If you’re looking for a deal on a new web hosting package, here are some of the top web hosting offers for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and beyond:

• HostGator: 50% off on all web hosting services. This includes shared hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated servers and Windows hosting! This is one of the biggest sales on web hosting every year but it only lasts one day.

 

• IX Hosting: 55% off the Expert Web Hosting Plan starting Friday, November 23rd and lasting through Wednesday, November 28th.

 

• FatCow: Monthly cost on its regular web hosting package has been reduced almost 15% from $3.67/month to $3.15/month until Tuesday, November 27th.

 

• iPage: One of the best deals as the monthly price has been slashed over 40% from $3.50/month to just $1.99/month from today until next Tuesday.

 

• HostMonster & BlueHost: Take $1 off the monthly price of $4.95 to $3.95 on Black Friday only.

Learn more about all these web hosting companies starting with our Top 10 Web Hosting list.

Web designers and website owners always look for two things when choosing a web hosting company: affordability combined with plenty of services. FatCow provides both of these in one compact little package that makes it one of the top 10 best web hosting companies on the Internet.

Affordability

FatCow offers one of the most affordable packages on the Internet. It costs just $3.67 a month to host your site with them. This low price requires a one or two year contract. There is no pricing penalty for choosing the shorter contract. The price covers a comprehensive plan and has no set-up fee.

Read the full FatCow Review

Comprehensive Plan

Often low-cost web hosting companies offer several plans. The low-cost option is short on features, but is enough to bring in traffic to the site. FatCow does not operate this way. For the same low price, ever customer gets the same package, with the exception of one upgrade that allows for slightly faster technical support. The package includes many features, some of the best of which are as follows:

•    Ability to add Front Page extensions to personalize the website
•    Google Site Search
•    Ability to accept online payments via PayPal
•    Script Barn
•    Shopping cart capability
•    MySQL databases to store customer information
•    Accepts a variety of languages: Python, Perl, PHP, Ruby on Rails
•    North American phone support 24/7
•    Online support 24/7
•    $75 free for AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing

In addition to these features, the FatCow hosting package offers many unlimited options. For instance, customers can set up unlimited domain names per account. This allows them to direct several web addresses to a website’s main home page. Unlimited email accounts with a domain-specific address are also available. FatCow advertises unlimited disk space and bandwidth. This is not technically unlimited, but for the average website that uses 20 megabytes or less of disk space and 10 gigabytes or less of bandwidth, the host is perfect.

Keep Customers and Business Information Secure

In addition to plenty of room and excellent features that allow the website builder to truly customize the site, FatCow has excellent security protocol in place. This protects both the website itself and any customers that use it from hackers, viruses, and spyware. FatCow employs SSL secure servers with 128-bit encryption. This protects the information sent to your site by your visitors. This is necessary for any websites that request user information or take user payments.

In addition, FatCow protects the website its self by storing the servers in a data center that uses both physical and online security measures to keep everything safe. Industrial firewalls and actual security personnel monitor the servers at all times.

Predictable Reliability

If your host has an outage, your website will not be live. FatCow protects against this by using the latest hardware with load balancing technology to ensure that the servers run efficiently. In addition, FatCow keeps backup generators in place and performs daily server backups, which ensures that if there ever were a problem, your website will still be there.

All in all, FatCow is easy to use and safe. Its one main drawback is that it does not offer cPanel, one of the easiest to use control panels, but it does have a simple V-Deck control panel that most can use and is customizable. If you are looking for a way to host your website affordably but reliably, consider FatCow.

Setting up a website is not always the most affordable thing you could do. First you have to design it, which might cost you something if you are not yourself a designer. Then you have to buy a domain name. Finally, you have to host the site. One way you can save a little money is to get your web hosting through one of the top domain hosts. Not only are most of the top hosting companies the cheapest out there, but most of them also offer a free domain name.

Compare Top 10 Web Hosting & Free Domain Names

Why They Do This

The main reason that web hosting providers offer free domain names with their packages is competition. If the competition is offering this and one particular company is not, you will likely move on. There is simply too little difference between the various providers for you to be willing to lose out on a freebie like this.

The other reason is to get customers. Offering a free domain name is a huge marketing point. They can offer it as a “free gift,” drawing customers in.

Finally, because these web hosting companies register so many domain names each year, they can get a great rate on the registration and renewal. The cost to them is much lower than it would be to you, so in the end both you and the host win. They win because they get your business, and you win because you do not have to pay for your domain name.

Which Company to Choose

Almost all of the top web hosting companies offer a free domain name. You will need to choose the company that best meets your other needs, looking at factors like what type of service they offer (U.S. based or not), the amount of space and bandwidth you will get, the other built in features, and, of course, the price. HostMonster, one of the top-rated web hosting providers, offers a free domain name. So does FatCow, which is known for its excellent price, and JustHost, which is currently running a special making it one of the cheapest options out there.

Free Domain for Life?

One feature to look for as you shop for a web hosting company is the offer of a free domain name for life. This means that you will never pay for your domain name, even if you change providers. The domain registration is taken care of. This will give you the flexibility to shop for a different web hosting company if your needs change or you find one that has a better offer.

Read the Fine Print

Remember, you might have to register for a contract of a certain length to get the free domain name. Always read the fine print before you sign up for web hosting assuming that you will have a particular freebie. If a company requires a two-year contract for a particular price or a free domain name, make sure it has the right products and services for your current and future needs. This will ensure that you are happy with the service for the entirety of your contract.

Having a hosting provider that offers U.S. based customer service ensures that you will be able to understand the representative you are speaking with. This eliminates unnecessary problems that occur when you spend the majority of your time on the phone with the service department trying to understand each other. Here are four of the top 10 web hosting companies that all offer U.S. based customer service.

HostMonster

HostMonster is often labeled the most valuable host. It has a fairly low price, just $3.95 per month with a 24-month contract, but packs its packages with features. The host’s software is quite user friendly as well, which makes setting up your website simple. What’s even better, all phone support is based in the United States. You do not have to have a certain contract to get this. In addition, phone support and live chat are available at all times, and wait times are around two minutes or less for phone support.

FatCow

FatCow also has a low price and excellent set of features. Everyone pays just $3.67 per month and gets the same set of features. A one to two year contract is required. All customer service is based in North America. However, FatCow realizes that some customers simply have to have U.S. based support. As such, they offer a service upgrade for $3.95 per month. With the upgrade, customers receive faster service that is entirely based in the United States. In addition, live chat is always available, and the help ticket system is quick to respond to written requests for service.

BlueHost

If you are looking for reliability, BlueHost might be the company for you. This web hosting provider has been offering their services for over 10 years. They have built an excellent reputation in the industry for their customer support and features. They are also known as the most reliable web hosting provider. They are not the cheapest, but if reliability is more important to you than price, this is the company to consider. Like HostMonster, all phone support is based in the United States. You will wait two minutes or less to talk to a customer service representative, and support is available at any time. Live chat is also available if you prefer to get support online.

InMotion

InMotion has web hosting packages designed for the business owner in mind. Features like Google Checkout and MySQL databases make this the ideal host for setting up a business website. All customer service is United States based, and it is available at any time. Live chat is also available to InMotion customers.

The key to getting U.S. based support is nothing more than finding a web hosting company that offers it. You do not necessarily have to pay more for this service. Remember, as you shop for a host, keep all aspects in mind, including the reliability and ease of access of the company’s customer service department.

HostMonster and FatCow are almost always found on the lists of top web hosting companies. These two are some of the most frequently used hosts, and choosing between them is sometimes a challenge. While they have similar features and benefits, there are some distinct differences that should help you choose the one that is right for your website.

Read the HostMonster Review

Read the FatCow Web Hosting Review

Pricing

The price is not much different between the two plans. For a one to two-year contract, FatCow charges $3.67. With coupon codes and current special pricing, you can get a 24-month contract for $3.95 a month with HostMonster. However, HostMonster offers shorter contracts, at a higher price, which may fit your needs better. A three or six month contract, for instance, is $9.95.

Update: In February 2011, HostMonster changed its minimum contract to 1 year and now charges $4.50/month whether you purchase a 1, 2 or 3 year contract. There are no set-up fees and a free domain still comes with every package. If price is your primary concern, BigHosts.com has a special price on JustHost.com for only $2.95/month!

Features

Many features of the two web hosting companies are the same. One big difference is that HostMonster uses cPanel, but FatCow does not. FatCow uses its own V-Deck control panel, which is fairly user friendly. However, if you are adept at using cPanel, you may feel more comfortable with the HostMonster plan.

In addition to this, HostMonster offers Fantastico, but FatCow does not. However, FatCow is designed to allow you to easily accept PayPal payments, and HostMonster is not (but you can still set this up if you want to through PayPal).

Both plans offer unlimited domain names and email accounts per contract, have shopping cart capabilities, spam filters, streaming audio/video options, and MySQL databases. FrontPage extensions allow you to customize your website with both companies. Both also offer basically unlimited bandwidth and disk space.

Security

Both companies pride themselves in excellent security, using SSL and encryption to secure any information exchanged between your customers and your website. HostMonster also gives you SSH or Secure Shell Access, which means you have a secure channel to use when making changes to your site, a feature not offered by FatCow.

Customer Service

When choosing between two companies with excellent features, customer service is sometimes the best way to make your decision. Both offer 24/7 phone support and live chat. HostMonster guarantees a wait time of two minutes or less for phone support, and all HostMonster phone support is handled within the United States. FatCow has an average wait time of right around two minutes, with North American, but not necessarily American, personnel. An upgraded service with U.S. representatives offers a shorter wait time for $3.95 a month. FatCow offers a video tutorials library for customers to access to try to fix issues on their own, a service not offered by HostMonster.

Bonuses

Both companies offer bonuses to new contracts. HostMonster offers $100 in free search engine advertising credits, as well as free domain name for life, free set up (with two-year or longer plan), and free domain privacy service. FatCow offers a free domain name, free set-up, and $75 in advertising credits. Both offer a no-questions-asked 30-day money back guarantee.

Conclusion

FatCow and HostMonster both offer reliable, secure web hosting with excellent customer service. The main differences are the presence of cPanel, a difference in price if choosing shorter contracts, and the location of phone support. Use these factors to help you make your decision as you choose between these two top 10 web hosting companies.