A shared hosting platform allows multiple websites to utilize a single server. Generally, you’ll have no idea who or what websites you’re sharing the resources of a server with. In this article, we will talk about the best five shared hostings. This is based on my experience with the hosting I worked on for clients. You will see it differently from others, but I am not affiliated with any of these and sharing the best of what I can.
When people want to build websites, most are enticed by free web hosting. As the name suggests, this is where you do not incur any costs in hosting your website. This is one of the notable differences between wordpress.com and wordpress.org. With these free plans, the hosting company earns money off your website by placing advertisements where you do not share in the ad revenues.
The only advantage you accrue from running a free website is cost-effectiveness since you do not have to incur any costs. By signing up, you get an open space on the server and a free sub-domain name that helps you access the website from wherever you are.
On the other side of free hosting is a tonne of disadvantages that make the hosting subscription cost forgone and not worth it. To name just but a few of them, advertising with a free hosted website is a crisis. Advertisements are placed on your website without your consent.
Bearing in mind that you do not get to be a part of the revenue sharing, your brand could also get ruined in the process if you are a commercial website owner. For example, you could have a real estate website, and then mental health awareness advertisement could be placed on your website. When visitors land on your page, such advertisements leave them confused about what your website is all about.
With a free hosted site, you do not get the main domain; instead, you get a sub-domain name. You have probably seen people with a website name like XYZ.wordpress.com. If you want to have a completely different name that does not indicate the name of the platform your website is on, then hosting your website is a great option.
On a free site, the traffic to your site is limited. A free site cannot exceed a specific preset bandwidth; if it does, the hosting company terminates the hosting services, thus forcing you to purchase hosting services from a third-party provider.
Having looked at the disadvantages of having a free site, we could tell you endless reasons why self-hosting your website will come in handy before touring you around the market for the five best-shared hostings you should go with.
Hosting your website gives you complete liberty. You have a hundred percent control over what happens on your site. Managing your site’s space and everything else you hope will make your website everything you want it to be for your customers. Also, no one binds you in a contract on what content you put out, as long as you are not putting out illegal content. With a free site, the hosting service can close your site whenever it does not comply with its preset terms and conditions. When upgrading your server, that is entirely up to you when you have a self-hosted site.
With shared hosting services, you get them at very affordable rates. Choosing shared hosting costs you lesser than other expensive plans, and you can have many opportunities to earn more space almost free. Hosting companies over time have become so many; thus, due to the stiff competition that the companies face, you get quality services at a very pocket-friendly price.
BlueHost – No, it’s not even on my list. Bluehost could be an okay option if you are starting a blog. You can go with Bluehost to learn many things about blogging, but for the long term, I never recommend Bluehost to anyone. There are many reasons for that, and a few of them are –
- I migrated more than 100+ struggling blogs from Bluehost to something better.
- Their customer support is very bad; sometimes, they do not know what they are talking about.
- Their outdated software and scripts.
- BlueHost easily gets hacked. Not sure if they do it to sell their malware cleaning services to their clients, but I encountered many suspicious activities from their side.
Godaddy – Good for nothing. You can still buy domains from them.
You may think that is why I started this post with negative reviews. The reason is that when you Google something like “Best Hosting Provider” or “Top hosting services,” you’ll see many posts recommending those shitty hosting providers. But the truth is that they are promoting these hosts for the maximum commissions they get by recommending them to bloggers. Bluehost provides the highest commission to its affiliates. Nahhhh!! I didn’t even apply for it.
Please take out these two names from your mind.
Best Shared Hosting Providers
Confused! Why choose WordPress? Understand WordPress and why it’s a good platform for your website.
BigScoots
Bigscoot is a web hosting company that offers you more than servers that allow people to access your website worldwide. In addition to that, they provide technical support in optimal response times compared to their competitors.
Bigscoot is popular because of the optimal speeds that their sites get. This hosting service is meant for all website owners, whether you are just starting and have little traffic or high traffic and need a lot of storage space and bandwidth.
Whether it is your first time hosting a website or you are looking to migrate yours from your current hosting providers due to security, malware, or site speed issues, Bigscoot will be an excellent choice for you. For the new users, they have a professional technical support team that helps you get your feet off the ground. And if you are looking to migrate your site, Bigscoot offers free migration services.
BigScoots has been a popular WordPress hosting platform for numerous bloggers and writers. Why? Just a simple reason. Its affordable prices, simple features, and performance speed.
Also, one of the few web hosts officially recommended by wordpress.org. Its unique features are free domain registration, free site builder, and unlimited bandwidth and storage with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
You can get started with bigscoot by following five straightforward steps.
- Pick your hosting plan; Bigscoot has three options, shared, VPS, and dedicated servers. Depending on your storage and bandwidth needs, you can quickly determine the program you want to go with. Also, checking the plan you previously had with your other hosting company would help you decide only if you are migrating. Usually, for starters, the shared hosting plan is better and then gradually increases as you grow your traffic and website.
- Determine your contract length. This is the time you want to purchase the hosting services. Usually, they have a monthly, annual, bi-annual, and tri-annual plan. Depending on your goals and budget, you can pick the length. Also, if you want to continue having your website live after the contract length expires, you must keep renewing the plan.
- Register or migrate a domain; a domain name is your offline address. It should be a unique name, and Bigscoots has a tool that helps you check the availability of the domain name, and once you confirm availability, you can register the domain from their website.
- Install your content management system. Usually, WordPress is the most recommended one.
- Begin customizing your website; adding themes, plugins, and content is part of the customizing process, setting the website running.
Siteground
Whether you run a small business, a startup, an enterprise client, or a blogger, siteground is a great hosting option. They offer value by offering high-quality hosting services, customized client solutions, advanced security, and affordable pricing.
With most hosting service providers, traffic spikes would mean changing your purchased hosting plan. With Siteground, a growing business can opt for fast cloud hosting that auto-scales, automatically handling any rise in the site’s traffic. As a WordPress user, the siteground allows you to get plugins and your core updated regularly. Siteground is optimized for the WordPress CMS.
With the siteground, you get tailor-made hosting plans for speed, security, and additional features such as daily backups and restoration. They offer 24/7 professional support for their client, and the best thing is you can get a 30-days money-back guarantee once you purchase a plan. They have plans that begin with as low as $3.95 per month.
Having a hosting company that guarantees you at least 99% uptime is worth every coin spent on hosting. Having server downtime on your website can harm your business by losing potential clients and the faith of your current clients, and, at times, that hurts your SEO ranking. Siteground guarantees an uptime of 99%, thus making it a great option.
Siteground, unlike other hosting companies that perform web tracking in intervals, has real-time monitoring. This ensures that any technical breakage is detected and fixed faster, thus reducing downtime.
A popular hosting service recommended by the wordpress.org community is SiteGround. With a network of 800,000 domain names around the world. Their Headquarters are located in Bulgaria, with servers across the world.
SiteGround is one of the few hosting Platforms where the user can change the data center locations. Their other features include free WordPress site transfers and image optimization, making your site more dynamic.
WPX Hosting
When starting a website or setting up a blog, your website’s speed time will determine whether you reap any success online. That is why WPX hosting offers less than three seconds of loading time for your site. That’s not all to it.
As a part of their hosting service, they offer you daily backup for your website at no extra fee. Also, as a means of enhancing security for your data, they store your file on a separate server for fourteen days, and you can retrieve the files for free should anything go wrong on your site. You can also opt to use your backup solutions, such as plugins.
Sometimes, you could have your website hosted elsewhere with other hosting service providers but wish to migrate it due to speed and other issues. While there are plugins that help you migrate, the process isn’t always straightforward. WPX hosting offers free migration services, and the whole process is usually completed within 24 hours.
Managing your website from the WPX dashboard is straightforward. Whether it is your first time installing WordPress on WPX or you want an easy way to manage emails and your website, their dashboard allows you to do all that by navigating the dashboard using buttons.
All the WPX plans have emails included. This allows you to customize your email to resemble the name of your website. This is a perfect way to create a brand for your online presence. Last and not least, what beats good customer service in purchasing hosting services? WPX has a 24/7 live text service and offers help desk services if you get stuck.
NameHero
Namehero shared hosting is a perfect solution for individuals and small businesses looking to host their websites. Namehero has excellent customer service. Also, they run a Facebook page and a blog that keeps their clients updated on everything happening and any new changes.
Through their contact forms, you can get any form of help that you might be looking for when hosting your website. Customers can access multiple tutorials on their blogs and knowledge base to help them run their websites seamlessly.
You can use popular payment methods such as credit cards and Paypal when billing for your hosting services. Their plans vary from monthly to three years in advance. Also, during your hosting service renewal, your payment may increase depending on your website’s growth in terms of traffic.
Namehero, just like the name suggests, is a hero in hosting. It has a Litespeed web server that is up to ten times faster than Apache, which most hosting companies use. They have features and tools to guarantee your online success without upselling you.
NameHero has different option plans that you can opt for depending on the size of your online business. When you outgrow your current sharing option, they have multiple other options that you can go for to fit your traffic flow.
A superpower plan that NameHero offers to its clients is reseller hosting. This is an excellent option for someone considering starting their own hosting business. This is enabled by their super high-speed cloud, allowing you to offer your clients 100% white labeled hosting and offering you all the tools you will need to succeed in your hosting business.
The reseller plan, which you purchase in either gold, platinum, or diamond packages, comes with a WHMCS starter license and Cloudflare Railgun, ensuring that your client’s websites are loading quickly. Regardless of the amount of technical knowledge you have accumulated, installing your CMS and running your website is easy.
NameCheap
Namecheap is an excellent hosting option if you want to establish your online presence. First, don’t fret about migration if you are tired or want to try another provider out. From start to finish, NameCheap will help you migrate free of charge and fast.
You do not have to drain your bank balances to acquire hosting services. The prices are pocket friendly, and in most cases, it’s like half the price you pay in many other hosting companies. Namecheap has 24/7 customer support that is on standby, ready to help via live chat.
The shared hosting comes with a free SSL certificate, though nowadays, they are mandatory. Namecheap will walk with you all the way. All shared hosting plans come with 50 free PositiveSSL certificates for one year, which are set automatically.
Deploying WordPress on NameCheap is fast using their Softaculous app installer. This app also makes updating and maintaining your open-source applications easy.NameCheap has a cPanel that is considered the best worldwide; this helps you control your website using your browser.
NameCheap allows you to customize and gives you an upper hand in branding your business. They give you a domain-based personalized email to help you in all your communications. With this, you can add email accounts, enable auto-responses, and create mailing lists and aliases.
NameCheap also has spam experts that help to protect against any email threats or viruses. Finally, depending on your budget, your business’s dynamics, and individual needs in hosting services, you can pick from either of the above-hosting service providers.
How to choose from various shared hosting platforms
Step 1: Know What You Need
Before you choose your plan and platform, decide the kind of site, the resources required, and its viewership.
To state, this step finds fully managed solutions that offer easy upgrades and affordable prices.
Step 2: Compare Shared Hosting Plan Features
The trickiest part of choosing a shared hosting platform is its features. Do you get unlimited bandwidth? How many domains can your plan host? Will it include free email?
To decide this step, try to compare a list of features from several different web hosts to identify items they have in common (e.g., number of domains, email addresses, disk space, bandwidth, etc.). Establish common and unique features.
Some of these may be better than others. Focus on the value of these features rather than the quantity. If you get confused over these features, search the web for someone with experience.
Step 3: Carefully Study Hosting Prices
Study the Hosting prices of different platforms along with features. Some may offer more features at a much lower cost.
You should also pay attention to renewal costs, as they seem to charge higher than the initial cost paid while registering.
Step 4: Find Shared Hosting with an Easy-to-Use Control Panel
Most platforms provide their control panel. You might need to manage the sight. While some may be user friendly, others are static. So choose carefully after knowing how easily you can manage your site on that platform.
5. Reputation
Consider the reputation of the platform you decide to choose. Check reviews and look for companies that consistently rate highly. This will generally ensure your experience runs smoothly.
