A good website host to uses thats free or afordable?

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Gwen Jones

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Gwen
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Hi im struggling to find a decent web host that i can build a new website. Im just staring out with my own portraiture business, so money is verry tight. Im looking for one thats free or affordable. I'd like to be able to have a gallery of my own work and some information about my self, along with how i work. I would also need to be able to add password protected pages, so my clients can vew there images but also feel secure with them being on my website.
At the moment i go a wix web page, which is good for information but as for images i finde it looks in professional. When they are scaled right down they still load slowly and act funny when viewing them.
Thank you all in advance.
 
You get what you pay for, so free is worth nothing. Generally slow, no support, limited space and bandwidth limitations.

You can get a reasonable, but basic, package for around £50 a year, that will allow you to install wordpress or similar and they often come with a free .co.uk domain. If not, then it's only £8 or so to register one for a couple of years.
 
Couldn't agree more. Free is fine for personal use where reliability isn't an issue but for business paying even for a basic package is the best route. Nothing worse than your site being offline randomly as viewers will just go to the next one on google.

I've used several hosts over the years but have always had a oneandone account.
I think theirs start at £2.50 a month but don't quote me on that. I'm on the £5 a month account and have several sites on it currently ranging from Wordpress sites to opencart sites. No downtime and the support has always been spot on.

From what you want to do a Wordpress site would be the way to go and you can host a site from them direct if you wish, however if you think your going to want more than a single site going for your own host will be a better option and cheaper in the long run.
 
I use fasthostingdirect £20 a year and have been using them for about 5 years after a recommendation on here. Works great for me, I have my main website in joomla, and a couple of sub website in Wordpress running on it. Works well for me.
 
If money is really that tight, then you may get some hosting included as part of your broadband deal, but the info given above is sensible. Something that will run Wordpress, there are plenty of free wordpress themes that will do until you can afford to splash out on something more powerful.
 
Wordpress on TSO host would be a good start :)
 
neil_g said:
Loads if people on here use and swear by TSOhost.

£15/year for basic hosting and .co.uk from £4 and /or .com for £9.

Peanuts! And fantastic service and support too.
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Agreed. I started with one of their basic packages several years ago and have now moved over to their all singing and dancing cloud hosting as I manage several wordpress sites, support has always been excellent.
 
vidahost are very good. Beyond the call with support and answer the phone at times of night I've no right to expect them to. UK based so a little SEO boast as well
 
neil_g said:
Why?
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The site goes down far too regular.. (usualy for MySQL not working) most people miss it as it can be just for an hr or so.. the annoying thing is tohost know..when i tlel them they already know.. but why didnt they tell me.. ? why do i need a customer to tell me.. they should alert me and I can put a holding page on...... I release galleries almost daily.. if i put messages on my website and twitter and then the sites down its bad for my business...

Like I say just an hr maybe.. nobody bothers or knows most of the time esp if not using mysql or the whole site doesnt run on it like mine does..... my annoyance is that the host know and could send out an alert to all customers...
 
neil_g said:
odd photocart runs from mysql and ive not had any bother with that.

up time has been pretty perfect and any downtime is extremely rare.
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which means what? is it OK for one person to ahve poor service so long as someone else has good service?
 
We have a virtual box with TSO (running Windows) and I have 3 other accounts with TSO host on shared servers and we have no downtime.

There is occasional maintenance windows, I am alerted by pingdom and PC Monitor as soon as our virtual box goes down and comes back up and it is only for a few minutes at a time.

Have you had a seperate conversation with TSO host about the issues, rather than at the time?
 
boyfalldown said:
vidahost are very good. Beyond the call with support and answer the phone at times of night I've no right to expect them to. UK based so a little SEO boast as well
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I've switched to Vidahost since Hugh recommended them to me. Nothing but good things to say about them. Switching from Layershift saved me about £250 a year - and Layershift were great until I wanted to move and then I was unhappy with their service.

Vidahost - cheaper than you’d expect for the service you get ;)
 
neil_g said:
why is it you always have to get your back up about something?
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I havent.. your imagining things. leads to paranoia so you may want to keep check on it :).. You asked why i wasnt happy wiht them so i explained.. nobody asked you if you where happy so i was wondering why you felt the need to counter mine?
 
Dale_tem said:
We have a virtual box with TSO (running Windows) and I have 3 other accounts with TSO host on shared servers and we have no downtime.

There is occasional maintenance windows, I am alerted by pingdom and PC Monitor as soon as our virtual box goes down and comes back up and it is only for a few minutes at a time.

Have you had a seperate conversation with TSO host about the issues, rather than at the time?
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spoke to support.. told them my concerns in a nice manner and not as a complaint.. they said they take onboard and will discuss... still happens... I dont expect 100% uptime.. but if the host know mysql is down why cant they alert customers... putting it on a status page is useless unless i monitor the host status page 24/7 I need to knwo when the site is down not have a customer tell me..

I ahve now put a script in place.. when mysql errors/unavailable.. it emails me.. you would be suprised how often this is:(

so the next cocky comment is.. dont like then why not move.... i have nearly a quarter of a million pics hosted.. its a massive job to move :(
 
KIPAX said:
I havent.. your imagining things. leads to paranoia so you may want to keep check on it :).. You asked why i wasnt happy wiht them so i explained.. nobody asked you if you where happy so i was wondering why you felt the need to counter mine?
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He was just givig his experience as people often do in these threads

Did you skip breakfast this morning Tony? Have a Snickers. ;)
 
fabs said:
Did you skip breakfast this morning Tony? Have a Snickers. ;)
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as i said.. i ahvent got my back up i was asking him a question... hardly somehting for the moderators to jump in about.. and less of the sarky comments.. moderators should moderate not have digs at people.. come back when theres a problem eh?
 
KIPAX said:
spoke to support.. told them my concerns in a nice manner and not as a complaint.. they said they take onboard and will discuss... still happens... I dont expect 100% uptime.. but if the host know mysql is down why cant they alert customers... putting it on a status page is useless unless i monitor the host status page 24/7 I need to knwo when the site is down not have a customer tell me..
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This is supposed to be good.

http://uptimerobot.com/

Obviously it's better if you don't set it to email you via the same domain that you are monitoring.
 
KIPAX said:
as i said.. i ahvent got my back up i was asking him a question... hardly somehting for the moderators to jump in about.. and less of the sarky comments.. moderators should moderate not have digs at people.. come back when theres a problem eh?
Click to expand...

It wasn't a dig, it was suppsed to be light hearted (hence the wink) although there is some irony in your reply.

When I want you to tell me how to moderate these forums, I'll ask you.
 
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Have you found out what is causing the drop out in MySQL? Can they move you to a different server or migrate you to their cloud hosting? Is the issue just your database or MySQL across the server, do they know the cause?

1/4 of a million images is not a big job to migrate. It would be a file backup and a database backup and then probably some modifying of paths that your next host could help with.
 
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