You’ve realized you want to build a business online and you want to get it going soon.
As with starting any business, there are always some initial costs you need to incur to get your business up an running… A website and hosting is one of those costs when starting an online business.
So, where do you start?
Simple… As with anything, start with a strong foundation… Start with choosing from one of the best web hosting solutions to host and manage your website and keep you online.
Why trust me? I’ve been in the online world, working for myself for over 15 years. I’ve set up many clients websites with many different hosting companies, so I’ve experienced using a lot of different hosting platforms… And I currently host quite a few websites of my own.
So, in this article I’ll explain everything from what web hosting is to listing some of the best web hosting solutions for you to get started online with.
Is this post too long? Just read which one is best for you then.
What is web hosting
The simple version:
Website hosting is like renting space on a special computer (called a server) where you can store your website. This makes your website available for people to visit on the internet. When someone types in your web address, the server sends your site to their PC so that they can view it.
The detailed version:
Web hosting is a service provided by a web hosting company that allows organizations or individuals to store their website files on the ISP’s servers. This service makes the website accessible online for users to view.
Here’s exactly how it works:
- Website File Storage: When you create a website, all the files (like HTML, CSS, JS, images and videos, etc.) need to be stored somewhere. Web hosting companies, provide space on their servers (which are powerful computers) for your website files.
- Internet Connection: The servers are permanently connected to the internet, so when someone types in your website address (like zackaira.com) into their browser, the server sends your website files to their computer, allowing them to view your site.
- Additional Services: Besides storage and internet connectivity, web hosting companies often include other services like security, site backups, email hosting, and customer support to help keep your website running smoothly and securely.
Choosing the right web hosting company
Choosing the right hosting company is an important decision that can significantly impact the performance, accessibility, and security of your website, so make sure to choose from best web hosting solutions.
Here are the top reasons why I recommend the companies listed in this article:
- Alignment: Different websites have different needs. Choose the right hosting provider that offers plans at the right price, with features that match your specific requirements and goals, ensuring you have a smooth, efficient, and secure online presence tailored to your online needs.
- Customer Support: Excellent customer support is vital for quickly resolving technical issues, because sometimes they do come up. In my experience, these companies offer responsive and knowledgeable support to help you address problems and keep your site running smoothly.
- Accessibility: The hosting companies listed ensure that your website is always available to visitors. They work to minimize downtime and ensure your site is always online.
- Loading Speed: Fast loading times are very important for a positive user experience and can influence your search engine rankings. A good hosting provider offers high-speed servers and optimized performance to keep your site running smoothly. Note: Speed is also affected by the coding and platform your website is built with.
- Security: Protecting your website from attacks is crucial. Most companies nowadays implement top security measures, including SSL certificates, firewalls, and regular backups, to safeguard your site.
The List of best web hosting solutions:
Working online for over 15 years has let me experience and work with a lot of different web hosting companies, I’ve dealt with very professional companies… And I’ve dealt with some nightmare, unresponsive hosting companies… So, I’m very confident to recommend these hosting providers as the best web hosting solutions:
Pressable
Pressable is undoubtably one of best web hosting solutions for WordPress. Founded in 2010, and acquired just a few years later by Automattic. Pressable is fully committed to delivering exceptional website performance, 100% site uptime guarantee and 24/7 support delivered by real-world experts.
Pressable make managing your WordPress website hosting a breeze with an intuitive hosting dashboard. Designed to simplify the management of multiple websites, their user-friendly interface ensures an effortless experience for all users, and also top class, friendly support.
Top Features offered by Pressable:
Single Dashboard Solution: Pressable offer a user-friendly dashboard which allows you to manage all your websites and services from one central location, simplifying your workflow and saving you loads of time.
Pressable’s CDN Makes Sites Lightning Fast: With their Content Delivery Network (CDN), your website content is distributed across global servers, and this will provide quick page loading times and a smooth user experience no matter where your visitors are located.
Enterprise-grade Service for Every Site: Pressable provide high-quality, very reliable hosting services that meet the demands of enterprise-level websites, ensuring superior performance and scalability for your online business.
Jetpack Included: The Jetpack WordPress plugin enhances your site’s security by offering protection against malware, brute force attacks, and downtime, giving you peace of mind.
Managed Updates, Monitoring, & Security: Pressable handle all WordPress updates, continuous site monitoring, and security measures, ensuring that your website remains up-to-date and very secure without any effort on your part.
100% Uptime Guarantee: Pressable are committed to 100% uptime. Your website will always be available to visitors, reducing downtime and increasing potential business.
Expert Support is Always Available: They offer a dedicated support team which is available around the clock to assist you with any issues or questions, ensuring you have the help you need whenever you need it!
Pressable Hosting Prices:
Pressable WordPress hosting plans start at $45.00 per month and include a range of features such as support for 1 – 1000+ WordPress installs, 10 PHP workers with auto-scaling, staging with sync to live functionality, 24/7 expert support, WP Cloud Platform, smart plugin updates, site performance reports, extra Security, and more.
Plans are priced according to how many WP installs you want, traffic received and storage used. All plans are flexible and designed to grow with you.
Note: This includes 90 days of free Professional Email, but after that you will need to pay an additional $3.50/month Per Inbox Account (Billed monthly).
Pressable also offer the support to migrate your website to their hosting for free.
They also offer you the world’s best WordPress hosting with no-strings-attached, giving you piece of mind with a 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee if you’re not happy.
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Elementor + hosting
Elementor is listed as one of my “best web hosting solutions” because they really took the WordPress game by storm a few years back… Starting out as just a WordPress plugin, Elementor has grown into a full website building platform and started offering their own hosting + website builder solutions.
I’ve highly recommended the Elementor builder for years, and I will confidently recommend their Elementor + hosting too as they guarantee fast & secure WordPress hosting.
Top Features offered by Elementor:
Google Cloud (C2) Servers & Cloudflare CDN: Enjoy reliable and high-performance hosting with Google’s advanced cloud infrastructure and Cloudflares global Content Delivery Network that distributes your content efficiently.
Free Elementor Domain OR Custom Domain Connect: Start building your website with a free domain provided by Elementor, or easily connect your own custom domain to your website for a more professional appearance.
Speed & Performance: Enhance site speed and performance with advanced caching mechanisms, ensuring a smooth user experience.
Enterprise-Grade Security & Daily Backups: Protect your site with top-tier security measures, safeguarding against potential threats, as well as daily backups, allowing you to restore your site easily if needed.
Premium SSL: Secure your website with a premium SSL certificate, ensuring encrypted and safe connections for your visitors.
24/7 Monitoring: Benefit from continuous monitoring to ensure your site is always up and running smoothly.
Managed WordPress Installation: Enjoy hassle-free WordPress setup with managed installation services, saving you time and effort.
Elementor Theme & Website Builder: Create stunning websites easily with the lightweight Hello Theme the intuitive drag-and-drop Elementor Website Builder.
24/7 Support: Access expert assistance anytime with round-the-clock support, ready to help with any issues or questions.
Elementor Hosting Prices:
Not only one of the best web hosting solutions, also some of the best prices!
Elementor hosting plans are billed annually, giving you top-tier hosting which starts at $2.99 per month for the Lite plan (usually $11.99), and $7.99 for the Basic Plan ($14.99 usually), which is for the first year, and then it renews at the usual cost.
For the best value, full package, I’d recommend going for the Business Plan which includes 50k monthly visits, 20GB storage, and 50GB/month bandwidth. Key features include 30-day backups, premium SSL, Cloudflare CDN, advanced optimization, and caching. It provides a staging environment, and a pro website builder with 107 widgets, responsive designs, eCommerce features and more. Plus you’ll get extra add-ons like AI Starter and Image Optimizer plugins.
As you can connect a custom domain, this means your email will also be a separate cost to your website hosting.
Elementor also offer to migrate your existing site for free to their platform effortlessly and seamlessly.
Start today risk free with their 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee.
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Bluehost Cloud
In March 2024, Bluehost came out with their new Bluehost Cloud hosting which has really been a game changer, as this is one of the fastest hosting platforms available and provides 100% network uptime!
Bluehost has been around for a long time offering competitive hosting, but their Bluehost Cloud Platform (which has been built in partnership with the creators of WordPress), offers hosting designed for high traffic and high-performance websites, at the most competitive prices.
Bluehost has been on of the best web hosting solutions in the game for a long time!
Top Features offered by Bluehost:
100% Network Uptime: Ensures your website is always accessible, providing uninterrupted service to your visitors without any downtime.
Maximum Website Speeds: Optimized for speed, ensuring your website loads quickly for visitors, enhancing user experience and SEO performance.
High Traffic Hosting: Designed to handle large volumes of traffic, ensuring your website performs well even during peak times.
Security and Trust Built-In: Offers robust security features to protect your website from threats, ensuring data integrity and building trust with your visitors.
Automated Daily Backups: Daily backups are automatically performed, safeguarding your data and allowing for quick restoration in case of any issues.
24/7 Priority Access to Support Experts: Receive around-the-clock support from WordPress experts, ensuring any issues are resolved quickly and efficiently.
2vCPU Compute Power: Provides robust processing power with two virtual CPUs, ensuring smooth and efficient performance for your website.
Bluehost Hosting Prices:
Pricing for Bluehost Cloud hosting starts at $29.99/month for 1 website, and the next plan up is $49.99/month for 10 websites. Those prices are for the first year, and they renew at the normal prices the next year.
Note: These Prices do go up quite a bit the next year, but hopefully by then your online business is making the money to pay for itself.
Having a professional email address will also come as a separate cost on Bluehost. You can add professional email service to any of the hosting plans for only $14.99/year.
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Bluehost Original Hosting:
If you’re starting a normal Blog, Website or an online store, Bluehost’s original hosting platform is also a great option to consider and it comes at very competitivie prices, starting from $2.95/month for the first year.
It also offers great performance with Cloudflare CDN & caching technology to speed up your site, extra security & SSL, ease of setup and 24/7 support to help.
This is a great option for if you’re on a budget and don’t want to spend too much money.
Cloudways
Cloudways is a must have on this list. Cloudways is a more flexible solution which uses AWS, Digital Ocean, and other cloud platforms. When you choose Cloudways, you can pick which of these platforms you want to use. They handle all the setup for you, including configuring your servers and installing your applications, usually with just one click.
Cloudways has been around since about 2012, and in August 2022 they were acquired and became part of the DigitalOcean family who are committed to making it simpler for individual builders and business owners to access the power of the Cloud and build their businesses.
Top Features offered by Cloudways:
Unlimited Apps: Launch as many CMS or eCommerce applications as your server can handle, with no restrictions on the number of apps.
24/7 Support: Expert engineers are available around the clock to assist you with your hosting needs, ensuring you get help whenever you need it.
Staging Environment: Create free staging environments easily to test changes before pushing them live with a single click.
Object Cache Pro: Speed up your website for free with Object Cache Pro on servers with 4GB or more, a service that usually costs $95 a month.
Free SSL Certificate: Get a built-in SSL certificate at no extra cost to meet all your HTTPS security needs.
Dedicated Firewall: Each server is protected by operating system-level firewalls, preventing malicious traffic and bots from harming your website.
Cloudflare Enterprise CDN: Optimize your website with the Cloudflare Enterprise add-on, featuring edge page caching and smart routing for enhanced performance.
Automated Website Backups: Ensure your website’s safety with on-demand or automated backups, allowing you to restore your site with just one click.
Cloudways Hosting Prices:
Cloudways offers one of the more affordable and competitive pricing for hosting your WordPress website. With basic Digital Ocean plans starting at $14/month, I highly recommend starting here.
You can run as many CMS installs or eCommerce apps as your server can handle, without any limits.
These prices also do not include Email, but you can very easily add on “Fully Managed Rackspace Email Hosting”, which starts from only $1 extra per month, per inbox.
Cloudways offer expert support that will migrate your first website to their platform for free, from any web host.
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Kinsta
Kinsta was founded in 2013, and they started out with one mission… To create on of the best web hosting solutions and most competitive hosting platforms in the world!
Kinsta really makes hosting easy with a very intuitive and beautiful user Dashboard. You can manage your WordPress websites, databases, and all your applications in one place!
Top Features offered by Kinsta:
Google Cloud Platform: Utilizes Google’s powerful cloud infrastructure for reliable and scalable hosting services.
24/7 Expert Support: Provides round-the-clock access to knowledgeable support staff to assist with any issues or questions.
User Activity Logs: Keeps detailed logs of user activities to help monitor and manage your applications effectively.
37 Data Centers: Operates data centers around the world, ensuring your data is stored close to your users for faster access and improved performance.
CDN (Content Delivery Network): Distributes your content across global servers to reduce load times and improve user experience.
Cloudflare DDoS Protection: Protects your site from distributed denial-of-service attacks, ensuring your site remains accessible and secure.
Two Enterprise Firewalls: Employs two layers of firewall protection to safeguard your servers from unauthorized access and cyber threats.
99.9% Uptime: Guarantees that your site will be up and running 99.9% of the time, minimizing downtime and ensuring reliability.
Kinsta Hosting Prices:
Kinsta prices start at $30/month for 1 WordPress install and their hosting plans are scalable and can grow with your business. This does not include a professional email address which, as with most plans, comes as a separate cost.
Kinsta offers 24/7/365 support from Kinsta experts to assist with anything you may need help with.
Kinsta also offer unlimited free migrations to their hosting platform.
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Which web host should you choose?
Yes… All the web hosting solutions I’ve listed above have 5 stars… That is because I think that they all fall under “The Best web hosting solutions” to use to build a website in 2024.
But to help you further choose which platform to use starting out… This is what I’d recommend.
If you’re looking for “best web hosting solutions” and you’re on a budget:
Go for Elementor + Hosting or Kinsta
Or also have a look at Bluehost original hosting as their prices are also very good starting out.
You’re starting a business and are ok with the initial costs until your business starts earning:
I’d recommend Pressable or Bluehost Cloud or Kinsta.
Then I’d suggest having a look at each hosting company listed here and choose the one that sticks out to you, and you feel best going with.
I’ll confidently say that because they are all good and that’s why they’re on my list of “Best Web Hosting Solutions”.
When do you need website hosting?
You have your online business idea, but you haven’t decided how to build your site yet. Before committing to a hosting plan, consider purchasing domain and email services to secure your desired domain/URL at a very low cost.
Once you’ve decided on the structure of your website, I recommend only then purchasing your hosting package. Hosting services provide the necessary infrastructure and support to keep your website running smoothly, handle traffic, and protect your data online. If you want your website to be live and accessible to anyone with an internet connection at any time, you need web hosting.
Whether you’re launching a personal blog, an online store, or an informational business website, hosting is essential to ensure your site is always available to users.
Understanding SaaS platforms vs Self-hosted websites
Before building a website, consider the 2 options you have: You can either build using a SaaS website platform, or build a self-hosted website.
Understanding the differences between these two can help you make the best decision for your needs.
SaaS Website Platforms
SaaS platforms, such as Shopify, Webflow, Squarespace, or there are quite a few no-code website platforms out there which provide a complete package to building websites. Using these platforms, the hosting, software, and maintenance are all managed by the service provider. These platforms are user-friendly and ideal for those who prefer a hassle-free setup. You don’t need much technical knowledge to build and maintain your website, as the provider usually handles updates, security, and backups.
SaaS platforms often offer various ‘quick setup’ templates and tools to customize your site, making it easy to get started quickly. However, there might be slight limitations on customization and control compared to self-hosted options, although these no-code systems are getting more and more powerful by the day.
Self-Hosted Websites
With self-hosted websites, you have complete control over your website’s hosting and software!
A self-hosted website generally involves using a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, and purchasing web hosting from a recommended hosting provider.
Self-hosting gives you the flexibility to further customize your website extensively, use various plugins or custom code, and tailor the site to your specific needs.
While it offers more control and potential for customization, it also requires more technical time and expertise. You will be responsible for managing updates, security, and backups, but these are services that your web hosting company will usually take care of these days.
Do you need a website or a Sales Funnel?
Lately you’ve been hearing more and more about sales funnels… So which one would you need?
A website is a collection of web pages that provide information about your business, organization, or you, it’s an informational hub. Your website should usually include multiple pages such as a homepage, about page, services or products page, contact page, and/or blog. Websites are designed to offer a comprehensive overview and serve different purposes like online sales, customer engagement, and providing information to your visitors.
A sales funnel is more of a marketing concept that creates a journey that potential customers will go through from first seeing your product or service to making a purchase.
Sales funnels are a step-by-step process designed to guide your potential customers through stages like awareness, interest, decision, and action. Sales funnels often include targeted landing pages, lead magnets, and follow-up emails aimed at converting visitors into customers.
A sales funnel will fall under a SaaS platform so you usually wouldn’t need hosting in this case.
Website Hosting: Conclusion:
When choosing one of the best web hosting solutions to build your website in 2024, it’s important to remember that while many hosting providers offer similar services, it is important to choose the hosting that will work best for you, and be dedicated to the type of business you need to set up online.
Additionally, hosting isn’t very cheap, so it’s crucial to invest wisely. Hosting is a business expense and so taking on the initial hosting costs should be something you’re prepared to do.
Make sure to select a hosting provider that includes essential features like having your own custom domain and adding on a professional email address, as this will establish a credible online presence.
If you need help or advice on selecting the right hosting provider, feel free to contact me. I’m here to help you make the best choice for your website’s success.
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