Industry guru Dave Taylor offers free tech support on a wide variety of technical and business topics, including HTML, Apple iPhone, online advertising, Cascading Style Sheets, Web design, management, Unix, Linux, search engine optimization, online dating, Mac OS X, shell script programming and Microsoft Windows.

What's the best place to host my new Web site?

Hey Dave! I'm only about twenty years behind here, but I want to start building my own Web site and am kind of drawing a blank on where I should store the files. I think that's called "site hosting" [ed. yeah, it is :-) ] but every single person I talk with is somewhere else, so I'm at a bit of a loss. Where should I host my new Web site? Don't need much, it's probably not going to be too busy...

Dave's Answer:

First off, let's be optimistic instead of pessimistic, shall we? Let's operate with the assumption that your Web site is going to be successful and that you are going to slowly but surely build your traffic as you develop your site and become an online playa. (yeah, I just slipped into gansta for a moment. wow. must be these early morning blogging sessions that are doing it!)

If you're going to code by hand, can I suggest a book to you? A few years ago I wrote a book called Creating Cool Web Sites and it still seems to be helping people learn both HTML and CSS, the two languages of the Web.

If you are going to use a development package like the popular Adobe Dreamweaver, then I suggest that you might call a few local computer places and see if you can't find a class to take. Here in Colorado we have the great option of Boulder Digital Arts, but you might not be quite so lucky in your city...

The reason that this is important is because how you want to develop your site can influence which hosting service you choose. If you are focused on Dreamweaver, for example, you'll want to check to ensure that they support it.

In terms of picking your best option for hosting, though, a company called SquareCompare has a very slick widget that you can use to sort through the hundreds and hundreds of hosting options they catalog by a wide variety of different criteria. Poke around, see what you think:

I hope that helps you get going!

The above SquareSpace widget is supplied as part of an affiliate program I'm involved with: if you click on a link, above, and inquire further about hosting options, you can also rest comfortably knowing that you've helped us keep the lights on in our office. I thank you for that.

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Comments

Hi Dave, when i looked through all the lists you gave of the hosts we could use i didn't find any that was free. Can i really find a free host? if so then please can you show me. [and what host do you use?]

Posted by: Ismail Wasway at July 12, 2009 9:53 AM

Ismail, I don't know that there are any decent free hosting sites left, and I would imagine they'd be overrun by spammers anyway, so I'd avoid them like the plague. There are, however, inexpensive solutions, as you can see in the list above.

Me? I use Verio/NTT and have done for years. Ever had any down time at all that I can remember, which is quite an accomplishment.

Posted by: Dave Taylor at July 12, 2009 12:12 PM

Hi Dave. My boss is wanting to update or rebuild his website hosted by ipowerweb. It hasnt been updated since it was built about ten years ago. He asked me to take care of it but I am unexperienced. I only know basic html and have just recently began learning. I suggested to him to get an account with a host that gives a web building app. that was really user friendly. One in which he could update himself (with no experience necessary) as needed. He was also wanting some type of paypal shopping cart. Can you please help me dave I am way out of my legue. Should I just continue hosting on ipowerweb in which updating requires skill. Should I get him an account with a more user friendly web host offering better veriety in user friendly web tools. Or should I simply refuse the job(In which I am doing for fun and simple experience) and tell him to find a local specielists. And I cant even tell if these web host will get anything off of his sales. Please help and give any feedback you can. Thanks

Posted by: Chris Hendren at August 12, 2009 9:52 PM

Chris, I think you're spot on in suggesting that your boss find a new hosting service that will let him have more control over what he wants to do AND incorporates some of the more sophisticated web-based tools out there. If you really want to get involved, which would be good experience, see if the person he would hire will let you do some of the easier work and they focus on the overall structure and back-end ecommerce implementation piece?

Posted by: Dave Taylor at August 15, 2009 8:29 AM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!