Technology Issues people have experienced with Webhosting and recommendations for companies?

[neversickanymore]

Looking for an outstanding web host company to create and host a new pod cast centered website. The cast likely will go on for years and I'm looking for advice on which companies are currently really good and any pitfalls I should avoid moving forward.

This company initially presents pretty good?

Hostinger - Bring Your Idea Online With a Website

Choose Hostinger and make the perfect site. From Shared Hosting and Domains to VPS and Cloud plans. We have all you need for online success.

www.hostinger.com

Thoughts and advice?

 

[alasdairm]

i have a couple of sites and one of them was on bluehost for a while. i gave up on bluehost as the cost was too much.

i have a friend with dreamhost hosting and i just moved both my sites to his server. i have been impressed with dreamhost so far (but i'm not aware of the cost).

alasdair

 

[neversickanymore]

i have a couple of sites and one of them was on bluehost for a while. i gave up on bluehost as the cost was too much.

i have a friend with dreamhost hosting and i just moved both my sites to his server. i have been impressed with dreamhost so far (but i'm not aware of the cost).

alasdair

How difficult is it to switch sites as far as content and cost.. esp maybe hidden cost to jump. So down the road if i desire to switch hosts?

 

[alasdairm]

pretty easy.

first, download all your content from the old host and upload to the new host.

then you just have to update your dns settings (with your registrar) to replace the old host's nameservers with the nameservers of your new host.

i've been told that dns changes take up to 48 hours to propagate but, in my experience it's much faster.

keep your old host around for a day or two just in case and, when you are sure everything is working at your new host, you can cancel the old host.

alasdair

 

[alasdairm]

if you want to get really geeky?

both my websites are personal projects and are mostly simple text and images. i found a great template (html+css) to style both sites - it's called story by html5 up. i use a template because it does all the responsive stuff for me.

my changes are infrequent but i did not have a good system for tracking changes.

so, at the same time i switched hosts, i set up github repos for each site and i have two branches: 'main' (github's default branch) which is my release branch and an `edit` branch for changes.

i use visual studio code as my editor/ide (it has great github integration).

i do all my editing locally in a local copy of the `edit` branch and view the site locally using a super easy to use local web server called laragon.

once i am happy with my changes locally, i stage and commit them in vsc and push them to github. to ship them, i create a pull request to merge `main` < `edit` and i have a github workflow which copies the files to my host via ftp whenever i merge into my `main` branch: https://github.com/sand4rt/ftp-deployer

it's a little overkill for 2 modest websites but it makes local editing and testing and change tracking super simple.

alasdair

 

[neversickanymore]

Ali.. I really can't even pretend to have any clue wtf your talking about.. i'm sure as shit you know what your talking about, but i'm not learned in this.
Bored? I got a couple dollars.. not high rolling.. want to help me design a pod cast website?

 

[alasdairm]

well, like i said it's just me geeking out a bit

i'm happy to try to help by answering questions but i don't have any cycles to help with the design (plus i am not a designer )

there are a bunch of companies which have everything you need - hosting, design and build help, subscription/payment management, etc. - all in one place. check out wix and similar companies or do a search for "easiest way to build a website".

alasdair

 

[thujone]

Ali.. I really can't even pretend to have any clue wtf your talking about.. i'm sure as shit you know what your talking about, but i'm not learned in this.
Bored? I got a couple dollars.. not high rolling.. want to help me design a pod cast website?

that's static site hosting, which is a LOT cheaper than WP hosting (even free) because static content is much much much less resource intensive than WP. so, generally, cheaper and more reliable as well.

if you can figure out how to use a static site generator (SSG) like Hugo or Jekyll then you can create a static site, preview the result locally, then just upload the files to the host. it's much simpler than WP, but not easier because you have to learn how to use a SSG.

Github Pages gives you free hosting with a *.github.io address, but that means you also have to learn enough git to sync the files to Github.

So there's a steeper learning curve than there is with WordPress, but it costs you nothing to get started and you get reliable hosting with encryption and a URL for free. It's hard to beat that.

Also you want to stick to responsive themes (i.e. compatible with mobile) and maybe get an SEO plugin setup right away