What Web Hosting Service Should You Use Between Bluehost, Hostgator Or Siteground?
In business, a website is a must-have asset. It’s where potential clients will find and get to know you. It’s the first place referrals will turn to learn more about you. It’s where you’ll sell your products and services, invite contact requests, brand yourself in your niche, and show off what you know. It might also be where you host your webinars, offer group coaching programs, publish a podcast, create a blog, sell your products and even set appointments with clients.
Whew! That’s a lot of jobs for a single website to do. There are multiple ways to set up a website: You can use WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or tools like ClickFunnels.
If you’re going to have a website you need to have a reliable web host. Web hosting is a service provided that stores your website information. If you would like to learn, which web hosting company you should choose then continue reading.
WEB HOSTING
How do you find a web hosting company with the features, support, and price that serves your needs? Here are some tips that will help you select the right web host.
I’m going to compare some of the best web hosting companies that you can use to start you off on your entrepreneurial journey. Bluehost, Siteground and Hostgator will be the main ones that I will refer to since I have experience with them all.
Bluehost is one of the largest and oldest hosting companies out on the market helping more than 2 million customers. Hostgator also is no slouch while it is a little younger in the game it has helped millions to run their website and hosting needs. Siteground is the youngest of the bunch and has learned a few things from its predecessors making it stand out and will make a good comparison.
These are the most basic plans for each of these major hosting giants that I have worked with. By the time you are finished reading this blog post, you will know which web hosting company will be the best starter up plan to get your website up and running.
DOMAIN
When first starting a website you will need a domain. The domain is simply the name of your website. You will recognize it as the www.NameOfYourWebsite.com.
BlueHost and Hostgator both include a free domain for 1 year, which is great because you wouldn’t have to take an extra step into buying it with another provider and having to transfer it over. With Siteground you will either have to purchase a domain with them for $15.95/year or get it from other places like GoDaddy where prices vary from $7.99 to $17.
Upon completing the process you will have to check for domain availability. This means that you will have to be creative in figuring out what your brand name should be for the name of your site.
SECURITY
Free SSL certificate is pretty much the standard for many web hosters. This is what keeps your website secure especially if you want to run an eCommerce store in the future where your site will be dealing with transactions. You can feel safe that your website won’t get hacked and also none of your customer’s information will be stolen.
BANDWIDTH
This means that traffic would not be an issue for you, you can have many users visit your site without any limitations! All three of these hosting companies do a good job on that.
PRICING
In order to receive the best discount possible (i.e you are sure this is a business/blog you will be consistent with), you will need to choose a longer plan to commit to like 12, 24 and 36 months.
If you don’t want to make that big of a commitment just yet and spend your hard-earned dollars on something you are not entirely sure about then that is okay, you can try it out for one month and that is where Siteground shines they offer a one month trial for ($3.95 +$14.95 startup fee) $18.90.
EMAILS
You are going to need a domain email address that is official for your brand. I’m not talking about isellstuff@yahoo.com or buymystuff@gmail.com you want to have something like support@yourbusinessname.com or hello@yourbusinessname.com. If you are in business, your customers do not want to see the yahoo or (please don’t tell me you have) aol as an email for correspondence.
Why is it important?
- You look more legit.
- You appear more professional.
- And it creates more brand awareness.
Siteground and Hostgator offer unlimited emails with their web hosting accounts. BlueHost offers 5 free business emails.
In my opinion, if it’s just you 2 to 3 emails are just fine. But if you’re like me you want to prepare ahead of time because you just know your business is going to blow up and you will need 100 emails. Don’t be me!
MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE
In any case, you are not satisfied with your service or just didn’t use it the way you thought you were going to. You can contact your chosen web hosters and ask for a full refund. This is a very great option for many businesses and it also gives you peace of mind knowing that if you didn’t like the service for any reason really, you can cancel it.
Hostgator offers more of a cushion than the other companies up to 45 days!
Hostgator- 45 days
Bluehost -30 days
Siteground-30 days
BE SMART ABOUT YOUR HOSTING
Unlimited domains! Unlimited space! Unlimited bandwidth! And all for around $8 per month. You’ve probably seen the claims and may even have a hosting account with one of these companies.
Here’s the problem. This type of shared hosting is inexpensive only because they overload their servers with thousands of websites. Just as close proximity in crowded classrooms allows human viruses to quickly spread, close proximity of websites on a shared server means one infected site is a risk to all the others.
Rather than looking for the least expensive (and riskiest) hosting option, choose a host that allows you to isolate each site on its own cPanel. Doing so will greatly improve the security of your website.
In the end, the safety and security of your site and its data is entirely up to you. Keep your software up to date, use good passwords, and choose a secure hosting environment, and you’ll be well ahead of the curve on this. That’s why I recommend you go with Bluehost, Hostgator and Siteground
CONCLUSION
Bluehost, Hostgator and Siteground can get you where you need to go. They all do the same thing the only difference is the quality and price that you pay. They all offer upgrades and add-ons to make your process easier to achieve your goals 24/7 customer support, reliable speeds, uptime.
Avoid free web hosting services. These services support themselves by placing advertisements on the top of all the websites they host. These advertisements may annoy your visitors or make your site appear unprofessional. In addition, some free hosts may restrict the amount of commercial content allowed on the websites that they host.
As is obvious by now, getting a website up and running takes more than just choosing a catchy domain name, you need a good web hosting company, for starters. There are many web hosting companies to choose from, but not all will be suitable for your site. Take the time to compare hosts, and put these suggestions to use as you assess your needs, make comparisons, and ultimately select the right web host with the service and features you need.
