Best Web Hosting for WordPress

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

Do you want to skip the read and get right to my top picks? The best WordPress website host for most people is Hostinger and Bluehost.

WordPress is what I use to manage my blog and other sites. Millions of visitors read content and interact with my site each month. Without the best WordPress web hosting, there’s no way I could deliver a high-performance experience.

It’s different from regular hosting in that your provider is only going to host WordPress on the servers you use. This makes it easier to optimize performance and maintain security because there’s only one type of software on it.

So, if you’re currently using WordPress or planning to use WordPress for your website, you really ought to invest in web hosting that’s made for that platform. 

And it’s extremely affordable.

Which WordPress web hosting provider is the best? Keep reading for reviews of the top providers I trust. The reviews are followed by a brief guide to help you find a host that makes sense with your goals and budget.

#1 – Hostinger Review — The Best for Cheap WordPress Hosting

Hostinger offers optimized WordPress hosting for as low as $1.99/month. Even at that rock-bottom pricing, it has the essential package of features and resources necessary to get a WordPress site off the ground and looking sharp.

Everything is easy to set up, even if it is your first time getting hosting or using WordPress. 

A four-year contract is required to get the best price. So, there is a little bit of a commitment, but the total price tag of four years at those low rates is still well below a single year with other options.

You also save with the free email account, domain name, CDN, and a free SSL certificate that’s super easy to enable. Your site will be faster and more secure with hardly any effort on your part.

Hostinger’s entry-level plan is not aimed at developers and the like who need to put a big strain on their site. You get 30 GB of storage, two databases, and weekly backups. 

The lack of daily backups might not work for some users, but if you don’t need to update your site all the time, a weekly backup is a comforting insurance plan.

At the low price, there’s obviously no white-glove customer service, but it is still available 24/7/365. Customers tend to review Hostinger’s support very well, even if the response time is slower than you get with a managed plan. 

There are going to be upsells in the platform, but there’s no catch. It’s a really great value because Hostinger hasn’t cut costs where it counts. 

You get a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee and site speed is great for up to 10,000 visitors each month. If you are just getting started, this is more than enough not to worry.

And the Hostinger really has optimized the WordPress experience. The LightSpeed cache accelerates your site and works well with most popular plugins. 

It’s not just increased performance—Hostinger provides a helpful suite of tools to get your site looking professional.

One-click WordPress installation, a site setup wizard, and lots of helpful tutorials. You’ll be able to take advantage of free WordPress plugins and themes to improve your site at no cost.

Hostinger has ultra-competitive introductory pricing for all of the WordPress hosting plans they offer:

You’ll notice the renewal rate is considerably higher than the introductory rate, but that has a lot to do with just how deep of a discount they offer. Don’t be thrown by the jump in pricing, the full rate is comparable to other shared WordPress hosting.

At the end of the day, if you are looking for a low-cost hosting plan that’s optimized for WordPress, Hostinger is a very good option. It’s a no-frills plan that covers all your bases and delivers great performance.

You can sign up and try Hostinger risk-free for 30 days.

#2 – Bluehost Review — The Best for New WordPress Sites

Powering more than 2 million sites across the globe, Bluehost is an industry leader in the web hosting space, especially for WordPress sites. In fact, it’s one of the few web hosts that’s officially recommended by WordPress.

Bluehost is a great option for anyone building a new website from scratch. When you sign up for hosting, you get a free domain name for a year and WordPress is a one-click install.

Normally a domain name costs $10-15, but your saving time in addition to money. Instead of having to go and register a domain and download WordPress, you can get everything done in a single step.

Plus, the cost of WordPress hosting is about as low as you will find.

WordPress hosting from Bluehost starts at just $2.95/month. You’ll have to sign a 3-year contract to get the best deal. If you are always going to need hosting, I say lock in the best discount for as long as possible.

Getting everything set up is really easy. I walk you through the whole process in my post about how to start a WordPress blog. 

Trust me when I say you don’t need any special skills to start blogging right away.

Navigating around your new WordPress dashboard is fairly straight-forward, but you can reach out to Bluehost support if you have questions. Representatives are available any time of day by phone or live chat.

Lots of the best parts are baked right into the service—a free CDN to boost performance and security and a free SSL certificate is always enabled. You don’t have to configure any of it in order to benefit from the faster speeds and safer traffic.

It’s easy enough to take advantage of free WordPress themes and find a layout you like. Plus, there are tons of incredible options via the Bluehost WordPress marketplace if you are willing to spend a couple bucks. 

Other noteworthy highlights from Bluehost include:

• Automatic WordPress updates
• Unlimited traffic
• 50 GB storage
• $200 in free marketing credits (Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising)
• Securely configure your WordPress login credentials

All of this comes with Bluehost Basic WordPress web hosting. For an entry-level plan, 50 GB of storage is a lot. More than twice as much as you get with other plans. 

There are no arbitrary limits about traffic, but if your site starts to impact other sites on the server, they may ask you to upgrade to a higher tier plan:

The Plus and Choice Plus plans let you build as many sites as you want, whereas Basic limits you to just one. 

You will also get unlimited storage (within acceptable use limits, of course) and greater server resources with the higher tier plans.

Bluehost has introduced a managed WordPress hosting plan called WP Pro, which starts at $14.99/month with a three-year contract. The introductory rate is very attractive compared to other managed plans, but I think WP Pro has some room to grow.

If you want managed WordPress hosting, I really recommend WP Engine. It costs about the same as Bluehost’s WP Pro (after the introductory pricing runs out) and delivers a lot more.

But if this is your first site, you shouldn’t even be worried about managed hosting. You’ll be fine with shared WordPress hosting. Bluehost will get you set up with everything you need at an affordable price.

Get in touch with Bluehost today.

#3 – WP Engine Review — The Best for Managed WordPress Hosting

WP Engine is the original managed WordPress hosting provider and still leads the pack in terms of providing concierge service and expert support. The company has also developed a platform full of exclusive tools designed to help you take your WordPress site to the next level.

If you are just getting a small site or blog online, WP Engine is overkill. This is a good option for people with online stores, a bunch of sites, and other complex WordPress hosting needs. 

WP Engine allows you to get high-performance sites without having to hire a developer or stress about maintenance.

You’ll unlock blazing fast speed, incredible uptime, and best-in-class security without any work on your part. 

In addition to optimizing the IT environment, WP Engine will keep the WordPress Core and PHP up to date. The company is constantly monitoring and blocking threats, keeping your sites fast and safe.

WP Engine has a legendary customer service record. The company does not host anything besides WordPress. You are always going to get a rep who knows the platform inside and out and handles relevant issues all day, every day.

With so much taken care of with WP Engine, you have more time to focus on building a great site. 36 premium StudioPress themes are included with every hosting plan.

Normally, that would cost hundreds of dollars, but you are free to experiment and customize these powerful themes as you like.

Some of the other highlights include:

• Automatic WordPress updates
• Free CDN
• Free SSL Certificate
• Geotargeted content
• Free automated WordPress migrations
• Development, staging, and production environments

No other managed WordPress host offers separate dev/staging environments. This is a boon to WordPress developers, as it solves some of the pesky problems associated with one-click staging environments.

Managed WordPress hosting starts at $20/month with a one-year contract. You can also sign up for one month at a time—which some hosting providers don’t allow—and it’s only $24/month.

Normally, it costs a little more, but the price I’m giving you here includes a discount for being a reader of my blog. So definitely click through the link or remember to use the neilpatel20 coupon to get the savings.

Although WP Engine isn’t cheap, there are no skyrocketing rates or hidden charges.

The Startup plan works for one site and comes with 10 GB storage and 50 GB bandwidth, which can handle about 25,000 visitors each month. Upgrading to Growth or Scale plans will let you build more sites and host more traffic.

This is the pricing for the standard WP Engine managed WordPress hosting, but there are two other groups of plans available that follow the Startup, Growth, and Scale format. These are:

• Managed Hosting Plus: starting at $28.33/month
• Secure Hosting: starting at $44.17/month

Managed Hosting Plus includes automated plugin updates and testing. You get fine-grained control over which plugins are updated and the ability to roll back changes if need be.

Secure Hosting comes with everything included with Plus, as well as an advanced web application firewall and additional protection from hackers. This plan makes sense for large online stores and other sites where visitors are sharing sensitive information.

For most people, the standard WP Engine plan is everything they need and more. This is my top recommendation for managed WordPress hosting, and I am hardly alone in that opinion.

Make WP Engine for your first and last stop for managed WordPress hosting. Sign up for a year today, and get two months free.

#4 – SiteGround Review — The Best Support for Affordable WordPress Hosting

To get the best possible white-glove, rose-petals-on-your-pillow customer service, you have to get a managed WordPress hosting plan. It’s an order of magnitude more expensive than shared plans, but you get a level of support that outclasses everything else.

For people that want high quality support, but aren’t ready to commit to an expensive managed plan, I suggest checking out SiteGround. 

What the company offers is called managed WordPress hosting, but in truth it straddles the gray area between shared and managed WordPress hosting plans. Essentially, you can get a lot of the benefits of managed WordPress hosting at a price that is similar to shared.

SiteGround is officially recommended by WordPress and has consistently outstanding reviews. You don’t win two Stevie awards for customer service by accident.

All of their WordPress hosting solutions come with platform-specific support. From assisting with migrations to troubleshooting plugins, SiteGround is ready to help. Customer service is always available via phone, live chat, and tickets.

In addition to solid support, SiteGround takes care of updates, security, and caching configuration that keeps your site fast. 

Some of the other features include:

• Automated WordPress installation and powerful WordPress starter kit
• Free website builder
• Free WordPress migrations
• Managed security and updates at the server and application level
• Performance optimized for WordPress sites
• Free SSL certificates
• Unlimited free email accounts

SiteGround offers a low introductory rate for all plans, which jumps considerably upon renewal:

At the discounted price, you aren’t going to find a more feature-rich WordPress hosting option with as much support as SiteGround’s StartUp plan. Once the discount is over, the price is still competitive, and many people stay to keep the customer service they trust.

The GrowBig and GoGeek plans can hold their own with other managed WordPress hosting plans. You’ll get a staging area, on-demand backups, improved caching, and lots more resources to power your site.

During the discount period, the higher-tier plans are an absolute steal. Once the discount is over, however, I’d give WP Engine the clear edge overall.

So if you aren’t ready to pull the trigger on a premium managed WordPress hosting plan, but you still want your provider to handle a good amount of the backend legwork, SiteGround StartUp is a good fit.

The company offers a 30-day money back guarantee. 

Try SiteGround today risk-free and see just how good their customer support truly is.

#5 – DreamHost Review — The Lowest Day One Spend for WordPress Hosting

DreamHost, along with SiteGround and Bluehost, is one of the few hosting providers that’s officially recommended by WordPress. Unlike the other two providers, DreamHost offers extremely competitive month-to-month rates.

This is really attractive for people who aren’t looking to sign onto a long contract in order to get a good price. DreamHost does offer discounts with longer contracts, but you can still access the WordPress Starter plan for $4.99 a month. No contract or long-term commitment.

Another reason DreamHost keeps your day one spend down is that a free domain name is included for the first year. That saves another $10 to $15 right there. 

DreamHost also includes domain privacy, which keeps your personal information off the public record. That may cost as much as $15 each year with other hosts.

Bluehost will give you the domain for free, but you don’t get as many tools to help you build your site. DreamHost gives you a full website builder. 

Get set up quick with more than 200 starter sites built for restaurants, real-estate, fashion, web design, and more. Use the simple drag-and-drop builder to add your content and finishing touches.

DreamHost handles all of the WordPress and security updates and includes automatic daily backups. This is unusual for shared WordPress hosting and saves you the expense of buying a plugin like JetPack to backup your site.

You also get:

• 50 GB storage
• Unmetered bandwidth
• Free SSL certificate
• 24/7 ticket support
• Live chat support
• Developer access
• Free automated WordPress migrations

DreamHost offers a wide range of plans to choose from. In addition to the affordable shared WordPress hosting, the company offers DreamPress, a managed solution, and WordPress hosting on a virtual private server (VPS):

The DreamPress managed hosting solution is a cost-effective no-contract option for people wary of putting down a few hundred dollars to sign up for a traditional plan.

Similarly, the VPS for WordPress plan will work well for people who need more resources and control over their server than a shared plan allows.

The price is competitive across all DreamHost plans, but there’s nothing to be anxious about. The company has a 100% uptime guarantee. DreamHost will actually pay you for your troubles if your site goes down unexpectedly.

Plus they offer an unbelievable 97-day money back guarantee. No other host will give you as much time to try their service risk-free. 

DreamHost is confident about the quality of service it provides. You can be too. 

Get started with DreamHost today for just a few dollars down.

#6 – Nexcess Review — The Best for Budget-Friendly Managed WordPress Hosting

Nexcess has a unique pricing and plan structure that puts managed hosting within reach for businesses which can’t justify the spend necessary to get WP Engine.

Plans start as low as $19/month with no contract or $12.67/month if you sign up for a year. 

Nexcess is truly managed WordPress hosting. One of my favorite aspects of the service is that every feature they offer comes with every plan.

With SiteGround, another affordable managed hosting solution, you have to upgrade to get site staging and on-demand backups. With Nexcess, on the other hand, you can move up from plan to plan to get more hosting resources, but you never have to upgrade to access capabilities.

Nexcess takes care of a ton of the tedious maintenance through plugin updates and 30-day backups. Just to note, you only get plugin updates with WP Engine’s Managed Hosting Plus plan, whereas Nexcess includes it standard. 

Some of the other benefits you get with Nexcess managed WordPress hosting are:

• Free CDN
• Free SSL certificate
• Unlimited email accounts
• IThemes Security Pro
• Visual regression testing
• 24/7/365 phone, live chat, and email support

I also want to draw attention to the generous hosting resources. The 15 GB of storage that comes with the Nexcess entry-level plan, Spark, is great for the price and the 2 TB of bandwidth is beyond belief. That’s four to five times the bandwidth that comes with other WordPress hosting plans that are more expensive.

And if your site consumes more resources than your plan allows, Nexcess will auto-scale it for 24 hours free of charge. That’s time to get in front of a positive trend or weather a random traffic spike without an issue.

As I mentioned, Nexcess has a really flexible pricing structure that accommodates small businesses looking for top performance and enterprise businesses that need excellence every minute. 

Let’s take a quick look at the most affordable options first:

Since every plan has every feature, you really only need to consider the number of sites you want and hosting resources you need. 

Spark completely outfits one site and comes with everything I’ve mentioned so far. The Maker plan is good for five sites, increases bandwidth to 3 TB and 40 GB storage. The next plan up, Designer, works for more sites and gives you more storage and greater bandwidth. 

In total, there are seven different plans. Whether you have one site or hundreds, Nexcess has a managed WordPress hosting solution to fit your needs.

If you want managed WordPress hosting at a low price, Nexcess Spark is your choice. And, you will be able to stick with the company as you grow.

You won’t get all the WordPress tools that come with WP Engine, but you get serious hosting resources and a platform that’s been optimized for WordPress. Don’t worry about speed, security, or uptime with Nexcess.

Get set up with Nexcess hosting today for less than $13/month. The Spark plan has a free trial, so you can test out the platform risk-free.

#7 – A2 Hosting Review — The Best for Moving an Existing Site to Better Hosting

Lots of providers offer “free migrations” to help you move your WordPress site over from your old hosting situation. What this means in reality is that you can use a plugin that automates a lot of the process. 

It’s not too bad, but A2 Hosting has an actual team of humans dedicated to making the switch.

The result is a stress-free and problem-free transfer. Your site is in a better place now with incredibly fast servers, a top-rated customer support staff, and phenomenal pricing.

A2 is going to work whether you want shared hosting optimized for WordPress or a managed plan that’s more hands-off. The account migration is free either way, but you can pick from a lot of different options.

Looking at the shared WordPress hosting plans, it’s remarkable how much is included:

• 100 GB storage
• Free SSL certificates
• Virus scanning and hack defense, 
• Ecommerce integrations, 
• Cloudflare free CDN compatibility
• Unlimited email accounts
• 24/7/365 email, live chat, phone, and ticket support

Yes, I’m talking about the Basic shared WordPress hosting plan from A2. The 100 GB storage is way more than you get with other plans. And unlimited free email? Usually you don’t get more than a couple free accounts, if any, with shared hosting plans.

So if you are looking to move your site to a more feature and resource-rich platform, but you don’t want to commit to managed hosting, A2 is a very attractive option.

The Basic plan is good for a single site. Upgrading to get additional sites and resources remains cost-effective higher-tier A2 plans:

One of the benefits of upgrading to Turbo Boost or Turbo Max hosting plans is the increased performance. You’ll be able to handle up to nine times as much traffic with A2 Turbo Servers, and your site speed will be up to 20 times faster.

A2 managed WordPress hosting starts at $10.99/month with a three year contract. It’s got a lot to recommend to it, but the renewal price puts it well over solutions like WP Engine.

At the end of the day, A2’s managed WordPress hosting just isn’t as convenient out-of-the-box as plans with WP Engine or Nexcess. With A2, you’ll have to use plugins like Jetpack to accomplish a lot of maintenance that is just handled for you by the other vendors.

You also don’t get a free domain name, but if you are trying to move your site, you’ve already crossed that bridge. There is no reason whatsoever to stay with subpar hosting. A2 will make the transition completely stress free for as low as $2.49/month.

Give A2 Hosting a call today and get onboard with a quality host.

#8 – Cloudways Review — The Best for Total Customization

If you’ve been shopping for WordPress hosting for a bit, you’ve probably noticed that a lot of providers start to run together after a while. It can be a parade of largely similar options with only slight differences in price, management, or other options.

Cloudways does everything a little bit differently, though—and that could be to your benefit.

This provider’s goal is to strike a unique balance between user customization and the stress-free nature of managed WordPress hosting.

It starts with something novel right off the bat. You select the cloud server infrastructure you’d like from five of the top platforms out there:

• DigitalOcean
• Amazon Web Services
• Google Cloud
• Vultr
• Linode

Each offers at least eight data centers to choose from, sprinkled across North America, Europe, and Asia (with some even having options in Australia, Africa, and South America).

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to customizing your Cloudways package. Each infrastructure option comes with four pre-set pricing packages, but you can easily adjust or reallocate resources after getting signed up (for free).

Plus, all plans are billed monthly for pay-as-you-go pricing, so you only pay for the resources you’re actually using and can make plan changes with ease.

There’s even an hourly billing option that can come in handy for super short-term site projects and testing endeavors.

Plus, depending on your comfort level with server management, there are a host of ways to fine-tune your hosting experience, including:

• One-click backups on demand
• Automated backups
• One-click application force stop
• Varnish cache settings
• App web root changes
• Supervisord process manager
• WP-CLI control over WordPress
• Cron job rules and scheduling

You get all of this control, plus deep optimization features for WordPress sites, robust security, and expert support with Cloudways.

Pricing varies greatly based on the server infrastructure you choose, resource levels, and premium options (for DigitalOcean and Vultr). For ease of comparison, here are Cloudways’ entry-level plans for DigitalOcean:

As you can see, you can get started for just $10 per month with no commitment. That gives you more storage and bandwidth than a lot of other base WordPress hosting plans from other providers, while giving you a truly managed hosting experience with extra-fine levels of control on your end as well.

Cloudways isn’t for beginners, but if you know enough to handle some server-side maintenance and management, you can really reap all kinds of benefits from this provider. Get everything just the way you want it—without getting a bill that punishes you for customization—by getting started with Cloudways for free.

What I Looked at to Find the Best WordPress Web Hosting

Before you can find the best WordPress hosting plan for your site, you must know what to look for as you’re shopping around.

Since I’ve been using WordPress blogs as a major part of my business for many years, I’ve had to use and evaluate multiple web hosting options.

Now you can launch a WordPress site with any web host, but in this post I’ve focused on providers that offer WordPress web hosting. Unlike general hosting, which can support any type of site, the plans I am looking at only work for WordPress sites.

The upside is that servers for these hosting plans are configured perfectly for WordPress. Everything about the backend IT environment has been optimized for WordPress in ways that wouldn’t work if there were other types of software. This boosts performance and minimizes crashes.

If you want a hosting solution that works for WordPress and other types of sites, I recommend checking out the overall best web hosting services.

If you know that you just want hosting for WordPress, keep reading. I’ll walk you through the major criteria you should evaluate in order to find the option that suits you best.

Shared vs. Managed WordPress Hosting

If you want the most affordable option, go with shared WordPress hosting. It’s got all the benefits of WordPress-specific hosting at a very low price. 

With shared WordPress hosting, you’ll still have to do the maintenance and updates in order to keep the site running great.

The good news is that the user interface for maintaining your WordPress is designed for just that. It’s going to be way easier than working with something meant for all-purpose hosting.

If you don’t want to handle the backend maintenance of your site, then you want a managed WordPress hosting plan. 

Your hosting provider will take care of the IT legwork that goes into making your site fast, secure, and easy to use, including:

• Automated daily backups
• Easy on-demand backups
• WordPress Core Updates
• Built-in staging area to test sites
• Malware scanning and removal
• Security updates and patches
• Premium 24/7 support

Instead of fussing with plugins to accomplish all of this, your teams are free to spend more time creating killer content.

Understandably, managed WordPress hosting plans are more expensive. For some companies, there’s a lot of value in having someone else manage their WordPress. Spending a little more each month on hosting might mean not having to hire a developer.

Plus the customer service that comes with managed WordPress hosting is a cut above. The ability to connect with an expert 24/7 minimizes serious problems and eliminates the need for an in-house WordPress guru.

WP Engine, the original managed WordPress hosting provider, continues to satisfy their customers with prompt and comprehensive service. People are more than happy to pay a premium for the peace of mind and high-performance.

Here’s the thing. There used to be a clear dividing line between managed WordPress plans and everything else. Now there is more of a spectrum of services available.

In one sense, this means you need to be aware that “managed” doesn’t mean the same thing for every hosting provider. 

If you see managed WordPress hosting for something like $10/month, double-check that you are getting everything you expect.

How do they define premium WordPress customer support? Also know that the price might be a low introductory rate that could jump on renewal.

The upside is that it’s not black or white. You can get less expensive managed WordPress plans. They might not be as full-bodied as WP Engine, but you can still get some of the essential maintenance off your plate.

Traffic Volume

How much traffic does your website get? For new sites, how much traffic are you expecting?

The answer to this question will definitely have an impact on the type of WordPress hosting solution that’s right for you.

A site that has 5,000 visitors per month should be on a different plan than sites with 50,000 visitors per month. Plans that can accommodate 100,000 visitors per month won’t necessarily be suitable for sites with millions of monthly visitors.

Some hosting providers give you approximate numbers for the amount of traffic each of their plans supports. SiteGround, for example, gives an approximate number for the suitable number of monthly visitors each plan can handle:

This is pretty straight forward, but what about the shared hosting options that offer “unlimited traffic” or “unmetered bandwidth”?

Shared WordPress hosting from Bluehost, Hostinger, Dreamhost, and A2 Hosting doesn’t set any hard and fast limits on traffic. 

It’s not truly unlimited though, because there are the physical limits of the shared server. If your site gets too much traffic, it will strain resources like CPU and memory usage, which will cause problems for every site on the shared server.

Dreamhost Basic, for example, starts at less than $3/month and comes with “unlimited traffic.” You will never get an overage charge if you have too much traffic, but Dreamhost may ask you to upgrade or restrict your site out of courtesy to the other tenants on the shared server.

So shared WordPress hosting is good for small sites, but it may not be enough to power larger, high-traffic sites. If your Dreamhost Basic plan is not enough, you might want to look at one of Dreamhost’s other options:

You could opt for a DreamPress plan, which is managed WordPress hosting and more resources. There are three tiers of DreamPress plans, with the top tier built for approximately one million visitors per month.

Alternatively, you could upgrade to VPS for WordPress, which is hosted on a virtual private server. This isolates your site from others on the same server, which gives you more control and your own dedicated resources.

Unlike shared hosting, VPS hosting will not be impacted by traffic spikes on other sites.

VPS WordPress hosting can be a good option if you are extremely comfortable with managing your WordPress backend. If not, I would find a shared or managed plan that fits with your expected traffic.

Speed and Uptime

By getting WordPress specific hosting, you are already guaranteeing better performance than you are likely to get anywhere else. 

So what separates the better from the incredible?

SiteGround, Dreamhost, and WP Engine have WordPress specific caching tools that boost site speed. Caching creates a static version of your site and serves it to visitors, which cuts down on the work your server has to do to respond to requests.

Normally, you’d have to install a caching plugin to do this, but most WordPress hosts build this functionality right in.

Another thing to look for is a content delivery network (CDN), which is included for free with some of the plans I’ve reviewed. A CDN stores images, pages, and other assets across a network of servers distributed around the globe.

Having a CDN will boost speed and make your site more resilient–a single point hardware failure won’t jeopardize your site because so much of the content is distributed.

Nexcess, SiteGround, Bluehost, and WP Engine include a CDN with every WordPress hosting plan they offer. 

Caching is one of the best ways to optimize your WordPress because it delivers information

Spoiler: you don’t have to worry too much about uptime if you pick one of the options I reviewed. They all have phenomenal uptime.

Hostinger, for example, guarantees 99.9 percent uptime for their Single WordPress hosting plan, which starts at $1.59/month. A2 Hosting also provides a 99.9 percent uptime commitment for every plan.

One thing to be aware of, with regards to speed and uptime, is that your site’s performance hinges on how well your site is managed. Even with the best hosting environment and configuration, a faulty broken plugin can have a huge negative impact.

The question here is do you want to invest the time and resources to develop in-house WordPress experience, or pay more for a managed plan?

Support

Like everything good on the internet, WordPress sites have their bad days. When something goes wrong, how quickly can you resolve the problem?

Getting timely and quality support is important, especially for users that aren’t jazzed about getting into the WordPress backend to fix issues.

One of the benefits of WordPress hosting is that customer service reps really understand plugins, themes, and other common site issues. With non-specific hosting, there is no guarantee the repr is going to knowledgable about WordPress.

You may notice that all of the options on my list include some version of 24/7 support.

But you want to pay attention to the quality and availability of support. Do you get to make support requests via live chat or waiting for email responses. How quick is that email response?

For the shared WordPress hosting plans, A2 Hosting and SiteGround had some of the best customer service reviews. 

A2 offers chat, email, phone, and ticket support from hand-selected expert technicians. Any time you have a problem, you are going to get knowledgeable support quickly.

On top of that, A2 provides free site migrations, which is a huge time-saver if you already have a WordPress site and want better hosting.

SiteGround has a similar range of support as A2 and is able to address most issues in under five minutes. Lightning-fast resolution is going to save you a lot of frustration and money.

When it comes to managed plans, WP Engine is in a class of its own. WP Engine techs don’t handle anything other than WordPress, and they are true experts of their domain. 

Plus, WP Engine knows that support is one of the major reasons its customers stay. You can always count on the company’s reps to go the extra mile to ensure everything is working perfectly.

Summary

If you’re running a WordPress website, you should definitely consider a hosting plan that’s optimized for WordPress.

Which plan is the best? It depends on what you’re looking for. The recommendations listed above will definitely be the best place for you to start your search. Here they are, just to recap:

1. Hostinger – The best for cheap WordPress hosting
2. Bluehost — The best WordPress hosting for new websites
3. WP Engine — The best for managed WordPress hosting
4. SiteGround — The best support for affordable WordPress hosting
5. DreamHost — The lowest day one spend for WordPress hosting
6. Nexcess — The best for budget-friendly WordPress hosting
7. A2 Hosting — The best for moving an existing site to better WordPress hosting
8. Cloudways — The best WordPress hosting for total customization

For new sites, I recommend Bluehost. You get a free domain name included with your hosting, and the platform is very welcoming for first-timers.

If you aren’t looking to sign a long contract to get up and running, DreamHost offers your best month-to-month pricing. For a few bucks and no commitment, you can get set up on one of the fastest, most dependable WordPress hosting platforms.

Another good option for people on a budget is Hostinger. You’ll have to sign up for a long contract to get the best price, but there isn’t a lower-cost option I trust. I mean 99.9 percent uptime for 10,000 visitors at less than $2 a month? That’s phenomenal.

Looking at the managed WordPress hosting plans, WP Engine is the clear overall winner. No platform comes with more tools and customer support.

However, if you want managed-level support and total control over your resources and setup, look no further than Cloudways. They offer a unique blend of customization and managed care that no one else can match.

If the price of a managed plan like WP Engine is putting you off, take a look at Nexcess. The entry-level managed hosting plan, Spark, is very reasonable and includes more server resources than any other plan I looked at.

Another good “lite” managed hosting solution is SiteGround. The entry-level plan there, StartUp, is a good midway point between shared and managed WordPress hosting. You will get some of the essential features you expect with a managed plan, but at a price that’s comparable to shared hosting.

What do you use for WordPress hosting?

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/34v88kI
via IFTTT

41 Factors That Influence Your Website’s Credibility

There’s one thing you’ll need to convert more website visitors: credibility.

Credibility shows customers you’re safe and trustworthy. It’s impossible to generate more leads, sell more products, or attract more visitors without it.

Almost every company struggles with website credibility. Website visitors are immediately skeptical.

If you’re an unknown, you’re unsafe.

This means website visitors will need to be persuaded before they feel comfortable enough to take a chance on your business.

Your website visitors are looking for a reason to leave.

In fact, most visitors leave web pages in 15 seconds or less. Web pages with an effective value proposition will hold visitors’ attention longer.

Scientists from Microsoft Research analyzed page-visit duration for 205,873 web pages (with more than 10,000 visits to each page).

They found visitor time-on-site follows a Weibull distribution.

Weibull is a reliability metric used to analyze and predict the time-to-failure in components.

Let’s say you replace a spare part in a random piece of equipment. A Weibull analysis predicts when you’ll have to replace that specific part again. Doesn’t sound all that helpful, does it?

Replace “component failure” with “visitors leaving web pages,” and it becomes very helpful.

Here’s what scientists learned after analyzing hundreds of thousands of web pages.

There are two kinds of Weibull distributions.

• Positive Aging: The longer a component is used, the more likely it is to fail.
• Negative Aging: The longer a component is used, the less likely it is to fail.

Scientists found that 99 percent of web pages have a negative aging effect. When website visitors hit your landing page, they’re skeptical. They’re quickly scanning the page, looking for a reason to abandon your site.

Get your website visitors past the 30-second mark, and they’ll spend a lot more time on your site.

Why? Because they feel your website is more valuable to them. What makes your website more valuable to your visitors?

Credibility.

Credibility is an essential part of an effective value proposition. Your visitors are looking for signals that show your organization is reliable, trustworthy, and knowledgeable.

How To Improve Your Website’s Credibility

The success of your website depends on your credibility.

What type of factors influence website credibility? According to BJ Fogg, a researcher at Stanford’s Persuasive Tech Lab, there are four kinds of credibility.

• Earned Credibility: Your visitors have had a positive experience with your website (e.g. helpful information, little-to-no errors, expert advice, great customer service, etc.) and found your website to be both credible and valuable.
• Reputed Credibility: A referral from a third party — like family, friends, a co-worker, or someone you know — or unbiased reviewers who have had a positive experience with your website.
• Presumed Credibility: Familiarity and assumptions — a brand they’ve heard of is more credible than an unknown (e.g., I saw your YouTube ads, I read your guest post on Forbes, I listened to your interview on the Tim Ferriss show, etc.)
• Surface Credibility: A visitor’s subjective opinion of your website (e.g., I like the design, this looks trustworthy, great content, this page is confusing, etc.) is all that matters when you’re asking them to convert.

The goal with each of these credibility factors is to stack the deck in your favor.

Building your website’s credibility is a great way to attract more of the results you want. If you want to attract more visitors, you’ll need to choose the right credibility tools at the right time.

But which website credibility factors are most important?

Here’s a list of the factors that influence your website’s credibility and how you can use them.

1. Consistency (Over Time) 

As long as you’re consistent, a visitor’s trust in you will grow. By consistently doing all the things I’ve shared in this article, it creates a really good reputation with your customers. 

2. No Unnecessary Requirements

When you force customers to register before they can post a comment, initiate a live chat, or purchase your product, it decreases trust.

Asking for your customer’s phone number when you only need their name and email address increases resistance and decreases trust.

3. Add Helpful FAQs

Customers have questions and objections. An FAQ is a helpful way to give customers straight answers to some of their questions.

It’s common for organizations to treat their FAQs as a low-key sales page. It’s much better to be helpful, upfront, and honest with each and every one of your customers.

4. Minimize Jargon

If you’re selling to a mainstream audience, jargon isn’t a good idea. Research shows people are more likely to believe a concrete statement over an abstract one. Use specialized jargon for specialized audiences.

Sometimes jargon is a helpful way to establish credibility in a niche community, but it’s still a good idea to only use it sparingly. The more you use jargon, the more your credibility suffers.

5. An Up-to-Date Blog

Consistently creating content shows visitors your website is active and maintained. It also conditions them to check back frequently, always looking for fresh content that can help them.

6. Useful Expertise

Your website visitors are always on the lookout for expert-level content that solves their problems, moves them closer to their goals, or simply entertains them. They want expert content that’s fresh, surprising, and detailed.

7. Minimal Advertising

People hate ads. They don’t like them because they’re annoying and pushy interruptions and they’re everywhere.

It’s a good idea to minimize the advertising on your site, so it doesn’t hurt or interrupt your visitor’s experience.

8. Helpful Customer Service

Great service gives website visitors a positive experience with your site, improving earned credibility. Friendly, knowledgeable support reps show website visitors that your company is experienced and efficient. Consider adding a live chat option to make it simple for your audience.

9. Cite Your Sources

Giving sources increases your trustworthiness. As customers trust you more and more, they’ll validate your sources less and less, but only if you have a track record of citing your sources and providing them with the evidence to support any claims you make.

10. Customer Testimonials 

Social proof in the form of testimonials gives visitors access to your customer’s mind. These testimonials show visitors what it’s like to be your customer, how you operate, and more.

The biggest downside to testimonials is that they’re one-sided, but they’re still a great way to build website credibility.

11. Include Customer Reviews 

Customer reviews are similar to testimonials in the sense that customers can share their feedback. Reviews take that a step further, allowing customers, companies, and the community to have a conversation.

Reviews, when they’re positive, can boost credibility (and sales) dramatically. However, there is some value to negative reviews, so don’t let one bad review get you down.

12. Professional Product Reviews 

These can come from influencers as large as Consumer Reports, TechCrunch, and BuzzFeed. They can also come from up-and-coming bloggers, individual reviewers with a YouTube channel, and your customers themselves.

Professional reviews are often seen as more credible due to the reputation and influence of the reviewer itself. A glowing review from a powerful influencer can lead to a large increase in sales.

13. Trust Seals 

Logos or seals from independent and trustworthy authorities enable you to borrow their credibility as your own. Use trust seals like Web of Trust, GoDaddy Site Seal, Norton Secured, PayPal Verified, BBB Accredited Business, and HTTPS.

14. Reviews From Influencers and Notable Customers

Big-name reviews carry a lot of power, prestige, and reach. A testimonial from a powerful influencer can boost your trust and credibility. I used this exact strategy on Quicksprout to boost my credibility dramatically.

Reviews from these influencers are easier to get when your other credibility factors are straightened out.

15. Case Studies 

These are typically created in collaboration between the business and the customer. Customers share their problems and expectations going into the relationship, then their experience and the results that followed.

Case studies, like testimonials, tend to be one-sided. However, they boost credibility because customers are willing to share their stories.

16. Connections to Influencers

This could be as complex as a large professional network and connections to large organizations, or as simple as associating with other well-known local or minor influencers.

17. Customer Validation

 Displaying your client lists, the number of clients you have, or the industries your clients are in. When customers see their competitors or other brands they trust use you, they are more likely to trust your brand.

18. Third-Party Validation

As featured in, as seen on, used by these clients — this kind of validation borrows trust from bigger, more influential sites to build trust and credibility.

19. Press Mentions

 Media exposure is a powerful credibility booster. The more prestigious the news organization, the greater the increase in credibility.

20. Awards 

These can raise your company’s profile and give you a nice prestige boost. The more impressive the award, the bigger the boost.

However, there’s a downside to using awards. The less credible the award, the more likely customers are to question your business, products, or services.

21. Influencer Feedback

Being visible on an influencer’s site — whether that’s in the form of a testimonial, interview, guest post, or review — introduces website visitors to you, improving your credibility before they arrive on your site.

22. Guest Posts

Writing for other well-known publications means you’re familiar. Visitors have heard of your site before hitting your landing page.

23. Advertising 

When it’s used well, advertising (via platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or YouTube Ads) creates presumed credibility in the form of branding and familiarity. If visitors have heard of you before, you’re more credible.

24. Branding

A solid brand gives you a specific place in a customer’s mind via psychological anchoring, which establishes credibility. Branding is what lasts in the long run.

25. Professional Design

Customers form a first impression of your website in 50 milliseconds. There’s no thinking with this first impression. It’s visual, focused on aesthetics, and almost entirely emotional.

Stanford’s Persuasion Technology Lab found that almost half (46 percent) of people say a website’s design is the number one criteria for determining website credibility.

How does this happen?

Leading companies in every industry train customers, showing them what to expect. Customers take those lessons to other sites, using these leaders as a measuring stick.

26. Typography  

Research shows larger fonts improve reading speeds. Website visitors comprehend more when typography is legible and clear. This seems like a no-brainer, but it can be easy to forget.

Remember, clarity trumps persuasion.

According to Flint McGlaughlin, your website visitors land on your site with a few questions:

• Where am I?
• What can I do here?
• Why should I do it?

The easier it is for website visitors to understand what you’re saying to them, the easier it is to persuade them to do what you want.

Which one is easier to understand?

Or this?

27. Simple Content

Smart marketers work to improve cognitive fluency. That’s the feeling of ease a visitor has when your content and visuals are easy to read.

The easier your content is to understand, the more familiar it feels, thus the easier it is for visitors to decide to buy.

28. Use Good Grammar 

Yeap, spelling and grammar matters because it’s part of the first impression customers form about your brand. A typo here or there won’t ruin your credibility, but a consistent pattern of bad grammar hurts your credibility. Sites like Grammarly can help keep your grammar in check.

29. Good On-Site Search

Most e-commerce visitors start the buyer’s journey in the search box. In fact, a visitor that uses site search is 1.8X more likely to convert.

Website visitors often have a hard time with search. The keywords they use don’t always lead them to what they’re looking for. So, it’s often a good idea to redirect searches to navigation whenever possible.

30. Website Navigation

Your website navigation communicates trustworthiness to visitors. They expect your navigation to be organized and to use appropriate imagery and colors.

The easier it is for customers to find what they’re looking for, to solve their problems, the more trustworthy your website/business appears to be.

31. Ease of Use

Usability experts trust PURE Scores to rate website ease-of-use, focusing specifically on tasks.

• Can website tasks be accomplished easily?
• Do website tasks require a large degree of cognitive load or physical effort?
• Are website tasks difficult for target visitors?

Website visitors are drawn to websites that are attractive and easy to use. Ease of use can also impact Google ranking.

32. No technical problems

Broken links, missing pages, slow web pages, development bugs — these technical glitches decrease visitor confidence in your business and their willingness to convert.

33. Contact Information  

Posting your phone number, address, email, live chat links, social media profiles, and hours of operation show you’re a real business and not a fly-by-night operator. Visitors feel confident knowing they can contact you whenever they run into trouble.

More importantly, your visitors know how to contact you.

34. Staff Photos and Bios

Customers want to see real people run your business. They want to hear your story, verify your background, and see who they’re giving their money to.

Sharing staff photos increase conversions. Hiding staff photos sends the message that you’re untrustworthy or hiding something.

35. High-Quality Images and Visuals

Website visitors expect your images and visuals to add context and meaning. Most websites use images (e.g., stock photos) as decoration, which according to Jakob Nielsen, are completely ignored.

Poor quality images will actually hurt your credibility and conversion rate.

Whenever possible, use real people in your photos, photos that display product details, and give visitors large, hi-res photos when they ask for it.

36. Clear Policies

Website visitors want to know what happens to their information. What’s your return, warranty, and privacy policy? Will you share their data with 3rd parties?

Customers look for this info when they’re close to conversion.

37. Clear Link Text

The anchor text in your links should describe the destination or outcome. It’s always a good idea to tell your visitors where you’re taking them.

38. Order/Product Information

How long will it take for customers to receive their order? How much does shipping cost? What comes with their order? Is the warranty included? How long does it last?

Website visitors want to see order, product, and fulfillment information upfront.

39. Convenience

The more convenient and compelling it is for your website visitors to buy, the more likely they are to spend. Look for ways to reduce user friction.

40. Displaying Prices

As far as a credibility factor goes, this one is tricky. If you’re selling to enterprise customers and you display your prices, it could be a turn-off. B2C and B2B (small to medium) businesses want to see the price.

As a general rule, people want to know how much your product or service costs.

For most customers, the value of what they’re getting and their perception of your price is just as, if not more, important than the price itself.

41. Share Guarantees and Warranties

These create clear standards you’ll have to follow. Customers get peace of mind knowing you’re willing to stand behind your products and services.

You get more business because customers feel more confident about doing business with you.

Website Credibility Factors Conclusion

If these credibility factors are important to your target visitors (and they are), they should be important to you. f

Credibility factors don’t apply equally in every industry. Some industries may prefer specific ones over others.

What’s important is that you use the credibility factors that matter to your customers.

There’s a simple solution if you’re not sure: just test it. Then keep testing until you find the solution that works best for you.

If you’re still unsure, ask your visitors. Many of them are willing to tell you what they think if you’ll take the time to ask them.

What types of strategies do you use to improve your website credibility?

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/3jj0Uqd
via IFTTT

Best Webinar Software

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

Meeting in person is hard to arrange if the entire world’s included on your invite list. With webinars, people can engage in seminars, trainings, demos–no hotel stay or airfare necessary.

Your customers will be able to register and pay within the platform, if that’s the route you decide to go. This is a big advantage of using webinar software vs video conferencing software. You don’t have to use different software to carry out a simple transaction. That’s just one example of how it makes your life easier.

There’s a few things you want to think about going into your search, and features that might add value to your webinar content.

I’ve put together a list of the top five webinar software options out there. We’re going to cover the ins and outs of how to choose the best webinar software for you.

#1 – WebinarNinja Review — The Best For High-Quality Training or Coaching

WebinarNinja gives you tons of tools to connect with your audience. Chat with the group or individually. Share course materials. Take a poll and display the results.

You can really increase engagement, which helps people solidify their experience. This is one of the big reasons I like it for instruction, whether you are coaching, teaching, or onboarding a new employee.

WebinarNinja is a close contender of Demio in terms of their modern, beautiful design, and flexible webinar capabilities. But WebinarNinja is slightly more cost-effective for smaller groups than Demio. 

It’s trusted by well-known B2B brands such as Baremetrics, AppSumo, and Podia, which essentially supports their ranking as the best for high-quality training or coaching purposes. 

You can run any type of webinar with WebinarNinja: live, automated, series, or hybrid. The key features that come into play with the coaching or training aspect are uploading PowerPoint presentations, creating Q&A spaces, and easily sharing information. 

Some other notable features of WebinarNinja are:

• Tons of integrations with notable systems such as MailChimp, ConvertKit, HubSpot, Squarespace, and ClickFunnels
• Beautiful ready-to-use templates for quick and simple webinar creation
• Save marketing materials within the software for easy access
• Create custom branded registration and thank you pages designed to convert

Furthermore, WebinarNinja reportedly has some of the best customer support out there. This support is extended via live chat, email, and a comprehensive resource library for set-up guidance and minor troubleshooting.

WebinarNinja has four pricing plans available:

• Starter: $39/month for up to 100 attendees
• Pro: $79/month for up to 300 attendees
• Plus: $129/month for up to 500 attendees
• Power: $199/month for up to 1000 attendees

Every membership comes with a 14-day free trial, so you can pay nothing and get started today!

#2 – Livestorm Review — The Best For Ease of Use & Automation

If you’re looking for webinar software that allows you to run live, on-demand, or automated webinars with just about any goal in mind, Livestorm could be the one for you. 

If you want to hold a live event or detailed product demo, you can do that. If you want to build an educational customer training series or an online course, you can do that, too. 

Livestorm is a simple yet powerful video communication tool. They really stand out for their ease of use and detailed automation. 

You don’t need to be tech-savvy to use this software. You can have a webinar up and running in no time, thanks to automation features like an event registration page, promotional emails, and automatic custom event reminder emails. 

Some other great features of Livestorm include:

• Join the webinar in any browser with one click
• Full suite of webinar types such as live, on-demand, and pre-recorded
• Screensharing capabilities
• Interactive live chat, polls, and Q&A within the webinar
• Excellent analytics and reporting capabilities

Another great feature? Livestorm also offers comprehensive customer support in multiple languages. 

In addition, they also have a very useful self-service documentation section of their website. I love this offering because they’re incredibly handy when you’re facing a minor set-up issue or pesky technical difficulty that you know you could solve alone without needing to explain yourself at length to tech support. 

Livestorm plan options include:

• Basic: Free for up to 10 live attendees
• Premium: $99/month for up to 100 live attendees
• Enterprise: Personalized quote based on your requirements

Get started with Livestorm for free today!

#3 – EasyWebinar Review — The Best For Beginners & Social Media

The EasyWebinar motto is ‘wildly easy to use live and automated webinar platform,’ and by all accounts, they seem to hit the nail on the head. They are also reportedly one of the only webinar platforms that have successfully integrated marketing strategy with webinar technology. 

This software is for anyone wanting to launch their first seminar quickly and painlessly with a drag and drop page builder and tons of seamless integrations at your fingertips.

The highlight of this software? EasyWebinar allows hosts to livestream to Facebook and YouTube at the same time. 

Why is this so impressive? 

Well, it essentially gives you uncapped potential regarding how many people your content can reach at one time. Of course, those viewing through Facebook or YouTube won’t get the platform’s built-in interactive capabilities, but your message could still be reaching thousands more people. 

Other notable features of EasyWebinar are:

• Seamless integration with popular platforms such as WordPress and MailChimp
• In-depth engagement tracking tools covering webinar watch time and in-platform clicks  
• Browser-based viewing
• Turn live events into evergreen webinar funnels
• Allows four presenters in one room, all with sharing capabilities

Although EasyWebinar is not the cheapest webinar software on the market, this platform certainly packs a punch. There are three pricing plans on offer:

• Standard: $78/month for up to 100 room attendees
• Pro: $129/month for up to 500 room attendees
• Enterprise: $499/month for up to 2000 room attendees

You can try both the Standard and Pro plan for free or schedule a demo of the Enterprise plan. 

#4 – WebinarJam Review — The Best For Large Businesses

With the ability to host up to 5,000 attendees at one time with little to no delays, WebinarJam is easily one of the best out there for large businesses. 

A really great highlight of WebinarJam is that, although it’s designed for huge audiences, you don’t have to skimp out on some of the awesome interactive features that software for smaller groups has on offer. 

My favorite interactive feature is the advanced live chat within the webinar that actually pulls the person’s video to the stage, so to speak. You can also include offer pop-ups and countdowns to encourage attendees to take action. 

These features are almost more important for a larger business than small ones, to remove that ‘faceless large business’ barrier some may perceive. 

Some other features that WebinarJam has to offer includes:

• Top-notch 24/7 customer support
• Email and SMS reminder notifications
• Create paid webinars and accept payment directly through the software
• Stream directly to YouTube for further participant reach
• Compatibility with multiple browsers and systems

The key selling point of WebinarJam? It automatically records your content every single time. 

Why is this so nifty? I don’t know about you, but forgetting to hit that pesky record button is a frequent pastime of mine. 

There are three pricing plans on offer:

• Basic: $499/year for up to 500 attendees
• Professional: $699/year for up to 2,000 attendees
• Enterprise: $999/year for up to 5,000 attendees

WebinarJam are so confident you’ll love their software that they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, so your purchase is risk-free. At the time of writing, they also have a $1 14-day trial for a limited time only.  

#5 – Demio Review — The Best For Live Events

Demio is the cream of the crop when it comes to modern, user-friendly webinar software that is bound to help your business grow. It’s suited to almost any size business that wants to hold interactive live events to drive their marketing campaigns. 

One of the best bits? There is no download required! Not only will your attendees have access to a beautiful platform that clearly reflects your branding, but they’ll also be able to join from any browser with just one click.  

So, what makes them the best for live events? Here are a few of their top features:

• Run interactive polls and get stats in real-time 
• Embed launch offers and CTAs designed to convert sales on the spot
• Share handouts for instant download with your attendees
• Give attendees video and microphone permissions as needed
• Public and private chat functions for live Q&A

In a nutshell, Demio is so interactive it’s bound to leave your audience feeling like they truly know you! 

Another great thing about Demio is that you can record your webinar and send it to all registered participants so no one misses out if they can’t make it, even if they do miss the chemistry of a live event.

Demio offers three pricing plans:

• Starter: $34/month for up to 50 attendees
• Growth: $69/month for up to 150 attendees
• Business Plan: $163/month for up to 500 attendees

Demio offers a 14-day free trial of their Growth plan, so you can give it a try before you buy. 

What I Looked at to Find the Best Webinar Software

All of the good webinar software can handle is going to make it easy to record and share high-quality videos.

You’ll also get a range of interactive features like live chat and built-in polls. Or not. This is an aspect of webinar software where you will find some variation.

Identify the features that are going to make a difference in your webinars. Do you want interactive features that let your audience participate? Are you interested in measure people’s engagement?

Still, the feature selection is only one aspect of your search. Let’s talk about the three other factors you should pay attention to in order to evaluate your different options.

Attendee Capacity

The number of participants you can have in your webinar at one time is going to be a vital factor in your decision-making process. Some webinar software is designed for smaller groups, while others have the capacity to host thousands of attendees at one time. 

Maybe you’re not sure how big your webinar will be or how quickly it will grow. In that case, you should consider whether your software provider has a plan that allows you to scale your attendee capacity alongside your business growth.

Furthermore, if you can have thousands of participants at one time, how well does the software function? Is there any latency or known technical issues that arise when everyone is logged in?

The great thing here is that most webinar software providers have tiered pricing based on how many participants you’d like to have in each meeting, so if you find one you really love, you’ll likely be able to make it work.

Accessibility 

How easy is it for your participants to join the webinar? Do they have to download an extra app or plugin, or can they launch from their preferred web browser and be immediately joined in?

For some users, the stress of requiring an extra app or program to join a webinar is too overwhelming or complicated. So much so that they may choose to ditch their plans to join your webinar altogether.

With this in mind, it’s important to focus on choosing a webinar software that is easily accessible for your participants. Many options simply launch from a web browser, and this way, your participants are unlikely to find a reason to back out of committing. 

Customer Support

Imagine if you’ve put in weeks of hard work to pull off an incredible live webinar, and five minutes before you’re set to begin, the software crashes. 

Just the thought of this alone has me feeling sick. 

If you plan to hold live events often, it’s imperative you use a webinar software provider that offers 24/7 customer support to get you out of these sticky situations. 

Furthermore, technology can be challenging and fickle. Having access to a team of professionals who know the software inside and out at your fingertips at any time of day really should be an important factor when considering which tool to use.

Summary

At the end of the day, the best webinar software for you is potentially going to be different from the best for me.

That’s why it’s important to use the methodology discussed here to do your due diligence in choosing the best webinar software for your business needs.

That said, my top picks are a great place to start your search:

1. WebinarNinja – Best for training or coaching
2. Livestorm – Best for ease of use & automation
3. EasyWebinar – Best for beginners & social media
4. WebinarJam – Best for large businesses
5. Demio – Best for live events

There’s no better way to get a sense of what you like than taking these products for a test-drive.

So don’t forget to also take advantage of free trials and money-back guarantees to get a real feel for how your chosen software works before you commit long-term.

from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/2WjPGGy
via IFTTT