From #1 to #5: Top Ranked Web Design Resources
I’ve recently had a chance to review the most popular web design resources. Ranking factors that were used are listed below each resource. The categories include hosting companies, domain registrars, twitter marketing tools, freelancing websites, and icon resources.
Hosting Resources:
Ranking factors: i) reliability; ii) speed; iii) cost; iv) technical support.
#1. HostGator – 9.95 
Reliable, trustworthy host that has been around for many years. They do free migrations from your old host, have cPanel and make it a pleasure to host with them. Their hosting support is rated #1. I believe they may be running a 20% off special at this time.
#2. JustHost – 9.91
This is a top rated web host with cPanel, unlimited space, free domain and free installation. We’ve heard many good things about JustHost from our web designer audience. Be sure to check them out when comparing web hosting companies.
#3. iPage – 9.89
Although it doesn’t have cPanel, iPage is nonetheless a terrific host. With the price of only $4.50/month, eco-friendly wind energy power, free domain, free migration, $75 Google Adwords credit, $50 Facebook credit, free SiteLock security suite ($100 value) and much more, iPage is a very solid web hosting company in 2011.
#4. FatCow – 9.84
Lack of cPanel is a disavantage, but the price is extremely attractive with the current hosting special for only $56 per year. Another huge plus is they transfer your website from your old hosting for free and even give you a free domain name when you sign up. If you are environmentally friendly, you should also know that they use green hosting 100% powered by wind energy.
#5. BlueHost – 9.2
Barely making our top 5, BlueHost has an attractive price and feature list. Their control panel is a modified version of cPanel which I found very easy to work with.
Domain Resources:
Ranking factors: i) cost; ii) reliability; iii) customer support.
#1. GoDaddy – 9.97
This registrar giant is the oldest and most reliable. Reliability is super important for your domain registrar because in 99.9% of the cases you let them handle DNS forwarding to your hosting company. If you use a cheap host, they can easily do something wrong with the DNS, which will make your website down despite your hosting company being up. Scary isn’t it? In addition to being very reliable, you can get cheap .com’s at only $7.49 each from GoDaddy. I use GoDaddy as the registrar for all of my domains.
#2. Domain.com – 9.79
#3. NameCheap – 9.77
#4. Moniker – 9.69
#5. 1&1 – 9.54
Twitter Resources:
Ranking factors: i) quality; ii) cost; iii) customer support.
#1. TweetAdder – 9.93
Highlights: best Twitter marketing tool to push your business forward. It gets you Twitter followers for your keywords daily on complete auto-pilot. Very inexpensive for the features you get. I use it on WebDesignDev’s Twitter account (http://twitter.com/webdesigndev)
#2. MarketMeSuite – 9.75
#3. SocialOomph – 9.42
#4. TweetDeck – 9.1
#5. TweetWhistle – 8.72
Icon Resources:
Ranking factors: i) quality; ii) cost; iii) customer support.
#1. IconFinder – 9.96
Highlights: more than 188,000 icons, very easy to use. This is the top icon site for web designers.
#2. IconShock – 9.75
#3. IconSeeker – 9.72
#4. IconsPedia – 9.34
#5. FreeIconsWeb – 9.20
Freelancing Resources:
Ranking factors: i) number of projects; ii) cost; iii) customer support.
#1. Elance – 9.98
You can get as much as 30% of your clients from this Freelancing site. Very easy to use.
#2. Freelancer – 9.89
#3. oDesk – 9.42
#4. Guru – 9.45
#5. iFreelance – 8.80
Font Resources:
Ranking factors: number of fonts, quality of fonts, frequency of updating, ease of use.
#1. Fonts.com – 9.97
Highlights: It is one of the largest font websites online with a total of 20,000+ fonts, with many different categories and almost any font you can dream of.
#2. DaFont – 9.95
Every designer knows DaFont.com as it’s one of the best free font websites. Why didn’t it make #1? It just doesn’t have the same selection as Fonts.com. Further, while the fonts are free, they are mostly for personal use and can’t legally be used on your clients’ websites, since that use qualifies as commercial.
#3. FontSpace – 9.90
#4. Urban Fonts – 9.78
#5. Google Fonts – 9.55
Google Fonts is a relatively new Google project and I hope it’s one they won’t abandon. While the collection is still very small, it has been growing. If Google takes their font service seriously this resource could be one to definitely bookmark.
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Rhonda B (1 year ago)
Thanks for sharing these lists! I just recently was looking into GOOD hosting sites and this will definitely help.
lori stassi (1 year ago)
Thanks, Ig. It is definitely time to re-evaluate my hosting strategy. This will be a key part of my research.
Gerald C. (1 year ago)
I really like that you added the freelance section in here. One thing though – I tried to link this to twitter but there is no page available. I’m guessing that’s for a reason?
Web Design (1 year ago)
Hi Gerald,
Thank you for your positive feedback. The page should be linkable now – can you please try again? Thanks.
Iggy
Joey (1 year ago)
Hey, Iggy!
Thanks for compiling these, seriously.
I might want to check all of them, after dealing with this “burnout” of mine
Web Design (1 year ago)
You’re welcome, Joey. Heh, I know what you mean about burnout, have to take breaks sometimes
cascd (1 year ago)
Thanks for the info. I got this from my newsletter.. =)
Bryan (1 year ago)
These will come in handy. Thanks!
Template Wordpress (1 year ago)
Very good ressources, it’s a great article, thanks you
Martin LeBlanc (1 year ago)
Thanks to all the subscribers who voted for Iconfinder.com as the #1 icon ressource!
Web designer kent (1 year ago)
V.usefull post guys. Thanks for sharing
Eric Bator (1 year ago)
I use hostgator and their tech support is top notch, which is great since I’m a newbie at hosting and have only recently started my own Starcraft 2 blog and strategy site.
Myrna Beard (1 year ago)
I use hostgator and their tech support is top notch, which is great since I’m a newbie at hosting and have only recently started my own Starcraft 2 blog and strategy site.
website design chennai (1 year ago)
Thanks, Iggy. It is definitely time to re-evaluate my hosting strategy. This will be a key part of my research and other sources.
Gold Coast Brad (1 year ago)
Good tip on hostnine! A client used them once and all they had to say was negative comments!
Ching (1 year ago)
Thanks, would be great to see something similar for stock photos too.
Niko (11 months ago)
These are all awesome, thank you. I’m just starting out and these are all really helpful.
Michael (10 months ago)
Nice list, was helpful. However i am looking at some UK hosts at the moment and i have been with “justhost” for some while now. Quiet good support and servers just an annoying website with pop ups etc every time you try and leave!
Web Design (10 months ago)
Hi Michael – that gives me an idea to do a review post of UK hosts next : )
nduk_ayu (10 months ago)
thanks for added freelance section..its helpful..:-)
Jodi (10 months ago)
I recently did some research and was leaning toward GreenGeeks for hosting. Has anyone used them / have feedback?
Laura (8 months ago)
I love this list! Thanks! I just switched my hosting to hostgator and couldn’t be happier!
web design Halifax (7 months ago)
I was pretty pleased 3 of your recommendations I already use. And IconFinder is a keeper!! As Michael said earlier UK hosts reviews would be great having just moved from there. I too was with JustHost, but they ultimately let me down which was a shame and they’re servers were quite slow, but for a cheap start-up definitely worth it. Unfortunately it seems that a lot of UK based hosts just can’t compete with those in the USA. But i too would welcome any UK hosts reviews that you write.
Thanks, keep up the good work
Doktor Thomas (7 months ago)
Nice list. Generally, I am in agreement (not that it matters, just my experience with a majority of vendors listed). However, W/R/T goDaddy, they are dead last in every aspect of their business. (I have done business with Bob since “bluedisk” days.) 1and1 is a close second to goDaddy—we’re talking hundreds of domains and multiple accounts over years, not one bad experience.
As a criteria, price means nothing if a vendor drops the ball in every other user/service category. I’ll pay a little more to NameCheap to get good service, fast interface and error free domain purchase/transfer.
Hosting quality/popularity has an ebb and flow. Slow user access, even in high demand times, is deal breaker for me.
Watch for webhostingpad.com to get on your hosting “tops” list.
Web Design (7 months ago)
Thanks for your comments, Doktor. GoDaddy has been great for me as a domain registrar, although horrible as a web host. With regard to webhostingpad.com – although they are cheap, they are also painfully slow, which is just not worth it. You’ll be losing many more customers per month from the slow load times than what you will be saving on the hosting fees.
DoktorThomas (7 months ago)
Not seeing slow with WebHostingPad–I am experiencing hundreds of 500 internal errors and slow delivery with Dreamhost. I’ll keep you posted.
juegos de chicas (7 months ago)
nice tips, thanks you guys!
html crazy (7 months ago)
those are great resources for web developers. I think most people have a hard time deciding what hosting company to choose. this should help.
Hawaii Web Designer (7 months ago)
Cool! some of the websites I didnt know about, namecheap is creeping up on godaddy…
duncan gatawa (7 months ago)
Am a big fun of Godaddy.
I guess its because i have been using it for the longest time.
Web Design Halifax (7 months ago)
I used to host with another host and I was experiencing some slow server speeds and not great service if i’m honest. I was totally blown away by Hostgator packages and support. I actually looked into them from reading some of your other articles – So thanks, I never knew peace of mind could feel so good!
I think 1 thing you missed off Hostgator is their on-line Live support, where you can talk directly to an agent in either sales, technical or something else, I forgot what. Just being able to have a real time conversation back and forth is so much more helpful, rather than you sending an email, getting a reply 3 hours later & someone doesn’t quite understand your question and you having to send another one clarifying your enquiry. Most of the time, you need a response ASAP.
Echo your statements regarding GoDaddy hosting too. Not worth the hassle, despite the encouraging prices, but superb registrar.
I also enjoy using Icon Archive too for my icons, it’s pretty good, has some decent filters on it too.
Thanks for the tip on MarketMeSuite too, i bought this tool on the back of your recommendation, it’s fantastic. I’m following you, would you like to follow me? @iwebconsultancy if you do. If not no worries.
Jonathon
Tech Tube Media (6 months ago)
Hey, thanks for the article. I just have one issue with your hosting choice.
Fatcow and ipage (among other companies) are owned by the same owner. Visit the signup page and notice the similarities.
They’re owned by EIG (Endurance International Group). Other hosting and domain solutions offered by them include: 1) Fatcow 2) Powweb 3) iPowerWeb 4) IPOWER 5) dot5hosting 6) Justhost 7) HostClear
Startlogic 9) Globat 10) Easycgi 11) Serverbeach 12) virtualave 13) Choopa 14) Webhost4life 15) iPage 16) BizHostNet
Why would a company own so many hosting solutions? Why do all of them have the same layout? How can you be sure that due to all their employees they wont crash?
I find what EIG is doing is unethical (business standards). They’re creating their own competition, I will never recommend them to my clients, even if their affiliate programs are tempting.
I still admire hostgator for my host and find that http:dynadot.com is exeptionally great in domain hosting and dns handling.
motti (5 months ago)
very informative, thank you. Personally i really like the iconfinder website, i have used it so many times for so many little tasks.
Snerdey (5 months ago)
Great read and the information is very good. We’ve worked with Justhost for a while now as they support the 1 year free of hosting and domain name with each template sold. Even though we have our own hosting servers they handle the global client base very well
Kevin (5 months ago)
I must be a rebel as I do not see any top notch hosting or domain control sites on this page? Two of the most pathetic are GoDaddy and Blue Host and I am shocked to see what I guess are webmasters that use these two!
For domains I use name.com who has some feature rich controls, real world prices and advertisements do not pollute my control panel like GoDaddy. For hosting I prefer to control my own servers but would highly recommend Host Dime or its sister company Surpass Hosting over anything I have viewed here!
Kevin Joe (5 months ago)
pleasant information to shared with us
CGW3 (5 months ago)
I am not sure if it would fit in your resources per sa, but I highly recommend http://www.MailChimp.com as an addition to your list.
A free account allows for 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month and they do not skimp on the features for the free accounts.
I have used them with several clients and would highly recommend them to freelancers, either as a self marketing tool or as a (marketing) tool for clients.
veronica (5 months ago)
fantastic work!!! i really appreciate the sources that you offers for designers!!!!
locogeek (5 months ago)
Great List!
I am always looking for resources that can help in web development.
Paulo Teller (3 months ago)
Yes, Iggy, you are right!
I’ve been on the Net for more years now than I would like to admit; don’t know them all but was beta tester for some of the resources, so, experience allows me to guarantee your readers that the reviews are very accurate.
If the ones I deeply know are balanced, why should the others be otherwise?
Best wishes,
PT
Web Design (1 month ago)
Thanks for the list. Nice tips.
S Dream Works (1 month ago)
Thanks… list almost useful for companies