Website owners

[Scuba_Steve]

What companies do you use? what companies would you recommend?

What I'm after is cheap (this is important! just starting up so no moneys), reliable, preferably NZ hosted, minimum of 10 email, & must be able to have 1 additional site (i.e. 2 domain names, 2 sites, 1 host).

I've been looking round & found 24/7 Hosting (http://247hosting.co.nz/), KiwiHosting (http://www.kiwihosting.net.nz/), WebSlice (http://www.webslice.co.nz/), FlexiHost (http://www.flexihost.co.nz/), & Hosting Direct (http://www.hd.net.nz/) (if anyone has good/bad things to say about these?)

Hosting Direct claims to be able to cloud hosting @ $8.35/mth meeting my requirements, which face value seems good given cloud hosting is supposed to be a step up from regular shared hosting. But it does seem a bit cheap given other cloud hosting prices round


Anyways does anyone have hosts to recommend? Hosts to warn of? Other hosts to look at? Info or feelings about the above hosts?

Cheers

[sil3nt]

https://www.hooplahosting.com/

AFAIK run by a kiwi. The servers are in the USA though. This doesn't matter too much as response time is still less than 200ms. KiwiBiker is not hosted in New Zealand either.

I don't think I would ever use a server hosted in New Zealand simply because of the price. More expensive for less storage and monthly bandwidth.

Hoopla are easily the best web hosting company I have used. Their live chat seems to come alive at night so you can talk to someone if you have any questions.



<tbody>
All plans include


http://cdn.hooplahosting.com/images/icons/database.png Unlimited MySQL DBs
http://cdn.hooplahosting.com/images/icons/time.png Instant Account Activation
http://cdn.hooplahosting.com/images/icons/money.png Money Back Guarantee
http://cdn.hooplahosting.com/images/icons/lightning.png 99.9% Uptime Guarantee

http://cdn.hooplahosting.com/images/icons/email.png Unlimited Email Accounts
http://cdn.hooplahosting.com/images/cpanel-icon-small.png cPanel (https://www.hooplahosting.com/webhosting/cpanel) (v11)
http://cdn.hooplahosting.com/images/softaculous-icon-16x16.png One Click Script Installer (https://www.hooplahosting.com/webhosting/softaculous)
http://cdn.hooplahosting.com/images/icons/color_wheel.png Free Site Builder (https://www.hooplahosting.com/webhosting/sitebuilder)

</tbody>

[cowboyz]

ramsu suits us well.

[jim.cox]

Expert Web Services http://www.ews.co.nz do a good job for some of the websites I'm involved with

We also still have some with Telecom / Xtra

Avoid TelstraClear - they charge like wounded bulls....

[sil3nt]

Expert Web Services http://www.ews.co.nz do a good job for some of the websites I'm involved with

We also still have some with Telecom / Xtra

Avoid TelstraClear - they charge like wounded bulls....Avoid Telecom. I have a client that has website hosting through them. They have hosted his website overseas without his knowledge. He assumed it would be New Zealand hosting. Also expensive and has a shitty control panel.

[Big Dave]

Not Kiwi - but cheap.
So far had good results from them.

http://www.crazydomains.com.au/web-hosting/

[Scuba_Steve]

https://www.hooplahosting.com/

AFAIK run by a kiwi. The servers are in the USA though. This doesn't matter too much as response time is still less than 200ms. KiwiBiker is not hosted in New Zealand either.

I don't think I would ever use a server hosted in New Zealand simply because of the price. More expensive for less storage and monthly bandwidth.

Hoopla are easily the best web hosting company I have used. Their live chat seems to come alive at night so you can talk to someone if you have any questions.

I think most of that is residual, looking round most NZ companies are similar price to US (after conversion) at-least in the price/feature bracket I'm looking. Size isn't a huge issue 500MB would be more than enough then some & almost all the companies now offer unlimited bandwidth.
But given their prices are in NZ & at a bracket I like, guess I can add them to my collection of possibilities, cheers :niceone:


Avoid Telecom. I have a client that has website hosting through them. They have hosted his website overseas without his knowledge. He assumed it would be New Zealand hosting. Also expensive and has a shitty control panel.

yep not many people realize alot of Telecom is served from the US & all ISP's tend to be expensive it seems

[p.dath]

We'ce used Google Blogspot a few times. You can't just upload a site - you have to use their templates. But there are lots of templates. 100% free. As many sites as you want. You can use gmail linked with a domain for email.

Not in NZ - but ever had a problem with Google? Their very reliable.

[Scuba_Steve]

Not Kiwi - but cheap.
So far had good results from them.

http://www.crazydomains.com.au/web-hosting/

yea I've looked at them (they also do NZ site crazydomains.co.nz (http://www.crazydomains.co.nz/)) But main issues there is they don't provide an outgoing email server.

[Big Dave]

you have to use their templates.

You can also make and upload your own - or use a third party's.

[bogan]

I've just bought a years worth of hosting with justhost for 45USD, including domain (.com as they don't do .co.nz) registration. Unlimited emails, unlimited storage and bandwidth as long as you don't use more than a small buisness should (they do bigger buisness plans for once you get rolling too), unlimited domains too. Been fairly reliable so far, might have dropped out for a little while once, or it might have been at my end.

They work well with opencart too, if that is what you plan on doing...

[pzkpfw]

I'm with Web Drive.

No real complaints, but I'm on the very simplest plan, for which the specs don't match the requirements in the OP.

They seem pretty professional.

[Akzle]

i have, at one time or another, dealth with 24/7 and kiwi. nothing negative to report. nothing that made me say "wow, that's nice" either.

have you considered hosting your own shit, couple of good server PCs and lots of internets, and just buying domain name?

you host web, files and mail all on one PC... the other is for backup. swap them over every now and then.
easy and MAY be cheaper/better.

[Scuba_Steve]

have you considered hosting your own shit, couple of good server PCs and lots of internets, and just buying domain name?

you host web, files and mail all on one PC... the other is for backup. swap them over every now and then.
easy and MAY be cheaper/better.

thought about it, decided I'd rather pay someone else to take the hassle off me.

[iYRe]

I just use my own..

[cave weta]

My own website - www.overthetopadventures.co.nz is built and hosted by this guy here


www.lumina.net.nz

Viv is great and he has no issues with working with people all over the country- he is creative and cheap. I maintain my own content through Silverstripe which is quick and easy -Give him a call -
country town prices - City slick webwork ha ha , I wrote that- I wonder if he'll give me a job?

[NighthawkNZ]

I use http://www.webacademy.co.nz

(http://www.webacademy.co.nz/)

[Marmoot]

http://getonline.co.nz/

[Big Dave]

Well my 'good results' comment about Crazy Domains is out the window and smashed into more bits than a rocker's television on the footpath below.

Under no circumstances use Crazy Domains.

[Scuba_Steve]

Well my 'good results' comment about Crazy Domains is out the window and smashed into more bits than a rocker's television on the footpath below.

Under no circumstances use Crazy Domains.

I always had my doubts about them, you just get screwed over???



https://www.hooplahosting.com/

AFAIK run by a kiwi. The servers are in the USA though. This doesn't matter too much as response time is still less than 200ms. KiwiBiker is not hosted in New Zealand either.

I don't think I would ever use a server hosted in New Zealand simply because of the price. More expensive for less storage and monthly bandwidth.

Hoopla are easily the best web hosting company I have used. Their live chat seems to come alive at night so you can talk to someone if you have any questions.

Incase anyone was wondering this ^ was the company I went with, & I'm quite happy with them, I too would recommend a look if anyone comes across this thread while in the market for web hosting

[phill-k]

crazydomains to register name & renewal and openhost in Albany for hosting bloody brilliant they are

[mashman]

crazydomains to register name & renewal and openhost in Albany for hosting bloody brilliant they are

+1 for openhost..

[Big Dave]

you just get screwed over???



Not really screwed. A bit frustrated when I posted. Persistent outages and no response from helpdesk.

(and I liked the analogy - where else am I going to use it!)

[Big Dave]

As a footnote - they offered me a 1 year extension to the hosting package - 200gb storage and no bandwidth limit - as compensation for the persistent outages. BD appeased.

[blairnz]

I'm about to set-up a couple of sites on http://www.openhost.co.nz/ which has everything I need from opensource CMSes and online shop systems to build the websites I need for my clients. They have both Windows and Linux based hosting.

Some of their blurb: OpenHost is 100% New Zealand-owned and operated, based in Albany on Auckland's North Shore. We provide web site hosting to over 15,000 New Zealand web hosting customers and employ more than 20 local staff.

Why choose OpenHost?
When you host your web site with OpenHost we guarantee you will be hosted on servers located in New Zealand, with free 0800 and email support provided by our local helpdesk.
100% New Zealand owned and operated.
DNC accredited, parent company ICANN accredited.
Financially secure, mature company operating since 2005.
Up-to-date and secure hosting platforms.
Millions invested in hardware, systems and people.
OpenHost is the leading low-cost New Zealand web hosting provider. We support every aspect of web hosting ranging from Wordpress and Joomla hosting to Windows hosting with ASP.NET, MSSQL and MVC. We have more servers, staff and experience than any other budget web host in New Zealand.
7-Day Web Hosting Support
When you buy web hosting from us its backed by a 7-days a week New Zealand based helpdesk. Call us anytime for fast answers to your web hosting questions.

[iYRe]

openhost is owned by Web Drive.

Its their "low cost" division effectively.

Web drive are great - I host all my domains with them (I do my own webhosting though).

[p.dath]

I become more and more disallusioned with providers in NZ.

For example, I was recently pricing up virtual servers for a monitoring application.

On Microsoft's Azure platform, it was about USD$35/month (about $NZD36/month). This included backups and geographically redudant storage in case Microsoft had an entire data centre fall over, or the country it was hosted in lost its connectivity, etc. It also included the Microsoft OS licencing, and backups.

On Amazon's platform it was about USD$67/month (about NZD$80/month). The Amazon offering was even better when I tested it out. It also included the Microsoft OS licencing, and backups.

Both the the above providers are *very* serious, offering levels of redudancy that you only get paying top dollar.


I took a look at OpenHost. NZD$129/month. Doesn't say if it includes the Microsoft OS licence or if you have to buy it seperately.

I took a look at Web Drive. NZD$299/month. Doesn't say if it includes the Microsoft OS licence or if you have to buy it seperately.


So basically, if I want to put the service in NZ I have to pay 4 to 8 times the price, and there may be some additional capital costs with buying licences. And I have to ask myself why? Why would I want to pay so much extra to keep it in NZ?

[iYRe]

To save yourself hundred ms or so..

It depends on your customer base, if the users are in NZ mainly that response time can be the difference between happy and complaining because its slow.

There are other options for hosting, like Rimu hosting. Its also cheaper if you dont use windows..

I'm currently paying approx 250 for 2x 2.4 GHz cores, 8GB RAM and 100GB hdd.. which I consider decent price for nz..

[p.dath]

To save yourself hundred ms or so..

It depends on your customer base, if the users are in NZ mainly that response time can be the difference between happy and complaining because its slow.

Not likely. 200ms on a initial web page load using TCP is beyond most human tolerances. For example, do you find Google's site slow? How about Microsoft's? I find them both load snappy to me.

To be honest, probably about 90% of the web sites I use regularly are overseas. So it's just "normal".


There are other options for hosting, like Rimu hosting. Its also cheaper if you dont use windows..

I'm currently paying approx 250 for 2x 2.4 GHz cores, 8GB RAM and 100GB hdd.. which I consider decent price for nz..

I just checked and www.rimuhosting.com and it is located in the US. I just checked the Microsoft Azure pricing schedule. For that amount of memory you can get 4 CPU cores, a 400Mb/s Internet Connection, and it looks like 850GB of storage.

[sugilite]

I'm with greengeeks.com
Cheap and amazingly good product and fast service. Been with them for 3 years now and on the 5 to 8 times (at all hours) I've contacted them through their 24 hr live support, bam I'm talking with someone within 20 seconds. Very professional. I've been running my site for 15 years now with a number of diff ISP's, once upon a time I had my own server tele-housed too. I'd not bother with NZ based ISP's as I just got mucked around with both service and costs.

[iYRe]

Not likely. 200ms on a initial web page load using TCP is beyond most human tolerances. For example, do you find Google's site slow? How about Microsoft's? I find them both load snappy to me.

To be honest, probably about 90% of the web sites I use regularly are overseas. So it's just "normal".

Well, both MS and Google deliver their content via CDN's, so chances are you're loading cached material from one of the NZ based nodes.




I just checked and www.rimuhosting.com (http://www.rimuhosting.com) and it is located in the US. I just checked the Microsoft Azure pricing schedule. For that amount of memory you can get 4 CPU cores, a 400Mb/s Internet Connection, and it looks like 850GB of storage.

Yep, they have US servers, also england, australia and new zealand.

I have an azure account, but since I dont use windows for webhosting (because that's just silly), and I was not convinced their linux support is all that it is cracked up to be, I didnt use it. I went to an Azure/system centre 2012 release not so long ago and couldn't get any definite answers from them about it.

Although, in saying that I just checked out a news release and a howto.. looks like its fairly easy to get centos or opensuse up and running.. I'll have to investigate and see how hard it is to get debian images up there.

[p.dath]

Well, both MS and Google deliver their content via CDN's, so chances are you're loading cached material from one of the NZ based nodes.

And when you host with Amazon or Azrure you can also use their Global CDN's as well ...


Yep, they have US servers, also england, australia and new zealand.

I have an azure account, but since I dont use windows for webhosting (because that's just silly), and I was not convinced their linux support is all that it is cracked up to be, I didnt use it. I went to an Azure/system centre 2012 release not so long ago and couldn't get any definite answers from them about it.

Although, in saying that I just checked out a news release and a howto.. looks like its fairly easy to get centos or opensuse up and running.. I'll have to investigate and see how hard it is to get debian images up there.

I just used my demo account, and when I create a VM I can choose to have it pre-provisioned with the following Linux OS's:
CentOS 6.2
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Ubuntu Server 12.04
openSUSE 12.1

[iYRe]

And when you host with Amazon or Azrure you can also use their Global CDN's as well ...



I just used my demo account, and when I create a VM I can choose to have it pre-provisioned with the following Linux OS's:
CentOS 6.2
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Ubuntu Server 12.04
openSUSE 12.1

hmm.. well, i'm currently using centos and debian, and I dont like centos :s Suse is not much chop for me, and ubuntu.. I dont mind it but I do prefer Debian for a production server - just more reliable updates etc..

I believe you can upload your own images, but it seems like too much work, when I could be out riding my bike :P
(ps, I used to work for maxnet.. are you the dude who ran ACE's DC b4 we bought it?)

[p.dath]

...
I believe you can upload your own images, but it seems like too much work, when I could be out riding my bike :P
(ps, I used to work for maxnet.. are you the dude who ran ACE's DC b4 we bought it?)

Yes, you can upload your own images.

Yes, I was one of the prior owner's of the data centre.

[iYRe]

ah ha.. well.. glad to meet you then :P

[scracha]

On Microsoft's Azure platform, it was about USD$35/month (about $NZD36/month). This included backups and geographically redudant storage in case Microsoft had an entire data centre fall over, or the country it was hosted in lost its connectivity, etc. It also included the Microsoft OS licencing, and backups.

On Amazon's platform it was about USD$67/month (about NZD$80/month). The Amazon offering was even better when I tested it out. It also included the Microsoft OS licencing, and backups.

Both the the above providers are *very* serious, offering levels of redudancy that you only get paying top dollar.


Hmm...we use Amazon ourselves for some webby apps hosting but that Azure price seems bloody temping. Could you clarify why it's inferior? Is it the tools available etc? Considering hosting an exchange server on Amazon but we'll be our own guinea pigs first.

OP. You pays your money for "service" as well as the actual hosting infrastructure. If you want a kiwi to ring and just do stuff ASAP it'll generally cost ya. If you want to email someone overseas and just do stuff ASAP, it generally costs less. If you're less stressed about uptime and resolving issues (cos they can happen) then you can pay much less. Hosting in NZ is expensive because sticking kit in a decent datacentre in NZ is expensive and the cost of doing business here is so stupid as to make our companies uncompetitive.

[p.dath]

Hmm...we use Amazon ourselves for some webby apps hosting but that Azure price seems bloody temping. Could you clarify why it's inferior? Is it the tools available etc? Considering hosting an exchange server on Amazon but we'll be our own guinea pigs first.

If you want to host Exchange, unless you have a lot of people, use Office 365 with Exchange Online Plan 1.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-nz/office365/exchange-online.aspx
It's about NZD$6/user/month. You get 25GB of storage per user. Don't forget this includes all your Exchange licencing, and you don't have to spend any of your time actually managing the server ...

Let me say I think Azure is good, just I think Amazon is better - but I'm thinking about using Azure myself at the moment for an app. Amazon has 50 million customizable options you can choose from. Azure caters more for 80% of the market offering only the most frequently wanted options. When I did speed tests out of Amazon I could easily get 200Mb/s. Out of Azure I sometimes struggles to get 20Mb/s. Also the Azure South East Asia cloud (Hongkong/Singapore) seems to have it's Internet gateway in the US, so you in-curr an extra 200ms of latency to do anything (hint - tell it to place your servers in the US and this problem goes away).

I must say that it is much easier figuring out what something costs in Azure as well - because there are less options to choose from ... I sometimes stare at the Amazon pricing console for ages and still can't figure out what the price would be to deploy the VM.

The other interesting thing about Azure is you can also just rent "services". For example, you can rent a SQL instance with 100MB of database storage for $5/month. So where you might have deployed a whole VM to run SQL on Amazon, you just rent the service on Azure.


For the app I am wanting to host, it is going to need less than 1Mb/s of bandwidth, and a completely standard simple Windows build with nothing complicated. So the cheaper cost of Azure is appealing.


OP. You pays your money for "service" as well as the actual hosting infrastructure. If you want a kiwi to ring and just do stuff ASAP it'll generally cost ya. If you want to email someone overseas and just do stuff ASAP, it generally costs less. If you're less stressed about uptime and resolving issues (cos they can happen) then you can pay much less. Hosting in NZ is expensive because sticking kit in a decent datacentre in NZ is expensive and the cost of doing business here is so stupid as to make our companies uncompetitive.

Let me put a different spin on it. It Amazon or Azure had an outage, and 1 million people were affected, you wouldn't need to bother to email anyone or even open a ticket. They would have every man and their dog on it. And in the virtual world, you tend to have more catastrophic failures, or none. The VM either works, or it doesn't.