Best Web Hosting for Blogs and Small Businesses

Web hosting service can make or break a blog or small business. I didn't fully appreciate this when I started Dough Roller more than two years ago. Since then, however, having built many websites and used several different web hosting services, it's clear that picking the right web hosting for a site is critical.

So I thought I'd share my experience with three hosting services that I think are the best web hosting for a blog or small business: BlueHost, DreamHost, and Media Temple. Each serves a different but important niche, and it's important that you pick the right one for your website.

In a nutshell:

BlueHost: Low cost and excellent telephone support. Great for new bloggers or new website owners. BlueHost is the web hosting service I used for Dough Roller when I launched the site in May 2007.

DreamHost: Low cost (although a little more expensive than BlueHost), excellent user interface, and the ability to expand as your site grows.

Media Temple: High cost, but also high performance. A great choice for developed sites with more traffic, and what I now use for Dough Roller.

So with that, let's take a look at each web hosting option in more detail.

BlueHost Web Hosting Service

When I started Dough Roller, I went with BlueHost for one reason--cost. With a two year commitment, the cost comes in at just $6.95 a month, and that even includes one domain name registration (a $10 savings). Even a one year commitment only costs $8.95 a month, and Bluehost waives the $30 set up fee.

Bluehost is also very easy to use, which was important to me because I knew absolutely NOTHING about how to start a blog or website when Dough Roller launched. I've written a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to set up a WordPress blog with Bluehost, if you need some guidance.

Bluehost uses cPanel, which is an industry accepted graphical interface to all of the programs you'll need to use on your server. For blogs, the main application is Fantastico, which is a really simple application that loads software (like Wordpress) onto your server for you. It literally takes a couple of clicks and the completion of a couple of fields and Wordpress is installed.

The other key feature Bluehost offers is free telephone support (it's an extra cost with Dreamhost). When I was starting out, Bluehost's telephone support was critical on several different occasions. Coupled with its low cost and ease of use, the telephone support is why Bluehost is great for new bloggers and website administrators.

The one disadvantage to Bluehost is that it only offers what is called shared hosting. As your site grows, you may want to upgrade to faster hosting options, which Bluehost doesn't offer. For most sites, Bluehost is just fine. But if you expect your site to start receiving thousands of visitors a day, you may want to consider the options below. In my case, I just transferred hosting to Media Temple when my site outgrew Bluehost.

Here's a quick list of the features you get with Bluehost:

• Very low cost
• Unlimited domains
• 2,500 e-mail accounts
• 1 free domain registration
• Free telephone support

You can check out Bluehost at www.bluehost.com.

DreamHost Web Hosting Service

Dreamhost is also a low cost web hosting service with an excellent user interface. While Dreamhost costs a bit more than Bluehost, it offers greater flexibility as your site grows. Dreamhost does this by offering what is called VPS, or a virtual private server. Rather than sharing server resources with other sites, you can obtain your own dedicated resources through VPS.

VPS is not necessary for most new sites with little traffic. As sites grow and start receiving thousands of visitors a day, however, VPS may become necessary. At Dreamhost, VPS adds at least $15 per month to the cost, and it can go up to an extra $400 per month depending on how much memory your site demands. This cost shouldn't scare you away; only an extremely large site would ever need to spend $400 a month on VPS.

For shared hosting, Dreamhost costs $9.95 a month on a one year contract, or $8.95 a month for a two year contract. If you lock in for 10 years, the price drops to $5.95. These prices include one free domain registration.

Here's a quick list of the features you get with Dreamhost:

• Unlimited domains
• Unlimited e-mail accounts
• Unlimited disc storage
• 1 free domain registration
• PHP5 Support

You can check out Dreamhost at www.dreamhost.com.

Media Temple Web Hoting Service

I now run Dough Roller on Media Temple. Unlike shared hosting at Bluehost or Dreamhost, Media Temple offers dedicated virtual hosting. That means that I'm not sharing server resources with other websites. That's the good news. The bad news is it's a lot more expensive ($50 per month). Media Temple's least expensive solution is $20 a month, so the cost is significantly higher than Bluehost or Dreamhost.

Media Temple also does not use cPanel. Instead, you access your servers through a progam called plesk. While it works just fine, it is a bit of a learning curve if you are coming from a shared hosting environment. On top of that, Media Temple's documentation is not great. But they do have telephone support that is extremely helpful.

Here's a quick list of the features you get with Media Temple:

• Unlimited domains
• Complete control of the server
• One-click software install
• Resell hosting
• Virtually unlimited scalability

If you want to check out Media Temple, you can do so at www.mediatemple.com.

If you are just starting out and no little or nothing about building websites or blogs, I'd recommend Bluehost. The free telephone support will come in handy and the cost can't be beat. If you are more comfortable with building sites, Dreamhost is probably worth the small extra cost in exchange for the VPS option down the road. And if you know your site is going to need more than shared hosting right from the start, Media Temple can't be beat.

If you have any questions or want some help getting started, just drop me a line.

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