Cheap Web Hosting South Africa


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I currently use iPage for all my hosting. They offer really affordable hosting at $3.50/month (on your innitial signup, min 12months) and often run a $2.95/month special. They offer 24hrs a day technical support via telephone, online chat or email.

Their control panel is easy to use, with one click SimpleScripts software to install wordpress, ecommerce and much much more.

Ipage Features:

  • Unlimited Hosting (hosts multiple sites for the same price)
  • Unlimited Disk Space, Bandwidth & Email Accounts
  • Unlimited Domains Allowed, MySQL Databases
  • FREE Domain
  • FREE Security Suite
  • FREE Site-Building Tools
  • FREE Online Store
  • FREE Google, Yahoo! & Facebook Marketing Credits to the value of $150
  • 24×7 Phone, Chat and Email Support
  • Anytime Money-Back Guarantee
  • GREEN! Powered by 100% wind energy

Click here to visit their site and receive a 50% discount on signup.

Disclosure: I have an affiliate agreement with Ipage and and receive a commission from all new sign-ups.

Best Web Hosting Cape Town


After doing some research and asking friends which webhosts they use, it seems that these 3 webhosts were the ones that were most recommended:

 

Gridhost:
A sound company with affordable packages starting from R8.95/month. They have fast robust servers, 24hr technical support, fanatastico one click software installs and a 30 day money back guarantee. They also offer an ADSL prepaid and postpaid service. Click here to view their latest web hosting specials.

 

Texo:
Texo has 3 main packages, starting from R40/month. They are an all in one shop offering, web hostings, web design and domain registration. They have special packages for wordpress sites, offer reseller hosting, excellent customer support, fast and reliable servers, easy to use control panel and 90 day money back guarantee. Click here to view their latest web hosting specials.

 

Afrihost:
Well established company with packages starting from R9/month. Offering double money back guarantee, solid reliable network and no contracts. Afrihost also provide ADSL broadband packages.

How To Choose A Good Web Host


It’s virtually impossible to say how many new website are uploaded on a daily basis, but given the demand for web hosting you have to imagine that the number is very high. It’s not everyone that is aware of the difference between a good web host and a bad. It’s not until they have paid that they realize that a feature they need to make their site work properly isn’t included in their hosting package, or requires that they pay more. Here are some things to look for when it comes to choosing a web host for your site:

  • Storage space – the average site uses less than 5mb of space, but if you are planning on expanding your site, or having one that includes a large number of media files, then you may want to give yourself some room to grow.
  • Bandwidth allowance – some web hosts, especially those which are free, place a limit on your bandwidth, which means that visitors may see nothing if you have exceeded your limit. Try to gauge what your traffic will be like, and pick your bandwidth accordingly.
  • Reliability and speed – the success of your website can often rely on the speed and reliability of the server that it is hosted on. It’s imperative to find a host that guarantees a minimum of 99.5% uptime.
  • Advertising – this is usually only an issue if you go with free webhosting, as those companies usually require your site to show a banner advertising their services.
  • Technical support – if you run across a web hosting company that does not offer technical support 24/7/365, then run the other way. There should always be someone available to take your call, no matter when problems strike.
  • FTP, PHP, Perl, SSI, .htaccess, telnet, SSH, MySQL, crontabs – you don’t have to know what all of those items are to understand that you need a host that has all of these. There will be times when you may need to add scripts etc. to your site, and not having all of these available may not make that possible.
  • Site security (SSL secure server) – this is especially important if you plan on selling products on your website, especially if you are going to be accepting credit cards.
  • Email, Autoresponders, POP3, Mail Forwarding – you can make your site seem much more professional by having an e-mail address that matches your domain name. That’s not enough though, and you want to be sure that your web host allows you to set up autoresponder return e-mails, and will also forward all correspondence to your main e-mail account.
  • Control panel – this is the area where you can control every element of your website quickly and easily. Web hosts that do not have a cpanel can become a logistical nightmare to keep under control.
  • Multiple Domain Hosting and Subdomains – this is essential if you are contemplating having multiple websites on the same server, or are even planning on selling web space.
  • Server (Window or Linux) – a Windows server is required if you are running Active Server Pages (ASP), but if not you can opt for an Apache server which tends to be a little more stable.
  • Payment plans – many web hosts quote a price with an asterisk beside it, and that is because the amount they are showing is based on an annual contract. Check the exact rates for monthly, quarterly and annual hosting, as you could save money by paying for a long term service.
  • Resellers? – there are many sites that are actually just reselling space on another companies server, and that could mean that you end up having difficulty getting good technical support, so be sure to order carefully.