A Comparison of NT/IIS Web Hosting Companies
Want your own Internet web site? Perhaps, http://www.me.com? Well, if you plan on having your
site run ASP scripts, you'll need to find a web host that uses IIS. This article contais a list of several
IIS web hosting companies that will host your site! Prices are shown, and my own personal judgement is
passed on each of these hosting companies! :) When shopping for a web host there are a number of things
to look for:
Disk Space Allocation: This is your disk quota, or how many MB of disk space you'll have
reserved for your web scripts and images. Unless you are going to have a graphics-intensive site,
20 MB is usually more than enough space.
Monthly Transfer Limit: Each time someone downloads an image or web page from your site,
the total number of transferred bytes increases. Since web hosts have to pay for their bandwidth (how many bytes
get downloaded from their site) each month, they want to make sure your bandwidth will stay within
reasonable bounds. If your site allows users to download large programs, or is graphics-intensive, or
is just ultra busy, you will have a high monthly transfer limit. 4Guys has a 25 GB monthly transfer
rate! ASP Messageboard has about a 4 GB monthly transfer rate. Smaller sites will usually have under
1 GB of transfer for a month.
Database Connectivity Options: If you plan on building data-driven web sites, you'll need
database access. Does the plan support SQL databases? Access databases? What are the costs associated
with setting up System DSNs? How many MB do you have for your SQL database? These are all numbers you
want to check!
Now that you know what to look for, here are some NT/IIS hosts, their ratings,
and my thoughts about them. You can also search a number of web hosting directories:
Maximum ASP
Price:
Service:
Target Audience: First Class to Large Business
Maximum ASP offers Web hosting for the serious developer working on a mid-sized to large Web
site. The costs per month range from $159 to $199 depending on your length commitment. For
that price you get quite a bit: 2GB of disk space, 100MB of SQL Server 2000 database space,
custom DLL registration, and an additional free account on a Microsoft .NET server (for you
to play with ASP.NET). (A full list of features
can be seen here.)
ORCSWeb
Price:
Service:
Target Audience: First Class to Large Business
If you need an affordable web site, ORCSWeb is a wonderful choice. They offer plans
starting at $40/month for ASP and Access use. If you want to tie in a SQL database, you're looking at
$65/month. Their most powerful plan, very well suited for small businesses, runs $120 / month, includes
SSL Pages and CyberCash Support, along with 200 MB of disk space, a 5 GB monthly transfer limit, and
the use of custom COM objects.
Their technical support is superb as well. In fact, they used to host
ASPMessageboard.com.
I cannot say enough good things about the folks over at ORCSWeb, and highly
recommend ORCSWeb!
iNNERHOST
Price:
Service:
Target Audience: First Class to Large Business
As of September 3, 2002, iNNERHOST has
been acquired by InterLand.
If you are an ASP enthusiast, and just want your own stake on the 'net, iNNERHOST is the best company
to go with, in my opinion. Their most affordable plan is only $23 / month, with 40 MB of disk space,
and ASP support. Unfortunately, you've got to pay $45 / month to have any database access, and that
access is limited to Access. For an additional $20 / month (making it $65 / month) you can
get 50 MB of SQL 7 database storage! On-site technicians and a wonderful support staff make iNNERHOST my #1 recommendation. They
even have custom dedicated server plans for larger businesses.
