Building your website is one of the most critical steps in putting your new business on the map. People can better engage with your services if options to purchase or book are available online. Most small-scale entrepreneurs place their bets on websites and e-commerce to give them a kick-start. However, choosing the right website hosting service can become a difficult decision. The entrepreneur must consider factors like web hosting costs, hosting quality and bandwidth, etc. Consequently, it is a good idea to get advice and help regarding the best small business services for web hosting available on the market. This article will consider our top 3 picks for the best web hosting services for small scale entrepreneurs, discussed in the following order:
Wix took the world by storm after its launch, it offers some of the most robust web hosting features available on the market today. Its hosting provides excellent site speed and a massive template collection to build the a website easily. Additionally, it gives you the liberty of drag and drop website building. Hosting your website on Wix.com allows you to handle payments seamlessly through their inbuilt payment system. They also provide a robust communication platform for the site administrator to view and reply to customer email without leaving Wix.com. Above all, Wix offers a basic free plan with limited features meaning you can get started on the basics of your business idea even if you have no website or marketing budget. You also get fast customer support and tips on extra features from their support team, which is always welcome.
However, Wix.com’s service for website hosting has a few drawbacks as well. unfortunately, it does not allow premium plans for multiple sites, meaning the user has to buy them for each website separately. Secondly, the free hosting option makes it compulsory to display Wix's branding on the website, which for a small-scale entrepreneur looking to expand their business, such branding may cause customer loyalty issues. Thirdly, you can not track most of the website metrics in the basic-free plan, however, there is a vast array of detailed metrics to choose from once you are on a monthly payment plan.
The biggest issue some find with this hosting option, is site transfer. Why? Simply because it is not possible, you cannot transfer your site to any other platform from Wix. As such, the entrepreneur most commit to the Wix framework long term. However, at such a low price tag, the entrepreneur may choose to overlook such an issue.
Developing an e-commerce store can boost your sales manifold and finding the right hosting for your online store may be time consuming and involve heavy development prices, if you opt to build your own. Both these problems are solved by Shopify’s small business services for website hosting.
The service offers numerous benefits for any online product, it is convenient to use and allows the integration of multiple payment processors. The site-performance is considered par-excellent and wont get in the way of your sales getting a massive boost. There are no limits on the monthly bandwidth to complement these features, which means you get as many customers as you want using your website. Plus, you can also select from an array of different themes and designs to really make the space your own.
However, there are a few drawbacks attached to the Shopify store. Theme customization has been considered less than simple for many and you may need a web developer to help you make the most of it. Consequently, the entrepreneur may have to bear this extra cost. Shopify does not offer email hosting and its services are a tad more expensive compared to others in the same market space.
WordPress is a preferred choice for most entrepreneurs to build their first website, portfolio, or online store on a small budget; what you perhaps did not know, is that WordPress also offers complete hosting services for websites powered by WordPress systems. And "what is the cost?" you ask, well, nothing! You can host primary sites on this platform completely free. WordPress hosting is well optimized for WordPress-powered websites, which allows the best performance when using their service. Additionally, customization is somewhat easy and you can install additional plugins for different functionalities. This means, you can get a plugin for foreign currencies, another one for different stores and even a multi-site plugin.
However, WordPress hosting has its own drawbacks. Using WordPress may reduce your SEO ranking and overall is more likely to have vulnerability issues. Another drawback is that important plugins with complex functions may come at a hefty price. Due to is basic initial offerings you may need theme and plugin updates as well.
Conclusion
Small business services for website hosting have their benefits and drawbacks. The key to select the best service for your business by choosing the one closest to your needs. Try using the any of the above three services as starters, you bound to love the results.