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The 4 Best Web Hosting Services! (1)
07-12-2017 11:29 AM
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Mobidea (Veteran Member)
The 4 Best Web Hosting Services!
When you decide to build a site, there are three essential things you need for it to work: a domain, a website hosting service provider, and the website itself.
Building a site has become a simple matter, especially with all the content management software (CMS) options out there, such as WordPress, Ghost, SquareSpace, and so on.
This means people are remarkably aware of how important their domain name is, and getting it is a straightforward thing – you just use one of many domain registrars and purchase your domain, or domains. As a final piece of the puzzle, web hosting services are often the biggest stumbling block for the burgeoning affiliate marketer, whether because we simply forget about it, or it seems so complicated to set up.
Let’s crack this puzzle and, at the same time, look at some of the best hosting services for affiliate marketers!
[Disclaimer: This post was originally published on Mobidea Academy. All the missing information can be found in the full version.]
What is a web hosting service and why do you need it?
Let's make sure we are on a same page!
Web Hosting is a kind of internet service which lets users make their site accessible using the World Wide Web. Simply put, a domain allows your site to exist while hosting allows it to communicate with the rest of the internet.
A domain name is the IP address of your site, similar to a physical address of your house. It points servers to where your site can be found on the internet. Hosting is a service, where a computer server stores all the info from your site and makes it available to others.
As the internet isn't existing in some magical space and has to be stored somewhere - servers make up the internet infrastructure, they store all data and communicate with each other.
It should be noted that you generally don’t have to buy your domain in order to host your website, but it is HIGHLY advisable. First of all, for security and ownership reasons. Second, it’s also important for visibility, SEO, and your marketing efforts, which make up for a large portion of the affiliate game.
Which criteria are the most important for a hosting service?
There are several basic factors you should take into consideration when selecting your hosting service provider:
- Bandwidth and Storage (the number of bytes the servers are willing to send out to your visitors)
- Scalability (how easily you can switch from one plan to the other)
- Type of hosting (Shared hosting, Virtual private server (VPS), Physical private server)
- Reliability
- User-friendliness
Get to know more about best type of hosting and quick setup for your lander - check our post here:
https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...033#post316033
and here:
https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...400#post308400
The 4 Best Web Hosting Services
Now that you are well-versed in what hosting is, let’s take a look at some of the best and most popular services out there, along with their peculiarities. Even though it’s virtually impossible to know what is the best web hosting service, we've provided a small list that’s gonna help you make an informed decision!
1. Bluehost
Bluehost is surely in the web hosting top 5. Moreover, it’s the cheapest web hosting solution you’ll find on this list, if you decide to look only at the basic plans of each one.
One of the most popular providers out there, Bluehost is the number one service when it comes to WordPress sites. It even includes one-click WordPress installation with everything set-up, which minimizes your hassle. Its shared hosting plans start as low as
$2.95 per month ($7.99 at a non-promotional price)
up to $7.95 per month ($14.99, non-promotional.)
For that, you get unlimited bandwidth, unlimited websites and storage (except for the cheapest tier, where you can host only one website and have a 50GB storage limit.) The mid-tier package that’s priced at $5.45 is probably the best bang for your buck, as you get almost all of the functionalities you could ever need.
The VPS options are significantly costlier, starting at
$29.99 ($19.99 on sale) per month, scaling
up to $119.99 ($59.99 on sale) per month.
No matter the package, you get a free domain with it and Bluehost specifically states that you own it, even if you decide to change your hosting service. It’s also got special offers for WooCommerce hosting, meaning that setting up an online shop is a breeze with Bluehost. Last but not least, it offers a
30-day money-back guarantee, and 24/7 support.
2. HostGator
One of the top web hosting companies,
HostGator is an extremely popular choice. It’s got a
99.9% uptime guarantee, along with a
45-day money back guarantee.
Prices for first-time buyers are very attractive, starting at
$3.95 per month of shared hosting, and only
5.95 for the business plan which includes free private SSL (a security protocol that makes sure that the communication between the server and users is safe) and a dedicated IP, which is necessary for
online stores.
Its cloud hosting services are only marginally more expensive (4.95$ at the lowest level, 9.95$ for their business package), so it’s worth checking it out.
In addition, it’s got special WordPress hosting packages at an almost identical price-point. Take note that all of these prices are for the first month only – for every subsequent month, the charge is somewhat higher.
You can scale cloud services up to 4 times with no necessary downtime or data migration, giving you a much-needed flexibility if you’re not sure how your site is going to perform. Regarding domains, bandwidth, and storage, the pricing models are similar to those of Bluehost, with only the lowest having limitations in that regard.
3. SiteGround
The prices are a bit higher,
starting at $3.95, and going up to $11.95 per month (before taxes.) Nonetheless, this is the first-time customer price – the standard price is actually twice as high.
Another major downside is that all of its plans are
limited in both storage and bandwidth. Storage is limited to a measly 10GB in the lowest package, with bandwidth good for around 25,000 visitors per month, and 30GB of space and 100,000 visitors at the high end. One of the main reasons for such limits is that all of its servers use only solid-state drives (SSDs) making data retrieval much faster. It’s also got great WordPress optimized packages.
The biggest selling point is the
service quality and customer support.
In a nutshell, while it’s a bit pricier, it offers better speed and a better overall performance which is fundamental today, when people have no patience for slow-loading websites.
4. ASmallOrange
Don’t let its name fool you: there’s nothing small about this orange.
ASmallOrange is both a straightforward and transparent hosting company – what you see is what you get. Similar to SiteGround, it offers a better performance at a cost of limited storage and bandwidth. Its lowest tier shared hosting package comes with 5GB of storage and 50GB of bandwidth (which is a much less vague measure than SiteGround’s estimated visitors.)
There’s an even smaller plan, but the price difference is negligible (it’s
$5.92 instead of $8) while the storage and bandwidth capacity is literally 10 times smaller. On the other hand, the top-tier plan offers 30GB of storage, and 500GB of bandwidth at
$25 per month. Similar to all the other services mentioned, it offers one-click WordPress installation, and optimized packages for it.
In addition, it offers 99.9% uptime time guarantee, as well as a free
.com domain and unlimited websites with all their packages.
It’s strict when it comes to going over the bandwidth limit and it’s been known to take sites down for that reason, so it’s worth checking out its cloud services which start at $22 per month. Yup: there’s no free cloud storage available, unless you want your adventure to end in brutal failure! While there have been some complaints regarding its customer support, mostly due to the bandwidth issue, it’s one of the very few web hosting solutions that offer 90-day money-back guarantee.
Want to know more? Check the
original version of this article at Mobidea Academy!
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