Choosing the Best Hosting Technology

A website hosting service is a Web technology business that operates powerful server computers on the Internet. Websites are "hosted" on these servers -- that is all the code and files for your website reside on the server computer. A good hosting business will provide website publishers with servers that are very fast in their ability to access webpages and all the site's files that are stored on the server. The hosting company should also provide excellent customer support, especially technical support. Additionally, the price paid for the hosting should be competetive and represent excellent value for the money expended. Typically, one should expect to pay around US$110 to US$120 per year for quality website hosting.

Fortunately, finding a website hosting provider is easy!  First you need to ascertain if you plan to construct and host your website on one of the free or paid websites provided on an Adventist "Content Management Sysyem" (CMS) such as "netAdventist", "Adventist Church Connect" & "Adventist School Connect", and "Simple Updates", as explained below the Web hosting is already provided by the CMS provider. For "classic" hosted websites constructed using "File Transfer Protocol" (FTP) technology, and for regular secular CMS websites constructed using "WordPress", "Joomla", Drupal", "Typo3" or other commercial CMS technology, you can easily find a hosting provider by consulting the "HostingFacts.com" website which gives unbiased evaluations of the major Web hosting businesses. For more info on HostingFacts.com's reviews of Web hosting businesses, please see the last paragraph at the bottom of this webpage.

Free Hosting for Adventist Websites
Before you try to select a Web hosting provider, please be aware that free websites with free hosting is available to many Adventist churches, schools, instituions, ministries and individuals. If you qualify for a free Adventist webiste, there is no need to look for a Web hosting provider, as the website and its hosting is already provided for you at no charge.

Hosting for "netAdventist" Websites
If you intend to construct and host your website on the "netAdventist" Content Management System (CMS), please be aware that the Adventist entity that provides your netAdventist website takes care of the hosting. If your netAdventist site is a free website provided by a denominational administrative unit such as a Division, Union Conference, local Conference, or the General Conference, then hosting is provided for free on a netAdventist server maintained by the administrative unit. If your free website is provided by Adventist-laymens Services and Industries (ASI), ASI takes care of the hosting for you on ASI's netAdventist server. If you do not qualify for a free netAdventist website, but you would still like to construct and host your website on the netAdventist system, then you can purchase your website hosting from netAserve, which will host you website on their netAdventist server for a yearly fee.

Free Hosting for NAD "Adventist Church Connect" and "Adventist School Connect" Websites
If you are a local Adventist church or education institution located in the territory of the North American Division (NAD), you already have a free website hosted on the Internet, even if your church or school has not been maintaining that provided free website. These free websites are hosted on the "Adventist Church Connect" (ACC) and "Adventist School Connect" (ASC) system. This free hosting is provided by the North American Division through their "Adventist Web Media Ministry" department administered by AdventSource, which is an NAD ministry based in Lincoln, Nebraska USA. The "Adventist Church Connect" (ACC) and "Adventist School Connect" (ASC) websites are a branded version of the "Simple Updates" Content Management System (CMS).  

Paid Hosting for "SimpleUpdates" websites
If you are an Adventist denomination entity, an Adventist lay-ministry, or an Adventist layperson, and you would like to construct and host you website on the "Simple Updates" Content Management System (CMS), for a yearly fee you can purchase "Simple Updates" CMS website hosting from SimpleUpdates.com, a private Adventist-member owned website technology business based in Berrien Springs, Michigan USA. The "Simple Updates" CMS is the same system used by the North American Division for their "Adventist Church Connect" (ACC) and "Adventist School Connect" (ASC) free websites.

Paid Hosting for "WordPress", "Joomla", Drupal", Typo3 and other CMS Websites
If you do not qualify for a free Adventist website, and for various reasons you would like to host your website on one of the popular open-source Content Management Systems (CMS), you will need to find a Web hosting service provider that offers hosting for the CMS of your choice. Pretty much all major hosting providers have Web hosting available for the WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Typo3 website construction/hosting systems. The CMS software is already pre-installed on the hosting servers, and all you need to pay for is a fee for the actualy website hosting. To help you select a web hosting service provider, please see below under "How do I find the best Web hosting service?"

Paid Hosting for "Classic" FTP Websites
If you intend to construct a "classic" website using your own personal Web design software such Dreamweaver, or you already have a classic website hosted on the Internet but you want to host it on a better hosting service, then you will need to find a Web losting provider that offers excellent hosting. The Adventist church member-owned Web hosting business called "netAserve" provides excellent classic website hosting for only $99 per year. Technical support is offered at extra cost. If you would like to host you site on a regular commercial web hosting service, please see below under "How do I find the best Web hosting service?"

"How do I find the best Web hosting service?"

WhoIsHostingThis.com -- Ratings of Hosting Service Providers & CMS Comparisons
HostingFacts.com -- Free Help To Find The Best Web Hosting Service

It can be a challenge to find an excellent Web hosting service. Fortunately there are two websites on the Internet which will spare you a lot of time and effort in trying to find a good hosting provider. These websites, "WhoIsHostingThis.com" and "HostingFacts.com", have done all the research and testing for you, and on their excellent sites they present their unbiased findings. This makes it easy for you to select reliable, fast, and low-cost hosting for your website.

Here is a link to the "WhoIsHostingThis.com" website:  WhoIsHostingThis.com
Here is a link to the "HostingFacts.com" website:  HostingFacts.com