web hosting/app development

[RPSil13]

for those that have their own websites/forums/blogs/etc. whats a good web hosting service?

info: im looking into launching a website or forum and so far have noticed that most forums use either phpbb or vbulletin. but havent found much info on which is better (still researching). Also there is a ton of webhosting sites available, the 2 that have caught my eye so far are godaddy and bluehost


Second question: has anyone here developed an iphone/ios app? would like to create an app but im not fluent in computer code? ive talked to some developers and they start at $3,500. Any info/tips on how to get started? I feel that w/ 3500 i can buy a mac book, join apples developer program and buy enough books on writing code and still have money left over.


any info/ideas would be greatly appreciated

*disclaimer* this is not going to be a competing website/forum

thanks
Art

 

[subjug4tor]

I wont be much help, but I used Godaddy for a year and I never had any problems with them. Everything was as advertised and it worked out well. I ended up dropping them for my hosting the next year as I got a server up and running, but I still used them for my Domain Name. All in all, I would recommend them.

 

[GrimJack]

vBulletin is *the* standard in forum software... but it's not cheap.

phpBB is one of the many free alternatives that tries to keep up. Personally, I'm using one called SMF - Simple Machines Forum. It's easy, has decent features, and doesn't get hammered by many security breaches.

 

[RPSil13]

I wont be much help, but I used Godaddy for a year and I never had any problems with them. Everything was as advertised and it worked out well. I ended up dropping them for my hosting the next year as I got a server up and running, but I still used them for my Domain Name. All in all, I would recommend them.

yeah, i lot of places that ive seen use godaddy, seems like a pretty good service at a pretty good price

vBulletin is *the* standard in forum software... but it's not cheap.

phpBB is one of the many free alternatives that tries to keep up. Personally, I'm using one called SMF - Simple Machines Forum. It's easy, has decent features, and doesn't get hammered by many security breaches.

yeah vbulleting definitely seems to be the preferred choice, but phpbb is free cant beat the price, lol

well, im still doing research, just joined a php forum, to do more research

thanks for the replies

 

[Setheroo]

iOS apps are done in an objective C and from what I have been told from my business partner - it isn't very easy to code in comparison to say an Android app - which can be written in Java.

One suggestion I would make is that you look into the route of doing a mobile site as opposed to an app - if you are looking for small feature sets - you can probably get the functionalities you want out of a mobile site as opposed to having to build an all out application.

As for webhosting - there are soooo many options. I am part owner of a webhost and most of the time I hear many people choose hosts like theplanet/softlayer/hostgator/godaddy - the list goes on and on really... and since my webhost is relatively small - it is really kind of hard to compete with all of the bigger companies.

As for forums - my recommendation goes with phpBB - I use it currently for a few small niche communities and haven't had any issues. If you go for something big though - as everyone else has already said, Vbulletin is where it's at.
Thats just my input though! Hope you can work everything out and find what you need.