Discount hosting – cloud or traditional?

Cloud computing and cloud-based web hosts are all the rage these days, but how exactly does it stack up against more traditional hosting services? If you’re wondering which hosting solutions is the best for your website – and your budget – read on!

What is hosting?

At the most basic level, a web host is just another computer system that is connected to the internet. Specifically, the computer is set up to acknowledge and respond to requests on port 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS).

The more powerful the host computer is, the faster your website will load. More complex websites and scripts may require even more resources, and of course, a high number of visitors can also slow things down. Imagine how slow your home computer gets when you try to open five files at once. Now imagine 100 web visitors are all trying to open five files at once, each!

Cloud Advantages

Where the cloud advances beyond traditional hosting is with redundancy and scale. Most hosts are a single machine at a single location, but cloud computing uses multiple data centers. If there are a hundred users each asking for five files, they may end up receiving their requests from ten different data centers. This can also reduce lag related to geolocation – if a user in India tries to request a website hosted in Texas, they’re probably going to have to wait a few moments while the info transfers across the net.

Cloud Disadvantages

There are a few additional technical details to consider when setting up a cloud hosting account, but the real downside is the extra cost. A single data center will always be cheaper to manage than a dozen, so even for the same computing power, the distributed nature of the cloud will almost always end up costing more.

Do you need that extra power and accessibility?

For busy websites and sites with CPU intensive programming, the cloud might be the way to go. But if your sites are already optimized, quick to load, and hosted near your geolocation targets, the cloud might just be an extra expense you don’t need.

Looking for other hosting coupons, discounts, and saving ideas?

Our latest list of 2020 hosting coupons has been updated and reviewed to ensure the best discounts are available. Whether you settle on a traditional web host with a shared, VPS, or dedicated plan, or whether you jump about the cloud bandwagon, there are always way to save a few bucks on the monthly hosting bills!

Hosting Coupons – 2020 Update

It’s not just a new year – it’s a whole new decade!

We’re cleaning up, taking inventory, and making sure all of our hosting coupons are updated for 2020. We know that discounts from ten years ago aren’t necessarily going to help you today, so we’re digging through the archives and dusting off those old links until they all work again.

Here’s the current status of the project based on which web hosts have confirmed coupons or not:

Confirmed Hosting Coupons

Inactive Hosting Coupons

  • Anhosting
  • Midphase

Beyond Price: Evaluating Website Hosts

Price matters a lot when shopping, but it isn’t the only factor to consider when selecting a hosting provider for your websites.

A good website host should be both fast and reliable. Ideally, your websites should load instantly 24/7/365. Any downtime should be refunded, but it really shouldn’t be an issue in the first place. A web host’s job is to keep their servers online and accessible through the public internet, so if they’re not holding up that end of the bargain they’re not really providing the service they’re charging you for!

Dreamhost and Hostgator stack up well for beginners to web publishing. They aren’t the fastest or the most customizable hosts around, but they are extremely reliable and friendly to new users and veterans alike. Simplified control panels and administrative tools allow people without too much technical knowledge to get started building websites right away.

If and when you start looking for something at a professional level of speed and access, they might not be the best hosts available. Most corporate level websites tend to look toward cloud based hosting services – or at the very least, setting up their own Linux or Windows stack (depending on what’s needed for the specific web application).

Why do web hosts offer coupons?

Well, it’s marketing! There are a lot of web hosting providers out there and they all want to be the one to earn your business. Moving an already established site is a complex task that takes time as well as technical knowledge about server administration, so the companies figure that a new customer is likely to stick around for a while – especially if they’ve made running the site relatively easy and painless.

So web hosts with high customer satisfaction also tend to offer very large coupons and promo codes for new customers. This allows them to compete aggressively on prices while also charging enough – in the long run – to provide a high quality service.

Alternatives to Web Hosting

Ready to publish your first website online? Just not ready to pay for it?

There are options available beyond paid web hosting.

A popular choice is to sign up with free blogging sites like Blogspot and WordPress and Tumblr. These sites allow you to set up a subdomain with your own website and you can start posting away! The biggest advantages are financial and technical: you don’t need to set anything up and you don’t have to pay for anything, either. The downside is that you’ll ultimately have less control over your site, the types of content it can display, and how you can monetize the traffic.

The other option is to set up your own web hosting server at home – but that’s quite an involved project to save $5 or $10 a month! This usually isn’t recommended unless you’re setting up a smart home with remote controls or if computer networking is literally your favorite hobby. It will usually require at least two dedicated computers as well: one for the DNS server and one for the web host. Always check with your ISP’s rules and regulations before jumping in, as many won’t allow you to set up public-facing hosts on your private internet connection.

Shared Hosting is Usually Just Right

If you’re not sure what kind of web hosting you need to get started, there’s a good chance shared hosting is right in that perfect spot. You’ll get most of the control and access that a more complex plan offers, but you’ll have an easier start and lower monthly budget to worry about. There are also a lot of server management interfaces and control panels that greatly assist in installing and managing domains, web files, and content management software.

Don’t let another decade pass you by, start publishing today!

Dreamhost coupon

When you are shopping for a website hosting provider, it is important that you ensure the best possible deal by identifying your server needs and the associated options available to you.

Planning your Hosting Needs

Are you running a single, large website that will require a lot of traffic? Maybe instead, you have a whole lot of smaller domains that will require fewer resources, but more IP addresses and domain name registrations. All those costs can add up, after all, especially when you are talking about hosting over several years time.

Once you decide exactly how many domains you want to register, how many IP address those domains will be hosted on, and how long you are ready to set up a hosting account for, you will be ready to maximize your savings by finding the perfect website publishing plan.

Getting the right Dreamhost coupon

With your plans ready, the next step is to pick the corresponding Dreamhost coupon. A yearly hosting plan can save fifty bucks off the top, or you can split some of that discount with free domain registrations and IP addresses. For example, instead of taking the $50 coupon, you can get three extra domain registrations for the lifetime of your account. Since domain registrations usually cost $10 to $15 each year, you can save a ton more in the long run by going with this option.

To get the complete list of Dreamhost coupons available in 2013, check out the web page at WebsiteBuilding.biz – your one-stop blogging stop for all things related to the web biz.

Why Publish? The World is Going Online

Day in and day out, people discover new ways to connect and communicate online. With increased shopping options and new ways to share ideas, the internet has revolutionized the way we socialize and do business.

While it is very possible to take advantage of these online opportunities by utilizing third party sites such as social media, owning your own website gives you additional options for control and earning income. A website with even a modest amount of traffic can be optimized to make money through focused sales, strategic advertising placements, and other partnerships. It can be a lot of work and effort to get a website from concept to profit, but it is extremely rewarding and often involves activities you’d be doing online anyway (such as the aforementioned social media!)

What to look for in hosting reviews

When you’re looking for a web hosting service, it can be incredibly useful to read and study the various reviews of that host that have been published online. But what kind of questions should you look for the review to answer? By taking inventory of your hosting needs, you’ll know what answers you’re looking to find inside the hosting reviews you read.
All about web hosting reviews

Are you trying to get started, or move up?

Web hosting comes in all levels of service. If you’re just trying to get your first website(s) online, a shared hosting plan is probably a great way to learn the systems at work behind the scenes of a fully hosted domain name. If your business has established traffic and delivers income that is essential to your monthly budget, you might want to invest in something a little bit more substation like a VPS or dedicated hosting service.

Ask yourself the following questions:

How many domains will you be hosting? How essential is speed and reliability right now? It might not be a big deal if your first blog goes down or slows a bit during peaks, not at first anyway. When your sites grow, you can upgrade later on.

Do users have a good experience?

Look for hosting reviews from customers who have had problems and issues that require the company’s service and technical support crew. Everyone will have some kind of glitch – so the important thing is to analyze how the company responds to these errors and breakdowns. A helpful hosting company will own up to the problems that are on their end, and do what they can to set the user on the right path.

On the other hand, if someone has complained that their host won’t hold their hand and build their websites for them, you’re probably looking at a review from someone who doesn’t want to take personal responsibility for the things they are ultimately responsible for. Until you’re spending hundreds a month on a dedicated hosting plan, you’re mostly on your own when it comes to the development, maintenance, and security of your domains.

Is the review honest about weaknesses?

Since everyone has different needs in a web host, there really is no such thing as a perfect service. So if someone can’t fess up to the potential downside of a particular hosting choice, they might not be completely honest about their review: they might just be focused on trying to sell you something.

Every hosting plan and company targets a certain user base, and the trick is to find a service that matches your particular needs. This probably means finding a company that cuts corners in features that you don’t personally need! Generally though, be wary of that perfect review. Every webhost will have some kind of down time and occasional bug, so take inventory of those weaknesses before deciding if those are limitations you can live and work with.

A good hosting review will help you answer all of these questions, and probably even more you didn’t yet know you had. At the end of the day, the goal is to find the best service for your particular needs – not someone else’s business plan! With these points of consideration in mind, you should be well on your way to finding the right web host for you.

Dreamhost February 2010 Coupon

Don’t waste time sorting through out-of-date discounts and coupons! You’ve come to the right place for the latest in up to date promotional codes.

Copy the coupon code and add it to your registration with any new account, or just click on the link of that code to head over to the signup page with the coupon form pre-populated.

  • Saves50 Save $50 on annual accounts
  • 3Free4Life Add three free domain registrations to your Dreamhost account (automatically renewed as long as your account is active)

Pick your favorite Dreamhost coupon and enjoy the savings! Remember, you get better deals when you sign up for longer terms, and you’ll also get the best deals possible if you sign up with a recurring discount like the one providing free domain name registrations. After a few years, that will add up to a lot more than the initial cash coupons.

Find all the Dreamhost Coupons Here:

Need more choices? Check out the entire list of Dreamhost coupon codes available here. Updates and limited-edition discounts will be available from time to time, so be sure to check out the latest offerings before you sign up under any code. Once you’ve registered, its too late to change your mind about the promo you want to use!

More webhosts turn to coupons

As the economy slows down and investment in new business dries up, web hosts are feeling the financial pinch as fewer new customers sign up to launch their own web businesses.

Yet actually, because employment is so hard to find and wages are relatively flat compared to the last few decades (when things we MUCH cheaper!), it might actually be in the customer’s best interest to start up a website.

To encourage some euntreprenurial spirit among the American people, more web hosts are providing deep discounts in the form of coupon and promotional codes. These deals can help customers save money on the setup and subscription fees associated with hosting, or they can be applied toward domain registrations and account upgrades like secure certificates, unique IP addresses, and just about anything you can imagine.

So if you’re looking to start up a website – and there are really good economic reasons for doing so! – be sure to review your choices when it comes to coupon codes first. Without a coupon, you’ll just have to pay full price, and that just sounds silly when compared to the freely available alternative!

Hostgator Donates $100k for Haiti

Hostgator has a reputation as a great web host, but did you know that they’re also active with charitable causes?  This Hostgator announcement recently came across the PR wire:

Houston, TX (PRWEB) January 28, 2010 — HostGator.com, a leading web hosting provider, announced on Thursday that it has donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development fund.

HostGator Houston, TX Office
HostGator Houston, TX Office

The donation is the sixth six-digit charitable donation HostGator has made in its eight year history and the third such donation to the American Red Cross.

Not only are you getting a great hosting product at a competitive price, you can also know that your money is occasionally going to help out worthy causes.

Oh yeah, did I mention that they’re also offsetting any of the carbon created by running those servers 24/7?  So its green, you help people who need a hand, and you get a product that is known for reliability and low prices.  What was the downside again?

Dreamhost Apple Promotion

Dreamhost is giving you a chance to win one of the new Apple tablets that everyone has been talking about recently.

1. The contest is open to US residents only anybody in the world (where not prohibited by law) who are not employees nor related to employees of DreamHost. No purchase necessary, you do not have to be a DreamHost customer to win.
2. You may enter the contest only once per day, starting today, January 27th, 2010…. days are counted based on the U.S. Pacific Time Zone.
3. To enter, simply post a “tweet” via twitter that includes the word DreamHost in it (upper case and content of tweet do not matter… but spelling does!).
4. The contest ends on the day we get 20 16GB Wifi iPads $10,000 worth of Apple Tablets physically in our possession. If by some miracle there ends up being no such thing as an Apple Tablet, the prize becomes $10,000 worth of whatever the hell Apple announces today instead.
5. At that time, we will randomly pick floor($10,000/$price_of_tablet)20 winners from the valid entries (we will be logging all tweets with “dreamhost” in them in the meantime) and contact them via twitter (from our @dreamhost account) to verify their eligibility.
6. And now, the final twist… a winner will be determined ineligible (and a replacement picked) if at ANY time between now and the end of the contest they have posted ANY tweet(s) with the term “fail” in it/them (or any clever alternative spelling)! “Failure” is fine. “Sucks” is fine. “Crappy” is fine. “Nightmare” is fine. Just not “fail”. Nor “#fail”. Nor even “@fail” (poor guy).

Read the full details here at Dreamhost’s official blog site and learn about how not failing can help turn hosting into a free computer for you.  Actually, you don’t even have to get the hosting!  But, if you are thinking about signing up for shared hosting or VPS services with Dreamhost, make sure you do so with a coupon so as to get the best price available.  No one likes paying full price, right?  So what’s better than a chance at a free computer and some incredibly cheap hosting services to get your sites online?

Someone will be winning a free computer, and it might just be you.  In the meantime, I’ll see ya on Twitter – and remember not to fail!

Midphase Coupon

If you’re sick of your current web host and looking for a more flexible alternative at a great price, check out Midphase’s latest promotion: They’ll give you a $50 discount on any hosting plan when you move your domains and files from an old host to their servers.

Midphase provides budget shared hosting services from just about $3 a month, but they also have more full-featured options designed for full e-commerce operation. Busy sites can also upgrade to a VPS through VPS.net – although they’re different brands and domains, they’re all connected through the same corporate ownership and that will help make upgrades across hosting plans a breeze.

Windows or Linux? You choose! Reseller, ecommerce, or low-budget? You decide what you need! The economy plan compares quite favorably to other popular hosts like Bluehost, Dreamhost, and Hostgator – and when you’ve outgrown that its not a problem to pay a bit more and upgrade it to the next level.

Take advantage of your $50 Midphase coupon by transferring to a new web host today! All you have to do is click the link above to get started – and you’ll be well on your way to a quality, reliable hosting service at a very affordable price.

Anhosting Coupon

If you’re looking to sign up for hosting with ANHOSTING, now is a great time!  As of January 25, 2010 they’re offering 25% more hosting for 25% less cost.

So see that banner up there?  Click it and magically watch 500GB of disk space become 625!  Instead of 5000 GB of monthly bandwidth, your account will get 6250.  Of course, forget about paying $6.95 a month because if you sign up while this promotional offer is running you’ll only spend about $5.21!

You don’t need to add your own Anhosting coupon, just click on the banner above while the promotion is still active and you can enjoy upgraded hosting at a great discount price.  Why wait?  Make a resolution to earn more money in 2010 – and a new hosting account and a couple new domains to develop could be just the ticket to your future financial success!