There are hundreds of choices when it comes to web hosting, so the list below is by no means exhaustive or in-depth, but rather a selection of generally good web hosting services that I’ve either had some experience with or have spoken with others who have.
1. Site Ground
Site Ground is one of the WordPress recommended hosting companies with good reason. They offer really fast speeds at very affordable prices. Shared Hosting stats at around $4.95 per month.
Australian sites should choose the Singapore data centre to make sure they get the fastest speeds possible.
2. Beyond Hosting
I have personally been using Beyond Hosting for my VPS for three years now. Why? Because their customer service levels are unsurpassed and this is something worth paying for if your livelihood depends on it.
What makes their customer service rock? This is my experience:
24/7 five minute maximum reply times to tickets. Yep! I send a support ticket on Christmas Day and then head off to make myself a coffee only to find there’s a response when I get back, making me feel guilty for leaving my desktop.
I’ve asked for assistance in things way beyond the normal responsibility of a hosting company including help with installation of programs, SSL certificates, back up of sites. Yeah, I said “way beyond” – get it? That’s why they’re called “Beyond Hosting”.
3. Hostgator
Hostgator is one of the oldest, well-known and popular hosting companies. The biggest attraction is their price. Hostgator’s entry level hosting options are definitely amongst the cheapest available, with their cheapest plans less than AUD$4 per month!
With all their servers a long way from Australia (they’re in the US) Hostgator will not deliver speeds as fast as say, Site Ground or Panthur, but if you’re after a reputable company at the low-end price-wise then you have to consider Hostgator.
4. Panthur web hosting
Panthur began tier hosting life as a non-commercial organisation, but morphed into the commercial space probably because they were just so good, they had to try make some money.
Lightning fast speed and excellent 24/7 support is their schtick.
Panthur has 3 main plans that you can additionally customise: Economy, Business and Stealth hosting. Their hosting starts at around $5 per month, but their higher costing plans also offer by far better value.
5. A2 Hosting web hosting
A2 are another hosting company with excellent customer support (do you see a pattern here?) with a Singapore based server to deliver faster speeds for Australian sites.
They offer three basic packages, and again, while their entry level plan will cost you about $5-$6 per month, the higher level plans offer the better value.
VentralIP are another well-established hosting company with a large customer base and for very good reason.
Once again, customer support is at the forefront of their pitch, along with free cpanel migrations and SSL encryptions.
Their hosting plans begin at about $6 per month for shared hosting plans.
7. Blue Host
Blue Host are another of the big commercial hosting companies that cater for smaller websites. Boasting over 2 million websites hosted on their servers you know you’re dealing with one big company here.
All hosting plans come with a free domain which is big saving at the beginner level, but perhaps not so much use later on.
However Blue Host’s entire model is based on suitability for WordPress and you’re not really going to go wrong by choosing them.
Make sure you check out the regular “specials” that Blue Host provide by checking coupon sites and keeping your eyes peeled across the net. I was recently able to grab a shared hosting deal for $2.95 per month (Black Friday deal) which is just awesome value.
8. Go Daddy
It would be totally remiss not to mention Go Daddy in any article on web hosting if only because they are the biggest domain registry in the world and it’s hard not to be in contact with them at some point.
There are some advantages to having your domain registered and hosted by the same company, including ease of set-up and transfer. They are also able to package domains and hosting to deliver some really good deals, especially when combined with a proliferation of discount coupons available on the internet for their products.
Entry level hosting packages start very low (around $5 pm) and you know you’re backed by a very large company.
Summary
There are so many different options for hosting available and it’s difficult to really know what is best for you until you try. But be careful as changing host company, although not complicated in itself, will almost always result in some downtime for your site – and if that’s important to you (ie avoiding downtime) then you want to choose right the first time.
