Looking for Cheap Hosting?
While it is almost the kiss of death for a company not to have a website it does not always have to be fancy. When just having a simple website is all a company needs it is not necessary to spend a lot of money to keep it out there. There are plenty of places to go for inexpensive website hosting and this list is ten of them that are the most popular as evidenced by their Alexa traffic ratings. Most of them offer different levels at different price points so a company can decide just what their needs are and not pay for extras they don’t need. Most of these are under $10 per month even for their best plan making them all quite affordable.
1. GoDaddy: http://www.godaddy.com/
Global Alexa Rating: 76
GoDaddy promises a guaranteed 99.9% uptime making it a good choice for businesses that recognize that any time the website is down there is a chance for lost customers. They also offer 24/7 support for those times you need some help. With any hosting plan you receive a free domain name – either a .com, .co, .net or .org. They offer three different plans – economy, deluxe and ultimate. The regular prices for these are $6.99, $8.99 and $14.99 per month respectively although at the time of this review they were offering a sale with a 12, 24 or 36 month commitment which saves anywhere from 42% to 50% off the monthly rate. The economy plan is perfect for those that only need one website and do not need more than 100 GB of disk space. The other plans offer unlimited websites and unlimited disk space. All plans include unlimited bandwidth.
2. HostGator: http://www.hostgator.com/
Global Alexa Rating: 159
HostGator has a pretty cute way of presenting web hosting by calling their three plans hatchling, baby and business plan. A popup lets you compare the plans easily so you can choose the one right for your business. As with most web hosting companies they offer lower and lower monthly pricing the longer the period of commitment. They do have a 45 day money back guarantee giving a business time to decide if the hosting is working out for them. This is a big company with over 850 employees and more than 8 million hosted domains. With any plan customers have free access to their Weebly SiteBuilder and website building tools, 4,500 free website templates, free website transfer, domain transfer, MySQL transfer and script transfer. Their premium support allows customers to call, live chat or email 24/7/365. Businesses that are conservation minded will love that they invest in wind energy to offset server emissions and they purchase certified Renewable Energy Credits (REC’s). They have gone green – all their shared and reseller servers are 130% wind powered. They fully explain all their conservation efforts on their website. As your business grows, so can your website because they also offer dedicated servers.
3. Blue Host: http://www.bluehost.com/
Global Alexa Rating: 324
A nice feature of this company is the ability to do a live demo login so that businesses can try out some of their tools ahead of time. They appear to only have one level of hosting which costs $6.99 per month, although at the time of this review they were running a sale at $3.95 per month instead. Click on “features” to get a listing of all the features that are included, most of which are unlimited. They offer SimpleScripts 1-click installs which is a nice feature for beginners. Some of the benefits they list is that they have two power backups – UPS and diesel, four different shopping cart features for e-commerce and a true resource management protection feature. They also offer dedicated hosting with the first month 50% off. One word of caution is to ask which transfer assistance is included and which has additional fees so you know ahead of time what is involved.
4. iPage: http://www.ipage.com/ipage/index.html
Global Alexa Rating: 1,335
When they run specials they are the most affordable web hosting service out there – currently on sale for just $1 per month! This is just a promotional rate that is for the first year and the renewal rate is higher than some other options but this can be a great way to get started inexpensively. The domain name is free but there is a domain fee should you wish to keep your domain name should you transfer to another hosting company. Their personalized domain name is for one year – a $14.99 value. The website is well laid out with all the key features on one page yet a pull down to get to the more involved feature information – they call this ‘features for geeks’ which is rather cute. This company is also eco-friendly in that they purchase REC’s and they offer badges you can use on your website to show that your site is eco-friendly and hosted by wind energy.
5. Just Host: http://www.justhost.com/
Global Alexa Rating: 1,562
Just Host is currently offering a special introductory offer of just $2.25 per month on their 48 month plan with renewal rates from $6.99 per month. Businesses can also engage in shorter contracts or even go month to month for just $8.95 per month. They also offer dedicated servers and VPS hosting. The website is excellent at displaying everything that is included in their web hosting including features and free website scripts. They state that they are a great choice for the business owner that wants full functionality on a small budget. Their plan includes unlimited GB’s hosting space, unlimited data transfer and unlimited email accounts. They have a free site builder tool called Trendy Site Builder 1-Click Install as well as many other 1-click install features such as Druupal, Joomla, Magento, osCommerce and Concrete5.
6. Host Monster: http://www.hostmonster.com/
Global Alexa Rating: 1,572
Host Monster has a nice demo login feature to get businesses acquainted easily with what they have to offer. A relative newcomer they are sitting at about one million websites at the current time and have a limited time offer of just $3.95 per month, regularly $6.99 per month. They do not outsource. All support – chat, email and phone – is handled by support people in their Provo, Utah headquarters making it one of the only ones that is 100% US-based support. They also offer dedicated web hosting and VPS web hosting. A table on the website clearly outlines all the features and bonus features included with all accounts. Most features are completely unlimited. They also have an affiliate program so you can easily cover your hosting fees with just a few referrals.
7. Inmotion Hosting: http://www.inmotionhosting.com/
Global Alexa Rating: 1,611
Inmotion Hosting has a few benefits over the competition that they mention on their website. First of all they offer a 90-day guarantee which is twice as long as most other companies. They also offer free data backups have been CNET Certified for 10 years. They include more free software than other companies – 310+ 1-click installs. They also have green data centers like some other companies do. They have U.S. based in-house support available 24/7. They are so sure they are superior to other companies that they compare themselves to the other industry leaders right on their website. They have three different business class hosting plans – launch, power and pro besides also having the ability to grow into a dedicated server or VPS hosting.
8. Arvixe: http://www.arvixe.com/
Global Alexa Rating: 2,719
Arvixe offers two plans – Personal Class at $4.00 per month and Personal Class Pro at $7.00 per month. One feature they have that is unique is that they offer a free domain name for life, not just one year as other companies offer. They also include a free online store. They have server locations in both the US and Europe. They also offer various add-ons and extras such as a dedicated IP address for just $2 per month. They further offer an affordable Business Class hosting plan at just $22 per month for the regular plan and $35 per month for the Pro. Round that out with Dedicated Class and VPS Class and you have a website that can grow along with your business.
9. Fat Cow: http://www.fatcow.com/
Global Alexa Rating: 3,130
Not just a cute name this website is fun to visit with all the cow references such as ‘a bullpen full of site templates’ and ‘a hoof-click away from a blog.’ Businesses can even ‘mooove their site’ to dedicated hosting or VPS when the time is right. Don’t let the cuteness of the site make you think it isn’t professional though. They’ve been providing reliable hosting services since 1998. They offer a very frugal introductory rate that includes ‘oodles’ of features and all the renewal pricing rates are outlined so there are no surprises. They also offer a MiniMoo plan that is just a domain name and an email address with a generic under construction page until you are ready for full hosting.
10. IX Webhosting: http://www.ixwebhosting.com/hosting-plans?sc_cid=aff-ix-cheapru
Global Alexa Rating: 6,879
With three levels of Linux hosting plans it is easy to choose a plan that meets the needs of a business. There is the Expert Plan which includes one dedicated IP with a second available for just $2 per month and one domain registration included. The Business Plan includes one dedicated IP with two more available for just $1.50 each and two domain registrations included. The Unlimited Pro Plan includes one dedicated IP with 14 more available at $1 each and three domain registrations included. All plans include unlimited disk space, bandwidth and unlimited email accounts. The company began in 1999 and has grown to over 110,000 clients with over 470,000 hosted sites. One thing they pledge to do differently is give their customer support people directions to get client’s issues resolved without worrying about being held to length of call or number of calls restrictions.
Customer satisfaction and reviews are mixed on each of these so businesses should be sure to look for reviews to see if they can live with any shortcomings they may have. In many cases it won’t matter to those looking for something simple and inexpensive. If a business needs something inexpensive then these are all going to fit that requirement but don’t expect a Cadillac at the price of a bicycle. However, most of them offer hosting levels that can grow with a company meaning a company never has to start all over with their website.
