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Insights Into The Best Web Hosting

One company owns more than 70 web hosts.

You’ve probably never heard of Endurance International Group (EIG), but you’re definitely already familiar with some of the web hosting companies it owns. EIG is the parent company behind some of the best known web hosting companies on the market, including Arvixe, HostGator, eHost, iPower, FatCow, IX Web Hosting, iPage, and many, many more. Even our runner up, Bluehost falls under EIG’s umbrella.

According to EIG’s 2015 Annual Report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, it maintains more than 70 brands — and while they share a billing platform among other things, they are tailored to fit different consumer needs. “The SMB (small and midsize business) market is broad, diverse, and fragmented in terms of geography, industry, size, and degree of technological sophistication. As a result, we use a multi-brand approach to precisely target the SMB universe, identify the best ways to reach different categories of subscribers, and tailor our brands and service offerings specifically toward those audiences,” the company explained in the report. “For example, our Bluehost brand targets SMBs with greater technical expertise and a desire to build their own solutions, while our HostGator brand targets SMBs who value relatively higher levels of support. This multi-brand approach allows us to manage our subscriber acquisition costs effectively and to provide a diverse base of subscribers with a highly relevant experience on our platform.”

Many of the company’s brands look eerily similar (which is pretty disconcerting to the casual shopper). FatCow and iPower, for instance, use a near-identical site design and back end management setup. Many EIG companies seem to use the same tech support as well, though when we prodded a FatCow agent for more details, they explained that while they all work in the same building, employees are individually assigned to different web hosts. That’s also reflected in the company’s annual report: “When calling our customer support services, most of our subscribers reach our customer support teams located in one of our six US-based call centers. Our teams in each call center are trained to provide support services for a discrete subset of our brands.”

Despite being owned by the same parent, Bluehost seems to operate like an independent entity, serving its users with a completely different back end control panel, comparatively unique hosting options, and a different (and higher quality) customer support system. Even so, if you’re looking to switch providers, it’s good to check the EIG company list to make sure you know who, exactly, you’re buying that new server space from.

It’s easy to build a website.

So we’ve picked out a reliable host with good support documentation, an upgrade path in case business expands, and a crackshot customer service team. How hard is it to actually get a site up and running? Not just easy, but surprisingly easy.

image-10See that little blue box? It’s left over from when we “clicked to install” WordPress — which we did.

Any web host worth its salt will offer a straightforward, easy-to-use back end packed with tools to set up email accounts, oversee database information, add and organize domain names, manage files, and much, much more. There was a time when webmasters would use this control panel to manually install web applications, PHP, and other scripting languages or database management systems like MySQL — but these days you don’t have to. Modern hosting control panels come with a catalog of one-click-install web applications that can build a website for you.

Okay, it’s not quite that simple, but it almost is. Your web host’s control panel will make it easy to install common CMS products like Drupal, WordPress, or Joomla, but you still have to know how to use those to build a website. Fortunately, that’s not too hard.

Installing WordPress takes between one and five clicks. Add a few more clicks for setup, and you’ll have a basic website online. Tacking on a shopping cart is only as hard as searching for “eCommerce” in the free plug-in directory. We did go the extra mile to upload our own WordPress theme, but even that was pretty straightforward. We were able to build functional web stores (complete with working cart systems and PayPal integration) on each of our final contenders in just a few minutes using only the built-in tools.

image-11In fact, that’s the point — most web hosts wrap their back end in a familiar, standardized interface like cPanel or Plesk that’s geared for simplicity. These control panels are convenient, sure, but they’re also a great jumping-off point for anyone who wants to learn more about managing a web server. “You’re able to manage your DNS; you’re able to manage your hosting; your .htaccess files and PHP.ini configuration files. You’re able to manage your entire website stack in a single cPanel interface, and that’s very valuable for someone who’s learning,” Web hosting expert and systems engineer at Ookla (Speedtest.net), Brennen Smith, told us.

He’s right — a beginner may not understand everything they see in a Plesk or cPanel interface, but almost everything in the control panel is clearly labeled. If you’re not sure what a Cron Job or SSH access is, you can Google it, return to the interface, and try it out. “It’s a great place for people when they’re starting off,” Smith says, “And that extends to small business — to have that kind of safety net. Like training wheels.”

Despite the popularity of cPanel and Plesk, some hosts opt for a custom control panel instead — and that’s okay! Three of our finalists use custom setups: iPower, FatCow, and Media Temple. The vDeck control panel that powers FatCow and iPower (which are both owned by EIG) is about as easy to use; it’s just organized a little differently.

image-12GoDaddy uses cPanel but has some cool customizations too.

Of our top picks, only Media Temple’s custom Account Center had a much more difficult learning curve. The one-click app installs are buried deeper in menus, and the interface can leave newcomers to web hosting feeling a little lost. It’s still good, but it’s confusing enough to not be our first pick.

You don’t need to do it all yourself.

With one-click web app installations, automatic updates, and tons of pre-cooked site themes to choose from, it’s never been easier to set up your own site. But, if you’re not comfortable doing the technical bits yourself, you don’t have to. Most web hosts offer special managed- or WordPress-specific hosting that take the set up and maintenance off your hands, assigning a technical expert to your account to manage server space, keep things up to date, and help you solve problems.

This can get expensive, one expert told us, but might be worth it for the right business. “Managed hosts typically take care of upgrading and patching the OS, and depending on the host and its niche, may even manage your application fully, giving backups and ensuring your business’s service stays up and online, and doesn’t get hacked,” explains Arthur Ketcham, Director of Engineering at Klassica Studios. “This prevents most of the worst emergency situations you might otherwise have to manage yourself.“

It may not be necessary for smaller sites, but for businesses that expect a lot of traffic and aren’t confident they can manage server administration on their own, managed hosting can be a good option.

The Bottom Line

There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all web host, but Shared hosting is a good place to start. We recommend InMotion Hosting for its painless onboarding process, easy-to-use back end, excellent customer support, and good scalability.

Take Action

Figure out exactly what you want from your website. Believe it or not, buying web space is the easy part of getting online. Making the most of that space is a completely different challenge. Ask yourself what you want from your new company website. Are you trying to build community and brand awareness? Do you want to set up a company blog or a web store? Are you trying to create a portal that will let customers book appointments with you?

Figure out how you want your website to impact your business before you buy web space. Websites don’t just happen; they need to be planned, designed, and created. Knowing what you want before buying space will give you time to plan and, if you need to, hire staff to help you reach your goals. Speaking of which…

Consider hiring a professional. Like we mentioned, building a website is really easy if you’re willing to build on top of a pre-existing design or template. But if you want something specific — a custom look or cool module — a web designer or developer should be your first call. This should be part of your planning phase: Working with a designer or developer before you buy web space will give you a chance to hammer out exactly what you need your site to do and how you’re going to make it work.

Look into Google Apps for Business. Almost every host comes with basic email support, but it’s not always very good. If you’re accustomed to using a desktop email program, you’ll probably be fine with whatever your host already offers you — but if you’re used to robust webmail services like Gmail, your host’s default email web app probably won’t cut it. Google Apps will endow your domain with a good webmail client, Google’s Hangout chat messaging system, Google Docs, and a shared calendar system, plus iOS and Android apps to get it all on the go. At $5 a month, the service isn’t free — but it’s a great alternative to your host’s default mail system if you need something more.?

Editor’s Note: This Review originally appeared on on Reviews.com as The Best Web Hosting

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CONVERSATIONS

  1. not surprising that most people don’t know how the internet works – I bet most people don’t know how a lightbulb works or internal combustion engine – but a nice summary for an RFI when moving to your next hosting provider. thankyou.

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