Web & Domain Hosting
When I started this blog in 2003, I signed up with kiwiwebhost as my web hosting provider. They were excellent - accounts were set up within minutes, requests were actioned within an hour even on evenings and sundays. They were cheap, at $1 a week (+GST) for 10mb space & 1gb bandwidth, when many other providers were charging $15-25 a month for the same package.
They even sent you a free Whittakers Peanut Slab (good honest chocolate) when you signed up.
I didn't notice any difference in service when in 2004 they were sold to iServe. They continued to offer the same good pricing and good service, and I still happily recommended them to clients and friends. Things do seem to have stagnated a little bit. Their space and traffic on their plans hasn't increased in years, despite both space and bandwidth becoming cheaper, and their versions of php and mysql are a couple of years out of date. Still, they have rock solid hosting and great customer service.
So, it is quite sad that I am now planning on cancelling my kiwiwebhost accounts and moving to another provider. You see, all my sites have outgrown the 10mb allowance, and so I am paying $5 a month for 50mb extra across my sites. I needed additional mysql databases and so I'm paying an extra $1 a month for those as well. This all adds up to over $250 worth of hosting each year, not counting the domain registration costs (and kiwiwebhost charges about average on those - another $250 a year). For that cost, I could upgrade to one of the bigger accounts (or a bigger account with another provider), but they all have limitations on hosting multiple domains (and I now have at least 6 domains).
With some reluctance, I have realised I have outgrown kiwiwebhost and I have decided to switch my web hosting and domain registry to other providers. After much searching through the hosting providers and comparing offerings, I have decided to go with dreamhost.com in the US for my web hosting.
With 200gb space and 2tb traffic (to start with - increases weekly), there is absolutely nothing available in NZ that even comes close to dreamhost. When you throw in true unlimited multidomain hosting on a single account (which most NZ providers don't do), unlimited mysql databases, choice of php 4 or 5 on each domain and just about every other hosting feature you could want, they seem unbeatable. Especially when you get all of that for less than NZ$150 and it can scale to an unlimited number of sites!
The cost depends on how many years you pay for in advance - prepay further and the hosting is cheaper. Of course, there is exchange rate risk - but it still beats any hosting deal available in NZ.
One thing I particularly like is their blogs, the main dreamhost blog and status update blog. When they experience technical glitches or downtime they are very frank about what has happened and what they've done to fix it. They have had some reasonably serious problems - several power failures and network issues, and a billing error that led them to bill lots of their customers for a full year in advance. However, they have fully explained each issue and how it came about (including posting the buggy code that caused it) and explained what they have done to stop it happening again.
They also have a very clever referral program. I get $97 for every person I refer, but if I choose I can give them a discount of up to $50 and keep the other $47. So, if you want a great new hosting provider with $50 off, use the promo code THESIS50 when you sign up
And besides, how could I not like a hosting provider whose server names include absinthe, bourbon, caramello, fudge, kitkat, licorice, ouzo, schnapps, scotch, toffee, toblerone and tequila!