A Review of Some Common Design/Development Host Sites on the Web

This article aims at providing rich information about a few host sites on the internet, throwing more light on their popularity among web designs and development services.

Come for the better rates, but don’t stay for the tech support. www.godaddy.com

At godaddy.com they received a lot of positive feedback for fair rates for web hosting but users complained the most about the lack of adequate IT support, and an overly complicated system both on the website and in trying to deal with people via the phone for technical support and administrative issues. Users also described a site that is cluttered and difficult to navigate, with a lot of popup advertisements and encouragements to upgrade their account.

Simple effective service- just the basics with nothing fancy. www.hostgator.com

This summarizes the lion’s share of customer reviews, with many supporters and naysayers as well. People reported very reasonable rates, excellent customer service and IT support, and a site that is user friendly and offers people the kind of package that is right for them, without trying to sell them any extras. Hostgator seems to be competent in terms of offering basic hosting for Web design and Web development services to the public.

Those who like it swear by it. www.justhost.com

This Web design and Web development provider has some users that swear by the company, quoting fair rates, good technical support, and stable efficient service. However, there are also those who speak of being billed without having their website or other service activated on time, a lot of “run around” in trying to contact customer service. Those who found the services helpful are not complaining, but for some the lack of quick reliable service experienced here may be enough to encourage some to take their needs else where.

A mixed bag for customers... www.bluehost.com
Here is another provider that some promote readily, but many found themselves dissatisfied by the hosting opportunities provided by Bluehost. The most common issues quoted were lack of efficient and helpful customer service, and lots of server crashes/ downtime, and false advertising claims regarding the “unlimited” space that is advertised in some packages. Users reported that they found themselves quickly in need of upgrades, and complained that Bluehost could not meet their needs on time.


There are some customers who are happy with their current providers, and many who have reported a lot issues. Since Hostgator had the best connections to India and the best overall ratings by consumers, it may speak well of Indian Web development/ Indian Web design.

Don’t put Schezuan Sauce in an Italian Pizza - A Web Design rant

While I love Schezuan sauce a lot and use it on all my Chinese cooking, still I would not like to put that on top of an  Italian Pizza, they are a completely different style of dishes and don’t go well together. It will make less of a Pizza and not even a proper Chinese dish either. Same is the case with web design.

While that nice flipflop colors may look great on some other site you have visited, but that may not be best suited for your website. Now a days, I see a increasing trend in buyers vision for their new sites is to have all the nice features and widgets they have seen on all sites ever visited, jumbled up together in their site to make their site more attractive. Well that does not work and actually goes a long way in making the site a joke. Every site has unique context and purpose and the style, colors and features should reflect that purpose rather than having every flashy widget they see on the web in their site. 

Sometime back I was working with a medical practitioner for her personal site to grow her business. I had suggested her lighter and sober colors and style to reflect a peaceful ambience and welcoming tone. The buyer instead was adamant that she wants the site in Black. She had recently visited a hip/hop rock music site with a full black design and liked it very much and wanted to use that as a design base for her site. While a shiny black site with high contrast yellow and greens may be a great theme for rockstar site but its definitely a misfit for a medical practitioner. As expected that turned out to be pretty bad design and visitors of the site will no doubt get irked by the color sense of the designer.