Domain Name & Hosting

There are thousands of website for domain names and hosting BUT they are not equal - they have different prices, reliability, features. Over the years, I've had to deal with dozens of different hosting companies and at this point, I will only go with 3 different companies for hosting.

1&1 Internet
1&1 Internet definitely offers the best bang for the buck, throwing in the domain name free with all hosting plans. For most people, the Linux Beginner Plan for $3.99/month offers more than enough bandwidth, storage, and features. The nice thing about 1&1 Internet is that since they have so many customers, they can keep adding features while keeping the price low. If you sign up with them, make sure you go through all their extras. And if you start getting a lot of web traffic to your site, you can upgrade your account at any time.

CrystalTech & GoDaddy
Sometimes you have specific online applications that require scripting languages such as ASP, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, or Sharepoint. At a great price, CrystalTech offers this advanced programming support as well as great reliability and responsive customer support. Don't purchase your domain name through them though - you can save about $10/year by purchasing your domain name separately through either GoDaddy or 1&1 Internet. Note: if you get your domain name through GoDaddy, just get the domain name--don't choose any of the other offers that they try to push on you.

Peak Systems
Of course since I work at Peak Systems, I need to put a plug in here for us too. Peak Systems charges a lot more than the others on this page but that's because it's enterprise-level hosting, meaning more speed & reliability. It's worth it if you plan on going big!