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Ecommerce plays a significant role in retail today. As a wholesaler or an intermediate supplier that connects manufacturers and retailers, you need your own website and online store to sell your products directly to other businesses instead of end consumers.
In building your online presence, you must ensure your site is cost-effective, scalable, and allows you to manage all aspects of your business from one central location. Your first step is finding the right ecommerce platform. From here, you can begin to design your website, integrate payment gateways, and even add third-party services such as email marketing solutions or chatbots. Of course, tying it all together is your choice of web host.
Struggling to navigate the vast array of providers all vying to win your custom? Don’t worry! Below, we’ll provide our guide to eight of the best ecommerce website hosts for your B2B wholesale store.
How to Choose Your Web Host?
Before choosing a web host, there are a few things you should keep in mind. As a bare minimum, you should keep an eye out for these features. If a provider lacks any of the items on the list below, it could be time to reconsider. Ensure your chosen host offers:
- A robust security system to protect your data
- Uptime that matches (or beats) the competition
- Expert technical support
- Customization and scalability
- Data analytics tools to measure key metrics
Ideally, you should also make a rough estimate of the amount of traffic you will receive. Using this figure, select a hosting provider based both on the factors above and their storage and bandwidth limits.
Now you’ve got a broad idea of these basic needs, you can hone in on more unique features. These aren’t a necessity by any means, but they’re features that you may find useful, depending on the type of operation you’re running. These may include:
- Specific plugin compatibilities or optimizations
- SSL encryption
- Auto-healing servers
- Specialist integrations (Cloudflare, for example)
With all the above in mind, let’s take a look at our top eight web hosts for your B2B wholesale store:
Cloudways
Cloudways has price plans to suit any budget. Whether you’re looking for a budget-friendly service or industry-leading performance, there’s something to suit everybody’s needs. Cloudways’ service is fully managed and boasts an extremely intuitive and user-friendly control panel. So, if you’ve got nothing in the way of technical knowledge, there’s little to fear.
Performance is top-class, and you can choose from a variety of different data servers, too: DigitalOcean, Vultr, and AWS are just a few of the suppliers on offer. Security measures are robust: SSL certificates, firewalls, and daily backups are all provided as standard. Any issues are handled by Cloudways’ support agents, but if you’d rather help yourself, they also provide a great knowledge base, too. Cloudways also bill themselves as a supreme choice for sites based on WordPress. So, if your store is built on WooCommerce, we’d recommend Cloudways’ WordPress hosting on a managed cloud platform.
InMotion
InMotion‘s plans come with unlimited bandwidth and free SSL certificates, even on its cheapest shared packages. You can even get unlimited storage and websites without purchasing the more expensive Core plan.
Regardless of whether you’re looking for shared or VPS hosting, InMotion is an excellent choice. A shared plan is a great place to start if you have a small or new store because you can scale up to a VPS plan at any time. And with the Power shared plan, you can install ecommerce apps with one click, including PrestaShop, WooCommerce, Magento, and OpenCart.
InterServer
InterServer is a popular choice for many ecommerce businesses because of its affordable pricing model. Don’t expect a flashy interface — InterServer is all about ease of use at a sensible price point. That said, the performance of their servers is second to none. Expect very little downtime, and if you’re attracting a lot of traffic, only minor slowdowns.
Security-wise, you’ll get SSL, along with weekly automatic backups, malware scanning, DDoS protection, and the ability to restore your website should it fall victim to a malicious attack. InterServer also provides a comprehensive knowledge base for self-service, along with a dedicated customer support team.
Liquid Web
Want your website to run on cutting-edge hardware? Happy to pay a premium for the privilege? If so, Liquid Web’s service is a solid bet. Thankfully, discounts are widely available, and there’s always the option to pay on a monthly basis, but then again — sometimes you get what you pay for.
We’ll concede that Liquid Web’s control panel is definitely geared more towards advanced users, so steer clear if you don’t know your APIs from your CDNs. However, if you’re familiar with using an advanced VPS service, Liquid Web could be a great choice as small business hosting. Performance-wise, expect minimal downtime (in fact, Liquid Web promises a 100% uptime rate) and speedy load times. Security is robust, too — Liquid Web manages all the essentials, while optional extras like DDoS or firewalls are left to the user to control.
A2 Hosting
Another slightly more expensive hosting option. Sure, their most basic plans are affordable, but the real value lies with the higher-tier price points. However, there’s great bang for your buck — their servers are highly stable, offering supreme reliability and lightning-fast load speeds.
A2’s user interface is basic but functional — suitable for beginners or intermediate users. All the security essentials (and more) are here, too — SSLs, DDoS protection, firewalls, and malware scanning. Any issues can be handled swiftly by A2’s customer support team — they’re available 24/7 and extremely knowledgeable. So, for reliability, performance and peace of mind, you could do far worse than A2 Hosting.
Bluehost
Bluehost is affordable and perfect for beginners, making it a popular choice for small businesses or startups. Of course, this isn’t to say that it wouldn’t suit the needs of a medium-to-large B2B wholesale seller; in fact, quite the opposite! Bluehost incorporates a raft of business-focused integrations, the ability to stage your site easily, and a convenient website management area.
Performance is solid, with 99.99% uptime and decent load times. All of the security basics are provided, but backups and malware detection will cost a little extra, so that’s worth bearing in mind. However, Bluehost’s support is widely regarded as some of the best in the business. Wait times are essentially nonexistent, and support agents are available around the clock.
Hostinger
One of the cheapest options on our list, Hostinger is perfect if you’re strapped for cash. In fact, you’d have to pay far more to get similar features with many other providers. Hostinger’s control panel has a modern, sleek, and functional feel that’s easy to navigate. Handily, there’s a drag-and-drop website builder to help you launch your website, too — perfect for beginners.
Performance is solid on all fronts, with Hostinger’s servers able to handle heavy traffic with ease. Stability-wise, Hostinger won’t let you down either, and as this is a managed service, they’ll take care of any security measures and maintenance tasks. To top all this off, their customer support team is one of the friendliest you’ll find. You can contact them via phone or live chat (just be aware that wait times can vary).
Dreamhost
Dreamhost’s plans are affordable and perfect for small and large businesses alike. The service employs a custom-built, easy-to-use control panel, so management from the user’s side is relatively hassle-free. Expect high reliability, too — Dreamhost’s servers are speedy and powerful. In fact, you may be left surprised by just how excellent the service is, considering its budget-friendly pricing.
Security essentials are all provided as standard (even in the basic package), along with some more advanced tools: SSL, privacy protection, firewalls, and daily backups. It’s an impressive offering, especially when you consider you can contact their support at any time of the day, too.
That concludes our top eight picks of the best web hosts for your B2B wholesale site. Hopefully, we’ve made your search a little easier! However, if you’re specifically searching for budget-friendly providers, why not take a look at our tips on finding the cheapest hosting deals?
