Do you wish to learn how to save money on web hosting? If yes, then you have come to the right place. Starting your own website or blog can be a daunting prospect. However, it’s something that thousands of people do on a daily basis. Part of the process involves choosing a web host. There many of these across the globe. Their prices range from free to hundreds of dollars per month. You are here because you wish to save money on web hosting. The following tips should help you get there;
Choose shared hosting
Generally, there are 3 types of web hosting; shared, dedicated and VPS. With shared hosting, you will have other websites on the same server as your own site. That can be tens or even hundreds of websites on a single server. Shared hosting is cheap because you get to share the cost of renting space on the server with other people.
On the other hand, dedicated hosting means you will have a server dedicated solely to your website. That’s rather expensive and it’s probably only ideal for large enterprises. VPS hosting offers a middle ground. You get your own dedicated virtual space on a server. The server may have other sites, but these will be allotted their own virtual spaces.
If you wish to save money on web hosting, you should opt for shared hosting. That’s good enough for most beginner websites. In fact, we estimate that you should probably stick with shared hosting till your site has reached the 10000 visitors per day mark. Not many sites ever reach that figure. You can keep track of your resources used in your cPanel.
Look around for a cheap web host
Web hosting charges vary wildly from one company to the other. In general, you get what you pay for, meaning premium quality web hosts will charge you more. However, that’s not always the case. There are many high-quality web hosts out there that charge only a couple of dollars per month.
The trick to saving money lies in choosing a web host that’s within your means. The average web hosting cost is $2.50 per month. There are plenty of hosts out there that charge a dollar per month. Hunt around for the best and you should be able to make savings.
Are you in South Africa or elsewhere on the African continent? Here is are the cheap web hosting South Africa options.
If you have more than one site, host them in one cPanel
This is a trick for saving money on web hosting that not many people are aware of. Let’s assume that you have 4 websites. Paying for hosting for each of these could very well drain you, particularly if the sites have not yet started paying for themselves.
What we recommend is that you get a web host that allows you to have addon domains in your cPanel. What that effectively means is that you can have additional websites for the price of one. This is something that we have previously done.
One of our web hosts offers up to 30 addon domains for the price of one. So, we have moved two of our other sites from another host onto this cPanel. The result is that we are now saving $100 per year. Addon domains have their disadvantages, however.
One concern is on security. Should hackers get through one site, they can compromise all your other sites. So, it’s important to keep everything in there updated. We do this by enabling automatic updates.
Find coupons and discounts
Most web hosts that are out there offer discounts in the form of coupons or other incentives to people signing up. Of course, you should never choose a web host solely on the basis of this. There are more important considerations, such as support and uptime.
However, once you have settled on a host, look around for coupon codes. You can even ask the host if there are any promotions running at that moment. Once you have found them, you can then apply these codes to get discounts on your web hosting. That way, you will be able to save a lot of money.
Find a free web host
There are many free web hosting offerings out there. If you are just getting started, that could be another way for you to save money on web hosting. There is a catch, however. Most free web hosting packages come with severe handicaps.
As an example, you may not be able to move your site to another host unless you have first upgraded your package from the free offering. You may also not be able to monetize your website via AdSense and other tools with free web hosting. So, you need to approach this with a pinch of salt.
Avoid the extras
A lot of web hosts out there will try to scare you into buying extras for your website. In some cases, these extras are not necessary. In other cases, these extras should actually be offered as part of the web hosting package.
As an example, if a web host charges you for SSL, you should stay away from that website. It’s a no-brainer. SSL is an integral part of web hosting, and you shouldn’t need to pay for it. Also, security is an absolute necessity, so the web host that you choose should offer this right from the onset, and not as an optional addon.
Pay for 3 year
With most web hosts, you will get a discount should you opt to pay for your web hosting for longer periods. Somebody who buys their web hosting from one month to the next will pay more than somebody who pays for three years at once. So, it’s another way of saving money when choosing a web host.
