So you want a new website but you can’t afford the arm-and-a-leg costs some web hosting providers are throwing at you? Join the club, of which every single reader here is a member.

It’s very common to get confused as to what exactly you’re going to have to pay for website hosting, for how long, and how often. Sometimes, web hosts will hide payment details in the fine print or charge you extra for setup fees, shorter contracts, or ‘extra features’ that should be part of the main plan.

Because we’re here to help, here’s a few tips on purchasing reliable web hosting on a budget!

Shop Around

You wouldn’t buy the first car you come across, nor would you buy it without a test drive or two, right? Shopping for web hosting is the exact same thing, except you don’t have to deal with sleazy car salesmen or haggle for prices. Our Top 10 Hosting List offers the best web hosting providers in the world, along with reviews on each host, helpful tips on choosing the best host, and even coupon discounts. We recommend IX Web Hosting but that doesn’t mean they’re the best solution for your needs. Remember to compare web hosts side by side, look at the features, and rate them along with us.

Call, Email, Read

Call the web hosts and ask them questions, email them and pretend you have support issues to test their response times, and read through their FAQs to make sure you understand what they’re selling. It wouldn’t hurt to read their fine print, too!

Choose a Longer Billing Cycle

If you’re willing to purchase web hosting for 1 or 2 years at a time, you can save a LOT of money. For example, some hosts charge a $30 or $60 nonrefundable setup fee on month-to-month, quarterly, or half-year billing cycles. This means if you don’t like the hosting plan, you only get a small refund – that $30 or $60 is lost forever. The main advantages of choosing a longer billing cycle are that you don’t have to worry about payment for another year or two and you save money.

Web Hosting Discounts

Right now you can find amazing web hosting coupons on our main page! We’ve listed them below for your convenience. Simply click on the deal you want and you can buy instantly or choose to compare and shop around.

Good luck on your budget web hosting search!

Do you know what ASP, JSP, PHP, MySQL, and MSSQL stand for? Well, here’s a quick guide to help you out if you’re stuck, because defining web hosting terminology shouldn’t be as difficult as it often is!

ASP – (Active Server Pages) ASP is a Windows-based script that allows you to customize your website. It’s not necessary for personal webhosting, so if you’re not a programmer, odds are you can live without it. More often than not, ASP web hosting is more expensive than basic hosting.

CGI – (Common Gateway Interface) CGI is a very tiny script that allows data taken from website users to be processed on the server. CGI-bins are common in web hosting control panels so that you can store CGI scripts.

FrontPage – (Microsoft FrontPage Extensions) FrontPage is a web design tool developed and licensed by Microsoft. Many users prefer the ease of use in designing websites using FrontPage. FrontPage web hosting is very popular and affordable.

HTML – (HyperText Markup Language) HTML is a commonly-used phrase these days, and it’s nothing more than language you can learn and use to design and develop your website. HTML can make your text italic, show pictures, create line breaks, and even design borders, links, and play music.

JSP – (Java Server Pages) JSP is a scripting language similar to ASP in the tasks it can perform. JSP web hosting normally is more expensive, and if you are not into web programming, you do not need it.

SQL – (Standard Query Language) SQL is a protocol used to generate information requested from databases. The two most popular ways to utilize SQL is by using MySQL or MS SQL databases. They are both similar, and the main difference is that MS SQL is developed and licensed by Microsoft and works best with Windows Web Hosting.

XML – (Extensible Markup Language) XML is a language similar to HTML, which also allows for website design and development. XML is more for website programming than design and actually allows programmers to define its functions.

While email is a great thing to have with your hosting service, one thing you’ll need to remember is that so many of the best webhosts out there are offering their services on shared servers. Shared hosting almost always has limitations on the number of emails you’re allowed to send out per hour, so if you’re looking to send out more than, say, 500 or 600, you’ll probably want to look into VPS or Dedicated hosting. The reason webhosts often limit outgoing email on a shared server is to try and reduce the instance of spamming and blacklisting. If a server is black listed because ONE person sent out a few hundred too many emails, than the hundreds of account holders on that server will suffer — and their first course of action will be to call the webhost. So those email restrictions are both for yours AND the hosts benefit.

Writing great meta tags can offer some support in getting your website ranked in Google, Yahoo, and the other major search engines. With the help of best web hosting providers and search engine optimization, your website can be at the top of the list for any given search term. Meta tags aren’t as popular or important as they used to be, but they can still assist in getting your website recognized in the biggest search engines.

So using a new example domain name, “thebestwebhostinglist.com”, here’s some helpful tips on writing great meta tags for your website hosting!

1. Keywords

This part of the meta tag generator is the least important, actually, as it was really abused in the 1990s by webmasters trying to erroneously achieve top ranks by deceiving the search engines. But using the proper keywords, this gives a slight more importance to your website over another competitor who doesn’t have them.

So in the keywords field, you will want to enter around 5-10 keywords or search phrases that you would like to get ranked for. For example, TheBestWebHostingList.com wants to get ranked for people searching for “web hosting guide”, “best web hosting”, “top 10 web hosts”, and maybe even a specific kind of hosting service like “ASP hosting”. So in their meta tags, the keywords would be: “web hosting guide, best web hosting, top 10 web hosts, ASP hosting, thebestwebhostinglist.com”. Notice we added the actual domain name in the keywords. This is also important in case someone looks up “thebestwebhostinglist.com” in Google instead of just typing it into their browser.

Continue to Part III on writing great meta tags: Describing Your Website, brought to you by thebestwebhostinglist.com

Just like when you are building anything, you need the essential tools. So when you are building your first website, you need web building tools. Here are the tools you will need to build and create your first website!

  • A Reliable Website Host – This is at the top of the list because without a web hosting provider, your website will not be viewable online!
  • Website Address – Yes, you need what’s called a “domain name”. A domain name is simply your website’s address or the “www” you type into any web browser or address bar. This address will take you directly to your website so that anyone in the world can view it. Most reliable web hosting providers offer a free domain name registration with every purchase, so don’t get ripped off buying them separately.
  • Website Design – Whether this is in the form of a simple website builder, blog web hosting with blog templates or themes, or even website design templates, you need a cool, simple image for your website. You may want to choose a website provider who offers a website builder with their hosting plan or you may choose the ala carte solution and find web design templates outside of your web host. Either way, choose something that represents your vision! Blog web hosting such as Wordpress Web Hosting is often best suited for beginners who just need simple web templates and an easy way to manage the content.
  • SEO Tools – Do you know what SEO is? It stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it happens to be quite important to your website’s success and visibility. SEO tools are just ways to help you make your website visible in Google, Yahoo, MSN, and all the search engines around the world. Choosing a website host who includes SEO tools or services in their plans will help you get your website ranked. Or, try purchasing links through Google or Yahoo in their Advertising Programs – that way, you’ll come up #1 in the Sponsored Results for your given search!

thebestwebhostinglist.com will help you every step of the way with your new website!

When setting up your website, you are going to be faced with various types of web hosting offers. There are literally dozens to choose from, depending on which web hosting provider you are looking at. However, there are some basic types of web hosting that you will see within every provider’s offerings, so here they are with some explanations of these often confusing web hosting terms. Remember, the best web hosting in the world will help you understand these terms as well, so be sure to ask your web hosting provider for more information.

Shared Web Hosting: This is the most common type of web hosting. Shared web hosting merely means you are sharing the server with 200-700 other websites, so your resources (bandwidth, storage, CPU, etc) are limited.

VPS (Virtual Private Server) Hosting: This can also be called semi dedicated web hosting, and more or less offers you a bigger piece of the server’s pie. You only share resources with 20 or so other websites and you get SSH, Shell, and Root access as well as better RAM and processor.

Dedicated Web Hosting: This is the biggest step you can take in your web hosting journey. The best web hosting providers will offer dedicated server hosting to you if you need it, but it’s the most expensive type of web hosting available, simply because it becomes your very own server, where you can do anything!

The best web hosting aims to provide you with more information on types of web hosting available, but be sure to also research these different options carefully.