In this video, I want to talk about web hosting, and specifically, how you can outperform almost any premium-level web host that’s fairly high price, but do it for a lot less money and a lot more control. First of all, let’s just talk typical price point of web hosting, and I want to go to screen. I want to show you some of the big names that people talk about. First of all, we have Rocket. Net. Now, I’m a massive fan of these guys, and in fact, I still have some sites hosted with them. However, I am in the process of moving them away. That’s something I’ve already talked about here on the channel. But as you can see, the starter plan is $30 a month, and that’s just for one website. They only give you 10 gigabytes of storage, and they have the typical limitations. Now, again, they’re a great host. They’ve got great support, but it’s 30 bucks a month for a one single website. If you have a personal blog or you’ve got more than one website or whatever, the price starts going up pretty quick. It’s got 60 bucks a month here for three, 100 bucks a month for up to 10, which means if you have even just four websites, you got to go up to 100 bucks a month.

Let’s pop over here to Kinsta, another really popular one. Now, these guys do the monthly and annual thing, and they do the whole price games like a lot of guys do. But of course, for a one single site, they’re also defaulting to $30 a month, and that’s only if you prepaid pay annually. If you go to just the monthly, it’s 35. So they’re actually a little bit more than Rocket. Net, but they give you the 20 gigabytes, blah, blah, blah. Okay, let’s pop on over to SiteGround. These guys are also pretty popular, but they also play the pricing games that are very typical with hosts, where then the big print, they give you the big reveal, which is the really cheap price point. But then you got to pay attention to what’s slashed out because that’s the real price point. And so you’ll be paying, in this case, about 18 bucks a month for one website, 10 gigabytes. They even limit your traffic, which is weird. Siteground is a decent host. The Grow Big plan, if you want unlimited websites, but unlimited websites, when You only have 20 gigs of space. You could end up hitting it.

I’ve seen people do it, by the way. But you’re looking at $30 a month for that, and then it goes up higher. The GoGeek plan, which I know a lot of people have, is also $45. If we pop I’ll go on over to Hostinger, which is another really popular one. Let’s get rid of the chat. They do similar stuff. They hook you in with these very low prices. This one, you can create up to 50 websites. Seems like a whole heck of a lot, and it is. Most people aren’t going to have that many, but realize that you’re getting 79 % off. So your real price is definitely going to be more. And I don’t even know what type of hosting this is. Let’s go to Manage Hosting. Hostinger is a fairly well respected company, But it’s going to cost you more than some other web hosts, but they’re a pretty decent company. Now, the problem with these types of hosts, as good as they are, with the customer support that they have, is that they treat all websites essentially the same. They are one size fits all. And so that explains why sometimes you find that a website will perform good on one of these hosts, but another website on the exact same host may not perform quite as well.

And it’s because it’s a one size fits all environment. And the truth of the matter is that not every website is necessarily the right fit. If you go back to my last video on this channel where I talked about Rocket. Net and why I am moving sites away from Rocket. Net, it’s because of the one-size-fits-all nature. As good as Rocket is, and they really do give a lot of horsepower to their web servers. The thing is that one size fits all nature meant that some of my larger client websites, the guys that are running dynamic membership sites where we can’t have all the caching and all that, and they’re running a fair amount of plugins, those guys were running fairly slow on rocket. Net. It wasn’t necessarily a rocket, okay? And especially in the WordPress admin panel, that was just a little bit sluggish getting around. So the one size fits all thing is definitely a factor, and it’s going to be the factor on any of these guys, Kinsta, SiteGround, any of them, because it’s a numbers game to these guys. They are trying to create a hosting package that’s going to serve the typical website, okay?

With Rocket. Net, they can accommodate some pretty good-size blogs, but the ones that it’s going to perform the best on are the ones that can be really publicly cached, and it’s primarily a blog, maybe a WU e-commerce type of site where they’re surfing through the catalog but cash. Once a person logs in and everything has to be uncashed for those guys, it’s a different game. I’m also going to point out here that that one size fits all thing also means flat rate pricing. If you go back to rocket. Net, you will see that it is $30 a month, whether it is a small blog or whether it’s a large buddy boss site. It’s the same exact hosting package, and your little tiny site is going to have the same amount of horsepower as a big old buddy ball site, because all sites are treated exactly the same, in terms of the hosting package and everything. And you also might be on the exact same server as a guy who’s running a big buddy-ball site with a whole lot of traffic and all that if you bring in your little tiny site. So what ends up happening is that people with websites often end up overpaying for their hosting because of the one size fits all thing.

And these flat rate pricing, especially when they limit the number of sites that you can bring in, they’re not going to make a difference between a site that you have that might be large and maybe just a little tiny personal blog. They really don’t pay any attention to the fact that those sites are different and have very different hosting requirements. This is also, by the way, why I don’t take very seriously these web hosting review websites where they post benchmarks and stuff like that. And it’s because the benchmarks don’t really matter. They don’t translate over into how well your site is going to perform there. I have seen many times websites go to host with really good benchmarks for a particular type of site, and then the person who’s reading it thinks, Okay, this must be a really fast web host. And then they put their website on that web host, and it’s a little bit disappointing. And it’s, again, because it’s a one-size-fits-all thing, and they’re not taking into account the type of website that you have. That’s why the benchmarks, they are a data point, but it’s definitely an incomplete picture. So what is the solution?

I think it comes down to understanding a concept that I think of as website hosting fit. You could call it site host fit. It’s the idea that the web hosting that you have and the type of website that you’re hosting need to fit together like a glove, okay? And you’re not going to get that with the one size fits all type of host. And in fact, in most cases, what will end up happening is that you’ll be overpaying for your web hosting when you could get really top-notch performance for significantly less money. And in fact, in a lot of cases, you’ll end up having a site that performs even better for a lot less money. And it just comes down to getting a server that is designed for your type of site And it’s something that you can then manage and scale up as necessary and basically customize to the type of website that you have. Now, what I’m referring to here is what’s called a virtual private server or a VPS. They’re very, very common. It’s the type of hosting that a lot of people don’t look into because they’re not as geeky as people like me.

But because they don’t understand a virtual private server and they want to go with something that’s a little bit more handheld, that’s why they end up overpaying. Now, a virtual private server is just basically take a server, which is just a computer that hosts websites. Usually, it’s got a lot of horsepower. And then what they do is they put software on that computer that is designed to divide up the server into a bunch of little mini servers. And each of these little mini servers are a virtual private server. So it’s using software to divide up the big server into a bunch of little servers. And each of So all those little servers are like little islands unto themselves. And so what happens on one server is not really going to have an effect on sites in another server. The servers are like little islands that the client can then own and control all by themselves. And then you can actually decide how much server horsepower you need because it’ll basically control the size of your virtual private server, like how many CPUs are dedicated to it, how much RAM is dedicated to it. And just like the computer sitting on your desk, if you have a faster processor and you have more RAM, stuff’s going to go faster.

It’s the exact same thing on a web hosting server. Now, to show what these things cost, let me show you three pretty common providers of virtual private servers. Now, there’s a lot more than three. These just happen to be three of the big ones. One of them is the one I happen to use, which is called Hetzner. But first, let’s go to DigitalOcean. This is the one that actually these guys own Cloudways. Now, Cloudways is a software panel that allows you to manage these virtual private servers without being a complete and total nerd. But let’s look at these prices if you were to buy it directly through DigitalOcean. Here’s a… You got two gigabytes of RAM, one what’s called a virtual CPU, because Again, these are virtual private servers. It will give you 2 terabytes of transfer. That’s a lot, by the way. You could put up to 50 gigs on this thing, and that’ll cost you only 12 bucks a month. Now, if you want to have more processing power for a little bit more speed, you can bump it up to two. They give you more transfer. They give you a 60 gigabyte disk, and you’re looking at 18.

And they’ve got other options here for CPU for RAM-optimized, for RAM-optimized. There’s different options here, and you can see what these things cost. If we go over to Vulture, I happen to like Vulture a little bit better than DigitalOcean, by the way. But if you’re looking at something like four processors, 16 gigabytes of RAM, this is actually a pretty hefty server. You can run a lot of websites in this bad boy, and you will see, very common, they charge by the hour in these cases, which is interesting. So I’d have to do the math to see what these things are going to actually cost. Cost, but they’re going to be quite economical, you’re going to find, for what you actually pay for that horsepower. And then you got… These are the guys that I like, which is Hetzner. They’re actually based over in the European Union. And you’ve got all these different options here. Again, two V CPUs, four gigabytes of RAM. You could drop 40 gigabytes of stuff on there, 20 terabytes of traffic, which you’re pretty much never going to hit. All right? Oh, my gosh, $4 a month. Okay? Now, you’d have to pop through these things.

Let’s say you wanted to put this over in the… Let’s go over here. Let’s go into the USA because I like to do things over here because most of my clients are here in the US. And let’s say that I was not hosting any clients or anything like that. I just wanted a good solid web host for my blog. Okay, standard blog stuff. This is a perfectly good server right here. It’s got two v CPUs, two gigabytes of RAM. It gives you one terabyte, 40 gigs of space, which is going to be way more than you’re going to get with Rocket or any of these guys. And it’s only going to you $5. 59 a month. I will also say, by the way, you can host multiple websites on these because there are no artificial limits. The only limits you have are going to be the limits of your hardware. You could put 10 WordPress sites, 20 WordPress sites on these things. In fact, this server right here, this minimum one for $5. 59 a month, could easily host several several different WordPress blogs. Now, I will say it comes down on how much traffic you’re getting and stuff like that, just be how many sites can you run on that.

But it would easily run many typical WordPress sites, and then you put the caching and everything on top of that. It would not be any problem. And we’re talking $5. 59 a month. If you needed more horsepower than that, you get three CPUs, four gigabytes, you’re doubling it. Look at the amount of horsepower you’re getting here for $10. 59 a month. It really starts to put things in perspective. Now, when you have a virtual private server, by nature, it’s just like a little blob of computing power. It’s going to be really nerdy to do much with it, okay? And we don’t want nerdhood, okay? We want things to be relatively easy to manage. And so that is where you bring in these software panels that their job is to basically help normal people, like you and I, manage virtual private servers, okay? Because in the old days, when you got a virtual private server, you’re in there with the command line, and you just want to pull all your hair out. These days, you got these management panels out there that will allow you to work with the host and do things, and it’s pretty much as easy as one of these big name web hosts that I showed you earlier.

Now, by nature, that’s going to be a little bit more nerdy because you just have more control. You have more options available to you. I personally like that. I don’t like a web host that makes me pay for more than I actually need and then cuts off my ability to control it all that much. It’s nice because you feel like you’re being cared for, but at the end of the day, you’re really paying through the snot for that versus what you can do when you take a little bit more responsibility, learn just a little bit more about managing your server, but do it through one of these software panels. So Clown Waze is one of those software panels. And so if you go to them You’re going to get a server with DigitalOcean. You sign up through Cloudways. It’s going to be a lot easier than going through DigitalOcean directly. Same thing with Vulture, something like that. You got RunCloud, which is a popular one. You got GridPain, and And then you got one that I personally love, and that is xCloud. Let me show you xCloud, because this is the one that I think I would recommend to you.

This is xCloud, and this is the panel that I recommend to you. When you go to their website, you’re going to see possibly some words that you don’t understand. Things like node. Jas, php. Don’t worry about that stuff. It’s not You have options with these guys, but at the fundamental level, this is basically a management panel that will allow you to manage your virtual private server without pulling your hair out. And even though they tell you about all the options that you’re going to have, and you may not understand every single one of them, the day-to-day operation of xCloud is really not that difficult. It just allows you to do all kinds of stuff on there. You could see they work with a lot of different providers, including Hetsner, Amazon Web Services, there’s Vulture, here’s Google Cloud. You got different things that you can work with. You can go out and get your server from whatever provider you want, and you can manage it from inside of xCloud. You could go through here. I’m I’m not here to reiterate everything they can already tell you. They do have what’s called the xCloud Managed Servers. Now, what this means is that you don’t have to go out and sign up for your virtual private server on your own.

You could just do it right through the xCloud panel. And they tell you what you’re going to get here. They’re starting out at the busier website’s level at eight gigabytes of RAM and 4 v CPUs. And for that, you will pay $45 a month. I would usually go with the elite if you were doing something like this. But again, most people, most blogs, are not going to need an eight gigabyte server. So I would say for production sites, for sites that are live, that are actually getting traffic, at a minimum, I’d probably go with your two gigabyte. So it’d be a two gigabyte of RAM, two vCPUs, everything else you’re never going to touch, and that would be 20 bucks a month. Now, keep in mind, you can put as many websites as you want on this. So for less than the price of one website on Rocket, you can host multiple websites on this thing, and it’ll be 20 bucks a month. Now, that’s for if you do it the managed route, which is through them. If you do what’s called self-managed, then basically what this is, is It will allow you to bring in a virtual private server that you have gotten on your own.

And so let’s say that you went over here to Hetzner that we’ve talked about earlier, and let’s say that you got this $10 server. With three vCpus and 4 gigabytes of RAM, which is a pretty good server. You’ll be able to run several websites on that without a problem. Would you be able to take a really busy buddy boss site and do it on that? Yeah, actually. But it might be a little sluggish because 4 gigabytes of RAM, you might want a little bit more than that for such a site. But I will tell you, for most typical WordPress blogs that I see out there, this is going to be more horsepower than you’re going to need, and your site is going to scream on this bad boy. $10 a month. Like I said, you could put multiple sites on it without any problem. So let’s head back over to xCloud. So let’s say you bring your server in and you’ve only got the one server. Look at the free plan. In this case, you will pay absolutely nothing for xCloud. They do put an artificial cap on you in this particular case, because, again, you’re not paying anything for it.

That’s 10 websites, okay? And you’re not going to have to pay anything, all right? So I just want to point that out. That means you If you have the ability to host multiple websites, they’re going to be quite fast. You can put up to 10 of them, in this case, on one server, which we just happen to choose that one in our little example here, and it will cost you only the cost of your server, which is $10. 59 a month. It will operate pretty quickly. And if you needed to get an even more powerful one, let’s say you really want to go for broke and go up to this one, which you’re going to be able to host full-fledged, busy membership sites on something like this without really having any problem. $18. 59 a month and a free xCloud panel. Now, when you come up to these, $5 per server. So basically, you can host multiple virtual private servers all inside the same panel, which is what I do. I’ve got several servers inside of my account, and you have no limits whatsoever. That’s a pretty good deal compared to something like Rocket or Kinsta or any of the Flywheel, any of these big managed WordPress.

So you compare that to what we can do if you just do it a little bit more DIY through a virtual private server, and it’s a night and day difference. Now, one point I want to make here is that you don’t have to decide upfront what type of server you’re going to need for the rest of your online career, because you can easily scale these things up again. You could put your servers, you can go, let’s say, with the $10 a month plan with Hetsner, and then later, let’s say that you’re like, The site feels like it should be a little faster. Fine, you just get more power. You go into your Hetsner account and you scale it up to the next level, and suddenly you’re going to have more processor power and more RAM, and your sites are just going to magically get faster. So it’s not stuck. You can rescale it. It’s not one size fits all. Unlike these big name companies, you can actually customize your environment as precisely to your needs. The other point I want to make is that it doesn’t matter that your virtual private server is going to have less specs than these big guys like Rocket and Kinsta and all that.

I mean, their servers are going to be big, lots of processors, lots of RAM. Why? Well, because they’re You’re only doing several hundred websites in these things. You’re only going to be doing yours. It’s a very different thing. Your virtual private server, when you buy that horsepower, it’s going to be dedicated to just you and your environment. Their virtualization software on the big server is making your little VPS that’s yours. So that means that whatever else is going on in the server cannot affect you. And not only that, the horsepower that you’re paying for is going to be dedicated in there for your websites. So you don’t need the big mega servers like Rocket and all that. You’re not even getting the speed of those big mega servers that those guys have. You could have a smaller, cheaper server because it’s just dedicated to you, and that’s the only thing that server has to do. Okay, we’re going to go ahead and end it there for this particular video. They get long enough. I know that I can talk, but here’s the thing. The whole point of this video was not to show you how to choose your VPS and how to set it up and all that.

This is not that. This video was only about pointing out that when you take more control, take more responsibility for getting the type of hosting that fits your particular needs, instead of just going and blindly trusting one of these big name hosting companies, that you’re going to guarantee yourself higher performance for your websites for less money. The only way your site is going to be slower is because you chipped out and you got a really tiny little VPS, okay? In which case, like I said, you just go in there and you scale it up to the next level and you see where you stand. The thing is, you’re going to have a lot more control over the whole experience. Now, there’s a little bit of skill involved, but it’s not that hard. Xcloud is a pretty easy system to use. It also happens to be what I use all the time, and so I would be happy to help you out. If you have any questions, you can shoot me an email, contact me through blogmarketingacademy. Com. I can help you out. They’ve got good documentation as well, and they’re also not the only option.

This video was not here to promote xCloud necessarily, because there are other panels out there that do what xCloud does. I just think that xCloud is the one that I prefer. Their pace of development is absolutely incredible. The panel just keeps getting better. They’ve also got some great options built into the panel that will allow you to eke more performance out of your virtual private server and your website, because you can actually host a lot of traffic on little servers, because you can put the caching layers on there, you can put Cloudflare on there as an edge cache. It’s a lot of the same stuff that rocket. Net does. You can actually do it with xCloud significantly cheaper, though. It’s a night and day difference, okay? And again, the whole point isn’t just, Let’s save money, let’s save money. Let’s be as cheap as we can. No. If you can pay less and actually have a lot more control and a lot more power, and your sites are faster, why would you not do that?