Design your way

Choosing the right web hosting service involves more than simply checking out a website, and basing your choice on what sounds good to you.

Your website’s success, or lack of same, will be determined, at least in part, by the hosting service you select. It’s important therefore, to take stock of your needs before you sign up.

If there is one word that sums up what you should expect from a web host, it’s reliability. A reliable hosting company is one that is up and running at its full potential 24/7; so your website will always be accessible.

You should also insist on a company that can ensure that your website, and your data, is always safe, and that a backup copy is always retrievable should a problem arise.

There are dozens of companies looking for your business. Some are obviously very good; but why not select one of the best?

Here are 5 of the best-performing, most-reliable, competitively-priced, hosting services you’ll find anywhere.

SiteGround

Web hosting is SiteGround’s craft, security is their specialty (99.99% uptime), and speed is their passion. Add it all up, and you get the reliability you have every right to expect from a web hosting company. SiteGround has been serving website designers, developers, and owners since 2004. Their global operation is supported by five data centers, located on 3 continents.

Proactive server monitoring. When it comes to technology, SiteGround have spared no cost. Their solutions offer proactive server monitoring that detects current issues and fixes them immediately.

Reliable Auto-scale feature. Furthermore, their in-house built cloud infrastructure (based on Linux Containers) ensures solid system stability during times of unexpected traffic spikes. Additionally, SiteGround utilizes a custom-built backup system to protect your website and data.

Insanely fast and knowledgeable support. If you’re used to a fast service, you won’t be disappointed. SiteGround’s customer service and support is insanely fast, and it’s available 24/7. You won’t be placed on hold on the phone, or during an online chat, and tickets are typically answered within 10 minutes. Their customer support experts are trained on popular CMS platforms and often help clients with issues that go beyond hosting.

A2 Hosting

Site speed has a definite impact on your bounce and conversion rates, SEO ranking, and of course on visitor satisfaction. Slow loading will never be a problem when you choose A2 Web Hosting.

They offer A2 offers private server options (managed VPS hosting and Cloud VPS hosting), and both managed and unmanaged dedicated server options if you want the ultimate in hosting services.

Once you’ve connected with A2 Web Hosting, you can expect screaming-fast page loads, excellent reliability (99.9+% uptime), access to the best development tools, and their 24/7/365 Guru support.

Check out the High-Performance SwiftServer or the Turbo Server options (20X faster than the competition), to see which best fits your needs. A2 Web Hosting’s primary Data Center is in the United States (Ann Arbor, Michigan); with additional Data Centers in Amsterdam and Singapore.

WordPress VIP

WordPress VIP offers solid cloud hosting services to meet the needs of high-traffic and high-profile online publishers. Offering more than site hosting, the WP VIP will check your code for security and performance, and future-proof it as well.

Hosting is provided on a flat-fee basis, which remains constant, no matter how much traffic you generate or disk space you require. Three pricing plans are available.

Glowhost

You don’t need a Managed VPS. Have you been advised by your web host that your web site has outgrown the limits of shared hosting? Have you been asked to upgrade to a managed VPS?

GlowHost has an easier and more affordable alternative… Elastic Sites. GlowHost’s Elastic Sites give you the dedicated resources and reliability of a VPS, but without the management expense, time involvement and headache of trying to manage and secure a VPS.

Think of the ease of shared hosting combined with the power of a VPS, and you have an Elastic Site from GlowHost.

Pagely – Managed WordPress Hosting

Pagely is somewhat unique in the world of web hosting services: they only host larger WordPress sites, they were the first to offer ‘Managed WordPress Hosting’ back in 2009, and they are 100% bootstrapped.

Their focus is on teams, people, and customers instead of on investors, and they use their own CDN, Security Suite, DNS and Caching capabilities. If you’re looking for top tier hosting, look no further.

Tips for Choosing the Right Web Hosting Service

You’ve come this far, but before you decide on which of these top-of-the-line hosting services is the right one for you, it would pay to check out these tips; just to make sure you haven’t overlooked something.

What is your website about, and what do you expect from it? Being able to answer this will help you settle on what to look for in a hosting service. Did you create your website as a hobby, or for strictly personal uses? Is it dedicated to blogging; or is it an online store; or a company website? Each of these will likely require a different type of hosting.
Is your website likely to grow? If it’s a company website, the answer is probably yes. If you’re just dipping your toes into the e-commerce world, or you own an affiliate website, you may have to scale up your hosting needs in the future once you begin to experience a significant growth in traffic and customers. Keep the future in mind when you make your choice.
Make sure you understand the support options the hosting company offers. Downtime and technical issues can, as a minimum, be irritating. If you’re running an online business, problems like these can create lasting damage. Many services offer a range of service options, and it’s important to find one that works best for you.
Hosting company websites normally provide the basic information you need. They also are good at telling you the type of service and support you can expect. It pays to check out reviews however, to see if these same companies are delivering on the promises they make. It will serve you well to see if customers have had any issues with the services and support they’ve received.
Don’t base your decision on pricing alone; especially the lowest price. You can usually expect to get what you pay for. Paying the cheapest price for a shared hosting service is not a good choice if speed and reliability are important to you.
Read the terms of service (even if you have to put on reading glasses to see the print, or dislike plowing through paragraph after boring paragraph). Most Terms of Service address the company’s refund policy, which is always good to know.
Make sure there is a backup plan; and, understand how it works. The hosting company may be hit by an unanticipated event that causes their equipment to go down. It won’t help you any if, once everything is up and running again, your website or data cannot be recovered.
Security breaches seem to be more and more common. Assume your web hosting service will experience such an event at one time or another. Make sure it can provide a Secure Sockets Layer that safeguards your customer’s information, and transactions, and yours as well.