Every web hosting site is different and there are a wide variety of services available. Internet providers often offer free web sites to their customers. Many people prefer to purchase hosting services from professionals. Personal website hosts are often more affordable than websites that cater to business. A hosting services set up for professional usage will provide a control panel for access to the functions of the web site and management of its content and installation of scripts. These professional website providers can be easily searched online through the variety of search engines.
While selecting a hosting service provider, one has to carefully go through the services and packages that they are offering. Hosting service providers often offer discounts on packages which can be effective for those hunting for cheap services. Host Uptime is a big factor that has to be taken into consideration. Uptime refers to the total time the host is accessible through internet. If performance goals promised by the professionals are not met, the owner can ask for a refund or cut down of cost. These factors however depend on the company principles and hosting policies.
There are several different types of web host including:
* Dedicated hosting: When the owner gets full rights on the server and has all the administrative accesses, it is called a dedicated server.
* Managed hosting: This is similar to dedicated hosting in that you get your own separate server, but the difference is that you cannot manage it yourself. This is a leased service.
* Virtual hosting: This service provides you the feeling that you have your own dedicated space but you are actually sharing it with all of the other websites the host serves. Your access is limited to your space on the server.
* Free hosting: Advertisement supported hostings are free.
Other types of hosting include, Reseller web hosting, Shared web hosting service, Grid hosting, Colocation hosting and clustered hosting.
Web hosting services are offered by most of the companies as a general internet access plan. Web hosting packages include all those services mentioned above along with web site designing and email, battery backup, online billing information, web content management systems and technical services.
You as a potential user should consider each host through several different parameters and make your decision based on these issues. The support provided, the amount of disk space available, Uptime, limits on bandwidth, SSL (secured socket layer) are a few of the most important needs to consider. A list of the top 5 web hosts are listed below based on these qualifications:
Top 5 hosting companies are mentioned below:
1. Hostmonster- Hostmonster has provided solutions on a large scale to its customers from 1996. They have a wide reputation for quality service at a cheap price. Their reliable backups and security give considerable comfort to their clients. Visitors to the website are provided with a wide range of information on the company and the performance it offers its clients.
There are a large number of hosting features this company gives its customers including:
* Disc storage
* Domain name
* Secure email support
* Additional domains
* Domain parking
* World class technology
* e-commerce functions
* multimedia ability
* site promotions
* web site promotions
2. Inmotion hosting: This company that has been in service to its clients since 2001 and has a world-wide customer base. Their flexibility and reliable service is something they are often praised for. Immotion Hosting has achieved recognition with the Top Business Host Award 2008 and is listed in the top 10 host companies. They have achieved awards for all of their services in 2003, 2006, 2007, and 2008. Their dedication is well known to their customers. Immotion Hosting has a partnership with SWsoft as an official partner, CNET Certified Service provider, and BBB reliability program. Services include:
* Dedicated servers
* Dedicated server provisions
* Business class provisions
* Cheap personal web hosting
* Website management
3. Bluehost: This is one of the top hosting companies that have been serving its client since 1996. High quality customer service and maximum uptime are just small parts of the huge range of services offered by the company. High quality server environment, control panel and security features add up to the services rendered by this company. The reliability offered by this company has provided beneficial over the time. Both company and its clients are benefited by the wide array of services.
Apart from the basic web hosting services, the company offers:
* Free website plug-in scripts like message forum, poll survey and software, moodle, PHP nuke, Tikiwiki and more.
* Wide range of e-commerce features like Agora shipping cart, cube cart shopping cart, password protected directories and more.
* Their list includes multimedia functions and top technology.
4. RackSpace Inc: Rackspace is a UK based company that began its service in 1996. They are registered as Rackspace LTD and are known to be one of Europes top web host servers. Amongst the many large businesses that use Rackspace are Vue, OnSpeed, Renault, and Confused.com. Rackspace was included in The Sunday Times list of 2007 best companies.
* The company has solutions for small, medium and large businesses
* Management configuration and green configuration provided.
* Secure service
* Email access
* Database
* Database services
* Visualization
* Reporting and administration
5. Godaddy.com: This is a very popularly known top ranked web host provider. Their services are easily managed and flexible making them easy to use for even inexperienced users. They have awards in their listings that prove their industry prominence in the web host market. Godaddy provides many discounts that are of great help to those seeking affordable hosting. They offer services comparable to any of the big web hosting companies while specializing in discounted services and promotional offers.
A sample of the services offered by this company are:
* Exciting 20% discount on package deals
* Host server
* Hosting servers
* Site Builders
* Business and commerce
* Private auction functions
* Reseller ability
About the Author
Republished with permission from www.webhostingmadness.com, providing web hosting articles, industry reviews and ratings of today's top web hosting companies. Go to for more information about and exclusive deals on web hosting.