My field is web related. A few of my clients with IT knowledge asked me a similar question- Which country do you recommend to host my website? Malaysia or US?

“It depends on your target audience and market- local or international and; what features/plan that you want to have in your web hosting package. There are advantages and disadvantages for website hosted in either Malaysia or US. This is why I am here to assist you to understand your need, and to provide a right solution…” this is my formal biz conversation.

Many people think that US web service is more expensive than Malaysia. In actual fact, not really.

US market is very competitive, thousands of web hosting service providers offer the best-deal-in-town packages with low prices to attract potential customers, this is how we consumer get benefits from their “price war”. But choosing the right and reliable web hosting provider needed some experience in this web industry.

Domain Name (Website name ie. whoiskenny.com)

When I first step into this field 11 years ago, I bought my first domain name from NetSol (NetworkSolutions.com) at the cost of USD35. It was costly for me to buy a domain name at the cost of USD35/RM133 when I just earning a peanut. (NetSol was the only appointed registrar by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that could process domain name registrations for .com, .net, and .org before 1999. During Malaysia economy crisis in 1997, Malaysian Ringgit is fixed at the static exchange rate by USD1.00 = RM3.80)

There are more than thousands of website offering domain name registration nowadays, the domain name registration fee is much cheaper compre to last time.

There’s something Malaysia Web Hosting providers/domain registrar still can’t beat- the price war in US. For an example, a domain name registration package, it come with more features and cost only USD9/RM28.80 (exchange rate by USD1.00 = RM3.20). Honestly, I still haven’t find any local providers can offer this price, I even compared the local dealer/reseller price.

Another reason I would prefer to buy the domain names from US is because they can provide better domain name features like free private registration, free parked page, free POP3 email, domain locking, free blog, free hosting (with banner ad), website forwarding / masking and etc. This is a good plan for website starter, which they just need an email contact and a few pages of website.

With the above attractive features, why not? Of cause, regardless it is a reliable company.

If you are interested to view the list of ICANN accredited domain name registrar, below is the URL:

http://www.internic.net/alpha.html

For .my country-code top level domain (ccTLD), the Malaysia Network Information Center (MYNIC) domain name registrar list is available here:

http://www.mynic.net/reseller.php

Web Hosting (Where you host your website content)

With my experience, I usually recommended local hosting (hosted in Malaysia) for my SME or small entity client. Beside the website response time (speed) faster, the hosting plan/feature offer by local web hosting service providers are sufficient enough to meet my client’s need.

Budget does not come to primary in this decision, the website response time, provider service, data centre infrastructure and server performance is my main concern. Malaysia web hosting providers can now provide the standard requirement for a normal website need at the reasonable price, hence there’s no reason why should I seek for oversee solution, unless special requirement which local provider can’t deliver such as bound by Law restriction or demand higher bandwidth allocation.

And most of my client’s website also target the local market, the e-commerce website’s payment method is another concern. Hosted the website with local provider with payment gateway enabled is an advantage, at least they can process Ringgit Malaysia transaction and easy on billing issue. You may not know, out of 50 in 100 credit card online transactions have problems. 50% could be fraud cases, authorisation failure, process issue, connection issue, insufficient credit card information for verification, credit card blocked by the issuing bank for some reasons and etc. So, it may need to walk-in the payment gateway solution provider office for further discussion or need to call for clarification on case-by-case basis. Don’t you hope their office is just next to yours?

Another reason, some of the reliable and low-risk payment gateway solution providers from over sea do not accept RM payment/ Malaysia merchant account or charge a higher transaction commission.

If you are looking for payment gateway to process your website’s e-commerce transaction with Malsyian Ringgit, there’s few I would recommend:

International:
- www.worldpay.com
- www.2checkout.com
- www.paypal.com (problem to withdraw money from local bank, unless you have US bank account such as etrade)

Malaysia:
- www.maybank2u.com (transfer money from own account to third party account)
- www.ipay88.com

Well, the worry for Malaysia web hosting is the unreliable country backbone infrastructure, but it is ISP (Internet Service Provider) issues.

It can be easy to setup a website, regardless you have domain name, web hosting knowledge and experience and programming skill. Otherwise, I will suggest you engage a web specialist to do it for you. As I always told my clients- don’t worried, please leave the task to us, we will let you concentrate on your biz!

I welcome your comment if you have a different point of view.