Which Web Host Do You Need? Six Small-Business Plans Compared

Feb 6, 2012 6:30 PM
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LunarPages

LunarPages doesn’t look particularly different or distinguished next to the competition, but the company says that it focuses on enterprise-class customers, and it can rattle off a list of big-name clients.

That said, LunarPages promised us that its services are “open to everyone,” with a variety of plans and pricing levels that start below $4 a month. LunarPages' wide and bewildering range of plans can be a bit daunting; but if you need colocation, Microsoft Exchange, or managed services (which give you a hook into a live technician who can troubleshoot your site for you), LunarPages has options readily available.

LunarPages’ management interface is called LPCP (LunarPages Control Panel), and cPanel is available for an extra $2 a month. Power users may actually want to spring for it: Though LPCP is easy to get around with, it’s decidedly simplistic--almost cartoonish. The basics--webmail, backups, and the PageMason website building wizard--are here, but anything fancy takes a bit of digging.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy may be the registrar and Web host that everyone loves to hate, but there’s no need to be too tough on these guys. GoDaddy has plenty of options that help it compete quite handily in this industry.

GoDaddy’s biggest selling point as a Web host is its promise of “dynamic traffic management,” using a cluster of servers to manage all customers’ content, and promising that a website will stay up even if one server happens to go down.

That sounds just dandy, but GoDaddy’s interface is so convoluted and, frankly, slow that we were happy merely to get our test site up in the first place. (When we first set up our WordPress installation, GoDaddy promised us that it would be live “within 24 hours.” Although GoDaddy beat that promise by at least 23 hours, the mere threat of that kind of delay seems scary enough in today’s breakneck business world.)

In addition, GoDaddy’s dashboard is not immediately obvious and intuitive, and it feels like a relic of the ‘90s that has been upgraded bit by bit, by hundreds of different programmers. Finding the tool you need often requires a trip to the Help system. (Hint: Install scripts are buried under the 'Go Daddy Hosting Connection' icon.) And once you get there, the mechanics of setup can become even more baffling the deeper you drill.

That said, GoDaddy was kinder than most about holding our hand through the setup process, so newbies might be wise to consider this service.

GreenGeeks

Like many other hosts, GreenGeeks uses cPanel for website management, and anyone familiar with cPanel's charms will find nothing unusual here. In fact, it’s so generic that the company doesn’t even put its name at the top of the management screen.

That’s strange, because GreenGeeks is actually one of the most unusual Web hosts in this roundup, as its operations are energized completely by wind power--or rather, the company offsets its power usage by purchasing three times the amount of its utility bills in wind-energy credits. The company may not have windmills on the roof, but it’s still a good start if you’re looking to do something positive while selling your widgets to the masses.

Despite its attempts at greenness, GreenGeeks is still very affordable, with long-term plans costing less than $5 a month. Otherwise, it’s comparable, features-wise, to the rest, aside from the somewhat limited hours on phone-based support.

Shared Web Hosts Compared

A comparison of the deeper features offered by six Web hosting services.

For a comparison of deeper features that these six Web hosts offer to site builders, check out this table. Here's how to read it.

Programming languages: Beyond the basics (HTML, JavaScript, and SQL tools), which coding languages does the service support?

MySQL databases included: How many separate MySQL databases are included, and at what price levels? (Generally a separate database is required for each site you operate.)

Site building tools and apps: Which website creation tools does the company make available for script-based installation? (A select listing of major offerings are included here; many hosts provide selections of additional, specialized tools.)

Shopping cart services: Which shopping cart options are available out of the box?