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Web Hosting Ratings

Dedicated Server Ratings

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An independent dedicated server web hosting rating list of the price and features of the top dedicated server web hosting companies. Each dedicated serverweb hosting provider on the dedicated server rating list allows you to compare the price and features.

Hosting Company Price Processor HDD RAM Transfer
ICANNWholesale $109 Celeron 2GHz 120GB 1GB 500GB
$187 Pentium 4 3GHz 2x120GB 2GB 500GB
$386 Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz 2x300GB 4GB 2000GB
Lunar Pages $99 Celeron 2GHz 80GB 512 MB 1000GB
$130 Pentium 4 2.8GHz 120GB 1GB 1500GB
$210 Dual Xeon 2.66GHz 200GB 1GB 200GB
midPhase $199 Dual Opteron 2.4GHz 250GB 2GB 10,000GB
$279 Quad Xeon 2.66GHz 2x250GB 2GB 10,000GB
InMotion $220 Pentium 4 2.8GHz 160GB 1GB 1500GB
$250 Dual Core 2.2GHz 250GB 2GB 2000GB
$320 Xeon Quad 1.86GHz 250GB 4GB 2500GB

The above configurations are the standard configurations that each company advertises.
Systems can be customized to meet your specific hosting requirements to include upgraded memory, processors, RAID, additional hard drives, and bandwidth.

Web Hosting Ratings

VPS Web Hosting Ratings

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An independent virtual private server web hosting rating list of the price and features of the top virtual private server web hosting companies. Each vps web hosting provider on the vps rating list allows you to compare the price and features.

VPS Host Price Space Transfer RAM
ICANNWholesale $34.95 10 GB 500 GB 256 MB
$54.85 20 GB 1000 GB 256 MB
$119.45 50 GB 2000 GB 512 MB
Lunar Pages $39.95 20 GB 1000 GB 512 MB
midPhase $49.95 15 GB 600 GB 256 MB
$69.95 25 GB 1000 GB 384 MB
Start Logic $29.95 20 GB 1000 GB 256 MB
$39.95 40 GB 1500 GB 512 MB
$49.95 60 GB 2000 GB 768 MB
InMotion $49.95 40 GB 500 GB 256 MB
$89.95 80 GB 1000 GB 512 MB
$169.95 160 GB 1500 GB 1024 MB

All of the vps web hosting companies are hosted on a platform and there are several vps hosting users on the same physical server. The RAM column refers to the amount of RAM that the VPS is guaranteed for use by the OS. All VPS solutions offer the ability to burst and tap into more resources than the RAM limit noted above. The RAM indicates the minimum amount of RAM that is always available to the virtual private server. All other rating criteria are self-explanatory.

Web Hosting Ratings

Lunar Pages

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LunarPages Web Hosting was founded in 2000 by Add2Net Corporation, a company known for successful large scale managed and unmanaged hosting services. LunarPages benefits from a history of exceptional service and experience in the hosting industry.

LunarPages Web Hosting servers are at a state of the art datacenter located in Los Angeles, CA with redundant, secure, and reliable systems. There are multiple fiber connections to the Internet backbone with over 60 carriers. The company actively monitors its network against attacks as well as measuring performance and equipment problems.

Lunarpages has a proprietary Active Response Protocol that not only monitors the system for attacks and outages, it continuously benchmarks the system for web, ftp, and email performance – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Their staff addresses the issue before it is a problem, which ensures that your website stays on line.

The shared hosting plans are very generous and given LunarPages history of reliability and service, companies and individuals in need of unparalleled reliability and scalability to unmanaged platforms ought to strongly consider LunarPages Web Hosting. LunarPages Web Hosting delivers precisely what it promises – the speed, reliability, and service demanded by those who have the highest expectations in web hosting. LunarPages is a favorite among web hosting enthusiasts on the major web hosting forums.

LunarPages has struck a deal with CoffeeCup software and bundles over $700 in Web Design software for free with a 1 year account. Two of these products – CoffeeCup HTML Editor and CoffeeCup Direct FTP are leaders in their class. In fact, I use both as they are very powerful web building apps. The two products alone cost more than a year of hosting with Lunar Pages. The other products bundled with the package are equally powerful and represent the best products that CoffeeCup software makes.

LunarPages receives the top rating for service and reliability, offers generous plans at low prices, is a clear favorite among web hosting enthusiasts.

Visit Lunar Pages

Web Hosting Ratings

ix Web Hosting

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For < $5/month less than many competitors, ix Web Hosting has features more than sufficient for most individuals and companies.

Since 1999, IX Web Hosting been providing first-class web hosting services. They are a subsidiary of the Ecommerce Corporation, a global company with offices located on nearly every continent.

IX Web Hosting has the following guarantees:
• 100% 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
• Any-Time Money Back Guarantee
• Price-Freeze Guarantee
• 99.9% Uptime Guarantee

IX Web Hosting operates its own data center in Hopkinsville, KY. Currently, over 750 servers are in operation daily. They own and maintain all their equipment and do not colocate in any third-party facility. They serve over 37,000 customers with reliable, fast hosting services. IX Web Hosting has excellent customer service. You will always get a HUMAN response from them on any request or issue that you may have and they will assist you quickly – with a 1-Hour response guarantee. They are available 24x7x365 via phone and live chat.

At only < $5/month, ix Web Hosting’s Expert plan is an exceptional value for reliable hosting plan and should be at the top of the list for economical, reliable web hosting. They receive my pick at Best Low Price Web Hosting.

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Web Hosting Ratings

ICANNwholesale

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ICANNwholesale has a world class data center to manage the millions of domains on the network and they offer world class web hosting at an affordable price.

Each plan features Free setup, FrontPage extensions, 24×7 FTP access, Best-of-breed routers, firewalls and servers, Web site statistics, their world-class data centers, Daily Backups, 24×7 monitoring, 24×7 email, telephone, and Web-based tech support, and 24×7 physical security.

Plans also include the following:

• $20 Google® AdWords® Credit
• $25 Microsoft® adCenter Credit
• FREE! Google Webmaster Tools

For price, features, and the reliability of the network, it is difficult to match ICANNwholesale web hosting.

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Web Hosting Ratings

HostGator

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Founded in 2002, Hostgator.com, LLC has quickly grown from a small hosting company in Florida into one of the most respected names in the web hosting industry. Renowned for exceptional customer support and unrivaled in terms of customer satisfaction, Host Gator web hosting stands out among the dense pack of web hosting providers.

The provide service to over 1,000,000 websites on their shared and reseller plans. They are the world’s leading provider of reseller accounts with over 20,000 resellers who have chosen us to provide the network, servers, and support required to launch a hosting business.

They over forty support veterans that are here to assist you 24/7/365 by chat, phone, and ticket system. Many companies claim to offer this type of support and customer satisfaction but not many are willing to prove it.

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Web Hosting Ratings

Host Excellence

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Host Excellence web hosting combines great features with service and reliability to make them a great value in web hosting. At only $6.97/mo, the Professional plan delivers 300 GB storage and 3000 GB bandwidth (THAT’S 3 TB!). A free domain registration is included and includes the ability to host 6 domains with a dedicated IP for each domain (6 in all). The Unlimited Business Plan allows you to host 16 domains and 16 dedicated IP’s and promises “unlimited” data storage and 4000 GB transfer/month. The plan includes two free domain registrations as well.

A subsidiary of Ecommerce Corporation, HostExcellence has been in the web hosting business for over 5 years. Unlike many of its competitors in the same price range who resell hosting from a third party, HostExcellence has developed its own service platforms, customer-oriented applications, and data centers.

With their service, reliablity, storage, and plans starting at $6.95/month, Host Excellence web hosting is an exceptional value that suits many individuals and small businesses desiring feature-rich plan with the ability to grow into more robust plans.

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Web Hosting Ratings

Register

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Register.com doesn’t simply sell domains, they also sell high quality web hosting.

For businesses operating a single website who want unsurpassed reliability and state-of-the-art features that other basic hosting packages don’t offer.

  • Easily launch and maintain a site designed in Dreamweaver or Frontpage.
  • State-of-the-art Administrative Panel makes it easy to edit, manage and monitor your site.
  • Overdraft Protection so you don’t have to worry about exceeding monthly limits when your traffic spikes.
  • Site Restore automatically saves your web files in case you make a mistake and need to revert to an earlier version.
  • Dedicated IP Address included to help improve search engine rankings and make it easier to add security certificates.
  • Domain and 1 Email Account included
  • J.D. Power and Associates Certified Call Center

Register is so confident of their network, they offer 100% uptime guarantee.

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Building Web Sites

Online Photos

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One of the benefits of digital photography is the ability to share photographs with friends and family without the cost and inconvenience of developing and mailing prints. Many, however, are unaware of some more efficient ways to share digital photos. Have you ever received a large e-mail to find that a friend attached pictures of his kids that were never resized? There are better ways.

Online Photo Storage and Printing Service

One of the easiest ways to share photos with friends is to upload them to an online photo printing service. All have simple interfaces and the ability to create different albums for different occassions. I highly recommend you upload the original photo, without resizing, to the photo service. These services provide an affordable way to get prints of your favorite photos (much cheaper than printing yourself after factoring in consumables). You also have the ability to send the photo album links to friends and family where they can conveniently view the photos and even purchase any photos they want.

An even more important consideration is something that most people don’t give enough though to: what if your computer crashes?  One of the reasons I have chosen SmugMug for my online photo storage is that, in addition to using it to sell photos from the semi-pro work that I do, I’m able to upload images I want to make sure I don’t lose if my computer crashes.  When it comes to keeping your images safe, I don’t think cheaper is better.  Make sure you’ve got a good way to preserve those memories and recover them in the event of a disaster.  I’m not a fan of free services like ImageShack or PhotoBucket because I would rather pay for an advertisement free system and utilize them in a variety of settings. I’ve found that many firewalls block the free service’s images.

The following is a list of some of the top online photo printing services:

Top Online Photo Services

SitePricing
SmugMug

  • Securely backup your photos
  • Enjoy unlimited storage
  • Sleep well with backup DVDs
  • Say goodbye to ads & spam
  • Say hello to complete privacy
  • Personalize with themes
  • Send beautiful photo email
  • See your photos BIG
  • See them on your iPhone
  • Buy professional prints & gifts
  • Post photos in blogs & forums
  • Crop the bad parts Enhance the good parts
  • Retrieve your high-res photos
  • Organize at light speed
  • Add photos from camera phones
  • Have your own URL
  • Track unlimited traffic to your photos
  • Be notified of comments
  • Create private ShareGroups
  • Create and join communities
  • Make life easy with Web 2.0: Tags, RSS feeds, APIs, and Ajax
  • See photos on Google Maps Network with friends and family
  • Find popular photos fast View by timeline Just $39.95/year

Snapfish

  • Snapfish by HP is the number one online photo service, with more than 50 million members in 20 countries and 2 billion unique photos stored online.
  • Snapfish is a division of HP, one of the world’s largest IT companies with a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services, and IT infrastructure
  • With Snapfish, customers can share and store their photo for free and create prints and personalized photo gifts online for the best value.
  • They offer professionally-developed prints for just 9¢ each, with 4" x 6" prints as low as 8¢ each with a pre-paid plan, and film developing for just $2.99 per roll.
  • Their online photo sharing, storage, and editing tools and software are free, and customers can even create private group rooms for event sharing with friends and family.
  • They also provide mobile photo services and a subscription video sharing and storage plans.
  • Snapfish offers more than 100 unique, customizable photo gifts, from a full line of display-quality photo books, calendars, and posters, to photo mugs, mousepads, key chains, and jewelry.
Shutterfly

  • Free online photo storage: Shutterfly has never deleted a photo.
  • Free online photo sharing: Your friends and family can view pictures you want to share without having to log in or sign up. They just click on a link in your email and instantly view a slideshow of your newest memories.
  • Free photo software: Shutterfly Studio lets you easily organize, edit and share your growing picture collections directly from your desktop. Plus quickly add your favorites to Shutterfly and order prints.
  • Photo borders: Enhance your prints for free with more than 400 colorful, festive and seasonal borders that range from new baby to birthday, wedding to so much more. You can even add personalized captions.
  • Back-of-print messaging: Every photo you order from Shutterfly can be personalized for free with a short message on the reverse side. This ensures that you and future generations will always remember the who, what and where of special times.
Dotphoto

  • They print on durable Kodak Royal Paper, your choice of glossy or matte, in all popular sizes from 3×5 to 30×40. (Posters from 12×18 and up are printed on Kodak Endura photo paper.)
  • Most print orders are shipped in 24 hours. Heavy weight protective packaging ensures your memories arrive without damage at your doorstep.
  • To help sort and track large print runs, you can print on the back of 3×5, 4xD, 4×6 and 5x7s. You can order cropped or uncropped images.
  • Their state-of-the-art online cart helps ensure that you’ll be satisfied with your order.
  • Finally, they guarantee their workmanship, and will reprint if they’ve made a mistake.
  • Members get a free photo web site, free photo hosting for blogs, and the ability to send photos to cell phones.
  • Members also get the revolutionary dotPhoto Show – the only browser-based slide show tool that mixes your photos, music, narration and transitions with cool "Ken Burns" effects.
  • You can even turn your dotPhoto Shows into DVDs or plug them in as "widgets" or full-sized shows in your blog or community site.

Photo Album Software

In addition to the above printing services, the two top photo album software packages offer tools to share photos online. Adobe Photoshop Album, and JASC Paintshop Photo Album offer easy to use tools to manage your photos on your computer and share them with friends and family. Of the two, if price is not a problem, I recommend buying Paintshop Pro (which includes the Photo Album software) as it comes with very sophisticated tools found in high-end photo editing software.

Making your Own Web Photo Albums

Any html editor will allow you to make your own web photo albums for sharing photos. I used to build web photo albums in this manner until I came upon a freeware program called JAlbum. This freeware program uses Java script to make photo albums out of images you place in a directory. It has a large variety of skins to create great web pages in an instant. If you have space on a web server and want a simple route to create a web album without using photo album software or an online printing service to host your photos then I highly recommend this program.

Internet Applications

FTP Clients

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Below is a list of the features provided by the most popular FTP clients. As with any product, needs determine value. These all will get the basic job done of getting files uploaded to a web server. Some offer higher security or other specialty features that will meet certain requirements better than others.

FTP Client Description Price
CuteFTP Pro
  • SSH2, SSL, or OTP security
  • Connect through your standard or HTTP proxy, firewall or SOCKS server to multiple sites simultaneously
  • Perform concurrent transfers, accelerate large file transfers
  • Remote to Remote Transfers
  • Advanced File & Folder Management
  • Filename conversion
  • Multi-part downloads
  • Drag-n-drop interface
  • Browser integration
  • Schedule Batch Transfers
 $59.99
FileZilla
  • Easy to use
  • Supports FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
  • Cross-platform. Runs on Windows, Linux, *BSD, OSX and more
  • Available in many languages
  • Supports resume and transfer of large files >4GB
  • Powerful Site Manager and transfer queue
  • Drag & drop support
  • Configurable Speed limits
  • Filename filters
  • Network configuration wizard
  • Remote file editing
  • Keep-alive
  • FTP-Proxy support
 Free
CuteFTP Home
  • 128-bit SSL
  • Advanced File & Folder Management
  • Filename conversion
  • Multi-part download
  • Drag-n-drop interface
  • Browser integration
  • Schedule Batch Transfers
 $39.99
CoffeeCup Direct FTP
  • Drag-n-Drop interface
  • Edit HTML and Text right on the Server
  • Preview Images while on the Server
  • Built-in Zip archiving
  • Bookmark folders
  • Search website for files or folders
  • Multiple FTP Server Profile Support
  • Multiple-color HTML Tag Highlighting
  • Quick Start Wizard for making new HTML pages
  • Link Wizard, Image Wizard, Font Wizard
  • One-click Browser Testing, test Before you Upload
$34.00
SmartFTP
  • FTP and FTPS (Secure FTP)
  • SFTP over SSH
  • Modern Graphical User Interface (GUI)
  • File/Folder Synchronization
  • Multilingual (more than 20 languages)
  • Thumbnails View and Preview
  • IPv6
  • On-the-fly Compression (MODE Z)
  • UTF-8 Support
  • Drag & Drop
  • Multiple Connections
  • Auto reconnect and resume of broken transfers
  • Transfer Integrity)
  • FXP (Server-To-Server Transfer) support
  • Remote Edit of files
  • Enhanced NAT/UPnP Support
  • Transfer Queue
  • Proxy / Firewall support
  • Backup Tool
  • URL Watcher
  • Cache Remote Directories
  • FTP command line
 $36.95
WinSCP
  • Graphical user interface
  • Translated into several languages
  • Integration with Windows (drag&drop, URL, shortcut icons)
  • U3 support
  • All common operations with files
  • Support for SFTP and SCP protocols over SSH-1 and SSH-2 and plain old FTP protocol
  • Batch file scripting and command-line interface
  • Directory synchronization in several semi or fully automatic ways
  • Integrated text editor
  • Support for SSH password, keyboard-interactive, public key and Kerberos (GSS) authentication
  • Integrates with Pageant (PuTTY authentication agent) for full support of public key authentication with SSH
  • Explorer and Commander interfaces
  • Optionally stores session information
  • Optionally supports portable operation using a configuration file in place of registry entries, suitable for operation from removable media
 Free