Affiliates & Recommendations

In some cases Troutreach Technologies will provide hosting and domain name registration services either to or for our clients. In most cases however, especially for small businesses, we believe it is in the client's best interest to purchase these services directly. Of course, it is always the client's decision where to make these purchases. We make these recommendations because the companies listed below provide good services at very reasonable prices. At the current time we are using all of these companies on an ongoing basis for both our own and clients' websites.

Important Note:  We always recommend that the primary domain registration for a website be handled separately, and with a different vendor, than the hosting company.  While this increases costs slightly (less than $10/year) it greatly simplifies the process of moving to a new hosting vendor, if that ever becomes desirable or necessary.  While we recommend 1and1, we have no problems working with other registration vendors.

If you decide to purchase services through these companies we ask that you do so after directly following a link from this page. Yes, we are enrolled in some affiliate programs and may receive a commission based upon your purchase and for that we thank you very much.

Domain Hosting: AN Hosting and Midphase Hosting

AN Hosting and Midphase Hosting are sister companies.  We began using AN Hosting in November, 2007. We have several of our own sites hosted there and several of our clients have also chosen to use their services. Our choice of this vendor was based upon recommendations from other users on Drupal.org.  In our experience they aren't quite as good as the hype but they are very good and MUCH better than the providers we and some of our clients previously used.  Most importantly, they also appear to be as good as, or better than, the reports we read about other large shared hosting vendors.  Unfortunately they recently began requiring a two year contract in order to get their lowest rate. While we don't like this change we find it acceptable.

Traditionally, AN Hosting has been a little less expensive than Midphase although their plan features were almost identical.  Recently, AN Hosting went to a single plan offering which we and many of our clients use.  Midphase marketing now features lower prices and more options than before.  We currently recommend either the AN Hosting Mega Plan plan for most clients or the Midphase Business plan for clients desiring a dedicated IP-address and/or a dedicated security certificate.  We've been told that customers may upgrade from one plan to another for the differences in monthly charges, e.g., from AN Hosting's Mega plan to Midphase's Business plan.  Note: The links to AN Hosting above go directly to the purchase option for their Mega Plan; the links to Midphase go to their home page; please it and then go to their Web Hosting page to see details and purchase the Business plan.

Westhost is a well respected hosting company now owned and operated by the same parent company as AN Hosting and Midphase Hosting.  While we don't have any clients currently using their services they periodically offer very attractive promotions.  Westhost's 1,000 email messages per hour mailing list allowance is significantly higher than that provided by either AN or Midphase and we would recommend their Business Hosting plan for clients that could benefit from this increased capacity.

Note:  AN Hosting and Midphase frequently have special offer codes that provide various incentives, e.g., three months of free hosting.  Contact me and I'll let you know if I have a current code.

Domain Name Registration (only): 1&1

1&1 is one of the largest low cost hosting vendors in the world (they're based in Germany and have a very significant presence in the United States). They offer domain registrations for very reasonable prices and don't charge extra for private registrations. Their service, for domain registrations, is very good. We use them for all of our primary domain registrations (i.e., not part of a hosting plan). We strongly recommend using private registration whenever possible, regardless of registrar.

We do not recommend 1&1 for hosting.

Virtual Private Servers (VPS): RimuHosting

RimuHosting is a highly regarded Virtual Private Server vendor based in New Zealand although they have support staff literally around the world. We've been using them since late 2006 and have been generally quite satisfied with their offerings and service. They have four data centers on three continents.  Note that their principal servers are in the United States, in Dallas and New York. We use their Dallas facilities.

To be quite frank, using a VPS is not for the faint-of-heart and we don't expect that many, if any, clients of Troutreach Technologies will be candidates for their offerings.  However, we wholeheartedly recommend RimuHosting to organizations that have the need, and necessary expertise to operate, a VPS.  Their prices are reasonable; their technical support is OUTSTANDING!

PDF Creation Software: PDF reDirect Pro

Traditionally there were two ways to produce PDF files from Windows applications, purchase Adobe's Acrobat (a very expensive program) or use one of the free or low cost products like CutePDF or PDF995.  Unfortunately, the free or low cost products that were generally available worked but were limited in their capabilities.

Recently we were working with a client who needed the some advanced facilities like those provided by Adobe's Acrobat but found license charges difficult to justify.  Almost simultaneously, we became aware of PDF reDirect Pro.  This product is easier to install than CutePDF and provided the necessary features.  One feature that we expect many users to find useful is the ability to concatenate multiple print files into a single PDF file.

The link above is to a direct purchase site for PDF reDirect Pro .  Additional information can be found at EXP Systems LLC's website.  The current price of PDF reDirect Pro is only $19.99, which includes free lifetime upgrades.

Other Recommendations

There are several other hosting vendors that we believe may be a better fit for some clients with specific, advanced requirements. Please contact us for details.