Hi,

I am dissatisfied with my current hosting company (some tiny European), and therefore want to switch before my annual contract expires. I followed this forum very closely, and came to the following three final options:

1. DownTownHost.com: 350MB Plan, $19.95/Month or $16.95/Month p.a.

2. HostCulture.com: 450MB Plan, $15.95/Month or $159.50/Year

3. CreateSpace.com: 1000MB Plan, $9.95/Month or $109.00/Year.

Some of my observations:

DownTownHost and HostCulture - run by the same people or at least by close friends. The feature description is virtually the same, except that HostCulture offers in each category a bit more for less money (space, # of ftp/mail accounts, etc). However, somewhere here I read that I should first try DownTownHost and then HostCulture. You opinion? Does DownTownHost have any advantage to HostCulture from your experience? Also I would like to know, would my IP be shared or dedicated? If shared, do those two services offer a dedicated IP as well? If so, for what price?

CreateSpace.com is REALLY cheap. And its new. What is your experience with very new hosting companies. A stay away from it experience? I must say that the price-to-feature ratio is very tempting.

Finally, if you think you could recommend me a service that is better than any of those three mentioned, could you name it and tell me why it is better?

Thanks in advance!
Andrew

It sounds like price is a big concern for you (as it should be)... but what about support? Perhaps if you've narrowed your search down to these three companies, you should investigate the type of support they offer (i.e. telephone, email, 24/7, etc.), and most importantly... how quickly they will respond in your time of need.

Most people would pay a huge premium for quality and timely support.... especially if they've been burned before.

That's just a general comment. Sorry I don't have any experience with any of the hosts you mentioned.... perhaps someone else here does.

Good luck with your search :)

Thanks on the hint on support. You're right, support is important to me and so is the price. My site is just a personal site + forum with about 2-3gb traffic / month. No need to spend $$$ on a dedicated server or anything like that.

About DownTownHost: I've heard only good things regarding their support. Owner is actually also on this forum and very responsive to questions and requests. I am just not sure about the difference between DownTownHost and HostCulture.

PS: I had no problems with my hosting company for several months. Until recently, when I noticed that my ssi directives weren't executed anymore. Took them two days to fix that alone. Then my server was down for 6 hours in a row. Supposedly router defect. Then a few days later, I had a 403 error on all my cgi scripts. Was fixed again, after a few hours. Then I noticed that the ip of my server changed. In fact, I was always on a dedicated ip; now i am sharing an ip with others. Same time I noticed that my log facility that is used to access the raw logs suddenly shows a lot of hits from the other sites that share my ip. The hosting company isn't sure why. Oh well... to cut the long story short, I was more than disappointed recently and hence my decision to switch. Yes, support can become really an issue!

Cheers

Downtownhost & Hostculture are great hosts run by reliable and well respected people in the Webhosting Scene. You shouldn't have any problems with either.

I'd have to give my :agree: to HostCulture and/or Downtownhost. Hostculture is partly owned by Jorge, who also owns DTH. I was one of HC's first customers (according to Aron I was the very first :D) and was extremely happy. Only left them because I joined in on a business (which I no longer own ;))

Hello :)

Yes Jorge runs downtownhost, and the both of us run HostCulture. And yes, akash was our first customer on our first day ;)