Most Popular Hosts in June 2009

This
Month
Last
Month
Host Review Storage Transfer Price*
 1   2   HostGator   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $8.95 
 2   1   DreamHost   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $8.95 
3 7  BlueHost   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $6.95 
 4   4   midPhase   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $6.95 
 5   3   EasyCGI   read review   750 GB   7,500 GB   $7.96 
 6   5   HostMonster   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $6.95 
 7   6   ANHosting   read review   500 GB   5,000 GB   $6.95 
 8   9   Yahoo!   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $9.95 
 9   8   StartLogic   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $5.95 
 10   10   FatCow   not yet reviewed   unlimited   unlimited   $5.50 

* All prices on this site are for a two-year sign-up.

Well, so much for that. DreamHost’s reign at the top was short lived indeed. HostGator has moved back up to number one (where it belongs in my opinion). That said, DreamHost didn’t exactly tumble. As they said in Picture Perfect, “Number 2 and that ain’t bad.”

On a more nostalgic note, we have a visit to the top five from an old friend. BlueHost has jumped back to number three after having been in the lower half of the list for some time. Back on my old site, BlueHost was number one for literally dozens of months in a row. It seemed unbeatable. But in the last year or so that just hasn’t been the case. BlueHost is still a solid host, but it just hasn’t been able to stand up to DreamHost and HostGator’s assault since they went to unlimited hosting.

The rest of the list is stuck in the summer doldrums, although to be fair summer is not prime hosting time. Go figure, people would rather be out in the sun than typing away at their keyboard building web sites. And that, my friends, is why the world now has laptops and wifi.

Happy Hosting!

Wish More Hosts Offered WebDAV? Blame PHP!

There is a lot to hate about PHP, which most programmers will be more than happy to share with you. At length. In a heated voice. Possibly requiring a valium afterwards. The arguments about PHP’s suckiness are interesting and largely quite accurate, while at the same time almost completely academic given its pervasiveness. But that’s a subject for another less stressful day.

In addition to its many faults as a language, PHP is responsible for another injustice on the web: the general unavailability of WebDAV.

(Read more…)

Most Popular Hosts in May 2009

This
Month
Last
Month
Host Review Storage Transfer Price*
 1   3   DreamHost   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $8.95 
 2   1   HostGator   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $8.95 
 3   9   EasyCGI   read review   750 GB   7,500 GB   $7.96 
 4   4   midPhase   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $6.95 
 5   2   HostMonster   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $6.95 
 6   5   ANHosting   read review   500 GB   5,000 GB   $6.95 
7 6  BlueHost   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $6.95 
 8   7   StartLogic   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $5.95 
 9   8   Yahoo!   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $9.95 
 10   10   FatCow   not yet reviewed   unlimited   unlimited   $5.50 

* All prices on this site are for a two-year sign-up.

We have only two changes of note here. The first and biggest change is that DreamHost has bumped HostGator out of the top spot. Both are decent hosts, although in my book HostGator’s reliability slightly edges DreamHost’s. In any case, at least for the moment, the king is dead; long live the king!

The other change is EasyCGI hopping up to the #3 slot from #9. I guess there is some life left in Windows hosting. That sounded more cynical than it should be. Sorry. There are some good tools for Windows web development, but I’m a Unix guy from way back and Windows just isn’t my bag. We’ll have to see how EasyCGI does this month.

Happy Hosting!

Most Popular Hosts in April 2009

This
Month
Last
Month
Host Review Storage Transfer Price
 1   1   HostGator   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $8.95 
 2   7   HostMonster   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $6.95 
 3   2   DreamHost   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $8.95 
 4   5   midPhase   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $6.95 
 5   3   ANHosting   read review   500 GB   5,000 GB   $6.95 
6 6  BlueHost   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $6.95 
 7   8   StartLogic   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $5.95 
 8   9   Yahoo!   read review   unlimited   unlimited   $9.95 
 9   10   EasyCGI   read review   750 GB   7,500 GB   $7.96 
 10   4   FatCow   not yet reviewed   unlimited   unlimited   $5.50 

All prices based on a two-year commit.

(Read more…)

About HostScope

HostScope is a new site that combines several of my web sites, both existing and planned, into a single place. Its focus is web design, development, technology, and general webmastery. As a result, it needs to cover everything from picking a web host to configuring a blog to monetizing your site. Whether I can live up to the challenge of this broad a mission remains to be seen, but it should be an interesting ride regardless. More info...