The Best US Website Hosting Providers For 2018

As soon as you purchase a plan with a US hosting company, you can begin the account setup process. On most sites, shared, reseller, WordPress, and cloud packages take less than an hour or so to set up. Setting up a VPS plan can take between an hour and four hours, depending on whether or not you're using cPanel or Plesk, which are popular and easy-to-use web host admin dashboards.

Dedicated servers can take anywhere between 24 and 48 hours to set up. Keep in mind that, even after setting up your web page, it takes a few hours for your server details to propagate across the internet, so although you can launch and be online within the timeframes outlined above, it might take a little longer for people to actually be able to visit your site from anywhere across the globe.

Depending on your needs, you should expect at least the following: 99.5% guaranteed uptime or better, round-the-clock customer support (via email, phone, or online chat), hassle-free cancellation if you are not satisfied with the level of service you are provided with, and the option to migrate your website to a new domain with a different host should you choose to do so.

If you does well, or if you are a large or growing business that requires additional services, look for security features, SSL certificates, speed and load times, the location of your host's data centres, the ability to add additional server resources should you need them, and easy payment options. These are the main ones, but additional needs and requirements may exist depending on your line of work.

The majority of websites guarantee between 99.5% and 99.95% uptime, which translates to anything between about 3.5 hours and 22 minutes of downtime every month. Website reliability means more than just high uptimes, and it includes offering friendly customer support, well-trained tech staff, and security and data backup options. If we expand the definition of reliability to include these other things, the number of hosting options from which to choose shrinks considerably.

The best hosts, the ones that go above and beyond and really take care of their customers, have the reviews and long-term clients to back high performance. They are all well-established companies, have served thousands (and in some cases, millions) of customers, and have a long tradition of customer support to go with numerous features and services to give you all-round reliability.

Yes. Most web hosts offer round-the-clock technical support. Support is most commonly provided via email, online chat, over the phone, or by the user creating an online helpdesk ticket which forwards your complaint or query to a member of the tech team who then responds to you within a pre-determined period of time.

However, bear in mind that some hosts cater to upwards of hundreds of thousands of users. If you expect support during specific work hours or want a response to your queries within a smaller and more predictable timeframe, you should opt for a higher-end hosting plan that provides a higher level of customer service. This is especially important for time-critical services or news and info sites.