But this attitude might end up getting you in some sort of trouble, and I am sure that is something that you do not want at all.  In the life of a webmaster, we sign up for all kinds of services online and almost all services we sign up for have these terms and conditions and we hardly go through any of them.

I know a person who signed up for this hosting company and bought some plans there.  Due to some problems, he had a big data loss.  His content was all lost and the hosting provider said they couldn’t do anything.  No compensation was provided because it was mentioned in the terms and conditions.  Therefore, my friend not only lost some revenue, but more importantly, he also lost his data which is even more precious.

In this post we will be talking about the reasons why you need to read the terms and conditions while choosing a web host. Let’s start.

You as a customer = $$$ for Companies!

Let’s face it guys.  No matter how much these companies present themselves, and no matter how many campaigns they run in order to show they are the good guys, its a different story.

These companies are full fledged businesses and they are designed to make a profit.  There might be clauses that could prevent you from being compensated for a variety of different situations.  To make sure you are dealing with a fair company, you will want to be sure to read web hosting terms and conditions before you decide.

Read Web Hosting Terms and Conditions

There might be some hidden fees.  This is another reason why you need to read web hosting terms and conditions before signing up.  A lot of companies don’t mention some fees that they charge by default, and these charges are hidden in the terms and conditions which we blindly agree to.  You might end up paying a hefty amount instead of the amount you thought you were paying and that would suck, wouldn’t it?

Unmetered != Unlimited

Many companies like to mention the product specs as Unmetered.  For example, you will find that many hosting companies provide Unmetered Bandwidth and people confuse it with unlimited.

Unmetered is a term that companies use when they don’t monitor the amount of bandwidth you are using. But that doesn’t mean you have unlimited juice. Sometimes there might be a total of 500TB transfer for all accounts on a server and that server holds many websites at once and this 500TB is shared by all these websites. Now, if a website uses up all the bandwidth, you won’t be able to claim losses.

These types of things are usually mentioned in terms and conditions, and not in the product pages.  Therefore, be sure to check before choosing a web host.

What are something you, as a customer should check for?

We as customers are the main factor these companies exist and we have the power to choose which company and product we want to use and hence we will have to take steps on our own to prevent any bad experience from happening.

Here are a few things you can do:

• Read web hosting terms and conditions.  Read the full terms and conditions. Do not skip any page or sentence.
• Look for, and inquire about, any hidden fees or extra fees there might be from the billing support team using the live chat option.
• Inquire about backups, and if they have any charges to restore the backups, in case something goes wrong.  Most good companies won’t charge anything.
• Many companies mention free website migration but they limit it to just 1-2 websites and if you have more than those number of websites on your old server, then it would be hectic to bring them to the new one yourself and if you would like the new company to do it for you, they would charge you certain amounts.
• You should also check for the maximum number of files you have on your server else you will run out of inodes.
• Make sure you have enough CPU resources and other critical resources like RAM etc. as well.

This was a post in which we mentioned why it is important for you to read web hosting terms and conditions when you are choosing a web host.  If you have any suggestions, doubts or any questions, you can get them cleared in the comments section below.  We are eager to hear from you!

The post Why You Need to Read Web Hosting Terms and Conditions! appeared first on HostingDecisions.

Fortunately, it is easy to differentiate the good from the bad despite the influx of web hosting companies – you only need to know which negative factors to avoid.

Here are five tips on what to avoid when choosing a web hosting company:

1. Avoid Restrictive Companies

Web hosting companies are required to outline in details the nature of the services provided to their clients – this is found in the terms and conditions section. While most companies make numerous promises on their homepages and in ads, some come with restrictions that may limit your sites performance or even your activities.

For instance, some companies have a set limit to the amount of bandwidth you can use, yet all seem to offer unlimited bandwidth. Should your site exceed the limit, your site may be shut for some time or even dropped. In other cases, one is not allowed to install external software that may be necessary for the site’s operation.

As such, always check the terms and conditions section carefully before signing up.

2. Avoid New and Inexperienced Companies

In addition to skills and knowledge, web hosting companies also depend a lot on their experience in the market as well as their clientele base. In most cases, seasoned companies hold much of the market, offer reliability, and have more resources to meet their clients’ quality needs.

New companies, on the other hand, have a lot of potential, and to this end promise a lot of great offers for their clients. However, the quality of their services begins deteriorating with time as they take in more sites and their resources are stretched out.

In this case, you may find yourself dealing with slow loading time, limited resources such as bandwidth and domains, and even unappealing designs and graphics for your site.

3. Avoid Unsafe Companies

While most online platforms are designed for reaching out to the people on diverse topics, others such as eCommerce websites facilitate financial transactions too. If you plan on transacting with clients on your website or exchanging confidential information then it is advisable that you choose a web hosting company that guarantees security.

Usually, secure hosting service providers display the Secure Socket Layer, which encrypts your site’s data and protects from threats such as hacking. As such, check to see that the hosting company you wish to work with has this web hosting system and other security measures and software in place.

Leaving your site vulnerable to hackers and malware will not only pose a risk to your business but also to your customer relations, as they also will be affected.

4. Avoid Free Platforms

Free platforms always seem very attractive especially for newbies, what with the budget costs and numerous freebies promised by the hosting company. However, nothing is really free.

To start with, most of the freebies promised by the hosting company are never provided. Additionally, the hosting company utilizes the space on your site to put up ads and banners, effectively earning from your site – you may be paying more than a website owner dealing with paid hosting. Even worse, some of the ads and banners put up may be irrelevant to what your site stands for or even inappropriate, tainting your image.

5. Avoid Spending More Than Necessary

While some hosting companies offer their services “for free,” others charge varying fees from a couple of dollars and even tens or hundreds of dollars. Of course, the quality of services varies depending on how much you pay but it is important to determine just what you need and what you can do without.

In most cases, security, good design and graphics, reliability, and freedom to control the site will do. You do not have to pay much for this as most reliable and good quality hosting providers will charge even less than $20, which is quite a good deal considering the performance of some of the sites they host.

Conclusion

Perform some analysis and research by going through honest customer reviews, as well as the terms and conditions of the different web hosting companies – avoid these costly mistakes when choosing a web hosting company.

The post What We Should Avoid When Choosing a Web Hosting Company appeared first on HostingDecisions.

10 Best Web Hosting Companies

The basic idea behind hosting a website is that in order to make it visible online you are supposed to store it on a web server. A web host company provides you the web hosting services that enables general public accessibility to your website through the WWW (World Wide Web). You can host your site on the space provided by the web host on its server. Once you buy required space on the host’s web server to store your web pages on, your site gets hosted on the internet by the host company. Technically, when an internet user types in your site’s domain name in the address bar, the World Wide Web connects to the web server where your site files are stored. This server transfers all the data to that particular computer and thus, your website is visible on it.

However, this is not the only job of a web host. Different web hosts have various kinds of features and provisions to their clients, such as the bandwidth, safety and security, scalability, control panel, customer care services, disk space, user-friendly tools, etc. In brief, a web host manages and facilitates all these together. Additionally, many such companies offer Shared, Virtual Private Server (VPS) and Dedicated hosting packages. Below we have provided our top 10 best web hosting companies along with their pros and cons.

1. Bluehost

Foundation: In the year 1996 by Matt Heaton.

At the top of our list of the best web hosting companies is Bluehost. In addition to their huge quantity of clients, which includes hosting millions of domains around the globe, they have great feature, customer service, and performance. They also provide a simple procedure to follow in order to buy its host package. You can review all of the useful features, web hosting plans, and Bluehost coupons in our complete review of Bluehost hosting.

Pros

It provides many beneficial features such as One-click installs, free domain with WhoIsGuard, 99.9% uptime guarantee, plenty of offers and coupons, all-time customer support and guarantee of refund. WordPress strongly recommends Bluehost web host.

Cons

It has only one set of DNS (Domain Name System) and has high migration charges. Many of its clients also complained about its security issues. Even though, the advantage of buying Bluehost package is more than enough to compensate its limitations, thus making it the best hosting company on our list.

2. HostGator

Foundation: In the year 2002 by Brent Oxley.

Number 2 on our list of the best web hosting companies is HostGator. Even through Bluehost and HostGator are owned by the same parent company, Endurance International Group, HostGator is definitely a competitor to the Bluehost. However, like Bluehost, it offers some very cheap hosting plans, especially for the beginners. They have grown extensively and presently hosts around 9 millions domains globally. Starting from just a 5GB at launch, it increased the storage capacity to 100GB later as they became more popular. Read a complete review of HostGator hosting.

Pros

It offers different hosting plans for its various clients such as Hatching plan, Baby plan and Business plan. A smooth and effective site builder is provided which is beneficial for the new web developers. Other advantages are: 45 days refund guarantee, discount coupons, free advertising credits, 4500 free templates, etc.

Cons

Due to too many domains hosting, it is assumed that the other site performance gets affected. It offers only Google AdWords credits.

3. DreamHost

Foundation: In the year 1996 by Sage Weil and his colleagues.

Coming in at number 3 on our list of the best web hosting companies, is DreamHost. The DreamHost web service is known to be user-friendly with its shared hosting being super-fast. It offers affordable hosting plans with high rate usability and also, supports various new programming scripts: PHP5, Ruby, Python, CGI and Perl. Read a complete review of DreamHost hosting.

Pros

Unlike other hosting companies, it guarantees refund after 97 days of the plan purchase (valid only for credit card payment). The uptime and response time is quite convenient. It provides 50GB free backup space. Along with provision of unlimited disk space and bandwidth, it also offers unlimited FTP accounts services.

Cons

The biggest drawback of this host is its customer care service. The client cannot contact the DreamHost support team directly via telephone line for free; one has to pay extra charge. Moreover, the online support is slow and technical support is not much reliable. It has some negative security issues and its custom control panel may not impress all the users.

4. JustHost

Foundation: In the year 2008 by Chris Phillips.

Number 4 on our list of the best web hosting companies is JustHost. They are best suited for the personal or small scale business websites. Although it has not got much of the experience in the web market as it was established few years back, it has attracted many of the webmasters to its affordable hosting plans and easy cPanel account services. Read a complete review of JustHost hosting.

Pros

It owns a full-time highly supportive team for the clients and a reliable web mail interface. The overall simplicity is its fundamental strength. A newbie web developer must surely go with this option. It offers anytime refund guarantee and free domain transfer which are remarkable features. Being a rich-featured host it not only provides Google AdWords credits, but also Facebook Ad and Bing credits. JustHost also offers discount coupons, use HostingD coupon to avail the discount.

Cons

It has no Windows servers and provides only Linux hosting, which actually doesn’t make a difference to most of the users. Also, there are some backup issues and CPU usage limitations, that’s why it is recommended mainly for personal/small business sites.

5. Arvixe

Foundation: In the year 2003 by Arvand Sabetian.

The fifth web hosting provider on our list of the best web hosting companies, is Arvixe. Like the other web hosting companies, Arvixe is also inclusive of all the necessary features required by any client for the web services. It has free site builder and online store too. Their web services supports both Linux and ASP.NET on Windows servers for small-scale websites. Although its functionality is not straightforward, the overall package it offers compensates its limitations. Read a complete review of Arvixe hosting.

Pros

Your virtual hosting account gets automatically setup as soon as your billing procedure is completed. The website hosting is quick and offers script library. In case, you wish to transfer from any other web host to Arvixe, it’s carried out with ease and free of cost. It offers returning customer discount service and 60 days refund guarantee. Use HostingDMaxOFF to get discount on Arvixe hosting plans.

Cons

It is not a much huge company and this is the reason why users are not comfortable switching to it. But this definitely doesn’t matter; it’s undoubtedly a better one! You are allowed to add only six domain names under one account with basic plan. In order to have more freedom regarding domain names addition, you need to upgrade to pro plans.

6. iPage

Foundation: In the year 1998 by Thomas Gorny.

Number 6 on our list of the best web hosting companies is iPage. It is known for its speed and affordability. It hosts over a million domains and is well known among personal website owners since its relaunch in late 2009. Read a complete review of iPage hosting.

Pros

It provides quick and effective technical support. The interface is way easier and simple to navigate through its functions. Marketing tools provision is its excellent additional feature. Discounts are offered in considerable amount.

Cons

It is not recommended for the advanced webmasters as it falls off some advanced features. Usually, clients are used to cPanel as control panel whereas iPage provides vDeck as control panel. This cannot be considered as a drawback, but the intermediate clients may not feel comfortable and may drop the idea of choosing this host.

7. Namecheap

Foundation: In the year 2000 by Richard Kirkendall.

The next one on our list of the best web hosting companies is Namecheap. Being awarded as the Reader’s Choice in HostReview the previous year, Namecheap has quality performance, services, uptime and security. As the name suggests its plans are cheap and reasonable that gains attention of most of the users. It’s a well known domain registrar, that also offers web hosting services. This is the reason why clients choose Namecheap for domains and some other web host company for hosting services.

Pros

It’s a reliable domain registrar with a manageable level of upselling. It carries much of simplicity in its DNS Manager interface. It provides free email and WhoIsGuard privacy services. In brief, it’s a straightforward web service; easy and non-complex in its own way.

Cons

Its technical support team doesn’t seem to be well responsive and well qualified. Many clients complain about its live chat and phone support; it’s frustrating and annoying at some level. Unlike other hosts, it offers short period refund guarantee.

8. Site5 Hosting

Foundation: In the year 1999 by Matt Lightner and Rod Armstrong.

Number 8 on our list of the best web hosting companies is Site5 Hosting. It is a well experienced and high-rated innovative web service provider in the web industry. After Bluehost, Site5 is strongly recommended for WordPress Shared Hosting. It is considered one of the greenest web hosting companies. The peculiarity behind this is its entire staff that works from home, thus preventing any kind of harmful effects on the environment.

Pros

It possesses an In-house technical support team and a 45 days refund guarantee. There is wide choice of server location given to its customers. It does not charge for account migration. It offers valuable services to host multiple websites with their respective control panels.

Cons

If you are using its cheapest plans, then it charges you extra for add-on domains. It has some severe issues with the shared resources on server. Hardly discounts or any special offers are provided by this host. No doubt, it has high reputation, but these shortcomings have disappointed many users all around.

9. InMotion

Foundation: In the year 2001.

Number 9 on our list of the best web hosting companies is InMotion. Their hosting service is particularly known for its Business Hosting packages inclusive of SSD (Solid State Drives). The SSDs included in almost every plan fastens the read/write speed, thus enabling fast delivery of your site content. It minimizes its clients stress by providing free data backup option. Like some other web hosts, even InMotion offers free advertisement credits.

Pros

Its customer care service is outstanding with a complete knowledge-based support team. It has high quality performance and relishing flexibility and scalability offered by its cPanel and upgrade options, respectively. The refund guarantee offer lasts for 90 days.

Cons

This host is relatively a bit high at its package cost. However, you may also get some very affordable plans too. It restricts more amounts of databases from running on your single hosting account i.e. limited add-on domains are possible.

10. ResellerClub

Foundation: In the year 1998 by Bhavin Turakhia and Divyank Turakhia.

Rounding out our final web hosting provider on our list of the best web hosting companies is ResellerClub. It is another web hosting company and domain registrar. As the name suggests, it specializes on reseller hosting. Although developed in India, it has successfully run its programs internationally too. It offers four types of hosting at different prices and sets of options.

Pros

It supports both Windows and Linux server hosting. It also provides powerful support to extensive software with reliable management solutions. This host can be recommended for normal-scale business websites.

Cons

This company deserves to be at the bottom position in our list since it has serious server uptime issues as per experienced by its clients and neither is its support team as responsive as required. It charges high rates for domain purchasing. The technical staff seems to lack proper knowledge about the web services and is incapable to solve their clients’ problems.

Top 10 Best Web Hosting Companies: Conclusion

So, there is our review of the top 10 best web hosting companies. One must carefully note that not a single web hosting company is best and outstanding. It can be claimed perfect in regard to the fulfillment of the demands by the customers. A web host is best when it satisfies all the requirements of its customers and provides a healthy service environment. Therefore, it’s a strong advice to do a lot of research on every web hosting company. You can then make the decision which one will be best for your web hosting needs.

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Price

Aha, you are mistaken! Considering price does not mean that you should choose any web-hosting provider that does offer CHEAPEST hosting solutions, they can affect your website. Nevertheless, there will be situations when you have found two web hosts, which are offering almost same features, such as 99% uptime, easy-to-use User Interface, additional features etc. In those types of situations, you can give priority to price to save your money. That having said, we would like to mention that price could be an important criterion for those newbie bloggers who can hardly invest that much in blogging.

Specifications Matter

Well, yes, specifications matter when you are choosing a web-hosting solution, especially for a blog or eCommerce-based website. In case of such websites, we cannot have an estimate of traffic they are going to receive. Sometimes, the traffic will be quite low, whereas it might attract thousands of users in a small time-period. So, to rescue yourself from risk, it is advised to go with a web host that offers mediocre range of features and server specifications ad try to get VPS – Virtual Private Server or even better Dedicated hosting. Though you might not need GBs of RAM, it is always good to be secure when it comes to building a blog or site.

Support

You might not need technical support while purchasing shared hosting, because most hosting providers offer a truly intuitive user interface for control panels nowadays. And, every internet user can handle the web server with a huge number of tutorials available in web. However, if you have chosen to go with an advanced web hosting solution, say a VPS or dedicated server, grabbing technical support from your web-hosting provider is important, as it will get you familiarized with web server as well as fixing issues that you might have to confront.

Control Panel – It’s Good to have a Demo

We said that most of web-hosting providers, nowadays, give importance to building an intuitive control panel for all their web-hosting services. However, there may be some exceptions. Thus, before you move on to the payment part, you should be clever enough to have a glimpse on control panel or server, especially if you are purchasing a VPS OR dedicated server in ‘managed’ category. Moreover, if possible, you can check every section of control panel and UI, offered by control panel, that you can know how it feels to use your web server in particular situations.

Scalability & Additional Features

As we mentioned earlier, you cannot simply predict future of your blog or site. So, while purchasing basic hosting via a company, you should check if the company offers a room to grow – in other words, scalability. Along with offering advanced hosting solutions other than shared hosting, such as VPS, cloud hosting, dedicated server hosting etc, you must confirm that the company lets you upgrade your current hosting plan. Obviously, for aspiring bloggers, ability to upgrade is a big thing to consider.

Did we miss any points? We are eager to hear your opinion about choosing the best web host.

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Buying New Web Host Services

Of course, there has been a huge rise in the number of web hosting companies, particularly shared hosting ones, in the past few years. As you can guess, you can find both extremely good and bad companies in these newly risen web-hosting providers. This makes the process of choosing the right one even more of a tedious task. However, you can make it simple if you consider some factors while buying new web host services for your blog or website. In this article, we will provide you with some of the more important items to consider when you are shopping for a new web hosting company.

Requirements

First of all, your requirements should be the main factor to consider when buying new web host services for your website or blog . You really need to know your requirements for your website or blog. How much space do you need? How many websites will you be hosting? How much bandwidth will you require to handle your traffic? What type of operating system should you be using? These are all good questions to ask yourself as you are buying new web host services. You want to ensure you choose a plan that fits your requirements and your budget.

We have seen that newbie bloggers spend too much money because they think they need to purchase a VPS or dedicated server to run their website or blog. This really depends on a lot of factors like we mentioned above. In the beginning, you will probably just need a good shared hosting plan from one of the more notable web hosting providers like Bluehost or HostGator. A small blog that only needs to handle a few hundred page views a day will only need a basic shared hosting plan. However, when you start gain more traffic, or need more space for content, you can then consider moving up to a VPS plan or dedicated server plan.

So, the moral of this story is that you should have a clear idea about your website or blog requirements. Unless you are certain you will get millions of page views a month, it makes more sense to start small with a shared web hosting plan. Then as you grow, you can transition to a VPS or dedicated hosting option.

The Company

If you are a true blogger, you know how tedious is to publicize a brand among normal people. In the same way, it is a truly tedious task to publicize a web hosting company among professionals, particularly when you need the publicity to be sustainable. So, the first thing to ensure reliability of a hosting provider is to ask your friends or colleagues about that particular provider and their experience with the company. If you get eight or nine positive responses out of ten inquiries, you can feel confident to move forward with the provider. Likewise, you can refer unbiased hosting reviews to get an idea of a hosting company, its reliability, and an impartial verdict that makes sense.

Is it Feature Rich?

Even though you might be planning to start a simple blog or website, you should ask this question at least twice! The main reason is this: The more features that are offered, the easier it will be for you to do some of the server management tasks. For instance, if your hosting provider gives quick installation scripts for WordPress and other Content Management Systems, it will be easier for you to create a WordPress-powered blog or website. Similarly, additional features including automated backups, site migration from previous hosting service, availability of free domain, unlimited domain hosting, etc., will turn out to be tremendously useful as time progresses. Likewise, it is necessary to check the control panel your web host offers. You have to make sure that user interface of the control panel is simple enough to let you understand! In our opinion, one that offers cPanel as an option is a good one to choose.

Customer Support

Since we know you may have questions for your web hosting company form time-to-time, it is good to choose one that has a reputation for great customer service. After all, if you can’t solve the question or issues by yourself, you will need to contact your web hosting provider for their assistance. Nothing is more frustrating than not having good help with a problem when you really need it.

Of course, it is better to go with web hosting companies that are famous for their customer support services, especially ones like Bluehost and HostGator. Also, it would be great if the web host offers customer support through different mediums such as email, live chat, and a dedicated toll-free number.

In Summary

In the end, buying new web host services can be a fairly straightforward process. There are plenty of options out there vying for your business. However, you need to figure out which web host company is going to offer you the best plan for your website or blogging requirements. You should consider everything such as performance, scalability, flexibility, security, customer service, company reputation, and last, but not least – affordability. After all, at the end of the day you really need to find a company that fits within your budget whey you are buying new web host services.

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Best WordPress Hosting

Let our quick guide show you the 3 steps to selecting the best WordPress hosting for your website or blog. Choosing the right web hosting for your WordPress blog or website is an important decision. Let’s take a look at those 3 quick steps for choosing the best web hosting options for your website or blog.

Step 1 – The Basics

Before you pay for a hosting service you are about to purchase, you should make sure that the web host support two of these things. Regardless your requirements, you should confirm these.

• PHP Version 5.2.4 or later
• MySQL Version 5.0 or later

According to WordPress.org, WordPress, despite working in all web servers that support PHP & MySQL, will be perfect in Apache or Nginx. Therefore, it is best to choose an Apache or Nginx web server for sake of enhanced functionality of this CMS. Also, unless you really love process of installing WordPress in your server manually, it is advised to make sure that your web hosting service has the “one-click WordPress installation” feature.

Step 2 – Know Your Requirements & Different Hosting Plans

Your requirements for your blog or website will vary depending on the size and performance required from your web hosting plan. If you are just getting started with your website or blog, you will probably only need the most basic WordPress shared hosting plan. However, if you need a log of bandwidth, storage, CPU performance, etc., then you may need a dedicated server. This is considered a more advance web hosting option aimed at more complex and high-traffic blogs and websites. So, in order to help you understand things easily, we will introduce you different kinds of WordPress hosting services available.

1. Free WordPress Hosting – Best to Say Goodbye

Free WordPress Hosting?  Great, sign me up, right?  Wrong! Despite the nice price tag, we do not recommend this option for any website or blog owner that is serious about their web property. It may be free, but there are limitations that inherently come with free web hosting. Most notably, they don’t rank well organically in the major search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.  In addition, you will have to provide banner space or a footer link for advertising on your website or blog.  Finally, they will not be able to compete with the paid web hosting plans when it comes to flexibility, performance, features, and reliability. Our advice is to steer clear of the free web hosting, and purchase an affordable WordPress hosting plan that meets the needs of your website or blog.

2. Shared WordPress Hosting – Best WordPress Hosting for Newbies

The most popular option is a Shared WordPress hosting plan. It offers reliability, basic features, and the most affordable web hosting option for your WordPress site or blog. They also offer unlimited resources such as unlimited bandwidth, unlimited disk space, unlimited domain hosting etc. Shared hosting plans comes with sufficient performance to power your website or a blog with nominal traffic demands. However, as your traffic increases, you may need a better hosting plan designed to handle the higher traffic demands. Nonetheless, a good shared hosting plan is best suited for most personal blogs, personal websites, and small business websites with static content, and limited traffic.

3. VPS WordPress Hosting – Suitable for ‘HIGH’

When a shared web server seems insufficient to power your WordPress blog or website, it is advised to upgrade to a Virtual Private Server (VPS). A VPS, is the result of virtually partitioning a dedicated server based the customer’s requirement on that server. In that way, you will have the ability for customization, enhanced functionality, and more flexibility based on your individual requirements. Unless you have sufficient technical knowledge about managing a VPS, it is best to purchase a managed VPS server. This will allow the the support team of the web host to set up the VPS for you. Thus, if you have a blog or site with high traffic or a web-based application with higher resource requirement, you should choose a VPS web server for your WordPress website or blog.

4. Dedicated WordPress Hosting – At the Extreme

Dedicated WordPress hosting is all about purchasing a dedicated server and installing WordPress on it to set up a WP website or blog. This is not for newbies, but for those who find VPS insufficient to manage your websites. Of course, dedicated WordPress hosting will cost much more than other plans available. Just like in the case of VPS, unless you have in-depth knowledge with servers, it is advised to choose a managed dedicated servers. This will provide your with support from the hosting company. Thus, you should go for a dedicated WordPress hosting ONLY if your traffic is extremely high, or you have to host a lot of websites.

5. Managed WordPress Hosting – Best WordPress Hosting for Pros

Simply put, if you have purchased managed WordPress hosting from a trustworthy web host, you do not have to be worried about anything regarding your website or blog. These servers will be optimized for performance, security, and will be accompanied by regular backups to ensure data protection. Since they are a managed hosting service, there will be real people from the hosting company available to make sure that your site is up and running for you. They will even be there to fix issues if they appear. Thus, the managed WordPress hosting option is best when you want to ensure impressive server performance for your WordPress site or blog.

Step 3 – Purchase the Best WordPress Hosting Provider

We hope this has been helpful. You now know about the different kinds of WordPress hosting services and features you should choose when shopping for a web hosting service. Therefore, now it is up to you to make the choice and purchase the most appropriate hosting plan from a reliable hosting provider. If you still have any questions regarding the best WordPress hosting options, let us know. We are here to help you!

The post How to Find Best WordPress Hosting appeared first on HostingDecisions.

Unlike most of providers, Bluehost does not offer multiple shared hosting plans for its customers. On the other hand, you will have to choose either standard or pro plan of Bluehost shared hosting. A notable majority seems to have this confusion, and that is why we decided to do a comparison between standard & pro plans offered by Bluehost hosting services.

An Intro on Bluehost Pro Package

Before we tell you about the Bluehost Pro hosting plan, we will give you brief information about standard plan of Bluehost shared hosting. Basic plan of Bluehost shared web hosting offers impressive features for every user. For instance, while you purchase shared hosting from Bluehost by paying $3.49 per month with our Bluehost coupon, you will get a free domain.

Bluehost Pro Package Features

Some of such features offered by Bluehost Pro Package are as follows.

• Automatic data backup;
• Anytime support from expert technical team of Bluehost;
• Free offers worth $200;
• Unlimited money-back guarantee;
• Unlimited email accounts;
• Top-notch server performance

However, as time progresses, you might need enhanced server performance to move on with your website. In many cases, you may not be confident to purchase a Virtual Private Server due to lack of expertise in managing VPSs or any kind of other reasons. In such circumstances, however, Pro plan of Bluehost shared hosting seems to be optimum, as you do not have to ponder over processes of managing VPS but will be able to increase server performance using an upgrade. While the standard plan is available for $3.49 per month, you have to pay $19.99 when you want to have a pro upgrade. Now, we will see main differences of pro plan when compared to standard one.

Additional Features of Bluehost Pro Hosting Plan

Dedicated IP Address

When you host your website on shared web servers, there will be multiple websites on one IP address, which MIGHT cause some issues with SEO and ranking. However, when you have upgraded to pro plan, you will get a dedicated IP address, which will further be advantageous in several situations. Some of notable advantages of having a dedicated IP address are as follows.

• You will be able to access your website by entering the specific IP address. So, even if domains have some issues, you can access the site. During domain name issues, you can use some FTP clients for managing your server.
• When you are using a dedicated IP, you can have a good website loading speed, as the IP address is not shared with others.
• You will be able to install SSL Certificates in your site.
• SEO Experts always prefer dedicated IP address to shared ones.

SSL Certificate

Do you have a membership based website or a website that retrieves confidential information from users, there will be a requirement of an SSL Certificate. When you get to the ‘Pro’ mode, you can have a free SSL certificate and you’ll be able to use that certificate in your website for multiple purposes. You can use a SSL certificate for different kinds of purposes. Some of such are as follows.

• SSL Certificates help you gain trust of your customers, if you accept confidential information, such as payment details, from your readers or customers.
• By installing a SSL Certificate, you will be able to rescue your site from phishing attacks.

Advanced Server Performance (5x times)

There is a fact we should know about shared hosting. Since it is ‘shared’, all your resources would be consumed by a number of users. This means you have a limit in server speed, though plans are ‘unlimited’ in words. While we are comparing the Pro version with standard counterpart of Bluehost shared hosting, number of users is much lower in former (may be because newbies prefer the standard mode itself due to its satisfactory behaviour). This means that availability of server resources is much higher when it comes to the case of pro version of Bluehost.

Although you might be experiencing a good site loading speed already, the increased loading speed of site will have a good effect in search engine ranking section. Of course, it will be very useful.

Apart from these, the pro version of Bluehost hosting also offers some features like regular site backup, anti-spam-powered email accounts, domain privacy, etc.

Bottom Line

When comparing both the Bluehost Pro hosting and the Bluehost shared hosting, it becomes quite clear that the Bluehost upgrade is worth your money. This will provide you with the website speed and enhanced power by paying a bit more. Although this Bluehost Pro hosting plan is a part of shared hosting, we find nothing wrong in addressing it using ‘a VPS alternative’.

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