Hosting Ref has updated their list of top sites for 2009. InMotion Hosting won the #1 spot again. Hosting Ref reviews and rates web hosting services.

Everyone of the hosting sites that made the top ten cost less than $7 a month, and many of the offered unlimited bandwidth. If you’re looking for budget hosting, their #2 spot was Web Hosting Pad costing just $3.96 a month. You can’t get much cheaper than that for server space.

Hosting Ref has the side by side comparison they have on the main page, but also does an extensive review for each site. One thing I think they have added since last year is their customer reviews. Besides hearing what Hosting Ref has to say, you can see what the general audience is saying. Reviewers rate several categories, and can also submit written feedback. This makes the reviews way more credible to me.

I admittidly don’t use any of the hosts that Hosting Ref mentions, but I like to check it out occasionally to see what I am missing. I have been using the same old company for eleven years now.

Tools bandwidth, hosting, hosting ref, server

The makers of Bosscart saw my previous post about BossCart, and wanted to let me know that they have it on a second domain in the UK, Ecommerce Shopping Basket Software.

Comparing the two sites, I actually like the UK one a lot better. The dot com one is stuff with a lot of content for reading, and who does that. The UK site offers plenty of visual reprensentations that gives the same points quickly and easily. Another big selling point of BossCart is the number of high quality, and  free ecommerce templates they have to offer. Comparing the two sites the dot com one has just one text link, and the UK one has a number of  screenshots of the templates. I am guessing the UK site sells more. Which site do you think would do better?

Tools, Websites and Blogs bosscart, ecommerce, free, templates, uk

Live in the UK, and are in need of a web host? VelnetWeb may be the answer for you, especially if you like paying only £2.40 per month, Website Hosting UK. Getting your choice of having your site on a Linux or Windows server also eliminates the moaner complaint about which one you like best.

Plans Available

VelnetWeb has a variety of plans to choose from:

• Velnet Starter Plan
• Velnet Basic Plan
• Velnet Premium Plan
• Velnet Business Plan

The plans range in price from the starters plan of just £29.00 per year to the Business plan of £150.00 a year. Looking at the most robust package, the Business Plan, the prices is still pretty reasonable. In the U.S. your looking at just over $200 for a year. Some of the notable items on that plan is 40 pop3 emails accounts plus 60 alias email accounts, 6GB of data transfer per month,  and 400 MB of data storage.  Depending on your site, 6GB of data transfer should be able to handle a few hundred customers visiting a day.

User Interface and Quality of Service

You manage the server using cPanel. They offer Joomla so you can pretty much build a site using their software, Editable Websites. They also offer SSL Certificates, and same day setup. Two key factors I look for when picking a web host. An easy to find phone number on site, and 24/7 support. VelnetWeb offers both.

VelnetWeb has been around since 2004, and when it comes to hosting companies this is important. You don’t want your host to vanish in the blink of an eye. VelnetWeb has not only been around for a long time, but has been rapidly growing, especially in recent months.

Tools cpanel, editiable websites, joomla, velnet, web hosting

Have the know how on how to build a website? Don’t have the know how on building a retail site with a shopping cart? Don’t worry, most don’t, and those that do know how, know that someone else has already built a platform that you can use for free. Welcome to Boss Cart, your ecommerce shopping cart solution.

One of the reasons I like Bosscart is because it has a free version. If you have a small site, or just a few products, it’s hardly worth spending thousands on a premium shopping cart. That would be an especially painful purchase if you don’t even end up liking it. You can get BossCart for free, and all you have to do is give them a little credit with a text link.

Here are some of their selling points:

• Easy to set up
• Template driven for easy customisation
• Search engine friendly pages
• Search engine friendly images
• Support raw flash movies as images
• Built in CRM system
• Upload multiple products at the same time
• No limit to number of items you can sell
• Integrates with all UK payment provider gateways
• Money off web hosting from leading hosting companies
• Free technical support

Currently Boss Cart supports hundreds of sites using their free version. Boss Cart also comes in a more premium version, meaning paid. The premium version comes with a stack of additional items. It has lots of additional items to really customize for your site, and comes with a more robust store management interface. The premium version additionaly has some extra fraud prevention.

Easy to use software, and if you are a webmaster (not in need of this software), but might have an audience that is in need, Boss Cart now has an affiliate program selling the premium version.  For more information about the affiliate program see their Reseller label shopping cart page.

Tools affiliate, boss cart, ecommerce, shopping cart, software