I know many on DP make their living on the web. I need to hear some recommendations on a good dependable hosting solution. If you make your primary living via websites please tell me what is best. Virtual, Reseller? Dedicated? Companys? Why?
i like and use: asmallorange.com doteasy.com siteocity.com all shared. reliable, low-to-reasonably priced, good support that's been my experience...
There isn't a right or wrong answer to your question because it depends on your needs and budget. Shared hosting is going to be the least expensive, then Virtual and Dedicated. A Reseller plan allows you to resell hosting - and that is available even on shared hosting plans. How much bandwidth do you need each month and how many sites are you hosting? Do you need shell access? Is your budget in the $5 a month range or are you willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a dedicated server? There are many fine hosts, but you might take a look at asmallorange.com to see the various options and prices. They have excellent support and many users from DP.
I have tried different solutions. I believe that it depends on your number of sites as well. If you are going to host many domains and they are making good money then I would recommend Dedicated. You have alot of flexibility and you can add and delete accounts as needed. Again everything depends on your needs. For dedicated I use Nocster unmetered servers for about 109.95 per month. Factor in how much you can afford and then do searches for companies. Once you find some then do searches based on what others think of them.
I started out with shared hosting and upgraded through the gamut quickly. The nice thing about a reseller acct is that you can host your sites for 'free' if you can pull together a few paying customers.
I use a VPS solution from www.servint.net, it has the features of a dedicated server plus proper 24hr phone/email support so that your not left in the lurch. I would reccommend them if your planning on a lot of sites or a larger site. As far as downtime, the only ones i get are scheduled, see the email below that i just got: A short general maintenance window has been scheduled for the morning of Saturday, April 1st, 2006. During this window, routine routing and switching maintenance will be performed. Most customers should be unaffected. Affected customers should not experience more than a 35 second outage during this window. If only all hosting companies emailed their users to warn of 35 seconds of downtime!
I have nothing but good things to say about webair.com. Been using them for years. I just switched from virtual to dedicated. Inexpensive and very helpful with 24/7 support.
As a couple people mentioned, Shared vs VPS vs Dedicated depends moreso on your needs. If you have a low traffic site that currently generates very little income, it might be a little silly to go with a Dedicated server right off the hop, when you can easily find shared hosting for much less, and often without a downside (in that situation). Best thing to do is first look at your needs traffic-wise, and then start looking for a hosting company. As far as the reselling goes, are you looking at reselling your web space, purchasing reseller access for your own sites/for others, or did you mean you were interested in buying hosting through another reseller?
Here is a question you should ask yourself also. Do you want to become a reseller? Do you want to be a host? Do you want the pain in the neck of it? Now if you are doing it to host your own sites cheaply then that would be a good way to start though.
Reseller accounts are a great way to go even if you're just wanting to host your own sites. And if you host some smaller of your web design accounts, that money just keeps coming back every year with limited (or no) maintenance time.
I just discovered that hostgator limits ftp to 2000 files. That seems kind of low to me. Is 2000 file limits standard for shared hosting?