What would you suggest for a webhost for my business?

[codybear]

Hi, first off thanks for taking the time to read this.

Basically me and my friend are starting an online business,
and I'm not quite sure what webhost would be the best for us.
Any input is welcome.

• What we need is the ability to create databases (I'm assuming this is kind of standard in webhosting?)
• The ability to have a couple emails at the domain name for business related items.
• Be able to have unlimited bandwith, or something that supplies us with enought bandwith for our target market.
  (There's approx 90-100 million users in our target market).
• The target market is mainly in three countries, USA, Asia, Europe.
  So we'd either like to know what webhost could supply each of those contries with our website in a timely manner, or if we would need a separate server in each country?
  (I'm guessing it'll end up being the latter of the two?)
• We will need atleast approximately 200mb of storage space, but would prefer something along the lines of the 4-500mb range.

Those are pretty much what we need out of the website.
I'll have a combination of Javascript,CSS,HTML in the coding if that makes any difference.
We might end up going to a flash site in the future, but have a separate css/html website for those that do not have flash installed on their computers (Assuming that's even possible?).


One host that I had found is WebHostingPad. (Found it on the Webhosting section of AFHB2000.com)
Does anyone know if they will be able to fulfill exactly what we need?
Anyone have any prior experiences (Good or bad) with them?

If WebHostingPad is not a good host to have, could you possibly take the time to suggest a couple that would satisfy the above requirements?

I appreciate you taking the time to
read all of this even if you don't reply.

Cody.

[jthayne]

Typically, I recommend starting with a shared hosting plan and going from there. However, in your case, I recommend going with Slicehost and getting a VPS for starters. One of the bonuses with them is that they are associated with Rackspace which has datacenters in US, UK, and Asia if you find you need additional servers in those locations. However you decide to do it, make sure you start small, but still with what you need. Don't let your eyes get too big at the start.

[codybear]

Thank you for replying!
I will definitely check them out!
Sounds like exactly what I need.

Thanks again!
I love this forum!
(I'm usually in the myspace section)

[HTML]

Hey cody,

Slicehost looks like an excellent choice, actually after taking a look and a little due diligence I think they are on my shortlist for my next host.

My advice is to keep in mind what your purpose is, in this case you want a business presence. I would avoid any and all of the lowball, unlimited type hosts. They serve a purpose, that is a personal or a hobby site. When it comes to running a business it should never be saving a buck because that is all you can afford, it should be about spending the extra buck....because you cannot afford not to.

In the host directory here it may be very limited but I try to give an honest idea of what type of site each host is better suited for.

D

[codybear]

Wow, I haven't been on here in a little while.
Been busy with the setting up the business (everything but the website),
and installing/modding linux on my laptop and desktop.

But thank you HTML. I appreciate the reply!
I will most likely be going with SliceHost.
Thanks for both of your replies!
They're VERY much appreciated!

[HTML]

I signed up last friday, the same day the new vbulletin suite came out. Going to be a busy couple of weeks

Dave

[SamanthaF]

Any webhost can give you all those things you need. You should be able to make your site capable of doing them.
For instance, Yahoo! has a package called small business that can do all those things.

[codybear]

Thanks for all the responses.
I really do appreciate them all.
My partner is slacking in wanting to get this to start, so I might just offer him a percentage of the profit (since we both came up with the idea together and I need his help for just about .001% of the setup) and pursue the business myself since the estimated income is about 2.1 billion if 1/8th of our target market uses our services just once.


Thanks again though. I always point people to this forum along with w3schools when they're wondering about web design and what not.
This website has helped many people, and I hope to be able to help some more people in the myspace section again, although I won't be doing complete profiles like I have been for free. I just can't balance it out with real life, college (going for phd in accounting and masters in business) and working.