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Web Hosting Companies In Australia

By Sandy Naidu | July 18, 2008

A lot of Australian small businesses falsely assume that they need to host their websites with an Australian hosting company. They are led to believe that if your hosting provider is locally based then you get better support.

These days its not just businesses that have websites…Even individuals like me and you might need websites - mainly for the purposes of blogging. I operate multiple websites and all my websites are hosted with a US company - HostMonster.

Here are some of the myths about a local hosting company:

1. Better Service

2. Cheaper

3. Faster

4. Will understand the Australian business needs because they are Australian as well

5. Comfort that my site is hosted locally and not somewhere far far away

Here are the facts:

1. A lot of hosting companies which are based in U.S. provide very good customer support. They have online chat facility, phone facility plus email support.

2. They are much much cheaper than the local hosting companies. MYOB recently launched a web hosting company and charges around $29.95 per month. My hosting provider, HostMonster charges around $8 AUD per month plus has loads of features. They offer unlimited domain hosting, no set up fee, come with a control panel (this makes administering your entire portfolio of web sites extremely easy) plus loads of other benefits.

3. They are very fast. I have never had any complaints.

4. Internet is a global market. A website is a website (whether it is hosted here or elsewhere). We are not talking about accounting (which is specific to every country). Websites behave the same way and the needs of the website are the same - wherever they are hosted.

5. Again same as above

Let me make one thing clear - I am all for ‘Aussie’ products and services. But when the service owners charge huge amounts of money by claiming that they are better because they are local then I prefer to shop elsewhere. If there is an Aussie provider who offers similar rates plus service than I am all for them. Until the arrival of such an Aussie provider, I urge you to shop around…