The case for simple, traditional ASP.NET hosting

Even though Microsoft's Azure is a great service and supports one-click publishing from within Visual Studio, sometimes you need more than just a place to run your ASP.NET web applications on.

For the majority of my customers, I'm suggesting to use the web site feature on Azure. But, if the customer also needs some SQL databases, perhaps email, and similar kind of features, I'm often pointing my customers towards more traditional web hosting. I've blogged several times before about Windows based web hosts, and just recently, I needed to send a list of available, cost-efficient solutions, so here goes.

Usually, in a similar situation, I'm suggesting any of these three solutions (in alphabetical order):

• DiscountASP.NET: The base plan costs $10.00 per month, but does not include a database. You can select a datacenter either in the USA or in Europe. Info: http://discountasp.net/
• SmarterASP.NET: Their “Basic” package starts at $2.95 per month, and includes one SQL Server database. Info: http://www.smarterasp.net/
• WinHost.com: Their “Basic Plan” starts at $3.95 per month and includes a single, 500 MB SQL Server database. Info: http://www.winhost.com/

Hope this helps!