Last updated on July 15th, 2018 at 05:00 pm
Top 8 Best Web Hosting Providers To Monetize Your Blog
Best, Easy To Use Website Hosting For Your Money-Making Website: Starting a profitable blog begins at choosing a secure, reputable host. When it comes to monetizing your blog, hosts that allow ads are crucial. Tumblr, Wix and other ‘free’ hosting sites don’t allow ads, and therefore block you from being able to earn money from your blog.
So, you need to self-host. This means that you purchase web hosting, allowing you to own your website and its content and are free to monetize as you please.
This post may contain affiliate links, which is at no cost to you. Disclosure.
If you want to make money from your website, it is important that you own your domain, and pay for your hosting as you can’t have ads or sponsorships/partnerships on “free” websites that you don’t own!
I’ve been building and monetizing websites for over a decade, and in that time I’ve worked with over 39 different web hosts. These are my top picks for the best ones.
Related: What Is Self-Hosting And Why Is It So Important?
Of all my best website monetization tips (which you can read all about here) the first and foremost step is self-host your blog from the start.
Self-hosting and web-hosting is more affordable than you may think. Many of these providers offer hosting for less than $5 per month! That’s nearly free web hosting with ads allowed, so you can actually make money blogging.
Also, you may be offered an additional discount on your hosting rate when you use the links I have provided. Awesome, right?!
What Are The Best Blog Hosting Providers?
Best blog hosting providers list: Any of these 8 web hosting providers below would be ideal for anyone looking to have a blog with the capability of monetizing it and blogging for profit.
> Ready to start and monetize a blog today? Check out my tutorial on how to set up hosting and install WordPress in just a few simple steps!
Choosing The Best Hosting Providers For Blog Hosting
There are a lot of hosting options out there to choose from, and it can be difficult to choose the right one. In my 15 years experience in building and maintaining websites for clients, I have been able to work with a variety of different hosting providers. Some are good, some are great some are not!
It is also very important to be aware of the best web hosting for affiliate marketing purposes! As monetizing your blog with affiliate links is one of the best ways to make money blogging.
Out of the 30+ hosting services I have used over the years, I deem these to be the top 8. I consider these the best hosting services available for a number of reasons, including their user-friendly, easy-to -use capabilities, the quality of the hosting and the different features each includes.
Additionally, I consider these the best hosting options for the quality of the customer service each provides. And of course, they had to be affordable!
Related: How To Actually Make Money Blogging
Top 8 Best Web Hosting Providers To Monetize Your Blog
#1. BLUEHOST
Load time: 419ms
Uptime: 99.99% (1st in uptime)
Cost: $2.95/mo
Support: Live Chat Avg. Response Time: 5min (fast)
Domain Included: Yes
Bluehost tops the list for affordability and value, and is probably the most well-known webhost there is. More than 2 million websites and blogs host with Bluehost, and they are Officially recommended by WordPress.org. Their hosting includes a free domain, free 1-click WordPress install, and free SSL certificate. When you sign up via this link you get your hosting for just $2.95 per month (instead of $7.99).
#2. SITEGROUND
Load time: 722ms
Uptime: 99.99% (2nd in uptime)
Cost: $3.95/mo
Support: Live Chat Avg. Response Time: 2min (Very fast)
Domain Included: No
Siteground has the second fastest load times after Bluehost, good prices, and a reputation for excellent customer service. The WordPress hosting includes unlimited bandwidth and free daily backups. Siteground offers extremely great value at an affordable price. Like Bluehost, with Siteground you get a free 1-click WordPress install and free SSL certificate, but you do not get a free domain. Plans start at $3.95 per month.
#3. WP ENGINE
WP Engine is a dedicated WordPress hosting service offering unlimited data and free daily backups. There are a few packages to choose from depending on your needs and the size of your business.
#4. FATCOW
Load time:1,436ms
Uptime: 99.90%
Cost: $9.00 – 20.00/year
Support: Live Chat Avg. Response Time: 6 min (Slow)
Domain Included: Yes
FatCow includes a free domain name, email address, unlimited disk storage, drag-and-drop site builder and shopping cart. They also provide all sorts of eCommerce tools, so you can run your online shop with ease. Unfortunately, FatCow has slow page load time, not-optimal uptime, and hidden fees if you want to cancel. There is a $35 early cancellation fee, and you can only get a refund if you paid by credit card.
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#5. HOSTGATOR
Load time: 462ms
Uptime: 99.96%
Cost: $2.99/mo
Support: Live Chat Avg. Response Time: 3 min (Fast)
Domain Included: No
Hostgator includes an option to host on their cloud. Easy 1-Click WordPress install.
#6. DREAMHOST
Dreamhost offers unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage and free domain with unlimited emails! Also includes 1-Click WordPress installation which is very important if you are new to building websites, or just like the time-saving convenience.
#7. CLOUDWAYS
Cloudways is a bit different than the other platforms above. Cloudways is a cloud-based hosting service, essentially combining all of the services of a regular hosting platform all in one place, making your website run extremely fast. I would recommend Cloudways to people with a bit more experience building websites, as the things you can do with this type of hosting is more advanced than first-time bloggers may be comfortable with – but don’t let that scare you. Check out their features, as they offer many features that just may be perfect for your unique type of website.
Related: High Paying Affiliate Programs Bloggers Can Join
#9. GO DADDY
Load time: 495ms
Uptime: 99.96%
Cost: $2.49/mo
Support: Live Chat Avg. Response Time: 14 min (Slow)
Domain Included: No
Chelsea Clarke is a blogger, blog development strategist, and mentor. After a decade working in marketing, watching her bosses get rich off of her time and effort for a measly paycheque, she finally grew the ovaries to quit her job, and get serious about turning her blogging hobby into her career. Chelsea developed her beauty blog into a lucrative full-time business and hasn’t looked back. She now runs HerPaperRoute, where she helps aspiring bloggers and entrepreneur women make their work-from-anywhere aspirations a reality. More About Chelsea
I previously bought a plan with inmotion hosting for a lot of money, use boldgrid and bought a domain name. I did it awhile ago to learn how to do it and now i want to change everything. The renewal will be coming up for a few hundred dollars that I cant afford. Would the best thing to do is use a different hosting site and then purchase domain name? I liked the inmotion hosting but the price is a lot. I want to start the blog and use it to hopefully monetize for money in the future so trying to figure out the best/cheapest option. Im just trying to understand it all!! Thanks for your help!
Hey Chelsea,
I’m SO new to this and I’m SO glad I found your site. However before I came across your site I’d already purchased my domain & hosting through DoDaddy. I purchased WordPress through them as well, and now wishing I didn’t. But it’s already done and paid for. So do you have any resources and help for someone like me who has purchased through GoDaddy? Thank you!
Hi Desiree, you can point your domain to Siteground, and then get a refund from GoDaddy for the hosting that you paid for. The steps to doing this would be:
1. Purchase Siteground hosting
2. Then log into Go Daddy and set your nameservers to Siteground (I can do this for you if you need help, contact me if so)
3. Then contact Go Daddy and get a pro-rated refund
Then you will be good to go!
But if you don’t want to switch thats still OK you can still use all of my blogging tips and resources!