What is the best hosting for blogging?
Now that you’ve decided to start a blog, there are a lot of new things to consider and quite a bit to learn. The technical stuff can get a little tricky, and appear intimidating, but that is why we have reviewed some of the best solutions and presented them in a way that will save you time, money, and frustration!
So what is the best hosting provider for me?
If you’re on a tight budget, it’s worth starting off with a Shared hosting plan, however, if you have growth in mind it might be better to consider Managed WordPress, Virtual Private Servers (VPS), or Cloud hosting options. You would really only consider a Dedicated Server if you were already running a professional site with the traffic to justify it and looking to upgrade it.
To answer the question ” what type of hosting do I need?“. We will assume that you are running a WordPress site and disregard the options that don’t service at least 10000 monthly visitors. We will be using monthly web traffic as a guide and use price, bandwidth, and storage as metrics to find the solution right for you.
What hosting requirements do you need for blogging :
| Monthly Visits | Daily visits | Hosting type | Bandwidth | Starting from : | 3 Best Solutions |
| 0 – 100k | 2k-3k | Shared | Unmetered | $2.59/mo $3.75/mo $4.75 /mo | Dreamhost Domains.com Nexcess |
| 100k-250k | 3k-15k | WordPress Managed | Unmetered – 1TB | $10.69/mo $11.95/mo $13.95/mo | Siteground Hostinger Bluehost |
| 100k-500k | 3k-15k | VPS | 2TB-4Tb | $10.00/mo $11.68/mo $19.99/mo | Dreamhost Mochahost Bluehost |
| 500K-3m | 15-100k | Cloud hosting | 5TB-10Tb | $9.99/mo $24.99/mo $50.00/mo | Hostinger Mochahost Kamatera |
| 3m+ | 100k+ | Dedicated server | 5Tb-15Tb | $79.99/mo $89.98/mo $100/mo | Bluehost Hostgator Siteground |
What type of website builder should I use?
If you’re wondering what kind of hosting do you need for WordPress? You’re in the right place. This article is structured around providing solutions to professional blogging sites. While it is quite possible to be successful with other site builders like Squarespace or Wix. They tend to be more suited for other types of online endeavors that deal with less traffic and are more suited to E-commerce. You can read more about it in our article on The best E-commerce platforms for a lot more information on the subject.
What role do bandwidth and storage play in hosting?
Storage determines how much data you can store on your site. Think of a site like youtube that uses multiple servers to host its massive library of content. While Bandwidth is your end user’s ability to access that information. If you don’t have enough storage, you can only host a limited amount of content, but if you don’t have enough bandwidth it will limit how many units can access that information and at what speed.
This is why it is so important to select a hosting partner that provides you with enough of both to allow your site to grow unhindered.
What is shared hosting?
Shared hosting, as the name implies, means sharing a server with multiple other users, all hosting sites. It is the cheap solution that provides us with an affordable option while the demands on our sites are low and our traffic is busy growing.
Pro’s
- Cheap
- Easy setup
- No admin issues
- Often includes a domain bundle
- Pretty good support
Con’s
- Potential to be affected by the load of other users
- File permission Risks
- Lack of admin access
- Slower speeds
We really recommend going with either Dreamhost or Mochahost as our top picks, simply because they currently offer the best value for money packages on both shared hosting as well as WordPress Managed options. With a lot of the packages available today, you can easily select a slightly higher tier option than the basic and have all the hosting requirements you’ll need for years to come! For a comprehensive comparison check out our article on The 15 best shared hosting services
For most of you starting off with your first blog, shared hosting will be your best option! It is also worth checking out Domains.com for a domain registration or alternative scalable hosting solution.
What is VPS hosting?
A Virtual Private Server is a kind of like having most of the benefits of a dedicated server, with half the cost. You are still sharing a server, however,
you now have full administrative access and a lot more resources on that server available, but it still has other users operating on the machine.
Pro’s
- Dedicated server resources.
- Ability to make custom configurations to your server.
- Higher uptime rates and faster loading speeds.
- More cost-effective than a dedicated server.
Con’s
- Sharing the main server with other websites.
- Not as easy to setup as a shared server.
- Still has limitations in terms of what you can control.
There are quite a lot of options with VPS hosting and again based on affordability and support we recommend looking into Dreamhost and Mochahost who both run a fantastic services.
What is Cloud hosting?
Cloud hosting provides a similar service to dedicated servers, just spread over multiple machines rather than a single unit dedicated for your use. Your data is managed via a Virtual machine that accesses your information from several servers in the cloud.
Pro’s
- Can support Custom Stack software
- Elastic webserver support
- Better overall performance
- Website remains “always on”
Con’s
- Limited flexiblity in Custom Stack manipulation
- Data loss or Theft
- Denial of service attacks
- Downtime
When it comes to Cloud hosting the options become even more varied and there are some really affordable solutions out there for a small to medium sized blog. We recommend Hostinger and Mochahost for these services.
Should I host my blog on a dedicated server?
Probably not
Don’t get me wrong, but without the techincal knowledge, applications or wallet to run it monthly the cons simply outweight the pros. At the end of the day, you are still restricted in the type of content you can host and while you do have more security, it comes at the added trouble of a high technical setup.
Pro’s
- Fantastic performance!
- Full control of the entire unit
- Able to implement any custom stack
- Safe and Secure
Con’s
- Expensive!
- Technically advanced
- Limited support
- Expensive scripts
If however this is what you need and you can’t do without. Then you should consider stability and reliability. Both Hostgator and Bluehost offer great overall reliability in performance and while not the cheapest options around, offer value with their packages.
Now you know what type of hosting you need!
You have all the information you need to make an educated decission based on affordability, speed and pragmatism! Be sure to check out our Big Bad Blog on small bussiness software, which covers the different categories of efficient business practice and how to save money and time in your practice!
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