US host for UK site?

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for a web host for my UK site(s). I am not overly impressed with the UK hosts I have been looking at. They are either too expensive or don’t offer all I am looking for.

My question is simple…

Is there any reason why I should go with a UK host?

Apart from problems with telephone support due to time zones and cost of international calls, would someone like hostgator be good for a UK site?

All opinions gratefully received.

BTW, please don’t recommend JustHost. I had terrible experience with them before.

Thanks
Richard

I used to use US hosts without a problem. If you go with a larger company they have 24hr support anyway.
I now have a VPS with a US company but my servers are in the UK.

There used to be a lot more differnces between the UK and US - the UK had to pay for databases and email accounts!

If you go with a US host you have an exchange rate to deal with which may cost you a bit more one month than the other and your bank may charge for currency exchange.

If your customers in the UK, hosting inside UK will give them better network performance. Saying that, we have UK-based customers running on our US servers since few years already. Their customers market is international, so US-based servers will serve a bit better, especially for Asia Pacific area. So, it depends on what you want.

If your major traffic is from UK , its much recommended that you go for UK web hosting provider, as this will reduce latency also google has increase its local search result , so if your target crowd is from UK and you are US server that will surely affect your google ranking.

Latency issues are the major benefit of a local host (as well as the potential of picking up a phone and being able to call support).

There are several hosts with servers located in multiple locations. The one I recommend (I have three accounts with them) is WebHostingBuzz which has several datacenter locations in the US and at least one in the UK. With their top notch support team, excellent hardware and very reasonable prices, I find no reason to look anywhere else (except to confirm the best of everything from http://WebHostingBuzz.com or http://WebHostingBuzz.co.uk).

Regards,

DK

Is there any reason why I should go with a UK host?

Only if you make sales in the UK.

But if it’s not sales of tangible goods or services directly, it’s better to host website in USA.

Here’s two I’ve been using for several years with a presence in both the US and the UK (though I’ve only used their US-based services):

and

http://surpasshosting.com

These two hosting companies are essentially owned by the same company, but offer slightly different features. Both offer timely support, good services, and low prices.

The others in the thread have said–host where your audience is. If you don’t know where the majority of your visitors are coming from, use a website analytics tool (like google analytics) to take a look at your visitor demographics.