When starting a new website, one of the most important steps to consider, is where are you going to host it. In the beginning, when you are first starting, and you have no traffic to speak of, you may want to go with shared hosting as it is less expensive.
If you are just starting out as a blogger with a self-hosted WordPress blog, or you are just unhappy with your current host, I am going to talk about 4 of my favorite WordPress hosting companies.
Choosing The Hosting Service That Is Right For You
Shared hosting is a service where your website will reside on one web server connected to the internet. It is usually the most inexpensive method of hosting a website as the costs of the server maintenance are shared among a group of people.
It depends on the host, but usually shared hosting is good, until your traffic increases to about 10,000 visits a month. The increased traffic could put a strain on your website to the point that it starts to lag. Hopefully, by this time, the increase in price is not an issue for you.
Some stay on shared hosting well past this number. You will have to take an assessment at this point to determine if shared hosting is still right for you. This is where working with a good web host can help, as most will give you options to upgrade.
Another consideration is whether the host uses a cPanel or not. A cPanel can make using the web host so much easier, as you have an easy interface to work with.
When starting a new web site, one of the most important decisions is choosing a web host.
Four Important Factors When Choosing A Web Host
- Price
- Speed
- Reliability
- Quality of Support
Pricing plans can differ among web hosts, but usually the beginning plans are all competitively priced. It can range from $3 to $10 a month.
Different things can affect the speed of your site, and I talk about his in my article, How To Increase Your Website Speed With 5 Easy Steps, but starting with the right web host can make all the difference with the speed of your site.
Everyone, at some time or another, has had problems with their website not responding normally. Having a reliable support team to call, and get the problem fixed right away, is very important and less stressful.
Below, I am going to talk about four hosting companies that I recommend for shared hosting, that you can consider, when picking a web host.
Its hard to say who is better than the other, it can really depend on your personal experience. You can always change later, if you feel the need to. (There are affiliate links in this post.)
Bluehost
BlueHost is inexpensive and has a lot of powerful tools. BlueHost is one of the 20 largest web hosts, collectively hosting well over 450,000 domains with its sister company, HostMonster.
I have used Bluehost before and they are extremely fast for a shared host. I can highly recommend them.
BlueHost is one of the largest web hosting providers in the market, powering more than 2 million websites worldwide. They have 3 different shared hosting plans, (Starter, Plus, and Business Pro) which can range from $3.95 to $14.95 a month.
BlueHost also runs a HUGE knowledge base for customer support. The company provides extremely comprehensive documentations for its services and operates a YouTube channel to deliver video tutorials.
BlueHost allows users to cancel their account anytime and ask for a pro-rated refund.
HostGator
With over two million domains, HostGator hosts approximately 1% of the world’s internet traffic. They provide speed and reliability. This is the host that I currently use.
HostGator offers three different shared hosting plans. These three shared hosting plans are named Hatchling, Baby, and Business. Prices range from $4.86 to $10.46 a month.
The good thing about HostGator plans is that upgrading (from Hatchling to Baby/Business or from Baby to Business) is completely free. All you need to do is to fill out an upgrade form, and the tech person will do the rest.
So, it is advisable to start at the lower level plan (Baby/Hatchling) when you are unsure, and only request for an upgrade when necessary.
DreamHost
Reasonably priced, good support, fantastic recommendations. Unlimited space and bandwidth. DreamHost does not have a cPanel but they do have their own award-winning user’s control panel.
DreamHost has a great list of features to satisfy your personal or business-related web hosting needs. The company’s shared Web hosting plan, at $8.95 per month, offers unlimited disk storage, domains, and email accounts—it’s great for those who have meager hosting needs.
They also have been voted Best Web Hosting Service by PC Mag for the last two years.
SiteGround
SiteGround is a company that I had not heard of until recently, but I wanted to give you another option to choose from.
SiteGround is a privately held company, with offices in Texas, New York, and Bulgaria. Small businesses and private individuals form the core of its client base in the Web hosting business, with about 150,000 websites hosted through its facilities.
All plans come with free software to design website, a free domain and unrestricted e-mail accounts.
Their shared hosting plans, (StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek) range from $3.95 to $14.95 a month.
The thing that stood out most for me with SiteGround is that they have 3 hosting locations around the world, with locations in Chicago, Amsterdam, and Singapore. This is a great option as it allows you to geographically pick your hosting location at signup, which could really help with getting your message out globally.
A shared hosting account is cheaper and easier to maintain, and often the choice for a beginning blogger or business.
It’s considered typical for budget or entry-level hosting services but people can run successful websites for years on shared hosting.
It can supply sufficient disk space, bandwidth and functionality for personal, hobby or small-business websites.
As your business grows and your traffic increases, you may want to consider upgrading to managed web hosting for your site. Checking with your current host is a good first step, as they probably have a managed option as well, and it is usually easier to upgrade, than changing hosts.
These are only 4 out of many options out there. I don’t really know if one is far superior to the the other. If you choose one, and don’t like it, or have a bad customer experience, you can easily move to another one.
I have had the same host for several years and have not experienced a problem, but others have, so thats why I always advise you to have your domain name with a company, like GoDaddy or NameCheap, separate from your hosting. It just makes it easier to move, if you feel like you need to.
Which Hosts Do You Use?
I hope I gave you some good options to choose from when picking a shared hosting plan. Which hosting company do you use and why do you like it? I would love to hear about this in the comments.