My search for the best UK web host
October 15th, 2009
The various web hosts I am going to review 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.
| Host name | Package | Storage limit | Bandwidth limit |
Mailboxes | Mysql databases |
Domain name included |
Price p.a. inc. VAT |
| Easily | Beginner | 1GB | Unlimited | Not stated | 1 | NO | £24.99 |
| Rating: 4/10 | Professional | 20GB | Unlimited | Not stated | 5 | NO | £89.99 |
| Names Co. | Starter + | 1GB | 10GB | 15 | 5 | YES | £89.99 |
| Rating: 6/10 | Business + | 4.5GB | 45GB | 10 | 10 | YES | £199.99 |
| Nethost | Student | 500MB | Ulimited | 20 | 3 | NO | £9.99 |
| Rating: 7/10 | Deluxe | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | NO | £129.99 |
| Easyspace | Starter | 3GB | Unlimited | 200 | 1 | YES | £55 |
| Rating: 8/10 | Business | 6GB | Unlimited | 200 | 7 | YES | £110 |
| Virtual Names | Basic | 50MB | 5GB | 10 | Unlimited | NO | £23 |
| Rating: 8/10 | Super Pro | 1GB | 60GB | 100 | Unlimited | NO | £184 |
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.
