Hey guys, a non game related geek question. I'm looking for decent (and not not expensive) web hosting. I set up a website on iPage last year because it was cheap and seemed to offer quite a lot, but there service has never been great, the website (the wordpress blog in particular) is slow and having renewed it this year it's no longer cheap either.

Unfortunately I bought a second plan with them before realising all this because they had another cheap deal on, but before I start work on that I'd rather migrate somewhere better.

So, in short, does anyone know any decent web hosts? I've looked around but for every good review of a place there are two bad and I'd rather not just end up in the same situation I'm already in. I'd prefer UK based if that's possible, but it's not really a deal breaker..

Hope you can help!

Thanks

Depends on what kind of site you're doing really - for some sites theres no real need for paid hosting at all as there are numerous free alternatives.
If like me your site is nothing more than an online showcase / gallery (for instance) then paid hosting is something you dont really need.

They are both for business purposes, although that doesn't necessarily rule out free hosting. First one is for my business, it's just for advertising mainly, a blog, where we are (we run a wood fired pizza van) things like that, no shop or anything as of yet.

Second is to sell my partner's music, so it would need a shopfront (although it doesn't need to be too complicated) and the ability to offer downloads somehow.

Neither are huge, certainly no more then 20 pages (although if I ever get around to posting on the business blog more that would increase) or so and I'm not foreseeing huge amounts of traffic (but one can always hope ;) )

Anyway, I'm more than happy to take recommendations for free hosting if you know a good place.

I agree with Sachys. It very much depends what your site does. Is it a very simple blog? Then simply using Wordpress.com and mapping your own domain to it might be a good solution.

If your needs are specific in nature then you be better off looking for a specific solution first and only if that fails then look for general hosting sites.


EDIT: This was written before I say your reply to Sachys, sorry!

Ninja'd! ;)

I'd kind of planned to use Wordpress for the second site (the music one) but having played around with the installation I have on the business site... I kind of hate it :/
It may just be because it's tediously slow on iPage (one of the reasons I'm wanting new hosting), and therefore doing anything takes forever. But in general I'm not sure I like it much. That being said, the second website really is just a place to put up some info and a way to buy the music, so maybe moving my domain away from iPage and using Wordpress as planned might be ok.

There's a few good web hosts out there and I would highly recommend visiting Web Hosting Talk forums, you will most likely get more answers there. It's also the place to look for reputation of web hosts.

As for suggestions, first thing is to separate domain name and web hosting plan to different companies. I have been using Namecheap for some of my domains for 5-7 years with no problems.

Make sure you avoid cheapest web hosts and be cautious if they talk about unlimited bandwidth and so on. Nothing is unlimited. Before signing up, write down all your questions you might have and contact the web host then you will know more or less how quick and how well support answers your questions.

Web hosts to look into that offer hosting in europe:

EuroVPS
https://www.eurovps.com/

LeaseWeb
http://www.leaseweb.com/

Hawk Host
http://www.hawkhost.com/

StableHost
http://www.stablehost.com/

I hope this helped you some :) It's pretty easy to setup a site these days, especially if you use wordpress or similar software because most web hosts offer quick installers unless you prefer doing it manually.

Azure http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/

For your pizza van, all you'd really need is a blogspot / wordpress / tumblr and a domain name (though I do suggest getting someone to sort out the graphics / layout for you - doesnt mean spending a lot of money either).

As to the music, you're probably better off just using bandcamp and the likes and yet again using a blogspot etc with domain name for your "main site. You'll be able to embed purchase buttons etc from bandcamp, so no need for an actual webstore.

Aside from that, good use of social media such as twitter is a must as well.

edit: now having seen your other replies, blogspot might be easiest as a central hub for either project.

Why not trying G+, Facebook, MySpace as a blog and Bandcamp to sell the music?

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I'm looking into my options, but certainly for the music I might start on something free and see how that works and take it from there. I think I'll probably follow your advice there, as I have a .co.uk domain through a domain company which cost about a tenth of the .com domain through iPage to renew. Something to keep in mind for the future.

I can confirm that for your restaurant, the regular free wordpress.com would suffice. Put a free theme that's related to your business like this:
https://wordpress.org/themes/search.php?q=restaurant
Be sure the theme is "responsive" (meaning that it would display correctly on mobile devices). If you need some kind of "beginner manual", I would recommend this book (handier than constantly searching topics on the web):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Persons-Website-Builder-WordPress/dp/1781571066/ref=la_B009L7G0YS_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408199693&sr=1-2

For the music side, if it's the traditional "artist/band selling albums" then bandcamp can do the job. If it's a more-tailored "service" like a music library, custom tracks or so, you'll have to get more "professional" and consider a proper website with e-commerce solutions such as fastspring or esellerate. In both cases, don't forget your rights (and how to defend them) and be up-to-date with the UK and international laws regarding the music business:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Music-Business-revised-including-Copyright/dp/0753555700/ref=la_B0034OFH7U_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408199921&sr=1-1
(the 6th edition is brand new, it was released this July)