EDITOR'S NOTE: The vampire regime in Ethiopia has outlawed ownership of web hosting and Internet services by private companies in Ethiopia, while other African countries such as Nigeria are working to catch up with developed countries.

If you are wondering what web hosting companies are leading the pack in Nigeria, perhaps this web host ranking information from WebHosting.Info would give you an idea of what web hosting company to choose when registering domains or getting a webhosting package from Nigeria.

The ranking is based on the overall market share and total domains registered as at November 11, 2008.

From the graph, Nairahost.com ranks number 1, with a market share of 10.901% and total domain registered is at 1,130. Mcreal.net follows with a market share of 10.8335% and total domain registered at 1,123 (just 7 domains shy of Nairahost.com). Then, Syskay.com ranks 3rd position with a market share of 9.9749% and total domains of 1,034.

Other notable web hosting/domain registration companies include weblagos.com (4th position) and Nairadomains.com (5th position). Web hosting companies such as Linkserve.com.ng that started before Nairahost.com didn’t make it to the Top 10. Linkserve ranks 16th with a total of 105 domains and a market share of 1.0129%.

I’m surprised that Web4Africa.com.ng doesn’t make it to this list, even though the company offers Nigerians the opportunity to buy domain names and web hosting services via payment with Interswitch Debit/ATM card.

Besides, when I googled the phrase ‘top web domains nigeria’, the search showed that web4africa.com.ng ranks 2nd on the list, while nairahost.com ranks 4th position. Web4Africa.com.ng claims to offer the most affordable domain registration service in Nigeria from N1,250 only (about $10) as at October 2008. I think Nairahost offers the .ng domain for about N1000. Not sure.

My final thoughts

Even though most of these web hosting companies offer interesting features and packages, none of them offer unlimited disk space and bandwidth like the world’s most popular web hosting companies.

I think that with enough broadband access to cater for the 10 million or more internet users in Nigeria, we will start to witness more competitive web hosting offers that may include unlimited disk space and bandwidth.

Do you use any of these web hosting companies? What is your opinion about them? What other web hosting companies in Nigeria do you know?  How reliable are their services?

If you represent any or none of the various website hosting companies mentioned here, you also can share in this discussion.

Statistics Source: WebHosting.Info