LooseSuits

I use dreamhost, and firmly believe there is none better!

Their support is awesome, so there is nothing to worry about there.

When you sign up, you can use the code: 50CHEAP to get $50 off of your first payment. If you decide to pay monthly (9.95), the promo code will knock off the $50 setup fee, and if you decide to pay yearly (7.95), there is no setup fee so you get $50 off your years payment!

There is a 97 day trial period for no matter which hosting period you choose, so I suggest trying out yearly (you can cancel within 97 days for a full refund)!

Either way, GOOD LUCK!!

For $7 monthly, you really can't expect much. I think anywhere you go with that budget you'll be experiencing very similar levels of service.

I was in the process of registering with dreamhost until I thought of posting here. My budget is not $7, I was just giving you an idea of what I'm paying right now. Thanks for the replies.

I would continue that registration! You won't regret it.

...and if you do, you can cancel w/in 90 days!!

I am also looking for a host. I currently do not have one and I'm thinking of starting a personal blog for all things I'm interested in (sports, video games, web development, etc).

I've heard that dreamhost has had a good bit of downtime lately. Is this true? There prices are great and they have everything I'm interested in using (php5, wordpress, etc).

I was looking at hostmonster. Any thoughts?

The following is concerning MY experience with Dreamhost:

I notice that at times it is not quite as FAST as GoDaddy, and tends to have a bit more downtime (GoDaddy is 99.9% uptime). When I say this, I am in no way saying that it is slow, or has too much downtime! It is perfectly fine for me.

Dreamhost has much better service than any other hosting company I've used. They ALWAY warn before there is downtime.

You probably heard that because there was downtime about a week ago (this was for about 5 hours in the late night and early morning). They warned users a week ahead of time.

In fact, they always warn us a week ahead of time! That was the second downtime I've experienced in my 6+ months with them. It's really nothing to worry about!

DreamHost also has:
# 100+ GB Storage (It's always going up)
# 1+ TB Bandwidth
# Unlimited e-mail accounts
# Host unlimited domains
# PHP/MySQL/CGI/Jabber
# Ruby
# Web control panel
# "One-click Installs" of software (Including WordPress, and WordPress upgrades)
# Referral rewards systems

I love it!

Also, don't forget about the code: 50CHEAP to get $50 off your purchase instantly.

Dreamhost has had a lot of downtime lately. I do not use Dreamhost but many 9rules members do. Chunks of 9rules is inaccessible when Dreamhost goes down so I am acutely aware of their downtime unfortunately.

A lot of our members (and 9rules) uses Media Temple (I personally do not - I rent a dedicated server from a data center). Jason is on notes, I can give you his email address so you can discuss your needs and see if it is a good match (I STRONGLY suggest everyone do that before signing up with a host). I can honestly say I do not see massive downtime issues with Media Temple as I do Dreamhost. Media Temple had some issues with grid but they seemed to have cleared it up (again, if you want talk to Jason, he'll answer any questions you might have). They host a lot of high traffic sites like Sony, L'Oreal, and TechCrunch.

I know a couple of people who use GoDaddy and are pleased with it. They were featured on Digg, their site didn't skip a beat. That's impressive.

You can also go to webhostingtalk.com and do a search for a host. You'll receive some honest feedback there. Very friendly environment.

Good luck :)

If you want $90 off your first purchase, use: "DREAMKITTEN" as the coupon code

I'm a firm proponent of 1&1 Hosting. They came to North America about 2 years ago, and offered an incredible deal to new signups. Our company went with them, and have been completely happy ever since. They are a UK-based company, and they're serious about bandwidth. I currently have an entire dedicated server package from them, and for about $100/month I get my own P4-2.8GHz / 1gb RAM box, 80gb of space, 80gb of FTP backup space, and inSANE bandwidth. They are never down (ok maybe 99.999999% uptime), and their customer service is great (although I haven't had to deal with them much, and that's a good thing!).

The 1&1 Site has all the info, and they also offer Shared Hosting packages for all types of servers if that's what you're in the market for...

ok when you need hosting you are looking for mainly

[1] good support
[2] good amount of space
[3] good amount of bandwidth
[4] uptime

well with Servage you will get 250gb space and 2100gb bandwidth at just $6.45 per month..

and what i like most there is.. their amazing support. they are very good in email support the always replay within half an hour or max. one hour.. their average replay time is just 20mins.

and will you believe that since last 6 months I haven't faced any min downtime..

only drawbacks there is they dont have any good control panel and no reseller plan.. though you can host unlimited domains

BUT THEY HAVE ALL THOSE FEATURES YOU REALLY NEED. like email, database, anti spam plugin.. pre installed scripts..

and yes can earn free hosting to if you refer new customers to them .. what else you need?

I love dreamhost. It is cheap, and quite reliable (except for that time last month where there was something like 12 hours of downtime).

Thanks for the input everyone! Hosts to consider:
-Dreamhost
-Hostmonster
-Media Temple
-Go Daddy
-Servage
-1&1
-asmallorange

and thus the search begins :)

I use Site5 for all my hosting needs.

I have been with them for nearly three years. Aside from great customer service (ticket based), I have never had any of my websites experience downtime outside of scheduled updates.

Site5 constantly has promotions going on for their hosting plans. Typically the price you pay at signup is the price you pay at renewal, which is something I found different with other hosts. Right now they have "the totally ridiculous five dollar deal".

Something I find totally neat is that they have "Flashback". Flashback allows me to restore files and folders that I delete (when I'm being a spaz) instead of having to wait for someone to restore files for me.

Anyway, great host, I highly recommend them.

If you sign up with Site5, consider using my referral link. :D

DREAMHOST!

I ditched mt because of them

Have you seen Surpass Hosting? I don't host with them (I use (mt)), but a friend pointed them out to me a while back and they seem decent.

Hostgator has been solid for me for the last 3 years. You might want to check them out too.

Hostgator nuke your site if you come anywhere near using more than your allotted CPU. It's almost funny watching them drop to their knees on Digg.

@ Winnopeg: Thanks for that Surpass link. They look pretty promising for a couple projects that I'll be working on.

Dreamhost is awesome.

I'm using DreamHost & BlueHost both now,if you are in the first year with DH,It might be really cheap,$22.4 in the 1st year,but DH always has downtime so you should think about it.BlueHost is fine but they allow you host only 6 domains I can't bear it.There is no code for BlueHost so you need to pay more if you decide to buy BlueHost's hosting. In short,both has it own benefits,you'd better think twice before you make a decision.

Tyme: Could you possibly give me Jason's address? I am currently looking for a new host and want to see if (mt) is right for me. Although I have a limited budget (hey: I'm 14), I have heard nothing but good things about them.

DreamHost does look very tempting since $20 a year is hard to beat. Since I have waited a long time, I need to choose fast. Since DreamHost has a 97 day money-back guarantee.

Still, (mt) sounds great.

I personally prefer ADMHosting. I've used them for a long time, and had much success. They're not a big corporate company, so you won't get 200 gigs of bandwidth and 20 gigs of space without paying it's worth, but most people don't need that anyway (and it sounds like you don't).

What ADMHosting offers is premium hosting on high-end servers. Since I have been with them (over a year now), they have had 99% uptime, with the exception of server upgrades (one or two). If your looking for strong, reliable hosting, I'd go with ADM.

HyperSpin Report
Geek Certified Report

Good luck!

"they have had 99% uptime, with the exception of server upgrades"

that should certainly count towards downtime.. because it's still time.. that is down!

Jackosh: Well, even if you include those, it is still 99% uptime, but I see what you're saying.

I'm on TextDrive. But shared hosting is shared hosting. If you're on dedicated, of course you're going to have six 9's uptime. If you're on shared, three 9's is max. Usually a lot less (with the exception of GoDaddy.)

For affordable quality, you won't do much better than icdsoft.com. Neither trendy nor well-known, but it's difficult to beat the price/feature combination.