Going forward

Continuing my studies in technology, I ponder the application of what I have learned to my professional life beyond the domain of school--literally and figuratively. We no longer can rely on the school's web hosting but must look to find other sources. I think it's becoming a professional necessity to have a personal webpage akin to the common business card. In this venture, we have been asked by our professor to compare the top 10 web hosting companies.

We were given some important items to look for such as unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth and unlimited emails. Most of these companies competively offer the same in this regard. There are, though, many features that we are not aware of that are listed so it makes choosing one definitively difficult.

Of course, price is a factor: Most offered $4.95 a month with a 1 year subscription but JustHost was $5.95, HostGator $6.95, HostUpon $7.95, Yahoo! Small Biz $7.46, and EasyCGI Windows $7.96, for the same with PowWeb offering 6 months free.

Next, I looked for PHP ready and MySQL; the former is that it is conducive and ready for a Personal Home Page and the latter is the most popular data based management system good for customer input, forms, class website and management: Monster Host, Bluehost, IX Web Hosting, JustHost, HostUpon, HostGator (baby plan), EasyCGI Windows, Yahoo! Small Biz, PowWeb, and LunarPages. So, all ten offered these features!

Last, I compared for sub-domain function which allows one to add a name before the web domain address essentially adding additional pages to one's webpage by directing them to another page which is a great organizational tool: Bluehost, HostGator (baby plan), PowWeb, and LunarPages. In looking over these last two categories, it appears that the four listed here have more to offer as they also offer the sub-domain features. One would need to check out what HostGator's Baby Plan entails.

Monster Host offered an anytime cancel and prorated refund which could come in handy if one wants to change companies or close down their domain and non-outsourced support. JustHost also offered cancellation and refund although it didn't list it as prorated.

Before making a final decision, I would need to find out more of some of the other features listed. But, based on what I have researched so far, I would be inclined to research further the companies of Bluehost, PowWeb, and LunarPages.