Read this post if you haven’t already decided whether you want a paid or free hosting service.
This page is about how to choose a paid hosting company.
Hosting a Website on Your Own
Because I have spent a fair bit of time developing or overseeing the development and management of websites for other people and their business’s, I have worked with several hosting companies. The recommendations on this page include hosting companies I currently use and am happy with. I may also recommend ones I’m NOT happy with at the current moment but good service ebbs and flows with the shared hosting companies.
When choosing a web hosting company there are a few very important things to consider.
1. Ease of use
2. Uptime
3. Services
4. Support
5. Price
Although price is always a factor it shouldn’t have full deciding vote. In most cases you get what you pay for and need to weigh out the other aspects when choosing your hosting provider.
Easy Web Hosting
When operating a website is all new it can be one heck of a learning curve. Basically though, there are two things to consider. Do you want to go with WordPress or do you want a Site Builder.
Site Builder capability is great, especially if you want to go with an eCommerce store, or a place to show off your business. In this case I am going to assume you want a traffic alluring blog so the recommendations on this page are for that.
Hosting Uptime Guarantee
They try, they really do. At least the ones I am recommending do.
Uptime refers to the ability to access your site on the web. If the servers are down because of maintenance issues or they’ve been hacked, your website won’t be available.
Most companies will say they have over a 99% uptime but they still go down from time to time. The best way to factor in who to get your hosting from is to use a company that has a fast response to any server or maintenance issues that could come up.
Additional Services Offered
Aside from web hosting you should have email service, back up service, SSL certificates, unlimited bandwith and domain hosting, and simple unlimited FTP access.
Different hosting companies also offer different hosting packages to accommodate your needs.
Web Hosting Technical Support
There is no point in working with a hosting company that isn’t available to support your needs. Especially when you are first starting out you will have lots of questions. Pick a hosting company that has 24 hour support.
Web Hosting Prices
You might be tempted to go with the cheapest. Don’t do it (unless you have a coupon or trial incentive from a reputable network). Again, this page is assuming you want your blog to be the face of your business. Picking the cheapest hosting will end up either throttling your visitors because your site will be slow as molasses to load, or you can be restricted on the size of the site you can build, OR your IP is blacklisted because of the shenanigans of your IP neighbours.
If your site is too slow people won’t stick around to watch your page load up. You WILL lose customers.
If you buy limited hosting you will be limited on the size of your site. Even just a few pages of a WordPress blog requires quite a bit of space including the database.
Web Hosting Services Directory List
My top choices in each category are:
A. Good but Affordable Hosting
Simple to use, lots of “how to” videos, decent service, and good price – in order of recommendation are:
**For a more in-depth review on these two and a few other hosting services – check out the list of affordable web hosting services
B. Good Hosting with Website Builder Ability
Good service, decent price, user needs to be a little more tech savvy but has great website builder application services.
1. GoDaddy
2. Weebly
**For a more in-depth review on these and other website builder hosting companies
C. Top Gun FAST WordPress Hosting
FAST, great service, user needs more technical savvy but site can take lots of traffic and loads quickly.
1. Synthesis
2. WPEngine
3. Media Temple (MT)
**For a more in-depth review – check out this page for fast wordpress hosting
