Hiring a web developer is great for ensuring your site is aesthetically pleasing and offers the right content and value to attract customers, but another essential factor is the hosting platform. It’s important to make sure your hosting provider is fast and reliable as well as whether shared web hosting is the right decision for your website.
What is Shared Hosting?
Shared hosting is when multiple websites are sharing the same server, using their own allotted portion of the server for their own use. This is an easy decision for small websites or businesses that don’t expect a lot of traffic or are serving only one purpose such as a blog or small online shop. It’s also advantageous because it’s the cheapest option and all maintenance is done by the service provider.
There are some setbacks as well to using shared hosting, one of which is that you are limited to your own provided resource, load time can be affected, and not knowing what other sites are sharing the server could put your site at risk.
For most small businesses and websites that don’t require a lot of work, these advantages outweigh any disadvantages. If you start small with a shared hosting plan, as your traffic or business grows, you can also grow with how much space and resources you need. Eventually, you could switch to a more semi-shared plan, a VPS server, or a WordPress dedicated host.
It’s a tough decision to make, especially if this is your first website or you’re unsure of all the extra features and tools you may need. We’ve cultivated a list of some hosting providers who provide shared-hosting options to help you with your website planning, so you can start your research a little more prepared for making that final decision.
SiteGround hosting
Developed by Google Cloud, SiteGround is regarded as one of the fastest - if not the fastest - web hosting provider on the internet.
With its SSD persistent storage, daily backups, and unlimited databases, it has quickly made itself a contender among businesses of all sizes.
Monthly subscriptions start at $6.99 (currently discounted from $14.99) and end with the GoGeek package at $14.99 (discounted from $39.99). You can manage up to 10 websites and 40 GB of web space for free as well as more added onto the already amazing basic offerings.
BlueHost hosting
Perfect for beginner websites, BlueHost offers lots of great tools to help keep their speed reliable. What’s great is that the starter shared-hosting package starts at only a few dollars per month, meaning you don’t need to commit your wallet to get a fast website. Some of its most notable features include 50 GB SSD, Cloudfare CDN, and unlimited bandwidth. The extra perks like 1:1 guidance and website building also deserve a notable mention here.
Hostinger
Another contender for the fastest hosting provider, Hostinger also offers competitive rates and offerings that should definitely make it one to look into. Features that Hostinger provides that allow for its great service include 100 GB SSD, unlimited bandwidth, and a free domain for one year of membership. Their Business Shared Hosting option boasts a whopping 200 GB SSD among all the other trusted features.
GreenGeeks hosting
We had to include an eco-friendly option for all the other green business owners who want to make sure sustainability is important across the board while still receiving a notably fast web experience.
GreenGeeks offers the high performance of RAID10 SSD, 300% green hosting, and Optimized Litespeed - all of which and more within its standard offering fee of $7.95 per month. You can usually find prices for cheaper, however. Their most popular offering, Pro, is regular $15.95 a month but offers access to all their amazing features and more.
We hope you will do your research, align offerings and features with the requirements and needs of your business and website, and choose the provider that meat matches within your budget. It’s also important to highlight factors such as location, web design, and other tools you may need within your price point other than just its speed or shared hosting offerings - although we know it’s very important! Interested in learning more about the fastest hosting providers so you can know which one is best for your website? Reach out for a conversation with a member of our team today.
