Adding Value To Your Brand. Nothing Great Web hosting Can't handle

Here's a quick question for small- and medium-size business owners: Does your company have a website? Online businesses obviously need websites for marketing and selling products or services, but even brick-and-mortar business need to be discoverable via the Web.

It's 2017, not 1985; the days when yellow pages listings were the pinnacle of business discovery are long gone. Nowadays, people discover new businesses via Bing, Google and Yahoo, search engines that make it a breeze to find companies' operational hours and prices. If your business doesn't appear in the search results, especially on the first page, it'll be incredibly difficult for potential customers to find you. So, long story short, you must build a website if you want to be competitive. And make money.

Getting Started

The first step is to find a Web host, the company that will store your website's files on its servers and deliver them to your readers' and customers' browsers. Web hosting services offer varying amounts of monthly data transfers, storage, email, and other features. Even how you pay (month-to-month payments vs. annual payments) can be radically different, too, so taking the time to plot out exactly what your company needs for online success is essential.

Web hosting services also offer different types of hosting, including shared, virtual private server (VPS), dedicated hosting, and WordPress hosting plans. Shared hosting is good for users who don't want to spend a lot of money on hosting packages and don't mind some of its traffic and data transfer limitations. VPS hosting is great for small businesses that want more power than shared hosting, but don't want to deal with dedicated hosting's prices. Dedicated hosting, on the other hand, is both powerful and pricey; it's reserved for sites that experience incredibly high levels of traffic per day.

Managed WordPress hosting is for those who want to build their sites on the back of the popular WordPress content management system (CMS), but don't want to bother with a lot of the backend stuff (such as updating the apps and CMS, and enabling automatic backups).

If you're not sure of the type of hosting your business needs, you might want to start small, with shared Web hosting. You can always graduate to a more robust, feature-rich package of, say, VPS hosting or even dedicated hosting in the future. Unfortunately, some hosts don't offer all hosting types. Consider how much you expect to grow your website, and how soon, before you commit to anything longer than a one-year plan. It's worth spending the time up front to make sure that the host you select with is able to provide the growth you envision for your site, as switching Web hosting providers midstream is not a trivial undertaking.

Once you decide you price range, you need to consider how long you'll need Web hosting. If it's a short-term project—say, less than a month or two—you can typically receive a refund should you cancel your hosting within 60 days. Some companies offer 30-day money-back guarantees, others offer 90-day money-back guarantees. Once again, it's beneficial to do your homework.

The Features You Need

Many Web hosts offer limited features in their starter packages and then expand the offerings (sometimes tremendously) for higher-tier plans. Read the small print to make sure the plan you are selecting offers what you need. If you need a site builder application to design your website, make sure that the low-cost Web host you are picking actually comes with a site builder. Many of them require you to pay for the builder as a separate add-on. Website builders usually don't cost a lot of money, but if you can find a Web host that includes one for free, that's money in your pocket. And, if it's integrated with your hosting service, you're more likely to have a smooth, supported experience.

When it comes to server operating systems, Linux is typically the default option. Still, some services offer a choice of Linux or Windows hosting. If you have specific server-side applications that require Windows, such as SQL Server or a custom application written in .NET, then you need to make sure your Web host has Windows hosting. But don't let the idea of a Linux host intimidate you. Nowadays, most Web hosts offer a graphical interface or a control panel to simplify server administration and website management. Instead of typing at the command line, you'll click easily identifiable icons.

Windows hosting is often more expensive than Linux hosting, especially in the dedicated server area. That's not always the case, but it's something you should be aware of as you shop around.

Email Hosting

If you aim to have a Web presence, you've got to have email. It's a convenient way for potential customers and clients to send you a message, Word document, or other files. Thankfully, most Web hosts include email in the price of their hosting plans. Some Web hosts offer unlimited email account creation (which is great for future growth), while others offer a finite amount. You, naturally, should want unlimited email.

That said, not all Web hosts offer email. WP Engine, for example, does not. In such instances, you must email accounts from a company other than your Web host. GoDaddy, for instance, sells email packages starting at $3.49 per user, per month. That might sound like a hassle, and just one more thing to keep track of, but there are actually some webmasters who feel that separating your email hosting and Web hosting services is smart. That way, one provider going offline won't completely bork your business.

Uptime, Uptime, Uptime!

The aforementioned features are valuable to the Web hosting experience, but none matches the importance of site uptime. If your site is down, clients or customers will be unable to find you or access your products or services.

Recently, we've added uptime monitoring to our review process, and the results show that most Web hosts do an excellent job of keeping sites up and running. Web hosts with uptime issues are heavily penalized during the review process and are unable to qualify for top ratings.

Ecommerce and Marketing

One thing we learned in reviewing the services listed here (and many more) is that even though the packages are very similar, they are not identical. Some are more security-focused than others, offering anti-spam and anti-malware tools. Others offer a variety of email marketing tools. While most of the hosts we've reviewed have built-in e-commerce, you may want to consider using a more-robust third-party online shopping cart application like Shopify instead

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Shared Web Hosting Packages

That said, HostGator offers Linux- or Windows-based based shared hosting packages that give small- and medium-sized businesses room to grow. The Hatchling plan (starting at $10.95 per month) offers unlimited disk space, bandwidth, databases, and email addresses, plus support for one domain and third-party applications such as content management systems and e-commerce platforms. The Baby plan (starting at $11.95 per month) builds on the Hatchling offering by adding unlimited domains. The top-tier Business plan (starting at $16.95 per month) includes highly specialized options, such as a free toll-free phone number and a private SSL (secure socket layer) certificate.

Arvixe matches HostGator closely in the shared hosting game, but HostGator offers slightly more bang for the buck with the inclusion of a private SSL certificate and free toll-free number.

Virtual Private Server Packages

DreamHost offers Linux-based VPS Web hosting (starting at $15 per month) for businesses that need more power or expect higher traffic volumes. DreamHost's VPS plans offer unlimited email, storage, and monthly data transfers, which is a nice perk. However, the base memory is quite low; the $15 per month plan offers only 300MB of RAM. On the other hand, the highest configuration ($249 per month) maxes out at 16GB of RAM. Of the VPS Web hosts I've reviewed, only Media Temple$20.00 at Media Temple - Shared offers more RAM (64GB).

IF YOU WANT TO TRY DREAMHOST FEEL FREE TO USE THIS CODE TO GET UP AND RUNNING.

http://mbsy.co/dreamhost/27774417

Still, Hostwinds, TopBlogs top pick for VPS hosting, has wallet-friendly, well-rounded VPS offerings that start at $7.50 per month for 1GB of RAM, 25GB of disk space, unlimited monthly data transfers, unlimited email, and half a CPU core. Hostwinds plans scale to $172 per month for 28.5GB of RAM, 600GB of disk space, unlimited monthly data transfers, unlimited email, and eight CPU cores. Note: DreamHost lacks Windows-based VPS servers.

Dedicated Web Hosting Packages

Dedicated server options (starting at $169 per month) on DreamHost aren't radically different from what many competing Web hosting services offer—you get 1TB of storage and can configure the servers with up to 16GB of RAM—but you get a highly desired feature: unlimited data transfers per month.

Unfortunately, DreamHost lacks Windows-based dedicated servers; it's Linux or bust. If you want a build a website using Microsoft's operating system as the foundation, I suggest checking out Arvixe$3.20 at Arvixe - Shared, Top Blog Editors' Choice for dedicated Web hosting, which offers Linux and Windows dedicated server options.

Dream Delayed

Signing up for DreamHost to build a test site was straightforward, but I was surprised that I couldn't get started right away. A banner message across the top of the account screen stated that DreamHost would contact me when my account was ready. I was perplexed that I had to wait about five hours before receiving an email confirming that my account had been setup and I could get started. Considering that most services, including Network Solutions$2.99 at Network Solutions and GoDaddy, let you start immediately, five hours is a long time to wait. Fortunately, it's a one-time thing.

I like DreamHost's user interface—it's simple and well laid out and made getting started on my test site easy. Instead of going the HostGator or iPage$8.99 at iPage - Shared route with cute, screen-cluttering icons, DreamHost offers a tree of menu options on the left side of the screen. It's easy to find billing information, manage domains, and view the settings for VPS and dedicated servers. I had no trouble finding the security options or the third-party app marketplace. What I couldn't find was a website builder. DreamHost doesn't offer one.

HostGator, Hostwinds, and even the overly simplistic One.com all offer some kind of website builder, so it is a little surprising that DreamHost doesn't, despite all its other advanced features. You have to create your site elsewhere and use FTP to upload it to your DreamHost account. At least the upload process is easy.

You have the option of installing third-party applications to your account such as MediaWiki, concrete5, GetSimple, Joomla, MODx Evolution, Pligg, Textpattern, and, of course, WordPress, to build your website. Piwigo is an available photo gallery application and Omeka is a Web-publishing platform for museums, galleries, and archive collections. So there are some options for building a site, but it's not like getting started with Weebly$8.00 at Weebly or most other website builders.

Once you have a site, however, you can use the Mobile Site Builder under the Domain menu to create a mobile-optimized site. That's a nice option.

WordPress Hosting

Like several of its competitors, DreamHost offers WordPress hosting, known here as DreamPress 2 (starting at $19.95 per month). In fact, DreamPress is managed WordPress hosting, a service that gives your website the white-glove treatment by auto-updating the popular content management system software, performing automatic daily backups, and providing WordPress-specific security. The single-tier DreamPress also comes with 30GB of storage, unlimited email, and monthly data transfers, as well as a variety of free WordPress themes.

DreamPress 2 lets you install any plug-in that you desire; Pagely$64.00 at Pagely and WP Engine$29.00 at WP Engine, on the other hand, restrict you from installing a small number of plug-ins that may impact your site's performance.

If you want to experience truly excellent WordPress hosting, however, check out 1&1$0.99 at 1&1 - Shared, the Top Blog's Editors' Choice in the category. This Web host boasts a managed WordPress plan with unlimited email, unlimited storage, automatic malware detection and removal, automatic WordPress updates, and a curated list of recommended WordPress plug-ins and themes. It's great.

Hope you enjoyed the review and will greatly benefit from whichever web hosting you decide to use for your business.

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