Finding a Quality Webhost

Website Hosting, for those of who don’t know, is where your website “lives” on the internet.  The website lives on a “server” which “serves” the website up when it is called for.

I have been in the website development business since 1995 and in that time I have had just about every possible website hosting solution that exists or that has existed.  Website hosting is one of those things you should never have to think about and it should always just work.  Website hosting is like “electricty” in that you take it for granted on the 362 days a year everything is working perfectly, but when the power goes out you realize how much you have lost.  When your website goes down or slows way down or you are having trouble getting and send emails it can be frustrating, especially if you are not an “IT person.”

I am choosing to write about website hosting now because the landscape of the industry is changing again and it has caused some stress among my clients.

WEBv5 is NOT a web hosting company although we do host microsites.  For the most part, WEBv5 clients arrange for their own hosting and to help clients choose from the endless competition, I have always offered three options that seemed to provide great quality and a reasonable cost; GoDaddy.com, 1and1.com and HostGator.com

Recently though, Godaddy.com servers have been really slow.  I don’t mean really slow.  I mean REALLY SLOW!!!! So bad, in fact, that I asked my client to call GoDaddy and see if they could move her to a different server.  The customer rep told my client that slow servers are a part of the game and there was nothing they could do.  GoDaddy has build their reputation on awesome customer service and I have always found them to be great in every way.  But not this time.

Not only did GoDaddy.com lose a client but I am nervous about referring people to them.  I am a big GoDaddy.com fan and it kills me to say anything even half-bad about them, but maybe they just should not be in the hosting business.  If you care about server speed try one of my other recommendations.