Best web hosting company

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Best web hosting company

I have been searching for the best hosting provider company for almost 20 years.  During this time I have purchased web hosting from most of the current major hosting providers.  All of these end up disappointing me at some stage.

 Of course, this could change in the future, but for now, they are by far the best web hosting company and the most ethical and honest company I have dealt with.  Therefore I am happy to write this review in Webmaster Tools Blog.

Best Web Hosting Company

A well-established hosting company with an excellent track record

Based in Los Angeles CA USA, DreamHost is a solid and trusted web hosting provider and domain name registrar.  It was established in 1996 as the New Dream Network, LLC.

Since then DreamHost has won the trust of over 1.5 million website owners.

Unlike some of the many fly-by-night domain hosting companies I have had the misfortune to deal with in the past, DreamHost has proven to be a reliable hosting company.

 

web hosting 2020

They are unlikely to disappear into thin air leaving you stranded without a website and a business.

They also seem quite proud to be independently owned.  This is quite an important factor in domain hosting quality of service.

I notice that many hosting companies start-up offering excellent service and support.  They are run by hands-on owners who are knowledgeable and passionate about their business.

They quickly expand because of their good service and then they are taken over by the giant domain hosting companies.  These giant hosting providers eliminate competition by using their enormous finances.

After the take over the performance plummets and the support vanishes.  I have personally witnessed this happening to two of my last web hosting providers.

 

DreamHost the best web hosting company offering real benefits and desirable hosting features

  • Free SSL certificate

They provide a free ‘Let’s Encrypt’ SSL certificate to protect your site with HTTPS — encrypting traffic and instantly boosting SEO with Google.

Google has made SSL certificate a necessity.  If your site does not show the lock and the https on the browser you are unlikely to rank high on Google.  Encrypted sites also command more respect and trust.

web hosting 2020

My previous hosting provider charged me an extra $60 for every SSL certificate they installed.  DreamHost gives it to me for free.

  • Advanced, Easy-to-Use Panel

You get admin access to everything needed to power your website full throttle.   Easily create new email accounts and Let’s Encrypt SSL, forward domains, add users, and install WordPress in seconds.

Some of the other hosting providers presented me with diabolical panels that were confusing and difficult to use, particularly if you are a new webmaster.

  • Instant WordPress Setup

On hosting plans supporting multiple sites, you use the effortless 1-click installer to make more WordPress instances in seconds.

This is another important feature for me as most of my sites are now built on a WordPress platform.  I love WordPress because it allows anyone without any coding or website design experience to create professional-looking sites in minutes.  WordPress is also easy to learn and there are tons of free resources to help you learn.

web hosting 2020

  • Unlimited Domains, Bandwidth & Storage

I purchased the Shared Unlimited Hosting with monthly charges.  This is great for multiple websites, including WordPress, and email hosting.  I know I can always upgrade to higher plans when I expand.  For now, I am very happy and do not need an upgrade.

With Shared Unlimited Hosting there’s no limit to the amount of disk space you can use for your site. That means when your site goes viral, you don’t have to stress about storage.

I know that I have to be responsible and ethical with how I use my web hosting account.  DreamHost is very fair and upfront with what they consider Fair Use–but they are not stupid.

So if you are planning to used the unlimited account to store huge files or run a network of deceptive sites I warn you in advance you will not last long.

web hosting 2020

 

  • 24/7 Expert Support

They claim to have award-winning US-based experts that are available to help when you get stuck — anytime, day or night.

I have not yet needed any support as things are running quite smoothly.  The only time I request support was for a presale question.  I was impressed with the response.  I received a personalised reply, clearly written to address my questions.  The reply was honest, written in good humour and friendly.  After reading it  I decided to purchase the hosting.

I have pasted this reply to demonstrate to you how good it was.

Hi Alex,

Thanks for contacting us! And, we appreciate your interest with our services. =) I’ve replied inline below to each concern for you to help clear things up:

“My current hosting provider has deteriorated in support so I am looking at a new provider. Can you please answer the following question.”

Ah, sorry to see that. But, our support service is one of the things that we pride ourselves on! I’m sure you’ll be pleased once you’re all set up with us.

“Are there any hidden limitations such as nodes, files etc? If so what are they?”

There is a limitation with our unlimited disk space usage on the shared web server:

https://www.dreamhost.com/legal/unlimited-policy/

Other than that, the service is limited to other types of resources such as the RAM allocated for your account. But, bandwidth usage and disk space usage within our usage policy above will be unlimited.

web hosting 2020

“Is the hosting provided fast?”

Well, that all depends on your website. The servers will be fast, but how you manage your site is also a major factor. Making sure your sites are optimized and actively updated is a key part of that. It also depends on what functions your website is running and how many processes you have active. Everything you enable on a site adds to the processes it is running.

The Unlimited Shared plan is also a shared environment, so higher-level hosting plans like the VPS will have more resources and will serve the sites faster than the shared machine. So, there are faster hosting
servers, but it mainly depends on how well managed the websites are as well. Also, enabling other services like Cloudflare can contribute to the site speed.

” Is your support real hands-on support or do you refer customers to videos, tutorials and other self-help resources?”

There are some things we do have noted in our help documentation that’d help you. But, we do have to look deeper into certain types of issues, so it all depends on what issues you’re asking for assistance on.

For example, I did link you to a couple of help docs above because having to outline the process in this response to you would be an extremely huge amount of information in a single email ticket.

Let’s say you had an issue with one of your websites using up too much RAM, we’d have to go deeper into the possible reasons why, so that issue would be more “hands-on”, but some help docs will have suggested
solutions that’ll help you as well that we may need to link you.

It wouldn’t, however, just be an email response with a link to our help guide as it’ll come with more explanation as to the problem along with the link to the help doc. I hope that’s okay!

web hosting 2020

“As mentioned I am not interested in learning to code or becoming an IT expert. I do not anticipate any problems but if they arise I need to be able to rely on real support by competent operators.

This is the reason I am moving my hosting. The current provider did offer good support but this has changed.

While we’ll do whatever we can to help, there are some things you’d have to manage for the site yourself, to be honest. Our support team aren’t coders either (well, some might be) so custom things like scripts and codes that we didn’t write wouldn’t be something we’d be able to troubleshoot usually.

In a way, it’s like renting an apartment. Your landlord (us) can help to fix things like if your front door were broken or you had a leak in the kitchen. But, if your television breaks or one of your chairs loses a leg, we can’t fix that for you. We can possibly point you in the right direction to get that fixed, but can’t fix it, unfortunately.

Some things would be beyond what a hosting providers support will cover, I’m afraid. We do have various services that may be able to address specific issues with our Professional Services, but that support will come with an added cost.

We’ll do whatever we can to help whether it be fixing an issue for you, providing you with the info to fix it yourself, or directing you to the appropriate party to get it fixed. It really all depends on what the problem you’re having is. We will do whatever we can to help, though, and server-side issues will always be something we can look into.

Hopefully, the details above help to clear things up with our services and support. Should you have any other questions or concerns at all before signing up with us, please don’t hesitate in contacting us back at any time. We’d be happy to help!

Thank you kindly,

J. K.

web hosting 2020

Traps used by web hosting companies offering unlimited domains, bandwidth and data hosting.

Many web hosting companies offer unlimited data and unlimited bandwidth.  I signed up with one these when I first started creating websites.

I was so happy knowing that I never had to worry about bandwidth and the size of my websites.  Boy was I wrong!

As soon as my sites became popular and started attracting loads of traffic, I received a notice that I was in violation of the fair use policy.

I know, I should read the fine print when signing up for domain hosting.  However, the thought of reading endless boring pages of legal jargon depresses me — so I did not.

When I was forced to read the fair use policy I learn that unlimited bandwidth applies while no one visits my websites and the traffic is low.  In the nutshell, the fine print told me that the moment my sites became popular and attracted brisk and regular traffic I was in breach of the Fair Use Policy!

The same goes for the data.  For as long as the websites are below 100 Mb in size, all is well.  As soon as the sites grow in size, I am in breach of the Fair Use Policy.

Another trap is the well-hidden trap of NODEs.  NODES is just another name for files.   This well-hidden trap surfaces when your sites start to populate and become rich with content.

In short, the hosting size is misleading advertised as unlimited, but the number of files you can store is limited to a set number.  Each hosting company sets the number of files you can upload.  If you exceed this number, you automatically receive a notice that you are in breach of the Fair Use Policy.

This hidden trap snaps well after you purchase the hosting.  For some users, it could take six to twelve months before they are caught by the hidden trap.

web hosting 2020

Other web hosting providers are more upfront about the NODES limitations.  Of course, this limitation becomes obvious after you have signed the contract and log in the Cpanel for the first time.

This happened to me with another widely advertised unlimited domains, data and bandwidth hosting provider.  The number of files allowed was ridiculously low.  I immediately cancelled the hosting and received a refund.

The best web companies usually offer the option to pay monthly

This leads to my next recommendation.  Only host with companies that offer a free trial, or monthly charges.  Do not commit to long contracts until you are sure that you are happy with the service provided, and the support.

Start by paying monthly and after a few months review the hosting plan so to attract more discounts.

Always pay with PayPal or a credit card you can lock temporarily or a debit card exclusively used to pay for the hosting.  It is easy to create debit card accounts, these are often free of charge.

This strategy will save you from unethical hosting providers who refuse to close the account or refuse to honour their money-back guarantee.

Another well-advertised web hosting company delayed the refund process for three months.  Meanwhile, they continued attempting to charge my card.  Fortunately, I was simply able to lock the debit card and their requests were declined.

web hosting 2020

Why Dreamhost is really the best Webhosting Company

We are now well into the first month of our hosting with this ethical and progressive company.  For the first time ever in our history of web hosting (over 20 years long), we are happy to note that all the features of the hosting work perfectly!

We only had to contact support once for a minor issue and that was resolved immediately.

The free SSL certificate installation, automatic WordPress installer, and add on domains work without a hitch and their Cpanel is easy to use and logically laid out.

Well done Dreamhost we are so glad we found you.

I updated the best web hosting company page on the 27 February 2020.

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