Our 2023 Best Blog Hosting Award goes to WebHostingHub.com, a well-experienced web hosting company, providing quality hosting services since 2001.
Reliable and affordable hosting services from Web Hosting Hub are quite powerful and suited for both individuals and businesses. It is the top-notch blog hosting provider in the United States, and one of the best hosting companies in the world.
Web Hosting Hub is a true leader in blog hosting as their servers are optimally configured to run WordPress-powered blogs with a much higher level of security. Hub’s technicians are expertly trained and a part of the WordPress community.
Why Web Hosting Hub?
When searching for a top-notch solution for your personal website and blog, there’s a multitude of options in the industry. But which service caters up the absolute best solution for your blogging habit, both professional and amateur? The answer is – Web Hosting Hub.
We thought long and hard about it, and we have to say—even with so much competition around—Web Hosting Hub is an easy winner. We like the provider for a number of reasons, but first and foremost, we’re absolutely floored by their extremely competitive pricing plan. If you’re looking for a budget way to crack the blogosphere, Web Hosting Hub is a fantastic option to be considered.
Their hosting plan starts at a scant $4.99 a month, which is every bit on par with their competitors—and even better than some other providers we could name. For that money, you’ll get unlimited everything, as well. If you’re looking for a budget way to blog, four bucks a month with Web Hosting Hub earns you unlimited email accounts, disc space, bandwidth, and even unlimited websites. If you’re concerned about maxing out your website with too much content, or about running out of bandwidth for your blog readers, Web Hosting Hub is the ideal solution.
One of the other factors in our decision is Web Hosting Hub’s excellent, fully certified 90-day money-back guarantee. Are you unhappy with the SEO-optimization available for your blog, or are you finding your blog simply too difficult to update with each new entry? No problem! Web Hosting Hub will refund your money completely, even 90 days after the start of your service agreement. That’s a better deal than we’ve seen absolutely anywhere else, and we can’t speak highly enough of it.
Not only that, but Web Hosting Hub also comes with one of the nation’s best hosting tech support services. For such a low price each month, the provider raises the bar with US-based tech centers open 24/7 and available via both the Internet and telephone. Their technicians are ready to help, and each member of Web Hosting Hub’s team is fully certified to help you with any WordPress problems you may have, making the provider the ideal guiding hand when your blog goes awry.
Saving the best for last, the real reason we’re in love with Web Hosting Hub for blog hosting is their killer WordPress support. Everyone’s favorite blogging utility is ready-to-roll with each new domain registered at Web Hosting Hub. Not only that, but the provider also features hardware and software optimized to manage and run the blogging front-end.
With Web Hosting Hub, it’s never been easier, or cheaper to set up your own, personal blog. That’s why Web Hosting Hub is this year’s winner in Web Hosting Geek’s “Best Blog Hosting” category.
Choosing a Blog Hosting: Top 15 Things to Consider
Choosing a suitable host for your blog doesn’t have to be hard. In this article, we asked our resident experts at WebHostingGeeks and compiled a list of 15 things the experts look for in a blog hosting service. If you’re reading this, you’re probably a blog owner in need of a reliable shared hosting service. Blogs often have different hosting needs compared to businesses. If you are looking for advice on business hosting, please go here. Otherwise, if you’re looking for e-commerce hosting, go here.
WordPress Installers
Auto-installers will make your life much easier. If you use WordPress, you likely know the difficulty of installing WordPress manually. From extracting the zip file to set up the database connection takes up to an hour to complete without an auto-installer.With an auto-installer, setting up WordPress becomes completely automated. Everything is done from your web host’s control panel, and it takes no more than a minute from beginning to end.
With an auto-installer like Softaculous, you can install over 400 applications on your server with one click. It is good practice to check if a hosting company provides an auto-installer.Tip: It is even better if the hosting company has pre-installed WordPress at signup.
Free Blog Transfers
If you already have a blog set up and installed somewhere, then the “free blog transfer�? is an absolute lifesaver. A ridiculous number of things can go wrong when transferring your blog from one server to another. Image links could fail, database connection could be faulty, and permalinks could be changed. Get peace of mind by letting your new hosting company transfer your website.Hosting companies like Hostgator and InMotionhosting provide one free blog transfers for new customers. Email your hosting company to ask about free blog transfers – they will usually oblige.
Email@YourDomain.com
An email address on your own domain is the perfect way to convey trust and keep in contact with your readers.Most web hosting services come with email hosting for free. Check for the following items before committing to a web host:
- Email addresses – how many email addresses can you create?Email storage – how much storage do you get?Email client access – do they offer support to set up the email account on your Outlook/Phone?Email protocol – IMAP or POP3? The protocol determines how accessible and how secure the email service is
The number of email addresses depends on your own needs. Does your blog have a lot of contributors? If so, go for a hosting plan that allows you to create many addresses.
Site Backups
I cannot overstate how important regular backups are when it comes to your blog. Experts recommend backing up your blog at least once a week, or whenever you make changes to it. Having a backup copy of your website can turn catastrophe into a minor inconvenience.Some hosting companies provide regular automated backups for free. Other companies offer a one-click backup tool that you can use at your convenience. Each has its pros and cons, and whether or not you need these tools depends on your blog.Also, check for free backup restores with your hosting company. Some companies will restore your website for free if you have a backup copy. This will save you a lot of time.
Addon Domains
An addon domain is a domain that is connected to your hosting account, but not necessarily your primary domain name. For example, if you own “YourBlog.com�? and also own “YourBlog.net�?, you may need the addon domain feature to be able to utilize both names on your account.Also, check if the hosting plan allows you to host more than one website on the same account. You never know when you want to start another blog! Starter plans usually allow for one or two websites on the same account – while more expensive plans sometimes allow for unlimited websites and addon domains.
Refund Policy
Even though most people end up loving your hosting service, sometimes, the magic just isn’t there.When choosing a hosting plan, always look for the refund policy of the web host. You want to pick a hosting company with a 100% money-back guarantee. This means that no questions are asked, and your dissatisfaction is the only criteria for a refund. When it comes to the length, the longer the better.The industry-standard length for money-back guarantees is 30 days. Some hosting services may have only 15 days, while others have up to a 90 day period where you can get a full refund.Tip: The longer the guarantee, the more confident the hosting company is!
Control Panel
The hosting control panel is what you see after you login. Here you can upload files, create emails, check visitor logs, etc etc.cPanel is the most commonly used control panel in the hosting industry. It is probably the only control panel you’re familiar with. When choosing a hosting company for your blog, make sure to choose one that offers cPanel. Company-specific control panels may not provide the same smooth user experience.
Ease of Scalability
Your blog is growing. Every day there are more users and comments. What if it outgrows your server?Bloggers used to buy outrageously expensive hosting packages just to accommodate for future growth. If you choose your host wisely, you don’t have to do that.A number of hosting companies are now offering no-downtime server upgrades. If your hosting company provides this option for free, then it is another thing you don’t have to worry about. When you’re ready to upgrade, just give the company a call, and your website will be transferred without downtime.
Sign-up Price vs Renewal Price
This is a big one. That unlimited $0.99/month offer might end up too-good-to-be-true on your next billing cycle.In order to attract customers, hosting companies will often have a steeply discounted sign-on price, only to increase that price once the initial contract is up. Some blog owners end up host-hopping every year just to get the best deal, avoid that by checking the renewal price.
SSD
SSD stands for Solid State Drive. It is a hard drive without the spinning disks that we commonly associate with hard drives. An SSD is like a giant memory stick, and it’s read/write speeds are up to 3x faster than a normal drive.If your server is equipped with SSD, it may be a huge boost to your website speed. Speed has been shown to be an important factor in Google rankings, not to mention the boost in user experience. In most cases, you should expect to pay extra for SSD.
Storage
Storage, also referred to as disk space, is the amount of stuff you’re allowed to store on the server. For the most basic hosting plans, the disk space allowed is usually 500MB or 1GB.Even 500MB is more than enough for a small to medium-sized blog. A basic WordPress install takes up around 20 MB, custom themes and backgrounds 10 MB.
This leaves you 470MB for your posts and pages. If we assume a generous 2MB/post, your basic server can store 235 posts before filling up.By the time your blog has 235 posts, it is likely that you have already upgraded your server because server size is rarely the limiting factor when it comes to hosting. You’re much more likely to be limited by bandwidth and CPU resource restrictions.
If your website needs a lot of space, make sure to get an unlimited (unmetered) plan. Although no plan is actually unlimited, your website is usually given more wiggle room when it comes to server space.
Data Transfer
Data transfer, or bandwidth, is essentially the number of visitors your website can serve. This is arguably a more important metric than storage.The average website is 3MB to load. This means your server must send 3MB of data to every single visitor that lands on your website. If your web host gives you 10GB of bandwidth every month, at 3MB/page, it means you can serve 3413 visitors per month.You can use google analytics (https://analytics.google.com) to check how many users visit your website each month. Afterward, use GTMetrix (https://gtmetrix.com/) to find out how big is the average page on your website.
If your website serves a lot of visitors, make sure to get an unlimited (unmetered) plan. If you’re getting more than 10,000 visitors per month, we highly recommend a VPS server or a Dedicated server. On a shared server, having a heavy website load means you’re more likely to violate the…
TOS Restrictions
Finally, we’re in the top 3 most important things to consider when choosing a blog hosting plan. Terms of Service (TOS) restrictions are hidden restrictions the web host puts on the websites they serve. In general, there are 3 types of TOS restrictions:
Content restrictions
Most of the time, web hosts will restrict the types of content they allow on the server. For example, pornographic content is usually disallowed by hosting services. The same goes for any content that is illegal in the server’s jurisdiction. This may affect the types of blogs you’re allowed to have on the server.
CPU/Server resource restrictions
CPU restrictions usually come in the form of a percentage of total server CPU time. Dozens of websites share a single server in a shared hosting plan, and in order to maintain server efficiency for everyone, the hosting company restricts the number of resources one website can use. For example, HostGator limits all shared hosting accounts to 25% of server resources.
Cancellation restrictions
Rarely, a hosting company will have cancellation limitations. Much like a phone plan or cable, the hosting company may enter into a contract with you in exchange for a lower rate. This is great if you know you’ll love their service, not so well otherwise.
Reliability and Uptime Guarantee
Server reliability is one of the most important aspects when it comes to web hosting. You’ll hear it referred to as an “uptime guarantee�?, where the hosting company guarantees that your blog will be accessible most of the time.The general rule is that the higher the uptime guarantee, the more reliable the server/company is. Companies will usually offer one of the following uptime guarantees:
- 99% – this allows your site to be down for at most 432 minutes (7 hours) per month (43200 minutes)99.9% – this allows almost 45 minutes of downtime. This is the most common uptime guarantee, as 45 minutes is about what the amount of offline maintenance a server needs per month99.99% – this allows for just 5 minutes of downtime. 99.99% uptime guarantees are incredibly rare and are usually only offered by cloud hosting companies.
Support
The most important thing to look for in a blog hosting company is… drumroll… Customer Support!Customer support is the number one most important thing when it comes to hosting. Even a mediocre host can be a great experience as long as they have excellent customer support. If you’re deciding between a hosting company with many features but lack support, and one with great support but not as many features, you should always choose the latter.Over the lifetime of your blog, you will end up contacting support dozens of times. A hosting company that actively tries to help you will save hours of headaches.