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Top 5 Web Hosting in 2020
We have been looking at individual web hosting services over the past few weeks. Now, it is time to look at the top 5 web hosting in 2020 out of those we’ve already reviewed!
But, before we do that we should discuss what we are going to compare. If you haven’t already been looking then when you do you are going to find out it is difficult to compare apples with apples, so to speak. So, in this review of the top 5 web hosting services I have chosen what I believe to be important for someone who is building their own online business that could have up to ten WordPress sites.
Price
I also know that what may be important to me may not be important to you so in this review I have included web hosting that costs $49.00 and under per month at a monthly rate.
What I just said is really important! The key was “at a monthly rate.” Every plan here has an annual rate and one’s rate is based on a 3-year plan! I’ll point that out when I get to that one. When you are looking at the plans online you really need to read the fine print and hover over the little “?” question marks that they have on their plans.
The other thing that is important to me is a platform that has everything I need on it. That way I’m not having to go here and there to do work on my websites. I’ll pay a little more for convenience, especially when it enables me to start and run a successful online business from scratch.
Number of WordPress Sites
I chose 10 WordPress sites as the standard as that is what my web hosting provider offers and it should be more than enough for the average entrepreneur building an online business.
Visits Per Month or Bandwidth
Here again using my WordPress webhosting provider as the standard I’ve gone with 500,000 per month. One site uses an incomparable metric, but I’ve included it nonetheless.
Storage
When it comes to storage space it seems to go up and down a little but unless you are holding huge video files they are all pretty comparable. My standard is 30 GB.
Free SSL
To me free SSL is a necessary convenience these days. We are talking about the security of your website and ensuring that your website becomes trusted by the search engines and the people who are visiting your website. It should be a given.
Staging Environment
You don’t want to put a website out in the field with only a few pages and/or posts on it. So to be able to test it in a staging environment is vital to establishing your business as soon as it hits the internet using your branded domain name.
Free Migrations
I believe free migrations from your old web hosting service provider is important, as well. After all, you are leaving one service provider to join another and they will make money from that, probably for years to come. Also, you want to be able to move the site as seamlessly as possible to reduce any interruption of business.
If the new service provider will migrate it for you, then that is even better.
Live Chat
If you’ve run into a problem or obstacle while building your business, there is nothing worse than everything coming to a stop because the service provider only provides support via tickets or email and has banker’s hours to boot.
Time is money and any time your building process is halted it is costing you money.
Domain Platform
What I mean by domain platform is that you should not have to go to another site/service to purchase a domain. Why? Because once you’ve done that you still will need to set up their DNS servers to point to the DNS servers where your website is being hosted.
Okay, if you want to save a dollar or two it will probably be cheaper to go to an external domain server to get your domain. But then you’ve got the overhead of configuration and yearly payments for your domain that will come from an external source from your web hosting provider.
Domain Email
If you are going to be running an online business, it only makes sense that you are going to have email addresses that belong to your domain. Let’s look at two email addresses.
wallerdog@yahoo.com
les.waller@wallerdog.com
Which of these two look more professional?
Quite a few of the web hosting platforms do not provide an email service because they say they want to focus on speed, security, and quick response time for the customers. Therefore, if you want to have your own email addresses for your domain you have to go somewhere else for it and you have just incurred another cost.
Now, we come to what I believe are the most important factors when it comes to starting and building an online business from the ground up:
- Private Coaching / Mentorship
- Step-by-Step Training
- Keyword Research Tool
Step-by-Step Training
I’m talking about training that goes from when you’ve first purchased your plan, to creating your site, to selecting a niche, to creating content, optimizing SEO, applying for affiliate accounts and everything in between.
I’m not talking about some YouTube videos that explain how to point your domain to a DNS server, or an eBook that talks about WordPress plugins.
I’m talking about training that takes you from account creation to building a site with well over 50 posts that is earning revenue while you sleep!
Keyword Search Tool
Key to your success in the online world of getting people to visit your site and make purchases or become leads or get added to your email list is having a readily available, easy to use, Keyword Search Tool.
What good does your article do or your website for that matter if no one finds it because it’s on page 50 on the Google search pages for your keywords? Word!
Private Coaching / Mentorship
Unless you are already earning at least 4 figures per month with your online business I believe we all could use some private coaching and/or a mentor to either keep us on track or make sure we aren’t making common mistakes in this business.
However, the closest I see to this other than where my website is hosted has been external paid services. Why pay extra for something that can come with your plan?
This is a classic case of “you get what you pay for”, at least in this review of web hosting in 2020.
So, if you want to pay under $10 a month for your webhosting service, go for it and then come back in a year and let’s compare where your business is then and where mine is.
Top 5 Web Hosting Sites by Price
I’m putting these in order from lowest to the highest cost. Just remember, you get what you pay for in the end.
At the bottom of the article is a side-by-side comparison of the highlighted features.
NameCheap
- Price: $8.88
- Free SSL: Free for 1st year only, thereafter you pay $7.88 per year
- Staging Environment: None
- Support: 24/7, live chat, email, or ticket
- Step-by-Step Training: limited to a resource center, a knowledge base, how-to videos and a blog.
- Keyword Search Tool: No
- Private Coaching: No
PROS & CONS
Pros
- Free Migration
- Low cost
- Domain Email
Cons
- No Phone Support
- Limited Training
- No Keyword Search Tool
- No Private Coaching
- No Staging Environment
VERDICT: This may be a good alternative if you are running a blog as a hobby only, but if you want to start and run an online business then don’t stop here.
For a more in-depth review of Namecheap, see my Namecheap review.
WebHostingPad
- Price: $8.99
- Free SSL: WordPress Pro plan (price quoted here) includes a Trusted CA SSL Certificate, less expensive plans give a Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate which is substandard compared to a Trusted CA Certificate.
- Staging Environment: No
- Support: 24/7, live chat, phone, ticket, or Knowledge base
- Step-by-Step Training: limited to Knowledge base with articles in it
- Keyword Search Tool: No
- Private Coaching: No
PROS & CONS
Pros
- Free Migration
- Low Cost
- Domain Email
Cons
- Lack of Training
- No Keyword Search Tool
- No Private Coaching
VERDICT: This may be a good alternative if you are running a blog as a hobby only, but if you want to start and run an online business then don’t stop here.
For a more in-depth review of WebHostingPad see my WebHostingPad review.
KnownHost
- Price: $9.97 (shared hosting to meet the 10 wordpress site requirement)
- Free SSL: Yes (shared hosting plan)
- Staging Environment: No
- Support: 24/7, chat, ticket, Knowledge base, community forum
- Step-by-Step Training: limited to knowledge base and a wiki
- Keyword Search Tool: No
- Private Coaching: No
PROS & CONS
Pros
- Low Cost
Cons
- Shared Hosting
- Lack of Training
- No Keyword Research Tool
- No Private Coaching
VERDICT: I would not recommend a shared hosting plan and the WordPress plans only allow 1 WordPress site.
For a more in-depth review of KnownHost see my KnownHost review.
Cloudways
- Price: $42.00
- Free SSL: Let’s Encrypt SSL (substandard)
- Staging Environment: unlimited number
- Support: 24/7, live chat, ticket (phone w/paid add-on)
- Step-by-Step Training: limited to knowledge base, blog, community forum and case studies
- Keyword Search Tool: No
- Private Coaching: No
PROS & CONS
Pros
- Staging Environment
- Unlimited WordPress Sites
- 80 GB Storage Space
- Dedicated IP
- Host Server Near Customer
- 3-day Free Trial
- Large Variety of Hosting Plans
Cons
- Poor SSL encryption
- Lack of Training
- No Keyword Search Tool
- No Private Coaching
VERDICT: I’m not sure if I would recommend this one or not. I think what I will do in the near future is take them up on the 3-day free trial and make a video about setting up a website on their server. Perhaps that experience will help me come up with a verdict on Cloudways.
For a more in-depth review of Cloudways see my Cloudways review.
Wealthy Affiliate
- Price: $49.00
- Free SSL: Yes
- Staging Environment: Yes
- Support: 24/7, live chat, ticket, community forum, private message
- Step-by-Step Training: Two tracks:
- Affiliate Bootcamp; 7 Levels, 10 Lessons per Level
- Online Entrepreneur Certification; 5 Levels, 10 Lessons per Level
- Keyword Search Tool: Yes, Jaaxy Keyword Search Tool
- Private Coaching: Yes, within Wealthy Affiliate is a close-knit community of like-minded people who help each other to achieve success in the online affiliate marketing world.
PROS & CONS
Pros
- Free Keyword Search Tool
- Free Private Coaching
- Free Step-by-Step Training
- Free Weekly Live Webinars
- Free High Resolution Image DB
- Free Website Builder
- Pay it Forward Engagement and Feedback Platform
- 100s of archived training videos, live webinars and training posts
- Free Starter Membership
- Great Tech Support – I just bought a website and thanks to Tech Support was able to easily move in from their webhost provider to Wealthy Affiliate. Also, moving the domain registration was easy to do. Now, I have another working website that is bringing in income without having to invest the hours to build it or wait the time for it to be recognized by Google as an authority site. www.smartguncleaning.com
Cons
- People are looking for a quick way to make a buck and get discouraged because we tell them upfront that you must first put forth the time and effort to build your business before you will reap your rewards.
VERDICT: This is hands down the best platform on the internet for starting and growing your online home-based business with no prior training or experience.
For a more in-depth review of Wealthy Affiliate see my Wealthy Affiliate 2021 review.
Side-by-Side Comparison for Top 5 Web Hosting in 2020
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