Shared hosting is the beginning place for most individuals and businesses. It's the cheapest type of hosting and for most websites, provides all you will need.

HostMonster, iPage and ITX Design are three of the top shared hosting companies found online. If you're looking for shared hosting, a full comparison of these three will help you understand which is the best choice for your website. Let the battle begin.

<b>The Features Battle</b>

When looking at the battle of HostMonster vs. iPage vs. ITX Design, the features of the packages are very important. All three offer packages with:
<ul>
	<li>Unlimited Disk Space, Bandwidth and Email addresses</li>
	<li>A Free Domain Name</li>
	<li>Free Online Store</li>
	<li>Free Search Engine and Marketing Credits</li>
	<li>Free Website Builder</li>
	<li>Ability to Host Unlimited Domain Names</li>
	<li>Wordpress and other online tools</li>
</ul>
None of these features set any shared hosting company apart because they ALL offer these features within at least one of their packages. However, there are some features you will get with one company that you don't get with another.

With ITX Design, you get a Tier 1 connection. This is vital to any website because it means faster load times. When your site loads faster, it's less likely a visitor will leave and you gain helpful search engine optimization benefits.

This feature, along with the up-to-date versions of PHP, set ITX Design apart from HostMonster and iPage.

<b>Battling over Price</b>

Price is important to many people when it comes to hosting. You don't want to overpay, but sometimes you only get what you pay for.

HostMonster and iPage only give you one option for your shared hosting package. HostMonster sells this one-size-fits-all package for $6.99 per month and you have to pay for at least 24 months of hosting up front to get that price. If you only want to pay for a year up front, this price is $7.99 per month. They also charge an extra $1.67 per month for SiteLock Domain Security and Site Backup Pro.

IPage provides a regular hosting price of $8.49 per month, which is only available for the 24-month package. They don't offer an option for month-to-month and you must pay for at least one year of hosting up front.

With ITX Design, you can pay month-to-month, quarterly, annually or bi-annually. They offer three levels of shared hosting starting as low as $4.95 per month.

The price battle is easily won by the superior pricing model and the many options provided by ITX Design.

<b>A Battle of Technical Support</b>

All three companies offer 24/7 technical support, which is nothing new. This type of support is provided by just about every hosting company on the planet. However, just because they claim its 24/7 doesn't mean they will respond quickly and give you what you really need.

Both iPage and HostMonster provide good hosting, but there have been customer complaints about wait times. Often, you will be stuck waiting for a reply to your online chat request, phone call or your email for much longer than you would like.

Waiting for support can cost you money and time. Even though both of these companies are considered at the top of the list when it comes to shared hosting, they falter a little with support.

ITX Design provides award-winning technical support from hosting experts. This company is known as one of the best in the business when it comes to support.

Again, ITX Design wins and it's not even close. Their support is far superior to HostMonster and iPage hosting.

<b>The Overall Battle</b>

When you're looking for the best possible shared hosting and you compare HostMonster vs. iPage vs. ITX Design, you need to choose the right company. Less than adequate hosting may cost you far more than the few dollars a month you saved on some special deal they provided to lure you in.

The best shared hosting comes with the top support, which will help you move forward with your website. You don't want to deal with hosting issues that turn into a nightmare. Great support will turn your potential nightmare into a dream.

The winner of the battle between HostMonster, iPage and ITX Design is clearly ITX Design. Not only do they provide the best shared hosting out of the three, but they also offer VPS and dedicated hosting options. As your website grows, you can quickly move from shared to VPS to dedicated hosting, which isn't possible with iPage and not as easy with HostMonster.