| Are you launching a website? If so, you'll quickly | | | | customers plenty of room to grow. Their smallest |
| find that not all web hosting companies are | | | | plan is just $7.95 and includes 15,000 MB storage, |
| created equally. Things you should look for in a | | | | 500 GB transfer, unlimited emails, CPanel with |
| provider are reliability, price, responsiveness, | | | | Fantastico, free domain registration for life, PHP, |
| security and a comprehensive control panel, some | | | | Perl, SiteStudio and osCommerce. For larger |
| even offering basic website design set-up. While | | | | companies, MidPhase offers shared, dedicated and |
| most hosting companies are resellers, we looked | | | | Virtual Private Servers (VPS), a step in between |
| for those with full control over their data centers. | | | | shared and dedicated hosting plans. They have a |
| We researched several hosting services to | | | | history of reliable technical support issue resolution, |
| compile a list of the Top Web Hosting Lucky | | | | with phone ticket issues resolved in just about 15 |
| Seven list. | | | | minutes on average. |
| No. 1: IX Web Hosting , in business since 1999, | | | | No. 5: ANHosting was established in 2001 and has |
| offers exceptional customer satisfaction rankings, | | | | quickly risen into a multi-million dollar web hosting |
| fast load times and superior reliability. The | | | | company with three offices in two countries. |
| company gives discounts on longer billing cycles, | | | | They offer 17 GB disk space, 500 GB data |
| either quarterly, semi-annually, annually or every | | | | transfer, ten domains, free domain for life, 30-day |
| two years. They offer a full money-back | | | | money-back guarantee, PHP, Perl, Python, GCC, |
| guarantee including setup fees. The company's | | | | RoR, unlimited MySQL databases, Frontpage |
| uptime records are high, with overall reliability at | | | | extensions, a free website builder and 24/7 phone |
| 99.9 percent. Their data centers are complete | | | | and email support with every plan. Services begin |
| with firewalls, leading security and CISCO | | | | at a low $6.95 and scales upward from there. The |
| state-of-the-art routers. The company uses | | | | largest plan gives you access to the Fantastico |
| H-Sphere technology to support their control | | | | script library, Site Studio, Agora cart, |
| panel, giving customers superb back-end plan | | | | osCommerce, SpamAssasin and unlimited emails. |
| management. You can add and remove domains, | | | | Their support is exceptional, with a solid track |
| control email and FTP accounts, auto responders, | | | | record and phone ticket resolution averaging just |
| MIME types, PHP/ASP configuration, mySQL, | | | | 15 minutes. |
| PostgreSQL and MMSQL databases. | | | | No. 6: HostExcellence , founded in 2002, offers a |
| No. 2: Lunar Pages , established in 2000, offers | | | | broad selection of hosting plans and competitive |
| basic hosting plans from just $6.95 per month, | | | | pricing. They deliver reliable services with hardly |
| which includes 400 gigabytes of data transfer, | | | | no outages. The company uses two redundant |
| unlimited MySQL databases, e-commerce, blog, | | | | fiber-optic connections in their datacenter, using |
| forum and photo gallery functionality. This also | | | | their own fiber-optic look. So uptime is not tied to |
| includes a free domain name for life plus one | | | | telephone companies for the last mile. Host |
| additional add-on domain. Their datacenter includes | | | | Excellence also has multiple connections to Tier1 |
| Dell Power Edge 2650 servers and | | | | network providers. Their customer service record |
| state-of-the-art infrastructure. Servers are | | | | is superb, offering 24/7 live chat and sales |
| multi-home, connecting to premium Tier-1 | | | | services plus online trouble ticket submission. |
| Backbone providers for optimal performance. The | | | | No. 7: Easy CGI , delivers exceptional Windows |
| company offers CPanel 5 back-end control for | | | | hosting at competitive pricing. Their core |
| email management, password and FTP login | | | | foundation lies on industry-leading technology |
| changes plus website statistics. LunarPages also | | | | including n+1 redundancy. So should a power |
| delivers outstanding technical and customer | | | | failure occur, a fire erupt or HVAC systems |
| support. | | | | falter, the company has both primary and |
| No. 3: BlueHost in existence since 1996, offers an | | | | secondary back-up plans in place. They provide |
| extensive script library including blogs, forums, | | | | the same 24/7 support you receive from our |
| calendars and portals, commerce functionality, | | | | first six providers, as well as a toll-free access |
| SSL support, free domain registration, | | | | number. The company offers a range of hosting |
| osCommerce, Spam Assassin and secure email. | | | | plans, from an email only hosting plan, at just |
| Their smallest plan begins at $7.95 per month and | | | | $3.96 per month, to their enterprise plan at $21.56 |
| delivers 15,000 MB storage, 400 GB transfer and | | | | per month. Their administrative control panel |
| 2,500 emails. The company provides reliable | | | | provides outstanding webmail, web-based FTP, |
| backups, functional administration, leading-edge | | | | reseller tools, disk/bandwidth usage, DNS |
| equipment and outstanding customer service. | | | | administration, WWW password protection and |
| No. 4: MidPhase boasts more than 40,000 | | | | more. |
| customers, all earned over just the past few | | | | When shopping around, consider a ten-year plan |
| years. The company offers the ideal hosting | | | | for your business. Most companies stay with the |
| platform for small companies and individuals. They | | | | hosting provider they begin with, as switching can |
| provide unmetered bandwidth on higher level plans | | | | be complicated and cause some downtime. Our |
| and high bandwidth on lower plans, giving | | | | Lucky Top Seven should be an excellent start. |