Basic business web hosting

[JetFred]

If I finally admit Yahoo sucks now that they've screwed me over for the last few months, where do you recommend I host a very basic business web page and domain registration?

I'm talking no more than a combined cost of $200 a year. Very low traffic, no media downloads, no online store.

[Kraken]

Curio City has been at MDD Hosting for a few years now. I can honestly say that I hope they never get absorbed or go out of business. They're my 4th or 5th host in the past 10 years and the first one that I can recommend without reservations. I pay $141/year for a dedicated IP address and I buy my SSL cert through them for another $35. Uptime is pretty near 100% as far as I can tell and their support is good. Probably a lot cheaper if you don't need the dedicated IP or the SSL cert.

Full disclosure: If you use my affiliate link above, and are a customer for at least three months, I get a reward.

[Ænima]

If it's just a static site (i.e. no databases, PHP or other non-javascript code), I'd recommend looking at Firebase. There are two pieces, a database, which you can ignore, and a hosting solution. They bought a company called Divshot that I really liked for static hosting and so far I've been pleased with Firebase.

For $5/mo, you get a custom domain, SSL, 1GB of storage and 100 GB of transfer on a CDN.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I'd probably go with managed WordPress hosting, as the immense catalog of free and premium themes and plug-ins available for CMS greatly simplifies security and site administration.

The managed WordPress hosting plan available from InMotion Web Hosting received a very positive review from PCMag.com, along with an Editor's Choice award, so it ought to be a decent choice. Prices seem reasonable too, starting at $3.49/mo. without storage or bandwidth caps (which includes a free domain, hosting on an SSD, and even US-based customer support). If you have an existing site, they also include a no-downtime website transfer process.

[Kraken]

I should clarify that MDD's deal includes a shared SSL, too, since my post implied that it didn't. I have to buy a private SSL due to the nature of my business.

[JetFred]

Due to the nature of our business, I don't need jack squat but a place to post some info.

[Matrix]

Site5.com , pretty reliable host and for 5$ you can run one site easy. And if you want multiple sites for 11$ a month it also easy to do.

[Jeff V]

I'm still paying for a domain and assorted amenities at 1and1. IIRC, the fees have been pretty low, I have some files on an FTP server there that I've not accessed in years, email accounts not used in forever, and there are plenty of tools and space to host my own website if I could be bothered to design one.

[Kasey Chang]

Squarespace?

[JetFred]

I'd probably go with managed WordPress hosting, as the immense catalog of free and premium themes and plug-ins available for CMS greatly simplifies security and site administration.

The managed WordPress hosting plan available from InMotion Web Hosting received a very positive review from PCMag.com, along with an Editor's Choice award, so it ought to be a decent choice. Prices seem reasonable too, starting at $3.49/mo. without storage or bandwidth caps (which includes a free domain, hosting on an SSD, and even US-based customer support). If you have an existing site, they also include a no-downtime website transfer process.

I went with this one. Thanks, all.

[Kraken]

I, too, find myself in need of very basic business site hosting. We're talking 5 or 6 pages with basic graphics, 1-2 email addresses, a custom (private) domain name, no ads. Bonus points for a simple drag-and-drop site builder that Wife will be comfortable using.

She was hot for Wix.com but I balked at the price -- $10/mo for what I outlined above seems to me like paying $120 a year for a domain I could buy for $15 at godaddy or wherever. Wordpress.com's plan descriptions say that the $4 "personal" plan includes a custom domain, but when you actually go to create your account it insists on upgrading to the $9 plan to get the private domain name, and there is no way to contact them to ask about that discrepancy. You need to have a paid hosting plan to use their chat support or a free plan to use their forums, and they don't do email at all.

I semi-settled on these cheap hosts and wonder if anybody has experience with them:

000webhost.com
awardspace.com
ehost.com
ipage.com

All of those are $5/mo or less, which is kind of my pain point. I tentatively liked ehost best but ran out of time before I could consult user reviews. 000 was a contender, too.

Because I'll be sharing this site with Wife, simple maintenance is important. She became agitated when I talked about buying a domain somewhere else and downloading Wordpress to build the site offline.

JetFred, how did InMotion work out for you? Does it have on online site builder or did you have to build one with wordpress and upload it?

[hitbyambulance]

000webhost.com

there's a lot of administrative pain with this one, keeping the account current. they were also hacked and my info was stolen in the breach. you get what you pay for.

[Punisher]

I plan descriptions say that the $4 "personal" plan includes a custom domain, but when you actually go to create your account it insists on upgrading to the $9 plan to get the private domain name, and there is no way to contact them to ask about that discrepancy. You need to have a paid hosting plan to use their chat support or a free plan to use their forums, and they don't do email at all.

I suspect this:
"Custom" domain: yourdomain.wordpress.com
Private domain:
It could also mean private as in your info is hidden from whois lookups..

I have used 1and1.com for decades now... I have my own domain there, but mostly use it for email. I have an option for websites, but havent really done anything with it for decades.
Also be careful about getting a domain name for your business for free. Some places offer this, but they retain actual ownership over the domain name and you are stuck using them or lose your name.

[JetFred]

JetFred, how did InMotion work out for you? Does it have on online site builder or did you have to build one with wordpress and upload it?

I barely know what I'm doing since I've added little new knowledge since about 1999, and I'm happy with InMotion. There were a few glitches, but all in all their support has been amazing and I did just fine with the Bold Grid site builder from a template. I'll PM you the link to what I built because I don't particularly want to advertise my wife's custom-order-and-delivery home-based bakery here.

My biggest headache was getting the dang domain released from Yahoo to move it over, but that wasn't InMotion's fault.

[Kraken]

000webhost.com

there's a lot of administrative pain with this one, keeping the account current. they were also hacked and my info was stolen in the breach. you get what you pay for.

Thanks, one of the reviews that I read mentioned something about their account going dormant, but that was specifically about a free account. Didn't know if it would pertain to paid accounts too.

I plan descriptions say that the $4 "personal" plan includes a custom domain, but when you actually go to create your account it insists on upgrading to the $9 plan to get the private domain name, and there is no way to contact them to ask about that discrepancy. You need to have a paid hosting plan to use their chat support or a free plan to use their forums, and they don't do email at all.

I suspect this:
"Custom" domain: yourdomain.wordpress.com
Private domain:
It could also mean private as in your info is hidden from whois lookups..

I have used 1and1.com for decades now... I have my own domain there, but mostly use it for email. I have an option for websites, but havent really done anything with it for decades.
Also be careful about getting a domain name for your business for free. Some places offer this, but they retain actual ownership over the domain name and you are stuck using them or lose your name.

The mouse help for the $3 personal plan's "Custom Domain Name" option says: "Get a free custom domain name (mywebsite.com) with this plan to use for your website" but when you start the signup process it assigns you mywebsite.wordpress.com and suggests that you upgrade to get what they promised you. It's a genuine contradiction, but apparently impossible to ask anyone about it without signing up first.

Thanks for that warning. I'm leaning toward getting the domain name from GoDaddy (where I get all of my curiocity domains), because it opens up more low-cost hosting options if I don't have to get the domain from the host.

[JetFred]

I sent you more clarification (that may be an overstatement ) by PM. You can get your domain elsewhere and still host with InMotion, but if you are starting from scratch and a new name, it would make sense to me to just do both with InMotion.

[Kraken]

Leaning toward becoming another convert to InMotion. Probably sign up tomorrow.

[JetFred]

Like I said, this is anecdotal, but I'm hard to impress with customer service...InMotion is the only company that impressed me with response time and problem resolution as much as Amazon continues to impress me.

[Carpet_pissr]

Just recently signed up with BlueHost, primarily because it apparently it can do quite a bit of hand holding, but has room for growth/options if you want to do your own thing. I have no idea what I am doing, though, so not sure it was the best first choice for a novice.

[Cloggedone]

To be honest, I would use anything that isn't EIG-owned. Their brands are notorious for downtime, billing issues, and downright crappiness. This includes brands like HostGator and the such.

I like StableHost. Decent prices and great support, plus it's unlimited, so how much better for basic business hosting can you get?

[Kraken]

I had a brief and terrible experience with HostGator some years ago. Will never go near them again.

I still haven't committed. I got as far as needing to enter credit card info, realized I didn't know which card to use, realized I need to set up banking and accounting first, and realized I can't do that until the business officially exists as an entity. Now I'm trying to decide how to constitute it.