Struggling To Decide Which Ecommerce Host To Use For Your New Web Site?


Most web host review sites consist of a series of statistics thrown together by people who don't really care which service you opt for.

Somehow you can tell that these people have not actually had experience of the web host personally.

This review is different...

Firstly, I am only going to show you two hosts, I think what is more important is for you to know is that they both work ...very well as it happens. Also that they are both substantial organisations who are standing the test of time.

Secondly, I thought I would tell you about my own experiences with each one and from that you can then judge for yourself with hopefully, a more objective point of view.


Hostgator

Hostgator have taken the web hosting market by storm simply by their outright enthusiasm for customer satisfaction. They believe in the personal touch and have built their business to the point that they are now hosting some 200,000 domains.

I personally have had cause to make use of their support desk on several occasions. It's not so much the regular installation issues but the oddities that really test how good the staff are.

My issues involved setting up a php script on some of my web sites to display RSS feeds. The RSS aggregator I was trying to install had fairly good instructions, but I got stuck when it called for the installation of something called an Ioncube loader!

I decided to make use of Hostgator's live support service, an excellent feature you should look for in any web hosting provider.

Not only were the support staff knowledgeable in the particular script I was trying to load but they also installed it for free within half an hour! Even more impressive when you consider the script was not part of their own library.

Probably the best feature of the Hostgator package is that they offer the cPanel control panel for managing your web sites.

This is the industry standard and in my view presents the most logical layout. Hostgator actually have a demonstration cPanel screen for you to view so that you can see exactly how it is laid out. You can also drill into the functions displayed, worth a visit just to see how cPanel looks if nothing else. View the demonstration here

If I could pick out a top benefit of the Hostgator package then it would be the inclusion of the Fantastico script installation feature. This benefit alone is worth you seriously considering Hostgator above all other hosting providers.

Fantastico automatically installs around 50 popular scripts for you including, WordPress blogs, php discussion forums, content management systems such as Joomla and Mambo, ecommerce shopping carts, polls and surveys and many other useful add ons for your web site. Anyone who has tried to install any of these scripts manually will know that any automation is a good thing.

Negative features to Hostgator? Difficult, but you will find that they are more PHP/MySQL orientated than ASP. However, as the former is open source it is much more popular by far so this may not even trouble you.

Visit Hostgator to find out more

 

Third Sphere

Whereas Hostgator offer a solution for all types of web sites, Third Sphere promote their extra tools designed to help web marketers and ecommerce applications.

Theirs is an upmarket service that boasts built in web design tools, an impressive array of scripts and automation tools and on top of this you have access to the latest marketing tools and digital products to help ensure your site is a commercial success.

Third Sphere take care of the ordinary hosting features in the same efficient manner as Hostgator. But my favorite Third Sphere feature is the automation station. With this you can automate every single process of your web marketing campaigns. All of which is managed from a user-friendly interface that seamlessly integrates your:

Newsletters & e-zines
Advertising trackers
Affiliate program
e-Product delivery
Follow-up autoresponders
Sales trackers
Electronic payments

I personally have eight web sites hosted on my Third Sphere account using their system for add on domains. All you need to do is to create a sub-domain in your Third Sphere account and then simply point your new domain name to it.

Overall, Third Sphere provide a great solution for your web hosting considerations. However, you need to make sure that you will use the extra marketing features offered. If not then you would be wasting money and the Hostgator option would be more suitable.

Click here to take a closer look at the Third Sphere package