Rating the Top 5 Hosting Companies

By Gregory Trune


Every web hosting site is different and there are a wide variety of services available. Internet providers often offer free web sites to their customers. Many people prefer to purchase hosting services from professionals. Personal website hosts are often more affordable than websites that cater to business. A hosting services set up for professional usage will provide a control panel for access to the functions of the web site and management of its content and installation of scripts. These professional website providers can be easily searched online through the variety of search engines.

While selecting a hosting service provider, one has to carefully go through the services and packages that they are offering. Hosting service providers often offer discounts on packages which can be effective for those hunting for cheap services. Host Uptime is a big factor that has to be taken into consideration. Uptime refers to the total time the host is accessible through internet. If performance goals promised by the professionals are not met, the owner can ask for a refund or cut down of cost. These factors however depend on the company principles and hosting policies.

There are several different types of web host including:

* Dedicated hosting: Dedicated hosting provides the website owner its own server and complete administrative control and access.

* Managed hosting: This is similar to dedicated hosting in that you get your own separate server, but the difference is that you cannot manage it yourself. This is a leased service.

* Virtual hosting: This service provides you the feeling that you have your own dedicated space but you are actually sharing it with all of the other websites the host serves. Your access is limited to your space on the server.

* Free hosting: You get free space but there are ads on your webpage visitors access.

Other types of hosting include, Reseller web hosting, Shared web hosting service, Grid hosting, Colocation hosting and clustered hosting.

The most common type of service offered by web host companies is the general internet access plan. This package provides all of the services mentioned above as well as site design and email access, billing information available online, content management, technical information, and backup services.

When selecting a web host provider you can use certain parameters to make a decision based on the important information you will need to have a good experience. Some of the important aspects to consider are Uptime, amount of disk space, bandwidth, support, and security socket layer availability. The top 5 companies that offer web hosting services are listed below selected for their abilities in these areas.

Top 5 hosting companies are mentioned below:

1. Hostmonster- Hostmonster has provided a large scale solution to customers since 1996. They are known to provide quality services at a lower cost. With secure and reliable backups provided by this company can considerably benefit the users. At the knowledge base of the company website visitors can get a clear picture of the company and its performances.

The variety of features this company offers are:

* Customer domain name

* Data Storage service

* Email addresses

* Additional domains

* Domain parking capability

* World-class service and technology

* e-commerce features

* multimedia features

* site promotions

* web site promotions

2. Inmotion hosting: This world-wide service provider has clients that span the globe. They are flexible and reliable and enjoy many praises from their customers. They have won the Top Business Host Award 2008 and are listed in the top 10 hosting companies. They have awards for all of their specific services in 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008. They have served the internet community since 2001 with dedication and diligence. They share a partnership with CNET as a certified service provider, the BBB, and as an SWsoft official partner. The services they provide include:

* A dedicated server availability

* Dedicated server provisions

* Business Class hosting

* Cheap personal web hosting

* Management capability

3. Bluehost: This is one of the top hosting companies that have been serving its client since 1996. High quality customer service and maximum uptime are just small parts of the huge range of services offered by the company. High quality server environment, control panel and security features add up to the services rendered by this company. The reliability offered by this company has provided beneficial over the time. Both company and its clients are benefited by the wide array of services.

Apart from the basic web hosting services, the company offers:

* Plug-ins for scripts such as forum, polls and serveys, moodle, nuke, and Tikiwiki along with many others.

* E-commerce availability with shipping cart, shopping cart, and a password protection on their directories along with other features.

* Multimedia features and world class technology are also there in the list.

4. RackSpace Inc: This company is based in the UK and registered there as Rackspace Ltd. It began in 1996 and never looked back. They are known as one of the most exceptional companies in Europe. Their client roster includes many large companies including: Confused.com, The Army Renault, OnSpeed, Vue, and Renault. Rackspace was included in 'The Sunday Times' list of 2007 best companies.

* The company has solutions for small, medium and large businesses

* Managed and green configuration service.

* Visualization

* Security services

* Database

* Database services

* Storage backup

* Administration and reporting

5. Godaddy.com: Godaddy is one of the Internet's most popular web hosts amoungst personal and business web host customers. They are flexible and authentic and have awards in their list that provide good proof of the quality of their service and their prominence in the industry of web hosting. They use lucrative discounts and promotions to entice customers which can be valuable for those seeking cheap hosting service. Along with their discounts they continue to offer the same services as big host services.

A sample of the services offered by this company are:

* 20% discounts on packages

* Web developers and expanded websites also qualify for the offer

* Easy to use site builders

* Site Builders

* Websites for both commerce and business

* Private auction functions

* Reseller ability




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