We 're often, Why Should I choose a domain platform for my site
What Is A Domain Hosting Provider?
A domain host provides you the ability to buy domain name for your website and they sometimes provide web server space for your blog website to be live online. The domain hosting sometimes stores your blog's files, data, and website code in a server that then allows your site to be accessed by anyone and from anywhere in the world.
What Should A Good Blog Hosting Provider Offer?
Because there are so many blog hosting sites, it can be hard to choose the right one. Thankfully, there are a number of key features that will set a bad hosting site apart from a good one.
1. Customization Options
You should be able to customize the look and feel of your blog and use templates to take care of formatting for you. A poor hosting site will only offer a few premade templates with no opportunity to further customize.
2. An Easy Learning Curve
Using a blog hosting site should be intuitive and shouldn’t require the expertise of a developer. Because you’re starting a blog and not a business site, you should be able to easily set up, design, and publish blog posts through an user-friendly interface.
3. Monetization Opportunities
Great content is the backbone of a winning website. And the more eyes you have on that content, the more revenue potential you have on your hands.
So, you should have the option to monetize your blog. Whether you do it by placing display ads, carrying out affiliate marketing, or selling merchandise, your site host should make these options available or offer extensions that make monetization possible.
4. Ability to Install Tracking Scripts
Tracking your blog’s search engine performance is critical, as you can see how your content performs over time.
Two tracking scripts you might want to install are the Google Analytics and Google Search Console scripts. Both of these can be added to your blog site’s header tags. Some blog hosting sites will even have an option to add it in via a “Custom Javascript” text box.
Alternatively, if you can’t install scripts or are not interested in doing so, your blog hosting site should provide metrics and KPIs that give you insight into how your blog is performing.
5. Room for Growth
As a new blogger, it might be difficult to envision where your blog might be in a few years — but as you publish more and more posts, you’ll need more features and capabilities that don’t restrict your website.
Even if you start with the free version of a service, be sure that they offer upgrades or have the right site architecture to support an established blog. Look for adequate storage space, a high number of monthly visits allowed, and avoid limitations on metered traffic.
6. Free Email, SSL Certificates, and More
Avoid blog hosting plans that only offer the bare minimum. As a bonus, you should look for plans that offer sign-up incentives such as a free email, domain name, or SSL certificate.
If they don’t offer these options in their basic plans, they should at least include them in their premium plans. These freebies help you create a strong blog without needing to purchase these important add-ons from another provider.
Now that you know what features to search for, let’s take a look at some of the most popular blog hosting options on the market. It’s worth noting that all of these hosting options allow for WordPress installation.
Read More: How to Choose the perfect domain name for a site
What Are The Best Domain Hosting Platforms?
1. BlueHost
2. StormerHost
3. Go Daddy
4. DreamHost
5. WordPress Hosting
6. Wix Hosting
Bluehost offers affordable hosting rates and a free domain name for one year. The service offers managed WordPress hosting plus marketing, social media, and SEO tools such as content improvement recommendations, keyword selections, and more.
It also offers three hosting options: Shared, Dedicated, and Virtual Private Server. If you choose Shared hosting, your blog would share server space with other blogs and websites. If you choose Dedicated hosting, your blog would have a dedicated private server, which would result in impeccable up-time and utmost stability. Virtual Private Servers are a compromise between shared hosting and dedicated hosting: you’re on a shared server, but software is installed on the physical server to give you private server space.
Though Bluehost offers these three hosting options, we’ll focus on Shared hosting for our review, since this is the go-to option for new bloggers.
Bluehost Pros
The Basic plan has a relatively low starting price ($3.95/month) compared to other services, making this a great choice if you want to start a blog for a low price.
The Basic plan has 50GB of storage, allowing you to include gifs, PDFs, and other files on your blog without worrying about usage (compare this to SiteGround’s 10GB of storage for their StartUp plan).
All plans come with a $100 Google Ads credit, allowing you to advertise your blog via Google’s sponsored ads.
A free SSL certificate is included, which secures your visitors’ connections and makes your blog look more trustworthy.
WordPress.org integration is free with all plans.
Bluehost Cons
Bluehost’s pricing structure is tricky — it’s $3.95 only when you commit to 36 months, and all of it must be paid upfront, which may rack up a higher-than-expected startup fee for your blog.
No free email is included with any of the plans; if you want to get a branded email for your blog, you’ll have to get one through Google Workspace or Office 365.
2. StormerHost
Stormer is a beginner-friendly hosting site with a 10-11$ plan for bloggers that includes security monitoring, for one year
StormerHost blog hosting site home page
The service makes designing your blog simple with the help of templates and a drag-and-drop page builder. However, it includes a branded domain name —yourdomain.wix.com — and Wix ads on your website.
Stormer HostPros
You can easily import data from another existing blog, if you have one, with its one-click import feature.
A live chat widget is included even in the free plan, allowing you to connect with potential subscribers
3. GoDaddy Blog Hosting
GoDaddy allows you to easily design an attractive blog, plus manage social accounts for easy content sharing. The service offers regular security monitoring, site backups, and one-click data restore, so you'll never have to be concerned about losing your blog content.Additionally, there are a number of plans that fit a range of budgets — each of which offers a year of a free domain name and Office 365 email.
GoDaddy Pros
All plans include a free domain, allowing you to create a professional-looking blog from the onset.
You’ll get a free Office 365 mailbox, which will allow you to have a branded inbox for your blog.
Enjoy unmetered bandwidth with all plans, giving your blog room to grow without forcing you to upgrade to a more expensive plan.
You can include up to 25 subdomains in the Economy plan, allowing you to create unique divisions for your blog if you’re planning to tackle a diverse range of topics.
GoDaddy Cons
Just like Bluehost and HostGator, GoDaddy’s multi-year commitments must be paid up-front. For the 36-month Economy plan, you’re looking at a $215.64 up-front fee.
You won’t get a Google Ads credit, which would allow you to launch a campaign for your blog; compare this to HostGator’s and Bluehost’s Google Ads credits ($150 and $100, respectively).
No SSL certificate is included unless you upgrade to the Ultimate and Maximum plans.
Only 100GB of storage is included in the Economy plan; if you want unlimited storage for your blog, you’d have to upgrade to the Deluxe web hosting plan.
4. DreamHost Blog Hosting
DreamHost’s site builder allows you to create a WordPress blog without any coding knowledge, which makes it a great option for users of all levels.
DreamHost is dedicated to security, too — it has multi-factor authentication, anti-spam policies, and free WHOIS privacy.
DreamHost Pros
All plans include unlimited traffic, bandwidth, and storage, giving your blog infinite room for growth.
All plans include an SSL certificate, allowing your blog to look more professional and safe to visit.
You can see the monthly price up-front on the website; many hosting sites cloak monthly pricing and only publish fees for 36-month terms. That way, you can see how much it will cost to set up your blog on a month-to-month basis.
Enjoy a longer-than-usual money-back guarantee; you have 97 days to try it out before deciding whether it’s right for your blog. Compare this to HostGator’s 45-day guarantee and Bluehost’s 30-day guarantee.
DreamHost Cons
Packages and pricing may be overwhelming for a new blogger: there’s shared website hosting, WordPress starter hosting, managed WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated server hosting, and more.
No free domain is included in any shared website hosting plan, but it is included in both WordPress hosting plans.
No free email is included in the basic plans; you’d have to either pay for it separately or upgrade to a more expensive plan.
5. WordPress.com Blog Hosting
WordPress.com offers several paid plans in addition to a limited free plan. With the free hosting plan, you get 3GB of storage plus automatic updates and site backups. It includes Jetpack, but no other plugins.Additionally, there will be ads on your blog, and your domain will include "WordPress" in it (like this: yoursite.wordpress.com), making the free service ideal for small-scale, personal blogs.
WordPress Pros
It’s extremely easy to sign up and get started: simply create an account, choose your WordPress subdomain, and proceed to your dashboard.
The dashboard is designed for bloggers first, with a “Write” button up top that immediately allows you to start a post.
Setup can be done in just a few minutes and you can start publishing blog posts the same day you sign up (other blog hosting sites require a lengthier setup).
Paid plans start at the highly affordable price of $48/year and $4/month.
WordPress Cons
The sign-up process constantly tries to “trick” you into paying for a plan by hiding the “Start for free” prompts.
You won’t get a free domain unless you upgrade to a paid plan.
WordPress.com’s ads and branding will be on your blog unless you upgrade to a paid plan.
WordPress.com offers limited functionality on the free plan; you won’t have access to WordPress’ expansive library of plugins unless you go for the Premium ($8/month) and Business plans ($25/month).
6. Wix Blog Hosting
Wix is a beginner-friendly hosting site with a free plan for bloggers that includes security monitoring, 500MB of cloud storage, and 500MB of bandwidth.
Wix blog hosting site home page
The service makes designing your blog simple with the help of templates and a drag-and-drop page builder. However, it includes a branded domain name —yourdomain.wix.com — and Wix ads on your website.
Wix Pros
It’s extremely easy to get started: simply sign up, answer a few questions about your project, select the features you want on your site, and let the Wix AI build your blog for you.
You can easily import data from another existing blog, if you have one, with its one-click import feature.
A live chat widget is included even in the free plan, allowing you to connect with potential subscribers.
Wix Cons
No custom domain is included unless you upgrade to a premium plan.
No free email is included, even in paid plans.
Your blog will have Wix’s branding and ads unless you upgrade to a paid plan; the branding is quite prominent.
The drag-and-drop editor has a slight learning curve with small, subtle buttons.
To add a blog post, you have to go to the page editor, click Manage, click Blog, then click Create New; compare this to WordPress’s “Write” button placed prominently in the dashboard
