MicrostockGroup

As far as I know as long as they are a legit service you can just go with the cheapest. I use 1and1.

I'm a web developer full-time and I use GoDaddy.com to register all of my client domains. Their customer service is fantastic and domains are around $10/year.

 I use HostGator to host all of my client websites and have been very satisfied with them for over 6 years. You can set up email addresses (eg. [email protected]) through your hosting control panel. It's very easy.

Feel free to PM me if you have questions or need help.

For an easy life I would suggest going for a host that offers a control panel that includes an easy installer ( such as "fantastico" ) for such things as wordpress, joomla, coppermine etc.

I've used Siteground with no problems.

Never EVER purchase the domain from the same company that is also hosting your files.

If the webhost keeps increasing costs and you want to move you can find yourself in big trouble moving your domain to another provider as well.

I always register the domain separately, then use a good webhost so I can switch hosts within a matter hours.

Good for you. That's really poor business practice.

When I spoke to hostgator, I was told that under no circumstances they would simply pull the plug on me in such cases. They would reach out to you first.

No idea if anyone with hostgator has gotten into a situation like this where they didn't contact the customer first but as of now I believe them...

Finding the "right" web host can be very exhausting. You will get different opinions from people that have different needs.

You have to see what YOU need the web site for.

What are the most important factors for your new webhost?

Do you need 5000 email addresses?
Do you need "unlimited" web space?
Do you need an HTTPS certificate?
Is shared hosting ok for you or do you want to run a forum like this one with more than 5.000 registered users?

Once you know what you need you can shop around and start talking to the different web hosts that appear interesting.

I have used many free webhosts, some of which were very good but I was afraid that they could disappear from one day to the next and leave me hanging.
That's not good if you want to start a business...

Then I used Startlogic, which was fine at the beginning 6 years ago but now I switched to hostgator.

Godaddy is like the McDonalds of webhosting. I refuse to support Godaddy just because of their exorbitant sums they spend on Superbowl commercials. Guess who is paying for that...
Other issues with Godaddy's CEO can be found online as well...

Hostgator has done very well for me so far. I use shared hosting, the "Baby" plan, with plenty of unlimited perks. Used a coupon code I found online and saved a lot for a 3 year contract. Also their support is still located in the US with people that understand English and who respond in proper and understandable English. They can grasp your issue instantly and don't necessarily have to send your issue to a next level tech, which will get back to you 3 days later...

Their server response times are great and my blog runs much faster with them than on my previous hoster.

Any company that you pick to get your domain is called the registrar or cooperates with a registrar. Often webhosting companies are not the actual registrar.

Startlogic for instance is using Tucows as their registrar partner. That means that if you sign up with Startlogic for a new website (domain + webhosting) they register the domain for you at Tucows. However, you usually access the domain control panel through Startlogic and not Tucows directly if you need to make changes to the domain settings. So you're not dealing with Tucows directly although they are technically the registrar of your domain.

That's why I recommend registering your domain directly with a registrar where you have independent, direct control over your domain settings and sign up with a web host separately. This gives you more flexibility.

Regarding the top level domain types like .org, they are used for different purposes such as nonprofit organisation (using .org).

.com is supposed to be used for commercial purposes.
.net was used often for internet service providers

Most domain types can be purchased by anyone (except .gov and others I would think) so it's up to you what you want to pick.

.com is a very good top level domain and recommend for business purposes.

There is plenty of information online that you can find on Google, Wikipedia etc. about those questions.

I am about to have my 6th website going here soon.

I use Godaddy for buying the domain.... I would never use them for hosting due to the controls..yuck. They have enough specials rolling around often enough that makes it great for domain buying.

Hosting I am very happy with Hostwinds.com.  I caught a deal when they early in their startup. Great customer support. They use Cpanel with softalicious for the installer program.

I also have 2 of my sites on Hostingfour.com. They work but it seems customer support is slow in replying. The 2 websites there are not my major sites though.

I currently have 134 domains registered through GoDaddy, and I agree that for domains, they're great, but their hosting is terrible!

For hosting, again I recommend HostGator. Yes, I've had accounts that were using lots of resources and they did indeed contact me to ask me to upgrade. It only happened once.

As for BlueHost, I have a client there and there speeds seem slow compared to HostGator. It could be just me, but that's my experience.

And DEFINITELY buy your domain and hosting separately! I learned that lesson early on.

I'm not pumping out new websites on a weekly basis but my experience was really great.

Registering here from the US significantly improved the speed when switching from Startlogic.

But even friends from Europe tell me the speed is awesome.

Look out for coupon codes. You can really get a nice deal that way.

I had 1 domain with them as an experiment. But I found their user administration interface to be overly complicated and cluttered. I could never quickly find the right page or link to administer whatever I would be looking for. I find their site much too noisy.

@ShadySue - it should always be possible to recover / rescue a lost domain by dealing directly with the domain registrar in the event of the intermediary / isp / host failing. Third parties will also do this for you if you.

Yup, that's the theory, but not the reality in my experience, and that of others.

my other advice is to build your site first, THEN buy a domain. It typically takes me 1-2 months to build a site (I do it outside of my regular photography hours), so I don't want to pay for a couple of months hosting while I build the site (although it is only a couple of dollars....)