by thwak » Tue Dec 04, 2012 8:50 am
First rule: never have your webhost register your domain
(many can, and will, hold hostage your domain when you attempt to move to a different webhosting company)
Similarly, if you're buying an SSL cert for your site, don't purchase that via the webhost either.
^--- It's okay to utilize the webhost's nameservers, IMO.
If YOU maintain the DNS record (via registrar's site) you can setup the dns to point to webhost's nameservers....
...and, in a heartbeat (well, takes 15-30min for changes to propagate) you can point to different nameservers if you change webhosts.
Second rule: obviously there is no such thing as "unlimited" storage (nor "unmetered" bandwidth, for that matter).
If a webhost promises "unlimited" storage or bandwidth, he's lying... er "marketing".
Scratch any such fibbers off your shortlist of prospective hosts.
Unlimited domains? Well, sorta. A "reseller-enabled" or multidomain hosting account does enable you to apportion your allotted resources across multiple domains... but I think of that as being "unrestricted" rather than "unlimited".
Next (not a rule, a suggestion):
visit webhostingtalk.com forum to research the rep of whatever webhosts are on your shortlist, and to discover new webhosting offerings that you may not be aware of. You know how people visit angieslist and "report"? Yeah, well lots of "squeaky wheel" stories get aired in the webhostingtalk forums.
Third rule: when signing up for a new host, do NOT prepay 6mos, nor a year or whatever.
Pay for the FIRST month and gauge whether you are satisfied with the quality of service.
MANY, if not most, reputable host will graciously accept your decision to cancel/leave within the first 30 days if, for whatever reason, you decide the hosting is "not a good fit" for what you had in mind. (Like, you try to run prestashop or joomla or whatever db-intensive webapp on your site and find that the pageload times are unacceptably slow, compared to performance seen on your prior webhost).
Fourth: "overselling"
Many hosts do it (oversell). In and of itself, it's not necessarily a bad thing.
If the host can load balance the servers, and migrate heavy traffic sites to their underutilized servers ~~ I say more power to 'em. Couple years back, some of my domains were hosted (cheap, multi-domain reseller account) on a "shared" server which housed 600+ domain sites and never, not even once, did I notice a performance problem. Most of the sites hosted on that box (mine included) were "backwater" sites, low traffic. IIRC, for the ecommerce sites, an extra (dedicated) IP address costs $1/yr (needed for SSL cert). Paypal accepts just about any cert authority, but if you plan to use Google Checkout... cheapest cert among their "approved"/recognized providers is about $60/yr.
In choosing a webhost for a "shared hosting" (vs an account which provides an exclusive/dedicated IP for your domain), I would make damn sure the host's TOS forbid spam, porn, warez (by checking the host's rep at webhostingtalk). Otherwise, your site's IP is likely to eventually land on a spam or other blocklist.
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Some webhosts will lure you in with a lowball price, then "upsell" you for nickel/dime "extras" not included in the lowball price.
Like, a given cheapo hosting account may only provide 2 (or 5) mysql databases.
This is a false (invented, arbitrary) limit ~~ creating dbs is self-service and... however much storage you're allotted, why should it matter whether you're storing jpegs, data in 2, 5, or 100+ sets of mysql databse files?!?
Another come-on is
"cheapo account is limited to 5 email boxes"; "gold or platinum or gummibear account get 50 email boxes!"
What?!? Again, setting up mailboxes for your domain is self-service. The host has no valid reason to know/care how many "boxes" you setup. (Metering how many total emails an account sends per hour -- yeah, they have a valid reason to keep tabs on that metric.)
IMO best cheap reliable domain registrar: namecheap.com (about $9/yr for a .com domain)
Due to witnessing repeated headaches of friends hosted on GoDaddy servers, I recommend avoiding them.
I can't recommend a "good, cheap" host though, because I haven't shopped around for at least 2 years. I've been content paying $14/mo for (geez, I had to look it up. I didn't even remember the limits) 10Gb storage + 100Gb/mo bandwidth. Although it's a "reseller" account, I don't sell to others ~~ I just utilize the account cPanel / WHM features to host my domain sites for various ventures in the same place (they share the total 10/100gb limit, I pay just one hosting account). I've stayed put due to the host's blazing fast FTP transfers, near zero outages/downtime, and 10-15 minute response times any time I've sent a help ticket. No, I won't post the host's name (I'm not their fanboi, just a content/lazy customer).