Hosting services for Websites : 5 Best Hosting Providers you need to know

Online businesses have increased to a great extent in the present digital world, such that many business organizations and bloggers want to keep their websites running and accessible to global audiences with the best and most trustworthy web hosting providers. Hosting services for websites strengthen the online presence of any business such as E-commerce, Blogging, Educational, Entertainment, Online Portfolio, Search Engines, and many other companies.

After you have purchased your domain for your website, it is important to make a crucial decision by selecting the right hosting provider.

Hosting Services for Websites

Hosting is the location on the internet where you place your website, which is similar to the concept of having a physical home to live in. After you purchase a domain and your website is ready, there are various files, media, and code through which your website is built and must be saved at a secured location. To secure several types of files, media, and codes, hosting plays an important role which helping users access your website globally through desktops, smartphones, or other devices.

You can store hundreds of websites under a single hosting plan which is the added advantage for users managing multiple websites.

Different Types of Hosting Services for Websites

Here are the 6 different types of Web Hosting Services for websites you need to know before you start choosing the best hosting providers:

1. Shared Hosting: 

This is mostly suitable for entry-level hosting services for websites with a shared hosting plan. In this program, multiple websites share the same server tools such as CPU(Central Processing Unit) and RAM (Random Access Memory) which makes it the best option for beginners or small business individuals.

However, Shared Hosting may not generate huge traffic which does not yield greater profits. The only special tools you may have access to are the best website builder tools, the best WordPress hosting, and e-mailing clients.

2. VPS Hosting: 

VPS- Virtual Private Server Hosting Services offers a neutral advantage between a shared server and a dedicated server.  Under VPS Hosting, a single physical server is split into numerous virtual servers provided with its own set of tools individually. Website owners are provided with an added advantage who desire to have more control and storage space with dedicated hosting but lack the necessary technical skills.

VPS Hosting is a great advantage for individuals who prefer the combination of cost savings by shared hosting with the flexibility of dedicated hosting. Also, for advanced users and other individuals who prefer specific software and package installation, VPS Hosting is the preferable option.

3. Dedicated Hosting: 

Dedicated Hosting is one of the most powerful and expensive hosting providers with the chance of most control and businesses. Website owners with high traffic prefer dedicated hosting. However, you need to have a high level of technical knowledge for installation and server management.

4. Cloud Hosting: 

Cloud Hosting is an adaptable and scalable hosting option that uses a network of virtual servers rather than relying on a single physical server. This allows you to scale multiple resources based on your requirements. Cloud Hosting is preferable for websites with traffic that fluctuates on a regular basis and makes your website grow at any time.

5. Managed Hosting: 

Most often, technical services provided by hosting firms include setup and configuration- Both Hardware and Software, maintenance, hardware replacement, technical assistance, patching, upgrading, and monitoring. Managed Hosting provider manages the hardware, operating systems, and standardized applications on a daily basis.

There are multiple web hosting plans, so it is important to find a particular plan that meets your demands and businesses.

Managed hosting is ideal for users who do not have any technical skills and rather postpone the technical tasks to professionals.

6. Colocation: 

Colocation provides access to higher bandwidth than a usual office server room at a low cost. You will be provided with hardware, software, and services to maintain servers by renting space at a colocation facility rather than maintaining in a private data center. Your server requires electricity, bandwidth, IP address, and a cooling system that is offered by the data center.

Important factors to consider when selecting the Best Hosting Services for Websites: 

1. Availability and Consistency:

One of the most important aspects of hosting services for websites is availability which refers to the duration of the time any visitors can access your website. A reputed hosting platform provides at least 99.99% availability time which assures that your website is accessible to users across the world at any time.

2. Performance and Speed: 

Website speed plays an important role in the user as well as the SEO point of view. You need to select the best hosting service that offers fast servers and the best optimization options. It is better to look for technologies such as content delivery networks (CDNs) and Solid-State Drives (SSDs) to improve the performance of your website.

3. Customer Support: 

Beginners, as well as experienced users, require excellent customer service of 24/7 support provided via live chat, e-mail, and phone call conversations to provide the best effective solutions for all kinds of technical and non-technical issues.

4. Reasonable Pricing: 

You need to compare different plans that offer various price ranges and choose the one according to your budget and requirements. You need to be aware of such hosting companies that offer low cost but provide the worst customer service or website performance.

Additionally, you need to consider the actual cost while registering as well as the renewal rates.

5. Security: 

To safeguard your website and user data, you need to search for the best hosting companies that are guaranteed to provide strong security features such as :

• SSL certificates: SSL(Secure Socket Layer) certificates encrypt data transactions between the user’s browser and your website. This encryption is mandatory to prevent unauthorized parties and hackers from accessing confidential information such as login credentials, credit or debit card numbers, and other personal information.
• Firewalls: Firewalls act as a defensive line between your network and attackers by filtering incoming and outgoing traffic, barricading malicious data and unauthorized people from entering your website. Firewalls ensure to reduce the possibility of cyberattack risks such as Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) and unwanted access attempts.
• Regular backups: Best hosting services for websites provide a regular backup feature to store the important data of your website.
• Virus scanning: Virus scanning eradicates malware, viruses, and other unwanted software that can affect your system severely, and it should be performed on a regular basis to maintain your data in an ethical way.

Top 5 Hosting Providers: Best Hosting services for websites

Here is the list of the top 5 Hosting providers to experience the best hosting services for websites:

1. Hostinger: 

Hostinger is one of the popular web hosting service providers founded in 2004. The company is based in Europe and features SSL certificates as well as domain registration by providing managed solutions for WordPress users, e-commerce businesses, blogging, and other businesses.

Hostinger is one of the best and cheapest web hosting services provided with the fastest loading speed of your website. You need to visit the official website of Hostinger to choose the best plans that suit your budget and needs.

ADVANTAGES: 

1. Fast Loading Speed: Hostinger provides instant loading speed for your website which provides a smooth experience for visitors.
2. User-Friendly Interface: The easy-to-use interface guides users to store and backup the important data and files of their website with ease.
3. UPI Payments: One of the great benefits Indian customers can experience is the UPI payments accepted by Hostinger.
4. Free SSL Certificate: A free SSL certificate will be offered along with your chosen plan to prevent cyberattacks and protect your website.

LIMITATIONS: 

1. Ineffective Customer Support: You cannot expect excellent customer service from Hostinger as they don’t provide effective solutions to users within a short period of time.
2. Limited Resources: If you have opted for the cheapest plans, then you may have access to limited resources on Hostinger.
3. Limited Disk Space: You need to choose an advanced Hostinger plan to increase the disk space if you are operating a website with tons of information along with images and videos or multiple websites on a single hosting.

2. GoDaddy: 

GoDaddy is a popular American-based company that is well well-recognized domain registration service as well as the best web hosting service provider. It was founded in the year 1997 making it ideal for beginners to start their online business journey.

ADVANTAGES: 

1. Speed and Performance: GoDaddy offers excellent loading speed for your website and improves the performance of your web pages by ranking it higher on search engines.
2. Unlimited Disk Space: You can store a large size of data and important files on your website with the unlimited disk space provided.
3. Phone call support: GoDaddy offers excellent customer service through phone call conversations and provides the best solutions.

LIMITATIONS: 

1. No Live Chat support: You cannot expect 24/7 live chat support from GoDaddy compared to other competitive hosting platforms. GoDaddy provides only phone call support and continuous phone calls may sometimes annoy customers.
2. Complex Layouts: Sometimes, the layout design on GoDaddy becomes complex for users to understand and navigate.

3. Bluehost: 

Bluehost is an American-based company established in the year 2003 to offer dedicated hosting to small online business owners. Bluehost is one of the reputed and trusted platforms with more than 2 million users across the world.

ADVANTAGES: 

1. Free SSL Certificate: You will get a free SSL certificate to offer an extra layer of protection for your website.
2. Reasonable Hosting Plans: There are various reasonable plans provided by Bluehost equipped with additional features.
3. Refund: You will be refunded your full amount within 30 days if you are not satisfied with the hosting services of BlueHost.
4. Excellent Customer Service: Bluehost offers excellent customer service by providing 24/7 support via live chat, e-mail, and phone call conversations.

LIMITATIONS: 

1. Non-Automatic Data Back-Ups: You need to perform a manual backup process to secure the important files and data using BlueHost.
2. Frequent Ad Promotions: Sometimes, it may cause a visual disturbance when advertisements are frequently displayed and promoted on your Bluehost dashboard.
3. Basic Plans: The basic plans offered by Bluehost do not provide unlimited storage and bandwidth.

4. A2 Hosting: 

A2 hosting is well known for its speed and performance providing the best alternative for individuals, who prefer excellent speed and valuable performance of their website. The U.S.-based company was founded in 2001 to encourage beginners with an online business

ADVANTAGES: 

1. Availability and consistency: The availability time for your website provided by A2 hosting is 99.9% offering visitors the convenience to access your website at any time.
2. Turbo servers: A2 hosting optimizes the speed of your website using Turbo servers and provides instant loading speed for users.
3. User-Friendly interface: The easy-to-use interface provides convenient operation for both beginners as well as experienced users.
4. Refund: There is a scheme of 30-day money-back guarantee which means that if any user is initially not satisfied with the services provided by A2 hosting, a complete refund will be provided within 30 days.

LIMITATIONS: 

1. Storage Limitations: The Basic plan offered by A2 Hosting has storage limitations which means you cannot store huge data on your website and need to prefer an advanced plan.
2. Ineffective customer service: Sometimes, the customer service provided may not be instant and accurate compared to other competitive web hosting service providers.

5. HostGator: 

HostGator is a well-reputed hosting company based in the U.S. was founded in the year 2002 to provide the best hosting services for smallest to medium-sized online businesses and specializes in shared hosting.

ADVANTAGES: 

1. Reasonable Pricing: Many users have found the plans of the hosting services provided by HostGator to be reasonable.
2. Excellent customer support: You will get high-quality customer service with 24/7 customer support through live chat, e-mail, and phone calls.
3. Unlimited Bandwidth: The Unlimited bandwidth provided by Hostgator provides a convenient user experience while visiting your website.
4. User-Friendly Interface: Hostgator has been designed in a simple way to make it user-friendly for beginners.

LIMITATIONS: 

1. Performance: The performance of your website may vary depending on the shared hosting which can result in limited storage space and bandwidth.
2. Backups: There is no effective backup provided if you are using a cheap hosting plan from HostGator.

Overall, the above-listed web hosting service providers have their own advantages and limitations and you need to choose the best hosting services for websites that suit your long-term goals and budget.