We understand many of the people who we’re in contact with are starting new businesses which means deciding which 3rd party services to use. This section is devoted to email and web hosting and who either we or our clients have had experience with and would recommended to use…or avoid.
It is important for start-ups to look professional and even maybe a little bigger than they are. Potential customers want to feel comfortable choosing you, and part of that is making sure you appear as though you can handle their business needs. Branded email is essential. A decent website — even one good looking page — is recommended. The good thing is both of these can be obtained cheaply. Hosting for both an unlimited number of email accounts and/or a simple informational web page can be had for less than $3 a month if paid annually. So, even if you are a one-person company, you can look larger by having emails accounting@yourcompany.com… vendors@yourcompany.com… sales@yourcompany.com… You get the picture. And you can have any number of those accessible anywhere through webmail, for just $3/month. It’s one of the cheapest things you can do to look professional.
The first bit of advice is stay away from any EIG affiliated company. It has been our experience that the service level of EIG-owned web hosts is very, VERY substandard. At the end of this page there will be a link to an article listing EIG affiliated hosts. Or better yet, play it safe and just go with one of these following non-EIG companies. You won’t regret it. Also, you can feel safe committing to them for a year (or more) to get the better pricing
DreamHost – describe pros
CloudSite – describe pros
GreenGeeks – describe pros
Kinsta – describe pros