This really shouldn't be so difficult...
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Okay, hope this rant isn't too off-topic. What I want to know is why can't I find any decent review sites for Web Hosting?? So, I'm hoping to dip my toes into the world of creating my own website. I've got a modest budget (~$50 p/yr or so) and limited experience. I thought I would do some research about which Web Hosting (and domain registration) services are most recommended (shouldn't be too difficult, right?), but I was amazed that I couldn't find ANY decent review sites! Of course, there are dozens of websites that claim to provide reviews for Web Hosting, but they are all somewhere between useless and ridiculous. I found several reviews sites that gave 4.5-5 stars for every single Web Hoster. Another reviewer began every single review with, "This is another great company...". And none of them provide useful cost comparisons; they only list the entry price. I don't CARE that HipHopWebStop has Plans that "start from" $2 p/month! That doesn't tell me anything about what the service is really going to cost. ("You too can get started for ONLY TWO CENTS A WEEK!!*" *[Prices subject to change. 30 year contract required. Price adjusted to $17 per day after the first fortnight. $5 p/hr extra for javascript support.]) What the world needs (IMHO) is a side-by-side comparison of the top 10 or 20 Web Hosting companies including actual 1-yr, 2-yr, 3-yr costs, what features are included for free, how much all the "extras" cost, technical specs (OS, languages, database support, etc), and HONEST USER REVIEWS about things like tech support, uptime, bandwidth and overall experience. If anybody can find (or build) a review site like this, could you please let me know about it? Thank you. I'm done now.
I'm going to chime in with another cloud provider - which makes it dead simple to set up a website, and is cheap, too (free to start with): Heroku Go with Namecheap.com for your domain (another low cost good one is name.com) - or, if you want to be ultra-super-cheap - you can get a .ml domain for free: www.point.ml For free DNS (if you need it): freedns.com Ultimately - if you do things right, you can set up a website for free - completely free. It won't have the best domain, nor the best processing power or space (or bandwidth) - but it will be enough to experiment with, and build your website. Once you get to a point where you are ready to launch, pony up for a bit of extra dough (and really, it will be a very minor amount) to get a real domain, up the hosting, etc. Note that there are many good things about Heroku - for one, it is very easy to set up and maintain your cloud server. The gui is dead simple; I haven't checked Amazon lately, but the last time I did, they didn't make it very simple to get things up and going (and to know how much you would be charged). Also - most cloud server providers offer a very cheap sliding scale of things; you can even sometimes have auto-ramp-up for loads (as well as ways to cap things), and re-size your system up and down as your needs change. Backup can be made automatic, plus many other features - too many to name, and it will vary depending on the provider. Oh - one other service to get (once you have your site launched, mainly): www.cloudflare.com They basically make CDN easy - and if your site become really popular (or you get DDOS'd) - they'll absorb the load before it gets to your hosting provider, so you don't get a huge bill in the mail from them.