Best Places to Host Your Website in 2011
A lot of beginner bloggers may be wondering where to host their website. Now that you found this post, you will never have to wonder again. I will tell you where to get the best web hosting in 2011. There are so many choices out there and so many sites telling you which ones are their favorites. But I am going to give an unbiased review of a few of the best hosting providers out there.
Hostgator is a long time favorite of mine. They have very little downtime, amazing support and have the most used control panel in the industry (cpanel). This site is hosted on hostgator servers and I've never had a complaint. Their prices are extremely affordable, the base package is only $3.96/mo and you can get 25% off of that amount if you use the code moneyninja at sign up. BONUS: For all you green people out there, all of HostGator's shared and reseller servers are powered and cooled by wind power!
Here is the rundown:
Hostgator is huge, hosting over 5,000,000 domains, and are always hosting more. They are quickly becoming a household name (well in the blogging world anyway, I don't think my mom knows who they are :D). I give them 5/5 stars!
Hostmonster has been around since 1996 and offers all the main necessities (unlimited bandwidth, space, cpanel). One of the main perks you get for signing up for hostmonster is a free domain for life! As long as you keep your hosting with them, you will never have to renew. If you do choose to move to different hosting, you will need to renew the domain. They focus on support which is great, they also claim they never outsource support to other countries. If you call them any time 24/7, someone in the United States will answer your call. That is great for an American hosting company! Hostmonster is definitely a company to watch in the near future.
Here is what they have to offer:
You can't argue with a free domain name for life. Their service is great and their support is awesome. Hostmonster are definitely one of the best. 4.5/5 stars!
WebHostingPad formed in 2005, and has been growing ever since. They host over 150,000 domains and are easily the cheapest professional hosting around. You really are not going to beat $1.99/mo for unlimited everything (if you pay for 5 years up front, limited time only!). They are one of the few that offer unlimited domains on their base package. They also offer a free domain name with your hosting. Their support is very helpful and quick to answer emails.
Here is what they have to offer:
If cheap hosting is what you are looking for, then look no further. WebHostingPad will definitely give you a great platform to host your sites on. 4/5 Stars!
iPage has been hosting business, personal, social and non-profit websites for more than 10 years. Founded in 1998, the iPage team knows web hosting and knows that different people need different things. That is why iPage offers tons flexibility, without overcomplicating things. The base packages start at $4.50/mo.
This is what they are offering:
iPage has built a lot of trust in the industry and is quickly becoming THE company you want to host with and already hosts over 1,000,000 sites. The free domain name is also a nice perk. They also recently went green. While they don't generate the windpower onsite, they do buy wind power certificates to offset the carbon usage. I give iPage a full 5/5 stars.
FatCow has focused the entire company on delivering the best value and customer service experience in Web hosting to the small business user. They focus heavily on customer service. In fact, if you don't have a good experience, they will give you a month of free hosting! From their oath:
With their emphasis on customer service and affordable pricing ($4.67/mo), FatCow has been rated #1 for small businesses! They also get a bonus for using wind power. 4.5/5 Stars!
InMotion Hosting is one of the best hosts around and is the most popular for businesses. They offer VPS, business class hosting and dedicated servers all at affordable prices. They also offer personal hosting for as low as $3.00/mo which is a great deal!
Here are their main selling points:
While they don't offer a lot of the freebies that some of their competitors offer. What they do have is scalability. If your site starts getting a ton of traffic, you can easily upgrade to a higher plan and you won't experience any downtime. They are definitely at the top of the list for businesses, but maybe not what you need when you are starting out. Rating 4/5!
Bluehost has been providing hosting solutions to thousands of business and personal web sites since 1996. They also use cpanel, which is incredibly easy to use. They offer a lot of the same freebies as the other companies including a free domain. The unlimited domains on a single account is great as well. They don't seem to get rated as high in customer service as some of the other hosts though.
Here is what they have:
Overall, they offer a lot of great services, but they lose points in customer service. At $6.95/mo, they aren't the cheapest either. I give them 3.5/5 stars.
JustHost are dedicated to providing their customers with the most reliable web hosting service possible at the best possible price. Only $4.95 per month!
They offer:
I hear mixed reviews about this service as well. Some people say the support is bad, others say the services are oversold. I have even read some reports of customer service taking up to 3 hours to respond to an email. In this industry minutes of downtime can be devastating and that type of response rate would be unacceptable. 3/5 stars.
GreenGeeks provides 300% green energy web hosting with each hosting plan. Green Geeks support team is friendly, accessible and is as committed to the clients as toward protecting our environment.
GreenGeeks Hosting offers:
Protecting the environment is great and that is a huge plus. The customer service gets mixed reviews here, some people love them and others hate them. Most companies have people on both sides of the fence, so be careful. Overall, they are a great company with a great service for a great price ($4.95/mo). 3.5/5 stars!
There are a lot of great companies out there, but after extensive research, I have found these companies to be the cream of the crop. They are all great at what they do and that made it hard to make a decision on the best out there. So I will break it down into a couple categories.
Hopefully, this review of the best hosting sites in 2011 is helpful to you and gets you started on your journey to making money as a professional blogger. Let me know who your favorite hosting companies are in the comments.
Hostgator
Hostgator is a long time favorite of mine. They have very little downtime, amazing support and have the most used control panel in the industry (cpanel). This site is hosted on hostgator servers and I've never had a complaint. Their prices are extremely affordable, the base package is only $3.96/mo and you can get 25% off of that amount if you use the code moneyninja at sign up. BONUS: For all you green people out there, all of HostGator's shared and reseller servers are powered and cooled by wind power!
Here is the rundown:
- Unlimited Disk Space
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Free SiteBuilder
- Easy Control Panel
- 1-Click Script Installs
- 4,500 Free Website Templates
- 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
- 45 Day Money Back Guarantee
- 24/7/365 Technical Support
- $100 Google AdWords Credit
Hostgator is huge, hosting over 5,000,000 domains, and are always hosting more. They are quickly becoming a household name (well in the blogging world anyway, I don't think my mom knows who they are :D). I give them 5/5 stars!
HostMonster
Hostmonster has been around since 1996 and offers all the main necessities (unlimited bandwidth, space, cpanel). One of the main perks you get for signing up for hostmonster is a free domain for life! As long as you keep your hosting with them, you will never have to renew. If you do choose to move to different hosting, you will need to renew the domain. They focus on support which is great, they also claim they never outsource support to other countries. If you call them any time 24/7, someone in the United States will answer your call. That is great for an American hosting company! Hostmonster is definitely a company to watch in the near future.
Here is what they have to offer:
- UNLIMITED Hosting Space & Traffic
- Host UNLIMITED Domains on 1 Account
- 2,500 POP/Imap Email Accounts
- SSH, SSL, FTP, CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MySQL
- 2000/2002 Front Page Extensions
- Free Domain Forever!
- Free Site Builder
- Best Support in the Industry
You can't argue with a free domain name for life. Their service is great and their support is awesome. Hostmonster are definitely one of the best. 4.5/5 stars!
WebHostingPad
WebHostingPad formed in 2005, and has been growing ever since. They host over 150,000 domains and are easily the cheapest professional hosting around. You really are not going to beat $1.99/mo for unlimited everything (if you pay for 5 years up front, limited time only!). They are one of the few that offer unlimited domains on their base package. They also offer a free domain name with your hosting. Their support is very helpful and quick to answer emails.
Here is what they have to offer:
- Unlimited Hosting Space *
- Unlimited Bandwidth *
- Unlimited Email Accounts
- FREE Domain Name
- FREE Marketing Credits
- FREE WebSite Transfer
- FREE Web Site Builder
- 99.9% Uptime!
If cheap hosting is what you are looking for, then look no further. WebHostingPad will definitely give you a great platform to host your sites on. 4/5 Stars!
iPage
iPage has been hosting business, personal, social and non-profit websites for more than 10 years. Founded in 1998, the iPage team knows web hosting and knows that different people need different things. That is why iPage offers tons flexibility, without overcomplicating things. The base packages start at $4.50/mo.
This is what they are offering:
- Unlimited Disk Space, Bandwidth & Email
- FREE Domain
- FREE Security Suite
- FREE Site-Building Tools
- FREE Online Store
- FREE Yahoo! & Facebook Marketing Credits
- GREEN! Powered by 100% wind energy
iPage has built a lot of trust in the industry and is quickly becoming THE company you want to host with and already hosts over 1,000,000 sites. The free domain name is also a nice perk. They also recently went green. While they don't generate the windpower onsite, they do buy wind power certificates to offset the carbon usage. I give iPage a full 5/5 stars.
FatCow
FatCow has focused the entire company on delivering the best value and customer service experience in Web hosting to the small business user. They focus heavily on customer service. In fact, if you don't have a good experience, they will give you a month of free hosting! From their oath:
"When you have a question or technical issue, you want someone to be there for you, with an enthusiastic can-do attitude. That's just what you'll find when you contact our friendly Moo Crew! In fact, if we don't deliver a positive support experience, we will give you a free month of hosting. It's that simple"
- UNLIMITED Disk Space
- UNLIMITED Bandwidth
- UNLIMITED POP Mailboxes
- UNLIMITED MySQL Databases
- UNLIMITED Domains Hosted
- FREE Domain Name
- FREE Website Builder
- FREEShopping Cart
- FREE Script Barn (WordPress, phpBB, Joomla & More)
- Unlimited FTP Users & SubUsers
With their emphasis on customer service and affordable pricing ($4.67/mo), FatCow has been rated #1 for small businesses! They also get a bonus for using wind power. 4.5/5 Stars!
InMotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting is one of the best hosts around and is the most popular for businesses. They offer VPS, business class hosting and dedicated servers all at affordable prices. They also offer personal hosting for as low as $3.00/mo which is a great deal!
Here are their main selling points:
- FREE New Domain or FREE Transfer
- 2 Sites On 1 Account - Included for FREE! (basic business package)
- Fast email with SPAM blocking
- Different levels of hosting so you can grow
- 90 day money back guarantee (best we know of)
- Very reliable with 99.9% Uptime
- Easy to use control panel and a premium web site builder
- Unlimited disk space and Unlimited monthly traffic ($8.95 plan)
While they don't offer a lot of the freebies that some of their competitors offer. What they do have is scalability. If your site starts getting a ton of traffic, you can easily upgrade to a higher plan and you won't experience any downtime. They are definitely at the top of the list for businesses, but maybe not what you need when you are starting out. Rating 4/5!
BlueHost
Bluehost has been providing hosting solutions to thousands of business and personal web sites since 1996. They also use cpanel, which is incredibly easy to use. They offer a lot of the same freebies as the other companies including a free domain. The unlimited domains on a single account is great as well. They don't seem to get rated as high in customer service as some of the other hosts though.
Here is what they have:
- Unlimited Domain Hosting
- Unlimited GB Hosting Space
- Unlimited GB File Transfer
- Unlimited E-mail Accounts
- Free Domain
- Free Site Builder w/ templates
- Secure Shell, SSL, FTP, Stats
- CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MySQL
- $75 Free Google Credit
- 99.9% Network Uptime Guarantee
Overall, they offer a lot of great services, but they lose points in customer service. At $6.95/mo, they aren't the cheapest either. I give them 3.5/5 stars.
JustHost
JustHost are dedicated to providing their customers with the most reliable web hosting service possible at the best possible price. Only $4.95 per month!
They offer:
- FREE Domain For Life & FREE Instant Setup
- No Hidden Fees
- Unlimited GB's of Web Space
- Unlimited GB's of Transfer
- Unlimited Domain Hosting
- Unlimited E-Mail Accounts
- Unlimited MySQL Databases
I hear mixed reviews about this service as well. Some people say the support is bad, others say the services are oversold. I have even read some reports of customer service taking up to 3 hours to respond to an email. In this industry minutes of downtime can be devastating and that type of response rate would be unacceptable. 3/5 stars.
GreenGeeks Hosting
GreenGeeks provides 300% green energy web hosting with each hosting plan. Green Geeks support team is friendly, accessible and is as committed to the clients as toward protecting our environment.
GreenGeeks Hosting offers:
- Unlimited Web Space
- Unlimited Bandwidth (Data Transfer)
- Host Unlimited Domains on 1 Account
- Unlimited E-mail Accounts
- Unlimited MySQL Databases
- FREE Domain Name for Life
- FREE Site Migration
- FREE Marketing Credits
- FREE Web Site Builder + Templates
- Fantastic North American Support
Protecting the environment is great and that is a huge plus. The customer service gets mixed reviews here, some people love them and others hate them. Most companies have people on both sides of the fence, so be careful. Overall, they are a great company with a great service for a great price ($4.95/mo). 3.5/5 stars!
Summary
There are a lot of great companies out there, but after extensive research, I have found these companies to be the cream of the crop. They are all great at what they do and that made it hard to make a decision on the best out there. So I will break it down into a couple categories.
- InMotion Hosting: Best business hosting.
- WebHostingPad: Best bang for your buck.
- Hostgator: Most trusted host.
Hopefully, this review of the best hosting sites in 2011 is helpful to you and gets you started on your journey to making money as a professional blogger. Let me know who your favorite hosting companies are in the comments.
