My search for the best UK web host

Posted in Web Design on Thursday, 15th October 2009 at 11:57AM

In the course of my work as a freelance web designer I have been forced to use a multitude of different web hosts and have come to realise that all web hosts are not equal.  Here is a list of 5 web hosts that I have used with a brief review of my experiences with them.  I have had more experience with some than others so this is by no means a conclusive study but I hope it will help you if you are looking for a web host and don’t know where to begin.

Before I start I’d like to make clear my perspective.  I am a web designer working mainly in HTML, CSS and a bit of PHP with experience of various CMS platforms including Wordpress, CMSMS and Joomla.  I am not a web app developer or database ninja or anything else that sounds complicated so my views do not really take into account the requirements that someone working in these areas might have.

5. Easily – Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★

Bottom of the pack and for good reason is Easily, the 9th largest web host in the UK with a 2% market share.  Their name gives me a chuckle every time I read it  just for the pure irony.  My initial impressions of Easily were just how ugly and cryptic their control panel was, links to the various functions were denoted by a single letter logo, the key to which was below the viewing threshold of my screen.  Once I had located the various departments I was still left wondering how to do simple things like set up a mysql database or change your version of php without phoning customer support.  You just don’t seem to be able to manage much stuff on your own from the control panel and if you can, I couldn’t work out how which is just as bad if not worse.  As well as the short comings of the control panel there is also no way of manually adjusting file permissions which was in the course of time to present me with more problems.

4: Namesco – Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★

Names co. is the 5th largest web host in the UK with about 3% of the market share and I have only used them for 1 site.  My overall impression isn’t bad really.  Their control panel is fairly straight forward and easy to use and doesn’t look too bad aesthetically speaking.  You can manage things like your mysql databases, quotas and email accounts and the file permissions can be set from your ftp program without problems.  My only issue came when I wanted to upgrade my PHP version and had to contact the support line to do so, not a big issue but it took them 24hrs and a couple of emails to get it done so not ideal.

3: Nethost – Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★

I have only recently used nethost for a site and at first I was a little skeptical.  Their control panel is pretty ugly (It looked like it was based on cPanel) and a bit confusing with hundreds of icons and options to filter through but in the end I actually found them to offer a pretty powerful hosting package with a good level of user control.  Things like adding databases and changing php settings are really easy to do and they include some nice usability features like actually showing you your database passwords from the management panel rather than blanking them out which is handy when you are setting up a cms and have forgotten your mysql details.  I also like the prices which were the lowest of all those I have reviewed, offering a fair amount of functionality for relatively little money.

On the down side their customer support seems pretty lame.  They don’t have a phone number to call and when I emailed them (twice) I didn’t receive a response.  I also found that the site was sand boxed from public view during development which was great until I was ready to go live, at which point I couldn’t find any way of activating it.  It took a couple of emails from the account holder before the problem was resolved.  If it wasn’t for these issues I may have given them an 8 stars or more so if you are confident you wouldn’t need much help and have a tight budget they might be a good bet.

3: Easyspace – Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★

Update (20/02/2010): Since writing this post it has been brought to my attention from a couple of different sources that some Easyspace customers are having issues with the reliability of their email service (see comment below).  I probably wouldn’t mention it if it were just one case, but I have now heard of three separate instances and felt it was worth drawing attention to.

Easyspace was the first ever web host I used and I’ve used them for a couple of sites since.  This host has a more ‘corporate feel’ than most of the others I am reviewing here, with an overseas support desk and a slightly pushier sales technique which could either be taken as annoying or reassuringly ‘big business’ depending on what sort of person you are.

Their control panel is probably the prettiest of the five hosts I’m reviewing here but I have always felt it needed some more user testing as many simple tasks can be confusing and unintuitive to achieve. I’ve often had to run people through simple tasks like setting up autoresponders on the phone over and over again. I did recently receive an email notifying me of a new beta version of their control panel (picture included below) which looks promising but it is still not fully featured at the time of writing this article.  They claim to have based the new UI on extensive user consultation and testing so it could be a big step forward.

I am also quite impressed with a new service of theirs that notifies you via email of any security holes they have spotted on your site, giving you the opportunity to sort them out before your site is compromised.  Their general standard of telephone and email support, whilst not perfect, seems fairly prompt and efficient at dealing with issues.  They also offer free domain names with a lot of their hosting packages which is something to bear in mind when reviewing the prices.

If I were to say anything negative about Easyspace it would be that I have found their email accounts to be a little temperamental with the odd outages and rogue spam filters but I guess no host’s email servers are perfect.

1: Virtual names – Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★

Virtual names was the second host that I ever used after it was recommended to me by an agency I was working for.  Initial impressions might be a bit poor due to the basic looking homepage with it’s pink background and the rather functional design of the control panel but what they lack in slick interface has definitely been made up for in ease of use and flexibility.  Just about every adjustment I have ever needed to make to my hosting I have been able to make quickly and easily via the control panel without needing to contact customer support.   Another strong point in their favor is the speed at which they deal with support requests on the rare occasions that they are necessary.  I have always received an answer to my email within minutes of sending it and the problem has been sorted.

My only negative issue with Virtual Names has got to be the value of their professional packages.  In comparison to some of my less preferred hosts such as Easily, their storage and bandwidth offering is pretty paltry with a 1GB upload limit compared to Easily’s which is unlimited and a 60 GB bandwidth cap which is once again unlimited with Easily and all at nearly double the price.  Having contacted Virtual Names to ask them about this they did say that they do not penalise users who exceed their bandwidth limitations and that they are looking to increase storage limits in the near future.

As a result of this I would say that unless money is no object, I would only recommended Virtual names for smaller websites where ease of use and reliable support are more important than unlimited storage.  For large scale sites I would wait until they have become a little more competitive and maybe take a look elsewhere for the time being.

Conclusion

The various web hosts I am reviewing here vary greatly and the right one for you depends on the requirements for your site. None of these hosts are disastrous choices (although Easily has had me close to tears at times).  My personal recommendations would be Virtual names for smaller sites where you would benefit from a simple-to-use yet powerful control panel and great customer support and Easyspace for a larger business sites where the price, whilst certainly not the cheapest, is more acceptable and comes coupled with an efficient support system and a more corporate feel.

Here’s a breakdown of the different hosting provider’s basic and professional hosting packages.  I have excluded any packages that don’t include php and mysql support as I regard these as essential for modern web development.