6 of the Best Shared Web Hosting Plans

Choosing a good web host can be a confusing task. There's a seemingly interminable number of options, each boasting their own set of features and price points. It's important to a choose a reputable company, considering you will be trusting both your credit card number and your website to it.

Below is a list of 6 web hosts that received mostly positive reviews, complete with their lowest-level plan and some notable features.

A few terms/notes to keep in mind:

Storage space: The amount of data you can store on your website at any given time. Unless you plan on storing a number of audio/videos, or thousands of pictures, 1gb (gigabyte) should be plenty. Also worth mentioning is that 1000 mb (megabytes) = approximately 1 gb. Unlimited is always nice, but realize there's not such thing as truly unlimited storage.

Bandwidth: The amount of data that can be transferred between your website and your website's visitors within a given month. Again, it depends on your content but 10gb should be plenty for websites that aren't too media oriented.

Domain: A domain is the actual address, like something.com . It usually costs about $10/year for a .com address, so keep that in mind for hosting that includes a free domain.

Operating system: unless you're running Window-based scripts on your website (ASP.net, etc), linux hosting will generally be cheaper and easier to manage. It has nothing to do with what your own operating system is.

Best finds, sorted by lowest price:

FatCow.com- $3.67/month (50% discount included in link, based on a year prepaid), unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth. Offers free domain, Offers easy-install scripts, unlimited MySQL databases, PHP 4 and 5, unlimited email addresses, 30 day money back guarantee, "green hosting". Editor's choice.

Simplyhosting.net - starting at $4.17/month (based on a year prepaid), 1 gb storage, 10 gb bandwidth. Offers easy-install scripts, 5 MySQL databases, 5 addon domains, PHP, unlimited email addresses, 30 money back guarantee.

Superb Hosting - starting at $5.99/month (based on a year prepaid), 20gb of storage, unlimited bandwidth. Offers easy-install scripts, 5 MySQL databases, PHP 5, 10 additional domains, 30 day money back guarantee. Link includes three months free coupon! (based on a year prepaid)

Hostgator.com - starting at $6.95/month (based on a year prepaid), unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth. Offers easy-install scripts, unlimited MySQL databases, unlimited subdomains, unlimited email addresses, 45 day money back guarantee, "green hosting".

inmotion hosting- starting at $6.95/month (based on a year prepaid; there are certain entry-level plans starting at $3/month), 100 gb storage, 1000 gb bandwidth. Offers easy-install scripts, email addresses. Doesn't seem to offer as many features as the other hosts at the same price.

Lunarpages.com - starting at $8.95/month (based on a year prepaid), unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth. Offers easy-install scripts, unlimited MySQL databases, PHP, unlimited addon domains, unlimited subdomains, unlimited email addresses, 30 day money back guarantee.

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