Location can be a big factor when choosing your web hosting company. First off, if your web hosting data center is close to your area, speed and site loading times can be significantly faster. Also, it can be more convenient doing business with a web hosting company that is nearby in your area. Here in Southern California, we have a number of quality web hosting companies that I either currently use or have used in the past. Here is a look at three of the most established web hosts in So Cal and how they compare against each other.
DreamHost
Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, DreamHost may be the most well-known web host in So Cal. They offer a wide variety of hosting services including shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting, VPS, Dedicated Servers, and Cloud Hosting.
I’ve been using DreamHost for almost a year now. Overall they’ve been pretty good. There are some things I’m not that crazy about. First, I’m not really a fan of their control panel interface. Because its text based, it’s often difficult to find what you’re looking for. Also, many of the options you click on are merely upsells where you need to pay for that service—though you really can’t tell that when navigating.
As far as performance goes, email seems to frequently be slow. And even my website performance seems a bit slower lately. I should note that I’m using one of their shared hosting plans and DreamHost’s upscale packages probably deliver higher performance. I would say DreamHost is best suited for more advanced web masters that are looking for a more advanced hosting plan.
InMotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting has been my go to web hosting company since 2009. They started the business in 2001 and are headquartered in Los Angeles, CA—with data centers in Los Angeles, CA and Ashburn, VA. Everything from my website performance to customer support has been great. InMotion specializes in affordable business hosting as well as VPS and Dedicated Servers.
I find using InMotion Hosting as a web master is very convenient. Not only do you get cPanel as your interface, you also get access to their Account Management Panel to handle your customer account activities. The support at InMotion is always outstanding–with very helpful and friendly tech support people. And, it’s worth noting that InMotion Hosting has always come in first in all of my customer support response tests.
My websites at InMotion always perform well and I’ve not had to worry about downtimes. Likewise, email performance is excellent. InMotion prides themselves on using the latest top level hardware. They are constantly striving to improve their hardware and data infrastructure. And their Max Speed Zone Technology is worth checking out.
One of the advantages of having InMotion Hosting in Los Angeles is that I’ve actually been able to visit their data center and see first-hand the quality of their hardware and how things work at their facility—they also have a data center back east.
I recommend InMotion Hosting for all levels of website owners—particularly business websites.
Lunarpages
Lunarpages was actually the very first hosting company I used way back when. They started business in 1998 and are based in Anaheim, CA—with data centers in California, Nevada, and Arizona. Initially, they were great and I had no problems. Somewhere down-the-line though, whether it was due to unforeseen rapid growth or some other reason, performance started to decline. My website performance wasn’t as good and their customer support not as helpful. Eventually, I did leave Lunarpages.
That was many years ago. Since then, Lunarpages has completely revamped their hosting lineup, as well as expanded their data facilities. The result looks to be an improved and well-managed company that offers hosting for beginners to more advanced websites.
Here’s a side by side comparison of features:
- Started in 1997
- Shared Hosting
- DreamPress WordPress Hosting
- VPS Hosting
- Dedicated Hosting
- Cloud Hosting
- 97 Day Money Back Guarantee
- Started in 2001
- Max Speed Zone Technology
- Top Hardware Including SSD Drives
- cPanel Interface
- Fast Customer Support Response Time
- Business Class Hosting
- VPS Hosting
- Dedicated Hosting
- Free Data Backup and Restore
- 90 Day Money Back Guarantee
- Started in 1998
- Shared Hosting
- Windows Hosting
- Business Hosting
- Dedicated Hosting
- Scalable Cloud Hosting
- Managed Hosting Available
- 30 Day Money Back Guarantee
