Best Web Hosting for Side Hustles

SiteGround measures visits based on how hard their server has to work to fulfill the demands of the traffic generated by your website. More visits mean more resources are used by the server, and vice versa. For this reason, SiteGround sets limits on the number of visitors for all three of its basic hosting plans.

While SiteGround sets a ceiling on the number of monthly visitors, don’t panic! Even the most popular business websites will only see 20,000 visitors in any given month. Going with the GrowBig Plan at SiteGround is a safe bet because it gives you a cushion of 5,000 visits that will likely never be exceeded.

SiteGround is our preferred host because it will load your site far faster than Bluehost and GoDaddy, paving the way for higher search rankings and a better user experience.

Disk space refers to how much space your website files, images, code, and backups occupy on your server. If you only have a few images and pages, and you don’t host users, you won’t need that much in terms of disk space. Most small websites take up only a few gigabytes of disk space, while a mammoth site could take up 10 or 20 gigabytes of disk space or more.

Even if you start small, over time your site could mushroom to the point that you need more expensive hosting. That’s why it’s important to monitor how fast your site is growing, and account for that as you plan the future of your business.

Because Google uses site speed as a factor when deciding how highly to rank your page, you can’t afford to have a slow site. Even “average” hosting speeds can create a bad user experience that can cost you visits and customers.

We’ve tested SiteGround, Bluehost, and GoDaddy and found SiteGround’s site speed to be the best, which is why we recommend it as the best hosting option.

Backups are complete copies of your site from a given point in time. Backups allow you to instantly fully restore your site in the event you get hacked or you accidentally lose important data.

So for example, if you backed up your site at 11:20 PM on February 3rd, and on February 4th you got hacked, you could reverse the damage with your backup from the previous day. Ideally, you’d want a host that offers backups daily so that you could easily get back online should anything go wrong.

Domains are a name that replaces the numeric IP address that identifies your site to other computers. Domains are mandatory when you first build a website, and some hosting plans include them for free when you sign up.

It’s important to name your domain something unique and catchy. Bonus: include a keyword in your domain to help give Google a clear idea of what your site is about. The best domains are three words max, and they should be simple and easy to remember.

An SSL certificate is used to protect users and their data as they submit information to your server. It creates an encrypted channel that prevents the bad guys from snooping on your customers and their sensitive data. Most hosts include basic ones for free, so you won’t be out of pocket for those costs.

SSL certificates are also important for search rankings. Google includes SSL certificates as a major rankings factor for all websites, and if you don’t have one, you could be left in the dust.