I am looking for some recommendations for a new hosting provider. My company currently has our website hosted with Go Daddy. This was recommended by a friend of ours because we did not need anything special for our website. Our website is mostly static htm pages and a few asp pages. We are on a Windows server. The reason we are on a Windows server is because our original website designer only knew asp and not php.

We want to move from Go Daddy to another hosting provider. Part of the reason is the lack of knowledge and support from them. Part is the stories of them suspending hosting accounts for little to no reason (just scares the s--t out of me). But the main reason though is because we are having major issues with email through them. There are always problems connecting to their servers, emails not going through, emails bouncing back, and other such problems.

Currently we are on the $9.95 per month Go Daddy plan. I am looking for something in the $5 - 20 per month price range that is more dependable specifically with emails and has better support than Go Daddy. I know I will not get the exact same specs as with Go Daddy but I am hoping to still get decent space and bandwidth. Our site is low traffic so we don't need a ton anyhow. And I am not looking for gold standard support but I think knowledgeable and available support is a decent expectation. I would like it to be in the US (in Las Vegas would be nice but not necessary at all). I would prefer not to pay a set-up fee but would in the right situation.

I want it to be a hosting provider that I can recommend to my clients and any future clients that may need hosting. I do not even know what other things I should be looking for in a webhost. But my site is so simple not sure if the other stuff matters at this point. And I already have someone recreating our asp pages into php so we can move to a linux server if necessary.

A few that have been mentioned are lunarpages, site5, asmallorange, dreamhost, pair and switch communications. Are these any good? Are there other hosting providers that I should be considering?

I just want to make sure I do my due diligence but am not sure what I am really looking for. I have already visited sites like whreviews.com and webhostingtalk.com but there is just too much information and contradictory opinions on every hosting provider.

Thanks in advanced for any help.

I've used pair.com for 2 years. The company I work for now has over 150 sites on it for about 5 years. I just helped switch spider-food.net over to pair as well. Everyone I know that hosts with them loves them. Tech support is great as well.

http://www.kiwihosting.net.nz has been good for me for situations similar to your needs.

right now i am considering site5, aso, or pair (in that order)

site5 - $7.77 for 11GB/400GB
Asmallorange - $10 for 1GB/25GB; $20 for 2.5GB/60GB;
Pair - $9.95 for 0.5GB/20GB; $17.95 for 1.5GB/40GB

any thoughts/recommendations/reviews?

good very good i like it very much

I know a lot of SEO's who use Pair (http://www.pair.com/) and are very happy with them.

Also, I had an issue with bogons a while ago (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=4030) and Rackspace (http://www.rackspace.com/index.php) was involved. I must admit that I was extremely impressed with them as a result - outstanding service and knowledge.

I host my own stuff on my own servers, so I really don't have an affiliation or axe to grind with anyone. I will say that most are the roughly the same except for price when things are working smoothly, so it's what happens when something goes wrong that really counts (when customer service and reliable hardware come in).

Ian

Thank Ian and everyone else.

I seem to be leaning towards Pair.com as they seem to be great for business websites. But I will also check out Rackspace.

Eventually we want to host our own servers, but since we are a new company and just growing we will start smalll.

ev1servers.net is great if you want to colo. Their customer support is awsome. They often solve problems that are completly my fault, or that should be my responsibility, without complaint.

You might also try ionhosting they are cheap and dependable. It is actually a high school kid running it somewhere, but I hosted with him for about two years, and he gives the impression of a big company, always quick to answer questions.

ipowerweb of course is the big guy. NOt as great service, and not very feature rich, but dependable.

If you are a member of a barter group like BXI or ITEX, you can do hostingbarter.net, and use your trade dollars.

Any recommendation for Canadian hosting companies would be helpful too.
It's amazing how many of these hosting companies don't offer better services for marketers who need raw log files and better stats.

Thanks.

You should probably check out webhostingtalk (http://webhostingtalk.com/). It's the worlds probably largest forum when it comes to hosting deals.

Indeed, the following may be helpful for finding out about hosting companies:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com
http://www.hosthideout.com
http://www.webhostingworld.co.uk

Do check out individual companies on a search of the forums for wider coverage of customer issues - every company has its issues from time to time, but it's how it handles them that is important.