Category: Trans

Printify is a print-on-demand company that enables users to create custom-designed products for their online stores. It’s a simple way to design shirts, socks, facemasks, mugs, phone cases, blankets, and much more. Use the platform to design your merchandise and Printify will connect you with a print provider to handle the creation, fulfillment, and shipping. 

Read on for our in-depth review of Printify, covering its pros, cons, pricing, services, and use cases, to see if Printify is right for you. 

Printify Pros and Cons

Pros

• Free-forever plan
• 20% discount on products on select plans
• Global shipping
• Over 800 product options
• Drag-and-drop design tool

Cons

• Extra shipping costs on orders from multiple printers
• Printify API only available on Enterprise plan
• Complex refund policy

About Printify

Printify is an all-in-one print-on-demand solution for dropshippers. Ecommerce platforms can integrate with Printify, making it a snap to add customized merchandise to your online product catalog. A customer places an order and then the production company gets notified to produce the product, fulfill the order, and ship the items directly to the consumer. It’s as easy as that. Ecommerce retailers never have to touch the products, but can still offer customized items to their customers—making Printify one of the best ways to start a print-on-demand business. 

It also represents a fast and affordable way to order other types of customized merchandise. For example, businesses can rely on Printify for creating branded corporate apparel or accessories. It’s also a way for schools and sports teams to place bulk orders for students, athletes, and fans. You can even use Printify to order custom items in bulk to sell through your brick-and-mortar retail stores. 

Printify Health and Stability

Since Printify’s launch in 2015, the platform has been used by over 6 million merchants selling over $500 million in products. Printify has an extensive product catalog of over 800 items, ranging from socks, shirts, and hats to tree ornaments, backpacks, kitchen accessories, and more—which can all be customized through the platform’s free-to-use design tool. 

Since Printify doesn’t actually produce, print, or ship products, they’ve partnered with over 110 printing and manufacturing companies. They’re simply providing the software and logistics to connect their users with production companies that can handle a wide range of items. 

This is a fast-growing tech company in the United States that’s privately owned. With more than 600 employees worldwide and backed by over 40 investment companies that have raised over $50 million in funding to keep up with Printify’s demand and growth, Printify is reliable and stable for the foreseeable future. 

As long as Printify continues to partner with quality production companies and add more to their network to meet the growing demand of ecommerce sellers, it’s safe to assume they’ll be around for a while. You can confidently use Printify’s platform and infrastructure as the foundation to start or expand an ecommerce business. 

Printify Pricing

Printify is 100% free to use. You can integrate your online sales channels with Printify and create an unlimited number of product designs for up to five stores, all on Printify’s free-forever plan alone. Alternatively, you can pay for a Printify membership that gives you access to product discounts, order management tools, and support for more storefronts. 

Printify Pricing Structure

There are two main components to Printify’s pricing structure—memberships and product merchandise costs. 

For memberships, you have the option to select a Free, Premium, or Enterprise plan. We covered everything included in the Free plan a few paragraphs above. 

Premium plans start at $24.99 per month and unlocks discounts of up to 20% off all products you order through Printify. You also get access to Printify Connect, which helps you with order management elements like fielding returns and exchanges. Enterprise plan pricing is completely customized to match the number of stores you want to sell on. You can use Printify’s core services and design tools at every membership tier. 

Regardless of whether you pay for a membership or opt for the Free plan, you’ll need to pay for the products that you’re customizing via Printify. The cost per item varies based on the manufacturer and product type. For example, you might find t-shirts starting around $5, bathing suits for $20, and car mats for $60. But you only pay for these items when a sale is made through your online store. 

Printify Trials and Guarantees

Printify does not have a free trial, but it does have a free-forever plan that offers much more value. In fact, the Free plan can be a viable option on its own for businesses that are just getting started or anyone with lightweight printing and fulfillment needs. It offers access to Printify’s mockup generator, 24/7 support, and integrations with all major sales channels—including Shopify, Etsy, and eBay. 

All of Printify’s partner merchants are backed by a thorough vetting process they conduct on all providers they add to their network. In-house Printify experts will regularly order different samples with complex designs as a way to assess quality. They also send weekly performance reports to all providers with specific complaints and additional performance metrics. 

If merchandise is printed incorrectly, damaged during delivery, or falls short of quality standards, you can contact Printify for a reprint. If there are additional issues or a reprint can’t happen, you may be eligible for a refund. With that said, the refund policy outlined in Printify’s terms of service is somewhat complex, and refunds are issued as a credit to the merchant’s Printify account, not as cash. 

Printify Overview

Printify delivers an easy-to-access, easy-to-use print-on-demand solution with dropshipping fulfillment services and bulk ordering options. We’ll take a closer look at these three facets of the service below. 

Print on Demand

Printify is arguably the best print-on-demand service on the market. Aside from its extensive product catalog and vast network of print providers, using Printify is ultra-simple. 

Even if you don’t have a design background, it’s really easy to use Printify’s mockup generator. This tool is 100% free to use by just creating a Printify account. You can play around with different colors, fonts, sizes, and images on products using the drag-and-drop editor until you’ve created something you like. 

Then you can preview your designs as a realistic 3D image. You can even use these exact same images for your product listings on your website or as promotional materials on social media. 

Printify seamlessly integrates with a lot of major ecommerce platforms and sales channels, including Shopify, Etsy, Walmart, eBay, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, and PrestaShop. Businesses with an Enterprise subscription can also access the Printify API for building custom integrations and addressing unique sales needs. 

Overall, Printify lowers the barrier to entry for anyone who wants to sell custom-printed products online. You can create your own designs and let Printify handle the rest. 

As for the products available, your options are virtually endless. Here’s a small sample of the different categories within Printify’s catalog of over 800 products:

• T-shirts
• Hoodies
• Shoes
• Socks
• Underwear
• Baby clothing
• Hats
• Car accessories
• Tech accessories
• Travel accessories
• Posters
• Mugs and glassware
• Towels
• Blankets

The list goes on and on.

With that said, Printify’s extensive merchandise options can sometimes make things more challenging than they need to be. For example, let’s say you want to sell something simple on your ecommerce website, like a custom shirt. You’re going to see dozens of different options from dozens of print providers, all around the same price, without having the products in front of you to compare in terms of feel, fit, and the like. 

So, finding the right t-shirt to customize and sell can take some trial and error. If you’re serious about selling high-quality products online, it’s probably in your best interest to order some samples from different printers before you formally add the merchandise to your product catalog. 

Premium plans start at $24.99 per month with an annual subscription. Sign up for free to get started. 

Dropshipping Fulfillment

Printify’s dropshipping and ecommerce fulfillment is part of its print-on-demand solution that takes things a step further. 

Let’s say you’ve already customized an item through Printify, integrated the platform with your online store, and listed the product for sale. Once a customer places an order on your website, the printer will be notified to actually create and fulfill the order. They’ll add your custom design to the item purchased and then ship it directly to the consumer. 

It’s worth noting that the shipping rates are not part of the price you pay per item. These are calculated separately, and shipping rates are based on the printing company, product type, and customer’s location. 

One cool part of Printify’s fulfillment solution is that it can automatically prevent issues due to stock shortages. If enabled on your account, you can set it up so orders are automatically sent to another partner to fulfill the order if there’s a shortage with the provider you originally selected. 

You can also use Printify’s geo-routing feature for overseas shipments. They’ll automatically find the closest printing facility to help cut down on shipping costs for international orders. This is also a faster way to get these products shipped to your customers. 

There are a few potential downsides to the way orders are processed, especially if you’re using multiple suppliers for different products on your site. 

For example, if one of your customers orders a t-shirt and hat from your website, but your shirts come from a printer in New York and your hats come from a printer in California, these items will be shipped separately to your customer. And, you’ll be charged two different shipping rates for each. 

Passing these shipping fees onto your customers can be tricky because they’re just ordering from a single website. Depending on your pricing structure, you may have to absorb these extra shipping costs or have this baked into the price of each product listing. 

All of the dropshipping and fulfillment services come free with your Printify account. But, you’ll need a Premium or Enterprise plan if you want Printify to handle reprint requests and refunds on your behalf. 

Bulk Ordering

Most people use Printify’s print-on-demand service to sell products online. But it’s also a great way to create large quantities of custom merchandise for other use cases. 

If you’re ordering 60 or more qualified products from the same print provider, your purchase may be eligible for a bulk discount, saving you up to 30% on shipping rates. 

There are lots of different use cases for Printify’s bulk ordering service. Maybe your company is sponsoring a local event and you want to hand out t-shirts to all attendees. Or, maybe you want to order 100 custom mugs with your company logo as gifts for your employees. 

This service is also commonly utilized by non-profits who want to sell merchandise to support a specific cause. Whether you’re selling merchandise or giving it away for free, the bulk ordering service from Printify still puts you in total control of the item designs. 

You can even use the bulk purchasing option to order inventory for your brick-and-mortar retail stores. 

The only potential downside of a bulk order is that you’re paying in full for all items. So, if you’re planning to use this service for inventory, you need to have the cash in advance. It’s not the same as using Printify for ecommerce fulfillment, where you only pay for items when a sale is made. 

Submit an offer for a bulk order on Printify and save up to 30% on shipping. 

Printify’s Reputation

Printify has an excellent reputation across the web. It’s highly rated on several different third-party review sites, with glowing reviews from real Printify users. 

Most of the reviewers have positive things to say about Printify’s support and ease of use. Several users mention how Printify has made it easy for them to start selling online via a print-on-demand business. Lots of reviews also mention how Printify offers competitive pricing and a vast selection of product options. 

However, not everyone had glowing things to say about Printify. But, it seems like the majority of bad reviews were tied to poor product quality or issues with a specific printing company. While Printify has to approve the printers within their network, these types of issues are otherwise out of Printify’s control. To us, these seemed like one-off problems and shouldn’t be enough to stop me from using Printify to sell custom products online.

Final Verdict

Overall, we recommend Printify as a solution for all your print-on-demand needs. Whether you’re starting a new ecommerce store from scratch or just want to expand your product offerings, Printify is an excellent choice to consider for custom designs on over 800 product types. 

It’s 100% free to sign up and get started using, and you’re in total control over your designs. Printify helps set you up for success, making it easy for you to find the right printing providers for all of your merchandise.

UltaHost is an affordable provider of fast web hosting. From new blogs that just need basic hosting to business sites dealing with a surge in visitors, UltaHost has a solution for everyone. 

This in-depth review includes everything you need to know about UltaHost, including what it has going in its favor and any shortcomings of the service, plus information about their pricing, reputation, and service offerings. Read on to find out if UltaHost is right for you and your web hosting needs.

UltaHost Pros and Cons

Pros

• Affordable plans
• Flexible billing structure
• 30-day money-back guarantee
• 24/7 customer support
• Free migrations

Cons

• Unclear uptime guarantee policy
• Smaller and relatively new company
• Lots of upsells during checkout

About UltaHost

UltaHost specializes in web hosting. Like other hosting providers on the market, they also provide additional web tools and services, like domain registration and SSL certificates. But the vast majority of UltaHost’s offerings focus on hosting.

They offer some advanced and use-case-specific hosting solutions, like virtual dedicated hosting, CRM hosting, social network hosting, Minecraft servers, and more. Webmasters looking for root access and customization options at the server level can also use UltaHost to configure unique options. 

UltaHost Health and Stability

Founded in 2018, UltaHost is a relatively new hosting company. While they’ve performed well and delivered on their promises since the initial launch, they haven’t quite proven that they’re able to stand the test of time. The company currently has fewer than 50 employees, which is definitely on the smaller side in this category. 

In comparison, there are other hosting providers on the market that have been around for over 20 years and host millions of websites worldwide. Some of UltaHost’s competitors are publicly-traded companies with thousands of employees. 

With that said, it’s unfair to fault UltaHost just for being new. They’ve shown no signs of trouble and seem to be growing at a reasonable rate. Plus, their reputation for excellent customer service is likely to attract more customers and retain the ones they already have. But you can’t assume with full confidence that they’ll still be around a decade or two from now. They still have to prove their resilience and sustainability over time. 

UltaHost Pricing

UltaHost’s web hosting plans start as low as $2.90 per month. For every hosting type they offer and plan tier, UltaHost stands out for being an exceptional value. 

It’s common practice in the web hosting industry for providers to offer rock-bottom introductory rates for new customers, only to skyrocket the price when the contract renews. While UltaHost does offer promotional pricing for new customers, the renewal rates are much more reasonable—typically only a few dollars more per month, compared to some of their competitors who ratchet the rate up to north of $10 per month. 

UltaHost Pricing Structure

UltaHost’s pricing structure is based on hosting type, server resources, and contract length. For each type of hosting offered, UltaHost typically has at least four different plan tiers to choose from—with each one providing more resources and the ability to accommodate more site traffic. 

All plans are priced per month, but the actual cost you pay depends on your billing cycle, and the price per month decreases as your contract length increases. UltaHost offers six different billing cycles for you to choose from, including monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually, biennially, and triennially. 

For example, UltaHost’s shared plans start at $3.29 for month-to-month billing at the entry-level tier. But you can pay $100.44 today to lock in a three-year contract, which drops the cost per month to $2.79. 

We’ll get into the nitty-gritty details of each type of hosting’s pricing in just a bit.

UltaHost Trials and Guarantees

UltaHost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on most of its hosting services. This doesn’t apply to domain registrations, certain add-ons, dedicated servers, or virtual dedicated server (VDS) plans above $96.50.

UltaHost advertises a 99.99% uptime guarantee. However, it’s unclear whether or not sites will be compensated if UltaHost fails to deliver on that promise. There is no mention of this anywhere in UltaHost’s terms and conditions or refund policy. Other, more-established web hosting companies tend to have a clear policy for downtime recompense.

UltaHost Overview

Continue reading to learn more about UltaHost’s core services, with in-depth assessments of each web hosting solution. This will help you determine which, if any, is the best for you and your website’s needs. 

Shared Hosting

UltaHost’s shared hosting is one of its most popular offerings. This is largely due to the attractive pricing for quality performance. 

There are four different plan tiers to choose from—each providing additional storage and the ability to accommodate more traffic. 

The Shared Starter plan is a viable option for hosting a single website with up to 10,000 monthly visitors. This is the logical choice for any new website that doesn’t anticipate a high volume of traffic from the get-go. 

The other three shared tiers can support up to 15,000, 25,000, and 49,000 monthly visitors, respectively. There’s still plenty of room for your site to grow on UltaHost without having to upgrade out of inexpensive shared hosting. 

All plans come with unlimited bandwidth, free daily backups, and free SSL certificates. If you sign up for an annual billing cycle or longer, you’ll also get a free domain name for one year. 

You’ll benefit from 24/7 proactive server monitoring included, which is definitely not something you’ll see from most other shared hosting providers on the market. And, UltaHost offers free migration services, so if you’re unhappy with your current hosting provider, you can move to UltaHost for free, without the hassle of dealing with the technical aspects on your own. 

Just be prepared to navigate through some pesky upsells while you’re checking out and finalizing your plan. It can be a bit much.

Shared hosting plans start at $3.29 per month or $37 for a full year. Your purchase is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. Save up to 30% when you sign up today. 

Managed WordPress Hosting

If you’re currently using WordPress on your website or planning to use WordPress, going with a managed hosting plan from UltaHost is a no-brainer. These are still shared plans, but they’re actually cheaper than UltaHost’s traditional shared plans—which is almost never the case when you compare shared hosting to managed WordPress hosting. 

You’ll benefit from UltaHost’s WP Manager tool that comes standard with your plan. From there, you can access customizable themes that are built specifically for WordPress and much more.

Since WordPress comes pre-installed with your hosting plan, setting up your site is a breeze. If you have any questions, you can rely on UltaHost’s dedicated WordPress experts, 24/7/365.

UltaHost is optimized for WordPress, so you and your site visitors will experience a higher level of performance. Plus, as a fully managed plan, all of the technical aspects are handled for you on the backend. This includes automated backups and automated security updates for your servers and WordPress plugins. You’re ensured that your site performance remains in tip-top shape.

Once your hosting is set up, I definitely recommend adding Google Analytics to your WordPress site. This is a quick and easy way to track your best pages and see how your site is performing. 

Managed WordPress hosting from UltaHost starts at $2.90 per month. But the Business WordPress plan is the best value here. Starting at $7.50 per month, it can handle up to 100,000 monthly visits, and it’s cheaper than the Shared Business plan—which starts at $10 per month and only supports up to 10,000 monthly visitors. 

VPS Hosting

UltaHost’s virtual private server (VPS) plans are perfect for sites and webmasters seeking more control over their hosting configuration. It’s also a solid choice for websites getting at least 50,000 visitors per month.

In terms of performance, this is a step above UltaHost’s shared plans. You’ll benefit from faster page loading speeds and higher uptime rates, which is ideal for business and ecommerce sites that can’t afford to lose users due to a poor on-page experience. 

UltaHost’s VPS packages are scalable and highly secure. UltaHost offers dedicated firewalls, regular security packages, 24/7 monitoring, and BitNinja Security built-in. 

You can start with 1 GB of RAM and then scale as needed from your control panel. This is a great perk for sites with unpredictable traffic and seasonal surges. 

If you have in-house IT professionals or you’re working with a developer, they’ll love the added flexibility and control that comes with your VPS server. This includes full root access and the option to select your operating system and server locations. 

The only downside of UltaHost’s VPS servers is that the setup is a bit confusing and overwhelming for non-technical users. If you don’t have a developer on your team, you may be unsure how to customize your settings appropriately. Of course, the pay-off from this level of performance can be worth spending a little bit of time educating yourself about VPS hosting.

UltaHost’s VPS plans start at $5.50 per month. You can also get an advanced VPS plan that’s built for high-traffic WordPress sites, which starts at $27.50 per month and accommodates a whopping 300,000 monthly visitors. 

Virtual Dedicated Hosting

A virtual dedicated server, also known as VDS hosting, is a somewhat unique service offering from UltaHost. This isn’t something that you’ll find from many other hosting providers on the market today.

VDS hosting is a step above virtual private servers. While it’s technically a virtual plan, you’re getting the same features as a dedicated server—without the hefty price tag. 

The main reason to consider a VDS plan from UltaHost is if you need to install custom software on your server. 

For example, you may want to host creative assets on UltaHost that you’ll be selling through Envato’s marketplace. Or, maybe you need a safe, reliable, and affordable way to host a customized CRM for your business. Access to your own virtual dedicated server allows you to host cloud-based software portals and a whole lot more.

If you’re on the fence about whether or not VDS hosting is right for you, then it’s probably not. This is a highly technical option built for the demanding web-based projects and services. For those of you just looking for a high-performing host for your traditional website, a VPS plan will typically be the better option. 

UltaHost’s VDS plans start at $37.50 per month, which is less than one-third of the price of its entry-level dedicated server plan. So, it’s a great bargain if you want the level of performance and features typically only offered by dedicated servers without paying dedicated server hosting rates. 

Dedicated Server Hosting

Only a small fraction of people reading this will need dedicated servers from UltaHost. For simply hosting a single website, you can eliminate this option right away.

Dedicated servers are the top-of-the-line in the world of web hosting, and they’re designed for ultimate speed and performance. As the name implies, you won’t be sharing any resources with other websites and you’re renting entire physical servers directly from UltaHost. 

This solution makes sense for enterprise organizations looking for database storage options and other data-intensive needs. It also works well for multi-national organizations that need to host a mix of websites, applications, and data.  

Let’s say you want to start your own social network, or you want to host multiplayer servers for a game that you’ve developed. These are scenarios where you’d want to consider a dedicated server.

UltaHost handles all of the monitoring and technical maintenance for your servers. But you’re in full control over how they’re customized. There are several different plans to choose from before you even begin configuring your options, ranging from $129.90 to $933.30 before add-ons and extras. 

Domain Registration

You can also use UltaHost to buy a domain, get SSL certificates, and even build your website from scratch. 

This registrar offers popular TLDs, including .com, .org, .net, .info, and more. You can also secure private email hosting that matches your domain. 

With that said, there’s really no reason to use UltaHost to register a domain unless you’re also getting a hosting plan. UltaHost offers free domains for your first year when you sign up for at least one year of web hosting, and your .com domain will renew at $13 per year. 

But as a standalone domain registrar, they don’t have any advantages over other registrars on the market. They’re not cheaper, and they don’t have any bulk buying tools or advanced domain management features. 

UltaHost Reputation

UltaHost has an overwhelming number of positive reviews across multiple third-party review sites. Most reviews are 4.5 stars or higher on a five-star scale, and all of them seem to contain an upbeat and satisfied sentiment. 

Lots of the reviews mention UltaHost’s friendly and helpful customer service and many UltaHost customers state that they feel like they’re getting an exceptional value for their hosting needs and they’re happy with the way their sites are performing. 

There are a handful of bad reviews, which is inevitable with any product or service. Most of these complaints seem to be one-off scenarios rather than a pattern of poor experiences. It’s also worth noting that some of these bad reviews are tied to UltaHost’s domain registration services and not the company’s hosting services. 

Final Verdict

Despite being a newer and smaller web hosting company, we can recommend UltaHost with confidence. It’s a solid choice for any new website that’s looking for affordable hosting without sacrificing performance. UltaHost also has 24/7 support and offers perks like free daily backups, free SSL certificates, and free migrations. 

UltaHost has flexible billing cycles, and it’s nice knowing that your rates won’t double or triple upon renewal—helping you keep costs low for the long run. You can start using UltaHost for shared hosting and upgrade to a VPS plan or higher as your traffic scales over time.

Purchase a domain name from GoDaddy, an affordable registrar with over 500 top-level domains to choose from. Get a special discount for domain registration, web hosting, and more through GoDaddy. 

A unique domain name is what sets your website apart from the billions of other sites on the internet. However, it’s more than an address on the internet—the right domain name resonates with your audience, attracts organic traffic, and helps build credibility. 

But how much does one actually cost? Most domain registrars advertise their lowest price, which is often far from the actual, long-term cost. I’ll explain all the factors that add up to the true cost of a domain name so you can budget accordingly. 

The 7 Best Domain Registrars for Purchasing a Domain Name

GoDaddy is a famous domain registrar, but far from the only one. Our research team identified several quality options, with each one rising to the occasion for specific needs. 

• GoDaddy – Best for Domain Protection and Privacy
• Hostinger – Best for bundling domain registration and web hosting 
• Porkbun – Best for creative domain extensions 
• Domain.com – Best for fast and simple domain purchasing 
• Network Solutions – Best for long-term domain registrations 
• Namecheap – Best for affordable domain registration 
• NameSilo – Best for buying domains in bulk 

We’ve also put together a comprehensive post comparing the best domain registrars that you can read to learn even more about your options and the domain buying process.

Find Out How Much a Domain Name Costs in 7 Easy Steps 

Fortunately, finding out the price of your domain name isn’t difficult if you know what to look out for. This way, there are no nasty surprises down the road. And I’ve broken this process down into a few easy-to-follow steps.

1. Choose a domain name at GoDaddy
2. Do a domain name search 
3. Decide if you want privacy protection 
4. Consider a professional business email 
5. Consider purchasing similar domains 
6. Review any deals or discounts
7. Factor in additional costs after purchase

I chose GoDaddy for this demonstration for several reasons. First, GoDaddy is an ICANN-accredited registrar, so I know I’m dealing with a legitimate registrar. The registrar also offers hundreds of top-level domains (TLDs), which is perfect for price-shopping for a quality URL while keeping my costs down. 

Finally, I can also bundle related services with GoDaddy, like domain privacy and protection, web hosting, professional email, SSL certificate, and a website builder. 

Get your discount for domain registration, web hosting, and managed WordPress by signing up with GoDaddy today.

Step 1: Choose a Domain Name with GoDaddy

The steps to finding out the cost of a domain name are similar, regardless of the domain registrar you choose. For our case, visit the GoDaddy website to get started. 

You can adjust the pricing to your preferred currency by scrolling to the bottom of the page and choosing your currency from the menu.

Now’s the time to choose a domain name. You might already have one or a few options in mind. But, don’t worry if you can’t come up with a name on the spot—GoDaddy offers a free domain name generator on their site. 

Simply hover on Find a Domain on the main menu bar at the top of the page. Then click Generate Domains & Business Names. 

Now enter a few keywords related to your website or business in the provided field. Use any relevant combination of words, such as your name, industry, product, brand, or location. 

I used two keywords for this demonstration. The first is a fictitious name, Nicolas, and the other is the field of my made-up business or website (electronics). 

GoDaddy suggests some available domain names and prices. I only need to click the shopping cart button next to the domain name I want and start the purchase process, if one fits my needs. 

In my example, GoDaddy offers over 40 domain options, ranging from $0.01 to $24.99 for the first year. 

You can also use a different domain name or keyword phrase generator to find ideas, then plug that into GoDaddy’s search. 

For example, the Looka domain name generator provided a lot of different combinations of keywords, but not all of them were relevant to my search terms of “electronics,” “phones,” and “shop.”

Whichever route you choose, gather up a few workable domain name options that resonate with your and your site’s goals. With multiple options in hand, you’re ready to check which ones are available for purchase.

Step 2: Do a Domain Name Search 

GoDaddy has a domain name search tool on their homepage. It’s likely to be the first thing you see when you arrive at their site.  

Remember that, though you’ve come up with domain name options, you still need to choose a top-level domain (TLD), also called a domain extension. 

Of course, the most coveted is the .com extension because it is authoritative, popular, and memorable. 

If my name were Amos, I could snag AmosHub.com for just 19 cents for the first year. However, the price shown so far isn’t final (and you can see that it’s heavily marked down from its normal price point of $20.17 per year). There are a few more steps to go through, and I suspect the price will increase. 

But it’s likely that your favorite domain name isn’t available in a .com, or is at least prohibitively expensive to secure. 

If AmosHub.com wasn’t available for the right price, I could try other TLDs. Extensions like .co, .site, or .store are popular and effective, or you can use more creative ones than that. Just keep in mind how important it is for someone to easily remember your full URL without being on your website.

I only need to click the shopping cart button next to the domain name I want to purchase to continue on with the process. 

Now, let’s try another example. For the domain MobileBoutique, the .com extension is taken. My options are to find its owner and buy it or choose a different TLD. 

MobileBoutique.online could work, but it’s long and a bit of a mouthful. 

So, let’s say I must have MobileBoutique.com and nothing else will do. GoDaddy offers professional brokerage services to help me purchase the domain from its current owner. The broker will handle everything, including finding the domain owner, negotiating the price, and transferring the domain to me. 

I’ll need to pay a one-time broker fee of $69.99 if I choose this route. This price doesn’t include the cost of the domain. There’s also a  20% commission on the sale price. So, I might end up paying a good bit more for the .com version of this domain than any other extension. 

GoDaddy conveniently suggested a similar domain: MobileBoutiques.com. It costs $2,695, so I have a rough estimate of how much the current owner of MobileBoutique.com might value their own domain. 

You can see a massive price difference when purchasing an available domain versus one that’s been taken. There’s also no guarantee that the domain owner wants to sell. so I might end up paying the non-refundable fee, waiting for months, and still get a negative response. 

Since AmosHub.com is available for cheap and it fits what I want to do with my website, we’ll proceed through the rest of this guide focused on that domain. Let’s see how much it costs to own the domain by the time we complete the checkout process. 

Step 3: Decide If You Want Domain Privacy Protection

I’ve added my domain to the cart and proceeded to checkout. Now come the upsells, starting with domain privacy protection. 

Most registrars, including GoDaddy, offer domain protection by default. So ensure you uncheck this option if you don’t want to incur the extra cost. 

GoDaddy domain protection starts at $9.99 per year. I’ve decided to include it in my purchase. It’s a small price to pay for the peace of mind it offers. I don’t want my private information to be available to the public. 

For example, aggressive marketers may find my personal information and spam my inbox, phone number, or website with unsolicited offers or products. Similarly, a cybercriminal could steal my identity, hijack my domain, and use it for illegal activities. 

Every registered domain appears on the WHOIS database. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)—a non-profit that manages domain name systems, among other responsibilities—manages the database. 

The WHOIS database is a public record. Each domain entry includes the owner’s name, address, phone number, and email. You’ll also find additional details like the domain registrar, registration date, and expiry date. Purchasing domain protection means that your registrar replaces your personal WHOIS information with its own contact details. GoDaddy does this through a third party called Domains By Proxy. 

You can actually skip this step if you still aren’t sure whether the cost is worth it to you. I think it’s always a good idea to secure this while snagging your domain, but you can always purchase privacy protection later through your registrar. 

Step 4: Consider a Professional Business Email 

The next upsell is a professional business email that is attached to your new domain name. 

I’ve also added this option at an extra fee. This is totally optional, but it’s a nice extra if you’re starting a website that is related to a business venture of yours. A professional email, tied to your website’s domain, is great for gaining clients’ trust and projecting a professional business image.

You’ll notice that GoDaddy offers a few different forms of this extra. You can just snag an email address for $1.99 per month, or secure one of two Microsoft 365 packages (which includes access to the suite of MS Office products and cloud storage) for a higher monthly add-on fee.

Again, you can also purchase the business email after registering and buying your domain. There’s no pressure to commit to this during checkout.

Step 5: Consider Purchasing Similar Domains 

I was fortunate to find a .com extension for my preferred domain name. However, other variations like AmosHub.net, .co, and .org are still available. Therefore, a competitor could purchase these domains, confuse my clients, or steal my website traffic. 

GoDaddy offers suggestions for similar domains at a discounted price. I decided not to purchase the extra domains for now. It’s not a priority since my fictitious shop isn’t successful enough to catch an unfair competitor’s eye. But it’s something to consider in the future when my store grows. 

Consider also purchasing common misspellings of your domain name. For example, Google owns common domain misspellings such as Googlr.com, Gogle.com, and Gooogle.com. While not mandatory, it’s something to think about in the future when your brand gains momentum. It really helps ensure that anyone intending to visit your website ends up there, even if they misremember or mistype your URL.

Step 6: Review Any Deals, Promotions, or Discounts 

My GoDaddy domain only costs $0.19 for the first year. However, the massive discount only applies if I lock into a two-year contract. 

Since that 19-cent price only applies to year one, year two will cost me the full, normal price of the domain. If you remember, I pointed that out a few steps earlier. AmosHub.com normally would cost $20.17 for a year.

Since I must pay for the full two-year registration upfront, that means I’ll pay $20.36 at checkout to register and own AmosHub.com. 

When that two-year term expires, I’ll need to renew my domain each year after that. So, keep in mind what the renewal cost is likely to be so you can budget down the road accordingly.

Remember also that each add-on service you choose also renews monthly or yearly. 

For example, my business email costs $1.99 per month, but I’ll have to pay for at least one year of the service, adding at least $23.88 to my checkout total. Be mindful of the renewal rate for this, as this service usually renews at full price ($71.88 per year).

Similarly, domain protection will cost me $9.99 yearly.

The point is that buying a domain name isn’t a one-time cost and it’s rarely just going to cost you what a registrar lists the price as. 

Instead, it is a recurring cost depending on your contract term. For example, GoDaddy offers yearly, two, three, five, and ten-year contracts. That’s something you can use to your advantage. 

It’s always a good idea to lock up a domain name for as long as possible (or, at least as long as you intend to run and maintain your website). Sometimes, you can get better savings with a longer-term commitment, too. Just keep in mind that you’re on the hook for paying the whole term up front at checkout. So, if I registered AmosHub.com for five years with the first-year discounted rate, I’d have to pay $80.87 today to secure it.

But, for now, we’ll focus on a two-year contract, with two years of privacy protection and one year of professional email attached to my domain. My cost so far is $64.22 for the domain name and add-on services. 

Step 7: Factor In Additional Costs After Purchasing Your Domain 

Unless you plan to simply resell your domain name, a few more costs are involved after the initial purchase. It’s helpful to know what lies ahead so you can budget accordingly. Again, most of these are recurring costs, so keep that in mind. 

I’ll need to build a website for the domain name, if I haven’t already done so. The cost here depends on which design option I choose. For example, GoDaddy supplies a free website builder with every domain purchase. The builder is easy to use, so I can create a professional website without design experience. 

Alternatively, I can use other platforms that range from free to use (like WordPress) to a few dollars or more per month (like Squarespace). 

Or, if I don’t want to do any site building myself, I could hire an expert designer. Most professionals charge between $30 and $40 per hour or higher depending on their experience and expertise. 

GoDaddy also offers several professional web design packages to suit different needs. 

I’ll also need web hosting for my website. Again, I can purchase a plan starting from GoDaddy at $5.99 monthly, or choose another host like Hostinger (which tends to start around $2 or $3 per month).

You’ll need to point your domain name to the hosting server if you choose a different web host from your domain registrar. It’s one of the main reasons I chose GoDaddy in this example, since I can get everything I need from the same provider, all at once, without it costing me an arm and a leg. 

Final Thoughts About How Much a Domain Name Costs 

The true cost of a domain name is rarely as advertised. I found a terrific deal for $0.19, but additional costs and service made my actual checkout total $64.22. That’s before even factoring in extra, necessary services like website building and hosting.  

Therefore, the best way to determine the cost of a domain name is to list all the domain-related services you need. Then, compare the price of each service and choose only the essential services. Then, depending on your budget, purchase add-ons after scaling your website.

Hostinger is our top recommendation for most people because of its all-around versatility and reliability as a web host. Start your Hostinger web hosting plan for just $1.99 per month.

Regardless of why you need a website, you need your web hosting provider to deliver reliability, ease of use, and affordability. HostGator ticks all of those boxes, plus offers its customers a free domain for one year, plenty of upgrade options, and a responsive customer support team. 

With web hosting plans for personal and business use, just about any website owner can get what they need from HostGator. Get over 60% your monthly rate when you sign up with HostGator today.

The 9 Best Web Hosting Services

With web hosting services, one size certainly doesn’t fit all. Even though their offerings are largely similar, certain options rise to the occasion best for specific needs. HostGator made the cut of our top picks, but here’s a full rundown of our favorite hosting providers:

• Hostinger – Best overall
• DreamHost – Best value for shared hosting
• SiteGround – Best for extra speed and security
• Bluehost – Best for new WordPress websites
• HostGator – Best for simple websites
• A2 Hosting – Fast and reliable shared hosting
• InMotion Hosting – Best VPS hosting
• WP Engine – Best managed WordPress hosting
• Nexcess – Best for ecommerce hosting

Learn more about these high-ranking web hosting providers by reading our full post reviewing all of them.

Hostinger – Best Overall

Hostinger‘s affordable web hosting plans make it possible for virtually anyone to get their website up and running, then grow their site as their budget allows. The provider delivers rock-bottom rates for its shared and WordPress hosting, but doesn’t skimp on the resources you’re afforded. Even at its lowest price point, website owners get 100 GB of storage, 1 GB of RAM, and automated weekly backups.

How Hostinger Compares to HostGator

Hostinger and HostGator are relatively similar in terms of speed and uptime. In fact, both companies stand behind a 99.9% uptime guarantee and deliver speed optimization tools for WordPress and sites built on other platforms.

The primary difference between the two comes in the form of security. Both providers have the basics, like SSL certificates and DDoS protection. But, Hostinger’s two-factor authentication, automated weekly backups, and around-the-clock security monitoring pull it slightly ahead.

Also worthy to note is that Hostinger has its own version of cPanel known as hPanel. It’s designed to make managing advanced settings easier for any website owner. But, if you’re already used to cPanel, it might be inconvenient to acclimate to a different form of web hosting control panel.

Hostinger’s introductory rates start between $2.99 and $3.99 per month for shared hosting, rising to $9.99 or $14.99, respectively, per month upon renewal. HostGator offers cheaper introductory rates, but not by much (around 30 to 60 cents less per month) when you lock in a three-year term. However, Hostinger’s WordPress-focused hosting plans are generally $3 to $4 per month cheaper than HostGator’s.

Learn why Hostinger is one of the best web host providers for personal or business use.

DreamHost – Best Value for Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is one of the most common forms of web hosting since it’s largely enough for simple and new websites. DreamHost is among the best providers in this category by making it easy to secure it for cheap without having to commit to years of service up front. 

Packages are incredibly affordable without lacking key features. Every DreamHost shared hosting plan comes with a free domain, unlimited traffic, a website builder, and a free SSL certificate.

DreamHost also makes setting up a WordPress site easy, with a pre-installed and ready-to-go WordPress database, free migrations, and a setup wizard to get your site on the web as quickly as possible.

How DreamHost Compares to HostGator

DreamHost has just two plans compared to HostGator’s three, so it might be a little more difficult to get exactly what you need from the provider without overpaying. That said, the upper-echelon plan is still highly affordable, considering that it comes with unlimited websites, unlimited storage, and unmetered bandwidth.

Both providers have uptime guarantees to ensure that your site remains online and accessible to visitors. If you typically prefer phone support if something does go wrong, though, you won’t find it with DreamHost. The provider offers a knowledge base in addition to ticket and live chat support. With HostGator, you get 24/7 support via live chat or phone on any plan. 

DreamHost’s monthly pricing for shared hosting starts out at $4.95 per month, lowering to $2.95 per month on a year-long commitment. That’s similar to HostGator’s rates for a three-year commitment, but far less than what HostGator charges for month-to-month billing (which runs a full $17.99 per month).

Read our in-depth DreamHost review to learn more.

SiteGround – Best for Extra Speed and Security

SiteGround easily has some of the best tools for optimizing site speed and security compared to other web hosting providers. Built on Google Cloud, this provider taps into advanced technology to ensure that every user’s site loads instantly, whether visitors access it from the web or a mobile device.

All WordPress sites on SiteGround, in particular, include an optimization plugin by default that automatically caches parts of sites and uses GZIP compression and lazy image loading for the quickest load times possible.

SiteGround users see reliable uptime with the provider’s automatic health checks, which also help boost security. Sites are further protected from vulnerabilities and attacks through daily backups, firewalls, anti-bot blockers, and 24/7 monitoring.

How SiteGround Compares to HostGator

SiteGround has many data centers spread across the globe in dozens of different countries, helping to maintain a speedy and positive experience for visitors no matter where they’re located. Contrast that with HostGator’s more limited distribution of servers and you have an easy choice between the two if your site gets a lot of international traffic.

SiteGround’s control panel could also be a bonus for some users. I like how clean and simple it is to navigate. That’s not to say that HostGator’s isn’t easy to use, but beginners will particularly appreciate how SiteGround’s dashboard is laid out, making it easy to find and tweak just about any setting in a couple of clicks.

One more thing that’s hard to beat: SiteGround’s customer support. When I tested it, it took a couple of hours to resolve my tickets, but I was impressed by their thorough commitment to getting a resolution before closing the ticket. HostGator has helpful and responsive support, too, but SiteGround seems to go above and beyond to help everyone’s site run quickly, regardless of a website owner’s technical expertise.

HostGator has lower-priced plans than SiteGround on the whole, but SiteGround’s one-year term for its entry-level shared hosting occasionally is the cheaper of the two (as it is at the time of this writing). However, SiteGround offers substantially more for users in terms of security and speed features. Plus, its unlimited database creation on any plan might be enough to win over site owners with large, feature-rich web pages.

Learn how SiteGround is an excellent choice for websites of all sizes and types.

Bluehost – Best for New WordPress Websites

Ask WordPress users what hosting provider they prefer, and an overwhelming majority of them will probably tell you Bluehost. Bluehost is one of the three web hosts explicitly recommended by WordPress, too, because the two platforms play so well together.

You can choose a WordPress-focused hosting package with Bluehost like you can with other hosting providers, but you’ll be getting access to one of the most intuitive site builders on the market, plus a boatload of included plugins and custom themes designed specifically for the WordPress platform. 

How Bluehost Compares to HostGator

Bluehost does far more than just cater to WordPress users, although that’s a welcome bonus for many because of how widely used WordPress is as a content management system. 

Its theme marketplace helps website owners get a professional-looking website without shelling out for hiring a web designer. Customize the theme with Bluehost’s intuitive website builder and you’ll likely be amazed by how easy it is to whip up a quality site yourself. HostGator also has a site builder included with its web hosting, but it feels much more limited in terms of customization capability.

One drawback with Bluehost is that it only offers free site migrations for WordPress sites. In contrast, HostGator is more inclusive, allowing you to migrate any site built through WordPress or using another MySQL database.

With four plans to choose from, you can choose a Bluehost plan that fits your needs well in terms of resources and features. However, regular prices after introductory rates for Bluehost are slightly higher than HostGator’s, so be mindful of the extra strain on your budget after your introductory rate with Bluehost expires.

Explore Bluehost’s top perks, like security, WordPress hosting, and uptime.

A2 Hosting – Fast and Reliable Shared Hosting

A2 Hosting delivers the full array of hosting options, from shared hosting and VPS to dedicated, reseller, and managed WordPress hosting. But, it stands out most in its ability to bring top speeds to its shared hosting, a type of hosting that often gets bogged down by high resource usage among the website owners on those servers.

Page, database, and object caching, plus features like image compression and condensed CSS whittle away at long loading times that you might experience on other hosts’ shared plans. And, if you’re willing to pay a little bit more, you’re able to access A2’s proprietary Turbo servers, giving you a speed advantage that your competitors on other providers will never be able to match.

How A2 Hosting Compares to HostGator

Those higher-end Turbo plans use optimized servers that give you up to 20 times faster loading speed than traditional servers. Websites with a lot of traffic or heavy site elements (like videos or animated backgrounds) could benefit from the Turbo shared hosting packages, leading to more conversions and a lower bounce rate.

A unique aspect of A2 Hosting is its commitment to eco-conscious web hosting. By committing to green and responsible business practices, such as using lower-energy equipment and recycling servers it no longer uses, A2 reduces the typical carbon footprint of running their servers. If that aligns with your business or site values, you can proudly display the green impact of using A2 on your website for visitors to see. 

Otherwise, you will find few significant differences between the two hosting providers, which both have multiple avenues for getting support, easy-to-learn dashboards, and high-level security. 

Shared hosting with A2 Hosting is priced pretty much neck-and-neck with HostGator, with the only main difference being the higher-priced Turbo plans from A2. Those start as low as $6.99 per month on a one-year or three-year commitment. 

Aside from its speed and reliability, you can learn all that A2 Hosting has to offer in our full brand review.

InMotion Hosting – Best VPS Hosting

InMotion Hosting is an excellent option for VPS hosting, which gives website owners private access to their own resources on a server shared with others. VPS hosting can get pricey on some providers, but InMotion’s introductory rates help you get started affordably. Better yet, its renewal rates won’t cause sticker shock, either.  

Even though VPS hosting can require a bit more hands-on management, InMotion makes it relatively easy with its custom dashboard displaying server stats and quick access to resource migration. I like that you can set your server to take regular snapshots, letting you restore to a previous version whenever you feel it’s necessary.

If you want to save some time and frustration, you can instead opt for InMotion’s managed VPS hosting. That lets the pros on their side handle all the dirty work, including setting up your VPS provision and handling site migrations, routine server optimization, and plugin and core updates.

How InMotion Hosting Compares to HostGator

Many InMotion Hosting customers initially choose the company because of its generous 90-day money-back guarantee. They can pay for a plan, try it for the better part of three months, and get their money back if it’s not right for them. The industry standard—and what HostGator offers—is just 30 days.

All HostGator VPS plans have two dedicated IPs and unmetered bandwidth. While InMotion Hosting limits its lowest tier VPS plan to 2 TB of bandwidth, all other plans get unlimited. Each successive tier of InMotion VPS also delivers extra IPs, all the way up to 10 on the top-tier plan.

InMotion flat-out beats HostGator’s VPS in terms of pricing. It starts out with a wider range of plans (with a cheaper entry-level plan preceding a mid-range plan that’s priced comparably to HostGator’s entry-level VPS package), then continues impressing with lower pricing on renewals and long-term contracts. 

With InMotion, you can secure three years of quality VPS hosting for right around $25 per month, whereas HostGator only offers a maximum VPS contract term of one year (after which you’re getting the renewal rate of $79.95 per month).

Find out how InMotion Hosting stands out among competitors in our detailed review.

WP Engine – Best Managed WordPress Hosting

WP Engine has been a top WordPress hosting provider for years, and it continues to stand out with its team of WordPress experts that can help you with everything from migrating a WordPress site to keeping it secure. The WP Engine team is available 24/7 for assistance.

Although managed WordPress hosting is WP Engine’s top offering, it also has lots of website-focused tools, like a plugin manager, a client management platform, and WooCommerce-oriented hosting packages. Still, everything is designed for WordPress, particularly for the purposes of making management of WordPress easy for anybody.

How WP Engine Compares to HostGator

WP Engine plans include automated backups, threat detection and blocking, and WordPress site optimization standard. While that’s what you should expect from managed WP hosting, WP Engine’s thoroughness sets it apart from its competitors. 

Consistent site monitoring on WordPress alerts you if anything goes wrong with your code or databases that could affect your site visitors’ experience. The fact that WordPress experts are on standby at all hours to help you with anything WordPress related can be a huge help for WordPress website owners. 

Something you won’t find with HostGator is WP Engine’s Headless WordPress system through the use of the Atlas sandbox. As a result, you get massively more control over design, site content, development, site speed, and security. Plus, you can unlock features to deploy on your WordPress site that most other users have to code manually or implement via a third-party plugin.

WP Engine’s managed WordPress hosting is significantly pricier than HostGator’s, with plans starting at $20 per month. However, WP Engine’s capability and management goes way deeper. Plus, you’re getting an impressive introductory offer of four months free when you get started on a WP Engine plan. 

Explore the benefits of WP Engine to decide if it’s right for your site.

Nexcess – Best for Ecommerce Hosting

Nexcess powers the websites of over 500,000 online businesses. With plans that cater to ecommerce sites and builders like WooCommerce and Magento, this hosting provider adds unique tools to its plans that keep ecommerce websites operating smoothly for customers.

All Nexcess plans are managed hosting plans, so you’ll get extra help as you migrate, set up, and maintain your site. This comes at a slightly higher cost than some competitors, but it also gives many online business owners extra peace of mind that their website is in good hands.

Nexcess also has plans for sites using Drupal, ExpressionEngine, and Craft CMS, as well as a proprietary web store builder. Their own StoreBuilder tool is a breeze to use, letting you design and publish professional ecommerce websites in no time at all.

How Nexcess Compares to HostGator

After using both Nexcess and HostGator, the QuickSprout team found the Nexcess setup easier to get through, especially for setting up an ecommerce site. We also generally preferred the Nexcess website builder over HostGator’s. It offers more benefits for ecommerce website owners, like easy creation of detailed product descriptions and integrations with online marketplaces.

Nexcess is also highly scalable. If you decide that its regular solutions no longer cut it, you can move to an enterprise-grade plan. HostGator offers VPS and dedicated hosting for more demanding needs, but they lack the sophistication of Nexcess’ higher-end offerings.

Nexcess has individualized pricing depending on your preferred ecommerce site platform. Managed WooCommerce and WordPress hosting both start at $19 per month, with managed Magento plans starting at $31 per month. Nexcess’ StoreBuilder offering is also $19 per month, but you’ll get the first three months at a rate of just $5 per month. HostGator’s a lot cheaper, but they don’t offer the same depth of features and completely lack an option just for Magento-built web stores.

Intermedia services small to medium-sized businesses by providing them with cloud IT solutions, including email hosting. If you need to improve web property, email, or other internet-related performance, Intermedia can support your business ventures without requiring you to acquire on-premise servers. 

Intermedia’s hosted exchange email can help you transform how you send and receive business emails through high-quality security, compliance, and onboarding. Read on to find out what this offering from Intermedia can do for your business.

Intermedia Compared

Intermedia made our top list for its powerful email security options, but it’s not the only excellent option on the market today for business email hosting. DreamHost is our best all-around pick for its versatility, user-friendliness, and affordability. Sign up for a DreamHost mailbox for just $1.67 per month. 

• DreamHost — Best All-Around Email Hosting Provider
• Hostinger — Best Budget-Friendly Provider
• Intermedia — Best for Email Security
• Scala Hosting — Best for Significant Storage
• Google Workspace — Best for Google-Centric Users
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard — Best for Microsoft-Centric Users
• Amazon WorkMail — Best for AWS-Centric Users

Want to get all the details on these options? Read the full Quick Sprout post reviewing the best email hosting providers.

About Intermedia

Intermedia offers comprehensive cloud-based technology solutions for businesses of any size. The products and features they offer make it easier to scale while remaining productive and help you create unified communication channels that your whole team can benefit from. 

• Intermedia Email Hosting Review

Alongside Intermedia’s hosted exchange email service, its vast array of offerings includes file backup and management, security and compliance tools, and unified communications platforms with voice and video calling and conferencing. 

Intermedia Health and Stability

Intermedia was founded in 1991 as a privately traded company with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. Intermedia has two main investors, including Madison Dearborn Partners and NGP Capital. 

Since then, Intermedia has helped more than 130,000 businesses and has hired nearly 1,000 employees across the United States. With a 4.6-star rating on Glassdoor, it seems that most Intermedia employees—past and present—are satisfied with the company’s work-life balance, remote work opportunities, and benefits. That, combined with having been in business for over 30 years, paints an encouraging portrait of Intermedia’s continued success.

Intermedia Pricing

Intermedia has separate pricing for each of the services they offer. For the sake of this post, I will be discussing just the pricing for Intermedia’s hosted exchange email platform, which has four different pricing tiers. 

Intermedia Pricing Structure

You’ll find four packages for Intermedia exchange email, each charged per user per month. However, pricing is somewhat customized based on user needs, so you’ll need to get a quote from Intermedia for a precise price point.

For the most basic email plan, plans start at just under $8 monthly for each user, with higher-priced plans stretching up to a bit over $15 per user per month. Plans above the basic tier add features like archiving, additional protection, and even free access to Microsoft 365’s applications.

You can also build a plan a la carte, adding Microsoft 365, archiving, backups, encryption, or enhanced security to the basic email package for an extra fee. Intermedia also allows you to get hosted email as a part of their unified communications platform, Intermedia Unite.

Intermedia Pricing Comparison

Intermedia’s hosted exchange email service ranges from $7.94 per user per month for unlimited mailbox storage and basic email protection to as high as $15.44 per user per month to include all the bells and whistles. Mid-range plans run between $10 and $12 per user per month.

Compared to other email hosting providers, Intermedia offers decent functionality per mailbox, but that comes with a higher price tag. For example, with DreamHost, you only get 25 GB of storage (as opposed to Intermedia’s unlimited cloud storage on any plan), but you’ll only have to pay $1.67 per mailbox per month. On the other hand, Hostinger’s plans are even cheaper, starting at $0.99 per month, and grant you more than 14 powerful email features. 

And, if you want to find an email hosting provider with more flexible pricing options, Scala Hosting starts at $2.95 per month and scales up to $14.95 per month for unlimited accounts and domains. 

Intermedia Trials and Guarantees

Intermedia offers a 30-day risk-free trial on select plans. You can request a quote for most of its products and services or create a custom pricing package based on your needs by reaching out to an Intermedia sales representative. 

Intermedia Email Hosting Review

Intermedia’s email hosting plans stand out for their powerful security features that help to provide an incredibly secure and worry-free hosted email experience. You’re also getting unlimited storage on any email plan and a 99.999% uptime guarantee via their service-level agreement. 

You could benefit from Intermedia’s email hosting service if you are looking for a reliable exchange email platform that will improve the reliability and efficacy of how your business sends and receives emails. If you want to scope out other excellent alternatives, make sure to check out our reviews of all of the best email hosting providers. 

What Makes Intermedia Email Hosting Great

Powerful security comes standard: Intermedia covers security by conducting SOC 3 audits of its data centers and offers PCI-DSS and general privacy protection and secure data networks. In fact, Intermedia has a security philosophy that covers seven critical facets: data security, server-side backups, endpoint protection, identity protection, infrastructure security, privacy over data, and security management. They take this seriously so your organization can have peace of mind.

Unlimited storage: Many email hosting providers don’t provide unlimited email storage unless you pay for the highest-priced plan. And if they do offer it for more budget-conscious packages, you’ll usually have to pay an additional fee for more storage space.

Fortunately, that isn’t the case with Intermedia, as it offers unlimited email storage on any plan, including its entry-level package that costs around $8 per user per month. Intermedia’s unlimited email storage ensures you don’t need to worry about the size of your inbox or the heft of attachments you’re sending and receiving. 

Managed onboarding: It can be complicated to onboard your team to an entirely new email platform and migrate existing data, but that’s an issue of the past with Intermedia’s cloud concierge onboarding feature. Their expert team will work with you to create a process for implementation and onboarding that fits your business schedule and minimizes the impact migration might have on your users. Intermedia migrates over 15,000 mailboxes and 5,000 phone numbers each month, so you can rest assured that they can support your website without losing data or experiencing downtime. 

99.999% uptime: One of Intermedia’s mottos is “the five nines make all the difference,” which is at the heart of their uptime-related service-level agreement (SLA). Intermedia’s 99.999% uptime SLA means you can expect less than 26 seconds of downtime per month and only a hair over five minutes of downtime per year (if you even experience that much). Intermedia helps meet this lofty standard by allowing its Microsoft-certified architects and engineers to build and customize its tech infrastructure and world-class data centers. 

Compliance features: If you are looking for an email hosting provider that understands and supports your need to meet certain regulatory requirements, Intermedia will impress you. With Intermedia’s hosted exchange email, you can maintain financial regulatory compliance and HIPAA compliance for protected health information. Not only that, but Intermedia can help you comply with additional regulations, including GDPR, FINRA, NASD, and SEC, to name a few.

Where Intermedia Email Hosting Falls Short

Not user-friendly: The bulk of Intermedia’s criticisms involve its interface not being as user-friendly as other email hosting providers. Many users found the UI clunky and hard to navigate. And, not having access to shortcuts within the inbox makes it difficult to find files and data when you need them in a snap. 

Poor customer service: While it’s excellent that Intermedia offers 24/7 technical support, many of its users felt that their customer service didn’t live up to the claims on its website. Many reviewers found that the customer representatives were slow to respond, unhelpful, and some were even rude. It’s worth putting their service team through its paces on the 30-day trial period to make sure you won’t experience the same underwhelming support.

Slow mobile app: Intermedia’s mobile app is heavily outdated, with its 3.3-star rating on the Google Play Store showing that a lot of users aren’t happy with the product. Many reviewers claim that the app is slow and often lags when you attempt to complete a task. More inconveniently, the app lacks many of the basic features included in Intermedia’s email plans, such as notifications and group messages. 

Intermedia Email Hosting Compared

While Intermedia offers powerful security regulations and unlimited email storage, the best email hosting provider on the market today is DreamHost because of its versatility and affordability.

• DreamHost — Best All-Around Email Hosting Provider
• Hostinger — Best Budget-Friendly Provider
• Intermedia — Best for Email Security
• Scala Hosting — Best for Significant Storage
• Google Workspace — Best for Google-Centric Users
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard — Best for Microsoft-Centric Users
• Amazon WorkMail — Best for AWS-Centric Users

Final Verdict

Intermedia is a decent email hosting provider that services small to medium-sized businesses with cloud-based technology. With powerful security regulations, unlimited email storage, and a concierge onboarding feature, Intermedia can help you build a stable email network and business structure.

With more than 30 years in the industry and helping more than 130,000 businesses across the globe, it’s clear that Intermedia is a reliable company that aims to provide cloud-based solutions for easier communication. 

The best domain registrar service for most people is GoDaddy. You can get started for as low as $0.01 now. 

There are a lot of reasons you might change your domain name, including rebranding a business, resolving a copyright complaint, or changing industries. Whatever the reason, it can be hard to migrate sites and set up your new domain without losing your web data or customer base. 

In this guide, I’ll walk through the steps you should take to make your domain name change as painless as possible and how to avoid losing your site in the process and starting again from scratch. 

The 7 Best Domain Registrars For Changing a Domain Name

When changing your domain name, you’ll need to use a reliable domain registrar to find and buy your new domain. These are our favorites based on hours of research and testing: 

• GoDaddy — Best for domain protection and privacy
• Hostinger — Best for bundling domain registration and web hosting
• Porkbun — Best for creative domain extensions
• Domain.com — Best for fast and simple domain purchasing
• Network Solutions — Best for long-term domain registrations
• Namecheap — Best for affordable domain registration
• NameSilo — Best for buying domains in bulk

Read our guide to the seven best domain registrars for a full review of what we loved about each one. 

Change Your Domain Name in 8 Easy Steps

Changing your domain name can feel overwhelming, but with the right steps and tools, it’s actually a lot easier than most people expect it to be. Here’re the eight steps I’ll be breaking down in this guide: 

1. Check The Domain Change Rules For Your Host Provider
2. Backup Your Current Site
3. Choose A New Domain Name
4. Purchase Your New Domain Name
5. Set Up Migration
6. Set Up Redirects
7. Update Google Tools
8. Contact Any Customers Or Clients Via Email

When you change your domain name, you’ll probably want to use whichever host you’re already working with, but for the purposes of this guide, we’ll be using GoDaddy. GoDaddy is one of the most popular and trusted domain registrars, and it’s straightforward to access new domains and change your domain name. You can get started for just $0.01.

Step 1: Check The Domain Change Rules For Your Host Provider

The first thing you’ll want to do when you’re getting ready to change your domain name is to check the specific rules for your host provider about domains. 

Every host will have different regulations about changing your domain and which processes you need to use, especially when transferring a domain or adding a second domain. 

It’s worth mentioning here that when talking about “changing” a domain, we’re really talking about migrating a site by purchasing a new domain and using that to replace your primary domain. There’s no real way to “change” a domain that’s not expired, so you’ll have to buy a new domain and keep the old one until it expires or sell it. 

Depending on who your host provider is and your plan with them, you may be able to add websites to your account for free, like if you’re using GoDaddy’s deluxe plan. If not, then you’ll have to buy another domain and either upgrade your account or set up hosting with another company. 

Step 2: Backup Your Current Site

Before you can buy a new domain or migrate your content, you need to back up your site. This is very important because many things can go wrong when migrating sites, and having to set up your site all over again will set you back hours or even weeks. 

Again, whichever hosting provider you use will have different ways of doing this, but most offer an easy download option for backing up your site and saving it to both the cloud and a device. For example, GoDaddy has a built-in tool to back up your site directly to your account. 

You can also use a backup plugin, like Updraft Plus or All In One WordPress Migration, to make a copy of your site and download it to an external source, like your computer or dropbox. This is a better option if you are moving to a new host provider and changing your domain name. If you’re staying with the same host (for example, you’re migrating your site from your main domain to a new domain in GoDaddy), you don’t have to worry about this as much. 

I recommend backing your site up in multiple locations, like your computer and a cloud tool, so you’ll have the peace of mind that your site is safe. It will also make the process of changing a domain name much faster and easier instead of feeling like you’re launching a new site from scratch again. 

Step 3: Choose A New Domain Name

Before you can change your domain name, you need to choose the new domain you’ll be sending traffic to.  

This is the easy part because if you’re thinking about changing your domain name, you probably already have a new one in mind. When you are choosing a new name, it’s important to consider the same things you would when purchasing your first domain, like: 

• Availability: You can use a tool like GoDaddy’s domain name search bar to see if your domain is available for purchase 
• Originality: Is it close enough to someone else’s business name, domain, or social media that you could risk being accused of copyright infringement?
• Relevance: Is your domain relevant to your business? Is it recognizable as being related to your brand and memorable for customers?
• Accessibility: Is your domain easy to spell? Is it short and easy for anyone to type?

Although this is an easy step, I want to stress how important it is to get this right. You don’t want to spend money on a new domain and go through the process of changing your brand’s name, only to have to do it all again in a few months. Take your time with this step and make sure that if you’re going to change your domain name, it’s worth it. You can then look for your domain using GoDaddy’s domain search tool. 

Step 4: Purchase Your New Domain Name

Once you’ve chosen your domain name, you can purchase it. You can do this in three main ways, although the last is a little more complicated than the other. 

If you’re using GoDaddy and have a plan that supports multiple sites, the easiest way is to purchase your domain directly as you set up your new site. To do this, go to your GoDaddy product page. Click on Websites + Marketing and select Manage next to your website. Then, click Edit Website to access your site builder and select Settings, and click Manage next to your domain name. You’ll then see the option to Get a New Domain. From here, you’ll be able to purchase your new domain name from GoDaddy and connect it to your site directly. 

The second option is to purchase your new domain name through your current host provider as a second domain. For example, with the GoDaddy Deluxe plan, you can simply set up a second site and buy a new domain within one account. 

The third option is to set up your domain with a new hosting provider. This is more expensive and will make migrating your site more difficult, but it might make sense for you if you want to move hosts for financial or technical reasons. When you sign up for a new hosting plan, you’ll probably get a free domain included in your plan, so you can make your new domain name your main one. 

Step 5: Set Up Migration

Once you’ve purchased your new domain name and have it set up as a secondary or main domain, you need to migrate your old site to the new domain. 

If you are using a secondary domain, this is pretty easy. With GoDaddy, you only need to go to your GoDaddy product page. From there, go to Websites + Marketing, then click on Manage next to your website to access your site. 

Then choose Edit Website to open your website builder, and click Select Settings. Then, click on Manage next to your domain name. Select I Already Own The Domain. Then click on Choose a Domain and select the new domain you’ve added to your account. Once you’ve checked that you’ve selected the correct domain, click save and publish. 

If, for any reason, something goes wrong, or if you are moving to a new hosting provider entirely, you might want to migrate your site manually using a plugin. For this, you must first check that your website DNS (found in your settings under your hosting account) is updated to your new site. 

Then, you can import your website backup to your new site. Make sure you have created a basic new site first (using a template theme, for example) before uploading your site backup and importing your old content using your downloaded files and the instructions from your plugin. 

Both these options can take a couple of days to kick in, so be patient if your hosting provider takes a little time to update these changes and reflect them on your new site. This is why it’s a good idea to keep your old domain active for a few days while you complete the necessary changes to your new site. 

Step 6: Set Up Redirects

Once you’ve set up your domain name and the accompanying site, you need to ensure all your old URLs redirect traffic to your new site. You can do this easily from your domain dashboard on your hosting site. 

In GoDaddy, you just need to go to Account Settings and go into your domains. From there, choose the domain that you will be forwarding (your old domain) and click Manage DNS. If you scroll down this page, you’ll see a section that says Forwarding. From here, you can set up forwarding for both your domain and subdomains. 

After choosing Forward Domain next to your old domain, you can add your new domain name URL and choose a type of redirect link. You can choose between a 301 or a 302 redirect. Although they both work, I’d recommend using a 301 permanent redirect as it’s faster and preserves the most SEO value generated by your original site.

By setting up redirects, you’ll minimize your chances of losing traffic and make it easier for both new and old site visitors to find your new domain.  

Step 7: Update Google Tools

Once your new domain name is set up, you need to update Google Console and Google Analytics. 

For Google Console, you only need to log in to your account and select the gear icon. This will take you to your Settings, where you’ll select Change of Address. Then, add your new domain, and Google can send redirects to your new site. 

With Google Analytics, you just need to go to Admin, choose the property you want to edit (in this case, your old domain), and then edit the default URL to your new one. 

Step 8: Contact Any Customers Or Clients Via Email

The last step for changing your domain name is to let your users, customers, or audience know that you’ve changed your domain name. 

This is optional, but if you have a blog or an online store, it’s a good idea to reduce the amount of traffic you’ll lose from your domain change and make sure that people know it’s happening. 

All you need to do is send out a short announcement via social media or email, letting your audience know that you’ve changed the domain name and rebranded your site. A smart move here is to invite them to visit or bookmark the new site to improve your SEO and get your traffic numbers up from the start. 

Final Thoughts About Changing Your Domain Name

Changing your domain name is a necessary but daunting process. Getting it wrong can waste a lot of your time, but by following this simple step-by-step guide, you can see how easy it is to change your domain name without losing traffic or customers along the way.