Introduction

Lets explain some of your remotely-hosted webring options, the tables below shows the differences between the various webring hosting systems, as you can see there aren't many, but some are more significant than others.

For example, the javascript generated navbar is only available with WebRing and RingMaker. With RingMaker the javascript can be turned off and HTML used as an alternative. With WebRing, both methods are available if the ringmaster chooses, or he/she may choose a preference. If you ever decide to give up or delete your ring, the WebRing system puts it up for adoption, where another ringmaster would assume control of your ring, whether you would like them to do so or not. The Rail only provides rings of their own called 'Trains' (you can not host a ring here, only join one of these 45 Trains).

Another question to ask yourself is the level of support and/or community you want or need. Ringlink provides the best official and un-official support and a vibrant community, whereas FS.Rings currently provides little or no official or unofficial support and has no community. WebRing.com has the most active community but little or no official support, whereas RingMaker has a official forum but no community.

Finally, the most important question you need to ask yourself is whether you want to host your ring/s on a large commercial webring system, self-host, or host on one of the many smaller independant webring systems?

Third-party Ring Hosts (Large Systems)	SiteRing	RingSurf	WebRing	ICQ Rings
Central Directory
Official Support
Ring Statistics
Javascript or HTML Navbar	HTML	HTML	JS/HTML*	HTML
Link Checker
Rearrange Ring
Is ring Deleted or Adopted	Deleted	Deleted	Adopted	Deleted
Banner Adds and/or Pop Ups
Translations
MyRings
BackUp Ring

Third-party Ring Hosts (Medium Systems)	The Rail	WebRing.jp	Webring.de	Webring.pl
Central Directory
Official Support
Ring Statistics
Javascript or HTML Navbar	HTML	HTML	HTML	HTML
Link Checker
Rearrange Ring
Is ring Deleted or Adopted	N/A	Deleted	Deleted	Deleted
Banner Adds and/or Pop Ups
Translations
MyRings
BackUp Ring

Third-party Ring Hosts (Small Systems)	Ringlink powered	FS.Rings powered	RingWorld powered
Central Directory
Official Support	Maybe	Maybe	Maybe
Ring Statistics
Javascript or HTML Navbar	HTML	HTML	HTML
Link Checker
Rearrange Ring
Is ring Deleted or Adopted	Deleted	Deleted	Deleted
Banner Adds and/or Pop Ups	Maybe	Maybe	Maybe
Translations	9
MyRings
BackUp Ring		<img src="http://www.webringworld.org/modules/ContentExpress/img_repository/cross.gif" width="18" height="18" alt="No" />

Free Webring Programs for Self-hosting	Ringlink Perl/CGI	RingMaker PHP/Mysql	FS.Rings PHP/Mysql	PHPMyRing PHP/Mysql	Plebius PHP/Mysql
Central Directory
Official Support
Ring Statistics
Javascript or HTML Navbar	HTML	JS/HTML*	HTML	HTML	HTML
Link Checker
Rearrange Ring
Is ring Deleted or Adopted?	Deleted	Deleted	Deleted	Deleted	Deleted
Banner Adds and/or Pop Ups
Translations	9	7	1	3	1
MyRings
BackUp Ring

Paid Webring Programs for Self-hosting:	RingWorld ($50) Perl/CGI	RingWorldSQL ($100) Perl/Mysql	MIMAnet ($55) Perl/CGI
Central Directory
Official Support
Ring Statistics
Javascript or HTML Navbar	HTML	HTML	HTML
Link Checker
Rearrange Ring
Is ring Deleted or Adopted?	Deleted	Deleted	Deleted
Banner Adds and/or Pop Ups
Translations	1	1	1
MyRings
BackUp Ring

*WebRing and RingMaker have a unique navbar system in that a ringmaster can choose whether the navbars are delivered to member sites by the use of javascript, standard HTML, or both. Both methods still involve member sites placing a piece of code on their webpage, they just work differently and there are pros and cons involved in each method.

Note: PHPMyRing, PHP-Ring, MIMAnet, and RingMaker are 1 ring webring systems that require you to download the program to host your ring. Ringlink is a webring system that can host several hundred webrings, and FS.Rings several thousand webrings (includes built in ring directory). There are also several hundred independant Ringlink powered webring systems that will host your ring in the same manner as say would WebRing and RingSurf (of course you can use the Ringlink program to host just your own webring/s, and disable the feature that allows others to host their webrings on your Ringlink powered webring system).

PS: If you have created a new webring program or system,
we would be delighted to list it here! :-)

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