Finding the right Hosting for Blog solution is crucial for the success of your blog.
Anyone can get props for creating and setting up a basic website, however, the perfect blog host can take your basic blog and turn it into a profitable business.
Whether you are just starting out on your blogging journey or have more than a thousand followers, the perfect blog host can help you reach out to your target audience and expand your followers.
There are a huge number of blog hosting sites available online with huge number of website went live , and you might end up getting lost in the maze,
which is why we have compiled this handy guide to help you find the perfect one for your blog hosting needs.
Identify Your Hosting Needs
An individual who has just started on their blogging/business journey may have different needs and requirements to a professional who has a massive fan-following.
When searching for the best blog hosting solution, you must identify the following factors:
Identifying these factors will lead you to the best possible solution depending on your needs.
As your blog develops further, you may have to upgrade the current version or change the provider altogether.
The first step to finding the right hosting company is to understand your exact requirements from them.
Not being able to identify what you need from a hosting company may lead you to the wrong one that is unable to meet your needs.
Factors to consider when choosing Hosting for Blog
Choosing the wrong host can affect the popularity, reliability, security, and performance of your site.
In other words, choosing the wrong supplier could cause your online project to fail before it even starts.
Here are the main criteria to take into account when comparing the offers of web hosts.
Security, reliability, and availability
How committed is the company to maintaining the stability and reliability of your website? Use this checklist when you want to evaluate a web host:
Server software updates: is the host using the latest version PHP, Apache, MySQL…?
Vulnerability management: Is the host proactively patching at the server level?
Automatic CMS updates: does the host provide automatic updates to your CMS (eg WordPress)? Does it let you choose when updates take place?
Do the host use brute force detection and prevention systems?
Customer support and service
Something went wrong on your site? Don't know how to take the next step? It is almost midnight. What are you doing? Who are you turning towards?
Many people work on websites outside of office hours.
You may need help at any time. You need someone who will listen to you, know what to do, and be able to communicate with you in a friendly, understandable, and humane way.
Use this checklist when evaluating a web host's customer service:
When is the support available? Ideally, it would be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, as you don't always work on your site during office hours.
What are the available support channels (phone, chat)? Can / do you pay more for priority support? Is the support team friendly? Is it internal or outsourced?
What is the average response time for troubleshooting?
What kinds of issues can be resolved through the support channels? Find out what the limits are and what issues are considered "beyond the scope of support from the host."
Research the amount of documentation available, a knowledge base for "self-support" where possible.
Speed and performance
The first impression is essential. Visitors who leave before your homepage loads are not good for your bottom line or your reputation.
What is the host's commitment to speed and performance? Consult this checklist when you want to evaluate a web host on this specific point:
Pricing
Certain blog hosting companies take advantage of amateur bloggers and charge insane amounts for their services.
Therefore, it is crucial to compare all the options and what other companies are offering before arriving at a final decision.
Before choosing your hosting service, go around and look for the best value for money, not the lowest price. Fast, reliable, and secure hosting inevitably cost money. Here is the checklist for pricing:
- Don't be fooled by the low price! Many companies will try to get your attention with their lowest price, while the hosting plan is extremely limited, even for the most basic needs.
- Some companies advertise a low price when signing up, but charge a higher price at renewal.
- Check the subscription periods. Does the host offer 6-month plans? 1 year? More?
- Does the host offer a trial period? What is its refund policy?
Pro Tip:
Hosting companies usually offer better deals when users choose longer subscription periods. The discounts are great, but it's best not to prepay for more than two years. For good reason, technology is developing rapidly, and you could have different needs in a short period of time.
Payment Schedules
The company you opt for should offer customized packages and a comfortable plan. Usually, there is a yearly subscription fee, but most people look for flexible options.
Always look for a company that offers flexible solutions such as a 6-month payment plan instead of a yearly plan.
Features and limitations
A hosting company should provide the software and infrastructure to run your website and CMS. It should also offer features that support the way you prefer to work.
Plus, the limits they place on your hosting plan shouldn't be too restrictive for what you want to achieve with your website. Here is a small list of features that you can use in your final choice:
Site migration service
Do you already host your site with an existing provider, but you need to replace it?
If your site is previously hosted elsewhere, migration can be complicated. It is therefore crucial that your new Webhosting can assist you to transfer the content of your site rightly.
A qualified web hosting provider should be able to complete the migration for you within a reasonable period, once you provide them with access to your current provider.
In reality, you'll want them to relocate your website, emails, databases, and anything else that is important.
Make sure you have a clear view of the price and effort expected to migrate the site, before engaging.
Commitment to the environment
A server operates 24/7/365. It takes a lot of energy.
All businesses should consider energy efficiency. There are two different ways to mitigate the environmental impact of a server.
Pure, renewable energy: The conformity that powers the servers does not produce greenhouse gases or additional pollutants.
Carbon credits: To reduce the carbon footprint of their data centers, web hosts can buy an equivalent mass of green energy to balance the amount of CO2 and greenhouse gases generated.
While it is more useful than nothing, it only aims to offset the pollution created by the company rather than prevent it.
Ecommerce Solutions
As your progress, you may need to introduce e-commerce solutions onto your blog, which is why it is crucial to make sure you own an SSL certificate and have access to SSH and shopping cart platforms that are easy to install.
Server Uptime
Make sure that the company offers a guarantee of 99% uptime, as repeated downtime can deteriorate your performance and have a negative impact on your followers.
Account suspension: what are the limits?
Here's a tip that most gurus won't tell you: hosting companies will unplug the plug and suspend your account if you overpower CPU usage (yes, unlimited hosting is limited).
So, before signing up with a web host, you must read the rules or ask experts.
The point is, they don't like to advertise the power of their servers, but in flowery language, they will tell you somewhere in the terms and conditions of use that your account may be suspended.
Types of Web Hosting Solutions:
Related Topic : Best hosting for wordpress for this year
Here are my easy-to-follow steps to get start a self-hosted WordPress blog, no technical experience required.
The Top Blog Hosting Solutions In The Market
1. Siteground
Siteground has a huge fan-following and is liked by many for its outstanding features. WordPress has also been recommending Siteground for its intermediate bloggers.
Though the basic plan of Siteground is a bit more expensive than the one Bluehost provides, its premium version has a lot more features that are likely to come in handy when your blog grows. It offers automatic backups for your site and high-quality customer care services.
In addition to having sites that work well, the offers for shared hosting GrowBig and GoGeek are very reasonable:
Moreover, it offers one-click installation for WordPress and loads the page faster than other hosting solutions.
SiteGround has servers on three continents: Europe (Amsterdam and London), Asia (Singapore) and North America (Chicago) to deliver fast access.
2. Cloudways
Cloudways is one of the pioneers of cloud hosting, and its trademark is connected with innovation, superior technology, and reliability.
loud hosting has some serious benefits, such as higher availability, scalability, and better performance. Cloudways has not only provided exceptional services but also popularized the benefits of cloud hosting.
These are the top features of Cloudways that have helped this company rise to the top of cloud hosting providers.
Five world-class cloud hosting providers
A special feature of Cloudways is that customers do not use the company's cloud structure. Rather, they can pick from the top five cloud hosting providers:
Digital Ocean: Digital Ocean is a cloud infrastructure provider recognized for its user-friendly interface for developers and its advantageous price/performance ratio.
Linode claims to make cloud computing convenient, easy, and affordable. Setting up a site on the Linode infrastructure is a job for superior users, however, Cloudways will fulfill the task for you. Pick Linode if you need solid cloud infrastructure at affordable costs.
Vultr: Vultr uses 100% SSD drives and the latest generation of Intel processors. The infrastructure is distributed over 16 sites around the world.
Amazon Web Services: AWS does not need to be introduced. It is a strong, high-performance cloud infrastructure.
Google Cloud: Google Cloud is another popular cloud infrastructure provider. Setting up an app or site on Google Cloud requires medium to advanced server handling skills. Cloudways succeeds in connecting the gap between Google Cloud and its customers.
Outstanding performance
Cloudways satisfies also the most demanding users. There are a few factors that contribute to the excellent performance of any website hosted with Cloudways.
All the files at the websites are stored on SSDs, which are three times faster than the hard disk drive (HDD).
Unlike shared hosting, Cloudways customers profit from dedicated resources. Skip your website crashing due to a spike in traffic from a website hosted on the same server as yours.
With Cloudways, expanding or reducing resources is manageable and efficient. Training is a priority for Cloudways.
Breeze is a free WordPress plugin that comes preinstalled on Cloudways and dramatically increases site performance. Reduce the site code and compress and manage files to make the site load quicker.
Moreover, Cloudways uses built-in caching systems to release the site file as promptly as possible.
Cloud hosting has some excellent benefits and most importantly an awesome download speed. Sooner or later everyone will be in the cloud.
If you have time check my full review of Cloudways here.
3. WP Engine
wpengine stats
If you are an established blogger with a huge fan-following, WP Engine will be the perfect option for you. WP Engine is recognized as the leading provider of the top blog hosting solutions in the online market.
If you want more traffic to your blog or might need some in the future, WP Engine is the best place to launch your blog.
Since it is quite expensive, it may not be suitable for all bloggers, especially beginners due to the financial restrictions. Moreover, you can avail 2 months free when signing up for the annual plan.
WP Engine is known to have the best customer care support that operates 24 hours a day.
The load time is quite fast and the performance of the page is up to the mark. It also offers automatic updates and lots of storage to incorporate media such as pictures, video, and audio.
Go here for discounted personal plan
Moreover, you can shift your site onto WP Engine seamlessly from other hosting solutions due to its one-step migration process that has no downtime.
WP Engine is the master in its field for good reason. It offers blazing speed and top-notch protection.
And if you're not anxious to wait a few hours for guidance, you'll find their support to be great. Whenever you have a representative on the phone, they will go out of their way to support you.
If you are new to the blogging community or own a small blog, Bluehost will be an ideal option for you! The main reason why most newcomers opt for Bluehost is because it offers cost-effective pricing.
When one is starting out on their blogging journey, they cannot bear the high expenses since they have not yet started earning.
Even WordPress recommends the use of Bluehost due to its outstanding features.
It offers a simple WordPress installation process that requires just one click and an extremely useful tutorial to help you get started.
Moreover, they offer several plans and servers, allowing you to stick to one hosting provider instead of shifting onto others later on.
Though it does not have spectacular reviews, it offers great value for your money, which makes it an ideal choice for all bloggers.
In addition to proven experience and reliability, the technical support is apparently effective and available (by phone or email). The availability of the servers of Bluehost is currently 99.8%.
5. Hostinger
Founded in 2004 in Lithuania, Hostinger provides Webhosting services with shared plans, VPS or Cloud, a free website builder, and an easy-to-use custom control panel.
You can also install WordPress with one single click, and cloud hosting plans come with Cloudflare CDN. Their Global Cloud offering works on the Google Cloud infrastructure and is offered at impressive prices.
Hostinger has grown fast and exceeded 10 million users in just 3 years. Today, Hostinger is a well-known player in the web hosting industry for providing exceptional service at truly competitive prices with over 29 million active users!
Their most popular service is undoubtedly the shared hosting plans which offer good technical specifications and functionality for a competitive price.
Hostinger servers are deployed in 7 various regions: UK, USA, Brazil, Netherlands, Singapore, Indonesia, and Lithuania. Their users can profit from minimal latency and the most powerful reliability through globally connected Tier-3 data centers.
Hostinger is a very competitively priced web host that offers good technical specifications, many features, and an easy-to-use account manager.
We have no problem recommending this host to beginners.
Have you identified your need ?
Since web hosting is such an important part of making your website successful, you shouldn't just pick a random provider that's available.
Knowing what to look for in a hosting company can get you closer to making the right choice, but it doesn't mean that those aspects should cost you a lot.
Sitegreound, Hostinger or Cloudways are great examples of high-quality, value-for-money web hosting services. It offers different web hosting plans to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes.
While researching web hosting solutions can take some time, this list should help you make a faster decision. Soon you will find the right hosting provider and plan for your business.
In the end, what you choose for your blog depends entirely on your budget and needs.
One hosting solution might not work for everyone.
Affiliate Disclosure
This article may contain affiliate links: means , if you click on one of these links and make a purchase ( which we appreciated ), then I'll receive a small commission without affecting the original price ( without costing you anything extra ).