-- UPDATED -- Apr/04/2012:
Please do not "EVER" go with the Arvixe; they are the worst services providers. Day 1, I opened my account and "tried" to upload a site, Day 2: Opened a customer service ticket, Day 4: Got a reply that they "will" reply; Day 5: A reply suggesting to toggle a flag on control panel, dint work! Day 6, 7, 8, tens of conversations exchange to fix a small thing at the web server itself; Day 10: Closed my account. 3 times password reset?! can you imagine? I personally think they lack a good dedicated server administrator who has a professional degree as well. Probably thats why its cheap (0:
Anyway, a piece of unwanted advice based upon personal experience. Avoid Arvixe an sites similar to these; you can see the product feature set is attractive but it all boils down to the customer services. Worst class service.
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This post is for those developers who develops for Microsoft platforms; and want to "test"-drive their dream service or product.
Usually, if you are looking for hosting on Microsoft technologies, the price is going to be higher compared to Open-Source hosting. Why? Because Microsoft servers requires licenses, and sometimes a Microsoft Certified team that takes care of Microsoft servers; hosting provider is the one that bears the cost.
Following are some types of hosting that you may want to look into before you make a decision:
Virtual private server (VPS) is a marketing term used by Internet hosting services to refer to a virtual machine for use exclusively by an individual customer of the service. The term is used to emphasize that the virtual machine, although running in software on the same physical computer as other customers' virtual machines, is functionally equivalent to a separate physical computer, is dedicated to the individual customer's needs, has the privacy of a separate physical computer, and can be configured to run as a server computer (i.e. to run server software).
Reseller hosting is a form of web hosting wherein the account owner has the ability to use his/her allotted hard drive space and bandwidth to host websites on behalf of third parties
A dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a type of Internet hosting in which the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone.
One thing to keep in mind beyond just the price aspect is the service you get. One of the best ways to get that, is to register for the forum WebHostingTalk.com, where people of all trades discusses about hosting providers, domain providers, their feedback, and services - openly.
You can finalize your choices and get the community feedback for choices.
If your focus is on Microsoft .NET related technologies, then you must be looking for a provider that hosts for the same.
The primary concern for the one who is developing for windows as well start a business?
Scripting
- ASP.NET 4.0 (.NET 4.0 Framework/MVC 2)
- Silverlight 4.0
- MS SQL Server 2005 or 2008
- WordPress
- SSL
- Payment Gateways(PayPal, Authorize.NET)
- .NET Control Panel
If you're registering a domain for your company and you want to maintain a veil between your personal contact info and the company contact info then perhaps you should think twice about registering everything on your name.
Following is a small table that I looked into and analyzed. Based upon what I am looking for, column 1 has the highest ratings, last column has the lowest ratings.
| ARVIXE.COM (DONT EVER USE! A BIG NO NO!) | DISCOUNTASP.COM | GODADDY.COM | 1AND1.COM | |
| Pricing | USD 5/mo (72/year) | USD 75/year | USD 5/mo (60/year) | USD 10/mo (120/year) |
| Disk Space | Unlimited | 1 GB | 10 GB | 10 GB |
| Monthly data transfer | Unlimited | 80 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Websites (Domains) | 6 | n/a | Unlimited | 3 |
| Domain Name | Free | USD 15/year | USD 12/year | n/a |
| Uptime | 99.90% | 99.90% | 99.90% | n/a |
| SSL | n/a | USD 10/month | n/a | n/a |
| Private Whois | n/a | USD 5/year | n/a | Free |
| Control Panel | Dot Net | n/a | n/a | 1AND1 Control Pnl |
| Remote IIS Management | Yes | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Windows 2008/IIS7 Hosting | No | Yes | n/a | Yes |
| Windows 2003/IIS6 Hosting | Faulty window server administration | Yes | n/a | n/a |
| SQL Server 2008 | Throws connection errors | USD 10/month | Yes | Yes |
| SQL Server 2005 | Yes | USD 10/month | Yes | Yes |
| SQL2005 Max DB Size | 300 MB | 200 MB | 200 MB | |
| SQL2008 Max DB Size | 500 MB | 200 MB | 200 MB | |
| .NET v3.5 and above | They do say they have 3.5 or above, but I think they really dont have it. For instance, I tried pushing my website using WebMatrix that itself uses v4.0, did not work | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| LINQ / AJAX / Silverlight | Yes, they say. You need to check this | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ASP .NET MVC | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Direct Database Access(SSMS) | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Streaming Audio/Video | Yes | Yes | n/a | n/a |
| Crystal Reports | Yes | No | n/a | n/a |
| Full Trust App Support | n/a | Yes | n/a | n/a |
| Tech Support | 1 (888) 927-8493 | 1 (480) 505-8877 | ||
| Url | http://www.arvixe.com/asp_net_web_hosting | http://www.discountasp.net/kbalertz.aspx | http://www.godaddy.com/hosting/web-hosting.aspx?ci=8971 | http://order.1and1.com/xml/order/MsHosting;jsessionid=7E848E059F0C9704E79CEFA67CDD0F23.TCpfix140b?__frame=_top&__lf=Static |
Enjoy!