A quick look at cheap web hosting
In the middle of 2022, I was approached by Digital.com to share some of their resources with my audience here. They saw areas where my content overlaps with their goals, so I thought I would take a look. One area they are keen to push is the cheap web hosting. They bill it as "best web hosting", however all the pricing is extremely low - so it needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.
I decided it would be good to take a look at some of the hosts they recommend, as well as some I've had dealings with. Added bonus for you reading here - there's no affiliate links so I have no agenda to push for my own gain. Please note - if you do go to a host via a link on Digital.com, they may be affiliate links which they may be paid for you using.
This series will start on Monday, and have a new host review each day next week. I'll do a round-up the week after
About Digital.com
Digital.com provide information aimed at small businesses or people wanting to start a business. They cover things like web hosting for blogs, e-commerce hosting, marketing, HR, finance and more.
Their team of writers review the products and services on offer and provide information which may help you, someone who wants to start a business, or someone already running a small business make a decision.
Their typical format for this is single, long posts. That's great as all the information is on one page, and in one place. But the pages can be intimidating.
Their "best web hosting" post comes in at over 7000 words, and covers 10 hosts. It does have a handy quick guide at the top to link down to the relevant host, and it does have a lot of information.
Overall, I think Digital.com is a great resource for someone wanting a lot of information in one place about starting a business - so long as that person is based in the US. I found a lot of their resources US-centric, though a lot of the information I looked at could be carried over into other countries fairly easily (I didn't look at the payroll and HR stuff).
What will I be looking at?
- Cost. Not just the headline "offer" cost, but a full 12 month, 36 month, and 60 month cost. (1, 3, and 5 years).
- Resources. What limits are there on things like disk space, monthly visitors, email addresses?
- Is there support available?
- Is there an option to pick your data center location? This could be important if you have dealings with customers in Europe and are therefore obliged to adhere to GDPR.
I'll take a look at the top 3 hosts from Digital.com's list, as well as two options to compare them against. The following hosts will be reviewed:
- Bluehost
- SiteGround
- Hostinger
- DigitalOcean
- IONOS
