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Zachary McAuliffe - Joggingvideo.com https://1800birks4u.com Lifestyle, Culture, Relationships, Food, Travel, Entertainment, News and New Technology News Tue, 04 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.4 Google Now Pays You Back if It’s Wrong About the Cheapest Flights https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/google-now-pays-you-back-if-its-wrong-about-the-cheapest-flights/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/google-now-pays-you-back-if-its-wrong-about-the-cheapest-flights/#respond Tue, 04 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/services-and-software/google-now-pays-you-back-if-its-wrong-about-the-cheapest-flights/ Google on Monday announced three new Search features that could make planning your next vacation cheaper and easier. The features are meant to help you save money on your next flight, explore a hotel before you book it and easily plan things to do on your trip.  Here’s what you can expect to see if […]

The post Google Now Pays You Back if It’s Wrong About the Cheapest Flights first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

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Google on Monday announced three new Search features that could make planning your next vacation cheaper and easier. The features are meant to help you save money on your next flight, explore a hotel before you book it and easily plan things to do on your trip. 

CNET Tech Tips logoCNET Tech Tips logo

Here’s what you can expect to see if you plan your next vacation using Google.

Flight price guarantee

Google Flights already shows you whether flight prices are low or high compared to historical averages, but now Google is launching a pilot program for price guarantees in the US. 

How it works is that Google will place a badge next to low-priced flights. Google doesn’t think the price for these flights will get any lower, but if the price does go down, it’ll send you the difference via Google Pay. 

Price guarantee badge and information boxPrice guarantee badge and information box

The price guarantee badge (top) means if tickets for your flight go down, Google will send you the difference.


Google

This pilot program is only available for “Book on Google” flights that depart from the US.

Explore hotels before booking

If you use Google Search on mobile to find a hotel, you can view a slideshow to explore different hotels and find the right one for you. You can save hotels you like and pull up more information about the area around particular hotels, too. 

Find prices for and book nearby activities

Finally, you can find prices for nearby attractions in Google, and you’ll also find a link to book tickets for those activities. 

To view these, you have to use Google Search or Google Maps to find an attraction or tour company. You’ll see prices attached to different attractions and companies, as well as a “Tickets” tab that pulls up different ways to book admission. Searching for some attractions will also show you suggestions for similar experiences you might enjoy.

For more on Google, check out eight new Google products CNET expects in 2023, how to travel back in time with Google Maps and tips and tricks to help you save money on Google Drive and Gmail.


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iOS 16 Cheat Sheet: Your Complete Guide to the iPhone Update https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Sun, 18 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/services-and-software/ios-16-cheat-sheet-your-complete-guide-to-the-iphone-update/ This story is part of Focal Point iPhone 2022, CNET’s collection of news, tips and advice around Apple’s most popular product. Apple released iOS 16 less than a week after its “Far Out” event, where the company announced the next line of iPhones, Apple Watches — including the Apple Watch Ultra — and the AirPods Pro. […]

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This story is part of Focal Point iPhone 2022, CNET’s collection of news, tips and advice around Apple’s most popular product.

Apple released iOS 16 less than a week after its “Far Out” event, where the company announced the next line of iPhones, Apple Watches — including the Apple Watch Ultra — and the AirPods Pro. We put together this cheat sheet to help you learn about iOS 16 and how to use the new features it brings to your iPhone.

Getting started with iOS 16

Using iOS 16

iOS 16 updates

Other things to know about iOS 16

Check back periodically for more iOS 16 tips and how to use new iOS 16 features as Apple releases more updates.


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Easily Stop Third https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Wed, 14 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/services-and-software/easily-stop-third-party-iphone-apps-from-accessing-your-data/ When you use an iPhone app for the first time, you might be asked to give the app access to other features on your phone like your camera. If you’re like me and just want a new app to work you’ve probably tapped “Allow” without a second thought. However, you might not realize that tapping […]

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When you use an iPhone app for the first time, you might be asked to give the app access to other features on your phone like your camera. If you’re like me and just want a new app to work you’ve probably tapped “Allow” without a second thought. However, you might not realize that tapping “Allow” gives the app access to other information on yourself and those closest to you. 

CNET Tech Tips logoCNET Tech Tips logo

Those apps could be sharing your data with digital marketing and ad tech companies without your knowledge. Companies like Apple and Facebook have faced lawsuits and fines for allegedly misusing customer data.

If you’ve granted a third-party iPhone app certain permissions, you can revoke them at any time. Here’s how to stop third-party apps from accessing your data.

How to change third-party app permissions

Here’s how to change permissions in iOS 15 and later: 

1. Tap Settings on your iPhone.

2. Tap Privacy.

In the Privacy menu you can select functions like Contacts, Photos and Camera to see which third-party apps have requested permission to access this information. Tapping Contacts might show that a note taking app has access to the names and numbers of people in your contacts list. You can tap the slider next to these apps to halt access.

More in the Privacy menu

In addition to revoking app permissions in the Privacy menu, you can also customize which apps can access your location data. If you tap Location Services near the top of the menu, you can turn these services on or off for all or some apps on your phone. You can also tap the Share My Location menu to enable or disable Find My iPhone, as well as with which contacts you share your location.

There’s also an option in the Privacy menu called Apple Advertising. Tap this to view Apple’s ad targeting information, and turn these personalized ads on or off. Apple said turning personalized ads off will make ads you see in the App Store, Apple News and Stocks less relevant to you, but it might not reduce the number of ads you see in those apps.

For more, check out how to stop iPhone apps from tracking you, how to use Sign In With Apple to improve your privacy and the best iPhone VPNs


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DuckDuckGo, Mozilla, Brave Urge Congress to Vote on Tech Antitrust Legislation https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Tue, 13 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/services-and-software/duckduckgo-mozilla-others-call-for-congress-to-vote-on-tech-legislation/ Privacy-focused companies, including DuckDuckGo, Mozilla and Brave, sent a letter to members of Congress on Tuesday asking them to vote as soon as possible on the American Innovation and Choice Online Act. The legislation would ban companies from promoting their own products on their platforms over their competitors. That means, if passed, when you search for a product on […]

The post DuckDuckGo, Mozilla, Brave Urge Congress to Vote on Tech Antitrust Legislation first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

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Privacy-focused companies, including DuckDuckGoMozilla and Brave, sent a letter to members of Congress on Tuesday asking them to vote as soon as possible on the American Innovation and Choice Online Act.

The legislation would ban companies from promoting their own products on their platforms over their competitors. That means, if passed, when you search for a product on Amazon, the top results won’t necessarily be for products sold by Amazon.

The letter sent to members of Congress says that big tech tactics steer consumers away from rivals, restrict competition, use non-public data for the benefit of said companies and make it “impossible or complicated” for people to change their app settings.

“Smaller, independent companies want to offer products that give people real control online,” Jennifer Hodges, the head of Mozilla’s US public policy and government affairs group, said in an email to CNET. “Due to harmful self-preferencing practices, a small number of giants dictate what we experience online.”

However, tech giants like Apple and Google have spoken out against similar legislation, such as the Ending Platform Monopolies Act and the Platform Competition and Opportunity Act.

“After a tumultuous year that witnessed multiple controversies regarding social media, whistleblower allegations of long-ignored risks to children and ransomware attacks that hobbled critical infrastructure, it would be ironic if Congress responds by making it much harder to protect the privacy and security of Americans’ personal devices,” Apple wrote in a January letter to Senate Judiciary Committee members.

“Americans might get worse, less relevant and less helpful versions of products,” Google wrote in a blog post in January. “While these bills might help the companies campaigning for them, including some of our major competitors, that would come at a cost to consumers and small businesses.”

The American Innovation and Choice Online Act was introduced in October 2021 by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, and Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa. Co-sponsors include Sens. Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, and Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina.

“Our legislation sets out to level the playing field for small businesses and entrepreneurs who need to operate on these platforms, as well as benefit the consumers that use them,” Grassley said in a statement in January.

Read more: Big Tech Spends Big Money to Thwart Antitrust Legislation

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Best Web Hosting for 2022 https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Sun, 11 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/services-and-software/best-web-hosting/ There are a lot of great reasons to start your own website. Whether you’re looking to create your own blog, kick off a side hustle or build a portfolio, there’s no better time than right now to build a website. It’s an exciting process, too. Picking your own personal design to represent yourself is one […]

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There are a lot of great reasons to start your own website. Whether you’re looking to create your own blog, kick off a side hustle or build a portfolio, there’s no better time than right now to build a website. It’s an exciting process, too. Picking your own personal design to represent yourself is one of the many exhilarating parts of building your new website. However, there’s a lot more to it than just clicking around and hitting save when you’re happy.

First off, you need to have an idea for what your site should contain or be about, and you have to choose a company to house your website. The number of web hosting services can be confusing and the choice can be hard. So we looked over the data for 22 web hosting services to make things a little easier on you.

You can read more about our criteria for web hosting services, and you can check out important web hosting terms to know.

Note: Pricing for web hosting is a bit tricky to follow. Listed prices are generally introductory rates attached to contracts that usually last a year or more and renew at the regular, higher, rate at the end of the contract. Make sure to take the regular rate into account when trying to figure out a long-term hosting provider. 

Best web hosting services

Sarah Tew/CNET

Ionos

Great security features

Pros:

  • Extensive security features, including backups
  • Unlimited traffic, so no need to scale up plans to handle additional traffic
  • 99.99% uptime guarantee

Cons:

  • Website builder costs extra
  • Plan prices increase, sometimes by huge margins, over time

Our take

IONOS has the lowest starting price point of any other service on this list, but once the plan renews, the price increases drastically. IONOS also has customer support numbers for 14 countries, making it a good choice for international customers.

Hosting plans

Ionos offers shared, VPS, dedicated and managed and unmanaged WordPress hosting. The company also differentiates between hosting plans meant for smaller and larger organizations to help customers better understand what plan is best for them.

Security features

Ionos offers security features that go beyond what other web hosting services offer. All plans include SSL certificates, malware scans and DDoS protections. Some plans also help repair damage malware might cause on your website. Backups at least once every 24-hours are also standard with each plan, and each backup is held for 20 days. A full set of a customer’s data is also stored in two separate data centers as a security measure, that way customers will always have access to their data, even if one data center is brought down by a cyberattack.

Uptime

Ionos has a 99.99% uptime guarantee, which is a higher guarantee than most other web hosting services. Battery-operated power supplies and backup generators help maintain power to Ionos data centers so your site and services stay online even if its data center loses power.

Customer support

Support is available any time, either by phone or chat. A directory also provides customer support numbers for customers in 14 different countries. Ionos also offers a personal consultant who will be your main point of contact if you need help with your site. A personal consultant and phone numbers for different support centers around the world gives Ionos customers more ways to get help compared to some other hosting providers.

Other features

Ionos offers a status page to alert customers when services go down or are being repaired. The page also logs the times when services go down and are brought back up, and it lets customers know of any scheduled maintenance. 

Pricing

Ionos’ prices start lower than most other web hosting services for similar services. However, prices rise — shared and WordPress hosting rise by over 1,000% — after a certain amount of time. That means Ionos is a good entry point for web hosting, but it may not be the best long-term home for your website if cost is your primary concern.

See at IONOS

Sarah Tew/CNET

GreenGeeks

Climate-conscious web hosting

Pros:

  • Offers a wide variety of plans for all needs
  • Features website builder to help create your site
  • Produces three times the amount of wind energy it uses

Cons:

  • Phone support isn’t active 24/7
  • Prices of some plans are above average

Our take

GreenGeeks’ promise to offset its energy needs makes this service a clear choice for climate-conscious customers. Some plans also offer unlimited storage and bandwidth. However, prices are a little high compared to other plans.

Hosting plans

GreenGeeks offers shared, VPS, dedicated, WordPress and reseller hosting plans. Each plan offers tiered options that let you scale up as your site’s needs grow. Some plans are managed, but at a higher cost. Each plan also includes a website builder so you don’t have to build your site from scratch.

Security features

Each plan includes a slew of security features like SSL certificates, DDoS protections, daily backups, malware cleanups and more to help protect your site. 

Uptime

Like most web hosts, GreenGeeks offers a 99.9% uptime.

Customer support

GreenGeeks says it checks its servers every 10 seconds for any issues, while other services might check every 30 seconds, minute or longer. This means if your site runs into any issues, GreenGeeks might already be working on resolving it before you contact them. For more direct customer support GreenGeeks offers 24/7 chat support, but phone support is only active from 9 a.m. to midnight ET. 

Other features

For every hosting account, GreenGeeks plants a tree, and GreenGeeks also creates three times the amount of energy used through renewable energy sources. Data centers contribute about 0.3% of global carbon emissions, according to the International Energy Agency, so GreenGeeks’ environmental commitment makes it a web hosting option that gives back.

Pricing

GreenGeeks’ pricing is average compared to other web hosting services. However, most of the lowest prices from GreenGeeks require a three-year contract paid in full upfront. Other contracts are available at an increased price per month, but must also be paid in full upfront.

  • Shared hosting starts at $3 a month.
  • VPS hosting starts at $40 a month.
  • Dedicated server hosting starts at $169 a month.
  • WordPress hosting starts at $3 a month.
  • Reseller hosting starts at $20 a month.

See at GreenGeeks

Sarah Tew/CNET

A2 Hosting

Customer service-focused

Pros:

  • 24/7 “Guru Crew” customer support by chat, email or phone
  • Free site migration when coming from another service
  • Servers are physically secure on site

Cons:

  • Lowest prices require three-year contracts
  • Some plans don’t offer enough to justify higher prices

Our take

A2 Hosting offers great customer service options, as well as many different types of multi-tiered hosting plans. Plans offer a lot of features at no extra cost. The biggest downside is that the cheapest plans require a three-year contract.

Hosting plans

A2 Hosting offers shared, VPS, dedicated, WordPress, reseller and cloud hosting, including tiered options within each plan. Shared hosting, for example, offers plans labeled Startup, Drive, Turbo Boost and Turbo Max. These additional plans give customers more options to choose from to better fit their needs, and allow customers to scale their operation as needed.

Security features

Each plan comes with security features like an SSL certificate, dual firewalls, virus scanner and brute force defense. Each plan comes with a Patchman enhanced security tool, which regularly costs about $25 a month, as well as DDoS protections that can detect DDoS attacks as soon as they happen to help keep your site safe. A2 Hosting also boasts about the physical security of its servers — in order to access them, someone needs to have two separate key cards to enter the parking lot and the server center. 

Uptime

A2 Hosting has a 99.9% uptime commitment. An uptime of 99.9% means your site shouldn’t be down for more than nine hours a year, which is the industry standard.

Customer support

The real distinction for A2 Hosting is its commitment to customer support. A2’s “Guru Crew” is available by chat, email or phone 24/7. And if you want to figure something out without talking to anyone, A2 Hosting has a large Knowledge Base filled with information to help you develop and grow your site.

Other features

If you are looking to switch web hosting service providers, A2 Hosting offers free site migration. The average cost of a site migration in 2021 was between $300 to $400, making this a generous offer.

Pricing

A2 Hosting pricing is about average at first glance, but the lowest prices also come with a three-year contract, so to get the lowest price you are locked into this service for a long time. Some of the service’s tiered plan options might not offer enough to justify the price increase, as well. The Turbo Boost and Turbo Max shared hosting, for example, are $7 and $13 per month, respectively. The plans appear to have two differences: Boost has 2GB of physical memory compared to the Max’s 4GB. In addition, Max offers “5X More Resources” by using nonvolatile memory express drives, which are faster than solid-state drives. Nonvolatile memory express drives don’t seem much faster than SSDs on paper, but if you’re trying to sell something in real time online every second — or millisecond — counts.

  • Shared hosting starts at $3 a month.
  • Unmanaged VPS hosting starts at $5 a month.
  • Managed VPS hosting starts at $40 a month.
  • Unmanaged dedicated server hosting starts at $106 a month.
  • Managed dedicated server hosting starts at $156 a month.
  • WordPress hosting starts at $12 a month.
  • Reseller hosting starts at $19 a month.

See at A2 Hosting

Sarah Tew/CNET

InMotion Hosting

Good for first-time website owners

Pros:

  • 90-day money back guarantee
  • Many customer service options
  • Free website builder

Cons:

  • US servers only
  • Month-to-month payment plans not available for all plans

Our take

InMotion Hosting has one of the longest money-back guarantee time frames, so even if you aren’t totally satisfied with its service you can still get some cash back after a month or two. However, InMotion Hosting only has US-based servers, so it’s not the best choice for anyone with an international audience.

Hosting plans

InMotion Hosting offers shared, VPS, dedicated, WordPress and reseller hosting with different tiered options for each type of hosting. InMotion Hosting also offers hourly managed hosting services. These services can be purchased for one, two or three hours for $40 to $100 per month, or outside of a plan at $75 per hour.

Security features

Each plan comes with free SSL certificates, DDoS protections and hack and malware protections. Automatic daily backups are also available for some plans.

Uptime

InMotion Hosting offers 99.99% uptime, placing InMotion Hosting above the standard in terms of uptime. Customers should expect less than an hour of downtime per year, compared to nine hours for companies that only offer 99.9% uptime.

Customer support

InMotion Hosting’s customer support offers more ways for customers to contact them than many other services. Customers can contact a customer support representative by phone, chat, or email 24/7, they can file support tickets or Skype with a representative. InMotion Hosting also offers customers access to a database of instructional posts, as well as a community forum customers can look through for the answer to a question if you can’t find it anywhere else.

Other features

Most web hosting services offer a 30-day money back guarantee, but all InMotion Hosting plans come with a 90-day money back guarantee. That makes InMotion a great option for anyone who’s trying out a website for the first time but isn’t sure if they’re ready for a longer commitment.

Pricing

As with other web hosting services, the listed price is only applicable before the renewal cost. These can be confusing when comparing prices since some plans appear to cost the same despite one offering more perks. For example, the shared hosting Launch plan costs $5 a month with a three-year contract and the shared hosting Power plan costs the same for the same contract length but has more features — seems like a no-brainer to go with the Power plan, right? However, after the contract ends, the Launch plan renews at $12 a month and the Power plan renews at $16 a month, leaving subscribers paying more for the Power plan.

  • Shared hosting starts at $2.29 a month.
  • VPS hosting starts at $18 a month.
  • Dedicated hosting under the “Bare Metal” tab starts at $100 a month.
  • WordPress hosting starts at $3.49 a month.
  • Reseller hosting starts at $15.39 a month.
  • Managed hosting services start at $40 a month.

See at InMotion Hosting

Sarah Tew/CNET

HostGator

Good for data-heavy sites

Pros:

  • Unmetered bandwidth and disk space
  • Free site and domain transfers
  • 45-day money back guarantee

Cons:

  • Restoring data from backups costs extra
  • Add-ons add up

Our take

HostGator makes it easy to start and maintain a website with a database of tutorials and walkthroughs. If you already have a site, you can transfer it to HostGator for no extra charge. Make sure you read the fine print when it comes to backups, though — it left us with questions.

Hosting plans

HostGator offers shared, VPS, dedicated, WordPress and reseller hosting plans with tiered options. Each plan comes with unmetered bandwidth and disk space so you can load as much data on your site as you want. That makes it a great option for anyone with lots of video, images or animated page elements. 

Security features

HostGator offers free SSL certificates, DDoS protections and automated backups. After the backups are taken, HostGator scans the files and makes sure they are free of malicious code, and if any is located the files are quarantined. However, HostGator writes that anyone with “critical business information or important data are STRONGLY encouraged to seek a third-party backup service…” (emphasis theirs). Undermining your own backup system is an odd choice.

Uptime

HostGator has an industry-standard 99.9% uptime guarantee. Shared and reseller hosting customers can request a one-month refund if their uptime doesn’t meet that guarantee. However, VPS and dedicated hosting customers won’t get a refund if their uptime isn’t met. Instead those customers receive a prorated credit for how long the server was down.

Customer support

Customers can reach HostGator customer support representatives by chat, email or phone 24/7. A database also offers customers video tutorials, articles and guides. Not all services offer video tutorials, which could help solve an issue when it feels like talking to customer support over the phone or online isn’t helping.

Other features

HostGator offers a 45-day money back guarantee, which is above average when compared to most other web hosting services. The tutorials and walkthroughs available also make it easy for first-time site managers to get started.

Price

In addition to renewal prices jumping after a plan’s contract ends, add-ons can also significantly increase the price. Restoring backups, for example, costs an additional $25. So while, yes, HostGator offers automated backups, you still have to pay extra to access those backups, which makes it feel like backups are really an additional cost. This is certainly unusual.

  • Shared hosting starts at $2.75 a month.
  • VPS hosting starts at $24 a month.
  • Dedicated hosting starts at $90 a month.
  • WordPress hosting starts at $6 a month.
  • Reseller hosting starts at $20 a month.

See at HostGator

Sarah Tew/CNET

Namecheap

Low-priced plans

Pros:

  • Some monthly plans relatively affordable compared to other providers
  • Offers cyber insurance as an add-on
  • Free website builder with each plan

Cons:

  • Price almost doubles with renewal of some plans
  • No 24/7 phone support

Our take

Namecheap is cheaper than other services on this list, but only for certain contract lengths, like month-to-month plans. Namecheap also offers cyber insurance and Namecheap Legal to help you if your site is taken down by malicious actors. But Namecheap doesn’t have 24/7 phone support, which could be an issue if something goes wrong on your end and they aren’t available.

Hosting plans

Namecheap offers shared, VPS, dedicated, WordPress and reseller hosting. The plans offer tiered options, and the differences in plans are spelled out and easy to follow. Features shared across plans are easy to recognize, so you don’t have to read too deep into plans.

Security features

Each Namecheap plan comes with a free virus scanner, two-factor authentication and DDoS protection to help secure your data and the data of your visitors. SSL certificates are also free for one year, but then are an additional cost, starting at $6 a year. Namecheap also offers optional cyber insurance at an extra cost in case your data falls victim to a cyberattack. Cyber insurance plans start at an additional $6.50 a month and cover things like legal costs, damage repair and fines that could spring from a data breach. However, cyber insurance is currently only available in the US.

Uptime

Namecheap has a 99.9% uptime guarantee for VPS and reseller plans and 100% uptime guarantee for most shared, VPS and dedicated plans. Namecheap explicitly states one dedicated server plan has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. If uptime does drop, customers are eligible for a service refund, which could give you a month of free hosting. 

Customer support

Namecheap has 24/7 online chat support, ticket filing and database of informative and instructional posts and videos. However, there’s no phone support, which could make it difficult to get the help you need if something goes wrong with your site. Namecheap does have a Status Update section so you can see if others are experiencing a similar issue or not.

Other features

Namecheap offers some useful free and paid applications and services to customers. Some of the free applications include a logo maker, an online marketing tool and a graphic design tool. Paid applications and services include an online ID authentication tool and Namecheap Legal, which connects you to legal services to help tackle legal issues your business might run into. 

Pricing

Some Namecheap plans are relatively affordable compared to the competition, especially monthly plans. Shared plans, for example, cost $3.88 on a month-by-month basis. Monthly plans from competitors can cost upward of $10 a month. Yearly contracts are less expensive than monthly plans, but the cost of those same plans can double in some instances upon renewal. One shared plan offers a two-year contract that costs a total of $37.88 (about $1.58 a month), but it renews at $84.88 (about $3.54 a month.) The renewal price is more, yes, but it’s still less than the renewal price for most other services. Dedicated hosting month-by-month plans appear less expensive with a starting price of $56.88 for your first month. This plan then renews at $80.88 a month. Dedicated hosting plans with a one-year contract appear more expensive than the month-by-month plan, but are less expensive over that 12-month period.

  • Shared hosting starts at $2.18 a month.
  • VPS hosting starts at $6.88 a month.
  • Dedicated hosting starts at $48.88 for the first month and renews at $53.88 a month.
  • WordPress hosting starts at about $2.09 a month listed as $24.88 a year.
  • Reseller hosting starts at $17.88 a month.

See at NameCheap

Sarah Tew/CNET

AccuWeb Hosting

Worldwide data centers

Pros:

  • Global data centers 
  • Cloud hosting offers 100% hardware uptime
  • Free site migration

Cons:

  • No unlimited data options on most plans
  • Customer support phone service not available all hours

Our take

AccuWeb Hosting has data centers around the world to better serve international customers. It offers both Linux and Windows servers for web hosting needs, but phone support is limited to 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, which is less than ideal if you’re in another time zone.

Hosting plans

AccuWeb Hosting offers shared, VPS, dedicated, WordPress, reseller and different cloud hosting options. There are options for cloud shared and cloud VPS hosting plans as well. Customers can also choose which of AccuWeb Hosting’s global data centers will host their data. This means if you anticipate most of your traffic to come from outside the US, you can choose to have your data in a different data center so your site loads quicker for non-US visitors. 

Security features

AccuWeb Hosting offers free SSL certificates with each plan, free antivirus tools and free daily backups, which are an upgrade over the more standard weekly backups. Security tools like malware cleanup are also included.

Uptime

While AccuWeb Hosting guarantees an impressive 99.99% uptime, its cloud hosting plans offer 100% hardware uptime. However, just because the hardware is up 100% of the time, doesn’t mean your site is reachable all the time as well. If a server is up and running but the network is down, sure the hardware is fine, but your site still won’t be reachable.

Customer support

Customers can chat and file tickets with customer service 24/7, but phone services are limited. Right now, phone service is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET and based in the US and Canada, despite having data centers around the globe.

Other features

While other services limit the number of domains an account can have and usually only allow one domain with basic shared plans, AccuWeb Hosting gives you unlimited domains no matter what plan you sign up for. Other services also limit the number of email accounts basic shared plans can host, usually between one and 10, but basic shared plans with AccuWeb Hosting offer 150 business email accounts, so instead of sending an email from your personal account, you can send an email from your business account and give your message more credibility.

Pricing

Some AccuWeb Hosting plans, like shared plans, are a little higher than other services, while mid-level plans, like VPS plans, are cheaper than other services. If you choose a shared plan, but plan to scale up to a VPS plan, the price averages out.

  • Shared hosting starts at $4 a month.
  • VPS plans start at $8 a month.
  • VPS cloud hosting starts at $15 a month.
  • Dedicated hosting starts at $80 a month.
  • WordPress hosting starts at $4 a month.
  • Reseller hosting starts at $12 a month.

See at AccuWeb Hosting

Other web hosting services to consider

These services don’t offer one of the three hosting options, don’t include sufficient security features, an uptime guarantee or have some limited customer service options. The following services aren’t as robust as our top picks, but they’re still reasonable offerings.

Dreamhost

Dreamhost

Lengthy money-back guarantee

Dreamhost offers a 97-day money back guarantee, which is the longest money back time frame for a web hosting service on this list. If you’re new to web hosting, this time frame could give you enough time to make an informed decision about whether to stay with Dreamhost or not. It offers shared, VPS, dedicated and WordPress hosting plans, as well as an upgraded WordPress plan called DreamPress. Dreamhost has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and plans come with security features like SSL certificates and malware remover. Dreamhost’s drawback is it doesn’t offer 24/7 chat or phone support. Chat support is available seven days a week from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. PT, and phone support is only available upon callback request. Dreamhost does offer a step-by-step online guide with how to handle technical issues if you think you need tech support. The least expensive plan is also only for one month of hosting. Afterwards, the price renews to the standard rate which is about quadruple the starting price. 

Dreamhost plans start at $2 a month.

See at Dreamhost

Hostinger

Hostinger

Helpful video modules

Hostinger offers a competitive price point. Shared and WordPress plans start at $2 a month, VPS plans start at $3.95 and cloud hosting plans start at $10 a month. There are also video modules on YouTube to show you how to, for example, build your WordPress site or how to change your domain name. Plans include SSL certificates and all servers have an advanced security module to protect your data. Some lower-tier plans offer weekly backups, while higher-tier plans offer daily backups. Hostinger has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, too. Customer support is limited, though. Live chat is available 24/7, as is email, but Hostinger doesn’t offer phone support.  

Hostinger plans start at $3 a month.

See at Hostinger

Daily Host News

SiteGround

Many security features

SiteGround is a good option if you’re new to web hosting. It offers a 99.99% uptime, 24/7 customer support and plans include security features like SSL certificates, spam protection and a web access firewall to help protect your site. The company also has a 100% renewable energy match. However, Siteground offers shared, cloud, WordPress and reseller hosting options, so while these are good options to have, as your site grows and gains more traffic you might want to consider a service that offers VPS or dedicated hosting.  

SiteGround plans start at $3 a month.

See at Siteground

PR Newswire

GoDaddy

Free e-commerce plugin with WordPress plans

GoDaddy Web Hosting offers unmetered storage and bandwidth with its plans so you can upload as many images and videos onto your site as you want. GoDaddy offers shared, VPS, dedicated and WordPress hosting plans, has a 99.9% uptime guarantee and 24/7 customer support. However, its security offerings are inconsistent. For example, SSL certificates are included with some higher-tiered shared plans, but not lower-tiered plans. If this is your first site, you might want to start with one of the lower-tiered options, but the lack of security features might push you to get a more expensive plan. 

GoDaddy Web Hosting plans start at $6 a month.

See at GoDaddy

HostPapa

HostPapa

Present in more than 50 countries

HostPapa has global data centers, so you can choose the best data center to reach your visitors the quickest. Hosting options include shared, VPS, managed WordPress, reseller hosting and PapaCare Plus, which is similar to managed shared hosting. HostPapa has free SSL certificates, DDoS protection and other security features included in each plan, a 99.9% uptime guarantee and 24/7 phone, chat and email support. However, the lack of a dedicated hosting option means if your site grows too large, you will have to migrate to another service. Also, if you choose HostPapa, make sure to look over what you are buying when you’re checking out. As I went through checkout, some features, like automated backups and a security tool, were automatically added for an additional charge. When comparing plans, these additional features are mentioned and marked as included in higher-tier plans, but not in all plans.

HostPapa plans start at $3.95 per month.

See at HostPapa

Hostwinds

Hostwinds

Most VPS plans

Hostwinds offers unlimited storage and bandwidth, as well as unlimited free business email accounts with each plan. It offers shared, managed and unmanaged VPS, dedicated, reseller and cloud hosting plans, has a 99.99% uptime guarantee and offers 24/7 chat support. Hostwinds plans also come with free SSL certificates and free nightly backups. However, in comparison to other services, Hostwinds isn’t as forthcoming with information on other features or plan differences. Usually services show detailed charts that lay out what features come with plans. Hostwinds’ shared chart, for example, only lists bandwidth, disk space and how many domains come with each plan. Since bandwidth and disk space are unlimited, the only noticeable differences with each plan are the domains offered with each plan, the price and name of each plan. 

Hostwinds plans start at $5.24 a month.

See at Hostwinds

FastTech

Bluehost

Officially recommended by WordPress

Bluehost specializes in WordPress hosting and offers additional resources, like its Blue Flash customer support team, for anyone who chooses WordPress hosting. It offers shared, VPS and dedicated hosting as well as managed and unmanaged WordPress hosting. All plans include free SSL certificates, two-factor authentication and anti-spam protections. Bluehost customers can call or chat with a customer support representative 24/7. Bluehost doesn’t offer an uptime guarantee, but instead says it resolves issues within 15 minutes of them being reported. However, it doesn’t say how many issues you should expect on average. If your site is down for about 15 minutes a week, your site could be down for about 13 hours a year, which is higher than standard. 

Bluehost plans start at $2.95 per month. 

See at Bluehost

Daily Host News

Glowhost

Elastic site plans similar to VPS plans

GlowHost’s worldwide data centers give you the flexibility to host your site from a certain region if you anticipate most of your traffic will come from that region. Glowhost offers shared, cloud VPS, dedicated, semi-dedicated, reseller and what Glowhost calls an elastic plan which it compares to a managed VPS plan. Security features include free SSL certificates and McAfee Secure, which starts at $30 a year, and customer support is available by phone or chat 24/7. Uptime is harder to discern though. Some dedicated hosting plans guarantee 100% uptime, but a Glowhost administrator in 2008 said it could range between 99.5% and 99.9%, which means your site could be down for at least a day over the course of one year. 

Glowhost plans start at $3.47 per month.

See at Glowhost

Wikipedia

iPage

Low entry price point

iPage offers customers a free website builder to get their site up and running, as well as e-commerce tools to easily integrate into your site. iPage offers shared, VPS, dedicated and WordPress hosting plans, and has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. The service also offers 24/7 chat support, as well as phone support available seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 12 a.m. Eastern time. Each iPage plan comes with a free SSL certificate, but additional security features like daily malware scans and backups are not included. To fill those security gaps, iPage offers SiteLock, which starts at an extra $3.99 a month. iPage’s site is also hard to navigate in comparison to other services. For example, I had to scroll to the bottom of its homepage to find additional web hosting plans, like VPS and dedicated. 

iPage plans start at $2 per month.

See at iPage

ReviewPlan

Mochahost

No price increase upon renewal

Mochahost, unlike most other web hosting services, offers a lifetime discount guarantee. However, this discount doesn’t apply to every contract, so it can be a headache to figure out where the lifetime discount does or does not apply. From what we’ve seen, the lifetime discount guarantee is usually attached to three-year contracts, but these contract lengths aren’t usually the lowest priced. The advertised prices might be the lowest price, but that doesn’t mean they’ll save you the most money. The largest discounts often apply for just one month, and the renewal price could be double that original cost. Longer contracts, like those that are three years long, are more expensive for the first month, but you’ll save money in the long term because the lifetime discount is lower than the renewal price of shorter plans. In other words, longer contracts that appear more expensive save you money after about the second month. Mochahost offers shared, VPS, dedicated cloud, WordPress and reseller plans, a 100% uptime guarantee and 24/7 live chat support. Phone support is also available on callback. Free SSL certificates are included in each plan as well, but other security features, like spam and malware filters, come at an additional cost or with more expensive plans. 

Mochahost plans start at $1.95 per month.

See at Mochahost

WebHostingPad

WebHostingPad

Power plan mini good for first-timers

WebHostingPad offers shared, managed and unmanaged VPS, WordPress and a mini hosting plan for smaller sites. Each plan includes free SSL certificates and SiteLock Lite, and WebHostingHub has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Chat support is available 24/7, but phone support is only available Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Central Time. WebHostingPad also offers competitive prices, starting at $1.99 a month, but they’re only available with four-year and five-year contracts. There is a mini plan that has a fixed price point of $3 a month, but it’s offered with a three-year contract, otherwise the price is $3.50 a month for one year or $3.25 a month for two years. Domains are also an additional $17 at checkout. 

WebHostingPad plans start at $2 a month.

See at WebHostingPad


More web hosting services we looked at

Most of these services specialize in one type of hosting, like shared or WordPress, which means they’re not the best if you plan to grow your site. They also tend to be missing some security features and customer support options. However, they could be right for you and your needs if you have specific or smaller-scale hosting needs.

Liquid Web: No shared hosting. Security features include an integrated firewall and standard DDoS protections. Offers 99.99% uptime and 24/7 chat or phone support. Prices start at $15 a month.

Web Hosting Hub: Offers shared and WordPress hosting. Has free SSL certificates but other security features cost extra. Offers 99.9% uptime and has 24/7 chat and phone support. Prices start at $6 a month.

WP Engine: Offers WordPress hosting. Security features like free SSL certificates and daily backups. Has a 99.95% uptime guarantee and offers 24/7 chat and phone support. Prices start at $20 a month.

Kinsta: Offers WordPress hosting. Security features like free SSL certificates and automatic backups. Has a 99.9% uptime and 24/7 chat support. Prices start at $35 a month.

Pantheon: Offers WordPress hosting. Security features include DDoS protection and automated backups. Offers 99.9% uptime and customer support is available 24/7 via chat, phone or even Slack. Prices start at $41 a month. 

hands on laptop keyboard on a tablehands on laptop keyboard on a table

Getty/Natnan Srisuwan

Web hosting services compared

A2 Hosting InMotion Hosting Ionos Namecheap GreenGeeks Hostgator AccuWeb Hosting

Best for

Best for customer service

Best for first-time website owners

Best security features

Best cheap web host

Best clean-energy web host

Best for data-heavy sites

Best for global customers

Monthly shared plan starting price

$3

$2.49

$0.50

$1.58

$2.95

$2.75

$5.49

Security features

Great

Great

Great

Good

Good

Good

Great

Uptime guarantee

99.9%

99.99%

99.99%

99.9%

99.9%

99.9%

99.99%

Customer support

Great

Great

Great

Good

Good

Great

Good

Criteria for web hosting services

While we didn’t test the services, we did carefully examine each service’s offerings and ranked them according to essential web hosting features. Here’s what we looked for to determine the best web hosting services. You can also check out CNET’s 11 things to know about web hosting for more information about these and other features.

  • Hosting plans: We checked to see if the service offered shared, VPS and dedicated hosting plans. Inclusion of all three plan types allows customers to scale their plan up as their site grows. 
  • Security features: Services need to include some basic security features such as SSL certificates, DDoS protections and backups to protect your data as well as your visitors’. The best web hosts do this at no extra charge.
  • Uptime of 99.9% or higher: An uptime of 99.9% or higher ensures your site won’t go down for more than 20 minutes a month, so you keep losses of readers and sales to a minimum.
  • Customer support: All services offer some kind of customer support. Some say they offer customer service 24/7, but they mean you can email them any time. That’s a good start, but what if you have an issue that needs immediate attention? Some offer live chat which is better, and others offer phone support which is best.

The best web hosting services meet all four of those criteria. If a service falls short on one or more of those measures, you’ll find it in our list of other web hosting services to consider or our list of additional web hosts we looked at.

Web hosting terms to know

Some web hosting terms can be confusing. If a term in this list or on a web hsoting service’s site has you scratching your head, I’m going to explain them in more detail here.

What’s a CMS and what does it do?

Content management systems can help create and maintain your website. A CMS is a lot like the tools used to create posts or upload pictures to your social media profile, for example. A CMS does the same thing, but for your site. You don’t need a CMS, but without one you’ll have to code your site from the ground up. In addition to WordPress, a few other CMS tools are Joomla and WooCommerce.

What’s FTP?

A file transfer protocol is a method for transferring large files — like videos and other data-heavy files — from one location, like a server or computer, to another. Think of FTP as a type of delivery service. Imagine you order a television from a company and have it delivered to your home. The delivery truck that drops off the television at your home is the FTP. If you’ve ever used software like FileZilla, you’ve used an FTP. While FTP is generally vulnerable to malicious actors intercepting your data, secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) and FTP over SSL/TSL (FTPS) offer safer ways to transfer your files and data with security measures, like firewalls and data encryption. If given the option, always choose SFTP or FTPS rather than FTP when choosing a web hosting service.

I keep seeing the phrase ‘e-commerce’ in some hosting plan descriptions. What’s that?

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is buying and selling items online. If you’ve bought anything online like a new shirt, food or digital music, you’ve participated in e-commerce. Web hosting services will usually mention e-commerce in plan descriptions to signal it includes tools to help get your online shop up and running. If you plan on opening an online store or selling items online, you should look for plans that include e-commerce tools and resources.

What are CDNs?

Content delivery networks, or content distribution networks, are groups of data centers and servers that help deliver content to people on the internet based on a visitor’s physical location. Imagine you are hosting a site out of Dallas: 

Without a CDN, if people from the Netherlands try to access your site, your visitors might have to wait a while for the content of your site to be delivered to them because of the distance. However, if your web hosting service uses a CDN and has a data center in the Netherlands, your visitors from the Netherlands will access a version of your site stored in the much closer data center. This version of your site has some cached files stored in it to boost webpage load times and reduce bandwidth usage. This is good for you since some web hosting services limit bandwidth usage, and faster load times means happier visitors. 

According to a study by Digital.com, half of shoppers expect a site to load in three seconds or less, and almost a quarter of shoppers said slow load times are their main source of dissatisfaction when shopping online.

FAQ

You can check out CNET’s web hosting FAQ or tips to help secure your site for more information, too.

What is web hosting?

Web hosting is the act of storing a website’s data on a server or series of servers. Imagine a website as a work of art. That art needs to be housed somewhere for people to see, and web hosting is like a gallery where your art can be stored for others to view.

Server room with blue lightsServer room with blue lights

Data centers are filled with servers that can house hundreds of websites.


Stephen Shankland/CNET

What are the basic types of hosting?

There are three common types of web hosting: shared, virtual private server and dedicated hosting.

Shared hosting is typically the most basic, and the least expensive, type of hosting. Continuing the art example, shared hosting is like a small gallery presented in a coffee shop. Yes, the art you created is there, but so is art by other people. Shared hosting is similar. You’re usually charged a few bucks a month to house your site, but you don’t get a lot of resources to help you take care of your site. These plans usually cost between $2.50 and $15 a month.

VPS hosting is a step up from shared hosting and is a little bit more expensive. Here, your art is stored in a gallery downtown. Other art is still stored and displayed alongside yours, but unlike shared hosting, each artist has their own booth within the gallery. With VPS hosting, you get more resources which allow you to handle more traffic and display more items. These plans usually cost between $20 and $80 a month.

Dedicated hosting is when you house your site on a whole server without anyone else. This is like having the entire art gallery to yourself. Everything there is your art and you get dedicated people to help take care of your art. These plans are the most expensive, but you get the most resources. Dedicated hosting plans usually cost between $80 and $300 a month.

What are some other types of hosting?

Some other types of hosting include reseller, cloud and WordPress hosting.

Reseller hosting involves subscribing to a web hosting service and selling that space to a person who wants to put a website online. Back to the art example: Imagine you don’t own any art, but you see a bunch of people who want to display their art. You have some money so you buy a space in a building for artists to display their work and charge them for using that space. That’s reseller hosting. You buy space on a server, not to use, but to resell to people in order to make money. 

Cloud hosting is like having copies of your art featured online, instead of just physical locations. That way, even if one gallery is closed your art is still viewable somewhere else. Cloud hosting is similar in that your data is stored in a network of servers so if anything happens to one server, visitors can still view your site like usual. These are generally used by larger businesses and organizations.

WordPress hosting is optimized to use WordPress as a content management system. WordPress is a popular system used by many organizations, offering over 54,000 plugins to help build your site. This system is designed to be easy to learn, which means WordPress is a good choice for people who are hosting their first site.

What’s uptime and why is it important?

Uptime is a measurement of how long your site operates without going offline. The longer your site stays up, the more traffic it can handle and the more money you can potentially make if your site is for a business. Imagine you’ve narrowed down where to hang your art to two places: One is open two days a week and the other is open seven days a week. You want more people to see your art so you go with the place open seven days a week. That’s similar to uptime. However, uptime can be confusing. Generally when you see something is 99% effective, you think that’s pretty good. But a 99% uptime means your site is down for over three days a year. The industry standard uptime is 99.9%, and anything more is best for you and your visitors. Most web hosting services have uptime guarantees and offer some form of reimbursement if your site is down longer than the guaranteed uptime.

What are the differences between unmanaged and managed hosting?

Unmanaged hosting plans place responsibility for some administrative work on you as the customer. Managed hosting plans, however, leave the heavy lifting to the web hosting service provider. Unmanaged is like if you hang your art in a gallery and you have to clean it, make sure it’s hung right and generally maintain it. Managed is like gallery employees handling those tasks for you. Unmanaged plans are generally more cost effective, but managed plans free up your time to focus on your site.

What security features should I look for in a hosting service?

Some of the key security features you should be on the lookout for are secure socket layer certificates, distributed denial of service protections and web application firewalls. 

SSL certificates are a form of cryptographic protocols that encrypt and authenticate data between servers, machines and applications operating within a network. These are like a coded language between the server your site is hosted on and the computer of a visitor. Only your server and your visitor’s computer have the keys to the coded language, ensuring no one intercepts any of your or your visitor’s data.

A DDoS attack is a flood of traffic to your site that overwhelms and shuts down your site, and potentially the sites of others depending on your hosting plan. Imagine you hang your art up in a coffee shop, for example, and someone doesn’t like your art so they convince hundreds of thousands of protesters to swarm the shop to stop anyone from seeing your art. Not only can most people not see your art because of the crowd, but people can’t see other artist’s work either. Having DDoS protections in place helps monitor your site’s traffic for anything suspicious, and stops DDoS attacks from happening before they cause significant damage.

A WAF is a layer of security on your site that filters, monitors and blocks malicious traffic from accessing your site. You have hung your art up, and in order to protect your art and anyone who’s come to see it, the gallery has hired a bouncer to pat down people as they walk in to see your art. The bouncer is the WAF. If traffic looks suspicious, the WAF blocks it. 

Error 404Error 404

DDoS attacks can make your site unreachable for an extended amount of time.


James Martin/CNET

What are website builders? Do I need one of those?

Not necessarily, but if this is your first site you might find a website builder helpful, and some web hosting services offer free website builders with plans. Instead of coding your site from scratch, website builders are tools that help you easily create your site through simpler interfaces.

What is site migration? Can I do that myself?

Site migration is the process of moving your already established website from one web hosting service to another. You might do this because the price to renew your current web hosting service increased dramatically or you’re unhappy with your current service. Some services will migrate your site for free, while others will charge you to migrate to their service. You can migrate your site manually, but you could lose traffic as well as content if done improperly. If it’s your first time migrating from one service to another, it might be best to let someone else handle it.

Should I use a Linux or Windows server?

It depends on your goals, but a Linux server will work for most people. Servers that run the Linux operating system support most programming languages and have more features web developers might expect. Linux is also the more popular server operating system, powering about 37.8% of all websites on the internet, according to Web Technology Surveys. A lot of website-creation tools and applications run on Linux so they will work on these servers with no extra effort. Linux servers are also generally cheaper than Windows servers. If you’re a small business owner maintaining your own site, or you’re starting your own blog or online store, a Linux server has what you need. 

Servers that use the Windows operating system use the programming language C#. That means if you already know Python, Perl or another language, you’ll have to learn C#. Windows servers also use Microsoft-specific tools and applications like Microsoft Access, Microsoft SharePoint and MSSQL. If you run into issues with these applications or your server, you can contact Microsoft’s customer support who should be able to solve your issue in a timely fashion. Linux is an open-source operating system, so while there is a community of people working to fix bugs, you’ll likely have to dig around to find a solution that works for you. Many large corporations and organizations use Windows servers, so if you want to work for one of them in the future, you could benefit from practicing with your own server and putting that on your resume.

For more on web hosting, check out the best website builders, the best VPN services and the best identity theft protection services.

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Google Fi Gives Subscribers a Boost When Traveling Abroad https://1800birks4u.com/tech/mobile/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/mobile/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Thu, 08 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/mobile/google-fi-gives-subscribers-a-boost-when-traveling-abroad/ Google on Thursday unveiled updates to its Google Fi mobile phone service that could make international travel easier for its subscribers. One of the major updates is that Google Fi now offers Wi-Fi calling to iPhone users. Now, if you’re an iPhone user and you’re out of your coverage area (like in another country), you can make a phone […]

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Google on Thursday unveiled updates to its Google Fi mobile phone service that could make international travel easier for its subscribers.

One of the major updates is that Google Fi now offers Wi-Fi calling to iPhone users. Now, if you’re an iPhone user and you’re out of your coverage area (like in another country), you can make a phone call using available Wi-Fi signals. If both Wi-Fi and cellular are available, Google said, the service will use whichever has the stronger signal.

Google Fi: Check out the plans

See at Google Fi

“If you’re traveling abroad, Wi-Fi calling can even help reduce calling costs, depending on the country you’re in,” Google said in a blog post.

Google is also bringing international hotspot tethering to iPhone users who have Fi’s Flexible or Unlimited Plus plan. This feature lets you use your iPhone as a hotspot for up to 10 other devices at a time.

See also: Best Phone Plan Deals: Free Streaming Services, $200 Gift Cards and More

Android subscribers already have access to both Wi-Fi calling and international hotspot tethering, but Google didn’t leave those users out. It also announced it’s expanding its 5G coverage area for some Android users to 26 more countries. That means 5G coverage is now available in 39 countries, including Iceland, Qatar and Japan. This feature is available to people with a Flexible or Unlimited Plus Plan who have a Pixel or a Samsung Galaxy S22 series phone.

For more Google news, check out why you should update your Chrome browser, what the latest Google Maps update brings to you and whether you’re entitled to money from a Google settlement


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Lowe’s Teams With Instacart to Bring Same https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Thu, 08 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/services-and-software/lowes-brings-same-day-delivery-to-customers-with-instacart/ Lowe’s said Thursday that it’s teaming up with Instacart to offer customers same-day delivery nationwide. Items up to 3 feet by 3 feet by 5 feet and weighing as much as 60 pounds can be delivered to your front door in less than an hour in some cases. Deliveries can also be scheduled. Lowe’s began […]

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Lowe’s said Thursday that it’s teaming up with Instacart to offer customers same-day delivery nationwide. Items up to 3 feet by 3 feet by 5 feet and weighing as much as 60 pounds can be delivered to your front door in less than an hour in some cases. Deliveries can also be scheduled.

Lowe’s began testing same-day delivery with Instacart in February in select markets. Now same-day delivery is available in all 50 states and Washington, DC. 

“We’re excited to open up this new fulfillment offering across the US for customers to shop for all of their project needs,” said Lowe’s senior vice president of online, Mike Shady.

Customers who want to take advantage of Lowe’s same-day delivery can go to the Lowe’s storefront in Instacart’s website or app.

For more news, check out what’s different about the new iPhone 14 models, how much the new iPhone line will cost and everything else Apple announced at its Far Out event.


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The New iPhone 14 Lineup Is Impressive, but These Models Will Cost You https://1800birks4u.com/tech/mobile/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/mobile/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Thu, 08 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/mobile/the-new-iphone-14-lineup-is-impressive-but-these-models-will-cost-you/ This story is part of Focal Point iPhone 2022, CNET’s collection of news, tips and advice around Apple’s most popular product. The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus will start at $799 and $899 in the US, respectively, and the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will kick off at $999 and $1,099, Apple said Wednesday […]

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This story is part of Focal Point iPhone 2022, CNET’s collection of news, tips and advice around Apple’s most popular product.

The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus will start at $799 and $899 in the US, respectively, and the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will kick off at $999 and $1,099, Apple said Wednesday at its fall product event.

The $799 price tag for the basic iPhone 14 is the same as the iPhone 13 at launch, and the same as the new Apple Watch Ultra

The most you’ll pay in the new iPhone lineup is $1,599 for an iPhone 14 Pro Max with 1TB of memory.

screen-shot-2022-09-07-at-2-31-54-pm-2.pngscreen-shot-2022-09-07-at-2-31-54-pm-2.png

The updated prices for some iPhone models.


Apple/Screenshot by Sarah Lord/CNET

With the unveiling of the iPhone 14 models, the price of older iPhones has come down. The iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 now start at $599, and the iPhone SE now starts at $429.

iPhone SE at Apple

Prices for the iPhone 14 models are in line with similar iPhone 13 models. However, the iPhone 13 Mini cost $699 at launch, making it the cheapest iPhone 13 model. Apple didn’t announce a similar iPhone 14 model at its event Wednesday. 

More Apple news

According to data from Consumer Research Intelligence Partners, the iPhone 13 Mini reportedly made up only 3% of iPhone sales in the first quarter of 2022, underselling even the iPhone 12 Mini, which made up about 5% of sales in the first half of 2021.

Let’s also not forget that the first iPhone in 2007 was $399 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB model, and both original models came with a two-year contract with AT&T at launch. On the other end of the spectrum, the base model iPhone X started at $999.


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The iPhone 14, 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max can be preordered starting Sept. 9, and they’ll begin shipping Sept. 16. The iPhone 14 Plus can be preordered starting on Sept. 9 also, but it won’t ship until Oct. 7.

iPhone 14 at Apple

In the UK, the iPhone 14 starts at £849, and the iPhone 14 Plus starts at £949 — noticeably more expensive than in the US, thanks to VAT and a poor exchange rate. The iPhone 14 Pro will set Brits back at least £1,099, and the iPhone 14 Pro Max at least £1,199. In Australia, the iPhone 14 base price is AU$1,399, and the iPhone 14 Plus starts at AU$1,579. The iPhone 14 Pro will set Aussies back at least AU$1,749, and the iPhone 14 Pro Max starts at AU$1,899.

For more on Apple’s event, check out the latest on the Apple Watch, Apple Watch Ultra and AirPods Pro 2.

Apple’s Newest Releases

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Best WordPress Hosting of 2022 https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Tue, 06 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/services-and-software/best-wordpress-hosting/ If you’re interested in starting a blog or an editorial site just like CNET, then there’s only one content management system you need: WordPress. It’s one of the most popular CMS options out there, with around 40% of all websites using it, according to Web Tribunal. Not only that, but more than 600 sites are created every day […]

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If you’re interested in starting a blog or an editorial site just like CNET, then there’s only one content management system you need: WordPress. It’s one of the most popular CMS options out there, with around 40% of all websites using it, according to Web Tribunal. Not only that, but more than 600 sites are created every day with WordPress. That’s around 10 times more than Shopify and Squarespace’s 60 to 80 a day. Yes, if you’re in need of a website, then WordPress is the way to go.

However, choosing a WordPress hosting service can be challenging. There are a huge number of WordPress hosting options that offer great customer service and a lot of good features at a reasonable price. We examined the data for 22 services to help make the choice easier for you.

While we didn’t test these services, we did read through each service’s offerings and ranked them according to essential features. Here’s what we looked for to determine the best WordPress hosting service. You can also check out CNET’s best web hosting services and things to know about web hosting for more information on some of these features.

Tiered hosting plans: Tiered plans give you the option to scale your WordPress site up as it grows.

Security features: Services need to include some basic security features such as SSL certificates, DDoS protections and backups to protect your and your visitor’s data. The best web hosts do this at no extra charge.

Uptime of 99.9% or higher: An uptime of 99.9% or higher ensures your site won’t go down for more than 20 minutes a month, so you keep losses of readers and sales to a minimum.

Customer support: All services offer some kind of customer support. Some say they offer customer service 24/7, but they mean you can email them any time. That’s a good start, but if you have an issue that needs immediate attention live chat support is better, and phone support is best.

The best WordPress hosting services meet all four of those criteria. If a service falls short on one or more of those measures, you’ll find it in our list of other WordPress hosting services to consider or our list of additional WordPress hosts.

Three of the WordPress hosts on this list are recommended by WordPress: Bluehost, Dreamhostand Siteground. Bluehost and Dreamhost are not among our best WordPress services. Bluehost doesn’t have an uptime guarantee, and Dreamhost lacks phone support and offers customer support by chat only within limited daily time frames.

Note: Pricing for hosting services is hard to follow. Services usually list introductory rates that require contracts of one or more years. But once those contracts are up, the prices jump considerably, meaning the long-term cost is a lot different than it seems at first glance. This is why it’s important to check the renewal price because most services auto-renew contracts annually to ensure sites stay up at all times. Actual month-to-month plans are available in some cases, but they usually bill at the regular rate without an introductory discount.

Best WordPress hosting services

Sarah Tew/CNET

SiteGround

Pros:

  • WordPress automatic updates available
  • Free business email accounts included

Cons:

  • Value of “deals” doesn’t hold up for long-term use

Tiered hosting plans

SiteGround offers three WordPress hosting options called StartUp, GrowBig and GoGeek. Each offers unmetered traffic, but as you move from StartUp to GrowBig and finally to GoGeek, you get additional perks like on-demand backups and more server resources.

Security features

Each SiteGround WordPress plan includes security features like SSL certificates, daily backups and a custom web application firewall.

Uptime 

SiteGround offers a 99.99% uptime, which is higher than the industry standard of 99.9%. Customers should expect less than an hour of downtime per year, compared to nine hours for companies that only offer 99.9% uptime.

Customer support

Customer support is available 24/7 by phone, chat or ticket submission. SiteGround also offers tutorials to help you if you want to figure out any issues on your own.

Other information

Each WordPress plan also comes with automatic WordPress installation and free site migration when you purchase a plan. Each plan also includes automatic updates, so you can customize an update schedule once a new plugin or version is available. Siteground also has a 100% renewable energy match so the service gives back as much energy as its data centers use. 

On the downside, Siteground’s language around its ‘Best Deal’ is a bit misleading. Siteground says its 12-month plan is the best deal, but the price renews at the regular rate of $15 a month after the first year, which is more than three-times the introductory price. The service’s 36-month plan looks to be more pricey, but this plan is actually the best deal if you plan on hosting a site with SiteGrounds for three years, coming in at almost $30 less than the ‘best deal’ for that same amount of time. Domain registration is also not included, so when you check out, that is automatically added for a one-time additional $18. 

Prices start at $4 a month.

See at SiteGround

A receipt from SiteGround for $18 for domain registrationA receipt from SiteGround for $18 for domain registration

Domain registration with SiteGround isn’t included with hosting and is a one-time additional $18.


SiteGround/Screenshot by Zach McAuliffe/CNET

Sarah Tew/CNET

InMotion Hosting

Pros:

  • Shared, VPS and dedicated WordPress hosting available
  • Automated social media posting included 

Cons:

  • Add-ons automatically added at checkout

Tiered hosting plans

InMotion Hosting offers four tiered standard WordPress plans called WP Core, WP Launch, WP Power and WP Pro. The WP Core plan comes with limited resources, like two websites, 100 GB of storage and 10 business email addresses, but all other plans remove limits on websites, data storage and email accounts. 

Security features

All plans include an SSL certificate, web application firewalls and hack and malware protection.

Uptime

InMotion Hosting offers 99.99% uptime, placing InMotion Hosting above the standard in terms of uptime. 

Customer support

InMotion hosting customers can reach customer support 24/7 by phone, chat, email or ticket submission. The InMotion Hosting support center also offers video tutorials for more detailed assistance.

Other information

InMotion Hosting offers shared, VPS and dedicated WordPress hosting, which is more than many other WordPress hosting services. Each of these plans are also tiered, allowing you to fine-tune your subscription. VPS WordPress hosting has four tiered options, and dedicated WordPress hosting has five tiered options plus a “build your own plan” option. These additional tiers give you more plan options than other services.

If you choose a WordPress hosting plan with InMotion Hosting, make sure you double check your cart before checking out. When I went to my cart, my bill was $54 higher thanks to automatic add-ons. You can remove these options, though.

Prices start at $4 a month.

See at InMotion Hosting

A receipt from InMotion Hosting showing the add-ons Backup Manager and Google WorkspaceA receipt from InMotion Hosting showing the add-ons Backup Manager and Google Workspace

These automatic add-ons can be removed from your InMotion Hosting bill if you don’t want them.


InMotion Hosting/Screenshot by Zach McAuliffe/CNET

Sarah Tew/CNET

IONOS

Pros:

  • Lowest entry price
  • WordPress Pro offered

Cons:

  • Plan prices increase over time, sometimes by huge margins
  • WordPress needs to be installed after purchase

Tiered hosting options

IONOS offers three tiered standard WordPress plans called Essential, Business and Unlimited. The Essential and Business plans offer limited data while the Unlimited plan offers unlimited data and more resources.

Security features

IONOS plans include some of the best security features. All plans include SSL certificates, malware scans and DDoS protections. Some security features included with some plans also help repair damage malware might cause on your website. Each plan includes backups at least once every 24 hours, and each backup is held for 20 days. A full set of a customer’s data is also stored in two separate data centers as a security measure; that way customers will always have access to their data, even if one data center is brought down by a cyberattack.

Uptime 

IONOS has a 99.99% uptime guarantee, which is a higher guarantee than most other WordPress web hosting services. Battery-operated power supplies and backup generators help maintain power to IONOS data centers so your site and services stay online even if its data center loses power.

Customer support

IONOS customers have some unique customer support options. Customer support is available 24/7 by phone or chat. IONOS also has a directory that provides customer support numbers in 14 different countries. Plans also include a personal consultant who will be your main point of contact if you need help with your site.

Other features

IONOS also offers WordPress Pro, which is its version of dedicated WordPress hosting. It comes with features to handle larger operations and projects. For example, the staging tool lets you preview changes to your site before they are implemented. 

IONOS’ entry price is also the lowest of any other hosting service. 

Though the entry price is the lowest, that price increases upon renewal by over 1,000%, which is the highest renewal rate of plans on this list. The renewal rate is $8 a month, which is lower than some introductory rates for other services, but the price can still be jarring if you renew with IONOS after your initial contract. You also have to install WordPress on your own after you’ve purchased the plan, but IONOS has an installation guide.

Prices start at $0.50 a month.

See at IONOS

An IONOS promotional card showing their low introductory price and higher renewal rateAn IONOS promotional card showing their low introductory price and higher renewal rate

While this plan is $0.50 a month for a year, it renews at $8 a month.


IONOS/Screenshot by Zach McAuliffe/CNET

Sarah Tew/CNET

A2 Hosting

Pros:

  • SEO tools included
  • Free site migration

Cons:

  • Relatively expensive entry price

Tiered hosting options

A2 Hosting offers four tiered WordPress hosting plans called Run, Jump, Fly and Sell. Run and Jump plans limit data storage and the number of websites you can host while Fly and Sell offer unlimited data storage and an unlimited number of websites. If you’re trying to start an online shop, Sell comes with e-commerce tools preinstalled.

Security features

Each plan comes with security features like an SSL certificate, dual firewalls, virus scanner and brute force defense. Each of the four plans come with an Immunify360 security suite, which regularly costs $12 a month, and Patchman enhanced security tool, which regularly costs about $25 a month. Fly and Sell plans also include automated daily malware scans.

Uptime

A2 Hosting has a 99.9% uptime commitment. An uptime of 99.9% means your site shouldn’t be down for more than nine hours a year, which is the industry standard.

Customer support 

A2 Hosting customers can reach customer support 24/7 by phone, chat or email. A2 Hosting has a large database called Knowledge Base filled with information to help you develop and grow your site if you want to troubleshoot on your own.

Other information

A2 Hosting also offers free site migration, which usually costs $300 to $400. When you go to check out, there are also no add-ons automatically tacked onto your bill. There are add-ons if you’re interested, but they don’t feel forced on you. A2 Hosting has also been carbon-neutral since 2007.

The biggest downside? A2 Hosting’s entry price is relatively high compared to other WordPress hosting service — higher than the renewal price of some other services. 

Prices start at $12 a month.

See at A2 Hosting

Sarah Tew/CNET

HostGator

Pros:

  • One-click WordPress installation
  • Automated backups from CodeGuard and SiteLock Essential included

Cons:

  • Renewal prices not listed

Tiered hosting options

HostGator offers three tiered WordPress hosting plans called Starter Plan, Standard Plan and Business Plan. The main difference between each plan is the number of websites you can run, how many visitors your site can accommodate per month and how many sites can be migrated to HostGator for free. None of these options are unlimited or unmetered like other WordPress hosting services.

Security features

HostGator plans include SSL certificates and DDoS protections. WordPress plans also come with automated backups from CodeGuard and security features from SiteLock Essential. Combined, these would cost at least $120 per year, but they are included at no additional cost. However, HostGator writes that anyone with “critical business information or important data are STRONGLY encouraged to seek a third-party backup service…” (emphasis theirs). Maybe this is just HostGator covering its legal bases, but it doesn’t feel like a vote of confidence for HostGator’s existing backup system.

Uptime

HostGator has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. This means your site shouldn’t be down for more than nine hours a year, which is the industry standard.

Customer support

Customers can reach HostGator customer support representatives by chat, email or phone 24/7. Users can also access a database full of video tutorials, articles and guides. Not all services offer video tutorials, which could help solve an issue when it feels like talking to customer support over the phone or online isn’t helping. HostGator support is also active on Twitter.

Other information

HostGator also has a one-click WordPress installation process, and HostGator offers a video tutorial in case you want additional help. 

Like other services, each tiered plan offers an introductory price, and the cost rises when the plan renews. While other services list the renewal price near the introductory price, HostGator doesn’t. You can only see the renewal price when you go to check out, so I pulled those rates and listed them here.

  • Starter Plan: $15 a month
  • Standard Plan: $28 a month
  • Business Plan: $60 a month

Plans start at $6 a month.

See at HostGator

Sarah Tew/CNET

HostPapa

Pros:

  • WordPress training sessions included
  • Managed WordPress plans also available

Cons:

  • Some automated features only available with more expensive plans
  • Some additional items automatically added at checkout

Tiered hosting options

HostPapa offers three tiered standard WordPress hosting plans called WP Starter, WP Business and WP Business Pro. The WP Starter plan limits some features like data storage, the number of websites you can host and the number of business email accounts supported. The other plans don’t limit these resources. The WP Business Pro plan also includes Jetpack Premium — a WordPress plugin that offers additional security and e-commerce features — which usually costs $100 annually.

Security features

Each plan includes security features like an SSL certificate, brute force attack protection and business email virus scans. Some security features, like spam and malware scans, are included in the most expensive plans.

Uptime

HostPapa has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. This is the industry standard, and means you should expect your site to be down for no more than nine hours a year.

Customer support

HostPapa customers get 24/7 customer support via phone, chat and email. You also have access to a knowledge base filled with articles and tutorials to help maintain your site. HostPapa also offers 30-minute WordPress training sessions by video chat so you can get one-on-one help if you’re a WordPress beginner or expert. 

Other information

HostPapa also offers managed WordPress plans, but these plans are more expensive than the standard WordPress plans offered by HostPapa, which are unmanaged. HostPapa is also a carbon-neutral hosting service.

Like other services, you should double check your order before you check out. Some additional items, like automated backups and more security features, are automatically added to your cart and will cost you about $40 extra.

Prices start at $4 a month.

See at HostPapa

screen-shot-2022-04-05-at-3-08-53-pm.pngscreen-shot-2022-04-05-at-3-08-53-pm.png

Upon checkout, HostPapa automatically adds additional features to your bill at an extra charge.


HostPapa/Screenshot by Zachary McAuliffe/CNET

Sarah Tew/CNET

GoDaddy Web Hosting

Pros:

  • WordPress preinstalled
  • No large price jump upon renewal

Cons:

  • Shared hosting plans are cheaper, offer similar features

Tiered hosting options

GoDaddy Web Hosting offers four tiered WordPress hosting plans called Basic, Deluxe, Ultimate and Ecommerce. Basic and Deluxe plans have data limits in place of 30 and 75GB, respectively. Basic and Deluxe plans also accommodate 25K and 100K site visitors a month, respectively. Ultimate and Ecommerce plans offer unlimited data and site visitors. The Ecommerce plan also helps get your online store up and running fast.

Security features

Each plan includes an SSL certificate, automatic daily malware scans and daily backups. Deluxe, Ultimate and Ecommerce plans also include secure file transfer protocol access. 

Uptime

GoDaddy has an industry-standard 99.9% uptime guarantee. This means you should expect your site to be down for about nine hours a year.

Customer support

GoDaddy customers have 24/7 phone and chat customer support, plus a help center full of guides and videos.

Other information

WordPress is preinstalled with each hosting plan. Unlike other services, when plans renew there isn’t a drastic increase in price. Some plans only increase by one dollar.

What’s confusing about GoDaddy is it offers shared hosting plans that have similar features to its WordPress plans. The introductory and renewal rates are less than the WordPress plans, and the shared hosting plans come with a one-click WordPress installation tool, too. With that in mind, why not go with a shared hosting plan and save yourself some money? 

Prices start at $9 a month (or $6 a month for shared hosting plans with one-click WordPress installation).

See at GoDaddy

Sarah Tew/CNET

Nexcess

Pros:

  • Staging tools available to let you test out site changes
  • Seven tiered plans

Cons:

  • Pricing more confusing than other services

Tiered hosting options

Nexcess offers seven tiered WordPress hosting plans called Spark, Maker, Designer, Builder, Producer, Executive and Enterprise. Plans have limited storage, ranging from 15GB with Spark to 800GB with Enterprise. Plans also differ in the number of websites they can host, ranging from one with Spark and 250 with Enterprise. Each plan comes with unlimited business email accounts.

Security features

Every Nexcess plan includes security features like an SSL certificate, automatic daily backups and iThemes Security Pro, which is an $80 annual value.

Uptime

Nexcess has an uptime guarantee of 99.99%. That means customers should expect to experience an average of less than an hour of downtime per year — far less than the average downtime.  

Customer support

Customers can access customer support 24/7 by phone, chat and email. You can also submit a ticket for more support. The 24/7 telephone lines have numbers for the US, Australia and the UK.

Other information

Each plan also comes with staging sites so you can preview changes to your site before they go live. Nexcess also tests WordPress plugins for you. They make a copy of your site and test the plugin so you don’t have to worry if something will work on your site or not.

Unlike other web hosting services, monthly promotional prices for Nexcess are only good for three months before your price jumps. Most other services offer longer promotional periods. Annual plans don’t offer promo prices, but they’re still cheaper than a full year of monthly prices — even with the promotional discount. For example, a full year on the Spark plan would cost about $211 billed monthly (including the three-month discount), but only $190 billed annually.

Prices start at $13.30 a month.

See at Nexcess

Spark costs $13.30 a month for first three months and then $19 a monthSpark costs $13.30 a month for first three months and then $19 a month

Nexcess’ billing is unusual when it comes to web hosting services.


Nexcess/Screenshot by Zach McAuliffe/CNET

Sarah Tew/CNET

AccuWeb Hosting

Pros:

  • WordPress preinstalled
  • 24/7 site security monitoring

Cons:

  • Add-ons can cost more than hosting
  • Add-ons not available to all

Tiered hosting options

AccuWeb Hosting offers three tiered WordPress hosting plans called WordPress Starter, WordPress Pro and WordPress Business. Each plan offers unlimited WordPress websites, but other resources — like storage and bandwidth — are limited. 

Security features

Each plan includes an SSL certificate, malware protections and DDoS protection and mitigation tools. 

Uptime

AccuWeb Hosting guarantees an impressive 99.99% uptime. That means you should expect less than an hour of downtime per year, compared to nine hours for companies that only offer 99.9% uptime.

Customer support

WordPress customer support is available 24/7 by phone, chat and ticket submission. AccuWeb Hosting also says its ticket submission system has a response time of under 90 minutes. Most other services that have ticket submission don’t give a timeframe for response so AccuWeb Hosting giving a 90 minutes or less response seems good.

Other information

WordPress comes preinstalled with each plan, making it easy to start working on your site as soon as you purchase a plan. Each AccuWeb Hosting plan also offers 24/7 site security monitoring so if your site goes down while you’re not looking, someone should already be aware and working to fix it.

After purchasing a plan, you can purchase 10GB of additional disk space for $5 a month. You can also purchase 100GB of additional bandwidth for $20 a month, but only if you are hosting your site out of the Denver data center. If you purchase both of these add-ons, the total can be more than the cost of the WordPress Starter plan after renewal.

Plans start at $10 a month.

See at AccuWeb Hosting

A screenshot from AccuWeb Hosting showing how much add-ons will costA screenshot from AccuWeb Hosting showing how much add-ons will cost

Optional add-ons from AccuWeb Hosting can cost more than hosting in some cases.


AccuWeb/Screenshot by Zach McAuliffe/CNET

WordPress hosting providers compared

SiteGround InMotion Hosting IONOS A2 Hosting HostGator HostPapa GoDaddy Web Hosting Nexcess AccuWeb Hosting
Starting price for WordPress hosting, per month $4 $4 $0.50 $12 $6 $4 $9 $13.30 $10
Uptime promise 99.99% 99.99% 99.99% 99.9% 99.9% 99.9% 99.9% 100% 99.99%
24/7 customer service Phone, live chat and ticket submission Phone, live chat, email and ticket submission Phone and live chat Phone, live chat and email Phone, live chat and email Phone, live chat and email Phone and live chat Phone, live chat, email and ticket submission Phone, live chat and ticket submission
Money-back guarantee 30 days 90 days for contracts longer than 6 months; 30 days for month-to-month contracts or dedicated hosting plans 30 days 30 days 45 days 30 days 30 days for annual plans; 48 hours for monthly plans 30 days 30 days

Other WordPress hosting services to consider

Some of these services don’t offer as much customer support as the best services, don’t offer as many security features or lack an uptime guarantee. You still might find a service that works for you, though.

GreenGeeks

GreenGeeks is a green energy web hosting provider, and it makes a 300% green energy match for each hosting plan. It also works with the nonprofit One Tree Planted to plant a tree with each hosting plan signup. If you are new to WordPress hosting, or migrating from another service, GreenGeeks offers free WordPress installation and free site migration so you can get started fast. GreenGeeks offers three tiered WordPress plans, and security features include SSL certificates and DDoS protections. GreenGeeks also has an industry standard 99.9% uptime. Customer support is available 24/7 by email and chat, but phone support is available 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. PT (9 a.m. to 12 a.m. ET). While chat and email support are good, being able to talk through an issue or have a person explain in detail how to fix something at any time can be beneficial to resolving issues.

Prices start at $3 a month.

See all GreenGeeks plans


Mochahost

Mochahost offers competitive prices, but unlike other services Mochahost doesn’t have renewal rates. No matter how long you stay with Mochahost, your price doesn’t go up. Mochahost also handles any WordPress updates. Mochahost offers three tiered WordPress hosting plans, includes security features like an SSL certificate, automatic backups, as well as malware and spam monitors. Mochahost’s cloud-based servers result in a 100% uptime, and customer support is available by email or chat 24/7. You can also call customer support, but you have to leave a message and wait for a call back each time. This hurts Mochahost’s rating, because if I call with an issue, I want someone to help me now, not at some point in the future.

Prices start at $2.68 a month.

See all MochaHost plans


DreamHost

DreamHost has a 97-day money-back guarantee, which is the longest money-back period for any hosting service on this list. If you’re new to WordPress hosting, this could help you decide if it’s the right choice for you. The lowest starting price is with a monthly contract, and after your first month, the price renews at $8 a month. DreamHost also has a managed WordPress hosting option called DreamPress, which has three tiered options, and VPS WordPress hosting, which has four tiered options. Otherwise, DreamHost offers two basic tiered WordPress options, security features like an SSL certificate and automated daily backups and a 100% uptime guarantee. Customer support is limited, though. Email support is available 24/7 and chat support is available from 3 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. PT (6 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. ET). Dreamhost doesn’t offer phone support, which hurts them, as well as not supporting 24/7 chat support. 

Prices start at $2 a month.

See all DreamHost plans


Hostinger

Hostinger’s prices start at a competitive $2 a month for managed WordPress hosting — some WordPress hosting services charge five times as much for managed WordPress hosting. It also offers free site migration if you are switching from another hosting service. Hostinger offers four tiered WordPress hosting options: Each plan includes security features like an SSL certificate, DDoS protection and web application firewalls as well as a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Customer support is available by email or chat 24/7, but no phone support hurts Hostinger’s rating. 

Prices start at $2 a month.

See all Hostinger plans


WebHostingPad

WebHostingPad’s three tiered WordPress plans offer unlimited features, including hosting space, bandwidth and business email accounts. Plans come with a one-click WordPress installer and free Weebly website builder as well. It offers a 99.9% uptime, security features like an SSL certificate and malware scans and removals. Customer support is available 24/7 by chat or email, and phone support is available Monday thru Friday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. PT (9 a.m. to 11 p.m. ET). If you have an issue with your site on the weekend, you can’t call their support, and their security features aren’t as robust as some other service’s.

Prices start at $3 a month.

See all WebHostingPad plans


Bluehost

Bluehost’s customer support is bolstered by its Blue Flash team to help you learn the ins-and-outs of WordPress. The team or experts can help you set up your site or help with plug-ins. Bluehost has four tiered WordPress hosting plans, and security features include SSL certificate for your first year and two-factor authentication. On top of the Blue Flash team, you can reach customer support 24/7 by call or chat. Bluehost’s lack of an uptime guarantee is concerning though. Their uptime agreement says they will resolve most issues within 15 minutes, but it doesn’t say how often you should expect service to potentially go down. If your site goes down for 15 minutes daily, that means your site is down for over three days in one year. The industry standard 99.9% uptime means your site will potentially be down for almost nine hours in one year.

Prices start at $3 a month.

See all Bluehost plans


Hostwinds

Hostwinds offers unlimited storage, bandwidth and business email accounts with each WordPress plan. You can also pay for your hosting plan with BitCoin and other cryptocurrency. It offers three tiered WordPress hosting options. Each plan includes an SSL certificate, has a 99.9% uptime guarantee and 24/7 chat support. Some security features, like two-factor authentication, need to be manually installed, but Hostwinds has a database of tutorials with step-by-step instructions. It’s unclear how long contracts are for the prices shown, though. I tried to go to checkout to see how long the contracts were, but I was asked to create an account before I could go further. Having to create an account before knowing how long a contract lasts is annoying, and no phone support hurts Hostwinds’ ranking. Its introductory price is also noticeably higher than others’. The renewal price might not be as much as some other services, but it’s hard to tell.

Prices start at $6.74 a month.

See all Hostwinds plans


Web Hosting Hub

Web Hosting Hub has a 90-day money-back guarantee and a free domain name if you sign up for WordPress hosting. WordPress comes preinstalled with each plan. It offers three tiered WordPress hosting options with a SSL certificate with each plan and an industry standard 99.9% uptime. Customer support is available 24/7 by phone, chat and email. A customer support center also offers a range of tutorials to help you set up your site, and you also get a personal on-boarding call if you sign up. Other features that come standard with other services, like backups, cost extra or are included with higher tiered plans. It’s this lack of security features for all plans that hurts Web Hosting Hub’s ranking. 

Prices start at $6 a month.

See all Web Hosting Hub plans


iPage

iPage offers customers a free domain for one year; after that it costs $10 a year. WordPress is automatically updated by iPage if you sign up. iPage offers two tiered WordPress hosting options, each plan includes an SSL certificate, a 99.9% uptime, and 24/7 customer support by chat, as well as by phone 7 a.m. to midnight every day. The more expensive plan offers more security options like automatic malware removal and SiteLock professional security. Not having as many tiered plan options, having to pay more for security features that are standard for other services and no 24/7 phone support brings iPage’s ranking down.

Prices start at $3.75 a month.

See all iPage plans


More WordPress hosting services to consider

These services either don’t offer tiered plans, lack basic security features and customer support options, or have an entry price at least 10 times higher than some other services. We don’t think they’re as robust as our other picks, but they could be right for you and your needs.

Kinsta: Offers 10 tiered WordPress hosting options, SSL certificate and hack and malware removal included, has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and customer support is available 24/7 by phone or chat. Prices start at $30 a month.

WP Engine Web Hosting: Three tiered WordPress hosting options, SSL certificate and threat blocking security included, 99.9% uptime guaranteed with higher tier plans, as well as 24/7 phone and chat support available with higher tier plans. Prices start at $20 a month.

Pantheon: Three tiered WordPress hosting options, automated backups and DDoS protections included, 99.9% uptime guarantee and customer support available 24/7 by phone or email. Prices start at $41 a month.

NameCheap: Three tiered WordPress hosting options, SSL and security features included with higher prices plans, 99.9% uptime, customer support available 24/7 by chat or ticket submission. Prices start at $2.08 a month, billed at $24.88 a year.

Glowhost: Shared, VPS and dedicated WordPress hosting plans are available, but there are no tiered options within each plan, security features are available separately, plans have a 99.95% uptime guarantee and customer support is available 24/7 by phone, chat or ticket submission. Prices start at $10 a month.

For more on web hosting, check out CNET’s best web hosting services, best VPS hosting services and best website builders.

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Facebook’s $37.5 Million Location Tracking Settlement: Do You Qualify for a Check? https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/ https://1800birks4u.com/tech/services-and-software/facebook-bug-causes-pages-to-like-all-their-own-posts/#respond Sun, 04 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://joggingvideo.com/tech/services-and-software/facebooks-37-5-million-location-tracking-settlement-do-you-qualify/ Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has agreed to a $37.5 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit accusing the company of violating users’ privacy by tracking their movements without permission.  Plaintiffs in Lundy et al vs. Meta Platforms claim the social media platform collected location data even when users turned off their phones’ location services setting, violating […]

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Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has agreed to a $37.5 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit accusing the company of violating users’ privacy by tracking their movements without permission. 

Plaintiffs in Lundy et al vs. Meta Platforms claim the social media platform collected location data even when users turned off their phones’ location services setting, violating both California law and Facebook’s own privacy policies.

The settlement, filed Aug. 22 in San Francisco federal court, still needs final approval by a judge before eligible users can receive their share of any cash payout.

Meta didn’t respond to a request for comment on the case. In court papers, however, it said agreeing to the deal was not an admission of any wrongdoing. The company previously agreed to a $90 million settlement in June following accusations it tracked users’ online activity on other sites even after they logged off Facebook. Earlier this year, Meta settled a $650 million class action case claiming Facebook’s facial recognition scans violated Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. Read on to find out what Facebook’s location tracking case is about, who is eligible for a payment and how to claim money.For more on class action lawsuits, see if you’re eligible for a payout from T-Mobile’s $350 million data breach settlement, AT&T’s $14 million hidden-fee case or Roundup weed killer’s $45 million settlement

What is Facebook accused of?

A class action lawsuit filed in 2018 in the US District Court’s Northern District of California accuses Meta of recording Facebook users’ physical location without permission, using their IP address to infer their position in order to serve them targeted ads. 

“Facebook has been covertly obtaining detailed location information from users regardless of whether a user has opted in or opted out on his or her device,” the complaint read. It wasn’t until the EU began enforcing the wide-ranging General Data Protection Regulation in 2018 that Facebook “realized that it had to come clean about its data collection practices in its data policy,” according to the complaint, which stated Facebook had previously specifically claimed that collection of any location information was opt-in.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told Congress in 2018 that the company used shared location data “to help advertisers reach people in particular areas.”  

“For example, if people have shared their device locations with Facebook or checked into a specific restaurant, we can show them ads from an advertiser that wants to promote its services in their area or from the restaurant [itself],” he said.

Who’s eligible for money in the location tracking settlement?

A preliminary settlement was filed in San Francisco federal court on Aug. 22. If it receives final approval from a judge, the settlement will cover anyone with a Facebook account since Jan 30, 2015.

How much could I get?

It’s not clear how much individual class members would receive yet, though 30% of the proposed settlement could go to the plaintiffs’ legal fees, according to court documents.

How would eligible Facebook users get paid?

Eligible class members will be able to file a claim via a yet-to-be-launched settlement website, according to the filing, and then receive payment by check or direct deposit.

The post Facebook’s $37.5 Million Location Tracking Settlement: Do You Qualify for a Check? first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

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