1. Use Promo Codes

Using promo codes is one of the best and easiest ways to get free hosting. Using valid coupon codes allows you to get high-quality web hosting at the lowest possible cost[i]. Through the deal, the hosting provider might offer you shared hosting, which is going to be sufficient for you if you’re just looking to start a regular website. Through shared hosting, you will have to share resources, bandwidth, and storage space with the other users on the server. However, unless you are experiencing high levels of traffic, a shared hosting environment will be able to provide enough resources for your needs.

The bonus of using a promo code is you often get more resources than you would get with just a free hosting service. Of course, you need to pay attention to how long the promo period lasts until the cost goes back to the usual amount. As long as you keep track of the schedule, you shouldn’t have any surprises on your bill.

2. Sign up for WordPress

Do you want to start a blog? Then you should consider WordPress.com for your site. According to a web technology survey firm W3Techs[ii], WordPress now powers more than 30% of the web. WordPress is a free and open-source software, which means you can use it, and modify it as you want without having to pay any monthly fees.

The reason why WordPress is free is that no one company owns it. Because of this, thousands and thousands of people have contributed to the success of the platform. There are thousands of website themes out there that allow you to customize your website exactly how you want it. No matter what your site topic is, you can find something that works for you. You can make your WordPress site private here to have a secure site.

Don’t confuse WordPress.com with WordPress.org. WordPress.com is the free version, and you will have ads on your blog, and there are a few restrictions. For example, the name of your site will be yourname.wordpress.com. If you want to get rid of “WordPress” from your domain name and get rid of ads, you will have to pay to upgrade.

Watch this video to help you set up a WordPress site in just 24 simple steps.

3. Use your student ID

Most students out there are strapped for cash, and if they want to start a website, it might not be a luxury they can afford. However, there are some websites that provide one year of hosting. Often, all you have to do is sign up with your .edu email address to get a free website. If you do a bit of searching, you can often find other sites that will provide additional savings, like free domain privacy protection or cover the cost of domain registration fees for the life of the account. Using your student email address is perfect if you have a school or college project. Of course, before you sign up, look at design templates to make sure you can make your new site work for you.

4. Enter a competition

This one might be the hardest to achieve, but sometimes businesses or blogs will host competitions for a free year of website hosting and domain registration. Do a quick Google search to find out if there are any contests you can enter. Even if it comes with a few strings attached to it, it might be worth it if it is free!

What to consider when choosing a hosting provider

When you are just starting out, chances are pretty good that a shared hosting plan will be more than sufficient. Just make sure to pay attention to these features.

1. Speed

According to research, 47% of consumers[iii] expect a website to load within two seconds. If you don’t want to see hordes of people bouncing off your website, you might want to look at the speed that the hosting plan offers. If you end up using WordPress, you can download plugins to help with caching to speed up your site. However, cheaper hosting providers typically will be slower than more expensive plans.

2. Security

Unfortunately, the average small business website is attacked 44 times a day. Before signing a hosting contract, learn to see if the hosting provider offers free, regular backups that you can use if you need to back up your computer to a safe point. Sometimes, you can even find free hosting plans that offer free SSL Certificates which can help encrypt all sensitive information – like credit card numbers – and offer DDoS prevention.

3. Support

Even if you are a full-time website developer, you might run into a situation where you need assistance from the hosting provider. Many hosting providers will provide support via email, chat, ticket, or phone support. You should always look at the turnaround time and see how long it takes them to resolve any issues. A host should be able to respond quickly and intelligently so that you won’t experience any unnecessary downtime. Look for a host that offers 24/7 support. You don’t want to have to wait until business hours if you are having issues with your site. Find a host that has a strong reputation for responding quickly to any problems.

Just because you have a free blog, doesn’t mean it has to look cheap. There are tons of great website-building tools and themes out there. Your website theme and design can still look amazing, even if you didn’t pay a dime! Use free resources like plugins to fully customize your website and make it as safe, beautiful, and functional as possible. You can also visit Easy Hosting Guide to get more details about free web hosting and read reviews!

Reference list

[i]https://s3.amazonaws.com/bluehost-promo-coupon/index.html

[ii]https://venturebeat.com/2018/03/05/wordpress-now-powers-30-of-websites/

[iii]https://neilpatel.com/blog/loading-time/

However, there is another choice that is nearly as important. Web hosting. Many people don’t think much about the web hosting they choose. They simply Google the term and take one of the first options that are offering good rates or discounts. Maybe they simply choose a service with a well-known name.

Unfortunately, this is not a worthwhile way to choose the hosting and it can cause you trouble later on (as many users of hosting sites such as GoDaddy have reported). Web hosting is very important, no matter what platform you’re using to build your site. When using WordPress, you want to host that caters particularly to your needs and works seamlessly with WordPress.

Here’s how to decide on the best WordPress website hosting.

Down and out?

The reason for choosing web hosting carefully is so important is that it is the biggest factor that determines whether or not you stay online. Any service has occasional outages, but some are simply worse than others. You can use online tools to see how often a website goes down, but if you want an accurate assessment of user experience, you need to see what users say. After all, there’s a difference between going down for a few minutes here and there at off-peak times, and an hour-long peak-time outage.

Customers will be able to tell you what happened during the outage – how the hosting service handled it and whether they were updated often and treated well.

Read customer reviews, but make sure you’re looking at real reviews that haven’t been paid for.

WordPress tools and optimization

You should also look for hosting that is particularly useful for WordPress. Many hosting services offer tools and optimization specifically for WordPress. This is especially helpful for beginners but is even worthwhile for those who have tons of WordPress experience.

SiteGround, for example, provides a one-click install, free transfer, auto updates and backups, and 24/7 WordPress support. A2 Hosting is known to be particularly versatile for WordPress users and offers knowledgeable 24/7 support.

Upgrades and downgrades

We all want our websites to be successful but have little guarantee from the get-go of how successful they would be. This is why many people start on a midrange hosting plan, that will cater to them as long as their website isn’t getting millions of visitors. However, along the way, your needs will change. Either you’ll realize you overestimated your audience growth, or you’ll begin to expect far more visitors. Either way, you need hosting that allows you to easily upgrade or downgrade. It should keep most of the features intact even if you’re downgrading and shouldn’t negatively affect your website functioning. Ultimately, you’ll want versatile WordPress web hosting with a good reputation for uptime and customer service. Don’t simply go with the first Google result!

What to Consider When Choosing a Hosting Solution

For those who are just starting with their website, a shared hosting plan should be able to take care of your needs. Additionally, those who are just beginning should pay close attention to the allowable bandwidth, whether the hosting solution allows multiple domains on a single plan, and the pricing, including how cheap it gets if you decide to commit to a longer hosting plan (such as 36 months).

Bluehost

Bluehost can cost as much as $49.99 a month depending on the plan you choose, but they provide generous discounts for new customers, such as $2.95/mo for WordPress hosting.

The main features of Bluehost include:

• 30 GB of disk space
• 2 GB of RAM
• 30 GB of backup space
• Up to 5 WordPress sites
• Free IP address
• Free domain name
• 24/7 support
• Free SiteLock Pro security
• Free SiteLock CDN
• Free SSL
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Even the most basic Bluehost plan is suitable for sites getting about 100 million monthly visits. Bluehost plans are built on VPS and typically provide good site speed. Plans with Bluehost include advertising offers from Yahoo, Google, Bing, and more which can help you grow your business. However, Bluehost can be a bit expensive for those without coupon codes and there have been some frequent issues with support.

Cloudways

Cloudways is a user-friendly hosting platform offering essential features for seamless website management. With industry-best performance, exceptional 24/7 support, and enterprise-grade security, Cloudways ensures hassle-free hosting starting from $11/month.

Key Features of Cloudways:

• Advanced Security Measures (DDoS Mitigation, Vulnerability Scanner, Automated Protection with Fail2Ban)

• Performance Optimization (Built-in Caching Mechanisms, Up-to-Date PHP Versions, Dedicated Environments)

• Enterprise-Grade CDN Integration (Cloudflare with Edge Caching, Smart Routing, Image Optimization)

• Application-Level Support (In-Depth Assistance, Proactive Application Monitoring, Private Slack Channel)

• Flexible Scaling and Choice (Seamless Vertical Scaling, Renowned Cloud Providers, 1-Click App Deployment)

• Streamlined Workflows (Git Integration, Teams, and Projects, Server & App Cloning)

• Easy Control and Management (User-Friendly UI, 1-Click Backup & Restore, Custom Varnish Settings)

• 24/7 Real-Time Server Monitoring (Constant Surveillance, New Relic Integration, Cloudways Bot Notifications)

• SafeUpdates (Automated WordPress core, theme, and plugin update detection and deployment)

• Cloudflare Enterprise Add-On (Enterprise-grade performance and security)

• Cloudways Autonomous (Platform for high-availability cloud management with advanced load balancing and autoscaling)

Cloudways caters to diverse customer needs, offering a range of options from high-performance servers to mid-range affordable hosting platforms. This flexibility accommodates various budgets and allows hosting websites to run custom PHP software. If you seek an ideal managed hosting provider that aligns with your requirements while providing room for growth, Cloudways is an excellent choice.

WP Engine

WP Engine plans start at $29 a month and their most basic plan is suitable for sites getting about 25,000 visits per month. The main features of a WordPress hosting solution plan with WP Engine include:

• 60-day money-back guarantee
• Free automated migration
• Free SSL certificate
• 10 GB local storage
• 24/7 support
• Fast site speed
• Transferrable installs
• Curated plugins

Perhaps the biggest advantage to using WP Engine is site speed, which just might make up for the fact that it’s not the cheapest hosting solution. Additionally, you get daily backups and there don’t seem to be any issues with downtime, which is certainly a plus. Perhaps most notable is their expert support, given that WP Engine support is a three-time Stevie Award Winner for best customer service.

SiteGround

SiteGround plans start at $3.95 a month and are most suitable for sites that average about 10,000 visits per month. Its main features include:

• 30-day money-back guarantee
• Free setup and transfer
• 99.9% uptime guarantee
• Free daily backups
• Unlimited emails and databases
• Free CloudFlare CDN
• 10 GB web space
• 24/7 support
• Free app installs
• cPanel and SSH access

One of the biggest advantages Siteground has is its response times, considering it’s one of the fastest hosting plans. Additionally, Siteground’s sign-up process is quick and easy to follow. It includes a WordPress built-in installer, which saves you time and effort. One disadvantage to using Siteground is that once you start to bring in more than 10,000 visitors a month, you have to upgrade your plan. For some, only 10 GB of space can be a problem.

A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting plans start at $3.92 a month, which is certainly exciting compared to other WordPress hosting solutions we’ve mentioned. The main features of their most basic plan include:

• 1 website
• 5 databases
• Unlimited transfer
• Unlimited storage
• Anytime money-back guarantee
• Free SSL and SSD
• cPanel control panel
• 99% uptime guarantee

Quite obviously, A2 Hosting is one of the more affordable WordPress hosting solutions. Additionally, it’s incredibly easy to get started to take advantage of their low prices. They also offer incredibly fast hosting services and dependable customer support. The A2 Optimized WordPress comes with WordPress already installed which saves you time and effort.

InMotion Hosting

InMotion offers three different plans, ranging from $3.49 to $7.99 a month. Its main features include:

• Unlimited disk space
• 2 websites on one account
• Unlimited monthly transfer
• Free domain registration or transfer
• Free data backups
• Free no-downtime website transfers
• WordPress pre-installed
• 24/7 US-based support
• 90-day money-back guarantee
• As many as 6 parked domains and 25 subdomains
• Shared SSL included
• Unlimited email accounts with IMAP

InMotion works incredibly fast because it runs on SSD drives and the setup is super easy since it comes with WordPress already installed. Also, it should be known that if you want to pay as little as $3.49 a month, you have to sign up for a two-year plan. Plus, there’s no mention of the kind of traffic the hosting plan can handle, which may be a concern for some.

Kinsta

Kinsta provides premium hosting solutions for a wide variety of users from starters and SMBs to bigger enterprises with high-traffic sites. Their plans start from $30/ month including free CDN, Letsencrypt SSL, and 20 000 monthly visitors.

Kinsta’s fully managed WordPress hosting features include:

• Free SSL and CDN
• 24/7 support by WordPress developers
• 13 global data centers
• Free white glove site migrations
• Automatic scaling to handle traffic spikes
• 1440 daily uptime checks per site
• Daily backups
• One-click staging area
• SSH, WP-CLI, and Git support
• Custom-designed site management dashboard
• Full page caching at the server-level
• Free hack fix

Kinsta’s premium managed-to-host is powered by Google Cloud Platform and Google’s premium tier network. They guarantee blazing-fast site speed, and your site is handled and monitored by a group of WordPress experts. With the custom-designed dashboard, you can create staging sites, choose your data center, and track resource usage, visitor analytics, and billing information.

Conclusion

It can be quite the intimidating task to try to select the best WordPress hosting to serve for your site. With so many web hosting companies claiming to be the best, it’s hard to narrow down your options and decide on one. That’s why it’s most important to pay close attention to your specific needs and wants, including the type of website you have, the number of visitors you get each month, and your budget.

By carefully comparing the different hosting solutions, you can better understand which would best suit your needs. Keep in mind both your current needs and your future needs, in order to make the best decision for you. That being said, rest assured that although one may work better for you individually, each of the five hosting solutions mentioned above were included because they are quality companies providing quality services, so we highly doubt you would be extremely disappointed with any of them. To each their own, so good luck on finding which is yours.

Web Hosting in General

Considering the technological advancements these days, web hosting has become a critical part of every online business. When we say web hosting, it’s a kind of service that makes your site accessible to viewers on the Internet. It enables individuals and companies to store some information, images, and other content that covers your website. As the hosting provider gives space on its server, people across the globe can now view your site by searching through the Internet. If you hire a hosting provider, you should expect some features from them such as FTP access, email accounts for a domain name, and WordPress support.

Moreover, there’s a wide range of web hosting services to choose from nowadays. Depending on your purpose and budget, you can take advantage of the following services to keep your site running online:

• Domain hosting – It’s a less expensive choice for small business owners because it gives you the authority to host your website wherever you want whether on a free hosting service or an Internet service provider.
• Free web hosting – If you’re running a personal site, free web hosting is all that you need. It provides all kinds of features that you require to operate a smaller, personal website.
• Paid hosting – It means you have to pay for the storage and service offered by the provider. The more dollars you spend, the more and better features you can get such as database support, extra bandwidth, SSL, and many more.
• Internet service providers – It’s an inexpensive type of web hosting service that provides a small amount of storage and some tools to make the site’s uploading speed faster.
• Direct Internet access – This means you have absolute and full control of your web server since you host your site yourself. If you’re looking for the security of your web, having this type of web hosting service can be a great option.

If you want to learn how you should choose the right web host for you, online resources like makeawebsitehub.com can provide you with informative reviews about some of the best providers in the industry.

Benefits of Web Hosting

Now that you’ve already understood the role of web hosting in making your website available to a variety of viewers on the Internet, it’s time to take a look at some of its essential benefits. Below are some of the reasons why you should start investing in reliable web hosting services for your business:

1. Minimized loss of customers and revenue

Having a poor web host is equivalent to having more website downtime. It means your website usually suffers from issues like being unavailable or disrupted. Remember, the more time your site goes down, the more you lose customers, their trust, and potential revenues.

2. Improved site performance and SEO

With a good web hosting service, your site’s loading speed will be much faster, helping you boost your search engine rankings over time. A site that takes more time to load can lead to a poor user experience and a high bounce rate. Thus, it’s best to use a good web host to improve site performance and SEO to give your visitors the best user experience they can get online.

3. Better security

There can be a lot of reasons why your website needs a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate. You’ll know that an SSL is there if you have HTTPS on your site which means better security for your business. To do that, you should work with an experienced web hosting company that will host with a secure IP address to provide a more secure website for all your online visitors. Always keep in mind that better site security is an indication that all confidential and sensitive information is duly protected. In other words, all data coming from your site is encrypted, and any hacker can’t be able to access any info from it.

4. Better support

With excellent web hosting, you can rely on better support when anything goes wrong with your website. If you can’t fix some site issues right away, you may probably lose some vital information and your business in general. Take note that any disruptions or downtime experienced by your website can adversely impact your conversions, search engine rankings, and statistics. Hence, get a good web hosting service now to control these technical problems.

Conclusion

Indeed, having a great web hosting service is essential for any business that’s looking for success in the digital marketplace. By keeping all of this information in mind, you’ll get a better understanding of what and how web hosting can bring more customers and increase sales to your business. As you can see, there’s a wide range of options to select from. With a little research, you can find the best web host that suits your needs.