Comparing Web Hosts: LovingHosting vs FreeHostia

A few days ago I announced that along with my upgrade to WordPress 2.3.1, I also switched my webhost to LovingHosting. I was quite happy with FreeHostia before this, but then why did I switch? The answer is simple: more professional services. LovingHosting offers several web hosting plans that are priced similarly to that of FreeHostia’s plans, but their features are much more advanced, so you get a bigger bang for the buck.

The following is comparison of the core features offered by the simplest plans from LovingHosting and FreeHostia:

FreeHostia wins when it comes to the comparison of storage and bandwidth, that is why I am still using it to host any downloads that you can find on this blog like WordPress plugins and PSP Custom Firmware. But Loving Hosting has the advantage everywhere else. Especially in the realm of uploading new files to the host with the unlimited FTP accounts. I had a problem with FreeHostia anytime I tried to edit a file on the server through FTP, it kept telling me that “Only one login per user allowed” which was quite annoying. I no longer have that problem with Loving Hosting. Also the control panel employed by LovingHosting, CPanel, is more professional and simpler to use. This makes it much faster to get things done, unlike with the clunky custom panel created by FreeHostia.

In conclusion, if you are hunting for a good host to host a complex page, LovingHosting is a very good choice. But if you are expecting to upload a lot of large files and just host them (ei: image hosts, file hosts..), you might want to consider FreeHostia’s services. They also offer a free plan, which LovingHosting does not.