
Are you getting serious with your website?
If yes, then the very first thing you need to care about is your web host. It is the place where your site lives.
It can make or break your business (site).
Most of us host our site on shared hosting initially. It’s a good idea when your site is new and you want to save some money. But with the passage of time, traffic of your site increases and the performance of the shared server decreases.
If you are in this situation, you are in the right place.
Here I’ll be talking about a great alternative of shared hosting – cloud hosting. It’s a bit costly than shared hosting. But don’t worry. I’ll also share a list of the best cheap cloud hosting services.
What is Cloud Hosting?
If you have been blogging for some time, or if you are just getting started and searching deeply about different web hosting options, then I am sure you’ve heard about cloud hosting.
Basically, your site will be hosted on different servers instead of one server. So, all your eggs are not in one basket. The servers will work as one unit, so the data is displayed to the visitor without issues.
Having multiple servers will prevent downtime problems if one server has a problem, as the data can be easily transferred from other servers, and your site will be up with little to no downtime.
To understand more about cloud hosting, watch this explainer video:
Cloud Hosting VS Shared Hosting: Which is Better for You?
Shared hosting is what most people start with. It’s a server where multiple sites are hosted on, thus the term is shared hosting.
Perhaps you are wondering which is better for you. Let’s go over some considerations.
For performance, cloud hosting always outperforms better than shared hosting. The availability of multiple servers gives you the features needed to have a fast site.
This is very important especially when one of your posts goes viral in a very short time. The influx of new visitors can cause most shared servers to go down. But with cloud hosting, that won’t happen.
Shared hosting has multiple sites on it, and that is why your site doesn’t load as fast as it should. With cloud hosting, multiple servers are available to load just your website, giving your site higher speed.
But there are 2 important benefits to shared hosting:
- The pricing, where you can easily get started as low as $0.01 for the first month.
- The tech part, which may be a burden for many beginners.
That is why many people — especially those who are just getting started and are on a tight budget — start with shared hosting.
So, if you are just starting out, your site has low traffic volume, and you don’t want to get into the tech part, shared hosting is a good option.
But if your site has started to get traction and you want to take things to the next level, or if you are creating a new blog for a company or a SaaS where you need high performance and don’t care about the extra $$, then go with cloud hosting.
It’s as simple as that.
If you are planning to go with cloud hosting, then continue reading, so you get the best options that don’t cost an arm and a leg to host your site, as well as get tips on how to save money.
First option?
1. Vultr
Founded by David Aninowsky in 2014, Vultr is a company that has quite gained some popularity in the cloud hosting space in a very short time. And that is because of its price and speed.
Features:
- 100% SSD, thus fast speed.
- Custom control panel.
- Intel Skylake processors for all the packages above 10$, getting 40% speed boost.
- Free Dedicated IP.
Plans and Pricing:
You are billed per the specs you use.
You can get started for $2.5/month with 1 CPU, 512MB RAM, 0.5 TB bandwidth, and 20 GB SSD.
For $10, you’ll get 1 Intel Skylake CPU which is 50% faster, 2 GB RAM, 2 TB bandwidth, 40 GB SSD storage.
You can get more CPUs (up to 16), up to 400 GB SSD, 64 GB Ram, and 10 TB bandwidth for 320$/month.
Money-Saving Tips:
- Test the water by getting started with the lowest plan and get your site up and running at a minimal cost.
- Upgrade your server as you go to stay ahead. When traffic to your site increases, choose the higher plan, and so on.
2. HostGator
Hostgator is the elephant in the room when it comes to hosting in general. It is one of the most wildly known hosting companies.
They also offer cloud hosting services.
Features:
- Free SSL certificate.
- 2 core CPU on hatchling plans.
- 2x faster than shared hosting.
- Analytics to understand how your site loads and usage of your host.
Plans and Pricing:
There are 3 plans, Hatchling Cloud, Baby Cloud, and Business Cloud.
Hatchling lets you have one domain. This is good for you if you have only one site, but it only has 2GB of RAM, which may be a problem when you get a lot of traffic at once.
With the Baby and Business cloud, you can host as many domains as you want. With the business cloud, you can have a dedicated IP.
Money-Saving Tips:
- If you only have one site, go with the Hatchling plan till you outgrow the server, which may take some time, and then upgrade.
- If you can pay for 3 years upfront, go with it. It’ll save you 44.65% than going monthly. You can also pay for a full year, and save 27% which is a good deal for most people.
- Don’t buy additional services if you don’t need them.
- Use the HostGator coupon code.
3. DreamHost
DreamHost loves to talk about their simplicity and performance. You can get your site up and running in 30 seconds, which is mind-blowing.
Features:
- Free CDN.
- Full control. You can install Windows/Linux.
- 24/7 chat and email support.
- 100GB storage, and increase as you go.
Plans and Pricing:
They offer DreamCompute and DreamObjects. DreamObjects is for big web applications and servers. You won’t need it if you’re a blogger.
For DreamCompute, there are 3 plans based on RAM size. You can upgrade later on.
The 8 GB server is for big databases, which you won’t need.
The 512MB server is for very small sites. You can get started there, but you’ll outgrow it soon. It’s a money saver, which costs $4.5/mo.
The 2 GB server is most suitable for most blogs with good traffic. You can increase storage as you want later on.
Money-Saving Tips:
- Start on the small server to get up and running, and then upgrade as you go.
- Pay annually to save money.
4. A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is known for their blazing fast servers. Think of what will happen when you go with a VPS cloud server.
Features:
- 99.99% uptime commitment.
- 20x faster server with the turbo server.
- Free SSD.
- 24/7 support available from the Guru Crew.
- Money-back guarantee if you don’t like the server.
Plans and Pricing:
There are 3 main plans, but you don’t need to stick with these plans. You can consider these as main servers to use for guidelines, and then you can upgrade or downgrade any part as you want.
The Entry server with 512 MB Ram, 20 GB storage and 1 CPU core starts at $5/month.
The Mid server with 1 GB RAM, 30 GB storage and 1 CPU core starts at $10/month.
The Elite server with 1 GB RAM, 50 GB storage and 4 CPU cores starts at $15/month.
You can get up to 250 GB storage, 12 CPU cores, 32 GB RAM, and 9 TB bandwidth. You will need to configure it based on your needs.
Money-Saving Tips:
- Go with the lower plan to get started.
- Pay for a year or for 3 years to save as much money as possible.
- Upgrade as you go, so you are always one step ahead of what your blog needs. See the part that is lagging and upgrade it first.
5. InterServer
InterServer is a company founded in 1999, so it is a very old player in the market. They focused on their reseller program in the beginning, but once they started offering hosting services to people, their popularity exploded and more people started using them and raving about them.
Features:
- Free SSD storage.
- 99.99% uptime guarantee.
- Full root access.
- Easily add RAM or storage as you want from their easy-to-use control panel.
Plans and Pricing:
They have a simple easy-to-understand pricing model their hosting: you get slices and you pay for them.
The 1 slice = 25GB space, 1024MB memory and 1TB transfer. The pricing of a slice starts at $6.00.
You can add more slices as you want later on.
For every 4 slices, you get 1 core CPU. So, 4 slices or less means 1-core CPU, 5-8 means 2-core CPU and so on.
And it is easy to add slices from their simple to use control panel.
Money-Saving Tips:
- 1 slice is more than enough to get you started; upgrade as you go.
- Pay yearly if you can to save an extra 10%.
6. BlueHost
BlueHost is the recommended host by WordPress itself. I am sure that you’ve heard about it even if you are fairly new because most bloggers started on it, and it has some good amount of popularity. Their cloud hosting services is no joke either. They always strive to be at the top.
Features:
- 2x faster than shared hosting.
- Easy analytics panel to understand your site usage.
- Easy server upgrade option.
- Integrated caching.
- Free SSL.
- Up to 8 GB RAM.
- Up to 8 CPUs.
Plans and Pricing:
There are 3 plans available: Starter, Performance, and Business Pro.
The performance has storage unmetered compared to the starter’s 100 GB. You also get 4 GB of RAM instead of 2 GB.
The Business plan has 6 GB RAM, dedicated IP, and SSL certificate. It starts at 16$/month, which may not be needed by most bloggers, unless your blog gets a lot of traffic.
Money-Saving Tips:
- Go with the starter plan. It is more than enough to get started.
- Upgrade to performance when you need more storage, or just increase the RAM if you don’t need more storage.
- Pay yearly or for 3 years to save some money.
7. Hostinger
Hostinger was launched in 2004. It got its first million customers by 2010, and in 2014 it grew to 10 million, which many hosting sites haven’t reached until now.
Their cloud hosting has grown rapidly in the past few years, that many bloggers turn to them once their blog is big enough to decrease downtime and increase speed.
Features:
- Dedicated IP address.
- Live chat 24/7/365.
- Easily backup your file. Daily backups available.
- Free SSD drivers.
- Free domain name when paying annually.
- Powerful control panel.
- Free SSL certificates.
Plans and Pricing:
There are 3 plans: Startup for multiple growing websites, Professional for high-traffic and e-commerce sites, and Enterprise for resource-heavy websites.
The difference between the plans is in the specs of the servers. Starting with 40 GB storage, 3 GB ram, 2 CPU cores in the Startup, up to 160 GB storage, 12 GB RAM, 6 CPU cores in the Enterprise.
You can also modify the specs inside, so don’t worry if you just want to increase the RAM or storage, and so on.
The Startup plan starts at $15.9 if you pay for 48 months or $29 if you pay monthly. The Professional plan costs $31.8/mo if you pay for 48 months upfront, and $58 if you pay monthly. The Enterprise starts at $71.55/mo.
Money-Saving Tips:
- If you are having a new blog, don’t start here.
- Unless you have high amount of traffic, pick the Startup plan.
- Pay for 4 years if you can or for 1 year at least to get a free domain.
Conclusion
Going with a cloud server is not a wrong decision. It is a wise investment to gain better performance and speed.
Yes, it may be a little bit more costly compared to normal shared hosting that you are used to, but you will get what you pay for.
So, there you go. My top 7 cheap but very good cloud servers that offer good value for money, plus some money-saving tips.
Tell us in the comments below if you decided to go with cloud hosting or not and which service you picked and why.