Who Has the Best Web Hosting?

HostGator is a leading provider of Web Hosting services and in my opinion is the best choose for the average web publisher.

• HostGator's servers are fast and reliable - guaranteed to be up and running 99.9% of the time.
  
• HostGator's administrative control panel (cPanel) is easily navigated and has all the features that the average web publisher needs. You can even mock up a website for free before you buy hosting, just to see how easy cPanel is to use.
  
• HostGator is affordable. Most customers can pay less than $10 a month to host ALL of their websites.
  
• HostGator has a 90% approval rating among its 400,000 plus customers. If you're not satisfied, they offer a 45 day money-back guarantee.

It's no surprise that that Web Host that I feel is the best is also the one that offers a money-back guarantee. I wish that the others offered this guarantee during my Web Hosting trial-and-error period.

HostGator Coupon Code: ToTheBrimm
Use HostGator Coupon Code "ToTheBrimm" to get your 1st month's hosting for 1 cent!.

Most of the lesser-known Web Hosts that you run across are actually just resellers of a larger company's Web Hosting. For as little as $20 per month, you can sell HostGator's Web Hosting, rebranded as your own.

GoDaddy is the largest Web Hosting company and Domain Registrar in the world with a reported 50 million URLs under management.

Like HostGator, GoDaddy guarantees 99.9% up time, has 24/7 customer support and offers low cost options. The problem begins when a new customer actually tries to develop their site - GoDaddy's control panel is not user friendly to say the least. You can call their 24 hour customer support line for help but their solution always seems to be to try to sell you something that you haven't bought yet. In my experience, GoDaddy's hosting is very inexpensive but, if you want to actually develop a site, it's going to cost you extra.

How can Godaddy be the world's largest Web Host if they're so user unfriendly? I believe it's largely due to a great advertising campaign and to the types of customers that GoDaddy attracts.

• Godaddy claims to have 50 million domains "under management." Many, if not most, of these domains have not been developed; they're just parked by people that do Domain Flipping. Domain Flippers buy or register domain names hoping to sell them for a profit; typically, these domains are left dormant until a buyer is found. GoDaddy offers good packages for Domain Flippers.
  
• The second type of customer that uses GoDaddy is the one that's willing to pay to have someone else develop a website for them. GoDaddy will make a well developed site for you, if you're willing to pay for it. This is a great service for a business that needs ONE website to showcase their company or product, but it's an expensive option for the average affiliate marketer and is a completely unusable option for a blogger.

I don't sell domains but I have purchased a few and in nearly every case, the domain was "under management" with GoDaddy. At first I tried to develop these sites through GoDaddy. Now, I just take the push to my GoDaddy account (the account itself is free) and then transfer the domain to HostGator when I'm ready to develop it.

Pushing a domain simply means to transfer a domain (or website) from one owner to another within the same Registrar. Example: a domain can be pushed from a seller's GoDaddy account to a buyer's GoDaddy account easily, quickly and for free. A domain cannot be pushed from a GoDaddy account to a HostGator account. It can be transferred but extra steps are involved and you usually have to wait for 60 days.

1&1 is a great choice for Webhosting. They have an easy to use control panel, they're reliable and they're cost effective. 1&1 also makes it very affordable to get started with their $.99 .com registrations and their 1, 3 or 6-months-free programs.

1&1 actually nudges out HostGator in that they offer a ton of products; more than I actually need or understand at this point. In the end. I chose HostGator over 1&1 only because of HostGator's size but, If I ever outgrow HostGator, I'll go straight to 1&1.

The simple answer is - most people prefer Linux.

Those looking to have their website hosted for free will be looking for a long time, I'm afraid. There are sites that provide free Web Hosting but they tend to be very restrictive of content - Wordpress and Facebook are two examples. These sites truly offer free hosting but they tightly control how you monetize the sites.

The closest thing that I've found to Free Web Hosting, that still allows the publisher a reasonable chance to control content and make some money, is Squidoo. Squidoo allows a web publisher to write on nearly any legal, non-pornographic topic and Squidoo provides the hosting for free... sort of.
The "sort of" is that Squidoo finances itself through revenue sharing. In other words, money earned is split between Squidoo and it's writers/publishers.

Still, Squidoo is a great way for publishers to get started on the internet. It's also a great way for more experienced publishers to limit their overhead and to potentially connect with readers that they wouldn't otherwise have access to.

I am an affiliate of some of these companies. If you purchase products or services through this site, I will receive a commission on your purchase. My stated opinions were formed independently of, and without consideration for, these potential commissions. In other words - I only recommend the companies that I would use.