Best Hosting Deals/Coupons
Choosing a web hosting provider is arguably the most crucial decision in your bid to launch a successful website. However, due to the many players in this space, you may be overwhelmed on who to go for. The best approach is to have a guideline that allows you to compare what each of the players offer and how well their web hosting plans match your needs.
How Much Should You Pay for Web Hosting?
It’s unsurprising that many people looking for web hosting services tend to give more weight to pricing. Due to market inefficiencies, pricing has often been used as an indicator of value. The more expensive a web hosting plan is, the more valuable it is taken to be. While this is understandable, it must be acknowledged that pricing alone doesn’t guarantee you the service you are about to purchase will live up to its promise.
That said, web hosts price their services either on a per month basis or for extended periods of time. Generally, when you sign up for longer periods, say 1, 2, or 3 years and pay upfront, you will enjoy reduced rates and even discounts. Since pricing and discounts from one web hosting provider to the other, it makes a lot of sense to compare plans across the board for the best deals.
In terms of affordability, shared hosting plans are relatively cheaper. From as low as $5 a month or even less, you can have your website online. VPS hosting plans are a little pricier compared to shared hosting plans, but even then, there is a lot of variation depending on the level of managed services and computing power of the servers. You can get an affordable VPS plan for about $20 a month.
If your demands are greater due to the scale of their businesses or the sensitivity of your operations, dedicated hosting plan is the best option for you. The features and resources web hosts invest in these plans, makes them the most expensive. For a start, you can get a basic server at a price ranging from $75 to $100 per month.
How Do I Choose a Hosting Plan?
While the array of products hosting providers offer give you a wide range of choice, they can also make it difficult to arrive at a decision. Before choosing a hosting plan, you must have a clear picture of what you are looking for. This will prevent you from being enticed by offers and incentives into plans that are beyond your scope. The following checklist can start you off.
- Establish your hosting needs
- Find out the reliability and uptime guarantee of the available web hosts
- Check for upgrading options
- Assess the hosting features and how well they fit your needs
- Check for signup and renewal prices
- Dig through the terms of service details especially information on server usage policy and account suspension
- Establish the efficiency of the support system including features such as site backup
If you don’t need as much computing power, a shared hosting plan can be the best starting point. These plans not only are affordable but also easy to maintain. They can comfortably handle modest audiences of anything up to 30,000 or 40,000 unique visitors per month.
On the other hand, when building a website that requires special software, or you expect to handle huge traffic volumes, a virtual private server or dedicated hosting can serve you well.
As you figure out your ideal hosting plan, it helps to do a growth forecast say of the next 12 months or even three years. This will give you a foresight on the best plan that can sustain your growth into the long term.
When assessing hosting services, pay attention to their sign-up options. Companies tend to offer attractive rates to new subscribers. However, once the period of offer comes to an end, and you want to renew your plan, the prices change. Introductory offers are great because they usher you into the hosting plan of your choice and give you exciting benefits at a much lower-than-expected pricing. To be on the safe side and avoid unpleasant surprises, review the terms of service before opting in.
What Are the Payment Gateways Web Hosting Providers Accept?
Web hosting companies try to make it simpler and convenient for you to pay for services. Most of them readily accept all major credit cards such as Visa, Master Card, Discover, and American Express.
Depending on the payment policy a hosting service provider has put in place, they may also accept payments from other gateways such as PayPal, wire transfers and money orders.
Another factor affecting the acceptance of different modes of payment, is the billing cycle. For shorter cycles, credit cards are preferred. Checks are usually accepted for plans that are much longer say 6 or 12 months. Your web host will send you an invoice when the payment is due to ensure you pay the right amount and to the correct account.
Is Monthly Billing Available and Preferable?
Hosting providers may advertise for their services based on a monthly billing cycle or an extended period. Even those that showcase their monthly rates may turn to annual or semi-annual billing at the point of subscription. For the few web hosts that give you the privilege of paying monthly, they usually charge you an extra fee that is built in the pricing.
When trying out a hosting service, go for the monthly billing cycle and once you develop confidence with the hosting quality, you can then opt for the yearly billing.
Most web hosting providers give you a service guarantee complete with a promise for a full refund if you aren’t happy with their services. Such guarantees may have special scenarios where money paid is not refundable. Ensure you read the fine print on the money back guarantee so that you are covered.
How do Hosting Service Providers Price their Domains?
When shopping for a hosting plan, you may come across service providers who offer a free domain upon subscribing. This is an offer worth considering, but not without reading through the terms and conditions.
Most offers of free domains last for a year, save for a few such as 1&1 and WebHostingHub who continue to cover your domain fees as long as your account with them is active. For the one-off yearly offers, check out how much it will cost you to renew your domain at the end of the year.
When migrating your domain to another hosting provider, you may be charged a transfer fee. Ensure you consider this before committing to a web host. Most domain renewals cost between $10 and $15 per year. This includes administrative fee and a small fraction that goes to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
What is Domain Privacy and is it Necessary?
Domain privacy enables you to hide your personal information including your name, phone number, email address and mailing address from the public eye. Normally, when you register a domain, ICANN requests for your details. Once granted, this information is compiled into a public-accessible WHOIS database. Anyone including hackers, spammers and direct marketers. can search this database and retrieve crucial information about you.
The cost of domain privacy service ranges between $10 and $15 per domain per year depending on your web hosting service provider. However, it is an add-on service and you can always opt out if you so wish. It doesn’t form part of the regular hosting package pricing.
Does an Uptime Guarantee Cost Extra?
An uptime guarantee is a promise from your web host that the infrastructure supporting your website will perform well and your content will be available online. The essence of having a website is so that you can be online 24/7. This means you need a hosting service with stable network connections and a powerful server.
100% uptime guarantee may be ideal, but some hosting providers can attain this without any extra fee charged to you. Generally, an uptime score of 99.9% and above is excellent! It means your site will be unavailable for only 45 minutes a month.
What is an Upgrade Process and is it Worth it?
The aim of every web hosting provider is to see subscribers graduate from a lower to a higher hosting plan. However, such a process must be informed by your needs as a subscriber. As your business grows, you may need to move to a more powerful plan that can accommodate the resulting traffic upsurge, uploads, and downloads.
With just a phone call or chat, you can be migrated by a support team member to a higher hosting plan. The process involves configuration of your server and transferring files and databases to the new platform. If you find server maintenance and keeping up with security patches tedious, you can switch to a managed hosting service. Depending on the level of management, you may be charged an extra fee. That said, many hosts offer basic managed services free of cost in their various plans.
Do Promo Codes Work in Reducing the Cost of Hosting?
Yes, they do! Coupon codes are meant to do just that, reduce prices. The coupons could be on domain name renewal, first time purchase of a hosting plan, or a hosting plan renewal. They knock off a certain percentage of the total cost leaving you to pay the balance. Information on these coupons may be posted on your web host’s site or on a third-party site. The easiest way to find out if a promo code exists or not is by doing a search online.
Getting the right web hosting provider can mean the difference between a high-performing site and one that disappoints through occasional downtimes and hidden charges. Go through the comparison chart and single out each feature before paying up for your subscription.
