Website Hosting Services for First Time Bloggers and Webmasters
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There are so many decent website hosting companies around, how do you know which one is best for you?
It’s a tough decision that shouldn’t come down to price.
Yes, you might save yourself a few dollars each month, but you may not have the kind of positive experience you were hoping for after you’ve built your own website (here’s my guide on how to build a WordPress website) and launched it for the world to see.
On this page, you’ll find a few of the web hosting companies I use, or have used in the past, and am more than happy to recommend them.
Bluehost
Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosting companies around, if not THE most popular. Its marketing promotes attractive prices (usually starting at $2.95 a month) but what you should be aware of is that price is only available when you buy and pay for three years at once.
With that said, don’t discount Bluehost. After all, it hosts many websites and is an official partner of WordPress via its list of recommended hosting companies (along with SiteGround and DreamHost).
Main Features and Services
- Unlimited websites on all packages apart from Basic
- From 50 GB SSD storage (Basic account) to unlimited on all others
- Custom themes
- 24/7 customer support
- Website builder
- WordPress integration
- Drag and drop functionality
- AI-driven themes
- Free domain for first year
- Free CDN
- Free SSL certificate
- Free Office 365 (Plus account and upwards)
- Free domain privacy (Choice Plus account and upwards)
- Free automated backup for first year (Choice Plus account and upwards)
- Free dedicated IP address (Pro account)
- Optimized CPU resources (Pro account)
WPX Hosting
WPX Hosting is quite a new company in the WordPress hosting sector, but it’s quickly building an awesome reputation for page speed loading times and outstanding customer service. Two things that matter to most website owners.
Guru (UK servers only)
Guru is a UK-based hosting company with UK-based servers. Ideal if you’re in the UK, get traffic from the UK, and like the convenience of jumping on a phone call with somebody in the same timezone if you need support.
Main Features and Services
- Three types of hosting on offer: Shared, Reseller and Dedicated
- 100% uptime
- 100 GB disk space
- 1000 GB bandwidth (per month)
- Unlimited domains
- Unlimited mySQL databases
- Backups as standard
- cPanel
- LiteSpeed caching
- Free WordPress and WooCommerce staging
- Unlimited mailboxes (with email addon
Pros
- UK based servers and customer support for UK websites
- 24/7 tech support via live chat
- Host unlimited websites
- Get your first month for £1
- Free SSL certificate
Cons
- Hosting only – email hosting is an optional extra
- UK based servers (not the best option for non-UK sites)
Verdict
Guru provide an excellent all-round service that’s ideal for UK-based websites. The chat support during the day is fast and responsive. Overnight and in the early hours, all support can take a bit longer than usual – as you’d expect.
Visit GuruWeb hosting newbies – a few tips to help you choose the right host and setup for first website or blog
- Customer support will be important when you setup your first website. You’re bound to make mistakes or have issues along the way. For these reasons, I recommend jumping onto an online chat with the support team of your number one choice to gauge their responsiveness. If they’re unhelpful, disconnect and try again or try another hosting company. Don’t be afraid of asking stupid questions!
- Don’t focus too much on price but don’t pay a ridiculous amount either. Stay away from free and stupidly cheap hosting.
- Say no to most of the upsells.
- Host your email with another provider if you can. If your website goes down, your emails will still work. The chances of this happening for an extended time are slim, but they exist. Many people choose to use Google Workspace for emails.
- Everyone’s experience is different.
- If you choose to go with a WordPress site (highly recommended), don’t go mad and install loads of plugins. This will hamper the performance of your website and trying to set them up will give you a massive headache.
- Make sure you update plugins, themes and WordPress core files soon after the updates are available. This helps with security issues and ensures you’re using the latest features.
- If you’re creating a content website, don’t spend too much time on the design in the early days. Focus more on creating and publishing your content. Nobody is going to see your site for the first few months anyway (unless you share it), so the design doesn’t matter so much.
- Premium themes are nice to have, but you don’t need one when you first start (maybe ever!).