Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Solution for very modest needs

[okok]

I run several very small non commercial, non profit, websites, each serving a small group of users. Their monthly bandwidth consumption hardly reaches 300mb, and none needs more than 200 mb of diskspace (most much less).

One of them is hosted with a host I am very pleased with, but its smallest package, $4/month for more than twice the necessary diskspace and a 10gb traffic, is way beyond my needs.

So I have been looking for a host that will either have very small plans for less than $3/month for each of these sites, or one with that allows hosting multiple domains on a single small plan.

So far, I have not found what I was looking for. Most reputable hosts don't have the kind of small and cheap accounts I am looking for. I tried Host Quote, and excpet for perhpas one reply all were totally irrelevant. I also could not locate areputable host with small plans and support for multiple domains.

I really do not want to go with hosts of unknown reliability. My sites aren't going to consume much system resources, but I want to maximize chances for them to be up whenever one needs them.

I would appreciate suggestion as to how I can solve this problem and also suggestions for appropriate hosts if you can recommend any. (so far, one host I was considering but could not find any information about is 2wdh.com.)

Thanks

[Hostkookster]

Generally hosts that offer multiple domains accounts will charge extra for that ability.

You're in a tight spot there. The big companies offer huge plans at cheap prices for what is offered, but you're a little guy looking for a little plan, something that isn't profitable for a big company.

[2DHost.net]

I can understand your predicament - most of the well-known hosts offer larger resources, far exceeding your modest requirements. Perhaps you could try host quote, as some leading webhosts are willing to provide custom packages, or one off smaller packages. Hope this helps.

[Ethical Network]

I would recommend using HostQuote too. If you input your exact requirements, you will without a doubt, get an email from a hosting company with a price for what you need, and nothing more.

[Coach]

Originally posted by 2DHost.net
Perhaps you could try host quote, as some leading webhosts are willing to provide custom packages, or one off smaller packages.

Originally posted by G2-Hosting
I would recommend using HostQuote too. If you input your exact requirements, you will without a doubt, get an email from a hosting company with a price for what you need, and nothing more.

He did... Most likely got responses from hosts that didn't pay much attention to what he was asking. Seems to be pretty common.

I tried Host Quote, and excpet for perhpas one reply all were totally irrelevant. I also could not locate areputable host with small plans and support for multiple domains.

[Ethical Network]

Originally posted by Coach
He did... Most likely got responses from hosts that didn't pay much attention to what he was asking. Seems to be pretty common.

Oops, my mistake, I must of missed that.

[Coach]

Originally posted by okok
One of them is hosted with a host I am very pleased with, but its smallest package, $4/month for more than twice the necessary diskspace and a 10gb traffic, is way beyond my needs.

So I have been looking for a host that will either have very small plans for less than $3/month for each of these sites, or one with that allows hosting multiple domains on a single small plan.

So far, I have not found what I was looking for. Most reputable hosts don't have the kind of small and cheap accounts I am looking for.

You're forgetting something here. Reputable hosts with really small plans don't always mean that you're going to get something for $1 a month. Many of these hosts will charge the same amount for 500 MB of space and 10 GB of transfer as they would charge for 5 MB of space and 5 KB of transfer. The reason is support costs. The lower end plans of many hosts don't really have much resource usage for the sites accounted in. It is usually the minimum support cost per month to be profitable that reputable hosts base their smallest plan price on.

If I were looking for a host (and I've dealt with many over the years), I wouldn't go anywhere near someone charging less than $3 a month like you're looking for. I've seen what happens and most of the time it isn't pretty.

[josue]

Im sure you can find here hosts that will help you with the custom plan you need.

Look around, look at peoples signatures, do a search on the company, if it looks fine, contact the person on msn/aim/icq and ask for what you need, you may find a solution that way.


Cheers!

[DSLWeb]

Try Host Quote again make sure you ask for a standard plan with 3 add-on domains if I remember correctly or did you mention how many add-on domains you had.. anyways just specify how many add-on domains you would like your total space / bandwidth requirements and see what you get back ..

...::: Agreed :::...

The lowest is not always the best which I understand maybe frustrating for you but trust me the frustration will be ten fold if you find yourself in a no support situation.


Note: If you dont get the exact plan you are looking for email the closest one back and see if it can be tweaked to fit your hosting needs.

Hope this helps

Regards,
Lee

[okok]

Thank you for your replies!

[sfatula]

I don't think I would go with *any* plan for < $4 per month! How could anyone possible provide support?

[Ethical Network]

Originally posted by sfatula
I don't think I would go with *any* plan for < $4 per month! How could anyone possible provide support?

Simple. The $4 plan, or even the $2 or $3 plan is more then likely

1. a very small plan

2. the smallest plan that company offers, which means, they offer larger plans as well, larger plans that are probably purchases much more often then any of the smaller plans.

[FH-Mike]

Originally posted by sfatula
I don't think I would go with *any* plan for < $4 per month! How could anyone possible provide support?

Why wouldn't they? It sounds like his site would use very few resources etc and basically be no load on the server.

I would say do some research on hosts here and then email a few of them, I'm sure many would do a custom plan for your specific needs.

[sfatula]

Ok, I guess I will have to amend my answer to this. I guess it depends what you call support. What if there is a bug in PHP, will they update the software for you? What if you need curl or something else and it is not installed, will they install it for you? What if you need changes to PHP.INI, or, HTTPD.CONF, will they put them in? What if you have questions about an error in the Apache error log, will they help you with that? etc.

I am sure they help with server isn't running. But beyond that, there are all sorts of things that come up when you run a web site. I've tried many of the deep discounted plans, and never was satisfied. So, I have a dedicated self-managed server now, since I was a system admin for 20 years.

Perhaps there are companies that will truely provide support. But support is a word that can mean many things. My experience has been very bad.

[Ethical Network]

Originally posted by sfatula
Perhaps there are companies that will truely provide support. But support is a word that can mean many things. My experience has been very bad.

Well, not all hosting companies are crappy like the ones you hosted with. Sorry for your misfortune, but there are great hosts out there, that offer small plans, as well as large plans, and give the same amount of support to all clients, big and small.