I got really fed up with my old web host. It was terribly slow and absolutely impossible to maintain from my end. Trying to backup my database as well as my files was an absolute pain since the FTP kept timing out on me. So in the last quarter of 2007 I decided to look around for a new web host.  I was first toying around using a virtual private server (VPS) and eventually got an account with SliceHost (more on that next time). But eventually I decided to use it for something else.  That's when I came upon NearlyFreeSpeech.Net.

The first thing that caught my eye with NearlyFreeSpeech.Net was the price tag. The web host offered a "pay only what you use" scheme. That was nice since it meant paying for a year what would usually be just for a month with my old web host. Then there's the SSH access. Finally I can archive my whole website and database for easy downloading and back up! Of course, there's the usual SFTP/FTP accounts as well.

So far I'm liking my stay on NearlyFreeSpeech.Net. If you happen to be looking for a good cheap web host and don't mind messing around with a command line, try it out. Testing will only cost you a penny -- literally!