As the old saying goes, "you get what you pay for".
This is especially true for website hosting.
In this article, I will share our website hosting journey from Bluehost to Hostgator to our new host, Flywheel. I'll share what we love about Flywheel and what we've learned after trying out 3 different hosts.
Bluehost
Like many people starting websites, Faith started out hosting The Conscientious Eater on Bluehost.
Bluehost was ok... until we hit 1,000 pageviews per day.
Then the site really slowed down and we had to look elsewhere if we wanted to keep growing.
SIDE NOTE: Now that we know about more affiliate marketing, we've realized that the reason that so many people recommend Bluehost is that they make a $65 commission for each person that signs up!
And many of the people recommending Bluehost have already switched to a better host! They don't even use Bluehost any more!
In full disclosure, there are affiliate links for Flywheel in this post, but we use Flywheel and we genuinely love Flywheel!!!
HostGator
After Bluehost, we switched to Hostgator's Managed WordPress Hosting. We definitely saw a bit of a performance boost, but their customer service was atrocious. I had so many frustrating chats and emails about getting a CDN installed on our site and the issue just ended unresolved.
The portal where we managed our hosting plan was also bloated with tons of stuff that we didn't need and we were limited in what we could change.
Flywheel
Then, we had a friend recommend Flywheel. OK, quite a few friends! I did some research on Flywheel and I liked what I saw. Almost too much. It just all seemed to simple...
... and ... it has been.
They migrated the site for us for free.
They have a clean and intuitive dashboard.
Getting a free SSL Certificate as easy as the click of a button.
Turning on a staging site was as easy as the click of a button.
Turning on a free CDN was as easy as the click of a button.
Daily backups are done automatically.
And if something goes wrong with the site, restoring the site to yesterday's condition is also as easy as the click of a button.
We don't really have to worry about downloading security plugins because Flywheel takes care of that as well.
And for peace of mind they have free malware removal if the site ever does get hacked!
I've never had to contact Flywheel's amazing customer support for The Conscientious Eater site, but I have used them for my web agency VMX Media. It was super simple to get on chat with them, I spoke with native US-based English speakers, and they've resolved my issue every time on the first try.
This is so much better than Bluehost or Hostgator!!!
In summary, here's the Top 11 Reasons why we love Flywheel hosting:
11 Reasons Why We Love Flywheel
- Everything is simple, intuitive and headache free
- Free site migrations
- Free SSL certificates
- Free CDN
- Free staging site
- Free malware removal
- No caching plugins needed
- No security plugins needed
- Daily backups (no backup plugins needed)
- Fast speeds optimized for WordPress
- Amazing customer support with native English speaking agent
How much does Flywheel cost?
When you're comparing website hosts, it's hard to know if you're comparing apples to apples.
The main differences between hosts are whether a host uses shared hosting or dedicated hosting and the quality of their customer service.
Shared Hosting
$6-$10/mo
With shared hosting plans, such as Bluehost or Hostgator, you'll be sharing the same server resources with hundreds or even thousands of other sites. This leaves you vulnerable to hacks and traffic spikes from other sites.
With the cheaper prices also comes worse customer service. The customer service for shared hosting plans usually is outsourced, so the customer service agents don't have the same vested interest in the company and brand as they would with customer service that is done in house.
Finally, beware of the introductory pricing vs the real pricing. Some plans start as low as $3/mo, but that's only for the first billing cycle.
Dedicated Resource Hosting
$10-$50/mo
With Dedicated Resource Hosting, such as Flywheel, your website will have its own dedicated resources from the server, so you'll never have to worry about other sites having traffic spikes.
With better hosting also comes better (US-based, native English speaking, and internal) customer service.
Flywheel's plans start at $12/mo, but if your site's traffic takes off, you can upgrade to the ~$25/mo plan.
Compare with NerdPress
Some bigger blogs that have a larger budget use NerdPress to help them manage their site.
To see what they offer, check out Nerdpress' services, but then check out their price.
Flywheel offers many of the same services, but Nerdpress charges $169/mo for them! And you don't even get customer support with Nerdpress at that price point!
Sure, Nerdpress may be overpriced (at least to me), but I think that just goes to show how much value you get from Flywheel's hosting plans.
Flywheel's Growth Suite
(imagine Flywheel's hosting on steroids for multiple sites)
This may only apply to a few of you out there, but are you or someone you know managing multiple websites? Or looking to start a web agency?
A few things came together that led me to start my web agency, VMX Media using Flywheel's Growth Suite:
- I knew that people often struggle with the initial learning curve of starting a website and I want to help them.
- I enjoy working on websites.
- Flywheel's Growth Suite makes it super easy to manage multiple websites
- Flywheel's Growth Suite makes it super easy to manage billing clients
Now that I've gotten started, I love Growth Suite (and Flywheel) even more! Here's what I'm digging so far...
Managing Multiple Sites
It's the same clean and intuitive dashboard for managing websites. They make it so easy to
- point the DNS at Flywheel
- install an SSL certificate
- create a staging site
- turn on the CDN
- have daily backups created
- leave the site private while I develop it
Bill Clients
It felt so good to get my first invoice created, sent and paid!
It was so easy too.
Just create a one-time service (like create website) or monthly service (like monthly hosting), add a client, create an invoice with that service to send to the client, then send it!
Overall Impression
As I said above, so far I'm really enjoying working with Growth Suite. I just sent out my first monthly recurring revenue for hosting a site I developed. I can't wait to get that recurring passive revenue coming in!
If you're managing multiple websites or looking to start a web agency, I'd definitely start here!
Other Articles From Brett
Mediavine vs AdThrive: Why We Switched
Mailchimp to ConvertKit: Why We Upgraded
January 2021 Income Report for The Conscientious Eater