I created my first blog in December 2012. Back then it was only for fun.
For some days, all blogs I created were pure junk like software download blogs etc. Nobody was there to mentor me that blogging is bigger than that.
Anyways 5 months passed with those blogs until my summer vacations came in before 3rd semester. With pure determination, I created this blog on Blogger with URL imtarunsingh.blogspot.com in June 2013.
In that time, I was shopping online a lot so I started writing about reviews and offers in this blog. Moreover, since I had selected a domain name of my name, I had no worry of niches mixing up and I could write about anything.
In December 2013, I purchased a domain imtarunsingh.net from BigRock because they were running an offer of .net domains for Rs 49. I installed the custom domain on this blogspot blog i.e. no need of purchasing hosting.
On 1st January 2014, I purchased my second domain because again BigRock was running an offer of .com domains for Rs 99(It is still running).
Although I am happy with both blogs, the only problem is that since I don’t know web programming, I am unable to design blogger templates. There is a limited choice of design templates for Blogger and that too of bad quality.
Also, I want to use plugins which are not available in Blogger. This is where WordPress comes to play.
- A wide range of design templates to create a pretty and unique looking presence
- There’s a plugin for everything that allows to make changes and add features without needing any coding skills.
That’s why I have decided that my next/3rd blog will be a self-hosted WordPress blog.
This made me search for the best web hosting sites for WordPress. It was very difficult to find the best web hosting companies out of more than 200 websites.
Anyways the 5 hours of researching resulted in me enough to know about some of the best and worst web hosting companies out there.
You already know that the biggest web hosting companies are based in the US so their servers are in the USA. But recently many of these companies have come to India and their servers are in India.
You are definitely thinking does it matter?
Let me tell you the benefits of hosting your websites/blogs in India :
1) Payment Modes: Hosting your website in India gives you the ability to make payments via debit card, net banking and bank transfer. You are limited to Credit Card and Paypal when you buy hosting from the US or other countries.
2) Fast Loading Time: Due to both user and your website hosted in India, your website will load faster for the Indian user instead when your website is hosted in US servers.
Slow loading time is a strict no for your blog/website since it hurts your business and increases your bounce rate because slow website irritates visitor.
3) SEO and Google Ranking: When your website is designed for India, you get better rankings when the site is hosted locally. It’s a no-brainer to host a website in Germany if you want to target the Indian customers.
Such sites hosted in Germany will tend to rank higher on google.de, but you may want your website to rank high on google.co.in to capture the Indian customers, and it won’t really help the cause.
4) Customer Support: When you host your blog in India, you localized Toll-Free Phone Support in multiple languages like Hindi. So you don’t have problems in understanding the accents of foreigners and spend your hard-earned money in ISD calls whenever you need help or your website faces downtime.
Enough with the musings, here is the list of the best web hosting sites/companies in India for WordPress :
1) Bluehost India: Bluehost is the number 1 web hosting company on my list. It is one of the most popular web hosting companies out there.
It was launched in 1996. Currently, it is used by over 2 million websites worldwide. Bluehost hosting comes with features listed below :
- Unlimited Domain Hosting
- Unlimited Hosting Space
- Unlimited File Transfer
- Unlimited Email Accounts
- Free Domain Name
- Free Site Builder w/ templates
- Free Instant Set-up
Hosting Options: Bluehost India gives 2 hosting options to Indian customers :
1) US Hosting: This hosting is done in US servers. In this type of hosting, there are two versions.
Standard version is the cheapest version. It provides hosting for a single domain and costs ₹ 219 per month.
Pro version provides hosting for unlimited domains and costs ₹ 299 per month. It is equal to hosting provided by global Bluehost at $ 4.95 per month.
2) IN Hosting: This hosting is done in Indian servers. I have already told you the benefits of hosting your website in Indian servers.
In this type of hosting also, there are two versions. The standard version provides hosting for a single domain and costs ₹ 279 per month.
Pro version provides hosting for unlimited domains and costs ₹ 419 per month.
Support: BlueHost India provides phone support through the following numbers for Sales: 022-3079-7780 and for Support: 0824-661-4333. In these contact numbers, you can contact 24 x 7 according to Bluehost.
Bluehost India doesn’t provide Live Support. They provide support through email.
You have to fill a form on their website.
Verdict: If you want to host on Indian servers, go with Bluehost India IN Hosting Pro version for ₹ 419 because it provides unlimited domain hosting.
If you are fine with hosting on US servers, go to Bluehost.com and grab hosting for just $ 3.95 per month with this link or click on the banner below. If you go directly to Bluehost, you will get the hosting for $ 4.95 per month.
2) Hostgator India: Hostgator India is number 2 web hosting company on my list. It was launched in 2002.
Currently, it is used by over 9 million websites worldwide. Hostgator hosting comes with features listed below :
- Unlimited Disk Space
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Unlimited Sub Domains, FTP Accounts, and Email Accounts
- Unlimited MySQL Databases with phpMyAdmin Access
- 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
- 45 Days money back guarantee
- Fully functional cPanel
- Website Builder Tool with 4,500 Free Website Templates
- 52 Free one-click installed scripts
- AWStats, Webalizer, Raw Log Manager, Referrer and Error Logs
- Password Protected Directories and Custom Error Pages
- Web Based File Manager
- 24/7/365 Premium Support
- Online Support Portal with over 500+ Video Tutorials and 680+ Help Articles
Hosting Plans: Hostgator India gives 3 types of hosting options :
1) Hatchling Plan provides hosting for only 1 domain and comes ar ₹ 178 per month + 12.36 % service tax.
2) Baby Plan provides hosting for unlimited domains and comes at ₹ 287 per month + 12.36% service tax. This is the plan you should take for your blog.
3) Business Plan is an enhanced version of Baby Plan with free private SSL and IP and costs ₹ 467 per month + 12.36% service tax.
Hostgator India comes with many terms and conditions. For example, instead of showing actual price, they are showing * against prices which states that Price reflects 20% off the first invoice and excludes Service Tax @ 12.36%.
To come up with actual rates, I added a Baby plan to my cart and got the actual rates which were ₹ 357.64 per month.
Support: Hostgator India provides support through toll-free number 1800-209-8833 and through +91-824-6614111. They are also present and active on Facebook, Twitter etc.
Hostgator India also provides Live Chat support. To check whether it was in place, I tried contacting live support at 10 PM and it was working properly.
Though the waiting time was showing 1 minute, the customer care executive came online within 20 seconds. Pretty decent, isn’t it?
Payment: Hostgator India accepts payments through credit card, debit card, internet banking, direct bank deposit and PayPal.
Verdict: If you want to host on Indian servers, go with Hostgator India Baby Plan for ₹ 357.64 because it provides unlimited domain hosting.
If you are fine with hosting on US servers, go to Hostgator.com and use the following coupons.
You can use coupon code “IMTS25OFFDISC” to get a maximum hosting discount of 25% off on your total bill. This is very useful if you are shopping for hosting for 1 or more years.
For example, this coupon will give a discount of $ 71.55 on Baby plan of 36 months. This results in $ 214.65 for 36 months or $ 5.96 per month or ₹ 360.22 per month.
It is almost equal to ₹ 357.64 when you host on Hostgator India.
Here is another coupon code “IMTS1CENTONLY” which gives $9.94 OFF on hosting so it can be used to grab first month hosting for only 1 cent instead of $9.95. This is useful if you wish to try your hands on Hostgator hosting before paying in full.
Though if you planning to use hosting for long, I would suggest buy hosting for 1 year and use above coupon i.e.“IMTS25OFFDISC”.
Currently Running Promotions on Hostgator :
Here are the Summer Getaway Sale details:
- 75% off all new Shared hosting packages with 1-6 month terms.
- 45% off all other Shared hosting packages.
- 50% off all VPS packages.
- 45% off all Dedicated server packages
Click here to Get 75% Off on Shared Hosting for Your Blog
3) Dreamhost: Dreamhost comes on the 3rd number on my list. It was founded in 1996.
Although they don’t provide hosting on Indian servers, the reason for including them is the cheapest price for hosting you can get from them i.e. $ 1.87 per month for 1 year instead of the standard price which is $ 8.95 per month.
Hostgator hosting comes with features listed below :
- Unlimited TB of disk storage
- Unlimited monthly bandwidth
- Unlimited domains hosted
- Unlimited, full shell / SSH / FTP / SFTP users
- Unlimited e-mail accounts (POP/IMAP/Webmail)
- Unlimited MySQL 5 databases
- Debian Linux operating system
Dreamhost provides one year hosting for $119.40 or $ 9.95 per month.
If you take two-year hosting, then the price is $214.80 for two years or $8.95 per month.
The best thing is that Dreamhost allows affiliates to create a coupon for up to $ 97 off on the above hosting plans.
After joining their affiliate program, I created a $97 off coupon IMTS97. This means you can get one year hosting for $119.40 $22.4 or $9.95 $1.87 per month.
You can get two years hosting for $214.80 $117.8 or $8.95 $4.90 per month.
The best bet is to sign up for one year hosting plan from Dreamhost with coupon IMTS97.
I have also created a $50 off coupon IMTS50 for those who are unable to use $ 97 off coupon. Usually, Dreamhost puts some geographic restrictions on whether the person can use $97 off or not. They don’t disclose the names of countries so first try $97 off coupon IMTS97.If it works, the congrats otherwise use $50 off coupon IMTS50.
Click Here to Get $97 Off on Dreamhost
Click Here to Get $50 Off on Dreamhost
Final Verdict
For the initial days of blogging, Dreamhost is the cheapest place to start. In $22, you are getting one year of unlimited hosting + free domain name. Once you start earning money from your site/blog, you can buy Hostgator or Bluehost hosting after one year, and move your hosting from Dreamhost to Hostgator or Bluehost. This will save good $30-50 in one year of hosting.
Click Here to Get $97 Off on Dreamhost You will pay only $22.4 for one-year hosting or ₹ 1353.86 for one year. This makes it ₹ 112.82 for one month. This is the best and cheapest hosting you can get.
After one year, transfer your hosting to
Click Here to Get Bluehost Hosting for $3.95 per month
Click Here to Get Hostgator Hosting for $5.96 per month by applying coupon IMTS25OFFDISC
Which web hosting company are you going with and why?
If you are already using web hosting, please tell me which company you are using and what is your experience in a comment.