Hi,
We are in the process of remaking our team website entirely from scratch (HTML), and I was wondering if anybody knows a good web hosting site they like in particular, and for what reasons?
-Preferably free but payed is okay.
-Very reliable
-Efficient web server
-Lots of available memory
If it doesn’t match these descriptions still please post your recommendation.
We use AcornHost’s non-profit plan. You don’t get much in terms of disk and bandwidth resources (ie they probably aren’t overselling like pretty much every other host, though I’m not sure), but it’s relatively cheap and the service is excellent.
Cyber Blue 234 is switching all of their hosted sites to Godaddy.com hosting. It is very cheap and very reliable and offers all levels of server access that you need.
They were good and cheap for things like simple sites but if you did a CMS like joomla it could not handle it. They had the database servers and web servers on different machines and it didn’t work well. From midnight to 5 am it ran okay but as their overall traffic picked up the db servers really got tired.
We switched to bluehost.com and they have been FANTASTIC. The mysql database and web server is on the same machine. Very good performance for a joomla site. Excellent tech support. For CMS type sytems they blow the doors off of Godaddy.
All this information is based on the state of affairs two years ago. It may be complete bunk now !!
I’ve used godaddy, and i’ve not used but heard good things about 1&1 and host gator. If i had the money, i’d use mediatemple. But most the websites that people are suggesting are very known and reliable. But i’d reckamend you’d put a little more description of what you want the hosting for because html and lots of memory/space is not something you really put together. Most non-free sites are not free because they are offering php/asp.net/linux/etc. You could probably get a free domain and host for the html, and use a free dns forwarding to host the big files on your own computer/sever.
(Also, if your using a database, my personal luck with godaddy has been fine (MSSQL and MySQL), but it could depend on time zones, and the way your database is set up. Customer service was excellent to, i broke one of their databases and they fixed it within 2 days. hehe
I’ve heard good things about HostGator. I’ve also heard amazing things about 1&1 UNTIL there’s a problem. Unless you get “LUCKY” there is virtually no customer support.
MediaTemple is expensive because it deserves to be. The biggest testament is when I called customer support and the guy remembered me. I don’t call them that much, I don’t consider it creepy, rather, I consider it as good and amazing customer service reps who are passionate to work with you. They will run tests on your servers, they will set up “hello world” apps on your ruby/python services to show you how its deployed, etc. They debug your code and notify you when you tax the system abnormally, instead of closing your account… etc. By the way, MediaTemple admin panel is amazing…
Though, for sake of bang for buck, I’d go with DreamHost or HostGator… or again, Team 2502 will host you on our MediaTemple service…
You have more guts than me. I wouldn’t do a whole site for an FRC team from scratch. Admittedly, I do websites for a living so the less time I can spend messing with HTML/CSS the happier I will be. Personally, I would use a CMS for the majority of your site. Not only does it allow you to spend more time on content (which is more important than being a custom designed thing) but it allows you to offload some of the content generation to other people. But don’t let me sound like I am saying DON’T do it, just proposing an alternative.
I have to comment here, having your web server and your database on separate boxes should make very little difference. Where I work our database is on several different boxes and the limit is not the connection between the database and the server it was the amount of data one can cram down and internet tube. I’m not saying you are wrong in saying GoDaddy did not work for you but I do feel that perpetuating a rumor that having two different machines somehow impacts performance negatively would be wrong.
Sorry this post doesn’t add any new hosting services.
While I’ve never hosted an FRC website with it, I’ve heard good things about FellowSites. Great support from a not-for-profit business with a customizable plan and flexible payment.
An old member of team 616 has a server with Dreamhost and offers free hosting to FRC teams. Go to http://www.usfirsthost.com/ to contact him about setting something up. He currently hosts 6 teams there.
Thankfully, one of our mentors in our first year (Overdrive), who is a tech staffer at our school, got in touch with CTC (local telecommunications company - telephone, websites, etc) and got us free hosting.
Personally I use Servage, though I wouldn’t recommend it for hosting a team website.
For hosting a team website, I’d go with Dreamhost or probably any of the other options offered here.