Even a lot of us who are long time users of Windows, Linux or UNIX remember fondly our years with Macintosh. It’s amazing to think that once they were known for something more than handheld touchscreen toys.
If you’re reading this article, in fact, it’s a good bet that you are familiar first-hand with the fact that Macintosh is still in the desktop market. You may be wondering if there are any good Macintosh-based web hosts out there for you to call home. Yes, Virginia, there are. We identify five of them here.
1) MacHighway
“Web Hosting for Mac Users, by Mac Users, since 1997” is their slogan. It’s hard not to get enticed by that. It’s even harder still not to notice their low rates: three of their five accounts can be had for under $5/month. They have a great selection of 6 different content management systems, including TikiWiki and Xoops. They also go into extensive detail about their efforts to be environmentally responsible.
2) MacHost
MacHost gives you the option of hosting your account on a OS 9, OS X or Apache UNIX server. These services are available on shared, co-located and dedicated hosting plans. They are rare in offering as part of their services support on web site design and marketing, as well as technical help. Do note that while most of these are free there is a fee for some of it. MacHost has also been online since the mid-90s.
3) MacDock
These guys have put a lot of effort into making themselves not just Mac-hosted but Mac-friendly. They use a custom-written control panel specifically for Macintosh user accounts. Their shopping cart package, CartLoom, is also Macintosh-specific. In fact it appears that they’ve put thought into just about every software package that’s included with their accounts.
4) DogBark
Not every Macintosh web host has “Mac” in their company name. DogBark puts a fun, personal face on their services. It’s not every host that tells you that one of their employees has a closet full of capes and another one is well-groomed. All silly trivia aside, there is an extremely long list of features available to their accounts Advanced and higher. By “extremely long” we mean 15 different content management systems and 6 different types of Wiki software packages alone. Each one of these is available for demo.
For whatever reason, Macintosh hosts in general seem to lag badly behind their Windows and Linux counterparts in terms of available disk space and bandwidth. While not still meeting them entirely, Server Logistics, Inc. at least bridges the gap some. Their Professional account gets you a (comparatively) respectable 10GB of disk space and 250GB/month of bandwidth. Their accounts come with more than 55 web applications and they also support Quicktime streaming.
Macintosh hosting isn’t dead. While it may not ever achieve the popularity of other operating systems, these hosts seem secure and professional enough to ensure that anyone who needs this type of hosting will be able to find it for a long time to come.
