What is the Best Reseller Hosting for Web Design Companies?

You are being housed now with BlueHost, JustHost etc - all of the other EIG hosts. When you get fed up and leave to the next unlimited provider, chances are, you'll be in the same datacenter, on the same servers but logging into a different public website for support. Most of the behind the scenes is the same people as well from what I've heard over the years.

Cool. I wasn't singling you out. I obviously don't know everyone's experience I was just pointing out the limited experience in web hosting one would find here. Most aren't that tech savvy. Most think WordPress is the only (or even good) CMS system.

That sucks. I hate the politics of sites, but its everywhere. Another good site (for VPS related discussions) is lowendbox.com and lowendtalk.com. However they have their fair share of problems (just bring up Chicago VPS in there... lol).

But there are also other Web Hosting related forums outside of WHT (albeit not as popular maybe). I'm a member of a few.





Regarding those looking for hosting or becoming an affiliate of a web host:

With the cost of bandwidth going way down over the last 10 years, the cost of electronics going down, and advancements of software like nginx, Lite Speed, OpenVZ, and KVM, XEN, etc.. its getting easier for anyone to call themselves a web host. A cheap $5/mo VPS with cPanel + WHMCS installed and you think you are gold. This is the sad reality. Because of this when researching a web host to use or to become an affiliate for... you have to do much much more due diligence than you did before.

When I got started in the industry if you didn't know SunOS and FreeBSD (forget Linux, it wasn't even used outside of hobbyist yet) you were SOL... because RADIUS (what was used for PPP authentication) only ran well on a UNIX platform. Then regarding web hosting... you COULD do some unstable hosting on IIS, but the preferred method was UNIX. But if you wanted to host sites in UNIX you had to understand Apache's conf in depth, understand passwd/group settings in depth, and understand UNIX directory structures in depth (mind you all of this was before linux became "popular" so the UNIX community was really limited). Now adays anyone that can point and click can install cPanel and get going in minutes.

Now this is great... I think expanding a community and expanding the ability for more people to use a technology is great for development of that community. Ultimately it'll make it better for all of us. But because of the low entry barrier, you also have a higher lack of quality and higher lack of knowledge in some cases. It brings back the memory of a great quote I was told when I was a arrogant know-it-all teenager. "You don't know what you don't know." This is so true. And so we have instances of "entrepreneur-wannabe" 20 yr olds who buy a $5 VPS and a cPanel license and think because "hey I know more about computers than most of my friends and family" that they have the skills and knowledge to run a web hosting business. They don't know what they don't know (and I'm only speaking "technically" here... let alone all of the business/taxes/accounting aspects of running a business they lack).

How do you combat this though? How do you ensure you aren't sending leads to (or buying service from) a company run by someone who doesn't know anything? Someone who may not be around in 5 years? Well thats tricky. For starters you can look at how long they've been in business. But this isn't a huge indicator... but it is something (for instance my company has been online since 1998). Another thing is to look at their testimonials and client list. Even reach out to customers and ask their experience. Google the company and find out information on it. Go to Web Hosting Talk and look for reviews. If they are a "serious" business and have dealt with a good size customer-base and traffic... you should be able to find SOMETHING (I have one site that gets 1 MILLION hits a day, and a smaller host most likely wouldn't know how to properly handle the traffic and route it... and no there isn't a "setting" in cPanel for such a thing... lol). Another thing you can do with a smaller company is literally interview them. Yes... ask them questions. Ask who they host? Ask how they'd handle situations, etc. Have them sell you. With so many choices now a days in web hosting and internet service providers... you should only go to someone you feel comfortable with and have a connection with. I can tell you from the other side (as far as being a web hosting provider) I won't accept a client I don't feel comfortable with. Why should I? So why should you?

The internet has grown and advanced. Thats great. But being a good researcher and doing your own due diligence has always been important to making sound business decisions. You shouldn't approach this decision any different.