One of the very first decisions that you will make after deciding to start a blog, will be on where you want your blog to be hosted.  But, if your not familiar what web hosting even is, read on.

Web Hosting providers provide you the service of making your website easily accessible on the World Wide Web. A Web Hosting provider provides space on their servers for you to store your files needed for your website(s).  Every website online is on some type of server.

Choosing a Web Hosting provider is important for you because you literally need a place for your website or websites to “stay” or “live”.   So, you will definitely want to choose the best one suited to your needs, your goals, and your affordability.

There are different types of hosting: Shared, VPS, Dedicated, WordPress, Reseller and Cloud.  Take your time in deciding what kind of hosting is the best for you.  I will explain the difference in each, below.

Shared Hosting is probably the most affordable, and the first choice for those new to blogging and wanting to focus on only one website.  Small businesses would also fair well using a shared hosting account. In essence, you will be sharing a server equally with multiple other websites- thus why it’s named what it is.  You will have a limited amount of storage for your website that you can use, and your website may lag from time to time due to traffic pick up on other websites or too many websites being hosted on the same server.

VPS, or Virtual Private Service hosting is similar to Shared hosting in which you are using the same server as multiple other paying customers.  The difference is the amount of people you will be sharing with is much lower than with a shared hosting account, and you will have “dedicated” or private server space just for you.

Dedicated service simply is when you have access to a server all on your own and are not sharing with anyone.  It’s more costly to have dedicated hosting but may very well be worth it if you have a fast growing website with increasing traffic that needs to be managed.  You will have complete control over your server which includes it’s security.  That added element can be important for you especially if you are accepting payments on your website for various products and/or services.

WordPress hosting.  If you have made the decision to use WordPress software to build your website or blog, then you may choose WordPress hosting because it has been optimized best for WordPress software needs.  You don’t have to use WordPress hosting in order to use WordPress web software, but it is an option.  Also, you will find in your research of this particular service that there is Free WordPress hosting, Shared WordPress hosting, and Managed WordPress hosting so you have some options.

Reseller hosting is when you sign up with a hosting company, open a reseller account, brand yourself and then resell that web hosting at a markup.  If your tech savvy and interested in possibly making some money by reselling web hosting you could look into this, and web designers and developers may see it as a great opportunity to offer web hosting along with their own products.

Cloud hosting is a service that uses multiple servers in various different places. Your website or blog would be hosted in the “cloud” computing platform. The cloud is the internet and your sites would be stored on internet servers.  Whatever company you use for cloud hosting can switch your website to various servers to deal with the stress of performance spikes and other issues.

Now that you know the difference between different hosting, which Provider is right for you?

Using these eight tips can assist in you deciding what Hosting Provider is best for you.

1.  Ask yourself what are your goals?  Do you want to have one website or multiple? How much traffic do you want to have or do you predict for the future?
2. Ask yourself how much customer support do you need?  Are you tech savvy and know the ins and outs of servers, building websites,and how much space that you need?  Can you handle security breaches on your own if you were hacked? Take how much help you will need and factor it in your decision making when choosing a hosting company and plan.
3. Pay for and register your own domain name in case things don’t work out with one hosting company. If things go sour or you just think another company will work better for your needs, you can then transfer your domain name with minimal effort.
4. Understanding the difference in servers and what they provide will help you choose what company and plan is best for you.  Take your time as there are tons of hosting companies to choose from and all have their pros and cons.
5. If you want personalized email, hosting companies provide that too and for different costs depending on your needs.  If this is something necessary for you, compare prices before deciding.
6. Security should be important to you as sometimes you may not be able to avoid it but hacking is a possibility when starting a website or blog.  Hosting companies have different options of security and many come with an extra cost.  Research this and find what is best for you.
7. Hosting companies will offer many features such as their reliability, cheap cost, amount of domains, amount of websites, network speed, technical support, web site consulting, SEO services and advertising credits. Some of these you may not need or ever use.  Make sure you get the most bang for your buck by paying for exactly what you need.
8. Finally, how much are you willing to spend?  Set an amount for yourself and then research for whats most affordable for you with the best features from there.  Don’t go broke while trying to build a website.  Starting new takes time, and it may take you a little while to see monetary gain from it, if that is your goal.

Like I mentioned before, there are tons of hosting providers and it’s good to take a few days to check out the pros and cons of many.  I personally use Hostgator and have been happy with their customer service as well as their cost for keeping my websites running. Check out cnet.com’s article on the Best Web hosting providers of 2020, Hostgator is among the list. A google search for web hosting providers can also easily get you started.

Have you already choose a hosting provider?  What were the factors in you making your decision?  I would love to hear from you so leave a comment!

Additional resources:

• What is wordpress Hosting -themeisle.com
• What is VPS Hosting -hostinger.com
• What is Reseller Hosting  -inmoionhosting.com
• How much does Website Hosting Cost in 2020 -webhostingsecretrevealed