Where Should I Host My Joomla! Website?

There are thousands of options here. I can only give you my experience.

 

Why Host with Hostgator?

 

Hostgator is pretty awesome. Customer support is great. Plans are affordable. Their rules are a little more strict than Dreamhost but there servers seem to be up and fast 99% of the time.

Advantages

• Affordable packages
• Very high percentage of uptime.
• Servers located in parts of the country with little chance of major natural disastors.
• Service and support is lightening fast.

Disadvantages

• Less space and bandwidth than Dreamhost for more money.
• Limited number of domain names on their cheapest plan.
• Loads Joomla! through Fantastico (you will want to install Joomla! manually.)
• Domain names are expensive (if you purchase through them, remember you don't have to)

 

If you are a complete novice with Joomla! or any other php driven content management system. I suggest Dreamhost.

 

 

Why host with Dreamhost?

They are cheap and give you a lot of bandwidth and diskspace. You can create hundreds of practice domain using their subdomain.

What does that mean?

You can set up websitetest1.dreamhosters.com and try out your skills without having to buy a domain name.

You can try all of their One Click Installs (their equivalent of Fantastico) on separate domains. It is GREAT CHEAP practice host.

Advantages

• Joomla! is a "One Click Install" which means it sets up Joomla! and its database for you.
• They offer cheap domain registration and hosting plans.
• Give you freedom to learn and grow.
• Host as many domains as you want on one account.
• Use as many databases as you need.

Disadvantages

• PHP is not optimized for Joomla! security (most hosts aren't)
• Very difficult to set up a custom php.ini
• control panel is a lot different from cpanel (which seems to be the industry standard)

As your skills improve a bit you might check out Hostgator.

Host with Us

If this is your first Joomla site or your second or third, host with us. We build websites almost exclusively with Joomla and plan to for a long while. We have already configured the server for Joomla security. We can help you get your site started and customize it. Join our family so we can all help promote each others Joomla! websites. If you are interested in hosting with us, please contact us.