HELP!!! - Launching a website - WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH WEB HOSTING?

We are in the process of having our web page designed. What is deal with hosting? I see advertisements for $7.00 a month, I have my web designer telling me they can host me for $15.00 per month. Then I have the phone company telling me they can host me for $50 per month.

We want to make sure that we get the right coverage but we are a local business and I don't wan't to be paying for something that we do not need.

I KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT THIS SO PLEASE ANY INFO YOU CAN SHARE WILL BE HELPFUL. ALSO,IF YOU KNOW OF ANY GREAT WEB HOSTING SOURCES.....DO TELL!!!! MANY THANKS, DEBORAH V.

If you like to create websites (usually you will end up more than 1 website, I got more than 100 websites in about 6 months' time), go for multiple web hosting services where you could host all your websites in one account.

I would like to suggest following webhosting which I use, they are excellent.

Hostmonster http://www.hostmonster.com/track/ryukend...

They offer hosting of "unlimited domains" and you will get massive webspace of 300000 MB (300 GB ). They only charge $5.95/month and they offer "a free Domain Name" and installing service called "Fantastico". By using Fantastico, you could create own forum, photo gallery, shopping cart (e-commerce),your own auction site and your own blogs within few seconds. They also offer "Free Website Builder" as well.
Visit the site to check details.

Hostmonster http://www.hostmonster.com/track/ryukend...

Domains
Following site is quite good to register domains as price is reasonable with free privacy. Some charge about $5/ year just for free privacy.

IPOWER http://www.anurl.com/?TXIBE

My husband and I own a small business. We purchased our domain name and web site from Yahoo. Yahoo even helps you to design the website yourself. It was still complicated but it was more personal in my opinion.

Normally, you have two payments. You have to pay a site to keep your stuff on it (this is hosting) and you have to pay a site for a domain (where you can put your stuff so other people can see it). Look around on the internet, you can usually find domain and hosting for like....10-15$. Sometimes you can even find free hosting. Just figure out what you want it to do first. LIke...ftp...email accounts....how much storage you want....etc. The more extras it comes with, the more it costs usually.

For just a basic website, hostrs charge anywhere from $3.99-$25.00 per month. It gets higher based on your needs- i.e. videos, higher bandwith, multiple email addresses. I have a website with 1and1.com. I'm on a 6 month contract and pay about $7.50 per month. I like their services and it works for me.

The phone company plans are just a rip off. Your web designer is charging you double, so he can make some money off it, that is very normal, he's doing nothing wrong. But the best way to go is to buy directly, you can get hosting for as low as $5/month at http://www.JuicyHosting.com or http://www.LocoDomains.com , which are as good as any othe company