Finding and choosing a good web host is a very confusing activity. There are many of them out there, as well as many sites purporting to provide reviews of the hosts, but actually just running affiliate programs.
Icdsoft since 2001
We were lucky to receive a recommendation for ICDSoft in 2001 from a friend and have had no regrets since. I occasionally look around for other hosts or look at forums for real reviews. Icdsoft always have positive reviews. Comments made about some other hosts make one glad to have found a good one! Looking at other hosts websites – some simply give a bad first impression and I don’t even bother going further. I also like their professional style especially when compared to hosts such as godaddy.com. I have explored some popular ones further and then come back to Icdsoft after the frustration of the others hosts mechanisms, or lack of features.
I have yet to find a better combination of services and the price is reasonable. Prices start from around US$72 or UK Pounds 72 for European servers.
Uptime
I have had no performance problems that could be attributed to them – yes to my local ISP! or to the damaged undersea cable, but not to Icdsoft. They are also one of the few to be very transparent about their uptime status:
Sure Support
Their support is great too. They usually respond within minutes! Support is via web and email, however so good when I have had a query, that this has been infinitely better than hanging on the end of a phone line Once when the undersea cable between Australia and Japan was damaged and much Australian web traffic was slowed down, ICDSOFT moved our websites promptly to the US, to make for speedier access from Australia. Access from elsewhere in the world was not affected.
Server Locations
For many hosting services, it is only if you specifically ask that you discover the servers are not where you think they are. ICDSoft allows you to choose your servers location. Their servers are in various places, but not Australia. The other Australian hosts that I have had dealing siwth also do not have servers in Australia. Since 2001 this has not been an issue.
Location and local SEO?
If you have a non local domain name (eg: .com) and you wish to rank locally in say UK and Australia, then this managed via the search engine webmaster tools. One simply tells Google how to “localise” your website. I will do this for you as part of our arrangement. Of course, there is also the Google local business centre.
Summary of Good Points:
- Excellent features (functionality, domain parking, subdomains, email address, ftp access etc).
- Excellent tools (control panel, phpMyAdmin, Statistics) to maintain your site
- Webmail and pop3 email etc.
- Great support – any queries have been turned around within minutes.
- Uptime – never noticed any down time in 5 years.
No bad points, but some minor points to note:
- Billing is in US dollars or UK Pounds, so there may be some price variation due to exchange rate movement. However the hosting prices are so reasonable that this is hardly worth mentioning. One can always pay ahead for the next year or two to lock in the cost. If you have a package arrangement with me, this is not your worry!
- ICDSoft do not sell domain names other than the first .com domain name associated with the hosting. Of course you can buy and point other domains to it easily, so again this is a minor point. If I am managing your package, this will be transparent to you anyway
Arrange hosting yourself
If you wish, you can of course arrange the hosting yourself.
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