Looking for a new host...

[sitandstay]

Hi Everyone,

Just a few questions, My hosting time with GoDaddy is nearly up and now I have 2 questions.

1) I have lost my GoDaddy details (customer id ect) will they give me a new one if I decide to host with them again?

2) GoDaddy, was not cheap at all, and I have heard a lot of people say I should use a UK hosting company, should I ? and if so who....


Thanks in advance.

 

[astutiumRob]

1) I have lost my GoDaddy details (customer id ect) will they give me a new one if I decide to host with them again?

No, they'll just send you a reminder (or you can just request one from their website)

2) GoDaddy, was not cheap at all

Odd, as that seems to be the only "feature" that they're well known for

and I have heard a lot of people say I should use a UK hosting company, should I ? and if so who....

If your target audience is UK, then (subject to picking the right host) you should host it in the UK - otherwise you are adding 10 points of failure and 150ms to every page/item request.

Do you have an idea on the amount of traffic and space you require ? Any other featires you've used (scripts ? databases ? emails ? etc)

 

[sitandstay]

No, they'll just send you a reminder (or you can just request one from their website)


Odd, as that seems to be the only "feature" that they're well known for


If your target audience is UK, then (subject to picking the right host) you should host it in the UK - otherwise you are adding 10 points of failure and 150ms to every page/item request.

Do you have an idea on the amount of traffic and space you require ? Any other featires you've used (scripts ? databases ? emails ? etc)

Thanks for your comment, It was not cheap at all! I cant remember the price I was paying, but my web designer said it was quite a lot.

We do only target UK people, who would you recommend?

Also regarding space I dont really need to much, my website dose not have much on it, although It will be having a video on it....

 

[webhostuk]

We do only target UK people, who would you recommend?

Also regarding space I dont really need to much, my website dose not have much on it, although It will be having a video on it....

If you are targeting UK Market I will suggest you to go with UK web hosting provider , where your site will be physically located in UK datacenter.

Looking at your requirement you can go with shared hosting.. if you don't mind you can take a look at : http://www.webhost.uk.net/shared_hosting.html

 

[DesignerNick]

Try 34SP

Great customer service.

 

[ecenica]

Agree with comments. As your customers are here in the UK, it's a very good idea to go for a UK web host. It might only shave a few seconds of your load site's load time, but you only have 6-7 seconds to grab your average users attention so every second counts.

Our web servers are located in London, UK. We offer a free money back guarantee so if you like you can give us a try and compare your site to GoDaddy.

If you have any questions, or need help with your Ecenica plan, our dedicated help team will be happy to assist you.

^Rich

 

[Posilan]

Hi Everyone,

Just a few questions, My hosting time with GoDaddy is nearly up and now I have 2 questions.

1) I have lost my GoDaddy details (customer id ect) will they give me a new one if I decide to host with them again?

2) GoDaddy, was not cheap at all, and I have heard a lot of people say I should use a UK hosting company, should I ? and if so who....


Thanks in advance.

If your target audience is in the UK, definately better to use a hosting company with UK based servers.

Take a look at our packages at http://www.posilan.com/hosting - we have one to suit most types of website with as much help as you need to transfer your site across to us.

Steve

 

[peteoc]

I'd tend to disagree with the comments of people stating that using a UK hosted server is the way to go. European hosted servers can sometimes out perform UK hosted servers due to the UKs infrastructure. You won't find that it "shaves seconds off" your load time, probably less than a second. But European over US based servers is the way to go.

Yes dealing with people in the UK means your own time zone and also your own language, I use a company in Germany who speak very good English and decent response times.

 

[Posilan]

I'd tend to disagree with the comments of people stating that using a UK hosted server is the way to go. European hosted servers can sometimes out perform UK hosted servers due to the UKs infrastructure. You won't find that it "shaves seconds off" your load time, probably less than a second. But European over US based servers is the way to go.

Yes dealing with people in the UK means your own time zone and also your own language, I use a company in Germany who speak very good English and decent response times.

European hosting can also give good ping times, however it's always best to have the servers that will be hosting your site as close to your target audience.

For the UK, that means that UK/EU is far better than US etc with regards to ping/load times.

If you do host your site in Europe, it is important to understand that they speak in a languge you can converse in - and not just website translations. if you need to call them, do they speak English or a languague you understand very well?

I use a company in Germany who speak very good English and decent response times.

I hope it's not the big one with an ampersand in their name. We've more than enough experience via customers with their broken domain management control panel

Steve

 

[peteoc]

I hope it's not the big one with an ampersand in their name. We've more than enough experience via customers with their broken domain management control panel

Steve

Would that be the one with 2 prime numbers as well? def not......wouldn't touch them even if I was desperate!

 

[Dominic Taylor]

European hosted servers can sometimes out perform UK hosted servers due to the UKs infrastructure.

The UK's infrastructure is perfectly good and even if it wasn't, any request has to go through it anyway to get wherever it's going...

By getting a server on the continent you're just adding a slight bit of extra latency, probably a negligible amount, but still it can't possibly be 'better' from a technical point of view.

This is only a small part of the overall experience though - the company / pricing / support are the most important part relaly.

 

[Remote Resources]

I have a number of wordpress websites hosted on an American server. It has been very good, no complaints, but I wish to move to UK servers when my current term expires.

Can anyone tell me how my files are transferred? Do I have to download it all, zip it and upload it to new hosting site? Or can it be transferred in another way? Obviously I know I can just redirect my nameservers for the domains, but what about all the site boomf?

Thanksuwel

 

[ecenica]

WordPress publish some info on how to move your WordPress site.

http://codex.wordpress.org/Moving_WordPress

Scroll down to "Moving WordPress to a New Server".

^rich

 

[ScotComp]

We've got both UK and German servers and to be honest as a customer you really won't notice much of a difference, the German servers are cheaper to use though usually.

 

[Dominic Taylor]

Especially with the government's new "carbon tax" on power :/

 

[crossdaz]

Yes dealing with people in the UK means your own time zone and also your own language, I use a company in Germany who speak very good English and decent response times.

There's a company in the UK who are good and they have a German person who speaks English - believe it or not?

Now if I could just remember what they are called.... It begins with V, I think :|

 

[crossdaz]

I have a number of wordpress websites hosted on an American server. It has been very good, no complaints, but I wish to move to UK servers when my current term expires.

Can anyone tell me how my files are transferred? Do I have to download it all, zip it and upload it to new hosting site? Or can it be transferred in another way? Obviously I know I can just redirect my nameservers for the domains, but what about all the site boomf?

Thanksuwel

If you have cpanel hosting I think you can do a direct download. I did it a while ago with a few and I opted to do it manually. After about the fifth one I had it down to an art form.

 

[sitandstay]

Thanks for all the replies, I will keep with GoDaddy for now, but may move soon

 

[astutiumRob]

Can anyone tell me how my files are transferred? Do I have to download it all, zip it and upload it to new hosting site? Or can it be transferred in another way? Obviously I know I can just redirect my nameservers for the domains, but what about all the site boomf?

Quickest method - Ask the new host (if they provide a site move service)

Other than that, it depends on what access you have to the original setup - ftp and phpmyadmin to migrate the DB is most common.

 

[Remote Resources]

Thank you all for your responses. Very helpful indeed.

Sorry to pick your brains again but what are the downsides of hosting in the US over the UK?

All my sites (thus far) are aimed solely at the UK and Europe only. I have noted rumours that it's bad for SEO (although my sites rank very highly indeed with the right keywords so no evidenced of this thus far). In what way is it bad for SEO? I have no interest in taking an extra millisecond to load up or anything like that.

It's just, I've had a good look round UK hosts and where my current host just give you everything for one price, all DIY installers, dbases etc, UK hosts seem to break it down into silly prices for little blocks of freedom. I don't really like this method at all, would prefer an all-in solution. I realise I can buy this in the UK, just don't see why it's £200 per year where I currently pay £55 per year!

 

[ScotComp]

Thank you all for your responses. Very helpful indeed.

Sorry to pick your brains again but what are the downsides of hosting in the US over the UK?

All my sites (thus far) are aimed solely at the UK and Europe only. I have noted rumours that it's bad for SEO (although my sites rank very highly indeed with the right keywords so no evidenced of this thus far). In what way is it bad for SEO? I have no interest in taking an extra millisecond to load up or anything like that.

It's just, I've had a good look round UK hosts and where my current host just give you everything for one price, all DIY installers, dbases etc, UK hosts seem to break it down into silly prices for little blocks of freedom. I don't really like this method at all, would prefer an all-in solution. I realise I can buy this in the UK, just don't see why it's £200 per year where I currently pay £55 per year!

US Servers don't offer a millisecond delay, they can be a couple of seconds to minutes sometimes especially if the server is busy.

I've not came across many server companies that offer hosting for £200 per year and don't give you the same services as the US hosts, a hosting company I like a lot is charging £79.99 for their largest package and £29.99 for their smallest. One of the most expensive hosting companies I know is only charging £168, but they are super expensive compared to any other hosting company I've worked with.

The other thing that must be noted about the US Servers is that many of them don't meet or have any requirements to meet the DPA Legislation in this country.

 

[Posilan]

US Servers don't offer a millisecond delay, they can be a couple of seconds to minutes sometimes especially if the server is busy.

I think they would be having bigger problems that just geographic location with minutes page loading delays

The main difference in UK v USA hosting is the latency - all requests to the server have to cross the Atlantic and even traveling at the speed of light, it will add approx 100ms latency to each request.

Average UK site latency would be around 10-20ms (more if using an interleaved connection). Latency to the US can be 120-150ms (if good). This basically makes page load times in the UK more sluggish. They wont be a snappy as a UK hosted site. This is not a problem of the US hosting company, it's just because the message has further to travel.

Steve

 

[Remote Resources]

Again, thank you very much.

So it has no effect on search engine rankings, it's all a matter of speed?

For the other, yes you're right. I was looking at independents through this site and they all seemed to be selling in bitesized chunks - and not cheap either unless you go for the most basic. I prefer an all in one, one price, everything there style of package. I see Godaddy have decent packages (only split into three packages instead of about 6!).

It has been a year since I last looked and things do seem to have balanced out a bit in the UK hosting scene.

 

[Posilan]

Again, thank you very much.

So it has no effect on search engine rankings, it's all a matter of speed?

For the other, yes you're right. I was looking at independents through this site and they all seemed to be selling in bitesized chunks - and not cheap either unless you go for the most basic. I prefer an all in one, one price, everything there style of package. I see Godaddy have decent packages (only split into three packages instead of about 6!).

It has been a year since I last looked and things do seem to have balanced out a bit in the UK hosting scene.

Yes, pretty much a matter of speed.

How do you mean "bitesized chunks"? We for example offer domain name and hosting together when you go through the order process.

As for GoDaddy only offering 3 packages - hae you gone through the order process? Practically every step of the way is an attempt to upsell - so what looks like a simple 3 package option is really not Also most of the hosting companies you see on here (including us) shy away from making cliams of "unlimited" disk space and bandwidth (no such thing) and prefer a more honest approach to what is on offer - this also is a reason why you may see more package choices.

Pricewise, I would say there is not a lot of diffrence if you just look at the resources you would use and ignore "unlimited" claims (no hosting is unlimited).

Steve

 

[Remote Resources]

Yes, pretty much a matter of speed.

How do you mean "bitesized chunks"? We for example offer domain name and hosting together when you go through the order process.

As for GoDaddy only offering 3 packages - hae you gone through the order process? Practically every step of the way is an attempt to upsell - so what looks like a simple 3 package option is really not Also most of the hosting companies you see on here (including us) shy away from making cliams of "unlimited" disk space and bandwidth (no such thing) and prefer a more honest approach to what is on offer - this also is a reason why you may see more package choices.

Pricewise, I would say there is not a lot of diffrence if you just look at the resources you would use and ignore "unlimited" claims (no hosting is unlimited).

Steve

Agree wholeheartedly on the 'unlimited' issue - of course this is impossible. But the fact that there are no physical limits set on such things as mail boxes and add-on accounts is very attractive.

I can't pretend I'm a big enough operation to ever dream of taking anyone up on unlimited mailboxes, but I need that freedom to have as many as I need, not as many as I'm limited to.

For example, I just had a look at your own site. Say I went for the £40 per year ex vat option which is a comparable price to my current provider. I'm limited to five add-on domains and 25 mail boxes. WHilst I currently only have 5 add-ons, I need that freedom to add on more without complicating the package - IYSWIM. It's no offence to your packages, but they are too rigid for me. I need flexibility and I don't want to pay over the odds for that.

I'm not moaning about price or anything, just trying to convey how I feel. To be comfortable with your hosting package, I would need the Gold option, and even then I wouldn't be happy about limits on sub domains etc. I'm not saying I would need more than 20, I'm just saying I might.

I don't use even half the options that I have included in my current package, but I feel comfortable knowing they are there once I progress and expand.

 

[Posilan]

Agree wholeheartedly on the 'unlimited' issue - of course this is impossible. But the fact that there are no physical limits set on such things as mail boxes and add-on accounts is very attractive.

I can't pretend I'm a big enough operation to ever dream of taking anyone up on unlimited mailboxes, but I need that freedom to have as many as I need, not as many as I'm limited to.

For example, I just had a look at your own site. Say I went for the £40 per year ex vat option which is a comparable price to my current provider. I'm limited to five add-on domains and 25 mail boxes. WHilst I currently only have 5 add-ons, I need that freedom to add on more without complicating the package - IYSWIM. It's no offence to your packages, but they are too rigid for me. I need flexibility and I don't want to pay over the odds for that.

I'm not moaning about price or anything, just trying to convey how I feel. To be comfortable with your hosting package, I would need the Gold option, and even then I wouldn't be happy about limits on sub domains etc. I'm not saying I would need more than 20, I'm just saying I might.

I don't use even half the options that I have included in my current package, but I feel comfortable knowing they are there once I progress and expand.

I'd like to thank you for your honest feedback. I agree that maybe our silver and gold packages could maybe offer a more generous allowance of some of the resources.

As a result of your feedback and a review of our offerings, i'm pleased to announce that we have now increased the limits on some of the areas you have commented on. In particualer subdomains, mailboxes and databases. We've also doubled the add-on and parked domain allowance on the silver and gold packages to make them more flexible for customers. The disk allowance and bandwidth allowance remain the same as I feel they offer good value for money.

Once again, thank you for your feedback new and existing customers on those packages can enjoy the extra allowances immediately.

Steve

 

[JustJohn]

When you look at some hosting packages abroad they do put UK hosts to shame.

A developer friend of mine uses totalchoicehosting.com

 

[Dominic Taylor]

I think UK hosting is now the same as or cheaper than US hosting - perhaps US companies just have better economies of scale and lower costs to offer bigger numbers but then those are the bigger companies - there are plenty of small to mid-size quality US hosts just as there are those of us in the UK.

In terms of packages, most hosts can be reasonably flexible and so on, just a case of asking.

 

[kellockenterprises]

Hi,

If you are for a new Windows Hosting provider I can pass you onto a contact of mine who can do that for you for £50 per Annum.

If you are interested please contact me on the email address under my profile on the site.

Everything shoudl be able to be transferred smoothly across to our systems quickly.

Thanks and I hope I can help, for more details don't hestitate to contact me.

Oscar Webb