I have come to the conslusion that good hosts don't exist. I used to think that you could get just anything for $10 per month. You'd have great support and a site that runs wonderfully. Then I realized that the world isn't perfect. I'm thirteen years old and I want a personal domain just for me. I want a site like dork.nu, brookelyn.org, regretless.com etc. Those are all basic personal teenage sites. I'm REALLY cheap, but when I finally decided that I was willing to pay $10 per month, I thought I could find a good host easily. So far, I'm thinking that's not going to happen. There are no good hosts out there that are cheap enough for me to pay for! Here are the hosts I am thinking of:

Myacen.com : For $50 per year, plus domain registration, I could have a great site. But they seem too good to be true. They're new and getting too popular too fast, in my opinion.

Hostrocket.com : Most teens are hosted here, but I've heard some really bad things. My friend got charged for two years, plus domain registration, but it never was activated. She sent in all kinds of emails and it never worked. I don't know the whole story, but still...

PHPwebhosting.com : Sound great, but not the best. The whole unmetered thing bugs me. They say no more then 10GBs in their FAQs, and that's plenty for me. They seem pretty good.

Your-site.com : Seem good, but will 50MBs be enough? Probably, but I'd like to have 100 to be safe. I'm installing message boards, etc. and more might be better...

Host-culture.com : The best option so far, I'd say. Great deals for a small price. But like aletia and hostrocket, they might start out exceptional, get crowded, and go downhill from there. Who knows?

Aletiahosting.com : Haven't heard the best things, but they still sound okay. They overrated, but they are probably better than hostrocket. But what do I know?

That's my situation. Sorry for the long post... I just need help. What do you think my best option is?

Just to clarify we are nearly a year old :)

Really? I thought you were only a few months old. I get so confused with all the different posts here. I am probably going to sign up with myacen. Even though you sound too good to be true, I can't resist. Plus, you guys seem to be awake and paying attension to people. I am sensing good customer support :D

I can tell you that both Myacen and Hostculture are very good. I'm currenty using neither - in the case of Myacen I was offered a better deal - which well lets just say i got what i paid for. :rolleyes: With hostculture, I was given a free account, and once again i got what i paid for. lol. sorry for rambling on. anyway, my point is both of those guys are VERY good - i'm in fact thinking of going back to one of them - or both of them ( i have several domains). Hope I could help. :)

Originally posted by Myacen
Just to clarify we are nearly a year old :)

Almost all hosting companies are good within a year. Nothing can really happen that serious within a year.

SaraMo,

Just like you said you are CHEAP, and you expect to get a professional hosting solution? You get what you paid for. :)

It sounds like you haven't even tried any hosts. How do you know that good hosts don't exist if you haven't tried any? There's plenty of places out there.

<<Please send all offers via PM/Email>>

In that case, I want a free hosting account too. *waves at Kiwi* LOL I have all the qualifications - I'm only a teenager, I'm cheap, and I've lost all hope on ever finding a good host.

*wink*

SaraMo - I like dork.nu too, I know Candace (the owner) and she's really nice. :)

Originally posted by debris
In that case, I want a free hosting account too. *waves at Kiwi* LOL I have all the qualifications - I'm only a teenager, I'm cheap, and I've lost all hope on ever finding a good host.



Haha. If anyone with those qualifications got a free hosting account, the whole web hosting industry might go out of business. :rolleyes:

Candy is cool! So is Brooke and so is Katie (she broke her poor LEG! :( ) And you know what? Finding a good host is so hard. There are so many bad companies out there now :( So many good, but you can't tell the difference between the two unless you try them out. And I'm just a stupid teenager hoping to get a domain running with my dad's credit card :D I am so lame, I have to do chores to get my domain for a year. Unless I find that great deal or get free hosting. It's FRUSTRATING! :o

Kiwi: I sent you an email.

PS - So many smileys!

SaraMo, I had to do chores for, er, a month to get my domain. Heh. My dad wouldn't let me use his credit card though, so I had to mail a check to my host, which is taking forever to reach them. Grr.

Oh, and the host I'm trying now is charging really cheap for their service, so I've braced myself for the very probable company shutdown or slow server performance... But what's a penniless girl like me to do. *sigh*

P.S. We don't have pennies in my country, but anyway. ;)

Originally posted by SaraMo
Host-culture.com : The best option so far, I'd say. Great deals for a small price. But like aletia and hostrocket, they might start out exceptional, get crowded, and go downhill from there. Who knows?

*hostculture.com* ;)
So far things are going good for us, my partner, Jorge, is definatley not new to this, we are ready for what the future brings us :)

Uh.. since when can't you get a decent host for $10 a month? As long as you're not expecting the world, there are plenty.

Let me see.. there's Cyberwings, iPowerWeb, OC hosting, just to name a few. Please don't be arrogant with the "you get what you pay for" phrase.

On that last post - "don't be arrogant", I need to comment:

How can he not be arrogant, yes, some in his list are respected, and some have some serious issues. There are also ALOT out there that he has not mentioned, that are far worse, but people keep signing up with them (the bad ISP's) long enough to keep them in business.

In the Internet industry, there is alot of "you get what you pay for", but we are one of the $10 hosts also. We try not to be just another $10 host, by giving the customers what they want and need, but we still only charge the $10 (cheapest plan, most upgrade out of it)

When you look at the Internet, there are alot of scary businesses out there trying to make the quick dollar. You do have to be careful with who you trust your site/business in the hands of, so the kid has a point, at least he is trying to do research prior to spending his money and coming up short, I applaud him in his efforts to not only do the research, but to post here and say his thoughts and get other feedback. I really do not think it was a grype post, I think it was just what has happened, to get feedback from other people.

anyone else notice that a thirteen year old is looking for a hosting solution? :D
haha I'm 20 and own a small datacenter/NOC but when I was 13 I was still playing with lego blocks, makes me wonder what thirteen year old's will be doing in 10 years, jeez even 5 years for that matter...oh well I still have building blocks to play with they just say Cisco and 3com on them now :)

ROTFLMAO!!!!

I noticed this, but still, he is doing what alot of people don't, Looking for the right solution and not jumping into the first thing he finds.....

If he does decide to try and go into the I.T. field, at least he has the brains not to go with the flow, and to research everything. There are some upstream providers that don't even do this, and then the ISP's under them suffer.

I agree with the playing with lego's thing, heck, I still play with lego's!!!! (good for stress relief :love: )

yeah I know it. :rolleyes: when i was 13, i was playing with dolls, lol. Just earlier, i saw this domain that was owned by a 12 year old. i'm afraid to ask what the kids will be will doing in 10 years. haha. i'm 19 and i'm looking for a hosting solution too. :D

I was referring to Panzerfaust's statement.

Just like you said you are CHEAP, and you expect to get a professional hosting solution? You get what you paid for.

I'm 17, and I'm probably considered already over the hill in terms of the teen domain scene. There are domains owned by 10-year-olds out there, and they're pretty darn good too.

Heh, you guys have not known what age I'm at, f00, so you wouldn't know whats scarier...

I am 12 years old, and i own a myacen account (Corporate), own an anime site that gets 1000 hits a day, (but it's shut down right now) plus, much more (i.e. how to brute force someone, blah blah blah)


Hehehehe, so ph33r me.

Want proof? I'll scan my birth certificate. ^^

GOOD HOST DON'T EXIST ? Well thats not always true there are some quite experienced and proffessional host out there. You can find a spectacular host not just good trust me Hehe. :stickout

Ahh to be 13 again! :)

But back to hosting, there are MANY GOOD HOSTS out there that do truly care about their customers, provide top notch customer support; all for around 10 bucks a month or less. The problem is just that there are just as many, if not more, bad hosts out there that really could not give a flying toss about their customers (as long as they continue to pay up), and do not "get" the concept of offering good support at all.

But I think the same can be said for most any sector of the market out there -- you will always have companies that provide exceptional service, and others that simply "could not care less".

MyAcen is the awesome. Try them.

Why do you all refer to SaraMo as "he"? I think the name kind of gives it away that it's a "she" (I could be wrong though ;))

You seem to be basing your decisions and drawing conclusions from pretty small samplings of each host, like for example how is it you came to the conclusion that Aletia was 'overrated'? Anyways, the best way to find out what host to go with, is to sign up and give them a try.

-Brendan

I am a girl, my name is Sara and my middle name is Maureen (Mo.) Whatever :D I have just heard from most of my friends that use Aletia, that it's not all it's cracked up to be, but I am just basing my assumptions on what I hear. I just can't afford to try out a hosting company and then have them not be as good as I want them to be. For $10 per month, what can I get? Recommend some to me that perhaps I haven't heard of before :) I am still not sure what I want, but I'v had some amazing offers from different people that I am considering. I don't know what exactly I'm going to do, but it's nice to know there's options.

I am probably older then your Dad, so I have some life experience! I am delighted to read your posting - shows maturity (for your age), passion and wisdom.
As far as a perfect host? Forget perfection. Nothing in life is perfect... What is important though, is learning how to deal with what you have and how to respond to what happens to you. There are no victims, only volunteers...

You start with any host, back up your site on your hard drive, do not prepay more then one month, get one with 30 days money back guarantee, and hope for the best!
If anything goes wrong - switch to another host. It is a learning experience, and a lot of fun. I do not believe that your livelihood depends on your website. And remember, switching a host is a breeze.
Usually doesn’t take more then a day or two to propagate the DNS for your domain.
Search for domains for $4.95 a month with no setup fees. Try ehostpros.com

Good luck,

Reuven

By the way. Cyberwings looks good, but almost too good. I am not trying to make assumptions about anybody, but there are so many bad hosts out there. I know there are good ones that care about their customers and provide good hosting, but I can't tell who those people are and differenciate those sites from the bad ones. I am not expecting spectacular hosting, but on these boards, you've bashed every single hosting company I've considered. I know not to go based on one person's opinions, but so many people hate all the companies that sound good. You have to understand, up until a few months ago, I though if you could pay $10 per month you could get the best hosting plan with all the features and everything, but you just can't. No plan has everything and I want to find the one that's best for me. The $60 per year plan on cyberwings.com looks great, anybody know from experience how good they are? Seem a little too cheap. But I don't know. I'm thinking of using them as backup if I don't go with some of the custom offers people are sending me personally.

Thanks so much everybody for caring about my situation. *Cries* there are good people on the internet! :D Hehe!

PS - I am sorry if I'm wrong in making assumptions, but I am not very smart when it comes to hosting companies. I just don't want to end up paying for something I don't want. I just want to know what hosting company will give me the most for around $10 per month.

I just know from experience that most of the hosts I know really do care about what they do alot, you can't be in this business and be successful at all if you don't. The internet has a way of bringing out the bad news about events/people/places/things alot more than the good.

-Brendan

Originally posted by HRBrendan
I just know from experience that most of the hosts I know really do care about what they do alot, you can't be in this business and be successful at all if you don't.

So how come ***** is so successful?

This is what I am wondering, how come the hosts everyone says sucks, are the ones with the most business???

<<Removed>> as I don't want to get moderated for advertising.

<<MOD NOTE: Please PM/Email any and all offers directly>>

Im guessing that *****, Invested big buks on adverts all over the internet...

I have seen so so so many around that if you were a newbie and without the help of "WHT" you would not know any better and go with them, thinking there gods gift to hosting.. Im sure they will be kickin them selves up the back side now!

Its marketing you do it the right way you can sell something that deosnt even excist or something you dont even own, you can make millions without even having a product these days! ( Its just illegal)

Marekting is everything, when looking for customers! the key is customer service, treat every customer with respect and dont assume they know something if you havnt told them. Uptime and reliability is your goal, seek it!

Nice to see all the young generation into it, should i say younger!

Regards to all, :)

Im not defending ***** by any means, but the reason the biggest hosts have the most complaints is because they have the most customers. Any host here will tell you an unhappy customer is 20x as noisy as a happy one, so the more customers you have the complaints grow exponentially. Check out pair.net, theyre huge and i rarely hear complaints about them.

-Brendan

Maybe you're right, maybe I should just forget about all the crap I hear about different companies. Well, not all of it. I know some hosts to definately stay away from, but hosts like aletia and hostrocket might be okay after all. I still don't know :S

SaraMo... I run the exact type of domain that you're thinking of setting up, and I have experience with a few companies. If you want to ask me anything, feel free to e-mail me or whatever.
And I know loads of thirteen years olds with heaps of talent who own domains. That's the great thing about the internet - you're not immediately judged by your age, but rather, what you can do. :)

What hosts would you recommend? I see from your site that you're currently at www.thetool.co.uk. They offer unlimited bandwidth, so I don't trust them, but are there any other companies you like that you've been with?

Never mind, I'm happily hosted now :D Starfallen.net is open!

I don't think this was said, and Kind of off topic, but, wow.. You are quite literate for a thirteen year old. Come work for us in a few years. :)

LOL So you're Sara from Starfallen.net? I didn't know, heh. My friend Wendy was a hostee of yours, and I recall visiting your domain a couple of times before. Whoo, welcome back then. :)

Thats me :D I miss Wendy... She's at Sylvia's domain (riddle.nu) now, right? Anyway, thanks everybody for the offers and support. I'm glad I found a home online!

Originally posted by SaraMo
Maybe you're right, maybe I should just forget about all the crap I hear about different companies. Well, not all of it. I know some hosts to definately stay away from, but hosts like aletia and hostrocket might be okay after all. I still don't know :S

While it's true that a larger customer base has the potential to mean more complaints, you have to look a bit deeper - are the complaints about certain companies nothing more than random bitching about this and that, or are they pretty much all about the same one or two issues? If they are all about the same one or two issues, chances are there is some basis to the complaints, and you'd be better off looking elsewhere.

Just my .02

-Bob