The Best Web Hosting List

The best web hosting providers will offer easy website scripts that you can install with one-click. For example, if your web hosting provider uses cPanel, one of the forerunners in web hosting control panels, then you also get Fantastico, which allows the kind of easy website script installs I mentioned earlier. But if you don’t have an easy tool to install scripts, you can do them yourself without any HTML or programming experience! Here are a few popular script ideas you may want to use.

Counters & Web Stats

Having a website counter or web statistics program on your web hosting plan allows you to see who is on your website, at what time, how long they stay, where they came from, and even how many times they came back.

* Perfect for business web hosting to keep track of potential customers or personal web hosting to see the popularity of your blog, church website, or hobby website!

Advertisements

Owning your own website means you can put your own advertisements on it if you wish! This is fun because you can actually make money off online advertisements, and it won’t cost you a dime to install them. Make sure the ads are relevant to your website, find a good application or script, and install it. It’s that easy.

* Perfect for ecommerce web hosting to gain additional income from your website or blog web hosting where you can easily capitalize on your readership.

Photo Galleries

Do you want to have a professional art or photo gallery for your family, church, vacation, business products, digital or traditional art, and more? Then installing a photo gallery script will help your best web hosting look phenomenal! With photo gallery scripts, you can have any many ‘galleries’ as you want and can add unlimited photos or images instantly, all from your main hosting control panel!

* Perfect for mothers and families, churches, blog web hosting, vacation photos, business products, digital or traditional artists, and more.

Asking the right questions is essential to getting the right answers, so the more you know ahead of time will influence the kinds of questions you are able to ask and the best web hosting answers you’ll receive in turn!

So here are the top 5 most important web hosting questions to ensure you choose the best web hosting provider.

Q. How many years has your web hosting company been in business?

Why This is Important: If they say “10 years”, you know you’re in good hands! If they say “5 months”, better put your money elsewhere. The good news is that all of our recommended web hosting providers have been in business more than 2 years and many of them have been around for more than ten, which helps you ensure you have quality web hosting.

Q. How easy is it to upgrade or downgrade my service? Can I do this even after I’ve hosted with you past the 30 day money back guarantee period? How much will it cost?

Why This Matters: Imagine that your ecommerce web business escalates so fast that you need to accommodate with a VPS or dedicated server. Wouldn’t that be great? Not if your web hosting provider doesn’t support VPS or dedicated servers! Make sure 1) if you plan to grow that your web host can accommodate, 2) that you can do so at any time, and 3) that it doesn’t cost a fortune to do so. All of the recommended web hosts here will provide easy upgrades and affordable hosting solutions.

Q. How often do you perform website backups, how long do you keep them, and how much does it cost to retrieve these backups?

Why This Matters: I’m sure you can guess, but if your website is hacked or a server goes down, what happens to your website? Do they ensure a copy somewhere for you? If so, how long will that copy be available to you and how much will it cost to have it sent to you? Knowing this will allow you to plan out website backup strategies or hire someone to keep daily backups.

Q. What are your technical support hours of operation?

Why This Matters: If you need help at 1am, can you send an email and actually get a response or give them a call? Problems happen, so make sure your web host can be accountable for any technical issues that arise.

Q. Do you offer a web hosting money back guarantee or uptime guarantee?

Why This Matters: If you don’t like the hosting plan or if your website is down for more than a couple hours every year, you need to know what your web hosting provider can do to compensate for your loss.

Did you know that in order to legally accept critical customer information like legal name, address, telephone number, and payment details that you are required by law to have certain URLs and policies clearly defined and available on your website? Well, if you are running a digital ecommerce business website or business web hosting plan, you should pay attention to some important internet laws that you may not be aware of or you could end up in big trouble!

What laws do I need to know about?

There are many, but the most important ones are the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, United States Trademark Act, the Safe Harbor certification program and more. Contact an attorney or internet litigator for more information.

What do I need on my business website?

If you are taking customer information like home or billing address, credit card or payment information, or other critical and personal information, you must provide the following:

* A regularly updated privacy policy, which outlines why you are asking for this information and what happens to it once you’re done with it (i.e. who has access and do you trade this information to 3rd parties?)

* Terms of Service, also known as TOS (or Terms of Agreement, etc), is a breakdown of what the customer is agreeing to when they purchase your product or sign up for your services, etc. (i.e. Are they locked into a contract, must they abide by your law, do they get a refund if they are unsatisfied, etc?)

* Acceptable Use Policy is also important if you are providing a service such as web hosting or reselling on your website. This policy outlines your customers’ responsibilities to your company, acknowledging that they cannot break the law or you can terminate their account or services without warning. You also state that you are not accountable by law for their misuse or mistreatment of state or federal laws.

* FAQs are essential to your online business hosting but they are not mandatory by law.

Just remember, these laws are set in place for the best web hosting providers as well, so don’t exclude them! If you are getting ready to purchase web hosting, compare your options and ensure 100% that the web hosting company has all or many of these policies easily available for your perusal.

As a small business website (or even as a large one!) you have many options to consider for receiving payment online. You may think that starting an ecommerce website is going to be the toughest thing you have ever done, but it is actually becoming easier and easier, because there are so many companies willing to help.

For example, the best web hosting providers will offer you amazing web hosting freebies like ecommerce shopping carts, payment gateways, merchant accounts, dedicated IPs, SSL certificates, and more. In fact, out top web hosting providers are among these amazing hosting companies.

But what payment option is best for your business? Take a look at the following questions and answer each honestly for a summary of the best online payment methods for your business hosting account.

Will your customers be purchasing products through your website?

Yes -> You’ll need a merchant account, SSL certificate, and Dedicated IP.
No -> You can use PayPal or Google checkout.

Do you want to accept credit card payments?

Yes -> You can use a merchant account (with SSL and IP) or free services like PayPal and Google Checkout, both of which offer credit card payment options.
No -> Use PayPal, as it’s cheaper.

Do you want to incorporate advanced payment options for international customers?

Yes -> You will need a merchant account with SSL and IP to accept payments like echecks, checks, money orders, and international payment methods.
No -> PayPal or any merchant account will work.

So you think you’re ready to buy web hosting? That’s great! Like the first time I purchased web hosting, you must be very excited! It’s a little bit scary, a little thrilling, and a great deal nerve-wracking. To help ease your web hosting anxiety, here are some presales questions you may want to answer yourself before you buy from the best web hosting provider of your choice.

What kind of website do I want to host?

Are you ready for business hosting? Ecommerce? Personal? Family? Narrow it down as much as possible to a specific niche. Here are some further examples:

* Blog hosting / WordPress web hosting
* Joomla hosting
* Web 2.0 hosting
* Dedicated Server Hosting
* Adult hosting
* Music hosting
* Email hosting
* Reseller hosting
* Photo hosting / Artist hosting
* Church hosting

What kind of features do I need?

Consider the kind of website you are looking to create. If you are starting a church website, odds are you are not going to need very much storage space, whereas you might need a website template and an average amount of bandwidth. On the other hand, if you are running a photography website, you are going to need a good deal of storage space and bandwidth, but may be less concerned with website templates or the amount of email addresses you can use.

How many webpages and/or websites will I create?

You may not know this ahead of time, but think in generic terms – do you plan to add other websites to your hosting account in the future? Would you like to be able to have that option?

Do I need advanced web hosting features?

Do you plan to add scripting or programming to your website? If so, make sure the kind of scripts you want to run are supported by your web hosting provider. If you’re unsure, odds are you don’t need them.

Can I build the website myself?

If yes, don’t choose a web hosting provider who offers free site building tools over one that doesn’t just because it looks like they offer more. If you’re unsure about building your own website, make sure that you put a website builder as a priority on your web hosting checklist! Or get a web design template.

By now you are probably wondering why we have so many of what we call the “best web hosting” providers listed on our Top 10 List. This is because all other top web hosting lists are wrong. They choose to evaluate each web host in relation to the other hosts and assign an arbitrary number to them to show they are the best or the worst.

Notice that we do not have any numeric values listed on our website and while one web hosting provider may be listed above another, this does not mean they are better or worse for YOU.

Instead, we decided to change things up a bit and rank each web host based on the values you care about most: Support, Features, Price, and Functionality.

So how is this different? Simple – each host is #1 for its own reason or we would not be showcasing them on our website. So each web host we provide information on has something they work best for, as we have discovered along our web hosting work and research that one web hosting provider is perfect to host a business or e-business, while they are very poor for personal web hosting or blogging. Then there are other web hosts who are best-suited for personal or family web hosting but really don’t have the features necessary for the business world.

Here is a detailed list of our current Top Web Hosting providers and what they are #1 for to help you find the perfect web host.

IX Web Hosting - #1 for Overall Web Hosting - IX Web Hosting is great for businesses, blogs, personal websites, adult hosting, and nearly everything else you can imagine to use your website for. Check out our IX Web Hosting Review for further details.

ThinkHost - #1 for Eco Friendly Web Hosting - ThinkHost is green hosting at its best, meaning they are conscious of the environment in everything they do. Use them for personal websites, blogs, and web hosting projects based on personal needs.

DreamHost - #1 Webmaster Choice Web Hosting - DreamHost is definitely one of the most popular web hosting providers on the planet and for good reason. Use DreamHost for music and media hosting, a simple green hosting solution, or blog.

EasgyCGI - #1 Advanced Web Hosting - Do you like Windows? You’ll love EasyCGI! They have various web hosting options for your small business, Fortune 500 enterprise, or dedicated server. Not for newbies, but great for professionals.

StartLogic - #1 Cheap Web Hosting - You need a website and you need it cheap, then StartLogic is for you. They have hosting for as little as $5.95/month, which can help you get your blog online ASAP.

BlueHost - #1 Secure Web Hosting - 24/7 Support was literally defined by BlueHost, so you can rest assured that you’ll be taken care of and your website will be backed up. This is great for ecommerce and big businesses who need the extra attention.

HostMonsster - #1 Professional Web Hosting - Business hosting, ecommerce, affordable servers, reliable support, and even personal assistance for your ebusiness needs. Easy to work with too!

FatCow - #1 Ecommerce Web Hosting - Ecommerce web hosting has never been easier with FatCow. You can create your ecommerce shop in 3 steps with online tutorials and design assistance. Perfect for beginners and work-at-home moms.

GoDaddy - #1 Domain Web Hosting - You need 50 domains and you need them cheap, hosted, and with plenty of email access. In that case, GoDaddy is for you! These guys are known worldwide for domain registration and secure hosting.

HostingZoom - #1 Reliable Web Hosting - 24/7 support backed by incredibly web hosting professionals means they are perfect for small businesses, enterprise solutions, and work at home corporations.

Once your website is online, you’ll need to let people know. Unfortunately, your website doesn’t magically appear in Google, Yahoo, or on various websites like you see when surfing the internet.

So how does your website get noticed? Easy – you tell people where to look!

The first step, of course, is getting reliable web hosting. I know it sounds like we’re beating a dead horse with this fact, but the plain truth is, without a website, your business will suffer. Your competitors already have the edge if they have a site and you don’t. So be careful when choosing and pick from our best web hosting providers on our Top 10 Hosting List! We’ve picked the best so you don’t have to worry.

Once you’ve purchased hosting, then you need an effective marketing plan. If you’ve never advertised online before, it can be really tricky, but luckily we can help! Plus, if you agreed with our decision that IX Web Hosting is the best web hosting around, they are giving you the tools you need to effectively market your website online. Here’s what they’re offering with every hosting purchase!

$50 Miva Network
$50 Google
$50 Yahoo
$50 BidVertiser
$100 ABCSearch
$25 Ingenio
$25 Enhance Interactive

$60 value for SitePal
$48 in free hosting Magazines

What does this mean for you and your new website? It means you are going to get noticed and ranked in Google, Yahoo, and major websites across the internet!! It means your business is going to grow ASAP, and it means your website is profitable.

If you need some extra advice about marketing your website and online advertising, check out our little tutorial on Web Hosting Advertising!

As many of the best webhosts offer their services within shared hosting environments, it’s important to be aware of CPU usage and how it might affect you. Although many hosts are now offering “unlimited bandwidth” there is a bit of a catch to it — you can use as much bandwidth at you need, but if you’re using too much of the CPU, you’ll need upgrade to a dedicated or VPS server.

Many webhosts limit CPU usage to less than 1% on a shared server, and the logic behind this is simple. Say you have 100% of the CPU available on a server, and 300 people are on that server, that leaves less that 1% available to each person so the computer can run smoothly. That doesn’t necessarily mean each person IS using their portion — some customers may have a very small site that demands little or no CPU, some may not have a site yet at all — but it means that if your site is consistently busy and your users are doing CPU-intensive actions, you’ll become a burden to the server, everyone else’s site will slow down, and you’ll have to upgrade.

Most people with small sites won’t ever have to worry about it but, let’s put it this way, just because a shared server says it offers “unlimited bandwidth” doesn’t mean a site like Facebook or Livejournal or Pogo can survive on it — they’re way too popular and will need much more than what a shared server can offer.

You’ve bought the best web hosting plan you could find. You’ve registered your domain name and picked out a website template, added your site content, optimized your links and text and images, and even learned how to FTP in the process! Maybe you have even added an ecommerce storefront to help your customers purchase products with your company or you have begun blogging about your industry, customers, discounts, or philosophies.

Whatever you have done, none of it matters unless people know where to find your website. Period. This is why people spend a fortune on advertising (both online and offline) through SEO or search engine optimization practices.

But there’s one thing many professional SEO companies don’t want you to know – the simple fact is, you can advertise your website successfully yourself, without spending a dime. I’ll repeat that, as it’s extremely important – you can advertise and get your website noticed, for free! There are two ways:

1) Purchase Hosting From our Recommended Web Hosts

If you haven’t yet purchased hosting, we recommend the following web hosts to businesses, ecommerce ventures, or bloggers:

* IX Web Hosting
* ThinkHost
* Hostmonster
* StartLogic

These web hosts are considered the best web hosts in the world and are ranked highly in our Top 10 Web Hosting List as a guide to help you choose the best provider. We are telling you about them here because every single host mentioned offers a package of FREE online advertising credits! That’s right, 100% free advertising for your business. So sign up with any of these best web hosts and save big on SEO.

By advertising yourself, you will not only learn the best practices for your specific niche or industry but gain relevant experience in that industry. You are in charge and you don’t have to hire staff to assist you. You are the boss.

2) Use Google & Yahoo to Monetize Your Website

If you already have web hosting, you can simply signup with Google and/or Yahoo to advertising your website using what’s called Pay-Per-Click services: i.e. you only pay when a potential customer clicks on your advertisement. Plus, your ad shows up first in Google or Yahoo sponsored results, so you get better business and more of it!

A recommended budget is around $100-200/month for a small business or $200-1000 if you really want to drive those sales.

The good thing is, Google and Yahoo let you experiment, and there are multiple ways to advertise using their PPC (pay per click) technology.

If you are a work-at-home mom, just starting your home business, or perhaps looking to extend the reach of a local business to a broader online community, small business web hosting is definitely the way to go. But what exactly does a small business website need that’s different from what normal webhosting customers require?

For one thing, technical support. If you are running a simple blog and it goes down for a couple minutes, it’s no big deal. But if you are operating a business online, every minute of downtime means the possibility you are losing sales, money, and customers. Don’t be fooled by “99.9% uptime” though – every web host says they have that. What you need is valuable, trustworthy, knowledgeable technical support available as close to 24/7 as possible. Remember, live chat is great, but live phone support is better and a decent ticketing or email system is best.

Another difference is storage space and bandwidth. While shared web hosting providers can make up high numbers, you really need a web hosting provider who can stand behind those numbers and back you up if you reach them. Choose the best web hosting you can to assure you can run shopping carts, multiple websites and pages, hundreds of emails, and more. Remember to choose the features you need most and worry about pricing second – most webhosts will be affordable these days.

Make 100% sure your webhosting provider has the following features or that you are able to purchase these features at an additional cost:

* Dedicated IP Address
* SSL Certificate
* Shopping Carts
* Blogs (WordPress)
* CMS (Joomla)
* Multiple Parked Domains (redirecting domains)

Small business webhosting can be tough, but with the best web hosting list guiding you every step of the way, you can make sure you are making the right decision.