Paranoia in choosing web host

[Plato]

Ok, this is ridiculous. There are too many, and I can't find a single one that I think "Yes, this is the one"...

My needs are:

• supports wordpress very well. I understand some are better than others for wordpress?
• under £50/year
• will be able to handle the traffic if I get on the front page of digg... I mean I don't want to put in hard work only to miss out on a big opportunity like that because my host can't cope. :/
• customer support up to par.
• to not have any fast tricks pulled, like not letting me transfer my domain to a dedicated server if/when I make it big.

If it's in the UK that's ideal. Do any of you fine people have experience with any web hosts that meet this spec?

[Dan.Linehan]

Dreamhost, Dreamhost, Dreamhost.

Use coupon code "AW97".

[zoner7]

use hostmonster. it's cheap and is treating me quite well

[Minsc]

https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/ is the host I use, and they haven't let me down.

Originally Posted by Plato

supports wordpress very well. I understand some are better than others for wordpress?

NFS supports Wordpress, although they require you to install it yourself by downloading it from wordpress.org and setting up a MySQL database.

under £50/year

They charge you based on usage, with no minimums. They also shut your site down and send you an email if you ever run out of funds, instead of charging your credit card. It goes back up once you deposit.

It's free to sign up, and you're able to test their service out before depositing.

will be able to handle the traffic if I get on the front page of digg... I mean I don't want to put in hard work only to miss out on a big opportunity like that because my host can't cope. :/

They say in their FAQ that many of their sites have been on Digg before, and it costs them around $10 in bandwidth per digging.

customer support up to par.

Customer support is done with a sysadmin and they have pretty quick responce times(~2 hours). You have the option of doing it privately with a support panel or publically on their forums.

If there's ever a problem with their servers, they'll post a notice and description on NearlyFreeSpeech.NET Offsite Network Status Monitor .

to not have any fast tricks pulled, like not letting me transfer my domain to a dedicated server if/when I make it big.

NFS is a pretty honest host. If something goes wrong you can always talk to them about it.

They'll always contact you before/if your site gets purposely taken down.

[JimOfferman]

I briefly looked at NFS, but with my traffic I would end up paying more than I pay my current host (PowWeb), which seemed like a bad idea!

Plus, I'm pretty happy with PowWeb as a host. At $8/mo they have yet to let me down.

[yogesh sarkar]

You can go with any decent host, but do keep in mind that almost all of them will shut down your blog if you end up consuming too much resources, how much, varies from host to host.

Best thing you can do is to ensure that you use minimum plugins and use wp-supercache or some other cache plugin to minimize load in case too much traffic. Lowering the number of posts on the front page and widgets on the side bar also help tremendously.

Ps. always download a backup of your db after making a post.

[Daffy Duck]

I have tried HostGator in the past and liked them.

Currently my brother runs a successful web hosting company and I use his services. I won't mention the name though.

[robds]

Originally Posted by JimOfferman

I briefly looked at NFS, but with my traffic I would end up paying more than I pay my current host (PowWeb), which seemed like a bad idea!

Plus, I'm pretty happy with PowWeb as a host. At $8/mo they have yet to let me down.

I'm glad you are happy with PowWeb. They left a very bad taste in my mouth when I had a site hosted with them.

I ran a successful niche cooking website for a number of years. My first two years were with PowWeb, I had roughly 400 unique users each day. I ran an offbeat recipe contest for my users that caught the interest of one of the major cooking magazines, and my bandwidth needs quadrupled overnight.

PowWeb promptly shut me down, and brusquely told me to take my business elsewhere. No offers to upgrade, no proposed solutions, just "get out of here". I had to threaten legal action to get them to release my site backups to me so that I could go to another host.

[geekmba360]

I recommend Pair Network. It's based in the US. It's not the cheapest one, but has excellent reputation. In fact, Steve uses pair.

I recently wrote an article about the infrastructure behind my blog (Behind the Scene at GeekMBA360.com -- I install Wordpress myself, and the traffic has been growing fast.) I think if you set up a infrastructure similiar to what I have, you should be able to handle your anticipated level of traffic for the foreseeable future.

GeekMBA360

[Daffy Duck]

Originally Posted by robds

I had to threaten legal action to get them to release my site backups to me so that I could go to another host.

Tip to everyone: always make local backups, if possible!

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by robds

PowWeb promptly shut me down, and brusquely told me to take my business elsewhere. No offers to upgrade, no proposed solutions, just "get out of here". I had to threaten legal action to get them to release my site backups to me so that I could go to another host.

Ouch. That sucks. I can understand that leaving a bad taste in your mouth...

[vMike]

they are all fine for your purpose.

A few things though,

1. make sure you register your domain not through the host, even if it's free - otherwise you'll have trouble transfering it somewhere else. Use one of the top domain registrars, like godaddy.com, namecheap.com
2. no host for that cheap can sustain a digg effect, you'll need a dedicated or vps for that.

[Daffy Duck]

Originally Posted by vMike

2. no host for that cheap can sustain a digg effect, you'll need a dedicated or vps for that.

Generally speaking, yes, but not always. I have a web site that has been Digged twice, sending a TON of visitors my way, and it stayed up with no problems on a shared hosting account that's less than $10/month.

[robds]

Originally Posted by Daffy Duck

Tip to everyone: always make local backups, if possible!

I prefer keeping my backups on the server, with a copy locally.

I learned this lesson after I botched a software upgrade. The restore should have taken an hour, but since I had to re-upload my backup from my local machine the FTP upload took an additional 3 hours!

[Daffy Duck]

Even better. As Robds suggests -- do both!

I worked in web hosting customer service for two years. We did not offer daily database backups back then unless the customer paid an extra fee. So many people just assumed that we included it, and when they screwed something up, they were so mad! If they just kept local backups, it would have been no big deal for them.