So you want to have your own website or blog.
Congratulations!
Website and blog ownership is a very rewarding and fun experience.
To make this happen, you?re going to need to find a reliable hosting provider.
It is possible to setup your blog or site on a free platform, but this is not recommended.
To be taken seriously, you should have your blog or site on a domain that you own.
Finding a reliable hosting provider that meets your budgetary needs isn?t always easy.
Cheap hosting providers aren?t always good.
Good hosting providers aren?t always cheap.
This leads to some very common questions being asked.
?Which hosting company should I use??
?What is the best cheap hosting provider for WordPress??
?What services should I expected in a good hosting company??
With the multitude of web hosting services that are currently operational, the decision is more complex than one might expect.
When you know what your needs are and what features and services can meet them, then it becomes easier to find the best cheap hosting provider for your website.
That way your site or blog can provide the reliable visitor experience you need to make a great first impression.
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6 Features that Every Cheap Hosting Provider Should Provide
Thanks to modern technology and innovation, hosting a site or blog has never been easier or more affordable.
Plans today for a cheap hosting provider with high quality services start as low as $3.95 per month.
That?s literally the price of a coffee in some places.
But not every hosting provider that offers affordability will also offer functionality.
There are certain features you should expect from your hosting provider, no matter what the final cost may be.
#1. SSD for all plans. Modern hosting should involve solid-state drives. This allows you to have the speed you need for your site or blog.
#2. Enhanced speed technologies. Look for hosting providers which offer HTTP/2, PHP7, NGINX, and free CDN.
#3. A free SSL certificate. SSL certificates serve two very important functions. It authenticates the site and encrypts data that is being transmitted. This gives your visitors more security and confidence in the validity of your information.
#4. Automatic updates. If you?re using Joomla or WordPress for your site, then there are potentially millions of updates which may affect you. Your hosting provider should auto-update so you don?t have to check every day for a manual update.
#5. Specific firewall security rules. Vulnerabilities happen all the time. If your provider has written their own rules, then that uniqueness gives you an added layer of protection.
#6. Platform stability. Look for Linux containers because they are more efficient when it comes to uptime and resources. This adds flexibility to your side so that there is added stability if you happen to have a surge of traffic.
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The best hosting providers should also have their own backup system.
Many companies use the same backup solutions through the Cloud to restore data that is lost on your site or blog for some reason.
This creates a slow restoration process that can increase your downtime exponentially.
It's not always easy to find these features in a cheap hosting solution.
Some high-priced solutions don?t even offer all of this.
That?s why it is so important to shop carefully when you?re looking for the best cheap hosting provider you can afford.
You need reliability. You need great support. Otherwise you can?t provide your visitors with what they need.
Then you need to be innovative.
Guy Kawasaki has 10 great tips for innovation that can help you create an incredible web experience for your visitors.
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How to Find the Best Web Hosting Provider for Me
Whether you?re looking for the best web hosting for a small business, for WordPress, or something cheap for your blog, it is essential to find the right provider for the services you need.
Once you?ve found providers that offer the modern services you deserve, it?s time to look at how those services are offered on a daily basis.
Here are the key service benchmarks that you?ll want to look for when finding the best cheap hosting provider.
Solid uptime scores.
A web host must be a 24/7 provider. If your site is down, then you?re losing readers or potential customers. Anything below 99% that is offered today should be considered unacceptable.
Meaningful upgrade opportunities.
Some free or low-cost hosting providers hook you with a free solution, only to give you limited resources so that you upgrade to a more expensive plan.
Wix offers a free plan with an easy template builder, yet a premium plan that doesn?t involve them placing ads on your site is going to cost you $10 per month. You deserve better than that.
Multiple add-on domains.
Domain names are pretty cheap these days.
That makes it really tempting to own more than one once you get your first site or blog up and running.
Look for a cheap hosting provider that will give you several add-on domains as an allowance so you?re not stuck with a bunch of parked domains.
A fair renewal cost.
Let?s be honest. Initial hosting costs are lower because it gets you online with your site or blog on the cheap.
When it comes time for renewal, that?s when many cheap hosting providers stop being cheap.
Anything that comes to around $10 per month after the first year of promotional services is generally a fair price.
At this point, you need to compare and contrast the providers which have the best ability to meet your needs. That is something only you can do.
Here?s what I?ve found that has worked for me.
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SiteGround - My Favorite Cheap Hosting Provider!
Outside of the free blogging services that are available, there are a few cheap hosting providers that do offer meaningful low-cost solutions.
There are a handful that are even under $3 per month for the first year of services.
? iPage: $1.99 per month.
? eHost: $2.75 per month.
? HostClear: $2.99 per month.
? A Small Orange: $2.99 per month.
? IdeaHost: $2.99 per month.
Each cheap hosting provider from this list offers certain advantages that you may find to be intriguing.
These cheap hosting providers also tend to have one core weakness: they have millions of users who have multiple sites on their servers.
This creates slower speeds for you and everyone else. Low speeds create the potential for high bounce rates.
This is why I appreciate what SiteGround has to offer.
Their rates are just as competitive, with the GoGeek Plan available for just $14.95 per month.
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As you can see, a one website plan that offers you 10GB of web space, suitable for 10,000 monthly visits, is just $3.95 per month.
For that cheap price, you still receive the ?All Essential Features? that you?ll need for a successful experience.
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There?s also the fact that you?re guaranteed an uptime of 99.9%, but you receive real-time and historical tracking of the actual data.
In the last 12 months, SiteGround has had 99.996% uptime. You can even check your website?s real-time status and compare it to this cheap hosting provider?s record right now.
You also get the added advantage of cPanel hosting. Many of the cheap hosting providers that you?ll find out there right now do not offer this.
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SiteGround also offers a 30-day guarantee for all of their shared hosting plans.
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Now SiteGround does have one disadvantage in terms of storage space. It is rather limited compared to other hosts.
If you expect more than 10,000 visitors per month, you may wish to look at another provider, or just choose a different plan: GrowBig or GoGeek.
You can choose to scale up when the time is right.
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Is SiteGround the Best Cheap Hosting Provider for You?
There are a number of advantages which come when you select SiteGround as the best cheap hosting provider you can afford.
They remove the hassle in the setup of CSCart, Magento, and PrestaShop. You also have other billing options and shopping carts available to you in cPanel.
They will transfer your existing website from a previous host for free. A complete domain transfer, not just the site transfer, may entail an additional fee.
?They also have one of the best support out there.
The speed and the expertise of our support team are legendary. They provide onboarding help, free website transfer and ongoing assistance at any time. No wonder, we consistently achieve nearly 100% customer satisfaction rates.
You can choose to avoid the promotional programs entirely with SiteGround if you prefer and signup for a month-to-month commitment for the same price as the annual plans that are offered. The month-to-month plan does have a one-time setup fee of $14.95.
I?ve found SiteGround to be an excellent provider.
For me, they are easily the best cheap web host provider out there right now.
I think they could be this for you as well, which is why they receive such a strong recommendation from me.
I almost forgot, SiteGround has also got an excellent affiliate program which means that you can make money by promoting this hosting company to other people who would like to have a website.
If you want to make money online, SiteGround can be one of the services that you should be promoting.
There are many things you need to take into account when you?re starting an online business.
Reliable hosting provider is definitely one of them and probably one of the most important.
Choose a bad hosting company and everything else will fail too.
If you want your website to be the foundation of your online business then you need to pick your web hosting wisely.
With SiteGround you cannot go wrong.
Create your account, build a website and see for yourself why so many people recommend SiteGround.