How to Launch a Web Site
Step 3: Get Web Hosting
Questions To Ask About Web Hosting
- How Much Disk Space Do I Need?
How much do you need? Lunch with George has hundreds of pages and four times as many images, and it is currently consuming less than 70 MB. Our current hosting plan gives us 500 MB, so we're set for a while. - How Much Bandwidth Do I Need?
Here's another resource of which most hosting companies provide more than enough. LWG is allowed 10 GB of bandwidth per month, yet we used just over 500 MB last month. Still, going over a bandwidth allowance can be very costly-- make sure you have enough. - What Are My E-mail Needs?
Do you need a lot of POP3 e-mail accounts? Do you want to be able tto set up e-mail forwarders? Know what you need before you ggo shopping, as this is an item that varies greatly from provider to provider. - Do I Need PHP Support?
Are you planning to do any server-side programming with PHP? If so, make sure support is available. - Do I Need MySQL Support?
Be careful on this one. Some web hosting providers say you get MySQL databases, but it turns out you can only have one... any extra cost extra per month. - Do I Need CGI/Perl Support?
Are you planning to do any server-side programming with Perl? If so, make sure support is available. - Do I Need Java Servlet/JSP Support?
If you're a true hard-core server-side web developer, you're probably using Servlets and JSPs to serve your dynamic content. This can get a lot more expensive than PHP or Perl, but it usually provides faster performance. Lunar Pages provides a great hosting package to which you can add servlet/JSP support for only $2 a month. - Do I Need SSL Support?
If you are planning to accept credit card information or other customer-sensitive data on your site, you'll need to get an SSL certificate for your site and you'll need a hosting company which provides SSL capability.
Recommended Web Hosting Companies
- Dot 5 Hosting
I am now hosting my web sites at Dot 5. They have been very reliable, provide all of the features I need, and are cheap! Here's their low cost plan ($5.00/month):- 750 MB disk space
- 50 GB Transfer per month
- 60+ Featured Control Panel
- Web-Mail access
- Unlimited POP3 Mail Accounts
- Unlimited Email Auto Responders
- Unlimited Mail Forwarding
- Unlimited Subdomains
- PHP
- Perl/CGI
- 1 MySql Database
- PhpMyAdmin
- MS FrontPage Extensions
- Shopping cart
- 24/7 Tech Support
- POWWEB.com
If you have larger file size and bandwidth needs, consider PowWeb.com. They have a controol panel interface that is rather non-intuitive, but they have been very reliable for me. If you have high bandwidth needs, they're the ones to look at. Here's what they offer (for $7.77/month):
- 1000 MB disk space
- 5 GB Transfer per day
- Control Panel
- Web-Mail access
- 10 FTP Accounts
- 650 POP3 Mail Accounts
- No Email Auto Responders
- Unlimited Mail Forwarding
- Unlimited Domain Pointing
- Unlimited Subdomains
- PHP
- CGI/Perl
- 1 MySql Database
- PhpMyAdmin
- MS FrontPage Extensions 2002
- Shared SSL certificate and shopping cart
- Get-a-Web-Host Directory
This site reviews several of the under-$10-per-month web hosting companies. They rate them, and allow you to compare plans. Take a look!
