All about buying web hosting for your author website
Just like buying a domain name for your author website, buying web hosting is just as important too.
Heck, I would say that it’s more important than buying the domain name itself.
If for some reason you don’t like your current domain registrar, you can always unlock your domain name and transfer it to another domain registrar.
But if you hate your web hosting service, it’ll be very difficult for you to move to a different web hosting service.
If your website is brand new and you have yet to do anything, you probably won’t mind canceling your hosting plan and starts fresh.
But if you already have a website, this is going to be a hassle since it’s not easy to move your website from one web hosting service to another.
Because of that, buying web hosting for your author website isn’t something that you should do at a spur moment.
You need to think carefully before you sign up with any hosting plan.
What to look for when it comes to buying web hosting for your author website
What you should look for in a web hosting service will depend on the type of hosting plan you intend to purchase. But in general, this is what you should look for before you commit yourself to any hosting plan.
The reputation of the web hosting service
Just like your domain registrar, it’s also important to know the reputation of the web hosting itself. The last thing you want is to sign up with a web hosting service that is unreliable, especially during the crucial moment when your website traffic is at its peak.
It’s not that hard to find out how good the web hosting service is. There are plenty of websites out there that provide ratings for any web hosting service you can think of.
Another way to find out about the hosting companies’ reputation is to hear recommendations from other people.
For me, that’s the best way to know how good is the web hosting service since these people already experience the web hosting service firsthand.
The server uptime
You want to be sure that your web hosting server uptime has almost 100% uptime. The last thing you want is your readers are complaining on their social media account that they can’t access your author website.
Many reputable web hosting services will guarantee that their server will have almost 100% uptime.
If you already did a good job in vetting out the available web hosting services, you don’t have to worry so much about this part.
What type of customer support the web hosting service is providing
Things can go awry from time-to-time. And it can happen when we least expect.
In this situation, you want the problem to be solved as quickly as possible. And when it comes to solving the problem fast and in the efficient manner, you want to have a quick access to the customer support.
Many reputable web hosting services will offer a wide variety of customer supports such as toll-free line, live chat, email and knowledge base.
Of course, having these things in place doesn’t guarantee how responsive their customer support is. Your best bet is to get the feedback from the people who did use the web hosting service. Reviews and ratings are also helpful too.
It has cPanel
cPanel makes it easy for you to manage your server. Unless you’re an expert, managing your own server can be a complicated ordeal for many of us.
Having a graphical interface to manage the server will make things easier for those who have no technical background.
Many reputable web hosting services tend to have cPanel for managing your server.
If you have no technical background in managing server, just be sure that any web hosting service you intend to use has this.
It has WordPress one-click installation
This is big for those who want to create an author website using WordPress. Having WordPress one-click installation will make it easy for you to install WordPress on your server.
Many web hosting services that allow you to install WordPress on their server have one-click installation for WordPress. So, it shouldn’t be a problem for you to find the web hosting service that has this.
Which web hosting services you should get for your author website
Now that you already know what to look for when it comes to buying web hosting for your author website, which web hosting services that have all these things?
I would say that there are plenty of them. But these are some of the amazing web hosting services that many people use to host their website. What’s more they have a good reputation among the web development community too.
Note: the comparison that I made between these web hosting services is based on their shared plan, which is the entry-level of the web hosting service.
HostGator
There’s no doubt that HostGator has all the things you need when it comes to web hosting for your author website.
But what makes me love HostGator and highly recommend to anyone who needs a web hosting is that how responsive and knowledgeable their customer support is.
If you have a technical issue with your website, you can rest assured that your problem will be solved within your first contact with the customer support.
Another reason why I love HostGator is that they provide a monthly plan. If you’re like me who don’t have a budget to opt for the annual plan and prefer a monthly plan instead, then HostGator has what you need.
Of course, there’s no doubt that you will save more when you opt for the annual plan.
HostGator is the current web hosting service I use to host The Efficient You and also my fiction author site, Sekina Mayu.
If you’re interested in signing up with HostGator, don’t forget to use the coupon code EFFICIENT to receive $9.94 off on any plan during your first month.
Bluehost
Just like HostGator, Bluehost is also offering unlimited domain names, unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth and also a free domain name for the first year.
But unlike Hostgator, Bluehost only offers an annual plan. And it doesn’t look like it offers one-click installation for other applications such as Drupal, Joomla, Magento and PrestaShop.
If you only want to create a WordPress site or creating a website from scratch, then Bluehost can do that for you.
But if you plan to create multiple websites using many different hosted applications, then HostGator is a much better choice for that.
SiteGround
Just like HostGator and Bluehost, SiteGround is also offering unlimited websites hosted for its shared hosting plan. And it can also host other hosted applications such as Joomla, Magento, Drupal and PrestaShop.
The only difference is they only offer a specific amount of storage space for all of their plans. Even if they cap the storage space, it’s still a lot considering that you’ll get 10GB of storage space even for their basic plan.
What I love about SiteGround is that it can cater to a much larger volume of traffic compared to HostGator and Bluehost.
Even better? It’s also the web hosting service that is highly recommended by WordPress.org itself!
It’s too bad that SiteGround only offers annual plan for all of their hosting plans. And it’s also rather pricey too when you compare it with HostGator’s and Bluehost’s annual plan.
But since it offers a lot more than Hostgator and Bluehost, then a slightly expensive price tag makes sense.
Which hosting plan you should get?
Shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated server. There are so many varieties when it comes to hosting plans. But then again, which one you should pick?
If you’re just getting started, the shared hosting plan is already good enough for you since it’s perfect for the new website that doesn’t have a lot of traffic. What’s more, you can also manage the server by yourself without having to hire people. It’s because of this reason that makes shared hosting plan perfect for those who don’t have a technical background in managing servers.
You will only need to consider upgrading to a different hosting plan once you already outgrow your existing hosting plan.
Web hosting services usually will notify you when you already outgrow your existing plan.
Until that time comes, the shared hosting plan already has all the things you need to get started. You don’t have to go crazy by opting for VPS hosting and dedicated server.
As which shared hosting plan you should get, that will depend on what you need. For me, it doesn’t hurt to opt for the plan that allows you to host many websites. You’ll never know that you may need to create many different websites down the road.
Well, for me at least.
But it says unlimited this and that
You probably think that it’s unnecessary for you to upgrade your hosting plan because of all the unlimited things that the shared hosting plan has to offer.
But here’s where most people get it wrong when it comes to the term unlimited.
When the web hosting services say that they’re offering unlimited websites hosted, bandwidth and storage space, it only means that they don’t limit how many websites you want to host and the bandwidth and the storage space you use for your websites.
HostGator has a thorough explanation of this issue on its website. So, I highly recommend you to take a look at it to deepen your understanding of this issue.
While the information provided is based on HostGator’s hosting capabilities, it doesn’t hurt for you to use it as a benchmark for other web hosting services you plan to buy. That can help you with giving a rough idea of the amount of traffic that your hosting plan can handle for your website.
Web hosting plan specifically for WordPress
If you’re using WordPress and you already outgrow your existing hosting plan, consider upgrading your plan to WordPress hosting.
The reason for that is because it’s a hosting plan that is optimized specifically for WordPress.
With WordPress hosting, your website will load faster thanks to its low-density servers, Content Delivery Network (CDN) and multiple caching layers. Not only that, but it will also provide protection against WordPress-specific attacks and also a daily backup for your WordPress sites too.
The good news is many web hosting services such as HostGator, Bluehost and SiteGround also has WordPress hosting. So, upgrading your existing hosting plan to WordPress hosting is only a click away.
But if you feel like trying another web hosting service, here are some of the WordPress hosting services that you can consider.
iThemes Hosting
Many people who have been using WordPress for as long as they can remember know iThemes as the company that created BackupBuddy, Sync Pro and also iThemes Security Pro.
But now, they also have iThemes Hosting which is a WordPress hosting.
What makes iThemes Hosting unique is that its WordPress hosting also includes their premium plugins.
Yes, their hosting plan will include BackupBuddy, Sync Pro and also iThemes Security Pro premium WordPress plugins.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to sign up with iThemes Hosting if you want to get your hands on these plugins. You can buy these plugins separately.
But since these plugins aren’t that cheap to begin with, getting these plugins with iThemes Hosting feel like a heaven sent to me.
The downside with iThemes Hosting is that they only have one annual plan that allows you to host two websites at most. And their annual plan doesn’t include emails.
If you do plan to migrate to iThemes Hosting, you need to do it yourself using BackupBuddy plugin. And you also need to use other services such as GSuite to host your email.
WP Engine
If I have to say which one is the ultimate WordPress hosting, then I will have to say it has to be WP Engine.
What makes WP Engine the ultimate WordPress hosting is that it offers all the advance tools for design, site management, security solutions and content insights to name a few for your ultimate WordPress experience.
What’s more, it’s also by far the WordPress hosting that can cater a huge volume of traffic. And when I say huge, I mean it’s millions of visits per month!
It’s obvious that WP Engine is certainly geared for the website that has a huge amount of traffic per month.
And not to mention, it doesn’t come cheap too even for their basic plan.
Unlike iThemes Hosting, you can choose to opt for the monthly or the annual plan. And of course, you will save a lot more when you opt for the annual plan.
Have your domain name ready
It doesn’t matter which hosting plan you pick and which web hosting service you plan to use, pick the option I already have a domain name during the signup process.
By choosing that option, the domain name will be available for you to complete the setup process through your cPanel. Choosing that option will also prevent you from having to purchase another domain name from your web hosting service too.
If you have other domain names that you purchase, you can always add them later through cPanel.