What’s an inode, actually?

Detail definition quoted from Wikipedia:

In computing, an inode is a data structure on a traditional Unix-style file system such as UFS. An inode stores basic information about a regular file, directory, or other file system object.

When a file system is created, data structures that contain information about files are created. Each file has an inode and is identified by an inode number (often referred to as an “i-number” or “inode”) in the file system where it resides.

Inodes store information on files such as user and group ownership, access mode (read, write, execute permissions) and type of file. On many file system types the number of inodes available is fixed when the filesystem is created, giving a maximum number of files the file system can hold. Typically when a file system is created about 1% of it is devoted to inodes.

The term inode usually refers to inodes on block devices that manage regular files, directories, and possibly symbolic links. The concept is particularly important to the recovery of damaged file systems.

In layman’s term:

Every time a file is created or uploaded on a server, an inode is created. Simply say, inode is the count of the files on your web hosting account.

Inodes and web hosting offer

You might see unlimited hosting services offered everywhere but what you didn’t notice is that all these offers comes with protective clauses that stand against the hosting users.

Limitation on inodes for instance is a good example of these clauses.

In order to control server usage, inodes are often limited by web hosting providers. Generally a good web host will offer up to hundreds of thousand inodes limits (which is more than enough) but there are terrible hosting companies that suspend their customer account at 40,000 inodes. These lousy web host must be avoided at all cost as their ‘unlimited offer’ is nothing more than marketing lies to trap shoppers.

Inodes limitation at reputable web host

As said, inodes limitation is an abandon topic that you can hardly get hosting company talked about it. Hostgator is so far the only web host I knew that revealed their inodes limitation.

Bluehost mentioned about account suspension for overused CPU quota (but not inodes); Lunarpages talked about inodes count on their wikipage but nothing specific are mentioned; while for others, I can’t really find anything mentioned.

How many inodes you can get with Hostgator hosting?

For Baby Croc hosting plan, I get 250,000 inodes at Hostgator. The hosting company also reveals further that if inodes in your account exceed 50,000, then only your databases will be backed up on our weekly backup schedule. Static files will not get backed up.

In case you wonder, the inodes limitation is stated at the front page of your Hostgator cPanel. Scroll down a little and you’ll see a bar (as shown the small image above). Clicking on the ‘View Inode Distribution’ shows further on your account inodes usage (categorized based on directory, refer image below).

Further readings on Hostgator’s file storage limitation, check out this blogpost at Review Hostgator.

What does this means to web hosting shoppers?

Basically 250,000 inodes is a pretty more than enough to normal usage. FYI my Hostgator account (which I host 5 sites on it) consumes 15,476 inodes at this time of writing and the rest of 90%+ capacity remained unused for years.

To be frank, unless you plan to run a buggy scripts or a spammy programs you shouldn’t worry too much about inodes at Hostgator. The notification about inodes, in fact, is a good sign showing that Hostgator is the very few who’re willing do hosting business in honest way. With such transparency, I’m convinced that the company will honor their commitments and will ensure their customer gets exactly what they paid for.

Many of you may say yes, but a deep analysis won’t recommend everyone to set up their blog on unique domain. This is not a shallow overview, but has some sound reasons. Let’s add some pros and cons to the discussion, so that you can figure out the best choice for you, i.e. a free blog or one at your own domain.

Is having your own domain financial wise?

Cost is the major factor differentiating both, i.e. free blog sites and own domain. The cost may not involve the monetary investment, but also time, as you’ll need to maintain the backend of your blog in case of own domain, that’s maintained by the site admins on sites like Wordpress and Blogger.

Maintenance A blog on third party platform is theoretically maintenance-free; while on the other hand you need to spend extra time in maintaining a blog with its own hosting.

Better monetization and branding the biggest advantage of having a blog on its own domain. Since you can customize it in any way, you can monetize it in many different and better ways. On the other hand the monetization options on free sites are either not present or are very limited – especially when your URL looks long and ugly, something like: myblog.blogspot.com.

Ownership: Experts call free blogs ‘rented houses’ while own domain is a ‘real estate’ for them, reason being the ownership rights. On established sites like Blogger and Wordpress, this may not be the issue, but on small sites, if the sites get shut down you’ll also have great chances to lose your blog.

From above few factors one can easily figure out if he should go for a unique domain for blog or not. To make it clearer let’s conclude some options out of the above discussion:

When A Unique Domain For Your Blog Is A Must?

• You want to start a blog for earning.
• Your blog is on a free site and has good traffic and you want to use that traffic for better monetization.
• You want to give value to your readers by adding more and more features.

When To Rely On Free Blogging Sites?

• Monetization is not the prime concern.
• You don’t want to take the pain of back end management of your blog
• You don’t have time for the back end management.

Wrapping things up

There’s no offense in having a blog on free site, but only if it’s according to your requirements. There’re famous bloggers like why some famous bloggers like Seth Godin who do not host their blog on an independent domain.

So, identify your requirements and proceed accordingly.

By the way, hosting your blog on your own hosting account is really cheap. For instant, you can get a free domain name with Lunarpages and get unlimited bandwidth/disk storage for just $4.95/mo - which is relative cheap when you compare to daily expenses on food or entertainment.

For the ease of review, here are the hosting plan details for some of the well known hosting companies:

Web Hosting	Disk Storage	Bandwidth	Price	Free domain?
1-and-1	250 GB	2,500 GB	$9.99	Yes
BlueHost	Unlimited	Unlimited	$6.95	Yes
HostMonster	Unlimited	Unlimited	$6.95	Yes
Hostgator	350 GB	3,500 GB	$4.95	Yes
HostRocket	1,000 GB	Unlimited	$5.95	Yes
LunarPages	Unlimited	Unlimited	$4.95	Yes
Web Hosting Pad	Unlimited	Unlimited	$3.96	Yes
Dot 5 Hosting	Unlimited	Unlimited	$3.95	Yes
iPower	1,500 GB	15,000 GB	$7.95	Yes
Fat Cow	1,500 GB	15,000 GB	$7.33	No
Pow Web	Unlimited	Unlimited	$3.88	Yes
AN Hosting	500 GB	5,000 GB	$6.95	Yes
Eleven2	60GB	600GB	$6.00	No
IX Hosting	Unlimited	Unlimited	$12.95	Yes

: Recommended Web Hosting.

We were talking about SimpleScripts earlier. Well here’s another post on automated script installer - Fantastico (how can I miss them!).

As you might already knew, Fantastico is a well known name for automated script installer.

The web application is developed by NetenBerg and is so widely used that more than half of the hosting companies I knew have Fantastico included in their shared hosting plan. The auto installer script can be only executed from hosting control panel like cPanel and Plesk.

Scipts in Fantastico

Although Fantastico is typically associated with open-source software, a handful of scripts are also available that install commercial products. Once installed, these are available to all of the domains hosted by a physical server; such as web site builder SohoLaunch, PerlDesk customer support software, and AccountLab Plus software for interacting with Internet registrars.

There are more than 50 applications that have Fantastico scripts associated with them, have a look below.

Who’s offering Fantastico?

Who’s offering Fantastico in their hosting plan? The answer can be very long: Hosting companies like Bluehost, Hostmonster, Hostgator, Lunarpages, WebHostingPad, and ExaBytes are all offering Fantastico. In fact at the time of writing, Fantastico’s officials claims that the auto-install scripts services are installed on ten thousand servers, with a million users worldwide, which would make it the leading product of its type.

Well, without any delay, here goes the list.

1. Dot Easy

DotEasy started in 2000 and they are among the first that comes up with $0 Hosting plan. They are hosting over 160,000 domains at the time of writing.

A point worth noting is that, DotEasy.com is the only free hosting I ever tried and I find them pretty good - do pay extra attention on them if you’re serious about getting something for nothing.

What you get with DotEasy?

Free web hosting with 100MB storage and 1GB bandwidth.

Unlike most other free hosting, DotEasy doesn’t force banner ads on the websites hosted free with them. Also, they allow FTP access, domain forwarding, provide free blog/forum/gallery/web form features, support video/audio streaming.

Visit DotEasy online.

2. Agility Hoster

AgilityHoster’s website seems a bit crappy but their free hosting plan is not bad. The free 5GB bandwidth, 200MB disk storage, and 2 addon domains are kinda good.

Visit AgilityHoster online.

3. Free Hostia

FreeHostia’s free hosting plan is generous. You’ll get 250MB storage, 5GB bandwidth, and 2 addon domains on an add-free free hosting account.

Visit FreeHostia online.

4. Zymic

If FreeHostia’s hosting plan is generous, then Zymic’s plan is crazy! They offer 5GB disk storage and 50GB bandwidth to all of their users. Plus, the free hosting plan comes along with various valuable features such like MySQL database and WebStats.

Visit Zymic online.

5. Mister

Mister free hosting plan offers 250 MB storage and 5GB bandwidth. Users also get to create unlimited POP3 email accounts, access to CGI Bin, host PHP site, as well as using the Server Side Includes features. Oh ya, did I tell you that Mister’s website is so nicely designed?

Visit Mister online.

Wrapping things up: Is free web hosting recommended?

So you wish to know what I think about free hosting… Honestly?

To me, free web hosting does not sound like a good choice - especially if you are serious in developing a good website.

I can name a dozen of disadvantages that come along with these free web hosts - lack of securities, domain ownership problem, server reliability, hosting management ethic issues… there’s so much possibility for a free web host to screw up thus it doesn’t look like a good deal to me even though it’s free.

A free web host, however, benefits beginners who wish to test their skills cost-free and for those with little or no budget (students, for example) at all. Free hosting solutions work perfectly well when it is meant for training or testing purpose. There aren’t much free hosting services around that offer comprehensive hosting features but listed below are some of the better ones I knew.

I’m happy with Fantastico, why SimpleScripts?

Yes indeed, why switch? Frankly, I don’t see any huge plus points with SimpleScipts. While the officials are claiming that they offer better ‘versioning services’ (updating the scripts version) but there is in fact not much difference I observed. However for the geeks who like testing new stuffs, here’re the reasons why you should try SimpleScripts.

Better scripts variety

I used to work long hours learning and installing MODx CMS to my hosting - not now anymore with SimpleScripts. In this open-source era, there are just way too many free scripts around the Internet and it can’t be covered all by Fantastico. The rise of SimpleScripts allow us to have better varieties in CMS and forum scripts (MODx, DadaMail, and Magneto for example are included in SimpleScripts but not Fantastico).

Branding

If you’re running your own hosting company, SimpleScripts help you to stand out from other hosting companies as there are still (*notice ’still’ - I expect SimpleScipts to be widely used as Fantastico) not much web hosts offering the service. Also, SimpleScripts offers branding options to avoid customer confusion. Your logo, your colors, and a customizable return link allow a high level of customization available only through SimpleScripts.

Expandable

From the view point of hosting provider, SimpleScripts offers better flexibility and reliability. Applications and features are constantly being added to improve your customer’s experience.

List of applications in SimpleScipts

Here’s the full list of what you can get with SimpleScripts.

Where can I get SimpleScipts?

As said, SimpleScipts is not included in most hosting plan. From what I know at the time of writing, Bluehost and Hostmonster are the only two that have SimpleScipts installed.

Nevertheless, I expect the applications will be soon widely used. In case you’re a web host and offer SimpleScipts in your hosting plan, kindly leave your message below - I’m sure my readers will like to learn about your services.

Know what’s the worst advice for web hosting shoppers? This one:

“Never pay hosting fees upfront”

I had been reading the line again and again in hosting articles or blogs or even expert’s tips. I was so used to the line that I suspect myself wrote the same thing when writing shopping tips on web hosting.

“Don’t pay your hosting fees upfront!” “Signup and test your hosting on month-by-month basis to protect your money in case something with the hosting goes drastically wrong.” “Never subscribe more than 3 months on an unfamiliar web hosting.” I’m sure you heard as much of similar advice as I do.

Now “Don’t pay fees upfront” might be a good advice to protect yourself from scammers; this advice, however, does not fit for all hosting. Instead, if you’re signing up with a trustworthy web host, not paying hosting fees upfront will actually cause you losing more money!

(seriously, people who gave the advice probably didn’t read the hosting company’s refund policy well.)

Why paying web hosting fees upfront is beneficial?

Let’s do some calculation with Bluehost as our example. We’ll split into two scenario: customer A signing up on a short term 3 months plan; and another customer B signing up on a 24 months plan.

How much to pay (and refund) for a Bluehost 3 months plan

Here are the basic cost for 3 months hosting account at Bluehost (assuming new domain registration).

• Setup fees: $30 (one time)
• Domain registration: $10 (one time)
• Hosting fees: $9.95/mo x 3 = $29.85
• Total spending for 3 months = $69.85.
• Total spending for 24 months = $69.85 + ($9.95 x 18) = $248.95

Now say that for some reason the customer doesn’t like the service in Bluehost and he/she asks for a refund within the first 30 days. The money back into customer’s pocket is the money spent on hosting ($9.95 x 3 = $29.85), setup fees and domain registration is non refundable.

Total loses = $40.

On another scenario, say that the customer asks for the refund after trial period, example: day 31. Based on Bluehost’s pro-rated refund policy (yes, you can refund even after the trial period), his/her refund amount will be $9.95 x 2 = $19.9.

Total loses = $49.95.

How much to pay (and refund) for a Bluehost 24 months plan

Now if the customer is going with the long term subscription, here’re the basic cost.

• Setup fees: Free
• Domain registration: Free
• Hosting fees: $7.95/mo x 24 = $190.80
• Total spending for 24 months = $190.80

The dollars customer pays upfront for a 24 months plan at Bluehost will be $190.80.

For refund within the trial period (30 days), the amount refunded is $180.80 ($7.95 x 24 - $10 domain registration).

Total loses = $10.

On the other hand, if the refund is filed after trial period, again say it’s day 31 after subscription, the amount back into customer’s pocket will be $172.85 (7.95 x 23 - $10 domain registration).

Total loses = $17.95.

Difference between paying fees up front and not paying upfront

Summarizing the situation, here’re the differences between customer A (who do not pay upfront) with customer B (who pay upfront).

Refund within the trial period

• Customer A’s loses: $40
• Customer B’s loses: $10
• Difference: Customer A lost extra $30.

Refund after the trial period

• Customer A’s loses: $49.95
• Customer B’s loses: $17.95
• Difference: Customer A lost extra $30.

Full subscription without refund

• Customer A’s hosting cost: $248.95
• Customer B’s hosting cost: $190.80
• Difference: Customer A pays extra $58.15

So which plan cost you more?

Bottom line: Not paying hosting fees upfront is not smarter!

If you follow me until here, you should learned that not paying your hosting fees upfront might not be the smart move always. The “don’t pay fees upfront’ advice simply doesn’t fit for all hosting companies. To stay informed, we, as customers, will always need to be clear with the company’s refund policy.

On the other hand, note that my example assume the hosting company we’re dealing with is trustworthy and honor their refund policy. I’m not suggesting you to pay hosting fees upfront with all sort of hosting companies. But for certain web hosts with good reputation, like Bluehost and Hostgator, paying your hosting fees upfront is actually the smart move to go with.

Picking up a good domain name for business is never an easy job.

First you need to be creative enough to come up with something brandable; secondly, with the SEO and marketing factor kick in, your domain name has to be business relevant; and last but not least, even you have passed thru the first two stages, you’ll still have the world to compete with - your specially-crafted domain name might be registered by someone else!

Quick tips for domain name searchers

So, in case you’re troubled by words and undecided for a domain names, here are the tips you might find handy.

• Name your website using your association name. Example: Sony.com, DishNetwork.com, and HushPuppies.com.
• Generic names are cool but most of them are reserved by domain registrant. So unless you have a fat wallet and willing to spend thousands for just a domain name, you can forget about registering single word (or phrases) as your domain name. Example: HostingServiceWeb.com in GoDaddy’s stock cost $2,088 at the time of writing.
• Avoid hyphenated domain names. They look spammy most of the time in Search Engine’s eyes and hard to be remembered by users.
• Consider varies TLDs when the “.com” and “.net” if your desired domain names are taken. Example: WebHostingSecretRevealed.com is taken; try WebHostingSecretRevealed.biz.
• Both short and long domain names have their pros and cons. Short domains are easier to remember and easier to be ‘branded’; long domain names on the other hand may consist of more keywords. Search engines will use the keywords of a domain as part of their ranking factor -thus benefiting keyword-riched long domain names.
• Using domain name tools help sometimes - try MakeWords, Dot-o-mator, and NameBoy.
• Think ‘FUN’ and think outside the box. Sometimes, your sense of humor is your best friend when if comes to picking up the right domain name - remember D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y.com?

Well, choosing a domain may not be as simple as perceived but it doesn’t have to be such a grueling challenge either. I hope things are easier when you apply tips above.

Search for an domain name

To check wether if your desired domain name is already taken, try search:

.com.net .org .info biz. .us .mobi .tv .ws .name .cc .de .jp .be .at .co.uk .me.uk .org.uk .co.nz .net.nz .org.nz .cn .com.cn .org.cn .net.cn .tw .com.tw .org.tw .idv.tw .jobs .eu .fm .ms .nu .tc .tk .vg

My recent experience with Bluehost brought mix feelings.

On one hand, I remain satisfied with the kind of service I am getting from these two hosting companies (under the same management) – hosting server is all the time stable and responsive; on the other hand, the company’s over-sensitive scam alert is upsetting.

What happened?

A few weeks back, I bought another Bluehost hosting account for my blog contest winner. The registration process was first smooth and easy; I was able to login to the hosting cPanel immediately after the purchase. However problem comes not long after – the new hosting account is suspended due to “suspicious information abuse”.

It seems like the Verification Department is over-reacting again! Having past experience with Hostmonster (another hosting company under the same management with Bluehost), I quickly shoot a ticket to the customer supports to rectify the problem. Copies of ID card and PayPal info is submitted for verification.

Long story short, the new Bluehost account is live again 48 hours later.

The good and bad with a sensitive scam alert

The bad

It feels terrible to pay for your hosting account and get suspended (twice! Once with Hostmonster and now with Bluehost) the next hour. I suspect the Verification Department has really bad experience with registrations on Asia address. Although I can get my account back very soon but as a customer I just feel not treated right.

And hey, Bluehost was’t paying back the day I have lost due to their mistakes - don’t you think that’s unfair for the customer?

The good

However on a second thought, what Bluehost/Hostmonster did was actually a positive sign for a hosting company. It shows that the company is fighting scams and taking their business seriously. The scam alert and verification process, though troublesome, is actually a good way to avoid bad neighbor and spammy websites on my shared hosting.

Will this affect my recommendation on Bluehost?

Well, the answer is no. I wish accuracy of the Verification Department to be improved but no, it’s not a 100% bad thing to govern customers closely. Internet is a large world and there are always unethical clients who can’t wait to abuse their rights. Such strict supervision, in fact, is necessary for the safety for all.

After all, Bluehost is still one of the cheapest hosting services that offer reliable and features-riched shared hosting service. For less than $8 per month perhaps I guess I shouldn’t complaint too much.

In case you are considering Bluehost, find detail Bluehost features review and latest promotion here.

We often hear people complaining web hosting (insert hostname here) sucks but the statement is never backed by quantitative facts and numbers.

Not now anymore.

For all the geeks that can’t resist pouring numbers to every aspect of life, here’s an interesting way to check does your web hosting suck or not:

1. Open an Excel sheet for data processing.
2. Google ‘X-hosting rocks’ and record down the number of results returned, say figure ‘A’.
3. Google ‘X-hosting sucks’ and record down the number of results returned, say figure ‘B’.
4. Divide figure ‘B’ (the number of X-hosting sucks) by the sum of figure A and B.
5. The answer of the equation in (4) is the “Suckage Ratio”- the lower the number, the better the hosting company you’re reviewing.

Example: Calculating the suckage ratio for Bluehost

Take Bluehost for example, when search for the term ‘Bluehost Rocks‘, we get result of 122,000; when search for ‘Bluehost sucks‘, we get 23,200 results. The suckage ratio, thus is equal to 23,200/(23,200 + 122,000) = 0.066 = 6.6%.

The number itself does not convey any meaningful information. However when compare with bunch of other web hosting suckage ratio - it tends to work as a benchmark system to decide whether Bluehost is worth trying or not.

Make sense, huh? This interesting rating method is introduced by Hosting That Sucks where web hosts are rated mainly based on the suckage ratio.

The rating methodology is a good (and creative) way of numerical based analysis, which sometimes is better than review based on personal likes and dislikes.

Modified Web Hosting Suckage Ratio

But you see, the Suckage Ratio can be improved if we implement a little searching trick with Google. What Nor (owner of Hosting That Sucks) used was the search results of ‘X-hosting sucks’ and ‘X-hosting rocks’ where the search term itself can be misleading. A document with just the word ’sucks’ or ‘X-hosting’ (any host name) might appears in Google’s search result page, which in turn skew the accuracy of our calculation outcome. The twist, is to search with the quotes (”" - something like this) and to divide the number with the popularity of the host name (result returned when we search with the hostname).

The twisted suckage ratio calculation, therefore, is:

The number of Google results in ‘ quoted X-hosting sucks’ divide by the number of Google results in ‘X-hosting’.

Confused? Don’t be. The concept is pretty simple when example is given. Let’s take my other favorite for example - Hostgator. Google “Hostgator Sucks” (with quotes) return 1,650 results; ‘Hostgator’ (without quotes) on the other hand return 2,510,000 results. Thus the twisted suckage ratio = 1,650/2,510,000 x 100% = 0.07%.

Web Hosting Recommendation based on Suckage Ratio

To make this post meaningful, I had calculated Suckage Ratio for some of the major hosting and here are my results. (The lower the suckage ratio the better.)

To my surprise, it’s Dot5 Hosting that comes up top in the result (I was expecting Hostgator instead). Dot5 is the hosting with least results in ‘Hostname sucks’, in other words - sucks the least.

Is Suckage Ratio reliable?

Well as said, suckage ratio is just a good numerical way to rate and compare web hosting services. As the formula is rather over-simplified and the input numbers are based on Google’s search index, the rating is nothing better than just a references.

Personally I think it’s just some-what-accountable and wouldn’t take the numbers for too serious.

But then again, it’s fun calculating and seeing the results don’t you think? People always say this and that sucks but they have no hard numbers to support their statement. Well not with web hosting now, you can act nerd say “PowWeb Sucks” and it has a 0.09% suckage score!

So does your web hosting service suck? I’m more than happy to read your input.

(Side note: Dot5 Hosting is chosen as the Best Budget Hosting 2008. Or to learn more about Dot5, click here to visit Dot5 official website.)

I have yet to tried on the function myself but according to the officials, exported data files are in Atom XML format, which will open up new blogging channels between providers. Right now there’s still no specified platform (say exporting Blogger blogs to WordPress) being served but I suspect the function will be coming up very very soon. (Uh, that means I’ll need to re-write my blog transfer guides soon!)

As mentioned in Google’s latest buzz release, this Blogger Import/Export function comes handy when you need to migrate your blog from one to the other. The feature is also most welcomed by bloggers who wish to backup or merge their Blogger blogs. The function seems pretty easy to use but in case you need guides, Google’s help file is the answer: How do I import and export blogs on Blogger?.

For those who’re wish not to use a free blog provider, consider getting a budget hosting for your blog! Hosting nowadays is unbelievably cheap and easy to be maintained. To get started, I suggest readings on my Web Hosting Reviews.

Google Adwords is one of the most cost effective internet marketing tools, but many people don’t think so. Is it really not so? If it isn’t so then, why a large number of advertisers are using it? Definitely it’s very cost effective, but the success depends entirely on the strategy of the person who’s running it. Here’re few tips that can help having better results in an Adword Campaign:

Keyword Research

It’s the first and most important factor, right choice of keywords will bring the right/targeted customers to you, and all this needs a careful research. Do consider Adword’s suggestion tool and Wordtracker, but don’t rely on them.

Start With Small Budget

Starting with a high budget will be a mere loss, instead test many different strategies in small slots with small budget, and allocate more budget to the best performing campaign.

Improve Ad Quality

Keyword alone doesn’t perform well if the Ad Copy is not good, i.e. having targeted keywords will ensure that your ad is being shown in relevant searches, but it doesn’t ensure that people will click it. People click an ad only when it stats what they were searching, so the Ad copy should be in accordance with the targeted keywords and must contain keywords in it.

Test Different Positions And Ads

Even if you’ve run a successful campaign earlier, you can’t say that same strategy will work for another product, so keep on trying new and innovative strategies. Testing gives the best feedback and hence improvement.

Don’t Expect Success At First Instance

Of course, you need time to test different things, compare and analyze them and continue the best one. The best will not be achieved at first instance, so along with strategic movement be patient.

Can you believe there are over 9 millions of hosting reviews stored in Google’s index? I hope you are referring to the right ones.

Outsiders like you and me might not notice big differences before and after the upgrades but this project, according to Brent (founder of Hostgator) himself is desperately needed as current system is seriously lack of automation and inefficient. The folks at Hostgator are reported using ModernBill for billing, Kayako for tickets, LivePerson for chat, and a hacked up version of ultimate for affiliates (I was like “wow, that’s lots of variation for a big company like Hostgator!” when I first knew this).

Introducing Hostgator’s new ticket system

If you ever login to Hostgator’s ticket system lately you should notice the changes as they are now running on a new interface. The new design is better in term of user friendly and looks more professional.

On top of its better outlook, the ticket system comes with a new functions where users get to rate the responses you get from Hostgator customer support team.

Hostgator ticket system control panel

For those who’re not with Hostgator, here’s a quick view on the new ticket system homepage:

What does this mean for Hostgator users?

So despite all the hoo-haa of the upgrades and back to the key question: What do all these upgrading works meant for us?

Well first, it shows that the company’s will to improve and advance in the business. In other words, it shows that the company is serious about their business, thus is more ‘trust-able’ compare to other third-class reseller hosting companies.

The upgrades, according to Brent, will result in millions a year in savings and at least a 30% increase to staff productivity. If what the founder said is accurate then we can expect Hostgator’s customer support will be much better than what we are having now (which is already top of its class in my opinion).

So, as long as the price of Hostgator remain the same, upgrades and improvement are always welcomed. I remain my rating with Hostgator and would definitely recommend them if you’re looking for a reliable web hosting service.

Side note: This article is just an update on web host covered in W.H.S.R., to learn further in detail, read my Hostgator Review. Alternatively, you can visit Hosgator official website online to check out their service by your own.

Uhhhm okay, maybe it’s not you but I’m always curious about who’s hosting who. I often spending long hours searching for website’s host - just out of curiosity. The hard way of doing this would be searching a site’s whois and if I’m lucky (that the site’s info is not privated) I’ll get what I want (the web host) pretty soon.

Who is hosting this?

The easy way? Use WhoIsHostingThis.

Launched in summer 2007 by two web developers in Zagreb, Gordan Orlic and Stan Sredl and was bought over by London-based Quality Nonsense Ltd in August 2008, WhoIsHostingThis is a webmaster tool that lets you discover which web host a website uses. Simply keyin any website address into the search box and hit enter, the tool will return with the result of the website IP, web host, name servers, and a brief profile of the website.

Example: Check out who is hosting W.H.S.R.?

Sidenote: Hey if you got the name of web host hosting the website that you like a lot, why not let me know about it so that I can test and list it in my hosting reviews? I can be reached at jerry [a] webhostingsecretrevealed.com

As you guys might be aware, I’m recommending several web hosts here in W.H.S.R. Bluehost, Hostgator, Lunarpages, as well as FatCow Hosting are all rated an ‘A’; and Dot5 is awarded as Best Budget Hosting.

(You can visit these hosting online here: Bluehost, Hostgator, Lunarpages, FatCow, Dot5 Hosting).

Now what if you’re suppose to pick just one host? What if you need just one recommendation instead of five - who should you go with?

The problem, apparently, fell on my blind side. You see when I started this website, all I knew is to signup new hosting account, test and review them, I had never thought about picking up the best recommendation.

So honestly, I don’t know the answer. But what I can offer here in this blogpost is a fair comparison between my favorite web hosts and hopefully, it can help make your decision easier. For those who emailed me, thanks for pointing out the issue - I hope this article answer your question.

The A list: Bluehost vs Hostgator vs Lunarpages vs FatCow

Generally, I find all four of hosting listed above remarkable.

Basic Hosting Features

All four hosting companies offer reliable hosting services in affordable price, provide responsive customer supports, plus offer a wide range of hosting features. The differences of hosting features and pricing among these top rated hosting are minimum - as you can see from table below, users of any one of Bluehost, Lunarpages, Hostgator, or FatCow get unlimited hosting capacity. Also without any question, web servers are working around the clock, all four of them achieved respectable uptime in my record.

Business Reach

In term of popularity and global reach, Bluehost and Hostgator are far in front, with Lunarpages falling third and leaving FatCow at last. I am not surprise about the trends as Bluehost had been in the business for long and their affiliate program is the most aggressive among all.

A quick check on Attention Meter verified the statement. From the graph, you can clearly see that Bluehost and Hostgator average around 500K - 700K unique visitors monthly; while Lunarpages 200K and FatCow 100K.

Blogger’s preferences

The same trend is observed from the blogsphere as Bluehost and Hostgator are listed top in term of Technorati’s measure. While the more you’re mentioned by bloggers doesn’t mean that you’re better; the statistic nevertheless indicates that both Bluehost and Hostgator have the wider reach in hosting business.

Reputation

I wouldn’t lie to you - all four host received complaints all the time. Logically speaking, when you’re doing international business and dealing with hundreds of thousands of clients, it’s impossible to please every single of them - thus I wouldn’t care too much about unreasonable rantings and complaints.

It is worth noting, however, that I see increasingly amount of complaints on Bluehost (mainly in server speeds and customer response time) - was that a sign of good host turned bad? I’ll leave it for you to answer. But all in all, I find all four hosting companies dependable and I’m willing to write a 300 words positive testimonial for them anytime.

What about Dot5 Hosting?

It’s tough not to mention Dot5 when it comes to cheap hosting. Their unlimited hosting plan cost just $3.96 per month. On top of that, Dot5 clients are given free domain name for life and all new customers are entitled of a 90 days trial period (the longest trial period I knew).

Without doubt, Dot5 Hosting is the cheapest - thus the awarded as the Best Budget Web Hosting. In case you wonder, here’s a quick look on Dot5 Hosting features:

What’s up with FatCow?

Yeah, what’s up with FatCow hosting? I often receive comment about recommending FatCow, like “Why are you recommending FatCow?” “FatCow? I don’t hear about the name often!” “FatCow never appears on [enter name of hosting review sites]“…

The right question to ask is: Why not FatCow? Over the years I can’t explain why FatCow isn’t promoted by other webmasters or bloggers (maybe their affiliate program isn’t attractive enough). But personally, I find their service very good. I don’t read much complaints on FatCow services, their price is reasonable ($6.5/mo), and they just upgraded their hosting plan to unlimited (great savings!).

So why not FatCow? (Read detail review on FatCow)

Conclusion: Who should you go with?

Wrapping things up and back to our initial question: Who should you go with if you can only choose one: Bluehost, Hostgator, FatCow, Lunarpages, or Dot5? Apparently there’s no one answer fit all in this situation. If I’m forced to choose just one, I would have go with Hostgator… or FatCow. But that’s irrelevant with the other’s service quality - it’s just because I’m attracted to the company’s image (something to do with the mascot perhaps? I don’t know).

So how about you? Who’s your favorite hosting if you can only choose one? Cast your vote, I’ll leave the poll results for further discussion in the future.

Vote for your favorite web hosting here.