Hosting recommendations/quotes

[Miranda Stamp]

I know this old chestnut regularly does the rounds but can't find a recent thread, or who was recommended the last time around.

I'm reviewing my hosting,, currently Actinic V7, using HSBC Secure ePayments. (if that makes any difference)

Am looking for a minimal hassle minimum downtime host, Current bandwidth usage for past 6 months (our busy season) 10.06Gb per month. Ideally contactable at this time of night when I've done something drastically wrong...!! Must be at a reasonable rate, things are on the leaner side this year.

If anyone would like to quote me for this my email is quote@twinkleontheweb.co.uk

Thanks

[buspassjohn]

You might like to take a look at http://www.saffas.com/ we used them until we needed a dedicated server and went to 1and1, the saffas service was impeccable.

[pnagames]

i would recommend pinbrook.

very good value for money in my opinion and all my queries are dealt very fast (i think the longest took a few hours) (typical times are 1 hour max)

they are very friendly and they look after their customers very carefully.

and the other plus is that Jo is very knowledgeable in Actinic with active participation in these forums

[Jan]

Me too Miranda, I have a dedicated server with Jo (Pinbrook), it is semi managed so I don't have to do anything but use it, which is nice.

Don't usually like to recommend web hosting but as I know you well Miranda I thought I would today.

Regards,

[TraceyHand]

me three.... and you'll find Jo up at ridiculous hours of the night too dealing with us lot!!!

Poor Jo
LOL

[Miranda Stamp]

Thanks all, am considering my options...

[chris ashdown]

I have one site on Hanson and find we have had no problems this last (First) year, along with a good selection of tools to play with if required

[freakmode]

http://www.clook.co.uk/

Best hosting service we have ever used and we have been with a few over the years.

[runningwolf]

Every couple of weeks I look at hosting companies to see where I should go to when I finally bite the bullet and upgrade my hosting but I always give up frustrated and confused.
I dont want to make a bad choice but I look at someone like clook and see it will cost £80 a year then at others that for what seems to me the same service but over £700. I always end up too scared of making a bad decision that I stay put.
There seems to be a huge variation in prices out there and for many of us I imagine we find it hard to see why that is.

In a way I think this is even worse than getting a new mortgage
Are there any independant hosting provider advisors out there to advise on what package fits your business the best?

Cheers
Paul
www.theorderofinitiative.co.uk

[pinbrook]

The best place to get advice is from the people in this forum who will be able to tell you of their experiences with Actinic compatible hosts. Or the Actinic site for their approved hosts. You would have to be careful with independant hosting consultants - do they know the scripting processing requirement, are they tied to other hosts (like Financial Advisors)

Sadly though people who recommend their host often don't tell you why it is the best host for them, as there are lots of different factors as to why a host is good or bad.

But here are a few ideas to ponder on?

Where do I want my site to be hosted? if your business targets the Uk ideally you should have UK hosting - for SEO purposes. If you are international you can go the the US and benefit from cheaper prices (US generally has cheaper telecomms bills, larger economies of scale and cheaper energy - for example the electricity bill in our data centre has risen by 90% this year).

What speed do I want my site to run at? Large Actinic sites that sit on shared hosting often have to compete for resourses which can be are restricted to processor speed and bandwidth available - hence cheaper hosting can adversely affect sales if too many sites are crammed on to one server.

Do i want to know there is someone on the end of a phone 24/7? or am I happy with email support/office hour support. Do I want my host to have expertise in Actinic or am I sufficiently skill to be able to manage the site myself without to much support.

What extras do I want thrown in, or am I happy to pay per extra ie spam filters, anti-virus, webstats, webmail, MySQL databases, unlimited email addresses.

Do I want to be a small cog in a large wheel (large faceless hosting company) or do I want to pay for a bit of personal attention.


The list could go on... maybe others can add to it. And we can thus build up hosting recomendations to something better than a list of "I use ...."

[acompton]

£80 a year then at others that for what seems to me the same service but over £700

I'm paying £30/year for 50Mb disk and 500Mb/month bandwidth (I'm using nearly 3Gb/month, but no-one has complained). Also includes more tools than I can shake a stick at.

www.kcchosting.com

I suspect its a one man band and may not be his only job, but I've had no complaints so far, and no reliability problems. I had no problems setting up Actinic (but I am vaguely computer-literate).

Alan