Idealware intends to provide rigorous reviews of many different kinds of nonprofit software. However, it will take some time to create all these detailed reviews. Our A Few Good Tools series provides some thoughts in the meantime by recommending software that is used and liked by the Idealware community. They may not be the very best of their kind, but they have worked well for us. Perhaps they will also work for you.

Is your nonprofit's Web site running off a server in your 15-year-old nephew's closet? Does your Web designer charge you $150 a month for hosting when you've heard that $15 a month will get you everything you need? Would you like to use a particular software package that your hosting provider just won't let you install?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may want to consider looking for a new Web hosting provider.

At its most basic, a Web hosting provider offers both a server where you can host your Web site and an Internet connection your constituents can use to access it. Good providers specialize in Web hosting, with dozens or hundreds of servers, all protected by carefully designed security, climate, power, and backup systems to ensure that your site stays up and running.

But how do you find a reliable provider that meets your organization's needs — especially when there are thousands of hosting services out there, a plethora of features and tools to choose from, and pricing options ranging anywhere from $5 to $500 or more per month?

Idealware asked the seven nonprofit technology consultants to share their favorite Web hosting providers and to offer some guidance on navigating the options. We've consolidated their advice in this primer on Web hosting services.

• Ted Fickes, Founder, Eagle River Partners
• Jeff Herron, Vice President, Beaconfire
• John Kenyon, Nonprofit Technology Specialist
• Eric Leland, TechCommons Director, CompuMentor
• Jon Stahl, Program Manager, ONE/Northwest
• Michael Stein, Internet Strategist and Author
• Chris Steins, CEO, Urban Insight

Your 15-Year-Old Nephew is Not a Hosting Provider

While it's technically possible to host a Web site on any computer with a permanent connection to the Internet, it's rarely a good idea. Letting one of your IT staff, a board member, or an acquaintance host your site from his or her closet or garage may seem like a good way to save money, but it's seldom worth the risk. Power outages, crashes, hackers, and even well-meaning staff can all take your site offline for hours — or even days.

In other words, hosting is best left to the professionals, who can offer a variety of safeguards: high-quality, backup Internet connections; emergency power generators; reliable backup systems, strong firewalls; the ability to accommodate sudden spikes in the traffic to your site; and a lot of experience troubleshooting Web servers.

A professional outside hosting service can provide the critical infrastructure and safeguards that few nonprofits can afford. Though not free, this cost-effective alternative will offer you peace of mind — and after all, isn't it worth a small investment to know your Web site is up and running when donors or constituents are looking for it?

Your Web Designer is Not (Usually) a Hosting Provider

Occasionally, the person or company who built your Web site will offer to host it for you. While this may sound convenient, consider the option carefully.

To start, ask your designer where the actual server that hosts your site will reside. Any reputable designer will outsource the actual Web hosting to a professional provider; under this reseller's agreement, your designer will rent a chunk of hosting space, manage the relationship with the vendor, and bill costs to you.

Be sure to find out the specifics of the hosting package you're being offered. Will you get the same type of storage, bandwidth, email service, upgrade path, and ability to check Web stats that you would get from working with a reputable outside provider? (See "Basic Shared Hosting," below.)

Also, keep in mind that hosting with a Web designer can be more expensive than hosting directly with a provider; after all, the more channels you have to go through, the more people there are to take a share of the fees. It's also important to keep an eye out for unscrupulous resellers who may overcharge you.

In most cases, it's better to skip the middleman and go straight to the source. However, if you have a long-term relationship with a Web consultant, it might be worth the extra money to have him or her serve as a liaison between you and the hosting company, interpreting any hard-to-understand technical jargon. Some consultants can also offer specialized or customized software that may be harder to obtain elsewhere.

Basic Shared Hosting

The cheapest, easiest way to host a Web site is through what's called a shared hosting provider. Under this system, your Web site's files are stored on a server that also hosts a number of other people's sites. (However, you can typically see and access only your own files.)

Shared hosting providers are set up to allow an organization with basic Web-building skills to administer its own site without involving the hosting company. The organization — not the service provider — handles the behind-the-scenes work for its site, from uploading new files to checking visitor statistics to creating new email accounts and resetting passwords. This is usually accomplished through a Web-based control panel or via FTP.

What should you look for in a good shared Web hosting provider?

• Fixed amount of storage and bandwidth per month. Web site plans tend to vary on 1) the amount of file storage you're allotted on the server's hard drive; and 2) the amount of bandwidth your site is allowed per month. You can calculate your average monthly bandwidth by multiplying the number of files that your visitors are likely to access in a month with your site's average file size. (Be sure to account for increases in visitors and files if you're expecting a lot of growth in the near future.)
  
  Unless you have a lot of images, videos, or large PDF files, even a very small storage and bandwidth plan is likely to be sufficient. Idealware's site, for instance, which receives about 325 visitors a day and 25,000 page views a month, uses less than 500MB of bandwidth per month — far less than the amount offered by most plans.

• Ability to control files and passwords. All Web hosting providers let you upload files to the shared server via FTP. Some allow you to use a more secure file transfer known as SCP (short for Secure Copy Protocol), while others offer Web-based upload tools to clients that don't want to use either FTP or SCP.
  
  Some providers will also allow you to create secure sections of your Web site where you can restrict files to visitors with a given password; create redirects so that a given Web page is available under multiple URLs; and more.

• Self-serve control panel. Many hosting providers include a Web-based control panel that allows you to manage many aspects of your site on your own. As we mentioned, this may include resetting passwords, calculating site traffic statistics, or managing files, all without having to contact customer support.

• Support for required databases and programming languages. Most shared hosting accounts will support fairly sophisticated databases and languages — but make sure yours supports the specific tools and versions you want to use.
  
  The majority of hosts use a setup consisting of a Linux or Unix-like operating system, Apache Web server software, a MySQL database, and a PHP or Perl programming language. This setup is not likely to support Web sites created in ASP or ColdFusion.
  
  Likewise, some hosts use a purely Microsoft setup — with Windows as the operating system, Internet Information Server (IIS) as the Web server, SQL Server as the database, and Active Server Pages as the programming language — and this may or may not support PHP and MySQL. To be sure, check with your provider before you sign up.

• Ability to install applications designed for a shared hosting environment. A number of applications — and particularly those that are open source — are designed to be installed in a shared hosting environment. Most hosting providers will let you install these as needed, and may even offer a utility to help you install the more common applications.
  
  Some applications, however, require more access to the server — to change system files or global settings, for instance — than shared hosting services typically allow. This means you may not be allowed to install some of your organization's applications on a standard shared host. Again, looking into this before you sign up with a particular provider will save you trouble down the road.

• Traffic statistics. Most hosting providers will give you online reports of basic statistics about your site, such as how many visitors you receive daily, where they came from, and where they go on your site. It's a good idea to check to make sure you can also access your raw log files, should you want to use other software to do a more detailed analysis on your own.

• An upgrade path. As your site grows and your online initiatives get more complex, you may need more storage, bandwidth, or flexibility. Look for a provider with upgradeable hosting plans. Otherwise, you'll have to move your site to a more powerful host when you grow beyond your current hosting plan.

• Email accounts. Email accounts are closely tied to Web hosting. Many hosts provide you with a number of email accounts that feature the same domain as your Web site (joe@yourorgname.org, for example). These accounts allow you to send and receive email through a Web interface or to download your messages into Outlook or other standards-based email clients.
  
  Not all hosting providers offer outstanding email hosting service, however. The quality of virus and spam protection and of Web-based email administration tools can vary widely, and some providers set strict limits on outgoing mail capabilities in an effort to prevent spammers from abusing the system.

• Customer service. If you have a problem, will you able to reach someone knowledgeable who can speak to you in language you understand? Customer service varies widely depending on the provider, and is in fact a major differentiator between the $5-a-month hosts and the $30-a-month hosts. Unless you feel very comfortable with hosting concepts and are able to ask precise technical questions, it's best to pay more for a host that offers better customer service for all levels of technical expertise.

If you decide that a shared server is for you, which of the thousands of hosting companies should you choose? We certainly haven't tried them all, but here are several popular providers that our contributors have found to be reliable:

• CrystalTech. Offers inexpensive shared hosting accounts on Windows servers, starting at $3 a month. While CrystalTech's Windows servers support PHP and MySQL, they may not allow you to install some open-source applications that more common Linux-and-Apache environments permit.

• Electric Embers. A small hosting company that caters to nonprofits, Electric Embers' prices are offered on a sliding scale, from $5 to $20 per month. While control-panel functionality is not as advanced as options from some competitors, and customer support isn't offered around the clock, the Electronic Embers team is approachable, knowledgeable, and committed to nonprofits.

• Lunarpages. A large hosting company with a number of shared hosting options — including both Linux and Windows servers — starting at about $7 a month. Lunarpages provides a standard setup with support for all the commonly installed applications. Several contributors find the company's sales staff a bit heavy-handed, and while customer service is reliable, it can be difficult for the less technically inclined to follow.

• Pair. A high-quality open-source hosting service with great customer support. Prices are somewhat higher than competitors, starting at about $10 a month.

When Is a Shared Host Not the Best Option?

A shared host is a typical, affordable way to go. Why would you want something else?

• Ability to install any application. The most common reason to look beyond a shared host is the desire to install software that isn't compatible with a shared hosting environment. Unless an application has been designed specifically to work in such an environment — more typical of open-source than commercial applications — you'll need more access to the server, which means upgrading your hosting account.

• Security. If you have particularly sensitive data, a shared hosting situation is somewhat more susceptible to attack than other options, simply because so many different users are working on the same server.

• Processing power. If your Web site gets a high volume of traffic (that is to say, thousands of visits a day) and is running unusually complicated code, it's possible that you'll exceed the memory and processor resources of a shared server.

Specialty Software Hosting Providers

While there are too many specialty Web hosting options to cover here, it's fairly easy to narrow in on reliable ones suited to your needs. Begin by contacting your software's Web site or support team to see what hosting providers they recommend.

Another effective strategy is to consult user forums or email lists for hosting testimonials. Many software forums — especially those for open-source tools — include a lot of detail about the pros and cons of various hosting providers.

Virtual Private Servers

Another option for a nonprofits that needs specific software packages to run its Web site is a managed virtual private server . This setup allows you to share server hardware with others, but offers you your own, dedicated virtual operating system, set up in a way that functions independently of other users' software.

You can install anything you'd like on your virtual private server, making this choice particularly useful for those who'd like to use more complex applications or frameworks — like proprietary software, Plone, or Ruby on Rails — but don't need the processing power of a full server.

Virtual private servers are considerably cheaper than the dedicated server options (where you essentially lease or buy your own server), and generally run about $15 to $60 a month, depending on the processing power needed. Prices are coming down quickly, though, as this segment of the Web hosting market is a rapidly growing and evolving.

Virtual private servers have only recently become accessible to a mainstream audience, and our contributors don't have much experience with specific vendors. However, the following three are good places to begin:

• Verio
• High Speed Rails
• WebFaction

Dedicated Servers

Dedicated servers are the Cadillac of the hosting world. As the name implies, a dedicated server is yours alone, and you can configure it and install anything on it that you like.

You can purchase your own server hardware and plug it into the Web hosting provider's infrastructure — known as "co-locating" — or you can rent the hardware from the hosting provider. Either way, the benefit of hosting your site on a dedicated server — as opposed to a server out of your broom closet — is that a Web hosting provider offers a safety net your closet simply doesn't supply. This frequently includes protection against theft, power outages, floods, and more.

An additional benefit to dedicated hosting is that it allows you to decide which administrative functions you'd like to perform, and which you'd like to delegate to the hosting facility. These services, typically at an additional charge, may include monitoring your server to make sure it's running, routine upgrades, backups, and the like.

If your dedicated server comes with these additional services, it's known as a managed server. Keep in mind, however, that even with a managed server, you'll need someone with substantial experience in server configuration and application installation to get your Web site online and to keep it running smoothly.

Some of the dedicated server hosting providers our contributors recommend include:

• CrystalTech . Provides either Linux or Microsoft servers, with a large menu of managed services. CrystalTech's rates start at $79 a month, but many important services are offered as add-ons, which can accumulate quickly, meaning you should expect to pay at least $200 a month.

• Rackspace . Widely known in both the corporate and nonprofit spheres, Rackspace provides reliable managed servers with excellent support starting at about $350 a month.

• Hedgehog Hosting . A very good provider of managed Web hosting that specializes in large nonprofit Web sites. Offers excellent, personalized service, but is generally more expensive than the other options listed here.

Moving Forward

How do you make a final selection? Like many decisions, choosing a Web hosting provider often comes down to budget and features. Begin your search by making a list of your requirements. How much disk space and bandwidth do you need? What about programming languages? Do you require phone support, or are you happy receiving help via email? If you have a small budget, are you willing to compromise on customer service? Is it critical that your Web site never goes down — or are a couple of minutes of downtown here and there acceptable?

Carefully examine the features listed on the Web sites of the providers you're considering, and call to ask any additional questions. Remember to consider not only your current hosting needs, but also your future requirements. And don't forget to ask for references or talk to organizations similar to your own that are using the host you are considering.

Most importantly, don't give up — and don't leave your Web site in a precarious situation. There are a lot of hosting providers out there, and navigating the options may seem daunting. But with a little research, you can find an affordable provider that will help ensure that your Web site is up and running when your donors and constituents come calling.

Thanks to TechSoup for their financial support of this article. The article was edited by TechSoup and Idealware; the contributors to this article are not responsible for any errors or omissions.

© copyright CompuMentor 2006 - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License

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