What if you could get the best wordpress themes that are available online and also web hosting provided by the same provider. Now it’s possible, as Genesis Studio press has launched their own web hosting for sites. Below is my review of this service.
Frameworks are getting more popular and Genesis has defiantly profited from this. According to BuiltWith, there are approximately 15 million WordPress sites live online at this very moment, and about 300,000 sites are using Genesis themes.
I have been through quite a few web hosts while setting up websites and I was definitely interested to check out what the new studiopress sites service would stack up against its competition.
As a seasoned blogger and website maker I had few questions that I had in mind:
- Will they offer shared or scaled /managed hosting?
- Would they offer any site migration services free?
- What kind of scripts would they use for wordpress installation?
- How competitive would be their prices and plans?
- What would be their unique Selling point?
Well, I had to check it out myself to answer these. So I will give you the answer below but first let’s check out their price plans.
Let me start with their cheapest plan available @ $24 a month and what you get for it.
They have three different plans called –Content, Commerce & Synthesis. The budget content plan is $24 a month when paid annually($297 a year). If you choose to pay month by month rather than annually its $27 a month.
All plans have a discount when paid annually rather than monthly.
Here are the features you GET WHEN purchasing any hosting plan with them
· Free Migration with Annual Purchase
· Powerful personal or small business website. All the good stuff, with no unnecessary bells, whistles, or inconvenience.
· Industry Standard Design Framework
· 24 Mobile-Optimized Designs
· WordPress-Optimized Performance
· Zero “Hosting” Hassles
· Advanced SEO Functionality
· Plugin and Theme Maintenance
· Rock-Solid Security
· One-Click Install of Included Plugins
· World-Class Support
The 3 Plans & Pricing for STUDIOPRESS HOSTING
- The content plan $24 month ($297/year)
This is a shared hosting plan.
Powerful personal or small business website. All the good stuff, with no unnecessary bells, whistles, or inconvenience.
Features of the CONTENT plan:
Storage is “flexible” with this plan
1 website install included
1 click SSL included
No traffic limits
Genesis framework & wordpress Pre-installed
Free WordPress migrations with annual plans
24 WP Themes included
I was a bit apprehensive of the term “flexible”, but they seem okay and not too fussed if you use just a bit extra.
This statement below by them should also give you some peace of mind.
- The Commerce plan $33 month ($397/year)
This is VPS (Virtual Private Server) plan, so it’s better and faster than a shared plan.
It’s best suited for a growing business site that needs e-commerce, digital downloads, forums, or membership sites.
Features of commerce plan:
25GB storage with this plan.
1 website install included
1 click SSL included
No traffic limits
Genesis framework & wordpress Pre-installed
Free WordPress migrations with annual plans
24 WP Themes included
Can I sell digital products like ebooks and software?
If you can download it digitally, you can sell it with the Commerce Plan.
- The synthesis plan $41 month ($497/year)
The synthesis plan is VPS (Virtual Private Server) plan, so it’s better and faster than a shared plan.
For successful e-commerce, forum, or membership sites.
Features of synthesis plan:
25GB storage with this plan.
1 website install included
1 click SSL included
No traffic limits
Genesis framework & wordpress Pre-installed
Free WordPress migrations with annual plans
24 WP Themes included
As you can see from these plans the main difference is the type of servers, shared vs VPS and also the storage you get. Apart from that, all the features are standard for all plans including them providing 1 click install and daily backups.
If you need hosting for more than one website, you can just purchase an additional site plan as you need.
Which are the Studiopress Genesis WP themes that are included in my hosting plan?
You’ll have instant access to 24 StudioPress themes.
-
- Academy Pro
- Altitude Pro
- Atmosphere Pro
- Author Pro
- Authority Pro
- Brunch Pro
- Daily Dish Pro
- Digital Pro
- Executive Pro
- Foodie Pro
- Gallery Pro
- Infinity Pro
- Lifestyle Pro
- Magazine Pro
- Maker Pro
- Metro Pro
- Monochrome Pro
- News Pro
- Outfitter Pro
- Parallax Pro
- Showcase Pro
- Smart Passive Income Pro
- Wellness Pro
- Workstation Pro
You’ll be able to use any of these themes on your StudioPress Site for as long as you’re a StudioPress Sites customer.
Some more features included with your plans:
Free Https for your URL
As with most premium hosting providers, they also provide a free secure website browsing with https for your website arranged through Let’s Encrypt. This helps with ranking as is a required factor today for google search engine.
1 click install
They do provide a 1 click install which is made up of an Easy 6-step setup process
Security for your website
If you have some knowledge of website security you would have heard of the security plugin. They have included Sucuri security monitoring for the websites to keep those nasties and hackers away. This also includes intrusion prevention, continuous scanning and monitoring for malware and distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection.
Use any wordpress plugin
You are allowed to use any plugin you choose, however they do monitor for poorly coded plugins and will inform you if any plugin is causing problems for your site and server.
No domain purchase – the only Negative
They do not provide domains so far and so you can buy a domain name from another registrar and use their hosting and themes. The good thing about this is that they have plenty of support once you sign up for a domain name with another registrar for your website.
They recommend Namecheap and Google domains, but for me – Godaddy.com has always been a favourite with domain purchasing.
Inside look at what you get in your wordpress admin (pre installed + bonus plugins)
Money back guarantee
Every honest online service provider provides a money back guarantee. Studiopress sites also offer a 30-day, 100% money back guarantee
Unfortunately there is no trial or demo service provided, due to the fact that they are confident in their product and service and also offer a money back guarantee as an alternative, which is fair enough.
For me the deciding factor to go with studiopress websites would surely be, getting their 24 Premium themes for free with their hosting package, as they charge $499.95 for their lifetime themes access pro plus package.
I’m sure you won’t be disappointed with their service, just like I wasn’t. Let me know your experience with them if you sign up.
