The September 2005 Cheap Web Hosting Report
Below are the top five general purpose cheap web hosts selected
for September 2005. All of the following hosting plans include a
web control panel, a cgi-bin directory, php, perl, and at least
1 mysql database. Many offer a number of additional features.
Our ratings are re-evaluated monthly, with a major re-evaluation
of customer ratings every three months.
About the CWHR Rating: This number (from a low of 1 to a high of
10) is a weighted average of customer ratings of the web host
(80%) and the staff evaluation of the web host (20%). Customer
ratings are themselves weighted by the length of time the person
has been using their web host. Customers who have hosted with a
company for years count more than a customer who has hasted
there for a couple of months. As our rating is mainly determined
by customers of web hosts, our rating is less likely to be gamed
by staff evaluators playing favorites or web hosts giving our
staff special treatment. The CWHR Ranking determines the sites
we list each month and the order in which we list them. A CHWR
Rating of “NA” means not enough customers rated this host for a
meaningful result. This rating is only found in the special
needs hosting section.
Top Five General Purpose Cheap Web Hosts for September
2005
#1 — Dre
amhost http:/
/www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zdreamhost.php
Price: 1m: .95 1y: .95 2y: .95 Setup: 1m: .95 1y: Free
2y: Free Bandwith: 120 GB Disk Space: 2400 MB Mailboxes: 600
CWHR Rating: 9.6
Special Features: 75 shell/ftp accounts, php4/php5/cgi/fastcgi/
unlimited mysql databases, ruby-on-rails, zend optimizer,
Frontpage available, host 3 domains and 15 sub-domains, 1 free
domain name. Excellent customer support (with public customer
forum).
Comments: Dreamhost has long been — and still is — listed as
the best affordable web host for unusual content (as they will
host just about anything legal) in the Special Needs Hosting
section of this report. Improvements in their plans in the last
year have made them very competitive in terms of bandwidth, web
space, and features offered for the price, and they are
extremely well-rated by their customers.
New and improved features are announced in the Dreamhost
newsletter almost every month, for example, the June 2005
newsletter announced the availability of PHP5 and MySQL 4.1 and
the July 2005 announced the availability of Ruby on Rails,
FastCGI, Miva 5, the Zend Optimizer and bandwidth/disk space
amounts that grow slightly every week you are with Dreamhost (by
1 GB and 20 MB disk space for the account listed here).
Dreamhost’s customer support is the best we’ve seen in the low
cost hosting industry. If you are looking for low cost, high
quality web hosting with few content restrictions, truly
excellent tech support, and very friendly people, check out
Dreamhost. Dreamhost offers a 97-day money back guarantee, see
their web site for details. (The Cheap Web Hosting Report hosts
with Dreamhost.)
#2 — Lu
narpages http:
//www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zlunarpages.php
Price: 3m: .95 1y: .95 Setip: 3m: .00 1y: Free Bandwidth:
40 GB Disk Space: 1000 MB Mailboxes: unlimited CWHR Rating: 9.1
Special Features: Storage can be increased to 3000 MB in steps,
php4/cgi/1 mysql database, Frontpage available, host 1 domain
and 15 sub-domains, Fantastico script library. JSP and ASP
available for additional charge. Public customer forum.
Comments: Lunarpages has been in the low cost web hosting
business since 2000 when Add2Net expanded into shared hosting.
While their customer rating fluctuates more than most hosting
companies we list, it is alway high and long time customers seem
very loyal. Their support for controversial content is second
only to Dreamhost among low-priced web hosts. Lunarpages offers
a 30-day money back guarantee, see their terms of service for
details.
#3 —
InMotion
http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zinmotionhosting.php
Price: 6m: .95 1y: .95 Setup: 6m: 1y: free Bandwidth:
100 GB Disk Space: 8000 MB Mailboxes: 400 CWHR Rating: 9.0
Special Features: php/cgi/5 mysql databases, Frontpage
available, host 1 domain and 5 sub-domains.
Comments: InMotion Hosting is an employee owned and operated
company founded in 2001. Their employees average over 4 years of
hosting experience while their senior staff average over 10
years of hosting experience. This shows it their higher than
normal customer rating. The Power plan listed here is actually
InMotion’s intermediate plan. (InMotion offer an ever lower
priced plan, Launch, but it lacks some features most people
consider critical, such as access to your web sites log files
for traffic analysis.) The Power plan offers evey features most
web sites need and comes with InMotion’s reputation for
reliability and toll-free telephone support. InMotion offers a
money back guarantee, although its terms are somewhat unclear –
if these terms were not so vague, InMotion’s CWHR Ranking would
be slightly higher.
#4 — Ho
stRocket http:
//www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zhostrocket.php
Price: 3m: .95 1y: .95 Setup: 3m: Free 1y: Free Bandwidth:
50 GB Disk Space: 1000 MB Mailboxes: unlimited CWHR Rating: 8.1
Special Features: php/cgi/10 mysql databases, Frontpage
available, host 1 domain and unlimited sub-domains. 50
preinstalled scripts.
Comments: Founded in 1999, HostRocket is a popular web hosting
company that is well-rated by its customers. They greatly
expanded their offerings in 1994 and are now very competitive in
bandwidth, disk space, and features. HostRocket often runs very
nice short-term specials, check their web site for details.
HostRocket offers a 30-day money back guarantee, see their terms
of service for details.
#5 — Netf
irms http://
www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/znetfirms.php
Price: 1y: .95 Setup: 1y: Free Bandwidth: 100 GB Disk Space:
2000 MB Mailboxes: 100 CWHR Rating: 7.8
Special Features: php/cgi/10 mysql databases, Frontpage support,
two free domain names, free CD with NetObjects Fusion 7.
Comments: Founded in 1998, Netfirms rapidly acquired a
reputation for affordable, reliable web hosting. Although aimed
at business hosting, Netfirms hosts sites of all types”
personal, hobby, business, weblog, and more. Their Netfirms
Advantage plan is full of useful features and should handle
almost any personal or small business web site. Netfirms offers
a 30-day money back guarantee, see their terms of service for
details.
Honorable Mention
The following web hosts also rated quite well in customer
ratings and might also be worthy of consideration: * BlueHos
t (CWHR Rating: 7.4) http://
www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zbluehost.php * PowWeb (CWHR Rating: 7.1) http://ww
w.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zpowweb.php * APlus
(offers both Unix and Windows hosting; CWHR Rating: 6.5) http://www
..cheapwebhostingreport.com/zaplus.php * iPower
Web (CWHR Rating: 5.8)
