Who to choose for web hosting & email?

Question

Looking for suggestions on who to go with for web hosting and business email providers. We just started our REI company and are looking for the best option for a reasonable price and appreciate all suggestions greatly!

Roger Rustad · Answer

As for "business email" providers, one ghetto fabulous free way to do it is to create an account on GoDaddy and then have all mail forwarded to gmail.

You can then set your gmail to send *from* that biz address (name at yourdomain.com).  People can't tell that you're sending from gmail.

Frank N. · Answer

Google Apps is the way to go.  Remember to use two factor authentication to provide an almost bulletproof security.

Darryl D. · Answer

Please dont use GoDaddy. Worked for them, in the past, not a fun experience and feel sorry for the customers.

I like Google Apps and Bluehost.

Google is you want more of a enterprise setup for many people.

James Bowen · Answer

I know a lot of people knock GoDaddy because they're a big corporation, but I'm on the phone with registrars/hosting companies regularly (I work in digital marketing/web dev) and they have some the most competent support staff.

You can also get your first year of economy hosting for $12 using promo code 'cjcrmn1hos' (or just Google GoDaddy promo codes). I use Google Apps for Business for my email accounts ($5/mo per account, bur worth it IMO).

Gregory Beaty · Answer

I've spent the last week building out the tech for our REI company.  I'm using Google Apps.  Email/Sites/Drive/etc etc etc.

Domain name is $12/yr

Professional apps/email is $5/user/month.

I've been super happy with it so far.

Roger Rustad · Answer

I would NOT go with GoDaddy.  I have had nothing but problems for just about everything related to them (except basic registrar features).

If you want the El Cheapo option, I would actually recommend Dreamhost.  I've used them for about 10-15 years, and while they are not perfect, it is far more affordable than other options.  Plus they have an "unlimited" hosting option (~$200 / year, with some "limits") that give plenty of room to grow with whatever domain you want to park there.To buy a domain, I would recommend Hover or Namescheap.  Both of those have EXCELLENT customer service and super cheap options.  I use Namescheap for all of my free DNS hosting services.Let me know if I can help you.  I'm also happy to host whatever you want for free so you can test out Dreamhost before buying.

Zachary Corum · Answer

I have helped a few people get started with creating a website and I always suggest using Squarespace.  They have beautiful templates, and the console used for editing is really easy to figure out.

Peter P. · Answer

I would also not recommend Godaddy for a host, although I have not used them in a couple years.  After years of trying out several hosts I came up with a good solution for price and features.

I use 1and1 for my domain registrar because they include private domain registration in the $15 yearly cost.  Other places like Godaddy charge from $15-30 per year for that in addition to the domain cost.  And you definitely want private registration these days!  I do not use 1and1 for my hosting.....I am not very impressed with that service.

For a host I think there are several good options.  There are several that are competitive and have good reliability.  I settled on Hostgator as I like the cpanel and feel they have pretty quick servers.  So I forward my domains from 1and1 to my hostgator servers.  The combo works out pretty good.

One thing to watch out for specifically since this thread was talking about business email is server processes.  I found out the hard way.  To make a long story short, iphones are very bad with opening up many connections to the email server, and some hosts limit the number of connections.  So instead of just denying that request they lock out the whole account for a short amount of time.  The way I found around that was to create a job on the server to wipe out all imap connections every 15 minutes.  Works pretty well.  Only once in a great while will my mail on the iphone hollar at me.  I just close and reopen the app and all is good again.

Tim Livian · Answer

SiteGround Shared (and WordPress) hosting is awesome (https://www.siteground.com/), I recommend them to all my clients looking for a solid host, and I use them myself for some of my sites.  They've got really fast servers and they're regularly upgrading (for no additional charge).  You can set your emails up through them as well via cPanel.  They've always got some promotions going on, the trick is to prepay as far ahead as you're comfortable with to get the discount pricing for more than a month.

Also, like with all hosting providers, they try to upsell you when you checkout, so just be sure to uncheck almost all the options when you're checking out and watch as the price comes back down to earth.

For domains Namecheap or GoDaddy are good.  With the SiteGround plans you get a free domain though.

Who to choose for web hosting & email?

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