I've seen a lot of information here about free web hosting, but not a lot about what non-free commercial services are worth investigating. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
I'd be particularly interested to know about bandwidth limitations and what additional optional services offered such as blogs, community forums, e-commerce, etc.
Thanks, Joe
I hope this doesn't turn religious!
I happen to like (and have had good results with) DreamHost. DreamHost offers a number built-in "one click installs" for things like WordPress, dotProject, phpBB. It also can support perl, php, and Ruby on Rails.
The standard package includes "unlimited disk and bandwidth", although I suspect that there are practical limits for the low end hosted sites. The base package includes only email support, but that has been more than adequate in the past. The standard package is a shared Linux server. They offer Windows hosts and exclusive servers for more dough.
They did have a billing problem a while back, but they were upfront about it, made it right and haven't had any issues since.
I've always been very happy with CrystalTech. They offer everything from starter shared plans at $5.95/month (100 GB bandwidth) to dual quad-core dedicated plans at $580/month (50 TB bandwidth). Shared servers are Windows-based (either Coldfusion, starting at $16.95/month, or ASP.NET, starting at $7.95/month). Dedicated Linux or Windows servers start at $49.95/month. Hyper-V VPS starts at $59.95/month.
Shared Plan Comparison Dedicated Windows Plans Dedicated Linux Plans
Other plans include semi-dedicated and SharePoint.
No contracts mean you can move bandwidth levels at will (there may be some restrictions).
Un-disclaimer: You can resell their accounts. I don't - so there's no ulterior motive in my answer.
If you're looking for a managed solution, I've had great success with HostMonster. They're cheap, have great support, and have amazing reliability. They nickel and dime you for extras, though, but even with the fees they charge, they're still cheaper than the competition.
For a VPS solution, I'm a big fan of Linode. They're inexpensive and easy to scale with.
For my WordPress sites, I use HostGator. Outstanding company. 24X7X365 technical support, I even called them on Christmas and they patiently answered my questions. They only do hosting, they do not do colocation.
For my Windows Server accounts, I use Intermedia. Excellent technical support, but unless you have a dedicated server, technical support is not 24X7X365.
James Mitchell
www.jmitchell.me