Shared web hosting can be a good place to start if you’re thinking about creating a website of any kind.
Okay, save for e-commerce websites since you need to use a different type of host for various reasons. But for other types of websites, then using shared web hosting will do just fine.
What’s not to love about shared web hosting when it’s affordable and comes with so many perks such as unlimited bandwidth, unlimited website, and unlimited storage?
And then there’s one-click installation too if you’re thinking about creating your author website on WordPress.
Of course, there’s a catch to that. There must be a limit regardless of what they claim.
Yes, you’re right about that. There’s a limit to some extent on how much bandwidth and storage you can have when you sign up for the shared hosting plan.
But despite such a limit in place, it’s still a good place to start if you’re a beginner and you’re just starting out.
While there’s plenty to choose from when it comes to web hosting services, the one that I recommend is SetraHost.
In case you’re wondering, that’s the host that I’m currently using on both of my websites.
You can take a look at SetraHost right here if you’re interested:
What is SetraHost?
Okay, I don’t blame you for not knowing SetraHost all this time since I only knew about their existence a couple of months ago as I write this.
It must mean that SetraHost is the new guy in town, right?
Believe it or not, they’ve been around since 2005.
Why the big guys that I knew online for a long time never mentioned anything about them is beyond me.
It’s always those big companies such as HostGator, Bluehost, SiteGround, and Dreamhost that get the most mentions for the most part.
When you mention SetraHost, what you’ll get is cricket instead.
Since people barely talk about them, then it must mean that they’re not good and worthy enough to receive any mentions, right?
Well, that’s not the case either.
Just take a look at their Trustpilot page and you’ll see that they do get a pretty good rating over there.
The kicker? The majority of them were migrating from hosts like Bluehost due to Bluehost having frequent downtime.
Well, I don’t blame them for moving away from Bluehost. It was also the same reason that got me to move out of Hostgator.
As you can see here, that’s not the only reason that made me leave HostGator for good and never comes back.
If you’re curious about my other reasons for leaving HostGator, you can read the post right here.
What makes SetraHost a much better shared web hosting than the rest in the market
When we think of a small company like SetraHost, many of us seem to think that they must be charging a lot more than those large, well-known web hosting services.
Guess what?
That doesn’t seem to be the case at all when I take a look at their pricing. The pricing that I get isn’t that much different from the one that I used to pay to HostGator.
And we’re talking about the monthly price here. I bet that you’ll pay a lot less if you opt for the annual billing.
That could be true when they were just starting out. They had to price a little higher than average if they want to remain in business.
But as they become more established over the years, they can offer the same price as the other web hosting services without putting the company in jeopardy just to stay competitive.
This is what makes SetraHost stands out from the rest. They don’t believe in price increases. If you’re paying $9.95 per month all this time, then that’s the price you’ll be paying for as long as you’re with them. They’re not going to jack up the price due to increased labor costs, server costs, and anything you can think of.
If they can do that even in our current situation where everything goes up, then I guess that we can expect the same thing from them in the years to come.
Another thing that makes them a much better web hosting service?
You’ll get things that seem to belong to managed WordPress hosting such as malware and DDOS protection and a fast-loading website thanks to LiteSpeed & LiteSpeed Cache configured on a RAID10 system.
I can’t say for sure if other web hosting services have those. But I’m sure that HostGator doesn’t offer that in any of their shared web hosting plans.
What you should know about SetraHost
The thing about SetraHost is that you can only reach technical support by submitting a ticket through your client dashboard.
Okay, that’s good to know. But how quickly do they respond to you once you’ve submitted a ticket?
That’s a tricky question to answer since it will depend on the nature of the technical support you need.
In my case, the only time I’m submitting a ticket is during the migration process to the SetraHost server. Added to the fact that I live in a different time zone, it will take a while for me to get back to them and get everything resolved.
If you’re living in the same time zone or with a one or two-hour time difference, then you can get everything resolved much faster.
But if you’re like me where there’s more than a 12-hour time difference, then it can take a while to get everything resolved.
Another thing to note is that they only offer shared web hosting, nothing else.
Sure, they do offer WordPress hosting. But it’s not the same as managed WordPress hosting which offers a lot more bandwidth and storage than the regular hosting service.
The strange part is you can see them offering managed WordPress hosting in their hosting selection. But you don’t see the managed WordPress hosting offer anywhere else on their website.
The good news is you can always sign up for WP Engine if you need managed WordPress hosting. It’s not the end of the world just because SetraHost doesn’t have one.
Is SetraHost right for you and should you use it?
If you’re looking for a host that is affordable and has a much better offering than Hostgator and Bluehost, then yes, you should give SetraHost a try.
The only trade-off is the technical support where the only way for you to contact them is by submitting a ticket.
That’s the one thing I miss from HostGator since I can contact them through the live chat at any time whenever I have a technical issue.
While they do now have live chat support, I think it may only be for sales inquiry purposes, though.
Well, I could be wrong about that. But if they don’t provide technical support through the live chat, then your best bet is to submit a ticket. That’s how you can get their attention for whatever technical issue you’re facing.
On the surface, SetraHost may not seem like a capable web host. Give it a try and you’ll see that they’re not as bad as you thought.
Heck, they could be better than you thought which is what I’m experiencing right now.
You can learn more about SetraHost right here:
P.S While I’m not so gung-ho about using social media in general, I do believe that social media does have its place when it comes to connecting with your readers.
And that holds true when your author website was having a downtime just like what I experienced back then.
One of the ways to let your readers know about your website downtime is through your social media profiles.
While you can use pretty much any social media platform to connect with your readers, I prefer to use Twitter to connect with my readers.
If you love using Twitter and want to know more about how you can connect with your readers effectively on Twitter, then take a look at my guide, Twitter Marketing for Business.
You can learn more about the guide right here on my Payhip store:
Twitter Marketing for Business
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