Alan DraperSetting up a business is expensive, but website hosting needn’t be a drain on your budget – or your time. There are lots of options for sole trader web hosting, and most are very reasonably priced.
Before I go on, let me make it clear that I’m going to make a couple of assumptions about your business.
- Firstly, let’s assume that your sole trader business is relatively compact, and you need a web hosting service to match. As such, this article covers shared hosting plans for sites that aren’t going to be exceptionally busy.
- Secondly, let’s assume that you’re not a web designer. (If you are, you probably know what you need already).
Non-technical sole trader hosting
Like many low cost web hosts, Web.com offers an easy website builder. Site builders are drag-and-drop tools that are user-friendly, allowing you to set up your own website in record time.
GoDaddy.com is another well-known hosting company with a site building tool: compare it to FatCow.com and WebHostingPad.com. All offer the opportunity to grow your site in time. One advantage of GoDaddy.com is its remarkably cheap domain name registrations, so you can keep everything under one login for easy installation.
If you’re starting out as a sole trader on a budget – and you’re allergic to technical jargon – take a look at One.com. It offers site building tools and big discounts on your first year of hosting. Its services are basic, but that might be all you need.
Hosting for tech-savvy sole traders
If you’re familiar with web hosting, you’re probably going to want a little room to breathe. Many shared hosting plans are perfectly adequate for beginners, offering many of the tools you’ll need to tweak a site that suits you with the opportunity to upgrade later.
HostGator.com is well-regarded, and it offers a number of low-cost shared hosting plans. The Hatchling and Baby plans are a great low-cost option, offering unlimited shared resources and disk space. Baby also offers customers the chance to host unlimited domains, so if you’re building more than one site, that’s the package to go for.
There are other low-cost hosts worth looking at too: A2Hosting.com is specifically designed for developers, yet its plans are cheap enough for a new business to accommodate.
If you intend to build your business on eco-friendly technologies, SuperGreenHosting.com and GreenGeeks.com are both affordable hosts which emphasise their green credentials.
Online shops and stores
Customers who need eCommerce facilities should look for eCommerce hosting, or a plan that offers an SSL certificate as a free benefit on signup. Some do, some don’t: check and compare plans carefully. Some hosts offer shared SSL, whereas others offer a private SSL certificate.
UK2.net offers a free SSL certificate on Business and Business Cloud plans, and Micfo.com offers free SSL on its Infinity plan. Some hosts charge a lot of money for private SSL, so it’s really worth bagging on sign-up if you know you’ll need it.
Finally, if you want to get up and running right away, check that your preferred eCommerce software is available as a one-click install. Popular choices include osCommerce, Magento and Zen Cart, and many hosts offer these as part of a shared hosting plan.If you need to find out more about hosting, check out Who Is Hosting This, which provide non biased reviews for all different hosting packages.
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Alan Draper.
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Thanks for mentioning A2 Hosting! We have solutions that fit all of these categories – and we’re happy to help new businesses figure out exactly what they need. Give us a try, you won’t be disappointed!
-Andy
A2 Hosting