Who Is It For?

4CheapWebHosting is a great resource to quickly locate web hosting companies based on the users needs. The quick search feature allows visitors and potential customers to search for hosts by the monthly cost, disk usage and Windows or Linux platforms. In most cases these are enough for deciding on a suitable webhost for new comers. 4CheapWebHosting looks to lower the learning curve so that anyone can look for an appropriate hosting plan which can serve their needs. The advanced search is mostly reserved for experienced webmasters. But in case of 4CheapWebHosting anyone can take advantage of the top rated hosts and the variety of features that they have to offer. The glossary and tutorials are aimed at novice webmasters who can take advantage of the information to make a wise selection.

Features Of 4CheapWebHosting

The information presented on 4CheapWebHosting are direct and to the point. The reviews do not include long paragraphs of text. The Top Rated Cheap Web Hosting section only includes a big table of company facts. Apart from the web host name and a thumbnail of the site the database includes the server platform (Windows or Linux), monthly fee, a proprietary rating system called 4Value rating, disk space, bandwidth and number of allowed domains on the hosting account.

Clicking on any of the web hosts will take the user to a page with the plan details. The detailed page shows the features included with a hosting plan such as if a control panel, database type, free domain parking and several other features. These terms might be confusing to someone new to webhosting. 4CheapWebHosting has thought of that and in order to accommodate them has linked all the features to a glossary where each item is explained. For example, a newbie might not know what domain parking is. The 4CheapWebHosting Glossary describes it as A temporary DNS entry for an unused domain name. Generally a domain name that is parked for free will be on the registrar’s server pointing to a temporary page. I have included a screenshot of the BlueHost plan details below.

What makes 4CheapWebHosting Unique

The information included in 4CheapWebHosting database is detailed and useful to all web masters who are just getting their feet wet. I can recall from personal experience how confused I was when I started looking for a webhost. 4CheapWebHosting has taken a big step to answer detailed questions which might be on the minds of newbies. The Glossary certainly is a great addition and will help people make an informed decision. The webhosting tutorials answer some basic questions regarding how the webhosts are rated, how to buy domains etc. But they are severely lacking and serve little purpose. In the future I would like to see 4CheapWebHosting expand on these FAQ’s.

The quick search and the detailed search page will allow users to look for only the features that they are interested in. Thus they can spend their hard earned money on their choice of webhost and not have to pay for things that they do not need. One very unique feature is to choose webhosting companies based on currency. This is a very important aspect to the international community who might want to use Japanese Yen or Italian Lira. As far as I can recall 4CheapWebHosting is the only comparison review site that offers this feature.

Areas of Improvement

4CheapWebHosting has listed quite a few web hosts on their website. However big players in the hosting world such as DreamHost, LunarPages, Yahoo Hosting, GoDaddy and HostMonster are missing from their database. If 4CheapWebHosting wants users to take it seriously they have to include the most popular ones. For example, cNet has one of the biggest collection of web hosts categorized by type of service, features, cost and customer ratings which includes all major and minor hosting companies.

Verdict

4CheapWebHosting is a great resource for new webmasters who can learn the “webhosting terms and language” and choose an affordable host that has all the features they need. This is a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED site and gets 5 Out Of 5 Stars.

Competition

Yahoo! has waited a long time to fully enter the cheap and highly competitive hosting industry. Hundreds of businesses have been in the hosting game a long time and even small hosting providers have hundreds of thousands of customers. Hostmonster is one example. I use Hostmonster to host TeqEdge.com and several other websites. Just a side by side comparison between Yahoo and Hostmonster reveals how hard Y! has to work to get the precious webmaster dollars.

Comparison To HostMonster

Features	Hostmonster	Y! Unlimited Webhosting
Disk Space	1,500 Gigabytes of Hosting Space	Unlimited
Number of Domains	Host UNLIMITED Domains!!	1
Number of Email Accounts	Unlimited Pop/Imap Email Accounts	1000
Data Transfer	15,000 Gigs of Transfer	Unlimited
Number of FTP Accounts	Unlimited	200
Number of Sub-domains, Add-on domain, Parked domains	Unlimited	No info
Other features	SSH Access (Secure Shell), SSL, FTP, Stats, CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MYSQL. Front Page Extensions, Free Domain Forever, Free Site Builder	Easy-to-use design tools, Designs you can customize, Features that help convert visitors into customers, Reliable and secure hosting, Sites are up and running 99.9% of the time, Advanced design options

Advantages Of Yahoo!

Yahoo does have a lot of advantages over the plethora of other web-hosting companies. Most important ones are traffic and brand-recognition. Y! can leverage these assets to put itself as a market leader or at least in a respectable position. With millions of eye-balls hitting the Yahoo! website every day hundreds of web-masters will sign up with their service in a short time. In the same time Hostmonster gets a 100,000 customers Yahoo! might get a million. Simply because of the exposure Yahoo has over the internet community.

With instant brand recognition going for them, Yahoo can afford to charge a few more dollars than the competition. For example, almost every internet user has heard of Yahoo in some form or the other. When a newbie wants to create a new website he will certainly go to Yahoo as the first web-host. Yahoo might not have all the features but, I expect, their brand will carry them to very high levels. Even though Hostmonster charges half the monthly amount, some customers will still feel more comfortable with a well-known and respected Yahoo! brand.

Features

So what is included in the unlimited web-hosting package? Well it includes several features. For just under $12 a month anyone can take advantage of the package. The plan does require a minimum 3 month commitment but does not have any of the annoying fees – no setup fees, no transfer fees etc.

Features That Stand Out

• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited data transfer
• Unlimited email storage
• Free domain name
• Forms to collect visitor information
• Maps and driving directions so customers can easily find your business
• 99.9% uptime
• Backups of your web site in different geographic locations in case of emergency
• 200 password-protected accounts
• Shared SSL certificates and encryption
• Easy-to-use design tools
• 24-hour customer service
• Reliable and secure hosting
• 1000 email addresses
• Easy web access to email
• Compatible with email applications such as Outlook
• SpamGuard Plus, for powerful spam protection
• Norton AntiVirus, for virus protection
• $100 credit toward Yahoo! Search Marketing
• $50 credit toward Google AdWords
• Free, automatic submission of your site to Yahoo! Search and Google
• 30% off Yahoo! Local Enhanced Listings
• Basic website analytics

Server side components include:

• Support for third-party tools like FrontPage 2000/2002 and Dreamweaver
• PHP version 4.3.11
• Perl version 5.8.7 and support for the standard library plus 12 additional modules
• MySQL 4.1, with unlimited databases
• Support for most FTP accounts
• Support for Flash, Shockwave, videos, and more
• Blogging options for beginners and professionals, including Yahoo! 360°, WordPress, and Movable Type
• Web site enhancements, like guestbooks, PayPal payment, Yahoo! Maps, site search, phpBB bulletin boards, and PHP-Nuke content management

Tomorrow I will discuss the good and bad of Yahoo! web-hosting and compare it to the “other hosting providers”. Since I use Hostmonster for several of my websites and I am quite pleased with their service I will draw a competitive picture between the two. Stay tuned.