Description: A blog post explaining what web hosting is and the best hosting service providers.
Once you finish creating a website, whether for yourself or a client, making it both creative and functional for your future customers, your next step now is to get it out there for users to interact with and utilize. Having a website built is great, but it won’t help you bring traction to yourself or a business unless you can get it out there for others to see, and that’s where website hosting comes in.
What is Web Hosting?
Web hosting is what allows you to publish your website on the internet. When you sign up or even host your own website, you a paying for space on a server where you can store all the code, files, and links to keep your website working. The server works as the operator that connects your files to your code to the person wanting to visit your website, acting like not only the host to share your website but also a security officer, ” implementing hosting security measures, and ensuring that data such as texts, photos, and other files are transferred successfully to the visitors’ browsers.” A hosting provider is a person or company that off gives you that space in their server to host your site, with a fee of course, but that also means that you won’t have to stay on top of your website hosting maintenance, the provider with do that for you.
Best Host Providers
There are many choices for service providers out there, and it can be difficult to which is the best hosting service for you. And while, yes, you could choose to host yourself with your own server, that would require extensive technical skills. Self-hosting entails setting up and configuring a web server from scratch, including the equipment, infrastructure, hardware, and software. Plus, you no longer have a company maintaining your hosting, you have to do that by yourself. So without further ado, here are the top 3 best hosting service providers in 2024.
Ionos
Ionos is a great choice for hosting. It is inexpensive and is perfect for personal websites and small businesses. Not only is the starting price $1 a month for six months for a regular website before rising to $10 a month, but the features that are included are perfect for your first website. The Grow plan includes 50 GB of storage, a free domain for the first year, and daily backups for one website. As for security, one free wildcard SSL certificate, a site scan, and DDoS protection are included to safeguard you from various threats.
Hostinger
Hostinger is perfect for all types of websites, whether they are personal or for a larger business. Their starting price of $3.99 a month is slightly more expensive than Ionos’s but their renewal price is only $8.99 a month, which is cheaper than Ionos, and they offer a bit more for their plan than they do. Their Business plan gives you 200 GB of blazing-fast NVMe storage to host up to 100 websites, a free domain name with WHOIS protection, daily and on-demand backups, and 100 email addresses. It even offers enhanced DDoS protection and a malware scanner to help make your website secure and protected from any potential threats.
Bluehost
Bluehost is an amazing provider if you are trying to host a WordPress website. They are on the more expensive side, their Online Store plan is normally $26.99 a month, and they have special promos going on to where your first 3 years will be cheaper, saving you $300 while still getting the same services. This plan lets you host up to 3 websites with 40 GB SSD storage and allows you to sell your products online. You also get:
- Free Domain 1st Year
- Managed WordPress
- Exclusive Store Theme
- Store Analytics
- Free SSL
- Daily Website Backups – Free 1st-year
Best Hosting Service Criteria
If none of the listed providers above are a right fit for you, just remember these three things you want to look out for when doing your research; Cost, Fit, and Protection. As a rule of thumb, the cheaper the service, the more likely the provider doesn’t offer many of the features pricier providers give, meaning you will be more open to threats, so try to look for a provider that you can be sure you can trust, even if their services are a bit of an investment. You always want to make sure that what the provider is offering is a good fit for your website. If you only want to run a small, personal portfolio, then don’t pay for a plan that gives you features that better suit someone trying to host an e-commerce site. Lastly, it is better to be safe than sorry. Paying for a more expensive plan might be worth it if the features they provide will keep your website protected. Security is very important and it should play a factor when you go to choose a provider. While I can’t stop you from making your own choices, I hope the information you have learned here today will help you decide on the best hosting service to use a lot easier.