5 Best Monthly Web Hosting Plans (Starts at $4.95/mo.)

Are you looking for the best monthly web hosting plans?

Most popular web hosting companies offer big discounts on annual, bi-annual, and multiple-year payment terms.

These discounts may be promoted as low monthly payments, but when you go to the checkout page, you’ll pay a hefty amount up front to buy the web hosting.

In this article, we will share some of the best monthly web hosting plans that let you truly sign up for a month-to-month hosting service.

Why Choose a Monthly Web Hosting Plan?

Many web hosting companies only offer discounts if you buy hosting for a full year or multiple years. That makes it can cost hundreds of dollars just to get started.

Plus, if you don’t like the web hosting service, you may not be able to get a full refund, and you will lose your initial investment.

A true monthly web hosting plan will be cheaper to get started. With a month-to-month hosting plan, you won’t commit to a hosting provider long-term, and it’s easier to move to another web hosting company.

This allows you to choose the best hosting provider with the features you need to host your WordPress website.

And more importantly, you will only pay a low monthly cost for the web hosting service you use.

Without further delay, let’s look at some of the best monthly web hosting plans for small businesses.

1. Dreamhost – $4.95/mo.

DreamHost is one of the most well-known web hosting companies, and they’re an official WordPress-recommended hosting provider. They offer the cheapest month-to-month web hosting plan on the market.

They provide a custom control panel to add your domain name, manage emails, and access web hosting features.

Moreover, DreamHost comes with automated website backups. These daily backups ensure the complete safety of your content.

When it comes to DreamHost’s monthly pricing, their WordPress Starter or Shared plan costs $4.95/month with a free SSL certificate, free website migration, and more. You will have to pay for the domain name separately which is fair.

But if you’re willing to commit for the year, then WPBeginner users can get up to a 72% discount on their Shared plan with a free domain name, free website builder, SSD storage, and more.

Our DreamHost coupon code is applicable on the 1-year and 3-year payment plans.

DreamHost has other web hosting solutions, including VPS hosting, managed WordPress hosting, dedicated server hosting, WooCommerce hosting, and cloud hosting.

Don’t miss our complete DreamHost review for more details on their shared hosting options and pricing plans.

2. Bluehost – $2.75/mo.

Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosting providers and an officially recommended WordPress hosting partner.

Though they don’t offer a month-to-month web hosting plan, the initial cost is so low that we couldn’t resist adding them to this list.

And you’ll save triple your investment with a free domain name, free SSL certificate, and a BIG discount on your web hosting package.

So if you’re just starting out, we recommend Bluehost as the best web hosting for beginners, startups, and small businesses.

The initial cost for your web hosting plan will be as low as $33 for the first year.

This also includes your free domain name, free SSL certificate, and a cPanel for a one-click WordPress installation.

However, on the renewal, you’ll need to pay the full cost for your web hosting plan and domain name. But by then, you’ll be able to grow your business to afford the price.

And if you still want to switch, you can easily move your WordPress site to a new web hosting company for a month-to-month hosting plan. Some web hosting providers also offer free migration services, so you’re safe anyway.

On a side note, we thoroughly tested Bluehost for its features, speed, and uptime. And we recommend it to everyone, all the time.

Most of our WPBeginner users start their websites with Bluehost web hosting and grow their businesses to the next level.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

3. Hostinger – $9.99/mo.

Hostinger is one of the leading web hosting companies on the global market. It offers WordPress website hosting, shared hosting, and cloud hosting plans.

The month-to-month shared hosting plan from Hostinger starts at $9.99 for a single website.

If you’re looking for a web hosting plan for multiple sites, then we recommend their WordPress Starter plan. It comes with a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, and free unlimited email accounts.

The Hostinger WordPress Starter plan costs $14.99/month.

You can use WPBeginner’s exclusive Hostinger coupon code to get a discount on your monthly web hosting plan. The Hostinger promo code offers more discounts on longer commitments.

For example, if you choose to pay for up to 48 months, the cost for the WordPress basic hosting plan reduces to $1.99/month.

And WPBeginner users get an additional discount that makes it $1.79/month.

In short, you’ll pay $85.92 at once to get WordPress hosting for four years.

Their shared hosting plans costs similar to WordPress hosting. However, you’ll need to pay an additional setup fee.

Hostinger also offers Virtual Private Server hosting (VPS hosting) plans, Minecraft server hosting, and other solutions. We ran several tests on Hostinger, and here’s our complete Hostinger review that may interest you.

4. SiteGround – $19.99/mo.

SiteGround is one of the best WordPress hosting provider. Their web hosting is optimized for speed and security. We use SiteGround to host the WPBeginner website.

Among top features, SiteGround offers automatic WordPress updates, free CDN network to improve page load time, custom web application firewall to protect your web server against malware and DDoS attacks, and more.

Their customer support team is available 24/7 to help you with any of your concerns, which you may rarely have with SiteGround web hosting.

SiteGround has data centers all over the world since they use the Google Cloud network. It’s the reason they can provide a 99.9% uptime guarantee on their web hosting platform. Over the years of using their platform, we have never had downtime for WPBeginner site.

The SiteGround’s StartUp plan costs $19.99/month.

It’s an expensive monthly web hosting plan compared to other hosting providers on the list, but it also includes functionality like free site migration, free SSL certificate, eCommerce support, basic WordPress site management, out of the box caching addons, and more.

And WPBeginner’s exclusive SiteGround coupon code lets you buy their WordPress hosting plan with an 80% discount.

This reduces the cost to up to $2.99/month for the StartUp plan.

SiteGround’s discount deal is only valid when you choose to pay for up to 12 months upfront. So you’ll pay $35.88 for 12 months and get access to all their WordPress hosting features. The best part is that they also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Aside from WordPress, SiteGround also has cheap web hosting for other content management systems like Drupal, Joomla, Magento, and basically any other Linux based app.

We have done a detailed SiteGround review which shared performance tests from various locations along with coverage of their additional services like Site Scanner.

5. WP Engine – $27 / mo.

WP Engine is the most popular managed WordPress hosting company in the market. They are typically the go-to choice for large websites, enterprise customers, as well as small businesses and developers who want a fully managed web hosting platform with speed, security, and support.

WP Engine offers monthly cloud hosting plans starting at $27 per month on a month-to-month billing which gives you access to 10GB of disk space, 50GB of bandwidth, 10 premium themes from StudioPress, free automated migration, automated website backups, and more.

All their plans come with advanced developer tools like one-click staging, dev & prod site environments, threat blocking & security, built-in CDN for turbo website speed, transferable sites for easy client handoff, activity log, and more.

WP Engine also offers managed hosting solutions for WooCommerce online stores starting at $56 per month as well as enterprise cloud hosting starting at $600 per month.

But if you use the WPBeginner’s WP Engine coupon code and pre-pay for annual plans, then you will get 3 months free.

WP Engine also offers additional services like automated plugin updates, extra SOC2 level security with managed WAF, site monitoring, and more which can be purchased separately.

We did a detailed performance test of their platform in our WP Engine review that we highly recommend you checking out.

BONUS: Other Popular Month-to-Month Web Hosting Options

6. HostGator: One of the most popular web hosting providers, HostGator offers unmetered bandwidth, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and more. Their shared hosting plan costs $12.75 per month (including tax).

7. GreenGeeks: The eco-friendly WordPress hosting offered by GreenGeeks comes with multiple types of hosting, including reseller hosting, dedicated hosting for websites, and more. It has built-in caching for fast performance, and the price starts at $10.95 per month. You also need to pay a setup fee of $15 for the first time.

Which Month-To-Month Web Hosting Plan Should I Buy?

If you’re looking for true monthly web hosting with no long-term commitment, then DreamHost has the best monthly web hosting packages.

DreamHost’s top features include free website migration, free SSL, security, and a 97-day money-back guarantee.

With that said, when you’re starting a website, you want to get the best web hosting deal because it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be switching hosting providers every month.

Most people that choose a reliable hosting provider rarely ever switch. In the 13 years of running WPBeginner website, we have switched hosting provider only once and that was after 10 years when we outgrew our previous provider.

So in that case, what’s more important is that you choose a provider that’s giving you the best deal with one year commitment.

We recommend either Bluehost, SiteGround, or Dreamhost for those just starting out.

Bluehost doesn’t offer a monthly web hosting plan but their 12-month plan ($33/for the first year) is one of the cheapest web hosting options on the market, and you get a free domain name worth $12.99.

On the other hand, SiteGround’s StartUp plan on a 12-months upfront payment ($35.88/for the first year) is close to Bluehost’s pricing for the basic plan.

However, SiteGround doesn’t offer a free domain, but their servers are blazing fast since it’s hosted on Google Cloud, and you get tons of advanced performance and security features which is why we use SiteGround for WPBeginner website.

If you’re looking for more managed web hosting provider with enterprise support, then WP Engine is going to be your best bet since they offer monthly web hosting plans for cloud hosting.

Note: At WPBeginner, we regularly look into dozens of web hosting companies that are not listed in this article like A2 hosting, GoDaddy, InMotion Hosting, Cloudways, Namecheap, LiquidWeb (Nexcess), and others. We decided not to list them all in this article because we don’t want to cause choice paralysis. If you choose a host from our recommended list, you won’t go wrong.

We hope this article has helped you find the best monthly web hosting plan. You may also want to check out our guides on the best email marketing services for small businesses, and our ultimate WordPress SEO guide to improve your website rankings.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 5 Best Monthly Web Hosting Plans (Starts at $4.95/mo.) first appeared on WPBeginner.

September 16, 2022 at 03:37PM

How to Change the Footer in Your WordPress Admin Panel

Do you want to change the footer message in your WordPress admin panel?

The default footer in the WordPress dashboard simply states that the site has been made with WordPress and displays the version number. You may want to change that so you can credit yourself for developing the theme, advertise a pro version of a plugin, or even add support links for your clients.

In this article, we will show you how to change the footer in the WordPress admin panel.

Why Change the Admin Panel Footer?

The default footer in your WordPress website‘s admin area is basic and doesn’t really serve a purpose for most users.

It has a link to the WordPress home page and displays the version of WordPress you’re currently running. If there’s an update available, the footer link will change to let you get it and update your site.

That’s it, though. You can change it to have links back to your own site, provide some helpful links for your users, or just remove it entirely since the space isn’t seen all that often anyway.

With that in mind, let’s dig in and see how to change the WordPress admin footer two different ways.

• Method 1. Changing the Footer in the WordPress Admin with WPCode
• Method 2. Changing the Footer in the WordPress Admin Manually

Changing the Footer in the WordPress Admin with WPCode

To change the footer in the admin dashboard, we’re going to insert a code snippet into our theme’s functions.php file.

Normally, we only recommend pasting code snippets into your WordPress core files for advanced users because even a slight mistake can break your site. Plus, if you update your theme, any changes to the functions.php file will be erased.

That’s why we will be using the free WPCode plugin, which makes it safe for anyone to add code snippets into WordPress files.

First, you will need to install and activate WPCode. For detailed instructions, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once that’s done, go to Code Snippets » Add Snippet in the admin dashboard’s left-hand menu.

Simply search for ‘footer’ and hover your mouse over the entry titled ‘Change Admin Panel Footer Text.’

Then, all you need to do is click the ‘Use snippet’ button.

Next, you’ll be taken to the Edit Snippet screen. WPCode automatically configures settings for snippets that you add from the library.

Next, you just need to change the footer text on Line 5 to whatever you want the new content to say. You will need to use HTML if you intend to include links or anything other than plain text.

When you’ve changed the footer text to your liking, just toggle the switch to ‘Active’ and click the ‘Update’ button.

The new admin panel footer will now be live on your site. It will vary based on your specific changes, but the default WPCode snippet looks like this:

If you like how this code snippet works, you can take a look at the WPCode snippet library found at Code Snippets » Library to see everything that comes included for free with the plugin.

WPCode’s built-in library has dozens of pre-configured snippets. You can probably replace single-use plugins you have on your site. For example, WPCode can disable the WordPress REST API, WP Admin Bar, or media attachment pages.

Method 2. Changing the Footer in WordPress Admin Manually

Another method to change the footer in the WordPress admin is by adding code to your theme’s functions.php file. We recommend this for advanced users only, as even a small mistake can break your site.

For more information, see our detailed guide on how to paste code snippets from the web into WordPress.

First, you will need to connect to your site via FTP or through your WordPress hosting provider’s file manager. Then, head to your site’s /wp-content/themes/your_theme/ directory.

Then you just need to edit the file. You can open it in a plain-text editor like Notepad, or you can use the built-in editor if your host provides one.

Simply copy and paste this code into the functions.php file.

add_filter(
        'admin_footer_text',
        function ( $footer_text ) {
                // Edit the line below to customize the footer text.
                $footer_text = 'Powered by <a href="https://www.wordpress.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WordPress</a> | WordPress Tutorials: <a href="https://www.wpbeginner.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WPBeginner</a>';
                
                return $footer_text;
        }
);

Be sure to change the HTML in the starts with $footer_text in the sample code to whatever you want as your new admin footer.

Finally, save your file. You should see the new footer in your admin right away.

We hope this article helped you change the footer in your WordPress admin area. You may also want to see our guide on how much does it cost to build a WordPress site, or our expert comparison of the best virtual business phone number apps for small business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Change the Footer in Your WordPress Admin Panel first appeared on WPBeginner.

September 15, 2022 at 05:26PM

How to Add Your Website to Bing Webmaster Tools

Do you want to submit your WordPress site to Bing Webmaster Tools?

Bing is among the top search engines in the world. Submitting your site to its webmaster tool helps you monitor your site’s performance and keyword rankings and fix indexing issues.

In this article, we’ll show you how to add your websites to Bing Webmaster Tools.

What is Bing Webmaster Tools?

Bing Webmaster Tools is a free service by Microsoft that allows you to add your website to Bing search engine results.

This free tool helps your WordPress SEO by optimizing your site for Bing, so you can get more traffic.

The webmaster tools help you monitor and track your site’s performance in Bing. You can find out which keywords people use to find your site, so you can optimize those search terms in the content and get more traffic.

You can also see how Bing crawls and indexes your content. This helps to uncover and resolve indexing issues that might be preventing a blog post from appearing in Bing search results.

Aside from that, Bing Webmaster Tools shows your site’s backlinks and which websites you are linking to. It also helps remove content that you don’t want to display on Bing search results and scan for potential malware or spam issues that can threaten your WordPress website security.

That said, let’s see how you can add a website to Bing Webmaster Tools using the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) and WPCode plugin. We’ll also show how you can use the webmaster tool and import your site from Google Search Console.

You can use the links below to jump to the method you want to use.

• Method 1: Add Website to Bing Webmaster Tools Using AIOSEO
• Method 2: Add Website to Bing Webmaster Tools Using WPCode
• Import Your Website from Google Search Console
• Bonus: How to Use Bing Webmaster Tools

Method 1: Add Website to Bing Webmaster Tools Using AIOSEO

The best way to add a website to Bing Webmaster Tools is using All in One SEO (AIOSEO).

It is the best SEO plugin for WordPress and helps you optimize your site search engines without technical knowledge or the need to hire an expert.

Note that we’ll use the AIOSEO Lite version for this tutorial because it is free and includes the ‘Webmaster Tools Verification’ feature. There is also an AIOSEO Pro version which includes more advanced features like link assistant, redirections, video sitemaps, and more.

Next, you’ll need to install and activate the AIOSEO plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can go to All in One SEO » General Settings from your WordPress dashboard. Next, head to the ‘Webmaster Tools’ tab and select the ‘Bing Webmaster Tools’ option.

Next, you’ll need to enter the Bing Verification Code. Let’s see how you can access the code in the webmaster tool.

How to Get Verification Code in Bing Webmaster Tools

First, you’ll need to visit the Bing Webmaster Tools website and click the ‘Get started’ button.

We suggest opening the Bing Webmaster Tools website in a new browser window or tab because you’ll need to switch back to your WordPress admin dashboard to complete the verification process.

After that, you’ll need to sign in to your account.

You can use Microsoft, Google, or Facebook accounts to log in. Simply click on any options and choose your email address to sign in to the webmaster tool.

Next, Bing Webmaster Tools will show you 2 options to add your website.

You can import your sites from Google Search Console or manually add your website.

We’ll use the manual method to get the verification code.

Go ahead and enter your website address under the ‘Add your site manually’ section and then click the ‘Add’ button.

When adding your WordPress website, make sure to enter the URL used by WordPress. That’s because Bing will see HTTP and HTTPS as different sites. It will also consider your domain’s WWW and non-WWW versions as two separate websites.

To check which URL is used by WordPress, simply login to your WordPress admin area and head to Settings » General. Then look for the link in the ‘Site Address (URL)’ field.

Once you add this website URL in Bing Webmaster Tools, a window will slide in from the right.

Here you will see different methods for verifying your website, including an XML file, HTML meta tag, and adding CNAME records to DNS.

For this tutorial, we’ll use the HTML Meta Tag method. When you click the ‘HTML Meta Tag’ option, Bing gives you a validation code you need to install on your website.

Go ahead and click the ‘Copy’ button to copy this line of code.

Next, you’ll need to add the code to your WordPress website.

Add Verification Code & Verify Your Site in Bing Webmaster Tools

You can now head back to the WordPress admin browser window or tab.

After that, simply go to All in One SEO » General Settings from your WordPress dashboard.

Now, head to the ‘Webmaster Tools’ tab and enter the HTML Meta Tag you copied earlier in the ‘Bing Verification Code’ field.

When you do that, don’t forget to click the ‘Save Change’ button at the top.

After adding the HTML meta tag to your website, go back to the Bing Webmaster Tools tab or window and click the ‘Verify’ button.

Next, you’ll see a message in Bing Webmaster Tools that your verification was successful.

You can then close the message and view your Bing Webmaster Tools dashboard.

Method 2. Add Website to Bing Webmaster Tools Using WPCode

Another method of adding your website to Bing Webmaster Tools is using WPCode. It is the best WordPress code snippet plugin and helps you manage your website’s scripts. You can easily use WPCode to add the Bing Webmaster Tools HTML code to your website.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the free WPCode plugin. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can go to Code Snippets » Header & Footer from your WordPress admin panel. Here, you’ll need to add the HMTL code provided by Bing Webmaster Tools.

Access HTML Meta Tag & Verify Your Website

You can find the HTML code by going to the Bing Webmaster Tools website and logging into your account.

Once signed in, simply add your website URL under the ‘Add your site manually’ field and click the ‘Add’ button.

On the next screen, Bing will show you multiple methods for verifying your website in the webmaster tool.

Go ahead and select the ‘HTML Meta Tag’ option and copy the code.

After copying the code, you can head to your WordPress admin panel and go to the Code Snippets » Header & Footer page.

Next, you’ll need to paste the HTML meta tag into the ‘Header’ section.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button.

Now that you’ve added the HTML meta tag to your site, simply go back to the Bing Webmaster Tools tab or window and click the ‘Verify’ button.

Bing Webmaster Tools will now show a message that your verification was successful.

Simply close the message to view the webmaster tool dashboard.

Import Your Website from Google Search Console

You can also add your WordPress site to Bing Webmaster Tools by importing it from Google Search Console.

If you use this method, then you don’t have to worry about verifying your website by adding an HTML code. However, Bing will need access to your Google account, which could be a security risk if either your Webmaster Tools or Google account gets compromised.

To start, you can log in to Bing using your Microsoft, Bing, or Facebook account.

Next, go ahead and click the ‘Import’ button under the Import your site from the GSC section.

After that, you’ll see a message showing you what data will be imported from the Google Search Console account and how Bing will use it.

Simply click the ‘Continue’ button to move ahead.

Next, you’ll need to select your Google account to sign in.

Go ahead and select the account that you use for logging into Google Search Console.

On the next screen, Bing will request access to your Google account.

Simply click the ‘Allow’ button to continue.

Next, you will see websites that are connected to Google Search Console.

Go ahead and select any websites you’d like to import into Bing Webmaster Tools and click the ‘Import’ button.

You’ll now see a message that your website has been successfully imported.

You can click the ‘Done’ button to close the window and view the Bing Webmaster Tools dashboard.

Bonus: How to Use Bing Webmaster Tools

In the Webmaster Tools dashboard, you have access to many different tools and options. Do note that Bing will take up to 48 hours to reflect data in its webmaster tools reports after setting it up on your WordPress site.

For example, you can view your site’s search performance by going to the Search Performance tab. You can then use this data to see which search terms people use to find your website and perform keyword research to develop new content ideas.

Similarly, the tool also lets you inspect a specific URL to see if there are any crawling issues. You can simply enter the post or page link in the URL Inspection tab and view the errors.

With Bing Webmaster Tools, you can submit your website sitemap in the Bing Webmaster Tools to help the search engine to discover new content quickly.

For more details, please see our guide on how to submit your site to search engines.

Plus, you can scan for any errors that could be preventing your content from appearing in Bing search results.

If a blog post or landing page isn’t appearing in the search results, then you can go to the ‘URL Submission’ tab and manually submit your content for indexing.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add your website to Bing Webmaster Tools. You can also see our guide on WooCommerce SEO made easy, and our expert pick of the best WordPress SEO plugins and tools to grow your website.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Add Your Website to Bing Webmaster Tools first appeared on WPBeginner.

September 14, 2022 at 03:17PM