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Considering that webhosting is a service that you will keep for a long time, you want to make a careful decision about the company that you will use. Things to look for when you are choosing a webhost include:

1. Uptime
2. Support availability
3. Features - amount of drive space, bandwidth, number of domains, email accounts, etc.
4. Pricing

One of the companies that I have used for a number of years for my webhosting needs is Hostgator. I have been very satisfied with their uptime and support. I only use their shared hosting (in fact, I have several accounts) but I would expect that you will get the same excellent experience with the reseller hosting plans.

Hostgator Background

The company was founded by Brent Oxley (who eventually dropped out of college to focus on Hostgator) in 2002 and has grown tremendously since then. 2006 revenues exceeded $11 million. They have their data centers in Houston provided by The Planet. If you’re interested in the details, you can read a case study here.

Resellers

There are some webhosts that are simply resellers from a primary company. If you decide to use a reseller, you have to make sure that they are well-versed in the technical details so that they can support you when needed. If you suspect that a company is a reseller, try to trace the original hosting company and compare the features and pricing.

Should You Get Reseller Hosting?

You would consider reseller hosting if…

1. You want to start your own webhosting business. Getting a reseller package will allow you to sell webhosting to your clients. You get to keep 100% of the money you collect.

2. You need a large number of websites hosted. In this case, you’re not going to resell the accounts but use them yourself.

If you’re a reseller, you control the accounts through a Web Host Manager (WHM) control panel where you can allocate individual user accounts and set their file space and transfer limits. Each account will have its own Cpanel login.

Hostgator Features

Sitebuilder - helps you build professional-looking sites fast. I don’t use this feature yet as I like to design and tweak my sites. But if you don’t have much web design experience and want to get started quickly, this is a good option to have. You won’t have to purchase additional software like Dreamweaver, Expression or XSitePro (great for small to medium size niche sites) to design your site.

Here’s what the sitebuilder looks like - it’s a WYSIWYG interface. I set this up in a couple of minutes.

Uptime - 99.9% Uptime Guarantee. Through the years that I have hosted my sites with Hostgator, I’ve found their uptime to be excellent. I don’t have a way to measure and confirm that’s it’s really 99.9%.

Support - Hostgator has 4 ways to contact support: phone, support ticket system (email), IM via AIM, Yahoo!, MSN and online chat. I’ve always had good experience with their support staff. They are responsive, usually responding within a few hours, courteous and knowledgeable.

Additional Features - There are a ton of features included such as MySQL, PHP, CGI, Ruby on Rails, SSH, Perl, Python, Cron, Image Magick, and more. The Cpanel installation also includes Fantastico so things like installing a WordPress blog or a forum can be done with a few clicks of the mouse. There is also Awstats installed with the real-time option giving you up-to-the-minute stats (if you’re a stats junkie). If you need an ecommerce site, osCommerce is also available.

Until March 1st, you can get an additional 20% off the first month’s hosting fees by using the coupon code: HEART in honor of Valentine’s Day. :)

Go on and give Hostgator a try.

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