If you do know some HTML & CSS (and perhaps some Javascript, too…), you can likely choose a Web Hosting Provider and upload your nifty code & images on your own. This will give you much more freedom & control in developing your own personalized website, and in an ever-saturated market, a distinctive presentation can serve to give you an advantage.
(If hearing the words HTML or CSS gives you a migraine or causes you to break out in purple polka dots, then not to fear! You can still get your art on that internet thing with easy-to-use online portfolio sites. Check out the reviews of Portfolio Websites for a breakdown of some of the options!)
So dive right in and check out the following reviews on a few of these companies! (I'm not being paid to provide feedback for any of these organizations, so my opinions are unbiased and free of monetary compensation! I'm simply aiming to provide insight from a different, artistic perspective.)
The following companies are not affiliated with Omarmarcos. By clicking on the provided links, you enter different websites with different terms of use and privacy policies. Before entering into a service agreement, do yourself a favor and read those policies & research the company. The features & corresponding company terms described in the following reviews were applicable at the time of review, but keep in mind that businesses do change their policies & sometimes features are removed. These reviews are provided "as is", and you agree to hold Omarmarcos.com and its owners harmless from any and all liability in connection with your use of these other sites and your interactions there.
WEB HOSTING PROVIDERS
- Hostgator
If you're a creative that anticipates the need for technical support for your hosted website, then Hostgator definitely has you covered! They offer solutions through five different channels: by phone, by tweets, by live chat, and through their knowledge base articles & blog. Apart from that they offer many of the industry-standard features for their shared hosting, dedicated hosting, or vpn accounts. Note that they also offer cloud-based hosting, and they also offer web-design services to their customers. Be sure to take a gander at the limitations & terms applicable to the latter.
Three other things to keep in mind: 1) Even though they do provide weekly backups for accounts such as their shared hosting services, they highly recommend that you also implement your own offline backups of your content (…which is a good idea, anyway). 2) According to their current terms of use, Hostgator reserves the right to do password audits for those registered with them in order to check for weak passwords across the board. 3) Hostgator is part of Newfold Digital, Inc. and so Newfold's privacy policy applies to their customers. One clause in that text states they may keep your information for an extended amount of time after you cancel your account. Fortunately, they provide an e-mail for customers with questions about the length of data retention.
Posted 8.29.22
https://www.hostgator.com
- Hostinger
A lot of web hosting review sites heavily promote Hostinger for their incredibly low hosting prices. And as artists (especially considering how many events were canceled during the pandemic), we're almost always looking to save a few dollars where we can. But what most review sites don't tell you is that Hostinger offers primarily live chat technical support for their customers. In fact, I can't even find a phone number of theirs on their website! So if you're a technically savvy artist and comfortable with only having online tech support, perhaps hosting your website here makes perfect economical sense. Otherwise, you may have to keep looking.
A few other notes: 1) Their terms of use state that they may request your photo id on sign-up for identity verification, and they may also call you if needed during the tenure of your account (for issues regarding your website, I assume). 2) Hostinger is based in Cyprus and also has an office elsewhere in Europe. One legal expert cautioned that if you host your website with a company in Europe, you may be held more strictly accountable for observing data collection requirements according to their GDPR regulations. Definitely something to consider.
Posted 8.24.22
https://www.hostinger.com
- Hostpapa
Hostpapa includes a number of handy features with their hosting plans, such as an uptime guarantee, provision of a SSL certificate, inclusion of multiple e-mail addresses, the use of enhanced SSD (according to experts, Solid State Drives boost the speed & performance capabilities on the hosting end, and can result in faster loading times for your website), as well as security protocols to prevent intrusion or Denial-of-Service attacks. If you're interested in supporting eco-friendly companies, Hostpapa has implemented green power sources since their inception in 2006 according to their website. Also, for those artists who require on-demand help with their hosted site, they reportedly provide 24/7 support by phone, e-mail, & chat (…as well as having knowledge base articles on their site). Last time I checked, they offer support in English, Spanish, German, & French! (Parlez-vous français, anyone?)
Hostpapa is another web hosting provider that has been heavily reviewed across the net, and if you're thinking about making a commitment, you would do well to check out at least some of that commentary. A few important words of caution that you'll rarely find in other reviews: Hostpapa makes it clear in their terms of use that they actively scan user content for music, video, & image files, and upon finding such uploaded files, they may request proof of ownership or proof of permission to use the corresponding media. If you can't provide proof of ownership or if they suspect you're in violation of any licensing agreements for said files, Hostpapa reserves the right to suspend your account! If you're an independent musician providing snippets of song samples on your site or a videographer showcasing your filmed work or even a photographer uploading scores of portfolio images on an ongoing basis, you may want to consider how much of your time that process would consume & perhaps even ask whether Hostpapa would make exceptions to this rule for a verified creative that hosts with them.
Posted 9.9.22
https://www.hostpapa.com
- TMD Hosting
TMD Hosting is another company that provides very economical introductory hosting fees and their offerings are quite impressive: unlimited e-mail accounts, unlimited bandwidth, hotlink protection (a feature that prevents other sites from abusing your bandwidth as they link to specific files on your webpage, usually images), an SSL certificate (which has become more standard nowadays), and various e-commerce options. And they even allow potential subscribers to legitimately ping their worldwide data centers for speed tests. How cool is that!
However, as an artist, I must say that one clause in their terms of use is just a little unsettling. Whenever TMD Hosting terminates someone's account for certain reasons, they state that such a "forced service cancellation" will cause ownership of all the hosted content in this person's account to revert to TMD, which they can then auction off or donate! (And a few of the reasons provided for this type of termination are somewhat questionable, including something as simple as chargebacks.) While I don't support groups or individuals who use hosted accounts for spam or other unethical behaviors which may trigger such a "forced service cancellation", artists should be mindful of these type of contract clauses that force them to give up intellectual property like this.
Posted 8.24.22
https://www.tmdhosting.com
- Stay tuned for more reviews!…