Pagan-Friendly Web Hosting?
If you have looked for an affordable web host for a Pagan site, you know how hard it can be to find a web host that is affordable enough, powerful enough, and reliable enough but has terms of service that are Pagan-friendly. Many affordable web hosts have terms of service that make it very easy for those who oppose Pagan religions to get a site removed from the web.
There are some affordable web hosts who ban Pagan sites outright. They obviously are not Pagan-friendly. But there are many more subtle content policy traps. For example, most affordable web hosts ban "adult material." This sounds reasonable -- and even Pagan-Friendly -- until you realize that adult material is far broader than just "porn." Does your site have a picture of some ancient statue of a God with bare breasts? That might be considered "adult material" if some Fundie complains. Do you mention, or link to a site that mentions, the "Great Rite'? Some web hosts would consider that adult material. Want to post a review of a book on sex magick? Some web hosts might consider that "adult material" if someone complained. Free hosts are usually even worse with their terms of service and your viewers often have to put up with all sorts of ads: banner ads, pop-up ads, pop-under ads, and whatever else the free web hosting company can think of.
There are many other options. As you probably know, this site (ecauldron.com) hosts with Dreamhost and the webmaster highly recommends it as it has the best combination of low cost, features, reliability, tech support, and few content restrictions he has found. (Read more about why we host with Dreamhost here.) Lunar Pages is another affordable web host with few content restrictions. Unfortunately, this about exhausts the "ideal" options. However, there are a large number of other low cost web hosts to choose from if you do not think your content will be much of a problem.
For your convenience, we are listing a few of the more popular and better known choices below -- being listed in this list should not be seen as a recommedation or endorsement by The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum. The "Customer Rating" listed for each host ranges from 1 (low) to 10 (high) is provided by The Cheap Web Hosting Report. Note that the information listed on the rating, costs, and features of each host's lowest price plan is accurate to the best of our knowledge in mid-August 2005 but may be inaccurate by the time you read this article. Some hosts change their offerings almost weekly.
Be sure to check each host's terms of service, acceptable use policies, etc. carefully for any "fine print" terms that may be unacceptable to you. Generally, you will find something at least slightly troublesome in every host's policies, so selecting a hosts is seldom simple.
Pagan-Friendly All-Stars
These web hosts are stand out as very Pagan Friendly and Free Speech Friendly -- and are known to host a number of Pagan web sites.
| Host |
Cost and Major Features |
| Dreamhost |
Cost: $9.95/month ($49.95 setup - $0 if 1 year prepaid) unix, 2400 megs storage, 120 gigs/month bandwidth, 675 email accounts, 75 shell/ftp accounts, php4/php5/cgi/fastcgi/unlimited mysql databases, host 3 domains, 1 free domain name. Cheap Web Hosting Report Rating: 9.6
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| Lunarpages |
Cost: $9.95/month ($30.00 setup - $7.95/$0 if 1 year prepaid) unix, 1000 megs storage, 40 gigs/month bandwidth, unlimited email accounts, php/cgi/mysql, Fantastico script library. Cheap Web Hosting Report Rating: 9.1
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Other Hosts to Consider
These sites are less friendly to free-speech and minority religions, but are still hosting Pagan sites for many fairly-happy with their web host Pagans.
| Host |
Cost and Major Features |
| InMotion |
Cost: $7.95/month ($30.00 setup - $7.95/$0 if 1 year prepaid) unix, 4000 megs storage, 50 gigs/month bandwidth, 200 email accounts, php/cgi/1 mysql database. Cheap Web Hosting Report Rating: 9.0
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| HostRocket |
Cost: $14.95/month ($0 setup -- $7.95/$0 if 1 year prepaid) unix, 1000 megs storage, 50 gigs/month bandwidth, unlimited email accounts, php/cgi/mysql data, free domain name. Cheap Web Hosting Report Rating: 8.1
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| BlueHost |
Cost: $9.95/month ($30 setup - $7.95/$0 if 1 year prepaid) unix, 4000 megs storage, 100 gigs/month bandwidth, 2500 email accounts, php/cgi/50 mysql & 10 PostgreSQL databases, Fantastico script library, free domain name with 1 year prepay. Cheap Web Hosting Report Rating: 7.4
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| APlus Hosting |
Cost: $9.95/month ($20 setup - free setup if 1 year prepaid) unix, 2000 megs storage, 50 gigs/month bandwidth, 500 email accounts, 2 ftp accounts, php/cgi/3 mysql databases, free domain name. Also offers Windows hosting. Cheap Web Hosting Report Rating: 6.5
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| iPowerWeb |
Cost: $9.95/month ($30.00 setup - $7.95/$0 if 1 year prepaid) unix, 3000 megs storage, 50 gigs/month bandwidth, 500 email accounts, php/cgi/mysql. Cheap Web Hosting Report Rating: 5.8
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| IX Webhosting |
Cost: $6.99/month ($20.00 setup) unix, 5000 megs storage, 300 gigs/month bandwidth, unlimited email accounts, unlimited ftp accounts, php/cgi/2 mysql/2 PostgreSQL databases, free domain name, dedicated ip. Cheap Web Hosting Report Rating: 5.5
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| Easy CGI |
Cost: $9.95/month ($0 setup - $7.95/$0 if 1 year prepaid) Windows 2000, 3000 megs storage, 50 gigs/month bandwidth, 50 email accounts, 10 ftp accounts, php/cgi/asp/asp.net/10 mysql database/MS Access, free domain name. Cheap Web Hosting Report Rating: Not Rated
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Popular, But Problematic, Hosts
While many Pagans really like these hosts, the Cauldron's webmaster does not like the Terms of Service these hosting companies use -- in his opinion, they are not very Pagan-Friendly. They require all content not "violate any state, federal or foreign laws or regulations" or they ban anything illegal "under the laws of any sovereign state." Such clauses technically mean that any religious web site other than a Muslim site is a violation of these hosts' TOS due to the laws of Saudi Arabia. Do you really want your religious content limited by the laws of places like Saudi Arabia and China? (As these companies host numerous non-Muslim religious web sites, they obviously do not usually enforce this clause, but as it is there, they can if they choose to do so.)
| Netfirms |
Cost: $9.95/month ($0 setup -- paid annually) unix, 2000 megs storage, 100 gigs/month bandwidth, 100 email accounts, php/cgi/10 mysql databases, free domain name. Cheap Web Hosting Report Rating: 7.8
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Some Hosts to Avoid
According to reports from multiple Pagans who use or have used these hosts, here are some well-advertised low-cost web hosts that you may want to avoid. The usual reason most hosts are on this list is that they went from very realible to very unrealible as they grew and/or their customer support/tech support is very poor. These hosts are listed in alphabetic order.
dot5hosting, Globat, Host Save, Hostony, Infinology, midPhase
Free Hosting Options
We are not going to suggest any specific free web hosts as they (and their offers) change rapidly. Instead here are links to a few sites which track free web hosts. Be sure to check the policies of any free web host you are considering as some free web hosts have policies that basically give them your work to republish as they wish and other strange things.
About The Author
Randall is the founder, webmaster, and Co-Host of The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum.
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Pagan-Friendly Webhosting
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Dreamhost offers high-quality, low cost web hosting with a dedication to free speech.
Dreamhost Features
· 500 gigs web space*
· 5000 gigs/month bandwidth**
· unlimited email boxes (POP3/IMAP)
· unlimited ftp/shell accounts
· unlimited domains/subdomains
· php4, php5, cgi, fastcgi, ssi
· zend optimizer, ruby on rails
· unlimited MySQL 5 databases
· announcement lists
· discussion (aka mailing) lists
· Jabber server, Custom DNS
· Crontab and Shell access
· Web-based Control Panel
· One-Click installs of the Wordpress blog & others
· 1 free domain name
· helpful tech support
· and much more!
* approximate -- grows 2 gig per week
** approximate -- grows 40 gigs per week
All for $10.95 a month with a $49.95 setup fee (pay for a year in advance for $9.95 a month and there is no setup fee). Pay two years in advance and the price drops to $8.95 a month. (And there is a 97 day money back guarantee!)
Click here to read why we host with Dreamhost.
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Web Design Guide
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Download the July 2005 (Version 0.6) edition of The Cauldron's free new
Web Design Guide
(zipped Acrobat file)
This guide includes articles from this web site as well as additional new material.
Other Cauldron Ebooks
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Discuss Pagan Webcrafting
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Do you have questions about web design or web hosting? Would you like to talk with fellow Pagans about web design or ask their opinion of your web site? The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum's message board has a special folder set aside for
Pagan Webcrafting Discussions
(Click to Join Us. It's Free.)
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