The Best Web Hosting for Freelance Designers

 The Internet can be an unpredictable place, and freelance designers know this better than anyone else. Whether you’re trying to share your portfolio with clients or launch your first website, you need to make sure that your site stays online 24/7 no matter what happens in the world around it. Your clients need to be able to access your work at any time of day or night; otherwise, they may choose another designer.

Choosing the right web host

There are dozens of web hosting providers, but it can be overwhelming to choose a host. Fortunately, there are some important characteristics you should look out for before choosing your host. Does it offer reliable servers? Is its customer service top-notch? How about its uptime guarantee? Is it on your budget? Those are just a few questions you need to ask yourself when choosing a web host. Here’s our guide to finding and picking an excellent web hosting provider—and once you’ve picked one, check out our how-to guides on getting started with WordPress and making a website with Squarespace. And if you're looking for great web design resources, don't miss these useful lists of free stock photos and icon sets.

Top 7 things to look for in a good web host

1. Speed, because your sites should load as quickly as possible. And Google values fast-loading pages in its ranking algorithm. 

2. Reliability, because if your site goes down you can kiss any potential business goodbye (and also throw a major wobbly). 

3. Control and flexibility—many of you might want to build WordPress sites yourself but need to host them on a platform so there’s control over the template/design options and security. If that’s important to you, we suggest Bluehost Hosting.  

4. Ease of use: Some web hosts make it really hard to set up shop, especially if it’s your first time setting up an online presence (the horror stories I hear!). The last thing you want is to be put off before you even start! The best web hosts for freelance designers are those that have clear instructions about how to set up each type of website (WordPress, Joomla! etc.) and what plugins they recommend using. They should also offer one-click installs for popular apps like MailChimp and Square Space. 

5. A user-friendly cPanel where you can access all your files from anywhere in the world at any time. 

6. Great tech support via email, phone or live chat to help troubleshoot problems and answer questions along the way. 

7. A free domain name included with hosting package (which makes a massive difference!)

What is my Budget?

Before choosing a web host, you need to know how much money you have to spend on your website. If you’re working with a tight budget or are just starting out as a freelance designer, it’s best to go with shared hosting. This type of hosting has lower costs than VPS or dedicated servers but still gives your clients access to fast page load times and plenty of disk space. For example, Bluehost offers its designers budget-friendly plans starting at $2.95 per month and features unlimited disk space, FTP accounts, email addresses and more. As your business grows, you can always upgrade to something more professional in terms of storage capabilities or website speed.

Why Bluehost is the Best Web Hosting for Freelancers

Freelancing can be great, but running your own business has plenty of challenges to it, especially when it comes to finding and maintaining the right web hosting service. Many services are too expensive or simply don’t have all the features you need. This can make it difficult to get your own website up and running without sacrificing any of the important things you need out of web hosting like speed, reliability, and scalability. Thankfully, there’s one hosting provider that offers all of this and more at an affordable price, making it perfect for freelancers: Bluehost!

 

Freelancers need to be concerned with two things when they start working out of their homes: (1) having an easy way to stay connected with the rest of the world and (2) having all of their important files accessible. Luckily, there’s one hosting service that excels at both of these things, and that’s Bluehost! If you’re a freelancer trying to choose between different web hosting services, check out this guide that explains why Bluehost should be your first choice if you want to maximize your productivity while minimizing the cost.

Bluehost Review for 2022: An Honest Look at This Popular Hosting Provider

 

10 reasons why Bluehost is a great choice

Cheaper than competitors

Many web hosting companies charge extra fees on top of their packages’ monthly price. You may get a lower-than-average price from one company, but end up paying much more once you start to add features. This can get quite expensive over time, especially if you have to pay for a lot of additional features. The great thing about Bluehost is that it offers many of its standard services at no additional cost – most basic hosts will not do that.

Free Domain

The main benefit of using Bluehost is that you get a free domain name when you sign up for their hosting service.  Most web hosts require you to pay extra for your own custom URL, which will increase your overall costs and make it harder to secure an easy-to-remember name. Bluehost also includes a free shopping cart software system that allows you to create and sell products or services directly on your website. When you’re launching a new business or personal website, selecting a domain name can be challenging. If you sign up with Bluehost to host your site, they will provide you with a free domain name. This way, your name won’t be taken by someone else! The best part about using a free domain is that it doesn’t cost any extra to change it in the future if you decide that you want something more personalized or unique.

Affordable features

Most web hosts charge more than Bluehost, but that doesn’t mean they offer better features. In fact, you’ll find similar levels of quality with other hosts—but not at their prices. With a free domain name, unlimited email accounts and transfers, 99.9% uptime guarantee and 24/7 customer support (and much more), it’s easy to see why so many freelancers rely on Bluehost. Get started today with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

 

Unlimited bandwidth and storage space

Bluehost gives you unlimited bandwidth and storage space, so there are no restrictions on how much data you can have on your site. You don’t have to worry about incurring overage charges or having your account suspended if you decide to run a video streaming website or set up a photo gallery. Not only do they offer unlimited bandwidth and storage space, but they also provide fast loading speeds that make everything load in seconds. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then what would a slideshow be worth?

24/7 customer support via chat, phone, or email

If you ever need help, our expert 24/7 customer support team will be there to answer your questions. With an average response time of 30 seconds, we’re always happy to help. You can access us through email, phone or live chat – whatever works best for you! We also offer ticketed support at specific times during weekday business hours. So whether you want to add a website, transfer hosting or need help building your site on WordPress, we’ve got your back!

 

One-click WordPress installation

As a freelancer, you don’t have time to futz around with cPanel. You’ve got deadlines to meet and clients to please. With one-click WordPress installation on Bluehost, setting up your site takes less than 60 seconds. That means more time doing what you love: creating!

 

100% uptime guarantee

If your website is down even one second, you’re losing money. With a 100% uptime guarantee, you can set your mind at ease knowing that if anything goes wrong, it will be fixed immediately. For example, you can get support 24/7 via live chat and email. If anything, ever happens to go wrong on your account (even a small issue), they will have someone there to help fix it right away.

 

A fast server network that includes SSDs

Though some may feel that speed isn’t a crucial element of web hosting, it is—especially in 2016. These days, nearly all Internet users expect their websites to load in less than 3 seconds. If your site takes any longer than that, you’ll lose traffic and revenue as people bounce off your page. The solution? opt for a host with speedy servers on SSD drives. SSDs are far faster than hard drives and can make a world of difference when it comes to performance.

 

WordPress optimized servers

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) platform that you can use to set up and maintain a fully functional website. You don’t need to be a web programmer to use WordPress: All you need to do is download it, and when you do, it’s ready-to-go with full admin privileges. The best part? WordPress boasts some of the fastest load times available in any CMS platform due to its optimized servers.

 

Site backup & security features

Many web hosts include backup and security features, including regular backups of your files and free SSL certificates to help protect against malicious activity. The more safety nets you have in place, the less likely it is that you’ll lose your work if something does go wrong. Even if you don’t anticipate needing these features now, it’s a good idea to take advantage of them.

                           No Host is Perfect: Bluehost's Honest Weaknesses for 2022

 

Bluehost is the best hosting company on the market right now, but not every host can cater to your specific needs. Though Bluehost offers great customer service and plenty of features, their performance isn't ideal in every industry. We've compiled a list of honest weaknesses we think Bluehost will need to work on in 2022 if they want to stay at the top of the hosting game!

 

What are some issues with the shared hosting environment?

While you may be on a budget, there are certain considerations to make if you’re planning to host a large number of sites on your hosting plan. One issue with shared hosting environments (and one that doesn’t apply if you’re using a VPS) is that they can experience slowdowns as more and more sites get added to them.

 

What kind of upgrades would we like to see in cPanel?

cPanel is a super easy-to-use control panel that comes with your hosting package. Its features make it incredibly easy to handle WordPress websites, but some users say that there are certain things that cPanel lacks. Some of these features might seem like no-brainers, such as automatic updates. In terms of cPanel’s potential weaknesses, however, it’s also important to consider some more advanced functions like scaling and clustering.

How to get started with your new host

Now that you’ve signed up with a web host, you’ll want to get started. This isn’t difficult; your host has a simple installation wizard that will walk you through how to get your website running on their servers. I recommend setting up everything from scratch — especially if you are new to web design. It may seem overwhelming, but as long as you take it step by step and refer back to these instructions, you should be fine. The great thing about having an entire team working on your website is that all of them have different skills and experience, which can speed up development time. If one person is stuck or struggling with something, they can ask another member of your team for help. If you're doing things solo, however, make sure to check in frequently with other members of your team so they know what's going on and where you are in terms of progress. You'll probably find yourself switching between tasks at least once or twice during development. Just remember: everyone needs to stay in sync!

Above all, Bluehost is still the best choice for most people; irrespective of your business as a freelancer or a small business owner, you need to consider Bluehost as your best choice.

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