Web Hosting
Parent Q&A
Archived Q&A and Reviews
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Looking for Web Domain Provider...Not GoDaddy
Feb 2012
I'm looking to register a domain name and start up a website, and am looking for alternatives to GoDaddy for this service. It seems like they have the market cornered, but frankly I can't stand their boobylicious advertising and I don't want to support Bob Parsons' disgusting big game hunting hobby. I'm at a loss, as everyone seems to use them. Anyone have alternate suggestions? Go(Away)Daddy
I recommend bluehost.com hosting service. You can post unlimited domain names for the same price, believe it or not. I have also used totalchoicehosting.com as a hosting company. Barry barry [at] beachcollegecounseling.com
Onedollarhosting.com Maya
Sonic.net, a small local company based in Santa Rosa, will host web domains (among other services). I can't recall the cost, but it wasn't expensive. Used them when we designed our own wedding site and they were great! Good tech support, easy web interface for uploading content, modifying settings, etc. and you can purchase the domain through them if you don't already own it, too. They have various options based on how much or how little you need them to do. Happy Sonic customer!
You didn't mention what industry you are in or if you want it to be free, but if you are in the art or design field, Other People's Pixels has a really great and easy way to create an individual looking site and host your images, and the ability to sell your stuff. They have a ton of examples of sites and it's easy to choose your layout/font, create pull down menus, have multiple pages, etc. I paid for a year at once so I don't have to think about it. My site is my name, but I think you could use what you like. Here's the link to their site: http://otherpeoplespixels.com/ -Carmen Erasmus
http://www.networksolutions.com/ Mr. Website
I use InMotion Hosting and I'm very happy with them. Very good customer service - very fast response time to emails. http://www.inmotionhosting.com/ I found them by googling 'best web host' and they were ranked #1 on a list of 10...Go Daddy didn't even make it on that particular list, so there are a lot of good options out there to look into. happy with InMotion
There are domain name registrars who register the actual domain name, and there are web hosts who will house the website you are creating. Some do both, but since you ask about web domain providers, I will offer two other options: easydns.com and namecheap.com. I use the former. I know others who use the later. Both seem to be reputable and do the job. You can check to see if either will host the website, but you'll probably find it better to go with another company for the actual website. Whoever you choose will work with you to make sure the domain is pointed in the right place. hates godaddy too
Many web hosts these days throw in a free domain registration with your hosting plan - two that I can personally recommend are DreamHost (the better option if you want to host a Wordpress installation on your site, plus great customer service) and 1and1.com. Hostgator is another one to try. If you know you need hosting anyway, I think it makes sense to bundle them. If you're not ready for hosting yet, all these companies (and just about any other host) also offer domain registration alone at reasonable rates. I'm not sure why GoDaddy has such a perceived monopoly - maybe the constant advertising. Web designer
I like Hostgator.com and have several websites there. I've also used A2Hosting.com.
Web Hosting and Email for Non-Profit
Oct. 2003
I am helping the non-profit Kairos Youth Choir set up a web site, and would appreciate any recommendations for web hosting+domain name registration, and email list management. I'm not a professional - have done this a bit once for Neighborhood Moms, using my own personal free earthlink web space and doing some quick and dirty stuff so that I now know what html/ftp/cgi-bin are...) Other than avoiding Verisign/Network Solutions, any other tips? Our budget is of course limited, but so are our needs - eventually we do want to put samples of our music on the site but everything else is pretty simple - photos, text, a calendar, email aliasing. I've been looking around and iPowerWeb looks good. Any other recommendations? And any tips on how to extract ourselves from relying upon Yahoo Groups for our email list management? It's just awful. Thanks! Natasha
LMi.net in Berkeley offers discounts for non-profits. They are a full service ISP and can help you with web hosting, domain registration, email lists and anything else you need for the internet. They are small and local and have real people available to help you if have questions. Their number is 843-6389 and they are located on MLK at Virginia. Lynn
I too am a tinkerer. I did some looking around about a year ago when I got a web host for our cooperative preschool (and then myself). I wanted the stuff that yahoo provides plus more (I had written some Perl scripts to handle our curriculum rotations so needed a host that allowed you to run scripts).
As you probably know, there are tons of cheapie hosts that provide a lot but give you poor service. iPowerweb was one of the places I checked out; in fact, they may have been one of the few hosts that actually responded to my inquiries. I wound up choosing gisol.com because they provided Mailman- a web-based mailing list software program. Their tech support has been less than stellar, but hey, you get what you pay for. These places keep changing what they offer, so I'd go down the list comparing their offerings before choosing.
One piece of advice I read is to have the company doing your domain registering be different from your webhost. Lots of places offer first year free but you have to be sure that they register the domain in your name, not theirs. Otherwise you'll have trouble if you want to walk. I used godaddy.com where you can register for $8.95 a year.
Here are some things I've done for us: created several POP3 email accounts and aliases for directors and board members; created three mailing lists- board, members, alumni; created a password protected subdomain for members only; created a subdomain for storing files; installed a free PHP calendar program (from sourceforge.net) which sends email reminders (you need CronTab) and works off a MySQL database. I recently went through our website and changed all our mailto links to a javascript which has cut down on the amount of SPAM we receive.
Now I'm about to do the same thing for my temple, but I'm first checking into accepting credit cards online (have to get my butt to the phone and call our current merchant account)
Got a fussy baby so I'll stop here. Feel free to email me, and I look forward to reading the other replies you get. Sophie
Web Hosting for 7-yr-old
March 2002
My 7-year-old would like to have his own e-mail account, and if possible, a website (we've been building one). Does anyone have experience with domains that provide one or more of these services, specifically in a kid-friendly way? I'm interested in issues like the enforced advertising on the correspondence and/or webpage; the amount of screening of advertising and other unsavory material that might otherwise reach the child's inbox, costs, and anything else you can think of . Thanks-- L. C.
Check out nick.com. They have a web.lab. Kids have to have parents permission, but they can create things and put them on their own web page there. marianne roberts
Your ISP may be able to provide hosting/email for your child. Also for an inexpensive domain name registration, I recommend www.godaddy.com - it's quick, easy and much less expensive than Network Solutions. There are also some inexpensive hosts - I've heard good things about Binary Blocks: http://www.binaryblocks.com/hosting.html
My husband's company, PagePoint (www.pagepoint.com) also provides hosting for $12/month. Feel free to email him at aaronATpagepointDOTcom if you have any additional questions. cain
I have recommended (though not used personally) www.hostyard.com. They are not particularly child-friendly, but seem competent and their basic rate for hosting a web site is only about $60/year. You can get a domain name for $15/year from several places (possibly even hostyard, I haven't checked) so that would give you www.yourdomain.com plus mail to user [at] yourdomain.com for a reasonable yearly cost. Luigi
As someone who has built a lot of websites for musicians, writers and artists, I highly recommend Wordpress. It's open-source, so you can host it anywhere (unlike Squarespace or Wix), and there are a lot of free or low-cost add-ons and support options available. At its most basic, editing a Wordpress site is like composing an email, although you can get a lot fancier than that if you want to.
The cheapest (free) option is to host through Wordpress.com (your domain would be something like myart.wordpress.com), but if you can spare about $120/year, hosting it at someplace like Dreamhost (there are lots of options, but that's my personal favorite after long experience there and elsewhere) will get you your own domain name, email accounts, the ability to use plug-ins (which provide extra functionality in Wordpress, like calendars, forms, etc.), no ads, etc. without having to pay a la carte for those features at Wordpress.com. Basically, it will make your life easier and your site more professional. Also, they have something called the "One-Click Wordpress Install" which is literally as easy as it sounds.
There are a lot of nice Wordpress themes (including free ones) specifically geared towards displaying a portfolio. If you Google "wordpress themes portfolio" you'll see lots of examples; this site has a few examples and also walks you through the steps of setting up Wordpress and choosing a theme: https://www.wpbeginner.com/showcase/best-wordpress-portfolio-themes/
I don't think I'm allowed to promote my own services here, but there are lots of good Wordpress people out there if you find you need a hand ironing out the details - it is totally something you can DIY, too, though - in my experience, anything I couldn't figure out on my own had an answer somewhere online already. Good luck and congrats on being ready to put your work out there - I'm an artist myself so I know that's a big step!
I'm an architect and my daughter built my website and did a great job using Squarespace. It is user friendly and has a good choice of templates .
I love squarespace and their templates and the ease of use.
It's not cheap though. That professional look takes some $$ (domain fee and hosting fee)
The cheapest way would be social media in my opinion. Create FB Fan Page or Dedicated IG account (using a creator profile or even Business profile)
squarespace is great!
Try Squarespace. good luck!