Hosting question

Not sure where to post this, but this seemed like the most relevant place. I'm trying to get a website up and running and finding all the choices in registrars, domain hosts (and the variety of plans and upgrades they offer) a little daunting and would appreciate some help to make sure I'm on the right track.

Google and some other webdesign posts on the topic suggest you should avoid package deals and register/host with separate companies to avoid trouble if you later decide to change hosts or domain names. With that in mind, I think I will be registering with namecheap.com, and have narrowed down my hosting companies to domain.com or dreamhost.com, based on reviews of their interface and support from other redditors.

I'm just having some trouble figuring out which plan and upgrades I should get (if any). What I would like is:

* support for the tools and languages I've learned to use, namely PHP5 with MySQLi support, which I think requires MySQL server versions 4.1.3 and newer. * If they don't have their own MySQL UI, it would be nice if they enable the use of phpMyAdmin which requires PHP 5.2 and MySQL 5. * Basic web analytics (Both companies seem to do this) * E-mail hosting so I can have a few (probably <5, 100% sure <10) [email protected] accounts. (Both companies seem to do this)

I think domain.com supports MSSQL, while dreamhost supports MySQL, so I may have to go with dreamhost?

Can someone clarify which plan/upgrades I would need to get? I think the [dreamhost](http://dreamhost.com/servers/compare-our-products/) "shared plan" should suit my needs, but I don't fully understand the differences between the shared plan and the VPS plan.

edit: here are the [domain.com plans](http://www.domain.com/hosting/windows.php).

edit#2: May have answered my own question. After some more research, I found [stablehost](http://www.stablehost.com/shared-hosting.php), which I think will be perfect. They explain their packages much better.