Web hosting revisited

[arthurk]

It's a while since this topic was aired here, and as I'm looking for a hosting company at present I thought I'd start a thread to get some up-to-date opinions.

I'm looking for a host for a small site with family photos, using pages I've designed myself (HTML only, nothing fancy). I can't see myself needing more than 100MB of space for a very long time, so I think it ought to be possible to do this for under about £25 pa. I'd like it to be on a server in the UK, and I'd like to have full POP3/SMTP email facilities, and preferably the option to register a domain with the same company.

I have experience of managing a site with cPanel, but I've always found it rather clunky and not very intuitive. From looking at demos, the DirectAdmin and Extend control panels seem rather easier to use, so I'd really prefer one of those, or another similar one.

I'm also concerned about the long-term reliability of the hosting company, as among other things I'd hope to entrust it with most of my email traffic. So I'd really like something reasonably well established and financially pretty stable, rather than a geek running a reseller package from a corner of his bedroom. First impressions matter to me, and I've already rejected a few which might otherwise have suited me on the grounds of unprofessional-looking sites or poor use of the English language. Fussy, moi?

Any ideas and suggestions would be welcome.

Arthur

[Rove]

Hi arthurk

I totally recommend FreeWebs. Its not a UK based server but very good.
No hassles. Hardly any Adds and no Popups. You get 50 MBs for free or 400 MBs if you decide to pay $39.

Over the past 13 years I've tried many. Tried them all and had close to 40 sites.
Presently I have 7 Sites at Freewebs and shall forever stay with them. I do pay for only one Site and that was my choice only recently.

I only use HTML. You can select their own format if you wish so. You should give them a try. Its free

Here's one of my sites. (www).freewebs.com/skaubryn

[arthurk]

Thanks for the suggestion - however, I'm afraid I forgot to say yesterday that I'm looking for a totally ad-free hosting option. This is a major reason why I want to run my own photo site, otherwise I'd just be using something like Photobucket. I'm happy to pay a reasonable amount for this, but the cheapest ad-free option at Freewebs looks like more than I would need.

Arthur

[Sikes]

I've used http:
//krystal.co.uk/web-hosting-uk/ without any problems for a few years now.

[arthurk]

Thanks for that. I'd forgotten this thread and should probably have written again to say I'd made a decision. I settled on Birch Hosting, which seemed to have all I was looking for and decent reviews, and so far it's worked well.

Arthur