Hosting Blog

Guides, pricing breakdowns and setup tutorials - written from plans we pay for and sites we actually run.

FeaturedVPSJuly 12, 20267 min read

Shared vs VPS hosting: when is it time to move up?

Three signals tell you shared hosting has run out of room: 'resource limit reached' emails, an admin panel that crawls while the front end looks fine, and traffic spikes that take the site down instead of slowing it.

Shared hosting caps CPU seconds and concurrent processes, not just disk space - that cap is what breaks first.
A VPS gives you guaranteed RAM and CPU, so a neighbour's traffic spike stops being your outage.
The switch is usually worth it around 25k-50k monthly visits, or the moment a checkout or booking flow lives on the site.
Migrate with a staging copy first, run both for 48 hours, then move DNS - never cut over on a Friday.

Read the full article

PricingJune 28, 20265 min read

How Bluehost renewal pricing actually works

Intro rates cover the first term only. Multiply the intro rate by the term length, add the renewal rate for the remaining months, then add the domain renewal - that 3-year total is the only number worth comparing between hosts.

Takeaway: Longer first terms lock the discount for longer, and the 30-day guarantee caps the risk of committing.

WordPressJune 9, 20269 min read

Speeding up WordPress on Bluehost: an 8-step checklist

Page caching, modern image formats, a current PHP version, database cleanup, fewer plugins, a CDN, deferred scripts and a lighter theme. Those eight changes moved our test site from 2.4s to 0.9s LCP without touching the plan.

Takeaway: Do caching and PHP version first - together they were worth more than the other six combined.

AI HostingMay 22, 20266 min read

Running AI agents on a hosting box: what you actually need

Persistent memory, root access, a real uptime SLA and outbound network freedom matter far more than raw CPU. Most agent workloads idle, then burst - so RAM headroom and process limits are the constraint, not clock speed.

Takeaway: Budget for RAM and persistent storage before you pay for extra cores.

DomainsMay 3, 20264 min read

Free domain offers: the part nobody reads

The free domain covers the first year and renews at the registrar's standard rate afterwards. It is still worth taking - just diarise the renewal date and know that domain fees are separate from your hosting term.

Takeaway: Keep the domain, but never assume it is bundled into the hosting renewal price.

WordPressApril 18, 20266 min read

Managed WordPress vs plain shared hosting

Managed tiers add staging, automatic core updates, server-level caching and a support team that knows WordPress. You pay for that with plugin restrictions - mostly caching and backup plugins the host already handles.

Takeaway: Worth it if the site earns money and nobody on the team wants to be the sysadmin.

eCommerceApril 2, 20268 min read

Preparing a store for Black Friday traffic

Load-test at three times your expected peak, move the cart and checkout off cached pages, pre-warm the CDN, and have a rollback plan for every plugin update you ship in November. Upgrade the plan in October, not on the day.

Takeaway: Capacity you buy in a panic always costs more than capacity you buy in advance.

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