Hi All,

I am a LAMP/WAMP web developer and designer. I want to offer my clients web hosting. I have been doing a lot of research (WHT has been helpful) and I thinking about HostGator. However, I am also considering a local IT Solutions company. The have s "state-of-the-art NIST 800-53 Certified Data Center" (whatever that means). Anyway, they are a large reputable company with regional name recognition.

I need your opinion.

Here are the pros for using the local company:
Large provider of bandwidth in the area.
Ping from my computer is less then 30ms
Customer service can reach far beyond web hosting
Name Recognition.-local/regional clients will be able to appreciate my partnership with them.
Price is reasonable, $20 per account and after so many accounts it is lowered to $10 a month(I know that this is a lot, but i'm tryin to keep positive)

Here are the pros with hostgator:
Ping from my computer takes less then 50ms
Good reputation for customer services.
Much less expensive- $25 to start and no extra cost per account(up to my diskspace/bandwith limits)
personalized name servers

Any opinions/comments would be helpful to help me make a decision. Other Hosting suggestion are welcome.

Name Recognition.-local/regional clients will be able to appreciate my partnership with them.As long as end users (your customers) can't easily get an account with your upstream provider this could be of some use. Most resellers around here try as much as possible to hide who their provider is though.

Ping from my computer is less then 30ms (...)
Ping from my computer takes less then 50ms For website browsing purposes, the difference given by the ping would be negligible. Hosting in the US should more than suffice location wise.

Customer service can reach far beyond web hosting Do you need that? You're a web developer, so, pretty technical. Will they support your customers directly?

I would go with big brand name like hostgator, just feel more secured to do business with them

I used a HostGator reseller account in the past and their support was good but the server experienced a little bit of downtime every once in a while. I'd use them again if I were looking for a solid reseller plan.

I used a HostGator reseller account in the past and their support was good but the server experienced a little bit of downtime every once in a while. I'd use them again if I were looking for a solid reseller plan.

Can you give an estimate of what their uptime % was when you used their service?

Thank you all for the replies. This is an excellent community. I'm not sold either way. I'm by nature a very indecisive person. I believe that I will try both as they both offer a 30 day moneyback guarantee, so I have nothing to loose but my time :)

Thanks again, if there is interest I will post my review of both.