Website Hosting + SSL Certificate

benstella on 30/07/2018 - 14:23
Last edited 30/07/2018 - 15:04 by 1 other user

Looking for a reliable website hosting provider.
Website is based on Wordpress with simple enquiry form. No login, transaction or shopping cart functionality.
Average traffic is around 1000 visitors in a month.
Page speed on mobile device is main criteria.
Currently, hosted website on zuver. Server response time is poor.
Contacted them but still not happy with the speed on mobile devices.

Things to consider:

  • Australian based server
  • Don't require dedicated server
  • SSL certification is must
  • Server response time should be excellent

Few hosting provider in my mind but no experience with them:

  • Ventra IP
  • Siteground
  • Crazy domain
  • Go Daddy

Poll Options

  • 17
    Ventra IP
  • 1
    Siteground
  • 2
    Crazy domain
  • 1
    Go Daddy
  • 3
    Others (pls add in comments)
Internet Web Hosting

Comments

  • pjetson on 30/07/2018 - 14:37
    +2

    I'm not really sure what you mean by "server response time is poor". Do you mean that the pages load too slowly? That's a very common problem with WordPress sites, some of which can take six seconds or more to load a page!

    I have a hand-built web site on Zuver, and it works well.

    If your problem is page load time, something that can help speed up WordPress sites is to install a caching plugin. There are free ones.

    I vaguely remember some kind of utility (or perhaps it was a web site?) that displayed various statistics about web site speed that was helpful in tuning up WordPress sites. I'll set myself a "background task" to try to remember what it was while I continue working.

    • rompastompa on 30/07/2018 - 14:40
      +1

      some kind of utility

      https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ Might help (not sure about WP specific)

    • AustriaBargain on 30/07/2018 - 14:57

      Siteground have their own plugin optimiser thing, I think there's a lot of good options for optimiser plugins for Wordpress. And they seem to help, they don't hurt anyway.

    • benstella on 30/07/2018 - 15:52

      Website speed as per Google Page speed insights is 90/100 (https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights)
      However, website is not loading fast enough on Mobile devices. It takes more than 4 sec.
      Already installed caching plugin and other image optimisation techniques.
      Looks like something to do with Zuver servers. Had a word with Ventra IP (their parent company) just a moment ago.
      They said Zuver hardware is bit old which create speed issues.

      • pinchies on 30/07/2018 - 17:10

        You can get plugins that consolidate many page requests into fewer files delivered. I can't think of any other reason why page load would be slow on mobile specifically, that would be the fault of the server. It is more likely to be slow javascript and slow page rendering on mobile sites due slower mobile CPU?

  • Hybroid on 30/07/2018 - 14:39
    +2

    Godaddy are easy to use & cover most bases but really expensive for personal use. They'll entice you with cheaper offers in the beginning then prices go up significantly on renewal. It's not really worth it.

  • pjetson on 30/07/2018 - 14:41

    There are plenty of hits in Google for "how to speed up a wordpress site".

    https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+speed+up+a+wordpress+…

  • Succulent Synth on 30/07/2018 - 14:46
    +1

    I migrated from Zuver to Goplex recently and am really happy with them so far. I kept having issues with Zuver and the support was terrible. Goplex is costing me less despite the addition of ssl hosting and ssl, no more server issues and I have a personal account manager that responds to texts right away.

  • AustriaBargain on 30/07/2018 - 14:53
    +1

    SSL is free, with Let's Encrypt. You can even add it yourself with a few lines of code if the option isn't given to you in the panel tools, though the options should be there because it doesn't cost anything. It's there with SiteGround anyway, keep in mind SiteGround goes up in price like 60% after one year btw. The good thing about SiteGround though is you can chat with the support people and they will usually fix little mistakes for you. Mistakes with your admin stuff, not with your site design itself. That's the kind of noob friendly service you don't always get elsewhere. The support is so friendly even your granny could probably get them to bring back up a website that has gone done.

    If you know what you're doing then Digital Ocean might be better for you, if you know how to install all the stuff and the panel yourself.

    • dreamxcape on 30/07/2018 - 16:18

      Digital Ocean doesn't have dedicated Australia based servers AFAIK. I get most of my clients to host on a Singapore-based DO server

      • AustriaBargain on 30/07/2018 - 17:26

        Siteground also uses Singapore as their closest au server on he cheaper plans.

  • [Deactivated] on 30/07/2018 - 15:20
    +1

    I just moved 6 sites to Ventra IP.

    Have bugged their support team about 6 times with questions because I am an amateur.. always spoke to someone professional, AUSTRALIAN, and helpful within a very reasonable time.
    As part of the hosting package they also provided SSL certificates for free and gave me very easy instructions on how to convert my sites to take advantage of them.

    Hosting appears fast and trouble free.

    I also have a few sites with Crazy Domains and haven't had any major issues with them, host speed generally ok, and find their support department easy to get hold of but you are always talking to someone overseas and can sometimes get conflicting answers to problems you have based on who answers.
    Issue I do have with Crazy Domains at the moment is 3 sites with extremely slow form submissions. No one there able to fix, web developers not able to isolate (maybe the host, maybe not?).

  • artfin on 30/07/2018 - 15:42

    I've had some sites hosted with Go Daddy, and never had issues. Speed's OK, and is relatively easy to deal with them as their support is quite decent. Some peers have had problems in the past, but I can't complain.

    You can also add Free SSL Certificates to your GoDaddy sites: https://medium.com/@ArthurFinkler/installing-a-lets-encrypt-…

    **The article's content might not be up to date. Was written a while ago, but still worth a try…

  • Munnday on 30/07/2018 - 16:30
    +1

    +1 VentraIP - However, keep in mind that they do actually own Zuver

    The differences according to a 2017 Whirlpool post:

    • VentraIP Australia offers phone support, Zuver doesn't.
    • VentraIP has 100% Australian support located in our Narre Warren office in Victoria, Zuver doesn't.
    • VentraIP's current hosting hardware offers much more resources (as you mentioned), but also runs on much newer, more powerful hardware, with extremely fast SAS SSDs, more memory, fewer VMs per node, and fewer accounts.
    • VentraIP offers LiteSpeed Wordpress caching (which would be useful if you're setting up a Wordpress site).
    • VentraIP offers unlimited bandwidth (from the sounds of it that won't be a problem for you anyway, but still something to mention).
    • VentraIP offers hourly backups (that you're able to restore yourself, or we can happily do it for you).
  • pinchies on 30/07/2018 - 17:06
    +1

    Siteground is really best of the best for global webhosts, and they get outstanding reviews from all sites. VentraIP is really great, I used to be with them, but they are not cheap - hence I have my personal hosting with Zuver at the moment, alongside some cheap VPS services from OVH.

    I've also used Bluehost (great uptime and good speed), InMotion hosting (good support), DigitalPacific (nothing special).

  • tabz on 30/07/2018 - 22:53

    If it's a simple Wordpress site, consider hosting it on Amazon S3. Just ensure your S3 bucket is in the Australian region.

  • MrBear on 31/07/2018 - 10:00

    Amazon Lightsail.

  • davidg444 on 31/07/2018 - 12:15

    I am using JustHost shared hosting for my wordpress site which is good value and seems to check all your requirements except I understand my site is hosted on the U.S. which doesn't phase me at all - I use a .com domain anyway. JustHost are presently urging customers to migrate to SSL because Google are moving to prefer secure sites in searches. I have thus recently made the move to a secure site with the JustHost provided certificate at no extra cost.

  • azonki on 31/07/2018 - 12:53

    I have had 7 sites hosted with Digital Pacific. Sydney based.
    They have fantastic support and once tweaked I even had no problem with page load speed using Magento (2000 pages) on a shared server.
    Don't forget that page load speed on a mobile device is often due to poor 4G reception or perhaps that the server is sending too much information for the phone to process in a timely manner.
    And this is not a problem with the server, it is a platform issue. Wordpress is bulky.
    I did have a Wordpress e-commerce staging site with Zuver and it was slow, but it was not optimised, so difficult to be objective.
    If your main market is Australian, it is important to get local servers, especially with mobiles.
    As far as SSL goes, if you are selling stuff, you need to ensure your customer is satisfied that security guarantees are provided by respected and recognised providers such as Norton, GeoTrust, etc. (Brands that they have seen before.)
    If it is just a matter of keeping Mr Google happy, then Let's Encrypt is a perfect solution and easy to implement.

  • bin555 on 09/08/2018 - 13:44

    Look at Lightsail in AWS.

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