The good thing about starting your own website in 2015 is that you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to getting your hands on a great web hosting deal. In an effort to beat off stiff competition, many of the leading providers offer rock bottom rates to sign up for an initial term. What this means for you, is that if you shop around a little, you’ll likely find the ideal hosting package no matter how small your budget may be.
If you’re anything like most website owners, much of that initial research will include looking at things like bandwidth, storage space, free tools and applications and all those other features that hosting companies like to shout about from the rooftops in order to convince you sign up with them.
What they may not be so quick to shout about however, is the few secrets you can use to get the best deals on web hosting. Does that mean you have to miss out? Not when we’re here to reveal just some of those secrets for you.
Save money by signing up long-term
The discount rates promoted by most web hosts apply for the first term only, which means that when it comes time to renew your plan, you’ll end up paying much more than you did initially. To save yourself money in the long-term then, it makes sense to sign up for as lengthy a term as you can afford so that you can enjoy that same low price for longer. As you’ll see for yourself when you reach your hosts sign up page, the longer you sign up for, the cheaper the total cost.
Existing customers can tell you more about a hosting provider than the providers themselves
We should point out at this stage that signing up for a long-term plan with a hosting company is only a good idea if you’re absolutely certain that they’re right for you. If you dive into an 18, 24 or even 36 month plan only to discover down the road that your hosting plan isn’t quite as good as the company says it is, that’s an awful long time that you’re stuck with something that isn’t up to scratch.
To avoid that happening to you, spend some time checking out independent website reviews written by real users. These existing customers can tell you much more about what a web host is really like than any amount of sales fluff from the company itself ever could.
Discount codes exist
When you come to sign up, you may find that your provider has automatically included a discount code in order to knock the price of your hosting down from their regular rate to the one they’ve advertised. Whilst this is all well and good, you may be able to get your new plan even cheaper by exploring what other discounts they currently offer. A quick web search for ‘web hosting discount codes’ should reveal the latest offers that your company isn’t telling you about, and it could be that one of those will help you to save even more money.
Cheap isn’t always better when it comes to eCommerce
If you’re planning to run an online store or incorporate eCommerce functionality into your site, you’ll need to be sure that the plan you’re thinking of buying has everything you’ll need to support that site.
Not all hosting plans are created equally, and it’s often the case that only the business or premium shared hosting plans include eCommerce essentials like dedicated IP addresses, SSL certificates and shopping cart support.
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