Author: dpugh007

Standard shared web hosting packages are cheap and user-friendly, but they’re also slow, inflexible, and don’t have the power or functionality that professional and business users often need.

If you need more than a basic host but can’t afford a dedicated server or don’t want to deal with the complexity of these beasts, VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting could be a smart choice.

Buying a VPS plan means that you get your very own virtual server environment. You have full control over the operating system, the extensions and apps you install, and all their settings. Each physical server will still host multiple VPS customers, but not as many as with shared hosting, and typically each VPS will be allocated a share of key resources – RAM, storage space, CPU cores – for their use alone.

This can be easier to manage than you might think. Many VPS plans include standard tools like cPanel to help monitor and configure your site. Some hosts will manage the service for you, monitoring for problems like a crashed service, and fixing them as soon as they’re detected.

VPS prices and specs vary from a few dollars a month to hundreds, depending on your requirements. There’s a lot of choice out there, but don’t panic – our list of five best VPS providers will point you in the right direction.

• Our list of the best web hosting solutions is also worth a read

Founded in 2004, Hostinger has been providing a quality hosting service for some time now and their VPS hosting is no different.

You have plenty of choices here from the low-tier plan that has 1 CPU, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB of storage and 1000 GB bandwidth to high-tier plan where you get 8 CPU, 8 GB RAM, 160 GB of storage and 8000 GB bandwidth. 

Pricing is affordable too, especially if you commit to longer terms. The 1 CPU plan starts at $3.95 per month (if you choose the 4-year billing) and renews at $8.16 per month, while the 8 CPU plan starts at $29.95 per month (if you choose the 4-year billing) and renews at $65.56 per month.

All plans have IPv6 support, a dedicated IP, 100 Mb/s Network and a few more additions. Linux users also have plenty of choices. Apart from the usual CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora and Debian, you can also choose Suse. Windows VPS hosting is available as well, with the plans being more pricier but also more powerful.

If you encounter any problems, there’s a 24/7 live chat service to help you. Hostinger delivers a capable VPS hosting with a very tempting first term price, and with all plans being fully refundable, everyone can try out the service.

• Hostinger VPS Hosting for US$3.95 per month

Bluehost has been around for quite some time and always offered powerful plans for a variety of users, and their VPS range is no different. 

You have three plans to choose from, with the cheapest plan starting at $19.99 per month for the first term and $29.99 per month on renewal. That gets you 2 CPU cores (2x Xeon Gold 5220), 30GB SSD  storage, 2 GB RAM, 1 TB bandwidth and one IP address. The top-tier plan called Ultimate, gives you 4 CPU cores (2x Xeon Gold 5222), 120GB SSD storage, 8 GB RAM, 3 TB bandwidth and two IP addresses, and it’s priced at $59.99 per month for the first term and $119.99 per month on renewal.

All plans come with a free SSL certificate and a 1-year domain. You also get unlimited subdomains and email accounts, and cPanel is included too. Domain privacy and protection, and SiteLock are categorized as optional add-ons, so you’ll have to pay extra if you need them.

Support is available 24/7 so if you encounter any difficulties you’ll be able to call them at any time of the day. All in all, Bluehost is a capable provider for both newbies and experienced users so they are definitely worth a try.

• Bluehost VPS Hosting for US$19.99 per month

Check out a few VPS hosting providers and it’s easy to be tempted with low headline rates, but don’t be fooled – companies use a range of tricks to keep their charges down.

The hardware specs of a starter product are often kept unrealistically low, for instance, to keep the price right down. Important items – backups, cPanel – may be expensive extras. And even then, the headline rate may only apply if you pay for two or three years upfront, increasing dramatically on renewal.

InMotion Hosting is refreshingly different. Its baseline VPS-1000HA-S plan doesn’t have the most eye-catching price at $39.99 per month over two years (at the moment of writing, the price dropped to $19.99 due to a sale), but it’s easy to see why the company asks this much. The product has a better specification – 4GB RAM, 75GB storage, 4TB bandwidth, 3 dedicated IPs – than some high-end plans from other providers, backups and a cPanel licence are included for free, and there’s a 90-day money-back guarantee.

There’s an unusual feature in what InMotion calls “unlocked CPU cores”. Rather than having access to one or two cores only, you’re able to spread your processing load across all cores on the server, a major performance boost for tasks involving a lot of simultaneous processing.

Welcome bonus touches include a feature called Launch Assist, which essentially means you get two hours of free time with one of InMotion’s server administrators. Whether you need to change domain settings, configure cPanel, migrate WordPress or database files, they can help you get the job done.

Put it all together and you’re getting a very capable set of VPS hosting plans. If you’d prefer a package that comes with unexpected surprises, rather than hidden catches, we’d give InMotion a try.

Some VPS hosts focus on first-time users, others go for big business, but Hostwinds does its best to appeal to everyone with no less than 10 different VPS hosting plans.

The low-end Tier One plan looks a little underpowered to us, with just 1GB RAM, one CPU core, 30GB of disk space and 1TB traffic. But it’s cheap at $4.49 per month, and you can extend it significantly without spending a huge amount (adding basic server monitoring and cloud backups costs an extra $6 a month for both).

The more realistic Tier Four includes 6GB RAM, 100GB drive space, two CPU cores and 2TB of traffic. It’s also significantly more expensive at $26.09 a month, but still competitive with other providers.

Meanwhile the top-of-the-range Tier Ten product gets you 96GB RAM, 16 CPU cores, 750GB storage and 9TB of traffic for an initial $296.09 a month. You probably don’t need anything like that, but this does show there’s plenty of scope for upgrading your site over time.

Every plan has some appealing configuration options. In particular, along with support for the usual Linux variants – CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian – you can choose Windows Server 2008, 2012 or 2016 for only a $5 a month premium. That’s very good value, and if you’re more familiar with Windows than Linux, it could save you from lots of management hassles later on.

• We consider the merits of shared hosting vs VPS hosting here 

Liquid Web is a premium web hosting provider which has been offering top quality managed solutions for more than 20 years, and now handles 500,000 sites for more than 32,000 customers worldwide.

The company doesn’t try to beat the competition on price, instead focusing on delivering comprehensive products which will deliver quality results.

The cheapest Liquid Web plan may cost $59 a month (you can reduce that to $29 a month by going annual), for instance, but that gets you 2GB RAM, 40GB storage and a very generous 10TB of bandwidth.

There are lots of configuration options. Instead of just telling you that you’re getting CentOS 7, Liquid Web allows you to select CentOS 6, Debian 8, Ubuntu 14.04 or 16.04, and often with multiple options of their own: cPanel, Plesk, CloudLinux and more.

This is a managed product, too. Liquid Web fully supports the base operating system, and the support team will proactively restore failed services as soon as they’re detected. Getting a managed VPS with other providers could cost you an extra $30 a month, or more.

If your VPS still has issues, there’s speedy 24x7x365 support from knowledgeable professionals who will do their best to solve your problems at speed.

Liquid Web may not have the most appealing headline prices, but it’s still cheaper than many others considering the features you get, and the excellent support will help keep your site running smoothly down the line.

You might also want to check out our other website hosting buying guides:

• WordPress
• Cloud hosting
• E-commerce
• Dedicated server
• Small business
• Windows
• Managed
• Green
• Business
• Colocation
• Email hosting
• Resellers
• Shared
• Cheap
• Website builders
• Best website hosting

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Much like web hosting services, getting hold of an email account is easy – sign up with an ISP, register with Google, buy a web hosting account – but free and standard packages won’t always deliver the quality that professional users need.

Email hosting plans are an easy way to get a more efficient and reliable service. Exactly what’s included depends on the provider, but you might get support for larger attachments (up to 50MB), 50GB or more storage space for your inbox, online storage for easy file sharing, bundled apps like Microsoft Office online, Exchange and Active Directory support for business users – not to mention 24/7 support if anything goes wrong.

Your email will work with a custom domain (address@yoursite.com), and it’s typically straightforward to set up. You can use an email hosting plan to effectively replace your web host’s service, or you can try one without having any hosting at all.

With quality services priced under $1 per month per user, and free trials available, it’s easy for anyone to check out the email hosting market. Whether you’re after an individual account or would like to cover your entire business, read on for five great providers that you might want to check out first.

• We’ve also put together a list of the best web hosting providers

The best email hosting services of 2020 are : 

If you are a small business with a small headcount and don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on email accounts, then consider this. From EIG-owned Bluehost comes an exclusive business email package for TechRadar readers where you get unlimited email accounts and email storage for as little as $2.75 when paying for three years; that’s a mere $99 for the duration of the term. Is it truly unlimited though?

Bluehost says that they do not enforce any official limitations. Furthermore, they add “while email account creation is unlimited, these rely on the file storage available on the account. Therefore customers need to be operating within the Terms of Service to ensure resources are available to fully enable email functionality. Customers operating within the Terms of Service have yet to come up against technical boundaries for email, domains, or websites”.

What’s the catch then? For a start, while you get POP3 and IMAP4 plus 24/7 support, this is more of a barebone solution. You get to choose between three webmail applications (the equivalent of Outlook.com or Gmail.com); Horde, Roundcube or Squirrelmail.

You can of course configure an email client like Mail for Windows 10 or Mozilla Thunderbird to read your emails offline. Creating a new email address is a doddle thanks to an easy user interface.

• Bluehost “Best for Business” Email Hosting, $2.95 per month, unlimited inboxes

Texas-based cloud computing giant Rackspace has a wealth of hosted business-oriented email products for all levels of users.

Even the bottom-of-the-range Basic plan is well-specified, with 25GB mailboxes, spam and virus filters, and it’s accessible via Outlook, webmail, or by mobile users. Mailboxes are priced at $2.99 each per month with a minimum of four required per order, but there are no long-term contracts, just monthly bills which you can cancel whenever you like.

The next-step-up Plus account brings 30GB of cloud storage, ActiveSync support, Office-compatible apps and instant messaging for $3.99 a month, which is also better value than most.

An extended Plus account adds unlimited storage space via archiving. That might be handy if you think a 25GB inbox is too small, but we’re unsure if it’s really worth the $6.99 price tag.

More demanding users can check out Rackspace’s Hosted Exchange 2016 plans. Specs include 100GB inboxes and support for 50MB attachments, and the starting price is $10.99 per mailbox per month.

There are cheaper services around, but quality matters, too, and Rackspace does better than most. All plans include a 100% uptime guarantee, and top-quality 24x7x365 support via chat, ticket or phone to quickly solve any issues that might crop up.

Email hosting can seem expensive, and that’s largely because the big companies are forever competing to offer the largest amounts of inbox and file storage space. That’s great if you need it, but not so much for light email users looking for a bargain.

Fasthosts Standard Email plan is a stripped-back email hosting plan which offers the bare essentials for a very low price.

Signing up gets you five Mail Lite accounts with a tiny 100MB inbox and a maximum of 10MB attachments, and two Mail Extra accounts with 4GB inboxes and support for attachments of up to 15MB. Both products give you webmail access only. That’s limited, but look at the price: just $2.60 (£1.99) a month on the annual plan (at the time of writing, you can get 50% off). If your users genuinely don’t need the gigabytes available elsewhere, Fasthosts more basic package could make a lot of sense.

Fasthosts also offers a more capable Exchange Email product with a 50GB inbox, access via Outlook’s web app, and even a free domain for the first year. It’s priced at $5.8 (£4.49) per month for 5 or more users with the annual contract. You can also choose a 100GB inbox for $13 (£9.99). As before, Fasthosts is focusing on price more than power, but if you only need a basic Exchange account, there’s plenty of value here.

Microsoft Office 365 isn’t just a powerful suite of productivity apps. It also throws in a very capable email package, and for less money than some providers charge for email alone, which could make the service worth a place on your shortlist.

Microsoft Office 365 Business Essentials offers support for 150MB attachments, for instance, three times the size allowed with even some premium competitors. 50GB of storage per user (and a custom email domain address) means you’ll be able to keep your messages for a very long time, and there’s 1TB of online storage available in your OneDrive account.

Access to Office Online enables working with Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint documents from within your browser, and there’s a whole range of business-friendly extras: calendars, online conferencing, intelligent search, workflow automation and more.

If you don’t have Office 365 already, the Business Essentials price of $5 a month (for annual billing) looks like good value to us. If you’re solely interested in business class email, though, Microsoft’s Exchange Online Plan 1 provides Exchange accounts for $4 per user per month on the annual plan.

Zoho Mail – now known as Zoho Workplace – is a hosted email service with a bundled online office suite, and a stack of other extras. In late November 2019, Zoho introduced the Offline Mode which allows you uninterrupted emailing.

A free plan gives you 25 mailboxes with up to 5GB per user, a 20MB attachment limit and webmail access. A referral scheme could get you support for a further 25 mailboxes (at the time of writing the referral program wasn’t available due to remodeling).

If that’s too basic, the Standard plan gets you IMAP and POP support, 30MB attachments and 30GB of storage, 5GB file storage space, and support for working with multiple domains. That’s more capable than some of the premium competition, and includes the same productivity tools as the free suite, yet still only costs $3 per user per month, billed annually.

Zoho’s Professional plan gets you 100GB of storage (per user), 40MB attachments, support for Active Directory groups, and more. It’s yours for $6 per user per month (billed annually), not bad at all for the storage space and features you’re getting. Also, Lite plan is available with less features, but it’s only $1 per user per month, billed annually.

Liquid Web is probably best known for its comprehensive managed and dedicated server packages, but the company also provides an interesting email hosting service for what could be a very low price.

Note that you will need to buy LW’s Premium Web Hosting in order to get their email service. They do not sell it as a stand alone service.

The baseline Standard plan offers POP, SMTP and IMAP access, supports 50MB attachments and gives you a decent 25GB of storage space. The ability to import contacts from Gmail, Outlook and more gets you set up quickly, spam protection is handled via top quality Cloudmark technology, and you’re able to set up custom email filters and rules as required.

Liquid Web charges a flat $10 a month fee for your account, but after that, each Standard plan mailbox costs only $1 more. If you need five or more mailboxes, that’s going to be very good value, especially for the high level of support on offer.

The Plus plan enhances the service with 30GB of cloud storage, mobile sync for contacts and calendars, and online editing of spreadsheets and documents. This also includes a one-off $10 service fee and is $3 per mailbox, potentially a very good deal if you’re catering for a lot of people.

A final Microsoft Exchange plan gets you 100GB mailboxes, ActiveSync compatibility and Active Directory support, and even throws in a free copy of Outlook.

Its price of $10 a month isn’t quite as impressive value as its low-end cousins, but Liquid Web does allow you to include Exchange and Starter or Plus accounts in the same order. You could have 10 Starter mailboxes and two Exchange for only $40 a month, for instance, and that competes well with even big-name budget providers.

10 things to look for in your next email hosting

If you want to host email accounts together with your website, then you should look at these email features before signup.

Most hosting companies will offer the ability to host your own email (something like email@yourdomain. com). Your package will include a number of email accounts – usually between 1-10 for basic hosting.

You’ll be given access to your own email control panel to set up your accounts. Using email requires two things: an email server and an email application, this could be an email client such as Outlook, or alternatively access to Webmail like Gmail or Yahoo.

The email server is a piece of software that runs on the server and is constantly connected to the internet. It receives and processes any mail sent to it and sends out any mail you send.

The email client is an app that runs on your PC, phone or tablet and enables you to send, receive and organise your emails, e.g. Microsoft Outlook. The client checks the mail server for messages and downloads them for viewing. It is a control panel for reading and writing messages.

The good news is that most email clients can connect with most email servers, you can even connect multiple email servers to work with multiple email accounts.

So your work and personal emails can be accessed from the same email client. The more popular email clients such as Outlook give you more features (calendars, tasks etc.) than using webmail.

Webmail is a web-based email interface that can be accessed in a web browser is often faster and more convenient because it accesses the stored data more directly without the user having to download software locally.

Emails can be checked from any device with access to the internet. Email protocols are a set of rules that help the client to send the information to or from the mail server. Two of the most common email protocols are POP and IMAP:

1. POP (Post office protocol) Applications like Outlook will use POP to download emails from the server to your computer and then delete them on the server.

2. IMAP (Internet message access protocol) IMAP is more advanced than POP, with IMAP, emails are stored in the mail server and can be accessed from any clients anywhere if they all use IMAP. 

Mail data is kept on the server as well as your computer, until you delete the mail. When comparing hosting packages, be sure to choose one with full IMAP support.

Exchange Exchange is the gold standard email protocol – the most expensive option of the three, but for good reason. It’s a Microsoft protocol that gives you the power to sync tasks like IMAP does, but with the added ability to share contacts and calendars among employees.

If you can afford to pay the extra cost (around $9.99 per month per mailbox), you will reap the benefits of its advanced functionality and tools which can be used even when you are on the move. 

You might also want to check out our other website hosting buying guides:

• WordPress
• Cloud hosting
• E-commerce
• Dedicated server
• Small business
• Windows
• Managed
• Green
• Business
• Colocation
• Resellers
• VPS
• Shared
• Cheap
• Website builders
• Best website hosting

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Amazon Prime Video is offering up one final slice of top-drawer festive football action with this intriguing Premier League fixture, which is being shown exclusively live in the UK on the internet giant’s streaming service. To make sure that you get a Wolves vs Man City live stream from absolutely anywhere you happen to be, then you’ve come to the right advice guide.

Man City appear back at their imperious best after seeing off fellow title contenders Leicester 3-1 at home of Saturday. They now face a tricky challenge away against a Wolves side that are back to winning ways following their 2-1 win at the weekend away to Norwich.

While there’s still a huge gap between them and high-flying Liverpool at the top of the table, the nature of Man City’s comeback win over fellow title-challengers Leicester will have signalled to the Reds that Pep Guardiola’s side are ready to capitalise should they start to slip up. 

Wolverhampton Wanderers also needed to comeback from a goal down to earn their win at Carrow Road on Saturday. While Wanderers boss Nuno Espírito Santo will have been pleased with the fortitude shown by his side in the second half to secure the victory, he’ll know that a display similar to their abject showing in the first half will be likely be punished mercilessly by Kevin De Bruyne and co.

You watch all the action as it happens with our Wolves vs Man City live stream guide below. To find out how to watch the rest of the season’s games, check out our guide on how to live stream the 19/20 Premier League football season. 

Use a VPN to watch Premier League football from outside your country

If you’re abroad this weekend but still want to watch your home coverage, you’ll need a VPN to do so. That’s because your normal coverage will be geo-blocked. It’s really easy to do and stops you having to tune in to some dodgy stream you’ve heard about on Reddit.

How to stream Wolves vs Man City live in the UK for free with Amazon

How to watch Wolves vs Man City: US live stream 

How to watch a Premier League live stream in Canada

How to live stream Wolves vs Man City in Australia

How to watch Wolves vs Man City: New Zealand live stream 

How to live stream Wolves vs Man City in India

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