Starting an online forum, which host is better? iPage or Host Gator?

I'm looking forward to purchasing hosting for my forum as I'm fed up with my freebie host blocking access to my website because of "heavy load on server." I tried to do research on webhosts, but all I get on Google is top 10 lists, and I don't feel I should find them credible. By the looks of the posts here it seems as if iPage, and Host Gator are reputable. I don't want to spend more than $70 a year on hosting. My forum is still in developing stages so I believe it averages a small amount of server load at the moment, but I think I'll be looking at an average count of say 200 unique pageviews a day? I only need a host for SMF, and really not much more. I want something that will never fail or shut down unexpectedly.

Thanks in advance for any help.
BTW, I registered my domain with GoDaddy, and I don't think you guys like GoDaddy very much, did I fudge up?
I've also been told to stay away from hosts that claim to offer unlimited disk space.
Edit: I'm looking into this "anti-overselling" host:

Chicago Shared Hosting - Beginner
Pay annually and get a free month!

Webspace - 2,000MB
Bandwidth - 50GB
MySQL Databases - unlimited
FTP Accounts - unlimited
Email accounts - unlimited
Parked Domains - unlimited
Addon Domains - unlimited

$23.38 USD Annually

 

Hi,

To address the GoDaddy issue first, I think you might be confusing some of the reviews. GoDaddy is generally an excellent domain registrar. That's their primary business. Their hosting, on the other hand, is attrocious. That is the case with most domain registrars who offer hosting just to make a few extra bucks. You did well by registering you domain with them, but not taking their hosting.

Both iPage and Hostgator are owned by EIG, which if you do some research, is basically a huge company that runs some of the largest hosts in the industry. They buy some of the largest hosts that are doing well, and then turn them into complete crap. They own some 40 major hosts lasts I checked, and all are garbage. Hostgator is certainly better than iPage, but then again, HG was just purchased by EIG about a month ago. If history repeats, as it usually does with EIG brands, HostGator will be a horrible host within the next 6-12 months. In the meantime though, they are probably the better option.

Not sure where your Chicago Shared Hosting - Beginner plan is from, but the price and features seem reasonable. It's not some "unlimited" nonsense, and if they say it's not oversold, I would certainly be willing to take their word for it and give them a chance.

 

The disk space usually never an issue. What is issue with overselling - limited CPU and MQSQL resources

 

My personal experience. I use ipage but not pleased. I used to use free web-hosting which is way better than ipage hosting. Main reason is the customer service, you have to wait in the line to get your number.

 

I strongly recommend SEOhost.us

Some of the reasons:

Unique Class C IP Address (Much better for SEO)
Thousands of dollars of premium WP tools, themes, plugins and extensions are included- FREE (might not be relevant for a forum, but they offer support for many different CMS including the most popular BB software.)
Excellent support
Affordable price

I used to host with Bluehost, until I found this one. Now I will never go anywhere else. Ever. And I recommend you give them a try too...

 

Unique Class C IP addresses don't do anything for SEO anymore, so you can ignore that. And disk space absolutely is an issue. If you're selling "unlimited" disk space and use hundreds of gigabytes worth of space (or you cram a couple thousands users onto a server), that's one of the biggest forms of overselling there is. Hosts offering "unlimited" disk space are going to limit you somehow. Do you think they are going to keep adding hard drives (enterprise hard drives aren't cheap) to a server, so that you can use as much space as you want on your $3.99/mo. unlimited everything account? It's an absurd notion.

 

I ve had terrible experience with Godaddy hosting, they have deaaaad slow servers with most of the time down. Host gator is the best option, I have had my hosting for a couple years and their servers are really really good. No down time and they are suuuper fast!

 

There is a special offer today from iPage hosting

Unlimited hosting+free domain name for just $23 per year


However I suggest you to use VPS for forums , since it will use more CPU resources...Or else try BlueHost pro package its also better

 

I'd suggest you to widen your search. think that topxen.com will suit your needs in terms of speed connectivity, Uptime and customer support.
BTW, their pricing is so cheap. you will also save really good sum of money.

 

Do you have any specific location in mind?

 

I wonder if location is important for you?

 

You can also choose hostgator since , for a limited time Hostgator offers 40% discount

 

Hostgator is the best. Best discount and best hosting guaranteed no failures inside any network, review here blingpp.com/review/singlehop-web-hosting-review/

 

Hostgator is best, find good hosting service ...

 

Between the two hosts you mentioned Hostgator is the better option. They were recently purchased by EIG which also owns iPage. What will happen to Hostgator is up in the air... however I really think that things will overall remain the same (same servers, headquarters/employees), as with BlueHost which was also purchased by EIG a couple of years ago.

 

It might be a while until I have the money available for the host. You guys know of any reliable free hosts? I know I can use the search function, and trust me, I have, but I found nothing reliable. I know some of you may know of some. I need something that won't crash down occasionally because of high load. I was using byethosting and free1host, and they went down when I got 5 users logged into my forum! Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

i think Hostgator is best, offer good service

 

For free hosting you can try freehostia.com, atspace.com or 000webhost.com - these are the best free web hosts (100% no ads) that I know and I have tried them all, but when you have the money, definitely move to a paid web host and rather pay a few dollars per month and your website(s) will be secure. I tried these 3 free web hosts, but I then went for paid hosting, as there were problems with the free web hosts.

 

Hostgator is a reputed webhosting company any can rely on them easily. Now it depends only on what type facilities will make you happy. If host provide those options then you can go with them easily.

 

This actually depends on what you need, generally hostgator is a little more expensive , more scale-able and is going to be better for hosting larger websites. iPage is what I would consider the "cheap mans" web hosting and is good for smaller site like wordpress blogs, small business websites etc... Note that iPage does not offer dedicated IP addresses which mean only shared SSL (aka no ECommerce on your site). I did a full review of these two companies, but I think in your spot Hostgator is going to be the better option, they are not all that expensive and should be able to handle your "heavy load".