Choosing Your Web Hosting Provider & Our Recommendations 2024

First and foremost, before you can start building a website, you will need to have an “address” and a “place” to build it, just like building a house.  Basically, your Domain Name is your “address” where people will search your website by, while Web Hosting is that “place” where you build your website in.

A few important things that we often need to consider when it comes to domain and web hosting.

Cost . Starting price and Renewal price

Most of the time, cost is one of the first things that we’ll consider when it comes to web hosting.  The issue is there are so many different providers around, costs are pretty similar, it’s so hard to make a decision especially when one is not highly tech savvy, or might not be so interested.  What you really need to consider when it comes to cost is the features that’s included in the fees.  Some of the features that we’ll suggest that you look at are, server space, server speed, availability of support, is their interface user friendly when it comes down to setting up your sites.  These are the basic things that some of the start up business owners would want to look at.

Also, in terms of starting price, most of the more popular hosting providers are similar, the difference most of the time is in the renewal price.  Sometimes it catches you by surprise because renewal fees can be substantially more expensive.  Ensuring that you check the renewal cost before you commit.

Support Availability

The availability of the official support team is very important as well considering SMEs might not have in house support staff, nor would they have required technical knowledge when the site breaks down.  Knowing that the hosting company has a knowledgeable and responsive support team is a great advantage.

Ease of use

This refers to the hosting company’s interfaces for setting up your site.  Some companies have complicated interfaces which makes it difficult for new users to navigate around.

Server Speed & Uptime

Finally, another element that we need to consider is server speed and uptime.  Speed of our websites has a direct impact on user experience, slow websites tend to drive people away.  Also, the speed of websites will also directly affect SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ranking as well.  Of course, there are a few factors that will affect site speed, e.g. image size, the amount of content, complexity of the functionalities, etc., a server with great speed will go a long way

Our Recommendations

1. Hostinger – Performance + Low Starting & Renewal Price

After quite a few years in the industry, researching and testing different web hosting providers, at this very moment, we would recommend Hostinger as one of our preferred web hosting providers, on the low cost tier.  Note that this recommendation is for businesses that are looking at changing to something that’s very affordable, and satisfies the above requirements.

It’s also worth noting there’s one little drawback with Hostinger, i.e. there’s only chat and email support in a limited amount of countries at the time of writing.  For those who prefer phone support service, that might be something to consider (See our next recommendation, Siteground).  However, we’ve personally used their chat support server, and found that they’re very knowledgeable and responsive.

2. Siteground – Performance + Great Local Support

Siteground is well-known throughout the industry as a great hosting provider with great server performance and amazing support!  In terms of pricing, Siteground is in the mid-tier range.  After comparing with a few other providers with similar price range and offerings, Siteground is proven to be a provider that offers a lot better value for your money.

Also worth mentioning is that, if you reside in Australia, they have phone support service locally as well.

3. WPX – Great Performance + Support for Great Cause

WPX is another great hosting provider with one of the fastest server and most reliable service (with server uptime of 100% in most tests results) currently on the market!  In terms of pricing, WPX is on the upper-tier.  One of the biggest positive for us on the company value level, although has nothing to do with their web hosting service technically, is that their CEO’s involvement in charity work specifically for dogs that are homeless and disabled.  Charity is something that’s dear to our hearts.