OT: Free/cheap web hosting

[Roger Mills]

I maintain a simple web site for the male voice choir to which I belong. We currently use free webspace which goes with a legacy (originally PAYG) Plusnet account. [Since I also have a paid Plusnet account, I can FTP to this webspace without any problems.] The name of the Plusnet account mirrors the name of the choir - well, its initials anyway - so that the URL of the website is of the form

For reasons which I don't need to go into, the choir is about to change its name such that the Plusnet account name is no longer appropriate. As far as I am aware, we cannot change the account name, and hence the URL of the website. Nor can we start again with a new free Plusnet account because PN are not offering them any more.

So we're looking for the cheapest way of hosting a new site. It doesn't need any fancy features - the current one is entirely in HTML and uses less than the 25MB of storage available to PN free sites.

I'm sure that a lot of regulars in this NG are well versed in setting up web sites and finding somewhere to host them. I would appreciate a few ideas as to where to start looking for somewhere to host our site.

[Steve Walker]

Well, not free, but I pay just over £12 every two years for a domain that I can point to my existing webspace, email, etc.

SteveW

[T i m]

Transferred a mates site / email over to TSOHosts:

Main Tech Support in Bulgaria but are very accessible via phone, email or support ticket and they all seem to know what they are doing (like many Eastern European workers). ;-)

I did most of the work with help / advice from some of the good folk here and it went pretty smoothly.

Cheers, T i m

[Bob Eager]

That's OK, but it doesn't always work. If they're running the website on a virtual server, it won't necessarily accept requests directed to a different domain name.

[TimW]

You will want I presume to register the domain

or whatever it is. It's only £10 or £15 a year. You should be able to choose a registrar which will give you free basic hosting with the domain. Sometimes they offer it the other way round, free domain name with the hosting but whatever, it should be very cheap.

I used to run several low cost sites like that. GetSimple was a great CMS that would run in a few MB of web space and didn't need a database.

TW

[Brian Reay]

That approach also has the advantage you can change your ISP, and thus were your website files are, change where the domain 'points to' and those accessing it never even notice.

I forget what I paid for my domain, I think about £70 for 10 years.

The price varies depending on the 'style' (I'm avoiding using the technical terms- forgive me if you know them).

[The Natural Philosopher]

I pay £10 a year for domains and around £100 a year for a VPS that can host dozens of websites.

has webspace at £1.20 per mointh

Its relatively crap, but its cheap.

So is e.g. fasthosts.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Then dont buy from that provider.

Or attempt to accept requests from a domain that isnt yours..

[Dave Liquorice]

He'll need the domain but a VPS is probably over kill. B-)

+1 for the domain. They also do free web space with a domain but possibly only via their templated CMS (Content Management System) rather than free form HTML etc.

Talking of crap, where is my barge pole...

[Andy Burns]

I have no problems with them as domain registrar, dns host and email forwarding.

Not last time I checked, they try to up-sell to their website builder.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well if anyone wants a small website hosted for their domain, now Gridwatch has moved to a new VPS there's plenty of RAM and CPU left on the original VPS.

So what's it worth to anyone? Sftp access...only - unless you have a fixed IP address

Organise your own domain though.

[Bob Eager]

As expected, you miss the point entirely.

Go back to foaming.

[mechanic]

Put the basic website and announcements, events etc., onto WordPress (free accounts) and any email onto a free Gmail account.

[The Natural Philosopher]

No, I dont. I've built more websites than you have well over 100.

No one builds a website that cannot accept valide requests to the domnain for which the website is created

[JoeJoe]

+1 for 10+ years now. Never had any issue.

[Bob Eager]

And you are still missing the point.

[The Natural Philosopher]

"If they're running the website on a virtual server, it won't necessarily accept requests directed to a different domain name."

This is a completely meaningless statement. A website, virtual or otherwise, can be configured to accept (or not) accept any domain name(s) you choose.

Its 'virtuality' is irrelevant.

So what point have I missed?

[Dave Liquorice]

I just use the registrar and DNS, not sure when I moved to them but it is a good few years and never a problem (that I've noticed).

True they do try to up-sell but I think from the basic templated free web hosting. I say I think as one domain I have uses the basic web hosting that I haven't paid for and it works (tried it last night). Might be "legacy" of course.

Google sites is another free templated system but you can hack that about a bit more than 123-reg's offering.

[Reentrant]

A timely thread for me.

For many years SWMBO has run a Google Sites website for a local wildlife group (eg

I registered the domain wlsite.org.uk, and using my existing hosting account simply cPanel alias and redirect that - with and without www - to the Google site.

But now we're moving away from the area and we want to pass on the domain admin someone else, none of whom are hosting-savvy. It simply needs redirecting of the domain name to their Google Site and easy name renewal, ideally for under £10 a year. (No web hosting or email).

My current hosts don't offer that and I can't see any others UK ones who do, though it may not be something they'd clearly advertise, including

123-reg.

"Google Domains" would work for £10 a year, but although they will do .co.uk they don't do .org.uk. Any suggestions please?

[Dave Liquorice]

Well all I use 123-reg for is domain registration (several .co.uk and .uk's) and DNS.

My doamins cost around £10/year. Be aware that 123-reg site quotes ex vat or at least it does for me and I've not found an "inc VAT" button, not that I've looked very had.