Category: Web Hosting

  • GridPane Lifetime Deal: The Deal Breaker In WordPress Hosting Control Panel

    GridPane Lifetime Deal: The Deal Breaker In WordPress Hosting Control Panel

    I wrote about Gridpane early this year (here’s the article on Gridpane) and I even did a Gridpane comparison on another blog. For the record, I’m a hardcore Gridpane fan which I can be rather proud of to be honest. Last month, I received an email from the Gridpane team on the final Gridpane lifetime deal (Gridpane LTD) and there were only 7 slots left. Now, I was “WOW” and before I knew it, I took our my credit card to pay for the lifetime deal.

    Here’s the thing.

    There were only 7 slots left and it is based on first come first served basis. Trust me, that was the longest 72 hours of my life as I did not hear any response from the Gridpane team on the LTD except for “we had received your message and we will send an invoice to you soon.”

    Reginald Chan

    Gridpane is the world’s first WordPress control panel. No, it is not a managed WordPress hosting solution per se. Instead, it is a tool that makes your website loads faster on VPS by allowing you to automatically optimize the server with the best settings, without knowing any server knowledge. More importantly, Gridpane isn’t built for anyone but selected few who know exactly what they are doing and what they need from a VPS solution.

    Gridpane Lifetime Deal

    Prior to getting Gridpane lifetime deal, I kept asking myself if this is something worth it. I mean, the final Gridpane LTD costs a whopping USD$2,500 and that’s approximately RM10,500 in Malaysia (that’s my conversion rate of 4.2).

    Is Gridpane LTD that worth the money?

    What’s included in the Gridpane LTD?

    • A lifetime deal under the Developer plan ($100 per month without the LTD)
    • Unlimited servers
    • Advanced security and firewall settings
    • Creation of teams or subaccounts (up to 10 slots without charge)
    • World class hosting infrastructure

    Gridpane LTD: Is Gridpane really worth the money?

    The funny thing is that I even get this question on Facebook from some of my peers too. Now, let’s do some quick calculation.

    Initial investment: $2,500

    Potential charges for hosting (assuming mid-tier hosting plan): $30 per month

    Potential charges for addon hosting services: $10 per month

    That’s around $40 per client and with around 5 clients a month, I get around $200. A clean profit would be around $150 with the assumption of no manpower cost and $50 goes to a VPS service like Vultr high frequency.

    In order to breakeven with the initial investment, I need 16.6 months (rounded to 17 months) before I can make a profit for a lifetime.

    Gridpane LTD is best for some (not everyone)

    Why I publish this article? Well, for starters, I want to make it straight up clear with everyone who have doubt.

    • Gridpane is not a WordPress hosting
    • Gridpane LTD is all about the long game
    • Gridpane is best for those who cares about website traffic, performance and security
    • Gridpane is an excellent tool for website developers and agencies who have clients using WordPress CMS

    How to get Gridpane LTD? When will Gridpane LTD comes back?

    I’m pretty confident that Gridpane LTD won’t come back anytime soon (their CEO made it a point to emphasize this).

    But what if you really need Gridpane LTD? I can’t promise you much, but my WordPress agency do collaborate with several website developers around the world with Gridpane. If this is something you are keen to explore, feel free to reach out to me or my team using the form below.

    Contact Form Demo (#2)
  • How To Stop DDoS Attack?

    How To Stop DDoS Attack?

    ​If you do fall victim to a DDoS attack, you are not alone. High-profile victims of DDoS attacks in 2018 include organizations as diverse as Google, Amazon, PlayStation, Pinterest, and GitHub – which was on the receiving end of the highest volume DDoS attack ever witnessed.

    In this article, you will learn how to stop DDoS attack on your website quickly and effectively.

    ​1. Identify the DDoS attack early

    The trick to stop DDoS attack is detect the DDoS attack as early as possible. The earlier the detection, the faster you can implement security measures to ​reduce and ultimately, overcome the DDoS attacks.

    To be in a position to do this, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with your typical inbound traffic profile; the more you know about what your normal traffic looks like, the easier it is to spot when its profile changes. Most DDoS attacks start as sharp spikes in traffic, and it’s helpful to be able to tell the difference between a sudden surge of legitimate visitors and the start of a DDoS attack.

    ​2. ​Enable Cloudflare security features

    Cloudflare is an excellent website security feature when it comes to avoiding DDoS attacks.

    Cloudflare Layer Security Preventing DDoS

    Cloudflare’s layered security approach combines multiple DDoS mitigation capabilities into one service. It prevents disruptions caused by bad traffic, while allowing good traffic through, keeping websites, applications and APIs highly available and performant.

    ​3. DDoS mitigation services at urgent times

    For very large attacks, it’s likely that your best chance of staying online is to use a specialist DDoS mitigation company. These organizations have large-scale infrastructure and use a variety of technologies, including data scrubbing, to help keep your website online. You may need to contact a DDoS mitigation company directly, or your hosting company or service provider may have a partnership agreement with one to handle large attacks.

    DDoS Specialist

    “If a customer needs DDoS mitigation, then we divert their traffic to (DDoS mitigation company) Black Lotus,” said Dufficy. “We do this using BGP, so it only takes a few minutes.”

    Black Lotus’s scrubbing center can handle very high levels of traffic, and sends on the cleaned traffic to its intended destination. This results in higher latency for website users, but the alternative is that they wouldn’t be able to access the site at all.

    DDoS mitigation services are not free, so it’s up to you whether you want to pay to stay online or take the hit and wait for the DDoS attack to subside before continuing to do business. Subscribing to a DDoS mitigation service on an ongoing basis may cost a few hundred dollars a month. If you wait until you need one, however, expect to pay much more for the service and wait longer before it starts to work.

    ​4. Overprovision bandwidth

    It generally makes sense to have more bandwidth available to your Web server than you ever think you are likely to need. That way, you can accommodate sudden and unexpected surges in traffic that could be a result of an advertising campaign, a special offer or even a mention of your company in the media.

    Overprovision Bandwidth

    Even if you overprovision by 100 percent — or 500 percent — that likely won’t stop a DDoS attack. But it may give you a few extra minutes to act before your resources are overwhelmed completely.

  • Bluehost Alternatives: Which is the best alternatives to Bluehost hosting?

    Bluehost Alternatives: Which is the best alternatives to Bluehost hosting?

    It has been awhile since I had talked about web hosting, particularly, BlueHost. But it is not about BlueHost but BlueHost alternatives. I know that there are many lovers and haters when it comes to BlueHost. So, this post is all about the best BlueHost alternatives that money can buy.

    Let’s get into the comparison, shall we?

    Why BlueHost Alternatives?

    BlueHost is a good web hosting service for websites of all sizes. However, they have some negative reviews in the past years, including underperforming servers, overcrowded servers and unsatisfactory customer support.

    “Finding for a good BlueHost alternatives is an excellent choice especially if you noticed the web hosting service is not working up to par.

    Reginald Chan

    The Best Alternatives To BlueHost Hosting

    SiteGround BlueHost AlternativesReliable BlueHost Alternative

    SiteGround

    When it comes to reliable web hosting alternatives to BlueHost, SiteGround is definitely the go-to option for many. SiteGround offers crafted web hosting performance with affordability in mind.

    HostWithLove Bluehost AlternativesBlueHost Alternative For Best Customer Support

    HostWithLove

    With 8 continents and 4 regions, HostWithLove is one of the BlueHost alternatives when it comes to fully managed web hosting and round the clock top notch customer support.

    Kinsta Bluehost AlternativesBlueHost Alternative For High Performance Servers

    Kinsta

    If you are looking to host a high traffic website and BlueHost doesn’t really make the cut, Kinsta hosting is a world-class fully managed WordPress hosting solutions that is powered by Google Cloud Platform. All plans come with inbuilt cache plugin and global CDN services powered by KeyCDN.

    WP Engine Bluehost AlternativesBlueHost Alternative For Enterprise Hosting

    WP Engine

    While BlueHost is an excellent hosting solution, it is often not the best for enterprise level, especially when you are hosting a large reputable website with high traffic volume. With over two decades of enterprise hosting, WP Engine offers expertise, reliability, security and highly competitive pricing to ensure that your enterprise is hosted on highly secure and high performance servers (so you can focus on your business).

    Liquid Web Bluehost AlternativesBlueHost Alternative For WooCommerce Hosting

    Liquid Web

    WooCommerce is a WordPress eCommerce plugin to help business owners to build and launch an eCommerce store with no coding skills. Liquid Web is the leading WooCommerce hosting that offers fully managed and optimized servers, specially for WooCommerce. And yes, there’s no better alternative when it comes to performance and reliability.

    How to choose the best Bluehost alternative?

    The easiest way to choose the best Bluehost alternative is to understand what you really need from a web hosting solution. “Needs” can range from having a higher performance servers, unlimited domain hosting, reseller option and even customer support, to name a few.

    Once you have determined the needs, it is much easier for you to decide which is the best option for you.

    Always remember, there is no one size fits all when it comes to web hosting services.

  • Why Is My Web Hosting Slow (And How To Fix It)?

    Why Is My Web Hosting Slow (And How To Fix It)?

    I hate it when my website takes forever to load and my term of “slow” is 2 seconds or more. When that happens, I often ask myself why is my web hosting slow. What were the things I did right and I did wrong that lead to a slow loading WordPress site?

    You see, there are many reasons that could lead to a slow web hosting and slow website loading speed.

    Here are the top reasons (as well as how to fix them).

    Your Web Hosting Is Generally Bad

    A bad web host—that’s what I call it. If you are using a cheap web hosting solution, this could be a real problem for you. You see, you may have the best WordPress plugin installed and setup, you may have the lightweight WordPress theme and a well-optimized WordPress database.

    Bad Web Hosting Examples

    But if your web hosting is generally slow, you are going to get a slow loading website. Period.

    The solution to a bad web host?

    Get a better web hosting solution such as SiteGround or Kinsta (if you can afford managed WordPress hosting solution). A good web hosting company is going to give you better optimized servers that will make your WordPress site loads faster. Plus, other perks such as nightly backups and live chat support.

    Lightweight WordPress Theme Matters

    Generally, the larger the page is, the longer it will take to load. In this case, using the right WordPress theme is important to improve your loading speed. If you are using a heavy WordPress theme builder, it is not the fault of your web hosting company that your site loads slowly. Instead, it is actually your own!

    Here are some of the best lightweight WordPress themes:

    • Thrive Themes Builder with ShapeShift
    • Elementor Builder
    • Oxygen Builder

    This website is using Oxygen Builder with Thrive Architect for a customized solution—lightweight WordPress theme with powerful content builder plugin under one roof.

    Overselling Server Allocation

    Web hosting is a complicated business and ROI is all that matters. In order to generate more income and achieve breakeven point faster, most shared web hosting companies will oversell their server allocation.

    Here’s an example.

    • Server “A” can host up to 1,000 websites at one go.
    • The real occupants in server “A” is 100,000 at any given time.

    Instead of having the resources equally distributed between 1,000 websites, now you are looking at a distribution ratio of 1:100,000, that’s a 100% oversell ratio.

    Sure, not every website generates more than 10,000 visits in a month, but you only need one who has a super high traffic and you are pretty ‘toast’.

    “Ask your web hosting company about overselling. It is best to avoid web hosting companies that oversell their servers.”

    Reginald Chan

    Unoptimized Servers

    Are you using a normal web hosting service or a dedicated to WordPress? In most normal web hosting companies provide servers that are not geared towards WordPress but to a wide range of applications such as Magento, PrestaShop and OpenCart.

    Each of these application performs differently and you will end up with servers that are not optimized for WordPress. 

    In easier terms, unoptimized servers = means slower web hosting performance.

    Shared Web Hosting Solution

    Are you using a shared web hosting? If the answer is yes, shared web hosting is known for a slow hosting performance. In shared hosting environment, a hosting server is shared by a large number of websites and this will lead to performance issues. 

    As servers have a fixed CPU and memory, having ‘bad neighbours’ in your hosting environment will be a problem for you.

    Take a look at SiteGround GoGeek plan:

    SiteGround GoGeek Plan

    SiteGround GoGeek plan is a great example of shared hosting done right. This particular plan comes with the highest tier of resources, means that you get more resources at one go, as compared to other tiers such as SiteGround Startup or SiteGround GrowBig plans.

    If you are doing freelance web development, SiteGround GoGeek is also an awesome hosting plan because it comes with white-labelling which allows you to add client’s domains into your account without them seeing any SiteGround logo.

    Speak To Your Web Hosting Support

    Last but not least, speaking to the web hosting support might help you fix a slow loading website. You see, 50% of the ‘slow web hosting’ issues often originated from server level. By speaking and voicing out your concerns with the support team, they would be able to advise you on the matter.

    Here’s the thing. Not every web hosting support will support you on that as it is rather out of their job scope. However, it is definitely worth the try to say the very least.

    Summary: Fixing A Slow Web Hosting

    There are many ways to fix a slow web hosting. More importantly, it is important to get this fixed once and for all because your website ranking is going to be affected badly with a slow web host.

    If you are struggling with your web host below slow, I recommend you to change web host to something more affordable such as SiteGround.

  • Managed Hosting vs Control Panels: Which is the best for YOU?

    Managed Hosting vs Control Panels: Which is the best for YOU?

    If you are a WordPress speed fanatic who always looking to speed up your WordPress site, this post is exactly for you. When it comes to blazing fast WordPress site, it boils down to a few critical factors such as hosting solution, cache plugin configuration and having a bloat-free WordPress theme.

    You can find my write up on configuring a WordPress cache plugin correctly and even my top choice for a bloat-free WordPress theme … but I had never ever talked about WordPress hosting. More specifically, managed hosting vs control panels.

    I’m just like you. I love tweaking my blogs to make it loads faster. Here’s an example of my WordPress service blogWPMaven.net.

    Wpmaven Loading Speed

    It takes 807 ms to load (according to Pingdom Tools, click here for the result) and while I know this is some stats many would love, I decided to go deeper to see if there is anything else I could do to make my site loads even faster.

    And I came across WordPress hosting panels.

    What Is WordPress Hosting Panel?

    WordPress Control Panels

    If you do a quick search on Google for “WordPress hosting panel”, you will find tutorials such as how to login to cPanel or your WordPress wp-admin.

    A WordPress hosting panel is the backend system of your web hosting solution that gives you advanced features and tools to have full control of your WordPress site. Yes, this includes performing backups, staging and even, making your WordPress site faster.

    A WordPress hosting panel is not similar to cPanel. It is often an optimized backend system that is configured specially for WordPress.

    Journey Towards Finding A Reliable Control Panel

    I started checking through Facebook Groups and other forum related with WordPress and control panels. My journey had brought me to GridPane, RunCloud and Closte. For your information, Closte is a managed WordPress hosting solution just like Kinsta. MPMaven.net is hosted on Kinsta Business plan.

    GridPane Hosting Panel

    Among GridPane and RunCloud, I decided to head over to GridPane simply because it is more powerful and has better reviews. I migrated one of my live sites to GridPane and my journey in discovering which is better started.

    If you are looking for a detailed comparison between GridPane, RunCloud, Closte and Kinsta, you can find a nice write up here. 

    Managed Hosting vs Control Panels

    This is a tough comparison to make. No two websites operate the same and therefore, it really boils down to how your site is being setup.

    If you are looking for a hand-free and powerful hosting solution, I recommend you to head over to managed hosting route. For example, managed hosting solution such as Kinsta makes it really easy for you to manage your WordPress site. As a matter of fact, you don’t have to worry about performance, security and backups. At anytime you need any help, just hit the live chat and support would be there under 30 seconds or less.

    On the other hand, WordPress hosting panels such as GridPane offers you more flexibility, control and advanced setup to make your WordPress even more powerful. This option may not be the best for you if you are a blogger. However, a WordPress developer will find GridPane a better solution for clients.

  • 5+ Web Hosting Malaysia Terbaik For Performance, Speed And Security

    5+ Web Hosting Malaysia Terbaik For Performance, Speed And Security

    Which is the best web hosting solution in Malaysia? I’m glad you asked, because in this post, we will go through some of the best a.k.a. web hosting Malaysia terbaik!

    I hope you are ready to dive in, so let’s get started right now.

    Most Common CMS For Websites

    Before we go into the best web hosting in Malaysia, it is important to understand the type of CMS you are using. The choice of CMS will affect the type of web hosting you should be using.

    You might be reading this as a blogger, a writer or eCommerce—and WordPress is often the most popular CMS in Malaysia. Therefore, chances are you’re using WordPress.

    And if that’s the case, you are in luck. Most of the web hosting solutions in Malaysia support WordPress.

    Are you ready to discover web hosting Malaysia terbaik?

    a) Web Hosting Malaysia Terbaik (Cheapest a.k.a. Murah)

    There are many types of web hosting solutions and the most popular ones are always the cheapest web hosting Malaysia.

    Here are the most popular ones that you should be using today (like seriously serious).

    Web Hosting Malaysia Paling Murah a.k.a. Cheapest Web Hosting Malaysia

    5.0 Exabytes Hosting Web Hosting Malaysia Terbaik

    Exabytes EBIZ Lite, RM11.99/mo

    Affordability, scalability and stable are three reasons why you need to use Exabytes. They offer one of the best web hosting deals in Malaysia.

    • 10GB Disk Space
    • 20GB Monthly Data Transfer
    • 10 Email Accounts
    • 1GB Memory
    • 1 Website

    5.0 Serverfreak Hosting Web Hosting Malaysia Terbaik

    Serverfreak Lite, RM16.58/mo

    Integrity, reliability and powerful servers are three reasons why Serverfreak is well known as web hosting Malaysia terbaik. You can’t go wrong with Serverfreak (seriously).

    • 10GB Ultra Fast SSD-Accelerated Disk Space
    • 50GB Monthly Data Transfer​
    • 10 Email Accounts
    • 1.5GB Server RAM
    • 1 Website

    4.5 Shinjiru Hosting Web Hosting Malaysia Terbaik

    Shijiru Eco Startup, RM11.94/mo

    Shijiru is another great web hosting Malaysia that is often considered interesting. They provide great shared hosting solution that is affordable (look out for their ad-hoc promotions).

    • 10GB Ultra Fast SSD Disk Space
    • Un-metered Data Transfer
    • Unlimited Email Accounts
    • 1 Website

    b) Web Hosting Malaysia Terbaik (WordPress Optimized)

    The next web hosting Malaysia terbaik is WordPress optimized servers. What are the differences between WordPress optimized servers and shared hosting?

    “WordPress optimized servers are often servers that are designed to cater for WordPress CMS. This means that the infrastructure of the servers are tweaked to ensure that they perform at their peaks with WordPress. As a result, your WordPress site will load faster.”

    Reginald Chan

    WordPress Hosting Malaysia Terbaik (Only For WordPress)

    5.0 Exabytes Hosting Web Hosting Malaysia Terbaik

    Exabytes WP Blogger, RM16/mo

    Exabytes takes Malaysia WordPress hosting to whole new level with Elementor Page Builder plugin pre-installed in all accounts. Plus, dedicated resources speed up your WordPress by over 2x!

    • 1 WordPress Website
    • Jetpack Pre-Installed
    • 10GB SSD Storage
    • Easy Backups & Restorations
    • 2 Email Accounts
    • Unlimited Data Transfer

    5.0 5.0 5.0 Serverfreak Hosting Web Hosting Malaysia Terbaik

    Serverfreak WP Starter, RM19.91/mo

    If you are looking for powerful WordPress hosting solution in Malaysia, Serverfreak offers LiteSpeed web server. Combined with LiteSpeed cache plugin, your website will load blazing fast and rank higher on Google.

    • 1 Domain Allowed
    • 25GB Monthly Data Transfer
    • 10GB SSD RAID10 Powered Storage
    • 1GB Server RAM
    • 30 Days Retention Backup Included

    5.0 Kinsta Hosting Web Hosting Malaysia Terbaik

    Kinsta Starter, $30/mo (~RM145/mo)

    Rated as one of the most powerful managed WordPress hosting solutions in the world, Kinsta offers premium WordPress hosting with superb customer support (live chat). All plans come with Google Cloud Platform and KeyCDN for faster loading speed.

    • 1 Domain Allowed
    • 20,000 Monthly Visits
    • 10GB Disk Space
    • Free SSL & CDN
    • Google Cloud Platform

    4.5 4.5 WPEngine Hosting Web Hosting Malaysia Terbaik

    WPEngine Startup, $25/mo (~RM110/mo)

    If your website requires a lot of server resources, WPEngine is another great alternative to Kinsta hosting. It is important to understand that this particular web hosting plan is on a shared hosting platform.

    • 1 Domain Allowed
    • 25,000 Monthly Visits
    • 10GB Disk Space
    • 50GB monthly bandwidth
    • Free SSL

    Which Is The Best Web Hosting Malaysia? (Web Hosting Malaysia Terbaik)

    Personally, you can’t go wrong with any of the web hosing choices above. Each of them comes with different pricing and features. Therefore, you need to understand and define the ones that give you the best benefits.

    As a summary, Exabytes are best for bloggers and small/medium sized blogs. If you are looking for more firepower and WordPress website is your core business, I recommend you to take a look at what Kinsta hosting has to offer.