Want to jump straight to the answer? The best online legal service for most people is Rocket Lawyer or Incfile. Not everyone keeps a lawyer on retainer, mostly because of the astronomical expense. And even if a brand is lucky enough to be able to afford this, they might get an unpleasant surprise when a legal need arises and the lawyer they’ve retained doesn’t specialize in the necessary area of law. That’s why online legal services are so helpful. With just a few clicks, you can access legal documents, find a nearby attorney, and seek legal counsel to assist with any issue. The 10 Best Online Legal Services of 2022
![]() Below, I’ll highlight the top features, benefits, use cases, and considerations of each online legal service to help you make the right decision for your needs. Let’s take a look. Best Online Legal Services ReviewsFind out everything you need to know about each of the legal services that made my top list. Rocket Lawyer – Best for Fast Legal Help
Rocket Lawyer offers an online legal service that helps people create legal documents and get legal advice as fast as possible. As their name suggests, they give you a variety of ways to quickly access attorneys and their advice including phone, email, or chat. RocketLawyer will connect you with attorneys that cover a wide range of topics including family law, wills, business contracts and documents, criminal law, personal injury, employment law, and real estate. They also have an excellent legal advice portal where you can type in your legal question and get answers back within a business day. If you need even more help, they can help connect you with an actual lawyer to talk to about your matters. Their helpful lawyer directory allows you to choose the legal topic you want a pro to consult with, along with your state so they can connect you with someone knowledgeable with local laws. It takes just a few minutes to do. Rocket Lawyer also has an extensive resource library for its customers that helps individuals and business owners create legal documents for a wide range of use cases. Here are a few documents they help you create and process: Business
Real Estate
Rocket Lawyer can also help with more personal matters such as estate planning and healthcare directives. If you really want to dig in to Rocket Lawyer and what it has to offer, I did a deeper dive into Rocket Lawyer in my recent review of the service. Rocket Lawyer offers two ways to pay: You can pay a monthly membership fee of $39.99 per month to access free services and discounted documents. Alternatively, you can opt to pay per use based on only what you need. When you go the a la carte route, Rocket Lawyer charges $39.99 per document. If you know you’re going to need multiple documents at once or need legal documents created on an ongoing basis then the monthly membership is definitely worth it. Rocket Lawyer also has a great mobile app. This gives you fast access to your documents from anywhere. You can even sign agreements directly in the app. Click here to get a free 7 day trial. Incfile – Best for Setting Up Your Startup
Incfile offers an online legal service that specializes in business formation. If you have ever tried to set up a business yourself, you know how helpful it is to have someone who understands the law on your side. Simply choose your entity type (LLC, S-Corp, C-Corp, or Nonprofit) and select your state of formation to proceed. Not sure which entity type is best for you? Incfile will help you choose the best entity type based on your needs. Beyond choosing your entity type, there are a lot of other steps to starting a business. Incfile helps you get the legal stuff locked down the right way, and helps you grow your business on a firm foundation. ![]() Incfile has three different packages. The rates for each vary by state. All plans include:
The basic plan is $0. The only cost is your state’s registration fee. However, you’ll have to pay extra for things like an EIN/Tax ID, IRS Form 2553, operating agreements, and the like. Incfile also provides long-term assistance with compliance and trademark registration. I recommend going with at least the Gold package. It comes with all those extras along with unlimited phone and email support, express shipping, expedited filing, and FedEx Delivery. To find the exact cost for your startup, just select an entity type and choose your state. You can get a quote from Incfile in seconds. Lawyer.com – Best for Hiring Local and Regional Lawyers
Whether you’re looking for quick legal assistance from an attorney in your state or for new counsel to replace your current lawyer, Lawyer.com’s database gives you plenty of lawyers near you to choose from. And by plenty, I mean well over 1 million lawyers nationwide. Most states in the U.S. have tens of thousands of attorneys listed on Lawyer.com. Their practice areas span the entire legal spectrum. To get started just submit some basic information and legal issue details, and Lawyer.com will match you with a qualified attorney in your region. Unlike some other lawyer matching sites, you can even browse the database freely by city/state and area of practice. ![]() This allows you to do your homework on potential counsel to see if they’re a good fit before committing to a consultation. Lawyer.com puts an emphasis on personal and family legal issues, but they also accommodate business needs. This makes Lawyer.com appealing to entrepreneurs who may want both personal and business counsel. You can get a legal protection plan from Lawyer.com starting at $14.99 per month. Generally, these plans focus on personal or family counsel, but plan members can also use any plan for business representation. The plans give you get unlimited free consultations, 25% discounts on qualified legal fees, and no cancellation fees. Business legal areas that plan members can utilize include contracts, incorporation, partnerships, and intellectual property. That’s in addition to personal coverage in areas like accident and injury, family law, and estate planning. Personal protection plans run $14.99 for one month, $29.99 for three months, or $119.99 for the year. Family plans include services for you, your spouse, and your children, starting at $19.99 per month or $44.99 for a three-month plan and $179.99 for a full year. Lawyer.com’s plans may not be robust enough for some businesses and professionals, but their vast database of attorneys can be a huge help to anyone. Find a lawyer based on convenient location or pick one most suited to your preferences after doing your own due diligence and research. Get started with Lawyer.com today. LegalShield – Best Full-Coverage Legal Plans for Small Business
A lot can get thrown at you as a small business owner and not all of it will be great. In times of turmoil, having legal counsel in your corner is a huge plus. This is why LegalShield offers three affordable plans with 360-degree legal service. ![]() On their small business legal service plans, LegalShield connects you with a trusted law firm in your state or in any state where you do business and need consultation. You can use them for unlimited advice and counsel on matters such as:
The plans also cover 30-minute consultations on out-of-state legal matters and more specific areas of law—like tax, IP, immigration, and antitrust. Additional services needed in these areas are billed at a member discount of between 10% and 25%. You also get a flat 25% discount on legal services not covered in your contract with your designated law firm. All of this is included in the SMB Legal Essentials plan for $49/month, plus:
Attorneys are guaranteed to return calls in four hours or less, documents get reviewed in no more than three business days, and you’ll be connected to someone within 15 minutes in cases of a legal emergency. Step up to the two higher tiers—SMB Legal Plus for $99/month or SMB Legal Pro for $169/month—for more letters, phone calls, document reviews, and collection letters, plus interstate services, IRS audit services, and converting some discounted services to flat fees. Connect with LegalShield to learn more by using our dedicated line 833-936-0586, or head to their website to sign up for a small business legal plan today. LegalZoom – Best for Pain-Free IP Protection
LegalZoom is the most diverse online legal service on the market today. This website can accommodate your personal, professional, and business needs. Where LegalZoom really shines is in their intellectual property (IP) services. Do you need a copyright or a trademark for your brand? A utility or a design patent? LegalZoom walks you through all the crucial paperwork needed to protect your IP. ![]() They’re also one of the most comprehensive services for prior art, patent, trademark, copyright searching. You can also get help filing utility, design patents, and provisional patent applications in just three steps. LegalZoom’s online legal services can be segmented into four main categories. Business
Intellectual Property
Wills, Trust, and Family
Attorney Advice
LegalZoom offers six-month and annual plans for businesses and individuals. Individual plans start at $9.99 per month with an annual contract, and business plans start at $31.25 per month with a one-year commitment. LegalZoom is a top choice to consider for one-time services, as well as ongoing legal needs. Learn more about how they can help at LegalZoom.com. LegalNature – Best for DIY Legal Documents
LegalNature gives you all you need for legal filings and templates. It’s fast, reliable, and easy for anyone to use. For the business owner that needs a critical document that is done right, done fast, and doesn’t break the bank, LegalNature is a great option. When it comes to non-disclosure agreements, termination forms, commercial lease agreements, and other important business documents, LegalNature helps you create without worry. ![]() Here’s a quick overview of some of LegalNature’s top categories:
Choose the legal document you’d like to create and LegalNature walks you step-by-step through the entire drafting process. When you’re done, you can easily download and store the completed documents. LegalNature recently changed its payment options, starting with LegalNature+, which is available as an annual subscription for $119 per year or as a month-to-month subscription for $39 per month. With LegalNature+, you can create, edit, and store all the documents you create in the LegalNature library. You can store an unlimited number of versions of the documents as well. Additionally, LegalNature offers à la carte business services for an extra cost, such as articles of amendment, business formation documents, and certificates of good standing. Whether you need legal documents for a single use or an ongoing basis, LegalNature gives you an easy way to draft offer letters, NDAs, and other HR forms that are a regular need for a growing business. Nolo – Best for Doing It All Yourself
Unless you’re a lawyer, you probably don’t want to do litigation yourself or represent yourself in court. But there’s a lot to business, real estate, and family law that you can handle on your own. And that’s where Nolo comes in. While many of the other options on my list offer ways to find or retain legal counsel and advice, Nolo offers a vast library of legal products that anyone can pick up and use. Nolo’s products are broken down into three categories: books with legal advice and guidance for common needs, all the forms you’d need to file for business and personal actions, and software for estate planning, trusts, and managing finances. ![]() Nolo’s library of resources is extensive and are written by their team of lawyers and legal experts. You can find deep-dive guides on everything from being a landlord or negotiating a commercial lease to dealing with workplace conflict or learning to make patent drawings. Each book contains hundreds of pages of expert advice in easy-to-understand writing, with updated editions coming out when legal guidelines or best practices change. Purchase the physical book, ebook or PDF version, or a bundle of both. Plus, the books are supported further by the deep archive of legal articles on Nolo’s website. You can always refer to those for greater detail or context on subjects. Many of the books also contain relevant forms on the topic, which you can easily download after purchase. You can also go straight to the forms and purchase them a la carte. Nolo covers all the bases. They have forms for the most common legal actions, including:
The best part is Nolo’s pricing structure. You pay a single price for a one-year subscription that allows you to create and fill as many of the form type you need. That’s incredibly convenient for forms you need often. For example, the $34.99 for an independent contractor agreement quickly becomes dirt-cheap if you’re scaling up your W-9 workforce in a hurry. Learn and file to your heart’s content through Nolo. You can pocket the rest of what you would’ve spent on a legal consultation. Avvo – Best for Online Legal Q&As
Avvo is unique on our online legal services list. The platform has an extensive lawyer directory to help you find an attorney in your area. But it also gives you free online answers to your legal questions. You can browse questions that were asked by other people or post your own question and get responses from multiple lawyers. ![]() Popular questions and legal advice on Avvo are related to:
There are hundreds of legal topics that Avvo can help you with. In addition to the lawyer directory and free Q&A, Avvo also has tons of free articles, resources, and guides with legal advice. For those of you who need legal questions answered online but don’t want to pay expensive attorney consultation fees, Avvo is your best option. UpCounsel – Best for Outsourcing Your Legal Department
UpCounsel is great for a wide range of legal services. From one-time personal legal consultations to an entire freelance legal department for your business, UpCounsel has it all. It’s even used by top brands that frequently deal with complex legal matters. If companies like AirBnB rely on UpCounsel, you know you’ll be in good hands, too. ![]() Popular legal categories offered on UpCounsel include:
Here’s how it works. You start by posting a “job” that is a summary of your business and legal needs. This information, and anything else you share on UpCounsel, is strictly confidential. The UpCounsel algorithm automatically matches you with attorneys qualified to handle your specific needs. These lawyers send you proposals, and from there you can schedule a free consultation with no obligation. Once you’ve selected the best lawyer for your needs, you hire them. All pricing is straightforward, so you never have to worry about hidden fees. You can collaborate with your lawyer directly through the UpCounsel platform. UpCounsel makes it easy to manage all of communications in one place. The platform offers time-tracked phone calls and free document management. You’ll also be able to manage your invoices, track your spending, and benefit from flexible payment options. If you worked with a lawyer in the past that you liked, UpCounsel makes it easy to work with them again. If you need dedicated legal support that’s always available when you need it, reach out to UpCounsel today. LegalMatch – Best for Finding an Attorney Near You
LegalMatch is designed to match you with an attorney close to home. It’s the best choice for those of you seeking legal counsel in your local area. ![]() The process is simple, quick, and straightforward. Just provide your location and choose a category from the following topic areas:
LegalMatch automatically connects you with a highly-rated and licensed lawyer near you. The best part? This connection and referral process is totally free. LegalMatch has been helping people find local lawyers for the last 20 years, and more than five million cases have been posted on the site. Once you post your case, you’ll have a response within 24 hours. This makes LegalMatch a great option for time-sensitive matters. After you’re matched, you have full access to the attorney’s profile and background information. You also have access to user ratings and reviews shared by previous clients, so you can make an educated decision. LegalMatch also provides a complete breakdown of each lawyer’s fee structure. LegalMatch is an ideal option for finding lawyers without pressure. Simply choose which lawyer is best for your needs after reviewing all the provided options. You’re never under any obligation to hire a lawyer or sign a contract when you’re matched with an attorney through this platform. Try LegalMatch risk-free today. How to Choose the Best Online Legal Service For Your BusinessWith so many different online legal services to choose from, it can be tough to narrow down your options. It’s always easier to navigate something when you have a road map to guide you. This is the methodology I used to create this top list. I’ll go through each factor in greater detail so you can understand what matters the most as you’re considering online legal services. Legal Practice FocusOnline legal services vary according to their offerings—with some specializing in certain areas and others taking a broader approach. That’s why it’s important to find a service that covers the type of legal help you need. After all, someone going through a divorce doesn’t need the same attorney as a freelancer drafting a contract for a new client. Take a look at the areas where each online legal service focuses. Companies like RocketLawyer, LegalZoom and IncFile can help you form LLCs and corporations. Some of them like LegalZoom and IncFile let you go deeper and help you register trademarks. LegalZoom can even help you establish a copyright for original creative work or a patent for an invention or product. They’ve worked with creators to establish more than 650,000 IP filings and processed more than 90,000 copyright applications. On the other hand, platforms like Avvo and LegalMatch are primarily used for finding an in-person lawyer to assist you in your area. Think of them as the Craigslist of legal services (only without the sketchy posts). Also, consider whether or not you have business or personal legal needs. Some platforms offer online legal services for both, while others specialize in one or the other. Business Stage and SizeThis doesn’t apply if you need an online legal service for personal matters like immigration or divorce services. If that applies to you, I recommend skipping this criteria. However, many of you will be using these services for your business. If that applies to you, there are two things you need to consider when researching:
For those of you who are launching a startup, you could benefit from an online legal service like Incfile for registering your company. Midsized companies might only need infrequent legal services to help with issues as they arise. A service like LegalMatch connects you with a good attorney on demand. And if your company needs specialized advice, Rocket Lawyer is a great option. Larger organizations that need an entire legal team or outsourced department would be better off with something like UpCounsel, which will connect you to the attorneys you need to represent your business. They specialize in helping you outsource your entire legal department. Frequency of UseHow often will you be using the online legal service? You may need an attorney for a one-time event. This can be to file paperwork, draft a contract, or settle a dispute. In this case, LegalMatch or Avvo are a better match for your needs. If you’re looking to create an ongoing relationship with a lawyer but on an on-demand basis, Rocket Lawyer or LegalZoom will make a suitable choice. Both services will connect you with lawyers who will work with you to quickly resolve any legal issues. Being clear on how often you’ll need legal assistance is cost-effective, too. Why? The pricing structures for online legal services vary from platform to platform. Some charge an ongoing fee for a membership, which may be great for a business that anticipates regularly needing legal help. Other services charge on a per-case or per-use basis, which is helpful for one-off situations. Speed of AssistanceTimeliness is crucial when it comes to legal assistance. After all, emergencies can pop up that require legal help as soon as possible. Platforms like LegalMatch promise that an attorney will respond to your case within 24 hours of your request. Avvo works a lot like Quora, allowing you to post a question and have it answered by lawyers on their website. You can also jump into a history of questions other users have already asked to find answers to situations similar to your own. Getting your question answered for free on an online legal forum isn’t the best option for those of you who need to speak with a lawyer within the next few hours, though. Make sure you find a platform that’s easy to use and allows you to choose a lawyer quickly without any pressure or obligation. And if you want the security of knowing you always have a lawyer that knows your business and is available on demand, there’s always a service like UpCounsel. This gives you the power of a legal department at just a fraction of the cost if you hired your own in-house counsel. Live Legal AssistanceIn many cases you won’t ever need to meet up with a lawyer. However, if you need to meet face-to-face with an attorney (due to security concerns or a complex issue), you’ll want to find a service that can quickly connect you with an attorney. In keeping pace with the evolving landscape of remote working, many of these services will also connect you with lawyers willing to consult with you over Zoom or the phone. Of course, being matched with a lawyer that’s across the country won’t be ideal if you need help in the courtroom or with local or state laws. In those cases, you’ll more likely want to find a lawyer closer to home. If so, look for a platform that allows you to find a qualified lawyer based on your ZIP code or state. Our choices for the best services with directories— LegalMatch, Avvo, and LegalZoom—are good places to start. The Top Online Legal Services in SummaryIf you need to find a lawyer, start a business, or get legal advice, Rocket Lawyer and Incfile are the two best online legal services to consider. These platforms give you access to legal help without having to leave your home or office. Plus, you won’t always be limited to attorneys in your area.Putting all the legal aspects of your business in order is one of the best things you can do for your company. You’ll be surprised at how affordable some of these services are, especially when you consider how much money they can save you down the road. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/best-online-legal-services/
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Want to jump straight to the answer? The best knowledge base software for most people is Heroic KB or Helpjuice. Knowledge base software has become a must-have in the world of customer service. It eliminates the need to print and ship physical copies of instruction manuals for products and services. With self-help articles available 24/7, customers and employees can find solutions to problems without calling or chatting with a customer service representative. This drastically reduces wait times for customers and lowers the number of support ticket requests.
The Top 8 Best Knowledge Base SoftwareHere are the best options on the market today.
![]() After extensive research and testing, I’ve narrowed down the best eight knowledge base solutions I can confidently recommend. The reviews below contain more information about the features, benefits, prices, use cases, and potential drawbacks of each software on the list. Heroic KB by HeroThemes — Best Knowledge Base Theme For WordPress
Heroic KB is unique compared to other solutions on the market today. It’s a WordPress theme that can easily be installed to add knowledge base functionality to any WordPress site. More than 25,000 sites rely on Heroic KB to power their knowledge bases. ![]() If you run a WordPress site and want to control your knowledge base directly within your WP dashboard, this will be the best option for you. Top features and benefits of Heroic KB include:
Like most WordPress themes, Heroic KB is flexible and really easy to customize. It’s used by sites across a wide range of industries. Choose from three different packages, including: ![]()
All purchases are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee from HeroThemes. Try Heroic KB today. Helpjuice — Best Knowledge Base Software For Scalable Support
Helpjuice is one of the most popular knowledge base solutions on the market. The software is trusted by 130,000+ users from thousands of companies, including Amazon, Hertz, Virgin Mobile, and the World Health Organization. It’s fully customizable, easy to use, and built to scale. ![]() Helpjuice is perfect for growing teams with lots of customer service representatives. Teams can collaborate, comment, and reply to knowledge base content to improve articles in real-time. Its simplicity allows new team members to start using the software immediately without a steep learning curve. Companies can sign up for Helpjuice and deploy a knowledge base in a matter of minutes. Some of the top features and advantages of Helpjuice include:
Overall, Helpjuice has everything you could possibly need in a knowledge base solution. Their customer support team is fantastic, and they even offer free expert customization. Here’s a quick look at the plans and pricing: ![]()
As you can see, the software accommodates teams of all sizes. All features are offered with each plan. Pricing is based on the number of users on your team. Try Helpjuice for free with a 14-day trial. Document360 — Best For Technical Documentation
Document360 is another popular solution in the knowledge base software space. It’s used by organizations like Harvard University and Microsoft. The software makes it easy for businesses to create SOPs, internal knowledge bases, and self-service tools for customers. ![]() Document360 really stands out from the crowd with its support for technical documents. As someone who has written countless how-to guides, tutorials, system documents, user guides, and release notes, I appreciate how this software accommodates technical writers. Here’s a closer look at the top features of Document360:
The software is SEO-friendly and integrates with popular tools, like Slack, that many businesses are already using. This is perfect for team collaboration. Document360 offers simple and transparent pricing: ![]()
Plans are primarily based on storage, team accounts, monthly page visits, and knowledge base versions. Try Document360 for free with a 14-day trial. Zendesk — Best All-in-One Customer Support Suite
Zendesk is arguably the most popular customer service software on the market today. It’s trusted by 200,000+ companies of all sizes across every industry. But Zendesk is more than a general customer service tool. It’s a complete customer support suite that includes knowledge base features. ![]() The Zendesk Guide module is included in the Service Suite. This is the tool that Zendesk customers use to create self-service knowledge bases. The software makes it easy to create a complete help center, community forums, and even AI-powered article suggestions for customers. As an all-in-one support tool, Zendesk provides solutions that go above and beyond a basic knowledge base. You’ll also benefit from:
There are three options for Zendesk for Service—Suite Team, Suite Growth, and Suite Professional. These plans start at $49, $79 and $99 per agent. ![]() If you just need a standalone knowledge base solution, Zendesk is probably too much for your needs. But companies seeking an all-in-one support tool will find that Zendesk delivers an exceptional value. Anyone can try it free for 30 days. Startups can get Zendesk free for six months! ServiceNow — Best Knowledge Base Software For IT Service Management
ServiceNow is a bit unique compared to other knowledge base solutions on the market today. It’s actually branded as a workflow management tool. But it has a knowledge management solution designed to provide self-help to both customers and employees. ![]() The knowledge management feature is available with ServiceNow’s IT service management (ITSM) solutions. It’s used by 6,200+ enterprise customers like Deloitte and American Express. Some of the top features and benefits of using ServiceNow as a knowledge base tool include:
ServiceNow makes it easy to increase customer and employee satisfaction. It ultimately helps ITSM teams manage support more efficiently. There are two versions of the software—ITSM and ITSM Professional. Contact the ServiceNow team to request a quote and schedule a demo. HelpSite — Best For Simple FAQ Support Pages
HelpSite is best known for its simplicity. Unlike some of the other knowledge base solutions on the market today, it doesn’t come with an overwhelming amount of unrelated features. The software is straightforward and makes it easy for businesses to create clean FAQs and knowledge base articles. ![]() HelpSite is a great option for smaller businesses that don’t have complex needs. The software is still a reliable option for creating a knowledge base from scratch but doesn’t go above and beyond with extra support tools. Noteworthy highlights and benefits of HelpSite include:
HelpSite also gives users the ability to control the accessibility of help articles, which is perfect for creating an internal knowledge base for your team. There are five different plans and price points to choose from: ![]()
I’d recommend the Gold plan, at a minimum. It includes 2,500 articles, 50 team members, a custom domain, custom HTML/CSS, SSL on the custom domain, and custom redirects. The free plan comes with HelpSite branding on the page, which isn’t viable for business use. Try HelpSite free with a 30-day trial. ProProfs Knowledge Base — Best Beginner-Friendly Knowledge Base Software
ProProfs Knowledge Base is my top recommendation for beginners. This software makes it easy for anyone to create a knowledge base in less than five minutes. But don’t let the simplicity fool you. ProProfs Knowledge Base is trusted by big organizations like Sony, Dell, Cisco, Yale, and DHL. ![]() ProProfs Knowledge Base integrates with more than 100 third-party CRMs, chat tools, and help desk solutions. Examples include Salesforce, Google Analytics, Olark, and Freshdesk. These integrations allow businesses to extend the functionality and capabilities of ProProfs Knowledge Base. Some of the top features and benefits of the software include:
ProProfs Knowledge base is perfect for all technical skill levels. There’s nothing to download, and no HTML or coding knowledge is required. ProProfs offers two paid plans—Essentials and Premium—start at $30 and $40 per author per month, respectively, for an annual plan. Paying per month boosts those prices to $40 and $50 per author per month. ![]() Try any ProProfs Knowledge Base plan free with a 15-day trial. Tettra — Best Knowledge Base Software For Internal Use
Many knowledge base solutions offer the ability to create resources for employees. But Tettra is specifically designed for internal knowledge bases. It’s trusted by high-performance teams like HubSpot, Wistia, AngelList, Meet Edgar, and more. ![]() The software provides a centralized location for crucial policies, procedures, and documents. It’s really useful for onboarding new team members. Employees love to have this type of internal resource at their disposal for self-help purposes. What makes Tettra unique is the way it operates. Organizations can empower employees to contribute and add new articles continuously. Other top features include:
Tettra has a free plan for small teams with up to ten users. The plan is not super restrictive, but it doesn’t come with the ability to change user permissions. Paid plans start at $8.33 per user per month for up to 250 users. Larger organizations can take advantage of the Enterprise package for $16.66 per user per month with unlimited users. ![]() Check out all its features with Tettra’s 30-day free trial. How to Find the Best Knowledge Base Software For YouAre you wondering how I narrowed my list down to these top eight knowledge base software programs? Below, I’ll share the methodology I used when researching and analyzing each program. You can use the same methodology as you’re comparing different knowledge base solutions for your business. It’s important to keep in mind that generally speaking, there’s no “best for all” knowledge base software. It depends on what you need. These considerations can help you understand your needs and pick the best knowledge base software accordingly. Type of Knowledge Base SoftwareKnowledge base software comes in all different shapes and sizes. In addition to standalone tools dedicated to knowledge base software, you can find knowledge base software modules built into other solutions, such as all-in-one help desk and customer support software. There are even knowledge base WordPress themes and knowledge base solutions built for ITSM. If you want to take your customer service to the next level, consider an all-in-one support suite. Otherwise, a standalone knowledge base software will be just fine. Public vs. InternalMost people associate knowledge base software with customer service. But these tools are also extremely useful for internal support. Employees can reference an internal knowledge base for onboarding questions or self-help with specific procedures. This improves employee efficiency and helps keep managers from having to answer the same questions time and again. Some knowledge base software allows admins to control whether an article is for public or internal use. But if you’re only going to use knowledge base software internally, certain platforms are built explicitly for internal knowledge bases. Text EditorIf it’s difficult to write and create an article, the quality of the content will suffer. The best knowledge base solutions have simple text editors. These editors let writers easily add images, videos, and highlights to emphasize important sections of an article. User-friendly text editing is crucial for technical documentation, as the content in these articles can be challenging to follow. A simple text editor will make things easier for the person writing the articles, which ultimately improves the end user’s experience. Analytics and ReportsAnalytics help businesses identify top-performing help articles. They also help companies improve articles that aren’t answering questions sufficiently. Analytics and reports can also help you see what types of questions people want answers to. You can then create more content within those categories instead of wasting time improving articles with zero views. If analytics and reports are important to you, explore the different analytics tools offered by each knowledge base software program. The Top Knowledge Base Software in SummaryIn today’s day and age, customers want answers immediately. Adding a knowledge base to your website is one of the best ways to deliver this experience. Helpjuice is my top recommendation for businesses scaling their support teams. Document360 is the best choice for technical documentation. For an all-in-one customer support suite that goes beyond a knowledge base, try Zendesk. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/best-knowledge-base-software/ Want to just get started? Sign up for Hostinger and get a free domain today. Ready to launch a new website? Finding and registering a domain name is the first thing you need to do. It can be a bit confusing if you’ve never done it before. But it’s easy to find a domain name and register it for free. That’s right. Whether you’re starting a blog, building an online portfolio, or creating a personal or business website, I’ll show you how easy it is to get a free domain name.
Top Rated Domain Registrars to Get a Free Domain NameIf you want to get a free domain name, you’ll need a domain registrar. Here are the top options I’ve identified:
You can read our full reviews of each domain registrar here. But today I’m going to show you how easy it is to claim your free domain name with Hostinger. Why? Because hands down, Hostinger is one of the easiest ways for someone new to domain names to get one for free. There are a few other ways to get a free domain name with free hosting, and I’ll cover those later. But going with Hostinger means you won’t run into the limitations that come with those other options. 6 Steps To Get a Free Domain NameGetting a free domain is easy, and it only takes six simple steps.
![]() Hostinger is a great option to get a free domain, since it comes bundled with their most affordable web hosting packages. These bundle deals are really valuable, because you’ll still still need someone to host your future website once you secure your domain name. With a bundle you kill two birds with one stone. Plus you keep domain registration and web hosting with a single provider. Hostinger’s low-cost bundles also includes WordPress, free email accounts, and other tools you’ll need to build a great-looking website. ![]() The signup process for Hostinger is incredibly easy. Everything is geared toward beginners, so you don’t need any technical experience to get started. There’s no sign-up risk, either, since Hostinger offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you aren’t happy for any reason, get in touch within a month of the start date to receive a full refund. Hostinger keeps it simple: Click Start Now and purchase one of the plans with a free domain! But I’ll walk you through getting your free domain name with Hostinger below. Step 1: Go to Hostinger.comThe first thing you need to do is visit the Hostinger website. They regularly run specials, so be sure to pay attention to the offers displayed on their home page. You’ll see several different menu navigation options. Click the “Hosting” option, and select “Shared Hosting” from the dropdown menu. ![]() You’ll see other types of web hosting, like cloud hosting, VPS hosting, and Minecraft hosting. Ignore those. Shared hosting is the most affordable way to get a free domain name, and it requires the least amount of maintenance and security know-how on your part. If your website gets super popular, or you want to add some interactive features, you may outgrow shared hosting. If and when that happens, Hostinger makes it easy to upgrade your hosting arrangement. More resources, more control, more websites–it’s just the click of a button when you’re ready. Step 2: Select a Web Hosting PlanAfter selecting the appropriate type of hosting, you need to choose the right plan. Hostinger offers a few different options for shared hosting. If you want to get a free domain, don’t select the Single Shared Hosting plan, as it does not come with one. ![]() The cheapest plan is a steal, no doubt, but if you want a free domain, it’s the wrong way to go. That leaves you with the Premium and Business Shared Hosting plans. Here’s what each plan offers. Premium Shared Hosting (includes free domain name)
Business Shared Hosting
Either of these plans is a solid option. I’d lean toward the Premium plan if you aren’t expecting to hit your resource limits in terms of storage or monthly traffic. I’d recommend the Business plan for folks that are regularly updating their site or expecting a significant amount of traffic. Business plans include automatic daily backups for the last seven days and weekly backups for the last seven weeks. The ability to restore your site is crucial. Handling backups on your own is a hassle you can avoid with Business plans. Step 3: Choose Your Billing TermsAfter you select the appropriate plan, Hostinger asks you to choose a period for your plan: monthly, 12-month, 24-month, or 48-month. If you want the free domain, do not select the month-to-month payment option. Hostinger only includes the free domain with terms of one year or more. ![]() The longer your commitment, the greater the discount. You also stretch out that discount for as long as possible, because renewal pricing is never as good. This is not a Hostinger thing, it is just the way every host does it. If you sign up for longer, Hostinger will actually lower the renewal rate. This is not common. As you can see in the image above, the renewal price for a single month of service is $11.99/month, whereas the renewal price for a 48-month term drops to $6.99/month. The downside to signing up for a longer period is that you have to pay upfront. Again, this is typical of every host. But I’m willing to take the hit with Hostinger because it is a really great deal. Do the math: Hostinger Premium Shared Hosting saves you over $400 for four years of hosting. Pay a hundred and change today, and don’t worry about your website hosting again until this year’s high school freshmen have graduated. When you factor in the savings of a free domain name, the price only gets better. Step 4: Create an AccountAfter selecting your plan period, you’ll need to share the email address you’ll use to log into your new Hostinger account. Alternatively, you can log in using your account from Facebook, GitHub, or Google. ![]() I’d make this an email you check regularly. If there’s ever an issue with your site, this is how Hostinger is going to get in touch with you. Step 5: Enter Payment InformationAfter you set up your email, choose your preferred method of payment. Hostinger supports a range of popular credit cards and payment gateways. ![]() Normally, I’d walk you through some of the other add-ons you want to select as part of your package, but because we’ve decided to go with a 48-month term of Premium Shared Hosting, all of the critical features are included:
All of these added services are great. While you can configure SSL certificates and CDNs yourself, potentially without spending a dime, it’s not easy unless you know what you’re doing. Hostinger makes all of this happen with just a few clicks. Beginners never have to worry about expiring SSL certificates or CDN issues. Hostinger also waives the setup fee, which month-to-month customers have to pay for. Once you’ve confirmed how you want to pay, enter your payment details and click the button to submit at the bottom of the page: ![]() Step 6: Claim Your Free DomainOnce your payment goes through, you’ll have the option to claim your free domain name. ![]() Select this option unless you want to buy additional domains or connect other domains you own. From there, Hostinger will walk you through the process of selecting a domain name that’s available. You can search right on their site. Hostinger offers domains with different extensions, including:
In most instances, a .com domain will be the only one I recommend. But there are two reasons why you might get an alternative domain extension: price and availability. Getting a .site or .tech domain is cheaper than a .com extension. But in this case, you’re getting a year for free anyways. Price aside, .com domains will be better for the long-term success of your website. I recommend getting your domain name set up right away for a few reasons.
However, if you skip this step now or click out of the window for any reason, don’t worry. You can always claim your free domain later through your Hostinger dashboard. ![]() Other Ways to Get a Free Domain NameWhile Hostinger is definitely the best way to get a free domain name, it’s not the only way. Below are a few other free ways to do it. Use a Free SubdomainMany website builders offer free subdomains. A subdomain exists within an existing domain name. For example, if you use a free website builder like Wix to create your website, you won’t have to pay anything for a domain. However, your site will have a subdomain in this format: yourusername.wixsite.com/yoursiteaddress Here’s what that would look like if your Wix username was “My Stunning Website 123” and the domain you wanted was “myblogsite.” ![]() This is obviously not ideal. No credible website has a domain like this. The only time I would consider using this method for a free domain is if you were just experimenting with the free features of the website builder. But overall, this isn’t a viable long-term strategy. You want your domain name to be short and memorable. With a subdomain, it’s neither of those things. Just another generic domain with a bunch of letters your customer has to remember (or rather, forget). Plus, it shows people you’re not even willing to invest the money into an actual domain name. WordPress is another popular option for a free subdomain. It’s not quite as complex as the free Wix subdomain. The format for a free WordPress subdomain is: yoursitename.wordpress.com You can get away with this for a while if you’re using WordPress to run a small blog or personal site. But you’ll eventually want to ditch the subdomain if you want to establish any sense of authority online. Pay for a Premium Site Builder PlanKeeping in the same vein as above, you’ll likely notice if you build a site with Wix (or Squarespace, Zyro, or most of our other recommended website builders) that you may not have to settle for the free subdomain. The catch? You’ll need to bump up to a paid plan with your website builder. This may not be a worthwhile solution for some folks. Paying for a premium site builder plan is likely to not only negate the savings of a free domain—it’ll almost certainly cost you more. Plus, whatever savings you do get will disappear after one year. But, if you’re setting up an ecommerce site or something else that needs the enhanced features of a premium Wix or Squarespace plan anyway, this can be a way to mitigate some of that first-year expense. And, fortunately, even the base-level paid plans for Wix ($14/month) and Squarespace ($12/month) come with this bonus. In the case of Zyro, you’ll need to choose their Unleashed plan (second-cheapest) or higher. Fortunately, Zyro often slashes prices on their paid plans, too, for the first year. However, be very careful to research the rates at which these domains will renew. You don’t want to get stuck with a bad deal that totally wipes away the savings of the first year for free and is more expensive in the end than just paying for a domain from the get-go. Pay for a Business Email Service![]() Along the same lines as paying for a site builder plan and receiving a free domain, you can pay for a business email service and receive a free domain. Places like GoDaddy will allow you to pay for a business email account, while receiving a free domain for the first year. Keep in mind the drawbacks that we mentioned in the last section. With some of these services, you will have to pay any ICANN registration fees for your domain. You also will have to begin paying fully for the domain in year two and beyond, and some of these renewal rates can be quite high. Do your homework before you try to obtain a free domain name by subscribing to a business email service. You may find that it’s a better deal to just pay for a web hosting service like Hostinger, like I mentioned earlier, to receive your free domain name. Domain Registrar Ad Programs (Not Recommended)Domain registrars sometimes offer to give you a free domain in exchange for running ads on your website. Don’t do this. There’s nothing wrong with ads on your website. However, you won’t have any control over the ads and their placement with this method. This will not only hinder the experience for your website visitors but will also damage your SEO ranking. Plus, what if your website got one million views? You wouldn’t see a dime from those ads. All you get is a free domain. If you want to run ads on your website, do it through a legitimate advertising network, like Google. Don’t exchange ads for a free domain. Free ccTLD Services (Not Recommended)The web is full of free TLD (top-level domain) services for different country codes (cc). This refers to the extension after your domain name. So instead of .com, you can register your domain with country codes like:
You can get these from services like Freenom or Dok.tk. But I really don’t recommend this. These country codes make your website seem sketchy, which doesn’t help you build trust with those who visit your site. If you look up reviews about these ccTLD services, you’ll find nothing but criticism. From malicious ads to adult content and random domain removal, you won’t have a pleasant experience if you choose free ccTLD services. Another big drawback here is that you do not gain ownership of the domain name when you subscribe to one of these services. This means you can’t transfer the domain name to anyone else, and you could lose the domain name at some point in the future if the service changes its mind. If you are trying to run any sort of legitimate business or blog, using one of these services is not the way to go. It might be free, but it almost certainly will cost your site its reputation. ConclusionHostinger is the best way to get a free domain name. Just sign up for a web hosting plan, and they’ll give you a free domain for one year. There are other ways to avoid paying for a domain: using a free subdomain, joining an affiliate program, or using a sketchy ccTLD service. But I personally wouldn’t recommend the majority of alternative options. If you’re thinking about getting a free domain using a random country code from some island in the South Pacific, don’t do it. Saving a few dollars isn’t worth the cost of running a spammy website. Stick with Hostinger, or check out the best domain registrars for paid alternatives. They’ll give your website and brand a professional edge. First impressions are everything. You don’t want yours to be ruined by a bad domain name.
via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/how-to-get-a-free-domain-name/ Want to jump straight to the answer? The best web hosting for most people is Hostinger or Bluehost. 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 10 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 10 WordPress Web Hosts for 2022
![]() 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
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 two dollars more per month (currently $3.99), 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. ![]() 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 According to their website, their 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. Bluehost — Best for Creating Your First WordPress Website
Bluehost 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. People like Bluehost because it’s super simple to get started. With millions of users, all the kinks have been worked out. Once you sign up, you’ll be able to install WordPress immediately. You’ll have your bare-bones site live within 15 minutes. Then you can follow our full guide to creating a website to get your site exactly how you want it. You can reach out 24/7 to their award-winning customer support team if any issues arise. Bluehost also has some of the lowest pricing around, with plans as low as $2.75/month. That’s incredibly cheap, especially for something that’s so reliable and easy to use. As such, they’re 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 lowest price point I’ve seen, but it’s still one of the lowest-cost options out there for managed hosting. The value you get from Bluehost can’t be beat. It’s powerful enough for most websites, and the service is widely recommended throughout the industry. Bottom line: Bluehost is a great option for the vast majority of people reading this—but especially those who are just getting started. GreenGeeks — Best For Eco-Friendly Website Owners
If you want a shared hosting plan optimized for WordPress, GreenGeeks has you covered. With affordable rates, quick setup, and 24/7 live chat support, you will have everything you need to launch a professional WordPress website. GreenGeeks has hundreds of WordPress-specific tutorials and information in their knowledge base. They also don’t charge extra fees for WordPress security, fast performance, or their 300% renewable energy match that makes them a carbon-reducing company. ![]() GreenGeeks really ups the security for WordPress sites. They monitor your site for malware and other threats and help clean your site if any issues occur. They also provide a free SSL certificate and automatically renew it for you every 90 days. And if you already have a WordPress site, you can move it over to GreenGeeks or let them migrate it for you for free. As part of their managed WordPress hosting, every plan comes with free WordPress installation, migration, and automatic updates. You’ll also get a free SSL certificate, free CDN, free backups, a free domain for one year, built-in caching, and WP-CLI and SSH access. If you have any issues or questions, users say the 24/7 live chat service is staffed with knowledgeable, friendly people who respond quickly. The Lite plan starts at $2.95 per month, Pro is $5.95 per month, and Premium is $10.95 per month. All of these prices are based on a three-year commitment and every plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Lite is for one website. Both Pro and Premium cover unlimited websites. You can learn more about GreenGeeks managed WordPress hosting and get started here. WP Engine — Best for Hosting Multiple WordPress Sites with Tons of Traffic
For pros, I recommend WP Engine. It’s great for managed WordPress hosting. In fact, WP Engine is what we use here at QuickSprout—and for very good reason. If you’re trying to get serious and build a high-traffic blog or business, 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 $23/month, paid annually, with their Startup plan, you can host one 10GB site with a limit of 25,000 monthly visitors. Their Professional tier of service is $56/month for three sites and 75,000 monthly visitors. If you get a spike in traffic and go over these traffic limits, you’ll get hit with overage fees. ![]() That might seem like a lot of money for fewer resources (especially when compared to services like Hostinger and Bluehost) 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 their customer support, I’ve always been impressed. Their speed, thoroughness, and expertise are world-class. Bottom line: WP Engine is an excellent solution if you want to get serious about growing your WordPress sites. Nexcess — Best for Effortless Website Staging
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 they make it to stage a website. Their 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. They also offer a ton of great plans that make it easy to scale. Prices start at just $12.67 per month for one website (as long as you pay for the entire year up front). The discount for paying annually is equivalent to four months free versus paying month to month. If you need more features than the lowest-priced tier provides, the cost jumps quite a bit—to $52.67 per month—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 $72.67 per month. In all, they offer six plans. The most expensive plan is the Executive tier, which provides up to 100 sites and 500 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. SiteGround — Best for Ecommerce Websites with Easy Site Migration
SiteGround is another of WordPress’ recommended web hosts. They offer incredibly affordable managed hosting solutions that are powerful as well. Where they really shine is how easy they make it to:
I also like their advanced features for WordPress, like automatic updates and enhanced security on all the 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 $3.99/month for your first year (paid up front). ![]() 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 $6.69 per month. The biggest plan is GoGeek for $10.69 per month with 40 GB web space, priority support, staging + Git, and 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. Flywheel — Best If You Want Experts to Migrate Your Site for You
Flywheel is a managed WordPress host that really puts the “support” in customer support. They offer a great migration service that takes care of the often stressful process of site migration for you. They have a dedicated team that handles the entire process of moving your site to their 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. They’re 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 accomodate more sites in the two highest packages. ![]() 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
Kinsta is a a great alternative to WP Engine if something about WP Engine doesn’t gel with you. What truly separates them from WP Engine, though, is their auto-scaling feature. In the event of an unexpected surge in traffic, their servers will automatically allocate more CPU and RAM to your website. That’s great for websites that frequently see infrequent spikes in traffic like when an article goes viral or if you have sporadic product launches. 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. This can be very good for websites that experience inconsistent traffic performance (e.g. viral articles and videos, big product launches). They also offer a ton of pricing plans for excellent scalability. In fact, they offer 10 plans as well as a customizable enterprise solution. ![]() Pricing starts at $30/month for 25,000 monthly visitors and scales up from there. Bottom line: Kinsta can handle any volume of traffic that you need. You won’t have to worry about switching from 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. Scala Hosting — Most Freebies in Every WordPress Hosting Plan
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 their servers help your WordPress site perform better, they also throw 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. They’ll 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 their plans also include:
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:
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, 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:
Give Scala Hosting a try or get connected with their 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. Cloudways – Best for Flexibility and Extensive Options
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:
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 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. How to Choose the Best Web Hosting for WordPressNow you know about some of the best choices for hosting your WordPress site. But what’s the best one for you and your business? Different factors are important to different people. But there are some common priorities among all WordPress website owners. We zeroed in on the following considerations when choosing the top 10 to include on this list. Note: We intentionally didn’t include speed and uptime on our list. Those two things should be self-evident when looking for a good web hosting provider of all stripes. Evaluate the following to guide your decision when choosing a WordPress web hosting provider. Multi-Site vs. Single-Site HostingEach 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. You’ll also want to factor in price and the features you get for each package. 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 great option if you’re looking for multi-site solutions. Their packages scale well, too. So, if you end up getting more clients who need websites, you can just upgrade your package as needed. With providers like Bluehost, you can get unlimited websites at just $5.45 per month—but that comes with 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 (but we’ll get into that more later). Customer Support That’s Actually SupportiveYou want your website to work as smoothly as possible, especially if you’re making money from it. So when something goes wrong—say your website goes down, or you encounter a security breach or cyber attack—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. Of course, the trade-off is that they’re a managed WordPress host. That means they come 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 optimized to help you—unlike a general host with customers running all sorts of applications. On top of that, managed hosts have built their business model on providing timely, reliable service. Contrast this to cheaper hosts that don’t put much of an emphasis—if any—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 HostingThis is probably one of the most important decisions 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 steps things up a notch, and offers a bunch of extra features. Instead of a basic host with WordPress installed, everything is built from the ground up with WordPress in mind. The hosting infrastructure is tailored to WordPress and the hosting company usually customizes WordPress itself to make it better. Your site will be a lot faster and more secure. You’ll also have 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 MigrationWordPress hosting is typically an upgrade from old shared hosting solutions. As such, you’re likely migrating your website to a new web host altogether. A good web host will help you migrate your website between web hosts easily and seamlessly. This might mean they’ll have a dedicated technician work through the process for you, or they’ll 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. As you research, see what each hosting provider gives you in terms of site migration. SiteGround, for example, has a free migrator tool you can use to get your website on their 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. The Top Web Hosting For WordPress in SummaryWordPress web hosting puts your site on a server that’s only used for WordPress. This improves the security, 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. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/best-web-hosting-for-wordpress/ Want to jump straight to the answer? The best digital marketing agency for businesses with over 2 million in revenue is Ignite Visibility or 97th Floor. Smaller businesses should compare the other companies on our list below. Every business needs to leverage digital marketing to stay competitive in the modern era. But sometimes you need extra guidance really dial in your digital marketing strategy. Whether you need help with a new campaign or want general consulting, a digital marketing agency provides you with the marketing assistance you need to reach your goals. Compare Quotes From The Best Digital Marketing Agencies Get matched up with a digital marketing agency that fits your needs. The 10 Best Digital Marketing Agencies of 2022
![]() These are the most well-respected and trusted agencies on the market today. Check out the in-depth reviews for each agency below. I cover their service offerings, their specializations, the budgets they work with, and the business types that will benefit most from their services. Best Digital Marketing Agencies ReviewsIgnite Visibility — Best overall digital marketing agency for mid- to enterprise-level businesses
Ignite Visibility is a San Diego-based digital marketing agency with expert services in SEO, paid media, email marketing, and more. They have helped companies capture leads, increase conversions, and draw more visibility to their brands via paid media and SEO campaigns. Ignite also stands out for its offerings for businesses to deal with the global pandemic crisis. When lockdowns began, they rolled out a variety of COVID-19 marketing response plans for companies to effectively navigate the changing landscape. In fact, they won the Best B2B Search Marketing Initiative by Search Engine Land in 2020—a year that saw many marketing agencies having to pivot to crisis communication and deal with global industry disruption. Ignite Visibility focuses on forecasting, timelines, competitive analysis, and project plans for all services, which include:
The firm employs approximately 100 industry experts to lead each of its service lines. Each one can offer you a multichannel approach to your marketing campaigns. Another reason to like Ignite Visibility is that they offer quarterly business plans which show the work that has been done, the results, and the plan moving forward. Quarterly business plans also include unique industry research done by Ignite Visibility and their partners—such as Google, Yelp, Facebook, and Microsoft. Learn more about getting started with Ignite Visibility here. 97th Floor — Best for Enterprise B2B Brands with Bigger Budgets
>> Compare Quotes 97th Floor is a full-service digital marketing agency that stands out for its impressive client roster, which includes Salesforce, Dell, Oatly, and even the NBA’s Utah Jazz. They’re no stranger to larger, enterprise-tier organizations. Where they stand out though is in their patent-pending Palomar software suite. This is a set of tools that will analyze relevant marketing data in real-time to help you develop a marketing strategy that’s optimized for your brand. Included in this suite are:
97th Floor offers digital marketing services across four main categories—SEO, paid media, creative, and automation. Top services in those categories include:
Overall, 97th Floor aims to reach current and prospective clients across every potential digital channel to maximize consumer interaction with your brand. After your initial consultation, 97th Floor will give you a customized game plan for your strategy. You’ll be provided with a dedicated marketing team based on factors like work experience, industry knowledge, area of expertise, and even common interests. But with that said, it’s a better option for larger businesses with substantial marketing budgets. Consider hiring 97th Floor if you have a monthly marketing budget of $10k-$25k. They even have plans for companies with marketing budgets of $100k+ per month. Rise Interactive — Best for Attracting Ecommerce Customers
>> Compare Quotes Rise Interactive is a full-service digital marketing agency that has offices based throughout the United States and in Mexico City and Buenos Aires. Where they stand out is their offerings when it comes to online marketplace listings and advertisements. For example, their Amazon advertising services help you capture more customers on Amazon through on-page ads and cross-channel integrations. They will also work with you to optimize your advertising game on other online marketplaces such as the Walmart Media Group. The marketplace listing services are perfect for ecommerce businesses that sell products on multiple platforms. As such, I highly recommend them to ecommerce websites looking to make a bigger splash online. Here’s a more comprehensive list of Rise’s offerings:
This agency developed a proprietary multi-channel strategy called “Interactive Investment Management.” The idea behind this approach is to fluidly optimize media content to whichever tactics or channels drive the highest ROI. Rise is a top choice to consider for businesses that prefer an analytically-driven approach to digital marketing. You’ll also benefit from a suite of tools to provide you with real-time performance metrics, analysis, and optimization for your campaigns and strategy as a whole. Unlike some of the other options on our list, Rise does not have specific monthly budget requirements to be considered as a client. They work with companies of all different shapes and sizes. WebFX — Best for Dominating Local SEO
>> Compare Quotes WebFX is an award-winning digital marketing agency with over 20 years of experience. While they offer many of the typical services you expect from a full-service agency, WebFX is best known for its SEO services. In fact, they’ve driven clients to have over 255,000 items ranked on page one of Google. Where they really stand out is in their local SEO service. They’ll give you a dedicated local SEO expert, on-page local SEO services like product keyword research, citation management across in-network citations, review management, and custom reporting. Overall, they’re a great choice whether you already have a local SEO campaign, just getting started, or you just want someone to take care of the nuts and bolts for you. In addition to SEO services, WebFX also provides:
They work with businesses across a wide range of industries, including education, food and beverage, finance, automotive, industrial, legal, home and repair, insurance, medical, professional services, nonprofits, real estate, retail, tech, tourism, and more. WebFX can accommodate budgets of all different sizes. Whether you’re looking to spend $300 per month or $10,000+ per month, this will be a top digital marketing agency for you to consider. DigitalMarketing.com — Best for Nailing Your Campaign the First TimeDigitalMarketing.com offers all things related to—you guessed it—digital marketing. This full-service digital marketing firm has worked with some of the fastest growing and most well-established brands in the world. Some of their top clients include Ferrari, AT&T, Fox, CBS, Coca-Cola, Warner Brothers, Boeing, and Bank of America. Their most standout offering, though, is a tool used to beta test your marketing campaign. In fact, they have their own technology called “Capture it All” which uses data to simulate beta tests. That helps you plan the best possible course of action for your marketing campaigns. That can help you anticipate how your marketing campaign will ultimately perform. However, it should be taken with a grain of salt, as there are many outside factors that can ultimately determine the course of your campaign. However, this is a pretty incredible feature and one I haven’t seen other digital marketing agencies offer. It can help you ensure you launch the best marketing campaign for your brand on the first try—rather than investing a ton of money only for it to flop. They also offer a great PR management service that’s great for brands who need to put their best foot forward after a dent in their reputation. A more comprehensive list of their offerings includes:
Like most marketing firms, DigitalMarketing.com does not have prices listed on its website. They don’t require you to disclose your budget to receive a quote. Contact them today to schedule a free consultation. WebiMax — Best If You Also Need Reputation Management
>> Compare Quotes WebiMax is best known for its reputation management services. In fact, this agency made our list of the best online reputation management companies on the market today. While they offer much more beyond that—such as PPC, social media, and SEO marketing—I highly recommend them if your brand is looking for a reputation refresh. This can happen to businesses that recently received negative press or for businesses that would like to change their image entirely and rebrand. But WebiMax does so much more than just improve online reputations. As a full-service digital marketing agency, they also specialize in:
As a WebiMax client, you’ll have access to an online portal where you can manage all of the details associated with your account. The reporting dashboard gives you real-time results for marketing campaigns, including keywords, traffic, analytics, and other live stats. WebiMax has over 50 marketers on its team, but it’s still on the small side compared to some of the other organizations on this list. This is an ideal solution for those of you who prefer working with smaller teams. Pricing for WebiMax services starts as low as $400 per month—which is definitely on the lower end when it comes to marketing agencies, plus you get a free consultation. Mad Fish Digital — Best for Socially-Conscious Brands and Nonprofits
>> Compare Quotes Mad Fish Digital is a digital marketing firm that chooses to work with businesses that have a positive impact on their communities and the environment. Top Mad Fish Digital services include:
As you can see, Mad Fish Digital covers all aspects of digital marketing. They specialize in certain industries, such as healthcare, higher education, sustainability and environment, SaaS, B2B, banking, hospitality, event planning, and more. Mad Fish Digital is innovative, genuine, and fully accountable for your campaigns. They’ll keep you informed through each step of the process. If you have a nonprofit, environmentally friendly, or sustainable organization, Mad Fish Digital will be a top agency for you to consider working with. Split Reef — Best for Climbing to the Top in the App Store
>> Compare Quotes Split Reef is a digital marketing agency with offices in Ohio and Florida. They provide a wide range of digital marketing services, including other offerings like custom web applications, iOS and Android app development, progressive web apps, and more. If you’re also in the market for custom design and development, you can use Split Reef as an all-in-one solution. For example, let’s say you want to create an app designed for wearable devices, like a smartwatch. Split Reef can help you design the app, develop it, and then handle your digital marketing as well. Split Reef also specializes in responsive web designs and website speed optimization. Their overall list of offerings is a bit smaller than the other services:
Another unique niche carved out by this agency is the legal industry. Split Reef has extensive experience with digital marketing for law firms. They have a team of legal content writers, and other tools that are specifically designed to boost traffic and conversions for legal websites. While the two are definitely unrelated, Split Reef is a top choice for both mobile app marketing and law firm marketing. No matter what type of budget or project you have in mind, Split Reef can work with your budget. Services start in the $1,000-$5,000 range and go all the way up to over $50,000. Max Audience — Best for Creating An Automated B2B Marketing System
>> Compare Quotes Max Audience has offices on both coasts of the United States, with three locations in California and another in New York. While they offer a variety of marketing solutions—including content, PPC, and SEO marketing—they also offer a great marketing automation solution. This allows you to automate repetitive tasks so your system captures leads and customer data without you needing to constantly check in on it. They’ll work with you to set up a lead generation, lead nurturing, and segmentation system. They’ll even pair it with a CRM to really boost your ROI. This will help inform you and keep you connected with your customers no matter where they are in your funnel. Their CRM also gives you analytics to help translate data about your clients into insights that can help enrich their experience and turn them into customers. Overall, they leverage automation to maximize ROI in marketing campaigns. They follow the lead of Fortune 500 companies and B2B organizations by applying cost-effective and fail-proof automated campaigns to great success. A full list of their offerings can be found below:
Max Audience has worked with small organizations and large companies throughout the world. They prioritize ROI with all digital marketing campaigns. In addition to digital marketing services, Max Audience also provides web design services and messaging solutions for its clients. The messaging solutions will help you reach your customers across various digital touchpoints. Prices for the Max Audience digital marketing services are unavailable online. You’ll need to speak to their sales team for a custom quote. Location3 — Best for Brick-and-Mortar Franchises
>> Compare Quotes Location3 is a full-service digital marketing firm that specializes in marketing services for franchise brands. They work with national franchise chains like Honey Baked Ham, Advantage Rent a Car, and Edible Arrangements. As such, they’re especially great if you have a brick-and-mortar presence. They have a property platform called “LOCALACT” that is designed for franchise systems and companies with a significant brick-and-mortar footprint. These custom online dashboards allow Location3’s clients to scale and power their digital marketing campaigns in real-time on a national and local level. A more comprehensive look at their offerings includes:
If you own a franchise and need assistance marketing your locations online, Location3 will be the best option for you. How to Find the Best Digital Marketing Agency For YouWith so many options out there, finding the best digital marketing agency for your business can be a challenge. To find a firm that will deliver the best results for your company’s needs, there are certain factors you should take into consideration. This is the methodology that we use and recommend here at Quick Sprout to evaluate the best digital marketing firms. It isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, though. Some factors will be more important than others, depending on your business needs. Outcomes and OutputsBe wary of services that promise to simply give you “more customers.” Not only is that incredibly vague, but it should already be an obvious goal of every single digital marketing service. Instead, focus on services that offer specific services like increasing traffic or getting qualified leads. Beware of any marketing agency that promises you the moon. Any goals you and the agency set should be realistic and attainable while still being ambitious. Claims promising a 200% engagement increase or a #1 ranking on Google should be treated with suspicion. This is not to say that those goals won’t happen or the business hasn’t helped other brands achieve such success. It’s just a red flag if they overpromise a specific outcome and underdeliver. Industry and Niche ExperienceAs you narrow down your list, keep an eye out for digital marketing agencies with experience that’s relevant to your type of business. They’ll be able to draw from experience to tailor their services to your business and target audience. Startups, for example, can benefit from agencies like WebiMax. Ignite Visibility and Location3 are better suited for franchises and Fortune 500s. If you run a non-profit organization, consider using a digital marketing service like Mad Fish Digital. Looking at an agency’s client list will give you a good idea of the types of businesses and industries where they’ve delivered proven results. If you are having trouble finding an agency that can handle your specific industry, consider sorting your candidates into broader categories first. For example, if you are a B2B company, you can eliminate agencies that focus on B2C. Further sort the remaining agencies on your list by whether they have expertise with the type of customer you’re seeking. For example, marketers that focus on clients in service industries will offer different skills than those that focus on clients that sell products. Team Scope and CapacityDigital marketing agencies come in diverse shapes and sizes—ranging from agencies with less than a dozen employees to those with several hundred people working on digital marketing efforts. If you want a bit more focus on you and your brand, a smaller agency will typically be able to provide that. If the agency only has a dozen people and you’re one of their hand-picked clients, the entire staff will be aware of your brand and its marketing efforts. Conversely, smaller agencies may not offer all of the services you’re looking for. So you should stick with larger firms if you want a wide range of digital marketing solutions under one roof. The best agencies also provide you with a dedicated point of contact or account manager that’s readily accessible when you have questions or concerns. Marketing Channel Focus and MethodsWhile there is definitely some overlap from company to company, some marketing agencies specialize in one area over another. For example, Ignite Visibility might specialize in technical SEO and link building, whereas WebFX puts more focus on local search listings or marketplace optimization. Beyond basic digital marketing services, some agencies offer specialty solutions for things like web design, online reputation management, app development, and other needs in the digital space. For example, Spit Reef stands out from the pack for its custom web application, iOS, and Android app development. DigitalMarketing.com is also excellent because they offer a powerful, technology-driven approach. Rise Interactive is great for ecommerce businesses because they help market your brand on different online marketplaces and listings. The Top Digital Marketing Agencies in SummaryIgnite Visibility is the best digital marketing agency for most businesses. They deliver excellent SEO services, paid media, email marketing, and everything else you need to take your marketing strategy to the next level. Of course, all of the choices on this list are full-service digital marketing firms. They each have unique standout features and services that appeal to different business types and marketing objectives. The one that’s right for you is the one that meets your unique needs. Compare Quotes From The Best Digital Marketing Agencies Get matched up with a digital marketing agency that fits your needs. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/best-digital-marketing-agencies/ Want to jump straight to the answer? The best call center services for most people is Nextiva. Call centers are essential for helping medium and large businesses manage communication with customers. But trying to organize an in-house call center can be costly and labor-intensive, especially if your company has limited resources. That’s why we recommend using a call center service to outsource all of your calls. This takes a huge responsibility off your shoulders and allows you to provide outstanding service to your clients or customers. We’ve identified the top six call center services for you to choose from. The 6 Best Call Center Services of 2022
![]() This guide contains an in-depth review, including the top features, benefits, and other information about these companies below. Best Call Center Service ReviewsNextiva – Best Overall
One of the drawbacks of fully outsourcing your call center is being in the dark about the people handling your callers. It’s no good if you’re getting poor feedback from customers and you don’t have the means to train current staff to improve or replace poor performers with new hires. Nextiva offers you an in-between solution that still delivers savings. Nextiva’s call center software allows you to run it entirely from the cloud. That means you can have a fully distributed network of independent contractors manning your call center phones from any location. Yes you’ll still pay for some labor, but there’s no need to outfit a wing of your building with a full PBX phone system and the expenses that come with that. With Nextiva, you’re saving money while still maintaining full control over your call center and the people fielding calls. Nextiva’s call center software runs on its Nextiva One platform. That may sound like a big investment itself, but it’s not. There’s no need to install new equipment. Since it is a VoIP solution, Nextiva implementation is a snap. Plus, it’s altogether affordable. Nextiva One starts with the entry-level Essential plan, which comes with unlimited voice and video calling, toll-free numbers, an auto attendant, and mobile and desktop apps. Pricing scales based on the number of users. Four or fewer means you pay $23.95 per user per month. As your team grows, price per user decreases. Adding call center capability increases your per user per month charge by just $50. You get everything you need to set up a remote call center at a predictable cost of around $70 per user per month. That price includes no limits on minutes or callers in the queue. Get the best of both worlds—keep control of your call center workers while still saving money by letting them work from anywhere (including their own mobile phone) with Nextiva. Go Answer – Best Inbound Call Center Outsourcing for Small Business
>> Compare Quotes Go Answer specializes in inbound call services for small businesses. They also provide answering services and legal intake services. More than 5,000 businesses throughout North America trust Go Answer for their outsourced contact center needs. Go Answer expands beyond simply using the phone to communicate with your customers. They also handle communication via email, web chat, and SMS. These are some of the top features and benefits of using Go Answer as your call center service provider:
All of your messages and voicemails are available in the mobile app. You get real-time updates and notifications delivered via push notification, text, or email. The contact center services from Go Answer are designed for medium to large businesses with a high call volume. They provide customized solutions for a wide range of industries. The agents become an extension of your team. Go Answer supports multi-channel communication and ticketing for customer support inquiries as well. It also boasts some of the fastest pickup times in the industry. You’ll also have free access to their mobile app, AlwaysOn, and you can try the answering service risk-free for 30 days with a trial. The answering service is geared toward smaller organizations. It’s a reliable way to make a professional impression on your customers. Some of the most common industries using Go Answer include legal, real estate, publishing, finance, and ecommerce. Like most call center services, the rates for Go Answer are unavailable online. You’ll need to contact their sales team for a custom quote based on the specific needs of your organization. TeleDirect – Best for Managing Reservations
>> Compare Quotes TeleDirect works with Fortune 500 companies, startups, and everything in between. It offers both inbound and outbound call center services for businesses. Teledirect also has specific solutions for reservations and managing leads. Businesses can use TeleDirect’s inbound call services for things like processing orders, qualifying leads, tech support, and help desk assistance. Since TeleDirect has agents available 24/7/365, it’s a top solution for after-hours support and call overflows. TeleDirect has experience handling calls from a wide range of businesses. Common industries that trust this call center service include retail, financial services, healthcare, insurance, and tech. The outbound calling services from TeleDirect are exceptional as well. Your business can use this call center service for things like appointment setting, market research, lead generation, customer retention, event registration, surveys, and callbacks. TeleDirect specializes in registration services. The company has handled over 1.6 million customer reservations across multiple industries. It’s a fast and efficient way to get people to RSVP. This service is perfect for seminars, events, workshops, and open enrollments. The call center reps at TeleDirect are friendly and professional. They know how to make an excellent first impression for both inbound and outbound calls, regardless of the call reason. I’d recommend TeleDirect for businesses of all sizes. It’s even a top solution for smaller businesses that just need assistance with after-hours calls and overflow. Five Star Call Center – Best Outbound Outsourcing Service
>> Compare Quotes Five Star Call Center has everything your business needs to manage customer service calls. They provide call center outsourcing, inbound voice, outbound voice, contact center software, and call center consulting. This company has 35+ years in the call center outsourcing industry. Common inbound call center outsourcing services from Five Star Call Center include:
Five Star Call Center also provides outbound calling for both B2C and B2B companies. Here are some of the popular outbound calling services:
As you can see from both lists, the services offered by the outsourced professionals at Five Star Call Center are extensive. All of the call center hubs are based in the US. There are five call centers in the midwest located in South Dakota, North Dakota, Kansas, and Oklahoma. With over three decades in the call center service industry, Five Star Call Center knows it all. They’ve helped businesses across every industry you can imagine. However, there are certain industries that Five Star Call Center specializes in. That includes retail, hospitality, product support, finance, healthcare, and professional services. Many call center services on the market today offer inbound and outbound calling. But sometimes, these providers have an edge in one category over another. Five Star Call Center definitely qualifies as a top outbound call center service. The outbound services are robust and results-driven. The agents go above and beyond just reading from a script. They know how to connect with the caller on the other end of the line to accomplish whatever goal you’re trying to achieve. SAS – Best Outsourced Call Center Answering Services
>> Compare Quotes SAS stands for Specialty Answering Service. As the name clearly implies, the SAS call center’s primary focuses is an answering service. In addition to the answering services, SAS provides call center outsourcing, dedicated call centers, lead generation services, and virtual receptionists. SAS has bilingual receptionists and virtual office capabilities for their live operators. The answering service is very diverse. While it’s obviously geared toward businesses, many people use SAS for personal use. Entrepreneurs, business owners, and busy professionals rely on SAS as a personal receptionist. SAS has dispatching services with operators that answer calls in three rings or less. They have toll-free numbers, emergency answering services, and support international calls. Unlike most call center services, SAS has simple and straightforward pricing listed on their website. Here’s a quick overview of those plans and prices:
SAS has a plan for everyone. Whether you need 10 minutes per month or 10,000+ minutes per month, this answering service is perfect for you. As you can see, higher volume businesses get a better discount per minute. But even the low-volume plans are affordable. While SAS specializes in answering services, they also provide outsourced calling for lead generation, dedicated customer service reps, and other popular call center services. Signius – Best for Low-Volume CallsSignius is a call center service that is 100% US-based. They work with small businesses to Fortune 500s and everyone in between. Your business can benefit from a custom live call center that matches your brand image and fits within your budget. Signius offers call center services as well as answering services. Some of their popular call center services fall into the following categories:
Signius takes the time to understand your business. They go through this process to become an extension of your existing team. You have the ability to outsource all or just a portion of your call center functions. Signius is known for its quick pickup times and modern technology. You’ll also have access to online reporting 24/7. Your client portal gives you the ability to measure the effectiveness of your call center strategy. The platform gives you information related to single calls as well as your historical data at scale. Common industries that take advantage of the call center services provided by Signius include:
For me, the small business call center and answering services from Signius stand out the most. As a small business owner, you likely won’t need a full call center of agents on-site handling phone calls 24/7. That’s obviously not an effective use of your resources. But Signius is available 24/7 and can answer calls even when your store is closed. Signius has call transfer services, customized scripts, and bi-lingual solutions. Even if you don’t get a high volume of calls, this will be an excellent option for you to choose. How to Choose the Best Call Center Service For Your BusinessReviewing the top call center services on the market today is a good start. But how do you choose the right one for your business? There are certain factors you should take into consideration when evaluating a prospective service. This is the methodology we recommend and use at Quick Sprout. Use these criteria to narrow down your options. Variety of ServicesMost call center services do much more than just answer phone calls. They usually offer a wide range of other services for things like market research, lead generation, event registration, and call forwarding. What does your company need help with? If you’re a small business owner that wants your customers to speak to a live agent instead of an answering machine when they call after hours, you can get by with just an answering service. But if you’re a larger organization that needs outbound calls for things like lead qualification, sales, payment reminders, or membership renewals, you’ll need a company that offers these extra functions. Availability and Call Center LocationsThe best call center services have live agents available 24/7/365. I wouldn’t consider a call center service that doesn’t offer this. In addition to consistent availability, it’s essential there are enough agents to quickly answer inbound phone calls. Consider only working with larger services that have multiple locations and plenty of staff on hand. If a US-based call center is important to you, there are plenty of great choices to consider. You don’t have to outsource your call center overseas if you don’t want to. IndustryYour call center is an extension of your business. While the live agents making and receiving calls don’t work directly for your company, they are the face of your business to customers when they call. It’s important to find a call center service that has experience working in your industry. For example, a B2B company that is using an outbound call center service for event registrations and a doctor’s office using an answering service for post-discharge patients will have very different needs. Custom SolutionsAs consumers, we’ve all experienced phone support where the agent is clearly using a generic script. Those canned responses are applied to every business, regardless of industry or customer need. It’s frustrating when this happens. You don’t want your customers to have this same experience. That’s why you need to find a call center service that will take the time to understand your business and its needs. They’ll help you come up with a custom solution to improve the customer experience via phone support. For further personalization for your customers, some call centers offer dedicated agent services. This means that you will have a few agents who have special training to answer questions specific to your business. If you need to provide things like technical support for your customers, you may be able to hire a call center that will specialize in helping with these customer queries. Some call centers may even give you custom overflow capabilities. If all your own salespeople are on the phone, a customized service of the call center may be to take overflow calls as needed. The pricing structure for most answering services will be completely customized as well. Make sure you understand how you’re being charged before you commit to a contract. In many cases, it’s the most cost-effective to be billed based on usage. The Top Call Center Services in SummaryTraditional call center services help with a variety of tasks, including recording incoming calls, taking messages for team members, and responding to customer queries based on your company script. Many businesses prefer using the service to enhance their lead generation and lead marketing campaigns. Nextiva is hands down the superior call center solution, but you can always opt for other solid solutions we’ve reviewed above. In the end, it all boils down to your specific requirements, budget, and locations. Compare Quotes From The Best Call Center Services Get matched up with a call center service that fits your specific needs. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/best-call-center-services/ Want to jump straight to the answer? The best cloud hosting company for most people is Kamatera or Hostinger. If your website is outgrowing the traditional hosting service you’ve used for years, cloud web hosting may be exactly what your business needs. With cloud hosting, your data is spread across a virtual network of servers—a cloud environment—instead of a single server. In this buying guide, we explain what cloud hosting is and how it works. We’ll also review the top 10 cloud web hosting providers on the market today to help you decide which ones to test out. Best Cloud Hosting Services for 2022
![]() Read on for detailed reviews of each service so you can start comparing features and pricing. Cloud hosting works a little differently than other popular types of hosting, such as shared hosting, VPS (virtual private server) hosting, or dedicated server hosting. Each host also does things a little differently as well. After the reviews is a short guide that will help you assess each cloud hosting option. Kamatera — Best for Affordable Versatility
Kamatera has been in the IT business since 1995 and has become a global cloud services platform provider working with startups through enterprise-level organizations. One of Kamatera’s most attractive features happens before you ever pay one cent for its services: a full 30-day free trial. The free trial is available for all cloud-based products and requires no contract or commitment. Free trial users get full access to Kamatera’s cloud management platform, a designated account manager, 24/7 tech support, and includes the following:
![]() Kamatera has a 99.95% uptime guarantee but every speed test I’ve seen has shown 100% uptime. Along with affordable rates and instant scalability and flexibility and you get a fantastic VPS cloud hosting experience. Kamatera has 13 data centers around the world, including one in Canada (Toronto), three in the United States (New York, Texas, California), three in Europe (the Netherlands, Germany, the UK), one in Asia (Hong Kong), and five in Israel (Petach Tikva, Rosh Haayin (2), Tel Aviv, Haifa). Each data center is AICPA SOC 2 Type II-compliant or better and every single component has a parallel backup, including the main power supply. Developers and other experienced IT professionals will love the performance and customization options, which include choosing from 60 operating systems, RAM, processors, storage, IP address, and more. ![]() It is important to note that Kamatera is not incredibly beginner-friendly at first glance. There are no drag-and-drop builders and cPanel is a $20 monthly add-on. But with 24/7/365 customer support and an intuitive, easy-to-use dashboard, even beginners will be able to use it. Of course, if you want a more hands-off cloud hosting experience, Kamatera offers fully managed hosting at an additional cost. Here are some of the features you get with Kamatera’s VPS cloud hosting servers:
Kamatera does not offer shared hosting or domain registration services, though you do get free automatic SSL certificates with each server. Kamatera’s pricing is straightforward. It is a true pay-as-you-go system, where you can start out with only what you need right now and then scale up as needed. Add CPU, RAM, load balancers, and more from your dashboard and it will be available immediately. Plus you only get charged for what you actually use. Here is a look at some of the pricing:
Kamatera is a great cloud hosting option for anyone looking for extreme versatility and flexibility at an affordable price. And with a generous 30-day free trial, you can try it out in its entirety to make an informed decision about if it is the right provider for your business. Hostinger — Most Bang for Your Buck
Hostinger offers quality web hosting at competitively low prices. Their most affordable cloud web hosting plan is currently $9.99 per month. You’ll have to sign a contract to get this deal, but it’ll let you host up to 300 websites for less than 10 bucks a month. It’s one of the lowest prices for cloud web hosting out there. Couple that with their 99.9% uptime guarantee and decently fast speeds, and you have yourself an excellent host. ![]() These are fully managed plans with 24/7 support. You might think that the low price would mean no customer service, but Hostinger takes care of and the server uptime, monitoring, and automated daily backups. One thing that really sets Hostinger out from the rest of the pack is their dedicated IP. Customers receive free dedicated IP with any of their cloud hosting plans—which is incredible. Their hPanel dashboard is also very intuitive and user-friendly. Even if you’re new to using a dashboard like that, you’ll have no trouble getting the hang of it. Full pricing is as follows. Overall, it’s a very lucrative cloud hosting plan that’ll give you the most bang for your buck. ![]() Pricing for Hostinger cloud hosting starts at $9.99 per month, though the monthly price will go up when you renew. This is completely standard in the hosting industry, but it’s something to be aware of. What’s helpful about Hostinger pricing is that the longer you sign up, the cheaper it is to renew. You can lock in rock-bottom rates for up to 4 years and get a discount down the road. HostGator offers even cheaper cloud web hosting than Hostinger–just know that HostGator isn’t giving you as much RAM, a dedicated IP, or automated daily backups. When it comes to bang for your buck, nothing gets you as much for as little as Hostinger cloud hosting. There’s a 30-day money back guarantee, so you can see if cloud hosting makes a difference for your business risk free. Get in touch with Hostinger to learn more. Scala Hosting — Best for Custom Resource Allocation
Scala Hosting offers cloud VPS for customers, bringing the granular management of VPS together with the flexibility and scalability of cloud hosting. But Scala truly rises above the pack in terms of its customization. They’re one of the only hosting providers out there that lets you set a precise, custom set of resources before you even sign up. While they do offer pre-configured hosting plans starting at $14.95 per month, Scala allows you to create a bespoke hosting package with the perfect blend of memory, storage, and processing power to fit your specific needs. ![]() Best of all, it’s super easy to do this. Scroll down on Scala’s main cloud VPS page, and you can move the sliders for each up and down to your heart’s content. Minimums and maximums depend on whether you choose Scala’s managed or self-managed options. Preset Scala managed cloud VPS plans:
Scala self-managed cloud VPS is completely build-your-own and starts at:
There are also a bunch of additional add-ons you can purchase for self-managed cloud hosting, including LiteSpeed domains, WHMCS licenses, cPanel licenses, and more. Either allows you a wide array of potential resource allocation options and Scala doesn’t really gouge you for adding more in any category. They don’t punish you for scaling to any extent. You can also choose your preferred data center location, as well as your preferred control panel (on managed plans) or operating system (on self-managed plans). Another notable standout of using Scala is its free site migration service. So if you’re currently using another hosting provider, you can switch to Scala without any hassle or headaches. ![]() So, Scala Hosting is an excellent option for anyone who knows exactly what they need from their hosting provider—especially if you know of a custom setup that would benefit your site but isn’t commonly offered by other providers (like if you just want blazing speed without a ton of storage space). And pricing stays competitive despite all the customization you’re allowed. When you get up into the higher ranges of resources, Scala’s custom plans are more than competitive with top-of-the-line cloud hosting offerings from others—even outright beating them on both price and flexibility. Get exactly what you need, scale freely, and reap the benefits of a precise combination of resources by going with Scala Hosting today. Cloudways — Best Customizable Managed Cloud Hosting
Cloudways sets itself apart from many other cloud-based web hosting services with its flexibility and customizable options along with lightning-fast speeds and 24/7/365 support. In terms of options, you are unlikely to find a host with more of them. As a managed cloud host, Cloudways takes care of server management for you. When getting started, you select your CMS and can be ready to go in moments. Cloudways prides itself on simplicity with exceptional performance. CMS options include:
For plans and pricing, the rates depend on several factors, including selecting from seven data center options (and locations) and what level of RAM, processor cores, storage, and bandwidth you need. The data center options are:
The 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 bandwidth. ![]() The most expensive is $274.33 per month including the AWS hosting charges. That plan includes 16 GB of RAM, 4 vCPU, 20 GB of storage, and 2 GB of bandwidth. What is more impressive is the pay-as-you-go type of pricing. Cloudways offers some hourly packages that only actually charge you for any time you use, as opposed to paying for an entire month even if you cancel after 2 weeks. Of course, Cloudways also offers regular monthly plans, too. 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. While Cloudways is not perfect — it lacks a cPanel and does not offer domain registration — it does offer a host of add-ons and integrations so it works for your needs. Add-ons include Rackspace email hosting Gmail SMTP, application migration, and more. You can try Cloudways for free with a three-day free trial that does not require a credit card to get started. Use coupon code QUICKSPROUT to get 25% off for 3 months. HostGator — Best Cheap Cloud Hosting
HostGator offers some of the most cost-effective cloud hosting on the market today. They’re certainly the most affordable options on this list. Let’s take a look at some the three basic cloud hosting plans offered by HostGator: Hatchling Plan
Baby Plan
Business Plan
These rates are for for 36-month contracts. They are 45% cheaper than the actual price, which you’ll end up paying when you renew your contract. ![]() All HostGator cloud hosting plans come with a free SSL certificate. The Business plan comes with a dedicated IP, free SEO tools, and free domain as well. Not only are they affordable, but they don’t sacrifice quality either. HostGator’s dashboard makes it easy for you to monitor the performance of your website. You can quickly view data related to page speed, uptime, reach, and more. Scaling your server resources is simple as well. This can be done with just one click, without any downtime, reboots, or data migrations. Read more about their services in my full HostGator cloud hosting review. Nexcess — Best for Ecommerce Sites
Nexcess is a web hosting solution brought to you by the good folks at Liquid Web. We’ve featured them before for their great hosting services, and Nexcess is no exception. Their primary offerings are managed Magento, WooCommerce, and WordPress hosting (along with a few other CMS). That makes them perfect for ecommerce websites looking to grow. But they also have a standout cloud hosting service too, that are great for scaling businesses. The specific plans vary depending on what your CMS is, they offer a wide variety of them. That makes Nexcess perfect for growing businesses who plan to rapidly scale their growth—and are looking for a cloud host that will scale with them. One tool I really like is Nexcess Cloud Accelerator. This is an additional layer in front of the cloud stack that boosts load times. That means your site will be nice and speedy for your customers. They also have a dedicated support team on call 24/7 to help your business address any technical issues, or if you want to switch plans. Here’s a look at the plans they offer: ![]() Everything is tuned for online business. You’ll be set up for taking payments securely and all customer info is kept secure. Traffic spikes? No problem. Nexcess cloud hosting lets you scale up for a limited period of time if you need. You’re not going to locked into paying for more than you need to handle the busy hours. You’re also not spending time making sure that your website is up. Nexcess manages everything on the backend so you can concentrate on selling. Set up your store with Nexcess cloud hosting today. DreamHost — Best for Developer Projects
DreamHost has the easiest cloud setup in the industry. You can get your cloud servers live in less than 30 seconds. With that said, DreamHost cloud is best for developers. They have server options that are made for databases, web apps, and running tests in addition to websites. ![]() You can continue working the with DevOps tools that you’re already using. DreamHost also gives you full root access for complete control over your cloud servers. The best part about DreamHost is that you only pay for what you actually use. You’ll get charged for resources on an hourly basis based on the size of your server.
The 2 GB server is the recommended option for websites. You will not be billed anything when you sign up. Instead, you’re billed based on your monthly usage. The only area where DreamHost falls short that I found in my complete review of DreamHost web hosting services is their customer support. You can only contact customer service via email or live chat, which is only available for 16 hours daily. So if you prefer phone support or need help in the middle of the night, you’re out of luck until the morning. SiteGround — Best for Scaling Resources
SiteGround offers fully managed, high-performance cloud hosting built on Google cloud infrastructure. This means you’ll get auto-updates, tools to make managing websites easier, optimized servers, and a handy auto-scaling tool so your site stays running even with unexpected traffic spikes. These plans are fully managed. That means they take care of your account for you. SiteGround handles the IT of your hosting. This allows you to focus on other areas of your website. Plus, Siteground’s speed and performance are great. Every cloud hosting plan has the SG Optimizer plugin preinstalled and a unique PHP setup for extra speed boosts. SiteGround cloud plans come equipped with an Automatic Scaling tool, preventing traffic loss and downtime. You can also add CPU and RAM at any time with one click in your admin settings. With SiteGround, you can completely configure your own cloud and plan based on the resources you need. For example, they have six data centers on four continents to choose from, so you choose the one that is closest to your users. Here is a look at their plans: ![]() The Business or Business Plus plans should be more than enough resources for the majority of you, so that’s what I would recommend starting with. As your traffic rises, you can always scale as needed. You’ll also benefit from webmaster tools like a dedicated IP, free CDN, free SSL, daily backups, and a private DNS. Check out my in-depth SiteGround web hosting review for more information about their overall services. A2 Hosting — Fastest Cloud Web Hosting
A2 Hosting offers some of the fastest hosting services out there. While they don’t offer traditional cloud hosting services, they do offer VPS hosting solutions with dedicated server resources. With a turbo plan from A2, you’ll benefit from a fully optimized hosting solution and that’s 20x faster than traditional cloud packages. Plans start at $5, $10, and $15 per month, respectively. But you only pay for the resources that you use based on how you configure your cloud servers. If you want to have cPanel, it’s an extra $19.95 per month and not available with the lowest-tier pricing plan. As I mention in my full review of A2 web hosting services they offer a 99.9% uptime promise as well as an anytime money-back guarantee. Although there are some contingencies to both, so make sure you read the fine print of your contract. If customer support is important to you, then you’ll definitely be satisfied with A2’s 24/7/365 guru support team. This cloud hosting provider is ideal for those of you who want unmanaged cloud hosting with lightning fast page loading speed. InMotion — Best for Small Businesses
InMotion offers some of the most understated cloud hosting services out there. They have cloud hosting solutions for everyone.
Altogether, InMotion has 10 different plans and pricing tiers for cloud hosting, which is the most I’ve seen offered by any provider. For website owners, you’ll want to focus on the small business plans. InMotion makes it easy for you to scale your resources as your site grows I found in my complete review of InMotion hosting services. You’ll also get a resource monitoring dashboard, free auto backups, rapid provisioning, and full snapshots of your servers. InMotion offers a free SSL and free cPanel license with all of its cloud business plans. What Is Cloud Hosting?Typically, your site is hosted on a single server. It could be your own dedicated server, or one that you share with other websites. With cloud hosting, your web host isn’t connected to one physical location. Your website resources are maintained across multiple virtual servers in the cloud. Each cloud server is responsible for specific sets of tasks. If one of the servers in the cloud fails or goes down, the others will automatically pick up the slack to provide those required resources. Your website will continue to run smoothly with cloud hosting, even if there is a problem with one of the servers. With cloud hosting your website benefits from increased uptime rates and won’t be as susceptible to unplanned downtime. With a singe, physical server, you’re essentially putting all of your eggs in one basket. This is a huge risk when you’re dealing with something as important as your website. In addition to eliminating the potential problems inherent with one server, cloud hosting will keep your site stable, even as your traffic increases. Cloud hosting is also extremely easy to set up. For those of you who want to start hosting on the cloud right away, it can be a faster deployment option than something like a dedicated server or shared server. Cloud hosting has a few different benefits for those who choose to use it, including:
Who Is Cloud Hosting For?Cloud web hosting is ideal for medium to larger-sized businesses and websites that are growing rapidly. Cloud web hosting allows businesses to scale rapidly. That’s great for growing businesses. Most cloud hosting plans have flexible pricing options, meaning you’ll only pay for the resources that you’re actually using. If you’re anticipating random traffic surges or a steady increase in website traffic in the coming years, then cloud hosting is the perfect option for you. However, cloud web hosting isn’t right for every business. For those of you who have a small personal website, small blog, or a micro-business, you probably don’t need to use cloud hosting if there is no growth coming in the future. A shared hosting plan is fine for those types of websites. When you’re ready to grow your website, you should consider upgrading to a cloud hosting plan as opposed to a VPS. While a virtual private server will be able to deliver enough server resources, a cloud plan is usually more cost-effective. Enterprise-level websites with the need to customize their server settings would benefit from a dedicated hosting plan rather than a cloud solution. Any website with more than 50,000 monthly visitors is a viable candidate for cloud hosting. It’s the perfect option for larger websites that can’t afford to have any downtime. How to Find the Best Cloud Hosting Plan For YouNot every cloud hosting plan is the same. Some hosting providers offer different features and benefits compared to others. When you’re evaluating a cloud web host, these are the factors that you should take into consideration. Scalable ResourcesYou need to make sure that you get a web hosting plan with enough bandwidth, storage, and disc space. To do this, you need to know how much traffic you’ll get. But new websites face a common dilemma when they’re looking for a hosting plan. They have to decide if they want to get the highest possible bandwidth, even if they won’t come close to exceeding those limits. Or should they start with a lower bandwidth plan and upgrade as their traffic starts to increase? Cloud hosting solves this dilemma. Since your website is hosted on multiple servers, you won’t have to worry about exceeding bandwidth. If one server is maxed out, you can always pull resources from another. Look for a cloud hosting plan that lets you easily manage and configure your server resources in-real time. Here’s an example of what this looks like on HostGator Cloud, which is a provider that we reviewed earlier in this guide. ![]() I’d recommend a cloud hosting plan that allows you to scale your server resources without needing any approval from the provider. This is something that can be managed from your admin dashboard. PriceMost traditional hosting plans require you to pay a fixed monthly rate. You’ll be charged this amount even if you don’t use all of the resources on the server. But cloud hosting is much more flexible in terms of pricing. So I’d look for a hosting provider that charges you based on the resources that you actually use. Here’s an analogy. Let’s say you go to an all-you-can-eat buffet, where the food options can also be purchased à la carte. The buffet price is $20 per person, which is the most you’ll have to pay, regardless of how much food you eat. But if you only eat $10 worth of food, then wouldn’t it be nice to get $10 back? That’s how some of the best cloud hosting plans are structured. This relates back to our previous point about being able to scale your resources on demand. For example, let’s say you just built a bunch of new backlinks and you’re expecting a particular blog post on your website to go viral. Rather than upgrading your entire plan (which you’d have to do with other types of web hosting) you can just increase the resources needed during that traffic spike and put everything back to normal when your traffic levels out. In this case, you’d only pay for the actual server usage during the surge. Here’s an example of this pricing structure from another one of the providers on our list, DreamHost. ![]() As you can see, pricing is based on usage. Each plan has a maximum monthly rate. Even the fine print at the bottom of the page states that you’ll only be billed for what you use. So look for a hosting provider that offers a similar pricing structure. Speed and PerformanceIf your hosting plan doesn’t deliver the best performance, then it’s a pretty crappy hosting plan. The majority of cloud hosting servers will increase the capacity of your website, which boosts your page loading speed. Cloud hosting doesn’t put as much strain on a singular server. If your website has lots of resource-intensive data such as videos, images, and other media content, then cloud hosting is something that you need to take advantage of. Look for a cloud hosting plan that delivers content from the nearest remote server. This will ensure that all of your loading times are as fast as possible. At the end of the day, your website visitors don’t care what type of hosting plan you’re using. They just want your site to be responsive and load quickly. By prioritizing things like uptime and loading speed with cloud hosting, your website will ultimately perform better from the user end. SecurityNo matter what type of web hosting plan you have, security always needs to be a priority. Fortunately, cloud hosting is known to be very safe. That’s because your website is isolated from any potential problems with a physical server. Everything is being handled remotely, which wouldn’t be the case if you were relying on a singular server that’s hosted locally. If a local server was compromised, then your website would be at risk. Whereas if one server in your cloud network was hacked, failed, or had a system overload, your website would stay up and running without any downtime or delays. Look for a web host that offers any additional security protection as an incentive with your cloud hosting plan. The Top Cloud Hosting Plans in SummaryCloud web hosting is a great solution for growing websites. If your shared plan can no longer accommodate the needs of your site, then you should consider switching to a cloud solution since it can give you more resources, space, and performance power. The majority of websites can benefit from cloud hosting. The increased flexibility, scalability, and resilience make it ideal for companies that need hosting resources on-demand. It’s a good choice for interactive sites, online stores, web apps, and IoT deployments. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/best-cloud-web-hosting/ Want to jump straight to the answer? The best shared hosting company for most people is Hostinger or DreamHost. Shared web hosting is the perfect solution for new websites. As an entry-level service, it’s also ideal for simple websites or anyone with a tight budget. The best hosts don’t feel like they’re shared. That means uptime, speed, and support are so good you won’t even notice you’re sharing a server with other sites. Compare the Top 9 Best Shared Hosting Companies
![]() Good shared hosting is about more than just getting a good deal. You want to make sure you have room to grow and the tools you need to build your site. Read on for in-depth reviews of the best shared web hosts on the market today. I’ll tell you in plain language what you need to know about each one. After the reviews, I also include a framework to help you assess which one is best for your needs. Whether you’re launching a new site from scratch or looking to change hosting providers, there’s a solution for you here. Hostinger – Best Web Hosting for Tight Budgets
Hostinger offers one of the most affordable hosting services I’ve seen. In fact, their plans start at $1.99 per month for their Single Shared Hosting plan. Their most expensive plan is their Business Shared Hosting Plan that’s just $4.99 per month. Yes, you read that right. That’s rock bottom pricing. The catch? These are promotional rates. When you renew, the price jumps up—but it’s still just $3.99 each month for the single shared hosting. ![]() To lock in the lowest price, you have to sign up for 48 months, which stretches out your discount as long as possible. And when you renew, it’s still going to cost less than most other shared hosting providers. Alongside that unbeatable pricing, Hostinger promises a 99.9% uptime guarantee and their site speed is more than serviceable. Here’s a peek at Hostinger’s plans, with pricing for a four-year upfront commitment: Single Shared Hosting – $1.99/month
Premium Shared Hosting – $2.99/month
Business Shared Hosting – $4.99/month
All plans come with managed WordPress, which is an excellent inclusion if you want to use WordPress as your CMS. That means even with these low, low prices, you get one-click WordPress installation, the WP Starter site building wizard, auto-updates, and a lot more. If you’re looking for a decent shared web host on a tight budget, Hostinger is a fantastic option. DreamHost – Best Shared Hosting That Leaves Room to Grow
DreamHost offers cost-effective shared hosting without sacrificing performance. There are actually three big reasons why DreamHost stands out to us:
![]() DreamHost’s interface is user-friendly and their plans are quite affordable, coming in two flavors: Shared Starter – Starting at $1.99 per month
Shared Unlimited – Starting at $2.95 per month
The Shared Starter plan is the best option for brand-new websites. You get plenty of site storage and five subdomains. The biggest downside is that email accounts from your domain aren’t included, but you can add that option in checkout. Personally, I recommend the Shared Unlimited plan. It comes with added benefits I like, such as email accounts bound to your domain, unlimited subdomains, and unlimited SSD storage. Both plans come with WordPress pre-installed, a WP site builder, and a free SSL certificate. DreamHost guarantees a 100% uptime rate. If they fail to meet that promise, you’ll receive compensation for every hour of downtime, which is up to 10% of your next pre-paid renewal fee. They also offer a 97-day money-back guarantee. In my experience, 30 days seems to be the industry standard, so DreamHost really stands behind their product by tripling that period. For those of you who already have a WordPress site, the DreamHost experts will migrate the site to your new account for a $99 fee. If you fall into this category, I strongly recommend taking advantage of this service. No matter what, go with DreamHost if you’ve got lofty goals for your site’s future. Bluehost – Best for Creating Your First Website
Bluehost is a favorite of ours at Quick Sprout, ranking high on our lists for best web host, best VPS host, and best dedicated host. While there are many reasons we like them, the reason we often recommend them is that they’re the perfect option for beginners. With their one-click WordPress install, intuitive dashboard, and award-winning 24/7 customer support, they’ll hold your hand through the entire setup process. That means zero development or web design knowledge is needed. Just sign up and go. You’ll have a website up in less than 20 minutes. That’s why we highly recommend them if you’re creating your very first website. And if you need more help, be sure to check out our article all on how to create a website. ![]() Bluehost offers four different plans: Basic – Starts at $2.95 per month
Plus – Starts at $5.45 per month
Choice Plus – Starts at $5.45 per month
Pro – Starts at $13.95 per month
My pick for most folks is the Choice Plus plan. With a starting price point the same as the Plus plan, it’s worth paying a few extra bucks per month when it comes time to renew to keep site backups and domain privacy. But if the extra spam protection and dedicated IP is enough for you, the Pro plan is a great value at the price point, too. Bluehost is also highly scalable. With just a few clicks, you’ll be able to switch plans easily. So, if your site is brand new and you’re not planning to prioritize traffic for a couple of years, then you can definitely get away with the Basic plan for the time being. Bluehost’s pricing plans are straightforward, but they will charge you for add-ons. To get the best possible rate, you need to lock in your plan for 36 months. That’s another reason why I lean toward Choice Plus over the Plus and Basic packages. Even if you’re paying a little extra for resources that are going unused right now, it’s worth it for that time in the future when your site eventually scales. It will only end up costing you an extra $30 per year to go with Choice Plus over Basic for the first three years. That’s a great price for a reliable shared hosting service. Try Bluehost on for size today with their 30-day money back guarantee. A2 Hosting – Best Shared Host for Sites With a Need for Speed
A2 Hosting is one of the fastest shared hosting services available on the market today. That’s all due to their powerful servers that offer the best loading speeds and uptime rates. If you’re looking to deliver content swiftly to your audience, this is the hosting plan for you. ![]() Here’s a side-by-side comparison of their four shared hosting plans: Startup – $2.99/month
Drive – $5.99/month
Turbo Boost – $6.99/month
Turbo Max – $12.99/month
For those of you who have a need for speed, the Turbo plan will be best for you. It’s probably the fastest shared hosting plan offered by any provider on our list. A2 is already known for its speed, and Turbo is their top-of-the-line shared plan. While it ends up being $20.99/month when you renew, it’s still cheaper than some of the other high-end plans we’ve looked at. Overall, A2 Hosting is priced in the middle range compared to the competition. You can also check out my full A2 Hosting review for more on their other features and plans. Furthermore, A2 Hosting offers free site migrations on all of their shared plans. Other providers charge an added fee for this service. They have excellent customer support and a money-back guarantee, which are helpful bonuses. Tap into A2 Hosting’s turbo-charged shared servers today to feel the thrill of speedy loading times. InMotion – Best Shared Hosting for 24/7/365 Customer Support
InMotion Hosting is a fantastic option for anyone who loves—or knows they’ll rely heavily on—quality customer support. Seriously. Take a look at any reviews from them. Nine times out of ten they’re going to mention their support—and for good reason. InMotion boasts an incredibly responsive customer support team that’s available at all hours of the day. You can reach them via chat, phone, email, or through your customer portal. They can help you in case your site experiences any issues like cyberattacks or if it crashes. They’ll even help you migrate your site if you need it. They also have a fantastic knowledge base in case you want to take care of things yourself. You’ll be able to learn about anything from transferring a current domain to setting up Mac Mail, Outlook, or email on your phone. InMotion has four shared hosting plans for you to choose from, and the company recently adjusted the services included within each plan. Core – $2.99/month (all prices require committing to a 2-year plan)
Launch – $5.99/month
Power – $5.99/month
Pro – $13.99/month
Unlike other plans we’ve seen, InMotion’s entry-level plan offers hosting for more than one website, unlimited disk space, and unlimited email. This is a great value for the price. The Launch plan is the best option for beginners. Power is made for small business websites, and the Pro plan is made for developers and growing businesses. Like we said before, though, compared to some of the other providers on our list, InMotion really stands out when it comes to their customer support. This is definitely something to keep in mind as a new website owner. For those of you who decide to go with the Pro plan, you’ll get a 99.9% uptime guarantee. If InMotion fails to deliver on that promise, you’ll get credits toward free hosting. Speaking of credits, InMotion’s Launch Plan—and all the other plans higher than it—come with $150 in free advertising credits, which can be very useful for a new website. It’s a great way to gain some exposure through popular search engines Go into your web hosting knowing that you have a helping hand all the way by choosing InMotion. HostGator – Best Shared Hosting for Building Your First Ecommerce Store
HostGator gives you everything you need to create an online store and start selling products. Their ecommerce site builder is simple and intuitive and they also sweeten the deal with $150 Google Ads credit to help get your marketing off on the right foot. For further customization, they give you cPanel access, which isn’t always an offering among shared hosting providers. That means you can customize your online store to your heart’s desire by installing plugins and tweaking settings. ![]() Their plans are as follows: Hatchling Plan – $2.64 per month
Baby Plan – $3.38 per month
Business Plan – $5.08 per month
Note: HostGator often offers flash sales—so the price might actually be even lower when you visit their page than what we have here. Both the Baby and Business plan come with unlimited domains, while the Hatchling plan is for a single domain. The Business plan comes with added benefits like a free dedicated IP, free SEO tools, and a free upgrade to Positive SSL. I love the value they offer. The new customer rates are definitely on the lower end of the spectrum, but the renewal rates aren’t too expensive. Plus, you can lock in the introductory rate for three years. If you’re considering HostGator, I’d recommend the Business Plan. Yes, even for beginners. It’s not often that I pick the top-tier pricing as the go-to plan for everyone. But, with HostGator, I think that the value for that plan is the best. The add-ons that come with the Business Plan are worth the higher pricing. Ultimately, it’s still less than $15 per month, even after you renew. In addition to 24/7 server monitoring, 24/7 live chat and phone support, HostGator also has more than 500 video tutorials and nearly 700 help articles if you want to learn how to do things on your own. They also offer pretty solid cloud hosting. Get your web store started on the right foot by choosing HostGator for your hosting. SiteGround – Best Host for When Your Audience Grows Big
SiteGround is a great choice for growing websites because each plan gives you different options depending on your monthly visitor load. They also offer unmetered traffic with every single plan. That means you don’t have to worry about how big your audience gets or how many people you have coming to your website. You can get a spike in traffic and not see your resources throttled or your price jump at your next bill. ![]() Beyond that, SiteGround makes it easy to scale up to a bigger, better plan if your site’s newly massive audience becomes the new normal. Here’s a brief overview of SiteGround’s three shared hosting plans: StartUp – $3.99/month
GrowBig – $6.69/month
GoGeek – $10.69/month
If your website is brand new, you probably won’t be getting 10,000 monthly visitors for quite some time. But with that said, I’d still recommend the GrowBig plan over the StartUp option. The GrowBig plan comes with on-demand backups and a free site transfer. That’s an important feature for those of you who are switching to SiteGround from another hosting provider. The StartUp plan is for small, simple websites that are expecting tons of website site traffic. I’m sure the majority of you won’t fall into this category, but if your needs are super simple, it’s a still-solid offering from SiteGround. GoGeek comes with three levels of super-caching, advanced priority support, white-label and client management services, and pre-installed Git. All three plans come with 100% renewable energy match, too! There’s a plan for everyone in SiteGround’s shared hosting, so get started with them today to be ready for when your site blows up in popularity. iPage – Most Affordable Shared Hosting for a Customizable Online Store
iPage offers a very straightforward pricing plan with just one plan for shared web hosting. For real, it’s dead simple: Their plan costs $1.99 per month when you sign up and $7.99 per month when you renew. Overall, this definitely puts them in the running for the best cheap web hosting. But iPage’s standout features are a highly intuitive ecommerce store builder that comes with $200 worth of ad credits to use on Google or Bing. That’s more than even HostGator gives you. ![]() They also offer a ton of unlimited features like disk space, bandwidth, and domains. It’s easily the best deal when it comes to creating an online store. Even though they offer low prices, iPage has great features like:
That’s a lot of “frees” and “unlimiteds” for such a low-cost plan. Overall, iPage is best for smaller websites and stores. Think stores where you’re only selling 1-5 products. Be aware, they do charge extras for things like site transfers, but that’s expected for a low-cost web host. Get with iPage to host your ecommerce store on the cheap. GoDaddy – Best Shared Hosting for Bundling Domain and Email
GoDaddy is a popular and well-known brand in the hosting industry. They’re an excellent option if you’re looking to bundle a great email service and domain with your hosting. In fact, that’s why we included them in our best domain registrars, too. Their email service is especially great if you already use Microsoft for your email provider. It’s worth noting that Microsoft 365 is only offered for free in the first year—though you can cancel your automatic renewal at any time. ![]() GoDaddy offers three shared hosting plans. Each one is made for different types of websites. Economy – $2.99 per month
Deluxe – $7.99 per month
Ultimate – $12.99 per month
As you can see, all of the GoDaddy plans are affordable. There’s something for everyone on this list, and it’s very straightforward. If you’re starting a simple blog from scratch, you can get away with the Economy plan. You always have the option to level-up if you need more resources. GoDaddy will actually send you an alert if you’re getting close to exceeding things like your memory or CPU. That way you can stay on top of things. Read my full Godaddy hosting review here to get a deeper view into what makes them work. For those of you who have a small business and expect heavy site traffic, you’ll be better off with the Ultimate plan. They’ll give your site the processing power you need to succeed. Knock out hosting, a domain, and email service in one fell swoop by going with GoDaddy. What Is Shared Web Hosting?If you’re just starting out in the world of running a website, you might be wondering what shared hosting is and how it works. Every website needs a host. A web host carves out a spot for your website in the massive world of the internet. It’s what publishes your site, allowing other people to access it. There are several types of hosting plans, but shared hosting plans have been around for a while and are often the most affordable web hosting choices. As the name suggests, a shared hosting plan means your website will be hosted on the same server as other websites. Essentially, shared hosting is like renting a bedroom in a house with other roommates. You have your own room, but you’re sharing supplies and resources with everyone else who lives in the house. If one of your roommates has a bunch of friends over and they eat all of the food or use all of the soap, there won’t be anything left for you. This is the major downside of shared hosting. If another site on the same server has tons of traffic, it can slow down the loading speed on your website. This is why shared hosting is so cost-effective compared to VPS hosting or dedicated hosting plans. Shared hosting is an entry-level service offered by most web hosting providers. How to Find the Best Shared Hosting for YouPricing and promos aside, most web hosting providers offer similar shared hosting services. So how can you find the best plan and provider for your unique needs? Use the following considerations as a buying guide as you’re shopping around and comparing providers. It’s the same criteria we used to create this guide, and you can use it for your own research to help influence your decision: Reliable Uptime Rates and Fast Loading SpeedsUptime and loading speed will always be the two most important factors for any type of hosting.
If your site goes down unexpectedly, you can’t make any money or reach your audience. It’s also a poor reflection of your brand if people try to reach your site but can’t connect due to an outage. Many web hosting providers offer an uptime guarantee—something along the lines of a 99.999% uptime promise. But make sure you read the fine print to see if the provider is actually being held accountable to keep this promise. I’d much rather have high uptime rates than a small refund or credit for the site going down. Loading speed is important because it has a direct impact on the user experience. We’ve all been there. Think about how often you’ve gotten frustrated or left a site because it was taking just a little too long to load. Fractions of a second make a huge difference here. Fortunately, all of the web hosting providers on our list have solid uptime rates. But some are definitely faster than others. If speed is your top priority, you can’t go wrong with A2 Hosting. Set-It-and-Forget-It Web HostingIf it’s your first time building a website, it’s easy to be intimidated and frustrated by the process. That’s why you want to find a provider that makes web hosting a breeze for you. In fact, it should be something you don’t really have to think about at all once you set it up. That’s why we love options like Bluehost so much. They make it incredibly easy for beginners to create a website, especially with features like one-click WordPress installation. InMotion’s Launch plan is also another beginner-friendly hosting solution that we highly recommend. They’ll walk you through the entire setup process and, by the end of it, you’ll feel like a pro with your very own website. If you do want to get more hands-on with your host a bit more, you’ll want to find a host that gives you an easy-to-use and easy-to-navigate platform. This is another area where Bluehost shines. High-Traffic Hosting CapacityIn the ideal world, you’ll get a ton of traffic to your website right off the bat—but the reality is it likely will take you a while to get there. When you do arrive, though, you’ll want to make sure that your web host can manage your heightened traffic load. Luckily, all of the shared hosting providers on this list can manage a decent amount of traffic —some of them do so better than others, though. For example, web hosts like Bluehost and HostGator give you unmetered bandwidth. That means you won’t get penalized (in terms of a poor visitor experience or additional fees) when you have a flood of traffic coming to your site all at once. As we mentioned before, though, shared hosting is a fairly entry-level hosting solution. If you see your website easily attracting at least 200,000 monthly visitors, you’ll want to upgrade to VPS, cloud hosting, or a dedicated server to handle this routine strain on resources. This is also an area where you’ll want to take a look at the uptime assurances of each web host. Most all of them will offer you uptime in the neighborhood of 99.99%. Some, such as Hostinger, will refund you for any time your website goes down due to a spike in traffic. Though you want your website up as much as possible, it’s good to see a web host put some skin in the game in order to assure you that they’ll work to keep your site up and running—and they’ll compensate you generously if they can’t. Customer Service at a Moment’s NoticeCustomer support is something that is sneakily important when it comes to web hosting. After all, you don’t ever want to need it. But, when you do, you’ll want it to be the most helpful and comprehensive support you can get—especially if your website is making money for you. When researching your shared web hosts, take a look at what each host offers for customer support. Some questions to consider:
Customer support isn’t just about calling someone up when something goes wrong, either. It can also come in the form of tutorials, guides, or user forums to help answer any questions you have. It could also be the tools available to build and support your website. For example, iPage offers an easy-to-set-up ecommerce integration that works great if you’re creating an online store. Plans for When You’re Ready to Upgrade Your WebsiteShared hosting is often seen as the entry point for a lot of websites. It’s an easy way to get a site live even if you have no experience with building a site or using a web host. If you have bigger goals for your website, like becoming a wildly popular destination, creating an ecommerce store, attaining boatloads of leads, or a combination of all these things, you’re going to eventually want to upgrade your host. VPS hosting is a common step up from shared hosting, as it provides servers with more resources to work with. If you eventually get to the point where you’re drawing in millions of readers each month, you might want to consider getting a dedicated host. Virtually all of the hosts on this list offer an easy way to take the next step up from shared hosting. For example, Bluehost offers both VPS and dedicated hosting for when you’re ready to really level up your website. DreamHost offers cloud hosting, as well as managed WordPress hosting. Each one of these hosts has a dedicated customer support team that’ll help you easily upgrade your hosting service—and, often, you don’t have to worry about a lengthy and painful migration process because it’s still from the same company. Double win! What Type of Website Do You Want to Build?The right web host for you also largely depends on what you’ll actually be using the website for. If you just want to build a single website for a portfolio or information about your business, each of the hosts on this list can easily handle that for you. But if you want to, say, open an online store, we highly recommend you use a host such as iPage. They give you a free online store, PayPal integration, and tons of other ecommerce features. GoDaddy also offers an online store builder along with their hosting and domain plans. You’ll be able to easily create a great-looking store on their site with just a few clicks. If you want to get into blogging, DreamHost and Bluehost are great solutions. They offer great WordPress integrations to help get your blog up and running and attract tons of new readers. Consider what you want to do with your website and see what each host has to offer for your goals. The Top Shared Hosting Plans in SummaryAll shared web hosting services are not created equal. Some providers offer better plans than others. When comparing packages side-by-side, you should consider speed, power, performance, support, and scalability. The best shared hosting plans typically offer great deals for new websites. Just make sure you choose a plan that can accommodate your traffic. You’ll likely need to upgrade your web hosting down the road, but you can put that off for a while if you choose the right starter plan today. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/best-shared-hosting/ Want to jump straight to the answer? The best cheap web hosting provider for most people is Hostinger or DreamHost. If you’re trying to get your site up and running for as little as possible, you’ve come to the right place. I’ve investigated dozens of the cheapest web hosts out there to find the most affordable web hosting plans that are actually worth using. The Cheapest Hosting Plans
![]() A lot of the options in this top list are priced on a month-to-month basis. That means minimal commitment. But to get the absolute cheapest monthly rates available, you need to lock in a longer contract and pay in advance. This costs more money upfront but saves you a lot in the long run. If you can afford to do it, I highly recommend signing on to a longer contract to get the best discount. Here are my top picks ranked by the cheapest per-month cost along with the contract term. All require full payment upfront:
SiteGround, however, offers its best rates with a one-year commitment. You’ll pay just $3.99 per month that way. Paying for two or three years upfront averages $9.99/month and $10.49/month, respectively. In addition to locking in the lowest available rates with these pre-paid, long-term packages, you’re also delaying the inevitable renewal upcharges. Commit now and stretch that promotional rate as long as possible. If you know that your site will be up and running for at least a few years, a long-term contract will offer the most value. Just make sure you sign up for a plan with a money-back guarantee, so you can opt out at the beginning if you’re unhappy. The Best Month-to-Month Hosting PricesFor those of you who don’t want long-term contract commitments, you’ll need to find a web hosting provider that offers month-to-month pricing. These prices will be a bit higher than the cheapest advertised rates, but you can pay way less on day one. Typically, you have to pay everything up front for a long-term hosting plan–so even if it’s only a few dollars a month, that might cost hundreds of dollars to get started. If you are looking for hosting without a big price tag or years-long commitment, you should definitely look at my top picks for month-to-month web hosting. DreamHost
If you’re looking for an affordable web hosting option, look no further than DreamHost. More than 1.5 million websites worldwide are hosted by DreamHost. They also have an outstanding reputation due to their high-quality hosting at rock-bottom prices. DreamHost offers month-to-month web hosting plans starting at $7.99 per month. This is a solid price for web hosting without a long-term commitment, but DreamHost is willing to lower that price to get your business. Currently, it’s less than $2 for the first month to get your website off the ground. There are no setup fees and no strings attached. Cancel whenever you want. You don’t have to commit to more than a month. These are two of the most straightforward low-cost plans in the industry. ![]() The sale pricing above is subject to change, but I’ve included the current regular pricing below:
You can save a good bit by signing up for a longer plan with DreamHost, but they offer a lot more at a better price than most other hosts if you are looking to avoid a long-term contract. Shared Starter is good for one website, but if you upgrade to Shared Unlimited, you’ll be able to create as many sites as you need. Both plans come with a free website builder, WordPress pre-installed, and a free SSL certificate. Email comes free with the Shared Unlimited plan and starts at $1.67 per month with the Shared Starter plan. Their customer service team is 100% in-house. They don’t outsource agents like other web hosting companies and can provide more hands-on support to your issues. However, the trade-off is that live chat and email support is only available for 16 hours per day. If you miss those hours, don’t worry. DreamHost has an extensive knowledge base of FAQs and guides making it easy for you to find help on your own. Not only are you able to sign up month-to-month, but you’ll also be refunded if you’re unhappy. DreamHost has an industry-leading 97-day money-back guarantee. Check out my complete Dreamhost review for more details about them. A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is built for speed. The fact that you can get cheap plans from such a reputable provider is a bonus. Like most web hosts, A2 offers the lowest prices when you lock in a longer contract. The best rates are available when you sign up for 36 months. Here’s a closer look at those plans and prices:
![]() The Turbo Max plan gives you the fastest speeds. But if you’re prioritizing price, Startup is the cheapest. The Turbo Boost plan is an excellent value when you consider the fact that it’s just $1 more than the Drive plan, with access to a turbo server. A2 offers a free SSL certificate with every plan. All plans are backed by a 99.9% uptime commitment and money-back guarantee. If you’re switching from another hosting provider, A2 will migrate your account for free. Another reason why I recommend A2 Hosting is because they provide a cPanel control panel. This feature will make it much easier for you to manage your hosting experience. HostGator
HostGator’s entry-level rates are a bit higher than some of the other month-to-month plans that we’ve reviewed—but they are still one of the best cheap web hosting providers in the industry. One great benefit of HostGator: Their month-to-month rates are exactly the same as the 3-month contracts and 6-month contracts. So for those of you who don’t want to commit, even for a few months, there’s no reason to.
![]() Even at $6.95 per month, it’s still very affordable. Especially when you factor in the setup fees and renewal rates of other providers. The fact that there is only a $1 difference between the Hatchling and Baby plans is another bonus. In my mind, this pricing structure makes it a no-brainer for you to sign up for the Baby plan. Even if you only have one domain right now, being able to add more down the road without switching plans is worth the extra $1 per month, and even the extra $3 after the first year. Additional features like SiteLock monitoring, professional email, SEO tools, and daily backups will cost you extra. HostGator has 24/7/365 support via phone, email, and live chat. They offer instant account activation without any setup costs as well as a 45-day money-back guarantee. SiteGround
SiteGround is a web host with a great reputation and websites all over the world. They pack a lot of useful features in each plan and offer the same pricing packages for managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting as their shared hosting plans. That can help you secure an even better deal by getting more specialized hosting for a shared hosting price. Their best deal, across the board, is their StartUp tier with a one-year upfront commitment. No matter which tier you go with, the one-year term gives you the best promotional price compared to month-to-month billing and longer commitments. Here’s a deeper breakdown of their pricing plans for a one-year term:
![]() As you can see, you get a good chunk of resources on the lowest-tier package. Those of you who are starting a new website should be fine with the StartUp plan. SiteGround recently dropped its prices for all three tiers, making the StartUp plan even more enticing. StartUp does only offer one website and 10 GB of space, so you will need to aim for one of the pricier tiers if you want unlimited websites or more storage space. Only the GoGeek tier offers advanced priority technical support, although all three tiers offer phone and live chat support. On all plans, you get managed WordPress, and useful freebies like an SSL certificate, content delivery network, and email, and daily backups. Renewal pricing can get expensive, but there’s another hidden benefit of seizing on the one-year-term promotional pricing. SiteGround offers a 20% discount on their base renewal rate for two-year renewals and a 30% discount when renewing for three years. That means you’ll come out ahead over the long haul, as well as for that first year of hosting. The Best Annual Hosting PricesIf you’re willing to commit to a web hosting plan for at least one year, you’ll get a cheaper monthly rate if you pay for 12 months upfront. These plans will take more out of your pocket initially but save you money in the long-run. InMotion
The web hosting plans offered by InMotion are great for small business owners. So if you’re looking foe cheap small business web hosting, these are the plans that you should consider:
![]() Again, you need to pay upfront to lock in these annual rates. Most entry-level plans limit you to host just one website. But the Launch plan from InMotion allows you to host two sites. All plans come with unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited email, security suite, marketing tools, and a free SSL certificate. InMotion has a free one-click installer for more than 400 apps as well as one-click data backups and restores. Another reason why I recommend InMotion is because of their 90-day money-back guarantee. This assurance should make you feel more comfortable about paying for a year in-full when you sign up. While InMotion does have some add-ons like a dedicated IP and backup management, the plans seem to have more basic features included then some of the other providers out there. Learn more about them by reading my in depth InMotion hosting review. iPage
iPage is known for their excellent website builders and affordable web hosting. I recommend iPage because their annual pricing rates are cheap and straightforward. As we’ve already seen, other hosting providers offer multiple plans at varying price points. The pricing depends on features and resources. ![]() But iPage pricing is based solely on your term length. Then you can customize your plan with additional products. The base price for an annual web hosting plan is $2.99 per month, which translates to an upfront total of $35.88 for the year. Here are some of the additional features that you can add to customize your plan:
Most of you won’t need all of these. But you’ll probably want to add-on the domain privacy and added security at a minimum. That would bring your upfront annual total to $65.82. iPage offers a free SSL certificate and a 30-day money-back guarantee for its annual plans as well. Overall, iPage has some of the most affordable annual web hosting plans in the industry. Read my full iPage review for more on them. GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks is affordable shared and VPS web hosting with a twist. GreenGeeks is so committed to the environment that for every amp of power the company uses, it matches three times that with renewable energy. That 300% renewable energy match means your website will actually be carbon-reducing! But don’t choose GreenGeeks just because of its renewable energy commitment–GreenGeeks also guarantees 99.98% uptime, and has five data centers. Four of the five centers are located in North America and the fifth is in Amsterdam. All GreenGeeks hosting plans include free CDN integration plus a 30-day money-back guarantee. The Lite shared hosting plan starts as low as $2.49 per month for one website with a three-year contract. This plan includes 50GB of web space, unmetered transfer, 50 email accounts, a free SSL certificate, free domain for one year, nightly backups, free CDN, built-in caching, managed WordPress hosting, unlimited databases, and multi-user access. The other two GreenGeeks plans are Pro starting at $4.95 per month and Premium starting at $8.95 per month. Both of these plans cover unlimited websites, web space, and email accounts. The biggest additional features in the Premium plan are a free dedicated IP, free AlphaSSL, and object caching. On top of the 300% renewable energy match and affordable rates, GreenGeek has 24/7 live chat support and a robust knowledge base. And the free drag-and-drop website builder is a great tool, with hundreds of templates to customize. For cheap, planet-friendly hosting with great uptime and support, get started with GreenGeeks now. SiteGround
We already reviewed SiteGround’s month-to-month pricing. But their annual rates are appealing enough for me to mention them again here. In most cases, web hosting providers give you better discounts for longer contract terms. But SiteGround offers the same monthly rate for 12-month, 24-month, and 36-month contracts. You’ll still have to pay upfront, but you don’t need to commit for three years to get the best rate.
So if you know that you want to use SiteGround for at least one year, these annual rates are much more affordable than the month-to-month options that we discussed earlier. Bluehost
Bluehost is an incredibly reliable and popular hosting service — and for very god reason. Bluehost plans are pretty unbeatable when you compare the price to the performance and quality of service that you’re getting in return. Let’s take a closer look at the annual rates for Bluehost shared hosting plans.
In terms of affordable web hosting, most of you probably won’t need or want the Pro plan. But the Basic plan is a great option for a new or small website. If you have the budget to spend a little bit more, the Plus and Choice Plus plans are offered at the same price for the first year. So I’d recommend Choice Plus, as it comes with extra benefits like site backups and domain privacy. Just be aware that all of these plans renew at higher rates after the first year. The renewal rate for Choice Plus is $18.99 per month compared to $13.99 per month for the Plus plan. For an extra $5 per month, I’d still lean toward Choice Plus as the best value. All plans come with a free SSL certificate and unmetered bandwidth. The basic plan has 50 GB of storage, and the other three have unlimited SSD storage. Bluehost also offers $100 in advertising credits for Microsoft Advertising as well as $100 in credits for Google Ads. The free advertising can balance out some of your hosting costs. Read my full Bluehost review for more info about them. Hostinger
Hostinger offers affordable web hosting with a long-term contract. So, if you are always going to need hosting, why not sign a contract and lock in the lowest price possible for as long as you can. Here is an overview of Hostinger’s current per-month rates if you lock in a 48-month contract:
The biggest difference between the three options is the server resources and the number of websites that can be hosted. The available disk space is 30 GB, 100 GB, or 200 GB, depending on the plan you choose. The Single Shared Hosting plan allows you to create one website that can host approximately 10,000 visitors each month. The Premium and Business plans let you host up to 100 sites with a lot more visitors each month. All three plans have a 99.9% uptime guarantee, 24/7/365 customer support, and an easy-to-use website builder. What they lack in name recognition, they make up for in affordability and service. I like Hostinger because their service is reliable and they don’t force you to commit long-term. However, the month-to-month plans do not come with lots of freebies and extras. These are some of the add-ons that you’ll want to consider:
At a minimum, I’d recommend the daily backups. The Cloudflare CDN is a good value as well. How to Choose Cheap Web HostingStill unsure about which inexpensive web hosting provider you should choose? Let me help. Below, you’ll find the criteria my team looked at to help us decide on the most cost-effective, affordable web hosting for this list. We encourage you to use these criteria to guide your ultimate decision. Intro pricing and renewal ratesWhether you commit to one month, one year, or four years, your first contract will always be your best offer. That’s why it’s important to understand what you’re going to be paying when your contract expires. Let’s look at an example using the web hosting platform iPage, which has the lowest annual rates on our list. The introductory pricing rate for a 12-month contract, paid in-full, is $2.99 per month. So your base hosting cost is $35.88 for the first year. However, iPage annual plans renew at $9.99 per month, so you’ll be paying a $119.88 base cost for each subsequent year. Hosting providers are always changing their introductory offers. It’s common to see prices slashed around the holidays, like Black Friday or Cyber Monday. No matter what introductory offer you see from a hosting provider, find out what you’ll be paying once the promotional period—typically the first year of your contract—ends. Contract lengthMonth-to-month pricing can seem lucrative: Short contracts and no long-term commitments mean that if you’re not satisfied, it’s no big deal! But shorter contract terms often translate to higher monthly rates. For example, HostGator’s entry-level pricing starts at $10.95 per month with no long-term commitments. This will cost you $131.40 over the course of the year, which is very affordable. However, if you lock in that same exact plan for 36 months and pay upfront, the monthly rate drops to $2.75. So you’ll get three years of web hosting for $99 total. That’s less than the cost of one year at the month-to-month rate! Hostinger is another prime example of the difference between monthly and yearly rates. You can pay Hostinger upfront for four years of hosting at $1.39 per month, and you’ll still be paying less than you would for a single year with other providers. The downside of locking in a long-term contract is that you lose the flexibility to change your plan if you’re unhappy or outgrow your resources. That said, most of the providers I’ve chosen offer money-back guarantees if you aren’t happy. And if you’re always going to need a website, you’re always going to need a host. I recommend looking for the best long-term deal you can find. You can always continue using your same hosting plan even if you change domain names. Add-ons and freebiesMost web hosting providers will offer extra features built-in to the base cost of your web hosting plan. But some providers offer more than others. In addition to web hosting, common add-ons, freebies, and extras include:
The list goes on and on. It’s important to take all of this into consideration — and balance it with the cost. One plan may look more appealing at face value, but you’ll have to pay extra for basic features. Whereas another provider may have higher base prices, but deliver more in terms of extras and freebies. UpgradesAs your site grows, you’ll need to look beyond the cheapest option. After all, you want your website’s traffic to exceed the limits of an entry-level shared plan. The next logical step is to upgrade to VPS hosting or a cloud hosting plan. This might not happen for a few years — but you should take a look to see what types of upgrades are offered by various web hosts. Ideally, you’ll want to choose a provider that will make it easy for you to upgrade to another type of web hosting. Review those upgraded plans so you can budget and calculate hosting costs accordingly for the long term. The Best Cheap Web Hosting in SummaryYou don’t need to spend a ton of money on web hosting, especially if you have a new or small website. I don’t recommend choosing a web host based solely on price. You also need to factor in the quality of the service you get. Many hosts require a long-term contract to lock in the lowest possible rate. But some providers offer cheap annual and month-to-month pricing. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/best-cheap-web-hosting/ We recommend Nextiva or RingCentral as the best VoIP providers for most people based on quality and reliability. Start your 7-day Nextiva Essential free trial or try any RingCentral plan free for 14 days. Our research team here at Quick Sprout spent four weeks analyzing every available resource, including data, performance metrics, pricing, 544 real user reviews, and 3,444 review snippets, in search of the top VoIP providers on the market today. Based on our findings, we cut an original pool of 25 brands to a shortlist of 18 serious contenders—ultimately landing on 12 VoIP providers that we can recommend with confidence. The Top 12 Best VoIP ProvidersBelow you’ll find the 12 best VoIP solutions on the market today. While each is great for different needs and use cases, Nextiva is our top overall recommendation for most businesses. Sign up now for a 7-day free trial of the Nextiva Essential plan.
![]() How We Evaluate the Best VoIP CompaniesWe want the buying process to be as clear as possible for any individual or business seeking a VoIP solution. Below you’ll learn more about our research methodology and how we evaluated VoIP providers. You can also jump straight to the product reviews if you want to skip this section and come back later. How We Qualify VoIP Providers for ConsiderationDuring our initial research stage, we identified 25 companies that offer VoIP services: 11Sight, 1-VoIP, 3CX, 8×8, Aircall, Call Hippo, Dialpad, Evoice, Freshdesk, Genesys Cloud, Google Voice, GoTo Connect, Grasshopper, Microsoft Teams, Mitel, Nextiva, Ooma, OpenPhone, Phone.com, RingCentral, Talkdesk, TalkRoute, Vonage, Windstream, Zoom. Our team determined what real VoIP users value the most when buying and using a VoIP service. If a provider didn’t meet our standards or users struggled with the basic VoIP functions that we defined, they were cut from our list. We eliminated 28% of our starting list of providers because they did not meet the following core criteria of a VoIP phone service:
There were 18 VoIP providers left standing after we compared our initial list to the considerations above. Each of the remaining companies was put through another round of evaluation to test them beyond the basic requirements. How We Narrowed the List of Qualified VoIP ProvidersOur team decided to cut otherwise solid companies from the final list because they fell short compared to providers on the list with similar offerings. Other providers were eliminated because of cost, poor overall user satisfaction, or not enough reviews from real users. Here is our list of VoIP providers that met our qualification standards but aren’t recommended: 1-VoIP: This is a very basic VoIP phone service. 1-VoIP does not offer unlimited calling at lower plan tiers, while other providers at the same price point do offer it. OpenPhone: OpenPhone offers a virtual phone number that includes some advanced features. But it’s not really a complete VoIP phone system. Mitel: Mitel has a wide range of business phone systems, specifically to accommodate users seeking on-premises solutions. But their pricing isn’t very transparent and seems overly complex. Microsoft Teams: Microsoft Teams does not offer unlimited minutes, whereas other VoIP providers at similar price points do. MS Teams is also only a viable option for organizations that are already committed to a Microsoft ecosystem. 3CX: 3CX has limited customer support compared to other options on this list. Unless you want to pay a fee for ticket support, you’ll have to rely on guides, community boards, and blogs for help. Vonage: Vonage does not have great user reviews. It can also be a bit pricey when you start adding on different features. The Top VoIP Companies Left StandingThe best VoIP provider for most of our readers is Nextiva or RingCentral. Right now you can try a 7-day free trial of Nextiva Essential or sign up for any RingCentral plan free for 14 days.
Match Your Scenario to the Right VoIP SolutionBelow we’ll cover use-case-specific scenarios that you can use to find the best VoIP provider for your unique needs. These scenarios come directly from our research on how real businesses are using VoIP phone systems.
You need an all-in-one phone system for internal collaboration and external communicationBest option: Nextiva Nextiva has everything you need in a VoIP phone system at scale. Highlights include unlimited audio and video calling, unlimited video conferencing for up to 250 participants, team messages, mobile SMS/MMS messaging, unlimited fax, and screen sharing. If your business wants all of its communication tools at a reasonable price from a single provider, Nextiva has you covered. ![]() Another great choice: RingCentral RingCentral is also a unified communications solution. For internal collaboration, users will enjoy features like team messaging, document sharing, and video calls with up to 200 participants on higher tiers. RingCentral also offers webinar solutions as an add-on. If you want an all-in-one solution for both internal and external communication, pay attention to:
You have a remote or hybrid workforceBest option: RingCentral RingCentral is a full-feature VoIP phone system that works just as well in office settings as it does on the go. No matter where your staff is located, they can use RingCentral to make calls, receive calls, join meetings, and collaborate with their team. It’s also easy for administrators to add users and change settings—regardless of the user’s location. ![]() Another great choice: Nextiva For those of you who don’t care as much about mobile app access and prefer hybrid and remote solutions that support desktop devices and hard phone functionality, Nextiva is perfect. Nextiva doesn’t have strict user limits on its entry-level plan, meaning you can continue paying a lower rate as your remote team grows. They even offer volume discounts for additional savings. If your business has a remote or hybrid team, look for:
You manage a high volume of inbound or outbound callsBest option: Nextiva All of Nextiva’s VoIP plans support businesses with high-volume call needs. Compared to other providers on the market, Nextiva’s scalability is unmatched. You’ll never have to change providers if you need to add more users or accommodate a higher call volume. ![]() Another great choice: Aircall Aircall does not have separate solutions for business phones and call centers. This means you’re getting call center features included with your VoIP plan—all at an affordable price. These features include call recording, power dialing, call routing options, business hours, call monitoring, IVR, and more. High-volume business users should consider the following:
You want your employees to have desk phonesBest option: Ooma Ooma is an excellent option for traditional office environments. They provide plug-and-play hardware that’s easy to set up. The service is compatible with analog phones and IP phones, and it will likely work with the hardware you’re currently using. While most VoIP providers focus on software services, Ooma is designed specifically with desk phones in mind. ![]() Another great choice: Phone.com For low-volume usage on desk phones, Phone.com should be on your radar. The entry-level plan comes with 500 pooled minutes for your team to share. They also let you mix and match plans to accommodate your needs without breaking the bank. For companies with desk phones, pay attention to:
You make a lot of outbound international callsBest option: 8×8 Depending on the plan you select, 8×8 offers unlimited calling to 14 or 48 different countries. Beyond those countries, pricing is assessed per minute based on the country you’re calling. For businesses that want to establish a local presence in different regions, 8×8 also offers virtual phone numbers in more than 100+ countries. ![]() Another great choice: GoTo Connect Alternatively, GoTo Connect has unlimited calling to 50 countries on both of its top business phone plans. These are a bit more expensive than 8×8, but it can be a better deal if all the countries you’re calling to are within those locations—as you won’t incur any per-minute costs. For businesses with a global presence, look for:
You want a lightweight VoIP system that goes wherever you doBest option: Google Voice While Google Voice lacks some of the advanced VoIP call management features found in other providers, its simplicity shines for users who don’t need extra bells and whistles. If you want something straightforward that you can use on your existing smartphone or desktop device without any extra hardware, Google Voice can be for you. You can deploy it in minutes without thinking twice about anything. ![]() Another great choice: 11Sight 11Sight is a non-traditional VoIP solution. Instead of getting a phone number, they offer a unique URL that customers and clients can use to initiate audio and video calls with your team. It’s a popular option for marketers, inbound sales teams, and low-volume customer support. ![]() If you want a lightweight service without any hardware, consider:
VoIP Provider Company ReviewsEach VoIP provider reviewed below shines in one particular category. While many of these phone systems are great for different use cases, there are certain options that should be considered over others if you have specific needs. Use our in-depth reviews to find the best VoIP provider for you and your business. You’ll learn more about the unique standouts and pricing of our top recommendations below. Nextiva – Best Overall VoIP Provider![]() Nextiva has everything you could possibly need in a VoIP phone service—making it an easy choice as our top recommendation. This VoIP provider is an all-in-one unified communication system that’s packed with features for every business use case. If you have high-volume call needs or plan to expand your team down the road, it’s easy to add users anytime you need to. Some other standout features include unlimited domestic calling, free auto attendants, file sharing, team messaging, caller ID, and more. It’s worth noting that call recording and video conferencing features are only offered with enterprise plans. So if call recording is a must-have feature and you’re on a tighter budget, it may be best to look elsewhere. What Makes Nextiva GreatAside from its comprehensive list of features, Nextiva really shines above the crowd with its customer support. You can resolve problems 24/7 via phone, ticket, and live chat. Alternatively, you can use Nextiva’s detailed knowledge base for self-help. ![]() Reviews from real users point to Nextiva’s support agents—mentioning them as friendly, helpful, prompt, and patient. Overall, the VoIP system is really easy to use. Admins can manage everything from a single portal, and employees can navigate the features with ease. Rates vary based on team size and package tier. Plans start at $18.95 per user per month when you sign up for an annual contract, and you can try Nextiva Essential for free with a 7-day trial. For more information, check out our full Nextiva Review. RingCentral – Best for Hybrid and Remote Work Environments![]() RingCentral is another complete communication system for businesses. But unlike other tools on the market, this solution performs just as well in the office as it does at home and on the go—making it the perfect choice for remote work environments. Users can access the platform from a desktop app that’s compatible with both Macs and PCs. RingCentral also has an excellent mobile app for iOS and Android, putting all of its features in the palm of your hand from anywhere. RingCentral makes it easy to make calls, receive calls, join and host meetings, collaborate with your team, send faxes, and more. All of these capabilities can be done from any work environment without any extra hardware. The only notable downside of RingCentral is its customer support. Customer reviews in this category aren’t as flattering compared to other options on the market. What Makes RingCentral GreatOffering solutions for hybrid and remote work is one thing. RingCentral isn’t alone with this positioning. But where it excels above the competition boils down to its quality, performance, and reliability. ![]() As long as you have a stable internet connection, you can rely on RingCentral to perform well from any device or location. It’s also packed with call management features like call forwarding, answering rules, call flip, call logs, call screening, and more. The platform also provides a wide range of unified communication features, including team chat, unlimited fax, SMS messaging, document sharing, and international calling. But the availability of these features varies depending on the plan you select. Plans start at $19.99 per user per month, and you can try any RingCentral plan free for 14 days. Read our full RingCentral review for a more in-depth analysis. Ooma – Best for Small Businesses That Want Simple Setups![]() Many VoIP phone solutions are designed for contact centers and larger organizations with a higher call volume. But Ooma offers VoIP plans built specifically for small businesses. If you want your staff to use a desk phone and fax machine, Ooma is perfect for you. Best of all, there’s a good chance Ooma works with your existing hardware, so you won’t have to purchase any new devices. For those that do need hardware, Ooma offers plug-and-play phones that take less than 15 minutes to set up. It’s worth noting that Ooma doesn’t offer a desktop app with its entry-level plan, which is one of the reasons why it’s great for businesses that want to use traditional phones. Compared to other options on the market, Ooma lacks some integration options as well. But this shouldn’t be a problem for small business users. What Makes Ooma GreatOoma’s ease of use and administrative support really shines above the competition. This is especially true for a phone system that requires some hardware beyond a smartphone or tablet. ![]() Even if you’re getting completely new phones from Ooma, you can get everything set up and installed in less than 15 minutes—no IT skills or technical knowledge required. Admins also love Ooma’s ability to configure user accounts. You have complete control over managing how incoming calls are handled, number porting, conference calling, and feature add-ons. Many user reviews highlight the fact that switching to Ooma has saved their business money. The service is an excellent value for small business users. Plans start at $19.95 per month and don’t require a long-term contract. Refer to our Ooma review for more information on plans and pricing. 8×8 – Best VoIP Provider for International Calling![]() 8×8 is one of the few VoIP providers on the market that supports high-volume international calling without breaking the bank. Its mid-tier and top-tier plans support unlimited outbound calls to 14 and 48 different countries respectively. Its entry-level plan only supports unlimited calling in the US and Canada, but all plans offer affordable rates billed per minute for every other country not included on the plan’s list. For organizations seeking the most affordable way to get a VoIP phone system with international calling capabilities from a reputable provider, look no further than 8×8. Just be aware that customer support could use some improvement. Users report slow response times to non-urgent issues, and 8×8’s basic SLA is a 24-hour response time. What Makes 8×8 GreatIn addition to international calling, 8×8 really is an all-around excellent VoIP service. ![]() The platform comes with tons of great call management features, including auto attendants, custom greetings, caller ID, call forwarding, warm transfers, custom music, and more. You can access the platform from desktop apps, mobile apps, and web browsers as well. Plans start at $15 per user month, and you can try 8×8 for free with a 30-day trial. Dialpad – Best AI Functionality for VoIP Phone Systems![]() Dialpad offers many of the great features and functions that you’d expect from a VoIP provider. But they take things to the next level with modern AI capabilities that go above and beyond a basic phone system. You’ll benefit from features like AI-based reporting, real-time sentiment analysis, AI-based call routing, and more. The software can even provide recommendations on what actions your agents should be taking during live calls. That said, Dialpad could use some improvement during the initial setup process. Some users report that they could have used some help and access to a real person. It’s also worth noting that some features like power dialing and in-queue callback options are only available with contact center packages. What Makes Dialpad GreatAI aside, Dialpad has tons of other great office phone system features that you can use to run your business. You’ll benefit from call forwarding, call routing, three-way calling, mobile apps, and more. ![]() Another unique standout of Dialpad is its admin tools. Administrators have granular permission levels that can be used to manage users, departments, and even customized integrations. Speaking of integrations, there’s a good chance that Dialpad will work seamlessly with the tools you’re already using. Some noteworthy integration standouts include Slack, Salesforce, HubSpot, Azure, Zapier, and dozens of others. Plans start at $15 per user per month, which is a great value when you consider how feature-packed the software is. You can try Dialpad for free with a 14-day trial. Check out our Dialpad review for more information on the platform’s pros, cons, and plan information. GoTo Connect – Best Feature-Packed Entry-Level VoIP Plan![]() Many VoIP providers advertise great features and capabilities. But they only offer those options at higher-priced packages designed for large businesses and enterprise communications. Fortunately, GoTo Connect is different. Even at its basic plan level, GoTo Connect provides you with all of the features you need in a VoIP service at an affordable price. You’ll have access to call recording, video conferencing, ring groups, team collaboration features, call monitoring, and more. If you need a feature that isn’t included in this plan, you can add it on for just a few dollars more. Unfortunately, GoTo Connect doesn’t have the best customer support. You need to fill out a form on their website and then wait for an email or call back from a service rep, which isn’t ideal if you need help ASAP. What Makes GoTo Connect GreatAdmins and managers love GoTo Connect’s call monitoring features. With Spy mode, for instance, you can silently enter a conversation without anyone knowing you’re there. This is a great way to check in on your agents and see how they’re doing. ![]() You’ll also have access to call center features like call whispering and call barging, only without the enterprise-grade price tags that are normally associated with these options. GoTo Connect also offers unified communication tools, including team messaging, SMS messaging, and more. Both the Standard and Premier packages support free calling to 52 countries. GoTo Connect plans start at $22 per month, and you can save up to 21% if you sign up for annual billing. Read our full GoTo Connect review for a more in-depth assessment of the platform. Phone.com – Best For Businesses on a Tight Budget![]() Phone.com is a solid VoIP solution. It comes with voice calling, video conferencing, texting, messaging, and faxing—all available in the same package. Compared to other VoIP providers on the market, Phone.com stands out from the crowd with its rock-bottom pricing. You can start using this service for less than half the price of some of the options on our list. This low-priced option does come with a catch, though—the entry-level tier comes with just 500 pooled minutes every month. So Phone.com is really only viable for businesses with low-volume calling. What Makes Phone.com GreatEven for such a budget-friendly option, Phone.com still comes packed with call management features. All plans offer call routing, customizable greetings, call queues, hold music, voice tagging, call screening, and more. ![]() You can even take advantage of live receptionist services from Phone.com. Although this premium offering comes with a hefty price tag, which probably isn’t in the budget for most businesses considering this VoIP provider. The phone service is easy to use and quick to get set up. If you’re price-sensitive, Phone.com should be at the top of your list. Plans start at just $11.99 per user per month, and your subscription is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. Check out our Phone.com review for more information. Google Voice – Best Simple and Lightweight VoIP Phone Service![]() Not everyone wants a VoIP phone service that’s packed with features they’ll never use. If this sounds like you, Google Voice should be on your radar. While the platform doesn’t come with some of the advanced call management and call monitoring features we’ve seen with other providers on our list, this is arguably the simplest VoIP solution on the market today. You can use Google Voice from your smartphone or desktop without any extra hardware. This makes it a popular choice for freelancers, solo entrepreneurs, and small business users with infrequent calling needs. What Makes Google Voice GreatFor such a bare-bones solution, the service works surprisingly well. There are almost no poor reviews related to the service’s reliability and performance. ![]() Google updates the platform on a regular basis to address any minor bugs or problems. So you don’t have to worry about any small issues impacting you in the long run. If you want to keep your existing number, Google Voice provides detailed instructions for porting purposes. So you can do this on your own without any help. However, there are some restrictions on which types of numbers you can port to Google Voice. Google Voice is a paid add-on to any workspace subscription, and plans start at just $10 per user per month. Even the entry-level plan comes with unlimited calling in the US. Aircall – Best Built-In Call Management Tools![]() Call management features are crucial for sales teams, marketers, support agents, and remote teams. With Aircall, it seems like no call management option is left out. The platform comes with several unique capabilities that aren’t found on other VoIP phone solutions. You can use Aircall for queued callbacks, skills-based call routing, time-based call routing, and more. Aircall even supports parallel calls, allowing one phone agent to accommodate multiple callers simultaneously as call volume increases. While Aircall has some basic unified communication features, it’s not an all-in-one solution for internal collaboration. The platform doesn’t support file sharing, team chat, or video conferencing. What Makes Aircall GreatAircall is an excellent solution for businesses that want to support their phone agents. It comes with both call monitoring and call whispering capabilities—making it easy to actively train employees and set them up for success. ![]() You can take advantage of these features from Aircall without having to pay for a complete call center solution. So the service is an excellent value. For businesses that are migrating from another business phone service, you can switch to Aircall without having to change your number. Porting is available for free with all plans. Users report that Aircall integrates seamlessly with their favorite CRM platforms. This is just another reason why Aircall is great for sales, marketing, and support. Plans start at $30 per user per month, with a three-user minimum. Aircall has a seven-day free trial that lets you try all of its features. CallHippo – Best VoIP Phone System for Industry-Specific Compliance![]() CallHippo has a wide range of VoIP solutions, including a standard phone system and a complete call center solution. For businesses that need to meet certain compliance regulations, CallHippo has you covered. The service is HIPAA compliant, GDPR compliant, and PCI compliant—making it a top service for healthcare companies and any business that processes payments over the phone. Just be aware that CallHippo charges $0.0005 per minute for call recording on its entry-level plan. If you want this feature for free, you’ll need to upgrade. The CallHippo power dialer is not available for its business phone system—only the call center solution. So your price will increase if this outbound calling feature is important to you. What Makes CallHippo GreatCallHippo shines with its call management features. You can use it for call forwarding between devices and specific users or departments as well. This is highly useful in healthcare environments, for example. ![]() For a VoIP service that accommodates such use-case-specific needs, the setup process is surprisingly easy. Not only can you get up and running quickly, but the system is easy to use on a day-to-day basis as well. You’ll also benefit from dozens of seamless integrations with CallHippo. So you can connect your productivity tools, ecommerce software, helpdesk software, and sales automation tools with ease. Plans start at $30 per user per month, which is higher than some of the other options on our list. But all plans do come with unlimited calling in the US and Canada, and you can try the business phone system free for 10 days. 11Sight – Best One-Click Audio and Video Calling for Sales and Marketing Teams![]() 11Sight is a bit unique compared to some of the other solutions on our list. As a non-traditional VoIP service, 11Sight does not give you a phone number. Instead, you’ll get a unique call URL that can be shared with your current or existing customers. All the person has to do is click on the link, and they can instantly connect with someone on your team. This setup is designed specifically for sales reps and marketers. Rather than having people fill out a form field on your site to schedule a time for a call, they can just connect with you immediately to get questions answered or buy whatever you’re selling. As you might expect, 11Sight does lack some features. There’s no number porting, team messaging, faxing, or file sharing. And while all calls are automatically recorded, call transcriptions aren’t an option. What Makes 11Sight GreatThe idea behind 11Sight is simplicity for sales and marketing. Current and prospective customers have the option to start communication via audio, video, or live chat. Then a unique URL is generated to get them in touch based on their preferred communication method. ![]() You can easily create ring groups or choose specific employees for each call. 11Sight even lets you set up call routing trees with simple rules to ensure the right person is always available for your customers. Implementing 11Sight is seamless. As a cloud-based solution, there’s no software to download or new equipment to purchase. Anyone can set it up without the help of an IT professional. Plans start at $15 per user per month, and you’ll get 20% off with an annual contract. If you’re on the fence about this unique solution, try 11Sight for free with a 14-day trial. Zoom – Best Call Monitoring Features For Business Users![]() Zoom is arguably the most well-recognized brand name on our list. Surging in popularity in the past few years, Zoom has become an easy choice for both business and personal use cases. Unlike other providers on our list, Zoom doesn’t wait until the mid and high-tier plans to offer its call monitoring features. Even the entry-level plan includes call monitoring features like whispering, call barging, and listening in. You’ll also benefit from call recording tools, call transcriptions, shared lines, and other excellent features at an affordable rate. With a single click, you can even switch from a call to a Zoom meeting. One minor drawback of Zoom is its admin portal. It could use some improvements to enhance its ease of use. What Makes Zoom GreatZoom shines as a unified communication system. It includes audio capabilities, video chat, meetings, and team collaboration tools in a single solution. ![]() You can use Zoom to communicate with your customers and communicate internally as well. The service works great on all devices, including Apple, Mac, iOS, and Android. It’s also worth noting that every Zoom plan comes with unlimited IVRs and ACD. These features are typically only offered with call center solutions, so it’s a great value with Zoom’s VoIP service. Zoom Phone starts at $10 per user per month with an annual contract, which is a great value when you consider all of the features it comes with. For Zoom’s unified communication service with unlimited calling, rates start at $250 per user per year. Check out our full Zoom review for more. Quick Sprout VoIP Related ContentHere at QuickSprout, we have dozens of other resources related to VoIP providers and phone systems. You can use these guides, reviews, and blog posts to help you find the best possible VoIP solution for your specific needs. Our resources will help you buy with confidence: VoIP Guides and How-Tos
VoIP Company Reviews
VoIP ComparisonsVoIP Related Top Lists
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Sean BrianWhile radishes deter certain insects naturally, they require similar growing conditions as carrots. Although the crops both have roots, radishes grow and germinate quicker, allowing carrots to continue growing in the soil space available when the radishes are harvested, Archives
April 2023
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