Your favorite budget hosts/registrars?

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

Hello,

I'm fairly new to this. I've read some stuff about it (quite ab it actually), yet there are so many different providers to choose from.

For registrars you guys seem to really like namecheap.com...any other good ones?

How about hosting providers, though? Ive heard I should stick to smaller ones (as opposed to registrars where I better stick to big ones). can you provide me with some providers so I can check their services out?

thank you!

oh...merry christmas guys!

[andheresjohnny]

I have heard that for "rule of thumb" you should never use the same company for your registrar and your hosting. I don't know why that is ... maybe someone else can comment on that.

Anyway I have been using Godaddy for both domain registrations and hosting and I've never been disappointed. Only $3.99 per month for hosting too ... a very good deal.

[Locomotive]

Originally Posted by andheresjohnny

I have heard that for "rule of thumb" you should never use the same company for your registrar and your hosting. I don't know why that is ... maybe someone else can comment on that.

Anyway I have been using Godaddy for both domain registrations and hosting and I've never been disappointed. Only $3.99 per month for hosting too ... a very good deal.

I don't understand why? As far as I know hosters are domain name resellers.

[Kron]

I also don't understand this rule. I thought it very convenient to reg a domain and then use hosting.

[Kron]

Only indoors.Sorry for a double post. Delete it please.

[Hostnetric]

I maintain all my domains under one roof. There are however, many good registrars out there. Namecheap is one of the better ones for sure, but there are others as well such as DynaDot - Excellent service as well and GoDaddy seems to have a large following. I would steer away from Yahoo!. I have tried them, but they seem to have some issues with their service and somehow loosing domains from accounts. I personally had this happen to one of my domains and it took forever to figure out what they did.

Maintaining your domain with your host is only a problem if use one of those host programs where you are not the actual owner. In this case it is usually a host who provides you with a free domain and specifies that you must remain with them for a specific amount of time before you will be given control of the domain and are free to transfer it. If the host is charging a price for the domain then you are the owner and free to do as you like after the normal industry 60 day wait period for transfer.

Good Luck!

[alemcherry]

I will also recommed keeping your hosting and domain accounts separate. Nothing wrong with same company for both, but they should not be a part of same package. Seen lots of people with linked accounts having trouble with renewing / moving away from the hosts. One of the clients had a horror story with bravenet - she couldnt renew the domain for threee days. Hosts will use the control over domain name to tie you up with them. I say "no, thanks" to all hosting accounts with free domains.

Godaddy is okay for domain names. Actually any reliable registrar will be fine, you can comfortably go for the cheapest among well known registrars. Anyways you wont need much support for domain name, then whats the need of wasting the money?

[Hostnetric]

I do not think that a free domain is an issue with the right host. I would highly recommend reading their TOS and finding out what their specifics are. I would recommend though that once you have gotten past your first 60 days with a host that you move the domain to a registrar if their TOS allow this. Many hosts do allow the domain to be transferred away after 60 days which is a requirement of any registrar. I know that we do this exact same thing with our free domains. Control of the domain should be the customers 100% from day one.

So make sure that you read the TOS before you choose a host offering a free domain and then make sure to transfer the domains to one registrar so that it makes it easier to keep an eye on and control your domains. This is much simpler then trying to log into 4 or 5 seperate registrars with different control panels.

Good Luck!

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

Im sorry for not having answered, yet, but Ive been overly busy (to put it mildly) during the last couple of weeks. I already know, that I should keep hosting and registrars seperate..actually that had been preached to me so many times.

But now I read, that its not a problem in case you choose a host/registrar, which does both but grants you full control over your domain? I guess the problem with this might be, that there's virtually no company which does that...? Or could I actually save some money that way if I plan on registering over 10 domains...? I guess the least I could do with the free domains would be to register similar domains to my actual domains, so competition cant grab them?

As for registrars is there anything other than GoDaddy and Namecheap which is good + cheap? Id like to use a couple of different registrars, so in case they have a problem with me (for whatever reason) Ill not have to worry about ALL my sites. Ive actually read, that godaddy had a 'shady policy of keeping domains hostage if they suspected you of spamming'. I do not plan on spamming, but this still sounds like theres a certain risk associated with that...if they do things like that because they 'suspect' you of doing something...

So are there any other good registrars I could use to lower my risk-profile so to speak?

Plus, what would be a good (budget) hosting provider? Everybody gave tips on registrars but nobody mentioned any reliable host?

THANKS!

[gannik]

As for reliable host I'd recommend you to use ahosting.biz and hosting.com. These companies have rather reasonable prices. And ahosting has a fast support (ticket system).
By the way what's your budget?

[maldives]

I often use godaddy.com for domain registration but, choose other companies for hosting purposes.

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

Im a beginner and a 23 year old college student on top of that. Nuff said?:-)

Just kidding..but as Im only starting out and dont even know if or when Ill start making profits, Im not looking to invest into a superexpensive hosting account.

However, Id like the hosting plan to have everything I need..plus being upgradable in case I need more bandwith, etc...so in other words I need one that's rather cheap, but still good.

The one hosting plan you recommended says 4 dollars a month, which I would have found very cheap. The other says 17 dollars a month, which would be a bit too expensive for me...I was thinking maybe 10-15 (at the most) dollars a month, as I had already seen hosting plans that seemed okay at that price.

[Gene Steinberg]

Originally Posted by maldives

I often use godaddy.com for domain registration but, choose other companies for hosting purposes.

GoDaddy is notorious for being a little too politically correct with regard to what might be minor infractions involving a domain. They can suspend you, then demand tribute to get back online.

In addition, such essentials as privacy will cost you extra. It's not part of the standard fee. This ala carte approach makes the pricing seem real cheap, until you begin to add features you want and suddenly it's not so cheap.

My five sites and 17 domains are now under one roof: DreamHost. They give you one free domain with a hosting package, and charge $9.95 for the rest. This is a bit more than GoDaddy, but WHOIS privacy is part of the package, and that's helpful in reducing spam.

I also ran into customer service issues with GoDaddy, particularly when I encountered some database slowdowns for my sites.

With DreamHost, I had a couple of issues, which were resolved, and performance is, in general, far faster and more reliable than with GoDaddy. Anyone connecting to most of my sites will see our uptime, which is now at 99.99%.

Peace,
Gene Steinberg
[link removed]

[cbluez]

Yes ..Micfo.com...watch these folks as they are eager to steal your money...Stealing generally equates to taking your money and giving you squat..

I have many sites at many hosting companies and this would be the worst in all my years.

Without going into the horrors of hosting a site at Micfo, let me explain how they can fraudulently offer a guarantee and then take it away...at least I assume this would be fraudulent behaviour in 2007. In darker times you would be heading down to the office with your sword newly sharpened, to get satisfaction.

Back in October I signed on for the 2 year scam offered by Micfo with this guarantee..(I have the october web page on file, which has now conveniently disappeared from the Wayback machine):

Anytime Money-Back Guarantee
Most hosting companies offer a 10-15-day money-back guarantee. However, we are so confident about our service that we back it with our anytime money-back guarantee. If our services did not exceed your expectations, you can request to receive a full refund within the first 30-days. After this period, even if you have prepaid for 24 months, you can still request a refund for unused portion of your contract (Excludes the current billing cycle).

Upon requesting the guarantee in December because of horrendous hosting service and uncaring slack technical/customer service they told me quote: "anytime money back gaurantee is not applicable right now. "

How's that for a blatant lying cheating scam?

Big thanks to Amir Godestan and staff for treating his trusting customers like crap and lining his pockets with our hard earned money.
JIm Miller

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

Well thx..Ill definitely stay away from that hosting company, then. You said you had hosted with many different companies over the years...were there any you could recommend though? Or only bad experiences..?

[cbluez]

I've had decent shared hosting luck with HostGator, LunarPages and Hostmonster...Ipower is also pretty good for the price except when there is a problem. Support there is pitiful.

[charlesgan]

jus visited namecheap.com.
the domain 8.88 is not competitive at all.
anyone have better one??

[Gene Steinberg]

Originally Posted by charlesgan

just visited namecheap.com.
the domain 8.88 is not competitive at all.
anyone have better one??

Well, the other thing is that they charge extra for WHOIS privacy.

I use DreamHost: $9.95, including the privacy options.

[MadEvan]

I use Enom for domain registrations. I also use Godaddy every now and then when they have a nice promo for domains only. I agree that you should keep your hosting and domain registrars separate, if you are buying and hosting multiple domains or need high levels of space/bandwidth. Otherwise it's not a big deal.

As far as hosting goes, what do you need from your host. ie: number of domains to be hosted , space and bandwidth requirements, what control panel, will you be streaming media etc...

[ScriptMan]

Originally Posted by charlesgan

jus visited namecheap.com.
the domain 8.88 is not competitive at all.
anyone have better one??

A basic registeration at domainsite dot com is only $6.99. Basic is about all the average user needs. For a $ more you can control a lot more dns stuff.