6 Best Web Hosting Providers for Blogs
Whether you want to blog professionally or you want to run a small blog as a hobby, choosing the right blogging platform and a good web hosting are elements that are going to shape the blogging experience you will have. Before you choose the blogging platform itself, you also need to make a choice between hosted and self-hosted platforms. While on the face of it, a hosted platform may seem like the most convenient choice – with web hosting, domain and templates included – in fact, it comes with many limitations including limited or no options to monetize your blog. A self-hosted blogging platform is the choice that makes more sense for most bloggers who want full control over their blogs, and especially bloggers who plan on monetizing their blogs. A self-hosted blog means that the task of purchasing a domain name, finding a good web hosting, and dealing with the upkeep and management aspects encumber the blogger.
While there are pros and cons for each blogging platform, speaking strictly from a blog monetization perspective, a self-hosted blog is no doubt the best choice. Although it may seem so, finding a good web hosting for you blog is not a difficult choice. While you’re still in the stages of trying your hand at blogging and building an audience, a shared hosting plan is a good place to start. Of course, it’s preferable to pick a hosting provider that has several hosting plans and allows you to easily upgrade when your blog starts to build momentum.
Before we delve into which are the best hosting providers for bloggers, we’re also going to include a quick overview of the top self-hosted blogging platforms, so you’ll know which are your best options if you plan on creating a blog.
Top Self-Hosted Blogging Platforms
Which content management system should you consider for your blog? Here are our top picks for the blogging platforms that are worth your time:
WordPress
WordPress is hands down the most popular and easy to use content management system that gives you ample opportunities to customize your blog. It’s also free and open source, so it can be used by anyone. Unlike its hosted version (WordPress.com), the self-hosted platform allows you to easily change themes – both free and premium – and optimize, speed up and customize all aspects of your blog with the help of plugins. Most web hosting providers have one-click installs for WordPress and hosting plans purposefully optimized for this platform.
B2Evolution
B2Evolution is another free open source CMS that markets itself as a low maintenance, easy to upgrade and secure CMS. It relies less on third-party applications by integrating all you need in its framework, thus, eliminating the need to rely on third-party extensions that may not be as secure. B2Evolution supports multiple blogs, multiple users and authors, multiple post types, advanced categorization, and it has a built-in analytics tool that can give in-depth insight about your blog’s traffic. B2Evolution has plenty of customizable skins you can choose from to set up the type of blog you wish.
Drupal
Drupal is one of the most advanced content management systems that powers over a quarter million sites on the internet. It’s a highly scalable and stable platform, and its modular design makes no assumptions about how you should structure your content, allowing you to build any blog or site you’d like. Because Drupal was created to run with less server resources than its counterparts, upgrading your hosting package if your audience increases will not be something that you have to actively worry about if you own a Drupal blog. Drupal is a platform intended for more technically advanced users given that it’s more complex than other CMSs.
Joomla
Joomla is another powerful open source CMS that powers more than 3% of the websites on the internet. Users love Joomla for its feature-rich platform that can be used to create any website including blogs. It has a comprehensive navigation system that allows users to easily manage sites with hundreds of pages. While it doesn’t have the smooth learning curve boasted by WordPress, it’s still a platform that you can use quite easily, especially that you have abundant resources at your disposal in the form of tutorials and programming tools.
Ghost.org
Ghost is a remarkable open source blogging platform with a user-focused and clean interface that is purpose built for blogging. Its live preview feature allows you to catch any mistakes while you are writing the post, thus allowing you to correct any spelling or coding mistakes on the fly. While it’s a bit more difficult to install, Ghost has an interface that makes it easy to use for beginners, but appeals to experienced bloggers as well.
6 Best Blog Hosting Providers
Now that you’ve decided on a blogging platform, it’s time to see which hosting providers are the best for hosting your blog:
GreenGeeks
If you are starting your blog, probably your best bet is GreenGeeks. The company offers high quality hosting service along with professional support, which is perfect for not only starting but growing your blog. Their easy to use platform makes it easy installing your favorite blogging platform. You can easily install WordPress, Drupal, Joomla or B2Evolution to your website, using their one-click installation tool (Softaculous).
The Ecosite Starter plan, which starts at only $3.95 / month is perfect for starting a blog. This plan comes with SSD, unlimited bandwidth, emails, hosted websites and a free domain name. Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate is also included with every shared plan. Backups are performed on daily basis (actually are done every night, when server load is low), so you don’t need to worry about backing up your website. Cloudflare CDN is also available; this will make your site load even faster.
What if your blog gets popular and start pulling in some massive traffic? No problem! Hosting is covered with GreenGeeks. Just upgrade your Ecosite Starter to Ecosite Pro and have twice the performance as before. This plan starts at $6.95/month and comes with additional resources, PowerCasher Technology and all the basic features offered by the Starter plan.
If you need even more power and performance, you can opt for their third shared plan, which is called Ecosite Premium. This hosting plan offers four times more performance and is also PCI compliant. This plan is perfect not only for a blog with high traffic, but also for online stores. So if you are selling products on your blog and you are processing payments, PCI compliant hosting is a must. A Premium SSL is also included with the Premium plan.
So whether you are starting a new blog or looking for a reliable host for your already established site, GreenGeeks is a good choice.
BlueHost
If you’ve decided to go with WordPress as your blogging platform, you cannot go wrong with BlueHost as your web host. WordPress.org has been recommending BlueHost as the go-to hosting for WordPress since 2005. But BlueHost is not only a WordPress-friendly hosting, as it also supports Joomla, Drupal, and B2Evolution.
If you’re at the beginnings of your blogging adventures, BlueHost has three shared hosting plans for you: Basic ($3.95/month), Plus ($5.95/month), and Prime ($6.95/month). Except for the basic plan, all plans include hosting for unlimited websites, unmetered web space, unmetered bandwidth, 1 free domain included, unlimited email accounts with unlimited storage, and $200 in marketing offers. All plans come with cPanel, one of the best control panels in the industry, and the option to upgrade anytime. Another good thing about BlueHost is that you have CloudFlare built into your account, which is an advanced content delivery system to speed up your website.
BlueHost has other web hosting solutions as well, so you’ll be able to upgrade your plan as your blog develops and becomes hungrier for resources.
InMotion Hosting
InMotion is another great hosting for bloggers. Their shared business hosting plans are suitable for any WordPress, Drupal or Joomla blog. InMotion also throws in a free domain name with its plans, which include other excellent features such as free SDD drives, free data backups, free 1-click installer, SSH access, free domain and website transfers, free advertising credits, free BoldGrid website builder included, cPanel license included, WP-CLI, email spam protection, 90-day money-back guarantee, etc.
InMotion also has three shared hosting plans: Launch ($3.95/month), Power ($5.99/month), and Pro ($13.99/month). All these shared hosting plans include unlimited disk space and transfers, and all plans are multiple domain hosting plans, however, only the Pro plan provides unlimited domain hosting.
The plans provided by InMotion Hosting are suitable for small to mid-size traffic blogs, be it professional or personal blogs.
HostGator
HostGator has always been a top choice hosting provider for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and other CMSs. HostGator plans are known for their abundance of features and affordable pricing.
If you plan on hosting your blog at HostGator, you’ll have three shared hosting plans at your disposal: Hatchling($3.45/month), Baby ($4.95/month), and Business ($5.95/month). These plans have unmetered bandwidth and storage, as well as unlimited domain hosting with the Baby and Business plans. They include cPanel, free Weebly website builder, free website transfer, access to over 4500 free website templates, automatic off-site data backups, SpamAssassin included, SSH access, free ad credits, one-click installer and others. The Business plan also includes private SSL and IP address, as well as free VOIP phone service.
Although HostGator does not include a free domain name as many of its competitors, the features and pricing of its plans makes HostGator a top choice for many bloggers. With plenty of other hosting plans available, you can always upgrade to a more powerful one.
WebHostingHub
While WebHostingHub provides various online services, their main focus is on web hosting, and shared hosting in particular. WebHostingHub offers three shared hosting plans, two of which are unlimited hosting plans. The Spark plan is WebHostingHub’s starter plan, which costs $4.99/month, the Nitro plan boasts better performance and costs $6.99/month, while the Dynamo plan is built for more dynamic sites, and it costs $8.99/month.
All plans include a free domain name, free SSD, free ad credit, up to 3 free website transfers, auto-installed WordPress, SSH access and cPanel, free site builder, backups for $1/month, up to 30% discount for web design, etc. WebHostingHub’s shared hosting plans are also suitable for hosting Joomla or Drupal blogs and websites, and they can be easily installed thanks to WebHostingHub’s one-click installs.
WebHostingHub is dedicated to supporting the blogging community and their shared hosting plans support any kind of blog. They currently host thousands of blogs and their support staff are active members of the blogging community. Whether you’re a beginner or a professional looking for a blog-friendly hosting, WebHostingHub has your back.
ASmallOrange
A Small Orange is a hosting provider with plans for every hosting need, ranging from small static websites to eCommerce sites. At ASO, the resources of shared hosting plans are configured to meet the web hosting needs of websites depending on their size. ASO provides WordPress optimized servers, free Weebly site builder, SSD servers for better speed and performance, daily backups, and a reliable hosting environment.
There are four shared hosting plans that you can choose for your blog: Tiny ($2.92/month), Small ($5/month), Medium ($10/month), and Large ($20/month). Except for the Tiny plan, all plans allow unlimited websites and include a free domain name. Each plan is configured differently in terms of storage and bandwidth, allowing you choose the one that fits your current needs.
In terms of features, all shared plans at ASO include: cPanel, free daily backups, bare metal restore backups, IP-blocking, hotlink protection, 99.99% uptime guarantee, and many other features that make up a secure and reliable hosting environment for your blog.
Conclusion
Now that you know the blogging platform you should choose for creating a blog and the web hosting plans and providers suitable for hosting your blog, you can look forward to building a reputable and successful personal or professional blog. While the hosting providers covered in this article are suitable for hosting any kind of blog, WordPress is probably the best blogging platform for both beginners and professionals, as most hosting providers have plans optimized for WordPress.