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Two Myths About Webhosting Plans For WordPress Sites

Choosing the right hosting provider for your WordPress site can make the difference between success and failure of your online venture. If you are new to web hosting you may get attracted by low-cost hosting plans. However, as we will see in this article, the price should not be the main factor when you decide about your host. In this article, I want to share with you a few things I learned in the process of finding the best web host.

The myth of Unlimited Space

When you start your blog you will probably look at a number of web hosting providers. They all compete on storage, bandwidth and price. In fact, there are many web hosts that offer unlimited space and unlimited bandwidth. They also offer generous discount thanks to coupons that reduce the cost of the first month of hosting to $1. Tempted by low prices and promises of unlimited space, like most new bloggers, you will probably sign up to such a plan.

Assume that within a few months you have posted in your site hundreds of pages and have uploaded lots of photographs. You may then receive a message from the host saying that your site is utilising too much of the server’s resources. Unless you move your site to a VPS or Dedicated server the host will likely take your website down. This scenario has happened to countless bloggers who were left wondering what unlimited space really meant they were sold their web hosting plans at the first place.

In reality, what most hosts offer is a finite amount of space, i.e. 50GB, and recommend that you use your site’s storage within reason. Most small blogs do not exceed this amount of storage.

The myth of Round-the-clock Technical Support

Moreover, most bloggers sooner or later figure out that claims of round the clock support are often misleading. All this means is that user has access to a facility, via chat or telephone, through which they can create support tickets. There are many WordPress hosting providers that promise round the clock support. However, the local number they give you gets redirected to a non-specialist team in a call center that’s probably located in another country. A member of the call center support team answers your phone call, records your issues and then promises to forward the ticket to the server technician.

This type of virtual support is usually outsourced to companies that handle support calls on behalf of many web hosting companies. While the call center support staff might be able to help you with some minor problems, they tend to have limited technical knowledge. You certainly don’t need this kind of support when your eCommerce website is down and you are desperate to talk to a knowledgeable server technician in the actual data center.

Practices of Reputable WordPress Hosting Firms

Some of the world’s best WordPress hosting companies do not outsource customer support. They will actually employ their own staff who have specific WordPress knowledge so that whenever you encounter an issue with your website they’ll able to accurately test things out and pinpoint the exact problem. You can compare prices of some of these hosts here.

Before you buy WordPress hosting ask the sales representative if dedicated, live WordPress support is available around the clock. The best way to verify it is to make a call overnight or over the weekend and confirm if technical support is indeed available any time of the day.

Conclusion

What most bloggers are not aware of is that not all hosting is the same. It is good and there is bad web hosting. Often bad hosting plans are wonderfully “camouflaged” under promises of unlimited storage, unlimited email accounts, and unlimited bandwidth. There is a lot of confusion as to what these words mean, that web hosting companies take advantage of. A reputable WordPress hosting company provide more clarity upfront about the real capacity of your allocated space in the server.

Asheer Raza
Asheer Raza
Asheer Raza is a blogger and web entrepreneur. He loves to write on Tech and Business related stuff.

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