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| 10 Web Hosting Services Reviewed! Posted: 24 Jul 2014 06:00 AM PDT Every website requires hosting in order to be live on the Internet. Designers and bloggers are well aware of its importance; they use it to establish their brand and business. It is also helpful to stay connected with existing and potential audience. Choosing really good web hosting services can be as important as the information available on your website. If the server of your web host goes down any time, it can hurt your business or even destroy your hardwork. It is very important for designers to choose a web host that makes their work uninterrupted. There are plenty of options when it comes to choosing a web host provider. Some are free and offer very limited features while others charge you little but offer unlimited features. I would recommend you to use price-based web hosting because they provide you more facilities than those free or cheap service providers. In today's post we would discuss some top web hosting service providers to help out designers and bloggers in making a choice. All these web hosting providers are trusted and preferred by the designers/developers in easily managing big projects. Here goes the list: 1. BluehostBluehost is one of the leading web host service providers. Due to their excellent WordPress hosting, they are officially recommended by WordPress. It can easily manage large traffic without slowing down your website. Bluehost offers:
Here are some important features of first two options as they are suitable for designers and bloggers. Bluehost 'Shared' hosting offers many features such as:
You can get these features and many more included in the plan for only US$3.95/month. On the other hand, 'Dedicated' web hosting is expensive but offers more server resources such as:
2. WP Engine
Currently, WP Engine is providing a personal plan for US$29.00/month which offers:
Other plans include:
3. Media Temple
When we talk about designers and bloggers, the best plan to choose is the Grid. The Grid is the ideal package for WordPress integration with many benefits for the beginners. Some of its features includes
All these features are available in US$20/month. It is easy to use and can be upgraded whenever you think it's time. Other offered plans are: DV Developer for US$30/month and DV Managed for US$50/month. 4. Arvixe
There are also VPS and dedicated servers that are based on Windows and Linux platform. If you are looking for a simple tool to handle the all the heavy traffic on your website and making sure that website remains online all the time, use Arvixe. With its superior Shared hosting, designers and bloggers can feel relax about handling their websites traffic and growing further. It offers different features including:
All these features cost you just USD $4/month only. With no hidden fees, you also get a 60-day moneyback guarantee in case you are not satisfied with the platform. Other plans include:
5. HostGator
It is designed to work perfectly with both beginners and professionals. The process of coming from another host can be very difficult but with HostGator it is very easy to switch host. When you are coming from another host, it offers:
Features that HostGator offers for its users include:
You can get all these features in only US$ 3.96/month. Other plans include:
HostGator offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee and a 45-day money back guarantee as well. 6. Go Daddy
Although these features including many more are available in every plan but prices vary in terms of storage and hosting number of websites.
7. Eleven2Eleven2 is a highly recommended web host provider due to its service quality, support, hardware, features and uptime. It is very affordable and mostly preferred by designers and bloggers as shared web hosting. It offers a free Site Builder to help you out in creating a fully featured website in few minutes. You can easily manage your site with its standard cPanel tools and features that help you to manage your site easily. With their customer support, they are available 24/7 to help you out. They also offer a unique feature of live chat with which you can chat with experts live about your web hosting matters. It is truly the hosting done right. Eleven2 offers feature according to their different plans that are monthly and yearly based. The standard S-200 plan is available for US$10/month and includes:
The only difference is in the prices when the plan is taken with yearly package. Other plans include:
8. FatcowFatcow is a very good choice for designers and bloggers that have little capital or are launching the website for personal purpose. Its features and plans can keep your website running all the time. People find it very reliable and friendly. Fatcow makes sure that their every customer gets uninterrupted website connection with the help of server backups every day. The customer service is highly reliable and available on the toll-free help lines 24/7. You can also communicate with them through e-mail. Fatcow also offers tutorials and FAQ library for its users as well. Different hosting solutions that Fatcow offers include:
Features that Fatcow offers include:
All these features are available in the lowest price ever which is US$ 3.15/month. Other plans include
9. InMotion Hosting
Features that InMotion offers include:
There are plenty of others features included in the plan and it is available for US$5.99/month. Other plans include
10. TMDHosting
The advantage that TMDHosting has on its competitors is the quick customer support. With 24/7 available support, your inquiries are resolved within 15 minutes. It also offers top level assistance with the latest technologies available. For starters, TMD hosting gives step-by-step tutorials to help you out in any web hosting matter. Daily promotions are updates on the site with lowest price plans for the customers. Hosting services that TMD offers include:
Different features that TMD hosting offers include
Many more features are included with the package. The web hosting plan is available for USD $2.85/mo. Other plans include:
ConclusionEach web hosting service is highly recommended for you if you are a designer or a blogger. However, I would recommend you to have a close look at each plan to decide which is best for your purpose.Customer support is sometimes the only difference between an ordinary service provider and the best. Before leaving, please tell us about which web host are you using for your website? What is your satisfaction level with your web host provider? Also, if you would like to add some points for any service provider or if you want to share your thoughts, feel free to do it by commenting below.     |
| Posted: 24 Jul 2014 03:00 AM PDT Web design is perhaps one of the most universal forms of art in the modern times. Using the Internet as a giant canvas that continues to expand more and more, web designers try make something beautiful and useful to people. With web design being labeled as art, we talk about how web designers, either they intend it or not, showcase their culture and backgrounds. Hence, the topic, web design across the globe. That is what makes web design even wonderful. Though the look and overall layout of the web page is influenced by different cultures, it is still understood, appreciated and utilized by a very large and universal group of individuals. But have you noticed the patterns at how web designers create pages? Have you identified how web designs are influenced by the designer's and the target audience's culture? Let’s take a look:
South AmericaSouth America is known for its grand and festive feel. Going to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru or Venezuela means that you are looking for a one-of-a kind festive experience. In South America, this is also reflected in most web designs. Beautiful as they are, South American websites have a seemingly recurring pattern emulating its festive mood. Web design from South America commonly have:
Let's take a look at Born To Be On. This website is teeming with bright colors. This website surely gives off a South-American feel.
Paseo Itaigara's website, on the other hand, did not use a single shade in its color scheme. Nonetheless, it displays a very festive feel in the design.
Same is true for Interativa. The website also showcased a very festive mood as it used #7a1f7f, #01b5e2 ,#e94492, #fbb911 and #0abcb5. Meanwhile Creative House combines its illustrations with bright and bold colors. This creative and colorful doodle of a house that seemingly overflows with ideas and output gives a very powerful message of what the company really is. With the websites that we have looked at, we come to an understanding that the South American web market really wants to reflect their jovial and warm culture to the rest of the world. And they do it boldly: using bright colors, lively illustrations and loud typography. North AmericaIf South America is known to be festive and warm, North American web designs may be characterized as cold and laid back. Websites designed in the United States and Canada reflect such a pattern. The cold and composed nature somehow mimics how the culture of North America is. With its focus on business and professionalism, these designs are commonly known to have:
Tool embodies a perfect example of how a North American website is designed. It uses a large video background that occupies the whole page screen. However, despite the presence of such element, the beautiful typography is not at all hindered by the video. The reason for this is that the video is desaturated at a level where the text has enough contrast against its background. Also, note that tool's navigation area has a separate placeholder so that the user can easily recognize it as a navigation bar. In addition, the website gives off a minimalist feel to the design because it gave a lot of white spaces between the texts. Clouds over Cuba agrees to the design style of Tool. It also uses a video background and desaturated colors, making black and gray stand out the most. Aside from that, the website also has great typography. On the other hand, Nike's website made its big background image saturated. However, it still possesses the recurring elements like its minimalist approach and typography. What makes Nike a nice North American web design is that it focuses on making images big that it takes up the whole screen. This adds the beauty to what has already been a great design. Truly, North American web design relies on images and clean typography. That is its advantage. Because most North-American web designs are clean-looking and minimalist, the user can easily facilitate the information being fed to him. It's like the lukewarm of designs where you can enjoy the message being sent without being distracted by the design itself. EuropeEurope somehow sits between the coldness of North America and the warmth of the South. Europe presents a fusion of brightness and the lack of of festivity and business-mindedness. It just tells us how culturally rich Europe is and how web designers view their work as something that mixes seriousness with a pinch of fun. Normally, European-designed websites have:
Let's take a look at Volkswagen.fr. As soon as the page loads, you are welcomed by a dark-themed welcome animation. They commonly start with loading animations. When the website fully loads, you'll readily see the dark-themed design fully loaded with a swipe-enabled interactive menu. Most websites in the continent follow the pattern where the user can actually make the most out of the interface. This is what sets the brand for the designers in Europe- they are able to create very interactive websites with great class! Cheers for that. This also goes true with the Swedish-designed website for the Hobbit. The same pattern was followed. A sleek-looking loading animation and interactivity. While in the first two examples, dark colors were used, Pharrell Williams' website deviates from this pattern as it uses bright colors. However, this doesn't really venture off with the flow with the recurring pattern. The website also uses a very simple loading animation as you wait for the interactive video-embedded main page. It greatly mixes interactive elements such as video control buttons with the other elements and made it really synergistic with the video background. Black Negative follows the same pattern as it uses a loading effect (although it took some time to finally load it up) as it had extra features like sound and swipe ability. The European style in web design is all about mixing professionalism and fun. It's best at providing great flow of information without giving up creativity. Truly, gazing upon European web design is like looking at Louvre. You will see art up close. AsiaAnd now, we go to Asia. The biggest continent and certainly one of the most colorful ones. Asian web design is generally as flexible and as diverse as the culture in the continent is. Understanding a certain feel with the Asian web design would be very difficult as the continent houses very different cultures. For the purpose of understanding the style of Asian web design, I took the liberty to divide the styles into two units: design from the Middle East (Arabic) and the Orient. The Arabic Web DesignArabia is often perceived with sand, beautiful Islamic tapestry, luxurious and rich history, camels and arabesque art. It's commonly seen as a world full of magical surprises, especially to someone who has the privilege to visit this beautiful land. However, the Arabic web design lacks maturity even if its region is teeming with history. Smashing Magazine labels Arabic web design to have "a wealth of history" but considers web design as immature. Smashing Magazine may have remarked this way because its typographic design, in particular, does not reflect the richness of the Arabic language. The language heavily relied on Arabic script-based handwriting, which has not been supported for a long time. Despite this, there is no denying that Arabic web design is as unique and mystic as the region is. With its beautiful appreciation for calligraphy, the Middle East has given birth to a one-of-a-kind design brand. Arabic Web Design commonly has:
We take GlueTube as the first example. This website has all the tell-tale signs of skeumorphism. It uses realistic elements rather than flat ones. It has elements like the hand illustration that seemed to follow the mouse pointer. It also embodies bright colors with its # fab500 background color. Aside from the jQuery slider, this website pretty much looked like pre-Flat design. Massa is pretty much 'cleaner' than Glue Tube as it uses the minimalist design. However, its overall look is mainly reeled towards skeuomorphism. After clicking through the homepage, you will be brought to the product-menu page, which, interestingly enough, follows up to the minimalist feel of the design. Overall, the Arabic web design is still untapped. Smashing Magazine says this is due to the lack of acceptance in the Arabic community with freelancing. However, it's still not too late for the web design to flourish in the Arab world. It can develop into something unique, given a few more time. Oriental Web DesignThe likes of China, Singapore, the Philippines and Japan (and a few more countries) make up Oriental web design. The Orient is commonly seen as the land of spice and flavor. Truly, the designs in this region commonly reflect what the culture is. Oriental web design is anchored on simplicity yet it gives off a very different kick. Normally, designs from Oriental countries are:
Let's take some websites from the Orient and see what they really have in common. First off the list is Solaire's website. This resort-casino website focuses more on the content rather than design, particularly with typography. The website also is not a fan of minimalism as it compresses a lot of elements in the page. It's just a basic website. No fancy animations or interactive elements. Same is true with dingzhou's portfolio. This website focused on an all-white design, which uses a single font face and does not embody great typography. Simplicity is the cornerstone of its look. It also did not contain a lot of images and effects like jQuery sliders, animations and more. While Browser QQ and Dentsu uses parallax scrolling effects, one cannot deny that they are truly Asian-made because the design is mainly focused in simplicity. These two websites generally used white and warm colors in their design.
Asia truly is unique, as their web design style is. It stamps its own flavor, kick and mysticism to its designs, making each of them truly unique and hauntingly beautiful. ConclusionWeb design is truly unique and differs from person to person and from culture to culture. However, that should not be the reason for web designers to become scared of designing for a culture that they are not familiar with. It's just a matter of understanding the factors that surround their web design industry and accepting them to make a better design. Which web region do you belong? Do you agree with what the points in this article? Let's talk about it.   |
WP Engine is a professional web hosting service for WordPress. WP Engine gives you an interruption-free hosting server with the ability to handle pressure. Don't worry about getting hacked because it's hacker proof. A strong and lighting fast customer service makes this a very strong candidate for your website hosting. With its WordPress experts, you can feel relax about any issues that come to your website. WP Engine is considered a very good option for designers and bloggers who are looking for a Web host provider in a reasonable price. WP Engine offers all these plans and pricing with a risk free 60-day cancellation. If you are not happy with the services or platform, you can simply cancel within 60 days and get a full refund of your money. Some of their offers include:
Media Temple offers a world-class hosting experience especially for designers and bloggers. It doesn't matter how big your website is, Media Temple can handle it for you. It is the complete value for money. There are plenty of options and plans offered by Media Temple that vary in price, features and capability. Every plan offers an upgrade version so that you never stop growing. Plans that are offered by the Media Temple include:
Arvixe is a well-known web hosting company for developers, designers and bloggers. The best thing about Arvixe is its reliability, quality and affordability. There are many plans offered by Arvixe for developers and designers including:
HostGator is one of the top web hosting sites. It is famous for its award winning 24×7 customer support, which many designers and bloggers prefer. It is very affordable too. It offers different server plans including:
GoDaddy is one of the most well-known website hosting companies in this industry. Every designer and developer knows about it; it is the number one choice for designers. The service offers many plenty of facilities for the beginners and experts. GoDaddy knows how important your website is for you so it takes all the care for it. Everything from file manager, domain manager and database manager is exceptionally great and very easy to use. You can get all the help that you need from its 24/7 customer support available at phone or e-mail. However, managing millions of domains makes the support a little slower but the support team is always quick to respond and the complaints are resolved usually within 24 hours. Features that GoDaddy offers for its every plan include:
InMotion Hosting is very famous among small and large sized businesses. Whether it is website hosting or blog, they can do anything for you. InMotion is very famous due to its award winning technical support and an uptime of 99.9%. They handle every growing business need, from a small business to an enterprise level. InMotion ensures a better speed and high service availability with multiple data centers. It offers a feature called 'Max Speed Zone' to VPS and Business class plans with which users that are near to the data centers of InMotion can enjoy browsing six times faster than anyone else. InMotion makes sure that you get uninterrupted connection with your users with their 24/7 customer support availability. WordPress hosting is highly optimized for bloggers and offers you some great features to make your blog grow. InMotion Web hosting includes:
When you are running a popular site or a blog, you need various marketing tools and knowledge. TMDHosting makes it easier for you to run a website or a blog.
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