Reliable Web Hosting Companies

What is it that one looks for in a reliable web hosting company? Great personalized service, high uptime guarantee, neat features and lots of free goodies. Yes, price is important but should always be way down the list. Choosing a hosting company is not easy especially because the market is very crowded and highly competitive. Most companies offer the same set of features. What differentiates them is service.

I've been in web development for more than a decade and must have used more than ten hosting companies for the various web sites I maintain for myself and for my clients. I've had my share of bitter experiences but have finally managed to settle down with four firms which have seldom (if at all) given be any problems in the last 4 years or so.

NetworkSolutions

I purchased my very first domain name around 12 years back and NetworkSolutions was the only option at that time. However, even though their prices are a bit more than the competition, I've continued with them. In fact, I still purchase domain names from them simply because they offer very good security for my online identity. And I advice my clients to do the same.

As for hosting, NetworkSolutions offers great packages and some awesome features. This makes it easier for the newly initiated to get a quick web presence and build online stores quickly.

Hostgator

Don't be fooled by Hostgator's low prices. Their customer service is excellent. At least, I've never faced any problems with them and have many client web sites on their servers. I also have a reseller hosting plan from Hostgator that allows me to put several web sites on one machine.

If you have a simple 10-50 pages web site consisting of standard HTML pages and images, I would highly recommend Hostgator.

Lunarpages

For years I used Lunarpages shared hosting service. As my web site grew and started getting more traffic, I shifted to a managed dedicated server. The transition was smooth - the helpful staff not only set up the server way I wanted but also moved all files including the databases.