If you have been following this blog for a while now, you’ll know that I’m currently hosting this website on Bluehost, after migrating the site from wordpress.com to wordpress.org. If you’re keen on starting a blog or a website, I would suggest going towards the wordpress.org route though it will cost you money right from the get go. Using wordpress.com is free, but makes things such as migrating, SEO, domain transfer, etc – a little more complex and inconvenient.
By going for the wordpress.org route, you would have to choose a web host which main service is to make your websites available through the internet. There are a many web hosts you can choose from. If your main target audience is set to be Singapore or Malaysia, then Exabytes should be on your shortlist.
Choose your FREE domain name
Before you decide on your theme, you should have a domain in mind. Exabytes supports many popular domains such as .com, .net, .org, and even .sg. If you wish to build a strong presence in Singapore, then using the .sg domain will get you better Google rankings in Singapore.
Signing up with any Exabytes WordPress hosting plans entitles you to 1 free domain. You can even choose the popular domains such as .com or .sg.
Affordable pricing
If you’re just starting out then their entry level plan WP 12 Beginner is a very attractive option at just S$3.99/mo. And that is in SGD. Other web host are usually priced in USD. Comparing to other web host providers, Exabytes is priced quite competitively so you don’t have to be worried that you are overpaying.
Strengths of Exabytes
I had the pleasure of testing their WP 12 Business plan, which costs S$7.99/mo. The main difference between the Business plan and the Basic plan is its speed, storage size, and the number of databases and add-on domains you can add. You can compare the differences in the table below:
Fast and optimized
Exabytes claims that they are fast so I really wanted to test that. On this site, I usually compress image uploads such that they are within 100-300kb of size. If not they usually take too long to load. When I was testing for speeds on my Exabytes website, I purposely uploaded full size, heavy, uncompressed images taken on my iPhone right into the post. Each image ranges between 2-3mb large, which is close to 10 times larger than what I’d usually upload.
On Exabytes‘ website, they claim that they use a LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress (LSCWP) and SSD storage which will increase loading speed and response time at 5x faster than normal hosting server. Was it really that fast? Yes, and boy was I impressed. Images loaded instantly and everything I clicked loaded super fast too. It was a joy navigating through pages on the website hosted on Exabytes.
The speed to me is one of the biggest pull factor as people nowadays have very short attention span. If your page doesn’t load in 3 seconds, people usually close the page. If you foresee your blog or website to display lots of media, I believe you can benefit greatly from Exabytes speed.
Even on the WP 12 Beginner plan, you get to enjoy free email hosting for your website, ie. creating your own branded email. For example, if your website is hello.com, then one email address could be johndoe@hello.com. And you are not limited on the number of email accounts you can create. In fact, Exabytes gives you unlimited email accounts that you can create.
Having a branded email could be useful to give yourself and your brand a little legitimacy. And if you ever want to expand and hire staff, creating an email for them is straightforward.
Daily backup and good security
Exabytes does a daily backup of the website. So, if anything goes wrong, you will be able to restore all your data without much losses. All good features will not mean much if the security of the hosting is poor.
Thankfully, Exabytes did take that into consideration and ensured they had built-in security system in their hosting service. Exabytes employs Imunify360 to help scan and removal malware and viruses on your website.
24/7 customer support
Building a website can be difficult and if you have any troubles it is best to solve it right away. Exabytes offer a variety of customer support options. Most convenient would be a live chat, or if you prefer Whatsapp they have that as well.
Easy to use control panel management
The web hosting control panel used by Exabytes is Plesk and it is very easy to use for first timers.
On the main dashboard, you can quick and easy access to commonly used functions such as adding sub-domains, email accounts, databases, users, and accessing file manager. You can see the user interface of some of the different quick links below:
There is also a quick link to WordPress toolkit, which allows you to manage all the different WordPress website under your Exabytes hosting account.
Ability to install more than 1 website
This isn’t that big of deal if you’re just starting out, but I thought it’ll be good to point out that even on the basic WP 12 Beginner plan you are able to create up to 30 websites. Bluehost on the other hand, you can only create 1 website on their Basic Plan.
Conclusion
If you’re new to starting a WordPress website, choosing a WordPress web host can be confusing since there are many options to commit on a 36-month term. Each web host will have strengths over the other, and so it is important that you choose one that aligns to your needs. What I liked about Exabytes is that the website speed is fast. My tested website loaded really fast in Singapore. I also like their their Beginner plan offers branded email functionality and multiple website installation that you might not find on other starter plans.
If your target audience is mainly going to be for the Singapore or Malaysia audience, I think speed will be the biggest asset from Exabytes hosting.