Which Web Host Is Right For Me?

There are a great many plug-ins, services and products you can go the “cheap-to-free” route on when launching your blog – but this is not one of them! In order to set up your blog for success, you’re going to want a premium hosting package. And by premium I don’t mean crazy expensive with every feature you could possibly think of – I just mean NOT FREE. Read on for clarification.

Warning: this is not the most exciting part of your blogging journey. It doesn’t boast the glitz and glamour of choosing the perfect theme and customizing your logo to match your personality and mission. However, this slightly more boring aspect is quite possibly one of the best (or worst) decisions you can make for your blog. So grab some coffee and put on your serious face. This choice could make or break you in the long run.

In short – your hosting is the man behind the curtain of your blog. It keeps hackers, bad people and nasty malware away from your precious work of art. It also constantly improves your site speed so people don’t get bored and kill your page while waiting for it to load. And, as you’ll see below – depending on the host you choose, it can either limit or give you the freedom to develop the size, scope and audience for your site.

A quick side note for our tribe: We are all about mutually beneficial relationships here at the Newlymoms. So naturally, this article may contain affiliate links. This means that if you were to use the links provided and make a purchase, we may receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you). We only promote products we use, love, and/or fully support — it’s a win, win, win! If you have any questions about what we use, love and/or support, please reach out to us via our contact page.

What Exactly is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is like the online storage for all things related to your website or blog. This includes everything from the theme you choose to the media files you add to your site to the posts you publish. When you pay for your web hosting you’re essentially renting space on the internet from people who own a lot of it – otherwise known as servers. The server space you rent ensures that people everywhere can see the content you create and the web host makes sure nothing gets in the way of this happening.

Once you purchase this hosting (or rent this online space) you’re going to need a domain name. Your domain name is like your business address. If there’s no way to tell people where you’re located – your family, friends, audience and customers will never get there and you’ll be blogging to yourself. Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?

Why Should I Invest in Web Hosting if I Can Get it for Free?

Many platforms including Blogger, Tumblr and even WordPress offer free space for you to host your blog. So why wouldn’t you just use this? Especially if you’re a newbie looking to get going right away at a minimal cost.

Reason #1 – Freedom to customize, expand and monetize your website.

There are crazy limitations to customizing, expanding and monetizing your site on free hosting services. Let’s be serious – no one reads the entirety of terms & conditions articles. But if you don’t know the ins and outs of your free hostings terms, the platform can take your site down for a given period of time for reasons you might not even be aware of. With paid, premium hosting, you are in control of your content and can customize it how you wish.

Reason #2 – Your website is your brand and your brand alone.

With a free hosting platform you are tied to the brand of the platform hosting your site. You are completely co-branded. In other words, you are not your own entity. For example, our newlymoms site – which is https://thenewlymoms.com – would instead be www.thenewlymoms.wordpress.com. Not only does this make it much more difficult to remember and thus, find in the pandoras box of the online world, it also reads as less credible and established by your audience. I can tell you right now, I subscribe and follow a total of ZERO blogs that are co-branded. It gives the impression that you’re not serious about your work and will allow attention to be taken away from your masterpiece.

Reason #3 – The result of all your blood, sweat & tears is SAFE.

The internet is a rough place. Just because you’re creating your page on a reputable platform doesn’t mean it’s safe. On a paid hosting platform, the service you’re investing in includes high security monitoring of all the work you’re producing. Additionally, you can determine your security plug-ins and how you monitor activity on your site. And the best part? The premium hosting packages come with 24/7 support services so any thoughts, questions or concerns can be addressed immediately by REAL PEOPLE (who know much more about the world of web hosting than any google search or online query could tell you).

Which Web Host is Right for Me?

Now that you know the essential nature of choosing a premium over free web host, the next question is “which web host is right for me?” Now, there are approximately 56,487,565,132 different web hosts out there, so if you’re overwhelmed – I understand. If we were to go through ALL of them – this post would be about 108,565,784,112 pages long and wouldn’t be helpful to you at all. Because, while there are a metric ton of options out there, a select few exist that are best for bloggers. We’ll go through our top 4 and you can decide from there. And just to ease your worries – while there are a few features and tricks that you might miss out on by going with one instead of the other – the important thing is that each of these choices will ALWAYS have your back and you’ll be covered for whatever adventures you want to take your blog on.

Also note – all of these companies offer a few different options for hosting services from the necessary basics to the extra luxury package. Our recommendation is to start with the basic plan regardless of which host you choose. Why? Well, the more intense packages really only become necessary as your site expands and needs more support, security and space. Until your blog really gets off the ground we recommend saving your money where you can and starting with your basic plans.

Option 1 ~ Bluehost

Now, we are obviously going to recommend our own personal choice for a web host first because we firmly believe it is the best choice.

Our choice for Bluehost consisted mainly of the fact that integration with WordPress is by far the best in the business. Compared to the other sites we tested, Bluehost’s WordPress integration is much easier, more intuitive and user-friendly. The other web hosts required more of a learning curve in our opinion. Bluehost now offers a wordpress automatically installed when you purchase your domain and hosting through them. So the process is continually being improved.

If you’re main goal is to start a wordpress blog with minimal effort and cost – Bluehost is your best option.

Price: As low as $3.95/month

Here is a summary of the pros/cons for going with Bluehost WordPress Hosting:

Pros:

• Unmetered bandwith – In english this means that the plan you choose doesn’t limit the amount of traffic you’re allowed. So unlike the other choices below, you could grow your site to millions of visitors and not have to upgrade your site due to max traffic restrictions.
• 50 GB website space & 100 MB email space means you will likely not have to upgrade to a larger plan for a while
• The most newbie friendly of all the hosting options. If you didn’t want to use the cornucopia of resources on starting a WP blog with Bluehost, you could fumble your way through it and fake it ‘till you make it.
• Top recommendation for hosting by WordPress.org
• Free domain name included with your hosting plan

Cons:

• Average response time – not quite as fast as SiteGround coming in at an average of .93 seconds

Option 2 ~ SiteGround

Siteground was our 2nd choice. We had initially tried to start the newlymoms on SiteGround and then ended up switching to Bluehost because of the wordpress integration learning curve. All of our themes and setup guides gave us step-by-step through Bluehost so it was just easier to than to try and figure out parallel actions in another hosting platform. SiteGround, however, is an awesome choice as well. I will say – the main reason most people will choose SiteGround over Bluehost is the response time. If you’re planning on loading your site with extensive media and trying to reach people at all 4 corners of the earth – SiteGround is the way to go. In testing the same websites loaded through various hosting platforms, SiteGround came in the top percentile across the board.

Price: As low as $3.95/month

Here’s a summary of the pros/cons of SiteGround:

Pros:

• Supa Supa Fast – response times as low as .41 seconds all over the world – average load time .74 seconds
• Relatively simple set-up process, you can get your site up & running quickly
• This is a favorite amongst WordPress Pros. But if you’re just starting out blogging, you’re likely not a WP pro yet.

Cons:

• Slightly steeper learning curve to working with WordPress within the interface
• Basic plan only allows you up to 10,000 visitors per month & then you’ll have to upgrade
• Only 10 GB included of web space so if you’re planning to expand your website quickly & manage your email on the SiteGround servers this space will go fast
• Domain Name is not included (as it is with Bluehost), additional purchase required

Option 3 ~ HostGator

HostGator is a great option to go with as well. The basic plan only allows 1 wordpress site, which is slightly less than the competition has to offer. But if you’re just looking to start out this is probably your best option pricewise. Again, if you’re not sure about totally committing to your blog and just looking to dabble, HostGator is probably the way to go. Why? Well, this is your only no initial contract option. However, the renewal fees nearly double the introductory offer, so I’d definitely take that into consideration during your evaluation process.

Price: $2.75 for single domain/$3.95 for unlimited domains

Here’s a summary of the pros/cons of HostGator:

Pros:

• • Unmetered bandwith like Bluehost
  • No contract with a 45-day money back guarantee
  • Cheapest option for single domain

Cons:

• Renewal fees nearly double that of the introductory offers
• Standard response time, almost doubles SiteGround with an average of 1.35 seconds
• Domain name not included; additional purchase required

Option 4 ~ WP Engine

My absolute favorite thing about this platform is that you get the Genesis Framework & 35+ StudioPress Themes FREE (that’s over $2k in goods) when you sign up for a WP Engine hosting plan. Now, as we’ll discuss in future posts, StudioPress Genesis Framework & Child Themes are the cream of the crop when it comes to setting up the function, look and feel of your blog. So getting all these included is HUGE. However, don’t be fooled by the $2k in free goods. If you bought a solo StudioPress theme that comes with the Genesis Framework, this would only cost about $130. Something to keep in mind.

Definitely the biggest con with WP Engine is the cost. For your basic plan of 1 site, with 25k visits per month and 50GB bandwidth, you’re looking at $35/month but you can get 2 months free with the annual prepay. What is awesome though is that you can migrate any existing WordPress site over to WP Engine hosting with ease. So if you wanna upgrade your blog to more of a “digital experience” in the future, you can do that with little work (after your site is bringing in the big bucks and you can incur the cost).

Price: Starting at $35/month

Pros:

• 35+ gorgeous StudioPress themes and the Genesis Framework free with your hosting purchase
• StudioPress (recently acquired by WP Engine) is known for it’s industry leading support and resources
• Really capitalizes on the “digital experience” of your blog

Cons:

• The most expensive choice by far.

Like we said, at the end of the day – each of these options will give you what your blog needs from a hosting platform. Go with your gut!

Hope this helped!

Comment below with any questions or comments!

Happy Hosting,

Niki from