7 Best Cheap and Reliable Web Hosting Companies for Bloggers

Have you concluded on being a full time blogger and now looking for a good web hosting company to host your blog? Choosing a perfect web host to suit your site and budget is a bit difficult. This is because there are tons of web hosting sites available, with almost the same price. But there are other things to check before concluding to host on a particular web host. Also, there are recommended web hosting companies that best suits a particular blogging platform.

best cheap blog web hosts and domain registrars — Source: Infoticstudio.com

There are different blogging platforms. Some of the popular ones are WordPress, Blogger, Wix, SquareSpace, Medium, Gator, Ghost, etc. The most common platform is WordPress. It is good you know the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

WordPress.org is a free blogging software, known as Content Management System (CMS), where you have access to free and premium plugins. To use it, you must have a hosting plan and a domain name. While WordPress.com is a blog hosting company created by one of the co-founders of WordPress.org, Matt Mullenweg. They have different hosting plans, including the free one in which ads appear. To blog with WordPress.com, you will need a domain name and you can also install the WordPress.org CMS. You either use their free hosting plan or pay for a premium plan. The least plan cost about $48 per year for 6 GB space.

You will learn some recommended cheap and reliable web hosting companies and some trusted domain registrars for bloggers and other business websites.

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WordPress.org Recommended Web Hosts

Most self hosted blogs use WordPress.org blogging software. Since they are the most popular blogging software, different bloggers have installed it in various web hosts. WordPress.org has recommended 3 web hosting companies that offer the most suiting hosting environment for their software. These web hosts are: BlueHost, DreamHost and SiteGround.

BlueHost

This is the most recommended web host by WordPress.org. They power more than 2 million websites. They offer special hosting plans and tools for WordPress based blog. All their hosting plans offer free domain name for the first year, free SSL, customizable themes, 24/7 support and a 30 day free trial of Microsoft Email. They also help you get free $100 marketing credits for Microsoft and Google Ads once you spend your first $25 on a new Microsoft and Google Ads account. All their plans have a 30 day money-back guarantee.

BlueHost offers 3 categories of hosting: shared, Virtual Private Server (VPS) and Dedicated Server. They are also a renowned domain registrar. So you can register a domain with them and host your site on their server. A “.com” domain registration costs $11.99 per year.

Their shared hosting plans and their normal pricing include:

Basic ($7.99 per month): For single website, 50 GB storage, etc.
Plus ($10.99 per month): All the features of the Basic plan, plus Unlimited websites, unmetered storage and access to website Analytics.
Choice Plus – the most recommended plan for growing blog sites ($14.99 per month): All the features of the Plus plan, plus automated backup, domain privacy and protection.
Pro – recommended for best business website performance ($23.99 per month): All the features of the Choice Plus plan, plus optimized website resources and dedicated IP address.

You can start with the Basic plan, then when your blog starts growing and fetching money, you can opt for a plan upgrade. Even if you want to upgrade to a VPS plan, BlueHost makes the process simple.

Do you wish to host your blog on BlueHost? Get a 50% discount for all their plans.

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DreamHost

DreamHost have the most affordable monthly plans. Their WordPress and Website Hosting starts at $2.59 per month, which is usually billed yearly. You can also pay monthly at a rate of $4.95. All the web servers have Solid State Drives (SSD), to guarantee speed and reliability. The web host is known for doing things in their own unique way. Their cPanel is quite different. You will love it once you get used to it. But you might find it a bit difficult when you change to a hosting company that uses the standard cPanel. They also offer 24/7 expert support to help you out whenever you are stuck with site configuration.

Their Full Hosting Plans are:

WordPress Hosting plan ($2.95 per month): Optimized for WordPress site performance and easy maintenance.
Website Hosting plan ($2.95 per month): A shared hosting plan, with free domain name, fast SSD storage and custom email hosting.
VPS Hosting Plan ($10 per month): Enjoy ultra-fast SSD and flexibility with HTTP/2, Ubuntu, IPv6, Nginx, Node.js, etc.
WP Website Builder Plan ($2.59 per month): For those with no coding experience. Enjoy drag and drop tools that simplify the WordPress site setup process.
Dedicated Hosting Plan ($149 per month): Experience fast web servers with root access and a 100% up-time guarantee.
CLoud Hosting Plan ($0.0075 per month): Enjoy lightning speed servers with root access, SSD storage, fast networking powered by open APIs through OpenStack.

They are also domain registrars and you can register a “.com” domain at a rate of $7.99.

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SiteGround

They are know for their awesome customer support. SiteGround offers special plans for web hosting, WordPress hosting, WooCommerce Hosting and Cloud Hosting. The web host is known for the use of latest web hosting technology. They upgrade their tools as technology changes to help them tackle new cyber threats. You can easily migrate from any blogging platform to WordPress either with the help of their experts or automatically with their plugins. All their platforms are powered by Google Cloud and they also use SSD through out their web servers.

The lowest tier of their shared hosting plan goes at $4 per month. While the highest tier goes for $12 per month.

One downside of this web host is how their hosting plan prices triples. A small business website owner may not be able to cope with this. But their services worth the price.

SiteGround is also a recommended company for web host reselling and enterprise hosting.

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Other Recommended Cheap Web Hosts and Domain Registrars

Hostinger

Hostinger offers the cheapest shared hosting plan in the first year. To benefit more from these cheap hosting plans, you can pay for 2 years plan at a go, at $0.99 per month. The renewal goes for $2.15 per month, which also pretty cheap. They also have good customer support 24/7 and up to 99.99% up-time guarantee.

Hostinger also has other hosting plans apart from the $0.99 per month single shared hosting plans that can host unlimited number of sites. Other plans include:

Premium Shared Hosting (starts at $2.89 per month): Recommended for personal websites and blogs.
Business Shared Hosting (starts at $3.99 per month): For small and medium business websites.
Cloud Hosting (starts at $7.45 per month): For heavy traffic business sites that generate revenue.

A2 Hosting

They offer a very fast and reliable hosting plans at a very affordable price. A2 Hosting also has excellent blog migration features for those who wish to move from a bad web host to theirs. Their 1 click installs also works for other CMS like Magento, Drupal, Joomla and OpenCart. You can also enjoy an automatic backup and anytime mone back guarantee.

Their lowest shared hosting plan starts at $3.92 per month, but renewal goes for $7.99 per month. All their plans include free SSL certificate and free site migration.

They also offer reseller hosting (starts at $9.80), VPS hosting (starts at $5) and dedicated hosting (starts at $99.59).

A2 Hosting is also a domain registrar. Their “.com” domains registration is $14.95 per year.

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NameCheap

NameCheap offers a very cheap shared hosting plans. If your WordPress blog does not have huge monthly traffic, you can host with them. All their hosting plans include these benefits:

Unmetered bandwidth
Free website builder
Domain name and privacy protection
Free automatic SSL installation
30-day money-back guarantee

They are also known to reduce their plans prices for the first year. So for the lowest tier of the shared hosting plan, you will pay $1.44 for 20 GB hosting space. The lowest tier of their plan is renewed at $2.88 per month. They run promo frequently, sometimes up to 75% promo. You can check their website now to see their current hosting plans prices.

NameCheap also offers domain registration, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, Dedicated Server and Private Email Hosting.

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HostGator

HostGator has not only made a name as a reliable, cheap web host, they are also a popular. They also offer 45 days money back guarantee. They also offer Windows Hosting in addition to Linux. You can also easily upgrade to a higher hosting plan like managed wordpress, cloud hosting or dedicated server

HostGator offers 3 main shared hosting plans:

Hatchling Plan (starts at $2.75 per month): For single domain hosting.
Baby Plan – Most recommended (starts at $3.95 per month): Can host unlimited domains.
Business Plan (starts at $5.95 per month): Can also host unlimited domains, offers free dedicated IP and free SEO tools.

All their plans have free WordPress/cPanel website transfer, unmetered bandwidth, free SSL certificate and free domain.

The only downside of HostGator is that they don’t offer email support. You either live chat their customer support or call their phone number. Most bloggers frown at this. But if you are OK with their live chat or phone call pattern, then HoastGator is ideal for you.

Their “.com” domain registration goes for $12.95 per year.

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Tips to Help You Choose the Best Web Host

There are tips you should know that will help you spot the most suiting web host for your blog or business site.

The first you should consider is the amount of traffic you are expecting monthly. If your site traffic is huge, then look for very fast hosting companies like BlueHost, SiteGround and A2 hosting. A basic shared hosting plan can cover you if your expected daily traffic range is within 500. If your monthly traffic range is within 50,000, you will need a standard business shared hosting plan or even a VPS plan.

Go for Web Hosts that specify their bandwidth allocation per hosting plan. Most times, they are more realistic than those that offer unlimited bandwidth, especially in their shared hosting plans. Most web truly offer unlimited bandwidth in their VPS and dedicated server plans.

You should also consider the number of websites you are planning to host on the plan. Make sure their total estimated traffic does not exceed the stipulated value for the plan.

Also consider how easy it is to migrate your site and domain name (if applicable) from the hosting plan to another in future.

Some Web Hosting Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is Shared Hosting Hosting All About?

Shared hosting plans are the most affordable plans in which multiple users share the same server resources. This means that there no specific allotment of resources like RAM, CPU and Bandwidth for your website. But you do not need to worry about server management and platform patches.

You can see a shared hosting as a computer being used by many users at a time. When one of the users runs a very heavy software that requires much RAM space, the other users activity speed might slow down because of RAM or Processor speed deficiency. In the case of web hosting, the web server is the PC and the users are different websites hosted in the server.

What are the Differences Between Shared Hosting and WordPress Hosting?

Because WordPress is the most common CMS, it can be hosted in a shared hosting plan. But some web hosts provide special plans for WordPress sites. But generally, a WordPress site can be hosted both in shared hosting or WordPress Hosting plans.

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What are the Differences Between VPS Hosting and Shared Hosting?

VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. A VPS hosting plan has a specific allotment of server resources such as RAM, CPU and Bandwidth, but most times, not a physical server. In a VPS plan, 2 blogs can share the same physical server, but there is a specified allocation for each of the blogs. It is just like a 1 TB hard drive that is partitioned into two 500 GB virtual spaces. Each virtual space can be seen as a full hard drive in a PC, with a different drive letter, but it is not.

So if you host your blog on a VPS plan, only your blog enjoys the allotted server resources, unlike a Shared hosting plan where these resources are shared. Also in most VPS hosting, resource allocation and management can be done by a hypervisor. This is to ensure that all the sites all the sites sharing the resources of that server enjoy equal resources, and even if one site needs more resources, it will never be at the detriment of other sites using the same server.

What are the Differences Between Dedicated Server Hosting and VPS Hosting?

In dedicated server hosting, each plan has a physical server and enjoys the full resources of the server. The user who paid for a dedicated server can choose the type and size of equipment he or she wants. This could be choice of RAM type and size, type and size of hard drive (HDD or SSD) and processor type and speed of the sever. Only the user’s site(s) hosted in the server will use all the resources.

Dedicated hosting is the costliest and recommended for business sites with huge amount of data and daily traffic. But most medium to large business sites are comfortably hosted in VPS plan. You can ask the web host more about which plan suits your business site.

Check out this article to know the most suiting blogging platform for you. Read more about recommended web hosting providers Here.

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Conclusion

You now have more than enough tips to guide you when choosing a reliable domain registrar and web hosting company. Feel free to check out the web host sites for emergency update in their plans. I will also update this article whenever I discover any change in hosting plans of all the web hosts reviewed in this article.

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