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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a major focus for many website owners. Quite rightly so, as so many of us use Google for just about everything. Businesses want to come up in the organic search results, preferably on the first page. Google is continually optimizing it’s ranking algorithms so that we get the best content appearing on our screen.

At least, that is the idea. Contrary to popular belief, filling your website with the best keywords and metatags is not the only approach to driving traffic to your website. The speed, server location, security, backups, uptimes and accessibility of your website also play a major role in SEO.

What is SEO Hosting?

There are several factors that web hosting (in particular) plays in the ability for a website to perform well in the search engines. With over 1.94 billion websites, the search engines are getting crowded and website owners need to deploy as many SEO strategies as they possibly can to beat the mounting competition. 

In this article, we’ll explore the 5 search engine results pages (SERPs) factors that are impacted by your website host. As well as the 9 of the top SEO hosting providers of 2024, in a variety of areas, that offer the best possible solutions. 

5 SEO Hosting Factors to Consider

#1 | WEBSITE SPEED

You’ll want your website host to have set up their servers in such a way that the website pages load fast. There are several factors that go into making a website fast, one of which is the server location. Google takes the time it takes for a site to load into consideration when deciding which results to show on the front page. The server location is also important for other reasons, as you will see in factor #2. You’ll want to look at the page load times offered by your chosen hosting provider if SEO is your primary objective, as the search engines downgrade sites that take to long to load. 

#2 | SERVER LOCATION

The search engines take the server location into consideration when showing results. For example, if you are searching in the UK, then the first set of results are going to be from the UK. So you need to know who you want to visit your website and take this into consideration when selecting your website hosts. One way to get around this, if you are looking to serve people in a wide range of locations throughout the world is to have a version of your website for the main countries that you want to target. Have you ever seen the country selection, normally with flags next to them as you land on a site? That’s because they check your IP address to make sure that you are seeing the closest server to your actual location. 

#3 | UPTIME

Uptime is the amount of time that your site is online. Uptime is the opposite of downtime, which is the amount of time your website is offline. The search engines take into consideration the amount of time that your site is online. If it goes offline too often then your site could lose its search engine rank. So say for instance you get lots of SEO done on your website – tags, content, titles, page titles, and metatags are all on point. Your site starts to rise in the search engine and gets to the front page for your desired search term. Then your website goes down for a few days, it’ll likely lose its page rank. The reason that Google and other search engines take this into consideration is so that when you find a website, the link doesn’t take you to a dead end. 

When it comes to uptime and speed, most hosting providers will boast a 99.9% uptime, but make sure that they are being honest about that – look for an “uptime guarantee”. Hosting providers need to ensure that they have suitable generators and backup solutions to keep websites on 24/7/365. Also ensure that your host isn’t in a location that is prone to natural disasters, as that can affect your uptime.  

#4 | EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SUPPORT

I can’t state enough how important it is to have a responsive website host. You’ll want them to be on the ball and ready to help you the second you need it. Issues need to be resolved ASAP when it comes to maintaining a high ranking website. Bear in mind, many companies respond nicely to prospective customers, however when you become a customer and are paying them, they step back and you can get substandard service. If you can, make sure that your new host is focused on swift technical support, so that you can eliminate any issues the second they arise. Leaving things off can drop your ranking that has taken a long time to build up.

The ability for a website host to help you boost your search engine results pages (SERPs) raking (eg. to get to the top/ first page of Google) can differ depending on your website needs. You’ll need to choose a website host that offers tools in the area that best suit your business, for example, a blog, eCommerce store and a WordPress website all have differing requirements in relation to SEO.

#5 | SEO TOOLS & FEATURES

Check out the type of SEO features that your new hosting partner offers – both free and paid. Some hosts offer great tools for an extra fee, while others offer some great tools free of charge. SEO tools can enhance your search engine presence. 

9 Best SEO Website Hosts of 2024

Let’s dive into the Best SEO Website Hosts of 2024, these are SEO website hosting providers that should fit most requirements. Check out the “BEST FOR” under each hosting provider to select an SEO host that fits your needs.

1. Hostinger

BEST FOR – Customizable hosting packages

Hostinger is a well-known hosting company that integrates a full selection of SEO tools, integrations and technical SEO benefits. Its selection of hosting services is wide-ranging, including web hosting for medium and small websites, cloud hosting for larger projects, VPS hosting that provides dedicated resources and more. The platform comes with various features to make website optimisation an absolute breeze.

Hostinger SEO Features

You’ll find that Hostinger offers four essential SEO features, including the ones below:

• 99.9% uptime guarantee
• SEO tools
• LiteSpeed cache
• In-house CDN

99.9% Uptime Guarantee

To prevent downtime, Hostinger provides you with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. They aim to ensure and maintain constant accessibility to your website at all times with this guarantee and eliminate the chances of downtime. I found this feature essential since downtime could reduce the chances of customer engagement.

SEO Tools

Hostinger offers SEO tools with its website builder. It also makes it easy to add a domain to the Google Search Console and optimise the website using data from AI heatmaps. With Google Analytics insights, Google Tag Manager features and additional marketing integrations, ranking highly with your website with the SEO tools Hostinger offers is possible.

LiteSpeed Cache

With Hostinger, users can access LiteSpeed web server technology. This technology is a cache that works at the server level on WordPress to optimise and greatly improve the loading times of a website. It’s this hosting SEO feature that keeps visitors on the page, which I noticed led to increased dwell time on my website.

In-house CDN

You’ll receive a free, in-house content delivery network (CDN) with Hostinger. This content delivery network is another caching tool that further optimises the website speed by caching content. Since it works on multiple servers across the globe, it will access the server closest to you. Loading times increased by at least 40% thanks to several features such as cache purging, JavaScript and CSS minification and many more tools.

Click Here To Visit Hostinger Hosting 

2. A2 Hosting

BEST FOR – Customizable hosting packages

A2 Hosting is another large hosting provider rooted in the US. They offer just about every type of hosting that you could possibly need, from cloud hosting to dedicated servers, and everything in between. One thing that is great about A2 Hosting is that they know that each website owner has specific needs. For that reason, they offer a flexible, customized service so that you can create your hosting environment exactly as required. A2 Hosting is a great hosting partner for this reason.

A2 Hosting SEO Features

A2 Hosting offers 5 key SEO-friendly features, as follows:

• Free SEO Tools and Plugins
• Free Website Transfer
• 99.9% Uptime Guarantee 
• Blazingly Fast Servers
• Multiple Data Centers

Free SEO Tools and Plugins

The SEO tools and plugins offered from A2 Hosting are brilliant, plus they are easy to implement – directly from your user dashboard. Best of all they are completely free.  They do this by implementing the world’s most popular SEO tools called “Attracta”. Attracta is dedicated to providing the best in class SEO packages that get you ranked highly on the search engines.

Free Website Transfer

The downtime that people often experience when porting their website over to a new host can negatively impact your SEO efforts. Therefore free website transfer that is completed by experts keeps the whole migration process smoothe. A2 hosting offer a completely free website migration service, which assures that your website is kept online with minimum disturbance to your site or your SEO. 

99.9% Uptime Guarantee 

A2 Hosting offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee. This means that they have gone to extreme lengths to ensure that their tech stays online as much as is humanly possible. It’s important that your SEO host offers this type of guarantee as downtime can drastically reduce your search engine ranking (SERP). 

Blazingly Fast Servers

A2 Hosting is a great option if you are looking for a host that provides fast server speeds to enhance SEO and user experience. The speed at which your pages load alters the SERP ranking of your website. A2 Hosting’s servers are 20x faster than regular servers, so you have checked this SEO item off your list if you go with A2 Hosting. 

Multiple Data Centers

If you’re looking for an SEO-friendly host, then making sure that they have a server in your desired area is a must. This is not necessarily your own physical location, but it should be the physical location of your desired website audience.  A2 Hosting has servers in just about every area of the world, such as Argentina, Brazil, the US, Australia, and China. So no matter where you want to place your website – A2 Hosting has you covered. 

Click Here To Visit A2 Hosting

3. Bluehost

BEST FOR – Beginners due to their one-click & shared hosting packages

Bluehost is one of the most infamous web hosts on the planet and they power over 2 million websites all over the world. Many people choose Bluehost because they offer a one-click WordPress install and optimized options. They also have some decent shared hosting plans that are great for people who are just starting out. They offer 4 shared hosting plans that differ according to the amount of storage space/ bandwidth that you need. 

Bluehost SEO Features

Bluehost offers 4 key SEO-friendly features, as follows:

• Unlimited Storage Space
• Unmetered Bandwidth
• Free SSL certificate
• Free Website Statistics

Unlimited Storage Space

Unless you go with their very basic plan, you’ll get unlimited storage space from Bluehost. This impacts your SEO efforts as it can impact page load times. As we covered above, the speed of your website is a key determining factor in Google’s algorithms. Unlimited storage space is ideal for people who are running an eCommerce store or have lots of images/ data to transfer.  

Another way that unlimited storage space impacts SEO is that you can cache your pages, meaning your site performs better and can accommodate high traffic. A site that doesn’t have unlimited storage space could go down if it gets too busy. This would negatively impact your SERP and could take months to restore. 

Unmetered Bandwidth

The bandwidth of your website determines how well it performs, it affects load times and therefore can impact your SEO efforts. Bluehost offers “unmetered bandwidth” which essentially means that your site will run smoothly and pages will load fast. 

Free SSL certificate

As we covered in a previous article, an SSL certificate (HTTPS) is another important factor that is taken into account by Google. Bluehost has you covered, they offer a simple one-click SSL certificate for free with their hosting packages. Which covers this aspect of SEO. 

Free Website Statistics

To improve the SEO of your website, then you need to measure how well it’s performing. Bluehost offers several web stat tools Google Analytics, Awstats and Webalizer for free so that you can assess how well your website is performing. When you know the stats you can take measures to tweak your site and enhance performance.

Click Here To Visit Bluehost

4. Fat Cow

BEST FOR – Budget SEO website hosting

If your budget is something you’re basing your choices on, then Fat Cow could be a good solution for you. Fat Cow is owned by Endurance International Group, which also owns other website hosting companies like Bluehost and iPage. They’ve also been around for two decades, so they have a lot of experience. Fat Cow has a strong focus on SEO and for this reason, it makes our list. 

Fat Cow SEO Features

Fat Cow offers 4 key SEO-friendly features, as follows:

• Fast Page Load Speeds
• Free Daily Backups
• Unlimited Disk space and Bandwidth
• Free SSL Certificate

Fast Page Load Speeds

Ensuring that your pages load incredibly fast is a priority for an SEO hosting provider. The speeds that your pages load impacts the SERP ranking. Fat Cow has invested in next-gen technologies, that ensure that your web pages load instantly. 

Free Daily Backups

Website hacking is an increasing issue that can result in downtime as you try to ascertain what has happened to your website. Having a backup can save much needed time, effort and heartache. It would be terrible for your website to be hacked, and worse still to lose it’s SERP ranking due to the fact that it experiences some downtime. Having a backup is the ideal solution. You can then simply restore your website to a previous version. The fact that Fat Cow offers free daily backups is fabulous. 

Unlimited Disk Space and Bandwidth

Fat Cow is very generous when it comes to disk space and bandwidth. They don’t put any restrictions on either resource. This means that your website will stay online and perform faster. Downtime or slow websites negatively impact the SERP rankings of your site, so making sure that this aspect is covered with an “unlimited” amount of storage space and bandwidth offers peace of mind. 

FREE SSL

A Socket Secure Layer (SSL) certificate is required for Google to rank your website. If you don’t have this sort of encryption on your site then Google (and other search engines for that matter) deem your website unsecure. Fat Cow offers a free SSL certificate that you can activate in your account management area.

Click Here To Visit Fat Cow

5. HostGator

BEST FOR – Scalable SEO web hosting

HostGator is another giant in the website hosting space, they power over 9 million websites all around the world. They offer just about every type of hosting that you can imagine and are also pretty decent on the SEO hosting front. 

HostGator SEO Features

HostGator offers 5 key SEO-friendly features, as follows:

• 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
• Free Website Transfer
• 24/7/365 Customer Support 
• Unlimited Bandwidth and Web Space
• Free SSL Certificate

99.9% Uptime Guarantee

HostGator offers an honorable – 99.9% uptime guarantee. Therefore you can rest assured that your website will not lose it’s SERP rankings due to downtime. 

Free Website Transfer

If you decide that you want to port your website over to HostGator, then you can do so with little to no downtime. They offer this service free of charge, which can take the headache of moving to a new host out of the equation. Also, your site will experience minimal disturbance when moving over to HostGator, which should mean your SERP ranking is kept intact. 

24/7/365 Customer Support 

Making sure that your SEO hosting provider has great customer service, that are available whenever you need them is of utmost importance. HostGator has a great track record when it comes to reliable, responsive customer support. They offer a variety of ways to get in touch with them via live chat, phone, and email. You never know when you might need the tech team to help you so having them by your site 24/7/365 is perfect when you are looking to optimize your website’s SERP ranking. 

Unlimited Bandwidth and Web Space

Enjoy fast load times with HostGator with their unlimited bandwidth and unlimited webspace. Both the webspace and bandwidth can restrict your website’s performance, especially if you have a lot of visitors coming to your website. Knowing that you have unlimited space and bandwidth will ensure that your pages load faster and your site should not experience downtime related to having not enough space. 

Click Here To Visit Hostgator

6. WP Engine

BEST FOR – WordPress Websites

If you’re looking for an SEO hosting provider that specializes in WordPress, then WP Engine could be for you. WP Engine has geared its entire offering towards providing an end-to-end hosting experience specifically for people who have built (or are going to build) their website in WordPress. They are a great company for speed, security and website owners that want their hosting provider to seamlessly scale with the company. 

WP Engine SEO Features

WP Engine offers 4 key SEO-friendly features, as follows:

• Speed – Fast Page Load 
• Security
• Servers Located Across the Globe
• SEO Tools and Plugins

Speed – Fast Page Load 

Ensuring that your website pages load as fast as possible is a must for an SEO website hosting provider. The quicker they load, the better as far as both users and the search engines are concerned. Google is focused on providing access to the best websites out there, and for this reason, they take the speed at which your web pages load seriously. Thankfully the cache system that WP Engine uses optimizes your website speed for both desktop and mobile users. 

Security

Another aspect of your website that Google factors in when ranking it is security. You must have an SSL certificate if you want your website to rank at all. WP Engine has you covered, they offer a free SSL certificate so that your website will appear as HTTPS instead of HTTP. This means that data is encrypted and the experience is safer for everyone involved. Additionally, if you don’t have an SSL certificate then your website visitors will see a warning message upon entering your website. To avoid your visitors lacking trust in your website, and the fact that you’ll not get onto the first page of google until your site is secured, quickly activate the free SSL that you get from WP Engine. 

Servers Located Across the Globe

The location of your server is important for load times and your SEO ranking. Google shows locally hosted websites first, as well as giving a higher status to pages that load faster. For this reason, the fact that WP Engine has servers located in a variety of international locations is a great reason to select this hosting provider. They have servers in places like Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Ireland, and the US. You’ll want to select a server that is located close to your target customer/ website visitor location. People from other countries will still be able to visit your website, however, they might face slightly longer load times. 

SEO Tools and Plugins

WordPress has some great SEO plugins that you can use to optimize your WordPress website for the search engines. This can improve your SERP ranking and in return drive more traffic to your website. 

Click Here To Visit Wp Engine

7. iPage

BEST FOR – Small businesses and individuals

iPage has been around for two decades and is now owned by Endurance International Group. They power over 1 million websites and specialize in offering cost-effective hosting packages for small businesses and individuals. One downside of going with iPage is that you need to pay an extra £80 to use their SEO tools. But for this price, they’ll do SEO copywriting, back-links and reporting for your website, which sounds like a pretty decent deal.

iPage SEO Features

iPage offers 5 key SEO-friendly features, as follows:

• Fast Page Load Speed
• 99.97% Uptime Guarantee
• Free SSL Certificate
• Unlimited Disk Space 
• Professional Email Address

Fast Page Load Speed

iPage is focused on ensuring that pages load as fast as possible. They even have blogs written to help you further your efforts in regards to improving your website page load speed. Making sure that your website pages load fast is a key factor in whether or not you get ranked highly in Google or not. 

99.97% Uptime Guarantee

Selecting a host that provides a guarantee as to how much time your website might go down is important. If your website goes down for any length of time, this can negatively impact your SERP ranking. Thankfully iPage has a nice 99.97% uptime guarantee, so they have covered that base for you.

Free SSL Certificate

In the past it was ok to have a website that had just an HTTP prefix to their websites, meaning they were unsecured. Fast forward to today and it is now a crucial factor for your website security, SEO and for customer trust. You’ll get a free SSL certificate from iPage so that your site will have the HTTPS prefix, meaning that your data is encrypted and secure. They also offer SiteLock which will provide an extra layer of protection against cyber threats. If your site goes down due to a hacking attempt, this can destroy your SERP ranking, so this extra layer of protection is awesome. 

Unlimited Disk Space 

With iPage you’ll get unlimited disk space. This is important for SEO because if you run out of disk space your website will run slowly (impacting your SERP ranking) and ultimately your website will break and could go down, which also affects your SEO. They also offer scalable bandwidth which allows your website to expand as and when required. 

Professional Email Address

iPage provides you with a free business email address that you can manage in Webmail. This won’t improve your search engine rankings, however by using your professional email address, you’ll be spreading the word about your website and in turn, you’ll get more traffic over to your website. The more visitors you get, the more popular your website is and the higher the value assigned by Google and other search engines. 

Click Here To Visit iPage

8. DreamHost

BEST FOR – Uptime – DreamHost offers an outstanding 100% uptime guarantee.

DreamHost is an award-winning website host that is based in the US and was founded 23 years ago. DreamHost offers an amazing 100% uptime guarantee, which is brilliant for your search engine optimization.

DreamHost SEO Features

DreamHost offers 4 key SEO-friendly features, as follows:

• Free SSL Certificate
• 100% Uptime Guarantee
• Fast Page Load Speeds
• 24/7/365 Customer Support

Free SSL Certificate

If you choose DreamHost as your SEO hosting provider then you’ll get a free SSL certificate, no matter what plan you decide to go for. They also offer some other security features that will help your site stay online, benefiting your SERP ranking. For example, they also offer Multi-Factor Authentication to make sure that hackers can’t do a breach of entry. 

100% Uptime Guarantee

I don’t know how they do it, other than investing in some serious tech, but DreamHost offers an unheard of 100% uptime guarantee. This means that your site should never go down due to a server issue. This is great for your SEO efforts, as your site is always online is a factor that Google looks at when deciding what sites should appear on the first page of their search engine. 

Fast Page Load Speeds

The fast load speeds offered by DreamHost are also due to their strong server infrastructure and environment. The fast page load speeds are an important factor that Google looks at when deciding what websites rise to the top. 

24/7/365 Customer Support

DreamHost is great for customer support, you can get in touch with them at any time of the day or night and a tech expert will be on the other end of the phone, email or chat – ready to help you. This will ensure that you can get instant support when needed, avoiding any disruptions that might mean that your websites SEO suffers. 

Click Here To Visit Dreamhost

9. InMotion Hosting

BEST FOR –  Green data centers & auto backups.

InMotion Hosting is a reputable SEO website host that has been around for the past 18 years. InMotion offer hosting that is good for the environment out of their Green Data Centers

InMotion Hosting SEO Features

• Free Auto Backup Service
• Free SSL Certificate
• Fast Page Load Speed

Free Auto Backup Service

It’s always nice when a company offers free backups, especially when they are automatic. It’s just one more thing off your mind. A backup is crucial for timely recovery from your website being hacked. If your website goes offline, then it negatively impacts your SERP ranking, so it’s important to ensure that you always have a recent backup of your website.

Free SSL Certificate

If you choose InMotion as your hosting partner then you’ll get a free SSL certificate. HTTPS or a website that is secured with an SSL certificate is one of the critical factors for SEO. Quite simply put, if you don’t have an SSL certificate, your website will not rank highly in Google, period. InMotion also offers other advanced security features like DDoS protection which will further prevent your website from being hacked. Like they say – “prevention is better than a cure”.

Fast Page Load Speed

Making sure that your website loads fast is now an important factor from both an SEO and an end-user perspective. InMotion has some decent tech to ensure that your website loads fast, which is great for SEO.

Click Here To Visit InMotion

All in All

I have outlined some of the best options for SEO-friendly website hosting. Which one you go for depends on your individual requirements. For example, WP Engine and CloudWays are exclusively WordPress hosts. While InMotion, Dreamhost’s or BlueHost allow other CMS solutions. Check out the “BEST FOR” section under each of the above hosts to select the best solution to fit your needs.

Looking to have total control over your cloud server environment? Then perhaps you’d like to take a leap of faith and create your own cloud server. Building your own cloud server is an honourable undertaking that will reap many rewards. You can have total control over your data, the best level of privacy possible (if you configure everything properly) and you can install whatever you like on your cloud server environment.

Perhaps you want to be able to access your private files while traveling and think that making your own cloud server is the best option. If you are keen on giving it a go, then this article is for you. I’ll give you all of the tools that you need plus a step by step guide for each solution to make the process as easy as possible. 

While a cloud server is a virtual server, it’s still imperative to have hardware and software to create your own cloud server. Therefore, you’ll need to invest in either equipment or a virtual host. It’s not a process for the light hearted, so if you are not convinced you want to create your own cloud server after reading this article then check out our guide to the best cloud storage providers.

DIY Cloud Storage vs Professional Cloud Storage

Probably one of the most obvious up-sides to using a ready-made cloud storage solution is the fact that you’ll not need to buy hardware, or install any software. Normally you go ahead and buy cloud storage, and you’re ready to go. However, often there are restrictions on uploads, downloads and often there can be privacy issues with public solutions.

Consumers are often uneasy with the worrying trend of hackers gaining access to sensitive files on the cloud. However there are now decentralized blockchain-backed cloud platforms, where decentralization increases security. Perhaps in the future we’ll write another article about how to set up your own decentralized blockchain-backed cloud server. 

But in this article we’ll get started with setting up a basic cloud storage solution that you can customize as you require. One thing that you can do with your own cloud is set it up so that it fully complies with your industries legal requirements, for example if you require solutions to adhere to HIPAA legislation. 

Bear in mind that you’ll need to be quite technically adept to be able to setup your own cloud server. This step-by-step guide has been designed to make it as simple as possible and provides you with everything that you need to know to get your cloud server up and running. You’ll need to install server software and also download client software. We’ll discuss what software you need for all of your devices.

Benefits of Setting Up Your Own DIY Cloud

Setting up your own cloud storage solution is like having your own private Dropbox, where you are in complete control. To create your own cloud you’ll need the help of server and client software. There are several solutions that you can choose from, in this article we’ll discuss five of the best DIY cloud storage tools on the market.  In order of best to worst (in my opinion)

What is Client Software?

A client is the device or software that is accessing the data on your server. For example, if you’re accessing the internet, then your device is the client – often referred to as “Client-side”. Client software works to sync folders. Sync folders are folders that you create on your pc or device that then coincide with the folders on the cloud. 

There are a wide range of DIY cloud storage tools that will allow you to access your content remotely. One approach is to access your content using a browser interface. This is called browser-based software. Often it is easier to use this type of software, as you can then access your DIY cloud from any device, others can access your data if you allow them to have the credentials and you don’t need to install software on every device. 

Minimum Hardware Required to Set-up your Cloud Storage Solution

In most cases these will be the minimum requirements for hardware spec. There is no upper level, the better the computer you have, the faster your cloud storage will perform. Here are the minimum hardware requirements, if you’re using you’re your home pc/ device:

• DDR2-era 64bit PC/laptop that can stay on 24/7 (or anything better than these specs)
• Home / enterprise grade server
• Raspberry Pi 2 / 3 that can run Ubuntu Snappy Core

Let’s now dive deep into the currently available DIY cloud storage tools, the pros and cons to decide what would be the best solution for you. 

Nextcloud

Nextcloud is similar to ownCloud, with a few differences. Nextcloud was created by duplicating (forking) ownCloud and then working on it to take it down a different path.  Nextcloud is basically an upgraded version of ownCloud. 

Nextcloud have an open source version that you can use for FREE. This is perfect if you’re just starting out, and it should have everything that you need. Their enterprise edition allows 50 to 10 million users – you pay more for additional users. Nextcloud offers some great collaboration tools for you to use on your DIY cloud storage system. They also offer smartphone apps that work on both Android and iOS.

Nextcloud Packages and Pricing

When upgrading to their premium plan the benefits seem quite scarce. Sure, you can add on additional users, which is great. However, the main bonus seems to be a faster support team response. They do have additional apps and features as you move up the ranks that will become more apparent as you get to know their tools. Here are the three enterprise packages from Nextcloud:

• Basic – 50 users, €1900 p/a
• Standard -50 users, €3400 p/a
• Premium – 50 users, €4900 p/a

Nextcloud Hardware & Software Requirements

You need to be running a version of Ubuntu that supports snaps – the latest version of Ubuntu would be preferable. The Ubuntu version that supports snaps is the most users friendly and easy to install. The snaps also allow for auto installation of the latest Nextcloud security updates.

Using Nextcloud

• Step 1 – You’ll need to have your server in place (as described above), whether it’s a physical server or one that you have obtained from a third party cloud hosting provider. 
• Step 2 – Download and install Nextcloud server environment
• Step 3 – Download Nextcloud desktop client (Windows, macOS and Linux)

PRO TIP: If you want to speed up the process you can buy Nextcloud Box, Spreedbox or Syncloud, which are all pre-configured to save you time. 

NextCloud Features

Nextcloud has some nice collaboration features. You can share via email, links or social media. Most importantly you can password protect shared files, as well as set a date for the link to expire. After you share your files, the other user can edit them, even without an account. Which makes collaboration with clients that much easier.  There are also reporting tools, so that you can view what has been shared. 

Just about every feature that you might need to collaborate on your DIY cloud is offered via the Nextcloud software. External users can drop files onto your server, you can also restore, search and comment on files. 

Nextcloud boasts a massive 162 apps (which is the most we’ve found) to make your cloud server your own. They offer apps such as – “Collabora Online”, as well as the ability set up conference calls with video, which makes your cloud storage solution look extremely professional. 

Nextcloud Security

Nextcloud has some powerful security features such as two-factor authentication. Nextcloud also supports the Active Directory, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and single sign-on. They utilize a time-based One Time Password and Universal 2nd Factor hardware tokens, making their sign up secure. 

Data is protected during transit with the SSL/TLS protocol and at rest with AES 256-bit encryption. You can also choose folders that you want to be kept on lock down by enabling end-to-end encryption. Finally they use zero-knowledge, so that nobody but the owner holds the keys to your data. 

There are some securities flaws that you need to know about when thinking about using Nextcloud. For example they scan data to protect users, however I’m not sure how them scanning their clients data helps anyone. I suppose to check for viruses, but people don’t seem so sure that is what they are doing, just something to look out for. 

So if you are looking for tight security, you’ll need to really trust Nextcloud, as they will have access to your server and might audit it, as and when they see fit. The reason they put forward for this activity is to scan for bugs, check that your server is up to date. One thing that is great about Nextcloud is that they are HIPAA compliant, which is perfect for healthcare providers. 

ownCloud

Implementing ownCloud is similar to Nextcloud, as they share a lot of the same proprietary code. ownCloud has a fantastic community and is open-source, so you’ll get a lot of support there. You can get the ownCloud software for free or opt for one of their premium packages. Something that is great about ownCloud is the fact that they offer public server providers via the ownCloud Marketplace, so that you don’t need to own your own server. 

You can also access your files via a browser, which makes accessing your files on the go much easier. Great for traveling business people or commuters, what’s more they also have mobile apps for Android and iOS.  ownCloud have a demo that you can quickly access to test if you like their service.

ownCloud Packages and Pricing

ownCloud offers a service called “ownCloud Online” for smaller businesses. They host the servers in Germany, comply with GDPR and up to 150 users can access one subscription. This is the easy option, if you decide not to set up your DIY cloud with your own hardware, as they do everything for you. 

• OwnCloud Community – The FREE open-source community edition has a massive 50 million users, free desktop client, mobile app. Suitable for private users and freelancers. 
• ownCloud Online – 30-Day FREE Trial, after trial – £9.50 per user/ month and 1TB storage. No IT knowledge required, free iOS/ Android app, German servers – End-to-end encryption – the free trial is restricted to 10GB of storage. 
• ownCloud Enterprise – The price is not publicly shown on their website, however we know that their standard plan is £2,860 and the enterprise plan starts at £7,150 so they are quite a bit more expensive than Nextcloud. You do get branded apps with the Enterprise package and faster support. 

ownCloud Hardware & Software Requirements

The best way to setup ownCloud is by leasing a server from a professional host, such as Hostinger or 1&1 IONOS. However, if you are using your own computer as a server you’ll need to ensure that you have installed the LAMP or WAMP server environment. Let’s go with signing up for a professional hosting service, this is what you’ll need:

• A host that supports PHP5 and MySQL (or SQLite)
• To download ownCloud Server 5
• Domain name or URL (for remote access)

PRO TIP: Some professional hosts ban setting up cloud storage services on their servers, so it’s worth a check before signing up.

Setup Using ownCloud

• Step 1 – Download and install ownCloud’s server-side software to your server/ download the software 
• Step 2 – upload the setup-owncloud.php file to your webhost.
• Step 3 – Follow the instructions to install ownCloud. You should then be redirected to the login screen.

If you’re setting up on a professional hosting environment, then it is that easy. Just three steps and follow the instructions to set up.

If you get stuck then ownCloud offers some great guidance on how to manually set ownCloud up.

ownCloud Features

ownCloud offers many of the features that Nextcloud does (unsurprisingly). They allow you to share files via password-protected links, they auto-expire after the set date and you can also get notifications to your mobile phone to let you know the status of your shared links. ownCloud also allows you to sync files, share files and search files. Also people can edit your files if they have access, which is great for collaboration both in-house and with external collaborators.  

Again, ownCloud offer lots of great features for collaboration on your files, such as commenting, tags, as well as video conferencing. External users can also drag and drop files onto your ownCloud. When you add in the branding capability that is offered with their Enterprise plan, then you have a very slick business tool. Their user interface is also clean and easy to use.

ownCloud offers just 70 apps, which is half the amount of apps offered by NextCloud, but you’ll find many of the popular ones in there such as Collabora Online, OnlyOffice Connector, Workflow App, PDF Viewer, Calendar and Contacts. In saying that, the other two solutions have no app marketplace, so seen in that light, 70 isn’t so bad. 

ownCloud Delta Sync is a great feature to reduce upload and download times. The way that it works is by only syncing the section of the file that is change, rather than the whole file, which saves a tonne of time.  They also offer a Virtual File System, where users can sync files directly from their browser.

ownCloud Security

ownCloud has some decent security features, such as end-to-end encryption and ransom ware protection. Administrators are offered lots of control as they can define password requirements as well as provision professional key management with their with Key Service application.

Virus scanning is done with ClamAV, which is free anti-virus software. ClamAV is great for isolating viruses, Trojans and malware. You can also scan files on your own personal server with this security tool. 

Two-factor authentication can protect your server from unwanted intruders, as well as the standard time-based One Time Password. You can also add on additional devices via the ownCloud app. Like Nextcloud, ownCloud can be used safely by Healthcare providers as they are HIPAA compliant. They are also GDPR compliant. 

Seafile

Seafile is another FREE community driven, open-source cross-platform cloud storage solution. They also offer a business edition for larger requirements. The enterprise edition is more feature rich than the open-source edition, so you’ll need to pay to see the full range of features offered by Seafile.  When compared to what you get with the first two soltuions, the open-source version is quite bare-bones. 

Seafile is great for people who love to keep things organized, however, it may take you some time to navigate their user interface. I find their interface quite dated and complex. With Seafile you can sync, share and organise your files into libraries.

Seafile Packages and pricing

If you are looking for a more cost-effective solution, then Seafile might be for you. They allow you to use their enterprise edition for free for up to three users. Thereafter you pay per user, and the price gets cheaper with a larger number of users that you add on. They also offer discounts for educational establishments.

Seafile Pro Edition license (Annual Subscription) Pricing

• Up to 9 users £80 in total
• 10-249 users – £38 per user
• 750-999 users – £28 per user

I haven’t outlined the wide range of prices, but you get the picture – the more users you add, the cheaper it gets. Companies with over 1000+ users need to contact Seafile for pricing. 

Seafile Hardware & Software Requirements

You can deploy Seafile with both Linux and Windows, I’ll explain Linux in this example. If you want to use Windows then you can find information on the Seafile website here. Before I get into setting up your cloud storage solution with Seafile, bear in mind that it can be quite tricky to set up. You’ll need the following:

• MySQL, Nginx or Apache (Nginx is easier)
• OS – Ubuntu 16.04/18.04/ CentOS 7
• Download the Seafile installer here

PRO TIP: Only install the Seafile installer on a fresh server as it can interfere with other files. Then make sure to delete the installer after everything is set up.

Setting up Seafile

Step 1 – Download and install the server edition on your server.

For CentOS 7 (64bit)

Save to:

[code lang="bash"]/opt/.

cd /root

wget --no-check-certificate https://raw.githubusercontent.com/haiwen/seafile-server-installer/master/seafile_centos

bash seafile_centos 6.1.2[/code]

For Ubuntu 16.04/18.04 (64bit)

[code lang="bash"]

cd/root
wget --no-check-certificate https://raw.githubusercontent.com/haiwen/seafile-server-installer/master/seafile_ubuntu

bash seafile_ubuntu 6.1.2

[/code]

Step 2 – enter the unprivileged username: seafile

Step 3 –Run su – seafile -s /bin/bash with root privileges on the shell

Step 4 – Delete the installer file

Seafile Features

I like the fact that Seafile offers “Selective sync” that means that you can turn off syncing for specific folders, this can save a lot of time.  Seafile offers virtual-drive mapping, which means that you can access folders on another server, you can also access files offline. You can also access your files via the browser. One of the great features offered by Seafile is the fast syncing by chopping files into smaller pieces. This is ideal for people who see speed as the most important feature of a cloud storage solution. 

Like the other tools covered so far, Seafile allows the sharing of links to files. These shared links can be password protected and further secured by setting an expiration date. You can also set the read-write or read-only permission, which allows or disables the editing of the external user that you’ve shared the link with. 

If you have more than one person working on a file, then it can be locked while one person works on it, ensuring that editing is efficient and team members don’t interfere with another person’s work. As with other solutions, you can search files and restore them to an earlier state. 

One of the downsides of Seafile is the fact that they don’t have an app library at all. You can still integrate with Microsoft Office Online Server and Collabora Online server though which is great for online collaboration. 

Seafile Security

Security isn’t the main USP of Seafile. They do use two-factor authentication and create snapshots for ransomware protection. They also scans for viruses, offer remote wipes and audit logs. End-to-end encryption is possible, however metadata is not encrypted. Ideally metadata should be encrypted as it can expose sensitive privacy information. So this is one major downside of Seafile, in my opinion. Additionally client-side encryption is nowhere to be seen, which is another big security flaw.

Pydio

Pydio was founded in 2007 by Charles du Jeu, under the name “AjaxPlorer”. Pydio is open-source software that you can deploy on your server for free. You can easily install and run the Pydio software on public cloud servers to create your own cloud. They offer iOS and Andriod apps so that you can access files remotely, from anywhere.  You can also take images, sync and upload them to your cloud storage solution. 

Pydio Cells is the latest Pydio release and it affords better collaboration and sharing options. To share files with others, you simply place them in your cell. A “cell” is Pydio’s terminology for a shared folder. You can add and remove users, and grant them permissions to edit or read files or folders.

Pydio is only available for macOS and Linux. You can get it to run on a Windows machine by using a docker image. 

Pydio Packages and Pricing

Pydio offers two versions of their software – Open Source Home and Enterprise. Like Seafile, Pydio limits the features on the open source version; they also don’t offer support unless you opt for their paid solution. The open source software from Pydio only offers simple file upload, sharing and authentication.  If you go for the Enterprise edition, you can give it a test drive with a free trial. Their two packages are as follows:

• Open Source Home Distribution – FREE, Open-source license AGPL v3, no support (DIY).
• Enterprise Distribution – Unlimited support, Advanced sharing, Advanced administration security and high availability, Starter pack up to 20 users: 1520€/year, Up to 100 users: 4980€/year, for 10K+ users you need to get in touch with them.

Pydio Features

Pydio has an intuitive and attractive UX. Plus; some of the collaboration tools offered by Pydio are quite neat. You can make chat rooms, comment on files and get alerts to let you know what is happening inside your account. The chat rooms can be created, about a particular file. Files can be protected with passwords, you can also set download limits and expiration dates for shared links.  Files can also be restored to a previous version. 

Collabora Online is again THE way to collaborate with documents on your cloud storage platform. You can decide who can see what, and what they can do with each and every file. One of the great features of Pydio is the fact that you can add in your company logo and change the colours to fit your brand, making the interface truly your own.

Pydio Security

Like Nextcloud, Pydio uses Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) to assist users with loging in. AES 256-bit to encryption is used to protect files at-rest and SSL is used to protect them in transit. Pydio doesn’t seem to comply with HIPAA, but it does comply with GDPR.

In Conclusion

If you are looking for more control, security and flexibility, plus you’ve got someone really techie on board, then perhaps DIY cloud storage is an option for you. Certainly Nextcloud and ownCloud are top of the list as they are so feature rich, and easy to use. You can try Seafile of Pydio if you need to save money or if speed is your main concern. Setting up your own Cloud storage solution is a brilliant option for a team that needs to be HIPAA compliant and tweak the server to their needs.

I am completely baffled why websites still produce and use cheesy stock photos with no real meaning behind them. When you can get high-quality free stock photos, why would you choose the cheap alternative? I’ve compiled a list of the most amazing free stock photo sites to prove to you that it’s entirely possible.

What Makes a Good Stock Photo

Before diving into the best stock photo sites, it’s worth knowing what makes a good stock photo. If you’re looking to print photos, you’ll need images with a resolution of at least 640 x 480 pixels. However, given it’s 2024, you’ll probably want higher (and most places offer this).

Photos should be well-focused and sharp. If you download a photo and zoom in and notice any noise, it’s probably not a decent image. As I’ve mentioned above, stock photo’s shouldn’t be cheesy and awkward. They’re meant to be used as representative images, and more often than not we don’t see this (even with premium websites).

Experienced photographers tend to have a good eye for detail. This is often represented in their work, capturing real-life without it looking cliche. Of course, it’s entirely up to you what you choose to use, but I don’t want to lead you down the wrong path.

1 | Unsplash

As featured above, it’s easy to see that Unsplash offer beautiful photos that are free to use. Their photos are actually donated by real and professional photographers. Although you may not find as many images on Unsplash as other sites, the quality makes up for this tenfold.

When you first visit Unsplash, the easiest way to search for a photo is by using their search tool. Simply enter in what you’re looking for and the results which show the most relevant images. If you don’t specifically know what you’re after, you can use their collections tool which categorises images by groups. If you sign up for an account you can create your own collections.

Unsplash has an iOS app which is really useful if you want to search for awesome stock photos on the go. What’s more, you don’t have to credit the photographer if you use any of their photos, but you can if you want to. I’d always recommend crediting the photographer as it’s a courteous thing to do.

High quality
Easy search tool
iOS app available

Visit Unsplash.com

2 | Pixabay

Pixabay has a wide selection of free images as well as vector graphics, illustrations, and videos. If you’re after landscape or nature photography, they have some very high-quality photos available. I strongly recommend checking out their Editor’s Choice section for some inspiration.

When you’ve searched through their library and found an image you like, you can choose the resolution. Depending on the type of project you’re working on, you may need a high resolution. You’ll be asked to complete a Captcha then your file is ready to download. If you don’t want to keep completing Captchas, you can sign up to Pixabay with a free account.

Pixabay does contain some not safe for work (NSFW) images but you can avoid these quite easily. Simply check the Enable SafeSearchoption before looking for content. This is a feature that I find quite interesting as I hadn’t really thought about this before discovering it on their site.

Large library of images
Illustrations and vector graphics
Quality not as good as others

Visit Pixabay.com

3 | Pikwizard

Pikwizard has thousands of stock photos available amongst multiple categories. After going through their images I can confirm the quality is very high, especially considering the content is free. Thankfully Pikwizard isn’t into cheesy poses as they present more natural photos. If it’s people you’re after, you’ll find plenty of choice on their site.

If you find an image you like but want to make some alterations, you can use the online photo editor. Many of the tools and features are premium so you’ll need to pay for them if you want to use them. However, none of them seems to cost more than a couple of quid.

My main gripe with Pikwizard is their licencing as they have two different licenses which are free and CCo. CCo means the copyright has been waived whereas free means the copyright is retained by the photographer. Free images can be used because the photographer has agreed for them to be used without payment. Similar to Unsplash, there’s no need to credit the photographer but it’s always nice to do so.

Plenty of natural poses
Online photo editor
Licensing applies to some photos

Visit Pikwizard.com

4 | Gratisography

Gratisography might not have as much content as other free stock photo sites, but they certainly offer something different. Professional photographer Ryan McGuire provides surreal photos with a certain sense of quirkiness. This site is a great choice if you’re looking for something unusual and are sick of the cliches.

New photos are added each week to ensure content remains consistent and fresh. If you want to be notified when new photos or updates are applied you can sign up to his newsletter or follow his twitter account.

When you download photos from Gratisography there’s no need to credit Ryan McGuire. Again, and I’ll keep saying this, it’s nice if you do and I’m sure he would appreciate it!

Unusual photos
Fresh content each week
Small selection

Visit Gratisography.com

5 | Negative Space

Negative Space invites anyone with a camera to contribute. It’s a great place for amateurs to get started and a place to show off photographer’s work. Supporting each other is at the forefront of what they do, allowing people to share their creativity and for it to be used in multiple places.

If you want to subscribe to their newsletter, you’ll get updates on when new content is added. New images seem to pop up fairly quickly, unlike Gratisography which is a bit slower because it’s a one-man-band. If you visit the site and don’t find what you’re looking for, it’s well worth revisiting as chances are new images will have appeared.

Negative Space is one of the few photography sites that’s actually based in the U.K. This gives people more opportunity to find British scenery including landscapes, cityscapes and more. The website is helpfully categorised, such as abstract, travel, technology etc.

Invites amateur photographers to submit work
U.K. based
Copyright protection applies to some content

Visit Negativespace.co

Pros & Cons of Stock Photos

As with most things, there are pros and cons to using stock photography. Stock photography is available for anyone to use; some sites allow you to download images for free whereas others will charge a premium. We’ve had a look at 5 amazing free stock photo sites to get you started. Paul Suggett from The Balance Careers sums stock photography up quite nicely:

Some websites like Negative Space invite photographers from any background to submit their work. This is a great option for those who want to share their work and those that want to support amateurs. Other sites like Gratisography are run by the photographers themselves and don’t request that you have to credit them. The majority of stock sites hire photographers to submit stock photography to be licensed. This is then sold on to anyone who buys them.

Perfect for mock-ups and presentations
Cheaper than a professional photo shoot
Available to download instantly
Wide range of resolutions
Ideal for those with a limited budget

Not original work
Likely to be used by multiple people and sites
Lacks brand identity
Can be cliche and awkward

Rather than trying to predict the amount of storage you are going to need in the future, why not go for an unlimited cloud storage provider? That way there are no upper limit restrictions. You never know what you might need to back up in the future, and with so many massive files being created from videos to games, more space is always better. 

Although there are a few great unlimited file storage providers out there, as always – they differ on how they structure their business. Some offer a monthly or annual fee and others will charge you for how much space you use. 

There is a difference between a cloud backup provider and a cloud storage provider. I’ll quickly outline each type of storage below so that you have an idea of the difference. 

What is the difference between Backup, Storage and Sync?

With the increasing demand for cloud storage and the fact that they are becoming more affordable, the services are becoming more specialized. Often providers will offer a few of these services, however, it’s a great idea to get informed. Here are the three types of cloud storage that you should know about:

1. Cloud Sync
2. Cloud Backup
3. Cloud Storage

What is Cloud Sync?

When you synchronize your device with a cloud storage provider, the files that you choose to sync are backed up on the cloud. We’d always advise having multiple copies of your files, especially ones of high value that you cannot replace. 

What is Cloud Backup?

Unlike Cloud Sync, cloud backup doesn’t require you to select the folder/s that you want to store. Cloud backup is normally automatic and it backs up your entire device. Think of cloud backup like the good old fashioned CD or DVD that you use to make a backup of your data.

What is Cloud Storage?

Cloud storage is a highly available data storage service. These services can be accessed by web developers via an API (application program interfaces).

Who is Cloud Storage For?

Cloud storage is a brilliant solution for anyone wanting to keep their data in a secure, accessible place. Great for both businesses and individuals alike, plus they are really easy to use (in most cases). A key factor other than the amount of data that you can store is how secure the cloud storage is.

In this article, we’ll explore the pros and cons of the top 7 UNLIMITED cloud file storage providers. For example – if they offer a FREE TRIAL, ease of use and price are all considerations. You’ll need to be uploading and downloading a lot with your cloud storage provider, so the speed of transfer is also something to check out. 

On the subject of file transfer – block-level transfer is a great feature, as it will allow you to only upload the parts of files that you have changed – saving time. These are our top six considerations when selecting the top unlimited file storage solution providers:

1. User Experience
2. Ease of Use
3. Free Trial Offered
4. Pricing 
5. Speed of Transfer
6. Block-level transfer

Ok, so let’s dive in and find out more about these “Unlimited” cloud storage providers so that you can pick the best one to fit your needs…

Here are our Best Unlimited Cloud Storage Providers in 2024

#1 | pCloud (Lifetime Plan)

pCloud offers two unique pricing plans which cover you for life. Whilst they don’t supply unlimited storage, they do offer up to 2TB storage for life. One of the main features pCloud boasts is the storage of your files in a remote location. You can sync your files across multiple devices from one location. pCloud has a mobile app, desktop app, and a web client. All of these are very easy to use and simply make sense.

pCloud’s plans are a great option for individuals, businesses, and enterprises. They offer features like collaboration on files, TLS/SSL channel protection, built-in video player, file versioning and backups (just to name a few). You can start your pCloud journey from just £3.99 per month which will net you 500GB storage. Their premium plan offers 2TB storage for £7.99 per month. I mentioned earlier that pCloud offers lifetime plans, which will cover you for life and save you a lot of money.

If you’re concerned about security (which you should be), pCloud uses TLS/SSL encryption. They claim security is their top priority and they certainly do offer this. When you store your files with pCloud, they’ll be stored on at least 3 servers. They also offer something called pCloud Crypto which is an additional service they offer.

Click Here To Visit pCloud

Pros

• Excellent value for money
• Fast network and file sync
• 256-bit AES encryption
• Shared file security
• Payment with Bitcoin available
• Wealth of useful features
• Incredibly easy to use

Cons

• Paid add-on for private encryption
• Files cannot be edited

#2 | IDrive (FREE 5GB Plan)

IDrive provides cloud backup and cloud storage services across multiple devices. Whether you’re using a PC, Mac, mobile or tablet, you can manage your storage in one account. IDrive can be used by mostly anyone, offering plans for personal use, small businesses, and even enterprises.

IDrive offers a free plan which gives you 5GB of data. Whilst this may be okay for personal use, it’s really just a taster of what’s on offer. The personal and business plans are very similar, however, the business plans have more users, servers and cover certain government regulatory and compliance laws. 2TB of IDrive’s storage will cost you around £40.07 for the first year. It’s good to be aware of how much storage you’re using as you will be charged £0.25 per GB per month on the Personal plans and £0.50 for the Business plans if you go over your limit.

Like many cloud storage solutions, IDrive comes with a wealth of features. Their main selling point for me is the fact you can back up all of your devices across one single account. Similar to Dropbox and Google Drive, you can also use their online file sync feature. IDrive also offer something called IDrive Express. This backs up all of your data sent to you on a physical device, which is especially useful if disaster strikes.

If you require cloud storage across a lot of devices at an affordable price, IDrive is a great option. Their Express feature means you can upload data to their servers very qiuckly and their interface is super easy to use.

Click Here To Visit IDrive

Pros

• Multiple device backup options
• All managed under one single account
• 256-bit AES encryption
• Easy to use interface
• Supports multiple operating systems
• Plenty of features
• Physical disk back up

Cons

• Going over your storage usage can be expensive
• IDrive Express can only be used once before additional charges

#3 | Dropbox For Business (30-Day FREE Trial)

Dropbox is probably the most popular and widely known cloud storage provider out there. Founded in 2007, Dropbox has shot to the top of the cloud storage provider list. The negative publicity due to the breach in 2012 seems to have done them good. They have tightened up security and become the most popular out there. Not necessarily the “best” on all fronts, but they do offer a brilliant UNLIMITED option for businesses. 

Both their Advanced and Enterprise services offer completely UNLIMITED file storage on the cloud. The pricing is not too bad either – You can get the “Advanced Plan” for just £20 per month. Enterprise is one of those – “get in touch for more information deals”, designed for people who need to tailor their service, large businesses.  You can get a 30-day free trial of the Dropbox for Business service.

Both of the unlimited plans from Dropbox offer smart sync. They also offer block-level transfer for enhanced speed. The initial upload speeds are pretty decent when compared to some other cloud hosting providers. They also offer an easy to use the app.

Dropbox Business allows you to select the servers that you want to use. For example you can store your data in European servers or on a server in a country of your choice.

Click Here To Visit Dropbox

Pros

• Smart Sync
• Blok-level transfer
• Decent transfer speeds
• App provided
• 256-bit AES encryption at rest
• 128-bit in-transit encryption
• Two-factor authentication

Cons

• No Zero-knowledge
• Limited reporting features

#4 | Box (14-Day FREE Trial)

Box storage states that 70% of the fastest-growing fortune 500) businesses use their storage service. They offer a 14-day free trial and focus on providing cloud storage that is optimized for the business user. 

Box offers three levels of service that offer the Unlimited Cloud Storage – Business, Business Plus, and Enterprise. Like Dropbox, they don’t provide much info on the Enterprise edition, you need to contact them to discuss your requirements. You can add unlimited users onto your account, but know that you’ll need to pay for each user, and there is a minimum user count of 3. The Business plan from Box is £12 per additional user and the Business Plus is £20 per month for additional users. 

On the flip side, Box doesn’t have block-level file transfers, so you won’t see an increase in upload speed for file uploads. They also limit your file upload to 5GB, which is a bit restrictive. However, they offer a neat “Selective Sync” feature. You can then manage what files you want to sync which saves time and space. 

One great thing about Box is that you simply install their software and a sync folder will automatically be created. Saving files to this folder means that they will automatically be backed up on the cloud. Their mobile app and desktop client are both user friendly and the UX is clean and easy to use. Security is great with Box – they offer AES 256-bit encryption and in transit protection.

Click Here To Visit Box

Pros

• Easy to use
• Intuitive desktop and mobile client
• Good Security
• 24/7 support
• AES 256-bit encryption

Cons

• No block-level sync
• Files uploaded restricted to 5GB

#5 | OpenDrive (5GB FREE)

OpenDrive are one of the only providers that we’ve seen that Unlimited Storage on a personal plan. What’s more, you can add up to four users on the personal plan, which is just £8 per month. If you sign up to their annual service you get two months free. 

The Business Plan from OpenDrive is £24 per month and is white label – so you can add your business branding. They offer account manager to help you, should you need it. They also offer a reseller plan so that you can effectively make your File storage service and sell it which is just £48 – quite an attractive proposition! The only downside to this is that you get charged for every user that you add onto your reseller account. 

One downside to OpenDrive is that their upload and download speeds are quite slow. Their web and mobile clients are OK – nothing outstanding. OpenDrive is certainly not the easiest or initiative cloud storage web / mobile app out there. 

The security offered by OpenDrive is not too shabby – you get encrypted with AES-256 when the files are at rest and 128-bit AES while data is in transit. You can also select managed or private encryption for optimal control. However, they don’t offer two-factor authentication, which puts you at risk for a password breach.

Click Here To Visit Opendrive

#6 | LiveDrive (14-Day FREE Trial)

LiveDrive is a UK based cloud file storage provider. They offer Automatic Online Backup that is geared toward the individual/ personal user who wants to back-up their PC. They offer a 14 day unrestricted trial on the personal or business account. You can however, access your files from anywhere, which is great. They offer free apps for you to instantly access your files. As a backup service, they offer things like “Simple Restore” so that you can restore your PC to a previous version. 

They offer some good security features, for example, TLS encryption for files in transit and they are an ISO 27001 certified center. They do offer encryption via obfuscation; however, don’t disclose the actual encryption method. A good option if you want to back-up your files on UK soil. Also, they don’t restrict the size of the file that you upload or download.

There are two levels of Business service – Business Express that offers 2TB and 3 users, for £40 per month. Business Standard offers 10TB and 10+ users for £128 per month. The service is not really UNLIMITED despite them saying that it is, but you can add on additional space if an when required.

Click Here To Visit Livedrive

#7 | AWS (5GB FREE)

AWS is Amazon’s cloud storage service. It can be scaled up to whatever you need to in effect you have access to unlimited storage space. You can store your data on AWS for cost £0.004 per gigabyte per month. They operate a Pay-as-you-go service model and they also offer volume discounts if you need to store a tonne of data on the AWS cloud. They have some handy calculators to figure out how much space you are using. You can use as much as you want, and that is why we have put it on the list, it is unlimited, however Pay-as-you-go.

With AWS you can get access to a Free Tier – that gives you 750 hours and 5GB of storage. You can then upgrade as and when you are ready. Amazon also has 60 other tools that you can access on the free tier.  Security wise AWS has TLS for in transit files and customer controlled encryption on their servers, additionally they offer AWS Multi-Factor Authentication.

Click Here To Visit AWS

#8 | Rackspace Cloud Files (No FREE Option)

Rackspace Cloud Files is a large cloud infrastructure service (with have over 200 data centres, with locations all over the world) and for that reason they can easily store unlimited files. You do however need to download and integrate third party software like Storage Made Easy. So Rackspace Cloud Files don’t offer the full package – which could be complex for people who aren’t so tech savvy. 

Files can be uploaded via the Rackspace cloud manager which is easy to use and fast. They do however charge per  GB. Up to 1TB, it is £0.10 then the price goes down by one cent to £0.09 up to 49TB – you also need to pay for bandwidth. The good thing is you are only paying for what you use, but these types of payments can easily rack up (pardon the pun).

Security from Rackspace Cloud Files isn’t the best. They don’t encrypt the data at rest however they do protect data in transit with SSL. To access your files on the Rackspace cloud manager you’ll need an authorized API key, which  offers some security.

Click Here To Visit Rackspace

#9 | Backblaze B2 (10GB FREE)

With Backblaze B2 you get 10GB for free – which is a great bonus. After you use this space up then you get a gigabyte for £0.005 per month. They also offer you 1GB download for free, but after this you’ll pay £0.004 per 10,000 downloads – certainly a pretty cheap option. They don’t have international servers like other hosting providers and store all of your files in their Californian servers. This can make transfer speeds slow and put you under the jurisdiction of US data laws. 

 Although Backblaze B2 is cheap, they don’t offer much in the way of security – no encryption or any real infrastructure.

Click Here To Visit Backblaze

All in All

The best thing about ALL of the file storage solutions outlined above is the fact that they are all UNLIMITED. It all depends on what you need, if you are looking for a secure cloud storage provider, then don’t go for Backblaze or Rackspace as they don’t offer encryption or much in the way of security protocols. If you security is top on your list then:

Check out our article on Secure Cloud File Storage Providers

If you are looking for an unlimited cloud file storage provider that has a flat-fee then Dropbox or OpenDrive are great options. I hope that this list helps you find the best unlimited storage provider to suit your needs.

When it comes to getting a FREE email address you need to consider what you’ll be using it for – Business or Personal email. If you are looking for a business email address, then you’ll want it to be professional to help your business image and make you stand out. 

Personal email addresses are easy to get, we’ll go into them. But many people are unaware that you can actually get professional email addresses for free in a few different ways. So in this article we’ll go into free business and free personal email addresses, how to set them up and the benefits of using each different option. You can also take a look at our case study of the best email hosting services.

What is the Best FREE Business Email?

I personally love using cPanel on my server, then I can generate as many mailboxes and email addresses as I like. The only thing I am restricted on is the amount of space my emails take up. If you have unlimited cloud hosting then you can make email addresses until your heart is content. 

Be aware that some website hosts allow you to have unlimited email addresses while others restrict you on how many email addresses you can create. So check that out with your host (if you already have one). If you are choosing a new one, then you can check out how many email addresses you are allowed on each package. Generally speaking shared hosting will offer one or more email addresses for free, website builders will charge for email addresses and dedicated servers with cPanel will allow you to make as many emails as you like. 

I actually created a comprehensive guide to using cPanel that you can access here. It also has a whole section on creating email addresses included. It’s a lot simpler than you might think. 

If you don’t want to go down the cPanel and Webmail option – Webmail is the software you can use to access your emails free of charge with your hosting provider. Then let’s go over some other options. 

1. Zoho/ Webmail 

When you have your business email address created with your host or cPanel, then you need a way to read and reply to emails easily. For this you’ll need to install software. Webmail and Zoho are free options for you to use to read and send emails.

2. Bluehost, HostGator (or Other Hosting Providers)

Both of these hosts offer a free business email and software when you open your domain/ hosting account. This is a great place to start if you don’t want to have to mess around with things like cPanel or software. 

3. 100% FREE email providers

Email providers that are 100% free are great – but you’ll not get the professional domain name extension. What do I mean by that? Basically if you want name@yoursite.com, where you replace the “name” for your own name and “yoursite.com” for your business website address, then you can’t do that with a 100% free email providers. If you are happy with using the email providers domain name extension (for example @gmail.com or @yahoo.com) and just want a free email address for personal use then you can use Gmail or a similar provider.

Reasons to Choose a Professional Business Email Address 

For a start you can get your business email address up and running in minutes once you know how. So it is super easy to do. Secondly, using a custom domain name for your email address just looks so much more professional. 

A Custom Email Address is Free Advertising 

Thirdly, your domain name will be doing some advertising for you – when you send an email out, people might want to go over and check out everything that your business does. This is great for brand awareness.

People respond more favourably to a business email when they are buying goods and services. Plus they can go over and check you out by cutting and pasting your custom domain name.  Your professional email address does the work that a business card can do (especially if you put professional email footer at the end of your emails). 

Related: Get a FREE Domain Name

Generic FREE Email Addresses Can Hurt a Business

Using a free email address like yourname@gmail.com or yourname@yahoo.com is a NO-NO for business.  A business email builds trust as it has to come from someone at that company, while a generic FREE email address could come from anyone.  Here are 5 reasons to create a professional custom email address:

1. To build trust
2. Safety
3. Professional persona
4. Essential for B2B Businesses
5. Build brand Awareness

How to Create a Custom Email Address

If you already have a business website, then you can get an email address (or several) to match it. I’ll go over several ways to approach this below.

Can You Get a Free Email Address With a Website Builder?

YES! Even website builders like Wix offer custom email addresses to match your domain name. The only thing is you’ll need to be on their premium plan to get a professional email address. Other hosts like 1&1 IONOS and Godaddy now have website builders that you can use to create your website in minutes, and some packages come with free email addresses. 

You can get a FREE email address and domain name with 1&1 IONOS when you buy their website hosting that starts at £1 per month.

How to Choose Your Domain Name

If you don’t already have your own domain name – you don’t need one to get a free personal email address – you just require a domain name for a business email address. Your domain name should represent your business. Normally the name of your business with a .com extension has been the standard practice. However you can now get domain extensions like .coach or .academy  that may fit your business better.

Check out our 21 Domain Name Generators

How to Choose a FREE Email Provider

When you are looking for a FREE email address, there are several things you should think about. Firstly, if you are using an email address from your host, then check that they can set everything up for you, like Bluehost and HostGator do. Unless you are confident that you can do this manually, for example – if you are a tech wizz kid. 

Checkout our Bluehost vs HostGator Review

In either case you want to choose an email service provider that has decent customer support. You don’t necessarily need this for a personal email address, but it is certainly a major consideration for your business email address. Your business email will be essential for your business to succeed in the online space. So it’s great to know that you can get support if and when it’s needed. 

Here are some other considerations when selecting your new FREE email provider:

1. Uptime Guarantee  

If you are thinking about using a basic generic free email address then the major providers like Yahoo and Gmail already have this in the bag. They just about never experience downtime. However, if you are using your own domain name, then you want to make sure that the host that you are using has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Consider the situation whereby your email hosting goes offline and you can’t receive emails. This means you could lose out on potential business. 

2. Spam Filters

Let’s face it – everybody hates spam. So make sure that your email provider offers decent spam filters. In our cPanal guide we discussed how to set up spam filters in your cPanel account. If you aren’t using cPanel then make sure that you provider has spam filters. Some providers like Gmail come with in-built spam filters. 

3. Security

You don’t want someone to access your email addresses, so make sure that the provider you use has security measures in place like malware detection and two-factor authentication.  Bear in mind that email providers like Gmail reserve the right to take a peek into your mail.

4. Ease of Use

There are two considerations here – how easy is it to compose, send and reply to emails? And how easy is it to set your email up? The setup with providers like Gmail and Yahoo is extremely simple. Some hosts will allow you to set up your professional custom email address in a few minutes. 

5. Storage Space / Archives

Most FREE email providers have a limit on the amount of data you can store in your mailbox. For instance the Gmail quota is 15GB. This gets filled up quickly if you have many images and videos in our email account. The emails that are stored in “archive” also take up space and should be deleted periodically. 

6. Advanced Features 

You can integrate your email with your CRM, for instance Hubspot or any other CRM. The reason I mentioned Hubspot is that they offer a FREE CRM tool to manage your customers. You can even use their calendar booking system on your website or via email and sync everything up. 

7. Customer Experience

It can pay to have a look at what other customers are saying about your new free email provider before signing up. That way you can establish any flaws without putting yourself out. To do this – type in your email provider name and reviews into Google to find out what people are saying. 

8. Additional Emails

How easy is it to add on new email accounts? If you are expanding your business you might want to add on new business users. Bear in mind that while some hosts and email providers will allow you to add unlimited people, this might come at an additional cost. 

Google for instance is a great FREE email provider; however when you start to add on custom domain names, the price can quickly mount up – even if you just have a few email addresses. 

Professional Email Formats

When setting up your business email address, consider your employees, including, if you plan on taking on employees in the future. Choose an email format that works for you. For example:

james@domainname.com

james.walker@ domainname.com

james.w@ domainname.com

james@ domainname.com

w.james@domainname.com

You get the gist – decide on a format and then use it for all of your employees. 

FREE Professional Email Account Setup – A Step-By-Step Guide

There are many ways to approach FREE business email setup. In this guide I’ll go through a few of the most straight forward options. If you already have a domain name you can use Zoho to set up your email address in minutes. 

If you don’t already have a domain name, you can get one and some cheap hosting – plus a fee email address from Bluehost, 1&1 IONOS  or HostGator. But first, let’s take a look at setting your account up on Zoho. 

Create Your Professional Email Address With Zoho

If you already own your domain name, you can set up your email address up with Zoho in minutes.  You might want to set up your email address up as a subdomain, if so discuss this with your system administrator or simply set up a subdomain in cPanel. If you want to go ahead and create a straight forward business email, then it’s easy with Zoho. 

Zoho also have CRM software, ad free email, accounting apps and some nice analytic tools. I’d say that this setup might not be great for complete beginners as you need to switch between your domain registrar/ host and Zoho. But if you’re cool with that, it’s fairly straight forward. Let’s get started setting up your professional account with Zoho.

Step 1 – Visit Zoho.com and create an account.

Step 2 – Select “Sign up with a Domain you already own.” 

Step 3 – Fill in your details and tap “Sign Up” 

Step 4 – Two-Factor Authentication code will be sent to your phone – fill this in on the site

Step 5 – Go to the Domain DNS Manager in Zoho. Choose your domain’s DNS host from dropdown

Step 6 – Login using your username and password domain registrar 

Step 7 – Go to “My Accounts” > “Domains” > “Manage DNS.”

Step 8 – Copy the Zoho code thath will begin with “zb*******” 

Step 9 – Paste code in “Host” field. Enter “zmverify.zoho.com” under “Points to” field in DNS records and hit “Save” to finish.

Step 10 – Verify your domain name by selecting “Proceed to CNAME Verification.” Then hit “Verify Now” 

Step 11 – Select “Create Account” 

Step 12 – Login to your domain name provider and go to the “DNS Manager”

Step 13 – Choose MX Record in DNS Manager (over on your domain host). In the “Host” field, enter “@” and in the “Points To” field, paste “mx.zoho.com.”

Step 14 – Select the “Priority” field and type “10” then hit “Save.

Step 15 – Add new MX Record by entering “@” in the “Host” field and pointing it to “mx2.zoho.com” set priority to “20” and then hit “Save.”

Step 16 – Add a 3rd  MX Record. Set the “Host” field to “@” and point it to “mx3.zoho.com” then set the priority to “50” and click “Save.”

Step 17 – Delete any other MX records as you only need the 3 I’ve outlined above.

Step 18 – A pop-up should appear that reads – “Configure Email Delivery” and should say that MX Records are pointed to Zoho servers. 

CONGRATUATIONS – Your email should now be configured. You should now be able to send and receive emails in Zoho.

If you get stuck at any point, then check your domain name hosts tutorials on managing DNS or email setup – because sometimes the MX records can be a bit different. Failing that give your host a quick call to make sure everything is set up correctly. 

Create Your Professional Email Address with Bluehost

If you have hosting with Bluehost, you get your email address free of charge. It’s really easy to set up, even for the complete novice. Here’s a quick guide:

Step 1 – Visit Bluehost.com and create an account or login (if you already have an account go to step 3).

Step 2 – Choose “Web Hosting” and select a plan and set it up

Step 3 – Log in to  Bluehost and go to your cPanel account and login.

Step 4 – Select “Email Accounts” under “Mail.” 

Step 5 – Enter in an email address and password. 

Step 6 – Tap “Create Account” 

As you can see, setting up email addresses this way is SUPER EASY. So you can go ahead and create a few if you require them. Remember to set the email quota if you are creating accounts for others. 

Bluehost also have some security settings that can help you manage spam. 

Create Your Professional Email Address with HostGator

If you have hosting with HostGator, you get your email address free of charge. It’s really easy to set up, even for the complete novice. Here’s a quick guide. 

Step 1 – Visit HostGator.com and select “Web Hosting.” (if you already have an account go to step 3).

Step 2 – After you have created your account check your email for ServerName

Step 3 – Paste this URL in your browser: https://ServerName:2083. Replace “ServerName” in the URL with the ServerName you received in your email.

Step 4 – Login to cPanel with your username and password to enter cPanel.

Step 5 – Select “Mail.” And then “Email Accounts.”

Step 6 – Enter your new email address name and strong password. 

Step 7 – Hit “Create Account.”

Sending and Receiving Emails

Zoho has their own software to send and receive emails, but hosts like Bluehost and HostGator use cPanel and then you install Webmail. Most hosting providers now use cPanel so you should be able to create your email account by accessing cPanel. If you are using cPanel then Webmail is the usual suspect for sending and receiving. 

If you have successfully created your email address, you’ll want to test it. You can normally access your webmail by going to yoursite.com/webmail (where yoursite.com is replaced for your own domain name).  You then put in your email and password (that you set up above). 

You can normally access your emails a number of ways. Another way is to login to your cPanel and then go to the mail section and selecting “view inbox”. 

What are the Best Free Personal Email Hosting Providers?

Do you want to get a quick and easy personal email address? Here are some of the best FREE email address providers:

#1 | Yahoo Mail

Yahoo mail is a brilliant solution if you want a tonne of storage space for FREE. Their email storage limit is a massive 1TB for all users. Founded over two decades ago, in 1997, and Yahoo continues to thrive. They currently have 225 million active users. They have some great features like spam filters, SSL encryption and search tools.

When you create your Yahoo account you’ll automatically have a login for Flickr and Tumblr as they are part of the same company. Yahoo is the best option for a free personal email address, as they give you so much space, features and security – all totally free.

Click Here To Visit Yahoo

#2 | Gmail

Gmail can be used for both personal and business email addresses. It is really user friendly and simple to set up – for that reason Gmail is a very popular email solution.  Gmail is intuitive and has some great folder structuring that allows you to organise your mail and also filter out spam and promotions. You get 15GB storage space for free when you sign up to Gmail. 

I personally love the Gmail user interface and would have put it top of my list if Yahoo didn’t offer such a jaw dropping storage quota for free.

Business Gmail – You’ll need to buy your domain name from a domain name registrar, and also buy G-Suite. 

Personal Gmail – Simply fill in your details and you’ll be up and running in minutes.

Click Here To Visit Gmail

#3 | Outlook.com

It’s really quick and easy to set up an @outlook.com email address. Go to Outlook.com and follow the steps and you’ll be up and running in minutes. Outlook is a feature rich email solution that comes bundled with Microsoft Office 365. You can also set up a free account directly from their site. 

Outlook is a great solution for businesses as you can download the software to your computer and manage your emails there. It is really easy to use, even though it does look a little bit dated now. They automatically sort high-priority and low-priority mail with their “Clutter” feature, which is great for people who get a high volume of emails. You can also manage all of your emails into folders. 

Click Here To Visit Outlook

#4 | iCloud Mail

If you use any Apple device you’ll need to set up an Apple ID. People say that you’ll already have an iCloud account with your Apple ID. However, this is not strictly true, because you can use your own business or personal email address with another provider as your Apple ID.  This will get you into iCloud, but not get you a free email address. 

If you have an Apple Iphone then iCloud is a great choice as you can check your email easily from your device. iCloud has a built in spam filter and also uses two-factor authentication, which is great to avoid the possibility of anyone logging into your email. 

iCloud is specifically designed for people who own an iPhone, iPad, iWatch or iPod touch. However you can also set it up on your Windows PC (provided you own an Apple device). If you are using a Windows PC then you’ll need to follow these steps:

Step 1 – Visit iCloud and download iCloud for Windows

Step 2 – Use your Apple ID from one of your Apple devices to login. 

Step 3 – You’ll then be asked to select the services you want. For example if you want to turn on iCloud Drive to store files on the cloud.

Click Here To Visit iCloud

#5 | GMX Mail

GMX is another email provider that is great on storage space as they offer a UNLIMITED storage. Surprisingly, this lesser known mail service has been around just as long as Yahoo – since 1997. They offer an intuitive mobile app that you can use on both iPhone and Android. 

Like Yahoo and Google, GMX mail offers a lot of other features that you might like. For example they have virus protection and a spam filter. You can also use their version of the Google Calendar called “GMX Organizer.”

Click Here To Visit GMX

#6 | Yandex Mail

Yandex is part of a massive co-corporation based in Russia. They offer all sorts of digital products like mobile apps, a search engine and eCommerce. Their mail solution “Yandex Mail” has some cute e-card and template features to make your email stand out. They offer just 10GB of storage. Additionally they have some great features to optimize your inbox – for example mail sorting, highlighting emails that come from real people and virus/ spam protection.

Click Here To Visit Yandex

All in All

There you go – a tonne of options to get your free email up and running in minutes. Businesses need to have a professional email address, whereas if you are just looking for a personal address, you can use one of the 6 totally free and easy accounts I’ve mentioned above. Looking for a free business address? Check if your host offers a free email address for your business and get started with cPanel.

Considering website monitoring to ensure that your website is performing as you would like? Awesome! You’ve come to the right place.

You can use website monitoring to check out your websites uptime, speed and functions. Website monitoring tools are invaluable for website owners or webmasters who want to know the facts about how well their website is performing. They’ll help you to see where your site might be falling short so that you can improve the overall functionality of your website and the experience of end users.

Not all website monitoring services are made equally. Some offer FREE services, some have a comprehensive list of features and a dashboard for you to overview performance, some check your website every minute, while others check every 30 minutes. There is also the method that they contact you, some offer SMS credits so that you can be alerted directly to your mobile if anything goes wrong, while others rely on good old-fashioned email to send alerts. 

Getting to the root of what is going wrong with your website has never been easier. Website monitors will even alert you, normally within minutes, if your site goes down. Meaning you won’t need to keep checking or worse still, lose sales if your website goes offline. 

What is a Monitor? (In relation to website monitoring services)

When you’re searching for a “website monitoring service” you’ll come into some jargon. For instance the extensive use of the word “monitor”. The term monitor, in this instance refers to a website, web app, and server or FTP server. Some website monitoring service use the term “checks” or tracking but they mean the same thing.

There are both basic monitors and more advanced monitors. The easiest way to think about it is that a monitor is like a website. The amount of monitors you can use equates to the amount of websites you can track.

In this article we’ll share some neat website monitoring tools that you can use straight away on your site. Best of all, you can access some of these tools completely FREE of charge!

#1 | Uptime Robot (FREE)

Uptime Robot has over 600,000+ customers worldwide and offers a completely FREE service. Uptime Robot is one of the largest and best website monitors out there. With the free plan you can monitor up to 50 websites for free. They check your site every 5 minutes and alert you if anything has gone awry. You also get 2 months of logs so that you can check the report and see how your site has been performing. They provide a nice UX that allows you to monitor your website via a pleasing dashboard. 

Launched back in 2010, Uptime Robot was created as a FREE tool – then in 2015 they created their Pro plan that currently costs £38 per month, which allows the monitoring of 1000 websites. Their paid option is also 5x faster, they check your website every 1 minute with the paid option and also send out an SMS alert – which is really handy when you are out and about. The paid option also allows you to access to additional server locations. Because your website may appear differently in other parts of the world. 

Click Here To Visit Uptime Robot

Pros

• 100% FREE option
• Monitor 50 websites for FREE
• 2 Month log with the free plan
• Paid plan allows you to monitor a decent 1000 websites
• Cost effective paid offering

Cons

• Free plan monitors every 5 minutes, you need to upgrade to get 1-minute monitors

#2| Freshping

Freshping (previously known as Insping) offers a really great deal that is forever FREE. They give you 50 monitors, 1-minute interval tracking in 10 global locations – All that completely free of charge! I like Freshping’s business model, where they only want you to pay as your business grows. 

They also offer a 21-day free trial on their premium plans. When you upgrade you get to give it a test drive for free without inputting your credit card, which is a nice touch. They offer 60 checks (monitors) for their cheapest package called “Blossom”. 

Click Here To Visit Freshping

Pros

• Up to 10 users can use the free account
• 1 min interval (Even oon free)
• Reporting & graphs
• Flexibility to add more monitors as you grow
• Easy to use

Cons

• You need to pay annually

#3 | Montastic.com (FREE)

The free option is quite basic but it does the job of alerting you to any downtime. They don’t have a dashboard, like the other providers, instead Monastic just sends out alerts. You get to monitor just 3 sites with the free option and they’ll be checked every 30 minutes. Personally I feel that is a bit long – as you can get FREE monitoring every 5 minutes with Uptime robot and Freshping monitor your site at 1-minute intervals on their forever free plan.

They offer a nice keyword feature that might help you with SEO. A very simple service with no bells or whistles, but it does the job of alerting you when your site is down and checking keywords. If you upgrade you’ll get a faster 5-minute interval monitoring service and up to 500 monitors for £40, or less if you want. A great service for someone who isn’t interested in anything but getting alerts to know when their site goes down. They also let you know when your site goes back up again.  

Click Here To Visit Montastic

#4 | Monitis (15-Day FREE Trial)

Monitis (previously Monitor.us) is a website monitoring service owned by the company TeamViewer. They offer a nice fully functional 15-day trial without supplying your credit card. Monitis has some great features, for instance – you can get instant alerts via email, SMS, twitter or phone the minute they find something wrong. Plus, you can sign up and access everything within 3 minutes. 

The plan that you select is entirely customizable and cloud-based – so there is no need to download anything to get started. Montis is user friendly and straight forward, I just wish they had a 100% free option.

You can monitor website uptime to track up-time, response time, and performance from multiple international locations. The predictive features that Monitis offer are really great, you can easily detect bottlenecks before they arise. Everything is completely customizable and in one easy to use dashboard.

Click Here To Visit Monitis

#5 | Site24x7.com

Site24x7 offers a full suite of website monitoring tools, including real user feedback. They don’t offer a completely free package, but you can easily start a 30 day free trial and test drive their website monitoring features. Their website and tools are available in wide variety of languages such as Chinese, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Spanish, and Swedish.

With their starter package you can monitor 10 websites for £7.15 and get up to 50 SMS credits so that you can be notified the minute there is anything wrong with your site. What’s great is that you can monitor your site from over 90+ locations and they also offer logs and multi-user accounts, even with their lowest price package. For larger companies, Site24x7 offers an Enterprise bundle, but you need to get in touch with them to sort out your individual requirements. 

Click Here To Visit Site24x7

#6 | Pingdom.com

With Pingdom.com you can monitor 10 sites at 1-minute intervals for £10.30. They also have some professional services that would be suitable for a larger organisation. Multiple users can use the account, which is great for larger co-corporations. You get the feeling that Pingdom means business – they are designed for the more serious business user. 

With Pingdom.com you don’t get a free-trial or access to a free account, which is a bit of a bummer. But you can sign up for a free demo to check it out.  They have servers all over the world, from which they can monitor your websites uptime and performance. One great thing about Pingdom is that they offer real user feedback (rather than just feedback from bots) and they work to help you assess any flaws or issues on your website.

Click Here To Visit Pingdom

#7 | StatusCake (FREE)

StatusCake offer a completely FREE service, where you get 10 monitors and limited features. You get email alerts, but if you want SMS alerts then you’ll need to upgrade to one of their paid options. What is really good about StatusCake is that they offer a free trial on both of their premium packages. 

You can upgrade for £12 and for that you’ll get 100 monitors and access to a wide range of premium features like SSL monitoring, server monitoring, virus scanning and reporting. To access their full range of services – which includes multi-user login and white label services, you’ll need a business account. 

Click Here To Visit Statuscake

#8 | Uptrends.com 

Uptrends offer a customizable package where you can add and remove features. You can add on monitors, decrease monitoring intervals, access advanced dashboards and even view transactions on your service. Their basic plan gets you 10 monitors and 60 SMS credits for £12. 

When a website monitoring provider offers SMS notifications, I feel that they are quite professional. That way you can find out quickly if there is an issue with your site. Uptrends also offer phone support and advanced dashboards.

Click Here To Visit Uptrends

#9 | Host-Tracker.com (30 Day Free Trial)

HostTracker is a feature rich website monitoring service. You can monitor all aspects of your site for instance find out if your site (or IP) has been blacklisted and be alerted when your SSL certificate is going to expire. You can use HostTracker for server tracking or more straight forward site tracking.  They have servers in 60 global locations for you to check your site from. 

HostTrakcer offer a 30 day free trial and also a completely FREE service, they also send out SMS alerts. For £4 per month you can monitor 5 sites with a 10-minute interval. They offer just about every tracking tool you could imagine, so they are great for the more advanced user who wants to check every aspect of their sites performance, including database performance, content checking, error diagnostics and much more. 

Click Here To Visit Host-Tracker

All in All

As you can see no two website monitoring services are the same. They all vary on the features, pricing, monitors and tracking intervals. So what website monitoring service is best for you? Why not get started with our favourite and completely free service Uptime Robot. If you like the sound of any of the other providers, take advantage of the free trial and find out what service is best for your needs. 

Storing digital files safely on the cloud is an on-going concern for content creators or just people who love to shoot family video or photos. It’s also great to share files with friends, colleagues, and family all over the world. For this reason, file storage can be a viable option. There are often limits to the amount of space you get on free storage providers. 

As this is article is focused on the “FREE-ness” of file storage providers, I’ll list the providers from the most amount of FREE storage to the least. At the end, I’ll list my hacks to getting unlimited free space for your file storage. The exception to this rule is when a company has trixy clauses, for example, you can only upload a certain size of a file, despite being allowed to upload unlimited data or if the company deletes your data after a specific timeframe. 

Size is one thing, but what else should you look out for? Other things to consider when selecting a FREE file storage provider would be the ease of file sharing, collaboration tools, the speed of uploading and downloading and also the success of the company. Secure cloud storage is another issue that we covered in another article.  We’ll discuss:

Storage – the amount of space they offer for free

AlexaRank – How popular they are on the web #1 being highest. 

Pros & Cons – I’ll outline some of the pros and cons of the storage provider

Lastly, I’ll share a few secret hacks to getting file storage completely free. Ok – without further ado, let’s dive in and find out what the 15 Best FREE File Storage Providers are:

#1 | Google Drive (15GB)

Alexa Rank – #1 (for Google)

Google needs no introduction – the largest search engine in the world that also provides free email and office software like Google Docs. You’ll get access to your Google Drive account as part of the bundle. Make an email address, and you’ve got Google Drive as part of the deal. The major downside of using Google Drive is the privacy (READ: You get no privacy with Google Drive), but they do give you a tonne of tools and space for FREE. 

If you want more storage space on your Google Drive account you can get a massive 2TB plan for £7.95 per month. They also offer humungous plans like 30TB for £238/month – which would keep most people going for most of their life. 

Click Here To Visit Google Drive

Pros

✔ You get a suite of software to use for FREE like GoogleSheets and GoogleDocs

✔ Easy to set up

✔ Easy to use

✔ Auto update feature

✔ TLS protocol

✔ 15GB Free storage

✔ Cost effective pricing plans

Cons

✘ You need a Google Account to use the service

✘ ZERO PRIVACY, Google openly states they look through your files to market products to you

✘ Linked to all of your Google accounts.

#2 | OneDrive (15GB)

 AlexaRank #11

OneDrive is Microsoft’s answer to cloud file storage. You get 15GB for free – which is the largest amount of storage offered for free by any cloud storage provider. Other than Mega, who give you an extra limited time 35GB that has some catches, more about that below. 

Microsoft has merged OneDrive with their Microsoft Office 365 offering. When you upgrade to Microsoft Office 365 you’ll get their whole suite of Office software products as part of the deal for £5.60 per month. With this package they provide 1TB of storage which is pretty decent.

Click Here To Visit Onedrive

Pros

✔ 15GB is a decent amount of storage space for FREE

✔ You get the suite of Microsoft Office software as part of the deal

✔ AES 256-bit encryption

✔ TLS protocol

✔ Great Collaboration tools

✔ Fast sync

Cons

✘ Files are not private (Microsoft can look at your files)

✘ If you login from another location (or a different IP address) you might get locked out of our account as they check your IP address

#3 | Mega (15GB FREE + Limited 35GB)

Alexa Rank # 870 

Compared to the top two FREE storage solutions Mega is quite far down in the Alexa ranking. However, they do offer up to 50GB storage space for free (with a catch). It’s best to think that Mega offers 15GB of storage, as the other 35GB of data that you might upload will be deleted if you don’t upgrade to a premium plan in time. One thing to note about Mega is that the original owner was prosecuted for piracy in the past. Also their top shareholder was marked for extradition from China, so it might pay to keep an eye on what the owners are doing. 

Data protection is one of the key USPs of Mega. They were featured in our secure storage options for this very reason. If you want to upgrade and get more storage their premium plan, the cheapest plan from Mega gets you just 200GB of storage for £4.58, which isn’t great. The best value premium account offers a decent 1TB of storage for £9.16 per month. However, this is quite a bit more expensive than Google Drive. Mega is more tight on privacy and security, so it depends on what is most important to you. 

Click Here To Visit Mega

#4 | 4Shared (15GB + quite a few bizarre catches)

Alexa Rank 452

4Shared is based in the Kieve, Ukraine was launched in 2005 and is owned by New IT Solutions Ltd. Now one of the largest file hosting companies (probably because they rely heavily on their resellers) with over 11 million users and 317 terabytes of files transferred daily. 4Shared is higher in the Alexa rankings than Mega (meaning they are more popular) and also offer 15GB file storage for FREE. A big drawback is the fact that you can only download 3GB of data per day. So it’d take you 5 days to download all of your stored content. 

You can sign up for an account with 4Shared in seconds with Facebook, Google, and Twitter. They have a clean and easy to use interface, which is a plus. When you upgrade you get just 100GB of storage for £7.95 per month, which is a bit steep, considering you can get 1-2TB from other providers for the same price. 

If you pay annually you can save £2.80, but you have to pay for the whole year in advance.  One really odd thing is that you need to pay via one of their Resellers. Some of their resellers accept Bitcoin which is nice, but their payment options are rather bizarre to say the least.

Click Here To Visit 4Shared

#5 | MediaFire (10GB FREE)

Alexa Rank 164

If we weren’t focused on the amount of space that you get for FREE, then I’d order this list very differently. MediaFire comes third (so far, in the Alexa rankings) but it’s definitely not my favourite file storage provider. 

Mediafire often does an amazing deal where you get 50% off their premium offering, so that’s something to look out for. The normal price is £7.95 per month for 1TB of storage space.  You can get up to 100TB of storage space for £80, which is a whole load of space. 

With the FREE option there are lots of ads, which are quite off-putting. Their user interface is also not the best

Click Here To Visit Mediafire

#6 | Box (10 GB FREE)

Alexa Rank 446

The 10GB that you get free from Box is decent, however when you are looking to get more space, the upgrade price is extortionate – £8 per month for 100GB is wild. In saying that, Box is a good provider for businesses as you can add extra users on. This could also be a good option for a family to use. When you upgrade to their Business account you get unlimited storage and you can add as many users as you like. 

Click Here To Visit Box

# 7 | DepositFiles (10GB + a catch or two)

Alexa Rank 4,062 

DepositFiles has servers in 9 countries, which is great for uploading and downloading. They also offer 10GB for free. With DepositFiles there are a few catches. One is that you’ll have to endure advertisements on your FREE account. Their site and user interface is also a bit dated and not very intuitive. You can upgrade to the gold membership which gets you faster upload and download speeds and you can pay with credit card or Bitcoin. DepositFiles pricing is a bit steep  at £9.50 per month, and with this you don’t get extra file storage.

One thing that is great about DepositFiles is the fact that you can send a link with password protection – even on the free plan. I also like the fact that they store your files for free for an unlimited time. 

Click Here To Visit Depositfiles

#8 | Sabercat Host (5GB FREE)

SaberCats host is based in Houston, US. SaberCats Host offers 5GB of free storage space and unlimited bandwidth. They also have fast uploads and downloads, which is brilliant. Their UX is clean and easy-to-use and works well on both mobile devises. . Sharing files is easy with SaberCats Host. One thing that is great about SaberCats Host is that you can use their site without making an account. This feature is really great for collaboration and sharing. 

You can pay with Paypal and all of the regular credit card options. There is no need to subscribe with SaberCats Host – which is a breath of fresh air, as all of the subscription payments add up. You can sign up for just 7 days to a year.

Click Here To Visit Sabercathost

#9 | iCloud (5GB)

Alexa Rank 333

Owned by Apple, iCloud comes bundled with Apple devices. You’d think they’d offer more storage space for free, being such a big company, but no. Apple takes control of your data, and can do with it what they please – so not necessarily the best option for sensitive file storage. Most Apple products come with a big-fat-price-tag, but not iCloud, you can get 50GB for just £0.79 per month. The 2TB plan is competitively priced at £6.99 per month.

Click Here To Visit iCloud

#10 | DropBox (2GB FREE)

Alexa Rank 87

DropBox is the biggest cloud storage provider out there, probably due to their massive marketing budget. However, they only offer a tiny 2GB for FREE. You can upgrade to their premium plan for £10 per month, which will get you 1TB of storage space, pretty good. To use DropBox you must create an account – which is a bit of a pain for sharing files. The file sharing and syncing is great with Dropbox.

Click Here To Visit Dropbox

#11 | WeTransfer (2GB FREE with a catch)

Alexa Rank 444

WeTransfer is a quick and easy way to share files – however you don’t get access to a dashboard or members area with the free option. You can simply send files over the internet. This service is really handy if you need to quickly send large files to a friend or colleague. If you upgrade to their premium plan, the cheapest option is £9.50 per month for just 100GB. A downside to this provider is that you don’t get a chance to test drive your account to see if you like it before upgrading.

Click Here To Visit Wetransfer

#12 | Uploaded.net (2GB FREE)

Alexa Rank 607

Uploaded.net is a cloud storage company based in Germany. They offer just 2GB of FREE storage which is miniscule. When you upgrade they give you a faster user experience- however their plans are quite complicated. Uploaded.net is doesn’t have the easiest UX to use. The pricing is around £85.50 for premium for 2 years, but you need to pay for the storage space separately. You need to pay monthly for the storage from £4.30 for 100GB to £7.15 for 1TB.

Click Here To Visit Uploaded.net

#13 | SendSpace (300MB + a catch or two)

Alexa Rank 2,310

SendSpace is more of a file sending rather than a file storage company. You can store files with them, but they’ll be deleted after 30 days as standard.  In the free version you will be shown ads and have a slow download speed. If you want to upgrade you can get just 100MB of storage space for £7.15 per month, which is super pricey.

Click Here To Visit Sendspace.

A Few Other Semi-FREE Options

I was going to review a few more, but in all honesty I just about lost the will to live. Hightail, Zippyshare, and Egnyte all have “somewhat free” options. From 300MB to a 15-day free trial, but I’ll leave you to have a look at them if you feel so inclined. They don’t really offer much in the way of a free service and when you upgrade they are quite pricey. Apart from Egnyte who are the ones offering 15-day free trial, they give you 1TB for £7.95 per month, which is pretty nice. I’d like to cut to the chase and give you a few sneaky secret storage hacks before you go. 

My Secret Hack to FREE Large File Storage

If you are looking to store lots of video files, this can take up a lot of space and be costly. Why not upload your videos to Youtube and keep the link “private”. Think outside the box and see where you can upload large files in a social media account for future use. Another idea is to create a private group on Facebook and keep your files in there – that way you can keep unlimited photos, documents, and videos. The only catch with Facebook is they compile your images – which means you can’t store them in high definition. Oh and the small fact that Facebook loves to spy on people, so not for sensitive documents. A solution to the compiling affecting image resolution would be to join a creative social media company like Vero Social or YouPic.

Got lots of Photos you need to store, share and present? Check out our list of “Best Websites for Photographers”.

In Conclusion

If you’re looking for FREE file storage, there are many options – especially if you think out of the box. Make sure that the company you choose don’t delete files after a given date as Sendspace and Zippyshare do. You could also get an external hard-drive and keep a copy of your files on there, old fashioned, but it still works as another backup source. 

What is an SSL Certificate?

Do you remember Netscape? If you’ve been around the tech space since the 90’s, then you might remember Google’s humble predecessor – Netscape, the creator of the original SSL Protocol. 

Netscape released the first SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates in 1995. As the name suggests, SSL certificates are used to make internet transactions more secure. Without this extra security layer the internet is like an unprotected safe that anyone can access. Cyber security is essential for keeping online transactions safe and to protect your data against threats. 

When people talk about SSL certificates they are normally referring to Transport Layer Security (TLS), the protocol that is now used to keep us safe online.

How do SSL Certificates Work?

An SSL certificate is a code that is used to encrypt the data traveling from a server to a browser. The server sends the key and if accepted the data that is sent is protected by encryption. Basically that means that all of the digits sent over a secure (SSL) connection are jumbled in a way that only a computer can understand. Making the data transfer hard, if not impossible to make sense of. 

Initially his type of security was only used with logins and shopping carts, before being adopted more widely as people became aware of cyber threats and the requirement for data sent over the web to be secure.

What is the Difference between TLS and SSL?

TLS has evolved by building on the initial SSL specifications developed by Netscape. Both security methods use encryption and appear as the prefix “HTTPS” when seen in a URL.

 The two parts of a TLS are as follows:-

1. TLS Handshake Layer – Performed once in a session selects encryption method (cipher) to use.

2. TLS record layer – Gathers and encrypts data prior to sending through encrypted tunnel.

TLS replaced the SSL protocol back in 1999 to make it free and available for everyone to use. Prior to this Netscape owned the SSL protocol. However, most people still refer to TLS as SSL.

SSL certificates have come a long way since their release in 1995. We are now on TLS v1.2 and the SSL protocol is being phased out. SSL certificates still work in most browsers, but they will be deprecated and replaced with TLS in the near future.

What is HTTP/ HTTPs?

Http means HyperText Transfer Protocol and is the mechanics behind sending information over the internet. “Http” appears as the suffix before a domain name (http://www.sitename.com). When there is an “s” at the end of http, for example https://www.sitename.com then the data is being sent over a secure (encrypted) tunnel. The “s” stands for secure.

An increasing amount of websites are choosing to encrypt their whole website. While previously an SSL certificate was only used to keep specific data secure. There are many reasons for companies to make this choice, not least the fact that people are becoming more aware of cybercrime and demanding website owners to use secure connections. Also there has been some whispers of Google favouring secure sites, making using an SSL certificate a good idea for search engine optimization (SEO).

Pro’s and Con’s of using an SSL/ TLS Certificates:

Pros

• Protect sensitive data such as credit card details and emails
• Keep data, whether verbal or written from being intercepted by intruders
• Stop unwanted adverts from being injected onto websites
• Increased trust from customers
• Required for PCI Compliance
• Prevents a warning that states the site is not secure, which could make customers turn away.
• Prevents Formjacking 

A good SSL certificate will also provide authentication so that imposters cannot “formjack” your website. Formjacking is when a hacker creates a form that looks like it is on your site to gather payment or sensitive data. Instead of the money going to you, the hacker intercepts the transaction with their own payment form that takes payment or details.

Https is great for SEO

Google has now confirmed the correlation between HTTPS and a higher ranking on their search engines. This relationship was backed up by a study carried out by Brian Dean of Backlinko.com. In the study 1 million Google searches were analysed by Eric Van Buskirk to find out what factors meant that sites would appear on the first page of Google. Having an SSL certificate was found to help boost rankings.

Cons of SSL Certificates

Now that it is so easy to install free SSL certificates with many hosting providers, we need to decide if there are any disadvantages to installing a SSL certificate on your own website. Realistically there are not many, however there are a few very minor downsides to installing an SSL certificate on your site as follows: 

• Cost – it is now easier than ever to get a free SSL certificate, however the gold standard EV certificates do come at a cost.
• Performance – Due to the extra authentication step required, SSL certificates can make websites take a bit longer to load.
• Some older browsers don’t support SSL certificates (See below)

Types of SSL Certificate

There are several types of SSL certificate to choose from. Depending on your website requirements, you’ll want to select the appropriate SSL certificate. An SSL certificate is issued by a third party security company and as well as having an added “s” in the browser bar a secure site will show a padlock next to the domain name.

Some certificates are cheap and issued immediately, whereas others like EV take 3-5 days to be activated. SSL certificates come in either 128-, 256-, or 2048-bit encryption. The rule when choosing an SSL certificate is select the highest level of encryption that you can afford. 

There are three main types of SSL as follows:

1. Domain Validation (DV)

2. Organization Validation (OV)

3. Extended Validation (EV)

4. SAN/UC certs

5. Wildcard Certificates

Domain Validation (DV) – Basic

DV is an affordable SSL certificate designed for info/ non-ecommerce and test sites. DV is the cheapest of SSL certificates and is issued immediately in most cases. DV SSL certificates are normally cheap or free thanks to the Let’s Encrypt program.

Organization Validation (OV) – Good 

OV is used by eCommerce stores and is issued in around about 24hrs. OV SSL certificates come with 128-, 256-, or 2048-bit encryption. As the name suggests OV is used to validate business details and is a more trusted solution when compared to DV.

Extended Validation (EV) – Premium

EV SSL certificates are used for eCommerce sites, sensitive data and increased customer trust. This is the gold standard of online trust used by banks and massive websites like Twitter. EV offers 2048-bit encryption and a green bar to reassure customers that the website is safe and their data is protected.

SAN/UC certs

SAN/UC certs are used by people who have several domains that they want to secure. These multi-domain SSL certificates save time and money. They can be used on as many domains as your provider allows.

Wildcard Certificates

Wildcard Certificates are extremely easy to deploy and perfect if you have several subdomains on your site. Wildcard Certificates come in both DV and OV, however unfortunately there are no EV wildcards.

Where do I buy an SSL Certificate?

SSL certificates are issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) and can normally be purchased through your hosting provider. Some hosting providers offer a free SSL certificate tool called Let’s Encrypt. Let’s Encrypt was launched in 2014 to provide free DV SSL certificates.

In the future all legitimate sites will be protected at least by the basic DV SSL certificate.  Let’s Encrypt made some great headway in the free SSL certificate for all websites arena and is continuing to do so. Now a newer initiative, launched in 2016 is leading the way. The new project is called Encryption Everywhere and was developed by Symantec, the leading digital security company.  

What is an SSL Certificate Authority?

SSL certificates are issued digitally by a certificate authority or certification authority (CA). A CA is a trusted third party that issues certificates for a specific purpose, normally to secure connections over the World Wide Web. The most popular SSL certificate provider with 39.7% of the market share is IdenTrust, closely followed by Comodo who own 34.9% of the market share. You can normally get an SSL certificate from your hosting provider.

What SSL Certificates are not good for…

Although SSL certificates are great they can’t protect against all Identity breaches. Identity breaches are a huge issue for both businesses and consumers and 63% of breaches are due to a weak password. SSL certificates won’t protect users from weak passwords, so always ensure that you use secure passwords on your account and take measures to help your website members do so. The average cost of identity breach is a massive £3M.

Another instance where an SSL certificate won’t provide you with security is when the data reaches your server. To protect the data on your server you’ll need server side protection. Some servers come with built in server side encryption. If you are storing sensitive data on your server then look for a server with server side encryption that meets the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256).

Some Browsers Don’t Support SSL Certificates

It is important to note that some older browsers don’t support SSL certificates. This means you’re your website cannot be accessed on these older browsers. Below I have outlined some of these out dated browsers

Unsupported browsers include: 

• Google Chrome (older than version 6)
• Internet (older than version 7)
• Firefox (older than version 2.0)
• Safari (older than version 2.1)
• All Internet Explorer versions on Windows XP

Unsupported mobile browsers include:

• Safari browsers ( iOS version older than 4.0)
• Android browsers ( older than 3.0 (Honeycomb)
• Windows Phone browsers ( version older than 7)

Is an SSL Certificate Free?

The great news is YES, you can get a free SSL certificate within minutes. Several domain and hosting providers offer free SSL certificates.