HOW TO GET STARTED WITH YOUR OWN WEBSITE.
Website Hosting
To store the files for your website, the images and content, you’ll need web hosting. Without web hosting, your website will not be visible online.
Break it down
There are so many choices out there. Where do you start? We’ll break everything down into the sections below, click on any to skip to the relevant info.
Web Hosting Cost
Let's get straight to it. How much does it cost to host a website?
Addons?
Your website, like every other needs to be online 24/7, you may need email accounts, security certificates, databases and more.
Who To Choose?
Recommendations based on my experience with many different hosts as well as working for them.
How much does web hosting cost?
Website hosting is an annual expense you’re going to have to pay. The prices vary from provider to provider and vary again depending on storage or features. More expensive does not mean better. Cheaper does not mean good value.
Average web hosting cost 2019: £3 – £10 per month.
There are different types of hosting available, Shared hosting, VPS Hosting, Cloud Server Hosting, Dedicated Hosting. For simplicity, we’re looking at shared hosting, forget the rest.
What is shared hosting?
Shared Website Hosting is a hosting setup where there are multiple sites hosted on a single server. It depends on the service provider, but typically there are hundreds or thousands of other sites on the same “super server.”
Why forget the rest? – For small businesses or new starters building their own website shared hosting is the most cost effective and a reliable, simple solution.
What should I pay?
Pay for what you need or pay for peace of mind. If you’re looking to save money, go with a reliable host with 99.9% guaranteed up time and an annual cost of around £40-60.
If you have a website with a lot of images, videos or expect to need a lot of email storage over time then go for a service with a lot of storage or unlimited storage. Clickhosting.co.uk (who I work for) offer unlimited hosting for £50 per year.
Example pricing from 3 different companies based on budget plans for beginners or small websites:
123-reg
£3.49 (then £4.99) + VAT. Free Domain with 12 month plan, including VAT total cost per year: £57.44
Bluehost
£3.25 (then £6.57) + VAT. Free Domain with 12 month plan, including VAT total cost per year: £78.26 (based on 36 month cost, 12 month cost is £117.60 inc VAT)
Hostgator
60% off 36 month hosting plan. Works out at $105.35 for 3 years (£27.16 approx per year)
What are the addons?
Hosting providers and shared servers provide a range of addons and services which makes purchasing the hosting confusing and can also push the cost much higher.
Emails
Your business emails can be hosted with your website. Giving your business a much more professional appearance. “info@yourbusiness.com” looks a lot better than “mybusiness@btinternet.com”
Security
All websites these days should be using a security certificate. (it’s what gives websites the little padlock icon next to the address so you know its secure). Some hosts will provide a free security certificate via an app on the server called “let’s encrypt” or you can buy extra security at an average cost of £29 per year.
More
There are many more but important one’s we’ll cover later. Make sure you have the essentials covered for a good price and you’re good to go. All shared hosting you’ll be able to install wordpress so don’t pay extra for “WordPress hosting” or as an addon. ID protection (especially with .com addresses) is a cheap and valuable addon. I’ve had experience registering .com addresses without it and had waves of unsolicited calls, letters and emails. It’s not essential but personally it’s something I buy.
My recommendations
Based on cost, performance, my experience and their companies reputation, these are the companies i’d recommend. To be honest, it doesn’t matter which you choose the end result is the same. You’ll store a small-medium website online, have your emails sent and stored there and it’ll be online, secure 24/7. I don’t want to order the list as a “top 10 web hosts” because i’ll obviously be bias.
ClickHosting.co.uk - £30 or £50 - Totally bias.
Full disclosure, I work for clickhosting, the links are in the footer and there will be links to them all over this site.
I work as a designer, clickhosting is a small webhost and with many smaller hosts, end up being cheaper. They have a simple business model no bait and switch prices, just reasonable ones.
Let’s be honest – If i’m making a new website, I host it with clickhosting. I know the service, but it’s not what i’d recommend for everyone. For some, a big brand with a solid reputation is important and getting started making your website I would recommend other providers like bluehost.
- Unlimited Storage Option
- Free Domain Name
- Free Email Accounts
- Free Databases
- Free Security Certificates
- 99.9% Guaranteed Uptime
123-Reg focus on domain registrations but offer competitive hosting packages too. They’re based in the UK, but still owned by Godaddy. They have EU datacenters which means faster connections from UK or EU visitors compared to smaller hosts overseas.
A basic hosting plan paid annually will come to £57.44 including VAT.
Starting at £3.25 per month it is confusing how you end up with a bill of £78 when you get to the checkout but thats a running trend with 90% of web hosting services out there. That said bluehost have an incredible reputation. You’ll find most who have used them, stay with them. They’re often rated really high among webhost rankings and customers swear by them.
Bluehost is regarded one of the best, most reliable and fast wordpress hosting services worldwide. Again, wordpress hosting/shared hosting all the same but no smoke without fire or whatever the positive version would be?
My personal experience with bluehost is logging into accounts for clients who’s websites i’ve been updating, redesigning ect. Can’t fault the service or reputation.
Hostgator have been around for a long time, very trusted brand and very low cost hosting options. Their support is always regarded as being one of the best out there.
On top of that they’re always offering coupons for big discounts. Especially on long term subscriptions. Makes signing up for 3 years a lot cheaper, then by the time you need to renew you can guarantee there will be another coupon for the same.