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35 Comments

Which Web Host to use and which to Avoid?

Hey guys,

I'm a little confused about web hosting - I'm starting a blog and never knew that you had to have a host site for your website to live in, thought it was just a domain and go.

what web hosts do you use or regard as excellent and which ones shouldn't I really bother with?

I'm currently eyeing Bluehost because of it's inexpensiveness but other than that I'm not really sure what it does outside of my site living there.

If someone could also throw in a simple explanation of what a web host is and what it's supposed to do, I'd be very grateful.

Thanks in advance

  1. 4

    I'd just go with Squarespace, Wix or Weebly if you're looking to start a blog. Unless there is some design element that you need but you can't get with those providers.

  2. 3

    Have you started your blog yet? Or decided on a platform? If you haven't, check out https://ghost.org/. They offer hosting with their Pro plan

    1. 2

      Ghost is great - it's open source, so you can also self-host on a low-end box from any cloud provider. I just did that setup myself on a $10 DigitalOcean server and am pretty happy with it.

      1. 2

        Exactly this. I didn't want to recommend self-hosting because it could be daunting for a non-techy person, even with the one-click image provided as you still need to SSH in, setup DNS, etc.

        1. 2

          Yes, truth be told, the "one-click" install did not work for me and it required a bit of manual effort, but I'm very happy with the result overall.

    2. 1

      I haven't yet no, just dipping my toes and doing some research before completely jumping into the deep end. But I have a lot more clarity from this thread so kinda know which direction I'm going in - I'll definitely check out ghost! I'm not that technical (IT wise) but I'll give it a go anyway and see what I can do manually. Thank you :)

  3. 2

    We have a few bloggers using us https://versoly.com/ over Wordpress and other solutions.

    Database backups, plugins, security issues caused them to swap to us.

    1. 1

      This looks like a very cool product thus far, thank you! Will check it out more :)

      1. 2

        Thanks :)

        I'm always about in the live chat if you need any help.

        1. 1

          Awesome, thank you!

    1. 1

      AWS seems real scary to me for some reason... must combat that and get familiar with it. Thanks for the recommendations 👍

      1. 1

        Agreed, AWS is big and technical. But there is a lot of resources to help you learn. I think what’s interesting about AWS is that you get access to unlimited potential. With AWS, you really can build incredible cutting edge technology. Yes, we can argue that it’s over-engineering for a basic blog, but it is also full control.

        I started learning AWS because as an Indie Hacker, I might have an idea pop in my head and AWS would allow me to pursue that idea and deliver to the world in a way that would be stable, secure and that would scale.

        Some example AWS products:

        LightSail - Basic easy to use Webhosting, without the terrifying setup, 1-click install for things like WordPress.

        Amplify - Similar to LightSail but for hosting static sites without the need for compute, hosting flat HTML etc. with no database.

        Polly - Text to Speech in 47 Voices and 24 Languages, you could convert blog posts to audio for example.

        Simple Notification Service - Fully managed pub/sub messaging, SMS, email, and mobile push notifications.

        API Gateway - create RESTful APIs and WebSocket APIs that enable real-time two-way communication applications.

        Lumberyard - build cutting edge video games for free that use AWS services in the back (paid).

        There is around 175+ products/services available to explore, machine learning, IoT, robotics, video/media, satellite communication...

        It’s a bit scary, True! But I really think learning AWS is worth the time. Worst case scenario there are always experts you can pay to help you. And like I said, there is plenty of free video resources from AWS and from independent AWS experts.

        1. 2

          Wow!. I like the reason why you learnt AWS yourself, it’s legit. Also thanks for the examples of products built with AWS that’s good to know I always like to know real world solutions a software brings. Thanks for taking the time mate :)

  4. 1

    To answer this question, it would be helpful to know what blogging platform you plan on using. WordPress?

    1. 1

      It's the one I'm leaning towards the most atm yes

      1. 1

        If you're just starting with WordPress, you may want to use a cheap, simple shared hosting service. There are a lot out there but the one I liked the best when I was doing WP sites was SiteGround. They almost always have some sort of discount/coupon going on, so do a search for those. I've also tried A2 and Bluehost. Both of those were fine, but for me SiteGround was the best in terms of speed, reliability and ease of use.

        1. 1

          Thanks for this - I've wanted to know about the different hosting sites and if someones tried them too so I'm glad to see you've actually tried a few (especially Bluehost which was the first I was introduced to and kinda wanted) and have come to a conclusion through comparison. I'll look into SiteGround now!

  5. 1

    You might find my curated list at StartupToolchain useful.

    1. 1

      This is sick, Thank you! On what basis have you chosen the sites you've listed? Or have they just randomly been added as the ones you know?

      1. 1

        Great question.
        Short answer - The brand should care about its customers, put privacy and security of its customers over profits.

        Long answer - Selection criteria goes like this -

        1. Tools I have used in my startup/products earlier.
        2. Tools recommended by the startup community.
        3. Tools built by me (marked *).
        1. 1

          That's great! thanks for clearing that up for me.

          Maybe you can add @volkandkaya site -https://versoly.com/ on there too- probably under Website/CMS. It fits your criteria (from what I've researched so far) and others can find it as a better choice :)

          1. 1

            Hey thanks for the suggestion, looks good, I will explore it further and then add it to StartupToolchain.

  6. 1

    A web host is just a file cabinet where you store files. Your computer is also just a file cabinet but the difference is the files on your computer can only be seen by you. When you put files in your web host file cabinet, the entire world can see them. AKA webpages.

    Websites are just files and your web host is just he file cabinet for those files. To make changes to your website, you start by opening your file cabinet so you can find the files.

    1. 1

      That's super clear! Thanks Mailman :)

  7. 1

    What platform? If WordPress I've found NameCheap hosting working good enough. If modern tools are involved in making your website then consider one of these: https://bejamas.io/blog/jamstack-hosting-deployment/

    1. 1

      another alternative could be https://www.hostinger.com/ , their starter pack is very affordable and customer support is great, have been using myself.

  8. 1

    The easiest and cheapest(free) one is blogger.com . You can also link your domain. Only drawback is limited themes (they are planning to add new themes). You can edit and remove unnecessary sections in blogger.

    1. 1

      Thanks @prakis. Just a little uneasy about blogger because you can't be your own host and your website lives on their platform so not much control for me. Also hearing from others that they sometimes delete blogs without explanation (again, a control thing) yikes!

  9. 1

    If you're just starting out and got a couple of bucks go with a fully hosted solutions like WordPress.com or blogger or whatever the platform of your choice is.

    Trying to save a couple of bucks and doing all the servers and stuff will waste you a bunch of time and you would get hit with lessons by what you don't know like backups, DDoS, speed issues and more at the worst times..

    1. 1

      Oh wow I already don't know what half that stuff is, need to get to researching. Thank you for this info :)

  10. 0

    I agree with @hatkyinc here. Probably the best to go with is WordPress.com or Blogger which is owned by Google. I would go with Wordpress personally since Google likes to shutdown projects out of nowhere and can do that with blogger too if they want.
    Then there, of course, are the more advanced alternatives which are self-hosted Wordpress. In this category, you got a ton of options ranging from a buck a month to hundreds of dollars per month. The largest upside of self-hosted is of course that you own your site completely.
    But I would firstly recommend you to go with WordPress.com

    1. 1

      Got it! Thanks for this info. Wanna own my site and also want options so sounds great :)

  11. 1

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 1

      Got it! Thanks for this info mate learnt a lot from this

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