Hostgator Review

Hostgator Web Hosting Review
Mid-Large High-Quality Web Hosting Service Provider

HostGator Hosting is among the largest web site hosting service providers. This is the Web Site Hosting Reviews review of the HostGator web hosting services.

HostGator is among our favorite shared or dedicated hosting providers, if not our favorite host. Their structure is geared towards providing a relatively high-performance hosting especially for shared hosting services. We are not saying you always will achieve faster access for a HostGator hosting hosted web site, but chances are they will be among the best performing. How do they do that? Good careful policing avoiding spam providers, pricing to benefit quality sites, and great technology. For most webmasters this is the key combination - which is why HostGator hosting is among our favorites.

In our review of the leading web hosting providers, we rated HostGator hosting within the hosting providers "who could be giants". HostGator, along with aPlus Hosting, Host Monster and StartLogic hosting are the leading candidates to reach the top tier in terms of size. Yahoo hosting has broken into that group, where previously only Go Daddy Hosting (GoDaddy) and 1and1 Hosting, the European giant resided.

HostGator provides industry leading technical and customer support, leading to great loyalty among their customers. Their pricing plans provide a lot of sites, and at a mid-level pricing. The HostGator bandwidth tends a bit lower than some of the super discount providers, but the benefit is really good site performance, since servers are less likely to be clogged with spam sites. That is pretty important for shared hosting, since the practices of sites sharing your server can affect site performance. HostGator hosting is among the best at monitoring spam practices. Their technical department is also renowned in spotting bugs in hosting software shared by other hosting services too, making HostGator the leader in the hosting field.

Take A Look, HostGator Web Hosting:

HostGator Hosting offers a very wide range of hosting services, from dedicated hosting to shared hosting. What distinguishes them as well is that HostGator has a reseller plan in which other hosters use their servers and tech support, but different branding. The mix results in a major player in the web hosting field. Among the HostGator shared and dedicated hosting services are free setup for hosting service moves, good storage space and bandwidth on their mid-level plans, SSH, e-mail accounts, nice control panel, Perl, MySQL, FrontPage Extension Support, Fantastico script library, dedicated web servers, mySQL database support, ASP hosting Windows and Linux hosting.

HostGator hosting was founded in 2002 and rapidly rose to the top tier of quality shared hosting service providers on quality and top tier customer service and tech support. That enabled HostGator to rapidly expand into reseller plans, making them the destination for numerous other hosting service providers.

What HostGator says:

Hostgator is a privately owned company founded in 2002 that has no debt, is very profitable. ... We provide service to over 400,000 websites on our shared and reseller plans. We are the world's leading provider of reseller accounts with over 10,000 resellers who have chosen us to provide the network, servers, and support required to launch a hosting business.

HostGator provides a huge hosting network infrastructure based out of the Dallas, Texas metropolitan area. Their slogan is The best host. The best network. The best choice. For hundreds of thousands of websites that has been the HostGator choice so far.

Web Site Hosting Provider Data:

Name: HostGator Hosting
Category: Web Site Hosting Provider
Service Plans: Shared Hosting, Dedicated Servers, Reseller Hosting
Control Panel: Proprietary / CPanel
Fantastico: Yes
Customer Support: Good
Full .htaccess Control: Yes
E-Commerce Features: Yes
Guarantees: Yes
Price: Mid-Range
Performance: Excellent

Bluehost Review

BlueHost Web Hosting Review
Mid-Large Web Hosting Service Provider

* Updated *

BlueHost Hosting has been on the verge of breaking into the top tier of the largest web site hosting service providers but has leveled off in recent months. This is the Web Site Hosting Reviews review of Bluehost web hosting. Previously we rated Bluehost among the ranking group of hosting providers "who could be giants". BlueHost, along with Hostgator and Yahoo Hosting are the leading candidates to reach the top tier in terms of size, where presently giants Go Daddy Hosting (GoDaddy) and 1and1 Hosting, the European giant reside. How did BlueHost do it? Good, responsive and helpful technical support. They are not the only hosting service with good technical support, built up a pretty good reputation. Of late, however, we have seen some glitches in their support. With an industry as complicated as Internet web hosting, it is not surprising that support makes a difference to a lot of people - including the Web Site Hosting Reviews blog. So, we will monitor their support and revise this review as we see necessary. BlueHost has received a variety of awards. The hosting awards seem to grow on trees for hosting companies, becoming meaningless. However in the case of Bluehost hosting, there has been some merit to the praise, but whether that can continue with their growth will be a test.

Take A Look, Bluehost Hosting:

Bluehost Hosting offers a wide range of the typical hosting services, including Free Setup with plans, a lot of storage space and bandwidth, E-Mail Accounts, SSH, Perl, MySQL, FrontPage Extension Support, Fantastico script library, Web Site Builder, limited free marketing, shared hosting, dedicated web servers, mySQL database support, CPanel control panel, Windows and Linux hosting. BlueHost Internet web site hosting also offers shopping carts, SSL support and secure e-mail.

Some people have described BlueHost as for tech-savvy webmaster's. Their technical support staff sometimes will speak with you at a relatively high level. However, they also will explain things to the relative novice to web marketing, web development, and Internet programming and set-up. Of late we have seen glitches in their tech and customer support however; we will update this review further with our findings.

Founded in Utah, in 1996, BlueHost is a relative institution in the web hosting industry because of its longevity. What is most striking is they were relatively unknown until mid-2003, when they started to experience rapid growth. From almost nowhere to a top 10 or top 5 host ranking in a matter of 3 years. This shows that the Internet and the website hosting industry moves at light speed when the word gets around. And with BlueHost, the word has gotten around. The rapid growth has brought a few speed bumps along the way, as with most hosters, but the BlueHost hosting management has dealt quite well, which has led to pretty solid customer satisfaction ratings.

What BlueHost says:

BlueHost is here to secure your business. We are confident we can provide you with the highest level of support with our friendly and patient support staff waiting to address your needs. Our veteran hosting team knows what it takes to be the best and how we can help make your site a success.

We view this as a down-to-earth recognition that for most people their website is a business, even if a hobby-business. Businesses want no-nonsense service, BlueHost usually understands that.

Web Site Hosting Provider Data:

Name: Bluehost Hosting
Category: Web Site Hosting Provider
Service Plans: Shared Hosting, Dedicated Servers
Control Panel: CPanel
Fantastico: Yes
Customer Support: Good
Full .htaccess Control: Yes
E-Commerce Features: Yes
Guarantees: Yes
Price: Mid

MidPhase Review

MidPhase Hosting Review
Mid-Size Web Hosting Service Provider

This is the Web Site Hosting Reviews blog review of MidPhase web hosting. MidPhase Hosting is a mid-sized web hosting service provider, that experienced heavy growth in 2003-2005 and now is maturing. MidPhase Hosting was founded in 2003, and skyrocketed on the basis of their technology, pricing and responsive customer service. This growth enabled two acquisitions in 2004 including the acquisition of ANHosting, a relative industry veteran. We previously reviewed ANHosting and follow the link for that review. MidPhase Hosting presently boasts hosting over 40,000 Internet websites in over 140 countries.

Take A Look, MidPhase Hosting:

MidPhase hosting offers a variety of service plans to fit different size users. Their pricing is in the Low-mid range. Their plan offerings include muli- and unlimited domain shared hosting plans, virtual private servers (VPS) and dedicated web servers. Both Linux and Windows hosting options are available.

MidPhase Hosting gives some assurances to new users and transferring webmasters. Their customer service has been responsive in assisting with domain and website transfer. MidPhase Hosting provides a web site design tool to assist new Internet webmasters, and also using their Unix (or Linux) hosting plans the Fantastico script library is provided, allowing for quick and easy installation of popular scripts for forums, blogs, galleries, wikis, calendars, portals and so on. More experienced Internet webmasters are provided a range of development tools, whether under Windows (PHP, Perl, ASP.Net, MySQL, Access) or Unix (PHP, Perl, MySQL) hosting plans.

MidPhase web hosting like ANHosting web hosting, provides the CPanel control panel, which is popular in providing a clean clean and intuitive user interface, which also is widely familiar.

MidPhase Hosting says its mission is to "provide the absolute best web hosting by focusing on speed, price and reliability." MidPhase web hosting provides a lot of its shared and dedicated hosting philosophy on their site:

An idea and no money.

It started with an idea and less than two thousand dollars. It grew to thousands of customers, in hundreds of countries. From no revenue to millions in annual revenues.

In May of 2003, two college students working from different locations came together with the idea to start a web hosting provider that provided reliable solutions at affordable prices. At the time, there were plenty of hosting providers offering hosting services at under ten dollars a month, but there was a serious lack of business-reliable hosting in that price market, which is what became the focus for midPhase.

Provider Data:

• Name: midPhase Hosting


• Category: Web Site Hosting Provider


• Service Plans: Shared Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, Virtual Private Servers, Windows Hosting, Unix / Linux Hosting Plans


• Control Panel: CPanel


• Fantastico: Yes


• Customer Support: Good


• Full .htaccess Control: Yes


• E-Commerce Features: Yes


• Guarantees: Yes


• Price: Low-Mid

ANHosting Review

AN Hosting Review
Mid-Size Web Hosting Service Provider
This is the Web Site Hosting Reviews review of ANHosting, a mid-sized web hosting service provider. ANHosting was founded in 2001, making it a veteran of the personal and small business web hosting service provider industry. Their name has become relatively venerable for good customer service. In 2004 AN Hosting was acquired by a larger hosting service provider, MidPhase hosting who this web hosting review blog also has reviewed (follow the link). The acquisition enabled continuing the ANHosting brand and providing a larger backbone for the hosting and customer service.

Take A Look, ANHosting:

ANHosting has a reputation as a destination for webmasters and websites deciding to switch hosters. The advantage is they have experience with helping webmasters move the files and databases that make up a hosted website, and also in patience for learning a new control panel. ANHosting says that over half their new customers have switched to ANHosting from another website hoster. Their promise is to do most of the "dirty work" for the webmaster making the move, including a free domain name transfer if that is needed.

For new users, ANHosting is assuring for newbies to website hosting services. Their promise is no knowledge of computer code is needed and they will make "running a website point & click". Their all inclusive hosting package is also directed to making the web hosting experience relatively seamless.

ANHosting web hosting also provides a custom CPanel control panel, which is popular partly because it promotes ease of use, via a clean and intuitive icon based user interface. Fantastico also is provided to make installation of dozens of the most popular PHP packages fast 'n easy.

Web Site Hosting Provider Data:

Name: ANHosting
Category: Specialized Web Site Hosting Provider
Service Plans: Shared Hosting, mega-plan
Control Panel: CPanel
Fantastico: Yes
Customer Support: Good
Full .htaccess Control: Yes
E-Commerce Features: Yes
Guarantees: Yes
Price: Low