $7.95 a month, ColdFusion as low as $16.95 a month, Developer and Business both as low as $2.95 a month.

All shared plans are hosted on Windows 2003 server. They also offer semi-dedicated Adobe ColdFusion 8 hosting for advanced websites starting at $86.95 a month and raging up to $126.95 a month. They also offer SharePoint hosting plans that start at $19.95 a month. They also offer small business services, domain registration, and data storage. Crystaltech.com offers lots of options, features, and services for your webhosting needs.

A clear advantage of this host is the fact that it specializes in Windows hosting. You can rely on the services they provide since they are a Microsoft Certified Partner and an Adobe solutions Partner. They also have a Better Business Bureau Accredited Business Logo on their site, which assures you they comply with credible business practices.

They also received the March 2008 award for Best Ecommerce Host. These types of things assure you that they will provide with the best service possible, and it gives you confidence when choosing a plan or service they offer. They provide live tech support for any issues that may arise with your site’s hosting, along with forums so you can ask questions and bring up any concerns you have. They also offer 24/7 phone support, so help is always one call away. Crystaltech.com also has lots of different hosting options which facilitate the finding and choosing of a plan that works for you.

The disadvantage of this host is the fact they only provide Windows type hosting. They don’t have the option for those users that prefer Linux web hosting. They also don’t provide you with information regarding their uptime, which is something that many users look for before they sign up. Some users have complained about their server speed.

If you are looking for quality Windows web hosting with lots of options then Crystaltech.com is the host for you. They can provide you with all the web hosting services you need for your website(s). Depending on what sort of plan and billing option you choose you can even get Microsoft Adcenter credit so you can go ahead and advertise your site. Overall, Crystaltech.com is competitive enough to stick out as one of the premium Windows web hosting companies.

Overall rating: 4/5