In 2015, we live in a world almost completely unrecognisable from the one we inhabited even say twenty short years ago, and one of the great things about living in the modern age is that there’s never been so many opportunities to break away from the dreaded 9-5 and launch our own business.
Not only are there whole new industries emerging all the time to meet demand for the increasing presence of technology in our lives, that very same technology makes it incredibly easy for anybody who wants to get a piece of the action.
Indeed, starting an online store in 2015 is often as simple as coming up with a great idea, getting our hands on some stock, and setting up an eCommerce website on a reliable hosting company.
Maybe it’s an idea that appeals to you but you haven’t yet done anything about it, or maybe you’re all ready to get started and are now at the stage of finding the best eCommerce hosting provider for your new site. If that’s the case, here’s our guide to the top four.
InMotion Hosting
We love InMotion for their eCommerce packages tailored to new startup stores and small businesses. With outstanding reliability and cost-effective pricing, the Los Angeles, California based company set themselves apart as one of the top providers in town.
At time of writing, their SSD Shared eCommerce plans started from as little as $3.49 per month, making them also one of the cheapest on the market.
For that price, you’ll enjoy unlimited disk space and unlimited monthly data transfer, free data backups and support for two websites.
iPage
Another top choice for those making their first forays into the world of eCommerce, iPage frequently gets rave reviews for its low-cost service and functionality.
The iPage Essentials hosting plan, which currently costs only $1.99 per month for the first term matches InMotion in terms of unlimited storage and monthly bandwidth allowance, and there’s also support for major shopping cart platforms like AgoraCart, ZenCart and Shopsite.
If you’re starting your online store on a CMS like Magento or even WordPress with WooCommerce support, you’ll find their available through one-click installation, and there’s even $200 worth of advertising credits that you can use to start marketing your new site.
Bluehost
Bluehost may be best known for their WordPress packages, but that’s not all they do, and there is good support for eCommerce.
To get it, you’ll need to opt for their Business hosting plan, which does costs $14.95 per month.
Though that may be more expensive than most of the other packages on this list, we still think it’s a worthwhile investment for those of you serious about the long-term success of your store, with ample room for you to grow and take your site from a small start-up to a big time player in the online retail business.
For that price, you’ve got enough bandwidth for 600 million visits every month, 120GB of storage (more than enough for a medium-large store), sufficient RAM and back-up and 24/7 support.
HostGator
Much as with Bluehost, you’re looking at the Business Plan if you’re planning to launch an eCommerce store with HostGator. The good news, is that said plan is more or less designed specifically for online stores.
With it, you get unlimited storage and bandwidth, instant backups, support for unlimited domains and you’re own toll-free support number, all for a reasonable $10.36 per month for the first term.
Though we haven’t mentioned it above, it’s worth pointing out that all of the plans featured in this article include the necessary components for an eCommerce site, such as dedicated IP addresses and shared SSL certificates, so no matter which one you choose, you’ve got everything you need to get started.