Finding Cheap Website Host Services

Finding reliable, yet cheap website host services that provide all of the features you need to operate your online business effectively and efficiently are difficult to narrow down.  To help you, we've made a list of the Top 10 Best and Worst web hosting services.

Our #1 Recommended Website Host: Lunarpages -$6.95/mo

Lunarpages was founded in the summer of 2000 when Add2Net Corporation expanded its hosting offerings to include shared hosting. For the previous 3 years, Add2Net had been successfully providing large scale managed and unmanaged hosting services. Our customer service and rock solid hosting platforms created our customer base and encouraged us to grow. The Lunarpages brand is the culmination of years of exceptional service and experience. We proudly offer our never ending dedication to you, our customer. Disc Space Data Transfer Email Accounts Price/month Money Back Guarantee 5000 MB 400GB Unlimited $6.95 30 Day

If you have not already built your site and selected a domain name, then you may want to check out XSite Pro, (an easy to use website building software) or DomainsBot.com (a tool that takes keywords, phrases, or a short sentence you supply and helps you create a domain name). 

Note: You will not be able to sign up with your selected website host provider until you have a domain name.  However, it does not have to be registered.  You can register it with the web host you select. 

Features of the Best Website Hosts

Let's get started.  The features of the best webhost mostly depend upon your business, but in general it's a hosting service who truly delivers, not just offers, reliability, excellent technical support, and a user-friendly control panel at a reasonable cost (cheap) with a 30-day money back guarantee. 

Finding out which website hosts have all of these features requires some research.  Luckily, we've done the hard work for you (see Top 10 Web Host Providers). 

Here are the qualities of the best, yet cheap website host services in detail:

• Reliability -This is stated in terms of a percentage of guaranteed uptime.  We recommend selecting a web hosting service who offers a guaranteed uptime equal to or greater than 99.5%. 
  
  A website that experiences a lot of downtime, loses a lot of customers, and potentially, a lot of money!
  
• Technical Support - You will want a webhost who has 24 hour, 7 days a week (24/7) technical support.  Inevitably, a problem will arise, and you will most likely not want to wait 24 hours to receive an answer.  Therefore, it is important for you to choose a service who, not only offers, but actually provides, 24/7 service.  We suggest sending an email, testing their live chat support, or calling them on a Saturday or Sunday or at an odd hour of the day. 
  
  We've tested several and found the Bluehost website host services to have the most responsive support team.  Try them out!

• User-Friendly Control Panel - You'll also need a hosting service who has a user-friendly control panel.  The control panel is where you would add, delete, and change passwords on your email accounts, view, upload, delete files and folders, add scripts, access web site stats, and much more.  Experience has shown us that Cpanel, VDesk 2.0, or Plesk control panels are a necessity to ensure usability.  Cpanel, VDesk 2.0, and Plesk look similar to your desktop, with icons for each link.  

  View a demo of a Cpanel control panel (User Id: demo and Password: demo) -VDeck 2.0 and Plesk are very similar in their features.

• Cost with Guarantees - You'll have to consider the cost of the services offered.  Several reputable website host providers now offer multiple domains for 1 low monthly price (less than $10 a month for up to 10 domains - that's CHEAP!) with no setup fees. Also make sure they have a 30-day money-back guarantee!
  
  Why pay a webhosting fee for every domain, when you can pay 1 fee for 6 - 10? 

Additional Features for Reliable Website Hosts

• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) - FTP is a tool that allows you or your programmer the ability to upload your web pages to your server.  You can use FTP with a simple command line interface (for example, from the Windows MS-DOS Prompt window) or with a commercial program that offers a graphical user interface. Your Web browser can also make FTP requests to download programs you select from a Web page. 
  
  If you're not using the site builder provided by your web host provider, or if someone else is building your website, then you will need to have access to upload your web pages to your host's server.
  
  
• Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and PHP Script Access - CGI and PHP scripts are used to transfer data from HTML to an application.  Therefore, selecting a website host who offers CGI scripts that have preapproved and prewritten may be something you want to consider.
  
  If you're building your own website, then you may want to generate text boxes and pull down menus in order to collect data from your visitors in order to process a purchase, conduct customer service activities, or register new members.
  
  
• SSL, MySQL, and Shopping Cart - SSL provides a facility for secure transfer of data across the internet.
  
  If you plan on collecting credit card information from your online customers and processing your own orders, then you'll need SSL, MySQL, and Shopping Cart.  
  
  
• Windows-based or Linux Hosting - The majority of all websites on the internet use Linux servers. 
  
  You only need a Windows-based server if you need Microsoft-specific applications, such as ASP, ASP.Net, MS SQL Server or MS Access databases.  
  
  
• Disk Space - Most websites use less than 5MB of disk space.  
  
  If you intend to have a site that contains graphics, video and/or audio streaming, then you may want to insure your web host provider offers 10 - 15GB of disk space.

Review The Top 10 Best Website Host Providers

Perusing independent reviews from real users of website host providers is an exceptional way to find out which website host providers others are using, and what problems they're having.  However, it is extremely difficult to locate a site that is unbiased in its reviews. 

Our research team discovered a website (Web Hosting Unleashed) who not only lists the Top 10 Best and Worst Website Host Providers based upon actual user reviews, but also runs scripts to protect against fraudulent reviews. 

Here are their *Top 10 Best Website Host Providers:

1. LunarPages ( Webhost Review)  
2. ICDSoft ( Webhost Review)
3. iPowerWeb ( Webhost Review) 
4. Catalog ( Webhost Review)
5. InMotion ( Webhost Review)
6. SiteGround ( Webhost Review)
7. HostGator ( Webhost Review)
8. VistaPages ( Webhost Review)  
9. Intelweb ( Webhost Review)
10. Bluehost ( Webhost Review) 

Here are their Top 10 Worst Website Host Providers: 

1. 1T3 Online
2. Registerfly
3. One2Host
4. Feature Price
5. Lyphia
6. Interland
7. IX Webhosting
8. Adaptive.net
9. Dot 5 hosting
10. Kytec Inc