I'm looking for hosting for a medium/large company (non-ecommerce but might be in the future) for their ASP.net site. There's a couple things that I'm not sure about when looking at hosting and would like opinions.

We will need a minimum of 8 domains hosted under one account. One domain for the parent company then a separate domain for each brand. Is this something that could be handled well-enough by just using add-on domains? What specifically should I be looking for in the features list of a hosting company to make sure that we will be able to have multiple domains under the one account?

Also, I am going back and forth between VPS and shared hosting. I would like to have control over the server but I have little experience with IIS. How powerful are the control panels that come with most hosts?

Lastly, we get about 7,000 visitors a month with an average of 6 page views. What should I be looking at for bandwidth usage?

With shared hosting I worry about the stability and speed. With VPS I worry that it is overkill and might be too much power. Thoughts?

As far as specific hosting companies, I have been comparing DiscountASP, Softsys & Web Air. Any opinions on those companies will be appreciated as well!

Thanks in advance for the help.

Hi there! Welcome to WHT.

All of your concerns are valid, but many of the answers are going to vary from host to host. Specifically, your question about add-on domains. Many hosts will offer this while others will simply opt to sell an additional plan for X number of domains under your existing account. One possible option for you might be to use a 'Reseller' account even though the space is only for yourself. Reseller accounts tend to offer more domains than shared hosting plans and generally cater to adding features / domains ala carte. You basically pay for what you use.

In terms of Shared vs. VPS, personally, if you have the budget I'd go for VPS assuming you're game to put in the effort and learning curve. You may also want to look for a managed VPS plan or one that provides you with a control panel. Having a control panel will largely automate the process of adding sites to IIS and minimize the overall effort involved. It would allow you learn as you go a bit more instead of being overwhelmed by having to setup sites manually. You can also look at DotNetPanel which has a free version for 5 websites, then paid from there. I know you said your quota was for 8, but if you can initially consolidate or cut back you can get your feet wet before purchasing licensing.

It's difficult to judge your bandwidth requirements if you don't know the average size of your page loads. A pure HTML site will have dramatically different bandwidth needs than one loaded with images, flash and video. Try to determine what your 'average' user is doing either by reviewing your current hosting stats logs or at minimum using something like Firebug for Firefox. Try to imitate what an average user on your site might browse while recording the various page sizes. Multiply that by your monthly visits and you'll have a rough starting point. Most hosts will provide plans that far exceed what the typical user is capable of consuming (overselling or not).

Both DiscountASP and Softsys (along with others who regularly post here) are reputable providers. I'm personally not familiar with Web Air -- nothing against them. Once you determine your specific needs a little more you can try one of them. Most providers have some sort of money back guarantee if you wish to cancel services within an initial period (i.e. 30, 60 or 90 days -- usually 30) if you find their services aren't the right fit for you.

Good luck -

Regards,

Wayne

We will need a minimum of 8 domains hosted under one account. One domain for the parent company then a separate domain for each brand. Is this something that could be handled well-enough by just using add-on domains? What specifically should I be looking for in the features list of a hosting company to make sure that we will be able to have multiple domains under the one account?
You can either go for reseller hosting or in-fact if all your domain are pointing to main (same) domain you go for shared hosting service with any provider who allow you to host add-on domains in shared hosting.

Lastly, we get about 7,000 visitors a month with an average of 6 page views. What should I be looking at for bandwidth usage?


It depend upon what is the content of your website if its video buffering site or some kind of download website then you may required a high bandwidth.

Best thing i will recommend to check your current bandwidth usages from your hosting panel so you can have rough idea of your average bandwidth use.

Best of luck for your search