Hi, I would like to buy multiple domains and set up sites for each. Instead of paying for hosting for each site, would it be wiser to just buy my own server and host my own sites? How easy is it to accomplish this and keep everything secure? I have no experience with servers so basically I would be starting from scratch. I am fairly skilled in computer knowledge, web design etc. and learn fairly easily with reading... I am talking about creating about 20-50 sites. Thanks, and advice or direction to relevant information would be great
If don't have enough knowledge with servers, you can buy a reseller plan from any good hosting website. With a reseller hosting you can host multiple websites. Also reseller hosting is a cheaper than servers. Hope this helps.
You can either get a shared hosting account with multiple domain support or a reseller account. Buying a server isn't recommended at this stage. I'd highly recommend HostGator baby plan for you. HG has good reputation in the hosting industry. Please take a look at HostGator Reviews and Coupons by DP users and you'll know why I'm recommending them
I'm using hostgator, is pretty good, if you need help with it contact me : cosmodesignworks [at] gmail.com yahoo messenger: cosmodesignworks
No one pays for hosting for each site anymore. Most hosting providers allow hosting unlimited amounts of domains/subdomains and it means you can host as many sites as you want. And for sure you dont need a server for just 50 or even 100 sites. The important thing is space and bandwidth.
that is a lot of site, thinking that dedicated will be a greater bargain. hostgator is on promo.. end this 31th may. you can get 2 free month, for any purchase of hostgator server, even single month hosting
before jumping in at the deep end and buying a server i would recommend a VPS. servint.net offer a good basic (managed) VPS for $49/month. a vps is not quite a dedicated server but is way better then shared (reseller) hosting.
If you have some good money, go with VPS as it'll be private and better than reseller account in reseller account budget...
I have to agree with the VPS recommendation but be aware that you will be responsible for some more technical aspects of server administration. If you have basic linux skills and read the abundance of help on the net you should be ok. I recommend knownhost.com or even servint.net should be ok from what I've heard. If this sounds "scary" than a semi-dedicated or dedicated is probably a better choice. One last thing, I heard Hostgator mentioned and for shared hosting they are good but I would look elsewhere for a dedicated server as I found out the hard way the dedicated servers at Hostgator suck.
I've seen hosting accounts that offer unlimited addon domains, are you looking for something like this?
If you decide to have your own dedicated server with your administration, think about ISPConfig. It is open source control panel for server administration. It has modules for FTP, DNS, WEB ... I found some bugs with VSFTP but if you decide to install ProFTP on your server ISPConfig could be good idea.