Hostaffstaging2 – Hosting Affinity

Best VPS Hosting Plans in [year] – Top 6 Revealed

Hostaffstaging2 — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 03:28:58 +0000

Shared web hosting is the easiest, cheapest and fastest way to get a website up on the internet. However, these shared shared plans aren’t always the best option for every situation. If you require the storage space and functionality offered by a dedicated server but cannot afford the steep associated costs, then consider using one of the best VPS hosting plans we’ve identified for you below.

Should You Switch to VPS Hosting?

You might not require to switch from shared to VPS if you only have a small website. However, if you are looking to speed up your site, then it might be time to switch to VPS hosting.

Virtual private servers, or VPS, are also an ideal option if your site is receiving a high amount of traffic regularly. The upgraded server resources offered by these plans are intended to help websites scale and handle increased visitors.

Switching to a VPS hosting plan enables you to have a virtual server environment. This means that you can have complete control over every aspect of your server’s settings including apps and extensions you choose to use.

Although the hosting provider will host multiple VPS clients on one server, similar to shared hosting, the number is considerably smaller. Every subscriber will be given a percentage of the servers’ most important resources, such as storage space, RAM and CPU cores.

Most VPS plans have standard management tools, such as cPanel. These tools allow you to monitor and configure your site. There are even hosts that provide website and uptime monitoring and address any issues on the spot as they arise.

Differences Between Shared Hosting and VPS Hosting

Shared hosting is ideal for smaller sites that do not demand a lot of bandwidth. Most providers offer server maintenance and management, making it easy to use for newbies.

However with this option your resources are quite limited.

VPS hosting on the other hand, is like having an entire apartment on your own. Your site is still housed on a physical server and shared by other users. However the percentage of server resources dedicated to you are not shared with others.

Image credit: namecheap.com

In this case, there is no need to worry about sharing server resources with unknown neighbors. Plus, this setup also offers better security because your data are completely separated from other users of the same server.

The best thing about VPS hosting is that you can get similar functionality as a dedicated server, at a fraction of the cost.

Several companies offer virtual private server web hosting plans. The prices of these plans can vary widely from a few dollars a month to over a hundred.

We examined a range of VPS hosting providers, the plans they offer, features included and what differentiated them from the others. We asked questions such as: what features are included in each plan tier? How is their historical performance? Do they have excellent support and assistance?

Our 6 Best VPS Hosting Providers Are:

1. Bluehost

BlueHost offers flexible and powerful VPS options. This plan comes with multi-server management that lets you add more space to your account with just a few clicks.

Features

BlueHost uses all SSD drives for a lightning fast and more reliable environment. To ensure 100% access to resources, it uses KM hypervisor for their Linux servers. This provider does not include additional CPU and RAM out of the box. However, its enhanced cPanel lets you add more storage immediately on an individual basis.

BlueHost offers VPS instant provisioning so you can set up your site on its VPS servers in seconds. Keep in mind that setting up VPS can sometimes take hours or days to activate. With instant provisioning, you can quickly use the server space you have paid for.

With BlueHost VPS hosting you are also given root access, which allows you to get full admin privileges. You can modify and access the server, installing and uninstalling any app you might need.

Pricing

You can lock down a VPS plan from BlueHost starting at $18.99/ month. This is among the lowest priced plans you’ll find from these best VPS providers. However, you should note this starting price is a promotional offer for a set time. After the promotional period ends, you will have to pay full price of $29.99/ month.

All of BlueHosts VPS plans are supported with a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you ever need assistance you can contact their helpful customer support via phone, email or live chat 24 hours a day.

Is it a good deal? BlueHost are one of the most well known names in the industry. They provide a robust offering with a great promotional price to get started packed with all standard features. If you are already on a shared hosting plan looking to upgrade, this is a great option.

2. Liquid Web

Liquid Web focuses on providing high-quality VPS hosting services. They have superior configuration features including an integrated firewall, DDoS attack protection, advanced server security and Cloudflare CDN. However, all these goodies come at a higher price point.

Liquid Web is a premium web hosting provider. They have been offering high-quality managed VPS options for over 20 years. There are more than 500k sites from 32k clients around the world hosted on their servers.

That being said, these services are not cheap. Rather, focus is placed on delivering high-quality products and can deliver excellent results. In other words, you get what you pay for if you wish for high performance.

Features & Pricing

The lowest plan comes at $29/ month. It gives you 2GB RAM with generous 10TB bandwidth and 40 gigs of SSD storage.

There are an abundance of operating system options as you can utilize Ubuntu, Debian, and CentOS.

Liquid Web provides a customer support team that will monitor any failed services and restore them immediately.

Managed VPS as service is also available from other providers, but typically incurs an extra charge. With Liquid Web, server management comes as part of the package. With its robust infrastructure and management services, you can focus on what you do best: your customers and content.

If you need technical support at the wee hours, the knowledgeable pros of LiquidWeb are available 24/7. These professionals will do their best to solve your problems quickly and efficiently.

Is it a good deal? Liquid Web offers only a real deal when it comes to VPS hosting. They have high-powered hardware and a 24/7 customer support that you can count on. This, combined with the fact that every VPS plan is managed for you leads us to recommend Liquid Web as the best premium VPS option.

3. HostGator

HostGator are probably one of the most well known players in the game. They offer three tiers of VPS hosting plans in their environment build for scaling.

Features & Pricing

HostGator VPS hosting plans include the standard custom OS installs and configurations, as well as up to 240 GB storage. You get to enjoy a minimum of 2 dedicated IP addresses and up to 4 CPU cores. The minimum bandwidth is 1.5TB while the max is 3TB. The plans can start at $29.95/month for the lowest tier, $39.99 for the middle tier and $49.99 for the most expensive option.

HostGator will migrate your site to their VPS hosting offerings for free. With their managed VPS option a custom cPanel comes standard, giving a plethora of administrative tools. An unmanaged option, on the other hand, will require in-depth technical skills as the custom cPanel is not included.

Is it a good deal? HostGator includes state-of-the-art hardware and attentive support team. Plus, it performs off-site data backups weekly. If you need to migrate your site, the provider offers free migration assistance. HostGator provide top quality services and features at a competitive price.

A2 Hosting

With an emphasis on performance, A2 hosting is another great VPS hosting provider. If you prioritize performance and speed, as well as security, then A2 Hoisting could be a great contender.

When launched in 2003, A2 Hosting were one of the first providers to offer web hosting services with an emphasis on speed. They have a complete stack of optimizations that can boost page load speeds by up to 300%. Its Turbo option can handle connections more efficiently, at higher speeds and with more stability and uptime.

Features & Pricing

For its managed VPS plans, you get 75GB storage and 2 TB transfer bandwidth and 4GB RAM. The unmanaged version offers 20GB storage and 2 TB transfer. It includes 512 MB ram and SSD option as an upgrade.

You can get started with the unmanaged plan for only $5/ month. If you would prefer to be hands off and opt for a managed VPS hosting plan, expect to pay a steep price of $32.99/ month.

A2 Hosting promises 99.9% uptime with its excellent support team available 24/7. They offer the standard 30-day money-back guarantee.

Is it a good deal? A2 Hosting provides optimal performance and incredible innovations that allow the company to offer a balance of speed and reliability. With the multiple VPS options available ranging from unmanaged to managed and managed with root access, these A2 Hosting plans are some of the best on the market.

5. Inmotion

Inmotion is a strong provider with well-specified plans packed with features. They do not offer the most attractive price as the cheapest plan starts at $27.99 per month. However this rate is reasonable considering its features included.

Compared to other providers, InMotion offers 4GB RAM, 4TB bandwidth with 75GB storage and 3 dedicated IPs. cPanel and automated backups are also included at no additional charge. Plus, they offer a money-back guarantee for 90 days; most providers offer a 30 day guarantee.

The plan also comes with a unique feature called unlocked CPU cores. This allows you to distribute your processing load to different cores on the server. It can be a significant performance boost if you need simultaneous processing. Finally, plan comes with a program called Launch Assist, giving you two hours of free time with the provider’s server admins to help get you setup for success.

Is it a good deal? InMotion hosting is a mid-level VPS provider with better hardware specs. It features automated free server backups and lets you choose your Data Center. With these hosting provider’s features, you can’t go wrong with InMotion VPS hosting.

5. Linode

Linode is a Cloud Hosting provider. Linode accelerates innovation by making cloud computing simple, accessible, and affordable to all. Founded in 2003, Linode helped pioneer the cloud computing industry and today is the largest Independent Open Cloud provider in the world.
Headquartered in Philadelphia’s Old City, the company empowers more than a million developers, startups, and businesses across its global network of 11 data centers, in locations like the US, Europe (both inside and out of the EU), Asia Pacific (including Australia), and India.

Linode’s shared Compute plans are a perfect match for everything from WordPress blogs to web apps and start at just $5. Linode also offers Dedicated CPU plans and High Memory plans for high traffic websites. And for those looking to do serious machine learning, data analysis, and graphics rendering, Linode offers GPU-enabled VPS, too. All plans are billed hourly and include a generous pool of network transfer to pull from, so there are no surprises should your site go viral.

Here is a list of the other products and features Linode offers:

S3-compatible Object Storage is great for sharing static content like movies, music, PDF files, and web assets like HTML, JavaScript, and image files.
Block Storage: Need an extra few gigs of storage on your plan? Block Storage costs just $.10/GB.
Backups
Monitoring
Managed Kubernetes
A fully-featured domain manager if you’d like to use Linode’s name servers.
Linode also offers a growing assortment of One-Click apps you can install on your server. Be up and running in no time with a new WordPress, Drupal, or Minecraft server, to name a few.

Shared CPU VPS Pricing:

CPU Cores	RAM	Storage	Transfer	Price/Month
1	1GB	25GB	1TB	$5
2	1GB	50GB	2TB	$10
4	2GB	80GB	4TB	$20
8	4GB	160GB	5TB	$40
16	6GB	320GB	8TB	$80
32	8GB	640GB	16TB	$160

For a complete listing of plans and details, check out Linode’s pricing page.

Conclusion - Top 6 Best VPS Hosting Providers

VPS hosting plans are an upgrade from entry level shared hosting plans for website owners who are ready to get serious.

These plans offer much of the same functionality as dedicated servers, without quite as much maintenance or technical knowledge needed.

With the plethora of options out there, these are how the best VPS hosting providers line up:

With so many options out there, we’re confident you’ll find the best VPS hosting plan for your specific needs.

How To Enhance WordPress Security With Two-Factor Authentication

Hostaffstaging2 — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 12:02:51 +0000

You should indeed invest in the security of your WordPress website. Websites are prone to security threats. Taking precautionary measures, tightening security, and regular maintenance go a long way in keeping your WordPress website secure. In this article, we will explain how you can enhance the security of your WordPress website with two-factor authentication.

What is Two-factor authentication?

First, let’s understand what authentication is for a website. Whenever you enter the user name and password on any website, the website checks the username and password combination. If it matches, you get access to the website. The same thing happens when you try to log in to your WordPress website. Since your user name and password is the only way for your website to authenticate your unique identity, this form of authentication is called one-factor authentication, the factor being the username-password combination.

With two-factor authentication, another layer of authentication is added. In this method, you need to input a six-digit number sent to your device whenever you try to log in to your website. Since this code is only available on your device for a short period of time, it is difficult for hackers to impersonate you. This is the second layer of authentication that ensures that it is really you who is trying to log in to your WordPress website.

Two-factor authentication is an advanced measure of authentication that goes beyond traditional username-password combination. Passwords can be guessed, broken into with brute force attacks. Relying on just password authentication is not secure. You should add the extra layer of security to your login page with two-factor authentication.

The Pros of Two-Factor Authentication

The critical feature of two-factor authentication is that you get the six-digit code to your personal device. This means that even if someone tries to hack into your website, the attacker will have to gain access to your personal device.

With two-factor authentication, guessing the password is no longer enough. This comes in handy when your password is compromised. The extra step of entering the authentication code adds an extra layer of security so that you can be perfectly sure of your login attempts. This also ensures that you are less prone to online frauds when your WordPress website is concerned.

Another interesting benefit of two-factor authentication is that it reduces the sharing of user accounts. Even if users exchange their usernames and passwords, they will still need to enter individual credentials unique to their device.

The Cons of Two-factor Authentication

Everything has pros and cons. Two-factor authentication is no exception. The first disadvantage of two-factor authentication is that there is no guarantee that your factor of authentication will be available to when you need it. If anything happens to your smartphone (down because of low battery, damaged by water, or malfunctioning in any way) and you are not able to get the code, logging in to your website will be very difficult.

Access to your smartphone cannot always be ensured. It may get stolen or become inaccessible due to myriad reasons. With this loss, you also lose access to your second authentication layer. It becomes difficult to regain access to your WordPress website. For such cases, we recommend using a WordPress security and maintenance service that can take care of WordPress security.

With both the pros and cons in mind, let’s see how you can add two-factor authentication to your WordPress website.

Step 1: Get Authenticator App for Your Device

There are many services that offer authentication, e.g. Google Authenticator, Authy, LastPass Authenticator, etc. You can use any of them.

Here for demonstration purposes, we will explain how to use Google Authenticator.

Just head over to Play Store (Android) or Apple Store (iOS) from your mobile device and install Google Authenticator.

Step 2: Install a Two-Factor Authenticator Plugin on your WordPress site

There are a couple of two-factor authentication plugins available for free.

Here are a few popular plugins:

Steps to enable two-factor authentication are very similar for each of these plugins.

Let’s illustrate with the ‘Two Factor’ plugin.

Step 3: Configure The Plugin

Download and install the plugin.

Go to Users>>Profile, and find the ‘Two-Factor Options’ tab.

From here, you can configure multiple authentication options, such as:

Email codes
Time-Based One-Time Passwords (TOTP)
FIDO Universal 2nd Factor (U2F)
Backup Codes

Once enabled, you will get a notification to enter verification code from your device next time you try to log in to your website.

Every app listed above shows a similar screen where the plugin asks you to enter the verification code. With your verification code, you can securely log in to your WordPress website.

That’s it! Your WordPress website is now ready with two-factor authentication. Also, make sure that you use a secure WordPress host to ensure safety from all types of security threats.

If you enjoy this extra layer of security, do share your experience with us. Have any questions? Please reach out; we are here to help.

How to Choose the Best Website Builder in [year] (Guide and Comparison)

Hostaffstaging2 — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 22:56:34 +0000

Working with a website builder can be a good choice for anyone who wants to create their own site.

While social media can be a good way to carry out personal or business branding goals, nothing does it quite like a dedicated website can. Having a website will lend you credibility, offer a polished representation of who you are, and provide you with your very own platform to share your content online.

Luckily for us, there are many options available that make it super easy to build a website.

Here are our top 7 website builders in [year]:

Squarespace
WordPress
Wix
Weebly
Site123
Shopify
GoDaddy

7 Best Website Builders
7 Tips For Choosing the Right Website Builder
Key Features To Look for in a Website Builder
Website Builders for Specific Uses

What Are the Best Website Builders?

Using a website builder is a good option for many reasons:

They are much cheaper than hiring a developer to create a custom website which would cost thousands of dollars.
You own your website and can easily log in to make changes to content and schedule updates.
You won’t have to rely on a web developer for routine site maintenance. You can log in to make changes whenever you need to, and with no extra fees or time wasted.
Setting up and publishing a website is fast and easy.

Now, we will take a closer look at our top 7 website builders. Each platform will be analyzed on factors such as price, performance, usability, and standout features. Not all site builders are created equal. Some function best for blogging purposes, some shine the brightest as portfolio tools, while others stand out as best for eCommerce solutions.

7 Best Website Builders in [year]

Squarespace - Best Overall

Squarespace is intuitive and its templates are sophisticated and bold, offering a lot of whitespace and room to showcase your work. Their platform offers sleek blogging, podcasting, photo gallery, and audio player features which often stand apart from other editors. As a result, you can easily achieve a custom-built look with low effort.

You have over 200 design templates to choose from, and their plans have no bandwidth or storage limits.

Squarespace is best for: those who need image-based websites to showcase art portfolios, podcasters, photographers, those in the fashion industry, designers

Pros:

High quality templates for website design.
High performance and speed.
You can use code if you like customizations, but you do not have to in order to achieve the celebrated Squarespace professional and polished look.
All features are built-in, so you won’t have to wonder if a certain app or extension is compatible with your site.
Since it is an all-in-one platform, their security is top-notch. Any attacks on your site will be the company’s responsibility, not yours. They maintain backups so your site will not be lost in an attack.

Cons:

No app store so you will have to depend on their built-in features.
Although the layouts are crisp and polished, interface can take some getting used to in terms of maneuvering sectioned-based design restrictions.
Plans can be expensive and do not include an email client.
Support reps can be difficult to get a hold of and also difficult to work with.
Unable to fine tune SEO components.

WordPress - Best for Bloggers and Writers, Website Building Experts

WordPress is the most popular choice for building a website. Although ideal for more advanced website creators, it offers endless opportunities to customize and design features that work best for your website.

If you are familiar with code, WordPress offers easy access to alter code when needed. It also offers hundreds of themes and plugins that can customize and improve the functionality of your site.

It is important to mention the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org— the .com choice hosts your website for you for a monthly fee while the .org choice is the self-hosted version.

WordPress is an incredibly flexible website builder. It fosters a large professional community and there are endless webinars, tutorials, and community forums to use when you find yourself in need of tips or support. That said, when you pay for WordPress services, you also have access to customer support.

WordPress is best for: blogs, writing portfolios, eCommerce, those with more website building experience.

Pros:

With open source functionality, there are endless available plugins that you can install or create to help your site run better.
WordPress is the most popular website creating software and because of this there is no shortage to availability of tutorials, guides, tips, and tricks to make your site perfect.
If you can invest the time in learning WordPress, it’s a great choice for eCommerce. For example, WooCommerce is no extra charge.
Paid plans offer online chat with support agents, who are helpful and prompt.
WordPress has quick loading and deliverability times which surpass many other website building options.

Cons:

Long learning curve that most newbies to website creating have trouble overcoming. Managing a site on WordPress does require technical skills and can require higher maintenance time commitments.
Free domain is only included in some of the more expensive plans.
Some of the plans can be limited. For example, if you opt for a personal plan, WordPress will restrict your ability to install plugins.
Beginners and hands-off website owners should probably avoid WordPress.

Wix - Best for Design Freedom

Wix is one of the most popular and widely used website building tools now available. It is well-established with over 100 million users worldwide. Perhaps one of the best features of Wix is that it offers an unstructured editor, giving you unbridled freedom. While most builders offer a pre-designed and limiting grid to arrange information, Wix allows all the control freaks out there to have what they so desperately want— total layout control. However, for those who need a bit more guidance, they may find this feature to be more tedious than freeing.

Wix offers over 500 free themes and has an App Market where you can buy extra features. It doesn’t cost anything to publish a Wix site but paying for the right subscription package will allow you break free from the limitations that a free site will have.

Wix is best for: portfolios, small businesses, those who prefer freedom and control in creating a website.

Pros:

Huge library for templates and themes.
24/7 phone support.
Cheap option for eCommerce stores and small business
Simple usability with many options for site customization. Sites can be altered via drag-and-drop editor.
Wix can support almost any type of site. You can create customized music players, eCommerce portals with specific payment features, online ordering forms, etc.
Subscriptions offer long-term discount options so that prices are lower the longer you commit to using their services.

Cons:

No live chat for support
While Wix has seemingly endless built-in tools available for creating features, adding extra code to your site is difficult.
No way to export your data should you choose to move hosts.

Weebly - Best for Beginners

Weebly is a great resource for those who are not terribly tech-savvy who are tasked with building a website. They offer a long-standing and fast-growing website building choice for those who are looking for something simple and all inclusive.

The trade-off for this convenience is that you will lose some of the customization control other website builders offer but it can be a great choice for small website projects and those just starting out with creating a website.

Weebly does not offer a large catalog of themes and if you do feel the need to outgrow their platform, migrating content will be difficult as you will essentially have to copy and paste via RSS. However, Weebly does give you the option to work with a free basic plan and any of their paid plans do offer a free domain and access to the App Center where you can add new features to your website.

Weebly is best for: bloggers, eCommerce, small businesses, those looking for cheaper options

Pros:

Great for those who lack technical ability or are beginner website creators.
Fast load speeds and dependable security.
Pricing is competitive and cheaper than many similar options.
Drag-and-drop website building. Using code is not necessary but there is a custom CSS option should you find it necessary to customize templates.
Customer support can be accessed regardless of whether you buy a plan or not.

Cons:

You won’t have access to your server files which makes Weebly inconvenient for long-term projects should you need to change platforms.
Relatively mall selection of themes, around 70 are available.
Although pricing is competitive and appealing, the cheaper plans can be quite limited, forcing you to consider upgrading as your website and projects grow.

Site123 - Best Landing Page Builder

Site123 is a simple and straightforward choice for businesses or users who need to create a website quickly and easily. This is a great choice for creating landing pages, blogs, or small online shops. Site123 is great for newbies to explore website creation or those who ultimately only need a single-page site or a landing page.

Some professional users may find that Site123 is too limiting and outgrow it quickly. Users who only need barebones functionality may find that the free plan works perfectly adequately for them, but you can upgrade to paid plans if you need a little extra functionality such as an email client.

Site123 is best for: single-page sites like landing pages, squeeze pages, and small blogs.

Pros:

Cheap plan options which include customer support services and community forums.
Drag-and-drop tools and over 200 templates to choose from. Templates are customizable and visually pleasing, with options spanning several industries making it an excellent choice for quick and easy landing page creation.
Simple to use— no design or coding skills necessary.

Cons:

Although customer support is available to users, the representatives tend to use generic responses.
Free and low-cost plans are relatively limited.
Some professional users will find the range of settings to be too limited for their needs.
Cannot create a large multi-functional website with Site123.

Shopify - Best for eCommerce

Shopify boasts the fact that they power more than half a million businesses’ online stores. This website builder provides a platform specifically to those looking to build an eCommerce shop to sell their products online. If you are looking to build a pure eCom website, then we highly recommend this website builder.

Shopify includes access to their robust app store. In the chance that you need additional functionality to what comes out-of-the-box, you can find an app to accomplish that need.

Pros:

Fully hosted and managed solution. No need for you to worry about backend maintenance, software updates or backup creation.
Includes complete inventory management, statistics tracking, and simple to use marketing functionality.
Hundreds of pre-built templates to choose from, no coding necessary using their drag and drop solution.
Physical in-store point of sale system that includes credit card payments all while allowing you to take advantage of the same inventory management, shipping, stats tracking and marketing tools available in Shopify’s online platform.

Cons:

If you ever find the need to migrate your eCommerce website off of the Shopify platform, it will be a difficult process.
Higher price point than other eCommerce website builders.

GoDaddy - Best for Diverse Needs

GoDaddy is one of the largest website services companies to date. They started out as a domain registrar service but have since expanded into web hosting and website building services that are widely used.

GoDaddy certainly has brand recognition on their side after all this time being in existence and their business is not going anywhere. This is definitely an advantage over some of the smaller upstarts available.

GoDaddy offers competitive pricing for their plans and over 1500 website theme templates. Additionally, GoDaddy offers a free trial before committing to buying their services. With this website builder you have the ability to create virtually any kind of site really well.

GoDaddy is best for: Blogs, portfolio sites, business promotion

Pros:

Templates are organized by category based on the type of site you want to create, and templates offer drag-and-drop interface to keep website creation on your end simple.
eCommerce is fully supported with many features to support working with clients and selling product.
Interface is responsive and quick.

Cons:

GoDaddy’s plans can get expensive, especially for eCommerce, so this is not the cheapest website building choice, even amongst comparable solutions such as Wix.
Customer support includes a live chat option, but wait times seem to generally be long so customer support could improve given the size of the company.
GoDaddy’s security has been called into question. Although it’s a dependable business, its size and brand recognition make it susceptible to security attacks.

But Which Website Builder is Best for Me?

Choosing the best website builder for small business can be overwhelming and a bit confusing. It’s difficult to recommend the best site builder for you, as there’s no such thing as a one-for-all website creator.

With a lot of trade offs to put into consideration, it’s challenging to make a simple comparison. These factors include, but are not limited to, the needed website uptime, the features you require, your technical knowledge and your budget.

This website maker comparison features mostly the primary factors to put into consideration and also provide answers to frequently asked questions about a couple of top site builders out there.

Here are our tips to help you make the right choice:

7 Tips For Choosing the Right Website Builder

After you’ve determined the type of website you need, now you need to figure out which of the best website builders will work for you specifically.

We’ve put together a few tips to help you make the right choice for your business.

#1 - Budget Considerations

Obviously, this should be the first factor you need to consider: how much you are willing to pay the best site builder. Start by calculating other expenses necessary for building a professional website, such as the cost of registering your domain and hosting. Also, you may have to invest in other branding and copy writing services such as website name, logo, images, and content if you do not plan to develop these things yourself.

For business owners with a limited budget, you can consider website makers offering basic services for free. Also, opt-in for plans that include your most needed functionality, this helps save money on building your website in the long-term.

However, most web page builders charge somewhere between $5 – $40 a month for a plan with the kind of features likely needed by your business. Thus, it can sometimes be advantageous to go for a plan that includes both the hosting cost and price of your builder without trading-off outstanding services.

#2 - Set Your Priorities

Before you rush into choosing the best website platform, it’s paramount that you have a clear idea of what you want your website to portray your brand to your audience and customers. This tip will help foster better decision making as to what features you need to look for and include in your website.

Here are a few good questions to consider to help know your needs and set your priorities:

Do you have any prior experience in web or graphic design?

Many website builders are designed for people with less experience with website coding or design in mind. However, some users find it easier to use than other less experienced users. If you have little or no idea about coding or design, then you should look for a platform that has the drag-and-drop design feature and comes with many themes or templates to choose from.

What type of website do you need?

If you need a website for your small business, then be sure to thoroughly research any specific functionality you might require. This could include things such as an online booking calendar, customer portal, or eCommerce support. It will be essential to design your website in a way that converts your traffic into customers. Making sure you have the right functionality included in your website builder from the beginning will set you up for success.

How much control do you need?

If you need absolute control over certain aspects of your site look for a website maker that offers a wide range of options and flexibility when designing. The right site builder for you should come with more flexible editing options and templates. These options enable you to make extensive customization to your website design.

Will, your website, include a lot of media?

Do you need to figure out whether your website will include a blog? A photo gallery? Videos? A map showing your store location?

After providing answers to the above questions, make sure the web page builder you will be investing in support the types of media you choose to include.

Most importantly, you need to make your website is mobile-friendly, as many buyers tend to shop using their mobile phones now. Remember to make sure the platform includes mobile responsive functionality out of the box.

#3 - Consider the Theme Options

Designing a website using a web builder software starts with the provided themes by the builder. This process is often easy, as you have to look through the available themes and choose any one that fits your style. After that, you can start customizing the template into a unique design for your website.

Here’s why it necessary to check the number of theme options before investing in a site builder. If the customization options are way too limited, then it reduces your chances of finding a template that works well for your brand.

Thus, it’s essential that you use a web page builder that offers more than enough themes to choose from, which increases your chances of finding the right template to get your website started in no time.

Besides, everything else becomes hassle-free if you find a theme that works perfectly with what you already have in mind.

#4 - Ease of Use

The primary reason for using a website maker is to make building your website less challenging since you don’t have to do any programming and coding. However, this doesn’t mean all site builders will be simple and straightforward to figure out.

As stated before, platforms with a drag-and-drop functionality option make building your website way too easy. Also, you may want to consider site builders with intuitive editors, which makes customizing easy and straightforward.

Also, consider researching the best website builder reviews, especially for those who have never built a website before. Turning to real user reviews will help you determine if you will be able to easily learn the platform based on your level of experience.

Besides, checking out the best website builder reviews is an excellent way to source for answers before investing.

#5 - Consider the SEO Features

There’s no point building a website that is only visible to you and your friends. For that, it’s crucial to implement the SEO best practices while you are done designing your website.

A good site builder should offer SEO features and make it easier to optimize your website. More importantly, it should provide an easier way to update all SEO meta elements – image alt tag, page title and meta description – on each page.

Further, the right website maker should give you a head start on SEO optimization, even though on-site SEO is just one of the many search engine optimization components.

#6 - Support & Available Resources

Even the best web page builder will still require you to spend time learning how best to use it. The more features offered by the platform, the more time needed for learning.

Therefore, before making a choice, make sure the vendor offers a lot of resources to aid your learning. Ideally, they will provide you with a plethora of PDFs, tutorials, videos, etc. on how to use each feature of the software and make any customizations of your choice.

#7 - Customer Service and Company's Reputation

Making sure everything goes as it should and learning how to use the website builder should be easier and less challenging provided you are using a builder with a good customer support team.

Because of this, it’s usually advised to check out reviews from other customers about their experience with the companies’ customer support before choosing any platform for building your website.

A good support team will always be there for you when you are having troubles using the platform. Also, they should be easy to get in touch with most often via email, live chat or social media.

Key Features To Look for in a Website Builder

There is a lot of web builders out there today, and whichever you choose totally depends on whether or not the product offers enough functionality to fit your individual needs.

A website builder is a tool that helps you create a website with your unique design and content. However, it’s not as simple as that; there are several other vital features to consider when choosing your website building platform.

eCommerce Capability

In a most basic sense, eCommerce functionality includes inventory management, a shopping cart and the ability to receive payments online. While some web page builders have this feature as an upgrade (sometimes free and sometimes paid), others, such as WooCommerce for WordPress, act as third party integrations to provide the necessary functionality.

If you are not looking to create an eCommerce website at the moment, then you have many more options to consider. However, if your highest priority is having the best website builder for eCommerce, then make sure you consider the above mentioned eCom functionality when doing your research.

Drag & Drop Functionality

Generally, when using web page builder, the foundation of your design starts with a template or theme which you can customize to your liking.

Further, many builders allow users to customize using a modern drag and drop feature.

This feature allows users with little or no experience in web development to design their site as desired by visually dragging a widget from the set of options and dropping it on the builder’s canvas.

However, not everyone prefers this feature, as some more technical folks love to customize within the code base itself.

Pre-made Templates

Pre-made templates are similar to the drag and drop feature discussed above. Most web builders offer basic templates for users to choose from and customize. Some offer remarkable, professionally-designed templates, which require little or no customization.

However, using a pre-made template may limit your customization options. You can only make a few modifications, such as color, text, layout, etc. Also, finding the right template for your business or idea may be a bit challenging.

But on the bright side, using pre-made templates makes building a website simple, easy and fun. Besides, you don’t have to be a professional web developer to get a site up on the web.

Project Length

Not all site makers are great for building out a full website experience; some are best used for a one-time marketing campaign. As such, you should look for certain features available in the various platforms you are considering for your project.

For a long-term, full website experience for your business or idea, then you should start considering a web page builder that offers a robust suite of features and functionality.

On the other hand, if it’s going to be a short-term project such as an individual landing page for a one-time marketing campaign, then your website should be focused on conversion objectives and speed optimization.

There are various options that cater specifically to landing page development, while others are designed to help you build a strong online presence.

Migration Options

As previously mentioned, some website makers are great options for building landing pages or other one-time websites. But in the event you want to build out more content, you may find it difficult as landing page builders oftentimes lack migration support.

For this reason, you need to consider if the builder offers an option to migrate your optimized website (such as your one-time landing page) to a longer-term, full website platform. If you are not interested in this feature, you can focus on optimizing your website’s speed and user experience.

Blogging Functionality

Most blogging platforms are designed to create new posts using pre-formatted post styles and offer scheduling functionality. Some web page builders are designed specifically for bloggers.

They come with various pre-made templates, features, plugins, etc. for creating impressive, responsive, and SEO optimized blogs. Some web builders come up short on this feature, as they are only designed to create a series of static pages and lack the ability to schedule out posts in the future.

Website Builders for Specific Uses

Each sitebuilder has its pros and cons. As such, not every website maker is great for designing any type of website.

Thus, in this section, we’ll discuss different use cases and offer our recommendations for the best website builder for each.

Small Business Websites

When running or working on your own small business, one vital factor is your online presence. This critical piece helps small business owners advertise their goods and services, keep in contact with clients or customers, and above all, help increase leads and sales.

eCommerce

For those looking to have a website to sell goods and services online, you need to consider a website (online store) builder with incredible e-commerce options. They help sell and showcase your products while allowing users to monitor other important parts of their customer journey such as shipping, transaction fees, and invoicing.

Blogging

Whether you love to write articles, recommendations, stories, or travel posts, you need a website building platform with blogging functionality. They should offer special features such as comments sections, social sharing, RSS feeds, post categories and scheduling capabilities.

These features are necessary for building a successful blog and should be top consideration when looking for the best blogging platform.

Art & Photography

If you are in the creative world, having a beautiful website is a must. Your website is the platform at the forefront of your business to showcase the beauty of your work. So, it’s paramount that you select a website maker that offers slick features and beautiful layouts that sync well with your style.

Consider options that include specific layouts for showcasing artistic work. The best photography website builder for you might not be the same as for someone else.

Real Estate

If you want to make your website worth calling home, you will need to make it attractive and functional without shelling more than your budget. Fortunately, the market is filled with a plethora of real estate web builders that offer just what you want. Weebly, Squarespace, and Wix provide you with a platform to advertise your properties and convert into a deluxe online property.

So Which Website Builder is Best for You?

After reviewing all 6 of these popular website builders, we have learned that each offer some really solid features. Picking the right site to your specific project will make all the difference as to whether or not it is the right one for you. A great first step will be to decide if your site will be more of an online store, more image-based, or more word-based. For example, a blogger with prior website building experience might choose WordPress. A photographer who wants a sophisticated site for their portfolio would probably choose Squarespace.

The best choice for overall flexibility, simple usability, and fair prices is Wix. It’s straightforward to use, won’t break the bank, and is great for beginners who don’t quite know where to start.

Now that you have the details on website builders, you can choose the right website building platform for you and get your website published quickly, on your terms, and you’ll save a couple thousand bucks in the process!

How to Force HTTPS in WordPress Without Any Coding

Hostaffstaging2 — Sun, 28 Jul 2019 00:35:09 +0000

Recently I came across a serious issue on a new client website. The unsecured HTTP version of their site was not automatically redirecting to the SSL secured version. This posed a risk in more than one way. Not only did this mean user data went unprotected if someone ended up on the HTTP version of the site, but the overall SEO of the domain was being negatively impacted as well. Its important to force HTTPS on WordPress to provide a secure browsing experience for your visitors.

What is SSL and HTTPS?

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a standardized security technology that creates and encrypted link between a users browser and the web server a site is hosted on.

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is the protocol used to secure communication between these two systems (server and browser). HTTP is the same protocol, just unsecured. When the communication between the server and browser is left unsecured, potential vulnerability to data loss and attack is created.

In order for the HTTPS protocol to be enabled on a website, that site must have a valid SSL certificate enabled. Luckily for us, many hosting providers offer a free basic SSL certificate included in their hosting plans.

Why it is important to redirect HTTP to HTTPS on WordPress sites

As I mentioned above, redirecting your WordPress site from the HTTP version to the secure HTTPS version is essential for a few reasons:

Protect your website visitors – By forcing your website to redirect the unsecured HTTP version to the safe SSL version, you are protecting your website visitors’ data being transferred between their browser and your server.
A valid SSL provides trust – web browsers indicate when a website has a valid SSL certificate in place or not and will alert visitors if a site is not secured. Recently, Google Chrome has begun completely blocking unsecured websites with a large warning for the visitor asking if they really want to proceed.
Required for PCI compliance – if you are ever hoping to accept payment on your website, a valid SSL certificate is a requirement of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards to do so.
SEO ranking factor – a secure HTTPS website will always been seen as more trustworthy than an unsecured HTTP site by the major search engines, thus receiving a higher ranking.

How to redirect to https

Luckily, its extremely easy to redirect http to https in WordPress. To do this, we recommend using a stupid easy plugin called Really Simple SSL.

Login to your WordPress dashboard
Download the free version of the Really Simple SSL from their website or the WordPress.org repository
Upload, install and activate the plugin
Go to the Really Simple SSL settings. Make sure ‘Mixed content fixer’ and ‘Enable WordPress 301 redirection to SSL’ sliders are both set to active. Click save.
Check the configuration tab to ensure your SSL certificate is detected and enabled on your site

Download the Really Simple SSL plugin for free.

Upload, install and activate the plugin in WordPress.

Configure Really Simple SSL settings. Activate Mixed content fixer and Enable WordPress 301 redirection to SSL

Check the Configuration tab to make sure SSL is detected and enabled.

That’s it! Your site will now force your visitors to use your dedicated SSL certificate.

14 Important Web Hosting Features

Hostaffstaging2 — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 18:44:01 +0000

So you’ve decided to create a website. Congratulations! Before you can begin to develop and publish, though, you have to decide what kind of web hosting you want to use.

A lot of hosting services use technical terminology that seems to go over the head of those not immersed in technology.

So, to make things a little easier for you, here’s an explanation of what web hosting is, the different hosting services available, and what’s important when investigating hosting companies.

Types of Web Hosting Services

To start, it’s important to know the hosting options available to you. Between shared hosting, virtual personal server (VPS), and dedicated hosting, there’s a lot to sort through.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is the cheapest but most limited option, allowing you to “rent” a specific amount of space on a server that other people also use. This is a fantastic option for those websites that are just getting off the ground and don’t expect a great deal of traffic.

Shared hosting also means you have “neighbors” using the same server’s RAM and functionality, which poses slight risk of security breaches. You have customizable features available to you, but not unlimited possibilities. Regardless, you can certainly get a website up and running in a matter of minutes and with just a few dollars a month.

Shared hosting is the most popular choice for small businesses starting out.

VPS Hosting

A virtual personal server, or a VPS, allows you the security and freedom of a dedicated server, but without the price tag.

VPS platforms still operate as a shared hosting service, but your website/account has more protection, more options, and more storage capacity than standard shared hosting plans.

Dedicated Hosting

Finally, a dedicated server is just that: a single server dedicated solely to your website. You have unique access to the RAM, functionality, and customization for your website.

This of course, comes with a significant price tag averaging $125/month, and therefore isn’t the best option for those sites just starting.

Dedicated hosting means you also have 24/7 customer support (generally), little to no downtime, and oftentimes in-person server security.

Once you decide which type of hosting suits your needs best, you must choose which of the many hosting companies you want to give your business to.

While there are no shortage of options, there are some things to consider when choosing a hosting service provider.

Lets look at some of the most important web hosting features.

1. Disk Space

First off, want to be sure to determine how much storage your website is going to need. As previously mentioned, the amount of allocated disk space varies by hosting type (shared, VPS, dedicated) as well as by plan. For most people, a few gigabytes of storage is plenty. However for high traffic sites you’ll certainly need more.

Be wary of hosting services promising unlimited storage, as every server, even a dedicated one has its limits. Servers are a physical piece of equipment, after all. There is no truly unlimited plan.

Cost- This is an obvious one, but one worth mentioning. While you are likely to see sites in the same range, the price jump from a shared server to a VPS and dedicated one is steep. Look at what the hosting platform is offering you for your membership and take it in stock with what you actually need and will use. You can always upgrade later, a good rule of thumb.

2. Bandwidth

Knowing the capacity of your server and hosting platform is vital. Bandwidth impacts how well your site can handle influx of traffic, since bandwidth is (simply) how much data your website can use each month. Low bandwidth, low traffic support; high bandwidth, high traffic capabilities.

3. Tech Support

Even if you are a veteran website developer, this is one of the most important web hosting features. Your site may crash, the server may malfunction, or something just isn’t working quite right.

The best and most effective way to rectify these issues is to contact someone who works with the hosting company directly. It is important that your hosting support comes with access to troubleshoot and talk you through any issues.

This is especially important to consider when you are just starting your website as you are likely new to web hosting in general. A good tech support team with your membership will be an invaluable asset to keeping your site running smoothly and functioning as intended.

Common customer support channels to look for in a web host include:

Live chat
Phone support
Ticketing systems
Email support

4. Email Accounts and Features

Having email services allow you to create custom email addresses with your domain. Instead of using a standard ISP domain (like Google or Yahoo), you can have an email address branded with your website domain.

Questions to ask: Does the hosting provider include email with each hosting plan? If so, what is disk space allocation for email? How many email accounts can be created? Are accounts offered in IMAP or only POP?

5. Number of Domains (Sub and Parked included)

You will want to make sure you know how many domains your host will allow with your plan. If you see success with your first site, it is likely you will want to launch another. Rather than paying for a separate hosting plan, you can launch multiple sites under one.

Sub domains are part of a primary domain. For example, a sub domain for hostingaffinity.com could look like example.hostingaffinity.com. A sub domain appears as a completely different website and can be built as such.

Parked domains allow you to keep your purchased domain names on the same hosting plan as your live sites. If you think of a unique name for your next site, you can purchase that domain and “park” it until you are ready for development.

6. Control Panel

The most commonly used back end website access is cPanel. In the cPanel interface you are able to manage the technical aspects of your website. Here you can manage DNS, databases, setup email accounts, ftp accounts, and more.

Often times managed WordPress hosting services have a custom control panel. With managed hosting, many of the features offered in cPanel become irrelevant. Managed hosting is a good fit for those who prefer to focus less on the technical aspect of a website, and more on design and development.

7. Backup Services

Site backup is arguably one of the most important services a hosting provider can offer. If anything were to happen to your site, you want to ensure you have a recently backed up version to restore.

Check to see if your hosting plan offers free site backup. How many copies of your site will they retain? How long will each backup be retained for?

8. Backup Restore

Equally as important as the website backup itself is the restoration. Make sure that you understand what it will take for the hosting provider to restore a backed up version of your site. Oftentimes website backup restore services are free. Make sure you know your hosting companies’ policy so you don’t end up getting charged without knowing if something were to happen.

9. CMS Support and Easy Install

Understanding which CMS (content management systems) your web host supports is vital. More than 30% of all websites are now built on WordPress. Due to ease of use and requirement of little to no coding knowledge, WordPress has quickly become the go-to CMS.

Because its popularity, many hosting companies offer one-click WordPress installation. One example, Bluehost is one of the few officially recognized hosting providers by WordPress.org. 1-click WordPress install is now becoming a standard offering. Make sure to check your hosting plan before purchasing.

10. Uptime

It is important to investigate how reliable a web hosting provider is before committing to a plan. Although this may seem like a no-brainer, the uptime of a website is one of the most important features a hosting company can offer. Be careful, oftentimes hosting providers claim to have “100% uptime!”, which may not actually be the case. Do some investigation, read some reviews and find out the experiences other users have had in regards to website uptime.

11. Free SSL

A SSL (secure sockets layer) certificate has become standard for all websites. SSL certificates allow your users to safely visit your website by encrypting data transfer between browser and host. Google has now made website security a ranking factor. This means that websites without SSL certificates are ranked lower in the search results than those with. If you don’t have a secure website, your SEO could be negatively impacted.

Luckily, many hosts are now offering a free SSL certificate with their hosting plans. Check to see if this important feature is included in the hosting package you are looking at.

12. Free CDN

A Content Delivery Network, or CDN, helps speed up your website by storing a version of it on the CDN providers servers in physical locations around the world. When someone visits your site and you are using a CDN, your site will be served to that user from the closest physical location possible.

Similar to the Free SSL certificates hosting providers are offering, a free CDN is becoming a popular add on as well. While not as important as other features, a free CDN is a nice offering that helps significantly speed up your site.

13. Website Migration

For those of you who already have an existing website, website migration may become an important feature to look out for. Many hosting companies now offer free website migration as a perk when first signing up for a hosting plan. Make sure to keep this in mind when researching a new web hosting company and plan.

14. Free Domain

Many shared web hosting plans now come with a free domain. Typically this will be the registration fee for the first year ($10-15 value). When it comes down to it, this may not be the ultimate deciding factor but it is still good to know if you can get a free domain with your new hosting plan.

Final Word

Whether you are just researching a hosting provider for your first time for hundredth time, we hope you’ve found this article useful. Let us know what you think in the comments or on social media! We’d love to hear what hosting features you think are the most important when choosing a web hosting provider.

What is Dedicated Hosting?

Hostaffstaging2 — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 23:10:14 +0000

Deciding to publish a website, any website, is an exciting process.

With all the platforms, options, customizations, and choices available to you, it can be overwhelming to decide just what hosting option is the best fit.

Hopefully, we can clear up some of the confusion and get you well on your way!

Choosing the right Web Hosting Service

The first decision you’ll have to make about your website is what kind of server you want to host your website on.

You have three main options:

Shared hosting
Virtual Private Server (or VPS)
Dedicated hosting.

Ranging in price and functionality, it all depends on your specific website needs.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is the simplest, cheapest, and easiest option for websites just starting out. The costs are usually under $10/month, but your customization options and traffic flow are often limited. With shared hosting you are one small part of a single server, sharing memory, function, and storage with neighbor sites.

VPS Hosting

Virtual private server hosting offer more customization and RAM, as you have your own virtual server for your account, but tied still to a single shared server. VPS offers more security and customization functionality, but it does come with a heftier price tag and server customizations are still limited.

Dedicated Hosting

What is Dedicated hosting? It is the most advanced web hosting solution available.

With dedicated hosting, your website is the only one on a server, allowing you full access to all the storage, memory, and functionality. The possibilities are endless on a dedicated server.

But is it right for you? If you have a website that expects a lot of traffic and you need an entirely customizable experience, then yes!

Dedicated hosting brings with it a great deal of benefits that shared hosting and VPS just simply can’t offer. Perhaps the biggest draw is that you are the only one using an entire server, which means you have complete and total access to the RAM. This means you can store massive amounts of information for your website without reaching limits set by shared plans. Dedicated hosting allows you to set up your server with near limitless customizations, allowing for scaling to meet the needs of your visitors on demand.

Increased traffic with Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated servers can handle more than 500,000 visitors per month, meaning your website is well equipped to handle incoming traffic without slowing down and crashing. If you run a high-performing website, this is a huge must. For most businesses these days, their website is the lifeblood of their business. The last thing you want is a server crash due to the high volumes of website traffic.

With dedicated hosting, you don’t have to worry.

On top of customization, traffic, and storage, dedicated servers come with the real-time customer support and robust security that lends to a safe browsing experience for your visitors.

With dedicated hosting, since you are not renting space on a shared server, crossover of information and breaches of security are highly unlikely.

Furthermore, dedicated hosting plans have the technical support and measures taken to ensure your dedicated server is just that: dedicated to you, and you alone.

However, dedicated hosting is not the best option for everyone.

The price tag of a dedicated hosting plan can average about $150/month. Because of this, it is wise to take stock of your website and needs before purchasing a dedicated server. If you aren’t sure that you’ll have immense amounts of traffic or require such space to begin, think about starting with a shared hosting or VPS hosting plan until you are ready to scale.

The second drawback to dedicated hosting lies within your own capabilities and man power. It is important to know how to utilize all the features of dedicated hosting in order to get all the benefits. If you don’t have the team to correctly manage a dedicated server, you might be missing out on a lot of functionality you are paying a high price for.

Dedicated hosting is an excellent choice for websites that see a lot of traffic looking to scale to the next level.

What is VPS hosting?

Hostaffstaging2 — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 03:34:53 +0000

There are so many web hosting options out there: shared hosting, VPS, dedicated servers. What do they all mean?

We’re here to break it down for you with the best web hosting comparisons, and in this article we’ll cover VPS hosting.

Starting a new website may seem daunting at first- the sheer terminology of website hosting is enough to make any new comer scratch their head. I’m here to help break down some of the decisions you’ll face after deciding to run a website.

Choosing the best web hosting service

The first thing you’ll have to choose is what kind of hosting you want to utilize for your website. A website must be hosted on a server in order to be displayed for your potential visitors.

Servers can run many websites at once- as long as it doesn’t exceed the bandwidth and memory of the server hardware. Because of their limitations, one question you’ll have to answer is whether or not you want your website on a shared hosting or dedicated hosting plan.

Shared hosting is the cheapest and simplest of options, but also quite limited in its functionality and capacity, while a dedicated server is expensive and can handle high amounts of traffic and advanced operations.

However, there is a middle option as well, a virtual private server or VPS.

What is VPS hosting?

VPS hosting can range in price from $20/month into the $100s and offers a significant amount of control over your website which can only be achieved with server access for customization.

With a VPS hosting plan, you are still technically on a shared server, however you have a great deal more disk space, privacy, and server access. VPS hosting functions off of a single server, like shared hosting, but it does so in a way that you purchase or rent space that is allocated and protected like a single, dedicated server.

Since VPS allows your website to function as if on a dedicated server, you get a lot of the same benefits of a dedicated server at a fraction of the cost. While some people may worry about security in a shared hosting environment, using VPS hosting cuts this risk out. The control enabled with VPS hosting allows you customize server configurations and vastly reducing security risk

Server customization with VPS hosting plans

Using VPS allows you to customize server systems without the rigid limits of broad shared hosting platforms. You can alter the operations of the server to suit your individual website needs. Along the same lines, your individual virtual private server can be updated, restarted, and maintained by you at any time. Although the physical server hardware is shared, your VPS is specific to your account- giving you operational control that you don’t have with simple shared hosting plans.

Website uptime and speed with VPS hosting plans

Perhaps the biggest benefit of VPS hosting is the amount of RAM and storage you have available to just you. You don’t have to worry about a neighbor website suddenly getting millions of hits and storing terabytes of information and conversely impacting your website function. Your VPS RAM can only be used by you.

Who VPS hosting is not for

As great as VPS is, there are of course, downsides. The main ones simply being the price of access and the limits on what you can customize. For websites just starting out and not expecting a lot of traffic, shared hosting may be the best place to start. However, if expecting some traffic already and requiring a more in depth customization experience, VPS is worth the money.

And since virtual private servers are still a middle option when it comes to hosting, you can always opt to upgrade seamlessly to dedicated hosting when the time comes. Try VPS and see if you utilize all the functionality and services first.

What Is Shared Hosting?

Hostaffstaging2 — Sun, 02 Sep 2018 14:19:34 +0000

One of the first choices you’ll have to make for your website is what kind of hosting you want to use. For those just starting out, on a limited budget, or looking for the most simple platform, shared hosting is your best option.

Creating your own website can be the first step for any business or individual looking to reach a larger audience, brand, and cultivate a successful online presence. For business and companies, your own website is a necessity.

Right away, though, you are faced with choices that the not-so-technologically-inclined might find overwhelming and confusing, such as choosing a web hosting plan for your website.

But what web hosting service is best?

Shared hosting, VPS hosting, or dedicated hosting?

What is shared hosting anyways?

Let’s break it down.

All websites must be housed, or hosted, on a server. Servers do all of the technical work that allow us to deliver our websites and reach our audience. With shared hosting, multiple websites utilize a single server, sharing its functional capacity, memory, and bandwidth. With most shared hosting platforms, users can even set up multiple sites under a single account.

Advantages of Shared Hosting

There are many advantages to shared hosting, not least of which is its cost. For just a few dollars a month, you can:

get your website up and running
customize your site
gain site traffic

Since you are simply leasing a share of the server, you don’t have to worry about updates, safety protocols, software malfunction, and other aspects of server and website upkeep. With shared hosting, server uptime is the responsibility of the hosting company.

Shared Hosting 1-Click CMS Install

What is shared hosting used for? Who can benefit from the advantages of shared hosting?

One of the most important features of shared hosting plans is the ease of CMS installation.

Popular Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress or Blogspot offer users the ability to publish a site in minutes with extremely user friendly customizations. They do the leg work for you and all you have to do is choose a header, a font, and a theme. It truly couldn’t get more simple.

These CMS platforms are fantastic for blogs, entry level businesses, and low traffic forums. They are simple, cheap, and easily accessible. Your access to technical support if you need it is also a major bonus, since most people at this level don’t start out knowing everything about running a website!

A Few Faults with Shared Hosting

There are some downsides to shared hosting, however.

Safety and security of your website might sometimes be called into question as you don’t always know your “neighbors” on the server. Although not common, especially seeing as hosting platforms do everything they can to prevent it, security may be breached more easily on a shared server.

The second downfall to shared hosting is that once your website starts to receive significant traffic, your website will begin to perform more slowly. Since each website is allocated a certain amount of memory, space, and bandwidth, a website exceeding this allotment just isn’t supported to handle such traffic.

The last significant disadvantage is the limits placed on customization for your website. There usually are templates and limitations as to what your website on a shared hosting server can have, and this may be frustrating for users with a very specific vision or need.

Don’t get lured in too easily to platforms boasting unlimited hosting, though. While the name itself suggests infinite amount of bandwidth and storage, it is highly misleading. Many unlimited plans include caveats for the data that can be stored, for example. This is because there just simply isn’t an “unlimited” amount of resources for unlimited hosting. Remember, hosting is connected to very real servers and very real technicians running them.

Is Shared Hosting Right for Me?

Shared hosting, for all its strengths, is the first entry point for website publication. This being said, many of the disadvantages can be thwarted for an upgrade- often with the same hosting company and with website migration at a minimum.

Regardless, shared hosting is a phenomenal option for those just starting out with their websites. It’s cheap, user friendly, and just customizable enough to make it your own- with upgrades always available.

Planning to launch your own website? Compare Shared Hosting plans with our easy, side by side hosting comparisons.

Hostaffstaging2 – Hosting Affinity

Best VPS Hosting Plans in [year] – Top 6 Revealed

Should You Switch to VPS Hosting?

Differences Between Shared Hosting and VPS Hosting

Our 6 Best VPS Hosting Providers Are:

1. Bluehost

Features

Pricing

2. Liquid Web

Features & Pricing

3. HostGator

Features & Pricing

A2 Hosting

Features & Pricing

5. Inmotion

5. Linode

Conclusion - Top 6 Best VPS Hosting Providers

How To Enhance WordPress Security With Two-Factor Authentication

What is Two-factor authentication?

The Pros of Two-Factor Authentication

The Cons of Two-factor Authentication

Step 1: Get Authenticator App for Your Device

Step 2: Install a Two-Factor Authenticator Plugin on your WordPress site

Step 3: Configure The Plugin

How to Choose the Best Website Builder in [year] (Guide and Comparison)

Table of Contents

What Are the Best Website Builders?

7 Best Website Builders in [year]

Squarespace - Best Overall

WordPress - Best for Bloggers and Writers, Website Building Experts

Wix - Best for Design Freedom

Weebly - Best for Beginners

Site123 - Best Landing Page Builder

Shopify - Best for eCommerce

GoDaddy - Best for Diverse Needs

But Which Website Builder is Best for Me?

7 Tips For Choosing the Right Website Builder

#1 - Budget Considerations

#2 - Set Your Priorities

Do you have any prior experience in web or graphic design?

What type of website do you need?

How much control do you need?

Will, your website, include a lot of media?

#3 - Consider the Theme Options

#4 - Ease of Use

#5 - Consider the SEO Features

#6 - Support & Available Resources

#7 - Customer Service and Company's Reputation

Key Features To Look for in a Website Builder

eCommerce Capability

Drag & Drop Functionality

Pre-made Templates

Project Length

Migration Options

Blogging Functionality

Website Builders for Specific Uses

Small Business Websites

eCommerce

Blogging

Art & Photography

Real Estate

So Which Website Builder is Best for You?

How to Force HTTPS in WordPress Without Any Coding

What is SSL and HTTPS?

Why it is important to redirect HTTP to HTTPS on WordPress sites

How to redirect to https

14 Important Web Hosting Features

Types of Web Hosting Services

Shared Hosting

VPS Hosting

Dedicated Hosting

1. Disk Space

2. Bandwidth

3. Tech Support

4. Email Accounts and Features

5. Number of Domains (Sub and Parked included)

6. Control Panel

7. Backup Services

8. Backup Restore

9. CMS Support and Easy Install