Rating the Top 5 Hosting Companies
Website hosting services vary widely in their features and functions and depend greatly on their individual abilities. Often times a Internet Service provider will offer free web hosting to their clients. Many people, however, prefer to choose from the variety of professional hosting sites available online. There are statistics that show services provided to personal sites are cheaper than those offered to business websites. A professional web host will offer their clients user-friendly control panel access for site management and script installation. It is easy to locate the various hosting services using any of the web-based search engines.
While selecting a hosting service provider, one has to carefully go through the services and packages that they are offering. Hosting service providers often offer discounts on packages which can be effective for those hunting for cheap services. Host Uptime is a big factor that has to be taken into consideration. Uptime refers to the total time the host is accessible through internet. If performance goals promised by the professionals are not met, the owner can ask for a refund or cut down of cost. These factors however depend on the company principles and hosting policies.
There are various types of web hosts such as:
* Dedicated hosting: Dedicated hosting provides the website owner its own server and complete administrative control and access.
* Managed hosting: When the user gets a separate server, for himself or herself but cannot access it independently, it is called managed hosting. Such servers are leased to clients.
* Virtual hosting: A virtual server is separated and all users feel they have a dedicated service but they are really sharing the server with others. Each user does have their own access to an individual space on the server.
* Free hosting: While this service is free to host a site, it is also accompanied by ads.
There are a few less popular types such as reseller hosts, shared hosts, grid web hosts, clustered hosts, and collocation hosts.
The styles of service offered by all of the companies are usually general access plans. These packages include all of the services mentioned previously along with features like web design, email boxes, backup ability, billing information, content management and tech support for their customers.
There are several parameters based on which, a user should make his selection of a web hosting company. Tech Support, Uptime, Disk Space, Bandwidth Limit, security socket layer are some such parameters. Below are top 5 hosting companies that have been selected on the basis of these parameters:
Top 5 hosting companies are mentioned below:
1. Hostmonster- This web host service has been in existence since 1996. They have a reputation for providing great service at a low cost. Their backup system is secure and reliable their customers have a great sense of security. They provide a large amount of information on their use and procedure to give visitors a clear understanding of their performance.
This company offers customers large number of hosting features which include:
* Large amounts of disc storage
* Provision of domain name
* Secure email support
* Additional domains
* Domain parking
* World class technology
* e-commerce features
* Multi-media ability
* site promotions
* Other bonus features
2. Inmotion hosting: This world-wide service provider has clients that span the globe. They are flexible and reliable and enjoy many praises from their customers. They have won the Top Business Host Award 2008 and are listed in the top 10 hosting companies. They have awards for all of their specific services in 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008. They have served the internet community since 2001 with dedication and diligence. They share a partnership with CNET as a certified service provider, the BBB, and as an SWsoft official partner. The services they provide include:
* Private Virtual server
* Dedicated server provisions
* Business class provisions
* Personal and cheap hosting
* Website management
3. Bluehost: This top 5 web host has been in service since 1996 and has a large client base. Their quality technical support and customer service along with maximum available uptime are just a few of the many services offered by Bluehost. Their high-quality environment, easy to understand control panel, and extra security give this company a great reputation for service and reliability. Both the company and their clients receive maximum benefits from their services.
Along with the mentioned basic hosting services they provide this company has:
* Free plug-in scripts for your website including: a message forum, survey software, PHP nuke, moodle, and many more including Tikiwiki.
* E-commerce availability with shipping cart, shopping cart, and a password protection on their directories along with other features.
* Their list includes multimedia functions and top technology.
4. RackSpace Inc: Rackspace is a UK based company that began its service in 1996. They are registered as Rackspace LTD and are known to be one of Europe’s top web host servers. Amongst the many large businesses that use Rackspace are Vue, OnSpeed, Renault, and Confused.com. Rackspace was included in ‘The Sunday Times’ list of 2007 best companies.
* Their service includes solutions for companies of all sizes.
* Provides managed configuration and green configuration services
* Visualization
* Email access
* Email functions
* Database services
* Storage backup
* Administration and reporting
5. Godaddy.com: Godaddy is one of the Internet’s most popular web hosts amoungst personal and business web host customers. They are flexible and authentic and have awards in their list that provide good proof of the quality of their service and their prominence in the industry of web hosting. They use lucrative discounts and promotions to entice customers which can be valuable for those seeking cheap hosting service. Along with their discounts they continue to offer the same services as big host services.
A sample of the services offered by this company are:
* Exciting 20% discount on package deals
* Expanded websites also qualify for discounts along with web designers
* Hosting servers
* Site Builders
* Websites for both commerce and business
* Privacy auction and
* Reseller services
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