The plugin helps automate the booking process by eliminating the need for customers to call the office for appointments. It can also be used to collect deposits, send reminders, set recurring appointments, and more. 

Booknetic Pros and Cons

Pros

• Unlimited appointments
• One-time payment for lifetime access
• Customized and automated bookings
• Simple installation and administration
• Intuitive booking experience for customers 

Cons

• Lots of paid add-ons
• Only compatible with WordPress
• Limited support
• No mobile app for booking management

About Booknetic

Booknetic is an online appointment scheduling plugin for WordPress websites. It’s an ideal solution for a wide range of industries and use cases, from fitness instructors and salons to repair centers, professional services, and many more. The plugin can even accommodate bookings for physicians and healthcare organizations. 

If you run a business that currently takes appointments over the phone or via email, Booknetic can massively simplify your scheduling process. The software helps you save time, save money, and improve the customer experience all at once. Your customers can book appointments online in just a few clicks, and you can reduce no-shows by collecting deposits and sending automated reminders through Booknetic. 

Booknetic Health and Stability

Booknetic is a relatively new brand and software, founded in 2019. There isn’t much information on the web about this privately-owned company, nor any About Us page on their website providing details related to its founders or funding history. 

FS Code is Booknetic’s developer and parent company, with three total products—Booknetic and Booknetic SaaS (a version of the product we’re reviewing in this post tailored for agencies), plus FS Poster, a tool for scheduling and sharing WordPress posts. 

Booknetic only comes with six months of support included with software installations, which isn’t ideal. However, Booknetic is updated on a regular basis—sometimes multiple times in a single month. All of these updates are tied to bug fixes, new features, and product enhancements. It’s a good sign that the company works diligently to improve and support the software.

It’s also nice to see that Booknetic is currently working on three additional booking plugins. As of the time of this writing, they’re developing plugins for handling event booking, hotel booking, and rental booking. This a good sign for Booknetic’s health, growth, and future stability. 

Booknetic Pricing

Both Booknetic and Booknetic SaaS are sold as single lifetime licenses. Every installation is covered by a one-time payment and comes with free technical support for six months and free updates forever. 

Booknetic Pricing Structure

Booknetic has a simple and straightforward pricing structure. The plugin costs just $79 for lifetime access for a single domain. It includes all of the features you’ll need to add bookings to your site, including unlimited appointments and more than 20 built-in features. 

To further extend the functionality of Booknetic, there are over 25 paid add-ons for capabilities like waiting lists, Zoom meeting integration, SMS notifications, gift cards, custom modules, and more. These range from $19 to $49 each, with most priced around $29. 

Booknetic also has an extended license, known as Booknetic SaaS, which is the version of its multi-vendor booking system for agencies and rental property owners. For a single payment of $489, you can create an appointment booking business and resell booking software to other businesses as a white-label product. 

Booknetic Trials and Guarantees

Booknetic does not offer any free trials or money-back guarantees. However, you can try out a demo of the plugin for free at any time. 

There are two demos that you can access directly from the Booknetic website—the core booking plugin demo and a demo for Booknetic SaaS. Each of these shows you how the software looks from the customer side, but it doesn’t show the admin features. 

For a sandbox demo with special access, you can provide Booknetic with your email address to get a free demo within three days. 

It’s also worth noting that, since Booknetic is so affordable, it could be worth the single $79 purchase just to try it out. Since you won’t have any recurring payments, you can look at this as an extended way to try the plugin for as long as you want. If you’re happy and want to continue using it, there won’t be any additional payments unless you choose to extend its capability with premium add-ons. 

Booknetic Overview

Below, we’ll go in depth into each Booknetic license, including the benefits, drawbacks, features, and use cases of both. You’ll learn how Booknetic works so you can make a more informed decision on whether it is right for you and your business. 

Booknetic’s Appointment Booking Plugin for WordPress

Booknetic is arguably the easiest way to add appointment scheduling functionality to a WordPress website. It’s simple to implement, affordable, and intuitive for site admins and customers to use alike. 

To get started, simply purchase a lifetime license of Booknetic, then follow their guided setup process to implement it on your WordPress site. Booknetic walks you through the process by prompting you with questions about your business, hours, staff, and other basic information that will ultimately be included on your appointment calendar and booking widget. 

Once the plugin has been installed and configured, you can start accepting online bookings right away. Customers can access the booking widget through your site, and you can manage the entire scheduling process online—simplifying your operations while saving time and money. 

One unique aspect of Booknetic compared to similar tools is its ability to be customized. You’re in full control over the look and feel of your booking widget so that it aligns with your operations and brand. Quickly add or remove form fields with a single click, upload your logo, change colors to match your brand identity, and more. 

The plugin even helps you manage bookings for multiple locations with different staff and services. For example, if you’re running a healthcare practice, you might have one location that just handles primary care visits and routine checkups and another facility where your practice does all of its x-rays, ultrasounds, and MRIs. 

You can set up the plugin to only include the appropriate services at each location based on the appointment type or physician. 

In addition to bookings, you can use Booknetic to collect deposits and even send invoices to your customers. By collecting a deposit, it helps reduce the chance of no-shows for appointments. Paired with the option to set up automated appointment reminders, you can potentially eliminate abandoned appointments altogether. 

Additional features like local payments, group appointments, recurring appointments, extra services, holiday calendars, Google ReCAPTCHA integration, and payment links are included with every license. 

While Booknetic is really affordable, one potential drawback is its many paid add-ons. You might end up paying significantly more for the plugin if you want to add premium features. 

For example, SMS notifications, Zoom integration, PayPal payments, user role management, and waiting list features all cost extra. The Zoom integration, for one, allows you to take things a step further and offer virtual appointments for certain services. For example, you may have a psychiatrist in your practice who wants to provide patients with the option of virtual therapy sessions.

By not including these premium features in the base product, Booknetic’s core offering price is able to remain low. Then, you’re able to add extra capabilities as needed while still being mindful of your budget. If you don’t need a lot of bells and whistles, you won’t have to pay a lot for features you won’t use.

The lack of a mobile app for managing bookings on the go can be tough to accept for certain types of businesses, especially professionals who aren’t tied to a desk or don’t have a dedicated office assistant. 

Booknetic costs just $79 for a lifetime license. This comes with six months of technical support, which can be extended to 12 months of support for an additional $27.75. Get a free demo to try it out. 

Booknetic SaaS for WordPress

Booknetic also has an extended license called Booknetic SaaS. This is its multi-vendor booking system primarily built for agencies, giving you the ability to resell the software or include it in your site building offerings for your clients. 

This adds more convenient features for both administrators and the customers who book work with you. Each person who books an appointment with you will have their own booking URL that can be shared through a link or QR code. 

The most appealing part of this license is its affordable cost for the potential of lifetime revenue. Similar to the regular license, Booknetic SaaS can be purchased for a one-time fee. For $489, you get six months of support, unlimited clients, and unlimited plan configurations. You can set up monthly or annual subscriptions from those buying the service from you to quickly get a positive ROI. You can extend support to 12 months for an additional $174. 

This version of Booknetic can help you earn recurring revenue by selling appointment booking software, offer better services to clients, or manage bookings at scale if you’re a part of a larger, multi-location organization. 

To be clear, the plugin itself can’t be installed on multiple websites. Even if you’re using the extended version, it’s still only good for one domain. 

Get a free demo of Booknetic SaaS today. 

Booknetic Reputation

Booknetic has an exceptional reputation on the web. On average, it has a 4.9 rating on a five-star scale across multiple third-party review sites. The vast majority of remarks are positive, with very few complaints about the plugin.

More specifically, many reviewers mention how Booknetic solved their appointment-booking problems in various types of businesses. Other reviews mention how powerful and versatile the tool is, and many users love that Booknetic seamlessly integrates with third-party tools for extended functionality. Despite Booknetc’s limited six-month support, there are several reviews mentioning how useful and helpful the support team is. 

There are a few negative remarks about Booknetic within the verified customer reviews. A few users wish the software worked through a native mobile app for customers—not just a mobile web version. Other reviews called out some bugs, and some mentioned a slight learning curve after switching to Booknetic from another booking plugin. 

Final Verdict

Overall, we recommend Booknetic to any business that wants to add online appointment scheduling to a WordPress website. It simplifies the way bookings are managed internally, and it provides your customers with a fast and easy way to schedule an appointment from anywhere. With Booknetic, there’s no need to call the office or play phone tag with a receptionist just to schedule an appointment. 

Booknetic is perfect for businesses like salons, spas, gyms, healthcare providers, repair centers, and independent consultants, while Booknetic SaaS is built specifically for agencies and larger companies. As long as your site is powered by WordPress, you can use Booknetic to automate your booking process and let your customers schedule recurring appointments online.

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Continue on to read my full review of BrandCrowd, where I’ll cover what it’s great at, where it could stand to improve, how much it will cost you to use, and an overview of what you can do with this service. 

BrandCrowd Pros and Cons

Pros

• Free logos
• Instant downloads
• Cheap subscriptions
• Over 150,000 designs
• Helpful free tools and resources

Cons

• Lack of transparent pricing
• Some basic and generic designs
• Account creation required for free downloads

About BrandCrowd

BrandCrowd provides businesses with affordable logo and digital design solutions. You can use the platform to build your own logo starting from a template or browse the thousands of premium, prebuilt logos for sale in its marketplace. Beyond logo designs, BrandCrowd also provides templates and ready-made designs for business cards, Facebook page covers, YouTube banners, Zoom backgrounds, email signatures, menus, and a lot more. 

It’s mostly built for startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses that need easy and cheap access to creative brand assets. Rather than hiring a designer, you can use BrandCrowd to get logos and other elements for less than $10 per month. If you don’t care about customizing the design or making edits, you can even get some logos from BrandCrowd for free. 

BrandCrowd Health and Stability

Founded in 2008, BrandCrowd has gone through a few minor name changes and structure adjustments since its initial launch. Today, BrandCrowd operates using two sites—each catering to different business needs. 

The main BrandCrowd site is the place for accessing all of the logo and asset templates they offer, while its sister site, DesignCrowd, is their online marketplace for purchasing customized designs from creative professionals in BrandCrowd’s community. 

The way BrandCrowd has structured its business model makes it an appealing and trustworthy option for prospective customers. It’s also comforting to know the business has survived for over 15 years, which isn’t an easy task in the tech world. 

The company recently raised $10 million in private funding from multiple investment groups. This influx of cash into the business can help BrandCrowd continue to scale and compete with other major players in the DIY brand asset space. 

It’s also worth mentioning that the long-term success and stability of BrandCrowd shouldn’t impact your decision to use them today. Even if the company goes through a rough patch down the road, you’ll personally own any logos or creative assets after you build them on BrandCrowd. 

BrandCrowd Pricing

It’s free to start using BrandCrowd. You can browse through templates and designs without creating an account or providing payment information. But, depending on what type of creative asset you select, you’ll likely be prompted to select a paid BrandCrowd plan before you can download anything. 

Prices are affordable when you commit to using the platform for a year, with monthly plan rates going as low as $5 per month. However, monthly billing or infrequent usage makes it cost a good bit more. 

BrandCrowd Pricing Structure

BrandCrowd charges a monthly subscription fee to download assets you customize on the platform. The plans are based on the type of assets you select and the length of your contract. You have the option to sign up for monthly billing or pay annually for a significant discount on the monthly fee. 

The entry-level Premium Logo Pack starts at $9 for month-to-month billing or $5 per month when you prepay for the year in full. This gives you access to over 100,000 templates and the ability to download customized business cards, Instagram and Facebook post assets, email signatures, and letterheads. You also get the ability to make tweaks and changes to assets at any time without having to pay more. There are some additional fees if you want to order physical prints. 

When you purchase a logo or creative design from BrandCrowd, the design is yours forever. So you don’t need to continue paying a subscription fee to own the asset. The subscription just gives you the option to store your files, make edits to your logo, and redownload your designs in the future, in addition to opening up access to other designs, templates, and asset types.

BrandCrowd Trials and Guarantees

BrandCrowd has a wide range of free tools that you can use without providing any credit card information. This includes its business name generator, AI logo generator, logo inspiration resources, and more. 

The only time you’ll be asked to pay for BrandCrowd is when it’s time to download something you’ve been working on. So there’s no harm in trying the platform, as it’s not blocked by a paywall to use. If you find something you like, then you can pay when you’re ready to download it.

BrandCrowd also has some logos and designs that are 100% free to download. Just create an account and select the Standard Logo Pack at checkout. The designs are pretty basic, but the logo is yours forever without paying a dime. However, it won’t be stored in BrandCrowd, and you can’t make any edits. 

BrandCrowd Overview

BrandCrowd has several different solutions for various branding needs. Here, we’ll break down the benefits and features of some of their leading services and offerings, with guidance on how you can use them and what they may cost you. 

Logo Maker

BrandCrowd is best known for its logo maker, which allows users to start with one of over 150,000 premium logo designs that can be customized and downloaded to fit the brand identity of their business ventures. 

There are a few different ways to get started using this tool. You can browse templates by industry or keyword, or you can enter your business name and let BrandCrowd recommend designs for you. You can even enter a description of your business to further narrow down the results. 

Once you find a design that you like, you can make changes to the logo within BrandCrowd’s intuitive editor. The tool is really easy to use, and you don’t need to have any design skills or technical background to figure it out. If you’ve played around with simple image editing software or a beginner-friendly website builder before, the interface will be familiar to you and easy to start using.

Start from a text-only logo or opt for one that includes an icon. You can add a company slogan or other information. Then, take control and make changes to the font, text size, spacing, backgrounds, layout, and more. You can add shadows, curve your text, and add customized shapes to your logo, too.

BrandCrowd has a unique and interesting feature for animating logos. For example, you can set the logo to bounce or slide in from the side—which is really cool for landing page designs or social media properties.

It’s worth noting that since you’re creating logos from templates, not every design is going to be super creative. This is especially true if you’re using a free logo design. You may need to take some time digging through template options to find something that catches your eye and will stand out from the crowd when you’re done customizing it.

Premium Logo Packs range from $5 to $25 per month, depending on the design you select and your billing terms. Sign up for free to get started. 

Business Cards

There are two different business card-related services available from BrandCrowd—design and printing. 

Just like you can for creating a logo, you can use BrandCrowd to search through templates and customize the design of your business card. Then, download the design and do whatever you want with it, like bring it to a third-party printer to order cards. Alternatively, you can order physical business cards directly from BrandCrowd during checkout. 

Even if you’re not planning to have BrandCrowd print your cards, it’s still a quality option for creating your design. Beyond the ability to create a solid design yourself in their platform, you can also download files in multiple formats, from PNG and JPG files to SVG, EPS, and PDF formats for sending to a printer. 

If you have your own images that you want to include on the card, it’s easy to upload those files in just a few clicks. They even have a library of royalty-free images across different categories to make your business cards pop. 

Using BrandCrowd to print your cards is smart if you just want fairly standard business cards. You can choose between single or double-sided cards, but you’ll only have a few options for the paper type and they don’t offer any unique shapes or sizes. 

Business card designs start at $3 per month with an annual plan, and printing starts at $35 for 500 cards. BrandCrowd offers free delivery on business card printing, but you can pay an additional fee for expedited delivery. 

Social Media Designs

BrandCrowd offers tons of different creative assets for use online. Whether you want to create material for posting to social media or for use on any or all of your digital properties, BrandCrowd helps you whip up appealing and professional digital assets. 

From customizable backgrounds and cover photos to sale advertisements and announcements, BrandCrowd offers an affordable service for creating and downloading these in minutes. 

Just like the other BrandCrowd design services, start by selecting a type of social asset and customize it as you see fit. Here are just a handful examples of BrandCrowd’s social asset template categories: 

• Facebook covers
• YouTube banners
• Zoom backgrounds
• Twitch banners and headers
• SoundCloud banners
• Pinterest board covers
• Etsy banners
• LinkedIn banners

Based on your selection, you’ll be prompted to select a template that’s built to fit the recommended dimensions and format of the particular channel. 

You can also use BrandCrowd to make creative posts for your social channels, from images and GIFs to animated files and videos, that can really make your content pop and help take your Facebook advertising strategy to the next level. 

Social designs start at $3 per month, billed annually with a Premium subscription. Month-to-month billing plans start at $9.

Brand Identity Templates

With BrandCrowd, businesses can get all of the customized design elements they need to establish a consistent brand identity on all their channels. 

You might start by using BrandCrowd to create a logo or Facebook cover, but you can eventually take things a step further and replicate that design across every point of contact with current and prospective customers. 

For example, use BrandCrowd’s brand identity templates to create and design a customized email signature for your business.

It’s a simple DIY tool that’s affordable,as well. You can get these types of brand assets for less than $10 per month through BrandCrowd.

Other brand identity templates offered by BrandCrowd include:

• Letterheads
• Posters
• Flyers
• Invoices
• Menus
• Postcards
• Gift certificates
• Invitations
• Thank You cards
• Videos
• Animations

Some assets, like menus and flyers, also provide the option for getting them printed and shipped to you via BrandCrowd, with pricing dependent on the asset type, quantity, and paper quality. Or, just use BrandCrowd to design and download these items and use your trusted printing partner to handle that end.

BrandCrowd Reputation

Overall, BrandCrowd has an excellent reputation on the web. It’s been reviewed by thousands of verified users on some of the leading software and digital solution review sites. Most of these users point to the platform’s simplicity and attractive prices as BrandCrowd’s leading virtues. 

There’s a common theme throughout the reviews of entrepreneurs and startups that just wanted a quick and cheap logo. They turned to BrandCrowd, got what they needed fast, and were happy with the end result. Most of the reviewers mentioned the site’s interface and how easy it is to select and edit templates before downloading.

It’s worth noting that there are a handful of negative remarks about BrandCrowd on the web. But most of these seem to be tied to billing issues, where a customer thought they were paying a one-time fee, but they were actually subscribing to the platform. Poor reviews about the platform itself are few and far between. 

Final Verdict

I recommend BrandCrowd to any small business, freelancer, or solopreneur on a tight budget. You can use it to get a custom logo and instantly download your design without having to hire a designer. It’s also a great option if you need creative assets for social media, business cards, email signatures, and more. 

While your logo designs probably won’t win any awards, they’re solid enough to get the job done. You can get started for free with BrandCrowd today.

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With the wrong web host, you’ll end up paying for more than bad service. You have to get this right because a reputable web host keeps your site online and helps you avoid unnecessary downtime.

This guide explains the best types of web hosting for different situations. Use these reviews to find the best web host without breaking the bank.

The Top 10 Best Web Hosting Providers

Best of 2023: A2 Hosting, Bluehost, DreamHost, HostGator, Hostinger, InMotion, Nexcess, Scala Hosting, SiteGround, and WP Engine.

Whether you’re setting up your first website or adding to an existing portfolio, all of my top picks give you all the tools you need. However, five providers stood out to our researchers in terms of performance, value, and ease of use.

Our favorite web hosting providers for 2023 are:

• Hostinger – Best overall
• DreamHost – Best value for shared hosting
• SiteGround – Best for extra speed and security
• Bluehost – Best for new WordPress websites
• Scala Hosting – Best upgrade from shared hosting

All of the hosts above are well-rounded providers that make launching your next website a breeze.

Our research team reviewed and tested dozens of web hosting providers to narrow it down to the five on this list. In addition, we reviewed a handful of other hosting providers that are excellent for more specific situations.

Each review covers the highlights and pricing for each web host. After the reviews, we include a buying guide to help you compare the best options.

Hostinger – Best Overall

Visit Hostinger

• Starts at just $1.99 per month
• Free weekly backups
• Free SSL certificate
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Get started now

Hostinger offers dependable web hosting at an incredible price. Shared hosting plans start at $1.99 per month, which includes free weekly backups and enough bandwidth for 10,000 visitors to your site.

Normally you have to back up your site yourself or pay extra, but you get that peace of mind for free with Hostinger.

The most popular option is the Premium Shared Hosting plan which costs $2.99 per month. This lets you create up to 100 websites and host 25,000 visitors. You’ll also get a free domain for one year and a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate to secure your website.

The Premium Shared Hosting plan provides 100 GB SSD storage, which is enough for various website content. Should you need more space, upgrade to one of their VPS or cloud hosting plans.

Hostinger uses its own control panel called hPanel. Thanks to the eye-catching and well-organized navigation icons, it’s user-friendly and easy to navigate. It also comes with an auto installer that lets you set up WordPress or other content management systems using only a few clicks.

Another great feature is their dedicated WordPress dashboard on hPanel. 

You can manage several tasks, such as updating the core WordPress version, activating or deactivating plugins, and enabling maintenance mode from the hPanel. A navigation button lets you access your WordPress dashboard via hPanel with a single click.

LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress (LSCWP) is automatically installed when you set up WordPress. Its server-level cache and other optimization features help you accelerate the website for a better user experience.

Hostinger ensures your maximum online presence with its 99.9% uptime guarantee. Quick-response 24/7 live chat support will also assist you whenever you need help.

For more information on Hostinger, including its plans, pricing, and benefits, check out our in-depth Hostinger web hosting review.

DreamHost – Best Value for Shared Hosting

Visit Dreamhost

• Unlimited bandwidth
• Free Privacy Protection
• Recommended by WordPress
• 24/7 In-house Support

View the Latest Deals

DreamHost is home to more than 1.5 million websites. People trust DreamHost because they provide fast websites, at great prices, in clear terms.

The company has a 100% uptime guarantee and will compensate you if your site goes down. After signing up, if you are not happy with the performance, you can cancel within the first 97 days to receive a full refund.

There are no surprises, just a streamlined web hosting experience that beginners can master quickly. Advanced users will be happy to find that they can access anything they need without having to upgrade plans.

As far as shared hosting goes, DreamHost provides the most value of any web host out there.

Free daily backups of your site? Unlimited traffic? It sounds too good to be true, but it’s not.

As long as you’re running a legitimate website, you never have to worry about bandwidth or backups, even on DreamHost’s most budget-friendly hosting plans.

Dreamhost keeps your contact information from being registered publicly with your domain. Almost all of web hosts charge a fee for this, but it’s free with DreamHost.

It’s also a great option for WordPress hosting. DreamHost is one of three web hosts that is officially recommended by WordPress. It’s virtually hassle-free with one-click WordPress installation and automatic updates.

If you have a WordPress site, DreamHost will migrate it free of charge.

They also include a no-code WordPress website builder with every hosting plan. Roll out a new site quickly and make changes going forward, even if you’ve never built a site before.

DreamHost shared hosting starts at $2.59 per month for one website with a Shared Starter plan. This is a great price for everything many small organizations will ever need.

Our complete DreamHost review covers the plans and pricing in greater detail.

Ticketed customer service is available 24/7, and you will always communicate with one of DreamHost’s in-house team. Phone support is an add-on for shared hosting plans, but you will be able to get help through email and live chat.

Sign up with DreamHost today for low-stress, high-value web hosting.

SiteGround – Best for Extra Speed and Security

Visit Siteground

• Starts at $2.99/month
• Free SSL, email, CDN, & backups
• Recommended by WordPress
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Get an 80% discount

SiteGround is built to deliver top-class speed and rock-solid security for WordPress hosting. Currently, it’s running a huge promotion. You can get 80% off all annual hosting plans and a free website transfer. It makes a good deal even better.

Hosting on SiteGround means you won’t have to worry about speed or security at all. It starts with the technology the hosting is built upon. SiteGround utilizes Google Cloud to maintain swift and stable connections and SSD persistent data storage to ensure low latency.

Of course, you’re not on the hook for any of this–you just have to sign up for SiteGround and launch your WordPress site–they’ll take care of the heavy lifting on the backend.

SiteGround security is on constant alert. It runs server health checks every 0.5 seconds, and its AI-driven anti-bot system blocks between 500,000 and 2 million brute force attack attempts every hour.

This combination of speed and security can work for most sites. But as one of WordPress’ recommended web hosts, SiteGround is particularly skilled at delivering this performance for WordPress sites and includes an extra layer of security just for those sites.

Plus, all SiteGround plans—not just the WordPress hosting options—include one-click WordPress installation, the WP Starter site builder, easy-to-use interfaces, and auto-updates for both the WordPress platform and its plugins.

For a limited time, you can receive up to 80% off all annual Site Ground hosting plans:

• StartUp: $2.99/month for one year, paid annually
• GrowBig: $4.99/month for one year, paid annually
• GoGeek: $7.99/month for one year, paid annually

Keep in mind that each plan will renew at a higher rate after one year. SiteGround also gives you options at checkout to pay for a 24-month or 36-month term instead– and gives nice discounts on renewals longer than one year. Two-year renewals get a 20% discount on the base renewal rate, and three-year renewals get 30% off.

So, in terms of long-term value, you’re still getting the best deal by capitalizing on their great intro rate for one year upfront.

Altogether, SiteGround offers the best technology and services to host your site and keep it fast and safe for all visitors. Refer to our full SiteGround review for more information.

Bluehost – Best for New WordPress Websites

Visit BlueHost

• Normally $9.99/month
• Free domain and SSL certificate
• Recommended by WordPress
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Get a 63% discount

Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosting companies in the world, especially among people launching their WordPress websites. Bluehost is one of three hosts that is officially recommended by WordPress, and we agree.

They offer great rates and a beginner-friendly platform that makes every aspect of running a WordPress website easy. You can certainly build other types of websites on Bluehost, but it is definitely set up to work best with WordPress.

Most of the time Bluehost will walk you through a task the first time, like setting up a blog or email account on your site.

If you get stuck or have a problem, Bluehost has 24/7 support by phone or live chat. The support number and live chat options are listed right on the site, so you can reach out for help within two clicks.

Installing WordPress takes one click, as do hundreds of other apps available in Bluehost’s deep app marketplace.

Bluehost also offers fantastic marketing tools, analytics, and SEO tools to track how well your website is ranking for specific keywords. This gives you a good idea of how you should optimize your site for the best search rankings.

The Basic shared hosting plan is usually $9.99 per month, but there are major discounts if you are a new customer. If you sign up for three years and lock in the price, you can get it at $4.75 per month.

Like other hosts, renewal pricing is higher than promotional pricing, so I recommend signing up for a longer contract to lock in the low price.

Quick Sprout readers an even bigger discount on Bluehost. New customers can click here to get a rate of $2.75 per month when they sign up for a new three-year contract.

If your site keeps growing and you want to upgrade, Bluehost gives you lots of options: managed WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting. When you are ready for more server power and control, you can grow and stick with the same provider.

Bluehost is a very safe play for people who want to build their site with WordPress. If you want to use another content management system besides WordPress, there will probably be a little extra legwork and backend maintenance.

Try Bluehost today and test-drive their web hosting with a risk-free, 30-day, money-back guarantee.

You can also check out our full Bluehost review for a closer look at this web hosting provider.

Scala Hosting – Best Upgrade from Shared Hosting

Visit Scala Hosting

• Starts At $2.95/month
• Anytime Money Back Guarantee
• Free, Effortless & Guaranteed Migration
• Free Domain & SSL Certificates

Get Started

Maybe you’ve been running your website on shared hosting for a while and you’ve outgrown it. Or maybe you have an ambitious new website idea and you know the lower speed and security of shared hosting isn’t going to cut it.

No matter your reason, Scala Hosting offers the best way to take the first step up from shared hosting into something more powerful and secure.

While they offer an array of competitively priced shared hosting packages (starting at $2.95 per month), Scala’s Entry Cloud plan is a potent combination of server resources and premium features for boosting and fortifying the sites you host on it.

First, you’re getting the dedicated resources that come with cloud hosting. No more worrying about how other sites that share server resources with yours are dragging down your site’s performance. You’re guaranteed two CPU cores for processing power and 2 GB of RAM that no one else is going to tap into on Scala’s cloud hosting.

Entry Cloud also comes with the helpful features you’d expect from a step up from shared hosting. Scala provides 50 GB of NVMe storage space, which you can upgrade as needed. Simply pay a one-time fee to add anywhere from an extra 10 GB to a whopping 2 TB to your disk space.

You also get one year of a custom domain for free, free SSL certificates, daily secure backups of your site data, and additional premium features such as:

• 24/7 SShield malware monitoring
• OpenLiteSpeed caching for faster site loading times
• Dedicated IP address
• Priority support from Scala Hosting
• Dedicated firewall
• Custom access role for site and hosting management

It’s a really potent package that will set your site up for success. Scala’s Entry Cloud plan is faster, more reliable, and more secure than any form of shared hosting. 

Best of all? It’s one of the most affordable cloud hosting plans you’ll find.

Scala Hosting offers Entry Cloud for as little as $14.95 per month when you commit to a three-year term. That means you’ll lock in 36 months of upgraded hosting for just over $538 at checkout. 

While that might be a lot to spend up front, consider that some of the other providers on our list charge between $30 per month to $100 per month for comparable plans.

Don’t want to commit to three years? Entry Cloud’s rate rises for shorter terms, but not by too much. A one-year contract will lock in a rate of $19.95 per month while month-to-month billing will cost you $29.95.

Another benefit of going for a longer term with Scala Hosting is that you save on the renewal rate as well. One-year and three-year terms renew at $24.95 per month, five dollars less than the base monthly rate.

Stop playing in the shallows and get the upgrade your website needs to achieve success. Take the next step in web hosting by signing up for Scala Hosting’s Entry Cloud plan.

More Good Web Hosting Services

HostGator – Best for Simple Websites

Visit HostGator

• Normally $7.99/month
• Month-to-month at $11.95
• Free domain and SSL certificate
• 45-day money-back guarantee

Get a 61% discount

HostGator offers all the hosting essentials you need at a great price, plus comes with a 45-day money-back guarantee. If you just need a standard business info website with products, services, “our story”, and so on, HostGator makes it as easy as possible.

HostGator offers an extensive list of how-to guides for technical support. If you don’t find the answers you need, you can turn to phone, live chat, and email support. You can also purchase optional services like their SEO package, which is especially helpful for those who aren’t sure where to start to optimize their website.

Unlike some hosts, HostGator does include support in all its plans. If you want a hosting plan that’s cheap and includes support, this is the host for you.

If you want to get your hands dirty, there is a bit of a learning curve to taking advantage of their advanced options.

HostGator does offer Windows hosting in addition to Linux, as well as a variety of options to upgrade, including cloud hosting, VPS hosting, managed WordPress, and a dedicated server. Shared hosting plans normally start at $2.75/month with a three-year contract.

But Quick Sprout readers can get up to 66% off new HostGator plans using the link.

If you’re interested in trying HostGator, I recommend taking full advantage of the 45-day money-back guarantee and testing out their support thoroughly before committing.

We have a complete review on HostGator that dives deeper into its web hosting capabilities and plan options.

Overall, this is a great web host for simple deployment and uses like a company website that doesn’t necessarily see a ton of traffic each month. However, with VPS options, it’ll allow you to scale if you need.

A2 Hosting – Fast and Reliable Shared Hosting

Visit A2 Hosting

• Starts at $2.99/month
• Month-to-month pricing at $9.99
• Free domain and SSL certificate
• 30-day money back guarantee

Get a 63% discount

A2 Hosting stands out for its great speed and low prices. It’s what the company is known for.

At every hosting tier (shared, VPS, dedicated), A2 Hosting beats other hosts on speed. If you’re coming from another shared web host, you’re likely going to see an improvement in loading speed once you migrate to A2.

With their Turbo Boost and Turbo Max plans, you’ll get access to their Turbo Servers. They boast that it’s 20x faster than their other servers and includes:

• 40% faster AMD EPYC CPU performance
• 2x faster to first byte
• Manage 9x more traffic
• 3x faster read/write speeds with NVMe drives

A2 Hosting also has a 99.9% uptime commitment on all plans so you know you’ll have a reliable host that won’t be down often.

They offer free site migration with each plan too. If you’ve set your site up on a bad host and want to migrate, this is a fantastic deal. It’ll save you dozens of hours trying to get your site rebuilt. The A2 Hosting team takes care of it for you.

Like many of the other web hosts, there are 1-click installs for all the popular CMS tools like WordPress, Magento, and Drupal.

Plans start at $2.99 per month for a single website.

If you plan on hosting multiple websites, you’ll need to get the Drive plan which is an extra $2/month after the promotional period ends.

Our A2 Hosting review covers these plan options in greater detail.

One trick to save money with A2 Hosting: the promotional prices end on renewal. To lock in the 63% discount for as long as possible, go for the tri-annual billing which will bill for three years at once. You’ll get 2 years of hosting for free.

InMotion Hosting – Best VPS Hosting

Visit InMotion Hosting

• Normally $19.99/month
• Free domain and SSL certificate
• Free and unlimited email
• 90-day money back guarantee

Get a 57% discount

InMotion is the host for you if you’re looking for a virtual private server (VPS). They have the best pricing around, along with top-notch customer support as an added value. Something you usually have to sacrifice for a better price. But not with Inmotion. 

With VPS hosting, you get more control over the server than you do with shared hosting. This is great, but you definitely need to know what you’re doing configuring a server.

If you’re not super confident in the command line, you can opt for a managed VPS plan from InMotion. They’ll handle the technical side of things and keep an eye on security for you.

For the developers out there, InMotion VPS includes optional root access with every plan. You won’t have to upgrade to make the changes you want to the server.

Whenever questions come up, you can reach out to the company’s excellent customer support team. Don’t believe it? Try for yourself. InMotion’s 90-day free trial period gives you plenty of time to test out the quality of support.

Managed hosting, great support, and the latest technology–these are the reasons people choose to go with InMotion. This is covered extensively in our InMotion web hosting review.

I highly recommend this option for ecommerce websites. Online shoppers like a fast experience with no hiccups. With InMotion VPS you can ensure that your site has the resources it needs to handle any traffic spike.

There are also a number of fail-safes built into the hosting platform. If anything happens to your server, InMotion will automatically spin your site back up almost instantly on a server in the same cluster.

You also won’t have to worry about SSL certificates, which keep your shoppers’ credit card info private. All InMotion VPS plans include AutoSSL, which lets you enable this crucial protection for every website visitor with a single click.

VPS hosting with InMotion gives you the speed you need along with the peace of mind that your site will always be safe and secure.

Managed VPS hosting starts as low as $19.99 per month. Visit InMotion to find out if you can get an even better deal today.

WP Engine – Best Managed WordPress Hosting

Visit WP Engine

• Normally $30/month
• Month-to-month pricing
• Free domain and SSL certificate
• 30-day money back guarantee

4 months free or 20% off

WP Engine is one of the best (if not the best) WordPress hosts out there. Full stop.

They provide a truly excellent product, that’s highly optimized for WordPress websites. If you want all the storage and speed you can get for your WP blog or online store, this is the host for you.

It does come at a price though. A fully managed WordPress host is noticeably more expensive than shared hosting providers.

WP Engine’s lowest-priced plan is $20/month, and that’s only for one 10GB site with max 25,000 visitors/month. You get two months free when you sign up for a year, however, and can get an even better deal signing up through Quicksprout.

Yes, the price tag is higher than other hosts, but when you factor in what WP Engine does, it’s an incredibly appealing option for WordPress site owners.

As a managed WordPress host, WP Engine only provides service to WordPress users, which means its entire infrastructure can be optimized for WordPress. Your site will be wicked fast, there’s virtually no downtime, and lots of maintenance tasks get taken care of automatically.

It also offers special plans for people who are running an online store with WordPress. These are much more expensive than managed WordPress hosting, but you’ll get access to premium WordPress ecommerce themes and other tools that would cost hundreds of dollars sold separately.

Customer support is also laser-focused on WordPress, which makes for highly competent knowledgeable support staff available through tracked tickets and on live chat 24/7.

To see how WP Engine stacks up against the crowd, I recommend reading our complete WP Engine review.

Bottom line: If you want a blazing-fast WordPress site where everything is taken care of automatically, you’ll want WP Engine. You’ll be paying more in order to get a lot more.

Nexcess – Best for Ecommerce Hosting

Visit Nexcess

• Managed web hosting for 9 CMS
• Great for ecommerce sites
• 24/7 customer service
• Choose from 9 different plans

Learn More

Nexcess is a web hosting solution from Liquid Web — a provider I’ve featured on my lists for best dedicated web hosting, best VPS hosting, and best WordPress hosting.

So it’s no real shock that Nexcess makes my list of best web hosts. Where it really shines is managed ecommerce hosting. This is ideal for people who need a speedy site, but don’t want to be the one configuring the backend.

Nexcess really specializes in these managed hosting arrangements, and offers a great selection of ecommerce platforms to build on:

• Magento
• Woocommerce
• WordPress
• Drupal
• BigCommerce
• Sylius
• ExpressionEngine
• Craft CMS
• Orocrm

Again, all of these are managed ecommerce hosting plans–you won’t be on the hook for configuring the server or troubleshooting issues that pop up.

Need more speed? Not a problem. The Nexcess Cloud Accelerator—a feature that adds a layer to the cloud stack–increases the speed of your website’s loading time. That’s a huge boon because speed is everything when it comes to keeping your customers on your website and browsing.

Pricing starts at $15.83 per month with an annual contract for WordPress. There are many more plans and rates available for each type of hosting, it just depends on the resources you need.

This makes Nexcess perfect for any growing business looking to scale. No matter where you are with your business, there’s likely a plan for you with Nexcess.

On top of that, it has a dedicated support team available 24/7 to help you address any technical issues as they occur.

If you’re running an ecommerce website or if you have a startup that you know will grow quickly, Nexcess should definitely be in consideration.

Prices vary depending on which CMS platform you want to use. But WordPress plans start at $13.30 per month.

Additional Web Hosting Reviews

In a broad top list post like Best Web Hosting, I considered how different options stack up against one another and how they fit within the general category.

But there are more things to think about, like taking a deeper dive into individual hosting providers to learn more about their strengths and weaknesses. Likewise, you also want to think about the different types of web hosting available, and check out reviews of the providers that excel in those different categories.

The following information will be helpful to you as you make your decision about the best hosting provider for your unique needs.

Hosting Company Reviews

Narrowed your list to a few top options? Before you make that final decision, check out our detailed company reviews on some of the most popular web hosting services out there today.

• Hostinger Review
• Bluehost Review
• Dreamhost Review
• HostGator Review
• A2 Web Hosting Review
• InMotion Review
• SiteGround Review
• iPage Review
• GoDaddy Review
• Whogohost Review
• NameCheap Review
• Bluehost vs Dreamhost Comparison
• Bluehost vs HostGator Comparison

Types of Web Hosting

Not clear on the different kinds of web hosting available? Wondering who is the best in a given category? No matter which criteria is most important to you, be sure to read up to learn more about it all in the following posts.

• Understanding Different Types of Hosting
• Best Free Web Hosting Plans
• Best Cheap Web Hosting Plans
• Best Cloud Web Hosting Plans
• Best Cpanel Hosting Plans
• Best Dedicated Hosting Plans
• Best Reseller Hosting Plans
• Best Shared Hosting Plans
• Best VPS Hosting Plans
• Best WordPress Hosting

How To Find the Best Host for You

You do not have to know anything about web development to get hosting.

But knowing how to assess a few key factors helps a lot.

I’ll hit on each one in this section. You’ll be able to assess your options, get something that works for you, and not have to worry about hosting again for a while.

So how do you evaluate web hosts? What actually matters?

Let’s go through all the key items.

Site Uptime

Uptime is the most crucial component of a good web host. If your site isn’t up, you won’t make money or gain an audience.

First and foremost, you want a web host with great uptime. This means your site is always available and never goes down.

To try to avoid the “just trust us” promise of near-perfect uptime, most hosts provide some sort of guarantee of at least 99.9 percent uptime. However, that guarantee isn’t much of a guarantee. It just means your bill can be discounted in the event of any unplanned downtime.

There’s a lot of fine print on these guarantees, too, including not accepting self-reported or third-party uptime data, and not providing refunds for downtime that was out of the host’s control (for example, a hurricane).

Site Speed

Site speed impacts everything related to your site. Want search rankings? Get a fast site. Want conversions on your site? Make it fast. Want happy users? Speed it up.

Every part of your business is impacted by the speed of your site.

When looking at different web hosts, make sure you’re choosing a host that can serve every page lickety-split.

There is some nuance with site speed.

In the early days, you need a host that’s fast “enough.” It doesn’t have to be blisteringly fast, but it needs to be fast.

Think of Amazon. Back in the day when Amazon just sold books, its site needed to be fast but it didn’t need to be instantaneous.

But now that many people use it for all their shopping, Amazon’s site can’t be fast enough.

In other words, the bigger you get, the faster you’ll want to be. If you’re planning on building a high-traffic site, you’ll want a host that can maintain crazy-fast speeds on large sites.

Customer Support

When running your own site, web host customer support is the single most important thing a web host can offer.

Digging through use reviews doesn’t always give you a conclusive answer on the quality of support at a particular web host.

Watch out for glowing reviews on top publications, they don’t always reflect reality.

There is one true test for assessing the customer support quality at any host.

The free trial customer support test.

Pretty much every web host has some sort of money-back guarantee on their shared hosting plans, which means you can set up your website and see what you think of the service with relatively low stakes — just your time and any add-on fees you opt into, like paying for domain registration.

I recommend going to town with customer support during that trial period. Get on live chat, open tickets, and hop on the phone as much as possible to see if you like what you’re being served up.

Most web hosts offer some sort of free trial period. I recommend using this time to really dig into your host’s customer support — its knowledge center and especially support staff across all channels. That’ll tell you the real story.

Traffic Volume

The amount of traffic that you get has a huge impact on the hosting that you need.

For a site that gets 300 visitors every month, pretty much any standard hosting package will be good enough. As long as your web host has strong customer support, you’re good to go.

As you get bigger, all sorts of small details start to matter a lot more.

Is the PHP on your server being updated regularly? Do you have a CDN for your content?

Is your site being backed up daily and can you restore it within 15 minutes if something goes wrong?

Do you have an SSL certificate? Can your server handle a giant traffic spike during a marketing promotion?

Whenever I have a larger site, I look for premium hosting that takes care of all this for me. And if I’m planning on building a large site, I look for a host that can easily scale to millions of visitors per month. I’m happy to pay a premium price in order to guarantee easy upgrades in the future.

Don’t skimp if you’re going big. And if you’re wondering how to get to big, here are 25 tips for growing your website traffic.

Of course, not everyone has aspirations to go big. If that’s you and you plan to stay under 50,000 visitors/month, get a standard shared hosting package. It will simplify your life, trust me. There’s no reason to worry about the advanced stuff.

Price

While you don’t want to overpay on hosting, you definitely don’t want to underpay either.

That being said, avoid choosing a host exclusively on price.

Most basic web hosting plans are in the $10-$20/month range. Yes, there are cheaper options. Some of them are promotional offers that go away at renewals. Others are hosting plans with terrible support and uptime.

My rule is if the price sounds too good to be true, it probably is. For example, you may find a very attractive introductory rate for just a few dollars per month and lock that price in for one or more years. However, when the time comes to renew your hosting, you will likely find the price will jump, sometimes by a lot.

If you don’t like the renewal price you either have to live with it or change hosts. Changing hosting services can be a huge hassle, especially if you’re not tech savvy. You definitely do not want to be moving your sites every year or two, and that is what can happen if you start choosing a host based exclusively on price.

I don’t worry about chasing promotional offers to save a few dollars. For every site I’ve ever managed, I used the same host without ever switching. Once you have a host you’re happy with, changing to save a few bucks isn’t going to be worth it. Promotional offers come and go pretty quickly.

Migration Features

The ability to easily and quickly migrate an existing site will save you weeks of time.

Even a basic WordPress site can be a real hassle to migrate.

First you have to set up a new WordPress install on your new host. Then you need to export the database of content from your old site and import it into your new one. Finally, you have to re-configure everything in WordPress like the theme, plugins, and settings.

And if something doesn’t go quite as planned? You might be stuck with a website that doesn’t function. Fixing errors can sometimes take days, meaning your site is out of commission. Not something any website owner wants to see happen.

All this potential risk can be a real pain–and it’s why I put together an entire guide on WordPress migration.

Fortunately, it is possible to skip all these steps and mitigate your risks, too. Some hosts will offer a one-click migration for popular site builders like WordPress.

If you’re switching hosts and handling the migration yourself, look for an easy migration feature. This is a great way to make the final decision on which hosting service is best for you, once you’ve narrowed it down to a few final options.

If you are really concerned, A2 Hosting has a team of specialists that will migrate your site for you free of charge.

Managed Hosting

Here’s how a normal host works:

• After you sign up, you get a login.
• The login takes you to cPanel. The cPanel is an app on your server that lets you manage it through a UI without needing to know how to code anything.
• You configure your server however you want.
• There’s an FTP option to upload files manually to your server.
• There are also quick options for installing WordPress and other site software if you want.
• You get full access and can do anything you want. It’s a “choose your own adventure.” Install WordPress, Drupal, Magento, or code your entire site by hand.

Alternatively, there are managed web hosts. These hosts customize the hosting environment and manage a lot more of it for you.

WP Engine is the best example, they’re a managed host for WordPress. Instead of getting a cPanel login that lets me do anything I want, WP Engine gives me a login to their custom interface that’s built to manage WordPress sites specifically.

When a web host is optimized exclusively for WordPress, three key things happen:

1. Faster-performing sites than shared hosting. Everything can be tailored to make WordPress work its best, whether that’s optimizing website caching or tinkering with the command line tools. The host only needs to know how to support WordPress, as opposed to, say, Joomla and a Node server and some sort of custom-made site and on and on.
2. More security and stability. A managed WordPress host can build a system that predicts, accommodates, and patches all of WordPress’s vulnerabilities. That means fewer malicious attacks and less downtime.
3. Admin and site maintenance get a lot easier. And that service is vital because managed WordPress hosting is significantly more expensive than shared web hosting services.

While I give up some flexibility from not having a basic web server like other hosts, a managed host takes care of a lot of ongoing tasks that I’d normally have to handle myself.

If you have a small business site, a normal host is fine. If you’re building a larger site, a managed host will save you a ton of time in the long run and is worth the extra cost.

Best Web Hosting: Your Top Questions Answered

The Top Web Hosting Providers in Summary

The best hosting providers offer different types of web hosting, including shared hosting, cloud hosting, VPS hosting, WordPress hosting, and managed hosting. You also need to evaluate factors like uptime, site speed, and support.

As your traffic grows, you need a hosting provider that can scale with your site. Whether you’re starting a new website or looking to switch providers, this guide has you covered.

The post Compare The Best Web Hosting Companies appeared first on .

Modern point-of-sale (POS) solutions are flexible and offer a wide array of helpful features. You can complete sales quicker and minimize the amount of busy work required to keep your books in order.

Whether you’re looking to upgrade your existing POS software or buy a new point-of-sale system, this guide will help you find the best one for your needs.

The 8 Best POS Systems

Best of 2023: Lightspeed, Square, TouchBistro, Revel, Clover, Shopify, QuickBooks POS, and Helcim.

All eight of my top picks are excellent options for various situations. During this year’s research and testing, four systems came out above the rest.

Our favorite POS systems for 2023 are:

• Lightspeed – Best overall POS
• Square – Best for selling in-person and online
• TouchBistro – Best for restaurants and food service
• Revel – Best for multi-location businesses
• Clover – Best fully customizable POS system

For most, Lightspeed is an affordable and user-friendly POS system that checks all the boxes. But if you’re a restaurant, managing multiple locations, or selling face-to-face and online, you can’t go wrong with the other three.

There are a lot of really great POS systems out there. I researched many options and narrowed my top list down to the eight best.

Each tool on this list excels at the basics and goes beyond to offer features uniquely qualified for certain business needs.

Lightspeed – Best Overall POS

Visit Lightspeed

• All-in-one POS solution
• Easy for employees
• Outstanding customer support
• Low fees at 2.6% + $0.10

Get Started For Free

Lightspeed offers POS solutions for retailers, restaurants, hotels, and more. It’s easy to deploy and simple for employees to learn.

Whether you have online sales, in-store sales, or a little bit of both, Lightspeed POS will work just fine.

You can try the full platform free for 14 days to test out every feature. If you like what you find, Lightspeed will work with you to get your business set up with the right hardware.

You can also track unit costs, get alerts for items that are low in stock, and even sell out-of-stock items that will be fulfilled upon arrival.

Lightspeed is ideal if your location requires special requests, like custom items, work orders, layaways, and purchase orders. You can meet all of these demands directly from your POS.

This makes it a popular choice for small business owners in the following categories:

• Bike shops
• Jewelry stores
• Golf equipment
• Pet supplies
• Home decor
• Sporting goods
• Apparel

You can use Lightspeed with your own hardware from any device, regardless of the operating system. Lightspeed POS allows you to set up customer profiles for purchase history and lifetime value. You can also segment your customers into different categories.

Lightspeed offers a free plan for ecommerce to get your online business launched, with no obligation. There is also a $69 per month plan for retail and restaurants with an annual contract. Lightspeed even offers a package for golf businesses, although you’ll need to get a quote for pricing.

You can upgrade to premium plans, but all of the essentials for ecommerce, retail, and restaurants are included with their respective base packages.

Lightspeed can double as a payment processor. It charges 2.6% plus $0.10 per transaction.

Find out more about Lightspeed and sign up for a free trial.

Square – Best for Selling In-Person and Online

Visit Square

• 100% free to download
• Use your own device for POS
• Doubles as a credit card processor
• Real-time analytics & reporting

Get Started Now

Square is an affordable POS system that anyone can pick up and start using today. There is minimal hardware to buy for taking payments in person–and none if you want to sell online.

Square actually lets you build a free website or online store for your business, which is very uncommon for a POS system.

People choose Square because it “just works” for a huge range of businesses. Just plug the Square Reader into your phone to start selling. Square Readers support either traditional magstripe “swipe” payments, or chip and contactless payments.

You can get exactly what you need and pay for nothing more.

Alternatively, you could get a Square Terminal or Square Register. These print receipts and allow you to accept magstripe, chips, and contactless payment.

All sales through Square are tracked in a single system. Your register, reader, and online sales are always perfectly synced, with no work on your end.

It’s easy for you to manage, track, and update your inventory. Square also provides real-time analytics and reporting and lets you create customer profiles to manage your customers better.

Square also offers special plans for professional services as well as food & beverage. Track bookings, appointments, or reservations with Square just as easily as inventory.

Since Square is a credit card processor, you won’t need to integrate a third-party solution to accept payments. You won’t pay any hidden costs or monthly fees either.

Square offers a free plan to get you started. No matter how many sales you process, your only cost is the transaction rate. For swipes, dips, and taps, it’s 2.6% + $0.10 per transaction. For bank transfers and manual key-in transactions, the fees are slightly higher.

Square also has a Plus plan for restaurants, retailers, and appointment-based businesses. It starts at $29 per month plus processing fees. You can upgrade whenever you want and cancel anytime.

It’s worth noting that Square does offer volume discounts for larger businesses. If you process more than $250k per year with an average order size over $15, contact its sales team for a custom solution.

One potential drawback of Square is if your business scales too quickly. Some users complain that their accounts were placed on hold for large transaction volumes, as the system has security protocols in place to protect against fraudulent charges.

Square is the best overall POS system today, especially if you want the flexibility of selling online or in person. I’d recommend it for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and even medium to large-sized companies. You can refer to our complete full Square review for more information.

TouchBistro – Best for Restaurants and Food Service

Visit TouchBistro

• Starts at $69 per month
• Industry-specific POS solution
• Great for restaurants & bars
• All-in-one solution

Get Started Now

As the name implies, TouchBistro is an industry-specific POS solution. It offers tools for full-service restaurants, bars, clubs, food trucks, breweries, and quick-service food or drink businesses.

There’s a lot less setup these businesses have to do to get everything right. Reservations, table seating, deliveries, menu changes–it’s all built right into the software.

Some of the top features of TouchBistro include:

• Tableside ordering
• Reporting & analytics
• Table management
• Payment processing
• Staff management
• CRM
• Menu management
• Inventory management

TouchBistro is an all-in-one solution that allows you to set up self-ordering kiosks, a kitchen display system, and customer-facing displays for takeout. You can even integrate your POS with online ordering. It’s essentially everything you would need in a POS system if you are in the food service industry.

With TouchBistro, you have the option to use your own hardware and just buy the software. Alternatively, you can bundle the software and hardware with your plan.

TouchBistro starts with basic POS pricing for the main system, and offers a variety of add-on products at additional monthly costs.

• TouchBistro POS — starting at $69 per month
• Online Ordering — starting at $50 per month
• Loyalty — starting at $99 per month
• Marketing — starting at $99 per month
• Gift Cards — starting at $25 per month
• Reservations — starting at $229 per month

Note: All plans are billed annually.

TouchBistro has outstanding 24/7 customer support via phone and email. It also offers training services for large operations. The staff is comprised of actual food service managers, servers, and owners who know exactly how to address your needs and challenges.

While TouchBistro is hands down our top recommendation for restaurant POS software, there are a few things to keep in mind before you get started.

The system is not entirely cloud-based, so you’ll need to run it on a local network as well. So it’s not the best fit for those of you who operate with an unstable or unreliable Internet connection. TouchBistro also runs on an Apple-based infrastructure. So if you want an Android or Windows POS system, this is not the best choice for your restaurant.

Revel – Best for Multi-Location Businesses

Visit Revel

• Software starts at $99
• Installation starts at $649
• Advanced CRM features
• Centralized management system

Get Started Now

Revel offers POS systems for retail, restaurants, bars, and quick-serve businesses. Revel is a hybrid POS, using a combination of the cloud and your local network to store information. That means you don’t need to worry if you lose a connection. You can still process transactions.

If you’re a small business owner with multiple locations, Revel has a centralized management system that standardizes everything across each site.

Revel has a wide range of hardware options for you to choose from, depending on the type of business you have and your in-store layout:

• Apple iPads
• iPad stands
• Self-service kiosks
• Barcode scanners
• Printers
• Payment devices
• Networking
• Cash drawer and till

While other POS systems on the market encourage you to use your own devices, Revel strongly recommends that you buy hardware directly from them for everything to go smoothly. This reduces friction and potential tech issues, but it will be an added cost.

Speaking of price, the Revel POS software starts at $99 per month per terminal. It’s a bit pricey compared to the competition, especially for a small business owner. Installation and onboarding start at $674. Contact the sales team for a quote on processing fees.

Revel POS software contracts are billed annually, with a minimum 3-year contract required. So you won’t have the flexibility to change or cancel in the short term.

Revel’s high prices are justified if you plan to take advantage of its CRM features. It offers tools for customer insights, segmenting customers, connecting with marketing campaigns, managing appointments, and more.

Their system provides you with a fantastic customer loyalty experience too. Loyalty programs are an excellent way to build and maintain customer interest, and Revel makes it easy to implement a loyalty program.

Revel’s Loyalty XT lets you auto-register clients directly on your POS with just a few clicks. Customers can also scan a QR code and sign up on your website. You can even incentivize customers to join with a welcome gift.

Once you have the system set up, you can use marketing automation to deliver targeted offers to customers that will keep them coming back. Offer them extra points, invite them to exclusive in-store events, the options are endless.

If you can afford the high monthly rates, installation fees, and hardware, Revel offers enterprise-grade POS systems for small businesses. But the price may be more than some smaller businesses can handle, especially for a 3-year contract.

Clover – Best Fully Customizable POS System

Visit Clover

• Versatile hardware options
• Powerful integrations
• Built-in payment processing
• Actionable reporting tools

Get Started Now

Clover is arguably the most versatile POS solution on the market. They offer everything from basic card readers for payments on the go to full countertop systems with cash drawers and touch screens. 

What really makes Clover unique from other POS systems is that it can be tailor-made to fit your unique needs. You can easily select multiple hardware options to ensure your POS matches perfectly with your operations.

For example, maybe you want a countertop register in one part of your store. But you want a portable card reader so your staff can collect payments without being tied to one location. These types of systems work really well for restaurants, retail, professional services, and field service operations. 

Beyond the hardware, Clover also lets you enhance your POS system with third-party apps. These customizations go beyond basic POS functionality—allowing you to turn your POS system into an all-in-one system for running your business.

Some examples of things you can do from Clover include:

• Manage customer profiles
• Set up a customer rewards program
• Organize employee scheduling
• Add an employee time clock function
• Keep track of your inventory
• Get real-time sales insights

Clover even plays nice with third-party tools like Paychex, Gusto, Indeed, QuickBooks, Xero, and more. 

Pricing for Clover’s POS software and hardware varies based on your business type. Handheld POS systems start at $50 per month, and compact countertop systems start at $60 per month. Larger countertop terminals with customer-facing displays start at $130 per month. Clover also has built-in credit card processing starting at 2.6% + $0.10 per transaction. 

Contact the Clover sales team today to build a custom POS system.

More Great POS Systems

Shopify – Best Ecommerce POS

Visit Shopify

• Starting at $29 per month
• Built-in payment processing
• Inventory management
• High Quality POS Hardware

Get Started Now

Shopify is an outstanding way to accept payments online, in person, or both. Most people are familiar with their sleek online store builder, but Shopify’s POS system is excellent as well.

And if you’re already using this platform for your online store, you should use Shopify POS as well. This will offer seamless integration and let your two systems work as one.

Your inventory is updated and managed in real-time across multiple locations for Internet and in-person sales. You can also manage transfers between locations and use Shopify for inventory forecasting.

Shopify makes it easy for you to create loyalty with profiles and tools for building customer loyalty programs.

Shopify POS also allows you to accept payments anywhere in-store. That means no long lines (or at least fewer of them).

Since your ecommerce and the in-store solution will be connected with Shopify POS, customers will have the ability to return or exchange an online purchase at a local retail location.

Shopify POS is included for free in the monthly cost of your Shopify plan. You’ll only pay extra for the processing fees.

Basic Shopify — $39 per month

• 2.9% + $0.30 for online credit card transactions
• 2.7% for in-person card transactions
• 2 staff accounts

Shopify — $105 per month

• 2.6% + $0.30 for online credit card transactions
• 2.5% for in-person card transactions
• 5 staff accounts
• Unlimited staff POS PINs
• 1-5 store locations

Advanced Shopify — $399 per month

• 2.4% + $0.30 for online credit card transactions
• 2.4% for in-person card transactions
• 15 staff accounts
• Unlimited staff POS PINs
• Up to 8 store locations

For selling online with dozens of physical store locations, you’ll need to find something a bit more advanced than Shopify. But Shopify is perfect for easy setups and selling right away both online and in-person from a handful of brick-and-mortar stores.

If you’re currently using Shopify to sell online, then using Shopify POS for in-store transactions is a no-brainer. I’d also recommend Shopify if you’re in the market for a new POS system, and you’re looking to launch a new ecommerce store.

QuickBooks POS – Best for Accounting Integration

Visit QuickBooks

• Starting at $1,200
• One time flat cost
• Integrates with QuickBooks
• POS hardware sold separately

Get Started Now

QuickBooks is known as one of the best accounting tools on the market. But it’s also a great point-of-sale system if you’re looking for an integrated accounting and bookkeeping solution.

If you’re already using Quickbooks, you should definitely consider it for your POS.

The benefit of using the same company for POS and accounting software is that your analytics and insights will be extremely accurate. Using QuickBooks POS can ultimately improve your bookkeeping process and accounting department.

Pricing for QuickBooks POS is a bit unique compared to the other options on our list. Rather than a monthly or annual rate, it’s a one-time purchase.

• Basic — $1,200
• Pro — $1,700
• Multi-Store — $1,900

Note: All POS hardware is sold separately. 

There are pros and cons to this pricing structure. It’s a high up-front cost, but it can save you money long-term if you plan to use it for a while. The downside is that upgrading isn’t simple. If you started with the Basic software and wanted to purchase Multi-Store one year later, you’d have to buy the new package separately.

Overall, the QuickBooks POS system is a decent standalone product. It has all of the basics you’d need to process transactions in person. But I’d only recommend it to those of you who want the best integration with QuickBooks accounting software. The POS system alone has its limitations.

Helcim – Best for Lowering Transaction Costs

Visit Helcim

• Top-of-line POS hardware
• Create an online store
• Customized interchange rates
• User-friendly ecommerce processing

Try it today!

Helcim is another all-in-one POS solution that lets you accept payments online and in person.

I like this platform a lot because of its Intercharge Plus pricing.

If you have ever looked at your payment processing fees, you know that the rates can vary widely depending on the card type and whether sales are in-person or online. With Intercharge Plus pricing, you wind up saving a lot more than you would with flat-rate and other processing fee structures.

Helcim also offers high-quality hardware, like the wireless Helcim Card Reader. It allows you to accept debit and credit cards from all the major companies.

This POS system also syncs across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices to allow you a flexible range of payment acceptance options.

This platform makes it easy to get an online store off the ground. You can actually create one right on their website. It’s incredibly easy to use. You don’t need to be a web developer or even know how to code. And you can transfer your existing product catalog to their store in minutes.

Naturally, the site comes with the Helcim payment processor built-in for a seamless shopping experience.

There are a lot of great-looking themes for your online store too, so choosing one for your brand should be easy.

As for pricing, there is no monthly fee and average transactions rates vary depending on your monthly volume. Sign up today.

How to Find the Best POS System

There are certain factors that you should be looking for as you’re evaluating different POS systems. This is the same methodology that I used to narrow the top recommendations in this guide. I’ll explain each consideration and why it matters below.

One word about choosing a product based on price alone. Try to avoid that unless absolutely necessary. But if budgetary concerns are top of list, be sure to consider the best free POS systems we reviewed.

Payment Processing

Your POS system must be able to process payments. Some options have built-in payment processors, while others have third-party integrations.

So if you’re currently using a payment processor and you don’t want to switch, make sure to choose a POS system that can integrate with that processor.

Ecommerce Capabilities

If you’re selling online or plan to sell online, you should look for a POS system that integrates with your ecommerce store. Otherwise, you can run into problems with inventory management.

For those of you just selling in-store now but plan to enter the ecommerce market later, I’d still recommend an all-in-one solution like Shopify. Shopify POS is free with any Shopify ecommerce plan.

Setup and Ease of Use

The best POS systems have a simple setup process. Some don’t even require any hardware purchases. It’s as simple as installing software on your own device.

Other systems require you to purchase hardware directly through the provider. These setups are usually a bit more challenging, but not always complex.

Once your POS is up and running, it’s crucial that the solution is easy for your staff to use. If you’re in the restaurant or retail industry, there’s a good chance you have lots of part-time workers and have high employee turnover. So training and daily use with the POS software needs to be as simple as possible.

Inventory Management

Look for POS solutions that offer some form of inventory management. Some options are better than others, and you may need to upgrade your plan in order to get the full benefits of inventory tracking.

If you just have one location and you’re not selling online, this feature may not be that important to your business. But for those of you with a more extensive operation, proper inventory management is a must-have.

Hardware

Do you want to use your own hardware or buy equipment when you purchase POS software?

There are lots of factors that go into this decision. Price could be one of them, but that’s not always the case. Hardware can also impact the ease of use.

The type of hardware you use will also depend on the type of business you have. For example, if you run a coffee shop, you’ll probably want a customer-facing POS terminal behind the counter. But other retail locations may prefer a mobile POS for staff to use out on the floor.

Industry and Type of Business

Some POS solutions are industry-specific. For example, TouchBistro is the best choice for businesses in the food service industry. Lightspeed is the best for custom orders.

The size of your business matters also when choosing a POS system. If you have just one small retail location with a single register, Square would be a top choice for you to consider. But if you want to scale with multiple registers across multiple locations, you’d be better off with a solution like Revel.

The Value of a POS System

Today’s point-of-sale systems do much more than just process payments. These systems make it possible for you to operate your entire business. You can:

• Manage inventory and employees
• Track and analyze crucial sales metrics
• Integrate your POS with customer loyalty programs, email marketing tools, accounting systems, payment processors, ecommerce platforms, and more
• Access the data from anywhere on mobile

And while improving your business, a POS helps enhance the overall customer experience by speeding up your in-store sales process, eliminating manual tasks, and improving the accuracy of your reporting.

Best POS Systems: Your Top Questions Answered

The Top POS (Point of Sale) Systems in Summary

Choosing the right POS software is crucial to the success of your business. These modern solutions do so much more than just process payments. There are POS systems designed for general use, mobile applications, small businesses, and even niche things like coffee shops.

You can use a POS system to sync inventory with your registers, connect your online store with in-person sales, and centralize your bookkeeping. Transactions are easy for customers, who can pay in multiple ways. And everything is easier on the backend for your employees and business.

The post Compare The Best Point of Sales (POS) Systems appeared first on .

This blog generates hundreds of thousands of dollars every month by helping readers answer their questions.

It took me years and a team to get to this point–but you can start a profitable blog right now.

The money is there if you keep at it and follow some tried and true methods like the ones below.

Top-Rated Web Hosting Companies to Start a Blog That Makes Money

If you want to start a blog that makes money, you’ll need to start with a great web hosting company. Here are the best options:

• Hostinger – Best overall
• DreamHost – Best value for shared hosting
• Bluehost – Best for new WordPress websites
• HostGator – Best for simple websites
• GreenGeeks – Best for eco-friendly hosting
• SiteGround – Best WordPress-certified host for speed and security
• A2 Hosting – Fast & reliable shared hosting
• InMotion – Best VPS hosting
• WPEngine – Best managed WordPress hosting
• Nexcess – Best for ecommerce hosting

You can read our full reviews of each web hosting company here.

11 Steps to Start a Blog That Makes Money

Turning a profit requires a few more steps than hobby blogging (doing it just for fun and not worrying about consistency, SEO, and monetization). Here are the steps you need to know about how to start a blog:

1. Find a blog idea
2. Find the perfect domain name
3. Sign up for Hostinger
4. Install WordPress
5. Pick a fitting WordPress theme
6. Install WordPress plugins
7. Install Google Analytics
8. Set up your email list
9. Pick a blogging cadence
10. Build an audience
11. Monetize your blog

Quickstart Guide to Blogging

You can jump straight into blogging if you already have a name and an idea for your blog.

Just head over to Hostinger and sign up for a Single WordPress plan. This is the best hosting service for beginners and the easiest way to start a new blog.

Plans start at just $1.99 per month. This rate is based on a four-year contract, but it’s the best deal in web hosting if you want reliable service from a reputable provider. In addition to web hosting, you’ll get a free domain name, website builder, email accounts, and everything else you need to get started.

The registration process is simple. Hostinger will walk you through a series of steps that are very straightforward. Here’s a quick overview that you can follow:

• Select Blog when you’re asked what type of site you’re creating.
• Claim your free domain when prompted unless you have already purchased one elsewhere.
• Install WordPress when asked to select a CMS (content management system).
• Choose a theme to determine your site layout. You can always change this later, so don’t overthink it. 
• Click Finish Setup once you’ve reviewed and confirmed the selected options. 

Now you can log into your new website and start blogging immediately. 

Monetizing your blog is the next step. There are lots of different ways to make money from your blog, and we’ll cover that later on. For now, let’s dive straight into the entire blog creation process from the beginning.

Step 1: Find a Blog Idea

This is the most important step for your blog.

Choosing your blog’s topic (or niche) determines the rest of the website’s future. This is what you’re going to be writing about and — hopefully — making money from.

The good news: There’s practically an audience out there for every single topic you might be interested in.

But some topics tend to perform better than others. You need to find a topic that appeals to a big audience while still appealing to you.

To find the perfect blog niche, you’ll need to answer two questions:

What am I interested in?

What topic do you love? What are you obsessed with?

This is the basis of your blog niche. After all, if you don’t love the topic, you’re not going to want to write about it day after day.

To help answer this question, I suggest looking toward several areas:

• Talents. Is there something you’re naturally talented at? Maybe a sport, game, or musical instrument.
• Expertise. What skills and knowledge have you built up over the years? Maybe there’s something you went to school for that you can write about now. Think about academic subjects or skills like languages and car repair. Even having a wealth of lifestyle knowledge can be shared.
• Career. Your current career can be a fantastic place to write about. For example, if you’re a developer for a startup, you can start blogging about front-end development or the tech industry. Likewise, if you’re an experienced photographer.
• Hobbies and passions. Is there a topic you just love learning about? Think about the things you do in your free time. Maybe it’s reading books, working on your fantasy novel, or repairing that old car in your garage. These can be great topics to write about in your blog.

ACTION STEP: Write down 10 – 15 topics you’re interested in. Pull up a blank document or sheet of paper and write this down. It’ll help you keep your ideas focused. Plus, you can refer back to it later when you make your final decision.

What are other people interested in?

This area is a bit trickier.

You need to find out what other people are interested in as well. Otherwise, you might find yourself with a blog that doesn’t draw in a lot of people.

For example, you might think that a blog all about how wonderful your dog is is super interesting — but is that going to draw in a lot of people?

On the other hand, a blog about how to take care of and train dogs appeals to a much bigger audience of readers.

You need to take your personal interest and find a way to make it universal. Think back to how you initially gained interest in the topic. How did you gather expertise in the topic?

Think of all the questions and confusions you had when you started out and what helped you gain expertise.

To help, here are a few popular categories that always do well:

• Personal finance
• Fitness
• Online business
• Investing
• Productivity
• Real estate
• Careers
• Test prep
• Freelancing

Pro tip: Use Google’s Keyword Planner tool to see how often people search for a specific category or niche. It’ll reveal what people are and aren’t interested in.

ACTION STEP: Take a look at your list from before. Do any of them fall under these categories? If not, that’s okay! There’s probably still an audience out there for one of your topics.

For now, I want you to choose a topic from your list that you want to turn into a blog. Once you do, you’re going to make it even more specific and niche it down.

For example, you might want to start a personal finance website. Niching it down might mean you make a personal finance website for millennials making $100,000 a year. Or for 30-somethings who want to retire early.

Look back at the different topics you generated in Step 1. Can you blend two topics you like writing about to hone in on a niche?

Step 2: Find the Perfect Domain Name

Now the fun part: choosing your blog’s name. For this, I have good news and bad news.

• Bad news: Most of the very “best” domain names are already taken. The Internet is decades old. Makes sense.
• Good news: That doesn’t matter because we’re going to find the best one for you.

Here are a few good rules of thumb to keep in mind when choosing a good name:

• Keep it short. Don’t force potential visitors to have to type a bunch of words to visit your website. We recommend no more than 14 characters.
• Choose a .com, .org, or .net. These are the easiest ones for people to remember.
• Easy to spell and pronounce. You don’t want to spell it out constantly for people when you mention your blog’s domain.
• Avoid numbers and hyphens. Not only does it look clunky in the URL, it’s also difficult to type out when you add hyphens.
• Use your name. It’s pretty likely that your name is available as a domain. That makes it the perfect choice for a personal blog. I’ll speak more on this later.

When you come up with a domain you like, head to Hostinger to see if it’s available using their domain tool.

If it is, great! If not, you now have two options:

1. Search until you find an available domain. I highly recommend you do this until you find a domain that’s available. If you’re going to write a blog, sharpen your synonym skills by searching for other words and phrases that might be available. Trust me. As a working writer, this is a VERY crucial skill.
2. Purchase a domain name. While it is possible to buy a domain from someone who already has it, that’s an advanced option and can get expensive fast. Low-quality domains will usually go for a few thousand dollars. Highly quality domains that are two words can easily go for $10,000 to $50,000. I’ve even been in discussions to purchase domains for over $100,000, and the really hot ones can break seven figures. Not to mention all the hassle that comes from finding the person who owns the domain, negotiating with them, and transferring the domain if you even reach an agreement.

Your best bet is to keep going until you find a domain that you like and can purchase directly from a domain registrar for about $10.

We go into lots of detail on which domain registrar to use here. But I highly suggest you buy a web host that allows you to register a domain for free. That means going with Hostinger.

Using your personal name as the domain

If this is your first blog and you’re not completely sure what you want to blog about, I recommend that you use your personal name.

The reason is that changing your domain later will mean that you have to start over from scratch. There are a lot of mistakes in blogging that can be corrected later; having the wrong domain isn’t one of them.

Let’s say you pick a domain like fitnessfordoctors.com. Then after six months, you realize you’d rather be doing personal finance blogging for doctors. You’d need to get a new domain and start over from scratch.

Personal domains are much more flexible — it’s just a name after all. So if you jump categories after a few months, it’s not a big deal. Take down any old content that’s not relevant to your new direction, start posting new content, and you’re good to go.

That said, personal domains have two major downsides:

1. Scalability. It’s much more difficult to recruit other writers or grow your blog beyond your personal identity later on.
2. Profitability. Personal blogs, even if they’re generating serious cash, are much harder to sell. Prospective buyers want a site that isn’t dependent on a single person.

However, these are pretty advanced problems to have. If this is your first blog, the benefits of using your name as the domain greatly outweigh the costs that only show up down the road.

ACTION STEP: Pick a domain name and run with it.

While it’s important to pick a good, brandable domain name, the most important thing to do in this step is to make a decision and go. You don’t want to be stuck in the dreaded state of “paralysis by analysis.” Instead, just choose one based on the system above and run with it.

Go deeper: Want to learn more about this topic? Check out our article on how to buy the right domain name.

Step 3: Sign Up For Hostinger

Every website needs to have a web hosting provider. Your web host runs the servers where your site will “live” on the internet—making it possible for people to visit your blog.

This is one of the most important steps in this process, so don’t rush through it. 

Having a quality web host ensures that your site loads quickly, performs well, and doesn’t crash unexpectedly.

You can check out our complete list of the best web hosts for WordPress, but Hostinger will be the best option for most new blogs—and that’s what we’ll use for the purposes of this tutorial.

Visit Hostinger

• Normally $12.49/month
• Free domain and SSL certificate
• Create up to 100 websites
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Get a 80% discount!

Hostinger is straightforward and affordable, which is exactly what new blogs should be looking for in a web host. 

For such an affordable price, Hostinger also performs at a really high level. So you’re still getting a high-quality hosting service at an entry-level price tag.

Speaking of price, you can get Hostinger for just $2.59 per month when you sign up using our special discount link. This is an amazing value when you consider all the features you’re getting.

The great part about Hostinger is that it can grow with you as your blog scales. So as you start getting more traffic over time, you can simply upgrade your plan to the next tier as needed.

If you’re looking for a simple and reliable web hosting service, look no further than Hostinger.

Step 4: Install WordPress

Your website needs a content management system (CMS) in order to function. This CMS is what allows you to create and manage blog posts.

And for this, there’s only one option: WordPress.

In reality, there are far more options than just WordPress, but trust me when I say that it’s the only one you should use. 

Why?

Because WordPress is one of the (if not the) most powerful, easy-to-use, and customizable CMSs out there.

Here’s proof: WordPress powers roughly one-third of the internet. Pause on that for a moment – one-third of the entire internet. That’s a lot.

So, that’s why I stated from the beginning to just use WordPress for your blog, end of story.

Since WordPress is one of the most popular CMSs in existence, most web hosts offer a one-click install for WordPress making the setup a quick and painless experience.

There’s always the option to use a dedicated blogging platform like Medium or even LinkedIn. Both are great for sharing ideas, but they are quite difficult to generate any revenue from. WordPress, on the other hand, gives you plenty of ways to turn a profit, which is why it’s one of the most popular choices. 

So, if you’re trying to make money blogging, WordPress is definitely the better choice.

ACTION STEP: Install WordPress on your host.

Hostinger makes it really easy–you will actually handle the WordPress install during the signup process.

Once you tell Hostinger the type of site you want to create (a blog, in this case), it will offer you a few appropriate CMS options. Simply select WordPress:

Complete the rest of the signup process, and launch your site. Once it’s ready, Hostinger will prompt you to activate WordPress the first time you sign in.

Anytime you want to interact with your WordPress site, you can find it on the lefthand sidebar of your Hostinger dashboard.

Step 5: Pick a Fitting WordPress Theme

It’s very easy to change your site’s look and feel with WordPress.

The best part: No coding knowledge is required.

That’s because WordPress uses “themes.” These are little packages of code that can be swapped in and out. Whenever you change your theme, your site will also change, but your blog content stays the same.

This makes it very easy to evolve your site over time without having to rebuild your entire site from scratch.

Hostinger actually has you choose a theme during the setup process, just after you select WordPress as your CMS.

Hostinger offers a bunch of free themes for you to get started. There were 38 when I signed up.

Choose something that you like, but don’t get too precious about it at this point. You can switch up your theme later with very little work.

The number of themes out there makes me dizzy. There are thousands of free and paid themes out there already, and the WordPress community is always creating more.

When picking a theme for my blogs, I go straight to StudioPress. The themes are a bit more expensive at $130. (Most themes go for $20–50.) But it’s totally worth it.

StudioPress was purchased by WP Engine and WP Engine now includes all the StudioPress themes as part of its hosting package. It’s a nice freebie if you are already planning on hosting your site with WP Engine.

If you want a wider selection of WordPress themes at standard prices, Themeforest is the most popular WordPress theme marketplace.

Still not sure? Check out our top list of the best WordPress themes for blogs. You’ll probably find something there that is perfect to start out with.

Because it’s so easy to select your first theme with Hostinger (one click during the setup process), I want to show you how to switch up your theme in the future. It’s not much harder at all.

ACTION STEP: Purchase a theme and add it to your website.

After you purchase your theme, log into your WordPress blog, go to the Theme section which is under Appearance in the WordPress sidebar menu. Then follow the instructions for adding the theme.

You’ll have to upload the theme files to WordPress and activate the theme from within WordPress. You can find the upload option by going to Themes > Add New, a button towards the top. Then you’ll see this option to upload:

You’ll be able to manage any themes you’ve uploaded to your WordPress blog from your Themes section:

You can always use free themes if you don’t want to pay for one, helping to keep your startup costs low. Just be aware that some free themes lack the features and customization options that come with premium themes. Some free themes are poorly coded, which could slow down your site or open you up to security vulnerabilities.

Step 6: Install WordPress Plugins

One of the best parts about WordPress is that it’s infinitely customizable. Since it’s open-source, you can change it to do whatever you want.

The easiest way to make changes is with plugins. Plugins are little batches of software you can install within WordPress to get extra functionality. This is how you’ll add a bunch of extra features to your site without having to code anything yourself.

Be careful here and try not to go overboard.

Some bloggers will install dozens of plugins on their blogs. That can cause a bunch of problems later on.

Not only can plugins cause unexpected conflicts with each other, they become a security liability since it’s unlikely that every plugin owner will maintain the plugin over time. They also become a huge headache to manage.

When you have that many plugins, you’re never sure which plugin is causing a particular problem.

I like to keep my selection limited to 5–10 amazing plugins.

ACTION STEP: Download helpful plugins

Here are a few of my favorites:

• Akismet – Required for every blog, it automatically filters a ton of comment spam which is a problem for every blogger. This is one of the few plugins that I happily pay to upgrade.
• Yoast SEO – The most highly recommended SEO plugin, it handles a bunch of SEO tasks automatically for you and also makes on-page SEO tasks a lot easier.
• Contact Form 7 – The most popular contact form out there. Set up a contact page on your site, and then use this plugin to create a contact form that will email you any time someone fills out the form. Super easy.
• TinyMCE Advanced – A bunch of improvements to the WordPress editor that makes writing in WordPress a lot easier. These days, I usually skip this one. I write all my posts in Google Docs and then format them in WordPress using its default HTML editor.
• WP Super Cache – A good plugin to speed up your site.
• MailChimp for WordPress – More on this below. It’s the easiest way to connect your WordPress site to a MailChimp account, create an email signup form, and start collecting email subscribers.
• WordPress Popular Posts – Easiest way to add a list of your most popular posts to your blog sidebar. The list will update automatically.

Step 7: Install Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free tool that will help you monitor key performance metrics related to your blog traffic.

You can use it to see how many site visits you’re getting, the demographics of your visitors, and see which pages are driving the most traffic.

With that said, Google Analytics can get tricky if you don’t know how to use it. That’s why we’re going to ignore the majority of what the tool can do—at least for the moment.

Right now, you just need to create a Google Analytics account and install it on your blog.

While there are dozens of reasons why Google Analytics should be installed on your site, there are two major ones that we’re going to focus on right now.

First, Google Analytics tracks your data over time. So when you’re ready to dive deeper into the weeds later on, you’ll be happy that you’ve been collecting data from day one.

Second, it’s encouraging to watch people visit your blog in the early stages. This can give you the motivation you need to continue putting in the work required to scale your blog. 

Google Analytics is also really easy to set up. Here’s how you do it:

Log into Google Analytics

This is simple. Go to Google Analytics and click on Start Measuring.

If you’re not logged into a Google account, it’ll ask you to log in to your Google account. If you have one, do so. If not, create one and log in with that.

Create your Google Analytics Account

The tool asks you to provide an account name. Use the name of your website or blog for this.

Don’t worry about the boxes with the checkmarks for now. You can always change them later.

Once you do that, click on Next at the bottom.

Choose what you want to measure

This screen asks you to choose whether you want to measure a website, an app, or a combination of both.

Choose Web since you’re creating a blog.

Then click Next.

Fill in the property details

Now fill in some details about your website, including its name, the URL, your industry category, and your timezone.

Once you’ve done that, click on Create at the bottom.

Copy and paste the tracking code onto your site

Once your account is created, you’ll have a unique JavaScript tracking code for your site. When you copy and paste that snippet of code into your site, Google Analytics will start collecting data for you.

Voila! That’s it. You are now tracking Google Analytics for your website.

Step 8: Set Up Your Email List

Every marketing engine I’ve built for companies has relied on emails at its core.

And there’s a good reason for that: Email lists are the best marketing tool. Period.

Think of your email list as a giant laser ray; you can focus on any offer you want. Selling consulting? Pitch your list to the reader.

Publishing a new blog post? Pitch your list at the bottom of the blog post.

A podcast just interviewed you? Pitch your list to the podcast’s audience.

Of all the marketing channels that have come and gone over the years, nothing compares to the power of a high-quality email list.

Even if you’re not sure what to send your email subscribers, that’s okay. The important thing is you start gathering a list of subscribers and build the foundation early.

ACTION STEP: Create an email list.

Using Constant Contact or other email marketing services, start collecting emails on your blog so that the list is ready for you as soon as you need it. It takes time to build a decent size list so your future self will be extremely grateful if you set it up now.

Even a super basic opt-in in your blog sidebar is enough to get you started, like this one from Divalicious Recipes.

Don’t even worry about sending any emails yet unless you want to. The main thing is that you’re collecting email subscribers from the beginning. Email lists can be a gold mine once you have a few thousand subscribers, and the money really rolls in once you have 10,000 subscribers and above.

Step 9: Pick a Blogging Cadence

Writing blog posts isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. Actually, it’s more like a multi-day backpacking trip.

The best bloggers settle into a consistent writing pace they can maintain for a few years. That’s right, years.

Here are a few posting frequency rules of thumb:

• At the bare minimum, find a way to post once per week. This needs to be a substantial post, too: 2,000 words at least. Long-form content receives twice as many page views, and Google’s algorithms favor content that is 3,000 words or longer. I recommend you start here.
• Serious bloggers will post 2-3 times per week.
• Larger sites quickly get to 5-7 posts per week. This requires multiple authors.
• The heavy hitters who push things to the limit will do 25-50 posts per week. No joke, this is for large businesses using content marketing as their primary customer acquisition channel. HubSpot is a classic example of this.

That said, don’t fall into the trap of writing your blog for search engine optimization (SEO) rather than for your readers. While SEO is important and can help increase your visibility, it shouldn’t come at the cost of creating quality content.

AI-based content creation tools can help to scale up your writing quickly, but you should always make sure to review the output before publication.

For example:

• SEO optimization tools like Clearscope are helpful for showing you keywords to include, but good “content grades” on these tools don’t equate to actual good content.
• AI content generators can help you write blogs faster, but they don’t know your audience, your subject matter, or your personal writing style. They also produce content at all costs, so they occasionally produce content that is completely false.
• Software like Grammarly is great for catching typos, but don’t listen to all of its suggestions—your English teacher isn’t grading your blog and your audience won’t respond to perfect-sounding sentences and robotic grammar.
• Your posts that generate the most traffic won’t always be the ones with the highest volume. If anything, highly targeted posts with fewer, more engaged readers will end up making you the most money.

It will get easier to publish posts the more you do it. Getting several posts out the door each week might sound like a lot now, but over time, every part of your process will get quicker.

The important thing is to start your blogging cadence off on the right foot. Begin with a weekly publishing rhythm, and build from there.

ACTION STEP: Start posting at least once a week.

I know writing isn’t easy. After writing blog posts full-time for three months, I always want to throw my MacBook out the window. It’s a grind for all of us. This is why I recommend starting at one post per week.

That still gives you the majority of the week to focus on other aspects of your site while also giving you a break from writing blog posts all the time.

A really great post should take you two days to complete. The first day is for research and outlining, along with as much writing as you can complete. The second day is for finishing the writing, proofreading, and publishing the post in WordPress.

Also, push quality as hard as you can. The key to building a site and traffic over time is to write posts that are more valuable than what other people have already published in your category.

Step 10: Build an Audience

There’s a super famous article in blogging circles: 1,000 True Fans.

Basically, getting 1,000 true fans means you can fully support yourself. You can quit your job, work wherever you like, and be in complete control of your life. All from hitting a very reasonable goal of 1,000 true fans.

With blogging, you’ll build your audience of 1,000 true fans slowly and consistently.

As long as you keep at it, you will get there. Typically, it takes a few years.

That said, it’s possible. 77% of internet users read blogs, and all you need is a tiny fraction of them to make a substantial living.

ACTION STEP: Use this system to get 1,000 true fans.

Here’s what to focus on in order to get there faster:

• Always post at least once per week. Never skip a week.
• Start posting 2-3 times per week if you can.
• On every post, push on quality as hard as you can. Google the topic and see what other people have done, then ask yourself how you can write something even better.
• Write stuff that hasn’t been written to death already. Find a new take or perspective on your topics that other people haven’t already covered.
• Find your voice and be authentic so people can get to know you. This builds connections with your audience faster. A quick hack for this is to pretend that you’re writing your posts to a close friend.
• Allow your readers to comment. Disqus has a ton of users and allows readers to leave feedback, praise your post, or leave criticism for it. If you’re up to engaging your first core readers, leverage this to make a solid connection with them.
• To push even harder, get active in other online communities. Post in Facebook groups, subreddits, on Twitter, do podcast interviews, get speaking engagements when you can – anything and everything. Be as helpful as you can be in these communities.
• For all of your content, constantly ask yourself, “How can I make this as valuable as possible?

As your blog audience matures, you will want to change your traffic strategies as you grow.

Step 11: Monetize Your Blog

There are three ways blogs make money.

Yes, only three. They are:

• Infoproducts. Online courses, webinars, e-books, etc.
• Affiliate programs. You work with a brand to promote their products and you get a cut of any sales.
• Freelancing and consulting. You use your blog as a platform to find clients and customers for your own services.

Here’s a quick primer on how they work:

How info products work

I could write a book on info products. For now, we’ll keep it simple. Here’s the model:

1. Get people to visit your site.
2. Then, give them a reason to subscribe to your email list.
3. Once they’re an email subscriber, run them through a launch funnel. These are email funnels specifically designed to sell info products. Usually, these are courses that include a bunch of video lessons.
4. Depending on your volume and target market, you’ll convert about 0.5% to 1% of new email subscribers into a customer for $500-$2,000 for your course. At volume, that adds up fast.

Now, this sounds too good to be true. While there are a few catches, it’s mostly true. What are the catches?

First, you’ll need to get extremely good at direct-response copy.

Second, it helps to be in the right category. People want money, status, and relationships.

How affiliate programs work

Affiliate marketing is pretty simple: You go about creating as large of an audience as possible. Then, throughout your content, you recommend products that are helpful to that audience.

When your audience clicks through the link of that recommendation, they get a special tracking code. If they end up purchasing, you get a cut of the sale.

You have no doubt seen affiliate disclosures on websites for years, like this one for Outside Magazine’s online edition.

The main downside is that only a small percentage of people will ever click through and an even smaller percentage of people will purchase. So it really helps to have a massive amount of traffic in order to make enough money from your blog.

It’s safe to say that Outside magazine has a big enough following to make affiliate links profitable for them.

How freelancing and consulting works

While info products and affiliates are the main ways to make serious money, you also need serious traffic in order to make them work. At least if you want them to work well enough to make six figures per year.

That’s why I believe freelancing and consulting are the best ways for beginners to start making money fast while blogging.

To make money quickly, this is by far your best option. It’s also the easiest to do.

Freelancing programs have taught thousands of people how to get started freelancing. What always blew me away was how life-changing those first few freelancing gigs are.

Anyone can create a blog and use it for freelancing lead generation. It’s enough to build a client base that pays you $3,000 to $5,000 per month. That’s enough to quit your job. That’s life-changing.

And it’s a much easier goal to hit than a fully ramped-up affiliate or info product marketing machine. You always have the option to build that stuff later anyway.

What about all those other monetization methods?

Most of them are a waste of time. The impact on revenue is marginal, it’s a complete distraction. A few are worth doing for marketing and branding. The rest should be ignored entirely. Here’s the list that bloggers always try at some point:

• Books – Great for marketing. Adds a ton of credibility to your brand. But you likely won’t feel the impact on revenue at all when it comes to royalities. However, they are great marketing and lead generation tools.
• Events – I loathe events with every fiber of my being. All the risk is front-loaded, all contracts get locked up ahead of time, they’re a pain to sell, and you don’t even know if you’ll make any money until right before the event. Even if you do make money, the margins are terrible. For me, these are complete distractions and a huge opportunity cost for the business.
• Banner ads (Google Ads, formerlly Adsense, for example) – The last time these made any decent money was around 2003. These days, I’m not even sure it’s possible to get banner ads to cover your hosting bill. I’m only partially joking.
• Speaking – Done the right way, occasional speaking can be a great brand builder. And while it sounds amazing to get paid $20,000 per speaking gig, it’s not nearly as amazing once you learn most speakers never get paid, it takes months worth of work to create a talk that commands that kind of fee, you really need a New York Times Bestseller in order to charge real fees, and you’ll get so sick of hotel rooms after the first year that you’ll never want to travel again. Do speaking gigs when good opportunities come up; don’t build a business on them.

Don’t let this discourage you though. The important thing is that you get started building your blog and writing. Do it consistently and stick to the system, and you’ll find that success comes quicker than you think.

That brings us to our last action step…

LAST ACTION STEP: Keep Growing! Read articles on how to start and grow a successful blog

We’ve been writing about blogging and how to make money blogging on Quick Sprout for years. Check out Everything About Blogging for an annotated list of what you should read next.

Starting a Blog: Your Top Questions Answered

The post How to Start a Blog That Makes Money in 11 Simple Steps appeared first on .

While it’s true that you can use any web host for your WordPress website, a WordPress-specific web hosting solution delivers better service, performance, and support for WordPress sites. If you’ve been feeling frustrated with your non-WP-specific web host and want something better suited to WordPress, you’re in the right place. 

I’ve gone through dozens of available hosts and ranked the best options on the market today, including providers WordPress itself recommends. The solutions below provide the best security, performance, and reliability for websites built on WordPress.

The Top 9 WordPress Web Hosts for 2023

Best of 2023: Bluehost, Cloudways, Flywheel, Hostinger, Kinsta, Nexcess, Scala Hosting, Siteground, and WP Engine.

My team and I spent countless hours pouring over every detail from price and performance to ease of use, migrations, and features. Along the way, we identified five hosts that outshine the rest.

Our favorite WordPress hosts for 2023 are:

• Hostinger – Most affordable WordPress web host
• Cloudways – Best for flexibility and extensive options
• Siteground – Best for ecommerce websites with easy site migration
• Bluehost – Best for creating your first WordPress website
• Scala Hosting – Most freebies with WordPress hosting plans

Whether you’re looking for something affordable and easy to use, a lot of bang for your buck, or a host with limitless flexibility, you can’t go wrong with any of the hosts above.

Depending on your goals, one of my recommended hosting providers may work better than another for your specific needs.

Below you’ll find in-depth reviews that explain my recommendations, followed by a brief tactical section to help you assess your options.

Hostinger — Most Affordable WordPress Web Host

Visit Hostinger

• Starts at $1.99 per month
• Month-to-month pricing available
• Free domain and SSL certificate
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Get started now

Hostinger stands out for its low prices and stellar loading times.

How low? Hostinger’s current managed WordPress plan starts at just $1.99 per month for a single website—which is unbeatable compared to other web hosts out there. While that is promotional pricing, even the contract renewal price of $3.99 per month is very affordable.

But here’s the kicker: for just one dollar more per month (currently $2.99), you can build 100 websites along with 100 GB of SSD storage, free email, and unlimited bandwidth.

That’s right, for the price of a single cup of coffee each month, you’ll be able to host up to 100 websites. That’s an amazing deal.

For more information on plans and pricing, check out our in-depth Hostinger web hosting review.

With their great prices, does that mean you’ll be sacrificing quality? Nope. In fact, you’re going to get solid uptime reliability with Hostinger.

Loading times are speedy, too. According to the Hostinger website, server response time clocks in at around 43 milliseconds, which is very fast. To give you a comparison, that’s just 13 milliseconds “slower” than a lightning strike. In our testing, every Hostinger hosting type (shared, VPS, and WordPress hosting) averaged well under one second for loading.

Hostinger recently implemented a new feature for page speed insights, where you can measure your site’s speed and see its performance history with just one click. If you find that you want to improve your loading speed, the new server transfer feature will recommend what to do.

The company also recently added an advanced malware scanner and a WordPress staging tool so you can test changes without actually changing your entire live site.

Overall, this is a great web host if you want good prices with quality hosting. If you want to maximize the number of sites you can host at a low cost, get signed up with Hostinger today.

Cloudways – Best for Flexibility and Extensive Options

Visit Cloudways

• Five IaaS provider options
• Fast and reliable managed hosting
• Only pay for what you use
• Starts at just $10 per month

Try it free

Cloudways has been providing managed WordPress hosting for over 11 years and has hosted 600,000+ WordPress websites. Another impressive statistic is that Cloudway has access to more than 120,000 active servers!

Cloudways strives to provide flexibility to all of its clients. Some examples of this flexibility are offering unlimited WordPress websites, pay-as-you-go pricing with hourly plans (so you only pay for what you actually use), one click to add more server space, unlimited staging URLs, and more.

And with an extensive knowledge base and 24/7 expert support, you don’t have to be a technical expert yourself to jump in with Cloudways.

Cloudways currently has 62 data centers in 15 countries and 33 cities, so no matter where you are in the world, you will get speedy, reliable performance.

For plans and pricing, the rates depend on several factors, including selecting from five Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers, plus the level of RAM, processor cores, storage, and bandwidth you need. The IaaS provider options are:

• Linode
• DigitalOcean
• Vultr 
• AWS
• Google Cloud

The managed WordPress plans run the gamut of pricing. The least expensive is $12 per month including DigitalOcean Standard hosting charges, with 1 GB of RAM, 1 core processor, 25 GB of storage, and 1 TB of bandwidth. The most expensive is $3569.98 per month including the AWS hosting charges. That plan includes 384 GB of RAM, 96 vCPU, 20 GB of storage, and 2 GB of bandwidth.

All plans come with 24/7/365 support, free SSL, CDN add-on, free migration, unlimited application installation, 24/7 real-time monitoring, automated backups, advanced caches, auto-healing, and more.

You can try Cloudways for free with a three-day free trial to test their managed WordPress hosting and how it will work for your needs.

SiteGround — Best for Ecommerce Websites with Easy Site Migration

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• Starts at $2.99/month
• Free SSL, email, CDN, & backups
• Recommended by WordPress
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Get an 80% discount

SiteGround is another of WordPress’ recommended web hosts. It offers incredibly affordable managed hosting solutions–that are incredibly powerful as well.

Where SiteGround really shines is in how easy it makes:

• Migrating to their host. Their free migrator tool lets you easily port your old website over to their website in just a few days’ time. No development or coding knowledge is required.
• Setting up an online store. With the powerful combination of WordPress and WooCommerce, you’ll be able to set up an ecommerce site to start making money in a snap. Seriously, it just takes a few clicks.

I also like its advanced features for WordPress, like automatic updates and enhanced security on all SiteGround plans. You’ll also get free daily backups. That’s an amazing deal for the lowest-tier pricing.

This covers most of the problems you could run into, freeing up more of your time to focus on your business or project. You can read even more about their offered services in my complete SiteGround hosting review.

I recommend the StartUp plan. It gives you 10GB of space and up to 10,000 visitors for one site. This intro-level plan is $2.99 per month for your first year (paid upfront).

You can boost your WordPress or WooCommerce site even further by going one step up to GrowBig. That lets you tap into SiteGround’s own Ultrafast PHP to speed up the visitor experience even more. Plus, you get the safety of on-demand copies of your site backups, all for $4.99 per month. The biggest plan is GoGeek for $7.99 per month with 40 GB web space, priority support, staging + Git, and the ability to white-label clients.

All told, this is a great host for web stores on WordPress, ecommerce sites who want to switch to a better host, and anyone who wants solid security and easy site backups for their pages.

Get started with SiteGround today.

Bluehost — Best for Creating Your First WordPress Website

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• Normally $8.99/month
• Free domain and SSL certificate
• Recommended by WordPress
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Get a 67% discount

Bluehost is a favorite for many because it is one of the three web hosts that WordPress officially recommends for people to use. That’s about as good of an endorsement as you can get for WordPress hosting.

The main reason people enjoy Bluehost? It’s simple to get started. Once you get started, you can install WordPress immediately and you’ll have your bare-bones site live within just 15 minutes. From there, you can follow our full guide on how to create a website so that you can get your site looking and functioning just the way you want it. 

Another reason that Bluehost is a fan favorite is that it has millions of users, which means that the kinks and issues with setup and the continued hosting of websites have generally been worked out. In the rare case that you do run into an issue, help is just a call away. You can reach out 24/7 to Bluehost’s award-winning customer support team if you find yourself with any questions or concerns. 

If that doesn’t have you convinced to try Bluehost, how about this: Bluehost has some of the lowest pricing around, with plans as low as $2.75/month. That’s incredibly cheap, especially for a brand that’s so reliable, trusted, and easy to use.

As you might imagine, these traits make Bluehost the perfect host to choose if you’re just starting out.

Yes, you will be on shared hosting. So if you or someone else on your server gets a huge spike of traffic, your site could go down. But honestly, this almost never happens. I’ve had websites on shared hosting for over a decade and never had a site go down.

If and when you want to upgrade, Bluehost also offers managed WordPress hosting that starts at $9.95/month. Not the absolute lowest price point I’ve seen, but it’s still one of the lower-cost options out there for managed hosting.

Bottom line: Bluehost is a great option for the vast majority of people reading this—but especially those who are just getting started.

Scala Hosting — Most Freebies with Every WordPress Hosting Plan

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• Affordable plans across the board
• Free migration of as many sites as you need
• Seven daily backups
• Robust security features

Try it Today

WordPress hosting can be deceiving. While a lot of providers will boast about WordPress optimization on their servers, what more are you getting from them specifically?

Scala Hosting not only makes sure its servers help your WordPress site perform better, it also throws in a ton of useful features on almost every plan.

It starts with a free website migration, which not every provider offers. And it’s not just one website—Scala’s specialists will carry over as many WordPress sites as you need to their service, free of charge.

These experts will handle the migration and verify everything’s working before you point the site to your new servers. That way, there’s no downtime for your sites whatsoever in the process.

Security features are also prevalent in all Scala WordPress hosting plans. You get a dedicated firewall installed on your behalf, plus a brute force attack blocker, custom security rules that Scala’s team implements without you having to lift a finger, malware scans and removal, and automated updates to prevent vulnerabilities from arising.

All Scala plans also include:

• Seven daily backups with restore points kept for a week
• Free content delivery network
• Free SEO analysis and tools

You can also unlock additional useful features by going with plans above Scala’s entry-level WP Mini (one website, 20 GB storage) package. Those are:

• WP Start: unlimited websites, 50 GB storage, double the CPU power of WP Mini
• WP Advanced: unlimited websites, 100 GB storage, quadruple the CPU power of WP Mini

On those plans, you get managed service, meaning Scala’s support team of WordPress experts will help you with everything from plugin issues to overall troubleshooting.

You also get a free domain if you opt for WP Advanced. And not just one year, either, like most providers. Each year that you prepay for hosting, you get a free year of your domain. That’s a very nice bonus.

Scala’s pricing is also very competitive with other providers on this list and in the WordPress hosting space at large:

• WP Mini: $3.95 per month for a three-year commitment, $4.95 for two years
• WP Start: $5.95 per month for a three-year commitment, $7.95 for two years
• WP Advanced: $9.95 per month for a three-year commitment, $10.95 for two years

Give Scala Hosting a try or get connected with a representative to learn what more they can do for you. If you want worry-free WordPress hosting at a competitive price, Scala Hosting should be near the top of your list.

More Good WordPress Web Hosting Options

WP Engine — Best for Hosting Multiple WordPress Sites with Tons of Traffic

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• Starts at $22.50/month
• Biggest name in WP hosting
• A premium product with a premium price
• Easily the all-around best

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For pros, I recommend WP Engine. In fact, WP Engine is what we use here at Quick Sprout—and for very good reason. If you’re trying to get serious and build a high-traffic blog or business on WordPress, it’s by far the best managed WordPress host out there.

But I don’t recommend it for anyone who’s just starting out, since it’s much more expensive. We’re talking between $30 to more than $100 each month versus a range of $4 to $15 with other products on my list.

Most WordPress sites would do much better with Bluehost or Siteground. You’ll save a lot of money and won’t be paying for WP Engine’s advanced features you don’t need.

For $20 per month paid annually, you can use the Startup plan to host one 10GB site with a limit of 25,000 monthly visitors. The Professional tier of service is $50 per month for three sites and 75,000 monthly visitors.

That might seem like a lot of money for fewer resources (especially when compared to services like Hostinger and Bluehost, and especially given the fees you’ll pay if you exceed the visitor limits during a big traffic spike) but, remember, this is managed WordPress hosting.

As a managed host, WP Engine professionally maintains speed and security at the server level—meaning you don’t have to do anything to maximize performance on your end.

You don’t have to research and rely on plug-ins to shave seconds off your load time or become an expert on the best practices for building a lean site.

Nor do you have to carve out time to install and update your plugins, run backups, or implement security features to ward off brute force attacks. WP Engine takes care of it all behind the scenes.

The customer service is also excellent, with 24/7 support that includes trackable service tickets and a comprehensive knowledge base.

WP Engine’s support staff are WordPress experts, providing detailed answers to your questions and issues.

Every time I’ve had to reach out to customer support, I’ve always been impressed. The speed, thoroughness, and expertise are world-class.

Overall, WP Engine is an excellent solution if you want to get serious about growing your WordPress sites. Refer to our complete WP Engine web hosting review to learn more about this top-rated provider.

Nexcess — Best for Effortless Website Staging

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• Price starts at $12.67/month
• Designed for advanced users
• Extremely customizable
• Server-level access

Get started

Nexcess, by Liquid Web, is a powerhouse designed to service other powerhouses, like if you’re an enterprise customer or are charged with manning multiple WordPress sites.

What I really love about Nexcess, though, is how easy it allows you to stage a website. Its one-click staging tool allows you to easily create a facsimile of your website that you can edit and test to your heart’s content—without worrying that you’re screwing up the actual website.

The company also offers a ton of great plans that make it easy to scale. Prices start at just $15.83 per month for one website (as long as you pay for the entire year up front). You also can pay $19 per month if you prefer to pay month by month.

If you need more features than the lowest-priced tier provides, the cost jumps quite a bit. The Maker tier costs $65.83 per month in the annual plan, but you get up to five sites and 40 GB storage with that plan. Nexcess calls its most popular plan the Designer tier, which offers up to 10 sites and 60 GB of storage for $90.83 per month. These plans offer a discount for the first three month.

In all, the platform offers seven plans. The most expensive plan is the Enterprise tier, which provides up to 250 sites and 800 GB of storage. If you’re an agency or freelancer who plans to host websites for clients, one of the higher-end plans is a great solution for you.

If you need more control but doing everything yourself through AWS isn’t appealing, then Nexcess is for you, too. You won’t have to do nearly as much setup and upkeep as AWS while still having a lot more control than other hosts give you.

It also automatically updates WordPress and your plugins. That’s fewer headaches for you and your team.

You’ll get all-level access to MySQL, SFTP, and SSH. You also get Git version control. Security, speed, and customer support are virtually unparalleled.

Nexcess is obviously not right for everyone. Small businesses should choose one of the other options, as Nexcess plans would be overkill.

For power users, though, Nexcess is the WordPress hosting that you’ve been looking for. Use coupon code QUICKSPROUT to get 40% off 2 months of any Nexcess hosting plan.

Flywheel — Best If You Want Experts to Migrate Your Site for You

Visit FlyWheel

• Price starts at $14/month
• Geared toward freelancers and agencies
• Easily build and transfer sites to clients
• User-friendly interface

Get started

Flywheel is a managed WordPress host that really puts the “support” in customer support.

The company offers a great migration service that takes care of the often stressful process of site migration for you. It has a dedicated team that handles the entire process of moving your site to its web host so you don’t have to.

The best part: it’s absolutely free.

That’s right. They’ll take care of everything at no extra cost.

Flywheel is also fantastic because of great features like “blueprints” that allow you to save customized themes and plugins you use over and over again.

You’ll also have 14 days on a free, password-protected demo site to show your work before having to pay. You can also easily transfer billing on any of your sites to a client.

That makes FlyWheel an excellent option if you’re an agency or freelancer working on client websites. If you build sites for clients, we highly recommend you start using Flywheel.

Flywheel offers a single-site plan with 5,000 monthly visitors and 5GB of disk space for $13/month. From there, you can scale up to a souped-up single-site plan for $25/month, or accommodate more sites in the two highest packages. If you need more than 30 sites, you will have to reach out to Flywheel for a custom quote.

Bottom line: I’d use Flywheel if I were looking for a hassle-free migration experience and/or developing websites for clients.

If that sounds like you, go with Flywheel as your web hosting provider.

Kinsta — Best for Managing Unexpected Surges in Traffic

Visit Kinsta

• Price starts at $30/month
• Premium managed WordPress hosting
• All features included across all plans
• Built for scalability

Get started

Kinsta is a great alternative to WP Engine if something about WP Engine doesn’t gel with you.

What truly separates it from WP Engine, though, is its auto-scaling feature. In the event of an unexpected surge in traffic, its servers will automatically allocate more CPU and RAM to your website.

That means you won’t have to worry about your website slowing down or crashing when you get an influx of readers. Instead, Kinsta takes care of it for you.

That’s great for websites that frequently see infrequent spikes in traffic like when a blog post goes viral or if you have sporadic product launches in your ecommerce store. It can also be very good for websites that experience inconsistent traffic performance (e.g., viral videos, big product launches).

Kinsta also offers a ton of pricing plans for excellent scalability. In fact, it offers a whopping 10 plans as well as a customizable enterprise solution.

Pricing starts at $35 per month for 25,000 monthly visitors and scales up from there. If you need more than 2.5 million visitors per month, you can contact the Kinsta sales team to put together a custom plan. All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Bottom line: Kinsta can handle any volume of traffic that you need. You won’t have to worry about outgrowing them.

One especially nice thing about Kinsta is that you get access to the same features across every plan, as opposed to upgrading to a higher-priced plan to unlock something.

It also makes Kinsta’s pricing super simple. Pick the plan based on your traffic and you’re good to go.

How to Choose the Best Web Hosting for WordPress

Now that you know about some of the best choices for hosting your WordPress site, it’s time to find the best one for you and your business. Here are some of the major considerations to decide among the top options.

Note: We intentionally didn’t include speed, security, and uptime on the following list of WordPress hosting factors. They are certainly important, but our recommended hosting providers have these responsibilities locked down. We wouldn’t recommend them otherwise.

Multi-Site vs. Single-Site Hosting 

Every provider on our list offers different solutions if you plan to host multiple sites. That’s why it’s important to make sure the provider you choose can support all the sites you’ll be hosting in the future. The price and features for each package must be taken into consideration here.

For example, WPEngine offers a few great packages if you’re managing multiple websites. Their multi-site hosting packages start at $44.25 per month with three sites included. You’ll also get 125 GB of bandwidth each month along with 15 GB of storage.

It scales up from there to their Growth package that’s $86.25 per month—quite the jump. But you end up getting 10 sites included in that package with more bandwidth and storage.

Kinsta is also another excellent option to consider if you’re looking for multi-site WordPress hosting. These packages are also built to scale. So if you end up getting more clients who need websites, you can just upgrade your package as needed.

Providers like Bluehost offer unlimited websites at just $5.45 per month. But there’s a catch—it is completely unmanaged.

That means it doesn’t come with the level of customer support and automatic maintenance you’d get with managed hosting.

Customer Support That’s Actually Supportive

You want your website must operate as smoothly as possible. This is especially important if you’re making money from it. So when something goes wrong, like an outage or security breach, you want someone in your corner to get you out of the jam.

That’s why good customer support is an important consideration when you’re deciding on a WordPress host.

WordPress hosting platform WPEngine offers one of the best-reviewed customer support teams. The team is on hand 24/7/365 to help you with any and all issues that arise. 

The trade-off here is that it’s a managed WordPress host, which means it comes at a steeper cost. With that price tag comes a stellar hosting service, though, along with a support team that’ll be at your disposal whether you need to optimize your website or guide it through any down times.

Even better, the help desk and support staff of a managed WordPress site are WordPress experts. They understand your site and the plugins you’re using. They are essentially trained to help you—unlike a general host with customers running all sorts of applications.

Managed hosts have built their business model on providing timely, reliable service. Conversely, cheaper hosts don’t put much of an emphasis on helping customers in their time of need.

That’s not to say that all unmanaged options offer inferior customer support. In fact, hosts like Bluehost offer award-winning 24/7 customer support for all of your needs. They just might not know your site as well as a managed WordPress host does.

Managed vs. Unmanaged Hosting

This is one of the most important decisions to make when it comes to choosing a WordPress web host from this list. It determines everything from your level of customer support to security to price.

First, let’s talk about the WordPress hosting most people are familiar with. You get a regular web host and that host usually gives you an easy way to install WordPress. You have a host, WordPress is installed, and that’s it.

This is known as unmanaged WordPress hosting—and most WordPress hosting works like this. After a one-click install, you get the basic version of WordPress, the same version that you’d get if you installed WordPress on a server that you owned.

Managed WordPress hosting takes things up a notch and offers several additional features.

Instead of a basic host with WordPress installed, everything is built from the ground up with WordPress in mind. This hosting infrastructure is tailored specifically to WordPress, and the hosting provider usually customizes WordPress itself to make it better.

Your site will be a lot faster and more secure with a managed plan. You’ll also benefit from much better support since the hosting team specializes in WordPress.

The downside is that managed WordPress hosting is more expensive, but this makes sense. You’re getting more value for the higher price tag.

Headache-Free Site Migration

WordPress hosting is typically an upgrade from old shared hosting solutions. So there’s a good chance you’re migrating your website to a new web host altogether.

A quality web host will help you migrate your website between web hosts easily and seamlessly. You might get a dedicated technician work through the process for you, or have a customer support team to guide you through the process yourself. Some might even charge you a little more in order to migrate your site—and it’s usually worth the price in my opinion.

See which hosting providers offer site migration as you’re reaching different options. For example, SiteGround has a free migrator tool you can use to get your website over to its host.

WPEngine is another host that offers a migration plugin. Once downloaded, the plugin takes care of all the complicated work for you.

Flywheel has experts on hand to help you migrate your website. Their migration team will take care of the whole process, so you don’t have to.

If you want to transfer your website to a new host, be sure to check what the WordPress hosting provider offers to help transfer your website. You’ll want as much assistance as you can get to make the transition smooth.

Best Web Hosting for WordPress: Your Top Questions Answered

The Top Web Hosting For WordPress in Summary

WordPress web hosting puts your site on a server that’s only used for WordPress. This improves security and performance and enhances the overall experience for your website visitors.

Factors like site traffic, technical experience, and scalability are all important factors to consider here. Beginners launching a new WordPress website likely won’t use the same solution as a high-traffic site that wants to switch hosts.

The post Compare The Best Web Hosting for WordPress appeared first on .

Whether you’re battling negative publicity or building an online brand reputation from scratch, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an essential part of your strategy. 

Good SEO launches your positive content to the top of Google search results. We all want that! The more top spots your brand occupies with positive content, the more remarkable things prospective customers see about your business. 

All that positive content also helps push any harmful content about your business to page two and beyond—where few searchers ever bother to look.

Creating and executing a solid SEO strategy should be part of your overall reputation management program. It takes a lot of hard work to maintain good SEO, but I’ve got some tricks to help you get going. 

Four Steps to Winning at SEO Reputation Management

Owning page one of Google results with positive content is the core goal of any SEO reputation management strategy. Customers feel your brand is trustworthy when your positive content ranks in all the top spots. 

But what if your brand is suffering from some negative publicity? Good SEO helps push any negative information about your business deep into search results where nobody tends to look. Out of sight, out of mind.

However, this doesn’t happen by accident. It takes a coordinated plan. Here are four steps to take to make your efforts successful.

1. Build Up Your Social Media Presence
2. Optimize Your Website
3. Make the Most of Google
4. Create Content Across Multiple Channels

We’ll walk you through each of these steps in just a moment. 

The Easy Parts of SEO Reputation Management

Hit the ground running with your SEO reputation management program by going after the low-hanging fruit first. The lowest hanging of this fruit is social media—it’s easy to set up, popular with consumers, and helps round out your brand without a ton of effort. 

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok are the big ones to consider. Whether you set up profiles on all or only some of these channels will depend on the nature of your business. 

However, you want to set up at least some, since social media pages tend to show up high in search results. Your social profiles are also where potential customers will go to find information about your brand and even leave reviews.

Right next to social media on that low tree branch is Google Alerts. Setting up alerts is easy to do and gives you nearly immediate notice when your business is mentioned on the web. 

You can set your alert to deliver notifications weekly, daily, or as they happen. Finding out as soon as possible when your business is mentioned online gives you the best shot at dealing with negative information fast.

Of course, for anyone who wants to leave reputation repair to the professionals, there are countless services to help. One we think very highly of is WebiMax. They deliver proven and measurable results for clients in a broad range of industries.

WebiMax is an expert at helping businesses with reputation management and digital marketing efforts. WebiMax solutions are always customized for each client. The agency never takes a one-size-fits-all approach.

WebiMax also incorporates a non-disclosure agreement into every working relationship. This means nobody will ever know you’re using a third party for reputation management. 

And WebiMax offers a free reputation analysis service to identify exactly what type of help your brand needs. They’ll create a timeline for reaching your goals, a summary of the existing positive and negative online content already out there, an analysis of your unclaimed online profiles, and a price quote.

The Difficult Parts of SEO Reputation Management

It’s one thing to set up your social profiles. It is quite another to effectively manage them day in and day out. While social channels are not directly SEO-related, they are favored by Google high in search results, which is where you want to be. 

You need to manage your social channels appropriately to secure these coveted top spots. Effectively managing social channels is a full-time role for many businesses and requires a specialized skill set. 

The same goes for SEO. Effectively incorporating it into your content is another big hurdle for many businesses. This includes optimizing your website, doing deep keyword research, creating content that incorporates those keyword results, monitoring performance, and publishing new, fresh content regularly—content that is reader-friendly and based on your keyword research. This is another specialized area that requires knowledge and experience to do well. 

If all of this work sounds intimidating, you aren’t alone. Many businesses, especially those that lack in-house resources and expertise to tackle these tasks, seek out the help of SEO experts at online reputation management companies to assist with these important tasks.

A full-service company like WebiMax, can seamlessly manage all facets of SEO, including keyword research and analysis, content creation, and website optimization.

WebiMax is a complete digital marketing agency. Its team is experienced in handling all aspects of building and maintaining a rock-solid SEO strategy.  

Step 1: Build Up Your Social Media Presence 

If you think social media channels are just a fun way to connect with friends and find the cutest cat pictures, think again. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other popular channels are all powerful tools for building and maintaining your brand visibility. 

Google combs social sites and displays results—usually at the top of the first page—when they find good content. If you don’t have your business profiled on all the social channels that make sense for your brand—and populate your channels with great content—you’re giving up an opportunity to show up in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Claim your social media pages

First things first, pick the social channels that make the most sense for your business. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are all great for almost every type of business, and you usually can’t go wrong with profiles on both. 

Whether you leverage Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and other channels depends on the nature of your business—and the type of content you plan to produce. I’ll talk more about content later.

Create your accounts and add as much information as possible on each. At a minimum, make it easy for potential customers to know how to contact you, find out when you’re open, and learn what products or services you offer.

Post On Social Media Regularly

Once your channels are up and running, you must start publishing on them. What you publish is up to you, but some ideas for building follower interaction is information about your products, industry-related news, and advertisements about specials or sales.

The point is to give your followers something to engage with and to gain new followers, too. If you set up a profile but do nothing with it, not many people will find you. The ones that do will quickly lose interest. Even worse is that your company will look inactive, giving the impression that you may not even be in business anymore. Yikes.

Engage With Your Followers

You’re posting great content regularly, and people are starting to like and comment on your posts. Congratulations! But don’t stop there. You also must engage with your followers to keep up momentum and interest.

Respond to comments. Ask follow-up questions. Thank them for taking the time to respond. The point is to create conversations with followers since these people may turn into customers. If followers feel like they’re commenting in a vacuum, they’ll lose interest. Eventually, they’ll disappear and likely show up on your competitor’s pages.

People will also look for your social media presence in order to leave reviews. Hopefully, all the reviews that are left on your social media channels will be glowing and positive. But sometimes, you’ll get a negative review. It’s part of running a business. Yet it is equally important to substantively respond to the negative stuff as the positive. 

Readers will judge your business by how it deals with negative reviews. While you can’t get rid of the negative reviews, you can mitigate them by offering professional, problem-solving responses that show you genuinely care about customer satisfaction.

Don’t Forget About YouTube

Some people may not consider YouTube when developing a social media strategy. However, this would be a mistake. Google searches will include relevant videos with many types of searches.

If you have a type of business where you can create how-to videos or videos that showcase setting up your products, consider making them and uploading them to YouTube. 

Maximizing the effectiveness of your YouTube videos in Google searches requires following some different steps than managing an SEO campaign on your website. To receive the largest benefit in Google searches from your YouTube videos, you may need to hire an online reputation company to help.

Step 2: Optimize Your Website

Here’s where the heavy lifting really starts. Unless you have an internal team of skilled website builders and SEO experts on hand, optimizing the pages of your website can be a daunting proposition. But it is an important element in your efforts to dominate the first page of Google search results.

As much as we might wish, it isn’t enough to simply sprinkle keywords across your entire site. You have to be strategic in your approach.

Why? Because in an effort to promote search result diversity, Google only allows up to two web pages from your site to display in any Google organic search results. So it pays to diversify your SEO strategy across your website and choose with care which keywords to use on each page.

Besides figuring out this kind of keyword strategy, there are other website elements you have to deal with, too. Things like load speed, internal and external linking, image size and quality, high-quality content, and a mobile-optimized browsing experience are just a few additional considerations you must consider.

As I said, it takes a team of professionals to make this work. If you don’t have one in-house, I highly recommend you enlist the help of a professional company like WebiMax. They’ll ensure your website is set up for Google search success.

As a digital marketing agency with vast experience in this realm, the WebiMax team will get your website built, optimized, and tested in no time.

Step 3: Make the Most of Google

Like it or not, Google is a dominant force in SEO reputation management. While there are other viable search engines, like Bing or DuckDuckGo, the vast majority of consumers turn to Google when searching for information.

So ignore Google at your own peril.

Set Up Google Alerts

The first and easiest task when it comes to leveraging the power of Google is setting up Google Alerts. With just a few clicks you can create automatic alerts that notify you whenever your company appears on the internet.

There are a few settings to choose from, including how often to be alerted. I always suggest choosing as-it-happens, so you can address negative information as fast as possible.

Once you create your alert, you’ll start receiving emails at the interval you select. These messages will be a summary of the content where your business was mentioned along with a link to the source.

Create Your Google Business Profile

The next step is to create your free Google business profile. This helps people find your company when they’re doing general Google searches for topics related to your products or services. You can personalize your business profile with offers, specials, posts, images, and more.

You can set up your Google Business profile in just a few minutes. Once you do, your business will be eligible to appear high in Google search results. 

Information about your business will also be readily available to interested consumers. They can quickly get in touch with you or learn more about your business in just a few clicks.

But the most important reason to spend time optimizing your Google business profile is that the more information you include, the more space it occupies on page one of the Google SERP. 

Adding a Google business profile will get you to the top of page one, but filling it with great information will expand how much space your profile commands on the first page.

Stay Vigilant

SEO reputation management is not a set-it-and-forget-it process. Even after you have everything set up, you still need to monitor your alerts and profiles to ensure everything is accurate and updated.

If you see something negative or inaccurate, you need to address it as soon as possible.

Respond to your reviews—both positive and negative. While critical reviews can be frustrating, they’re not the end of the world. Take the time to offer a prompt and thoughtful response that addresses the issue without making excuses or starting an argument.

Spin any criticism you receive and turn it into a positive. Whether or not you can solve the issue isn’t the primary motive here. What’s important is making sure that other people reading the review and your response can clearly see that you care about your customers. 

We have a complete guide on responding to negative reviews that you can use as a resource.

Vigilance will help you stay on top of your SEO reputation management, so people who search for your business on Google will see as many positive remarks as possible. Having positive search results as your top hits will ultimately bring in more business.

Step 4: Create Content Across Multiple Channels

Finally, all the SEO strategies in the world won’t help you dominate page one of Google’s SERP unless you incorporate those well-researched keywords into killer content. 

Keep Writing

Blog posts. Press releases. News articles. Social media posts. All forms of written content are valuable parts of moving up in Google search rankings.

The secret to making this happen is incorporating well-researched keywords into your copy. Check out the best keyword research tools for more guidance on this strategy.

You can do it yourself, hire an employee to do it for you, or rely on freelancers to help. You can also turn to a professional online reputation manager like WebiMax to help you craft effective written content.

Create Guest Posts

Guest posting is an often overlooked strategy for SEO reputation management. But this is one of my favorite link-building strategies for SEO. 

This approach involves creating content that won’t be directly published on your own website or channels. Instead, you’ll write valuable blogs, articles, guides, or other content and publish it on third-party sites.

This works really well for SEO reputation management because of the backlink opportunities. Guest post opportunities typically allow the writer to share a link to their own site. Depending on the site, the links will be within the body of the content or in the author bio.

Backlinks play a significant role in Google’s algorithm. If many reputable sites are linking to your site, then it’s a good assumption that your site is also reputable. 

When you’re looking for guest posting opportunities, there are two main factors you consider—domain authority and relevance. 

Writing content for brand new sites with a low domain authority score won’t really move the needle for your website in terms of SEO. The sites you write content for should also be closely related to your brand and industry. For example, a backlink from Forbes or Bloomberg will be better for brands in the business world than a backlink from TMZ or People Magazine. 

Instead of creating content for any site that accepts it, try to be more discerning and focus on established sites that will benefit your brand.

Make Video a Priority

You can’t stop with written content. 

In today’s visual world, video is equally as important. This is especially true since Google started putting an enhanced value on video content. While we can’t know Google’s exact algorithms (we’d be gazillionaires if we could), we do know that the higher the video view numbers, the higher the video tends to place in Google search results.

Keep your videos short—five minutes or less is good, edit them with high-quality video editing tools, make the content informative, and optimize video titles and descriptions with well-researched keywords. Together these tactics will help you create great video content that Google loves.

Again, if this is too much on your plate or you simply lack the resources to create great video content, a full-service digital marketing agency like WebiMax can help you.

SEO Reputation Management: Your Top Questions Answered

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Just need a domain name without hosting? Domain.com is one of the best domain registrars for people that only need a domain name. It’s affordable and easy to use. Click here to get 25% off at Domain.com with the coupon code QUICKSPROUT.

Need hosting, too? You can instantly get a free domain name when you sign up for Hostinger web hosting (starting at only $2.99/month!). This is recommended if you need a hosting account for your new domain name, which most people do.

Finding the right domain registrar is crucial for your entire website-building experience. But there are thousands of options to choose from.

Fortunately for you, I’ve purchased hundreds of domain names throughout my career. So I know exactly what to look for in different situations. Based on my research and experience, I’ve narrowed down and reviewed the top seven domain registrars on the market today.

Pro Tip: Get a free domain name when you bundle domain registration and web hosting together at Hostinger

Visit Hostinger

• Free domain name included
• Plans start at $2.99 per month
• 24/7 customer support
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Get a FREE domain now

If you’re buying multiple domains or planning to buy and sell domain names as a business, it’s usually best to keep domain registration separate from web hosting. Domain registry and web hosting are very different, and you should stick to expert providers for each service. 

But if you’re starting a blog or simple portfolio website, it’s perfectly fine to get your domain name and web hosting service from a single provider. 

Hostinger is the best option to consider if you fall into this category. They offer a free domain name with very affordable web hosting. Hostinger is the fastest and easiest way to get a new website up and running—and you can save money by bundling your domain with a hosting package.

The 7 Best Domain Registrars

• GoDaddy — Best for domain protection and privacy
• Hostinger — Best for bundling domain registration and web hosting
• Porkbun — Best for creative domain extensions
• Domain.com — Best for fast and simple domain purchasing
• Network Solutions — Best for long-term domain registrations
• Namecheap — Best for affordable domain registration
• NameSilo — Best for buying domains in bulk

I’ve reviewed all my top picks in detail below. Read on to understand your options and make an intelligent decision about buying a domain.

Best Domain Registrar Reviews

GoDaddy — Best for Domain Protection and Privacy

Visit GoDaddy

• Included WHOIS protection
• Optional extra privacy & security add-ons
• Affordable and easy to search
• Bulk search and buying

Start for $0.01

GoDaddy is one of the largest and most well-known domain registration services on the market. It’s a simple and affordable way to register your domain and ensure its protection. 

With GoDaddy, you’ll benefit from arguably the best introductory offers in the industry. You can register a domain name for just $0.01 for your first year when you commit to a two-year registration. It’s tough to find a better deal from such a top-notch domain registration service.

Where GoDaddy really shines above the crowd is with its privacy features.

Every GoDaddy domain comes with basic domain privacy and protection. This is available to you at no extra cost and protects things like your name, email address, phone number, and other personal information. 

It’s common for other domain registrars to charge for domain privacy. So it’s nice that GoDaddy offers it for free.

For even more protection, you can upgrade to a Full Domain Protection or Ultimate Domain Protection package.

The Full package prevents hackers from stealing your domain or making changes. It also requires two-factor authentication for deletions, transfers, and other vital changes. The Ultimate package includes all of this, plus it holds your domain for an extra 90 days if your billing method expires upon renewal. 

If you’re like me and you care a lot about your personal privacy and domain protection, then you’ll love GoDaddy.

Another unique standout of GoDaddy is its bulk domain search tool. You can use it to check the availability of up to 500 domains with just a few clicks. GoDaddy also gives you the option to purchase all of the available ones simultaneously. 

If you’re thinking about getting into the domain flipping business, this tool makes it easy to list and park domains as well. 

It’s also worth noting that GoDaddy has a domain broker service to help you purchase domains that are already taken. You’ll be assigned a dedicated agent to negotiate the deal between you and the current owner. 

Get your first year for just $0.01 when you register a domain with GoDaddy today. 

And read our full GoDaddy Review to get more information.

Hostinger — Best for Bundling Domain Registration and Web Hosting

Visit Hostinger

• Free domain name included
• Plans start at $2.99 per month
• 24/7 customer support
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Get a FREE domain now

Hostinger is the best way to get free domain registration along with web hosting.

Instead of getting these from separate providers, use Hostinger and take care of everything in one place.

You’ll get fast, reliable, beginner-friendly web hosting, and you won’t have to pay any fees for domain registration for the first year. 

Seriously, Hostinger offers free domain registration with plans starting as low as $2.99 per month.

It’s the service we recommend if you’re building a brand-new website. You can search for the perfect domain name on Hostinger, set up web hosting, and launch your website in minimal time.

WordPress is a one-click install with Hostinger, which makes it easy to start getting content on your site. What’s even better is that Hostinger offers one-click installs for more than 100 other apps.

Hostinger also includes free SSL certificates, which many domain registrars will charge you extra fees for. Plus, it’s easy to handle SSL certificates in hPanel, Hostinger’s user-friendly dashboard for managing your site. Our Hostinger review covers this in greater detail.

Another perk of getting your domain through Hostinger is the free privacy protection. The company automatically masks your contact information from the public WHOIS database. Other registrars will charge $10-$15 per year for this service.

Register your domain with Hostinger, lock in a great rate on web hosting, and get your site online in minutes. Save time and money setting up your domain with Hostinger.

See more in my in-depth Hostinger web hosting review.

Porkbun — Best for Creative Domain Extensions

Visit Porkbun

• Best deals on unique TLDs
• Most competitive renewal rates
• Purchase up to 10 years
• Free WHOIS privacy & SSL

Snag your domain now

Porkbun is a relative newcomer on this list, but they have made a name for themselves with affordable, competitive pricing–including on renewals, where a lot of domain registrars get you. Porkbun is committed to keeping its prices low and its options wide open.

With so many .com domains snapped up or way too expensive, it’s ideal to be able to take advantage of alternative domain extensions that make your URL–and your brand–more memorable.

Searching keywords on Porkbun will return a lot of new and trending domain extensions to choose from. Starting a blog about the best kinds of camping gear? Snag .review or .camp. Want to show off your portfolio and get new gigs? Try .studio, .art, or .ink.

A lot of these nontraditional but easy-to-remember extensions are available from Porkbun for under $8 for your first year. And they have literally hundreds to choose from, leading to nearly endless possible combinations with your desired keywords. Of course, they have .com domains available, too, starting at $4.75 to register a new one.

Right now, you can get a .shop extension for your web store starting at only $2.04 for the first year. That’s an incredible initial deal and it renews at a still reasonable $26.85/year after that. That’s better renewal pricing than just about anybody else on this list.

You can also purchase more than one year upfront, up to 10. Sure, you’ll lose out on the sweet first-year discount, but you’ll be able to secure your home on the web for up to a decade at Porkbun’s great rates. That same .shop extension can be locked down for ten years for just $228.93, an even better rate than their renewal pricing.

Plus, every domain purchase comes with the following extras for free:

• WHOIS privacy
• SSL certificate
• URL and email forwarding
• Trials of Porkbun’s site builder, web hosting, and email hosting

Half of domain hunting now is brainstorming the right combination of keywords and extensions. The latter can be hard if you don’t know what’s available. But Porkbun’s helpful pages for trending domain extensions and their best deals can help you find something effective and cheap. At the time of this writing, Porkbun has the lowest registration cost on the market for over 200 extensions. And they have over 500 total available domain extensions.

Get creative with your URL and make something memorable that won’t cost an arm and a leg to register. Find your site’s one-of-a-kind home by registering a domain through Porkbun.

Domain.com — Best for Fast and Simple Domain Purchasing

Visit Domain.com

• Straightforward and easy to use
• Cheap domain privacy protection
• Easy domain transfers
• Excellent customer support

Get 25% off with coupon code: QUICKSPROUT

Domain.com is one of our top picks because of its quality of service, overall simplicity, and affordable privacy protection. 

You can get a .com domain from Domain.com for just $9.99 per year. They also give you the option of purchasing the domain for up to five years, which means you can set it and forget it for the foreseeable future.

Where they really shine is in keeping your overall domain costs lower than average. While domain privacy and protection are two of the most important things when you own a site and domain, it is one of the add-ons where costs can really add up. 

Domain.com only charges $8.99 per year for Domain Privacy + Protection. To compare, Network Solutions is $9.99 per year and only protects your information in the WHOIS database, skipping additional domain protection like malware scans.

Hostinger includes free WHOIS privacy protection with most domains registered through their service, which can amount to pretty big savings if you have a lot of domains.

With the addition of Domain.com’s SiteLock, you’ll get regular malware scans and blocklist prevention. Domain.com’s privacy protection also removes your personal contact information from the database and replaces it with its own.

You can add Domain Privacy + Protection at any time and it is available for all of the most popular domains, such as .com, .net, .org, .co, and more. There are some that don’t support domain privacy, including .ae, .es, .gg, and others. You can verify with the company if your chosen domain is supported.

Beyond privacy, Domain.com has other excellent services and 24/7 customer support. For example, you may be able to save even more money if you want to use them for hosting. Shared hosting with Domain.com is $3.75 per month whether you commit to 12 or 36 months. This is unlike some other hosting services, which only give you a lower monthly cost if you commit to several years upfront. 

You can use the Domain.com website or online store builder to get everything you need in one place or use their services for domain transfers. They make the transfer process very easy.

The entire purchase process can be completed in a minute, including grabbing the privacy and protection add-on.

Fittingly for its own domain name, Domain.com should be one of the first places you look for a domain. Check out our Domain.com review to learn more about these services.

Get 25% off with coupon code QUICKSPROUT.

Network Solutions — Best for Long-term Domain Registrations

Visit Network Solutions

• Register a domain for a century
• Easy bulk search
• Private domain registration
• Expiration protection

Find your domain

It’s crucial to lock down your dream domain once you find it. You want to own your prime real estate on the web for as long as possible without any worry about losing it by missing a renewal.

Network Solutions goes above and beyond the other registrars out there—you can secure your domain for anywhere from one year to 100.

You’ll have to pay upfront for the full 100 years if that’s the route you want to go (and there are no prorated refunds for changing your mind around the half-century mark). But if you’re betting on the longevity of your organization, company, or personal brand, Network Solutions makes it easy to set your domain up for the long haul.

While a full century might be overkill, the registrar’s options for 10 and 20-year terms are a real plus compared to other options on my list.

Even if you go with a shorter term, for just $9.99 per domain you can get expiration protection. If you forget to renew, are unable, or if you just have an old credit card on file that can’t be charged when renewal time rolls around, Network Solutions will keep your domain safe from poachers and rate hikes for up to a year.

Network Solutions also offers two common features, domain transfers and private registration, but in terms of cost they’re a little steeper than the others on this list.

However, Network Solutions has better search capabilities than most, allowing you to use their portal to bid on expired domains, place a certified offer on held domains, browse the inventory of premium reseller domains, search in bulk for up to 25 keywords or phrases, and score pre-registration deals on new domain extensions.

In any case, this is the registrar you need if you’re looking to lock down your dream domain for decades.

Head over to Network Solutions to search for your domain name today and use coupon code QUICKSPROUT to get 25% off.

Namecheap — Best for Affordable Domain Registration

Visit Namecheap

• Free privacy protection
• Simple checkout process
• 24/7 live chat support
• Find and buy a domain name in 2 minutes

Search for your domain

True to their name, Namecheap offers great domain names at incredibly affordable prices.

They also give you a swift domain purchasing experience. In less than two minutes, you’ll be able to buy and register a domain name for less than the price of your average UberEats meal.

There are also limited upsells, nothing confusing about the process, and nothing to slow you down either.

It’s everything I want in a domain purchasing experience and nothing I don’t.

When you get to checkout, here’s my suggestion for which upsells to buy–ignore everything. Seriously, there’s nothing extra you need to purchase. Namecheap already provides domain privacy via a WhoisGuard subscription, a privacy protection that prevents your personal contact information from being displayed in the publicly accessible WHOIS database—and that’s free forever.

As long as your domain is with Namecheap, you’ll never pay for WhoisGuard. GoDaddy, on the other hand, charges $10 per year for it, and most other web hosts that offer domain registration charge $12 per year.

Once you’ve purchased your domain, the dashboard is clearly laid out.

I’ve found Namecheap’s knowledge base to be thorough and helpful. Great documentation is key, since buying and setting up a domain isn’t part of most people’s expertise. It’s just not something you do every day.

If you need more support, Namecheap has 24/7 live chat help and a two-hour ticket response time. To learn more about Namecheap’s support and additional benefits, check out our complete Namecheap review.

Maximize your small budget by grabbing a domain through Namecheap.

NameSilo — Best for Buying Domains in Bulk

Visit NameSilo

• Easy bulk domain buying
• Reduced rates for massive bulk buys
• Free WHOIS privacy
• Few upsells

Find your domains

NameSilo is the second-fastest-growing domain registrar in the world. A big reason for this is their easy and affordable way to buy domains in bulk.

With just a few clicks, you’ll be able to search for hundreds of available domain names and purchase them. You also get a huge discount for bulk domain purchases.

In fact, their lowest rates clock in at $8.39 per domain per year if you purchase 5,000+ domains. That’s easily the lowest rate out there for domains.

Of course, you’ll have to buy enough domains to populate a small town. But if your business wants to secure an array of potential branding opportunities or get into the domain trading business, this is a fast and cheap way to do it.

There are just a few quick upsells, including a Premium DNS, SSL certificate, and hosting.

You can start configuring your domain at checkout—linking it to a third-party service (like a website builder) and entering custom name servers. Don’t forget to opt-in to WHOIS privacy protection.

Oh, and NameSilo throws in domain privacy for free (though you’ll need to opt-in by selecting it in your cart).

Get started with NameSilo today.

How to Find the Best Domain Registrar

Finding the right domain registrar for your business can be tricky. Even in a list like this, how do you choose when each option is great?

Let me help you break it down.

Below are the criteria I used when compiling this list. I judged each product against these benchmarks to see how they performed. Use the following information as a framework to help guide your decision based on your unique needs.

Free vs. Paid Domain Protection

When you sign up for a domain, you need to provide information for WHOIS—a public database filled with information about users who have purchased a domain name or created an IP address.

Think of it as a phone book for the Internet. Like a phonebook, you can use it to find the personal information (including the name, phone number, email address, and mailing address) of anyone with a domain name.

Spammers love the WHOIS directory. It gives them easy access to different people they can attempt to contact—as well as their contact information.

Luckily, you can keep the information out of their hands with domain privacy and protection.

Most domain registrars, like Namecheap, include WHOIS protection for free. Those who don’t charge about $12/year.

That might determine your ultimate decision on which domain registrar you go with. You’ll definitely want to research the domain registrar’s WHOIS privacy policy and whether or not you’ll have to purchase it at checkout.

You can also use your business info, since it’s already publicly available. But whatever you do, definitely don’t use your personal info unless you want to field spam phone calls and emails after your domain purchase.

Do You Need a Web Hosting and/or a Domain?

It’s common for domain registrars to offer web hosting services. It’s also common for web hosting providers to offer domain registration.

These bundles might seem tempting, but in most cases you should keep each service separate. Why? Separation gives you a lot more flexibility if you want to change web hosts and/or domain registrars in the future. It also improves the quality of service on both.

I’d only recommend registering a domain and getting hosting with the same company if you’re not planning to buy more domains in the future. Companies that offer domains and hosting together will tout the ability to save money by doing both together. However, when you are purchasing a large number of domains, you often can receive a better deal by shopping around and separating the two services.

If you are doing something simple, like starting a blog or personal website, using the same company for both web hosting and for purchasing a domain can work well. When you have a simple website in your plans, you can save some money by using the same company.

If you do decide to bundle your domain registrar and web host in one provider, you should use Hostinger. It is the best service when it comes to delivering both of these services at an extremely high level while offering both of them a great price.

Quick and Easy Domain Transfers

Domain transfers are a sneakily important aspect of a good registrar. This is especially true if you have chosen to bundle your services.

Why? At some point you’re likely going to transfer your domain, especially if you’ve chosen to bundle it with a web hosting service.

While I do recommend bundling with Hostinger for beginners, Hostinger is probably not the last place your website will live if you get really get serious about growing your traffic and web presence.

You also might end up finding a better deal with a different domain registrar later on. Or you might just not gel with the current domain registrar.

Whatever your reason, you’re going to want to make sure you choose a domain registrar with a clear and straightforward transfer policy. It shouldn’t cost you a bunch of money and time on the phone with a customer support rep just to transfer your domain to a new registrar down the road.

As you research, see what it takes to transfer a domain from their platform. Make sure it’s spelled out in clear and plain language. If not, you might end up resenting your choice down the road.

Bulk Domain Purchasing

This certainly won’t apply to most of you—but for those it does apply to, this will be an important consideration.

Does the domain registrar you’re researching offer bulk purchases? This can be an important tool for many businesses, especially if you’re building out multiple sites or if you’re looking to get into the domain parking game.

Platforms like Namecheap, NameSilo, and GoDaddy are fantastic options if you want to purchase domains in bulk. They even offer great promotions and discounts, too.

But be sure to find a domain registrar with a simple and user-friendly bulk purchasing tool. That means it’s easy to use, and pushes no upsells or hidden fees.

It’s way too easy to get caught up in a flashy tool, only to later find out that you accidentally purchased a ton of upsells you didn’t need.

Best Domain Registrars: Your Top Questions Answered

The Top Domain Registrars in Summary

Whether you’re buying a new domain for the first time or purchasing domains in bulk as an investment, finding a reliable domain registrar will make your life much easier. 

GoDaddy and Hostinger are the top domain registrars on the market today. GoDaddy stands out for its simple registration process and domain privacy and protection included with every purchase. Hostinger offers a free domain with web hosting—perfect for beginners who want to bundle both services from the same provider.

The post Compare The Best Domain Registrars appeared first on .

Running a successful business with a large customer base is fantastic. But it isn’t always sunshine and rainbows, no matter the size, nature, or success of your business. 

It’s commonplace for customers to leave feedback throughout your entire business journey, and not all of that feedback will be positive. The good news is that it doesn’t always have to be difficult to respond to these complaints. 

Whether you view customer complaints in a negative or positive light, feedback will help you grow your business. Here are some ways to respond to customer complaints without damaging your reputation any further. 

7 Steps to Respond to Customer Complaints 

Responding to customer complaints doesn’t just mean apologizing and logging off for the day. Here are seven crucial steps to help you respond without further damaging your reputation: 

1. Listen to the customer’s complaint 
2. Identify the type of customer you are dealing with 
3. Respond quickly
4. Apologize and thank the customer
5. Present a solution
6. Log the complaint
7. Incorporate changes using customer feedback 

The Easy Parts of Responding to Customer Complaints 

You may already be aware that receiving customer complaints is one of the easiest parts of running a business due to advances in technology, as many people use customer service portals. But what most people don’t realize is how easy it is to protect your reputation online. 

Protecting and improving your online reputation has never been easier with online reputation management companies. WebiMax is a leading digital marketing agency that specializes in reputation management for small businesses. 

The best part about WebiMax is that it is customizable to your needs, and its system evolves with Google’s ever-changing algorithm. Working under a non-disclosure agreement, WebiMax ensures that all crisis management and positive branding are discreet. 

Whether you need help to improve your positive branding or an expert to monitor and manage your brand 24/7, WebiMax can do all the hard work for you as you continue to improve your business strategy and receive fewer complaints. 

The Difficult Parts of Responding to Customer Complaints 

Customer complaints can be a tough pill to swallow, especially if you feel like you haven’t done anything wrong. It’s important to keep calm, stay professional, and avoid doing or saying something that you’re going to regret.

One of the most difficult aspects of customer complaints is not knowing what to say in response. Miscommunication is common via text and email, so it’s important to take a brief moment to process the complaint before responding. 

If you’re speaking to a customer in person or over the phone, make sure you properly articulate yourself. Pay close attention to your tone and facial expressions as well.

Miscommunication certainly goes both ways, and sometimes customers can come across as more aggressive than they intend to be. 

Coming up with a resolution that keeps your customers happy can also be a challenge. You’re always going to have a handful of customers who can’t be pleased—even if you’re going above and beyond to rectify the complaint.

But responding effectively doesn’t have to be difficult, especially if you follow the steps below.

Step 1: Listen to the Customer’s Complaint

Before you even begin to form a response in your head, type it out, or reach for your phone, you need to listen to the customer’s complaint and understand it to the best of your ability. Taking a moment to process the complaint by truly understanding your customer will help you get to the root of the problem quickly and allow you to handle the complaint appropriately. 

After processing the complaint, you need to determine what the customer is trying to tell you. To do this efficiently, you should do two things: 

• Identify the reason why your customer is dissatisfied 
• Put yourself in your customer’s shoes 

Identifying why your customer is complaining will help you get to the root of the problem while putting yourself in your customer’s shoes helps create an empathetic environment before responding.

Step 2: Identify the Type of Customer You Are Dealing With 

You shouldn’t have a one-size-fits-all response for everyone. Instead, your response should be based on the type of customer you are dealing with. 

Generally, there are three different customer types—each requiring a different approach.

Aggressive Customers

Aggressive customers usually aren’t afraid to tell you when they are upset, even if the complaint seems minor. 

You should always respond with firm politeness when you’re dealing with aggression. Don’t escalate the situation and let things get out of control. Do whatever you can to diffuse the customer’s anger without starting a fight or argument. Control your volume and make sure to remain polite and professional.

Frequent Complainers

Customers who complain frequently tend to be the most frustrating. But you still need to stay patient and react calmly. 

It’s in your best interest to follow up with these customers and make sure everything is running smoothly on their end. Following up not only shows the customer that you’re proactive and care about fixing the problem, but it also prevents the customer from complaining again in the future about similar issues.

Loyal Customers

Loyal customers have been using your services for a long period and paying for premium support. These customers should be a priority when responding to and resolving conflicts.

Giving away a little bit more to these customers to keep them happy is worth it in the long run. 

Try to offer a solution quickly and make sure the customer knows you are being proactive about the situation. It’s always a good idea to create a VIP or premium support folder—making it easier to respond to and identify their specific complaints.

Step 3: Respond Quickly

Whether your customer is loyal or not, it’s imperative to promptly respond to all complaints to avoid losing customers or encouraging a bad online reputation. 

Address Every Customer Complaint 

Even if you can’t resolve an issue swiftly, you should still always address every customer in a caring way. If it turns out that you can’t solve an issue within the hour, let your customer know this and give them a rough timeframe on when you will be able to solve the issue. 

Failing to address your customer’s complaints might lead them to believe that you don’t care enough about the issue, which, in most cases, certainly worsens the situation. 

If your business is extremely large or if you spend a lot of time out of the office on service calls, you may have to consider hiring an online reputation management company to handle these responses for you. This service will make sure you stay on top of any negative reviews.

Consider An Automatic Response 

You should never sound robotic in your response to customers. However, if you are busy with the day-to-day, you should consider setting up an automatic response message to let your customers know that you will get back to them in a certain amount of time. 

The right customer service software makes it easy to deliver automatic replies through the appropriate channels.

Do Not Respond in Frustration

Although it is important to respond as quickly as possible to a negative review or customer complaint, tread carefully here. If you are tempted to respond immediately to a snarky, sarcastic customer review with an equal amount of snark on your end, you should hold off for a bit. 

If needed, give yourself a cooling-off period after reading the negative review. If you are feeling frustrated and having a bad day, don’t respond immediately. After a couple of hours, you may be able to approach your response calmly and professionally so you won’t escalate the customer’s frustration and lead to more problems.

Step 4: Apologize and Thank the Customer 

When the time comes to respond to your customer’s complaint, you should offer an apology and thank the customer for their feedback. 

Express Empathy 

After apologizing and thanking the customer, express empathy by explaining your understanding of the situation. If possible, try to recognize what the customer may have lost from experiencing the issue and let them know that you understand this and that it was unacceptable to have happened in the first place. 

There’s a human element to customer service that can’t be ignored. For example, you might not think it’s a big deal if one wrong order was shipped to a customer because you can always just ship them the right one. But that wrong item might have been a birthday gift for a loved one, and the right order may not arrive in time. 

While this obviously isn’t the end of the world, empathy goes a long way in making the customer feel like they’re valued and being heard.

Avoid Deflecting Blame or Being Passive-Aggressive 

The most challenging part of dealing with complaints is needing to respond when you aren’t sure what to say. Because text comes with a lot of potential for miscommunication, it’s imperative you do your best to avoid deflecting blame or being passive-aggressive in your response. 

You don’t have to agree with every single customer, but you should empathize with anyone sharing their disappointing experience. Avoid responses like “I’m sorry you feel that way,” and instead try, “I’m sorry you have experienced this issue with us. How can we make this better for you?” 

When it comes to apologizing to customers, it’s always best to ask them what they need from you—especially if they haven’t already stated this in their complaint. 

When it comes to taking responsibility, the last thing you want to do is deflect the blame onto someone else. No matter what one of your employees did or didn’t do, you are the business owner. Ultimately, the buck stops with you. Remember this when replying to customer complaints, so that you never say, “Employee X was responsible for this and will be reprimanded,” and instead take the steps to make a real apology and take responsibility/be accountable for the situation.

Step 5: Present a Solution 

Presenting an appropriate solution to the customer is an essential step when responding to a complaint. It allows you to show the customer you are serious about preventing the issue from ever recurring. 

Let the Customer Know You Have Identified the Issue 

First and foremost, you can only present a solution to an issue you have identified and understood, so you should lead with this in your response. 

This also shows the customer that you’re taking time to get to the root of the problem. It’s much more genuine and sincere than simply providing a generic or predetermined response to all questions. 

Saying that “Our team is actively looking into your complaint” isn’t very effective. The customer deserves more detail to prove that you’re actually doing what you’re saying. Give them a reason for what happened.

Just make sure that the reason doesn’t come across like you’re making an excuse. Always take accountability and ownership of the issue, regardless of what happened and explain how you plan to prevent the same issue from happening in the future.

Explain How You Will Prevent the Issue From Recurring 

Sometimes, this is not always possible, especially with technical issues, as technology can be unpredictable. However, if possible, it’s always a good idea to explain how you will prevent this issue from recurring.

For example, if an issue arises due to slow customer support, you could say: “We are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused. We are working on hiring a dedicated customer support team to prevent this from happening again.” 

Explaining how you’ll prevent the issue from occurring again is crucial because it invites the customer to try your product or service again. It may also stop that customer from writing a bad review, which is a crucial strategy for managing your online reputation.

Verify That the Problem Has Been Solved 

After presenting a solution, verify that the solution has worked for the customer. The last thing you want is recurring complaints, and the best way to avoid this is to verify. 

If you can’t verify within the hour, it’s best to follow up with the customer. If you are dealing with a customer through a customer service portal, you should consider monitoring any satisfaction ratings you receive afterward. 

Usually, a negative satisfaction rating means that the customer was unhappy with the service, so following up is best in this situation too, as it makes sure you don’t need to address any additional issues. 

Step 6: Log the Complaint 

It’s not worth logging every complaint you receive, especially if it’s a one-off. But if you receive multiple complaints about the same issue, tracking these patterns helps you resolve issues faster and sometimes prevent them from happening altogether. 

Track Trends

Logging similar complaints allows you to track trends and determine what you should be doing differently to prevent recurring issues. Logging the complaint, monitoring how often you receive similar ones, and reaching out to each customer after resolving it is the easiest way to track trends within your business strategy. 

Be detailed when you’re logging complaints. For example, it’s important to record the date and time that the incident occurred. 

Let’s say you received ten complaints related to customer service in the past month. Keeping a detailed log might help you trace all of those incidents back to a specific customer service rep. The result may be additional training and monitoring, or you might need to let that person go.

Manage High-Volume Complaints with WebiMax

Not only does WebiMax help small businesses manage their reputation, but it also offers a free reputation analysis to get started. The reputation analysis takes an in-depth look into your online presence and forms a report on everything you need to know to turn your reputation around.

You can manage high-volume complaints through WebiMax by investing in its content deletion feature or by simply getting a report on all the negative content that exists online and how long it will take to remove it. 

Step 7: Incorporate Changes Using Customer Feedback

After receiving and responding to customer complaints, it’s time to put your words into action. Not every single complaint requires you to change your business strategy, but that’s why you need to monitor your complaints in the first place. 

If you receive a high volume of complaints surrounding a similar issue, you need to change something. To figure out if you need to implement a new business strategy, you must listen to your customers, track trends, and draw connections between complaints. 

Whether you run a small business or not, you should have a team meeting to discuss any changes in strategy. It’s better to have more people to brainstorm with, especially if you aren’t sure how to incorporate the feedback. 

If you are an individual, we would still recommend meeting with a reputation management professional or investing in an online system like WebiMax, to help you understand what you need to do better.

Responding to Customer Complaints: Your Top Questions Answered

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When Setupad is implemented in line with recommendations, clients usually see a minimum of 30% increase in revenue compared to their previous monetization solution. Some users have even seen increases of up to 300%. 

Although header bidding is a relatively complicated concept, Setupad takes the stress out of the process and makes implementation super easy–no source code manipulation is required. 

Below, we’ll take a deep dive into how Setupad can help you monetize your website, what kind of features it has to offer, and the payment model. 

Setupad Pros and Cons

Pros

• Easy to implement
• Always up to date with industry standards
• 30-300% increase in revenue
• Supports multiple banner types
• Mobile-friendly ads
• Native advertising
• Reliable customer support and personal account manager
• Partnered with 30 industry-leading SSPs

Cons

• 100,000 minimum monthly traffic requirement
• Minimum payout of 100 Euro
• Lack of notifications relating to ads.txt updates
• Account manager must create ad placement code on the user’s behalf

Setupad Features

Understanding the pros and cons of a solution is a quick way to determine whether or not it could be a great fit for your needs. But to truly understand whether Setupad is the right solution for you, you’ll need to dive deeper into some of its key features. 

Header Bidding Wrapper

Header bidding is also known as advance bidding or pre-bidding. In a nutshell, header bidding allows website owners (publishers) to offer inventory (advertising space) to multiple ad exchanges simultaneously before reverting to their ad servers. 

The idea is that you’ll have numerous demand sources bidding for your inventory all at once, thereby increasing the yield and revenue that you make from ads. It sounds complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. Especially when you have Setupad on your side. 

Setupad’s header bidding wrapping solution is ideal for websites with less than 500,000 monthly visitors. It’s ready to use and incredibly easy to implement. You see, instead of manipulating your source code, Setupad uses a tag-based solution implemented directly through your ad server. 

Setupad’s heading bidding wrapper will connect you with the top 30 SSPs including Google. And as soon as your tag is launched, it will start monetizing your site by buying inventory immediately. 

If you’re worried about ads slowing down your site, you don’t need to be. Setupad’s heading bidder wrapper runs using a cloud-based ad server in order to connect SSPs that are near data centers. Not only does this mean your ads will be delivered faster, but it also means you’ll fill more inventory and be rewarded with higher revenue. 

Furthermore, Setupad will also help you with understanding the best ad formats and placements for your particular site. You’ll have access to tons of free advanced formats such as sticky leaderboards, mobile anchor ads, and more. Enabling the right ad format is important in generating revenue performance. 

Finally, you don’t need to be concerned about filling your site with irrelevant or unwanted ads. Thanks to Setupad’s Google Chrome extension, you are able to see real-time data about winning SSP, eCPM pierces, and more, as well as report unwanted ads.

Customized Prebid.js Software

Setupad Prebid is a customized prebid.js software that seamlessly connects with a publisher’s 

existing SSP accounts and is optimized with Google. It integrates into the website’s header and publishers’ GAM codes in the body, offering a direct prebid solution.

Compared to header bidding wrappers, Setupad’s Prebid option is a far more advanced solution and is ideal for publishers with more than 5 million monthly visitors. 

This setup enables the software to connect all of the publisher’s ad space and optimize direct campaigns with partners such as Google AdX, SSPs, DSPs, and Deals. Since all campaigns and programmatic bids compete in the same header bidding auction, this can create increased ad revenue for publishers.

It offers access to hybrid Header Bidding with Prebid Client, Prebid Server, Open Bidding (OB), and Transparent Ad Marketplace (TAM). Publishers can receive direct payments from Google and their SSPs, while benefiting from technology set-up support from Setupad.

One of the downsides of Setupad Prebid is that your website should have at least 5 million monthly visits. It’s also much more difficult to implement and requires trafficking your own SSP accounts. But the reward is far greater flexibility. 

Sign up now to leverage the benefits of Setupad’s customized prebid.js solution and optimize your monetization efforts.

Advertising Flexibility

A key highlight of Setupad’s product is that you have a range of options when it comes to deciding which advertising is best for your website. 

Advertising flexibility allows you to tailor your ads to meet the needs and preferences of your visitors, encouraging them to spend more time on your site. It’s also important in allowing you to monetize your site in a way that is not disruptive, irritating, or unattractive for your audience. 

For example, Setupad can help you with content recommendation, native advertising, and video content. 

Content recommendation encourages users to stay on your website longer by suggesting other, relevant content for visitors to click through to. And the longer the visitors are on your website, the better your analytics and revenue are. Setupad delivers recommended content via a widget, offering you an opportunity to gain additional revenue from sponsored posts or content ads. 

Setupad also supports native advertising which engages users by presenting ads in a similar style to your website layout. The content is always sponsored and is relevant to the search history of the visitor. The ads are custom-made for each page and provide a non-intrusive, intuitive advertising experience for visitors. 

Finally, Setupad allows you to harness the power of video content. Video content and marketing is more prevalent than ever and one of the best ways to capture your audience’s attention. Setupad video content can be native or display ads, allowing you flexibility in determining the most attractive type for your visitors. 

AdBlock Monetization

Did you know that 10-40% of your website visitors use content-filtering and ad-blocking software like AdBlock? It essentially prevents page elements such as advertisements from being displayed while they visit your site. 

When visitors aren’t seeing the advertisements on your site, it has a direct effect on your ad revenue stream. 

Thankfully, Setupad has your back. It respects the privacy of visitors using AdBlock and instead runs non-intrusive advertising. You see, some ad formats make the website more visually appealing and user-friendly, thereby appearing less intrusive to the user. These formats include desktop, native, mobile, sticky, and video. 

There are not many other monetization solutions out there that offer this feature, so it’s a clear benefit of using Setupad. 

Mobile-Friendly Ads

How often have you been browsing the internet on your mobile only to be bombarded by poorly placed ads that clearly aren’t optimized for mobile viewing? It’s disruptive and irritating and most likely causes you to immediately leave that site. 

We don’t want this to happen on your site. Especially when, in today’s day and age, mobile web traffic surpasses desktop traffic for most site owners. That’s why, it’s extremely important to have quick loading, mobile-optimized ads on your site. 

If you’re scratching your head wondering how best to do this, don’t fret. Setupad will create custom mobile versions of your ads to increase your website ad revenue. It also suggests the best type of ad format for mobile viewing and provides direction on where to position the ads so that they’re not disruptive to the viewer.  

Although other monetization platforms do offer mobile-friendly ads, they will simply adjust the size of your ad to fit the mobile site. In comparison, Setupad will coach you on exactly where to place them and which formats are best for your mobile site. With this in mind, Setupad is a great option for users with heavy mobile traffic. 

Setupad Pricing and Package Options

One of the best things about Setupad is that it is completely risk-free. You don’t have to commit to a monthly subscription fee in order to use its services. Instead, Setupad earns money by keeping 20% of your ad revenue as commission. 

However, there are a few requirements that you’ll need to meet to use Setupad’s services. These requirements include:

• Your website will need to be compliant with Setupad’s quality policy 
• You’ll need to prove that your website receives over 100K visitors per month
• You must agree to paste Setupad’s ads.txt onto your website and utilize all demand sources, including Google

Setupad pays in Euros and you will need to earn a minimum of 100 Euros to be paid out. Setupad’s payment methods are via PayPal or bank transfer. It’s important to note that the first payout is after 60 days. So if you start using Setupad in January, you won’t see any revenue until March. After that, you’ll be paid monthly so long as you reach the minimum payout threshold. 

As far as revenue goes, Setupad can help increase your AdSense earnings by a minimum of 30%. But if you want to estimate the revenue Setupad can offer you, you can run a test period to see results before committing to a contract. 

One particular downside to Setupad’s requirements is that the minimum monthly visitor threshold is quite significant. It completely excludes all low-traffic websites from accessing Setupad’s solution. Setupad does have some exceptions to the 100,000-visitor requirement. Reach out to the company to discuss your option.

Setupad Reputation

Setupad has a reputation for bringing in great revenue. Most users report seeing extremely satisfying results or having at least doubled their revenue since switching over. In fact, dozens of European publishers report revenue increases of anywhere between 30% and 300%. 

Reviews also suggest that Setupad’s customer support is very helpful and easily accessible via phone or email. Furthermore, once you sign up, you’ll be designated your very own account manager to take care of any issues or trouble you may face. 

Another thing that Setupad is well known for is its easy setup process. Setupad is easily implemented with a tag-based solution on your ad server–no mucking around with your source code or needing a developer to make changes. 

Although users have few negative things to say about Setupad, multiple users have commented that creating ad placement codes fall into the hands of the account manager, which can be frustrating. Some users have reported issues with not receiving notifications when the company modifies its ads.txt. 

Some suggest that the 60 day payment period is quite long compared to other monetization solutions. In saying that, payments are reportedly always on time, and earnings are paid exactly as expected so there are never any issues in that regard. 

So if you own a high-traffic website with at least 100,000 monthly visitors and want to increase your current revenue by at least 30%, Setupad is a great solution for you. It can offer you advertising flexibility, AdBlock monetization, and mobile-friendly ads, allowing you to monetize your site without impacting your visitors’ experience. 

If your site has fewer than 100,000 monthly visitors, you won’t be able to use Setupad, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t monetize your site. Starting off with Google AdSense or the Amazon Associates Program are great ways to get started without minimum visitor thresholds holding you back. 

The post Setupad Review appeared first on .

Keep reading to learn everything you need to know in order to decide if Wincher’s right for you.

Who Wincher Is For

Wincher is a great tool for marketers, small businesses, bloggers, and solopreneurs looking for an easy, eminently affordable way to track their search engine rankings.

It’s an approachable solution for anyone, including users with little to no experience with optimizing their site and content. Rather than getting lost in an overly complicated tool filled with irrelevant details, Wincher gives you a straightforward view of what really impacts your rankings so you can take direct action.

However, its simplicity isn’t for everyone. If you’re looking for advanced keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink monitoring, or technical SEO features, one of our other favorite rank tracking tools may be a better fit:

• Semrush – Best overall
• SE Ranking – Best for real-time tracking of keywords
• Ahrefs – Best for tracking backlinks
• SERPWatcher by Mangools – Best for daily rank tracking updates
• Serpstat – Best for SEO campaigns

See our full post on the best rank tracking software to learn more about each of our top picks and how to assess which one’s best for you.

Wincher Pricing

The main difference between Wincher’s pricing plans is the number of keywords and websites you can actively track at a time. Of course, there are also advanced features unlocked on the higher-priced plans, but keyword and website limitations are the biggest differentiator.

The Starter plan is $33 per month when you pay annually ($39 for month-to-month billing) and includes tracking for up to 500 keywords on up to 10 websites with five competitors able to be assigned per site. This covers the essentials you need to monitor your most important rankings and make basic optimizations. If you only have a few priority keywords and properties to track each month, Wincher’s Starter plan can work quite well for you on its own.

Wincher’s mid-tier Business plan starts at $62 per month and allows for up to 1,000 keywords for unlimited websites and 10 competitors per site. You can even flex the number of keywords up to 4,000 in increments of 1,000 for an extra monthly fee. This plan also adds valuable features like on-demand SERP updates, gap analysis, historic reports, and API access.

For large-scale SEO projects, the Enterprise plan works much the same way as Business, just offering a starting point of 5,000 keywords on unlimited site for $241 per month. You can add additional keywords beyond 5,000 up to 50,000. This plan unlocks a few exclusive features: read-only guest user access, project permission control, and priority support.

While the Starter plan allows you to dip your toe in the water, the Business and Enterprise plans provide the tools and data needed for truly competitive SEO campaigns. If you want to maximize your search traffic and rankings, those mid-tier and upper-echelon plans are where the real value lies.

How Does Wincher’s Pricing Compare?

Compared to industry leaders like Ahrefs and SEMRush, Wincher is an extremely affordable SEO tool. Wincher starts at a third of the cost of those two, and even Wincher’s mid-tier plan starts at a rate cheaper than Ahrefs’ and SEMRush’s entry-level plans.

Now, stacking Wincher up against cheaper alternatives to Ahrefs and SEMRush like SE Ranking, Seobility, and Keysearch, you’re still getting a competitively priced solution. The Starter plan is on par with the entry-level tiers of those tools, while Wincher’s successive plans offer comparable or better value.

If budget is a concern, Wincher provides significant savings over the major players in SEO software. While Wincher may lack some of the advanced tools, depth of data, and name recognition of its competitors, SEO essentials are covered at a fraction of the cost.

Pros and Cons of Wincher

Before diving into the details, here’s a look at some high-level pros and cons to keep in mind about the Wincher platform and its features as you go through the rest of our review.

Wincher Pros

Wincher excels at providing SEO essentials at a budget-friendly price. Some of the biggest benefits of using it include:

• Affordability: Wincher costs a third of competitors like Ahrefs and SEMRush, offers a free WordPress plugin, and provides unlimited users on both of its two plans above the Starter plan.
• Easy to use: Wincher is notably one of the easiest SEO tools to set up and use daily, even for inexperienced users, with its intuitive interface.
• Excels at SEO essentials: Wincher handles the basics of optimization extremely well. Keyword tracking, local tracking, basic keyword research, competitor analysis, and other SEO fundamentals are all accessible on every plan.
• Daily SERP updates: Rankings automatically update each day, and you can manually refresh rankings whenever needed on Wincher’s top Business and Enterprise plans.
• Device and location coverage: Track keywords and rankings on mobile, tablet, and desktop in hundreds of languages, with data for over 100,000 cities and countries.
• Data Studio integration: Easily bring all your Wincher data into Google Data Studio, including via a free custom template.
• Custom notifications: Wincher can notify you of important ranking changes or opportunities via email.
• Historical data: You can see ranking data going back two full years on all Wincher plans, unlike competitors that limit historical data based on your plan.

Wincher Cons

While Wincher handles the fundamentals well, it lacks some of the advanced functionality and scope of larger enterprise tools. The main downsides include:

• No image and video search: Wincher only provides data for standard web searches and lacks metrics for image, video, news, books, and other types of search results.
• No support for alternative search engines: Wincher exclusively tracks rankings on Google, ignoring other major search engines like Bing and Yahoo.
• Unable to pick up low-volume keywords: Wincher doesn’t do a great job of gathering data for many of the long-tail, niche keywords that can drive significant traffic and factor into serious SEO campaigns.
• Restrictive competitor limits: You’re limited to monitoring just five, 10, or 20 competitors depending on your plan. It would be much better if you could add more competitors on the higher-priced plans or add as many as you’d like to compare against.
• Sharing permissions: Unless you’re on the Enterprise plan, you can’t choose which projects other users have access to or add read-only users.
• Deeper SEO features: Wincher lacks a lot of the advanced features, like competitor identification or backlink tracking, that more robust (and expensive) SEO tools provide. Because of that, some users find they have to supplement Wincher with other software.

Wincher Review: The Details

While somewhat limited in scope compared to the bigger names in SEO tools, Wincher makes the basics of SEO approachable for everyone through the intuitive features it does deliver. In this section, we’ll go through each of those main features, including what they do, what they look like, and how you can use them.

Keyword Grouping

Wincher allows you to easily organize all of your keywords into individual projects. For agencies, businesses with multiple websites, or teams working on different sprints, projects let you to keep related keywords and SEO considerations with one another. This flexible system can be set up in whatever way makes sense for your unique needs.

You can also go a step further and use groups to create filters that let you slice and dice your data as needed. Group by opportunity size, business vertical, location, or other aspects that can be useful for your analysis. You can also flag important keywords so you never lose track of what matters most to your campaigns.

Basic Keyword Research

Keyword research is at the heart of SEO, and Wincher’s tools provide data-driven recommendations and insights to guide your search optimization strategy.

Begin with a seed word or phrase and Wincher will uncover a trove of valuable keywords related to it, with each recommendation including estimates for traffic, volume, CPC, and competition. You can also filter keyword options by those same metrics and add the best options you find to your report with a single click.

While Wincher may lack some of the advanced features of other keyword research tools, it provides essential data and a simplified experience for discovering and researching keywords. That’s a perfect scenario for anyone entering the world of SEO tools for the first time.

Keyword Importing

Import the keywords you’ve been tracking for a while into Wincher with ease, whether you have them store in a CSV, in Google Search Console, or in another tool. You can also copy keywords from one website you’re tracking to another, ensuring consistency across properties.

Manually adding keywords is as easy as typing them in or using Wincher’s inline keyword finder or keyword research tool. The inline finder lets you start with a seed phrase and get recommendations to build out your list from there.

Rank & Competitor Tracking

Wincher provides an intuitive dashboard to monitor your search rankings at a glance, as well as those of your competitors.

A clean, visual interface displays your keywords and key metrics, such as position changes, estimated traffic, and total number of SERP features. Use filters to explore these insights further or customize your view to show terms by page ranking, importance, or other groupings. You can also save filters to create a shortcut to routinely useful views.

See your average position and understand your rank distribution in a matter of seconds. Plus, you can compare your performance to competitors. All you have to do is add competitor URLs to get a side-by-side view of how their performance stacks up against your own.

Once set up, you can see estimated traffic, average position, and position changes for every competitor across all the keywords you track. Wincher also shows competitors’ keywords you aren’t tracking yet, highlighting new opportunities.

Competitor data updates daily, giving you a continual pulse on the competition. While high-level, the intuitive interface provides a straightforward way to track competitors without complicated setup or an overload of data. You can also set alerts to notify you when you outrank a competitor or fall behind.

On-Page SEO Checker

Use Wincher’s free on-page SEO analysis tool, whether you have an account with them or not.

Simply enter a URL and the keyword you want to rank for, and Wincher will provide an SEO score and recommendations to improve rankings. The analysis checks essentials like title length and keyword usage, heading keywords, word count, meta description, image alt text, URL keywords, and website code.

While basic, it gives you a solid baseline to start with if you’re new to SEO.

With that said, the tool struggles with keyword variations and sometimes provides inaccurate recommendations. One of the issues we noticed was that an H1 was deemed too long at 53 characters. The industry-wide recommendation is between 40 and 60 characters, so it’s not actually an issue in terms of current best practices.

The SEO checker is ideal for getting a high-level audit and initial optimization ideas. However, you’ll need to track changes yourself, as Wincher does not save your analyses into your account for later review. Despite that, it’s a good place to start for a quick checkup and entry point to improving your on-page SEO.

Annotations

Annotations in Wincher enable you to add notes and comments to track events or changes that may impact your rankings. Inside the tool, you can easily tie annotations to specific keywords to see them directly on any chart containing them.

This gives you a first-hand look at how your actions directly influence performance. The tight integration with your ranking data then lets you analyze the impact and potentially uncover valuable insights to fuel future optimization.

While a simple feature, annotations can provide a powerful perspective when used strategically. Leave notes on tests you’ve run, tactics you’ve implemented, or other factors that may sway your rankings, then monitor how and when rank changes occur to determine what drives your performance.

All Wincher reports and charts also mark significant Google updates, so you can also see exactly how algorithm changes may have impacted your rankings, too.

Built-In Reports

Wincher offers an intuitive report builder to automate customized analysis of key metrics. In a few clicks, you can select data, date ranges, recipients, and frequency to schedule automated reports that run with no additional configuration. You can then share them with anyone who has an email address.

Plus, you can leverage keyword groups to quickly build reports for specific terms without having to individually choose keywords.

For agencies, white-labeled reports on Wincher’s Business and Enterprise plans provide a professional way to regularly keep clients in the loop. While report customization is limited, the templates look professional and share your most meaningful metrics in a way that’s easy for anyone reading the report to understand.

Open API Access

If you have ambitious plans or goals, Wincher provides an open API to pull your ranking data into other tools or build custom apps and dashboards.

Connect your Wincher data to CRMs, analytics platforms, BI tools, and more. Merge Wincher’s findings with other metrics to gain a holistic view of performance. For total flexibility in how you access and apply your ranking insights, Wincher’s API has you covered.

Available on Business and Enterprise plans with 5,000 hourly requests, the API empowers you to leverage insights across systems. Comprehensive documentation outlines everything you need to get started. For developers building custom integrations, Wincher provides a detailed roadmap to tap into your data.

How Does Wincher Compare?

While Wincher doesn’t always rise to the level of the other big players in the SEO industry, it’s not trying to—it focuses on making the basics of SEO approachable for everyone.

So, is it the best of the best SEO platforms? No, but it does make rank tracking and keyword research just about as easy as they can get. Plus, it’s incredibly affordable in comparison to its competitors.

If you found yourself wondering about other features like backlink tracking, site audits, broken link identification, or advanced keyword research, Wincher likely isn’t the SEO tool for you.

For more power and advanced capabilities, check out:

• Semrush – Best overall
• SE Ranking – Best for real-time tracking of keywords
• Ahrefs – Best for tracking backlinks
• SERPWatcher by Mangools – Best for daily rank tracking updates
• Serpstat – Best for SEO campaigns

Our full rank tracking tool buying guide covers all of our favorites in detail and what to look for when making your final decision.

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Keep reading to learn who Ecwid is best for, what it’s good at, where it’s lacking, and how its features stack up against its biggest competitors.

Who Ecwid Is For

Ecwid is an ideal ecommerce solution for sellers who are looking for an easy way to add shopping functionality to an existing website. It’s also great if you want to keep your website and store separate so you can move or make changes to one without affecting the other.

Either way, this platform works best if you already have a website on WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or just about any other site building platform.

Overall, Ecwid provides a seamless way to get quickly list products and make sales using the digital properties you already own. Whether you’re dropshipping trendy goods, selling digital downloads, pushing your products on Instagram or TikTok, or offering a subscription-based service, Ecwid gives you a easy path to multichannel ecommerce.

However, if you’re a larger shop with more intricate, complex needs or you want an ecommerce site builder with deep customization options, Ecwid probably isn’t the ticket for you.

Our favorite alternatives for ecommerce site builders and platforms that are made for serious scaling include:

• Shopify – Best all-around ecommerce platform
• Wix – Best for stores with fewer than 100 products
• BigCommerce – Best for large inventories
• Squarespace – Best for cornering a niche market
• Hostinger – Best price for a full online store

See our full guide to the best ecommerce platforms to learn more about our top picks, how we assessed them, and what to consider when making your purchasing decision.

Ecwid Pricing

Ecwid offers four separate plans for using their ecommerce solution, with each successive plan adding new features and increasing the number of products you can list and places you can sell.

For some of you, there’s no reason to look any further than their free-forever option. The Free plan is perfect if you’re simply looking to add up to five products to an existing website. You’ll never have to pay a thing to use this tier of Ecwid’s platform.

The entry-level Venture plan is mad for newer online stores looking to establish themselves or take the next step in their growth plan. For $14.08 per month, you get the ability to list up to 100 products, including both physical items and digital goods. You’ll also gain access to social selling tools for Facebook and Instagram, plus advertising on TikTok.

The Business plan, at $29.08 per month, provides powerful features for rapidly growing stores. With the ability to list 2,500 products, enable subscriptions, and sell on Amazon and eBay, this plan can scale with your ambitions. You’ll also get advanced inventory management, key checkout features like abandoned cart recovery, and shipping integrations to help streamline your order fulfillment.

Need more than that? The Unlimited plan offers, well, unlimited products. At $82.50 per month, you also unlock some things that the other plans can’t access or are required to pay for, like a free branded mobile app for your store, integration with Square and other point-of-sale systems, and priority support. This premier plan provides the freedom and tools high-volume stores need in order to thrive.

How Does Ecwid Pricing Compare?

Compared to ecommerce giants like BigCommerce, Shopify, and Wix, Ecwid’s pricing is budget-friendly.

Ecwid’s introductory paid plan is about half the price of other providers’ entry-level plans. BigCommerce, Wix, and Shopify’s cheapest plans start around $25 to $30 per month, but they don’t limit the number of products you can add to your store. However, Ecwid’s 100 product allotment leaves plenty of room to get started.

If you have more products than that, Ecwid’s middle tier is around the same price as BigCommerce, Wix, and Shopify’s starter plans, but sports features you won’t find on those unless you upgrade to a plan north of $30 per month.

And the separation of prices gets more extreme at the top tier. While Ecwid’s full-featured offering runs $82.50 per month for unlimited products and much more, BigCommerce and Shopify’s comparable plans will cost you at least $299 per month. Wix is the only one whose highest-end plan stays below Ecwid’s, not account for Wix’s custom-priced enterprise plans.

Pros and Cons of Ecwid

Ecwid is an affordable, easy-to-use ecommerce solution for online businesses. However, as with any software, it has its strengths and weaknesses.

In this section, we’ll explore Ecwid’s major virtues and flaws so you can determine if it’s the right platform for your ecommerce hopes and dreams.

Ecwid Pros

Ecwid excels in several key areas that make it appealing for anyone looking to sell products online. Some of it’s more impressive positive aspects include:

• Affordable: Ecwid offers a capable free plan and monthly subscription plans starting at $14.08 per month.
• No commission fees: Aside from standard payment processing fees, Ecwid charges no additional commissions on sales.
• Ease of use: The platform is user-friendly from front to back, with an intuitive dashboard, drag-and-drop tools, templates, and simple product adding.
• (Almost) all-in-one: Ecwid provides the essentials a growing online business needs, including inventory management, tax calculations, and shipping and fulfillment tools in one lightweight solution.
• Syncs everywhere: Update products once and Ecwid syncs the changes to your website, mobile app, and all connected sales channels.
• Built-in marketing: Integrate with social networks for ads, create coupons and newsletters, and utilize abandoned cart recovery to capture sales that would otherwise be lost.
• Global capability: Ecwid works for businesses all over the world, with site-level support for multiple languages, over 100 payment gateways, and the ability to sell in dozens of different currencies.
• Branded mobile app: On an annual Unlimited Ecwid plan, you get a free custom mobile app. Or, you can choose to pay separately for one on any Ecwid plan.

Ecwid Cons

Ecwid is extremely capable, but may run into key limitations for some sellers and businesses. Downsides to consider include:

• Limited site builder: Ecwid’s drag-and-drop site builder is easy to use but limited to a single page. It is not a full website builder like you’ll see offered by other leading ecommerce platforms.
• Paid plugins: Extending Ecwid’s functionality often requires paying for add-ons that deliver features like bulk product editing, marketing analytics, and customer notifications.
• Underwhelming apps: Some of those features and plugins, like multi-currency support and translations, only work in some areas of your online store, which can create a disjointed user experience. Many other apps also have low ratings, indicating that they could use some improvements.
• Small developer pool: Ecwid is less popular than other ecommerce platforms, so there are fewer developers to help customize and enhance the software. That can create difficulties in terms of finding quality apps to extend Ecwid’s functionality or finding peer support and troubleshooting resources.

Ecwid Review: The Details

While Ecwid is not an ecommerce platform for building out an entirely new website, its capability as a way to graft ecommerce functionality to any existing site is incredibly valuable on its own. On top of that, it offers a ton of valuable features at a budget-friendly price. In this section, we’ll go through all of the main highlights of Ecwid, as well as some areas for improvement.

Integrate Online Selling with an Existing Website

If you already have a site for your business or venture, you can easily add ecommerce functionality without having to move to a new platform or start from scratch. That’s the main selling point of Ecwid in a nutshell.

What does this mean in practice? There are a couple ways to deploy Ecwid’s capability on your website.

The simplest option is a “buy now” button you can use to sell your products anywhere, from blog posts and your home page to social media properties or wherever else you’d like. You can customize the button to match your brand style and then place it wherever you want with a simple code injection that you paste into the site backend.

If you want more than a “buy now” button, you can place an entire storefront, product category pages, or single product listings onto your current website. It’s easy to do on any content management system or website builder, including WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and Joomla.

Your online store will automatically match the style of your existing site, so customers won’t even realize that the two pieces are managed separately.

Social Selling and Advertising

On all of Ecwid’s paid plans, you can sell products directly on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, and WhatsApp.

Once you set up your store and product catalog, Ecwid’s integrations with these channels automatically sync, so any updates you make appear across all your channels right away.

Ecwid also comes with built-in marketing and advertising tools to boost your reach via Facebook, Google, Instagram, email, and more. Plus, it combines your inventory, sales, and marketing tools in one convenient dashboard to make it easy to see what’s working, what isn’t, and what the intelligent next step is.

Marketplace Integrations

If you want to sell on Amazon, eBay, or Walmart’s marketplaces, Ecwid makes it easier than just about any other platform. Manage inventory and sync your store with all of your vendor accounts. Just like with social selling, updates will happen in real time so inventory levels and product details are always up-to-date.

However, you’ll need to be on Ecwid’s Business or Unlimited plan and use either the Codisto or Koongo apps to accomplish this. Those apps run between $24 and $29 extra per month. Even though they advertise eBay and Amazon as selling points of the Business plan, it’s annoying that you have to pay even more to actually utilize it.

One-Page Site Builder

Ecwid offers a simple one-page store builder that you can use to build something in minutes. Choose from any of the 79 free templates to get started and then customize the design to match your brand.

The drag-and-drop designer makes it simple enough to add or remove sections, change colors and fonts, swap out images, and the like. While Ecwid’s customization options are limited in this regard, this tool is ideal if you just need a basic, single-page storefront to get up and running.

Keep in mind that you can’t add multiple pages or include a blog, among other limitations compared to full-featured ecommerce site builders. However, for a small business wanting to add uncomplicated buying options, the one-page site builder gets the job done fast. You’ll have a useful storefront up and running in practically no time.

Inventory Management

Ecwid includes an inventory management system on select plans that seamlessly integrates with your existing website. Quickly add SKUs and input product quantities and variations with a few clicks of your mouse.

Ecwid automatically keeps track of your stock levels, reducing quantities when orders are placed and increasing them again when items are returned or canceled. You can extend this capability with Ecwid apps for bulk editing, CRM integration, and fulfillment automation.

You also built-in options for displaying “sold out” labels, opening pre-orders up once a product reaches zero stock, or enabling low-stock notifications so you always know when it’s time to reorder.

Product Variations

If you need an easy way to offer variations of your products, Ecwid gives you an elegant solution.

Product variations do not count against your product limit, so you can offer numerous options without worrying about running into your Ecwid plan limits, even on the free plan. Offer different sizes, colors, styles, add-ons, upsells, and more, with unique product images to showcase each variation.

You can also set individualized pricing for each variation and assign unique SKUs to track inventory and shipping details precisely. On paid plans, you unlock extra fields for variations like checkboxes, text fields, file uploads for customized products, and dynamic variations that change based on customer input.

Digital Files and Subscriptions

Ecwid offers options for selling digital downloads and subscriptions in addition to physical products. All of their paid plans allow you to sell or offer digital files, gift cards, and services, while higher-tier plans let you create and manage subscription-based offerings.

Sell ebooks, online courses, photos, music, memberships, and really any digital product or service. Just attach your files (up to 25 GB each) to your products and decide if you want to limit downloads or set expiration dates.

Once a customer completes their purchase, they gain immediate access to digital products. Ecwid streamlines the checkout process by removing shipping details, creating an ultra-fast buying experience so your customers get what they paid for instantly.

For subscriptions, Ecwid gives you the flexibility to accept payments on a schedule you define, even integrating with Google Calendar so you can book appointments and let customers choose their preferred date right at checkout. However, this feature doesn’t feel fully developed, as the calendar is entirely separate and customers have to manually enter their preferred date and time at checkout.

100+ Payment Gateways

Ecwid offers their own payment gateway, with highly competitive processing rates of 2.6% + $0.30 per transaction for most major credit and debit cards. Their gateway lets customers pay using popular digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, in addition to traditional card payments.

However, Ecwid also integrates with over 100 other payment gateways should you prefer to use a different processor. Big names like Stripe, PayPal, and Square are included as options, but Ecwid also partners with smaller localized gateways to better serve customers from all around the world.

Some gateways even enable you to offer installment plans for payments through services like Klarna, or allow you to accept cryptocurrency. No matter which gateway you choose, Ecwid is PCI DSS Level 1 compliant so you can feel confident customer data and transactions are secure.

Shipping Partners

Ecwid gives you access to multiple shipping carriers so your customers can choose their preferred shipping method at checkout.

Set flat rates, offer free shipping, or use real-time calculations based on the package details. You can also define specific shipping zones with different rates depending on where packages are being delivered.

On top of that, you can leverage Ecwid apps for dozens of shipping partners around the world. Even if your preferred carrier isn’t included, you can still enter rates manually or use Ecwid’s shipping API.

Ecwid also gives you the option to print shipping labels directly from their platform. Plus, beyond traditional shipping methods, you can provide in-store pickup, local delivery, or offer customers their choice of all of the above.

The App Market

Ecwid sports a marketplace of apps to extend the functionality of their platform, with most add-ons able to be installed with a few clicks. Some apps are free to use while others require a separate paid subscription.

Add features like store banners, popups, and countdown timers, find solutions to help you market your store via email, social media and search, or integrate your store with dropshipping platforms, CRMs, shipping management tools, and more.

That being said, the range of apps is narrow and we wish more of what Ecwid does have to offer were available for free. On top of that, many of the existing apps have received low reviews or haven’t been updated in years, indicating the marketplace isn’t very active. The lack of high-quality free apps means you often have to pay extra to get the specific functionality you want for your store.

Your Own Branded Mobile App

Ecwid offers custom mobile apps for iOS and Android, included for free with their annual Unlimited plan or available for a one-time $590 fee on other plans. These branded apps match your Ecwid storefront and provide a dedicated mobile experience for your customers.

Ecwid builds the apps for you, handling all the technical work required so you can launch your own mobile app without the massive investment of time and money typically needed.

The mobile app syncs in real time with your Ecwid store, automatically updating products, inventory, and content. While functional, the apps an ability to customize them that would really set them apart from Ecwid’s peers.

While Ecwid’s app provides a good mobile shopping experience, but likely won’t “wow” your customers, it’s a huge edge to even be able to get this at all from an ecommerce platform provider. For many stores, the mobile app is a huge benefit even without granular control of how it looks or functions. If you absolutely need advanced features or design, you can pay Ecwid for further custom development.

Free Customization Hours

You’ll noticed we’ve lamented some of the lack of customization on the Ecwid platform. Fortunately, there’s a built-in way around this.

Ecwid provides free customization hours to help bring your vision of an ecommerce store to life. Their Business plan includes two free hours, while Unlimited plans offer 12 hours of custom work from Ecwid’s developers. After your included hours are used, additional customization time costs $100 per hour.

Ecwid’s developers can build just about any functionality or design for your web store that you can imagine. And, they’ll handle everything, whether it involves creating custom analytics reports, revamping your checkout process, or anything in between.

Just provide a concept for your ideal store, described through pictures, sketches, or a written explanation, and Ecwid will make it happen, building to your exact specifications. This can save you thousands of dollars compared to hiring your own developers.

How Does Ecwid Stack Up?

Compared to its competitors, Ecwid more than holds its own. But, it’s certainly best utilized when have an existing website and want an easy way to add ecommerce functionality to it. But if you want deeper capabilities (without having to pay for add-ons and apps) and customization, one of our favorite alternatives may be a better fit for you:

• Shopify – Best all-around ecommerce platform
• Wix – Best for stores with fewer than 100 products
• BigCommerce – Best for large inventories
• Squarespace – Best for cornering a niche market
• Hostinger – Best price for a full online store

Check out our full list of the best ecommerce platforms to learn more about them, what we like and don’t like, and how to choose the right one for you.

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Read on for our in-depth review of Printify, covering its pros, cons, pricing, services, and use cases, to see if Printify is right for you. 

Printify Pros and Cons

Pros

• Free-forever plan
• 20% discount on products on select plans
• Global shipping
• Over 800 product options
• Drag-and-drop design tool

Cons

• Extra shipping costs on orders from multiple printers
• Printify API only available on Enterprise plan
• Complex refund policy

About Printify

Printify is an all-in-one print-on-demand solution for dropshippers. Ecommerce platforms can integrate with Printify, making it a snap to add customized merchandise to your online product catalog. A customer places an order and then the production company gets notified to produce the product, fulfill the order, and ship the items directly to the consumer. It’s as easy as that. Ecommerce retailers never have to touch the products, but can still offer customized items to their customers—making Printify one of the best ways to start a print-on-demand business. 

It also represents a fast and affordable way to order other types of customized merchandise. For example, businesses can rely on Printify for creating branded corporate apparel or accessories. It’s also a way for schools and sports teams to place bulk orders for students, athletes, and fans. You can even use Printify to order custom items in bulk to sell through your brick-and-mortar retail stores. 

Printify Health and Stability

Since Printify’s launch in 2015, the platform has been used by over 6 million merchants selling over $500 million in products. Printify has an extensive product catalog of over 800 items, ranging from socks, shirts, and hats to tree ornaments, backpacks, kitchen accessories, and more—which can all be customized through the platform’s free-to-use design tool. 

Since Printify doesn’t actually produce, print, or ship products, they’ve partnered with over 110 printing and manufacturing companies. They’re simply providing the software and logistics to connect their users with production companies that can handle a wide range of items. 

This is a fast-growing tech company in the United States that’s privately owned. With more than 600 employees worldwide and backed by over 40 investment companies that have raised over $50 million in funding to keep up with Printify’s demand and growth, Printify is reliable and stable for the foreseeable future. 

As long as Printify continues to partner with quality production companies and add more to their network to meet the growing demand of ecommerce sellers, it’s safe to assume they’ll be around for a while. You can confidently use Printify’s platform and infrastructure as the foundation to start or expand an ecommerce business. 

Printify Pricing

Printify is 100% free to use. You can integrate your online sales channels with Printify and create an unlimited number of product designs for up to five stores, all on Printify’s free-forever plan alone. Alternatively, you can pay for a Printify membership that gives you access to product discounts, order management tools, and support for more storefronts. 

Printify Pricing Structure

There are two main components to Printify’s pricing structure—memberships and product merchandise costs. 

For memberships, you have the option to select a Free, Premium, or Enterprise plan. We covered everything included in the Free plan a few paragraphs above. 

Premium plans start at $24.99 per month and unlocks discounts of up to 20% off all products you order through Printify. You also get access to Printify Connect, which helps you with order management elements like fielding returns and exchanges. Enterprise plan pricing is completely customized to match the number of stores you want to sell on. You can use Printify’s core services and design tools at every membership tier. 

Regardless of whether you pay for a membership or opt for the Free plan, you’ll need to pay for the products that you’re customizing via Printify. The cost per item varies based on the manufacturer and product type. For example, you might find t-shirts starting around $5, bathing suits for $20, and car mats for $60. But you only pay for these items when a sale is made through your online store. 

Printify Trials and Guarantees

Printify does not have a free trial, but it does have a free-forever plan that offers much more value. In fact, the Free plan can be a viable option on its own for businesses that are just getting started or anyone with lightweight printing and fulfillment needs. It offers access to Printify’s mockup generator, 24/7 support, and integrations with all major sales channels—including Shopify, Etsy, and eBay. 

All of Printify’s partner merchants are backed by a thorough vetting process they conduct on all providers they add to their network. In-house Printify experts will regularly order different samples with complex designs as a way to assess quality. They also send weekly performance reports to all providers with specific complaints and additional performance metrics. 

If merchandise is printed incorrectly, damaged during delivery, or falls short of quality standards, you can contact Printify for a reprint. If there are additional issues or a reprint can’t happen, you may be eligible for a refund. With that said, the refund policy outlined in Printify’s terms of service is somewhat complex, and refunds are issued as a credit to the merchant’s Printify account, not as cash. 

Printify Overview

Printify delivers an easy-to-access, easy-to-use print-on-demand solution with dropshipping fulfillment services and bulk ordering options. We’ll take a closer look at these three facets of the service below. 

Print on Demand

Printify is arguably the best print-on-demand service on the market. Aside from its extensive product catalog and vast network of print providers, using Printify is ultra-simple. 

Even if you don’t have a design background, it’s really easy to use Printify’s mockup generator. This tool is 100% free to use by just creating a Printify account. You can play around with different colors, fonts, sizes, and images on products using the drag-and-drop editor until you’ve created something you like. 

Then you can preview your designs as a realistic 3D image. You can even use these exact same images for your product listings on your website or as promotional materials on social media. 

Printify seamlessly integrates with a lot of major ecommerce platforms and sales channels, including Shopify, Etsy, Walmart, eBay, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, and PrestaShop. Businesses with an Enterprise subscription can also access the Printify API for building custom integrations and addressing unique sales needs. 

Overall, Printify lowers the barrier to entry for anyone who wants to sell custom-printed products online. You can create your own designs and let Printify handle the rest. 

As for the products available, your options are virtually endless. Here’s a small sample of the different categories within Printify’s catalog of over 800 products:

• T-shirts
• Hoodies
• Shoes
• Socks
• Underwear
• Baby clothing
• Hats
• Car accessories
• Tech accessories
• Travel accessories
• Posters
• Mugs and glassware
• Towels
• Blankets

The list goes on and on.

With that said, Printify’s extensive merchandise options can sometimes make things more challenging than they need to be. For example, let’s say you want to sell something simple on your ecommerce website, like a custom shirt. You’re going to see dozens of different options from dozens of print providers, all around the same price, without having the products in front of you to compare in terms of feel, fit, and the like. 

So, finding the right t-shirt to customize and sell can take some trial and error. If you’re serious about selling high-quality products online, it’s probably in your best interest to order some samples from different printers before you formally add the merchandise to your product catalog. 

Premium plans start at $24.99 per month with an annual subscription. Sign up for free to get started. 

Dropshipping Fulfillment

Printify’s dropshipping and ecommerce fulfillment is part of its print-on-demand solution that takes things a step further. 

Let’s say you’ve already customized an item through Printify, integrated the platform with your online store, and listed the product for sale. Once a customer places an order on your website, the printer will be notified to actually create and fulfill the order. They’ll add your custom design to the item purchased and then ship it directly to the consumer. 

It’s worth noting that the shipping rates are not part of the price you pay per item. These are calculated separately, and shipping rates are based on the printing company, product type, and customer’s location. 

One cool part of Printify’s fulfillment solution is that it can automatically prevent issues due to stock shortages. If enabled on your account, you can set it up so orders are automatically sent to another partner to fulfill the order if there’s a shortage with the provider you originally selected. 

You can also use Printify’s geo-routing feature for overseas shipments. They’ll automatically find the closest printing facility to help cut down on shipping costs for international orders. This is also a faster way to get these products shipped to your customers. 

There are a few potential downsides to the way orders are processed, especially if you’re using multiple suppliers for different products on your site. 

For example, if one of your customers orders a t-shirt and hat from your website, but your shirts come from a printer in New York and your hats come from a printer in California, these items will be shipped separately to your customer. And, you’ll be charged two different shipping rates for each. 

Passing these shipping fees onto your customers can be tricky because they’re just ordering from a single website. Depending on your pricing structure, you may have to absorb these extra shipping costs or have this baked into the price of each product listing. 

All of the dropshipping and fulfillment services come free with your Printify account. But, you’ll need a Premium or Enterprise plan if you want Printify to handle reprint requests and refunds on your behalf. 

Bulk Ordering

Most people use Printify’s print-on-demand service to sell products online. But it’s also a great way to create large quantities of custom merchandise for other use cases. 

If you’re ordering 60 or more qualified products from the same print provider, your purchase may be eligible for a bulk discount, saving you up to 30% on shipping rates. 

There are lots of different use cases for Printify’s bulk ordering service. Maybe your company is sponsoring a local event and you want to hand out t-shirts to all attendees. Or, maybe you want to order 100 custom mugs with your company logo as gifts for your employees. 

This service is also commonly utilized by non-profits who want to sell merchandise to support a specific cause. Whether you’re selling merchandise or giving it away for free, the bulk ordering service from Printify still puts you in total control of the item designs. 

You can even use the bulk purchasing option to order inventory for your brick-and-mortar retail stores. 

The only potential downside of a bulk order is that you’re paying in full for all items. So, if you’re planning to use this service for inventory, you need to have the cash in advance. It’s not the same as using Printify for ecommerce fulfillment, where you only pay for items when a sale is made. 

Submit an offer for a bulk order on Printify and save up to 30% on shipping. 

Printify’s Reputation

Printify has an excellent reputation across the web. It’s highly rated on several different third-party review sites, with glowing reviews from real Printify users. 

Most of the reviewers have positive things to say about Printify’s support and ease of use. Several users mention how Printify has made it easy for them to start selling online via a print-on-demand business. Lots of reviews also mention how Printify offers competitive pricing and a vast selection of product options. 

However, not everyone had glowing things to say about Printify. But, it seems like the majority of bad reviews were tied to poor product quality or issues with a specific printing company. While Printify has to approve the printers within their network, these types of issues are otherwise out of Printify’s control. To us, these seemed like one-off problems and shouldn’t be enough to stop me from using Printify to sell custom products online.

Final Verdict

Overall, we recommend Printify as a solution for all your print-on-demand needs. Whether you’re starting a new ecommerce store from scratch or just want to expand your product offerings, Printify is an excellent choice to consider for custom designs on over 800 product types. 

It’s 100% free to sign up and get started using, and you’re in total control over your designs. Printify helps set you up for success, making it easy for you to find the right printing providers for all of your merchandise.

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This in-depth review includes everything you need to know about UltaHost, including what it has going in its favor and any shortcomings of the service, plus information about their pricing, reputation, and service offerings. Read on to find out if UltaHost is right for you and your web hosting needs.

UltaHost Pros and Cons

Pros

• Affordable plans
• Flexible billing structure
• 30-day money-back guarantee
• 24/7 customer support
• Free migrations

Cons

• Unclear uptime guarantee policy
• Smaller and relatively new company
• Lots of upsells during checkout

About UltaHost

UltaHost specializes in web hosting. Like other hosting providers on the market, they also provide additional web tools and services, like domain registration and SSL certificates. But the vast majority of UltaHost’s offerings focus on hosting.

They offer some advanced and use-case-specific hosting solutions, like virtual dedicated hosting, CRM hosting, social network hosting, Minecraft servers, and more. Webmasters looking for root access and customization options at the server level can also use UltaHost to configure unique options. 

UltaHost Health and Stability

Founded in 2018, UltaHost is a relatively new hosting company. While they’ve performed well and delivered on their promises since the initial launch, they haven’t quite proven that they’re able to stand the test of time. The company currently has fewer than 50 employees, which is definitely on the smaller side in this category. 

In comparison, there are other hosting providers on the market that have been around for over 20 years and host millions of websites worldwide. Some of UltaHost’s competitors are publicly-traded companies with thousands of employees. 

With that said, it’s unfair to fault UltaHost just for being new. They’ve shown no signs of trouble and seem to be growing at a reasonable rate. Plus, their reputation for excellent customer service is likely to attract more customers and retain the ones they already have. But you can’t assume with full confidence that they’ll still be around a decade or two from now. They still have to prove their resilience and sustainability over time. 

UltaHost Pricing

UltaHost’s web hosting plans start as low as $2.90 per month. For every hosting type they offer and plan tier, UltaHost stands out for being an exceptional value. 

It’s common practice in the web hosting industry for providers to offer rock-bottom introductory rates for new customers, only to skyrocket the price when the contract renews. While UltaHost does offer promotional pricing for new customers, the renewal rates are much more reasonable—typically only a few dollars more per month, compared to some of their competitors who ratchet the rate up to north of $10 per month. 

UltaHost Pricing Structure

UltaHost’s pricing structure is based on hosting type, server resources, and contract length. For each type of hosting offered, UltaHost typically has at least four different plan tiers to choose from—with each one providing more resources and the ability to accommodate more site traffic. 

All plans are priced per month, but the actual cost you pay depends on your billing cycle, and the price per month decreases as your contract length increases. UltaHost offers six different billing cycles for you to choose from, including monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually, biennially, and triennially. 

For example, UltaHost’s shared plans start at $3.29 for month-to-month billing at the entry-level tier. But you can pay $100.44 today to lock in a three-year contract, which drops the cost per month to $2.79. 

We’ll get into the nitty-gritty details of each type of hosting’s pricing in just a bit.

UltaHost Trials and Guarantees

UltaHost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on most of its hosting services. This doesn’t apply to domain registrations, certain add-ons, dedicated servers, or virtual dedicated server (VDS) plans above $96.50.

UltaHost advertises a 99.99% uptime guarantee. However, it’s unclear whether or not sites will be compensated if UltaHost fails to deliver on that promise. There is no mention of this anywhere in UltaHost’s terms and conditions or refund policy. Other, more-established web hosting companies tend to have a clear policy for downtime recompense.

UltaHost Overview

Continue reading to learn more about UltaHost’s core services, with in-depth assessments of each web hosting solution. This will help you determine which, if any, is the best for you and your website’s needs. 

Shared Hosting

UltaHost’s shared hosting is one of its most popular offerings. This is largely due to the attractive pricing for quality performance. 

There are four different plan tiers to choose from—each providing additional storage and the ability to accommodate more traffic. 

The Shared Starter plan is a viable option for hosting a single website with up to 10,000 monthly visitors. This is the logical choice for any new website that doesn’t anticipate a high volume of traffic from the get-go. 

The other three shared tiers can support up to 15,000, 25,000, and 49,000 monthly visitors, respectively. There’s still plenty of room for your site to grow on UltaHost without having to upgrade out of inexpensive shared hosting. 

All plans come with unlimited bandwidth, free daily backups, and free SSL certificates. If you sign up for an annual billing cycle or longer, you’ll also get a free domain name for one year. 

You’ll benefit from 24/7 proactive server monitoring included, which is definitely not something you’ll see from most other shared hosting providers on the market. And, UltaHost offers free migration services, so if you’re unhappy with your current hosting provider, you can move to UltaHost for free, without the hassle of dealing with the technical aspects on your own. 

Just be prepared to navigate through some pesky upsells while you’re checking out and finalizing your plan. It can be a bit much.

Shared hosting plans start at $3.29 per month or $37 for a full year. Your purchase is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. Save up to 30% when you sign up today. 

Managed WordPress Hosting

If you’re currently using WordPress on your website or planning to use WordPress, going with a managed hosting plan from UltaHost is a no-brainer. These are still shared plans, but they’re actually cheaper than UltaHost’s traditional shared plans—which is almost never the case when you compare shared hosting to managed WordPress hosting. 

You’ll benefit from UltaHost’s WP Manager tool that comes standard with your plan. From there, you can access customizable themes that are built specifically for WordPress and much more.

Since WordPress comes pre-installed with your hosting plan, setting up your site is a breeze. If you have any questions, you can rely on UltaHost’s dedicated WordPress experts, 24/7/365.

UltaHost is optimized for WordPress, so you and your site visitors will experience a higher level of performance. Plus, as a fully managed plan, all of the technical aspects are handled for you on the backend. This includes automated backups and automated security updates for your servers and WordPress plugins. You’re ensured that your site performance remains in tip-top shape.

Once your hosting is set up, I definitely recommend adding Google Analytics to your WordPress site. This is a quick and easy way to track your best pages and see how your site is performing. 

Managed WordPress hosting from UltaHost starts at $2.90 per month. But the Business WordPress plan is the best value here. Starting at $7.50 per month, it can handle up to 100,000 monthly visits, and it’s cheaper than the Shared Business plan—which starts at $10 per month and only supports up to 10,000 monthly visitors. 

VPS Hosting

UltaHost’s virtual private server (VPS) plans are perfect for sites and webmasters seeking more control over their hosting configuration. It’s also a solid choice for websites getting at least 50,000 visitors per month.

In terms of performance, this is a step above UltaHost’s shared plans. You’ll benefit from faster page loading speeds and higher uptime rates, which is ideal for business and ecommerce sites that can’t afford to lose users due to a poor on-page experience. 

UltaHost’s VPS packages are scalable and highly secure. UltaHost offers dedicated firewalls, regular security packages, 24/7 monitoring, and BitNinja Security built-in. 

You can start with 1 GB of RAM and then scale as needed from your control panel. This is a great perk for sites with unpredictable traffic and seasonal surges. 

If you have in-house IT professionals or you’re working with a developer, they’ll love the added flexibility and control that comes with your VPS server. This includes full root access and the option to select your operating system and server locations. 

The only downside of UltaHost’s VPS servers is that the setup is a bit confusing and overwhelming for non-technical users. If you don’t have a developer on your team, you may be unsure how to customize your settings appropriately. Of course, the pay-off from this level of performance can be worth spending a little bit of time educating yourself about VPS hosting.

UltaHost’s VPS plans start at $5.50 per month. You can also get an advanced VPS plan that’s built for high-traffic WordPress sites, which starts at $27.50 per month and accommodates a whopping 300,000 monthly visitors. 

Virtual Dedicated Hosting

A virtual dedicated server, also known as VDS hosting, is a somewhat unique service offering from UltaHost. This isn’t something that you’ll find from many other hosting providers on the market today.

VDS hosting is a step above virtual private servers. While it’s technically a virtual plan, you’re getting the same features as a dedicated server—without the hefty price tag. 

The main reason to consider a VDS plan from UltaHost is if you need to install custom software on your server. 

For example, you may want to host creative assets on UltaHost that you’ll be selling through Envato’s marketplace. Or, maybe you need a safe, reliable, and affordable way to host a customized CRM for your business. Access to your own virtual dedicated server allows you to host cloud-based software portals and a whole lot more.

If you’re on the fence about whether or not VDS hosting is right for you, then it’s probably not. This is a highly technical option built for the demanding web-based projects and services. For those of you just looking for a high-performing host for your traditional website, a VPS plan will typically be the better option. 

UltaHost’s VDS plans start at $37.50 per month, which is less than one-third of the price of its entry-level dedicated server plan. So, it’s a great bargain if you want the level of performance and features typically only offered by dedicated servers without paying dedicated server hosting rates. 

Dedicated Server Hosting

Only a small fraction of people reading this will need dedicated servers from UltaHost. For simply hosting a single website, you can eliminate this option right away.

Dedicated servers are the top-of-the-line in the world of web hosting, and they’re designed for ultimate speed and performance. As the name implies, you won’t be sharing any resources with other websites and you’re renting entire physical servers directly from UltaHost. 

This solution makes sense for enterprise organizations looking for database storage options and other data-intensive needs. It also works well for multi-national organizations that need to host a mix of websites, applications, and data.  

Let’s say you want to start your own social network, or you want to host multiplayer servers for a game that you’ve developed. These are scenarios where you’d want to consider a dedicated server.

UltaHost handles all of the monitoring and technical maintenance for your servers. But you’re in full control over how they’re customized. There are several different plans to choose from before you even begin configuring your options, ranging from $129.90 to $933.30 before add-ons and extras. 

Domain Registration

You can also use UltaHost to buy a domain, get SSL certificates, and even build your website from scratch. 

This registrar offers popular TLDs, including .com, .org, .net, .info, and more. You can also secure private email hosting that matches your domain. 

With that said, there’s really no reason to use UltaHost to register a domain unless you’re also getting a hosting plan. UltaHost offers free domains for your first year when you sign up for at least one year of web hosting, and your .com domain will renew at $13 per year. 

But as a standalone domain registrar, they don’t have any advantages over other registrars on the market. They’re not cheaper, and they don’t have any bulk buying tools or advanced domain management features. 

UltaHost Reputation

UltaHost has an overwhelming number of positive reviews across multiple third-party review sites. Most reviews are 4.5 stars or higher on a five-star scale, and all of them seem to contain an upbeat and satisfied sentiment. 

Lots of the reviews mention UltaHost’s friendly and helpful customer service and many UltaHost customers state that they feel like they’re getting an exceptional value for their hosting needs and they’re happy with the way their sites are performing. 

There are a handful of bad reviews, which is inevitable with any product or service. Most of these complaints seem to be one-off scenarios rather than a pattern of poor experiences. It’s also worth noting that some of these bad reviews are tied to UltaHost’s domain registration services and not the company’s hosting services. 

Final Verdict

Despite being a newer and smaller web hosting company, we can recommend UltaHost with confidence. It’s a solid choice for any new website that’s looking for affordable hosting without sacrificing performance. UltaHost also has 24/7 support and offers perks like free daily backups, free SSL certificates, and free migrations. 

UltaHost has flexible billing cycles, and it’s nice knowing that your rates won’t double or triple upon renewal—helping you keep costs low for the long run. You can start using UltaHost for shared hosting and upgrade to a VPS plan or higher as your traffic scales over time.

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Digital marketing services can increase the demand for your business overnight. They’re the reason some companies are constantly selling out of inventory or have a line of customers stretching around the block.

Hiring the best digital marketing service to get customers in your doors or visiting your website means you can spend more time doing what you’re really good at—delivering an incredible product, service, or experience.

The Top 16 Best Digital Marketing Services

Best of 2023: Acceleration Partners, AVX Digital, Bukhash Brothers, Column Five, Conversion Rate Experts, Ignite Visibility, Instaboost, KoMarketing, Lyfe Marketing, Mainstreethost, Moburst, Pearl Lemon, Stellar SEO, Vertical Measures, Web.com, WebiMax

While all of the brands listed above are worthy of making our top list, four stand out above the rest. Here are the best digital marketing services available today.

Our Favorite Digital Marketing Services 2023:

• WebiMax – Best overall digital marketing agency
• Web.com – Best for DIY digital marketing
• Ignite Visibility – Best for midmarket and enterprise
• Acceleration Partners – Best for scaling affiliate marketing programs

Each service is segmented by category, so you can find the digital marketing agency that best fits your needs.

I provide an in-depth review of each digital marketing service below. You’ll learn more about each specific area of expertise and what makes each service so good.

Best Digital Marketing Services Reviews

WebiMax — Best Overall Digital Marketing Service

Visit WebiMax

• Excellent reputation since 2008
• Free custom marketing proposal
• Affordable digital marketing and consulting
• Month-to-month contracts

Request Free Proposal

WebiMax is a successful, long-standing digital marketing firm that offers a wide range of services. They can help you get more leads, build your brand, and increase your online presence wherever it matters most.

You don’t have to have a crazy budget to get WebiMax on your side.

They will craft a custom plan for your company based around your digital marketing needs for free. If you like their roadmap for success, you can get their help without having to sign a long contract.

You’ll have a single point of contact at WebiMax. That’s direct phone and email communication with someone who understands your company and goals. You get the deep experience of an established company with the personal touch of a small team.

WebiMax offers a broad range of digital marketing services:

• Acquiring more reviews
• Lead generation
• Local marketing
• Online reputation management
• PPC marketing
• Public relations
• SEO marketing
• Social media marketing
• Website design

After learning about your business, WebiMax will craft a plan with the right mix of services to get you where you want to go. Each business is unique, and WebiMax is committed to helping you find a strategy that’s within your budget and timeline.

Track all progress on your client dashboard. Whether you are trying to increase your local presence or boost website traffic, you’ll be able to see exactly what’s happening.

There’s no magic, just clear reports based on the milestones you have set.

WebiMax does not require annual contracts, which is unusual compared to many of the other top agencies. This is a welcome difference for folks that don’t want to jump into a huge contract.

With WebiMax, you can reassess whether it’s worth it or not every month. That’s a huge advantage, and speaks volumes about the ROI that WebiMax clients are seeing. They wouldn’t stay if it wasn’t working, and each month, 97 percent of WebiMax clients choose to stay.

Request a free custom digital marketing plan from WebiMax today.

Web.com – Best for DIY Digital Marketing

Visit Web.com

• Award-winning expertise
• Call 888-421-8700
• Customized marketing plans
• DIY and pro services

Get Started Now

Web.com is a full-service website and digital marketing company dedicated to helping its clients get the most out of their website.

From DIY options to fully customized marketing plans, Web.com has options for any budget and any requirements.

That’s right–Web.com can take over as much (or as little) of your online marketing as you want. Their DIY services include simple SEO tools and business directories that will get you found faster.

Web.com offers SEO services, PPC services, business listings, directory services, and more. They have a team of experts on hand to assist you throughout your journey or create and follow the path for you. 

Because digital marketing plans and needs are different for every company, the experts at Web.com go out of their way to create marketing strategies tailored to your needs — and your budget. The experts will understand your business and build an effective strategy to reach your goals.

Web.com helps clients boost their search engine rankings, gain authority, build trust, and increase traffic to your website to boost conversions and help you make more money.

Services offered include:

• Expert SEO services
• DIY SEO tools
• PPC services
• Business listings
• Directory services

And, unlike many other digital marketing services, Web.com is a one-stop-shop for many of the backend technology that makes digital marketing possible. They can set you up with secure websites, email, hosting, and domains.

From solopreneurs to larger organizations, Web.com is available to help you reach your digital marketing goals no matter your budget.

Ignite Visibility – Best for Midmarket and Enterprise

Visit Ignite Visibility

• 9+ years of experience
• 160+ happy clients
• Manage Over $100M in Ad Spend
• Unified cross-channel marketing

Get Started

Ignite Visibility is a full-service digital marketing agency looking for new clients that want to be at the top of their vertical. You’ve outgrown the tools that were helpful for a small business, and now you need something next level.

I recommend Ignite Visibility for companies looking to unify a range of digital marketing channels. Broaden your reach, simplify management day-to-day, and understand your customers better with Ignite Visibility.

They consistently rank as the best search engine marketing companies, and have won awards in email marketing, SEO, paid media, social media, conversion rate optimization, and more.

Whether you need strategy, software, or help with project planning, Ignite Visibility is ready to help.

You don’t have to walk in the door with anything more than a goal for where you want your business to go. Here are some of the valuable services they offer:

• Amazon optimization
• Conversion rate optimization
• Digital PR
• Inbound marketing
• Influencer marketing
• Interactive campaigns
• Online reputation management
• Paid search marketing
• Radio advertising
• SEO marketing
• Social media marketing
• Website design

No matter which range of services you choose, everything is tracked in clear dashboards tied to your unique marketing goals.

Consider Ignite if you’re finding that other digital marketing services can’t handle your specific situation. Whether it’s difficulty integrating channels or lack of coverage in an area you care about, Ignite Visibility can help.

If you are looking for a digital marketing agency that understands the entire picture, has award-winning services, and excellent customer support, Ignite Visibility is a great option. Learn more about Ignite Visibility.

Acceleration Partners – Best For Scaling Affiliate Marketing Programs

Visit Acceleration Partners

• Affiliate partner recruiting
• Affiliate program management
• Global influencer partnerships
• Fraud monitoring for affiliate programs

Get Started

Acceleration Partners is a digital marketing service focusing on affiliate, influencer, and partnership marketing. Depending on your brand’s goals and needs, you can rely on Acceleration Partners for full-scale partnership program management.

Regardless of the route you choose, all of these services are designed to drive business growth at scale. 

Acceleration Partners currently works with less than 300 brands. While their client list may be small, the results are far from it. They’re driving over $7.3 billion in revenue for their clients through more than 100 million conversions. 

Here’s a quick overview of the affiliate marketing services offered by Acceleration Partners:

• Full affiliate program management
• Global partnership marketing
• Influencer program management
• Affiliate partner recruitment
• Affiliate program design
• Program compliance and fraud monitoring

If your company has an existing affiliate marketing program that’s just not driving the results you expected, Acceleration Partners can help. It’s also a great option for any business that wants to work with global influencers but is struggling to measure the results against spending. 

I really like the fact that Acceleration Partners just focuses on what they’re good at. They’re not offering web design and SEO just for the sake of expanding their offerings. They’re not an all-in-one digital marketing agency—and in this case, that’s a good thing.

Contact Acceleration Partners to get started and discover which solutions are right for you.

More Great Digital Marketing Services

Pearl Lemon – Best SEO Services

• Best SEO Service Provider
• 20+ years of SEO experience
• Platform-specific SEO
• Full-Service SEO for any Site

>> Compare Quotes

Pearl Lemon is a UK-based SEO service agency.

They have more than two decades of SEO experience on their team. That means if its related to search engine optimization, they can help you with it.

In fact, they claim that they can double your organic traffic in just 90 days.

It’s quite the promise, but their client testimonials and reviews back this claim. I found more than 200 client reviews across a wide range of third-party review platforms (Google, Trustpilot, Facebook, etc.), and all of them are positive.

Pearl Lemon offers platform-specific SEO for ecommerce websites like:

• Amazon SEO
• Shopify SEO
• BigCommerce SEO
• eBay SEO
• Etsy SEO
• Facebook Marketplace SEO
• Walmart SEO

They also provide exceptional SEO services specific to CMS platforms such as WordPress, Joomla, Magento, Squarespace, Weebly, Wix, and Moonfruit.

Additional SEO services from Pearl Lemon include:

• Link building
• Local SEO
• On-page SEO
• Technical SEO
• Podcast SEO
• YouTube SEO
• Airbnb SEO
• Mobile SEO
• Multi-language SEO

As you can see, they offer any SEO service that you can imagine, and that’s all that they do.

Pearl Lemon typically works with midmarket organizations and ecommerce websites. If your website needs SEO assistance, this is the place to get it. Schedule a risk-free strategy session and get a free website audit to learn more about what Pearl Lemon can do for your business.

Lyfe Marketing – Best Social Media Management Services

• Best Social Media Marketing
• Social media management services
• Custom advertising strategies
• Dedicated account managers

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Lyfe Marketing specializes in social media marketing and social media management services.

They’re trusted by popular brands like Hilton, Crunch Fitness, Domino’s Pizza, and Wingstop.

Over the years, Lyfe Marketing has generated over 983,000 leads for clients through digital marketing, with the primary area of focus on social media. With hundreds of glowing reviews and recommendations across third-party review sites, Lyfe Marketing has an exceptional reputation.

Whether you’re starting social media marketing from scratch or need to revamp your existing strategy, Lyfe Marketing has you covered.

• Facebook marketing
• Twitter marketing
• Instagram marketing
• LinkedIn marketing
• Pinterest marketing

The social media marketing experts at Lyfe Marketing will help you come up with a custom advertising strategy. You can spend as much or as little as you want on social media ads, but they recommend committing at least $300 per month.

On average, their social media management services range from $400 to $1,000 per month. But this depends on how many channels they’re managing on your behalf and the types of posts you need.

If you sign up for Lyfe Marketing’s social media management services, they won’t charge you extra for your advertising budget.

There is a $150 setup fee associated with these social media advertising services. But this fee covers everything from creating and setting up all of the necessary advertising accounts, social media pages, and analytics software. You won’t have to do any of this on your own.

You’ll also benefit from a dedicated account manager, 24/7 analytics, custom ad creation, and no long-term contracts.

Vertical Measures – Best Paid Media Services

• Best Paid Media Service Provider
• 95% client retention rate
• Focused on improving your ROI
• Wide range of exceptional services

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Vertical Measures is a full-service digital marketing firm that was acquired by the corporate communications juggernaut Investis Digital.

That means they assist with a wide array of areas such as content marketing, search engine optimization, and paid media to help you nail your marketing needs.

However, they are best known for providing exceptional paid media services. 

Some of the top paid media services provided by Verticle Measures include:

• Paid search (Google, Yahoo, Bing)
• Product ads
• Video ads
• Social media ads (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest)
• Programmatic advertising services
• Display ad creation and testing
• Behavioral targeting
• Remarketing
• Placement targeting
• Display ad keyword targeting
• Product listing ads management

Whether you want to run a PPC campaign in Google or create a brand new display ad from scratch, Vertical Measures will get the job done for you.

From international brands like Puma to healthcare providers, educational organizations, and small businesses, Vertical Measures can handle it all.

Vertical Measures has a 95% client retention rate, which is exceptional in this category.

They’ve seen clients increase their leads by up 350% while simultaneously decreasing cost-per-lead by 50%. The team at Vertical Measures ensures that your paid advertising campaigns generate a high ROI.

Vertical Measures works with B2C organizations, B2B brands, and ecommerce websites alike. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or the size of your business, this is the best option for all paid media services.

Mainstreethost – Best Technical SEO Services

• Best Technical SEO Service
• 20+ years of experience
• Worked with 10,000+ businesses
• Reasonably priced plans

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Mainstreethost is a digital marketing agency with 20+ years of experience and 130+ digital marketing experts on their team. The org has locations in NYC and Las Vegas.

Over the years, they’ve worked with 10,000+ businesses. From individuals to nonprofits, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and enterprises, Mainstreet host has seen it all.

While the firm does have a wide range of offerings, its technical SEO services are the best standout. Some of the top technical SEO services from Mainstreethost include:

• Technical site audits
• Penalty recovery
• Website migration
• Speed optimization
• Structured data markup (schema)
• Competitor analysis
• Image optimization
• Backlink analysis

The digital marketing experts at Mainstreethost go beyond keyword analysis and content creation for SEO. They specialize in the fundamental details on the backend to help websites rank above the competition.

They’ll help you with redirects, indexing, robots.txt files, duplicate content, site architecture, internal link structure, mobile performance, and more.

Mainstreethost has SEO service plans to fit the needs of all businesses and budgets:

• SEO Essentials — Starting at $99 per month
• SEO Standard — Starting at $199 per month
• SEO Premium — Starting at $399 per month
• SEO Custom — Starting at $999 per month

All rates are based on an annual contract. If your website is in need of a technical SEO audit, contact the team over at Mainstreethost for a solution.

Conversion Rate Experts – Best for Turning Leads into Sales

• Best CRO Service Provider
• Conversion rate optimization pros
• Customized solutions
• Clients include Apple & Facebook

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Conversion Rate Experts specialize in CRO services. These guys eat, sleep, and breathe CRO—it’s the only digital marketing service that they offer.

But they do that one thing very well.

Some of their top clients are industry giants like Apple, Facebook, Verizon, Dropbox, GE, Dell, GQ, Xero, The New Yorker, PayPal, Dyson, and Amazon. The list is impressive, to say the least.

The Conversion Rate Experts use A/B tests and other data-driven insights to build web pages that convert. How is their strategy so effective?

Their team is unique compared to every other digital marketing service out there today. Instead of just staffing general digital marketing consultants, the Conversion Rate Experts hire entrepreneurs, bestselling authors, former Google employees, former eBay employees, agency heads, Ph.D. scientists, and direct response marketing veterans.

Some of their top services for conversion rate optimization include:

• Landing page optimization
• Customer journey mapping
• Email optimization
• Market research
• Analytics
• User experience and usability testing
• Web design and information architecture
• Copywriting
• Referral programs
• Shopping cart abandonment
• Mobile optimization
• Personalization
• Ad optimization
• Video optimization
• Multi-channel optimization

The list goes on and on. Essentially, any aspect of your business or website that can be optimized from a conversions perspective, the Conversion Rate Experts can handle.

There are two main ways to leverage these services.

The Conversion Rate Experts can become your conversion manager by working alongside your current team. They’ll develop your in-house capabilities by training your existing staff. Alternatively, the Conversion Rate Experts can do everything for you, or customize a solution somewhere in between these two options.

You can even use the Conversion Rate Experts if you’re an agency and need to improve your clients’ conversions.

Contact their team for a free strategy session. They’ll analyze your website to see if you’re a good fit for each other. To be considered, your company must generate at least $250,000 per year.

KoMarketing – Best B2B Digital Marketing Services

• Best B2B Digital Marketing Service
• 15+ years of experience
• Strategic marketing services
• Content creation services

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KoMarketing helps B2B brands and companies through strategic search marketing, social media marketing, and content marketing.

Common industries served by KoMarketing include software, technology, industrial, manufacturing, and professional services. They even help create content for other marketing professionals.

For the most part, KoMarketing works with mid-sized organizations and Fortune 500s.

To be considered for their services, your company must spend at least $60,000 per year on online marketing activities. So it’s not an ideal solution if you’re operating on a tight budget.

KoMarketing’s B2B digital marketing capabilities include:

• Search engine optimization
• Search engine advertising
• Social media marketing
• Social media advertising
• Content marketing

Within these categories, their areas of expertise expand to demand generation, marketing measurement, global reach, online PR, and B2B ecommerce.

Stellar SEO – Best Link Building Services

• Best Link Building Service
• Systematic link building
• Wide range of services
• Get the best links for your business

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As the name clearly indicates, Stellar SEO provides SEO services. But what the name does not tell you is that this service provider specializes in one specific component of SEO—link building.

Links have historically been one of the most important Google ranking factors.

Stellar SEO understands the systematic approach that must be taken to build links for your company’s website. They’ll help get more valuable website traffic by securing the best links.

Some of the top ways that they get links for their clients include:

• Editorial links for niche websites
• Guest posting opportunities
• HARO link acquisition
• Resource page links
• Broken link reclamation
• Content development
• Submission based links
• Skyscraper link outreach

As an agency, you can even white-label Stellar SEO’s link building services for a minimum of $2,500 per month.

Stellar SEO offers guest posting services and blogger outreach programs to help you get the best links for your business on high-quality websites. They’ll even create the content for you. These services start at $167 per link and go all the way up to $367 per link, depending on the scope of your campaign.

Discounts apply if you order 10+ links. There are bulk pricing options for any business or agency ordering 50+ links.

Instaboost – Best Local SEO Services

• Best Local SEO Service Provider
• Trusted by 800+ businesses
• Get more local search traffic
• Competitive pricing plans

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Instaboost is another service provider focusing on a specific component of SEO. They specialize in local SEO digital marketing services.

For small businesses and local companies, Instaboost will help your business get discovered for “near me” searches and relevant equivalents.

Let’s say you have a plumbing business in Seattle, Washington. You want to make sure your company appears as a top suggestion when Seattle residents search for a local plumber. Instaboost makes this possible.

The strategy focuses on Google My Business (GMB) and citation building through online directories and platforms like Apple Maps. They’ll also help optimize your website for specific keywords that will be found on Google local searches.

800+ businesses trust Instaboost for local SEO. Here’s an overview of the plans and pricing for these services:

Boost — $299 per month

• GMB verification
• Up to 34 online listings
• Basic optimization
• Monthly ranking report
• One Google post per month

Boost+ — $599 per month

• All Boost services
• Up to 59 online listings
• Advanced optimization
• Reputation management services
• Two Google posts per month

Instaboost — $999 per month

• All Boost+ services
• Up to 84 online listings
• Harmful listing removal
• Four Google posts per month
• Priority support

As you can see, Instaboost has plans to accommodate even the tightest budgets. Their top of the line services are still extremely affordable for small businesses.

Moburst – Best Mobile App Marketing Services

• Best Mobile App Marketing
• 140+ million app installations
• Wide range of marketing services
• Clients include Uber & Youtube

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Moburst specializes in digital marketing services for mobile apps. Whether your entire business is an app, or you’re trying to promote your app as an extension of your business, Moburst can help you out.

The 3,800+ mobile campaigns run by Moburst have resulted in 140+ million app installations.

They’ve worked with global brands like Uber, Gmail, YouTube, Food Network, and Dunkin Donuts. In addition to working with household names, Moburst has experience working with innovative startups and advanced gaming companies worldwide.

Their top services include:

• App store optimization (ASO)
• Targeted media
• Remarketing
• Brand engagement
• Mobile marketing strategy

Beyond digital marketing services, Moburst will also test every feature of your mobile app itself to ensure that it works properly. They analyze user behavior and psychology to enhance the total mobile experience.

AVX Digital – Best Email Marketing Services

• Best Email Marketing Service
• 19+ years of experience
• Send emails that generate results
• List building services

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AVX Digital is a full-service marketing agency. While the firm offers a wide range of services, their specialty is definitely email marketing.

Founded in 2001, AVX Digital has nearly 20 years of experience in the digital marketing industry.

They are experts in helping businesses of all sizes craft personalized messages to targeted audiences. The firm will help humanize your content while leveraging automation for a maximum ROI.

First, they’ll get to know your business, industry, and establish key benchmarks and KPIs for your email campaigns.

Then they’ll help you compile a qualified email list if you don’t have one already. AVX Digital will help you grow your list via social media, paid search, and other digital marketing methods.

Once you’ve segmented your targeted list, the email marketing experts at AVX Digital will help you determine the best way to approach each unique segment. From abandoned shopping cart campaigns to newsletters and product launches, this firm knows what it takes to deliver killer emails that generate results.

The team at AVX Digital prioritizes data-driven optimization. They provide advanced analytics, transparent communication, and updated reporting for all campaigns.

Bukhash Brothers – Best Influencer Marketing Services

• Best Influencer Marketing Service
• Founded in 2014
• Connected with celebrities & icons
• Works with the top brands

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If your company wants to work with the top influencers in the world, Bukhash Brothers is definitely the place to get connected with them.

Founded in 2014, Bukhash Brothers is based in the UAE. They pride themselves on building meaningful and long-lasting relationships with their clients and celebrity partners.

The company has been recognized and awarded by publications like Forbes and Esquire for their success in this space.

Bukhash Brothers have existing relationships with global icons like Selena Gomez, Will Smith, and Mike Tyson. They also work with global soccer stars like Lionel Messi, David Luiz, Thiery Henry, Diego Maradona, and more.

These relationships have allowed them to run influencer marketing campaigns for brands like Nike, Visa, Red Bull, Samsung, Dyson, Nespresso, and Hugo Boss.

In addition to talent management and celebrity influencer acquisition, Bukhash Brothers also offer services for digital content creation, social media consultancy, creative concept development, and sales consultancy.

If your brand has a substantial budget for celebrity influencer campaigns, contact the team over at Bukhash Brothers to get started.

Column Five – Best Content Marketing Services

• Best Content Marketing Service
• Founded in 2008
• Creates a wide range of content
• Works with many large brands

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Quality content is the backbone of any successful digital marketing campaign. Column Five media specializes in creative content creation for businesses.

Column Five was officially founded back in 2008. At the time, they were working with Mint.com before the client was acquired by Intuit in 2009. After this acquisition, the reputation for Column Five’s work caused the company to explode at a global level.

Today, they help produce content for giant brands like Microsoft, Zendesk, Visa, Spotify, Red Bull, LinkedIn, and Pacific Life.

What type of content can they create? Basically, anything that you can imagine. Column Five specializes in simplifying even the most complex subjects. For example, they helped Visa reinvent its explainer videos for fingerprint scanner technology.

You can use Column Five to create the following types of marketing content:

• Motion graphics
• Presentation design
• Video direction and production
• Infographic design
• Ebooks and whitepapers
• Interactive infographics
• Visual language design
• Data visualization
• Web design and development

Column Five will help your brand identify and properly articulate its best stories. They’ll also determine the best content formats to convey those stories and bring them to life. At the end of the day, Column Five ensures that your projects get seen by the right eyes, so your current and prospective customers can consume your creative content.

How to Find the Best Digital Marketing Services For You

There are thousands of digital marketing agencies and service providers to choose from. Narrowing down the best option for your business can be tough if you don’t know what to look for.

This is the methodology we use and recommend as a buying guide. Follow it when you’re evaluating prospective service providers.

Specialty Services

Not every digital marketing service provider is a full-service agency. Some of them only specialize in one or two things.

If you are in need of one particular element of digital marketing, then look for providers who specialize in that service.

For example, if you only need assistance with conversion rate optimization, you don’t need an agency that manages social media profiles, creates content, and helps you build backlinks. Instead, choose a team that knows CRO better than anyone else.

If a company focuses on one thing, there’s a good chance they’re better at it than other firms with dozens of service offerings.

Company Size

Small startups and global enterprises won’t have the same digital marketing needs. Some service providers are better for small businesses, while others typically work with B2B companies or mid-market organizations.

Depending on the service you need, some providers won’t consider taking you on as a client if you don’t meet certain qualifications.

It’s not uncommon for an agency to ask for your annual revenue and monthly marketing budget, then analyze your website before even offering a consultation.

If you can show the agency that you are growing your monthly revenue steadily or that you are on the verge of a huge growth surge, the agency may be willing to represent you. Be prepared to sell the potential that your company is bringing to the table when speaking with your preferred agency.

If you can’t find an agency to represent you in your digital marketing efforts because you are too new or too small, consider starting with one of the best email marketing services to start to grow your customer base.

Target Market

Are you trying to target buyers worldwide? Or are you focusing exclusively on leads in your local state or region?

Your target market will make a big difference on the service provider you choose.

For example, Pearl Lemon and Instaboost both provide SEO services. But if you’re a big brand with a global reach, you’d be better off working with Pearl Lemon. If you’re a small business that wants to prioritize local SEO, Instaboost will be a better choice for your business.

Are you targeting general consumers (B2C) or other businesses (B2B)? These types of questions are important to answer as they will influence your search.

Budget

Your financial position will play a significant role in finding a suitable digital marketing service provider. It’s common for firms to have minimum monthly requirements in order to work with any client.

Rates vary dramatically depending on the service you need and the provider in question.

You can find some services for as low as $300 per month, while others require a minimum of $60,000 per year. Generally speaking, most businesses seeking these services will fall somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.

Assistance Required

How much do you want your digital marketing service provider to handle?

For example, let’s say you need help with social media marketing. Do you just need help with your campaign strategy and creating ads? Or do you want a service that will take over posting content to all of your accounts?

Are you going to create your own videos and pass them over to an agency? Or do you need an agency with video production capabilities as well?

The level of assistance you want will affect your rates, and white-glove services will always cost a bit more.

The Top Digital Marketing Services in Summary

Digital marketing isn’t something you can learn overnight. While you can do a lot of digital marketing on your own for free using social media, a true professional can get more done in less time. 

Some of the top digital marketing plans include SEO services, CRO, PPC and paid media campaigns, link building, content marketing, local SEO, and more. Depending on the service you choose to partner with, you can take on specific challenges or outsource marketing altogether.

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Shared hosting is cost-effective for beginner or low-traffic websites. But when your traffic grows, it’s time to start looking for virtual private server (VPS) hosting.

With VPS hosting, you won’t be sharing hosting resources with anyone, and you can set up the server the way you want. After researching dozens of providers, I’ve narrowed down the top VPS hosting plans.

The Top 10 Best VPS Hosting Providers

Best of 2023: A2 Hosting, Bluehost, HostGator, Hostinger, InMotion, iPage, Kamatera, Liquid Web, Scala Hosting, and UltaHost.

When you’re ready for more power, customization, and performance out of your hosting environment, you can’t go wrong with any of my top ten picks. While putting together the following reviews, our team of researchers found seven providers that shine even brighter than the rest.

Our favorite VPS hosting providers for 2023 are:

• Hostinger — Best value VPS hosting
• Kamatera — Best VPS hosting for instant scaling
• LiquidWeb — Best VPS hosting with high memory and storage
• UltaHost — Best fully-managed VPS plans for OS-specific setups
• A2 Hosting — Best VPS hosting for supercharged speed
• Scala Hosting — Best for customizing VPS resources
• InMotion — Most reliable uptime

From uptime and resource limits to easy scalability, performance, and freedom, most will find exactly what they need in one of the seven hosts above.

In this review, I highlight each provider’s plans and pricing and explain what makes each a good VPS hosting option. I also share some potential downsides or weaknesses of each provider and provide a methodology you can use to select the best VPS host for your needs.

I’ve also included a quick review of VPS hosting in case you’d like a refresher on what this service is and how it works.

Virtual Private Server Reviews

Read on for detailed reviews of the VPS hosts listed above.

Hostinger — Best Value VPS Hosting

Visit Hostinger

• Starts at $2.99/month
• Month-to-month pricing
• Free domain and SSL certificate
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Get a 60% discount

Hostinger offers fast and reliable servers with the best pricing of any VPS hosts on our list.

Its best value plan starts from $3.99 per month – an excellent deal for VPS hosting. You still get 1 TB of bandwidth and 20 GB of SSD storage. 

On top of that, Hostinger ensures excellent loading times with a 100 MB/second guarantee on your network. In addition, you have complete control over your hosting as it offers full root access. 

Hostinger has a dedicated IPv6 block infrastructure to keep connections secure and efficient. Its servers provide enough processing power for medium to large-scale online projects. 

Hostinger offers eight VPS plans:

As you can see, Hostinger’s VPS hosting provides a wide variety of options. Coupled with its great pricing and rich features, the VPS host offers the best value for money.  

Personally, I’d go with the VPS 4 plan, which gives you all the bandwidth and RAM you’d need to make sure your online project runs smoothly. 

I highly recommend Hostinger to anyone that wants fast, secure, and reliable VPS hosting. Sign up today at Hostinger.

Kamatera —  Best VPS Hosting for Instant Scaling

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• Instant scalability
• More than a dozen servers worldwide
• Starts at $4/month
• 30-day FREE trial

Get started today!

Kamatera gives you unlimited storage. You can add new servers as required, start and stop servers at any time, and add new databases as you grow. That’s why they are one of the most scalable VPS services out there.

They are perfect for scaling on demand.

More than that, they offer a wide variety of flexible cloud-based VPS solutions for web hosting. Instinctively set up their servers for anything you need–email, CRM, ERP, VoIP–and the service grows with you.

And it takes no time at all. You can increase your server numbers in a matter of minutes. This is ideal for any growing startup that needs to increase the power of their website over time. The same is true if you’re strapped for resources and need to temporarily pull in the reins.

With Kamatera, you don’t have to choose among plans. Instead, you can dial in the exact amount of resources you need.

Kamatera lets you customize the type of servers, OS, and control panel for your VPS hosting. Their global technical support network also operates 24/7 worldwide, with more than a dozen data centers in North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

If you ever have any issues, you can always get someone on the line to help you.

Since its services are customized to your exact specifications, we can’t share exact pricing details here. But we can say that prices begin at just $4 for an unmanaged server.

Kamatera is a great deal for people who want total control over configuration. If you want a more hands-off experience, Kamatera’s managed plans start at $54.

Liquid Web VPS — Best VPS Hosting with High Memory and Storage

Visit LiquidWeb

• Starts at $15/month
• Fully managed services
• Enhanced SSD servers
• 59-second support guarantee

Get a 66% discount

Liquid Web is one of the most under-the-radar VPS hosting services out there.

What they lack in name recognition, they make up for in a very powerful VPS hosting service.

All Liquid Web VPS plans are fully managed. That means your hardware and network are taken care of for you.

Their administrators also handle all security updates and patches, as well as support for the operating system and all software.

Each of their virtual private servers boasts a staggering 10 TB of bandwidth. That’s the most we’ve seen so far. The 16 GB of RAM plan has up to 200 GB of SSD disk space, which is also the highest we’ve seen.

To put that into perspective for you, 16 GB of RAM is double the amount of the highest plans offered by both Bluehost and InMotion (both of which still offer very good VPS plans).

Unlike some of the other hosting providers we’ve seen so far, Liquid Web doesn’t have any special or fancy names for their plans. You’re essentially paying for your resources, starting with RAM.

• 2 GB RAM — $15 per month
• 4 GB RAM — $25 per month
• 8 GB RAM — $35 per month
• 16 GB RAM — $95 per month

These are all annual contract-based prices. You’ll pay more if you want to do month-to-month.

Liquid Web has 2-year plans available upon request. But you’ll need to talk to its customer service team to find out those special rates for your website.

Liquid Web is perfect for cases where you need a lot of bandwidth and disk space. It’s a key differentiator for sites with a lot of videos, cached images, or interactive elements.

The support offered by the Liquid Web team is exceptional. They are available 24/7 via phone, email, and live chat.

Most VPS providers don’t offer a 16 GB plan. Though I doubt most of you will need it, for those who do, this is where I recommend getting it.

Click here and use coupon code QUICKSPROUT to get 40% off 2 months of any Liquid Web hosting plan.

UltaHost — Best Fully-Managed VPS Plans For OS-Specific Setups

Visit UltaHost

• Starts at $5.50/month
• 24/7 support
• Free daily backups
• Full root access

Save up to 30%

UltaHost is a secure and highly flexible option for any website in need of a quality VPS plan. Whether you’re upgrading from your current plan, migrating from another host, or starting a new site from scratch, UltaHost has you covered. 

As a fully-managed hosting solution, UltaHost handles all of the backend systems on your behalf. Their technical support team will take care of security patches, operating system updates, and everything else that’s required to keep your servers up to date. 

You’ll also benefit from 24/7 real-time monitoring, 24/7 customer support, free daily backups, and BitNinja security with every plan. 

While UltaHost provides exceptional support and managed VPS perks, it doesn’t sacrifice flexibility. Your VPS still comes with full root access, and everything can be fully customized to meet the specific needs of your site. 

You can use UltaHost VPS to instantly install a specific OS, including:

• Debian
• Ubuntu
• CentOS
• Red Hat
• AlmaLinux
• Fedora
• Windows

UltaHost lets you select the number of cPanel accounts you need and even lets you pick your server locations from over nine different data centers. 

If you’re using another host right now, you can migrate for free to an UltaHost VPS. 

Plans start at just $5.50 per month, and you can save up to 30% when you sign up today. 

A2 Hosting VPS — Best for Supercharged Speed

Visit A2 Hosting

• Wide array of managed and unmanaged VPS plans
• Prices start as low as $2.99/month
• Free SSD with root access
• 30-day money back guarantee

Get a 50% discount

A2 Hosting offers some of the fastest hosting out there. And its VPS offerings are no exception.

Compared to others on this list, A2 offers an unmatched blend of affordability and performance. That is made possible by its plentiful options for both managed and unmanaged VPS hosting.

Typically, unmanaged VPS plans with root access and custom features come at a higher price point. But not with A2 Hosting. Experienced developers can get an unmanaged virtual private server for as low as $2.99 per month.

That lowest-priced plan delivers 1 GB of RAM, 500 GB of bandwidth, and just 20 GB of solid-state drive storage, so it’s most appropriate for low-volume sites that simply want to load in an instant for any visitor.

But, when you step up beyond that entry-level plan, you unlock tons of extra power and storage for improved performance. Each successive plan delivers more RAM, more disk space, and higher bandwidth limits, going all the way up to an impressive combination of 16 GB of memory, 300 GB of NVMe storage, and 6 TB of transfer, supported by eight CPU cores.

You’ll also get root access for greater control to make custom changes to your virtual server. Coupled with the low price point, this makes A2 a top choice for anyone who’s looking to really take the reins of their website.

Here’s a closer look at the pricing for A2’s unmanaged VPS plans:

• Runway 1 — Starting at $2.99 per month
• Runway 2 — Starting at $7.99 per month
• Runway 4 — Starting at $9.99 per month
• Supersonic 8 — Starting at $29.99 per month
• Supersonic 16 — Starting at $59.99 per month

These are all based on one-year contracts. If you want to lock in a rate for three years or opt for month-to-month billing, it will cost a bit more per month (but rarely more than $2 or $3 extra monthly).

The Supersonic plans are special, as they unlock A2’s turbo servers which deliver 40% faster CPU performance, two times faster time to first byte (TTFB), and three times faster read/write performance on its site data storage.

With the unmanaged plans, you can also configure your server preferences for disk space, CPU, memory, and bandwidth. Obviously, any adjustments will impact the price.

If you don’t want the stress of self-managing your VPS plan, you can opt for any of A2’s managed offerings for the same type of hosting.

It’s going to be pricier than the unmanaged versions of these plans, but you’re able to leave the dirty work to the pros at A2. This includes features you can’t find on their unmanaged VPS plans, such as automated backups, free site migrations, extra DDoS and cyberattack protection, and more.

Plus you’re getting all the aspects you’d expect from managed hosting. Hardware and network maintenance, software updates and patches, 24/7/365 monitoring for security vulnerabilities and breaches, and uptime stability are all handled for you by A2 Hosting.

Let’s take a look at the pricing for these managed VPS plans:

• Lift 4 — Starting at $39.99 per month
• Lift 8 — Starting at $54.99 per month
• Lift 16 — Starting at $67.99 per month
• Mach 8 — Starting at $59.99 per month
• Mach 16 — Starting at $89.99 per month

The Mach plans are equivalent to the Supersonic plans for unmanaged VPS, providing you access to A2’s turbo servers.

You won’t be able to configure your server the same way you would if you select an unmanaged plan, but that’s probably more of a benefit than a drawback if you’re uncomfortable with potentially using unmanaged VPS plans. Let the pros take control and responsibility off your hands so you can focus on making your site content and design the best it can be.

Overall, A2 is a great choice both for developers who want complete control and customization over their VPS and for less tech-savvy users who want the speed of VPS at a competitive price.

A2 Hosting also has one of the best customer support teams on the market. So if that’s something that you prioritize, it’s worth taking an even closer look at their plans. Check out my full review of A2 hosting for more about the company.

Scala Hosting — Best for Customizing VPS Resources

Visit Scala Hosting

• Fully customizable VPS resources
• Max out at 24 CPU cores, 128 GB RAM, & 2 TB of disk space
• Choose datacenter & OS
• 24 helpful add-ons

Create Your Plan

VPS gives you more resources—RAM, disk space, and CPU cores—than shared or cloud hosting will.

But sometimes, bespoke VPS hosting packages give the exact amount of those resources that your specific business needs. 

Scala Hosting lets you tailor your VPS servers to the exact specifications you’ll want for your sites.

And by exact, I mean exact. Scala offers a build-your-own VPS hosting tool. Check it out below:

You can use sliders to set the number of CPU cores (choose from one to 24), how much RAM (2 GB to 128 GB), and the storage space of your SSD (50 GB to 2,000 GB).

Enter the combination you need for your site, and Scala’s tool will spit out prices for monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual billing. Managed VPS plans also come in two-year and three-year terms.

For example, let’s say you have a social networking site where people can share photos, post videos, and contribute as much content to the community as they’d like. It’s a small but active community, so you never have to worry much about traffic spikes, but you need the site to run smoothly when dozens or more are posting and browsing at once. And you need ample storage for all the content they’re posting.

In that case, you could set up a VPS plan through Scala that has four CPU cores, 10 GB of memory, and 400 GB of storage. Paying annually will run you $79/month for self-managed VPS through Scala. That’s just 19 bucks more than Bluehost’s Ultimate VPS package, where you get the same number of cores, but 2 GB less RAM, and 280 GB less SSD space.

That same package for Scala’s fully managed VPS is a very competitive $137.95/month.

Plus, you can select your preferred data center—choose from New York, Dallas, or Europe—at no extra charge. On self-managed plans, you can select one of eight operating systems. For fully managed, you can select whether you’d like SPanel for your control panel or cPanel for anywhere from five to 1,000 accounts.

Customization doesn’t stop there. Choose from 24 different add-ons to tweak your package even further. You can add unbranded WHMCS, Softaculous, or ClientExec for client management, additional cPanel licenses, a CloudLinux license, and more.

Don’t want to build your own? Prebuilt self-managed VPS packages start at $20/month and the same for fully managed plans start at $29.95/month.

If you know exactly what you need and don’t want to jump through any hoops to get it for your sites, go with Scala Hosting.

InMotion VPS — Most Reliable Uptime

Visit InMotion

• High-performance cloud VPS
• Starts at $19.99/month
• Free and unlimited email
• 90-day money-back guarantee

Get a 64% discount

InMotion specializes in VPS hosting. Their plans come in two flavors: managed and cloud.

While its managed hosting is great and offers tremendous performance, I highly recommend its cloud hosting plan. This plan offers even more control over your VPS server for developers and website managers. It also comes with enterprise-level hardware to ensure a 99.9%+ uptime rate.

Let’s take a look at each one to see what’s best for your website.

InMotion Managed VPS Hosting

InMotion’s managed plans are ideal for business owners, agencies, and resellers, which is why InMotion landed at the top of our list of top reseller hosting providers. Each plan offers free server management, updates, and free site migrations.

You’ll also benefit from a resource monitoring dashboard, unlimited domains, unlimited email accounts, and unlimited MySQL databases.

Here’s what their plans look like for three-year contracts:

• 2 GB RAM — Starting at $19.99 per month
• 4 GB RAM — Starting at $39.99 per month
• 6 GB RAM — Starting at $49.99 per month
• 8 GB RAM — Starting at $59.99 per month

All plans are ecommerce-optimized and come with optional root access for those of you who want more advanced control over your settings. These prices reflect the longest contract commitment and best pricing option.

InMotion Cloud VPS

The cloud hosting account plans offered by InMotion are best for developers and system administrators. That’s because each plan comes with full root access, including SSH keys, which gives you total control over customization.

As a developer, you’ll essentially get a blank slate to customize a VPS to meet the exact needs of your website. You can also code in the language of your preference, like Java, Ruby, and other popular choices.

InMotion Cloud VPS provides enterprise-level hardware, with SSD servers that are 20x faster than the competition.

• cVPS-1 — Starting at $6 per month
• cVPS-2 — Starting at $12 per month
• cVPS-3 — Starting at $18 per month
• cVPS-4 — Starting at $24 per month
• cVPS-6 — Starting at $34 per month
• cVPS-8 — Starting at $54 per month
• cVPS-16 — Starting at $96 per month
• cVPS-32 — Starting at $192 per month

In my review of InMotion hosting I found that in order to get the best introductory rates for cloud VPS, you need to commit for one year, as opposed to two years with the managed plans.

Prices for managed plans and cloud hosting plans are a lot alike. The biggest difference between the two is basically how much control you want over the server.

One other thing that I really like about Inmotion Hosting is that their customer support team is located in the United States. Support is available 24/7/365 and you can connect with them by phone, email, and live chat. Having multiple ways to get in touch when you need help is priceless and not something every hosting provider offers.

Unless you’re a developer, I think that the majority of you should lean toward the managed plans, just based on simplicity. Learn more at InMotion.

More Great VPS Hosting Options

Bluehost VPS — Easiest Upgrade from Shared Hosting

Visit Bluehost

• Normally $29.99/month
• Free domain and SSL certificate
• Free SSD for extreme speed
• 30-day money back guarantee

Get a 36% discount

Bluehost is an industry leader in the web hosting space.

Its VPS plans offer a wide range of hosting options to accommodate the needs of nearly every website. Bluehost is an excellent choice for anyone new to VPS hosting—or new to hosting in general.

VPS hosting gives you more control over the server than standard shared hosting does. However, with that control comes increased responsibilities, which many inexperienced users find overwhelming.

Not with Bluehost, though. It has designed everything with beginners in mind.

Bluehost offers a massive knowledge base that allows you to learn anything you want about VPS hosting. It also has a great customer support team that can be reached by telephone, email, or live chat 24/7 to help out with any questions or issues.

Bluehost allows multi-server management, meaning you can add more space to your plan at any given time. This is ideal for websites that need to scale at a moment’s notice, without any delays or downtime.

You’ll be able to accomplish this directly from your advanced cPanel, without any assistance from a Bluehost administrator.

Bluehost has several powerful plans with straightforward pricing. No hidden fees or surprises. They even give you a free domain name just for signing up.

Standard VPS

• Starting at $19.99 per month
• 2 CPU cores
• 30 GB of SSD
• 2 GB of RAM
• 1 TB of bandwidth

Enhanced VPS

• Starting at $29.99 per month
• 2 CPU cores
• 60 GB of SSD
• 4 GB of RAM
• 2 TB of bandwidth

Ultimate VPS

• Starting at $59.99 per month
• 4 CPU cores
• 120 GB of SSD
• 8 GB of RAM
• 3 TB of bandwidth

Bluehost offers pricing and resources for websites of all shapes and sizes.

I found in my deep-dive review of Bluehost that even if you’re looking for an entry-level VPS plan, the Enhanced VPS makes more sense than the Standard option. For just $10 more per month, you’ll get double the SSD, RAM, and bandwidth.

It is worth noting that the prices listed above are promotional rates. You’ll pay $39.99, $59.99, and $119.99, respectively, when your plan renews.

All VPS plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. For a reasonable price, you’ll benefit from plenty of resources, support, and uptime compared to other options on the market. Try Bluehost today.

HostGator VPS — Best VPS for Hands-On Customer Support

Visit HostGator

• Great customer service team
• Flexible software options
• Advanced server features
• 45-day money back guarantee

Get a 75% discount

HostGator is another popular name in the world of web hosting. Its VPS plans are known for their excellent pricing.

Where HostGator really shines, though, is in its excellent customer support offerings. For example, it offers free content transfers if you’re migrating from a different web host. That’s a service that you’d normally spend hundreds of dollars on at another hosting site.

But HostGator transfers “website files, databases, scripts, and one free domain registration” for absolutely no cost to you. You just have to do it within 30 days of signing up. That’s world-class support.

With VPS hosting, getting timely customer support from the right person is crucial. The increased control you have over the server environment means that a huge number of issues can arise. Questions get technically complex very quickly, and you may not even know how to articulate what is going wrong.

Their customer support team is also on hand 24/7/365 via phone, email, or live chat to help you with any of your needs.

Here are the VPS pricing plans for HostGator:

Snappy 2000

• Starting at $23.95 per month
• 2 GB of RAM
• 2 CPU cores
• 120 GB of disk space
• 1.5 TB of bandwidth

Snappy 4000

• Starting at $34.95 per month
• 4 GB of RAM
• 2 CPU cores
• 165 GB of disk space
• 2 TB of bandwidth

Snappy 8000

• Starting at $59.95 per month
• 8 GB of RAM
• 4 CPU cores
• 240 GB of disk space
• 3 TB of bandwidth

Although these plans aren’t the lowest that we’ve seen, they’re still pretty good.

HostGator’s VPS plans are geared towards more professional, experienced web managers, though. They’re very good at giving developers great control over their exact hosting specifications.

HostGator also stands out with its reliable and multi-layer security network. This enhanced protection paired with the ability to easily scale your resources is what makes HostGator a top VPS choice on our list

Along with that, you get unlimited MySQL Databases, full root access, and unlimited SFTP users. So if you want more control over technical aspects of your website, this is the host for you.

They also offer good cloud hosting plans, as I found in my review of HostGator cloud hosting.

iPage VPS — Best VPS Hosting If You’re Starting from Scratch

Visit iPage

• Drag-and-drop website builder
• Free domain and SSL certificate
• Starts at $19.99/month
• 30-day money back guarantee

Get a 20% discount

iPage is an affordable VPS plan with a few useful tools for people just starting out. You’ll also get a high degree of customer support, which isn’t always the case with VPS hosting.

iPage actually specializes in web design and other services, as I discovered in my in-depth review of iPage hosting. For those of you who are building a new website from scratch and want to start with a solid, affordable VPS hosting plan, iPage is a top choice.

The drag-and-drop website builder allows you to create a great-looking website easily. No coding or web development knowledge is required. iPage will also throw in a free domain for you. That makes it a great package for someone creating a new website with VPS hosting.

Let’s take a closer look at their plans.

Basic VPS

• Starting at $19.99 per month (renews at $24.99)
• 1 CPU core
• 1 GB of RAM
• 40 GB of disk space
• 1 TB of bandwidth

Business VPS

• Starting at $47.99 per month (renews at $59.49)
• 2 CPU cores
• 4 GB of RAM
• 90 GB of disk space
• 3 TB of bandwidth

Optimum VPS

• Starting at $79.99 per month (renews at $99.99)
• 4 CPU cores
• 8 GB of RAM
• 120 GB of disk space
• 4 TB of bandwidth

As you can see, these are the lowest prices that we’ve seen so far, even after the full-price renewal rates kick in.

Even with these low rates, you’ll still benefit from quality 24/7 support. You just won’t get the capacity and resources offered by some higher-tier providers. Learn more at iPage.

How to Find the Best VPS Host for You

Now that you’ve had a chance to look at some specific VPS plans, it’s time to determine the best possible choice for you and your website.

The two main questions to consider are straightforward:

• What resources do you need?
• How much are you willing to spend?

In most cases, price and features will go hand-in-hand. If you need the highest possible RAM, disk space, and storage, then you should expect to pay higher prices.

Aside from that, you could lean toward one provider or plan over another based on other features like customer support, website security, and the ability to scale.

Some of you might be wondering what qualifications and standards we used to determine which VPS services are the best. All of the plans on our list scored high based on the following considerations.

You can see them below and use them when making your final decision:

24/7/365 White-Glove Support

Good customer support isn’t just a “nice to have” when it comes to VPS hosting—it’s an absolute necessity. In fact, good customer support should be a deal breaker for anyone looking for a VPS web host.

This is especially true if you’re managing a website for your business. If your website goes down or you become a victim of a DDoS attack, you need to be able to pick up a phone and have someone on the other end help you address the issue ASAP. Each minute they don’t help you could mean tons of lost revenue.

At the bare minimum, I’d recommend a VPS plan that comes with 24/7 phone and live chat support. Some of the choices on our list stand out for their support more than others. I made sure to point that out in the reviews above.

Of course, customer support doesn’t start and end when things go wrong. You also want real people working for the hosting provider to be there to help you with other things that come up when managing an online business.

For example, if you’re creating a new website from scratch then you probably don’t care about free site migrations. But for those of you who are looking to transfer from another provider, a free migration and free domain transfer could save you a couple of hundred dollars.

If that sounds like your situation, look to HostPapa. It offers free VPS migration and free domain transfer on top of 24/7 customer support.

Root Access Availability

Root access gives Linux, Unix, and Linux-adjacent users the ability to implement more command over their websites and digital assets, allowing for greater access and customization.

To be clear, not every VPS plan on our list comes with root access. But not everyone needs it.

Root access is only necessary for those of you who are developers, are technically advanced, or want to make custom changes to your virtual server. The vast majority of you will be better off choosing a fully managed VPS plan.

But if you’re looking for a VPS host, you’re likely looking to have more control over your website anyway. Luckily, there are some fully managed plans that come with optional root access as well. For example, InMotion Managed VPS Hosting gives you optional root access for more advanced control.

With InMotion Cloud VPS, you’ll get full root access along with SSH keys for further secure customization.

A2 Hosting is another standout if root access is important. They offer full root access in plans that start as low as $5 per month.

So, just make sure you know before choosing a plan whether you want to have root access or not.

High Uptime Rates

Uptime is arguably the most important factor to consider in web hosting. In many cases, uptime is the reason why anyone would want to upgrade from a shared host to a VPS host.

That’s why you need to put a premium on uptime rates. Every VPS plan on this guide performed well in our uptime tests.

Most providers guarantee a 99.9% uptime rate, and they’ll credit your bill if they fail to meet those standards. However, you’d like to avoid this scenario altogether for a few reasons.

First, getting a few extra bucks back isn’t worth your site being down when it could be up and making you more money. And, depending on how long it’s down for, that could mean a lot of money.

Second, do you know how much time you actually lose each year if your site is down even a fraction of a percentage point? It’s probably a lot more than you think.

The difference between 99% and 99.9% uptime is over 80 hours a year! That’s more than three days that your website is down annually, all because you didn’t get a good web host.

That’s why you want to find a good web host company that guarantees at least 99.9% uptime per year. If you’re evaluating VPS plans from an uptime perspective, you can rest easy knowing that every provider on our list is a safe option.

Also, if or when your website goes down, you’ll want the VPS host to be there at any hour of the day to help you out—which goes back to our point about always-available white glove service. During downtime (both planned and unplanned), this transparency and communication are key.

Powerhouse Performance

The main appeal of VPS hosting is that it can drastically increase your website’s performance. Your website will experience a major speed boost now that it’s not sharing resources with other sites.

Site speed is important for all websites. A one-second delay in load time can mean page views are reduced by 11% and 7% fewer conversions. This is especially crucial for those of you who plan to experience high volumes of traffic. You want to make sure that you find a plan that can accommodate your traffic without sacrificing speed.

The VPS hosts on this list have been reviewed and researched to make sure that they offer the best load times of any host.

Though much of your website’s speed depends on the amount of media and assets you have on it (and how it’s optimized), there are two very important elements to take into consideration that impact your website’s overall performance:

SSD Disk

Solid-state drive (SSD) disks are the devices that store your website’s assets, like images, videos, content, web pages, and so on.

They also help boost your website much more quickly for the user. As such, they greatly improve performance overall.

RAM

RAM refers to the amount of working memory that can be accessed by your server’s CPU. When a program is booted up, it is temporarily stored on the server’s RAM for easy access.

If you have too little RAM, then that information is stored on your SSD or hard drive—which takes much longer to access.

So the more, the better in general. But it all really depends on your website’s demands.

We’ve seen RAM as low as 512 MB (A2 Entry Unmanaged VPS) and as high as 24 GB (HostPapa Extreme VPS).

The number of resources you’ll get will be determined by the plan you choose. It all depends on what you need and how much you’re willing to spend.

This is particularly important for websites that need a high threshold for RAM and disk space. For example, if you need email hosting, in-browser games or apps, or IoT platforms.

What is VPS Hosting?

VPS stands for “virtual private server.” This is a type of web hosting solution that splits a single server into separate virtual machines. Each virtual server can be configured to meet the needs of the sites that it’s hosting.

One of the most significant benefits of VPS hosting is that it comes with dedicated server resources. So the traffic, storage, and server consumption of another website won’t have any impact on your website or performance. 

Virtual private servers are perfect for people who want the benefits of a dedicated server without the hefty price tag associated with dedicated web hosting. The vast majority of websites will never need a dedicated server. But once you start getting more traffic, there’s a good chance you’ll outgrow your shared hosting plan.

VPS hosting is the middle ground between shared hosting and dedicated hosting. Similar to shared hosting, you’re still sharing a single server with other websites. But fewer sites are on that server, and each site has its own dedicated resources and custom configuration options.

Most websites don’t need VPS hosting when they’re starting from scratch. It makes sense to upgrade from shared to VPS hosting when your traffic scales and you need more resources. 

Upgrading to VPS hosting helps improve the speed and performance of your site and ultimately improves the user experience for your visitors. Due to the configuration of VPS hosting, you’ll be more equipped to handle higher volumes of traffic and unexpected traffic spikes. For more information on how VPS stacks up against other hosting options, check out my guide on the best web hosting providers.

Virtual Servers Compared to Other Hosting Options

Before you finalize your decision on a VPS hosting plan, you need to make sure that a virtual private server is your best option.

If you’re creating a new website from scratch and don’t plan on having too much traffic for a long time, then shared hosting will be your best bet. Not sure? Take a minute to consider the different types of web hosting to figure out which is best for you.

For those of you who want complete customization over your server and expect 100,000+ visitors each month, then you might want to consider a dedicated server. You can refer to my guide on the best dedicated hosting plans for more information on this.

VPS hosting is for everyone else who falls in the middle.

So if you’ve outgrown your shared plan but don’t need the resources offered on a dedicated server, then a virtual private server will be perfect for your website.

Best VPS Hosting Plans: Your Top Questions Answered

The Best VPS Hosting in Summary

Virtual private server (VPS) hosting offers more memory, better performance, and greater flexibility at an affordable price. It’s an excellent option to consider when you’ve outgrown a shared hosting plan.

Different VPS hosting providers are better for various use cases. Some are built for scalability, while others are made for developers. Certain providers stand out for price and value, while others offer unique services for IoT devices and edge computing.

The post Compare The Best Virtual Private Servers (VPS Hosting) appeared first on .

Auto dialer software does just what the name implies—automatically dials numbers from a contact list. When a call gets answered, the software connects the call to an agent or recorded message.

Auto dialer software is most commonly used for cold call sales. But it also has a wide range of other uses like emergency notifications, event reminders, debt collection, weather alerts, political campaigns, fundraising, and more.

The Top 9 Options for Auto Dialer Software

Best of 2023: Nextiva, Vonage, RingCentral, Five9, ChaseData, CallHub, Voicent, Nice inContact, and contactSPACE.

All of the auto dialer solutions reviewed in this guide are great options. They’re all part of a larger phone service solution that can take your business to the next level. But these three tools are my favorite, and they’ll accommodate the needs of most businesses:

• Nextiva – Best overall (For a limited time get 25% off, plus a free phone, when you sign up!)
• Vonage – Best for CRM integrations
• RingCentral – Best for predictive dialing

After researching the best auto dialer software on the market today, I’ve narrowed down my picks to the top solutions for you to consider.

Read on to learn more about the features, benefits, pricing, and use cases of each option on our list.

Nextiva — Best Overall

Visit Nextiva

• Full VoIP solution
• Click to dial in your CRM
• Helpful extras like call pop & video
• Works w/ Salesforce, HubSpot, & more

Get started today

Auto dialers lean hard on your contact list. Some autodialer options provide their own CRM that you can populate. Others offer integrations with popular CRMs, including:

• HubSpot
• Salesforce
• Zoho
• Oracle Sales Cloud
• Zendesk

Nextiva seamlessly integrates with these leading CRMs and others, allowing you to leverage Nextiva’s streamlined click-to-call feature.

Nextiva uses Go Integrator to bridge the gap between it and your CRM software. That unlocks click-to-dial capability, which makes it possible to simply click the phone icon next to a contact in your CRM to start a call.

And with how easy it is to segment and split lists in Salesforce, HubSpot, and other CRMs, you can use these lists to streamline outbound calling sprints. While not a true auto dialer, Nextiva still reduces a lot of time and manual effort while giving your team a full view of the contacts they’re dialing.

When you can dial calls this way, why bother with an auto dialer whose contact list you have to populate separately? Streamline things and make it all happen in your existing CRM.

Plus, you’re not just getting a CRM telephony integrator with Nextiva—you’re getting the whole VoIP package. Our complete Nextiva review covers these features in greater detail.

CRM integrations kick in on the second-cheapest plan, Professional. With it, you get unlimited voice and video calling, unlimited conferencing, call pop, texting, team messaging, unlimited faxing, and much more. Plus, it allows for integration with the most widely-used CRMs—Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zendesk.

Nextiva Professional’s pricing depends on your number of users:

• 1-4 users: $27.95 per user/month
• 5-19 users: $25.95 per user/month
• 20-99 users: $22.95 per user/month
• 100+ users: $21.95 per user/month

**Nextiva is currently running a limited-time promotion, and you can get started for even less than the prices above. Click here to see their limited-time sale prices.

If you’re using a heftier CRM like Oracle or if your organization leans on Microsoft Teams or ServiceNow, you’ll want to step up to Nextiva’s Enterprise plan. That also allows for unlimited conference call attendees, unlimited call pop, and single sign-on. Pricing scales the same way as Professional, just $10 more.

Leverage your current CRM to help your team dial contacts more efficiently. Get set up with Nextiva’s VoIP communications platform today.

Vonage – Best for CRM Integrations

Visit Vonage

• Dial from your CRM
• Secure and scalable
• Auto call logging
• Auto call recording

Get a quote

With Vonage, you can get a complete contact center solution that’s packed with powerful features—including auto dialer. 

My favorite part about Vonage compared to other auto dialer software is its integrated CRM capabilities. Your call center agents can use both click-to-dial technology as well as auto dial directly within your preferred CRM.  

Vonage integrates with Salesforce, Zendesk, ServiceNow, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and more. 

These integrations, paired with auto-dial functionality, can really make your agents more productive. They can make calls within the CRM and still have full access to all customer or lead information without having to bounce back and forth between multiple screens. 

Vonage has been a Salesforce partner for more than a decade, and the software has really been refined over the years to ensure smooth compatibility with this leading sales CRM. So if you want to close more deals and dial more numbers, Vonage can make that happen. 

For such an advanced solution, I love that Vonage is so straightforward when you’re getting set up. You can integrate Vonage’s contact center solution with your CRM on day one—without any complex training or configuration.

Vonage is secure, scalable, and easy to use. You’ll also benefit from perks like auto-logging and automatic call recordings. The software even comes with some powerful AI functions, ideal if your contact center gets both inbound and outbound calls. 

Contact Vonage for a free quote on your contact center solution. I highly recommend this option for any business that wants auto-dial functionality built into a CRM-friendly contact center. 

RingCentral — Best For Predictive Dialing

Visit RingCentral

• Best call center software
• 99.999% uptime
• Industry & use-case specific tools
• Progressive dialing

Get a free quote

RingCentral ranks among the best on our list of the best call center software, so it’s no surprise to see it here as well. RingCentral has everything you need to manage your call center, including auto dialing, to maximize outbound productivity.

More than 400,000 businesses across the globe trust RingCentral for a wide range of products and services.

RingCentral has industry-specific solutions for healthcare, tech, financial services, retail, and education. It also has use-case-specific features for cloud phone systems, remote work, video conferencing, and contact centers.

The RingCentral auto dialing feature is one of the top benefits of its outbound calling service. Its predictive dialing tool is the best in the industry.

With RingCentral, your sales agents will be well-informed with quick access to information. The software is easy to use and simplifies the sales process with automated, guided engagement flows.

Other highlights of RingCentral’s auto dialer include:

• 99.999% uptime guarantee
• Custom campaigns
• Data integration
• Safe Dial featuring TCPA compliance
• Progressive dialer

Regardless of your industry, business size, or call center needs, RingCentral will be an excellent choice for your organization. Contact them today for a free quote, and check out our RingCentral review to learn more.

More Great Auto Dialer Software

Five9 — Best For Unleashing An Unforgettable Customer Experience

Visit Five9

• All-in-one call center solution
• Cloud-based software
• Predictive dialing
• Power dialer

Get a custom quote

Five9 is a world leader in cloud-based call center solutions. And really focuses on improving the customer’s experience. It’s trusted by well-known brands like Lululemon, DoorDash, DHL, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Omaha Steaks, and Fitbit.

Businesses using Five9’s auto dialer software see, on average, a 300% boost in connect rates.

Five9 has been providing call center software for 20 years. More than 2,000 businesses across the globe trust Five9 for auto dialing and other features. Each year, Five9 enables over five billion call minutes.

Five9 has a wide variety of dialing modes to accommodate the needs of your organization and accounts for time zones and list penetration. You can also customize everything to align with compliance regulations.

Some of the top highlights of the Five9 auto dialer software include:

• Predictive dialer — automatically predict agent availability to maximize efficiency
• Power dialer — calls contacts based on the calls-to-agents ratio
• Progress dialer — only connects agents to calls answered by a real person
• Preview dialer — agents see contact details prior to answering calls

All of these tools make it easy for your team to generate more leads at scale. In addition to the auto dialer, Five9 is an all-in-one contact center solution.

Five9 pricing is not available online. Contact their sales team for a custom quote based on features, seats, and usage.

ChaseData — Best for Small Businesses

Visit ChaseData

• Industry specific solutions
• Custom call center software
• Plan for low volume calling
• Preview and progressive dialer

Get a free demo

ChaseData provides call center solutions for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Where the software particularly excels is in helping small businesses power their call centers.

The software is trusted by both sales teams and marketing departments. ChaseData provides industry-specific solutions for small businesses that want something beyond a one-size-fits-all approach.

ChaseData is commonly used for custom software in the following industries:

• Financial services
• Utilities
• Insurance
• Travel and hospitality
• Banking
• Home improvement and construction
• Debt collections
• Nonprofit
• Consumer sales
• B2B and SaaS

If your small business falls into one of these categories, you’ll want to consider ChaseData.

ChaseData offers a free trial that includes 1,000 telecom minutes per agent, so you can see what the tool’s about with zero commitment. There are three paid tiers of service available.

If you’re a small business with low call volume, the Small Business plan is designed especially for you. For $89 per user per month, you get 3,000 telecom minutes, plus web, email, and chat-based support.

If you have a high-volume sales center, the Professional package at $139 per user per month includes 5,000 telecom minutes and advanced features to help your agents excel. The Enterprise package includes 7,000 telecom minutes and costs $169 per user per month.

Preview dialing and progressive dialing are both available on the small business plan. Unfortunately, you’ll need to upgrade to the second-tier professional plan to benefit from predictive dialing. Get started with ChaseData now.

CallHub — Best For Political, Advocacy, and Nonprofit Organizations

Visit CallHub

• Starts at $0.026 per minute
• Unlimited agent accounts
• Local caller ID
• Robo dialer

Try for free

CallHub is an all-in-one solution for call center software, voice broadcasting software, and SMS marketing software. It’s a popular choice for political campaigns and nonprofit organizations in 200+ countries across the globe.

The software has an extensive list of integrations for use-case-specific scenarios, such as Databank Connect for nonprofits and NationBuilder for political organizations.

CallHub’s automated dialer has predictive dialing, power dialing, preview dialing, and robo dialing. The robo dialer plays pre-recorded messages, which is a popular way to spread your message without having to rely on live agents.

Additional features of CallHub include:

• Local caller ID
• Follow-up scheduling
• Live call monitoring for quality assurance and training
• DNC (do not call) enablement
• Answering machine detection
• Phone number verification

More than 3,000 organizations and 20,000+ agents use CallHub. Outgoing calls for call centers start at $0.069 per minute. Incoming call center prices start at $0.026 per minute.

For campaigns, the software offers a free Lite version, so you can try it out for free. After that, you can choose either their Essentials package for $99 per month or Scale for $199 per month. You’ll save on each plan if you sign up for a quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly commitment.

While CallHub does have business-focused features, including Salesforce and Zapier integrations, the software’s sweet spot lies with nonprofit, political, and advocacy organizations. Business users will likely find a better solution elsewhere.

Voicent — Best For Prerecorded Messages

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• Starts at $19
• Unlimited robo calls
• Simultaneous calling
• 30-day free trial

Start for free

Voicent is trusted by thousands of businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations in 50+ countries. For more than a decade, this platform has been providing an all-in-one solution for outbound calls, inbound voice, email and text software, auto dialers, and marketing automation.

All of the Voicent tools are fully integrated with each other. So you don’t have to deal with costly or complicated integrations; just plug and play.

Voicent also has a built-in CRM to automatically track customers. The software has exceptional automation features for tracking and responding to customer communication.

The top auto dialer feature from Voicent is the ability to deliver prerecorded messages to long lists of contacts. The software can detect answering machines and leave messages in your own voice or a computer-generated voice.

Prerecorded messages for auto dialing with Voicent are commonly used for:

• Event notification
• Weather alerts
• Bill collection
• Service pickup and delivery notifications
• City government enforcement
• Emergency school notifications

Voicent’s auto dialer is easy to use, scalable, and fully customizable for any use case.

Additional features include:

• Simultaneous calls
• Text-to-speech
• Excel spreadsheet list integration
• Unlimited robo calling

Pricing for Voicent starts at $19 per user per month with an annual contract. Month-to-month rates start at $29. In addition to the base rate, you’ll pay based on call usage.

While the base package has everything you need to get started, you’ll have to pay extra for add-ons like inbound call center capabilities, caller ID, workflow automations, and more. These range anywhere from $2 to $99. You can try Voicent for free for 30 days.

Nice inContact — Best For Enterprise Call Centers

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• Trusted by 385,000+ agents
• KPI benchmarking
• Predictive dialing
• Automatic call distribution

Get a free quote

Nice inContact is a modern way to modernize large-scale contact centers. That platform has everything you need to operate at scale. It’s trusted by big brands, like Honeywell, that have 4,000+ agents alone.

In addition to traditional dialing, auto dialer, and call center software, Nice inContact has tools for performance management, workforce management, quality management, CRM integration, and more.

You’ll also benefit from an interactive tool for KPI benchmarking to see how your organization stacks up against similar call centers.

85+ Fortune 100 companies rely on Nice inContact. The platform supports 385,000+ agents across the globe in more than one hundred countries.

Nice inContact has been around for 15 years and boasts a 99% uptime guarantee.

Other highlights include:

• Automatic call distribution
• Predictive dialing
• Analytics and reporting
• Customer surveys
• Call recording
• CRM integrations
• Interactive voice response

Like most enterprise software, pricing for Nice inContact is not available online. Contact their team for a free quote.

contactSPACE — Easiest to Set Up and Use

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• Comprehensive guided setup
• Onboard new agents in under 2 hours
• Many features to improve outbound
• Powerful segmentation & targeting

Schedule a demo

contactSPACE is a complete contact center solution that can help revolutionize the way your agents and phone reps do their jobs. 

It stands out against the crowd with its intelligent cloud-calling capabilities, meaning that the days of blindly calling contacts and prospects can finally be put behind you. 

With contactSPACE, your team has the tools to only target the right people at the right times. The software supercharges your sales funnel and gives your team the confidence that each call will lead to a positive outcome.

You can also use contactSPACE to eliminate leakage caused by not making contact quickly enough with the new leads. 

Furthermore, contactSPACE is powerful and flexible enough to maximize the insights you already have about your contacts. You can use the target filters feature to sort call recipients and organize daily workflows. Agents can even prioritize contacts based on when they entered the pipeline, callback urgency, and custom segmentation.

The software also lets admins categorize prospects in ways so that they’re automatically matched with agents who have the right skills to serve them. All of this feeds into contactSPACE Intelligent Outbound solutions.

But the service really shines with its simple deployment. 

The team at contactSPACE puts in all of the work upfront for you. They define its clients, a process for success that’s tailored to your needs and goals. From there, they’ll create a comprehensive onboarding, training, and implementation process that’s completely pain-free for admins. Best of all, your reps won’t have to worry about a steep learning curve. 

Between the testing, training, and deployment support contactSPACE delivers, it’s a breeze to get their software up and running at your organization. Onboarding new callers takes as little as two hours, allowing you to plug reps in and get them off and running without delay.

You don’t need an in-house IT team to monitor contactSPACE’s platform. After setup and deployment, contactSPACE’s support team will be there to continually optimize the platform for your needs.

There are four contactSPACE pricing packages to choose from:

The Silver tier starts at $105 per user per month. But it’s capped at 10 campaigns. The Gold, Platinum, and Diamond packages all offer unlimited users and more advanced features. These start at $139, $175, and $239 per user per month, respectively. 

Reach out to contactSPACE today to talk with an agent, run an ROI evaluation, and schedule a demo.

How to Find the Best Auto Dialer Software For You

There are certain factors to look for when shopping around for auto dialer software. Which of these factors is most important to you will depend on the needs of your business, and this will vary slightly for everyone.

These are the four main elements that the Quick Sprout research team used to narrow down the top options in this guide. Continue reading below to see how each one applies to your needs as you’re evaluating the options on our list.

Ease of Use

The whole point of auto dialer software is to improve your existing process for outbound calling. With an autodialer tool, your team should be able to increase the overall call volume, ultimately generating more leads per hour and per day.

But if the software isn’t easy to use, it defeats the purpose. You don’t want your agents to fumble around between screens or calls. Non-intuitive software will only slow down your call center.

All of the auto dialer software on our list is easy to use. With that said, there’s always going to be a learning curve whenever you’re using a new tool, and the term “easy” is subjective.

Before committing to any product, request a demo or take advantage of any free trials offered so you can get a feel for how the software actually works. If it’s going to take weeks to train your team and the tool complicates your process, you should probably be looking elsewhere.

Automation Features

Some auto dialer software simply routes calls to the next available agent. But that’s not always enough to improve your process. The best auto dialer software can route calls to a specific person or department.

If you’re planning to use auto dialer software with pre-recorded voice messages, you’ll want to ensure the software can automatically detect answering machines in order to leave messages. Otherwise, the message will get cut off.

You should also consider features like automated lead scoring, preview dialing, and other workflow automations. The bottom line is that the tool should automate everything you want to automate.

These types of features help reduce steps in your workflow. An extra call, click, or transfer may not seem like a big deal right now. But over time, these extra and unnecessary actions can really add up. So the right automation features can save your organization hundreds or potentially thousands of hours per year that are currently be spent on manual tasks.

CRM Integration

A good CRM is the best way to manage leads, customers, and contacts at scale. Many auto dialer products include built-in CRM software.

With that said, getting a new auto dialer tool doesn’t always mean that you need to ditch your existing CRM. So if you already have a CRM in place, make sure the auto dialer software you’re evaluating can seamlessly integrate with that platform.

Otherwise, getting customer data from one platform to the other will add unnecessary layers of complexity. This often does more harm than good.

An integrated experience is the only way to ensure maximum productivity and efficiency.

Price

Like any software or business solution, the price for auto dialer software varies widely. Unfortunately, there is no “standard” pricing across the board. You’ll find plan prices that range from $19 to $149 per month per user.

While price should never be the sole reason you choose any software, it obviously will factor into your decision.

Avoid the temptation to be distracted by extra features and expensive add-ons you may never use. Some platforms promote dozens of possibilities as a way to justify a higher price point. But this is irrelevant if you’re never actually going to use those features.

Find a solution that meets your needs at a price that you can afford. This will help you generate a higher ROI at scale.

Best Auto Dialer Software: Your Top Questions Answered

The Top Auto Dialer Software in Summary

The best auto dialer software eliminates the need for call center agents to manually dial numbers, dramatically increasing the number of calls they can make per day.

Nextiva and Vonage are our top picks for auto dialer software, but all the recommendations on our list will significantly improve your outbound sales process.

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Limited liability companies (LLCs) are a popular option for entrepreneurs nationwide. Unlike other types of business structures, LLCs can be formed in any state, regardless of your company’s physical presence.

Some states offer significant financial advantages compared to others. This guide will take a closer look at the best states to form an LLC and ultimately help you determine the best state of formation for your business.

Foreign LLCs vs. Domestic LLCs

If you form an LLC in your state of residence (your home state), it’s known as a domestic LLC.

When you form an LLC somewhere other than your home state, you’re required to register that business as a foreign LLC in your home state. To be clear, the term “foreign” has nothing to do with a business being owned by a non-US resident or outside the US. It just means that the company is doing business outside of its home state.

Why is this important?

Starting an LLC in another state might require you to form two LLCs—one in the state of formation and another in your home state.

For example, let’s say you live in Indiana but want to form an LLC in Wisconsin. You’d have to register that company as a foreign LLC in Indiana to do business in your home state.

With two LLCs, you’ll have double everything. That includes two state filing fees, registered agents in both states, two annual reporting fees, and more.

Maintaining two LLCs can quickly double your costs and double your headaches.

You can dive deeper into the differences between foreign and domestic LLCs, to determine which is right for you. And if you’re not sure whether an LLC is right for your business right now, we’ve outlined the differences between an LLC and sole proprietorship and DBA vs. LLC to explain things.

Forming an LLC in Your Home State

Are some states better to form an LLC than others? Absolutely.

But for the vast majority of people, registering an LLC in your home state will be the best option.

Most people hear or read something online that says, “Nevada has no corporate income taxes,” and assume it’s the right state to form a business. While the former may be true, the latter is not always the case—especially for anyone who lives outside of Nevada. (We’ll talk about Nevada in greater detail shortly).

Why? Remember, you’ll still be required to register a foreign LLC in your home state. So, you’ll still have to pay taxes in your home state, on top of the additional fees required for maintaining two LLCs.

The idea that you can form your LLC in a “no-tax” state, elect to be taxed as a corporation, and not pay income taxes in your home state is essentially misinformation. For most people, your home state will always be the best place to form your LLC. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to save money by registering an LLC elsewhere, and it will likely cost you more money in both the short-term and long-term.

Whether you choose to form an LLC in your home state or in one of the states on this list, we recommend using an LLC formation service to help you get started. You can read our full reviews of the best LLC services here.

5 Best States to Start an LLC

With all of that in mind, five states stand out amongst the rest as the best locations to form an LLC, so if you live in one of these states—great.

If you don’t live in one of these states, don’t automatically think it’s a good idea to form an LLC here (for the reasons discussed above). The type of business you’re starting will be a factor, as well. For example, an online-only consulting business with no physical facilities or storefronts could consider forming an LLC outside of their home state. But a retailer with a physical storefront in a shopping center probably wouldn’t have as much flexibility.

Below we’ll dive deep into the pros and cons of forming an LLC in the “best” states.

1. Delaware

Delaware has a longstanding reputation for being one of the most business-friendly states in the nation. According to the Delaware Division of Corporations, nearly 67% of Fortune 500 businesses are incorporated there.

While this doesn’t necessarily apply to LLCs, it definitely conveys a draw for organizations to form a business in Delaware. In 2021, 247,003 LLCs and 24,588 LPs/LLPs (limited liability partnership) formed in Delaware compared to 62,510 corporations.

Why?

For starters, the initial state filing fees and franchise taxes are lower than other states. Delaware doesn’t impose taxes on out-of-state income, either. The filing process is simple and allows LLCs to get up and running quickly. The state keeps it easy after that, too, with online filing of LLC taxes and reports.

Another unique standout of Delaware is the Chancery Court. This is one of three constitutional courts in Delaware (alongside the Supreme Court and Superior Court).

The Chancery Court is only for business cases. This means that business-related cases are resolved much quicker than in courts that hear cases in all categories. Plus, the judges in the Chancey Court have much more experience in business hearings.

Delaware doesn’t require shareholders, directors, or officers to be residents of the state. Furthermore, one person can be named in all of these roles. It’s also one of the only states that allows you to exclude your personal identity from the formation documents.

Pros of Forming an LLC in Delaware:

• Quick and simple formation process
• Low filing fees and franchise taxes
• No corporate income taxes (foreign LLCs that elect for corporation taxing)
• More privacy for your business
• Flexible business structure
• Specialized business legal system (Chancery Court)

Cons of Forming an LLC in Delaware:

• Dual-registration required for out-of-state LLCs
• Two registered agents required (one for each state)
• Multiple legal representatives (most lawyers are only licensed in one state)
• No flat franchise taxes

If you live outside of Delaware and want to form an LLC there, it could ultimately be more expensive than starting an LLC in your home state. Aside from having to maintain two LLCs, your administrative costs may also be higher. An accountant in your home state may not be familiar with Delaware structures, so you’d likely have to retain two accountants.

Need help? Visit Zenbusiness to form an LLC in Delaware today.

2. Nevada

Nevada is another state that draws a lot of attention from business owners who want to avoid paying high taxes. That’s because Nevada doesn’t impose taxes on personal income, corporate income, or franchise taxes.

With that said, Nevada does require business owners to pay annual license fees and annual filing fees.

In terms of privacy, Nevada is arguably second to none. They are one of the only states that allow for complete anonymity with public filings. In short, your LLC can remain anonymous in any public registration filing.

Furthermore, Nevada does not have an information-sharing agreement with the IRS. Since the state doesn’t have an income tax department, there’s no information to share.

Maintaining an LLC in Nevada is easy since they don’t require annual meetings or operating agreements.

The registration process is simple and also requires fewer steps compared to other states nationwide.

Pros of Forming an LLC in Nevada:

• No state personal income or corporate taxes
• No franchise taxes
• LLC owners can remain anonymous
• No information-sharing agreement with IRS
• No operating agreements or annual meetings required

Cons of Forming an LLC in Nevada:

• Annual business license fees
• Annual filing fees
• List of officers and directors is public information
• Gross earnings over $4 million may be subject to taxes

As you can see, forming an LLC in Nevada isn’t always ideal, especially if you’re in another state. You’ll still have to create a foreign LLC in your home state and maintain two registered agents for each LLC.

Need help? Visit Zenbusiness to form an LLC in Nevada today.

3. Wyoming

Wyoming is another state with policies aiming to be as business-friendly as possible. For starters, they don’t impose strict reporting obligations for business owners.

Similar to other states on our list, Wyoming doesn’t tax personal income or corporate income. There aren’t any franchise taxes either.

Wyoming offers something really unique compared to other states—a lifetime proxy. With a lifetime proxy, you’re able to appoint another person to represent your shares or stock in a company on your behalf. This means that business owners in Wyoming can benefit from complete anonymity.

Aside from no individual or corporate taxes, the sales tax rates in Wyoming are very low.

As you can see from this graph, Wyoming ranks 44th in the country for local tax rates. Of the 46 states that impose sales tax (four states don’t have any sales tax), Hawaii and Alaska are the only two with lower averages.

Pros of Forming an LLC in Wyoming:

• No franchise taxes
• No corporate or personal income taxes
• Low sales tax rates
• Minimal reporting requirements for LLC owners
• Lifetime proxy (for owner anonymity)

Cons of Forming an LLC in Wyoming:

• LLC dissolution (if a member dies or files for bankruptcy)
• High administrative costs
• Asset protection is not guaranteed for lawsuits outside of Wyoming

Wyoming is definitely a great state to form an LLC for entrepreneurs who live in the state. But do the pros outweigh the cons if you’re living elsewhere? Your home state will still require a foreign LLC registration, so you can’t avoid taxation altogether.

Need help? Visit Zenbusiness to form an LLC in Wyoming today.

4. Alaska

Alaska—the last frontier. While Alaska is best known for its cold weather and thousands of miles of uninhabitable terrain, it’s also a top location to form a business.

The largest state in the Union (and one of the last to join), it is an appealing place to start an LLC.

For starters, there is no state income tax or sales tax in Alaska. However, it’s worth noting that cities can collect local sales taxes (although these are generally low).

Depending on your new business’s industry, you might be entitled to certain tax credits as well. Examples include film production credits, frontier basin credits, new area development credits, qualified oil and gas service industry expenditure credits, minerals exploration incentives, and more. However, most of these require you to actually do business within the state.

Alaska also provides new business owners with great loan programs. In October 2022, the State of Alaska, alongside the University of Alaska and the Alaska Small Business Development Center, announced the launch of a new financing program with $59.9 million in funding. These funds will be available to Alaska small businesses over the next ten years.

But similar to the tax credits, they are intended for businesses operating with a physical presence in Alaska.

The state fees associated with forming an LLC in Alaska are fairly inexpensive compared to other states. Here’s a list of some common LLC fees from the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development website:

Pros of Forming an LLC in Alaska:

• No state income taxes
• No state sales taxes
• Low local tax rates
• Low LLC filing fees
• A lot of tax credits and loan opportunities

Cons of Forming an LLC in Alaska:

• Most credits are for businesses actually operating within Alaska
• Local jurisdictions can collect sales tax
• Physically distant from other states

If you live in Alaska and your business operates in Alaska, it’s definitely a great place to form an LLC. But it’s not always a practical solution for out-of-state LLC owners.

Need help? Visit Zenbusiness to form an LLC in Alaska today.

5. South Dakota

Like other states on our list, South Dakota does not have any state income taxes (a common theme on our list).

Another advantage of starting a business in South Dakota is its 0% corporate tax rate. So, this is a great option for creating an LLC that gets taxed as a corporation. South Dakota has several other tax advantages as well, including no personal property taxes, no inheritance tax, and no business inventory tax.

The filing process is easy, affordable, and can be completed online without strict requirements.

Pros of Forming an LLC in South Dakota:

• No state income taxes
• 0% corporate tax rates (for LLCs taxed as corporations)
• No business inventory tax
• Other tax advantages (for people living in South Dakota)

Cons of Forming an LLC in South Dakota:

• Limited life
• Local registered agent required

Most of the advantages associated with forming an LLC in South Dakota are for state residents and companies operating within the state. Anyone else would still have to maintain a foreign LLC in their home state.

Need help? Visit Zenbusiness to form an LLC in South Dakota today.

What to Expect When You File For an LLC

Regardless of your state of formation, there are certain expectations for LLC filing that remain constant across the board.

First, expect to pay some type of filing fee to the state. These typically range anywhere from $50 to $500, and payments are due upon filing your Articles of Organization.

Many states also require you to file an Operating Agreement. This is a legal document that explains how your LLC will be run and managed. Even if your state doesn’t require you to file an Operating Agreement during the formation process, it’s still in your best interest to do so, as it will help prevent internal conflicts amongst LLC members.

Be prepared to appoint a registered agent during the filing process as well. You could technically name yourself as the registered agent, but it will make your life much easier if you use a professional registered agent service.

Once everything has been filed, it’s just a matter of waiting until the state officially recognizes your LLC as a legal entity. The exact time varies by state, but the typical range is anywhere from three to ten business days. Most states let you expedite your filing for an additional fee, which can also be facilitated through your business formation service.

Best States to Form an LLC: Your Top Questions Answered

Conclusion

LLC formation is not universal from state to state. As you can see from this guide, some states have advantages compared to others for LLC owners.

With that said, it doesn’t mean that you should automatically form an LLC in one of these states.

So, while you may get tax breaks in one state, you’ll still have to pay them in your home state. Plus, maintaining two LLCs comes with its fair share of headaches, like extra fees, multiple accountants, multiple lawyers, and multiple registered agents.

In most cases, the pros won’t outweigh the cons when it comes to forming an LLC in a state other than your own. As always, consult with your accountant and attorney before deciding where to form an LLC.

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Coming up with a business idea is just one part of the business creation process. Forming a business can be a little trickier without the right support, but the best business formation services can take the confusion out of the equation.

Our research team spent four weeks analyzing and comparing business formation services to find the best of the best for different use cases. Out of 13 total brands, we narrowed the options to 11 services that help you navigate the legalities of business formation.

The Top 11 Best Business Formation Services

We selected 11 business formation services that fit various needs. ZenBusiness is our pick for most people because of its simplicity and breadth of tools to plan and grow your business. Form your business today with ZenBusiness for as little as $0 plus state fees.

• ZenBusiness — Best for business planning and branding
• IncFile — Best for LLC filing
• Northwest Registered Agent — Best for protecting your privacy
• Rocket Lawyer — Best for ongoing legal support
• LegalNature — Best for doing it yourself
• LegalZoom — Best for trademarking a business
• BizFilings — Best for entrepreneurs and startups
• Harbor Compliance — Best for all-around compliance
• Inc Authority — Best for managing your business after filing
• MyCompanyWorks — Best for quick business processing
• Swyft Filings — Best for personalized business assistance

How We Evaluate the Best Business Formation Services

We know how important it is to form your business correctly from the start. Therefore, to select our final picks, we followed a strict methodology to ensure that we chose services that could work for most business owners. Here, learn how we arrived at the final 11 solutions. Or if you’re ready, you can jump straight into the reviews.

How We Qualify the Best Business Formation Services for Consideration

We started our research with the following 13 business formation services: BizFilings, Harbor Compliance, Inc Authority, IncFile, Incorporate.com, Legal Zoom, LegalNature, MyCompanyWorks, MyCorporation, Northwest Registered Agent, Rocket Lawyer, Swyft Filings, ZenBusiness.

Then, we analyzed each company against the most important factors business owners look for when deciding to use a business formation service. As a result, we cut two brands—15% of the total researched companies—that didn’t mesh well with the following criteria: 

• Assistance with staying compliant: It’s crucial to stay compliant with your state’s regulations. Services with built-in compliance measures take the guesswork out of the process.
• Support when you need it: Although most business formation services are relatively easy to use, it can give you peace of mind to have excellent support if necessary.
• Simple and intuitive: The primary goal of this type of service is to simplify the process of forming a business entity. Services with setup wizards or quizzes that ask the right questions can be especially helpful for business owners.
• Quickly form your business: The best services typically process your business filing quickly so that you can start operations as soon as possible. Look for additional fees that some services charge for speeding up the process.
• Value for your money: The ability to form a business affordably is an important consideration when choosing a formation service. Consider upcharges and additional fees, like state filing fees that may not be included in your original plan. 
• Registered agent services: Specific business formations require you to have a registered agent. Some business formation services offer free registered agent services for one year or more to help you cut costs.

After narrowing the list, we were left with our final 11 business formation services. In the reviews below, we detail what each company does best so that you can decide how it might fit into your new company.

How We Narrowed the List of Qualified Business Formation Services

We analyzed 1,152 reviews from real customers of the business formation services we researched to narrow the options to our top picks. Specifically, we considered recurring themes regarding pricing, ease of use, support, trust and confidence in the product, and customer satisfaction.

Based on our review analysis and the important criteria we identified, we eliminated the following two companies. Although these companies qualified for our original list, we removed them from the final list for the following reasons:

Incorporate.com: Incorporate.com has been in the industry for several years, but has limited customer reviews, making it difficult to analyze authentically. Its package offerings are also not as transparent as other companies, but its pricing is higher than many others on our list.

MyCorporation: Although MyCorporation offers many of the same features and benefits as other favored solutions, it doesn’t necessarily provide enough additional value to warrant its higher pricing.

The Top Business Formation Services Left Standing

ZenBusiness provides exceptional value for its wide range of business-focused services for companies of all sizes. File with ZenBusiness today starting at $0 plus state fees.

• ZenBusiness — Best for business planning and branding
• IncFile — Best for LLC filing
• Northwest Registered Agent — Best for protecting your privacy
• Rocket Lawyer — Best for ongoing legal support
• LegalNature — Best for doing it yourself
• LegalZoom — Best for trademarking a business
• BizFilings — Best for entrepreneurs and startups
• Harbor Compliance — Best for all-around compliance
• Inc Authority — Best for managing your business after filing
• MyCompanyWorks — Best for quick business processing
• Swyft Filings — Best for personalized business assistance

Match Your Scenario to the Right Business Formation Service Solution

Based on our research and knowledge of the business formation process, we believe the following scenarios are some of the most common reasons that business owners need a formation service. Therefore, we’ve selected the top two services that best fit each scenario to help you explore possible solutions. 

• You’re starting a business for the first time and need help
• You want to form your business for free
• You value your privacy
• You need to form a business ASAP
• You need access to legal assistance
• You need help keeping your business compliant

You’re starting a business for the first time and need help

Best Option: ZenBusiness

ZenBusiness is one of the easiest services to use, making it a breeze for first-time business owners to form their businesses without hassle. The ZenBusiness platform guides you to the right forms, and the team files all paperwork for you.

Responsive and helpful customer support adds to its overall helpfulness. So if you ever have any questions, ZenBusiness will provide you with the answers.

Another great choice: Swyft Filings

Every customer who signs up for Swyft Filings business formation services gets a dedicated account manager to help them set up their business, file documents, and more. You’ll even get access to their direct line for quick contact when needed.

If you’re a new business owner, think about:

• Customer support: How responsive and helpful is the company’s customer support team? High-end customer service is a necessity for any business owner using formation services, but it’s especially important for those new to the process.
• Ease of use: Services that feature in-depth guides, free resources, and guided walk-throughs can make forming a business incredibly easy. 
• Resources: Articles, knowledge bases, toolkits, and other resources included in your business formation plan can assist you with the odds and ends of forming and running a business. 

You want to form your business for free

Best Option: IncFile

Simple business formations can start for free with IncFile. The company offers completely free filings for LLCs, allowing you to pay only for your state’s filing fee.

IncFile also provides free registered agent services for one year.

Another great choice: Inc Authority

Highly comparable to IncFile, Inc Authority is also free for LLC formations, so business owners just pay their state’s filing fee. A free registered agent service is included for your first year.

If you need an affordable way to start your business, consider:

• Pricing: Consider a company’s pricing compared to the value it adds, such as additional tools and services to keep your business compliant.
• Add-ons: While a service may advertise itself as a free formation tool, there’s a good chance you’ll need to pay for some add-ons to truly get the most out of the formation service. In my experience, it’s worth it to pay a little extra if it means filing quickly and accurately.
• Filing time: To save money, you may not be able to form your business immediately. Expedited filings are typically reserved for paying customers.

You value your privacy

Best Option: Northwest Registered Agent

As the name implies, registered agent services are the primary focus of Northwest Registered Agent. In addition to document scanning for your business’s legal mail, Northwest Registered Agent also scans, stores, and forwards other business mail.

The company charges just $125 per year, per state filing, with discounted pricing for five or more states.

Another great choice: IncFile

IncFile includes one free year of registered agent services if you use them to form your business. This is an excellent opportunity to understand the benefits of working with a registered agent. After the first year, you pay $119 annually.

Keep important personal and business information protected by paying attention to:

• Registered agent services: Registered agents manage tax and legal forms for you, ensuring your privacy along the way. You won’t have to look elsewhere for this necessary feature when it’s included as part of your business formation service.
• Anonymity: If you want to keep your legal name private as you’re registering the business, make sure you choose a service provider that offers this type of protection.
• Mail forwarding: Some registered agents also provide mail forwarding services. This is another way to add a layer of privacy between your business and your address.

You need to form a business ASAP

Best Option: Northwest Registered Agent

Unlike other companies that typically have at least a few days of processing time as their standard, Northwest Registered Agent offers same-day filings without additional fees. Some states may take more time to process your formation, but Northwest Registered Agent ensures a speedy filing from its end.

Another great choice: MyCompanyWorks

If you submit your business filing to MyCompanyWorks before 3 pm EST on a business day, the company processes it and sends it to your state’s agency the same day. Otherwise, your filing still occurs the following business day. 

If you want to start your business the right way, consider:

• Filing time: Some companies offer same-day business filings. Others may not offer expedited filings at all, which could add unexpected waiting time.
• Filing fees: It’s common for states and formation services alike to charge extra for expedited filings. So keep an eye on those costs as you’re comparing options.

You need access to legal assistance

Best Option: Rocket Lawyer

Rocket Lawyer weaves legal assistance throughout its services. Business owners can not only form their business with Rocket Lawyer, but they can also subscribe to ongoing legal services for consultations and answers to legal questions.

If your business creates contracts through Rocket Lawyer, you can also use Document Defense to assist you in enforcing your terms.

Another great choice: LegalZoom

If you believe your business will need legal advice beyond filing your business, LegalZoom could be a good option. It offers Business Advisory Plans with 30-minute consultations, annual business evaluations, and legal document reviews.

If your business needs extra support after filing, look for:

• Access to a legal team: Does a company have licensed attorneys to quickly and thoroughly answer your questions?
• Legal forms and templates: Self-serve legal documents can help you create compliant contracts and forms that your business uses for day-to-day operations.

You need help keeping your business compliant

Best Option: Harbor Compliance

Harbor Compliance prioritizes compliance in business with its ComplianceAdviser, a package that you can tailor to your business. It includes audits, annual reports, a registered agent, and helpful updates to keep you in the loop.

The company’s compliance software also keeps track of your business in each state you’ve filed and cross-checks your documents against state agency regulations to help you monitor your compliance.

Another great choice: LegalNature

Consider LegalNature’s Compliance Guard plan to keep your business compliant with filings, taxes, meeting minutes, and more. At just $125/year, the plan is one of the most affordable ways to ensure you’re keeping up with necessary regulations.

When your business needs to adhere to multiple compliances, pay attention to:

• Thoroughness: There are a lot of regulations to keep track of—make sure the business formation service you choose helps you comply with all of them. 
• Communication: The best business formation services continue supporting your business after filing by keeping you in compliance all year with reminders, updates, and guidance.
• Filings on your behalf: Reminders are helpful, but you’ll still need to do some work to stay compliant. Some services go the extra mile with things like annual report filings.

Business Formation Services Reviews

Our team’s deep dive into business formation services led us to pinpoint the features business owners need and expect from them. Those must-haves allowed us to find the right companies to fit those needs.

Explore the following detailed reviews to learn more about each of our final picks, what they offer, and what type of business needs they fulfill.

ZenBusiness – Best for Business Planning and Branding

Forming a business is just the starting point of your company. After that, planning and marketing a business are critical parts of its success. ZenBusiness helps you accomplish all of this. 

In addition to ZenBusiness’s guided setup to form your business, you can also access tools like market research, grant searches, and startup cost calculators. Then, work on getting your business out to the world with a domain name, website builder, business email, and more. 

Most of these tools are extra costs in addition to your business filing fees, so that’s something to consider when signing up. However, even if you don’t need branding, planning, and marketing tools right now, it could give you some peace of mind to know they’re there when needed.

Additionally, ZenBusiness offers a strong registered agent service, which simplifies the process of being compliant with LLC rules in your state. Our team ranked it second on our list of the best registered agent services. It’s this versatility that makes ZenBusiness such a strong tool for starting and running a business.

What Makes ZenBusiness Great

ZenBusiness is hyper-focused on simplifying the process of starting a business, which explains why it doesn’t expect you to fly solo after filing. Instead, you can utilize its full suite of tools, like business document templates, domain name privacy, and a website builder, whenever your business calls for them.

The company even provides assistance with tax preparation and filing services, accounting and bookkeeping services, and a Money Pro tool to track invoices, payments, and expenses. 

ZenBusiness pricing starts at $0, plus your state’s filing fees. Pro and Premium—$199 and $299, respectively—offer faster filing speeds and guided operating agreements. Premium is the best option for business owners wanting a comprehensive solution with a business website, domain registration, and email address included.

Learn why ZenBusiness is one of the most popular formation services for LLCs and corporations.

IncFile – Best for LLC Filing

It’s tough to beat a free service when you want to form a business. IncFile features a completely free LLC filing service in which you’ll only need to pay your state’s filing fees to have a brand-new business in your hands.

Although LLCs are generally one of the easiest businesses to form, IncFile ensures that there are no snags along the way with its guided setup and stripped-down website. IncFile is such a good tool for this that we named it one of the top LLC services. 

IncFile is easy to use and has multiple customization options for forming your LLC. Those who have specialized or advanced needs can feel comfortable using IncFile, as will beginners. 

In select packages, LLC business owners will receive a free EIN, a business tax consultation, and an operating agreement along with their filing. All packages also include a free registered agent service for one full year. 

Should you need an incorporation service, IncFile allows you to form a C-Corporation, S-Corporation, or nonprofit corporation for free in the entry-level pricing tier. And forming other business types is just as easy as with the LLC, thanks to the step-by-step process.

What Makes IncFile Great

Let’s be clear that IncFile works for nonprofits, C corporations, and S corporations just as well as it does LLCs. However, we appreciate how especially straightforward and affordable it is for LLCs that want a no-fuss way to form their businesses and get consistent help along the way.

Even free filing members get unlimited phone and email support. Although there aren’t weekend support hours available, the support team is highly responsive and helpful. Opt for phone support when you need help immediately.

IncFile is free to start, but you can also choose a Gold plan for $199 or a Platinum plan for $299, plus state filing fees. Gold is an excellent choice for LLC owners who’d like a little extra help from IncFile with a tax consultation, lifetime company alerts, and a business banking account. However, many simple LLCs can likely get by with the free Silver plan.

Read our full IncFile review to learn why it’s a great option.

Northwest Registered Agent – Best for Protecting Your Privacy

As a company that focuses on registered agent services, Northwest Registered Agent has several features in place to protect your privacy. Most importantly, it keeps your business’s information secure, only sharing it when needed. Otherwise, all communications include your registered agent’s contact information.

The company also has a premium mail forwarding service for $20 per month. This service sends your mail to an address other than your business address if you opt for physical forwarding. Alternatively, you may choose a digital service that scans your mail and provides you with digital copies of all your mail. 

Business owners who worry about a company selling their data may also find some peace of mind with Northwest Registered Agent. The business formation service’s mission of keeping your “Privacy by Default” includes not selling your data by default rather than requiring you to opt out of data-selling practices. 

What Makes Northwest Registered Agent Great

Don’t want to give away your physical office address to all your business contacts? Opt for Northwest Registered Agent’s Virtual Office Service. For $20 per month, you’ll get a digital location with a virtual address and electronic mail scanning with included phone services to keep your real information private.

Business owners can also add a VoIP phone number to their plans starting at $9 per month without opting for the full virtual office service to keep their personal numbers secure. 

Northwest Registered Agent charges $100 plus your state’s filing fees for corporation, nonprofit, or LLC filing. You also must include its registered agent services in your plan for $125 annually. If you need only a simple filing, like LLC, without a registered agent, you might find one of the free services on our list a better option.

Learn more about the company’s privacy protection in our detailed Northwest Registered Agent’s review.

Rocket Lawyer – Best for Ongoing Legal Support

Rocket Lawyer is a business formation service with a strong legal foundation. The company partners with real law professionals who can answer questions, review legal documents, and provide consultations to help you through various aspects of running your business.

Rocket Lawyer is especially useful when you need help with your legal questions quickly. You can access attorneys via email, phone, or chat, typically receiving answers to your questions in less than a day.

If you want to try to find the answers yourself, Rocket Lawyer has multiple resources and documents to help you understand the topic. There’s even an option for finding advice on regulations and laws that only apply to your state. For all these reasons, our team named Rocket Lawyer as one of the best online legal service options.

Non-members can use most of the site’s legal resources as needed for various prices. However, paying members get free consultations, discounts on on-call attorney services, and one free incorporation filing plus a 25% discount on future filings.

One potential downfall, however, is Rocket Lawyer’s lack of weekend customer service hours. The support team is available during the week from 6 am to 6 pm PT, but not having the ability to get in touch with someone over the weekend can be a drawback for businesses with out-of-the-ordinary hours. 

What Makes Rocket Lawyer Great

Rocket Lawyer’s business documents have been reviewed by legal teams and are guaranteed to adhere to legal regulations. You can use the document builder to customize each document easily, ensuring that your business documents also follow the same guidelines.

As you move forward with your business filing and operating, Rocket Lawyer’s law professionals are available to help you navigate your contracts, divide and manage intellectual property, understand employment law, and more. There are no limitations on legal questions with a monthly membership.

With monthly membership costing just $39.99 per month, business owners can affordably access legal guidance from real law professionals. If you’re unsatisfied with your membership for any reason, you can get a full refund within the first 30 days.

Read our Rocket Lawyer review to discover more about its business services.

LegalNature – Best for Doing It Yourself

When you know what legal forms your business needs to use and don’t need extra guidance from a company or its attorney team, LegalNature is a good option. The company provides various DIY forms that have already been legally reviewed to help you pick what you need, fill them out, and go about your business.

In other words, you won’t get any legal help from LegalNature, but you will get all the forms you need for business formation, HR compliance, and business management at your fingertips. If you do choose to file with LegalNature, a specialist still reviews your forms to check that they’re ready to go.

You also get a support team on your side when needed to answer general questions. Business owners can also customize their plans with add-ons, like EIN registration or a registered agent service, to get the right blend of help and DIY. 

What Makes LegalNature Great

Being able to grab legal forms as needed for your business can be helpful for business owners who are well-versed in compliance and business operations. LegalNature’s simple subscription service gives you unlimited access to its legal documents to use whenever you need them.

Then, as and when you do need a little more help, LegalNature can step in with additional services, like filing your articles of dissolution or furnishing a certificate of good standing for your company. LegalNature’s Compliance Guard—a $125-per-year service—is a popular addition that helps you meet annual compliance requirements, like SOS filings and meeting minutes.

Join LegalNature for ongoing documentation for $39 per month or $119 per year. You can also get a free 7-day trial to test the service for yourself and a 30-day money-back guarantee if it doesn’t meet your expectations. Business formation alone costs $49 plus state filing fees.

Read our LegalNature review for more details about filing an LLC, corporation, or nonprofit with the company.

LegalZoom – Best for Trademarking Your Business

LegalZoom may be one of the most well-known names for compliant documentation and various legal services, but it also has a lot to offer business owners. In addition to providing easy-to-use business formation services, LegalZoom also has a suite of tools for businesses that need trademarking.

From trademark searches to trademark registration and ongoing monitoring, LegalZoom helps your business protect its unique ideas and identity from beginning to end. You can also register a copyright or apply for a provisional patent or utility patent.

You won’t have to pay for these services from the jump, either. Instead, you can use LegalZoom to file your business now and add any trademarking services you need later, only when you need them.

What Makes LegalZoom Great

Once you register for a trademark with LegalZoom, the team completes thorough research on the trademark to ensure that your property is eligible for trademarking. It’s an extra layer of protection to keep you out of legal trouble. If all is clear, LegalZoom files all your documents for you to begin the trademark process.

LegalZoom goes beyond trademarking, though. In fact, it has an impressive suite of tools for business owners to use for the length of their business’s life, including customizable legal forms and registered agent services. LZ Tax even prepares and files your business taxes, offering tax guidance along the way.

LegalZoom starts at $79 plus state filing fees for business formations, but different pricing tiers can add expedited filing and other bonuses. A trademark registration is $599 plus federal filing fees, plus coverage if your original trademark gets denied.

Find out more about LegalZoom’s services for businesses. 

BizFilings – Best for Entrepreneurs and Startups

Entrepreneurs and startups without complicated business formation needs may enjoy the extra help BizFilings provides. 

When you form your business with BizFilings, you can use a startup wizard and checklist to ensure that you’ve taken the necessary steps for legal formation and compliance. The guided tools walk you through trademarking, compliance, and licensing requirements.

BizFilings also features an online toolkit for small business owners with resources to help choose the right business structure and meet legal requirements along the way. Additional services, like business plan creation and sales tax registration, can further assist entrepreneurs and startups needing a one-and-done solution.

What Makes BizFilings Great

BizFilings is one of the most comprehensive business formation services, especially for small business owners who don’t yet have a full team of helpers on their side. From registering for payroll taxes to enrolling in payroll services, BizFilings offers an impressive range of affordable services. 

There’s also its online compliance tool, BizComply, which stores digital versions of your documents, tracks meetings, and sends alerts to help you stay current with any compliance measures your business should be aware of.

Although the website includes numerous options for self-help as you start and manage your business, the customer service team is available via phone, email, and live chat to help with more nuanced issues.

Business formations with BizFilings start at $99 plus state filing fees and include three months of a registered agent service for free. All plans come with a guarantee that protects your business against filing defects throughout its lifetime.

Harbor Compliance – Best for All-Around Compliance

Companies with complex compliance needs may find it helpful to outsource compliance tasks to a service like Harbor Compliance. The company provides easy-to-use compliance software to keep your business documents organized. However, if you’re not interested in self-service, there are also trained specialists on deck who offer manual assistance.

Harbor Compliance hosts and manages an intricate database of state and federal guidelines to keep businesses using its software compliant. That means that you won’t need to spend time finding the right forms or figuring out your next legal steps because the database keeps track of important dates, form updates, and regulations. 

These compliance-focused services are added to Harbor Compliance’s business formation services, giving you a lot of value to carry through the lifecycle of your business. However, these extras are typically more than simple formations, like LLCs, need.

What Makes Harbor Compliance Great

Harbor Compliance’s ComplianceAdviser is another feature that makes it stand out for businesses with intense compliance needs. The package can include compliance audits, annual reports, registered agent services, and more, all customized to the needs of your business.

Even without the ComplianceAdviser package, you can add various services to your plan. For example, a registered agent service starts at $89 per year, depending on your state, which is more affordable than the $100+ many other business formation services charge.

Pricing for business formation services alone starts at $99 plus your state’s filing fees. However, these packages do not include Harbor Compliance’s suite of compliance tools. To get access to that, you’ll need to request a quote for a customized package from Harbor Compliance.

Get started with a free compliance health check to see if Harbor Compliance’s services might be right for you.

Inc Authority – Best for Managing Your Business After Filing

Not only can you form your business for free with Inc Authority if you just need an LLC, but you can also access several business tools and resources to carry out your business duties after filing. Although not all extra tools are free, Inc Authority offers its registered agent services—normally $99 per year—at no cost for your first year.

You can also get business funding, a credit analysis, and digital document storage for free with your $0 LLC filing. 

After forming your business and taking advantage of the company’s free offerings, consider whether you could benefit from the paid tools Inc Authority provides for ongoing business management. For instance, you can register a domain and set up web hosting for your business site or get business planning services.

What Makes Inc Authority Great

Filing a business for free can be tempting, but not all companies deliver truly free services. However, Inc Authority does for LLCs, and many LLC operators may find that its free service is all they need.

But for companies wanting more comprehensive operations and management services, one of Inc Authority’s premium bundles could work. They include annual compliance notifications, deluxe record books, operating agreements, and a web domain with up to five email addresses. 

The caveat? You’ll need to get a hold of Inc Authority for bundle pricing, as the site doesn’t transparently list prices. Alternatively, you can get started with a free LLC filing and upgrade your plan later as your business needs evolve.

Find out more about Inc Authority with our in-depth review.

MyCompanyWorks – Best for Quick Business Processing

MyCompanyWorks promises free same-day business filing processing on business days if submitted before 3 pm EST. If you don’t get your filing submitted before the cutoff, it will be processed the next business day.

That’s good news for company owners looking for speedier processing than other companies offer without asking you to pay hefty rush fees. Of course, the time it takes to complete your filing ultimately depends on your state’s filing times, but MyCompanyWorks can shave some time off the total with its quick turnaround. 

Note that MyCompanyWorks only handles LLC and corporation filings, so nonprofits will need to use another company that offers nonprofit filing services.

What Makes MyCompanyWorks Great

Speed of filing is the primary factor for MyCompanyWorks being on our list. But we also appreciate the simplicity of navigating its website and setting up an account. An interactive wizard helps you through the filing process, so you don’t have to feel like you’re on your own.

MyCompanyForms, the company’s suite of just about any form you need to run your business properly, is also available for as little as $35 for lifetime access or free with a Premium plan. Company name changes, website setups, and virtual office services are also at your fingertips if you need them. 

Basic filing starts at $59 plus state fees. An Entrepreneur plan for $199 includes access to MyCompanyForms, registered agent services, and an EIN. The company’s 90-day guarantee gives 100% of your money back if you’re dissatisfied with your service.

Want to learn more about MyCompanyWorks? Check out our comprehensive MyCompanyWorks review.

Swyft Filings – Best for Personalized Business Assistance

Whether you don’t feel comfortable handling your business filing on your own or you just want to know someone is there to help if you need it, the Swyft Filings customer service team is one of the best. 

Unlike other companies with general phone numbers and email inboxes for customer support, Swyft Filings assigns each of its customers a dedicated Business Specialist. You’ll get your specialist’s direct email and phone number, allowing you to contact someone who already knows the ins and outs of your business.

If for some reason you can’t get a hold of your specialist, you can always use the support phone number or live chat feature for a quick and helpful response. 

What Makes Swyft Filings Great

Having dedicated, ongoing support after filing is an excellent bonus. However, Swyft Filings also has a lot to offer with its services, including annual reports, ComplianceGuard company alerts, and amendments and name changes.

Business owners can also add registered agent services to their plans for $149 per quarter. This price is higher than others, but it also includes 24/7 access to your online documents, quick uploads, and a handy online account where you can see everything the service does for your business.

Business formations start at $49 plus state filing fees. All plans include a one-hour business filing consultation plus whenever-you-need-it access to your Business Specialist during Swyft Filings business hours.

Take advantage of a 100% money-back guarantee from Swyft Filings if you don’t think it’s the right service for you.

Best Business Formation Services: Your Top Questions Answered

Quick Sprout Business Formation Services Related Content

Below, we’ve gathered several guides and reviews to help you as you form your business. We also broke these resources down into categories to make it easier to find what you need. 

Business Formation Guides and How-Tos

• How to Start an LLC in 4 Simple Steps
• How to Get an EIN in 3 Simple Steps
• 12 Tips For Your Business Startup Checklist
• The Beginner’s Guide to Business Structure
• The Beginner’s Guide to Business Partnerships
• LLC Vs. Corporation: Pros and Cons

Business Formation Company Reviews

• LegalNature Review
• ZenBusiness Review
• Incorporate.com Review
• IncFile Review
• Rocket Lawyer Review
• MyCorporation Review
• Inc Authority Review
• LegalZoom Review
• LegalNature Review
• Swyft Filings Review
• MyCompanyWorks Review

Business Formation Related Top Lists

• Compare The Best Registered Agent Services
• Compare The Best LLC Services
• Compare The Best Online Incorporation Services

The post Compare the Best Business Formation Services appeared first on .

Unpaid invoices are part of running a business, no matter the size. But for small business owners, it’s an especially frustrating reality with potentially devastating consequences.

If your business has unpaid invoices and you’re low on cash, invoice factoring can be a solid solution.

The 8 Best Invoice Factoring Companies of 2022

• OTR Solutions – Best for freight companies
• Resolve – Best for offering net terms to business customers
• eCapital Commercial Finance – Best non-recourse invoice factoring
• altLINE – Best for low fees
• Triumph – Best for construction and transportation
• Breakout Capital – Most flexible invoice factoring company
• TCI Business Capital – Best for month-to-month contracts
• Riviera Finance – Best for guaranteed credit

Below you’ll find an in-depth review of each company that made my list. The reviews are followed by a brief guide that highlights the key criteria you should be thinking about as you assess your options.

Choose the one most suited to your needs, and start getting paid for the work you did instead of spending time chasing people down.

Best Invoice Factoring Companies Reviews

OTR Solutions — Best for Freight Companies

Visit OTR Solutions

• Non-recourse factoring
• O/O, fleet, & brokerage factoring
• Fuel card saves up to $1.70/gallon
• Funding in under 24 hours

Sign up today

OTR Solutions, formerly OTR Capital, offers invoice factoring designed specifically for freight companies. You can expect rapid, respectful, and straightforward service from a company that’s been helping businesses in transportation since 2011.

Owner-operators, fleets, and freight brokers will be able to get paid on outstanding invoices quickly. OTR Solutions offers true non-recourse factoring, which means no chargebacks and same day funding.

Working with OTR Solutions doesn’t change your existing relationships, they just work on the back end to get you working capital when you need it.

OTR Solutions also offers a range of relevant services that general factoring companies do not. 

The Capital Fuel Card, for example, is accepted at more than 8,000 locations across the United States, and saves truckers up to $1.70 per gallon. You can also use the fuel card to withdraw money from ATMs, which is great for paying lumpers and dealing with unforeseen expenses on the road. 

This flexibility is great for owner-operators, and OTR Solutions provides additional features and controls for fleets that need multiple cards.

Some of their other services include:

• Fuel advances
• OTR Solutions mobile app
• Direct-to-debit funding
• Free broker checks
• CSA safety score monitor
• Professionally designed freight company websites

Unlike other businesses that provide invoice factoring, OTR Solutions is truly dedicated to understanding and serving the needs of transportation companies. 

So when you call in with a question, you are always going to be speaking with someone that understands the specific challenges faced by truckers and freight companies.Secure the service, tools, and support you need today. Get started with OTR Solutions.

Resolve — Best for offering net terms to business customers

Visit Resolve

• Transparent pricing
• Advance payment up to 90% of invoices
• Risk-free factoring
• Intuitive AR dashboard

Try for free

Resolve is a unique non-recourse invoice financing company that helps B2B merchants, wholesalers, and distributors offer net terms and assumes the payment risk for its customers. They currently work with more than 1000 companies, including Linus Venice, ConEquip, and Zark LED.

Resolve calls itself net terms-as-a-service rather than a traditional factoring company. Unlike other non-recourse factoring services, Resolve takes on the risk of your customer’s non-payment. With their “quiet” credit check process that does not affect business credit scores, it promises your business will not be on the hook for open invoices.

Resolve makes decisions on net terms and credit limits quickly so your business can keep moving. And offering net terms often allows for larger orders, while your credit line can go up to $1 million.

Resolve offers immediate payment for up to 90% on approved invoices (within 1 day!) while allowing their customers to give 30, 60, and 90-day net terms to all of their customers, which helps the company expand sales and grow their businesses. 

To get advance payment, there is a list of criteria the company and invoice must meet:

• The customer’s business is based in the US
• Resolve has done a credit check and approved the customer
• The customer has accepted your product/service
• The invoice can be paid by one of Resolve’s approved payment methods
• The payment term is 90 days or fewer
• The invoice due date is at least one week from the date of the advance payment request

Customers can make payments through Resolve’s white-labeled (your branding) online payment portal via credit cards, ACH transfers, wire transfers, and even checks. And as the customer, you get an easy-to-use accounts receivables dashboard to see what is happening at any time. Plus Resolve integrates with QuickBooks, Magento, and WooCommerce.

Resolve is transparent in its fees, which are a flat 2.61% for 30-day net term invoices with a 90% advance. 

You can try Resolve before committing with a 14-day free trial.

eCapital Commercial Finance — Best Non-Recourse Invoice Factoring

Visit eCapital

• Non-recourse invoice factoring
• Purchase order financing
• In business 25+ years
• Great option for startups

Get Started

eCapital Commercial Finance provides a wide range factoring solutions and lending services for varying business needs. They offer invoice factoring in addition to freight factoring, payroll funding, asset-based lending, lines of credit, and more. 

But what makes this organization unique compared to other factoring companies on the market is its non-recourse invoice factoring options.

With non-recourse factoring, you’re not completely on the hook to pay back the loan if the customers fail to pay the invoices.

eCaptial Commercial Finance assumes the risk. This means your personal credit score and credit history won’t be considered in the approval process. Instead, the approvals are based on the creditworthiness of your clients with outstanding balances. 

This is the perfect solution for any organization that wants to get funding without assuming the liability of uncollected bills. 

Keep in mind, it’s not always easy to qualify. Your business must earn a minimum of $30,000 in sales per month to be considered. This qualification criteria is a bit higher than other options on the market. 

eCapital Commerce Finance also has solutions for purchase order financing and working capital loans for government contractors. Get started here to learn more.

altLINE — Best for Low Fees

• Very low fees
• Direct source of funding
• Delivers 90% of qualified invoices
• 100% transparent

>> Compare Quotes

altLINE is a reliable and trusted invoice factoring service that stands out for their low fees.

They’re especially unique because they’re a direct source of funding, not a middle man. As a division of the Southern Bank Company, altLINE doesn’t need to charge additional borrowing costs like third-party providers. Business owners can benefit from these savings because they won’t nickel-and-dime you with fees.

There’s also no application fee, which means you save even more money when using their service.

In addition to invoice factoring, altLINE offers accounts receivable financing. While the two terms are often used interchangeably in the world of small business lending, they are not the same.

Invoice factoring offers great flexibility for business owners. Accounts receivable financing has stricter guidelines related to the credit profile. With that said, AR financing will usually provide businesses with preferred financing terms.

altLINE will deliver up to 90% of qualified unpaid invoices for factoring.

Common industries for invoice factoring with altLINE include:

• Distribution
• Consulting
• Food and beverage
• Janitorial services
• Professional services
• Facility services
• Textile and apparel
• Wholesale
• Oil and gas
• Staffing
• Manufacturing

As a federally regulated bank, altLINE is 100% transparent about their fees and term structures. Factoring rates start at just 0.50%. You’ll also benefit from a fast approval process without an application fee.

In addition to invoice factoring and accounts receivable financing, altLINE also has asset-based lending for businesses. This is another way to borrow money against your receivables.

Triumph — Best for Construction and Transportation

• Preferred by transportation companies
• Easy-to-use web portal
• Asset-based lending
• Direct access to support

>> Compare Quotes

Triumph, formerly Triumph Business Capital, is a factoring company that’s preferred by construction and transportation companies—and it’s no surprise why.

Triumph understands the complexities of construction timelines, project funding, freight brokering, working capacity, and how cash flows throughout their businesses.

Triumph’s great service led to them being awarded the Preferred Provider status by the Transportation Intermediaries Association.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a solo operation or if you have a fleet of hundreds of trucks—they provide you with a straightforward and speedy process to get money in your hands as soon as possible.

A few other services that they cater to include:

• Trucking
• Staffing
• Oil and gas
• Government contractors
• Freight brokers

Another standout feature is their easy-to-use web portal. The dashboard and process is a simple way to manage your funding. You can always stay up to date with your account and information, no matter where you are.

You’ll also have direct access to support from the Triumph team. They also offer a wide range of financial services along with invoice factoring:

• Asset management
• Commuting banking
• Asset-based lending
• Equipment financing
• Insurance

Think of it as your financial one-stop shop.

Breakout Capital — Most Flexible Payments & Qualifications for Small Businesses

• Flexible qualifications
• Customized solutions
• Easy approval process
• Great for startups

>> Compare Quotes

Breakout Capital offers a very flexible invoice factoring solution that’s great for new and small businesses alike.

More specifically, they offer a very flexible payback schedule that gives small businesses more wiggle room when it comes to when they have to pay Breakout Capital back. These come in the form of daily, weekly, or monthly scheduling options. Not a lot of invoice factoring companies do this.

They also offer a great service called “FactorAdvantage.” It’s a customized solution for businesses that don’t meet qualifications from other lenders and factoring companies. That’s great for startups.

Think of it as a combination between invoice factoring and a small business loan.

Here are some of the top advantages of this service:

• Fund receivables before invoices are ready to factor
• Increase your over-advance maximum amounts
• Access to short-term bridge loans
• Remove merchant cash advance programs or liens
• Forecast cash flow with AI technology

Breakout Capital is perfect for startups since the approval process is dead simple. There’s no minimum FICO score required, no minimum monthly revenue requirement, and no minimum time in business.

With all of that said, Breakout Capital’s invoice factoring rates are a bit higher than some of the other companies we’ve reviewed. Invoice factoring starts at 1.25% per month.

For startups that want to borrow up to $500,000 using unpaid invoices, Breakout Capital is a top company for you to consider. FactorAdvantage is unlike any other product I’ve seen on the market today.

TCI Business Capital — Best for Month-to-Month Contracts

• Fast approvals
• Simple onboarding
• Great for monthly payments
• Same-day funding

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TCI Capital is great for businesses looking for flexible monthly contracts.

That’s because the amount they charge you changes month-to-month depending on the volume of your invoices. That means if you sell more and you have more invoices, you get cheaper factoring fees.

While some other companies do this too, TCI Capital stands out for doing this monthly as opposed to other companies that might only change your rates once a year.

B2B organizations that use TCI Capital for invoice factoring typically fall into one of the following categories:

• Staffing
• Telecom and wireless
• Heavy construction
• Renewable energy
• Government contractors
• Utility and pipeline contractors
• Trucking and freight
• Manufacturing
• Environmental services
• Oilfield services

TCI Capital adds a personal touch to their invoice factoring services. They encourage you to talk to a representative that will help you find the best solution for your current situation and needs. TCI Capital also ensures that the solution works well for your customers.

Like most companies, TCI Capital’s factoring fees are based on volume. So it’s a better option for those of you with higher volumes if you want access to preferred rates and fees.

The TCI Capital website has an awesome tool to help you calculate your factoring costs.

Choose your desired advance rate of 70%, 80%, or 90%, and enter your average monthly sales.

Select your customer payment terms (net 30, 60, 90, or 120), and the tool will automatically calculate your fees.

For example, let’s say you average $10,000 per month with net 60 terms on your invoices. If you want 90% of cash in advance, the factoring fee is $200.

With TCI Capital, you’ll get fast approvals, simple onboarding, and month-to-month terms. They offer high advances and same-day funding to provide you with reliable cash flow.

Riviera Finance — Best for Guaranteed Credit

• Guaranteed 24-hour funding
• Offers credit guarantee
• Online account dashboard
• Funding on demand

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Riviera Finance is another great non-recourse invoice factoring service. Where they stand out though is their credit guarantee.

They offer a credit management service that guarantees the credit on all of your factored invoices. That means if an invoice is unpaid, Riviera Finance becomes the credit manager and assumes the risk.

They’re also great if you need cash quickly. Riviera offers some of the quickest turnaround rates in the industry, with guaranteed 24-hour funding.

Depending on your business type, industry, and clients, Riviera Finance will fund up to 95% of qualified invoices. You’ll have complete flexibility for funding on-demand.

As a result, no debt is created on your end and the company protects you from bad debt on all of the invoices that they factor.

Riviera Finance has an exceptional receivable management system as well. They can handle the following AR tasks:

• Maintain an efficient process with your clients
• Automated invoice uploads
• Mailing and processing for all invoices
• Processing and posting of invoice payments
• Real-time alerts related to returns, disputes, or payment issues
• Check the status of outstanding invoices
• Custom management reports

You’ll benefit from instant access 24/7 to all of your account receivable information through an online account dashboard.

How to Choose the Best Invoice Factoring Company For Your Business

Invoice factoring can be a solid solution for your business to help overcome cashflow issues caused by late paying customers. By getting your money quickly, you’ll be able to reinvest that income and maintain an emphasis on growth.

But it’s important that you find the right invoice factoring company to meet the needs of your business.

There are certain factors you should look for when you’re evaluating an invoice factoring service. This is the methodology I recommend for narrowing down your options.

Fast Funding

A good invoice factoring service gets cash back in your pocket quickly and painlessly. The best services provide quick approvals and turnarounds.

Many invoice factoring companies boast approvals “as fast as 5 minutes” upon receiving a qualified invoice.

Other factoring services such as altLine take a little bit longer—around four days to complete. That can be a looonng time in certain circumstances.

Depending on where you are with your company, you might want money quicker in order to address short-term needs or lucrative investment opportunities.

You also want to check with the factoring company to see how long it takes for funds to be available. Ideally it will be within a day of approval, but sometimes can take up to three days.

Remember that you’re factoring because you want cash quickly. So be sure to check to see how long the approval and funding process takes with each factoring service.

Industry-Specific Factoring

Some invoice factoring companies specialize in specific industries. These can be lucrative as they know the proper procedures to obtain payment from your unpaid invoices.

These factoring companies understand your industry and business. They’ll help the factoring experience go as smoothly and optimally as possible because of that.

For example, Triumph Business Capital helps small and mid-sized businesses in transportation (e.g. trucking and freight brokers), energy (e.g. oil and gas), and government (e.g. contractors).

TCI Capital is another great factoring company that focuses on B2B organizations such as telecom, manufacturing, utility, and staffing.

Look for a factoring company that knows your industry to ensure the best experience.

Factoring Fees

A lot of business owners see the short-term benefits of invoice factoring (i.e. upfront cash). But they overlook the fees that go with it.

Some invoice factoring companies lure you in with low factoring fees, but then hit you with additional fees like:

• Application fee
• Service fee
• Renewals
• Transfers
• Early termination
• Origination fee

I recommend an invoice factoring company that offers transparent pricing. You should only have to pay the factoring fee, without any of these additional charges or hidden fees.

Recourse vs Non-Recourse Factoring

What happens if one of your customers fails to pay an invoice to the factoring company? Depending on the company you choose, you could be responsible for this debt.

That’s because invoice factoring comes in two forms:

• Recourse factoring means that if your client doesn’t pay on their invoice to the factoring company, then you are on the hook financially for the invoice. The trade off is the fees are much lower.
• Non-Recourse factoring means that the factoring company assumes some of the risk. The fees are higher, but you’re at less of a risk of losing out on all of your unpaid invoice. This is a better option for businesses who can’t risk a client withholding payment.

It’s important to note that using non-recourse factoring does not completely absolve you from potential risk. You need to fully understand situations where the factoring company accepts the risk and where you remain on the hook for the risk.

For example, if you are dealing with a client that has a poor credit rating, the factoring company may leave the risk with you. 

If the factoring company is putting significant stipulations on when it will accept the risk, you may want to stick with recourse factoring and avoid paying the extra fees when you are taking on the majority of the risk.

No matter what, you want to make sure that the invoice factoring company you choose does everything that they can to try and attain payment from your client. You don’t want them sitting on the invoice, making no attempt to reach out, and then ding you when your client doesn’t pay.

When researching companies, verify what steps they’ll take to collect. Make sure their outreach is polite (you don’t want your customer to hate you, after all) but firm.

Factoring Flexibility

Flexibility on the requirements and types of invoicing is great when it comes to these companies. As such, you’ll want to find a factoring company that doesn’t try to lock you into a strict contract while also giving you the credit you need.

Some of you may only want to factor one or two invoices. Doing this on-demand is known as “spot factoring.”

You’ll have complete control over which invoices are factored and when it happens. You’ll also have more of a say in your term length, which is always nice.

Some invoice factoring companies require “whole ledger factoring.” In this case, you won’t have as much control. Generally speaking, spot factoring is the preferred choice for business owners.

Stability

If you’re looking for an invoice factoring company that you can trust to help turn your unpaid invoices into cash ASAP, then you’re going to want to limit your search to companies that are established. 

The best way to verify whether a factoring company is legitimate is by choosing one that is affiliated with the International Factoring Association (IFA). 

As members of IFA, the companies must abide by the association’s strict code of ethics and practices. You can quickly and easily search for a potential invoice factoring company’s name on the IFA website.

Best Invoice Factoring Companies: Your Top Questions Answered

The Top Factoring Companies in Summary

Invoice factoring helps businesses turn unpaid invoices into cash today. Top invoice factoring companies like OTR Solutions and Resolve will help you get paid as soon as possible.

Don’t let your non-paying customers get in the way of growing your business. Act now, and take control of your cash flow.

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