Looking for cheap web hosting

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ronw

996 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 165859 23-Feb-2015 08:50

I am looking for a cheapish web hosting service for a small church group. There are so many firms out there its hard to know what is a reasonable price to pay so are looking for suggestions as who I should look at. At present it has been hosted for free but this is coming to end and I don't want to lumber the parish with huge ongoing costs. Site is pretty small probably less than 50Mb content
Ideas please?

Nokia 7 Plus
Nexus 6P 32Gb
Nexus 6 Phone
Nexus 5 Phone
Nexus 7 2013 Tablet
Samsung TAB A 8"
Samsung TAB A 10"

& many Windows laptops, Desktops etc

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# 1244589 23-Feb-2015 09:02

I use HostGator in the US, for US$5 a month you'd get everything you need. Coupon "gznz111111" would give you a 25% discount off your first payment, but if you wait for a US public holiday they often do 50% off or sometimes better.

There may be a community group or person who'd host it for free. I know my HostGator hosting plan allows unlimited websites and very high traffic, but I wouldn't take on another website as I'm already pushing what's reasonable with 20 odd websites on there.

ronw

996 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 1244595 23-Feb-2015 09:12

Thanks will have a look at them. I wonder why NZ companies seem so expensive compared with overseas ones. Maybe market is too small. Hopefull we will get some other suggestions.

Nokia 7 Plus
Nexus 6P 32Gb
Nexus 6 Phone
Nexus 5 Phone
Nexus 7 2013 Tablet
Samsung TAB A 8"
Samsung TAB A 10"

& many Windows laptops, Desktops etc

ronw

996 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 1244598 23-Feb-2015 09:22

I forgot to say that I already have a domain name contract in NZ Some firms would not supply a hosting service unless they can have the domain registration as well and several overseas firms do not want to offer hosting if they cannot also handle the domain registration. SOme also object to hosting a .nz name. I don't want to change my current domain name provider so need a hosting that can cope with just hosting and not domain registration.

Nokia 7 Plus
Nexus 6P 32Gb
Nexus 6 Phone
Nexus 5 Phone
Nexus 7 2013 Tablet
Samsung TAB A 8"
Samsung TAB A 10"

& many Windows laptops, Desktops etc

timmmay

15246 posts

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# 1244599 23-Feb-2015 09:24

One person supports this post

Domain registration and hosting should be independent. I wouldn't deal with a firm that required you have buy both services from them. I get my domain names from three places and host with hostgator. The domain name suffix is irrelevant to the host.

NZ is a small market I guess, therefore more expensive.

Dulouz

658 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 1244606 23-Feb-2015 09:41

I use Go Daddy, well priced and heaps of options.

Amanon

Reanalyse

61 posts

Master Geek

# 1244620 23-Feb-2015 10:08

Some VPS providers are very cheap - US$12 a year, and it is easy to add multiple websites
Have a look on Lowendbox.com - starts at 3 Euro for really bare bones VPS

timmmay

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# 1244622 23-Feb-2015 10:15

Dulouz: I use Go Daddy, well priced and heaps of options.

Godaddy has one of the worst, most confusing websites on the planet. Achieving anything is confusing and difficult and there are constant unnecessary upsells. The one time I used technical support I found them pretty much useless.

There are plenty of decent web hosts, but I personally wouldn't touch GoDaddy with a barge pole.

deadlyllama

957 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 1244641 23-Feb-2015 10:34

At the low end of the market, the big cost is people's time. Don't expect fantastic support for $5/mo.

I do wordpress hosting for churches (my current, and previous one in Wellington) and charge them $30/mo but that includes my answering emails when they have techie questions, and they only get one bill -- no dealing with registrars/etc.

Is it a static site or do they have a CMS? I'd highly recommend some sort of CMS even if you're just using wordpress.com and paying their "custom domain" fee. That's pretty cheap.

If you've got a static site and no money, just use nearlyfreespeech.net and stick it behind a free cloudflare plan.

[edit] I wouldn't recommend a static site, though -- it ends up being a brochure in digital form, and it will quickly end up looking dated and uninviting.

nitrotech

1246 posts

Uber Geek

# 1244686 23-Feb-2015 11:45

Could always try Azure - start with the free and that may very well suit you long term.

http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/websites/

mattwnz

15168 posts

Uber Geek

# 1244836 23-Feb-2015 14:19

nitrotech: Could always try Azure - start with the free and that may very well suit you long term.

http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/websites/

Potentially it could be an expensive option, especially as you have to pay for support, which is $35 per month / US ?

Cheap hosting often struggles with Wordpress I have found, as the cheap hosting is often overloaded, and is full of sites that have old versions of CMS's that often get hacked and the servers blacklisted for spamming. Around the $10-20 should get you a good NZ host with good quality support. ALso if you are using a CMS, only use a CMS if you are regularly updating it. If the site isn't going to be updated say monthly with security uipdates, then a static website maybe a better option.

kingjj

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# 1244940 23-Feb-2015 15:41

Normally I'd be happy to offer you free web hosting on one my Cpanel servers but I'm planning a migration at the moment and don't want to take on any new sites. If you're happy to do a bit of digging you can always get fantastic deals at WebHostingTalk.com. I've linked straight to their Shared Hosting Offers section, there are always fantastic deals on there. Just make sure you do a bit of Googling before picking a host and use WHTs search function to check out reviews. There are some highly rated hosts on there (from around the world inc NZ/AU) who have great offers at the moment. Who ever you pick also look at using CloudFlare.com for your DNS which will help with your load speed for NZ (they have a POP in Auckland).

nathan

5173 posts

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# 1244947 23-Feb-2015 15:46

ronw: Thanks will have a look at them. I wonder why NZ companies seem so expensive compared with overseas ones. Maybe market is too small. Hopefull we will get some other suggestions.

Economies of scale

mattwnz

15168 posts

Uber Geek

# 1244979 23-Feb-2015 16:23

nathan:
ronw: Thanks will have a look at them. I wonder why NZ companies seem so expensive compared with overseas ones. Maybe market is too small. Hopefull we will get some other suggestions.

Economies of scale

Also in terms of cost, they are not likely to much more if you shop around. NZ companies pay tax in NZ, and charge GST. Also it is false economy going for very cheap hosting, if their support sucks or the servers are slow or unreliable, or you are constantly having problems with email being blacklisted etc.

timmmay

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# 1245009 23-Feb-2015 17:10

mattwnz: Potentially it could be an expensive option, especially as you have to pay for support, which is $35 per month / US ?

Cheap hosting often struggles with Wordpress I have found, as the cheap hosting is often overloaded, and is full of sites that have old versions of CMS's that often get hacked and the servers blacklisted for spamming. Around the $10-20 should get you a good NZ host with good quality support. ALso if you are using a CMS, only use a CMS if you are regularly updating it. If the site isn't going to be updated say monthly with security uipdates, then a static website maybe a better option.

If anyone wants to see Wordpress performance on HostGator try my headphones website blog.

semigeek

1541 posts

Uber Geek

# 1245017 23-Feb-2015 17:29

For some reason I always get emails from this place, I must have looked at it once and then not used it.
https://byethost.com/index.php/free-hosting

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