Have you had enough of your current web host provider? I’ve been there a number of times over the years. The state of web hosting is now to the point where the only web hosting companies you should consider are ones that provide:

  1. hosting of multiple domains on a single account for $8 a month or less (don’t EVER go with a hosting company that charges you for EACH domain you host with them…that is a HUGE waste of money).
  2. free transfer of your existing web site should you decide to switch
  3. at least 99.9% up time of their servers
  4. responsive, technically savvy tech support people (not salespeople in tech support people’s clothing) that are 100% fluent in English
  5. have a growth path for your site should it “take off” (can you easily switch to dedicated hosting? Virtual hosting? Linux? Windows?)
  6. give you a money-back guarantee (there are lots of places you can go, so they better put their money where their mouths are)
  7. free website templates (lots…not just 10 or 20)
  8. easy control panel to administer your account (cpanel works well)
  9. support all programming environments you might want to use (php, python, perl, mysql, cron jobs, etc.)
  10. a one-touch install of common web applications

And that’s only what I can think of off of the top of my head.

Look, I’ve got Bachelor’s and Master’s  degrees in Computer Science and 30 years in the field as a software engineer…I know who is good and who is not. I’ve moved through several hosting companies in my time but I have been using HostGator now for years and I HIGHLY recommend them. Not only do they satisfy all of the requirements I listed above, but a whole lot more. By the way, this blog (like all of my other websites) is served up by Hostgator.

Click below to go to their site (yeah, I get a small monetary incentive to refer you to them…but I only refer to services I actually use myself…and they are my first, last, and only choice for a web-hosting company for the reasons I stated above). Save by using this coupon code: CompublabGator.


 

In case you are still not convinced that these folks are good, look at the transcript of the online chat I had today (Thanksgiving Day 2011) with their tech support over a problem I encountered logging into the shell account for my web hosting (yes, if you know what that means, they give you limited shell access to your web hosting account as well!). Please note the timestamps…the support engineer resolved my problem in two minutes…literally (the rest was just banter)!

Please note that this is the ENTIRE transcript from start to finish. The only thing missing is the question I asked upon logging in (which apparently does not go into the transcript…probably because it contains account information)…which was “why was I unable to use the shell access on my hosting account?” The system was telling me shell access for my account was not set up. Turned out I used shell access on a client’s account…not this one. Shell access must be requested in order to have access to it. As you can see by the time stamps, it was 2 minutes to have it  enabled.

Chat Transcript with HostGator Tech Support on Thanksgiving Day (11-24-2011):

(2:51 pm) System Customer has entered chat and is waiting for an agent.
(2:51 pm) Caleb M. Welcome to HostGator LiveChat. My name is Caleb. I'd be glad to assist you today.
(2:51 pm) Caleb M. I'd be happy to help you with that SSH access.
(2:51 pm) Caleb M. I will need two to three minutes to research this. Is it okay if I take this time now to do so?
(2:52 pm) Peter: Sure...I'll be here. Sorry to bug you guys on Thanksgiving...but I will say I am very glad you are there today. Hope you get to have some good Turkey!
(2:52 pm) Caleb M. This access has been enabled.
(2:52 pm) Peter: As in, you just enabled it? Or...you are confirming that I enabled it before?
(2:53 pm) Caleb M. We're glad to help! HostGator provided a truly great thanksgiving meal.
(2:53 pm) Peter: Good...you guys and gals deserve it!
(2:53 pm) Caleb M. As of this time I have enabled this, meaning it was not enabled at the time unfortunately.
(2:53 pm) Caleb M. I have not found any ticket indication as to the cause of this being disabled.
(2:54 pm) Peter: Okay. Perhaps I am confusing this account with one of my clients. Either way, I'll give it a try. Thanks for the quick help.
(2:55 pm) Peter: And...I'm in! Okay...since my SSH client says I've not recorded this server's key before, it must be that I never enabled SSH on *this* account. Thanks so much for the help. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
(2:56 pm) System Chat closed by customer request.