Looking for fast and affordable high traffic web hosting?
As my blog traffic has grown exponentially, I’ve been running into issues with the standard web hosts available to most entry-level bloggers. Although most of them advertise “unlimited traffic,” experienced bloggers know this is far from actually true!
The truth is that the more your traffic grows, the slower your site will be, and the greater risk you’ll have of your server getting overwhelmed and blocking visitors from viewing your blog.
Web hosting is generally inexpensive compared to the income that’s possible with blogging so it’s absolutely worth it to upgrade to a more premium host if you are a serious blogger.
Searching for High Traffic Web Hosting
When I began my research into web hosts for high traffic websites and bloggers, there wasn’t a ton of information available. It was tough to find a reliable recommendation because so much of the web hosting industry is driven by affiliate marketing. Many bloggers recommend specific web hosts because the affiliate payout is quite high and their target audience is complete beginners. In fact, many bloggers actually earn a living this way!
While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with earning money from affiliate marketing, it’s tough when you are looking for a product and the Google search results are dominated by commission-driven bloggers.
Plus, the vast majority of bloggers are casual, meaning they don’t necessarily need a high traffic web host for their websites. Since I blog for profit, I need a lighting fast host that offers me much more power than a traditional shared hosting provider.
Don’t get me wrong, if you are a new blogger, then a shared hosting provider like Bluehost is exactly what you should go for. But once you make your way to becoming a professional blogger, it’s time to invest in a proper web host that caters to high-traffic websites.
It would be like a professional car driver taking a Toyota to the race! The horsepower just isn’t there for the big leagues. Even if it’s normal that you first learn to drive with a Toyota, eventually a professional needs to upgrade to a car meant for racing.
When Should You Upgrade Your Web Host?
The threshold for upgrading your hosting will be different for every blogger. Generally speaking, if you noticed that your site is very slow to load, it’s a good idea to start looking for a web host that can handle higher traffic. If your site is very image-heavy, then you’ll probably notice this sooner than someone who has a mostly text-based website.
It’s hard to say a specific number of page views to answer this question, but a very general rule of thumb could be that once you hit 50,000 pages per month it’s a good idea to start thinking about upgrading your hosting plan.
By the way, when I say “upgrading” I really mean switching hosts entirely. Most entry-level web hosting plans will offer you a better plan for much more money yet not a whole lot of additional benefit. It’s best to switch providers entirely to one that specializes in higher traffic websites.
Which one, you ask?
High Traffic Web Hosting Companies
Let’s go over some of the options!
I came across many recommendations for high-traffic web hosts during my search. I’m going to share with you three of the best options depending on your budget and level of technical expertise.
InMotion
After leaving my entry-level web host, I decided to host my websites with InMotion for one year. To be honest, the experience was less than stellar. InMotion has a very affordable Managed VPS package which is why I signed up for this host in the first place, but their customer service is quite low quality and the migration process was not very smooth.
While the price was right, the experience was dismal. That being said, the service worked. It did its job of hosting my websites with a fantastic uptime and fast loading. I started with the entry VPS package at $30 per month, but about 6 months in, I upgraded to the second level at $50 per month. I got the feeling that this would just continue, so I knew it was time to look elsewhere.
Big Scoots
I have never been a Big Scoots customer, although I came very close to being one. I’ve seen Big Scoots recommended countless times in many blogging groups and I believe they are a good host for non-technical bloggers.
I inquired about hosting with Big Scoots once I was sure I wanted to leave InMotion.
Big Scoots is the opposite of InMotion in the sense that the customer service appears to be top-notch, but it comes at a price. For me, paying $100 per month for hosting seemed quite excessive, even if a customer service agent is there at your beck and call.
When hosting works, it works, and I simply don’t need someone available at all times.
That being said, Big Scoots does have an option for $34.95 per month if you only have 1 website to host. Since I needed to host 5, I couldn’t go with that plan.
Digital Ocean
The third time’s the charm as they say. I finally settled on DigitalOcean for my high-traffic hosting needs and I’m very happy with them. DigitalOcean is a cloud hosting provider based out of New York. DO’s typical client is a web developer and not necessarily a WordPress blogger.
For this reason, I use a third-party tool called RunCloud to manage my server with Digital Ocean. RunCloud comes at a great, affordable price. If I ever need help with hosting associated with my website, the RunCloud customer service team has been fantastic, responsive, and knowledgeable!
The backend RunCloud management panel allows me to quickly spin up new WordPress blog instances, create backups, automatically renew and install SSL certificates and access my website files using FTP. It’s truly a comprehensive solution for non-developers who want to use DigitalOcean to host their WordPress blogs.
Read More: DigitalOcean Review for Bloggers
To give you a sense of how much money I saved using these companies, I pay about $27 per month, around one-fourth of the price I would have paid for Big Scoots! I pay $20 to Digital Ocean each month, and $7 per month to RunCloud. I currently host around 8 WordPress blogs on just one DigitalOcean server. It’s the perfect solution for my needs!
That being said, working with RunCloud and Digital Ocean is very different from the blogging backend systems like cPanel that I was used to. Nevertheless, I’m not a developer at all, but I was able to understand things with a very small time investment and I’m confident that you can too.
I hope this post gave you a non-biased overview of the different options available when it comes to web hosts for high-traffic websites! Look out for a longer review of my experience with Digital Ocean and RunCloud on the blog very soon.
Thanks for sharing great information on high traffic web hosting.