Tag: Hosting

A2 Hosting Review

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For reliable hosting that focuses on speed, A2 Hosting provides plenty of options to get your site up and running.

If you’re familiar with SEO and the ranking factors Google uses to decide where your site shows up in search results, you know speed is one major factor in securing higher rankings and increasing traffic and revenue.

This is one big way A2 differentiates itself from other standard web hosting options–it puts speed at the forefront of all its services.

A2 Compared to The Best Shared Hosting Companies

A 99.98% uptime guarantee, free automated backups, and free site migration are only some of the features that set A2 apart as far as reliable web hosting goes. As one of the oldest providers on the market, it’s a solid option for both new and veteran websites. WordPress users will especially love A2, as it has pricing packages specifically tailored for WordPress sites. 

Before you make any solid decisions for a hosting provider, it’s always a good idea to know what your options are. I spent hours making sure the top list page contained only the best web hosting services according to a wide variety of needs and features. To see the full rundown, check out that post to see all the top picks.

Who is A2 Best For?

It’s simple. Any website that is designed to drive sales and conversions can benefit from a hosting service like A2. I’ve mentioned it before, but I don’t get tired of saying speed is the name of the game if you want to capture new leads, retain existing customers, keep your Google rankings, and maintain a great brand reputation. 

Now, there isn’t a web host on the planet that doesn’t come with a set of pros and cons. But one thing’s for sure: No website visitor wants to land on a website that takes forever to load. They’ll bounce right off your site faster than you can say web hosting. 

While you can try to install cache plugins that slow down your site and claim to improve your website speed, a host like A2 that’s built with a focus on speed can be a better place to start. 

A2: The Pros and Cons

Pros

Exclusive web servers: Global web servers that are exclusive to A2 give you a leg up in the speed game with speeds that can be up to 20 times faster than the competition. 

24/7 live chat and support: A 24/7 live support feature is valuable if your site runs into any kind of technical issues or downtime. A2 has specialists standing by ready to walk you through any troubleshooting issues. 

Free site migration: If you need to migrate your site to A2 from a previous web host they help you get the job done for free. Unlike other providers, there are no extra fees necessary. 

Compatible with a variety of platforms: A2 Hosting works great with a number of CMS solutions like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Magento, and OpenCart. You can one-click install them once you sign up. 

Free SSL certification: SSL certification is essential for site security and to ensure your visitors trust your site enough to keep coming back. Thankfully A2 offers this feature for free. 

24/7 malware scanning and monitoring: You can sleep soundly at night knowing A2 is ready to alert you on any attempts at your site with their 24/7 monitoring feature, which other hosting services might not provide.  

Free Cloudflare CDN: To keep adding to their speed features, A2 provides you with a free Cloudflare CDN for any hosting package you choose for added speed and loading times. 

Carbon-neutral hosting: As the world evolves, A2 evolves with it through its carbon-neutral hosting option. A2 supports carbon-neutral hosting, meaning all of their servers are deemed ‘carbon-neutral’ by purchasing carbon offsets. With A2, you can be sure you’re hosting your site without adding to your carbon footprint. 

Can handle websites of all sizes: If you’re planning on growing your website traffic, it doesn’t matter if you’re starting out with a website from scratch or you’re a big business reeling in plenty of traffic and sales, A2 can handle your site’s growth with a wide variety of hosting packages that are all geared for speed.  

Cons

Doesn’t provide a free domain: While this isn’t a requirement for any hosting service to work properly, it’s nice to have the option to register a free domain like other hosting services do, especially if you’re working with a shoestring budget. 

Increased renewal fees: For the most part, increased renewal rates can be expected from just about any hosting provider, but it’s still worth mentioning if you’re thinking and planning long term. Upon renewal, A2’s hosting packages do increase in price. 

A2 Pricing

A2 doesn’t only differentiate itself as a speedy host. They also have a ton—and I mean a ton—of web hosting options from which you can take your pick.

To start, their general hosting services fall into eight distinct categories and subcategories:

  • Shared hosting – best for hosting personal sites and blogs
  • Managed WordPress hosting – perfect for WordPress sites
  • Managed VPS hosting – has more power than shared hosting
  • Unmanaged VPS hosting – Unmanaged VPS for developers
  • Reseller hosting – best for hosting your own customers
  • Dedicated hosting (unmanaged servers) – best for developers
  • Dedicated hosting (core servers) – managed server with root access
  • Dedicated hosting (managed servers) – managed server with no root access

You can definitely start with one of their base options for each category according to your site needs. Especially if you’re a startup on a budget. 

But if you want to take it a step further or want additional features, you can choose a more specific plan within the category of your choice. 

Here’s how their most affordable plans stack up:

Shared Hosting

  • Startup – $2.99 monthly paid upfront for a three-year plan
  • Drive – $4.99 monthly paid upfront for a three-year plan
  • Turbo Boost – $9.99 monthly paid upfront for a three-year plan
  • Turbo Max – $14.99 monthly paid upfront for a three-year plan

Shared hosting works best for small websites that are just getting their start and beginning to see traffic. As you can see, their cheapest plan adds up to only $107 plus some change for a reliable three-year hosting plan. 

Beginner deals like this compete with offers from the likes of Bluehost who offer similar prices but without the speed guarantee, which is a big plus on a shared hosting plan.

As you go up the price ladder, you can host an unlimited number of sites, get unlimited storage, and within the last two tiers, you’ll get a 20X turbo boost for faster site speeds. 

Note that these pricing tiers are the exact same for a Shared WordPress Hosting plan. 

Managed WordPress Hosting

  • 1 site – $12.99 a month paid upfront for three years
  • 3 site – $22.99 a month paid upfront for three years
  • Unlimited – $43.99 a month paid upfront for three years

Managed WordPress hosting is a step up from shared hosting with enhanced WordPress features that ensure security and speed. The biggest difference between the three different options you get within this category is the number of sites you need to manage and the amount of storage you need. It’s as simple as choosing the tier that fits your hosting needs. Thankfully, they all come with the 20X faster turbo speed feature. 

Managed VPS Hosting

  • Lift 8 – $46.99 a month paid upfront for a three-year plan
  • Lift 16 – $57.99 a month paid upfront for a three-year plan
  • Mach 8 – $59.99 a month paid upfront for a three-year plan
  • Mach 16 – $89.99 a month paid upfront for a three-year plan
  • Mach 32 – $99.99 a month paid upfront for a three-year plan

When you start getting into managed VPS hosting territory, you start looking at increased RAM capabilities and storage capacity. It’s a great option right before you’re ready to step into a dedicated server plan. I recommend you see their pricing page for a full look at what each plan offers. 

Unmanaged VPS Hosting

  • Runway 2 – $7.99 a month paid upfront for a three-year plan
  • Runway 4 – $9.99 a month paid upfront for a three-year plan
  • Supersonic 8 – $34.99 a month paid upfront for a three-year plan
  • Supersonic 16 – $54.99 a month paid upfront for a three-year plan
  • Supersonic 32 – $74.99 a month paid upfront for a three-year plan

An unmanaged VPS plan ensures your site runs at fast speeds with additional RAM, storage, and root access. Needless to say, this VPS plan is definitely developer-friendly. 

Reseller hosting

  • Kickstart – $18.99 a month paid upfront for a three-year plan
  • Launch – $24.99 a month paid upfront for a three-year plan
  • Grow – $34.99 a month paid upfront for a three-year plan
  • Scale – $44.99 a month paid upfront for a three-year plan
  • Turbo Kickstart – $29.99 a month paid upfront for a three-year plan

With reseller hosting you get additional SSD storage, WebHost manager, cPanel, Free Blesta billing system, free SSL certificate, around the block guru support, and free website migration too. The more storage and transfer GB you need the more you’ll have to pay monthly. 

Dedicated Hosting (Unmanaged Servers)

  • Sprint – $99.59 monthly
  • Exceed – $165.99 monthly
  • Mach – $248.99 monthly

As you can see, the more storage, RAM, or transfer TB you need the more you’ll have to pay monthly. Dedicated hosting with unmanaged servers is a great option for developers wanting more control. As with any other plan A2 Hosting offers, each tier also includes super fast site loading speeds. 

Dedicated Hosting (Core Servers)

  • Sprint – $141.09 monthly
  • Exceed – $207.49 monthly
  • Mach – $290.49 monthly

Much like the previous tier category above, the more RAM, storage, and Transfer TB you need, the more you’ll need to pay monthly. With a dedicated hosting plan with core servers and root access, you also get all the HostGuard management features. This means:

  • Daily automatic and rebootless updates
  • Managed installs and upgrades of core software
  • Smart system notifications
  • 99.9% uptime commitment
  • Security patches

Dedicated Hosting (Managed Servers)

  • Sprint – $141.09 monthly
  • Exceed – $207.49 monthly
  • Mach – $290.49 monthly

Finally, if you’re running a site that simply can’t afford any downtime and that needs the best A2 Hosting offers, you’ll want to look at their managed dedicated server solutions. But you’ll have to be willing to pay the price tag to get access to perks like lightning-fast speeds, and a dedicated crew you’ll jump at the sight of any hosting issues no matter the time of day. 

Their most affordable managed dedicated server solutions start at $141.09 a month. You can always try them for 30 days to experience their features first hand. If you’re not happy with A2 Hosting’s performance, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee for all their hosting plans. 

A2 Hosting Offerings

At this point, you’ve learned about A2 Hosting’s dedication to speed, uptime, customer support, and a variety of hosting options you can choose from.

However, they do offer additional tools and solutions. You can shop for your preferred domain directly through them and you can also explore their highly specific additional hosting solutions. Here’s what I mean:

Domain

With A2 Hosting you’re definitely going to get the speed and the uptime but you can’t forget about your domain. You can either register a new domain or transfer an existing one to get your site up and running.

Their most popular extensions breakdown as follows:

  • .biz – $17.45
  • .com – $14.95
  • .io – $49.95
  • .net – $14.95
  • .org – $14.95

While you might not get the cheapest deals on domains directly through A2 Hosting, it’s definitely an option that’s there for you if you don’t feel like going through the hassle of transferring one. 

Additional hosting solutions

Yes, you’ve read that right. While we went over plenty of hosting plans and packages earlier, A2 Hosting lets you dig deeper into a seemingly endless rabbit hole of software and hosting solution combinations according to even more specific website needs.

Once you pick the appropriate solution for you, A2 Hosting lines up a combination of the best hosting options and software available to meet your specific needs. 

For instance, if I’m going to be running a classified ad site through them, once I click on that option I’m greeted with a list of popular classified ad software that’s highly compatible with A2 hosting services. I’m also given a comprehensive list of the best web hosting plans perfect for classified ad sites. 

This is an extremely useful feature if you’re running a site with more detailed needs and want to tackle them head-on. Features like these are yet another reason why A2 stands out as a powerful hosting solution for a wide variety of sites in a wide variety of niches. 

The Best Shared Hosting Companies

Don’t forget to read through our in-depth review of the best shared hosting companies. See all of our top picks to make sure you’re making the best choice possible. 

  • Hostinger – The best cheap shared hosting plans
  • Bluehost – The best shared hosting for WordPress
  • A2 Hosting – The best hosting company for speed
  • DreamHost – The best shared hosting features
  • GreenGeeks – Best eco-friendly hosting
  • TMDHosting – The best fully-managed plans

Without question, A2 Hosting is one of the fastest providers I have experience with. It provides around-the-clock support, exclusive global servers, and works great with a number of CMS solutions. What’s more, A2 Hosting even goes out of its way to lessen its carbon footprint. As a hosting provider that’s been around for as long as WordPress has, it stands solidly in our list of top picks as one of the best web host solutions out there. 

The post A2 Hosting Review appeared first on Neil Patel.

The Truth About Website Hosting Costs

Every website needs a hosting plan. 

But there’s such a wide range of web hosting costs out there. It’s overwhelming for beginners and experienced website owners alike. How much should you pay for web hosting? Are you overpaying for web hosting? How much does web hosting really cost?

Some plans start below $1 per month. Others start at over $2,000 per month!

To make matters even more complicated, there are 330,000+ web hosting providers on the market today. Trying to find the best web hosting plan for your site without overpaying can feel like an impossible task. 

Fortunately, I’m going to let you in on a little secret—you don’t need to overpay for web hosting. 

This guide will teach you the truth about web hosting costs. I’ve identified the top costs associated with web hosting and how to evaluate those costs as you’re shopping around. You’ll learn more about how much you should pay for certain web hosting benefits and whether or not you even need specific features in your hosting plan. 

My Favorite Tool for Keeping Web Hosting Costs Low

Bluehost is my favorite tool for keeping web hosting costs low. 

As an industry leader in the web hosting space, more than two million sites worldwide rely on Bluehost for hosting. They have packages for everyone. Whether you’re starting a small personal blog or looking for a new provider to host your business site with millions of monthly visits, Bluehost can accommodate your needs. 

To be clear, Bluehost is not necessarily the cheapest web hosting provider on the market. Some providers offer free web hosting or web hosting for less than a dollar. But you should avoid free web hosting at all costs—there is always a catch. 

But Bluehost really delivers in terms of value. They offer low entry-level pricing for new websites, and their web hosting services help keep other costs low over time. 

Continue below to learn more about general web hosting costs. I’ll even explain how Bluehost can help save you some money in some of these categories. 

Cost #1: Web Hosting Type

The type of web hosting plan you select will have the most significant impact on the price. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but generally speaking, here’s the order listed from cheapest to most expensive:

  • Shared web hosting
  • Cloud web hosting
  • VPS (virtual private server) web hosting
  • Dedicated server web hosting

Depending on the hosting provider, cloud hosting and VPS hosting might be switched. But the list above is a good rule of thumb. 

Check out this pricing page from Bluehost as an example:

As you can see, there’s a significant price gap between each type of web hosting. The starting price of a dedicated server is roughly 20 times higher than the shared starting rate. 

Unless you’re expecting huge traffic surges out of the gate, the vast majority of new websites should stick to a shared plan. That’s the best way to save some money, and you can always upgrade down the road as your site grows. 

Most shared plans can accommodate anywhere from 10,000 to 25,000 monthly visits. Once you start getting into the 50,000 monthly visit range, you should consider upgrading to a VPS or cloud package. I wouldn’t consider a dedicated server until you eclipse 100,000 monthly visits, and even at that point, it’s not 100% necessary. 

Cost #2: Contract Length

Generally speaking, you’ll need to commit to a longer-term contract to get the lowest possible rate. This is one of the best ways to save money on web hosting costs, especially as a new customer. 

Depending on the provider, plans are typically offered in 12, 24, 36, and up to 48-month contract terms. Month-to-month web hosting isn’t very common. So expect to commit to a year, at a minimum. 

Here’s an example of the different prices offered by Bluehost based on contract length:

As you can see, there’s a $2 per month difference in price between the 36-month contract and the 12-month contract. This isn’t life-changing money or anything like that. But it will save you $72 over the course of three years. 

Just understand that you’ll need to pay upfront for your contract in full when you sign up. In this case, $3.95 per month for 36 months actually means $142.20 today. 

Cost #3: Renewal Rates

Locking in a long-term contract also helps you avoid renewal rates. It’s standard practice in the web hosting industry for providers to offer low promotional rates and then jack up the prices when your contract renews. 

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like they aren’t upfront about it. But most people don’t think about the costs they’re going to incur three or four years down the road. Some providers double, triple, or even quadruple your rate upon renewal. 

Let’s take a closer look at the shared hosting packages from Bluehost. You can clearly see the renewal rates below each introductory price.

In this case, the renewal rate is more than double the introductory price. Believe it or not, this is actually fairly reasonable compared to some of the other web hosting providers on the market today. 

There’s not a whole lot that you can do to avoid this increase. Your best bet is to just lock in a long-term introductory contact. That’s the best way to save the most money. 

Once your website has been up and running for a few years, the extra costs upon renewal shouldn’t feel like too much of a burden. 

Cost #4: Hosting Resources

Every web hosting plan allocates a certain number of resources to your website. While this might vary slightly from one provider to another, here’s a basic overview of what to expect:

  • Bandwidth — How quickly your server can transfer data. 
  • CPUs — Central processing units to handle all the requests on your site. 
  • RAM — Short-term memory for processing multiple requests simultaneously. 
  • SSD Storage — The maximum allowed size of your website. 

Generally speaking, the more resources you have, the higher your hosting costs will be. 

Here’s a screenshot from Bluehost’s VPS pricing table to illustrate my point:

As you can see, the SSD storage, RAM, and bandwidth increase at each tier. The number of CPU cores remains the same from the Standard to Enhanced plan but doubles at the Ultimate package level. 

Some providers offer “unlimited” or “unmetered” bandwidth. Just be forewarned that you’re not actually getting unlimited bandwidth. Unlimited bandwidth doesn’t really exist. Even the best servers have limits. Unlimited bandwidth just means that you can use as much bandwidth within a particular range offered by the provider. 

So, how much bandwidth do you need? This isn’t an exact science, but generally, 5 GB of bandwidth can accommodate up to 15,000 or 20,000 visitors per month browsing pages with an average size of 50 KB. 

Consider a cloud hosting plan if your traffic varies significantly from month to month. These packages typically allow you to scale resources on-demand to accommodate traffic spikes. 

Cost #5: Setup Fees and Site Migrations

Most web hosting providers offer free setups. This is especially true with entry-level packages, like shared hosting plans. However, if the provider actually needs to take in-depth steps to get you started, you might incur some setup fees. 

Setup fees are more common at the dedicated server level, where providers need to physically add hardware components based on your plan requests. 

If you’re transferring your website from one hosting provider to another, you might incur a site migration fee as well.

Bluehost charges $149.99 for site transfers. Other providers offer this service for free, but it shouldn’t make or break your decision to use one web host over another.

You can justify the cost by having a professional handle this for you. I don’t recommend trying to migrate a website on your own. Too much can go wrong, so pay the fee and don’t think twice about it. 

Cost #6: Domain Registration

Normally, I wouldn’t mix domain registration and web hosting. It’s usually in your best interest to get your domain name from a domain registrar and your hosting package from a web hosting provider. 

That said, new websites can bundle the two, especially through Bluehost. All new Bluehost customers get a free domain for one year with a web hosting subscription. 

It’s cheaper long-term to get your domain directly from a registrar. Bluehost’s domain renewal rates will be a bit higher. But overall, the added cost is pretty marginal. 

Most new website owners will just find it easier to bundle everything under one roof, as opposed to using different platforms for a domain name and hosting plan. 

Cost #7: Security

I don’t care what type of website you have; security needs to be a top priority for everyone. 

There are a handful of different security measures that should be added to your site. I’m referring to things like network protocols, spam filtering, malware scans, firewalls, and more. But you can get additional security directly from your web hosting provider. 

At a minimum, every web host should be offering you a free SSL certificate. That’s become an industry standard, and I wouldn’t recommend any host that charges an extra SSL fee. 

The exact security options vary from provider to provider, but here’s an example from Bluehost.

For $2.99 per month, SiteLock Security Essential gives you automated malware detection, unlimited page scans, blacklist monitoring, file-level scanning, automatic malware removal, plugin scanning, weekly reports, and more. 

Alternatively, you could always skip this and beef up security on your own. If you’re using WordPress, there are plenty of great WordPress security plugins to consider. 

Cost #8: Managed Support and Server Maintenance

Managed web hosting has become increasingly popular over the years. The term has different meanings depending on the plan and provider you’re using, but in short, a managed web host will take care of all the server operations behind the scenes. This typically includes setup, maintenance, server monitoring, support, updates, and more. 

Alternatively, high-traffic websites could consider a managed WordPress plan. 

The entry-level managed plan from Bluehost starts at $19.95 per month and can accommodate up to 50,000 visitors per month. These plans scale all the way up to sites with 500,000 monthly visitors. 

If you’re using a dedicated server, you definitely need to think about the maintenance costs. Dedicated servers are typically offered with managed or unmanaged options. 

The unmanaged plans will be cheaper if you’re just comparing rates side-by-side. But you’ll be responsible for the cost of maintaining and updating the server on your own. Unless you’re really technical or have a dedicated IT team, it’s generally better to just get a managed plan from your hosting provider. Long-term, it’s cheaper than managing a server on your own. 

Cost #9: Package Extras

Every web hosting provider makes an effort to sign you up for as many different services as possible. Navigating through upsells is just part of shopping around for web hosting.

With that said, you can skip the vast majority of add-ons and upsells offered by web hosts, especially the ones that aren’t directly tied to web hosting. 

Here’s an example to show you what I mean:

The web hosting costs highlighted above come to $142.20. But if you add-on all of the package extras to your plan, your total becomes $277.83. That’s a big jump from an advertised price of $3.95 per month.

Believe it or not, Bluehost actually doesn’t even offer that many extras compared to other hosting providers. Some will offer double or even triple this amount. 

The key here is knowing what to select and what not to select. 

A single domain SSL isn’t necessary, as you’re already getting a free Let’s Encrypt SSL with your plan. You don’t need the marketing or SEO tools. SiteLock Security Essential is something we discussed earlier. 

If you’re not going to get security features elsewhere, adding it on now is a good choice.

Codeguard Basic is another 50/50 option. It includes daily backups, one-click restores, and other helpful tools. But you could always get this later on from other plugins or services. 

Cost #10: Downtime

Downtime is an indirect cost of web hosting. It’s not something that you’ll see on your bill.

But every time your site goes down due to a server crash or network error, it costs you money. The type of website you have and your monetization strategy will dictate exactly how much money you’re losing. 

You can use uptime monitoring from Pingdom to see how different web hosts stack up with each other. Here’s an example showing Bluehost’s uptime stats over the last ten months. 

Don’t just look at an uptime guarantee from a hosting provider and assume you’re in good shape. Those guarantees typically come with all types of contingencies. In the event that they fail to meet the uptime agreement, you’ll just get credit off of a future bill. 

But that $0.50 or $1.25 credit two years from now isn’t worth the cost of losing customers today. 

Always look at reviews to see what real people have to say about the uptime reliability of different web hosting providers. Frequent downtime can be costly long-term. 

Conclusion

What’s the truth about web hosting costs? You don’t need to pay a fortune. 

Your total cost to host a website will depend on several different factors. I’ve identified the top ten costs associated with web hosting above. As you can see from this list, it’s actually fairly easy to keep hosting costs low if you understand what to look for. 

Bluehost is my favorite way to save money on web hosting. So if you sign up with them, you’re on the right track. You’ll even get a free SSL certificate and free domain name.

The post The Truth About Website Hosting Costs appeared first on Neil Patel.

Best Reseller Hosting

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

Reseller hosting can be extremely lucrative. Whether it’s an add-on to your existing business, a side hustle, or the start of a standalone hosting company, there are plenty of ways to turn a profit in this space. 

Every website needs a hosting service. White label resellers become that solution for their clients. By renting servers at wholesale rates from web hosting providers and reselling them to other sites, it’s easy to generate a substantial ROI.

But it all starts with finding the right reseller hosting company for your needs. Which one is the best? Find out below.

The Top 5 Options For Reseller Hosting

  1. SiteGround — The Best For Unlimited Sites
  2. HostPapa — The Best For Reseller Beginners
  3. InMotion — The Best Reseller VPS Plans
  4. A2 Hosting — The Best For Billing and Client Management
  5. Liquid Web — The Best Variety of Reseller Packages

How to Choose the Best Reseller Hosting For You

Certain criteria must be evaluated as you’re shopping around and comparing reseller hosting companies side-by-side. The factors identified below should be considered before finalizing a decision. 

Hosting Type

By default, most reseller packages are offered on shared hosting servers. But different providers offer various hosting options, including VPS reseller hosting, cloud reseller hosting, and even dedicated server reseller hosting.

The hosting type you select will have a direct impact on performance. For example, shared hosting is considered to be entry-level. So, your clients won’t necessarily have the highest performing websites if you’re reselling shared hosting. Traffic spikes on one site could lead to crashes or slow loading times on another.

VPS or dedicated hosting would improve site performance for your clients. These are more expensive, but you can pass those costs along to each client. 

Quality and performance will both be a direct reflection of your brand and services. Often, prioritizing quality is worth the added cost. Choosing the right type of hosting is a crucial decision.

Number of Clients

There’s a big difference between selling reseller hosting services to 20 clients versus 200+ clients. Be realistic, and ask yourself how many clients you plan to acquire and retain on a monthly or annual basis. 

Some reseller plans are better for managing smaller client lists, while others are built to scale. There are even reseller hosting packages out there that can accommodate an unlimited number of websites. 

Billing and Client Management

The best reseller hosting plans set you up for success and come with add-ons or built-in tools for managing your clients. 

Look for features like web hosting manager complete solution (WHMCS). It’s an industry-leading web hosting and billing management tool. You can use it to automate billing, collect payments, set up provisioning, and more. Blesta is also a popular tool for billing and client management.

Some plans come with a free WHMCS or Blesta license, while others charge extra for access to these tools.

Technical Ability

Ease of use with reseller hosting is not universal across the board. Some platforms are definitely more user-friendly than others. 

Some reseller hosting solutions are made for developers and other tech-savvy users. Others are designed to accommodate beginners or agencies looking to add-on to existing services. 

Be honest about your technical ability and that of your team, and the learning curve associated with the tool. It should be reasonably easy to determine if the plans you’re evaluating fit within your level of comfort. The terminology and use cases described for each package can be very telling. If it feels like you’re reading a foreign language, it’s probably not the best option for you. 

White Labeling

Hosting for clients can typically be offered in one of two ways—managed or white label. 

Some resellers build and manage sites for clients behind the scenes without granting the client access to their site’s hosting control panel. Others simply re-brand the hosting services and give clients log-in access to manage the hosting service independently. 

With a white label plan, the client never knows where you’re getting hosting from. You’ll have the ability to put your own branding and logos on this dashboard. Not every reseller plan comes with white label capabilities out of the box. 

The Different Types of Reseller Hosting

There are different options when it comes to reseller hosting. They typically fall into one of the following four categories:

Shared Reseller Hosting

Shared hosting is when all websites share resources from the same server. Clients will be sharing server space with each other, as well as other sites that you’re not directly selling hosting to. 

If no hosting type is specified on the package being evaluated, it’s usually safe to assume that the plan is shared. 

Shared hosting is typically the cheapest, but the performance isn’t always great. Clients may experience slow loading times or even crashes if other sites on the same server use up resources. 

VPS Reseller Hosting

VPS stands for virtual private server. Websites are still hosted on one central server, but they’ll have dedicated resources on their own virtual servers. 

VPS hosting is an excellent option for white label resellers. It offers flexibility and improved performance without breaking the bank. This option will be more expensive than shared hosting, but it’s still a good value.

Dedicated Reseller Hosting

Dedicated reseller hosting involves renting an entire server from a hosting provider. In this case, resellers won’t have to worry about other websites being hosted or sharing resources with their clients. 

This allows you to provide more RAM, CPU, bandwidth, and storage to your clients. It’s more expensive, but the performance will be top-notch. 

Dedicated reseller hosting is generally better for resellers with a high volume of clients. If you’re only managing a dozen sites or so, this really isn’t necessary. 

Cloud Reseller Hosting

Cloud hosting is a bit new compared to other types of web hosting. It’s not necessarily the most popular option for resellers, but some providers now offer this choice. 

Think of cloud hosting like a hybrid version of a VPS. Rather than each site being split into a single virtual private server, each is hosted on multiple cloud servers.

Cloud hosting is a good option for resellers who want to give clients the ability to scale their resources on-demand. These packages typically offer “pay as you go” pricing, so clients pay based on usage. 

#1 – SiteGround Review — The Best For Unlimited Sites

SiteGround is one of the most popular and reputable web hosting providers on the market today. Their reseller plans are no exception.

Resellers benefit from everything they need to start selling hosting and managing multiple sites out of the box. One unique standout of SiteGround is that it’s built to scale. All reseller packages support an unlimited number of websites. 

Even the entry-level package supports unlimited sites. You won’t find a value like this from other hosting providers on the market today. 

SiteGround is also flexible enough to accommodate resellers with different needs. For example, you can resell hosting to clients without giving them direct access to the control panel for each site. This is a popular choice for developers who build and manage sites for clients.

Alternatively, you can give clients full access to their control panel by assigning them as white label users. They won’t see any SiteGround logos or branding when they log in, so you can brand the hosting service as your own. White labeling is offered with the GoGeek and Cloud plans.

The cloud reseller hosting plans from SiteGround also allow you to set up custom packages and user access for your clients. 

Other top features and benefits of using SiteGround’s reseller services include:

  • Single dashboard to manage all sites
  • Built to scale
  • 30+ tools like FTP client, PHP version manager, app installer, etc.
  • Free WordPress installations
  • Automatic WordPress updates
  • Daily backups
  • On-demand backups
  • Free SSLs
  • Free CDN
  • Free email
  • Unlimited databases
  • Caching to boost speed
  • Ability to add collaborators

SiteGround also has exceptional support for resellers. If you need help or have a question, their hosting experts are available via live chat and ticket support. 

Reseller plans start at just $5.99 per month.

#2 – HostPapa Review — The Best For Reseller Beginners

HostPapa is perfect for anyone new to reselling. The platform is straightforward to use, and advanced technical knowledge is not a requirement. 

They handle everything on the backend, so you never have to worry about the server architecture being sold to clients. HostPapa takes care of server firewalls, brute force detection, site security, network monitoring, IP deny manager, SSL encryption, and so much more.

The exceptional support and resources designed specifically for resellers are highly beneficial to beginners. HostPapa offers free 30-minute training sessions, self-help guides, reseller tutorials, and award-winning customer service. 

You’ll even have the option to provide your clients with their own control panel access through a brandable white-label portal. This includes branded white-label nameservers.

Here are some other top reasons to choose HostPapa for reseller hosting:

  • One-click installation for 400+ apps
  • Built-in automation to manage client subscriptions
  • WHMCS billing system
  • Free site transfers from other hosting providers
  • Simple dashboard to manage all sites
  • Unlimited sites
  • Easy to scale and add resources
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee
  • 24/7/365 tech support

Reseller plans start at $29.99. All packages are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. 

#3 – InMotion Review — The Best Reseller VPS Plans

InMotion is another industry leader in the world of web hosting. They offer six different white label reseller plans, including three VPS reseller packages. 

For those of you who want to take your reseller services to the next level, a premium VPS plan from InMotion has everything you need.

Every plan comes with free SSD storage, free billing software, cPanel and WHM, free domain reseller, 24/7/365 support, and white label resources. InMotion is optimized for WordPress out of the box as well. 

But if you select a reseller VPS plan, you’ll benefit from additional features like:

  • Up to 50 free cPanel transfers
  • Hosting optimized for e-commerce
  • High availability with real-time redundancy
  • Free server security, management, and maintenance
  • Optional root access
  • High performance with allocated resources for each site
  • Scalable resources

The shared reseller packages start at $15.39 per month, whereas the VPS reseller plans start at $46.64 per month. There’s definitely a significant difference between these starting rates, but the VPS reseller hosting’s quality and performance are unmatched. 

All InMotion white label reseller hosting plans are backed by a 90-day money-back guarantee.

#4 – A2 Hosting Review — The Best For Billing and Client Management

A2 Hosting is synonymous with speed. They are known for providing some of the fastest web hosting servers on the market today.

When you sign up for an A2 Hosting reseller package, you’ll have the option to upgrade to a turbo reseller plan, which gives you and your clients access to servers up to 20 times faster than most other options. 

In addition to the top-notch performance, A2 offers a free WHMCS or Blesta license with its reseller packages.

WHMCS and Blesta are two of the best client management and billing solutions for resellers. So, you’ll have no problem managing your client lists at scale with A2 Hosting.

Other top features offered in A2’s reseller packages include:

  • 24/7/365 guru support
  • Free account migrations
  • 99.9% uptime commitment
  • Free SSL certificates
  • cPanel and WHM
  • White label capability
  • Developer-friendly tools

The entry-level reseller servers from A2 Hosting start at $18.99 per month. Turbo reseller servers start at $29.99 per month, and I strongly recommend them. Your clients will definitely notice a difference in terms of speed and performance. The extra $11 is well worth it.

A2 also has a ton of guides and resources made specifically for resellers. You really can’t go wrong with any of these plans.

#5 – Liquid Web Review — The Best Variety of Reseller Packages

Whether you’re starting a new reseller hosting business or scaling an existing one, Liquid Web has everything you need to succeed. 

They offer a wide range of reseller options, including dedicated reseller servers, VPS servers, and cloud servers.

All of these options perform significantly better than an entry-level shared reseller plan. 

Liquid Web also has a unique billing structure for reseller customers. The program allows resellers to purchase any hosting solution at a discount. But the exact discount is based on monthly revenue. The more hosting solutions you sell, the higher your discount will be:

  • $250-$500 per month — 5% discount
  • $501-$1,000 per month — 7% discount
  • $1,001-$2,000 per month — 9% discount
  • $2,001-$5,000 per month — 12% discount
  • $5,001-$10,000 per month — 17% discount
  • $10,001-$15,000 per month — 19% discount
  • $15,000+ per month — 20% discount

As you can see, there’s an opportunity to make a significant profit here with these discounts as your reseller program scales. 

All of Liquid Web’s reseller packages come with a free WHMCS license. This makes it easy for you to customize plans for clients, generate invoices, and provide support to your clients within a single interface. 

Liquid Web allows you to give your clients complete control of their plans so that they manage things like service provisioning, reboots, and load balancing on their own. 

Pricing for Liquid Web’s reseller program starts at $99 per month. 

Summary

Every website on the Internet must have a web hosting service, and there’s no shortage of potential prospects for resellers in the hosting space. But having success as a reseller starts with choosing the right program. 

Which one is the best?

The top five options reviewed above is the best place to start your search. Whether you’re a beginner, an experienced reseller, or somewhere in between, you can find what you need with the recommendations listed in this guide. 

The post Best Reseller Hosting appeared first on Neil Patel.

Best Cloud Web Hosting

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You need a website that’s reliable, flexible, and adapts to your needs. You need to spend your time focusing on your business rather than worrying about your website.

Cloud web hosting could be the right choice for you. This is a relatively new kind of hosting that has emerged as an impressive solution for websites that need a stable and efficient, yet adaptable and agile hosting solution. 

Unlike traditional web hosting, where you purchase a set amount of resources like bandwidth and RAM on a single server, cloud hosting spreads your website’s needs across a massive virtual server that lives on hardware in data centers all over the world. 

With cloud hosting, it’s incredibly easy to add more resources or cut back as needed, and cloud hosting is much less vulnerable to equipment failure issues as there are many servers to pick up the slack. 

If you’re looking for a cost-effective hosting solution to grow with your business, cloud hosting could be the way to go. Keep reading – we’ll break down 7 of the best cloud web hosting options and how to know which is the best one for your business needs.

The Top 7 Options for Cloud Web Hosting:

  1. A2 Hosting — Best For Speed & Flexibility
  2. Cloudways — Best User-Friendly Power Hosting
  3. Hostgator — Best For Affordability
  4. InMotion — Best Customer Support 
  5. Bluehost — Best User Experience
  6. DreamHost — Best if You Know How to Code
  7. Nexcess — Best for Ecommerce

How to Choose the Best Cloud Web Hosting For You 

With so many hosting options available, it can be overwhelming to figure out precisely what you need. With this in mind, here are a few specific factors to consider when choosing which cloud hosting service is the best option for you and your business.

Scalability

Perhaps the greatest advantage of cloud web hosting is its capability to grow with your business, whatever that looks like for you. For example, you might be launching an entirely new venture but have detailed plans to grow quickly and need a website that can easily scale with you. An alternate scenario would be a business with dramatic peaks and dips in traffic volume, like an online shop selling seasonal merchandise. 

In both of these scenarios, you won’t want to be constrained to a set amount of resources on one single server, like you would in a conventional web hosting package. With cloud hosting, you’re sharing space with hundreds of thousands of other websites on many servers all over the world, so it’s quick and easy for your cloud hosting provider to add more resources to your plan as needed. Many of the providers we’ve included here make scaling up as easy as the click of a button.

Cloud hosting is the obvious choice if you’re planning for your business to expand quickly or if it often fluctuates significantly. But even in other cases, it might still be the right choice for you—keep reading to find out why.

Reliability and Security 

One major plus to having your site hosted in so many different locations is security. Because your website’s integrity isn’t connected to a physical object (a specific, designated server), that object doesn’t need to be protected from harm. Public cloud hosting is formed by many data centers full of servers worldwide, and they’re generally highly secure and often in remote locations. 

Furthermore, physical equipment fails and experiences issues. But because the servers that form the cloud can dip in and out of hosting your website, physical problems with a server you’re hosted on won’t impact your site’s performance. 

Together, these two factors mean that many cloud hosting providers guarantee a really good amount of uptime, the time your site is online and working normally. Usually, they’ll guarantee between 99.95% and 99.99% uptime –  but it’s often more. 

So, if a website that functions extremely reliably and is secure from external threats is important to you, you’ll definitely want to go for cloud-based web hosting. 

Cost Efficiency

Because cloud hosting means you’re taking up a tiny part of a tremendous amount of server space with many other tenant sites, the amount of resources you consume is extremely flexible. As we mentioned, your provider can easily scale up the amount of resources you’re using, but if you use fewer resources, you often only need to pay for what you consume. 

In conventional web hosting plans, you’ll often end up paying for more resources than you use because you’re allotted a specific amount of server space, but with cloud hosting, that’s not a concern. 

If this type of cost-efficiency is important to you, be sure to choose a provider from the list below who charges on a per-hour basis, rather than a flat fee. 

The Different Types of Cloud Web Hosting 

Whereas web hosting refers to hosting your site’s files on a single server somewhere, cloud hosting does not restrict you to a physical server. Your site is stored on multiple servers and offers far more flexibility, meaning that your site simply switches to another server if one is malfunctioning. Let’s take a look at the main types of cloud hosting.

Public vs. Private Cloud Web Hosting 

The public cloud is one large cloud hosting service offered to thousands of different clients, or ‘tenants,’ by your cloud hosting provider. As you probably know, a public cloud is run from many servers all over the world. If you choose this option, even though you’re sharing the resources in the cloud with so many other websites, you aren’t sharing anything else like private data. Your provider will use security measures to ensure your data is kept confidential and separated from other tenants. It’s highly likely that public cloud hosting is the right option for you if you’re reading this article.

By contrast, a private cloud is hosted on specific hardware dedicated only to its one tenant. It’s more expensive and less efficient but may be the right option for businesses that need cloud hosting and deal with sensitive data where privacy is a huge concern. A private cloud can be created internally by the entity that needs it or offered by an external private cloud hosting provider. 

A more recent innovation is the virtual private cloud, which combines many advantages of both options. Without getting too technical, virtual private cloud hosting embeds completely separate clouds, each hosting a different tenant, within a broader public cloud environment, or ‘intercloud.’

Managed vs. Unmanaged Cloud Web Hosting 

When you opt for unmanaged cloud hosting, you’re basically just paying for the bandwidth and other resources your sites consume on their own, as a utility. You’ll be charged based on your consumption, whether that’s hourly, monthly, or another metric. Your chosen host is just providing the public cloud – almost always a public cloud – where your website is hosted, along with millions of others. 

If you choose this option, it means you have the capability to handle the technical side of things in-house, whether your business is large enough to have an IT team or you’re a computer whiz who can manage it yourself.

On the other hand, managed cloud hosting brings in an element of customer service. The managed cloud hosting provider is doing some of the work of keeping your business online—work that, if you went the unmanaged route, you or your IT department would be taking care of. 

In the past, managed cloud hosting was always private, making it more expensive and less scalable. Today, managed cloud hosting uses a virtual private cloud. This allows managed cloud hosting to bring the main benefits of cloud hosting in general—scalability and affordable pricing—to a managed model that’s a better fit for individuals and smaller organizations. 

It’s essential to understand this distinction because all the choices on this list offer managed hosting options. Unless you’re a large-scale enterprise with a robust IT department or a technical genius, it’s unlikely unmanaged cloud hosting is the choice for you. So, keep that in mind when you’re shopping around.

#1 – A2 Hosting — Best For Speed & Flexibility 

A2 Hosting tops out this list for several reasons. First of all, they’re known in the industry for super-fast web hosting, and their cloud hosting plans have proven to be just as fast and reliable. 

What stands out about A2 is how adaptable they are. No matter what you want out of your cloud hosting provider, they are a good, solid option to get you where you need to go. 24/7 customer support is one feature that will be especially valuable if you’re slightly less tech-savvy. There’s also a variety of price points, with their cheapest plan, Runway 1, just $4.99 per month, and the most expensive plan, Supersonic 8, starting at $29.99 per month. 

A2 Hosting also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee—something you won’t get from any other provider, so it really sets them apart from the competition. 

Another notable thing about A2 is that you can host as many websites as you want, as long as you stay within the bandwidth you paid for. 

#2 – Cloudways — Best User-Friendly Power Hosting 

If you’ve got a large, complex website that needs powerful hosting, but enterprise-class solutions are out of reach, Cloudways could be a perfect middle ground. 

Their cloud hosting comes from big providers that would usually only be accessible to big corporations but put it into an accessible format. Their simple dashboard makes using the service easy, and prices are on par with other entry-level cloud hosting options. 

Cloudways also has servers in over 25 cities worldwide, and they let you choose which one yours is located in. That means you can select servers as close to your physical location as possible, which is good for your website’s speed. 

When it comes to plans and pricing, even their least expensive plan, at $10 per month, comes with a lot of features, like 24/7 customer support, free SSL, free migration, dedicated firewalls, 24/7 real-time monitoring, auto-healing, and more.

#3 – Hostgator — Best For Affordability

If you’re looking for budget-friendly cloud hosting that’s still reliable, Hostgator is the way to go. Because it offers unmetered storage and bills on an hourly basis, it can also handle a site with a lot of pages or significant variations in traffic without sacrificing their great 99.99% uptime guarantee. 

Their introductory discounts really set them apart, especially for their biggest plan. For your first year of hosting with Hostgator, you can get discounts of up to 70% depending on their deals. The Hatchling plan is currently $4.95 per month, with the Baby plan starting at $6.57 per month and the Business plan at only $10 a month after the discount. All plans come with a 36-month commitment. 

Unless you choose Hostgator’s Business plan, you won’t get any perks like free backups or SEO tools, but that plan’s prices are still a great affordable option with the discounts. It’s also simple to use, including the ability to scale up your cloud resources as your business grows with just one click. 

#4 – InMotion — Best Customer Support 

InMotion is a fantastic option for small business owners who need a website, especially if they’re new to the digital world. 

InMotion makes it easy to scale your resources as you need to, and the fact that their plans include a free SSL certificate and cPanel makes them a good one-stop-shop option. 

But their customer service is what really sets them apart. InMotion offers 24/7 support via both live chat and phone, along with help tickets and a knowledge database with tons of resources to refer back to. If you’re a busy entrepreneur who’s not that comfortable yet online, this kind of high-support, all-in-one option is likely to be exactly what you need. 

InMotion is a more expensive option with the lowest-priced plan for small businesses typically $59.99 per month. But at the time of this writing, they are running a sale, and this plan is $17.99 per month and still includes free SSLs.

#5 – Bluehost — Best User Experience

Bluehost is a very well-known name in the web hosting space. While most people know them for their non-cloud shared hosting plans, they actually offer the option to upgrade any of their plans to the cloud by choosing the CloudFlare option. This lets you bring the flexibility and scalability of cloud hosting to a simple, easy-to-use plan without making any changes yourself. 

Bluehost makes building your site really easy. They offer WordPress plans, which is a platform many people are familiar with, as well as their own simple, Weebly-based website builder. 

It’s a great way to bring cloud hosting advantages to a hosting and site-building experience that you might already be more familiar with. 

The Basic plan starts at $3.95 per month but is only for one website. The Plus plan starts at $4.95 per month and has unlimited sites and storage. Choice Plus is their most popular plan and is $6.95 per month, while the Pro plan is $13.95 per month. All plan prices are for a 36-month agreement, and all come with 24/7 customer support, a free domain for one year, a free CDN, and a free SSL certificate.

#6 – Dreamhost — Best if You Know How to Code

Dreamhost is another great budget-friendly option, but it really shines if you already know how to code. Dreamhost is less expensive because you’ll need some technical know-how to really make your site your own. 

If you’re comfortable managing and customizing your website through a command-line text interface, you’ll love Dreamhost – you’ll be able to keep playing around with the web development tools you’re already using. Even better, Dreamhost offers an unmetered hourly rate. 

Dreamhost’s DIY ethos and low prices mean their customer support isn’t the most full-service, but if you’re in their target market, chances are that won’t be a deal-breaker. 

Dreamhost plans start at $3.95 per month billed annually, and they have a lot of different hosting options to choose from. All plans give you a discount for annual billing over monthly payments.

#7 – Nexcess — Best for E-Commerce 

Nexcess is a cloud hosting solution tailored to the needs of e-commerce businesses. They offer Magento, WordPress, and WooCommerce integration, making them a natural fit for selling products online. Paired with cloud hosting’s scalability, it’s the obvious choice for an e-commerce business with big plans to grow. They also offer a variety of plans depending on which e-commerce platform you choose, as well as 24/7 customer support—perfect for busy online shop owners.

Nexcess has many great features, including auto-scaling, PCI compliance, SEO tools, and a great deal of development tools for complete flexibility and customization. 

Because Nexcess has so many integration options, it is difficult to give a specific price you can expect. However, as an example, if you choose WordPress as your platform, pricing starts at $19 per month for one site with 7 plan options. The most expensive option is the Enterprise plan at $999.00 per month and includes up to 250 sites, 800 GB of storage, 10 terabytes of bandwidth, 30-day backups, and unlimited email accounts. 

WooCommerce has similar pricing to WordPress, but Magento starts at $49 per month for cloud hosting. 

Conclusion

By this point, you probably have a pretty good idea of what your needs from cloud hosting are and which provider is the best choice to meet them. 

It’s important to remember that while some options are better than others, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. You’ll want to be guided by your priorities, whether that’s cost, customer service, flexibility, or something else, and let that determine where you host. It’s a decision that could determine the future of your website. But with so many great options out there, the future is looking bright. 

The post Best Cloud Web Hosting appeared first on Neil Patel.

Best Web Hosting for WordPress

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WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS platform. According to a 2020 study, 455 million sites worldwide are powered by WordPress. 

It’s what I use to manage my blog here at NeilPatel.com, as well as my other sites and ventures.

So if you’re currently using WordPress or planning to use WordPress for your website, it makes sense to invest in WordPress web hosting. 

WordPress-specific hosting solutions will be your best option in terms of service, updates, performance, and installations for WordPress. Which web hosting provider is the best option in this category? Check out my reviews and recommendations below to learn more. 

The Top 6 Options For WordPress Web Hosting

  1. Bluehost
  2. DreamHost
  3. SiteGround
  4. WP Engine
  5. A2 Hosting
  6. IONOS by 1&1

How to Choose the Best WordPress Web Hosting For You

Before you can find the best WordPress hosting plan for your site, you must know what to look for as you’re shopping around. Use the following considerations as a buying guide. This will make it much easier for you to narrow down your options.

Traffic Volume

How much traffic does your website get? For new sites, how much traffic are you expecting?

The answer to this question will definitely have an impact on the type of WordPress hosting solution that’s right for you. A site that has 5,000 visitors per month should be on a different plan than sites with 50,000 visitors per month. Plans that can accommodate 100,000 visitors per month won’t necessarily be suitable for sites with millions of monthly visitors.

New websites and smaller sites will be fine with shared WordPress hosting (more on this shortly). But as your site grows, you might want to consider a VPS (virtual private server) or dedicated WordPress hosting solution. 

Support

Most people don’t think to consider the customer service offered by their WordPress hosting provider. But this factor should definitely rank high on your list.

In an ideal scenario, your site will run smoothly 24/7, and you’ll never have any problems. Unfortunately, we live in reality—not a perfect world. So one day or another, you’re going to run into an issue and need some assistance.

The best WordPress hosting providers will have your back. They are available around the clock via phone, live chat, and email support. Agents will work diligently to quickly resolve your problems. 

For those of you who currently have an active website on another hosting service, make sure the provider you’re considering switching to will help you with the site migration. The best customer support teams will do this for free.  

Managed vs. Unmanaged

Your technical experience will help you determine if you want a managed WordPress hosting plan or an unmanaged WordPress plan. 

Traditional WordPress hosting is more cost-effective. The host will make the WordPress installation pretty easy for you, usually with just a single click (assuming WordPress isn’t already pre-installed). 

Managed plans are a bit pricier, but you’ll benefit from enhanced services. The best managed WordPress hosting plans will come with features like automatic backups, automatic updates, maintenance, and other perks for those of you who prefer to be hands-off. 

Site Metrics and Performance

All web hosting plans branded as “WordPress hosting” should already be optimized for WordPress. So right away, your site performance would be better than a non-optimized service.

But beyond that, there are other factors that affect the two most important site metrics you should be monitoring—uptime and speed.

The type of hosting you choose will have the biggest impact on these. For example, shared hosting will be slower than VPS hosting. Your traffic levels will also play a factor in your performance metrics. 

Some providers are just better than others when it comes to speed and performance. The best way to get more information on this is by reading recent customer reviews. If people are constantly complaining about unexpected outages and downtime, you should probably stay away. All of the providers on my list below are reputable and pretty comparable in terms of speed and uptime.  

The Different Types of Web Hosting For WordPress

WordPress web hosting can be segmented into a handful of different categories. Here’s a deeper explanation of each one:

Shared WordPress 

As previously mentioned, shared WordPress hosting is the cheapest option. It’s the best choice for new websites, small websites, small blogs, and sites that aren’t expecting a ton of traffic. Most hosts make it really easy for you to get started with a shared plan, and the maintenance is pretty low as well. 

The downside of shared hosting is the performance. As the name implies, you’ll be sharing server resources with other websites on the same server. So your site could potentially crash or slow down as other sites on that server get traffic spikes. 

Shared hosting isn’t great for business websites. As you start to get 10,000 to 25,000+ visitors per month, you might want to consider upgrading to another tier.

Virtual Private Servers (VPS)

VPS WordPress hosting is a step above shared hosting. 

You’re still technically sharing a physical server with other websites, but the number of sites on that server will be much lower. Furthermore, the server gets split into several virtual servers (hence the name), so each site has its own dedicated resources.

The anatomy of VPS hosting helps prevent the traffic on other sites from slowing your site down. VPS WordPress hosting has improved performance and can accommodate higher volumes of traffic than shared plans. 

Dedicated WordPress Hosting

With a dedicated WordPress hosting plan, you’ll have your own server for your website. This results in the highest possible performance, the ability to accommodate large volumes of traffic, and ultimate customization options at the server level.

It’s worth noting that most sites won’t need a dedicated server (it can also be really expensive). 

This type of WordPress hosting is reserved for huge companies, sites with millions of visitors per month, and developers that want to customize the hosting environment for multiple websites on a single server. 

Managed WordPress Hosting

Managed WordPress hosting is typically offered at the shared or VPS level. It’s definitely an upgrade from traditional hosting, and you’ll get tons of benefits.

The speed, performance, and customer support is better. Behind the scenes, everything will be more secure (which means the site will also be more stable). You won’t have to worry about updates, installations, or security—all of this will be handled by your host. 

Prices for managed WordPress plans are higher than basic shared or VPS hosting solutions. But for the service and extras you’re getting, the cost is definitely justifiable. 

#1 – Bluehost — Best WordPress Hosting For New Websites

Powering 2+ million sites across the globe, Bluehost is an industry leader in the web hosting space. This provider has been recommended by WordPress for 15+ years, making them a top consideration for most websites.

WordPress hosting from Bluehost starts at just $3.95 per month.

Bluehost is a great option for anyone building a new website from scratch. You can bundle your hosting and domain registration into a single plan, with a free domain name for one year. Other noteworthy highlights from Bluehost include:

  • Automatic WordPress installation
  • Hundreds of free WordPress themes
  • Free SSL certificate
  • Automatic WordPress updates
  • $200 in free marketing credits (Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising)
  • Securely configure your WordPress login credentials

WordPress has excellent customer service and plans to fit budgets of all sizes. Bluehost’s support experts are available 24/7 via phone and live chat. They even have specific solutions for advanced WordPress users and ecommerce sites. 

It’s easy to get started, and all plans are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. 

#2 – DreamHost Review — Most Versatile WordPress Hosting Plans

DreamHost is another hosting provider that’s recommended directly by WordPress. They’ve been on this list for over ten years.

Regardless of your website type, budget, or hosting needs, DreamHost has a WordPress hosting solution for you. Plans start as low as $2.59 per month.

DreamHost has over 750,000 WordPress installations under their belt. They have basic WordPress hosting plans for new sites, managed WordPress hosting plans, and VPS for WordPress as well. 

All of DreamHost’s WordPress hosting plans come with the following features and benefits:

  • Award-winning customer support available 24/7/365
  • Automatic WordPress updates
  • Instant WordPress setups
  • Free SSL certificate
  • Free privacy protection
  • Free domain
  • Free email hosting
  • Advanced control panel options
  • Automatic daily backups

Whether you want a shared plan, managed plan, or VPS for powering multiple WordPress sites, DreamHost can accommodate your needs. 

They have specific servers that are optimized for WordPress and boast a 100% uptime guarantee. DreamHost has a dedicated team of WordPress experts that can help you resolve any issue, large or small. 

You’ll also benefit from a 97-day money-back guarantee. No other host on the market today offers this type of promise.

#3 – SiteGround Review — The Best For Scalable Traffic

SiteGround is the third hosting provider recommended directly by WordPress. They offer managed solutions for sites of all sizes.

Whether you have 10,000 monthly visitors, 100,000 monthly visitors, or somewhere in between, SiteGround can accommodate your needs.

The entry-level WordPress hosting plans from SiteGround start at just $6.99 per month. Here’s a closer look at some of the features you’ll get from this provider:

  • 24/7 support from expert WordPress agents
  • Automated WordPress installation and powerful WordPress starter kit
  • Free WordPress migrations
  • Managed security and updates at the server and application level
  • Performance optimized for WordPress sites
  • Free SSL certificates
  • Free daily backups
  • Unlimited free email accounts
  • Staging tools and developer toolkit
  • Collaboration tools and whitelabel access

If you’re expecting your site to scale and need to upgrade plans to accommodate your growth, SiteGround has you covered. Your WordPress hosting plan is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. 

#4 – WP Engine Review — Best Managed WordPress Hosting

With a name like WP Engine, it should come as no secret or surprise that this hosting provider specializes in WordPress hosting. More than 120,000 customers in 140+ countries rely on WP Engine for web hosting.

Their managed solutions are fast, reliable, and secure, with plans starting at $25 per month.

WP Engine’s prices are a bit higher compared to other options on our list. But their services are unmatched in the world of managed WordPress hosting. 

These solutions are built for larger websites. For example, the entry-level plan can accommodate up to 25,000 visits per month, which is 2.5x higher than most entry-level plans from other providers. They even have managed WordPress solutions for websites with monthly traffic in the millions.

Other noteworthy highlights of WP Engine include:

  • Premium WordPress themes and Genesis framework included ($2,000 value)
  • Reliable hosting architecture
  • Optimized for developers
  • Unmatched speed and reliability
  • Integrates with solutions like Cloudflare, Google, Amazon, BigCommerce, and more
  • Application performance monitoring

WP Engine is a great option for large websites, developers, businesses, agencies, and marketers. If you’re looking for an advanced WordPress hosting solution, this will be the best option for you.

#5 – A2 Hosting Review — The Best For Site Migrations

A2 Hosting is another reputable and well-known provider in the web hosting space. They have shared WordPress hosting plans starting at $2.99 per month and managed WordPress solutions that start $11.99 per month.

So whether your needs are simple, complex, or somewhere in the middle, A2 has a plan for you.

Not many hosting providers offer both shared and managed WordPress solutions; most specialize in one or the other. So the fact that A2 gives the ability to choose is definitely a unique standout. 

For those of you with an existing website looking to switch providers, A2 Hosting offers free and easy site migrations. You’ll also benefit from features like:

  • Automatic WordPress setups
  • Free SSL certificate
  • Global data centers
  • Turbo servers up to 20x faster (with select plans)
  • Developer-friendly tools
  • Free automated site backups
  • Unlimited storage (with select plans)

If you read the reviews from current A2 customers, you’ll quickly see why this host is so popular. For fast, reliable, and secure WordPress hosting, look no further than A2 Hosting. 

#6 – IONOS by 1&1 Review — The Best For Pro Users

IONOS by 1&1 isn’t necessarily the most recognizable name in the web hosting world. But that shouldn’t turn you away from considering their solutions.

This provider is my top recommendation for WordPress professionals. 

Some of the top highlights and features from the WordPress hosting plans include:

  • Multisite management tools
  • Simple migrations
  • Stage testing
  • Smart updates
  • SSD built to support fast loading times
  • NGINX cloud server
  • Third-party optimizations
  • CDN caching
  • Server-generated HTML and REST API caching
  • Browser caching and dynamic content caching
  • Free SSL certificate
  • Daily cloud backups
  • Free domain and email accounts
  • 24/7 support

For developers and WordPress experts managing multiple websites, IONOS by 1&1 will be your best option. Plans start at $18 per month. Best of all, you won’t be locked into a long-term contract. IONOS by 1&1 lets you cancel at any time. 

Summary

If you’re running a WordPress website, you should definitely consider a hosting plan that’s optimized for WordPress.

Which plan is the best? It depends on what you’re looking for. The recommendations listed above will definitely be the best place for you to start your search.

Just use the buying guide at the beginning of this post to help narrow down your options. 

The post Best Web Hosting for WordPress appeared first on Neil Patel.

Best VPS Hosting Plans

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In a world filled with different web hosting options, VPS hosting has become a popular choice for websites in various categories.

Upgrading to a virtual private server (VPS for short) will drastically improve your site performance if you’re currently on a shared hosting plan. 

For those of you who are starting a new site from scratch and expecting tons of traffic from the beginning, getting a VPS hosting plan out of the gate is a viable option as well. 

There are literally hundreds of thousands of web hosting providers on the market today. That’s why finding the right web hosting plan for your site can be such a tough decision. Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place—this guide will provide you with everything you need to know about VPS hosting.  

The Top 5 Options For VPS Web Hosting

  1. HostGator
  2. InMotion
  3. GoDaddy
  4. Media Temple
  5. InterServer

How to Choose the Best VPS Hosting Plan For You

As previously stated, the list of web hosting providers is seemingly a mile long. But in terms of actual contenders, there are a couple dozen at most. When it comes to VPS hosting, specifically, the list is even shorter.

But as you’re shopping around and evaluating different VPS hosting providers, these are the factors that you’ve got to take into consideration:

Site Performance Metrics

Site performance needs to be the top priority for everyone seeking a VPS plan. The term “performance” can be pretty subjective, but there are two metrics that matter the most:

  1. Uptime
  2. Speed

Most people searching for a VPS are upgrading from a shared hosting plan that they’ve outgrown. Uptime and speed are the first two things to be affected when you’re sharing server resources with other sites.

You want to make sure that your VPS plan can accommodate your traffic needs. If performance is affected at scale, then you need to look elsewhere. Lots of web hosting providers will give you a guaranteed uptime rate. However, those offers typically come with some contingencies (like planned outages). 

Some sites can’t afford any downtime or slow loading times. If you fall into that category, make sure you get a premium VPS plan. For those of you who would rather save some money, just know that your site performance might be affected.

Dedicated Resources

Technically speaking, you’re still sharing server resources with other websites on a VPS hosting plan. However, the number of sites on the same main server is much lower compared to shared hosting. Plus, each virtual server will have its own dedicated resources.

As you’re evaluating plans, consider the following:

  • RAM
  • Storage
  • Bandwidth
  • CPUs

These resources will have a direct impact on your site speed and uptime (mentioned previously). If you’re maxing out your resources, you can’t expect your site to run at peak performance. 

Optional Root Access

Not everyone needs root access. This feature only really matters if you’re a developer or need the ability to make custom changes to your virtual server at an advanced level.

If that’s the case, then you should be looking for a self-managed VPS plan. Most people will be better off with a fully managed plan (no need for root access here). It’s also worth noting that you can find fully managed VPS plans with optional root access, but that feature won’t really be utilized by the average user. 

Operating System

On the technical side, there are two main options for VPS hosting—Windows VPS and Linux VPS. 

A Windows-based platform will provide you with access levels and performance that’s similar to a dedicated server. If you’re on a self-managed plan, you would be able to install common windows databases and applications like Microsoft SQL, ASP, SharePoint, and ASP.NET.

With a Linux VPS, your virtual servers will support web features like PHP, MySQL, and POP3. Since Linux is an open-source OS, these hosting plans are usually more cost-effective. You could eventually convert your Linux server into a Windows server, but doing the opposite would be much more complex. 

Customer Service

Customer support piggybacks on our last point, especially true if you’re on a fully managed plan. 

You want to make sure that your web hosting provider has your back. What happens if something goes wrong? Who do you contact if you have a problem or question? How do you resolve a time-sensitive issue?

If your site crashes at 10:00 PM on Friday night, waiting to contact a customer support representative at 9:00 AM Monday morning isn’t going to cut it. Look for a VPS provider with 24/7/365 support via phone and live chat. 

Features like free migrations from another provider or hosting type to your new VPS plan would also fall into the support category. Some hosting providers are undoubtedly better than others when it comes to customer service. 

Budget

The price for VPS web hosting varies significantly from provider to provider and plan to plan. We’ve seen VPS hosting plans starting as low as $6 per month. Other plans start at $250+ per month. Most of you will likely fall somewhere between these two extremes. 

In many cases, you can expect to get what you pay for.

If you’re signing up for the cheapest VPS hosting plan that you can find, don’t expect to have extremely high uptime rates and fast page loading speeds. For those of you who want as many dedicated resources as possible, just know that they come at higher price points. 

So you’ll have to weigh your performance and resource needs against your budget.

The Different Types of VPS Web Hosting

There are essentially two different types of VPS hosting—managed and unmanaged plans. I’ll explain the differences between these choices below, and I’ll also provide you with more information on alternative options for web hosting (to make sure a VPS plan is right for you).

Managed VPS

If you’re not very technically inclined and don’t have a dedicated IT team, a managed VPS plan is definitely the best option for you. In short, you won’t have to really handle anything on your own. You’ll be able to just focus on running your website while the hosting provider takes care of the server behind the scenes. 

Here are a handful of examples of what most VPS hosting providers will do for you on a fully managed plan:

  • Set up the server from the start
  • Install your control panel, applications, and OS
  • Handle all application updates and OS updates
  • Server monitoring and maintenance
  • Automated backups
  • Security patches

Some providers will offer a little more or maybe even a little less, but this is generally what you should expect if you choose this type of VPS plan.

Unmanaged VPS

An unmanaged, or self-managed VPS, is just the opposite of a managed plan. You’ll be completely on your own when it comes to installing your software, control panel, security, maintenance, updates, and everything else listed above.

If you experience a hardware failure or an outage, don’t expect a ton of support from your hosting provider either. This type of VPS plan is really intended for those of you who need complete customization at the server level. 

Self-managed plans are usually cheaper as well since the hosting provider doesn’t have to do nearly as much. 

Other Types of Web Hosting

VPS hosting isn’t for everyone. So if you’re new to the world of web hosting, I want to quickly take a moment to explain your other options.

  • Shared Hosting — Shared web hosting is the best option for new websites that aren’t expecting a ton of traffic. You’ll be sharing resources with other sites on the same server. These plans are cheap, but performance can be an issue. If another site on your shared server has a traffic spike and uses up the shared resources, it can impact the uptime and loading speeds on your site. 
  • Cloud Hosting — Cloud hosting is pretty similar to VPS hosting. Think of this as a hybrid version of a virtual private server. Cloud plans come with several remote servers, each one with different responsibilities. If something goes wrong with one of those servers, the others will pick up the slack and keep your site running smoothly. Cloud hosting is generally cheaper than VPS hosting, and it’s easier to scale resources on-demand. However, customization is limited with cloud plans.
  • Dedicated Hosting — Dedicated hosting is the top of the line in the world of web hosting. It’s designed for large sites with tons of traffic. As the name implies, you’ll have one server completely dedicated to your website. This also gives you ultimate control in terms of customizations at the server level. Dedicated hosting comes at a higher price point, but the performance is second to none. 

With all of this in mind, let’s dive into the top VPS hosting plans on the market today:

#1 – HostGator Review — The Best For Reliable VPS Hosting

HostGator has been around for roughly two decades. The hosting provider powers 2+ million websites worldwide.

As one of the most trusted names in the web hosting industry, you really can’t go wrong with a HostGator VPS plan. Here’s a look at the different plans and price points:

The VPS hosting plans from HostGator come with full root access and dedicated resources. You’ll also benefit from features like:

  • Complete customization and total control of your virtual server
  • Free off-site backups of your server data every week
  • Script installers, site templates, and development tools
  • Unlimited domains, databases, email addresses, and FTP accounts
  • Ability to scale CPUs, RAM, and disk space
  • Exceptional customer support, 24/7/365

In addition to traditional web hosting, HostGator’s virtual private servers are commonly used for ecommerce sites, testing environments, gaming, and heavy application use.

All plans are backed by a 45-day money-back guarantee. 

#2 – InMotion Review — Best VPS Plans For Ecommerce Sites

InMotion has a wide range of VPS hosting plans for you to choose from. They offer managed VPS hosting and self-managed cloud VPS hosting, both powered by Linux SSD servers.

Managed plans start at $29.99 per month, and the entry-level self-managed VPS starts at $5 per month. 

Most of you will benefit from the managed plans, as these virtual servers are optimized for ecommerce out of the box. These plans are configured for speed and reliability with ecommerce platforms like WooCommerce, Magento, Prestashop, and more. 

Other advantages of using InMotion for VPS hosting include:

  • Free private SSLs and scheduled snapshots
  • Update databases, email, and domain settings with cPanel
  • Security updates and server management (with a managed plan)
  • DDoS protection and secure SSH keys (with a self-managed plan)
  • Fast and automatic software installs, like NGINX

Overall, InMotion’s virtual private servers are fast and reliable. Even the managed plans come with full root access. InMotion’s 90-day money-back guarantee is arguably the best in the hosting industry. 

#3 – GoDaddy Review — Best Self-Managed VPS Hosting

GoDaddy is a name that’s usually synonymous with domain registration and controversial marketing strategies. 

But if you’re in the market for a self-managed VPS plan, this will be a top option for you to consider.

Standard RAM VPS plans from GoDaddy start as low as $4.99 per month. The high RAM plans start at $9.99.

The self-managed plans are perfect for developers and system admins. Features and benefits of using GoDaddy’s virtual private servers include:

  • Full root access with SSH keys
  • Command line for complete power and flexibility
  • Scalable performance options and a wide range of custom server configurations
  • Unlimited hosting accounts with easy administration
  • Easy monitoring and alert notifications
  • DDoS protection and free SSL certificate
  • Ability to choose your data center (North America, Asia-Pacific, EMEA)
  • Backups and recovery console

These plans are great for testing environments, database servers, resource-heavy apps, email servers, and admins running multiple websites. 

GoDaddy does have fully-managed VPS plans starting at $99.99, but the self-managed option is definitely the standout from this provider. 

#4 – Media Temple Review — Best Managed VPS Hosting Plans

For businesses, ecommerce websites, agencies, and resellers, Media Temple is my top recommendation for managed VPS hosting.

The pros at Media Temple will handle all of the technical aspects of managing your server. So you can spend more time focusing on your website and business.

In addition to the best customer support team in the world of web hosting, your managed VPS plan comes with benefits like:

  • Ability to choose your control panel (cPanel or Plesk) and version
  • MySQL, PHP, Python, and Perl come pre-installed
  • Customize your virtual server with any Linux-based app, software, or OS component
  • Easily resell your hosting to clients with built-in reseller tools
  • 99.99% uptime guaranteed
  • Scale your server resources on-demand with just a few clicks

Media Temple’s servers are fast and reliable. These managed VPS hosting plans start as low as $55 per month. 

#5 – InterServer Review — The Best Cheap VPS Hosting Plans

InterServer definitely isn’t the most well-recognized name in web hosting. But for those of you who want a cost-effective VPS plan, InterServer is worth taking a closer look at.

This hosting provider offers managed and unmanaged VPS hosting, starting at just $6 per month.

Let’s takes a closer look at some of the features, benefits, and highlights of using InterServer for VPS hosting:

  • 450+ cloud apps supported with one-click installs
  • No limits on accessing or updating data
  • Full root access with total control of your OS and control panel
  • Automatically redirect server issues to another node
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee
  • No fees for incoming or outgoing site transfers
  • Remote backup service to keep data safe and secure

Unlike other hosting providers on the market today, InterServer doesn’t offer a free trial or any money-back guarantees. However, they do offer month-to-month pricing, so you can cancel at any time.

The performance of these servers won’t be as high as some of the other plans on our list. But when you’re paying rock bottom rates, top of the line performance probably isn’t your first priority. 

Summary

VPS (virtual private server) hosting is an excellent option for sites that have outgrown a shared hosting plan. 

Which VPS is the best? Naming just one as the top pick is a tough call. But you’ll be happy with any of the options on this list. Just make sure you follow the methodology described earlier in this guide for choosing the best VPS plan. 

For self-managed and managed plans alike, there’s something for everyone on my list.

The post Best VPS Hosting Plans appeared first on Neil Patel.

The Best Web Hosting Services (In-Depth Review)

Looking for a hosting solution for your website? You’re in luck because with today’s options, it has never been easier to keep your website online. They take care of all the technical stuff and you get to enjoy casually updating your website for conversions. And the best part is that most of them are very …

The post The Best Web Hosting Services (In-Depth Review) first appeared on Online Web Store Site.

The Best Web Hosting Services (In-Depth Review)

Looking for a hosting solution for your website?

You’re in luck because with today’s options, it has never been easier to keep your website online.

They take care of all the technical stuff and you get to enjoy casually updating your website for conversions.

And the best part is that most of them are very affordable which helps startups get a hold of their business quickly.

That’s why I put together a list of the best hosting services of 2020 for you.

So without further ado…

The Top 7 Options For Hosting Your Website in 2020:

  1. Bluehost
  2. HostGator
  3. Siteground 
  4. Dreamhost
  5. WP Engine
  6. Hostinger
  7. InMotion

How to Choose The Best Hosting Service For Your Website:

When it comes to the best web hosting services you have to look at various important factors.

If you jump in too quick you might get into something that’s not suitable for your business.

But don’t let any of that doubt creep into your mind. 

Instead, sit back and relax while we present to you all the factors that you need to be aware of before making a decision.

You can weigh the different web hosting services and decide which is the best solution for your specific business.

Hosting factor #1 – Uptime reliability: 

If your hosting is down, no one would be able to access your website.

And obviously you want your website running 24/7.

Luckily, in 2020 this is not a huge problem since most web hosting providers offer a ‘99.99% network uptime guarantee’.

That means that your website would go down very rarely.

And even when it does, you can contact your hosting service and you will get compensation.

Most of the time that would be in the form of hosting credits.

If you want to prepare for the worst, you can check out our Website Downtime Survival Guide.

One of the best practices to making sure everything runs smoothly even when you’re taking a break is to sign up for a tracking tool like uptime robot. 

If your hosting service crosses the line, this tool will notify you that you need to find a new webserver to host.

Hosting factor #2 – Speed is key:

Website loading speed is extremely crucial when it comes to SEO optimization in 2020.

That’s simply because if your pages load slowly, people will bounce out of your website and your ranking will fall down the drain.

You need a trustworthy host provider that can guarantee optimal website loading speed.

The thing is that you can’t know the exact loading speed before you try the hosting service yourself.

But you can always optimize your website loading speed using free tools and effective loading speed practices.

And the best news is that even if your budget is tight, you can still get a good loading speed.

But don’t expect anything spectacular for say $4/month.

Generally, the higher the price, the faster your pages will load.

Anyways, we will include our personal experience regarding loading speed for each of the options down below.

Hosting factor #3 – Customer service:

Good Customer Service will come in handy when something goes wrong.

Especially if you’re new to websites, you’re bound to make mistakes that may lead to your website being down for a while.

And the more time it’s out, the more it will cost you.

So a good support team will help you get the issues solved in no time.

Even if you made a major mistake that’s impossible to come back from…

Most support teams will have a full backup of your website so you can get back to a working version.

You always want your support team to have a live chat or a telephone you can call.

Email just doesn’t make the cut if you want to resolve the issue fast, which you should want, given that your website is down.

We made sure to include only website hosting services with strong communication skills.

The Different Types of Web Hosting Services:

In 2020 there are a lot of different types of web hosting services.

The most commonly used being:

Shared Hosting

This means your website will be stored on the same server as a bunch of other websites.

It is a cheap option for startup websites.

With the right one, you can have customizable options and average loading speed.

Don’t look at Shared Hosting as a long-term solution because Shared Hosting can not withstand high levels of traffic.

It’s definitely a good solution for people that just want to get their website up and running fast.

VPS Hosting

The Virtual Private Server (VPS) is definitely a better option than Shared Hosting.

Each website is hosted in its own virtual space which speeds up your loading speed and also allows you to get more traffic on your website.

This option is best if you’re planning to scale your website fast.

Yet again, it’s not a long-term option if you want to be one of the top websites in your industry.

Simply because it still has limitations when it comes to website traffic.

Dedicated Hosting

This is considered the most reliable and overall the best option out there.

You get a dedicated server just for your website with full control over everything.

But prepare yourself for a pricey alternative.

That option is mainly for the best of the best.

If you have plans to scale your traffic to enormously high levels, this is the only option for you.

But if you’re just starting out, we recommend one of the other 2 options.

Anyways, the web hosting services below give you the option to choose between different types of hosting services.

So just choose the one that fits your business and your budget best.

#1 – Bluehost — Best for WordPress Hosting

If you’re looking to set up your website in less than a week, you’re probably considering WordPress.

After all, according to NetCraft, 35% of the Internet is powered by WordPress.

And it’s not a surprise. WordPress has been a leader in the industry for years now.

So if you’re looking for the best hosting option for your WordPress website, you can definitely trust Bluehost.

Their Pricing Options start from as low as $3.95/month and get up to $6.95/month.

Which is still not that expensive considering all the unlimited features they bring to the table.

Regarding website loading speed, as long as you don’t fill your WordPress site with plugins, you should be good.

And even if you make a crucial mistake or overload your website with different plugins, you’re in good hands.

Their Customer Support is extremely responsive. They have both an active telephone line and a live chat you can rely on at all times.

#2 – HostGator — The most affordable option for Startups

HostGator is one of the most preferred options when it comes to blogging.

They are perfect if you’re looking for the most affordable way to begin posting online.

Pricing options start from the jaw-dropping $2.75/month.

Once again, you can’t expect the best features for such a low price.

But it’s a great alternative for startups that want to get their website up and running.

And just like Bluehost, they have a responsive telephone line with a live chat you can access at any moment.

You can also find a giant database with common questions beginners have, together with professional opinions and solutions to those problems.

Everything is explained and demonstrated step-by-step and if you’re still not sure that you can do it on your own.

Just shoot them a message and start chatting with their professional customer support.

#3 – Siteground — Best for WooCommerce Hosting

Do you want to sell your products online?

Then you’re probably in need of a good, reliable WooCommerce Hosting Service.

If that’s that case, then you should take a look at Siteground.

They have separated their pricing options depending on your scalability.

Most Hosting Services cut you here and there when it comes to cheaper options.

This is not the case here!

Siteground really wants to overdeliver, even if you choose their cheapest options.

Their Customer Service has a whopping 90% resolution at first contact.

That means that 90% of the time you’ll chat or speak with an expert in their team and resolve your issue in no time.

So if you’re looking for the best WooCommerce solution, Siteground is the hosting service for you.

#4 – Dreamhost — Best option if you want quick and responsive website changes

Dreamhost has been a big player for the longest time now. 

Founded in 1996 it is one of the oldest hosting services available online.

Some people might think it must be outdated by now.

But that can’t be further from the truth.

Exactly because of their ability to adapt quickly to new trends they’re still considered one of the best in the business.

They don’t look at your website as just another website.

They know that your website is your own vision for the future.

“We Make Sure Your Purpose, Is Our Purpose”

And that’s not just words. Over 1.5 million websites host with Dreamhost.

You can expect great loading speed and friendly, helpful customer support on your side.

With incredibly adaptable services you can literally change your business in a matter of hours.

They know that things change as time passes.

Maybe you want to try out something new.

Maybe you’re certain that your current business model is outdated.

With their fascinating adaptable features, they will be your best friend when making major changes in your website.

#5 – WP Engine — Best option if you know your limits

We’re getting to the more advanced options now.

With WP Engine you can customize and get the exact features you need.

Of course, their services are not as cheap as some of the others on the list.

But if you’re certain what are the exact characteristics you need in a website, then WP Engine got your back.

You just have to contact them and work out the best plan for your specific situation.

Of course, their experts are going to help you choose the correct option without pushing you to stuff you wouldn’t need.

It’s a great Hosting Service if you’re looking to scale big.

Don’t expect cheap services, but expect great quality and support on the way to your successful business.

#6 – Hostinger — Low-Cost Shared Hosting options for Startups

Hostinger is unique with it’s Shared Hosting Services.

Their prices literally start from $0.99/month. WOW.

Of course, you’ll be very limited with this option but it shows how much they are ready to do in order to satisfy their customers.

We personally recommend one of the higher tier options:

The good thing with Hostinger is that for as low as $3.99/month you can get unlimited access to everything.

With 24/7/365 support, you can expect professional assistance at any point.

For $3.99/month you get great loading speed and daily website backups.

That means even if you mess up badly, you always have access to previous versions of your website.

It is the best option if you’re searching specifically for a Shared Hosting Service that’s affordable and reliable.

#7 – InMotion — Best option for Scaling BIG

Are you positive that your website is going to dominate the online space?

If you’re 100% sure, then you should definitely take a closer look at InMotion.

Their VPS and Dedicated hosting services are far from cheap.

But with Premium prices come Premium services. We are talking fast loading speed and devoted customer support.

Obviously there’s also affordable WordPress Hosting and Shared Hosting options.

But if you’ve tried these before and now you’re looking for the next step.

InMotion is going to overdeliver on every promise.

Check out their plans and choose the one that fits your needs best.

Your Hosting Service Is Your Best Friend

Make sure you make a well-thought-out decision.

You’re most likely going to have a long-term relationship with the hosting service you choose.

So carefully look into every option that caught your eye today and choose the one that fits your needs best.

So, whether you choose one of my top recommendations or scout out your own, use the tips and best practices we talked about to make an educated decision… like the future of your business depends on it. 

Because it does!

Have you worked with any website hosting companies in the past? How did it go and did you get the results you hoped for?

The post The Best Web Hosting Services (In-Depth Review) appeared first on Neil Patel.