Recommended Web Site Host

It sounds like you have a micro-budget to get started, so it's probably pretty important that you focus on core business stuff so you can have a real budget in the future.

Building your own website is pretty time consuming, and you'll go crazy trying to compare the difference between $8.95 a month here and $7.49 a month there.

I've heard very good things about Squarespace in that they have a great engine to build and host your website, all for a reasonable price (in that < $10/mo range)

For the most part, the hosts you've listed are all big, volume hosting companies who mainly use low prices to bring in large volumes of customers. They can be fine if you're very experienced and are just looking for disk space and bandwidth, but if you're just getting started you might consider a smaller host that offers more hands-on assistance and can give you more attention as you're starting out. It will cost you a few more dollars each month, but if your website is critical to your startup it can be worth it.

A few that you might want to take a look at are ReadyWire, Eleven2 and ThisWebhost - all are big enough to be stable companies you can rely on but small enough to pay attention to your site and help you with whatever comes up.

I use GoDaddy; their 6.95 Linux "deluxe" hosting plan includes one-click installs of most mainstream packages like WordPress, and you can host multiple domains under a single hosting plan.

This obviously won't scale for a production-level SaaS site, but for basic "here we are" blogging and landing page stuff, I have found GoDaddy to be just fine. In fact, I look forward to the day that I have to worry about exceeding their bandwidth, data or other capacity limits.

As for templates, I strongly encourage you to start with WordPress for your initial web presense, because:

1. It takes about 15 minutes to install and get using
2. There are thousands of free templates and very useful plug-ins (like for spam filtering and SEO);
3. There are thousands of inexpensive professional templates (and plug-ins);
4. It lets you establish a professional presence immediately so you can focus on building your startup.

I hope this helps.

I use Netsonic for my web host. They have some inexpensive plans, but if you need a fast dedicated server, they're the place to go.

The reason I have stuck with Netsonic for so long is their choice in operating systems. You can run Windows and a variety of *nix flavors out of the box, already set up for you. But the great thing is that you can ask them to pop any LiveCD into your server, and they'll setup SSH and let you do the whole thing yourself.

A few years back, we bootstrapped a Gentoo server right from LiveCD. I would Highly recommend checking them out, their customer service is outstanding.

I'd recommend WestHost. They've hosted our redcort.com web site and all our e-commerce for our Virtual TimeClock software for 10 years. The pricing is good and their support is first rate.

I'm using goDaddy, I like it because it has all services together.

You should check out Blue Host www.bluehost.com - they have excellent pricing, an excellent reputation and outstanding support. My second choice would be GoDaddy (excellent support).

Best of luck! Karen

+1 for bluehost.com. Many of these hosting service providers come with Cpanel to manage your site. If you are planning on setting up a marketing site for your business you can create put a great site with WordPress Blog as simple CMS + WuFoo for Lead management. Yes, you would get email, plenty of space, bandwidth, MySql database for under $10/mo. Also, you could host or add other domains.

If you need a VPS for multiple sites (or one site with lots of space), I can't recommend Wiredtree.com enough. They're expensive, but worth every penny. Every support ticket has been answered in under 20 minutes, and they'll help with lots of customization for your account. I've actually sent cupcakes to their support dept for helping me migrate a huge site that required lots of tweaking. They held my hand every step of the way.

http://www.linode.com/

These are the fastest servers possible... read about it in a test verse other companies. This is the company I use

I would recommend WebFaction. It's quite popular in the django community.

I use HostGator.com

Their prices are reasonable, their support is very good and you can call their support people for FREE 24x7.

• Tim

All of the above recommendations are good, I specially like the one about Squarespace and Wordpress.com (hosted) because they allow you to get something up and running in a day, later once you start getting some tracking you can move your site/blog to another hosting provider that will offer you greater capacity and storage.

In this same category, there is also Weebly and SnapPages, just like Squarespace, it allows you to create a very professional looking site, their website creation tools are easy to use and the also host your site for free or $8.00 per month if you want more features, check it out.

Use Bluehost. I have been using them for years and they are awesome. When you have a problem (which always happens, you just don't know when), you can call them and they will solve it.

Avoid GoDaddy. I used them for a long time, until I had a problem. They were totally useless and blamed me for their problems.

http://www.myhosting.com at $9 you get free domain, hosting and i believe up to 20 emails too. we just hosted our site there.