• Disk Space: 600 GB
• Monthly Bandwith: 6000 GB/month
• Unlmited MySQL Databases

E-mail

• E-mail addresses: Unlimited
• Webmail Interface
• Spam filtering
• POP/IMAP/SMTP

Domains

• Unlimited Subdomains

Programming

• PHP 4/5
• Perl 5
• Python
• Ruby on Rails
• Frontpage
• Image Magick
• Curl
• And more!

Other Features

• Many automatic CMS installs available (
• Multiple Site Stats Tools
• RatePoint Customer Feedback Tool
• Backups
• Shopping cart and SSL Support

Support

• E-mail support
• Toll Free Phone Support
• Live chat system
• 45 Day Money Back Guarantee

CMS Hosting Perspective

HostGator, as it promises, provides very low cost hosting with a broad spectrum of useful features making it appropriate for lightweight CMS use. As always, using a shared hosting provider comes with performance compromises, but HostGator does offer a very generous 45 day money back guarantee, which will allow you to test and see if its right for you without much risk. Of particular interest is the broad support for programming languages and environments offered. If you trying for some more advanced applications, such as those that process images, HostGator might be a good choice for you since it offers libraries such as Image Magic. Overall, HostGator is one of the better values available for hosting your next CMS driven site. Check out their various offer here

• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Ease of Use: 3.0
• Features: 3.0
• Customer Service: 2.5
• Performance: 3.5
• Value for Money: 3.0

PowWeb is another hosting company with a lot to offer. To make things easy, they offer a simple “One Plan” for shared hosting that offers a good variety of features designed to suit most users. Here is how these features break down:

Basic Resources

• Disk Space: 1500 GB
• Monthly Bandwith: 1500 GB/month
• 75 MySQL Databases

E-mail

• E-mail addresses: Unlimited
• Webmail Interface
• Spam filtering
• POP/IMAP/SMTP

Domains

• Unlimited Subdomains

Programming

• Frontpage Extensions
• PHP 4/5 with Zend Optimiizer
• Sendmail
• Perl 5

Marketing Features

• $30 Google Adwords Voucher
• $50 Yahoo Search Marketing Voucher
• SSL

Other Features

• Many automatic CMS installs available (
• Site Stats Tool
• RatePoint Customer Feedback Tool

Support

• E-mail support
• Toll Free Phone Support
• Live chat system
• 30 Day Money Back Guarantee

CMS Hosting Perspective
Overall, PowWeb offers a very nice cross section of features for users. They support the latest version of PHP, with the Zend optimizer, which helps keep applications such a CMSs running smoothly. There servers are loaded balanced, which should ensure that your your site is able to run as fast as possible at all time. In addition, their automatic install script includes many popular CMS systems, such as Wordpress, phpBB, Joomla, Mambo, and more. This makes it easy to get up and running quickly with PowWeb hosting. At such a low price (as low a $5.77 a month, depending on the contract, PowWeb is definitely offering a good cross section of features at a very attractive price. Check them out.

• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Ease of Use: 2.5
• Features: 2.0
• Customer Service: 2.5
• Performance: 2.5
• Value for Money: 2.0

Dotster, like Go Daddy , is well known for its domain registration services. However, also like Go Daddy, they offer some hosting packages as well. They offer both Linux and Windows hosting plans, so those who need certain Windows features will have a good option with Dotster. Here is a summary of their features, based on the standard Linux package (as low as $7.95 a month). Check out their website for more hosting options.

Basic Resources

• Disk Space: 10 GB
• Monthly Bandwith: 5oo GB
• 10 MySQL Databases
• Option of either Windows or Linux operating systems

E-mail

• E-mail addresses: 150
• Webmail Interface
• Spam filtering
• POP/SMTP

Domains

• Host Up to 50 Domains
• Unlimited Subdomains

Programming

• Frontpage Extensions
• PHP 5
• Perl

Other Features

• Many automatic CMS installs available (
• Site Stats Tool
• Many other pre-installed tools
• Site Builder Script

Support

• E-mail support

CMS Hosting Perspective

Overall, Dotster offers a pretty basic package without much to distinguish it from the competition. You can get more disk space, bandwith, and features with other offers. However, they may be a good option if you get a good deal with a registration transfer, or have simple needs. For serious CMS driven sites, though, I might suggest looking for a more feature rich provided.

• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Ease of Use: 2.0
• Features: 3.0
• Customer Service: 4.0
• Performance: 4.0
• Value for Money: 3.0

Go Daddy is well known as a domain registration company, but they are also a web hosting provider as well. As with most other hosting companies, they offer several tiers of hosting plans, each with their own special set of features. They are also notable for offering both Windows and Linux based plans, so those who prefer using Windows servers and .NET technologies will have a good option with Go Daddy. Here is a breakdown of the features offered, based on the Deluxe $6.99 a month shared hosting plan.

Basic Resources

• Disk Space: 100 GB
• Monthly Bandwith: 1ooo GB
• 25 MySQL Databases (Windows and Linux plans)
• 2 MS SQL Databases (Windows)
• Option of either Windows or Linux operating systems

E-mail

• E-mail addresses: 1000
• Disk Space: 10 MB
• Webmail Interface
• Auto-Responder and Forwarding
• Spam and Virus protection

Domains

• Unlimited domains hosting
• Unlimited Subdomains

Programming

• Windows Plans
  • FrontPage Extensions
  • ASP
  • ASP.NET v1.0/2.0
  • ASP.NET AJAX
  • ColdFusion
• Linux Plans
  • Server Side Includes
  • Frontpage Extensions
  • PHP 4/5
  • Perl with FastCGI
  • Python CGI
  • Java
  • Ruby CGI
  • Ruby on Rails w/ Fast CGI
  • ColdFusion for $1.99 / month

Marketing Tools

• $25 AdWords Credit
• $50 Microsoft AdCenter Credits

Other Features

• Many automatic CMS installs available
• Cron Jobs (Linux)
• Site Stats Tool
• Many other pre-installed tools

Support

• 24/7 phone and e-mail support
• Getting Started Guide
• Go Daddy Hosting Connection (useful tools)

CMS Hosting Perspective

Go Daddy offers fairly typical cross section of features for a shared hosting provider. A few areas that immediately stand out, though, is the very low monthly price it offers with such a low commitment. To get the low price with many hosting companies, you need to subscribe for a long period of time, typically a year. In Go Daddy’s case, you can pay only $7 a month with the option to cancel at any time.

As for the ability to host a CMS, I would highly recommend choosing the Linux hosting option so you can get PHP. There are some CMSs written in .NET, but not nearly as many. Go Daddy, with their Hosting Connection package, offers free, easy installs a a large number of CMSs. One potential issue is the fact that the Deluxe plan only gives you 25 MySQL databases. If you need more than this, consider going with one of their upgraded plans.

As always, if you need more performance than you can get from shared hosting, consider a virtual private hosting or dedicated hosting package. Go Daddy offers both options, at very reasonable prices. Check them out here.

• Overall Rating: 2.9
• Ease of Use: 3.3
• Features: 3.3
• Customer Service: 2.6
• Performance: 3.3
• Value for Money: 3.4

Yahoo Web Hosting offers quality web hosting from one of the most respected players on the internet. Because of their unique position as one of the leading businesses on the internet, they are able to offer some features and services that few others can. The following is a basic breakdown of the general features they offer. Please check each individual plan to make sure you’re getting the features you want before signing up.

Basic Resources

• Disk space: 5-20GB
• Bandwidth: 200-500GB/month
• Virtually unlimited MySQL databases
• Runs on stable, secure Free BSD operating system

E-Mail

• POP and SMTP e-mail
• E-mail addresses: 200-500
• Web based e-mail access
• Spam Guard/Norton Anti-Virus

Domains

• Free domain name
• Subdomains: 100-500

Programming

• PHP version 4.2.11
• Perl version 5.8.7
• MySQL 4.1.12
• Supports FrontPage and DreamWeaver

Marketing Tools

• Automatic Submission to Yahoo and Google Search
• $100 Yahoo Search Marketing credit
• $50 Google Adwords credit
• Other free trials and offers

Other Features

• Site snapshots for reliable backup
• Supports multiple blogging and CMS systems with quick installs (Wordpress, Movable Type, PHP Nuke, and more)
• Detailed Site Statistics Package

Support

• 24 hour tool free phone support
• Online help center
• Getting started guides and videos

CMS Hosting Perspective
Yahoo Web Hosting offers a solid hosting package at a reasonable price. The features they offer are especially appealing if you are a small business owner looking to establish an online presence, as Yahoo is very geared in both its feature set and philosophy towards these types of customers. The advertising vouchers and e-commerce tools available make it an ideal choice for small businesses and others. Yahoo is a very trusted name in the industry, so you know that you are not dealing with a fly-by-night operation.

As for the technical side of things, Yahoo is fairly competitive, but does not offer too much beyond the basics. One possible drawback is that it currently only seems to support PHP 4, which is getting to be a little out of date. However, a very large number of applications will run fine in this environment. Like others, Yahoo offers an automatic install feature for popular web platforms such as Wordpress, Movable Type, and PHP Nuke. These automatic installers are sure to prove themselves as time savers for those who use these quality platforms. However, Yahoo does lack some of the more exotic features such as e-mail list management, and support for languages beyond PHP and Perl. However, those who are looking for a very reliable hosting platform from an established company should consider Yahoo Web Hosting

• Overall Rating: 1.8
• Ease of Use: 1.5
• Features: 1.8
• Customer Service: 1.5
• Performance: 1.3
• Value for Money: 1.5

DreamHost is a very popular shared hosting provider that has many attractive features at a low price. Here is a list describing the basic features available to you.

Core Resources

• Disk Storage at signup: 500 GB
• Automatically Increases Weekly By: 2 GB
• Monthly Bandwidth at signup: 5.0 TB
• Automatically Increases Weekly By: 40 GB
• MySQL 5 Databases: Unlimited
• Operating System: Debian Linux

User Accounts

• E-Mail Accounts (POP/IMAP): Unlimited
• Full Shell / FTP Users: Unlimited

E-Mail

• POP / SMTP Access : Yes
• IMAP Access: Yes
• Web-Based Email Access: Yes
• Procmail Mail Filtering : Yes
• Spam Filtering - SpamAssassin: Yes
• Email Addresses (Aliases): Unlimited
• Announcement Lists: Unlimited
• Discussion Lists: Unlimited
• Vacation Auto-Responders: Unlimited

Domains

• Free Domain Registration (A $9.95 Value!): Yes
• Free Domain WHOIS Privacy: Yes
• Domains Hosted: Unlimited
• Subdomains Hosted : Unlimited
• Domains Forwarded/Mirrored: Unlimited
• Custom DNS: Yes

Programming

• PHP4 Support: Yes
• PHP5 Support: Yes
• Full Unix Shell: Yes
• Crontab Access: Yes
• Full CGI Access: Yes
• Ruby On Rails: Yes
• Canned CGI Scripts: Yes
• Server Side Includes (SSI): Yes
• CVS Repository: Yes
• Subversion Repository (SVN): Yes

Advanced Features

• SSL Secure Server (req. Unique IP): Yes
• Enhanced Web Security: Yes
• WebDAV: Yes
• Snapshot Data Backup: Yes
• Daily Access Statistics: Yes
• Access to raw log files: Yes
• Banner-Free DreamBook.com account: Yes
• Passworded Directories (.htaccess): Yes
• RealAudio and Video (http stream): Yes
• QuickTime Streaming: Yes
• Anonymous FTP Server (req. unique IP): Yes
• Jabber TM Chat Server: Yes
• One-Click Automatic Software Installers:
• WordPress, phpBB, Advanced Poll, ZenCart, MediaWiki, Joomla, Gallery, WebCalendar Yes

Support

• 24 hour Technical Support (E-Mail): Yes
• 97-day money-back guarantee: Yes
• Web-Based Account Control Panel: Yes
• The DreamHost Wiki: Yes
• The DreamHost Forum: Yes

CMS Hosting Perspective

There are a lot of features listed above, but there are a few that stick out for those looking to host a CMS. First of all, for those who are inexperienced, they have easy, one click installs for several popular CMSs (Wordpress, Joomla, Moodle, and more). This makes it easy to get up and running quickly with a basic site. Additionally, DreamHost offers unlimited MySQL databases. Since pretty much every CMS will use at least one database, this provides plenty of room for growth and experimentation. Other nice features include the ability to choose which version of PHP you want to run. PHP is the most common language for CMSs (as well as most other web applications), so you can be sure that you’re running a compatible version.
DreamHost also supports Ruby on Rails, another web framework which has become popular in past years.

Other features, such as full SSH shell access and the ability to manage e-mail lists without an outside tool, make
DreamHost very attractive for the price. However, if you choose one of their shared hosting plans, there are a few things to keep in mind concerning performance. Since the web server and the database server are being shared by many people, performance suffers somewhat, which may be an issue if you’re launching a very high traffic or database intensive site. For people like this, DreamHost offers dedicated hosting plans which gives you your own server, with all of the great features listed above (and many more). Whatever your hosting needs are,
DreamHost is sure to fit the bill.

• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Ease of Use: 2.4
• Features: 2.4
• Customer Service: 1.8
• Performance: 1.8
• Value for Money: 1.8

However, due to the technology involved in deploying these CMSs, not all web hosting providers will perform well. This site provides a guide to various web hosting services from the the perspective of a CMS user. Users can submit reviews detailing their experiences with different hosting providers, and how well they performed when used with a CMS. Please read around to find the best hosting provider solution for your unique needs.