web hosting

Finding the right web hosting for you

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Getting a site online isn't as easy as creating the site and uploading it to the internet for everyone to see.

Some sites such as Weebly, Squarespace and Wix do make it a bit easier as they provide everything you need in one place. However, these sort of places can be quite expensive and may limit what you do based on the features they offer.

If you just want to create a static website (that is one that is made up of HTML, CSS and Javascript only) you might be able to use something like Cloudflare Pages or GitHub Pages. These have the advantage of being free and yet still allow you to create attractive and interesting sites.

A lot of people like to use a Content Management System (CMS) - usually WordPress - to create sites these days. In order to use a CMS like this, or one of the others such as Joomla, you will need a proper hosting package.

Which hosts should I use?

Whilst it is difficult to reccomend a hosting company without knowing what you want to use web hosting for there are some companies which you should not use.

Any company owned by Newfold Digital (who used to be EIG) isn't worth hosting with. They have been buying lots of smaller companies and keeping those brands but the reliability of the servers and the support often go down hill fast.

They have also been known to charge for things that other companies provide for free and make it difficult for you to leave if you find a better option.

Simply searching for 'EIG companies' will present you with a list of providers to avoid.

Google results show the same companies a lot

Another thing to take note of is that some hosting providers offer incentives to their customers to promote the hosting company. This is why you see a lot of people reccomending the same companies when you perform a search.

These companies are not being reccomended because they are good but simply because they pay the person who reccomends them each time somebody signs up using their affiliate code.

Where to find web hosting?

Whilst I won't be reccomending any particular hosting providers (I don't know what your needs are) there are some sites that have been useful to me when I was looking for reliable hosts.

These sites are:

WebHostingTalk

HostingDiscussion

LowEndTalk

LowEndBox

Of course it all depends on what type of hosting is right for you as there are quite a few different types to be purchased. Reading through some of the posts in the sites above will give you some idea of what you need and what questions you should ask when making your choice.