So you’ve got a domain name, now what?

It’s time to go shopping for a web host!

And you definitely want a good one. But how do you even go about deciding which is good?

This post will help you decide. Read on!

Full Disclosure: *This post contains  affiliate links, which means that I may make a small commission on products purchased through links clicked on this site at no extra cost to you. This helps keep this site running, so thanks for your support in this way!*

What is a Web Host?

All websites sit on a web host or web server. My blog, yours, the sites you visit. Everyone’s. There are different types of servers out there – shared and private ones (shared hosting and VPS (virtual private server). They all have varying costs attached.

I won’t go into the details about all the specifics. The most important thing is whether your web host is able to handle your blog’s traffic. You want a web host that can handle huge spikes in traffic, especially when you are hosting a product launches or events where you are expecting a sudden surge in the no. of visitors.

The last thing you need is your webpage crashing when you are launching a new product, or your site going down for no reason and taking ages to come back up.

Or the worst – your website just mysteriously disappearing off the face of this Earth. Yes this has happened to bloggers before.

Also you would want efficient, quick, knowledgeable support from your web host when these sort of thing happens.

These are the reasons why I avoid Hosts like Bluehost; a web host that has been widely recommended by so many bloggers.

Why I stayed away from BlueHost

When I was a newbie blogger, everyone was recommending BlueHost to me.

I’m not someone that takes things at face value, so I went about doing my own research for which host to go with.

The first big factor was price. I was new to everything and I didn’t want to be paying for expensive web hosts upfront which might turn out to be really sub-standard.

In my research, I stumbled upon Tom from Online Media Masters’s post. He does wonderful comparisons of BlueHost and SiteGround, as well as many other web hosts.

In point 5 of the above post, he talks about BlueHost’s price plans – and it was something I discovered myself. BH advertises their pacakage at $3.49/month. It’s really affordable and one of the cheapest! Til you click through and you see this (image from Tom’s post):

That price is only available to you if you sign for 3 years. AND they do not tell you that upfront. It’s in none of their advertising slogans, banners etc. I agree with Tom’s take – it’s a little shady.

Yet, so many bloggers (even some of the popular, established ones) still recommend Bluehost. Why? The biggest reason?

High affiliate payouts

I’m talking around like $65 per referral. That’s quite hard to resist! And there are many bloggers out there making a very healthy affiliate income just from these referrals.

Now, I’m not saying that people who are BlueHost affiliates or any affiliate in particular are promoting less-than-effective products. There are people out there who have a genuine great experience with Bluehost.

However, Google around and you’d find lots of receipts and tweets of people’s pages mysteriously crashing, websites slowly down, and very poor response and support from the Bluehost team.

Enter Siteground

Siteground is one of the, if not, The BEST in my opinion in web hosting.

Besides their price plans, what drew me to them?

Responsive and high-quality customer service

Their Customer Service rep was amazing – responsive and thorough in their answers. I didn’t have to wait a lonnnggg time for a CS rep to attend to me, like I did with BlueHost.

They were also very patient. I’m type of customer that has a bazillion questions before I commit to a purchase, and the rep was very patient and and answered everything satisfactorily.

BlueHost on the other hand – well, their responses weren’t helpful enough for me. The CS rep seemed more interested in getting me to sign a plan with them every chance he got. I dislike pushy sales tactics.

Just look at these numbers:

Your site loads faster, performs better

I’ll just let the photos below speak for themselves:

Since then, SiteGround’s standards have still been nothing short of fantastic. I’ve approached them with all sorts of issues. And they migrated my entire website for me onto their server (for free), it was done so efficiently without any errors.

Is SiteGround the only good host out there? 

Not at all. There are many others like WPEngine, Pantheon, GreenGeeks and so much more. It really depends on your needs and price plans.

However, if you want to be a serious blogger, BlueHost really shouldn’t be your first choice.

Avoid the disappointment and invest your money in something better. You, your blog and your customers deserve so much better.

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