which host to choose out of these two?

mrben86

Hey everyone,

I've recently started doing web design work and realise I should probably get a reseller package to make a bit more money. I'm only starting out (and not finished college yet so have a tight budget!) but I think it would be better to have a hosting package that allows for seperate control panels rather than lots of add-on domains.

The two i've been looking at are letshost.ie and iccmhostimg.com
I know letshost servers are in the US, but I have a couple of domains with them and have been happy with them so far. I don't know anything about iccm and haven't seen any comments about them but they offer a very similar package but with more space and bandwidth for a cheaper price. (€156 vs €300)

I'm also considering going down the Register365.com route as I can host 25 websites from the same acocunt but won't get a seperate control panel for each, but it's much cheaper! (€40 per year). Plus their servers are based in Ireland. I wont be selling hosting as a seperate product but some of my clients might want access to the control panel...

Any opinions would be appreciated!

Thanks

forbairt

What type of sites are you going to be hosting ... ?

To be honest

Blacknight / Hosting365 / Digiweb ... seem to me to be the main players in ireland these days ... and you'll hear mixed reviews no doubt depending on who you talk to.

I'm probably no doubt leaving some people out which will make the a bit ****ed with me but they are who are use so .. can only recommend them

EKRIUQ

It depends on your sites and type of sites, apart from the Irish hosts I've read good reviews about http://www.hostgator.com/

Domains Allowed UNLIMITED
Parked Domains UNLIMITED
MySQL Databases UNLIMITED
POP3 Accounts UNLIMITED
For about $10 or €7 euro per month with Fantastico

And reseller packages for about $24.95 or €17 per month

Whoopee:D another Host thread

jmcc

mrben86 wrote: »

The two i've been looking at are letshost.ie and iccmhostimg.com

Forgive me for being cynical but iccmhosting.com isn't exactly a major player in the Irish hosting business. Letshost.ie is a major player and is in the top ten Irish hosters.

As of 01/February/2008 iccmhosting.com had the following stats:

BIONIC: 28 (Biz/Info/Org/Net/Ie/Com)
Change: 18

Given the lack of .ie domains (the bluechip domains for any hoster) it looks like a hobbyist or extremely early stage hoster on shared hosting.

Regards...jmcc

Design_Dude

Hi, im also a web designer/student and generally free hosts are bad news and should be avoided as they have a lot off downtime. However im currently running my own site and some others on this free web server site -> www.000webhost.com There full sql databases, email, ftp 99.93% uptime etc, ive had no problems at all and have been with them since last year.

mrben86

yeah I mean i'll be mostly hosting fairly small sites for the forseeable future.. thanks for the link design_dude, looks pretty good. I have used http://www.websitesnetwork.com/ as well which is similar and free but only for my own personal sites because I was a bit worried that they might be less reliable and basically didn't want to risk providing a **** host.

thanks for the feedback on iccmhosting.com - they didn't look that appealing but thought maybe they were quite new because I hadn't seen them mentioned in any other threads.

As for hostgator - they look good too. I guess its pretty much a matter of personal taste and prob doesn't make a huge diff at the end of the day. Would just like something cheap, fast and reliable but those three rarely go hand in hand!

mrben86

all well and good but a quick look at their t&c doesn't inspire me with confidence.... talk of being able to stop the service at any time without warning etc. It may be unlikely to happen but I think its worth paying a bit of money for a host that will at least be accountable if they decide to suddenly stop their service!

aidan_walsh

Charter people, thanks.

Design Dude, no referral links.

DJB

I'll advise you to check out www.blacknight.com and get a starter reseller package - great service, support, and all round friendliness!

miju

mrben86 wrote: »

all well and good but a quick look at their t&c doesn't inspire me with confidence.... talk of being able to stop the service at any time without warning etc. It may be unlikely to happen but I think its worth paying a bit of money for a host that will at least be accountable if they decide to suddenly stop their service!

well in that case don't go with letshost.ie then. have look at this thread to see why

henbane

miju wrote: »

well in that case don't go with letshost.ie then. have look at this thread to see why

Streisand effect to the max

axer

OP: I use a hosting365 enterprise account. It only costs about 121 euro or even just use the business hosting for 50 euro a year.

I give my clients free hosting or at least give them that option but I let them know that they do not have access to the control panel then. Most of them don't actually need access to the control panel unless they are fairly tech savvy - what could they need it for? setup email addresses? they can just give me a quick mail to do that.

I don't think there is enough money in reselling hosting - you are better off charging for your time instead either let them pay direct for their hosting or give them free hosting but no control panel access (you could throw in a 20 euro or so charge for the "free" hosting - call it setup fee or something )

miju: that is defamation and blah blah blah - all your websites suspended until you apologise!

mrben86

thanks axer, that does make a lot of sense. I guess one thing that put me off hosting365 was that i prefer the usability of cPanel rather than H-Sphere and the interface isn't very nice but I guess I could get over that! Also I like your "free" hosting idea lol.

I had read that very long letshost thread yesterday and while I think it was stupid of the company to react the way they did, it wouldn't really put me off hosting with them because personally I have found them very good so far.

Will probably start off with hosting365, can't really go wrong for €4 a month

Also... I'm not totally sure what the difference between windows and unix hosting is. I would probably be mostly using PHP but might use ASP.NET in the future. Would windows hosting be better in this case?

AARRRGH

mrben86 wrote: »

Will probably start off with hosting365, can't really go wrong for €4 a month

Well, lots of things can go wrong but you'll find it hard to get sympathy when you're only paying €4 per month!

How important are your websites to you?

mrben86

lol. true. still they seem like a decent irish company and it's probably a lot better than going with one of the big US companies

steve-hosting36

We provide 24/7 comprehensive support to all customers - and are here to help if you need any assistance mrben

stakey

mrben86 wrote: »

Also... I'm not totally sure what the difference between windows and unix hosting is. I would probably be mostly using PHP but might use ASP.NET in the future. Would windows hosting be better in this case?

If you're going to host PHP files but would like to dabble in ASP.net then go with a Windows account, most hosting providers will provide support to both PHP and ASP.net on any Windows plans they have! Of course you could always get a Windows account for .net and Linux for PHP, but that's a little more money.

CoNfOuNd

I've always preferred cPanel to H-Sphere. Customers are impressed by the ease of use, friendly interface and the potential for resellers.

I'd recommend you pick a few hosting companies and go to their site, compare packages, give them a call or use their live chat.

mneylon

CoNfOuNd wrote: »

I've always preferred cPanel to H-Sphere. Customers are impressed by the ease of use, friendly interface and the potential for resellers.

I'd recommend you pick a few hosting companies and go to their site, compare packages, give them a call or use their live chat.

cpanel is linux only....

While that may suit a lot of people it won't suit all of them, especially if they have legacy sites written in ASP etc.,

mrben86

So I wouldn't be able to have cpanel anyway with ASP.. well I just ordered windows hosting on hosting365.ie Thanks for the help everyone!