FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

These are the questions readers ask us most often. If yours is not here, send it through our contact page.

1. Choosing the right domain name

So you have decided to step onto the world wide web and you don’t know where to begin. The best place to start is a domain name. Finding the right one is not as easy as it seems: you need to think about the name itself and about the type of domain service you buy.

Choose the name with care. It is the name your customers will associate with your business and the service it provides, and a good one can make a real difference to your online success. Keyword domain names, which describe what you do, still help visitors understand your site at a glance; take our own name, webhostingfreereviews.com, which tells you what the site is about before you open it.

2. How much should you pay for a domain name?

Once you have chosen a name and checked that it is available, look for a good deal. Many hosts include a domain free for the first year, and some allow several domains in one hosting account. Always check the renewal price and whether privacy protection is included before you buy.

3. What is the difference between shared, VPS and dedicated hosting?

Shared hosting puts many websites on one server and is the cheapest option, ideal for small sites. A VPS (virtual private server) gives you a guaranteed slice of a server with your own resources and settings. A dedicated server is a whole machine for your site alone. Cloud hosting spreads a site over several servers so it can scale up and down.

4. Is free web hosting worth it?

Free hosting is fine for learning and for small hobby pages. For anything you care about, the limits on storage, bandwidth, custom domains, advertising and support usually make a low-cost paid plan the better choice.

5. What does 99.9% uptime really mean?

Uptime is the share of time your site is reachable. 99% sounds high, but it still allows more than three and a half days of downtime a year. 99.9% allows a little under nine hours a year, and 99.99% about 53 minutes. Check what the host promises if it misses its target: usually a small service credit, not a refund.

6. Do I need an SSL certificate?

Yes. Browsers mark pages without HTTPS as not secure, and search engines prefer secure sites. Most hosts now include a free certificate; make sure it renews automatically.

7. Can I host a casino affiliate site or a betting tips blog on shared hosting?

Usually yes. Informational and affiliate sites about legal gambling are ordinary content sites, and a well-configured WordPress install on shared hosting handles them well. Read the host’s acceptable use policy first, use caching and a CDN for match-day traffic, and keep backups. Platforms that accept real-money wagers are different and need specialist, licensed hosting.

8. How do you rank the hosts on this site?

We rate ease of use, features, performance, reliability, customer support and value, based on test sites, the plan terms and the small print on renewals. Rankings are our editorial opinion and we update them when companies change their plans.