Written on July 30th, 2008 at 06:07 am by Darren Rowse
Blog Hosting Recommendations - Who Hosts Yours?
“Can you give me advice on which host to go with to host my blog?”
It’s a question that I’m asked a lot - but one that I can’t offer a lot of personal advice on as my blogs have been successfully hosted on b5media’s servers for a couple of years now. We use LogicWorks at b5 but I’m interested to hear who you use and recommend to host your blog?
Who do you use to host your blog? Why do you use them?
No affiliate links in comments please - they will be deleted.
Tags: blog hosting, blog hosts
264 Responses to “Blog Hosting Recommendations - Who Hosts Yours?”
bob cobb
July 30th, 2008 6:59 am
liquidweb
Glenn Palmer
July 30th, 2008 7:13 am
We sell web hosting, so our blogs are self-hosted wordpress blogs. Just costs us the price of the domain registration.
Doug
July 30th, 2008 7:15 am
I’ve been using EngineHosting (http://www.enginehosting.com) lately for several of my internet properties.
I love the fact that they have a toll-free number and I can actually talk to a human being.
Fav Browser
July 30th, 2008 7:18 am
I use http://www.lotosus.com
Youri
July 30th, 2008 7:18 am
I’m on Mediatemple. I had a $15 shared host a year and it crumbled as soon as I got some social media love. Media temple has been great so far. It’s only been down once for less that 15 minutes really.
The benefit is that you can be sure it survives major traffic spikes. But if you’re not sure you’ll be getting any of them you might as well try a cheaper host. I chose MT because I wanted to be sure I’m set for a long time to come.
Daniel Scocco
July 30th, 2008 7:19 am
I tried quite a few hosts during the years: Yahoo, GoDaddy, Dreamhost, A Small Orange and so on.
After I moved to Doreo.com, though, I have not moved further.
They are my sponsor, but all my sites are hosted with them, so its a honest endorsement.
Ethan Stanislawski
July 30th, 2008 7:22 am
I use hostmonster. It’s cheap, they have great services, and it’s very reliable.
Cigar Inspector
July 30th, 2008 7:24 am
I’m using BlueHost for all my websites and am satisfied.
Jacob
July 30th, 2008 7:24 am
I use HostGator for my smaller sites that really are not going to go anywhere (just experiments). And then I use http://www.servint.com for a VPS for my bigger sites.
Jacob
July 30th, 2008 7:24 am
Sorry…ServInt.net
Lucas K Allmon
July 30th, 2008 7:25 am
I use go-daddy and I love them. Their plans are cheap, reliable and the customer service has always been great. The biggest downside is that their control panels aren’t the most well laid out for someone who isn’t very savvy. That’s the only negative thing I can say about em though!!
Miguel Alvarez
July 30th, 2008 7:28 am
I run a small web hosting company and that’s where I have both Marketingfactor.com and Copywriting.com
In case you’re interested in checking it out it’s at:
http://thirdsphere.com/
Ben Fraley
July 30th, 2008 7:29 am
I’ve used Godaddy for all my sites. I’ve never had a problem with them, and it’s only 4 bucks a month. Can’t complain
Shaun Kester
July 30th, 2008 7:31 am
Media Temple (mediatemple.net)
and
Magics Hosting (magicshosting.net)
Gregg Marshall
July 30th, 2008 7:32 am
I’ve had great experience with Network Redux
jhay
July 30th, 2008 7:32 am
I’m hosted at Lunarpages dot com. Great services and wonderfully fast support for relatively low prices.
Grant
July 30th, 2008 7:33 am
I personally use http://www.holdfire.net, they are good, cheap, very reliable and have great support.
crashsystems
July 30th, 2008 7:34 am
I use bluehost. It is my first ever hosting company, so I do not have prior experience to compare it against. It seems to be doing fairly well, though I’ve never had the opportunity to test it out with a traffic spike.
Dave
July 30th, 2008 7:36 am
I use both Media Temple and Mosso depending on which blog of mine you’re looking at :)
asynadak
July 30th, 2008 7:36 am
I use HostGator. It is cheap, up and running all the time (never went down even for a couple of minutes) and their support department replies as soon as possible!
Ian
July 30th, 2008 7:37 am
I have used Dathorn for 4 years now. This is shared hosting, but extremely reliable. If you have a small blog it is more than adequate. They do not allow over selling on their accounts, and shut down any abusive sites which keeps their servers in top notch shape. I run about four sites on their smallest package. For mega volume sites you obviously need a dedicated server which they do not provide.
http://www.dathorn.com/
Todd
July 30th, 2008 7:38 am
I use HostGator for my smaller, personal blog. I’ve found them to be faster than my previous MediaTemple-hosted site.
Also, I like the ability to pay by the month. It’s significantly more expensive over the course of a year, but also easier on my budget.
Adrian
July 30th, 2008 7:39 am
I use the hosting service from Media Temple. Personally, I love the Account Center feature, all of the things I need are neatly arranged there.
The System Status feature is also the first explanation of things when anything goes wrong.
Chris
July 30th, 2008 7:40 am
I’ve just this week moved my hot hatch blog from Squarespace to a Wordpress installation at Bluehost.
They’re considerably cheaper than Squarespace and you get full control over your blog’s appearance and structure.
Squarespace is a good site for the less technically experienced blogger, but as my blog has grown I’ve been craving more control.
Now I’m up and running with Wordpress and a pro-designed theme and I’m much happier, apart from some teething troubles after the move.
Ari Koinuma
July 30th, 2008 7:41 am
http://acornhost.com
GREEN hosting - 100% powered by renewable energy!!
ari
shamess
July 30th, 2008 7:43 am
Well, before I used who ever was cheapest. Eventually I realised I needed more than a standard web host company could offer so I went and got a virtual private server. Now I have complete control over everything; just like a dedicated server. I have a tonne of bandwidth left over, which I just sell to other people.
Keith
July 30th, 2008 7:43 am
Most of mine are located at Wired Tree on a VPS. Fantastic service if you need a VPS or bigger. The rest will be moving there on a second VPS in August.
Tyler Pruitt
July 30th, 2008 7:43 am
Surpasshosting.com Good support. 1 Week of issues(intermittent problems not 5 days of no service) in 4 years of hosting (shared hosting)
Lyndon
July 30th, 2008 7:44 am
I’m not really sure there is a right answer to that question. No matter who you choose, there is always a few horror stories to go along with any recommended host.
Me personally I’ve had a few sites on different hosts (Netfirms, Site 5). But I’m currently with Mediatemple. It costs a bit more than most, but so far I haven’t had any major problems with them and I’m quite happy with the service and uptime.
Josh Cohen
July 30th, 2008 7:45 am
Just switched to BlueHost and really like them. Tech/customer service is 24/hrs and has always been very friendly and helpful, especially considering most of the screwups were on my end. :)
Alex
July 30th, 2008 7:47 am
I use HostICan and I’ve been very unhappy. I went through a 60 day period of really bad uptime. More recently, it took customer service over 8 hours to get my site back up after I resolved the main issue.
Make sure you look for coupons at http://www.RetailMeNot.com. You can save a good bit.
-Alex
http://www.alexlcohen.com
Leigh
July 30th, 2008 7:48 am
Media Temple on their VPS, great service and they provide international numbers for overseas support which is great as I’m in the UK.
Chad
July 30th, 2008 7:49 am
I was on GoDaddy for a bit, OK for very basic stuff, but not so good on pricing and other stuff. Then I switched to HostGator, and they’ve been great so far. Support has been really really good most times i’ve called, but really lousy twice. Pricing’s pretty good for shared hosting, and I have a pretty decent amunt of flexibility with what I can do
Mark Avey
July 30th, 2008 7:50 am
Moved from Dreamhost to Media Temple Grid about 6 months ago and never looked back. Service and uptime is fantastic.
Tom Hanna
July 30th, 2008 7:52 am
GoDaddy primarily. After using smaller hosts for several years I finally moved almost everything over to GoDaddy about a year ago. The pattern with the small companies is almost always the same - great price and service to start with, usually very personal service because it’s a small shop. Then service on issues starts to deteriorate. Then uptime starts to suffer. Then your site is down for two or three days and the only email answering is the sales one, usually with no idea that there’s a problem as they continue selling.
The last one customers were calling his home phone, faxing, leaving messages on the support forums and even contacting the datacenter where the servers were located to try to get help. So, the rule for me now is no one who doesn’t have a toll 24/7 phone number for support prominently listed on their website and a huge customer base. If GoDaddy goes down, I won’t be the only one with a problem.
writer dad
July 30th, 2008 7:52 am
I’m on Media Temple and I love it. I had a very short run on two other hosts, before finding them. They’ve been perfect.
Katherine Reschke
July 30th, 2008 7:53 am
I am with Hostgator as they are cheap, reliable and have a good support team.
Tom Hanna
July 30th, 2008 7:53 am
I hate typing in little boxes…That was supposed to say “toll free or at least 24/7 phone number”
Michele
July 30th, 2008 7:53 am
Since I run a hosting company (http://www.blacknight.com) I host everything with us
Jerry
July 30th, 2008 7:54 am
I use HostICan.com. Very WordPress friendly. Their customer service is so good it frightens me.
Delicious Design Studio
July 30th, 2008 7:54 am
I personally use Tiger Technologies for my blog, design business, and cupcake site. I love the fact that I always receive a response by e-mail within 1-2 hours for support… which is important to me.
I also refer them to a lot of my web design clients.
Luke Harvey-Palmer
July 30th, 2008 7:55 am
I use http://www.ixwebhosting.com who provide great service, and at a great price. However, I have had issues with hosting my mail accounts over there, as many of my emails get treated as spam by my readers! This seems to be an issue with US hosting in Aus, as a lot of them are ‘blacklisted’ by ISP’s I would like to hear someone elses view on this, as I am considering changing hosts to solve this problem?
vipey
July 30th, 2008 7:55 am
I use hostgator
very pleased with them
Delilah Hinman
July 30th, 2008 7:55 am
I use [aff link removed] BlueHost, which has amazing customer service and uptime. Good price and features too (easy WordPress install, etc)! I highly recommend them!
Kelley
July 30th, 2008 7:56 am
Have been with Compunet Communications http://www.compunetcom.com for about 8 months. I pay $39.95 per month and have 32 websites running there on my host account. They have been great. The only issue I have with Wordpress Blogs is that the Fantastico installer doesn’t create an .htaccess file that works. I always have to go back in and fix the .htaccess file. It only takes seconds but it is a bit annoying.
nathan
July 30th, 2008 7:56 am
i’ve been using westhost for about a year and never had any problems. really good 24/7 customer service.
Anjuan Simmons
July 30th, 2008 7:57 am
I use Yahoo! Small Business. It has a lot of limitations (e.g. no access to htaccess and limitations on emails sent via the php mail function as well as SMTP), but the service has been reliable and fairly fast. They also gave me the option for unlimited bandwidth and unlimited storage, but I’m sure there are caps on that.
ML
July 30th, 2008 7:57 am
Laughing Squid–they’re an independent little company out of San Francisco. They are smaller so the communication and costumer service is great. The price is reasonable too! :)
Gyutae Park
July 30th, 2008 7:57 am
I have a VPN at Liquid Web but am looking to move to a dedicated server soon.
For smaller sites I like to use A Small Orange, Host Gator, and Media Temple (mostly for blogs w/ social media).
Danielle Vyas
July 30th, 2008 7:58 am
I use Blue Host with wordpress.org platform.
Couldn’t beat the price they include registration of your domain name with your hosting.
Wishing all light and love
Danielle
Modern Musings
Thomas Stachl
July 30th, 2008 7:58 am
I first had webspace on an American Server but then I moved to a vServer (more space and more possibilities) in Germany (united hoster). They are very cheap and very helpful. They also have a nice Service-Team and you can choose which OS you want to use.
jaime
July 30th, 2008 8:00 am
My brother and I both use HostGator for our sites. I like them a lot - they are very responsive.
http://www.Hostgator.com
Avani-Mehta
July 30th, 2008 8:01 am
I use HostMonster. It offers some amazing services at cheap cost. Unlimited space, unlimited sub domains, permitting multiple domains for the same account etc. These met my requirements. In addition, the reviews for host monster have been great so far.
QualityGal
July 30th, 2008 8:02 am
I use http://www.HostRocket.com - and I have only good things to say about them.
vera
July 30th, 2008 8:03 am
Reality check network
Expensive, but reliable and quick to respond
Kimberly/Mom in the City
July 30th, 2008 8:03 am
I have a Yahoo Small Business Account. Initially, I was using their MovableType. However, when I recently had my blog re-designed, the designer switched me over to WordPress (.org, not .com). From what I’ve read WordPress is supposed to be more user-friendly. That has not been my personal experience so far though! I have had a lot of problems with including images and video. (I hear that it’s because of certain Yahoo plugins, but it has been a pretty frustrating experience…)
Patrick Britton
July 30th, 2008 8:06 am
I have been using 1&1’s home package for almost a year and haven’t had any issues. It’s a pretty cheap package, about $30 USD for six months, and it’s perfect for those just starting off. You get plenty of space and mysql databases to set up several blogs.
I can’t speak on experience with customer service because I haven’t had any issues. I don’t think 1&1 is the best choice but they are acceptable. I’m sure there are better choices out there if you can afford them.
Julian Simpson
July 30th, 2008 8:08 am
I started my personal blog on blogger as my hosting company destroyed my original VPS. Now both my blogs are there and I’m only now starting to feel constrained. I’ll be moving to a Wordpress install on my new, better VPS (clustered.net in the UK) as soon as I can.
Really need to get some better URLs for series pages and there’s a couple of resources I’d like to host with permanent addresses too.
Anybody have hints for migrating from blogger?
markowe
July 30th, 2008 8:09 am
I echo Bluehost. I started out with Netfirms and I am afraid they were awful. Just did not offer any advanced functionality at all - no proper access to .htaccess, hence no SEF URLs, a basic requirement. Also, the servers were REALLY slow (heavily shared server farms, no doubt). But I was a newbie then and didn’t know…
I cut my losses (no pro rata refund) and moved to Bluehost and am very happy - pretty reasonable customer support, not very common with hosting companies, LOTS of space, bandwidth (I’ve never come close to using them up!), unlimited domains (which was only introduced after I signed up but which they gave me on request with no quibbles) and full access to most server configuration stuff like php.ini, .htaccess etc. Very little downtime, too.
All for about $80, pretty good I reckon, I’m happy.
Neil Kelty
July 30th, 2008 8:09 am
I’ve bounced around quite a bit over the past few years.
Currently with Bluehost for several sites.
I used to be with Reseller Zoom, but I need Ruby on Rails for non-blogging related purposes so I was forced to switch.
My first host was Hostony, but after some billing and email downtime issues I moved.
My first pick would be MediaTemple, but I just don’t need that kind of computer power at the moment.
Marija
July 30th, 2008 8:10 am
I’ve been using Rimuhosting, and I’m not satisfied at all.
Jeremy
July 30th, 2008 8:10 am
Another Media Temple user here. Love it, and with a coupon code making it $15/month and referring a few people for free money, it is a great deal :)
Derek
July 30th, 2008 8:11 am
I’m using BlueFur hosting for most of my sites. Their level of service (including uptime) is outstanding, I’m able to host multiple domains on one account (could not do that with last host) and their prices are very affordable.
David Marriott
July 30th, 2008 8:11 am
I very much enjoy using http://www.squarespace.com — they do both the hosting AND all the back end (a la wordpress) in a very graphical user interface kind of way.
BlueFurSucks
July 30th, 2008 8:14 am
I would strongly not recommend BlueFur
th13rteen
July 30th, 2008 8:16 am
Nice post. Right now I’m using a small VPS from GoDaddy. I thought GoDaddy would be reliable (and they are). I’m happy with their service and uptime.
Larry
July 30th, 2008 8:16 am
My blogs are hosted on Midphase and they have been there since early 2005. Good price and no significant problems during these more than three years.
Matt Farina
July 30th, 2008 8:22 am
I’m a fan of Media Temple and their Dedicated Virtual hosting. Anything less than that is equivalent to high end shared servers. They have solid up time, outstanding customer service, and plenty of resources.
Another provider I have herd raves about is Joyent. I haven’t used them myself but hear nice things.
Christina Warren
July 30th, 2008 8:22 am
I’m with Media Temple. I have both a (gs) account (which is what I use for my blog and all my side-projects) and I manage a (dv) account for my dad’s business site.
Other than some very minor issues with uptime (that didn’t even really affect me), they have been fantastic. Customer service is great, you can call them any time of day and get an intelligent, friendly and COMPETENT person. The (gs) deals with the Digg effect very, very well and the (dv) is just rock solid.
If you are fully competent with the command line and want the best price/performance option, Slicehost is also an excellent, excellent provider. I’ve worked on a few sites that run on Slicehost and it is very, very slick. Probably not as ideal for bloggers as you don’t get any kind of control panel, but for anyone who is looking at building their own app, its a great host.
Jack&Jill
July 30th, 2008 8:23 am
They are all so similar, but what can make a difference is customer service.
Bluehost is my preference. They are awesome. Even when it is not the hosting servers problem, I have a question, they try to be helpful on how to solve your problem…most companies are quick to say “Um, mam, we don’t support that blah blah” They are always overly helpful.
Bluehost rocks!
Bill Sheridan
July 30th, 2008 8:23 am
We use Typepad. It’s pretty powerful, the cost is right and we can create / host an unlimited number of blogs. Typepad came highly recommended from our blog “coach,” Debbie Weil, and we’re pretty happy with it so far. The downsides: It’s not very intuitive if you are using a custom design. For design novices like me, it’s better to use a custom header as part of one of Typepad’s themed designs. That gives you plenty of control over the content.
Austin
July 30th, 2008 8:23 am
I use apis networks for my personal and travel sites, they’re cheap, reliable and have a wonderful control panel interface.
Sime
July 30th, 2008 8:24 am
Brinkster… third year running… Good support, pretty good prices…
That said, I have no idea why I don’t just use one of my webservers at work… “flamin’ geek” that I am…
sime
pete
July 30th, 2008 8:25 am
I’ve been with InMotion hosting now for a year and they’ve been great. Their base packages aren’t that great with regard to number of databases, but the uptime and service is excellent.
Schoonzie
July 30th, 2008 8:33 am
I have used HostGator.com in the past and they were great and I didn’t notice any downtime, but I upgraded to a ServInt.net VPS and haven’t looked back.
Markus Langenfeld
July 30th, 2008 8:34 am
A Small Orange, Love ‘em.
Brian Auer
July 30th, 2008 8:35 am
I use MediaTemple’s Grid Service (http://mediatemple.net/webhosting/gs/) because it’s fairly cheap and it can totally handle Digg traffic. I got tired of my previous host shutting down my site every time I got some Digg or StumbleUpon traffic, so I gave MT a try and they haven’t failed me yet.
joe gelb
July 30th, 2008 8:36 am
blogger
Duhh
July 30th, 2008 8:38 am
All my blogs are hosted on WordPress.com but I host my projects on MediaTemple, BEST HOST EVER!
Jason
July 30th, 2008 8:42 am
I have used 1and1 (http://www.1and1.com) for several years now and absolutely love them. Their support and uptime has been top notch. I have used several other major hosts in the past and not one compares to the quality of service I have received from 1and1. It’s no wonder they have been one of the top rated hosts for many years now.
Robin
July 30th, 2008 8:43 am
Little Oak
They have an installatron thingy for installing WP and updating it. Almost immediate response (email) from support.
Reese
July 30th, 2008 8:44 am
I use a small orange http://www.asmallorange.com/services/hosting/ They’re really affordable, their “tiny” is only $25 a year and is enough for most personal sites/blogs. I have the “small” because I like to store more, it’s still just $5 a month.
While they do occasionally have a technical issue, the respond quite quickly.
Dave
July 30th, 2008 8:51 am
I, and most of my clients, use http://www.liquidweb.com/.
Sam Dalton
July 30th, 2008 8:53 am
I’m using http://www.thiswebhost.com and I’m very pleased with the service. They don’t oversell and have excellent customer support.
Rajaie AlKorani
July 30th, 2008 8:58 am
I also use Doreo like Daniel from DailyBlogTips.com, it’s weird how not a single person uses it other than him and me (mentioned in the comments)
Dereck
July 30th, 2008 9:00 am
I use hostmonster. I read as many reviews as possible before selecting them. They are inexpensive, and have been very reliable.
webgaden
July 30th, 2008 9:01 am
I use bluefur.com. Lots of space, great prices, easy to use control panel and very reliable.
James
July 30th, 2008 9:02 am
Dreamhost private server. Can configure the server as you wish, and control resources available to it in real time. 99% of the time I keep it at the lowest setting and when I’m about to have a digg FP I crank up the memory and it handles the spike like a champ. Costs an extra $15 over shared hosting prices on it’s lowest setting. Support has been great and responds very quickly if I have a question. I’ve heard some people complain about them, but I’ve had nothing but good experiences in the 3 years I’ve been using them as a host on various sites.
Blog Bloke
July 30th, 2008 9:05 am
Did you possibly write this with me in mind Darren? ;-)
Well as you know I’ve only had one blog host experience so far. So in consideration of recent events would I recommend them? I’ll give you 3 guesses. ;-)
Rest assured, I will be reading the comments here with great interest.
Eric
July 30th, 2008 9:11 am
I have used HostGator, 1and1, Aplus.net and currently use Rochen.
1and1 was very cheap (I still have all my domains there) but when I first started with blogs, etc, their support was absolutely horrible. It would take three calls to get anything taken care of.
I then moved my personal accounts to HostGator and was amazed by their service. They are based in Texas, I think, and they are great about customer service and tech support. The only reason I left them was because I moved to Rochen, which came highly recommended.
At the same time, I was using Aplus.net to host my e-commerce platform because they included a license to Miva 5 and provided a payment gateway. This was also a disaster.
Since I moved to Rochen, I have not had a single problem. They do a great job of balancing their servers, their customer/tech support is beyond description, and their members forum is packed with great information. I have posted a few tech support issues to their forum and almost always get a response from another member or a staff member within 20 minutes.
I have never had a support ticket go more than 19 minutes. EVER. Even for the smallest of problems or requests, like installing a SSL.
They are obsessive about taking care of their customers, for example, they had a free dinner for their customers at the last Joomla! Expo, held at Morton’s Steakhouse. Please tell me what other hosting company does this…?
Their prices are on the high end of normal, and if you are used to HostGator or BlueHost, you will be surprised by their seemingly small bandwidth and file space, but they absolutely refuse to oversell either diskspace or bandwidth. They have a great reseller setup and also offer VPS and Dedicated Servers.
I cannot recommend Rochen enough. You will not be disappointed.
Ultimate Blogging Experiment
July 30th, 2008 9:13 am
I have had many different blog postings but I have to say my favorite so far is the one I’m currently using blue hosts. The reason I have enjoyed it so much is that I’m getting unlimited bandwidth, which I didn’t believe was true at the time, and unlimited disk space. I have all three of my blogs currently hosted on it.I used to try and use godaddy but I never had enough bandwidth or disk space. I could have bought more but it just got too expensive.
Kyle Maxwell
July 30th, 2008 9:19 am
I’ve used DreamHost for over five years and generally have been happy with them. They did have a rough spot a while back, but they handled it with aplomb and I’ve never considered moving off them.
Michael Martin
July 30th, 2008 9:21 am
http://www.mediatemple.com for me.
They have a really good reputation, and they do offer great support and more on their GS (Their version of shared hosting) than other shared hosts do.
But they charge much, much more, and they just haven’t been that much better. The amount of downtime I get with them is no better than what I got on other hosts.
Chris Jones
July 30th, 2008 9:29 am
I use Host Gator, and they’re the best hosting company I’ve ever used. They have the most incredible customer service I’ve ever seen. I can call them anytime day or night and get help with anything I need.
Kathi D
July 30th, 2008 9:35 am
I use Dreamhost for my blog because it is a recommended one for Wordpress self-hosted blogs. I’ve had it several months and so far so good. Zero down time, and every one of my tech support questions has been promptly and cheerfully handled. By the way, every tech support question was due 100% to user error.
Grant
July 30th, 2008 9:35 am
wow, I didn’t realize that everyone would be using such a huge variety of hosts.
scott zeilenga
July 30th, 2008 9:53 am
I just priced out GoDaddy so that I can move from wordpress.com, but now I will definately check into a few others including MediaTemple.
Thanks for the advice everyone.
z.
Sylvia
July 30th, 2008 10:07 am
Media Temple (mediatemple.net) - excellent service, customer support and great pricing. I’ve been very happy with them.
Ingoal
July 30th, 2008 10:09 am
Well, I host all my blogs, which all run WordPress btw, on my own server. I mean for the blogs themselves a simple shared hosting deal or vps would be enough, but as I’ve got other sites that eat a lot of cpu and bandwidth it’s the best way for me…
Alex the Freelance Twin
July 30th, 2008 10:12 am
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned The Planet yet. I have 3 dedicated servers with them that runs me about $400 a month.
Adam
July 30th, 2008 10:13 am
We use MediaTemple to host our site. Its reliable and fast and can scale to meet our needs.
John
July 30th, 2008 10:21 am
I use freehostia.com
They give you pretty limited options, and very limited customers service, but I guess you get what you pay for.
Blog Bloke
July 30th, 2008 10:25 am
Darren, would you mind taking me off the blacklist? I’m starting to get a complex ;-)
I’ve been wasting away in the moderation que while everyone else hop-steps over me.
You can delete this comment if you like. I won’t mind :-)
Marvin Macatol
July 30th, 2008 10:38 am
I use Host Gator. It’s the one recommended by Yaro Starak at becomeablogger.com. I learned about Yaro from Darren Rowse (oh! that guy from problogger.net? yeah, i guess he is ^_^)
it gossips
July 30th, 2008 10:39 am
I’m using Dreamhost :D
Geek's Dream Girl
July 30th, 2008 10:40 am
I use BlueHost. They’re cheap and have been pretty good. I got BoingBoing’ed a couple months ago and survived, so it must be okay! :-)
Tim Schmoyer
July 30th, 2008 10:47 am
I use Future Hosting because their VPS’s are reasonably priced and their customer support is great! I highly recommend them.
Jess
July 30th, 2008 10:51 am
I use Pappashop and I’ve noticed no one else mentioned it. Not sure why since it seems to be fairly good to me. But I do have a shop as well, so maybe that’s why. I actually used a wordpress template, from wordpress.org. and added it as a page to my shop. It all works fine, and Pappashop hosting is cheap.
jess
David Lamb
July 30th, 2008 10:58 am
I use bluehost.com. It cost me about $150 for two years of hosting and domain name, but it’s reliable.
Jess
July 30th, 2008 11:00 am
damn sounds intriguing, but I can’t afford $97 a month…even if its just a cup of coffee a day…I don’t buy coffee cause its too expensive!
That’s a lot of money!!
500 students by $97 = $48 500
Hmmm
Darren’s advice = free….yay!
jess
david
July 30th, 2008 11:01 am
I use HostMatters for my two main sites — pretty satisfied so far, although their servers seem just a wee bit slow. Been using them for over 3 years.
I also use GoDaddy for several smaller sites. GoDaddy does not have a standard CPanel, which sucks, but it does offer good prices, abundant features, and I have never experienced any service outages with them.
I do like learning about other hosts, and this thread has sure opened up lots of other possibilities. Thanks, all, for the recommendations (good and bad).
Jess
July 30th, 2008 11:06 am
I’m an imbecile
I had ten windows open and wrote my comment to the wrong post….
anyway forget it
sorry
jess
Bruce
July 30th, 2008 11:08 am
Yahoo.
I’ve had some serious problems with them in the past, but a wonderful experience today with a tech/cust svc. guy.
Guess I’ll stay with them…for now.
Rick
July 30th, 2008 11:09 am
I use Wordpress hosted on http://www.hostmonster.com.
Tinh
July 30th, 2008 11:13 am
I hosted my blogshowup.com at Godaddy and I am happy with this. Thanks
Allison Reynolds
July 30th, 2008 11:20 am
I use Servage primarily as they offer large storage and transfer along with unlimited domain hosting and email accounts. They are also very reasonably priced and are based in Europe (if you are looking for diversity in your IP addressing :))
They use their own cpanel setup and have auto-install for many popular platforms (wordpress, joomla etc)
Mick
July 30th, 2008 11:25 am
I use Bizland (www.bizland.com). They have a simple install for Wordpress, and offer real live personal support. I ran into a problem and was actually able to do a live chat with tech support as they walked me through the solution. I highly recommend them.
Voya
July 30th, 2008 11:31 am
I have been using a couple of hosts in the past, yahoo, godaddy and some local.
Godaddy does not offer a c-panel, and yahoo won’t let you upload the .htaccess file, which is needed by wordpress, drupal and other php systems.
I’ve switched to http://www.ultrawebsitehosting.com [yet another aff link removed!] and so far i am 100% satisfied, as my site never went down.
Also, they have a free toll number, so you can talk to a human whenever you experience a problem ( i have none, so far )
Live support chat, C-Panel, Unlimited bandwith, databases, subdomains, 500 GB space, which suits me just fine for hosting all the applications i need online.
They allow you to place how many domains you wish, so you can host multiple blogs/applications, unless you run out from web space (500GB)
And it’s just 5.95$ per month, assuming that you subscribe for 2 years.
Transcriptionist
July 30th, 2008 11:31 am
I’m with Doreo and with dedicated IP, just for a few bucks.
Before switching, got satisfaction endorsement from Daniel Scocco. Now I’m too satisfied.
Myo Kyaw Htun
July 30th, 2008 11:45 am
My site is on Godaddy. I see No problems at all as of now.
Peter Cooper
July 30th, 2008 11:48 am
I’m with Softlayer, a dedicated server provider. They offer rather high end features at middle of the road prices (not cheap, not expensive). My main server is a quad-core 2.4GHz with 4GB RAM, 2TB bandwidth, and is about $225 a month including CPanel and a few other things.
Rob
July 30th, 2008 11:59 am
I have used http://webnet77.com for over 5 years now and am very pleased with the service.
Mimi
July 30th, 2008 12:00 pm
I used to be with Cirtex Hosting, but then their services started going downhill and their downtime occasions started going uphill. :/
I’m currently with Holdfire Network and I love them to pieces.
Grant
July 30th, 2008 12:00 pm
thanks for posting my question Darren, I can’t believe that I can tweet you a question and see the answer just 24 hours later on your blog!
Going to check out a lot of the recommendations here.
Andrew
July 30th, 2008 12:02 pm
I have been very pleased with BlueHost since I switched about a little more than a year ago. I’d recommend them to anyone who’s just starting out.
Before that I was using GoDaddy but my WordPress installation was having some issues over there. Also, I was very dissatisfied with GoDaddy’s technical support team.
Troy Peterson
July 30th, 2008 12:02 pm
I’m currently using Godaddy for my hosting. They’re cheap, reliable, and provide the technical flexibility I need for my widget service at Addoursearch.com
I have used Media Temple and 1and1 hosting in the past, here’s their reviews:
1and1: Cheap! But not flexible and very very poor customer service.
Media Temple: By far the best hosting I’ve ever used. But, they’re expensive. The server technology is second to none and the customer service is too.
At my day job, we use RackSpace, which is outrageously priced. But I swear to god those guys would drive to your house and walk you through a setup if they could. Their tagline is “Fanatical Support” This is one of the few times a marketing message is actually spot-on.
BrilliantJeni
July 30th, 2008 12:11 pm
I tend to stick with GoDaddy simply because of their wordpress-friendly apps center but I frequently suggest HostGator and DreamHost to newbies starting out.
I still tend to put GoDaddy’s services above the others- they’re click to install and upgrade WordPress saves worlds of time and is easy to follow for even the most inexperienced users.
Keith Dsouza
July 30th, 2008 12:44 pm
I was on Dreamhost for almost two years, but once the site began to grow, dreamhost could not sustain traffic and the site grew painfully slow.
I move the site to my own VPS provided by Slicehost and have seen no trouble and really fast load times for the site.
I still kept my Dreamhost account, since it is quite good for sites that are still growing and have lesser traffic, but once you grow I advice to get into a VPS or better hosting provider.
Ofcourse with Slicehost you need to be a geek or hire someone to setup the system since it only has the default operating system and rest of the things like web server, php, mysql have to be installed by the user.
MJ Ray
July 30th, 2008 12:44 pm
OTTOMH, I’ve got blogs hosted at Mistral, ThePhoneCoop, 1and1, BlueHost and probably some others.
I will be trying to avoid blogs hosted with DreamHost, GoDaddy, HostEurope, OpticalJungle and Portland, based on past experiences.
Dominique
July 30th, 2008 12:59 pm
I’m using green hosting HostPapa. No problems so far.
JJ
July 30th, 2008 1:01 pm
After being on several webhosts, BlueHost, GoDaddy, DreamHost, and a couple others Ive already forgotten, nothing beats HostGator. My websites are never down!! The support is very good online or by phone and its a great deal. I have 2 contracts with them and several sites in Wordpress, Joomla, and now putting up a pligg site and then a phpizhabi site. They have fantastico as well to make set up a breeze. They have so many features its more than you can ask for with a shared hosting plan. Im not even going to link to them with an affiliate link like so many others are doing here. They are that good that wholeheartedly recommend them without any recompense.
Sand
July 30th, 2008 1:02 pm
I use bluehost and am satisfied. I have had my server go down. The first time was for a few hours due to a power failure. Unfortunately it happened to be during my sites peak hours right after publishing a big guest post.
The second was only brief, but I was working on my site at the time.
Rick
July 30th, 2008 1:08 pm
This is all good stuff. I’ve been unhappy with my present webhost. Their service has been unreliable. I have a few new options based on the comments above.
Thanks!
Rick
jen
July 30th, 2008 1:08 pm
I’m currently using Hosti-can but will be moving when my time runs out as I’ve had numerous downtimes because of traffic spikes, and I’m not talking huge traffic spikes at all - certainly nothing to warrant their suggestion of moving to a VPS!
I’ve heard good reports about Hostgator for my smalltime blog situation.
Learnfilm
July 30th, 2008 1:18 pm
I use http://www.bluehost.com it works great with wordpress, and customer service is the best
John Hoff - eVentureBiz
July 30th, 2008 1:27 pm
Like a few others on here, my company is a web hosting and development company, so I bet you can guess who I host with.
Customers say they like the fact that we are a smaller company because I give them a lot more personable help.
Elizabeth Potts Weinstein
July 30th, 2008 1:27 pm
Right now I’m on Bluehost (okay) & Verio (great reliability) but we are moving everyone over to our own grown-up managed server at Rackspace.
ElegantCelebBlogger
July 30th, 2008 1:30 pm
I use NearlyFreeSpeech.net, because I originally built a site where free speech would be very important, but later stayed with them for my blog site also. They have been pretty inexpensive (it depends on how much bandwidth you use - I paid probably $2 for hosting last month) and I like their Respect My Privacy program if you buy a domain through them.
Miss Elle
July 30th, 2008 1:33 pm
I love HostMonster. I’ve been using them for almost a year, and they’ve been divine. I have 300GB bandwidth/month, and 30GB all for me. I paid for two years and it cost me less than $200.
Kirk Warren
July 30th, 2008 1:33 pm
I firmly believe that free Blogger is the only thing you need for most blogs. Unless you are getting 1000’s of readers or require specific php or other backend database stuff, you will be paying for something Blogger offers for free.
Unlike free Wordpress, Blogger gives you full control of your template and CSS. You can buy a URL from GoDaddy, direct it to your Blogger site with a click of a button and you can even remove that Blogger search bar at the top of the page if you want. There’s also easy integration with Adsense and other Google services.
Again, unless you are doing extremely well in terms of traffic or need some specialized backend service, there’s no reason to pay for hosting as a blogger and Blogger lets you do just about anything, gives you lots of space and tonnes of options for customization and integration.
Steven Fu
July 30th, 2008 1:34 pm
I use Ultimate Marketing Center. They are very reasonably priced and the package include all the tools you need to run your onlne business. From autoreponders to affiliate management programs. I highly recommend it.
Charles
July 30th, 2008 1:35 pm
I use Top Hosting Center. So far so good. They are cheap, ever reliable SUPPORT, and they have fast pipes. :)
Syed Balkhi
July 30th, 2008 1:49 pm
Hosting does play a big factor. I am running on Qoozz.com which is a pretty good company. Been with them for over 2 yrs.
Jill
July 30th, 2008 2:00 pm
Dreamhost.com - they have one click installation and one click upgrade of Wordpress = super duper easy to run your own blog.
ShopBiz101
July 30th, 2008 2:11 pm
I use DreamHost. It’s cheap, fast, works awesome with WordPress, and even has a 1 click WordPress install and update feature. They also offer programs to earn money by referring them. Even WordPress recommends them.
Cowy
July 30th, 2008 2:11 pm
Dreamhost. It’s good and reliable at low cost, I like it :)
Robert Rittmuller
July 30th, 2008 2:20 pm
As much as it pains me to admit it….I use Network Solutions and have actually had a very good experience. When my blog got a double-whammy of Reddit and Digg traffic (almost 200,000 users in less than 24 hours) not only did it stay online but page load performance was not an issue (wp-cache rocks!). Not bad for a sub-$20 per month hosting service.
Doug
July 30th, 2008 2:23 pm
I have been running a number of sites on a VPS solution from wiredtree.com. I have to say they have outstanding customer service. I have never had a time when I was not contacted with a response in 5 to 10 minutes.
The one thing I would say though for someone looking at a VPS, is do not even look at the intro package from this or any other VPS, as the RAM allocation is insufficient, IMO. I got the intro package and needed to upgrade after the first week. Be realistic about what your needs are and get what you need if you plan to make the jump to a VPS. I am hoping to move to a dedicated server with wiredtree in the coming months.
Randolph
July 30th, 2008 2:37 pm
I have 2 blogs hosted in Australia with NS Hosting (shameless plug cos I work for them - but that means I can ensure that things always go right!!) but my main blog is hosted in the US with Fat Network (not even an affiliate plug!) who have been very reliable. (The cost of bandwidth I’d need for that blog is too prohibitive to host it here in Australia.)
Alex Fayle
July 30th, 2008 2:50 pm
I’ve been using Typepad, but I’m in the process of switching to WordPress hosted at InMotion.
Phani Kumar
July 30th, 2008 2:58 pm
I use go-daddy and they are very reliable. Customer service is great and since 2 years of using there is no single downtime.
kimchi39
July 30th, 2008 3:13 pm
I’ve been using Site5. I mainly use it from Korea and it provides quite good service and speed. However, sometimes it is unstable…
Andre Ward
July 30th, 2008 3:24 pm
I used Host Gator. It has never failed me.
Ria
July 30th, 2008 3:32 pm
MacHighway
km
July 30th, 2008 3:42 pm
i use Micfo.com dedicated server. Quite reliable and reasonable price. They have very good online 24/7 chat customer services.
Kelvin Kao
July 30th, 2008 3:42 pm
I have DreamHost, but I didn’t initially get the hosting plan to host a blog. I originally wanted to have a website to throw all my random work together, and I also want place that I can practice my PHP and database skills on. I went for it because it gave me the access, and had the power to create a bunch of user names and host a bunch of different sites at the same time. And those things did come in handy when I started hosting the site for a student group I’m affiliated with. Using it for my blog was an after-thought. So far I’ve been satisfied with them, even though it does go down or become slow every now and then.
Rahul Bansal
July 30th, 2008 3:53 pm
http://dreamhost.com/
Stick with the best… :D
Random Good Stuff
July 30th, 2008 4:27 pm
We are with TCH: http://www.totalchoicehosting.com
Tom
July 30th, 2008 4:28 pm
We use HostGator for our online store and our blog.
Robert
July 30th, 2008 4:59 pm
MediaLayer - great service and very reliable.
Nicki B.
July 30th, 2008 4:59 pm
I actually just use Tumblr to host my blog, but most of my posts are actually being hosted by Triond.
ilaxi
July 30th, 2008 5:14 pm
I have a local host http://www.intranet-services.com/ - And they offer best services to me. My second choice would be networksolutions though I’ve never tried their hosting with free design package (Image cafe).
BeatlesLane
July 30th, 2008 5:24 pm
I’ve been with HostGator for nearly a year now and so far so good.
tdhedengren
July 30th, 2008 5:26 pm
I’ve got my international stuff over at A Small Orange, which is both good and bad, like any other host.
http://asmallorange.com
Web deveopment blog
July 30th, 2008 5:35 pm
I use bluehost and I like it …..
Andy Merrett
July 30th, 2008 5:49 pm
Originally hosted with a tinpot UK-based company which ended in near disaster when my sites were almost deleted. For the past three years or so I’ve been hosting with TextDrive, who in the main have been very good — not without their problems, and their Joyent merger/takeover still leaves me a little confused, but I’ve had no serious downtime, and I can run every bit of software I need to (mainly Wordpress). Their web interface isn’t the best — painfully slow for doing things like adding domains, etc. — but thankfully I don’t have to use it much.
I don’t know how it compares to other packages for space and bandwidth, but I’ve never had any significant problems, the staff are generally very helpful, and it doesn’t cost the earth. Maybe geared more towards the developer than the everyday user, so there may be more user-friendly services out there, but generally I’m happy with it.
Dale
July 30th, 2008 6:06 pm
bluehost.com for me. They have outstanding customer service. I have had several screwups in switching from an iweb designed website to a wordpress website and they were able to help me get things straightened out right away.
They basically install wordpress for you and stuff like joomla if you like that sort of thing as well.
$7 a month or something like that.
Danny Cooper
July 30th, 2008 6:20 pm
Hertzweb.net mainly because they are based in the UK, and extremely cheap :P
Rafael
July 30th, 2008 6:35 pm
All my blogs are 100% hosted on Dreamhost.
Since someone talk about registrars. All my .com names are on Godaddy.