Your Website Needs a Home
October 8th, 2008 by Clay
photo credit: dichohecho
Ever wonder where your website lives? It’s made up of images, HTML files, and database records, but where are all of those things? They are all stored on a computer somewhere. That computer is controlled by a company that you purchase hosting space from. There area literally thousands (if not tens of thousands) of companies that offer hosting, but some big names you might recognize are GoDaddy, Network Solutions, and LunarPages. The reason you need a host is that the demands placed on a computer that is hosting a website can’t be met by the computer sitting on your desk right now.
When I design a website for a customer, I frequently get asked if I have any recommendations for a host. Up until recently, I have recommended that people sign up with GoDaddy. And I still think they are a good option. The service is reliable, and unless you are doing something out of the ordinary with your site their setup is going to serve you well.
The one thing I’ve never really liked about GoDaddy is that their interface is overwhelming. It’s so much information, and they really try to upsell you a lot of services that you will probably never use. So I was absolutely delighted to discover Mosso. While there are some technical features that I like about Mosso, the real compelling advantage is their interface.
With GoDaddy I had setup a page of my site to walk customers through purchasing hosting on GoDaddy. Unless they gave me their credit card number (which I absolutely did not want), they had to go through the complicated steps themselves. Mosso makes things a little easier. I can enter all of the information for a client myself. Then I send them a simple link to secured site where they can enter their credit card information.
It’s easier on both me and my customers. Mosso isn’t perfect. I wish they gave me a little more control over DNS records… I’m probably getting a little geekier than you really care about. Suffice to say I feel like Mosso is a great hosting solution that I will be recommending to my customers.
