Does anyone here use iWeb.com hosting?

[Joseph Hutson]

Now that I have CS4 Master Collection, I am going to be using Dreamweaver/Flash for my website instead of Apple's "iWeb" application and their ".Me" hosting service.

This means I need a new hosting server. I am seriously thinking about doing iWeb's 10 year hosting contract for $200. Even if I don't use it for more than 2 years, I will still get a good deal I believe.

I am just wondering if anyone else here, has used them, and if they iWeb is reliable.

Thanks for your advice in advance.

[GlennChan]

I'm skeptical about 10 year contracts... technology changes way faster than that. Geocities, Astalavista (and web search engines before that), etc. are all examples of technology that didn't really last too long.

Or if you look at Final Touch, first it cost $25k then apple bought it out and gave it away for free. So if the price drops in the future, you're out of luck. 10 year contracts, in my opinion, are a bit silly because of this.

2- I don't have an opinion on iWeb since I've never used it.

Chances are you can get a better deal if you shop around. Big disclaimer: There are a lot of "independent" web hosting review sites out there... they are bogus and filled with affiliate links and they promote the web hosts that pay em the most.
You can try webhostingtalk.com, though it's possible that people there are shilling for particular companies.

I run my own web server (I get what I pay for; it's not ultra reliable) and have web hosting with icdhost.com, dreamhost.com, bluehost.com, and some other companies. I dislike the latter two (dreamhost oversells, bluehost is paying Wordpress to shill for them) and would recommend icdhost (no overselling, fast responses on technical support, and their 60-day money back guarantee works).

You can protect yourself if you pay with a credit card (not Paypal)... if a web hosting company doesn't honour their money back guarantee, simply file a chargeback and you'll get your money back.

3- Also look at your web hosting needs. You won't be able to do stock footage on a cheap web host. The advertised bandwidth is deceptive marketing 99% of the time. Heck, even icdhost is probably overselling their services a little.

[Joseph Hutson]

Thanks so much for your advice!


Also look at your web hosting needs. You won't be able to do stock footage on a cheap web host.

The site I am talking about right now is my business website, not the 3Kstock.com.

The 3Kstock.com website will need a ton of bandwidth and TB's of storage as the R3D files are massive. :weight_lift:

[Brent J. Craig]

You get what you pay for with web hosting. If your website isn't critical to your business, perhaps $20 a year is reasonable for you.

If you miss out on a single job because a potential client can't access your website or send you an email what will that cost you?

Choose a host you trust, with a track record, good reviews and reasonable pricing. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

[GlennChan]

The cheaper web hosts might also be reasonable for your needs.


If you miss out on a single job because a potential client can't access your website or send you an email what will that cost you?
As far as websites go, I've seen so many post houses with outdated websites. And they are busy. So I'm not so sure that the website is mission critical to their business.
And most web hosts are up 99.5% of the time anyways... (more like 99.8~99.9% in practice)... that last bit of reliability is probably swamped by other risks... the film/video business is very cyclical.... I wouldn't worry about the last bit of reliability.

As far as email goes (which can be separate from your web hosting), I've seen business lost because they didn't respond to an email in their spam filter. :/