Good webhosting?

I am looking to start an online business and I was wondering if one of you could refer me to a good webhost?

I am looking for an economical webhost, preferably even free. i am looking for ftp, cgi and php capabilities and hopefully ad-free

I use 1and1. They're not free, but very competitive in their costing, and they support all the add-ons you mentioned.

Sean

Heard a lot of good things about 1and1, though I've never used them. I've been a user of GoDaddy hosting for years and never had an issue with them.

You have fairly limited requirements (right now), so pretty much ANY shared hosting will be good for you. I've had 1and1, Bluehost, Dreamhost, Webhostingbuzz and now (MT)Media Temple. All but (MT) are in the $3-5/month range and will work for you. I've got the shared hosting package from (MT) right now and it's $20/month. They are significantly more reliable than the others and their system scales a lot better than others.

Depending on the size of your business and expected growth, you will find that shared hosting is a good place to start, but not to stay. So you should also look into what it would take to upgrade your package to a more beefier one if there's demand for it..

thanks for the suggestions guys.

I'm a fan of TheBlueKingdom.com and would definitely recommend them to you. They are ad free, have 99.9% uptime and 24/7/365 support with really great cutomization options. They should work well with everything you've requested. Best of luck to you, hope this helps!

I use Hostgator. I have had 100% up time for a couple years. They are always fast to respond to support tickets and they are willing to work with you if you have specific needs for the server. Their pricing is very decent and well worth it.

There are a ton of options if you're looking for a web host, so never limit. Dreamhost charges $49.95 as a setup fee if you want to pay monthly, forcing you to go the yearly route. 1and1 has their own custom control panel, which can make things a little difficult seeing as the industry standard is cPanel. BlueHost and Hostgator oversell (no such thing as unlimited), and GoDaddy is not that well respected for hosting. Check out webhostingtalk.com shared offers section for a wide range of good, reliable hosts that will fit your budget.

Another vote for 1&1.