Web Hosting Report Card

Hostmonster Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

[Editor's note: The prices below reflect a special NextAdvisor discount of $2-off on multi-year plans and $3-off on single year plans. There's no need to enter a coupon, just click "Visit Website" or "Go to Site".]

Hostmonster is a solid and affordable web hosting option at $3.95 per month for a 2 or 3 year commitment. At the time of writing this includes free lifetime domain registration. Domain privacy, which we highly recommend for individuals, is less than a dollar per year. You can also choose a single year plan at $4.95 per month. The savings on domain privacy (which can cost between $8 and $12 per year with other web hosts), actually push Hostmonster towards the lower end of the price range. Best of all, it's a bargain web hosting option that doesn't come at the expense of performance.

Hostmonster also includes a number of SimpleScripts add-ons. They provide additional functionality and allow you to manage your blogs and shopping carts in a nice user interface. There are some powerful apps here, though sadly the free site builder (Concrete5) is a bit stiff and limited. We prefered the PageWizard program that Hostmonster once offered.

eCommerce solutions come in a few forms. We prefer the Shopsite Wizard, a good choice for those who are more visually inclined, though it's not free. Agora cart is another option, and it's free, but it's built from the back end, making it less intuitive than WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors. Creating a cart looks like a serious undertaking.

Hostmonster tested fairly well, particularly where uptime and download tests were concerned. Its response time does leave a bit to be desired. See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

Hostmonster test data:

Support is provided 24/7 by phone, chat, and email. One phone call was answered quickly and capably, though the agent was a bit curt. A second phone call was handled in a more professional manner. If you're unhappy with the service, a full refund is offered under 30 days. A pro-rated refund is offered after that. You will pay a $10.00 fee for the domain registration, which will leave you with the domain. A unique three-day cancelation window allows you to avoid that fee.

HostMonster pleased us with its uncompromising combination of performance, cost, and add-ons. You can't do better at this price, though we wish the site builder were better.

Yahoo! Small Business Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

[Editor's Note: Yahoo! is offering NextAdvisor visitors 35% off their web hosting for the first three months. There's no coupon code necessary, just follow any of the links to Yahoo! Small Business from NextAdvisor.com. Also, they are offering 35% off the first three months of their Merchant Solutions program and waiving the $50 sign-up fee; just follow the links in our review.]

Yahoo! Small Business web hosting is one of the few stand-outs in web hosting, and will be perfect for the beginning site owner who doesn't really know what to expect from web hosting. It's the one to be recommended for the less tech-savvy among us.

The basic web hosting plan is $9.99 per month, though Yahoo! generally discounts the first three months. This makes it a little pricier than some, but still a great choice for the beginning web master. Even though domain registration and set-up are free, domain privacy will cost an additional $.99 a month. We recommend domain privacy, particularly for individual users. As with many web hosts, your domain registration is free for as long as you host with them.

It's somewhat confusing that Yahoo! calls its only web hosting plan Yahoo! Small Business, when, in fact, it's also a fine choice for individuals. However, a shopping site with a fairly substantial catalogue of goods will want to move up to Yahoo!'s more expensive Merchant Solutions. On the other hand, those that want to build a simple PayPal-based store can't go wrong here. It easily has the most intuitive PayPal-based shopping cart builder out there, though the features aren't as robust as those included with the Fantastico-based CubeCart available from many web hosts.

While most web hosts use the ubiquitous cPanel to let users administer their site, Yahoo! has made its own control panel. It's clean and friendly and showcases site statistics in an engaging way. Advanced users will find it lacking in special features, but first-timers will find it easy to deal with. Likewise, using the built-in site construction software is a breeze. Yahoo!'s templates are some of the nicest available and the WYSIWYG editor is very intuitive. What's more, you can easily add widgets that display weather, maps, stock prices, and more. The popular Wordpress blogging platform is easy to install. There's also an alternative downloadable site creation application available for Windows that looks to offer even more flexibility.

Yahoo! demonstrated the advantages of its large worldwide network with better-than-average scores for uptime, response time, and download speeds. See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

Yahoo! test data:

Support is provided by email and via a telephone call-back system. We received the call almost as soon as we requested it, and received some of the best customer service we encountered during our tests.

Yahoo! has one more important caveat: the refund policy. In common with most web hosts they offer a 30-day money back guarantee. After 30 days, however, there's no refund. If you cancel within thirty days they charge you a low fee of $7.00 for the domain.

By virtue of Yahoo!'s place as one of the big three search engines, there are also advantages for small businesses, particularly those that want placement in Yahoo!'s local search.

Yahoo! also offers an upgrade path to its Merchant Solutions. These normally start at $39.95 per month (plus a $50 startup fee and a 1.5% transaction fee), but a current promotion brings the first three months to $25.97 and waives the $50 fee. Users can build a robust ecommerce system designed to sell up to 50,000 products. The plan includes advanced inventory, analytics, and transaction processing tools. Plans starting at $129.95 per month include gift certificate and UPS shipping options (at the time of this writing, the first three months are $84.47, and the $50 fee is waived). Yahoo!'s Merchant Solutions are powerful enough to host websites for Simplehuman, the Oakland Raiders, Ben and Jerry's, and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

In short, Yahoo!'s Small Business web hosting is excellent for those who want easy, online site, blog, and shopping cart creation, but don't mind shelling out the extra bucks. It sets the standard for usability, particularly for beginners and their solid performance stats really complete this web hosting package.

HostNine Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

[Editor's note: HostNine is offering NextAdvisor visitors an exclusive 25% discount with the coupon code AUG2010. This brings the monthly price down to $2.96 per month.]

HostNine is among the cheaper options out there, with three years of service coming in at $3.95 per month. While other web hosts offer this pricing, HostNine is the only one that we've reviewed that offers it on a month-by-month basis. This means that HostNine has one of the lowest up-front costs out there. You will be paying $12.95 per year for domain registration, and an additional $10.00 annually for domain privacy, if you want to keep your name and address out of the public records. Still, it's a good deal. In fact it's one of the best.

You manage your site with cPanel, the popular control panel that allows you to adjust the settings and features of your site, from setting up email addresses, to installing add-ons. There are three options for site creation, two of which reside in the ubiquitous Fantastico Script section: ViaStep and SoHo Launch. We used SoHo launch, since Via Step requires you to choose a template, download that template, edit it on your computer, and then upload it again. Anyone willing to do this much, will probably want to use an out-of-the-box site builder from Adobe or Apple. While SoHo Launch is the preferable option, it is not one of the best editors we've seen. It lacks true WYSIWYG functionality, and may be confusing for first-time users.

Far superior is the included RVSiteBuilder, a pretty good WYSIWYG site construction tool. While somewhat involved, it works well, and includes support for many different kinds of sites. You can even create sites that include some basic Flash elements.

WordPress was installed without fuss, using the ubiquitous Fantastico script installation panel. Zen Cart, CubeCart, OS Commerce are your options for building a shopping cart. It's a good number of options, though they're somewhat advanced. The good news is, we didn't run into problems with our test-install of CubeCart.

Less successful may be HostNine's account maintenance pages. They're a little counterintuitive. It took us a while to find where our cPanel username and password were listed. In fact, we wish its welcome emails had been a little more informative, so we could have been up and running sooner. It's not bad, but it's also not the best.

Support is limited to chat and a trouble ticket system, though there's a fairly expansive knowledge base that will probably answer many of your questions. The good news is that the turnaround on our support request was only five minutes, from submission to response, with a promise for a fix within twenty minutes. The chat is also responsive and helpful.

HostNine offers a generous 45-day refund period, though as with most web hosts you will not get a refund for the domain name. They also offer pro-rated refunds if you have an annual plan but decide to cancel after the 45 days.

As for its technical specs, it's a little soon to tell. Its server response time has so far shown to be a little slower than average, but better than other low-cost providers. In its first two weeks of testing it showed uptime of 99.98%, but that's not nearly long enough of an observation period to adequately judge its long term reliability.

Overall we think HostNine is a great option for the commitment-phobic bargain hunter, though the jury is still out on its performance. Still, with a 45-day money back guarantee, and month-to-month contracts, you'll have time to decide; just keep in mind that, as with all web hosts, the domain name is non refundable and you'll have to wait 60 days to transfer that domain to another web host.

BlueHost Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

If BlueHost looks suspiciously close to Hostmonster in terms of its cost and offerings, there's a good reason for that. BlueHost is an alternate branding of Hostmonster's services (or vice-versa), with only slight differences in their offerings. How close are the web hosts? According to the whois data for the two sites, they're next-door neighbors. So, what's the difference? About three dollars a month.

HostMonster gives customers a $3.00-per-month discount, that BlueHost does not. Otherwise contract details are pretty much the same. Registration, setup and domain privacy (which we recommend for most users) is free.

SimpleScripts substitutes for the popular Fantastico scripts that you find with other web hosts. These are the scripts that allow you to install extensions such as blogging platforms, wikis, forums, guestbooks, and shopping carts. The implementation is nice, and we found everything easy to install. You get plenty of shopping cart options with BlueHost's SimpleScripts, including some less common options like OpenCart and Magento. Most of the SimpleScripts are free, but a few carry additional charges.

Bluehost had been offering customers its own Pagewizard sitebuilder, but it's being fazed out. There are two options for site building now: Concrete5 and Soholaunch. Concrete5 is the free option, and while it's serviceable and nice looking, it feels clunky and a bit counterintuitive in practice. It's too bad they did away with with Pagewizard.

Similar to HostMonster, BlueHost didn't have the fastest server response time during testing, but it impresses in other categories, particularly download speeds. See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

BlueHost Web Hosting test data:

So is there a BlueHost difference? If there is, it's not much. Both offer non-outsourced, 24/7 support by phone, email, and chat. There's a 30-day money-back guarantee (with a $10 fee for the domain if you cancel). After 30-days, you'll receive a pro-rated refund.

BlueHost hits the sweet spot for speed, price, and services. Those with graphically intensive sites will appreciate the data transfer, even if the response time was not the fastest. The lack of a killer site builder is disappointing, but it's hard for anyone to quibble with the price, especially when you factor in the free domain privacy.

1&1 Web Hosting Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

[Editor's note: 1&1 is offering NextAdvisor visitors a free year of service with the purchase of a 2-year plan. Users pay only a $4.99 setup fee when signing up. No coupon code is necessary.]

1&1's Home package is a good bargain with its one-year, two-domain plan. Currently, their discount gives customers three months of free web hosting; it's then $6.99 per month after that. There is a $4.99 set-up charge, but given that 1&1 gives you two lifetime domain registrations with free domain privacy, we find it easy to overlook this one-time charge. You'll pay about $25.00 up front for six months of hosting, an unusually low startup cost. After six months it's about $40.00 for the remainder of the year. 1&1 offers a great user interface with an easy site builder. A bonus for some will be 1&1's commitment to green hosting through its purchase of renewable energy.

1&1's WebiteBuilder is one of the smoothest and most intuitive site builders you're likely to find. There's a basic free version included with the plan that allows you to build a 12-page site. A more robust version is available for $9.99 per month, but we think most users will be satisfied with the free version. It's a truly WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) site constructor; click on a graphic or a piece of text you want to edit and you'll immediately be able to make changes. The website creator is so fully-featured that it feels (and looks) much more like a program on your PC than it does a web application. So you'll have plenty of options, though you will spend a bit of time learning how they all fit together. As a site creator, it's one of the top options available, right up there with Yahoo! and Hostgator.

For the most part, 1&1 impressed us because it works so well in its own cohesive 1&1 universe. 1&1 does not offer a collection of third-party add-ons, but an integrated management environment (so much so that the Wordpress blogging app is not called Wordpress, but the 1&1 blog). While not as step-by-step intuitive as Yahoo! Small Business, it's very well thought-out. While there's a slight learning curve, it all makes sense, much more so than the piecemeal approach of other web hosts.

1&1 offers 24/7 support by phone and email. Though the lines were answered rather quickly, the quality and friendliness of the outsourced support varied the three times we called. While the support personnel were patient, the quality was not up to what we've encountered with other web hosts like Yahoo!, FatCow, or HostMonster.

You get one option for building a store with 1&1, but it's a good one, at least in terms of ease-of-use. There's a free version, which is scaled down and does not include PayPal integration and a few other features, or you can pay $9.99 per month for a more fully fleshed out option. We found the free option to be very easy to use. Best of all, it works just like every other component available from 1&1. If you've already designed your site using their site builder, eZShop will be very familiar. On the downside, the design side is a little slow, but the process is so intuitive that we don't consider it a big strike.

For all these great features there are some problems. The add-ons can be a bit sluggish, but the features are nice enough that we don't mind. We're also not thrilled that 1&1 wants to create every component at a subdomain, instead of at a directory on the main domain. It's a small issue, but potential users should be aware that if they want to use multiple modules such as a gallery, blog, and a SiteBuilder site, they will have to be done on multiple subdomains, something easily done, but a little inconvenient.

From a performance standpoint, 1x1 does rather well in all departments, but is particularly notable for its uptime. See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

1x1 Web Hosting test data:

One other minor caveat: 1&1 puts monetized error pages on your site by default. They're easy to turn off, and 1&1 is transparent about this, letting you know all about them in the sign-up letter. We wish we'd turned them off in the beginning as they did cause confusion for us, since 1&1 actually places its own index.html page in your web directory.

1&1 does give you a 90-day money back guarantee, a pretty lengthy period of time to make your decision.

We were hoping to give 1&1 an unqualified recommendation as it really excels with its user interface and the price for two domains cannot be beat. The support quality is definitely something to consider, but other than that it's not a bad deal.

HostGator Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

[Editor's note: HostGator is offering 20% off your initial order with the coupon code SPRING. This discount applies to domain registration, web hosting, and any set-up fees]

HostGator is a nice, high-quality web host with a great online site-builder. It's only marred by somewhat high hosting costs and an annual $15.00-per-year domain registration fee. Registration with the Hatchling Plan will cost you $6.95 per month for one year. The monthly cost goes down to $4.95 if you choose a three-year plan. You will have to pay an additional $10.00 annually for domain privacy, something that we highly recommend for individuals. Whichever you choose, you get 'unlimited' storage and bandwidth. It's also worth noting that they're offering a 20% discount at the time of this writing.

HostGator calls itself a green host, meaning it achieves carbon-emission reductions through efficient servers and the purchase of wind-energy. If shrinking your carbon footprint is important to you, this may help to justify the extra cost.

One of the few complaints we have about HostGator was how long it took for our domain to be online after we bought it (a process known as propagation). At 5 hours, it was considerably slower than with other hosts, though there could be many reasons for this (any web host will tell you it may take up to 24 hours for a site to appear, although it usually takes less than one). Since registration only happens once when you initially sign up, this shouldn't be a big problem.

A number of different sitebuilding apps are included with HostGator, but we had fun using the Parallels Plesk sitebuilder. There's a large variety of templates to chose from. While many appear a bit generic, there's a good amount of easy customization you can do to add some originality. The design process is very fluid, and it's a true WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. There's support for virtually any kind of page you might make: basic text pages, galleries, blogs, and one of the easiest shopping cart creators we've come across. You can even add a nice, animated flash intro with just a few clicks. Users looking to build a multi-faceted site online, should give this one strong consideration.

HostGator has recently added its own homegrown script manager as a competitor to the ubiquitous Fantastico scripts. HostGator's QuickInstall environment allows you to install many blog programs, shopping carts, content management systems, and photo albums from one centralized interface. In a sense this is nothing that Fantastico doesn't do, but it does it much faster, and with more panache. It also promises more up-to-date installs than Fantastico, since HostGator can keep up with new releases. If you like Fantastico, don't worry, it's there too.

HostGator has shown to be a great performer in our spec tests. See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

HostGator test data:

HostGator offers a rare 45-day money-back guarantee. After that, it's prorated. The $15 domain registration fee is, as usual, not refundable.

Support is provided by chat, email and telephone. A telephone call was answered in 9 minutes, a somewhat long wait. But the help was cheerful and gave us an accurate answer. A chat, using the integrated support function, was picked up in less than a minute, and provided us with an answer.

Our only real complaint about HostGator is the cost, but you get what you pay for. Those who don't mind paying a little extra, will definitely get their money's worth out HostGator's green hosting, stellar site builder, and excellent data transfer speeds.

Lunarpages Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

[Editor's note: Lunarpages is currently offering $50.00 off of its hosting plans. Just use the code "2010" at checkout.]

Lunarpages, while falling into the median price range for web hosting, is a nice option for beginners due to its easy site builder. More advanced users will appreciate its robust data transfer. We would quibble only with the integration of some of the third-party options and the $7.95 annual domain privacy (something we strongly recommend for individuals, and which some web hosts offer for free). Hosting with the Lunar Pages Basic Hosting Plan is $4.95 a month for five years, and free domain registration is included for the first year only; you'll be paying $19.95 per year after that. If five years is too long of a comittment, you can do one year at $8.95 per month for the web hosting.

The data storage and bandwidth are 'unlimited', meaning that you can upload as much as you want, and take as many users as the web is likely to throw at you, provided the web host doesn't find it excessive. This is pretty standard with web hosts and shouldn't be a problem for casual users with personal sites or small businesses.

Lunarpages' strongest offering is its Pagemason site builder that offers true WYSIWIG (What You See Is What You Get) site design. Like all sitebuilders, it offers you a number of templates to drop your text into. Editing the text is easy and intuitive, even if the templates aren't the most attractive we've seen. It still left us with a positive experience. Beginners could have a simple site up-and-running within an hour.

Wordpress was also easily installed, as was Zen Cart. A big bonus for Lunarpages is how all the installations are managed through the same Alpaca control panel. This gives the site a cohesive feel absent from many web hosting services.

In terms of reliability and bandwidth, Lunarpages is quite a workhorse. See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

Lunarpages test data:

We made one support call to their support number. While the call was answered quickly, it did not solve our problem on the first try. They offer telephone support 12 hours a day, Monday through Friday. The number is not toll-free, so phone charges to Orange County, California will apply. There's also an email-based trouble ticket system.

Lunarpages offers a fairly standard 30-day money-back guarantee, though after that there's no pro-rated refund offered. As with other web hosts, any cancelation refund is non-inclusive of the domain charge, which is $19.95 here.

Sure, Lunarpages is a bit pricy, but it hits the mark for reliability and user-friendly design. It's an excellent option for webmasters of all skill levels.

iPage Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

[Editor's note: iPage is currently offering NextAdvisor visitors an exclusive discount that brings the monthly price down from $5.25 to $3.50. There's no coupon necessary, just follow any of the links to iPage from NextAdvisor.com]

iPage is a new web host in the low-priced hosting business. Its offering is very similar to FatCow's, carrying many of the same components such as the ShopSite ecommerce program and the CM4all WebsiteCreator. It does have the cheapest single-year plan of any web host we've reviewed. Domain registration is free for life, though you must be sure to activate iPage's Domain Guard; it's not automatic. If you want to keep your registration info out of the public record, domain privacy will cost you $8.99 per year. Still, you're out the door for $50.99. A good price, though the bargain comes at some hits to performance.

iPage uses the popular cPanel for site management, but also allows you to manage basic site functionality through a nice custom control panel. Add-ons, such as blogs, galleries, and forums are implemented through InstallCentral. It offers a lot of what the ubiquitous Fantastico script manager does, but it's much easier on the eyes. We were able to install Wordpress, the popular blogging platform, with ease. iPage also incorporates Google's Webmaster tools into the control panel. This helps you manage your Google site map and spend the included Google ad credits.

Beginning web designers will love the Weebly Drag and Drop Builder. It's actually very fun to use, with animated WYSIWYG simplicity. The free version included with iPage limits you to 6 pages, and doesn't have a built-in ecommerce capabilities. Still, it will have you up-and-running quickly with a nice-looking, feature-rich web site that can hold a blog, youtube videos, audio, and a flickr slideshow.

There's also the capable but somewhat kludgy CM4all WebsiteCreator that you can use, but we like Weebly better. Alternately, of course, you can upload your own site. If you need to sell goods online, the included ShopSite program is extremely easy to use, and is great for novice web merchants.

IPage is a mixed bag in the performance department. Its response time is great, but, rather paradoxically, its download speeds are disappointing. Worse still are its uptime numbers, the lowest of our whole test set. See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

iPage Web Hosting test data:

iPage's most distinguishing feature is the incorporation of a basic SiteLock Security Suite. SiteLock bills itself as "Security for Small Business" and provides a badge indicating site trustworthiness (somewhat similar to TRUSTe or Verisign). SiteLock provides very basic verification of your credentials (via your phone number) and performs a daily scan for malware and one complimentary scan for SQL Injections and cross-site scripting vulnerabilities 90 days after activation. If your site is safe, you get to display the SiteLock badge. It's good piece of mind, though complete protection from these threats would probably require more frequent scanning (which is why they encourage you to upgrade to the $199 per year plan). Still, it's hard to complain as it's a free service not provided by other web hosts.

iPage provides 24/7 email, phone, and chat support. The phone support is based in North America and promises a hold time of less than two minutes. Our call was answered within seconds. Support was personable and helpful, with some modest attempts at up-selling.

If you're not satisfied with the service, there's a 30-day money back guarantee for your hosting fees. If you do cancel in that period, you'll pay $15, mostly for the domain, which you will keep. If you cancel after 30 days, you'll get a refund for the remaining unused months, minus the above-mentioned fee.

Ultimately we recommend iPage for its cheap single-year plan and Weebly site builder. The smoothly integrated add-on support, and easy shopping cart creator are nice too. IPage is also a green host, meaning they off-set their carbon emissions through the purchase of renewable energy credits. The only real caveat with iPage is an early indication of slow downloads on large files and a little higher than average downtime. Webmasters with particularly media-heavy sites may want to steer towards a more robust host like LunarPages. But at $3.50 per month for a single-year commitment, the price is hard to beat.

FatCow Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

[Editor's note: Next Advisor visitors save 50% off of the regular price of $7.33 per month when they visit FatCow from a link on the NextAdvisor.com site. There is no coupon code necessary, just click "Visit Website" or "Go to Site".]

At $3.67 per month, FatCow is among the cheapest web hosts we reviewed. Domain registration is free for life, though you must be sure to activate FatCow's Domain Guard; it's not automatic. If you want to keep your registration data out of the public record, we recomend buying domain privacy for an additional $8.99 per year. It's one of many companies that offers "unlimited" storage and data transfer, which is a pretty safe offering given how small most websites are. FatCow is a good bargain, but as you'll see below, its performance is not perfect and is probably better suited to the beginner with a personal site, rather than a small business.

On the plus side, FatCow has recently added the Weebly Drag and Drop Builder to its site building offering. It's extremely easy to use, and has a number of options for creating a nice-looking, dynamic site (though you'll pay extra to add an ecommerce component). The free version limits you to six pages, but it's easier to use than the CM4all Website Creator that's also included. FatCow offers an easy shopping cart solution with Shopsite, one of the more intuitive shopping cart creation programs we used.

Wordpress is nearly standard with all web hosts, and the "one-click" installation was easy to get through. Unfortunately, the first installations of our CM4all site and Wordpress blog were not installed in the right place. It took a call to their support line to fix it. While not the most professional support that we've encountered, they were able to solve the problem quickly. They offer support through live-chat and email as well. Premium support with a unique toll-free number and a customized console is available for an additional charge.

In common with many other web hosts, there's not a consistent feel among the various components we used, as they employ a number of 3rd party applications to provide functionality. This may be a bit of an obstacle to beginners, as there's a clunky feel to the overall experience. But again, this is not out-of-the-ordinary for a low-cost web host.

Our testing proved FatCow to be reasonably reliable, but a little slow in all areas. FatCow's heavy discount does come at some cost. See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

FatCow test data:

FatCow offers a 30-Day full refund and prorated refund after that. If you cancel within 30 days, FatCow says you can choose whether or not to keep the domain (if you do, you will be charged $20 for the domain registration). It should be noted that refunds after 30-days will be charged a $35 cancelation fee which includes the cost of the domain registration.

FatCow is a great bargain and doesn't leave users tied into a multi-year contract to get a good price, something we really respect. Potential customers will need to decide if the cost balances with the performance issues.

Just Host Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

[Editor's note: JustHost is offering Next Advisor visitors 20% discounts on all plans except for the 3-year plan. Just enter SPECIAL20OFF at checkout.]

Just Host comes in on the cheaper side at $3.95 per month for three years without any set-up or registration fees, with the exception of an optional $9.95 annual domain privacy charge (something we generally recommend and some web hosts offer for free). Though we purchased domain privacy from Just Host, we had some problems with it at first. Registration is free for the lifetime you have hosting with Just Host, a nice but somewhat standard offer. Also standard is "unlimited" storage and data transfer. You may also opt for a single year at $5.95 per month. A current 20% discount brings that down to $4.95, and applies to their 6-month and 24-month plans.

We created a site with the included Sitebuilder which has some of the nicest looking templates we've seen. Adding our own text to them was fairly easy though not as intuitive as with a true WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. Still, it handily creates the structure and layout for a basic website.

Our Wordpress blog was installed easily and instantly, which was nice though fairly standard. Likewise the shopping carts were easily installed, though Zen Cart and Cube Cart, while popular, are fairly complex to start using. These seem like good solutions for users who want to sell and manage a fairly extensive inventory. If you have fewer items, and don't want to spend a lot of time on your online catalog, you should look elsewhere.

In the specs department, Just Host is a solid performer with fast data transfer speeds.See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

Just Host test data:

Despite these impressive stats, it should be noted that the terms of service specify that you can't use the service for audio or video streaming, nor can it be used to distribute software. While we're not sure how serious they are about that, musicians and filmmakers should probably look elsewhere if they plan on hosting their own media content.

Where Just Host does fall down is its customer experience. When checking out we were constantly hit with offers for various add-ons. There's no shopping cart, no checkout system that allows you to review your purchase before you're charged. So when we inadvertently added a $50.00 search engine submission product, it was ours. Even when we immediately contacted customer service to notify them of the error, we could not get a refund. Also, as we noted above, a request for domain privacy didn't work the first time we signed up for it.

The support leaves something to be desired. It's primarily limited to online chat and a trouble-ticket system. You may also find a number for telephone support, but our experience with that support system was not great. After a long hold time we had a disappointing call; we were advised to just send an email support ticket. The trouble ticket had a 7-hour turn-around time when we tried it the first time. Subsequent tries were within the hour turnaround time promised, but the policies are not customer friendly.

The performance metrics are great for the price, but our experiences make us hesitant about recommending this web host fully.

Dreamhost Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

Dreamhost is unique among the web host services we've reviewed. It's a uniqueness that will be refreshing to advanced users, but frustrating for beginners or those that like a lot of bells and whistles. We can safely advise anyone who needs a lot of technical support, a fast online site-builder, or an easily-configured PayPal system to consider another option. If, however, you're an intermediate-to-advanced user who likes a clean, no-nonsense control panel, needs a few essential essential features like Wordpress, likes the idea of green hosting, and prefers a web host with attitude, read on.

At $9.95 a month for a year, Dreamhost is a bit more expensive than most, but that $9.95 buys you free domain privacy (something that can cost $10 or more with other web hosts) and lifetime domain registration. There are no set-up fees, but you can pay $9.95 a month for phone support (though it's a call-back system and you're limited to just three calls per month).

Dreamhost is one of an increasing number of self-described green hosts, meaning they neutralize their carbon footprint by purchasing renewable energy, running more efficient servers, and a variety of other measures that they're happy to tell you about.

Dreamhost has one of the few truly integrated add-on installation and management environments, which gives the whole experience a very cohesive feeling. Whereas installing a blog or photo gallery on other web hosts shuttles you off to a different user experience for the installation, Dreamhost handles it all inside the same interface. This makes it easy to see what applications you've installed, and remove them if necessary.

Dreamhost's scores in testing were surprisingly variable, not quite what we expected from a host that focuses so heavily on the quality of its hosting. Uptime was pretty good, and server response times were just a little worse than average, while its download speeds were among the best. See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

Dreamhost Web Hosting test data:

We tried Dreamhost's one option for online site building, the complex and robust Drupal. While the themes are beautiful, the learning curve is steep. It's much more configurable than other site builders, but most users will not be up and running with it quickly. If, on the other hand, you plan on building a content-rich site, particularly one administered by a number of users, this is a good option.

You have 97 days to evaluate Dreamhost and receive of your money back (minus $9.95 for the cost of the domain), an unusually long satisfaction guarantee period. However, after that period there is no pro-rated refund.

As mentioned earlier, telephone support is not standard. Support issues are logged in an email-based trouble ticket system or resolved via chat. A ticket submitted at 1:42 was answered at 1:51. The chat-based support was also helpful. You can find answers to many questions in their support twiki and their forums, but Dreamhost is primarily meant for users who know their way around the basics of website maintenance.

Dreamhost has built a loyal following among experienced web designers, and we recommend it to those who want a slick, no-nonsense web host. We'd like to see better reliability, though it'll be fine for most users.

Web Hosting Pad Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

Web Hosting Pad is one of the most affordable web hosts we reviewed. At $4.95 per month, for a year, it comes in at the lower range for web hosting services. One domain name is included, though free registration is for the first year only. Domain privacy is included for free, a feature we strongly recommend for individuals, and that some other web hosts charge for, but there's at least one major caveat: the performance.

Your hosting service buys you "unlimited" storage and data transfer, comparable with most other hosting options. It also buys you a rather standard set of page-building and shopping cart options, none of them stellar in terms of ease-of-use, but acceptable for those who want to learn them. The SoHo sitebuilder is counter-intuitive at first. Users looking for a particularly nice set of online site creation tools would be urged to look at Yahoo! or HostGator.

One thing to keep in mind is that Web Hosting Pad's terms-of-service prohibit distribution of multimedia products. It's a limitation that makes sense in light of our testing; the cheap price comes at a bit of a performance cost. See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

Web Hosting Pad test data:

We had some trouble with our shopping-cart installations, which is not uncommon for web hosts, since the web host often uses applications designed by other companies. We had to call a toll-free technical support number to get our shopping cart to work. Tech support was capable and the hold-time was short.

One other thing to note is that after the fairly standard 30-day money-back guarantee, there are no refunds offered. This is unusual for a web hosting company, so if you do choose Web Hosting Pad, make sure you're happy with the offering early on.

All-in-all Web Hosting Pad is an ok option for budget-minded consumers who can deal with some slowness and a lackluster site builder. You also need to be comfortable with the limitations on multimedia restrictions. While you won't find it as nicely thought-through as some of the more full-service options, you can't beat the price.

HostPapa Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

HostPapa offers web hosting for $6.95 per month for twelve months and has no set-up or annual registration fees. This puts it in the median range for hosting plans, but has some compelling offerings that may make it worthwhile for some users. Included in the fee is free domain privacy, something we strongly recommend for users who have a personal site. HostPapa also calls itself a green host, meaning it uses 100% renewable energy. Those concerned with shrinking their carbon footprints should take note as this is one of the few hosts to offer it.

HostPapa is not a powerhouse in the stats department. See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

HostPapa test data:

HostPapa offers two options for site creation: ViaStep and SoHo Launch. We used SoHo launch, since Via Step requires you to choose a template, download that template, edit it on your computer, and then upload it again. This feels cumbersome. While SoHo Launch is the preferable option, it is not one of the best editors we've seen. It lacks true WYSIWYG functionality, and may be confusing for first-time users.

There are three options for shopping cart installations: CubeCart, osCommerce, and Zen Cart. All require a fair amount of tinkering, and don't approach the ease of use of other options like ShopSite. Still, if you have a fairly large catalog of goods, you'll probably want to invest the time in learning one of these options.

HostPapa offers offers 24/7 email support as well as chat and phone (24 hours a day, Monday through Friday and 6am to 7pm EST on the weekends). In our tests, two attempts at chat were unsuccessful, though their phone support was quick, friendly, and responsive.

There's a 30-day Money back guarantee, with a pro-rated refund policy after that. HostPapa charges a fairly substantial $24.95 charge for the domain for early termination.

Users with moderate experience and their own site-building software will probably get the most out of HostPapa, as well as those who like the idea of green hosting.

IX Web Hosting Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

IX Web Hosting is a cheaper web host, its Expert Plan falling in at $4.95 per month for a year for "unlimited" storage and data transfer, and free lifetime domain registration for one domain. IX Webhosting claims not to offer domain privacy, though you can change your registration details to anything you want. Still, we would prefer to see an option for legitimate domain privacy.

IX Web Hosting offers Wordpress and other popular options, unfortunately the Wordpress installation was not as smooth as we'd hoped. While it installed without issue, the follow-up was unsatisfactory; we were not told where to go to administer the blog, something that may not be obvious to users who are unfamiliar with the program

Ecommerce solutions include the popular Zen Cart, osCommerce, and CubeCart trio. These are big ecommerce solutions, and not terribly intuitive, though they are rather robust. Installation of the popular CubeCart program yielded some inexplicable errors and we had to use the toll-free 24/7 phone support. The first call did not solve our problem, though the staff was friendly.

We tested out the bundled SiteStudio website builder. It was easy enough to use, but did not offer the most attractive templates. It's not a true WYSIWYG editor, but is not too difficult to learn. We were able to see our changes immediately after hitting the "publish" button.

In our performance tests, this web host did ok, but it was not stellar. See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

IX Web Hosting test data:

By default, IX Web Hosting puts advertising-supported directories on your site's error pages. This gives the site the look of spam and it also drives traffic away from your domain. Even though we were glad to be able to turn these off and create our own error pages, it feels sneaky as it wasn't immediately obvious. It's something that, combined with a lack of domain privacy and the slow response times would push us towards other similarly priced hosts instead.

In Motion Web Hosting Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

InMotion Hosting's Business Class hosting is a step-up from the the Value Class hosting we reviewed previously. The cost comes in at $6.95 per month for two years, or $7.95 a month for a single year. There are no set-up fees, although domain privacy is $5 a year, a pretty good bargain. InMotion promises better performance and no storage limitations with its Business Class hosting as well as a better site builder, so we thought we'd give it a look.

As with most web hosts, InMotion's features are cPanel- and Fantastico-based. There are two sitebuilders: Soho and Viastep. Viastep's templates are nice, but you have to be comfortable with downloading and editing the html templates offline. Soho is more of a conventional online site builder. It does the job, but not with panache. Unfortunately its most compelling features (blog manager, shopping cart) are only free for 14 days. After that you have to pay for an upgrade.

Potential customers should be advised that the Launch plan limits you to 2 MySQL databases. That may sound like gobbledygook, but it's significant if you want to have more than 2 components such as the site builder, a blog, or a gallery installed at once. You can upgrade to the Business Class Power Plan for two dollars-per-month more and to get 50 MySQL databases. It's more than most people are likely to need, but it felt a bit like we were getting nickle and dimed for something that's pretty standard with most web hosts. The Launch Plan also lacks a shopping cart, so you'll need to move to the Power Plan for that as well.

InMotion had mixed results in our tech tests. While scores were above the group average, they weren't particularly impressive. See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

InMotion Web Hosting test data:

Support is provided by phone, chat, and email. The wait for phone support was around five minutes, though support was friendly and capable. There's a 30-day cancellation period, but after that period there is no refund possible. If you do cancel within 30-days there's a $12.95 charge associated with the domain cost.

We should mention that when we initially placed our order, a verification call-back was made. While we appreciate this, there were attempts to up-sell. We bought the domain privacy, though it wasn't actually applied to our account.

InMotion's Business Class hosting is capable, but it didn't really impress us on any particular level. InMotion does offer cheaper plans (down to $4.00 per month) that are even more limited. To us there's always been something arbitrary about InMotion's price tiers and limits. Though InMotion is rather fair about upgrading your plan, we feel more should be included at the lower price points.

Register.com Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

Register.com, which is probably the most well-known domain registrar site, is also the most expensive hosting option. While a discounted first year is only $4.95 per month, the price shifts to $11.95 per month for twelve months after that. Alternately, you can move to a three-year contract which brings the price to $8.95 per month. Domain registration is free for life, but you'll need to pay an additional $11.00 a year for domain privacy (something we recommend for individuals).

Register.com is one of the few web hosts to set concrete limits for storage (5GB) and data transfer (20GB). What does that mean? For example, Next Advisor's site is about 25 megabytes. On this plan, roughly 51,200 people could view the entire site every month and fall within the traffic limits. While not enough for our site, it'll probably be ok for individuals.

Register.com does not offer anything above and beyond in terms of bundled design applications. It uses the Fantastico brand of scripts which provides shopping cart solutions like Zen Cart, osCommerce, and CubeCart along with blogging solutions that include Wordpress. The shopping cart solutions are better suited to users with a pretty substantial inventory to sell. Those looking to sell only a few products will want to look into another solution.

We installed the popular blogging application Wordpress without issue. Unfortunately, we found we couldn't simultaneously install the ZenCart ecommerce package (or a photo gallery for that matter), since Register.com only allows you have one MySQL database. This is an unfortunate limitation, and should be a deal breaker for most. You can upgrade to a more expensive $17.95/mo plan, which seems excessively high.

The site construction tools mentioned above are the same you'll find with HostPapa and other cheaper hosts. Via Step is one option, and it requires you to choose a template, download that template, edit it on your computer, and then upload it again. This feels cumbersome. SoHo Launch is the preferable option, but is still not one of the best editors we've seen. It lacks true WYSIWYG functionality, and may be confusing to first-time users.

Register does offer some nice piece-of-mind features. First, there's a virus scan, a feature not seen with many other web host we reviewed. This will scan your site for any infected files. It also offers automated site backups, so you can revert to an old version of your site if you need to. Register.com also guarantees 100% uptime, whereas most guarantee 99.99%. The service may still go down, you'll just be compensated for any time that it does. Uptime guarantees are a bit of a shell game, however. There are half a dozen exceptions, including planned maintenance and things beyond their control.

It was difficult to find our way to the control panel from the account information screen, so a support call was necessary. Support is provided by phone, email and chat. A telephone operator picked up our call right away, but told us we could expect a 15-minute hold time for tech support. That's a long time to listen to their excruciating muzak. To avoid that, there's an online chat option as well.

For all of our complaints, Register.com made a good showing in testing. In fact, it's one of the more solid performers in all areas. See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

Register.com Web Hosting test data:

Register.com offers a fairly standard 30-day money-back guarantee, but no pro-rated guarantee afterwards. As usual, you will not receive a refund for the domain, which they will charge you $35 for.

All-in-all Register.com is an expensive hosting solution that is not terribly intuitive. The virus scan and automated site backups are potentially nice features, but it's hard to say if that justifies the high price tag, particularly when they come at the expense of the number of databases, and therefore modules, that you can run.

Intuit Web Hosting Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

Intuit, better known as the creators of the popular accounting software Quickbooks, has put its brand on Homestead's web hosting business. There's no substantial difference between Homestead and Intuit. Both aim at the small business market with two packages: the Website Starter Package at $4.95 per month, and the Website Gold Plus Package at $19.99 per month. The former isn't really worth talking about, as it lacks email addresses and domain registration. The latter is more to the tune of the services we've reviewed here, though we have a major gripe with how Intuit presents these offerings. While they sell you on the $4.95 plan, they aren't up-front about the plan's limitations. Most users will find this plan too anemic and, like us, upgrade.

It's a steep price, and there are a number of limitations. You do get a domain for that price, though domain privacy will cost you $12 per year. Unlike most web hosts, you'll find a limit to bandwidth and disk space. It'll still be enough for most users. The more disappointing limitation is the cap at five email addresses. This is for truly small businesses, indeed.

Intuit's big sell is its site builder, which you can use either online or download as a Windows application (sorry, Mac users). It contains a number of templates, which really vary in quality. You also have access to 250,000 royalty-free images, a useful bonus for non-photographers. The site builders are full-featured and easy enough to use, but don't necessarily surpass the offerings from some of our site building champs like Yahoo! or HostGator. Still, it's easy to add PayPal buy-links, but there seems to be no way to add a blog.

For all its expense, you certainly get what you pay for in terms of speed and stability. See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

Intuit Web Hosting test data:

Phone support was helpful and friendly, and necessary to explain incorrect FTP directions in the help documents. Phone support is only given for the first 90 days, however. After that there's email support.

Despite the performance, it was hard for us to tell just what we were getting for $21.00 per month (the cost with domain privacy), though we appreciate that the first month's service is a free trial, meaning they give you a free month for the first year. While the control panel is user friendly and the site builder is nice, neither are better than Yahoo!'s, which comes in at less than half the price. Intuit's web hosting feels like a way for the company to up-sell to its other products (customer management, search engine submission, etc.). If you're already an Intuit customer, you may find an advantage there. Intuit also offers custom website design, but that's an additional fee (you'll have to call for a consultation to get a price).

GoDaddy Review: Web HostingGo to Site | Back to Chart

GoDaddy has made itself popular with its too-hot-for-TV Superbowl ads and sports personality spokespeople, making it the rock star of web hosts. It's an excess that spills over into the site's dizzying array of options, so many options that it was difficult to find one that would match the same criteria as other web hosts we reviewed. The most basic web host plan lacks a site-builder, which we see as a standard feature. On the other hand, the most basic plan with a sitebuilder, the Website Tonite plan that we review here, doesn't allow you to upload (or FTP) a site that you've created offline.

The Website Tonight plan has a hosting cost of $3.99 per month for three years (which includes a current 20%-off promotion), but domain privacy (which we recommend on any domain registration) is an additional $9.95 per year. It also does not include the domain registration after the first year, an annual cost of $9.99, something that's free or heavily discounted with some other web hosting companies. Twelve months of hosting is $4.49 per month, if the three-year commitment doesn't work for you.

Website Tonight gave us a five-page site, which we built with a very nice WYSIWIG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. It really is one of the nicest you'll find and some great bonus features such as the ability to add animated intros with sound. However, a five-page site is rather limiting, particularly when a blog is not included as a standard feature. You get 50MB of storage and 1GB of bandwidth. These are fairly low in general, but probably adequate for the five-page site.

Because GoDaddy's offering is a bit different our download speed and server response tests aren't truly applicable. We were able to look at its uptime. See the chart below for details. For uptime, higher percentages are better. For all others, lower numbers indicate better performance.

GoDaddy Web Hosting test data:

If you're willing to forego the site builder and create your page on your own, you can get the comparably priced Economy Hosting Plan. It offers more of the traditional web host offerings such as osCommerce and Zen Cart commerce solutions, and Wordpress for blogging.

Website Tonight can be recommended for those who want a quick, easy-to-use site builder, and who won't want to move up to uploading their own site. All-in-all it comes in cheaper than Yahoo!'s Small Business site, which offers similar ease-of-use (though Yahoo!'s plan is more fully-featured and scalable) Fortunately, GoDaddy provides plans for web hosting for as few as three months (though your price goes up to $4.99), so there's an easy way of trying it out without much commitment.

GoDaddy offers a pro-rated refund policy. As usual, domain names are not refunded.