hosting company?

[kaigou]

Does anyone here have Hostgator (or know someone who does)? What's your take on it? Worth recommending? or not?

Comments

[majoline]

I've never even heard of them, so I couldn't tell you if they're good or not.

But Dreamhost would be my rec for a website http://dreamhost.com/

[kaigou]

whoa! free for NFPs, jackpot -- thank you for the rec!!

[majoline]

You're welcome! :D

[miffy_sees]

I used them a couple of years ago. No complaints.

But if I was making a website right now, I would definitely use A Small Orange instead. They have super-small packages for people who get like 10 visits to their site a year (and my site would probably only get that many!).

[kaigou]

This client doesn't qualify -- I think they maxed out at about 2 million hits in a twenty-four hour period last year, so... not exactly small potatoes!

[miffy_sees]

Gotcha! :) Well, my hostgator site didn't attract too many visits either, so definitely I can't say how well Host Gator will handle large requests.

Oh, and I am thinking about making a personal website to establish my 'brand.' I can understand css and html but have never made a website before. Would you recommend using a basic Wordpress or Joomla template to get started? Is Dreamweaver something useful to purchase/use as well once I get bored with having a basic website template?

[kaigou]

I can't speak for Dreamweaver at all, to be honest. I know some folks who use it and seem to like it, but I was burned by Frontpage, so I handcode. That said, there are lots and lots and LOTS of wordpress templates out there, for free, so if you got bored, there's always a million more waiting in the wings. I also recommend WP over Joomla, any day -- Joomla and its evil brother Drupal are definitely more for the advanced user. Wordpress is considerably more friendly when it comes to setup, theme application, usage, and even tweaking. Way more friendly, to the point I've used it as a design guideline for other applications.

I'd suggest going through the bazillion free wordpress themes, finding something you like in terms of general layout/style, and tweaking the sidebars to include/exclude what you want/need. Look for a template that lets you modify things to suit you (header image, background, footer) -- a lot of the templates (like Yoko, for a solid mobile-friendly design) will walk you through those tweaks step-by-step so you don't have to know code. There's a whole lot you can do with WP without knowing code!

[miffy_sees]

Thanks for this great advice! I am so excited to have a personal website! :) I plan on using it to establish my "brand" and make it easier for recruiters when they google me to find good things. >.>; :)

[chibidrunksanzo]

I like BlueHost a lot. Been with them for years and no issues, plus they have user-friendly installs of many basic web... dohickeys (shut up, brain no worky), like various blog and e-commerce software. Of course, one of my brothers is a supervisor tech support guy for them, so if I have any real issues I have an in. Still, I haven't had any issues yet.