Choosing a hosting provider for your website can be a daunting task if you’re not familiar with the industry. Whether you need hosting for a blog, an e-commerce site or just a small business site, you need to know the most economical option for your needs. I’ve done the hard work researching and using different hosting companies over the past few years. I’ve put together a guide on how to choose the best blog hosting!
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What is Web Hosting?
What on earth is web hosting? Web hosts are usually companies which store data on the server that is linked with the Internet. All websites online are hosted on the server, and most sites utilize a web host to deal with the storage with this data. Hosts generally place limits for the speed and amount of transfer they will perform depending on the package that you elect to buy. If you are looking for your own website, you will definitely need web hosting.
Who Needs Website Hosting?
When you commit yourself to starting a blog or small business online – picking out the best web hosting company may be the first essential to success. I wanted to create this post to make the process of choosing a hosting company less daunting and easy for you! I’ve compiled my list with the top 3 web hosting service services available on the internet. I’ve worked with many over the years, and can honestly say – these are the best of the best!
Factors To Look At When Choosing A Hosting Company
Bandwidth
This determines that speed of your website and how much data it can transfer of periods of time. 95%+ of blogs/web sites currently use no more than 5 GB of bandwidth per month. Only sites that are expected to produce a large amount of traffic will require a larger rate of monthly bandwidth.
Customer Service
Though it can be a breeze to setup, there’s a good chance you will want some form of technical support above the life of your account along with your web hosting service provider. This is one of the most important things to look at. All hosting companies will say they have 24/7 support services, but will wait on the phone for hours on end to get a hold of real person on the phone. (eeek!) iPage and Siteground are my favorites when it comes to customer service. I have had great experiences with both hosting companies.
Disk Space
This is the combined total data size of everything on your website, including files, images, text, and code.
How much you will need is solely dependent on the content of your web site. Most web sites average around 150 MB. Many Web Host companies will offer unlimited disk space. In my opinion 5 GB is more then enough for most blogs and small to medium businesses.
Shared or dedicated hosting
Once you dive in, you’ll be presented with an option to have dedicated hosting or shared hosting. This boils down to the size of website you’re about to build because it’s fairly typical that shared hosting has less bandwidth and less disk space than a dedicated hosting package. If you are planning to create a blog or small business, then shared hosting would be just fine to start out with. If you are planning to grow quickly and sell many things from your site and set up ecommerce, then I would definitely recommend a dedicated hosting service.
What Does Website Hosting Cost?
Simply how much will web web hosting service cost? Web hosting packages consist of a few dollars monthly. Below, I’ve listed the best hosting prices for blogs and small businesses. These are all great options for you! When considering which package to purchase, you should examine the services offered alongside your wants.
HOSTING OPTIONS I RECOMMEND
[iPage, Siteground, and Host Gator]:
iPAGE
Price: $1.99/month for 3 years ($71) OR $2.91/month for 1 year ($35)
Domain: Free
Bandwidth: Unlimited
Disk Space: Unlimited
Customer Service: 24/7 technical support
The Essential Plan hosting:
This is the cheapest option on their website and perfect for the blogger or small business owner. It costs a mere $1.99/month for 3 years OR $2.91/month for 1 year and includes a free domain name, unlimited disk space, unlimited email accounts, and unlimited MySQL databases.
Features:
- Unlimited MySQL database, disk space, bandwidth, and email accounts.
- Free Domain Name
- iPage web hosting supports Midi File, Macromedia Shockwave, Flash, Real Audio, and Video giving its users the ability to add different multimedia files to their websites.
- Professional support team available 24/7 ready to handle any question or inquiry quickly and efficiently.
- A 30 day Money Back guarantee.
- iPage web hosting guarantees a 99.9% up-time.
- Upon signup, the user benefits of many bonuses, for instance: $500 free marketing credits and extras, free mobile site builder, SiteDelux, a wide range of themes and templates and more.
iPage is a very useful and secure web hosting service with an overall positive and satisfying feedback. It can be perfect for beginner and intermediate users for low to medium costs, providing good support, and flexible options.
VISIT iPAGE
SITEGROUND
Price: $3.95/month
Domain: Free
Bandwidth: Unlimited
Disk Space: 10GB
Customer Service: 24/7 technical support
StartUp Plan –
$3.95 which comes at 60 percent off from the regular price of $9.95/month. You get 10GB Web Space and can host one domain.
Features:
- Flexibility and Scalability – Site Ground website hosting packages allow you to scale its services to meet your needs. You can easily upgrade and there’s plenty of room to grow.
- SiteGround Data Center Options – Site Ground website hosting company has three datacenters at Chicago, Amsterdam and Singapore, and you’re allowed to choose the server location that’s closest to majority of your site users. This ensures optimal site performance and also ensures much better website security.
- All web hosting plans come with a free domain, free software that can be used to design website, and unrestricted email accounts.
VISIT SITEGROUND
HOST GATOR
Price: $3.95/month
Domain: Free
Bandwidth: Unlimited
Disk Space: Unlimited
Customer Service: 24/7 technical support
Hatchling Plan, Starting at $3.96/mo
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Shared SSL certificate
- Single domain
- Unlimited disk space
Features:
- The company has a comprehensive technical support, 27/7 live chat support. Email support, FAQ and toll-free telephone support for customers in USA.
- 45 Money Back Guarantee
- Unlimited bandwidth and space even at their cheapest packages
VISIT HOST GATOR
Need help setting up your blog? I know the tech-y stuff can get confusing and frustrating in the beginning! I’ve put together a step-by-step blog post and video (1 and 1/2 hours long!) to walk you through the process!
We go over how to:
- Set up Hosting
- Install WordPress
- Add recommended plugins
- Add a free WordPress theme
- Create your first blog post & page
- Set up your menu
- Add an image
- Add sidebar widgets
- AND much more!