5 Best Hosting for High Traffic Websites

If you have a website that generates a lot of traffic, you need to make sure that you have a reliable web host if you want to have a peace of mind at all times. Your web host has to be able to sustain your high traffic and you need to ensure that you don’t experience any downtime. With high traffic, that can cost you a lot.

That is why you shouldn’t even consider using shared hosting if you have a lot of traffic. Your only choice should be whether to go with a VPS plan or with a dedicated server. In this article, I will cover the best hosting companies that have great VPS plans for high traffic websites. However, before we go there, I would like to discuss VPS plans in detail so you can understand why you need VPS hosting.

What is VPS (Virtual Private Server)?

Virtual private server is a type of hosting that is basically something between dedicated servers and shared servers. It is a somewhat new type of hosting but it is becoming more and more popular because it has many advantages and manages to cover some of the best features of other hosting types.

The biggest advantage of VPS is in the fact that you have privacy like in a dedicated server, which means that your website is the only one on the server because you don’t share your OS with anyone. That means that you also have your own Operating System, disc space and bandwidth, which is probably the most important thing for you if you have a high traffic website.

Another great thing about VPS hosting are customization options. Since you have your own OS, you also have your own instances of all applications from the server, like Apache, MySQL and PHP, but you can also customize any of these services to suit your specific needs.

With VPS hosting, you will have dedicated amounts of RAM you can use at any time and since you don’t share a server with other websites, you are the only one that can use the entire RAM. VPS hosting is a lot less expensive than dedicated hosting, but it still has many of the same benefits. It can support high traffic and it is a safe choice if you want a reliable hosting plan. However, there can still be problems with VPS hosting. That is why it is very important to make a smart decision when you choose your host and do a proper research of the hosting company. I will help you do this in the next paragraph where I will talk about important things you need to consider when you choose a web host.

How to Choose Hosting for High Traffic Websites?

Now, you know that you want VPS hosting, but you still have to decide what host is the best for you. There is a lot of competition in the world of web hosting, which means that you have plenty of choices. Even though this is a good thing, it can also present to be a nightmare. I know I had a lot of problems when I had to choose because of this and doing proper research took a lot of time. That is why I will also discuss some of my favorite web hosts with you, after I tell you what is important to pay attention to when you choose a web host.

Bandwidth

This is the first thing you need to look at if you have a website with a lot of traffic, because bandwidth is a measure that tells you how many bytes you serve over a certain period. For low traffic website, your bandwidth can be low, but since you have a high traffic website, your bandwidth requirements need to be higher.

Customer Reviews

Do some research on the web host you want to use and check out their user reviews because that is an important indicator of the service they provide. However, you need to be aware that a lot of companies hire people to give them positive feedback and reviews, so you should at least read more than a couple of them if you want to get the right picture.

Reliability

Since you have a website that has a lot of traffic, you need to make sure that your web host is reliable and has a great uptime. You need to know that anything lower than 99% of uptime isn’t worth consideration. Any downtime you experience will end up costing you a lot, especially because you generate a lot of traffic.

Client Support

You want a web host that has a great customer support, especially since you have a high traffic website and anything that goes wrong needs to be solved in the shortest possible time. That is why you need a 24/7 customer support, and you want to have various options, so look for hosts that offer phone support, email support and live chat online.

Prices and Refunds

Of course, it is always smart to look for a cheaper option if you find one that has all the things that you require. However, be careful when you look at the price. You don’t want to choose an unreliable web host just because it has cheaper options when it comes to VPS plans. Another thing to look for is refund policy. Make sure that your web host provides a refund if you are not happy with anything and want to change your web host.

Best Options for Hosting High-Traffic Websites

I have now covered all things you need to know when you make your decision. However, there is still the problem of having too many options. The competition in web hosting is massive and it would take you a lot of time to do a research on so many companies. That is why I have chosen 5 web host companies that are suitable for hosting high traffic websites. Below I will share my experiences with you.

HostGator has gained a lot of traction and reputation in only a few years and is now one of the most popular web hosts in the world. In fact, they host over 5,000,000 domains! They have achieved this kind of success thanks to their affordable prices and their great hosting service.

VPS Hosting

HostGator has three VPS plans that you can get:

• Snappy 2000 – 2 GB of RAM, 12 GB of disk space, 1,5 TB of monthly data transfers. Starts at $79.95/month but you can get it for $19.95/month if you commit for three years.
• Snappy 4000 – 4 GB of RAM, 165 GB of storage, and 2 TB of monthly data transfers starting at $119.95/month. If you sign a three-year plan you can get it for $29.95 per month.
• Snappy 8000 – 8 GB of RAM, 240 GB of disk space, and 3 TB of monthly data transfers at $149.95/month. If you go with a three-year contract you can have it for $39.95/month.

Customer Service

HostGator really has a fantastic customer service and they have already received a few awards for the high levels of support that they offer to their customers. You can get help via live chat and phone at any time of the day, including holidays. What they don’t have is a premium support for high paying customers, but when you consider the excellence of their regular customer service, this really isn’t a problem at all.

Reliability

HostGator guarantees 99.9% uptime, which is very important for you if you have a lot of traffic on your website. They have top-tier data centers supported by the highest standard server hardware. Also, HostGator has a fantastic monitoring system. That is also important because it lets them scan their servers and get the status update at any time, which generates automatically triggered warning system that sends warnings to their technicians when there is any problem with the server.

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This is a web host that is probably the most reputable of them all, even though it is a hard competition. It is a company that is one of the top choices of WordPress.org and they have 5 different hosting plans you can choose from, depending on your specific needs. We will talk about the VPS hosting plans they offer for your high traffic website.

VPS Hosting

The first thing that you need to be aware of is the fact that BlueHost doesn’t have VPS plans for Windows, only for Linux, which is really disappointing. However, if you use Linux, then you will have 4 different options to choose from – Standard, Enhanced, Premium and Ultimate. Prices range from $14.99 to $59.99 for your first month, but then they go up to the range of $29.99 to $119.99 after that. These are pretty ordinary prices and for them you get 2 CPU cores for the first two plans and 3 and 4 for more expensive two. Storage you get ranges from 30 GB to 120 GB, depending on the plan. RAM ranges from 2 GB to 8 GB and Bandwidth is unlimited for all hosting plans. The Standard plan will get you one IP address, while other plans get you two IP addresses.

Customer Support

I have had a great experience with the customer service that BlueHost provides, although there are some mixed reviews out there. I mean, there are both positive and negative reviews, so I guess that it all comes down to individual cases. However, you should know that BlueHost provides 24/7 customer support on their phones, live chat and email.

Security

One of the strongest advantages for BlueHost is their security. You will get three layers of spam prevention, but that is not the only thing. This web host also provides great protection for your inbox and gives you the opportunity to block access to your site and blacklist specific IP addresses.

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InMotion is truly one of the giants of the web hosting world. They have been around since 2001 and that experience means a lot because they know how to deal with common issues in the fastest way.

VPS Hosting

InMotion offers three types of VPS plans – VPS-1000s, VPS-2000s, and VPS-3000s. VPS-1000s costs $29.99 per month, has 4 GB of RAM, 60 GB of storage space, 2 TB bandwidth and two IP addresses. VPS-2000s is priced at $49.99 per month, gives you 6 GB of RAM, 130 GB of storage space, 3 TB bandwidth and two IP addresses. VPS-3000s has a price of $74.99 per month, allows you 8 GB of RAM, 200 GB of storage space, 4 TB and three IP addresses.

Customer Service

Customer service is one of the strongest suits of this web hosting company. They provide constant, all round service. You can contact them on the phone, on the live chat and via email. They have extremely friendly staff that is committed to helping you find the best way to deal with any issue you might have.

In fact, they will probably be able to resolve even the most complex problems because they also have advanced support. Another great thing about InMotion is their extensive community that is also always ready to help you at any time. There is a forum where you can find your answers, as well as many tutorials and online courses, all available on their official website.

Reliability

InMotion pulls off 99,9% uptime and I have personally tested this for the past year with my high traffic website. As I have already mentioned, this is very important because any downtime can cause serious damage to your website’s reputation and income. InMotion also provides burstable memory and dedicated memory, which is a nice feature that separates them from most other web hosts.

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InterServer has been in the web hosting business since 1999 and is one of the fastest-growing web hosts that have two data centers from which they provide an outstanding service. They also have great customer satisfaction rate and reputable business ethics.

VPS Hosting

InterServer has an amazing system for determining the ideal VPN plan for every client. They offer customized VPS plans that their clients can choose on their own. That allows you to get exactly what you need from a wide variety of options. I have a great experience with InterServer and I love that kind of scalability that they offer to their clients. There are two types of VPS plans – Linux based, which costs $6/month and Windows based, priced at $10/month. Of course, these are the prices for the most basic plans that get you 25 GB of space, 1024 MB of memory and 1 TB of data transfers. Now, this is where things get interesting. You can add another slice, or more (up to 16) to your VPS hosting plan and every slice you add will give you another set of previously mentioned features. Also, every slice will increase the price you pay by $6, for Linux, or $10, for Windows.

You can also choose whether you want to pay your VPS plans every month or on a yearly basis. If you choose to get a year-long plan, you will get a discount of 10%. Of course, you get a money back guarantee that lasts for 30 days with whatever VPS plan you choose.

Important Features

This web host has extremely strong servers that allow them to guarantee 100% power uptime and 99.9% network uptime.

InterServer has a great and simple tool that you can use to manage your hosting plan easily and without any tech knowledge.

When it comes to customer support, this host has a really friendly staff that is also extremely professional and available 24/7. You can contact them on the phone, via email and in the live chat.

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This is a relatively new company, but they sure have grown a lot since 2006 when they were founded. That is because they have one clear distinction from other web hosting companies – they provide green web hosting. That means that they are an eco-friendly company that works on offsetting the carbon output from their servers.

VPS Hosting

This company offers 5 different VPS hosting plans:

• $39.95/month – This VPS plan gives you 1 GB of RAM, 25 GB of storage and 1 TB of bandwidth.
• $59.95/month – This VPS plan gives you 2 GB of RAM, 50 GB of storage and 1,5 TB of bandwidth.
• $79.95/month – This VPS plan gives you 3 GB of RAM, 75 GB of storage and 2 TB of bandwidth.
• $99.95/month – This VPS plan gives you 4 GB of RAM, 100 GB of storage and 2,5 TB of bandwidth.
• $159.95/month – This VPS plan gives you 5 GB of RAM, 125 GB of storage and 3 TB of bandwidth.

With every VPS plan available, you will also get 2 IP addresses and you can change the plan that you are using at any time. Also, there is a 30-days money back guarantee if you want to change your hosting provider for whatever reason you have.

Uptime

GreenGeeks claims that they provide 99.9% service uptime, and based on my own experience, this is completely true. They have powerful servers that allow them to maintain such a high uptime, but it also allows them to offer great speed all customers.

Customer Support

GreenGeeks has a great team of technicians that can help you deal with any issue. You can contact their hospitable customer support at any time because they provide 24/7 support on phone, via email and in the live chat. There are also many online tutorials on their website that can help you deal with some problems without contacting support.

Conclusion

There are many web hosting companies that can handle your requirements for a high traffic website and you should definitely do your own research anyway, just to make sure that you didn’t miss some better opportunity. However, in my experience, these are the best web hosts if you are looking for reliable and powerful VPS plans to handle your website and traffic you generate.