There can be many different factors that appeal to nonprofit agencies when it comes to hosting their website: cost, ease-of-use, add-on functions/services, and even environmental friendliness. I will elaborate on some of these here.

The Cost Factor - Affordable Website Hosting

These days most of the so-called shared hosting plans are very affordable and offered by literally hundreds of web hosting companies - some with their own services and some others (like me) reselling original providers' plans. So I think cost is not so much an issue anymore if your needs are "basic" i.e. doesn't require any special customized service or high-bandwidth (high capacity and fast) access: a shared hosting plan will give you plenty of features giving you everything you want and more. All nonprofits and small businesses I have ever dealt with fell into this category.

Website hosting companies offer one or several shared hosting packages - the main variable usually being the storage space (and bandwidth) size. You will find many similar plans anywhere from $4 to $10 per month. Since there's a huge competition in this area and prices are very similar, companies compete on other areas like customer service, extra features, reliability, etc. You should consider all those other factors and see what fits you the best.

I resell Godaddy's state-of-the-art and very affordable shared hosting plans, each coming with tons of extra features and add-on applications for free:

• Economy Plan: $4.99/month (10 GB space)
• Deluxe Plan: $8.99/month (150 GB space)
• Premium Plan: $15.99/month (300 GB space)

Add-on Functions - Extra Services

Some of the extra features are: free email accounts, free databases, add-on domains, or useful applications (like WordPress for blogging, Joomla for content management, or SMF for discussion forums). Take a look at all the extra shared hosting features.

You might find similar (or even better) prices and features elsewhere but I love Godaddy's prompt customer service, reliability, easy-of-use and high standard products (you simply can't beat their email service's almost flawless spam protection [all there without extra charge]).

Usability - Ease-of-Use

We should separate usability into two different areas: managing the hosting account itself, and managing the actual website which can be done in different ways depending the technology being used.

It's important that the user interface of your hosting management account is clear, well-organized and laid out intuitively so you know with high degree of certainty where each click leads. I've seen many hosting providers whose account management interface (many times proprietary) just doesn't make sense and get you frustrated (1&1 comes to mind...). Godaddy has the most intuitive interface I came across. I also recommend any hosting with cPanel: it's very reliable, easy to use and full with extra features - they just lack a good built-in spam protection system (the included Spam Assasin is way too weak).

When it comes to actually managing your website, now you have to consider what technology you will use - that is a very important decision, especially if you are planning to manage the website yourself either fully or partially. If you actually want to use web-based templates like my WebSite Tonight then you dont' even have to purchase hosting as it is included in the product. WebSite Tonight is not only very user-friendly, it packs tons of features that could help you make your website more dynamic with discussion forum, blog, photo album, videos and so on. Check out these website templates that are great for nonprofits.

Other Considerations Like Environmental Friendliness

There are many environmentally conscious nonprofits who care about their impact on the environment and that might include their website hosting.

A couple of such environmentally-friendly hosting companies were brought to my attention:

• Thinkhost
• Acorn Host