Hosting for Web Developer

Question: Something under ten dollars a month with great service, no downtime, and has:

PHP support
Perl support
Python support (All of which update somewhat frequently)
LAMP package with access to PhpMyAdmin
“unlimited” bandwidth
And a free domain

Don’t say iPage

Answer:

I would say BlueHost is.  I’ve seen a lot of web developers recommend it.  It’s got everything you mentioned in the cPanel control panel.  Here are a few more things that other cPanel hosts don’t have like:

• File Count to monitor the number of files on your account.  Most host have an inode limit, but give you no way to see how many files you have.
• PostgreSQL, the world’s most advanced open source object-relational database system.
• CPU Throttling monitor.  Let’s you know if your account is being throttled due to poor running scripts.  If so, then go check your error log to see what the problem is and fix it.
• SimpleScripts.  Software installer like Fantastico, but with more stuff.

You can get a free domain name at BH, but I would advise against that.  I have nothing against BH, but just the practice of giving away domain names in general.  Why?  Because you won’t own the name, they will.  You’ll have no control over it and if you request to have it transferred to you, of course, you have to pay for it, but you’ll also be stuck with the registrar they use and if you want to transfer to a cheaper one, that will be another fee.  If you value your domain name, save yourself a lot of headaches and always register your own domain name.  I use NameCheap.