Best Web Hosting Services 2013
Building a website can be hard enough, but before you've started designing it, you'll have to think about where you're going to host it. There are so many hosting companies, each offering several different packages, that this can become a bewildering task. We've scrutinised the small print and tested all the hosts to bring you a definitive guide to the best services to use for your website.
If you take a look at our features table on page 24, you'll see where Go Daddy's strength lies. For the price, Go Daddy's hosting packages have a higher specification than any of the similarly-priced packages from the other companies included in this Group Test. The star of Go Daddy's line-up is its Deluxe package. If you pay annually, this costs £6.83 per month, though you can reduce this to £6.11 if you're willing to pay for three years up front. You get a domain name included with the package, but both storage and bandwidth are unlimited, so your site can be as big and as busy as you like. Free Virtual Servers and Zyma are the only other web hosts in this test that offer this unlimited mix of storage and bandwidth for less than £7 per month, and some don't even offer it with significantly more expensive packages. The main constraint of the Deluxe package is the maximum limit of 25 databases you can use to install elements such as forums and WordPress installations. However, we think most amateur web builders would be hard pushed to think of enough ways to fill them up. But if you want more, you could pay £11.04 per month for the Ultimate package, which removes the limit completely. Alternatively, if you can restrict your site to (a very generous)100GB, you can use the Economy package for just £4.55. Setting up a hosting account is never foolproof and none of the companies in this Group Test scored a full five stars for ease of use. However, Go Daddy came close because its various tools are well integrated, and there's a handy wizard to get your site up and running. It's particularly well suited if you want to set up a WordPress site, which gets its own button and doesn't ask too much from the user. It's not as easy as a single click, because you still have to fill out a form to name the site and choose a password, but it's about as simple as it gets.
123-reg has three hosting services. Start up (£3.59 per month) doesn't have much storage (1GB) and can't support a WordPress installation, because it doesn't come with a database. The Business package (£5.99 per month) can run Word Press but is limited to 50GB of storage. 123-reg's most impressive package is the Professional one. This costs £10.78 per month and comes with unlimited storage, bandwidth, databases and email mailboxes. The only limit is the number of sub-domains you can set up, which is capped at 100. If you want a largely unlimited service, this is better value for money than Go Daddy's Ultimate package, which has very similar features but costs £11.04 per month, although Go Daddy Deluxe is still a better all-round deal. Setting up with 123-reg is very simple. It uses its own software throughout the process, and the control panel has clear icons to help navigate all its tools. The web-based file transfer software let us upload our simple web page smoothly, but it's best for single files. If you're going to upload a larger website, you'd be better off using FTP software. Installing WordPress is simple. 123-reg's own script for this doesn't kick you out to a different interface and requires less form-filling than most of the other hosts we tested.
GoDaddy and 123-reg use icons to help you navigate their various tools, but 1&1's links are mostly text only, so you end up having to read lists of options to locate the tool you want rather than finding things at a glance. That said, it performed all the tricks we wanted it to, including a smooth installation of the latest version of WordPress. The small print under the WordPress installation says you can't update templates and add plug-ins but, in practice, we managed to. The Business package (£11.99) has no limits on anything and is very generous for the price: while the Unlimited (03.39) puts a cap on sub-domains at 500 and databases at 100.
Heart Internet has three hosting packages. The Starter Pro (£2.99 per month with a £10 one-off set-up fee) only has 5GB of space and 30GB of bandwidth. Home Pro (£8.99 per month) and Business Pro (£12.99 per month) offer unlimited space and bandwidth, though the Home Pro has limits of 10,000 sub-domains and 10,000 email inboxes. The configuration panel is packed with options but everything has its own icon and is logically organised. We used the File Manager to upload an 'under construction' page, which was very simple, though you'll need to switch to FTP software to upload a significant number of files. We then went to CGI Scripts and clicked the WordPress option. To install the software, select a folder, then click a button, and the latest version will be installed.
GO DADDY
If you take a look at our features table on page 24, you'll see where Go Daddy's strength lies. For the price, Go Daddy's hosting packages have a higher specification than any of the similarly-priced packages from the other companies included in this Group Test. The star of Go Daddy's line-up is its Deluxe package. If you pay annually, this costs £6.83 per month, though you can reduce this to £6.11 if you're willing to pay for three years up front. You get a domain name included with the package, but both storage and bandwidth are unlimited, so your site can be as big and as busy as you like. Free Virtual Servers and Zyma are the only other web hosts in this test that offer this unlimited mix of storage and bandwidth for less than £7 per month, and some don't even offer it with significantly more expensive packages. The main constraint of the Deluxe package is the maximum limit of 25 databases you can use to install elements such as forums and WordPress installations. However, we think most amateur web builders would be hard pushed to think of enough ways to fill them up. But if you want more, you could pay £11.04 per month for the Ultimate package, which removes the limit completely. Alternatively, if you can restrict your site to (a very generous)100GB, you can use the Economy package for just £4.55. Setting up a hosting account is never foolproof and none of the companies in this Group Test scored a full five stars for ease of use. However, Go Daddy came close because its various tools are well integrated, and there's a handy wizard to get your site up and running. It's particularly well suited if you want to set up a WordPress site, which gets its own button and doesn't ask too much from the user. It's not as easy as a single click, because you still have to fill out a form to name the site and choose a password, but it's about as simple as it gets.
123-REG
123-reg has three hosting services. Start up (£3.59 per month) doesn't have much storage (1GB) and can't support a WordPress installation, because it doesn't come with a database. The Business package (£5.99 per month) can run Word Press but is limited to 50GB of storage. 123-reg's most impressive package is the Professional one. This costs £10.78 per month and comes with unlimited storage, bandwidth, databases and email mailboxes. The only limit is the number of sub-domains you can set up, which is capped at 100. If you want a largely unlimited service, this is better value for money than Go Daddy's Ultimate package, which has very similar features but costs £11.04 per month, although Go Daddy Deluxe is still a better all-round deal. Setting up with 123-reg is very simple. It uses its own software throughout the process, and the control panel has clear icons to help navigate all its tools. The web-based file transfer software let us upload our simple web page smoothly, but it's best for single files. If you're going to upload a larger website, you'd be better off using FTP software. Installing WordPress is simple. 123-reg's own script for this doesn't kick you out to a different interface and requires less form-filling than most of the other hosts we tested.
1&1
HEART INTERNET
Heart Internet has three hosting packages. The Starter Pro (£2.99 per month with a £10 one-off set-up fee) only has 5GB of space and 30GB of bandwidth. Home Pro (£8.99 per month) and Business Pro (£12.99 per month) offer unlimited space and bandwidth, though the Home Pro has limits of 10,000 sub-domains and 10,000 email inboxes. The configuration panel is packed with options but everything has its own icon and is logically organised. We used the File Manager to upload an 'under construction' page, which was very simple, though you'll need to switch to FTP software to upload a significant number of files. We then went to CGI Scripts and clicked the WordPress option. To install the software, select a folder, then click a button, and the latest version will be installed.
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