Urgh, need a good web hosting site!

<p>Alright so I like many of us on here have always had a passion for photography, and about 3 (?) years ago decided to actually start a photography business. I started out with a website not made for photographers at all, and then stumbled across "Photobiz". Can I just say, I've been with them for over a 2 years now and I'm not impressed. It's generally the same 3 templates with different colors. Not to mention I've seen the same flash templates for sale online. Their shopping cart is ridiculous. The set it up doesn't match the actual websites and it looks terrible. They don't have a great storage capacity unless you want to pay an arm and a leg. I've looked into a few other sites like "clickbooq.com" and "bludomain.com" and this other site that I DO like called "showitfast.com", but I'm wondering if there are any other options. I'm willing to pay a monthly fee, but I don't want to have to pay an arm and a leg. It wold be awesome if it had a shopping cart so I don't have to go off of the site for that, but if it doesn't that's okay. I just want a sleek, elegant website that allows me to host with them, provides email, protects my pictures and has decent storage. I wish I was smart enough to build my own or pay someone to build one for me but I'm just not there yet....any suggestions? I think I'm about to get an aneurism from all the "photography hosting website" google searching I've been doing. </p>

<p>What is your budget?<br>

For about $10/month and less than a few hundred dollars you can have "a sleek, elegant website that allows [you] to host with them, provides email, protects [your] pictures and has decent storage."</p>

<p>I have had great success for tiny to medium size businesses on HostGator.</p>

<p>Thereafter, I either installed some open source packages, or hired someone for my clients. Either way the costs were minimal.</p>

<p>I use FatCow. I pay $4/month, although I think new rates are closer to $6, you have to look on the web for specials for them. This gives unlimited hosting in terms of storage, bandwidth, and email accounts. They have shopping cart software and gallery software, although I'm not sure how the two tie together since I don't use them. They also have real customer support - I prefer the instant chat type support since they can send links during the conversation and it works well. My only problem is that they went through a major mail system overhaul and mail went out late at night for a few hours for a few weeks, but that's done and it runs normally.</p>

<p>Thanks I will check that out :)</p>

<p>Hello:<br>

I've been using <a href="http://www.aruba.it">www.aruba.it</a> ( Italy ) for 6 years now. I have 2 webs and I have never had any problem at all.<br>

It's just 30 €/year. For me it's perfect.</p>

<p>look into zenfolio.com they have a nice hosting service. here's a link of my site to see if it fits you.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.coloradowildphotography.com">www.coloradowildphotography.com</a><br>

Thomas</p>

<p>I use JustHost.com. Similar prices and options to FatCow. I have been really happy with their system/support and have been using them for just over 12 months.<br>

Dusty<br>

<a href="http://www.drozianphotoworks.com">http://www.drozianphotoworks.com</a></p>

<p>Just signed with clikpic.com (yesterday). I have no previous experience with web hosting but so far seems OK. And the price is good (GBR35 per year). You can take a look here:<br>

<a href="http://www2.clikpic.com/eliasgeragas/index.html">http://www2.clikpic.com/eliasgeragas/index.html</a></p>

<p>Zenfolio and SmugMug are two of the best. I chose Zenfolio because it allows me to sell pictures in the UK and EU as well as North America. SmugMug only allows sales in North America. For the 'professional' membership Zenfolio is $100.00 per year and SmugMug is $150.00. Both have unlimited storage and an integrated shopping cart. Both offer a free membership as well so you can play around with their templates to see how you like them before upgrading.<br /><a href="http://www.zenfolio.com">www.zenfolio.com</a> and <a href="http://www.smugmug.com/">http://www.smugmug.com/</a> <br />Get $5.00 off at Zenfolio by using this code: F2Q-8EH-GBX.</p>

<p>I'm quite happy with Cartika - http://www.cartikahosting.com/. I have a reseller account with them, because I also host for clients, but you can get quite a comprehensive individual hosting package with them for about $10/month (Canadian). One part of this I like is their user accessible backups. Always a help when I do something particularly dumb to mine.<br>

Hope this helps.<br>

Chris Hutcheson<br>

http://chrishutcheson.com</p>