I am working on researching options for Web host reseller accounts where we can handle multiple domains/clients. Realizing that much of this is passed on best through references and personal experiences, I wanted to post a note here, since some of you may already have experience.
The idea is to have the least amount of maintenance regarding the actual hosting, and keep it to a minimum regarding account management.
We do have a bit of experience with a couple of providers (Rochen and GoDaddy), but I would like to have more references, since this is a huge market.
if anyone has any wise input, I would highly appreciate that!
Comments
Dreamhost...
I have been using GoDaddy for over a year now. Although they have suited my needs as a web developer untill now, I would reccomend them to use. Biggest reason is they dont have PHP 5 (Well at least last time I checked a couple of months ago).
I havent yet got around to changing hosts (only for a lack of money) but a number of people I have talked with recently wouldnt use anything other than Dreamhost.
Their prices are cheap and bandwidth and storage are about as plentiful as the Garden of Eden - and growing by the day. To get the best prices you need to pay 1 or 2 yrs in advance (hence me not getting around to it yet). Cost is a little more than GoDaddy, but well worth it.
Does anyone use Dreamhost who can give a better comment on them than me?
our web host
Hi.
We have all our website hosted at IPowerWeb. They have very good support and a pretty good offer compared to most others I guess. However, I quickly checked Dreamhost, I don't know how their support is but what they offer sounds even better for the same price.
Another thing I really like at IPower is the domain admin panel. It's very clean & clear, very easy to use and navigate.
Greetings from the MatriX,
neo
More on Reseller options
Thanks for good and helpful feedback. I've been checking out the options you mentioned and comparing them with others.
I found a site (Hosting Review) where there are some good reviews. Among these I am curious to know if anyone has had any experience with the following providers: 1&1, HostMonster or Bluehost
If we can get some references on these, we can also compile a resource for others that have an interest.
Thanks again for help!
1&1
Hi.
I have 1&1 for my personal sites. However, I must say they are hosted in Germany. I quickly check your link, which goes to .com instead of .de where I'm the customer. So, I mainly speak for the German 1&1.
To be honest, I'm not really happy with them. I have a package where I get 3 domains but compared to others I get so little web space and bandwidth. In numbers 1000MB web space, just recently updated from 500MB, 75GB bandwidth, 250 email accounts and also just recently upgraded I can have now 3 MySQL databases instead of just 1. All 3 Domains share all that. For this I pay 14€, about 19US$
Compare this to one of our websites at IPower. Here we have 50GB web space, 750GB bandwidth, 2500 email accounts and 5 MySQL databases. All that for 7.95US$. And this is for just one domain, no sharing with our other sites. If you sign up now, you get even more web space and bandwidth.
However, my sites are not that big and do not cause too much traffic. So, from that point of view I'm not in a hurry to change the host. Well, I quickly had a look at 1&1.com, what they offer there seems to be better, mine would equal the 1&1 Business for 7.49$. If, however, theirs anything like the German you need to pay extra to not have adds placed on you web site.
The 2 main reasons why I really want to switch to another web host is their (German) web site and the administration panel. The web site is more like a cheap news and entertainment site, incl. horoscopes, "gossip news" and when ever I log off from the admin panel I get instantly the latest gossip and playmates, etc. I kinda don't really need that.
The other thing is the admin panel itself. They used to have a really simple and intuitive one, quick to navigate etc. Now it's all with colorful buttons and everytime I'm logged in I search around to find what I need. Of course I don't know if they have the same thing at their .com sites.
I really used to like 1&1 because everything was pretty clear, clean and simple. I hope it's not a sign of getting old but I don't like all these colorful buttons as navigation.
Anyways, I don't just want to be negative. I must say that I have no idea about how their support is. Simply because I never needed it. Everything was always running smooth, no down-time of the sites or any kind of problem. This is something I really appreciated over the years.
I hope that helps a bit.
Greetings from the MatriX,
neo
Siteground
For YWAM Latvia, we're using Siteground. For the most part the service with these guys has been really good. Customer service is really good. There are a few features that I wish they'd offer, one of which is ssh access. But, for the price, I think Siteground is a really good deal (250 GB space, unlimited MySQL databases & a lot of other unlimited features, like email accounts). However, if I'd known about Dreamhost, I would have gone with them, as they offer ssh access, as well as unlimited hosted domains on one account & a ton of space & other features, like QuickTime streaming & basic http streaming with any account.
Just some thoughts.
Chris Bischoff
YWAM Latvia, Communications
www.ywamlatvia.com
Another thread on Web Host Providers
Here is quite a long thread on web host providers over at Performancing: http://performancing.com/node/6786
The original article starts with:
"I'm in the process of transferring about 25 blogs away from Dreamhost. I've completed about 10 sites so far. Why am I transferring my blogs away from Dreamhost? Well, because they suck."
There are a lot of comments there, so you can have a look and see what they say.
not so good news with IPowerWeb
Up till now we never had bad experience with IPower. But recently I had a problem with a database connection on one of our websites. Since over a month now I am in email contact with Tech Support about this problem. For a long time I even thought the problem is on my side but it turned out to be on theirs. A couple of times they told me that the problem is fixed or that it was temporary server issue. Also their response is fairly slow lately.
What really bugs me is that we have another website sitting on the same server and all together 7 websites with IPower. Our newest website there has database connection problems almost daily since about a week. The longest I discovered was at least 6 hours.
At this point I'm really not sure if I still could recommend them.
Greetings from the MatriX,
neo