Web Host on a Budget

I think JustHost is hard to beat for value. JustHost came up number 1 overall in two of three top 10 web hosting surveys that I found in Google. They include a domain name for life in the sign-up price. I did the domain name search and then clicked the x to close the window to exit, and maybe come back later, and JustHost offered me half price, 2.95/mo. for 24 month sign up = $71, or 3.49/month for 12 month sign up = $42. For $71 for 2 years, I just did it. You can cancel any time, refund prorated by months left, and would be charged $20 for the domain name in that case. (Read the agreement before signing up to interpret for yourself.)

Sales support was excellent. I had a billing glitch on the special offer. I made an error in the form and the form reverted back to the base price and I didn't notice. I thought, uh oh, here we go. I emailed billing, got a reply the next day, “Thank you for your email. I apologize for the mix up when you initially signed up. I can confirm i have now refunded your account of $48.00 which you can expect to see returned to your account within the next 5 working days.” Understanding, prompt, high integrity. Nice!

JustHost has the standard Cpanel, which is what many web host providers have converged on. It offers one click install and removal of many of the blog and CMS applications; Wordpress, B2Evolution, Drupal, Joomla, and many more; and nice utilities for managing email, MySQL, and much more.

The one thing that isn't offered in the base price is shell access. That's extra. It's not critical with Cpanel. If you don't know what shell access is, then you don't need it.

Opinions abound on this topic. You may wish to do your own homework.

Update, 3-21-09.

A couple caveats on the free domain name for life. (Acknowlege Aaron Hockley, for making the second point, in comments.)

First, I think the "free" must mean while you maintain an account with JustHost. If you cancel your account, I'm sure you'll have to transfer the domain name and pay for it somewhere else in order to keep it.

Second, your domain name is registered through a second party, Pipe DNS. You may want to choose a domain name with JustHost that you would be willing to lose.  Or you may be able to chose the 'transfer a domain name' option, forego the domain name for life, and avoid the $20 fee if you cancel the account early. You'd have to check. For a domain name that you want to keep more secure, I would recommend you register it with someone like GoDaddy. They register it themselves, under your name. You could buy a domain name at GoDaddy and then transfer it to JustHost, for web hosting purposes, at no additional charge. I recently bought ikayak.info for $1.19 total for the first year at GoDaddy and transferred it to JustHost as an add-on domain. Here's a nice tutorial on domain names http://www.igoldrush.com/.

Paul

 

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JustHost looks great for companies new too online marketing, although perhaps limited in design options and support as far as I can see. I personally prefer the build and extra security of a Clickbooth affiliate network.

 
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Yes, you can transfer your domains to Godaddy or you can register new once, buy I do it for below $7 year! The secret is using both coupon codes plus get cash rebate. Check the coupons page for details. After rebate it is about $6.75 a year - best price I ever could find.

 
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Very interesting information here considering that I am currently working at building my website. I would got for the 12 months offer, as a newcomer I will take it slow in web hosting, there are still a lot of things I need to learn about being a website owner.

 
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4 comments - ported from Wordpress on 4-05-09, by Pau
 
Aaron B. Hockley, January 12th, 2009 at 1:38 am  
 

I’d be hesitant for such a setup where the web host is the one doing the domain registration. Your domain name will become (arguably) your most important asset in your online identity. What if they decide to be jerks if you try to move away from them as a host? What if something were to happen and one day the company is just gone? It’s not a likely scenario, but it could be a potential nightmare to lose control of your domain.

I always register my domains directly with a registrar then point them to my web host.

 
paul, January 12th, 2009 at 3:03 am 
 

Thanks, Aron. myname.com is pretty precious to me. I wouldn’t want to lose it. I’ll look further into securing it. Thanks again.

 
Ben Potter. January 12th, 2009 at 11:35 pm  
 

Write your hosting support and let them know you’d like to transfer your domain name to a GoDaddy.com account. They can hopefully guide you through the process but I’d be more than happy to help you along!

 
paul, March 2nd, 2009 at 6:46 pm  
 

Thanks, Ben. Per our conversation at the Corvallis Beer & Blog event a couple weeks ago, I found out that I can go to GoDaddy.com and transfer the domain for about $7/yr. I haven’t done it yet, but watched someone transfer about 6 of her domains to GoDaddy to get them all in one place. GoDaddy asks you if you want a whole host of other services along with the domain transfer. The general advice given was to decline all the candy and just go for the basic domain transfer.

 

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