Compare The Best Digital Marketing Agencies

Want to jump straight to the answer? The best digital marketing agency for businesses with over 2 million in revenue is Ignite Visibility or 97th Floor. Smaller businesses should compare the other companies on our list below.

Every business needs to leverage digital marketing to stay competitive in the modern era. But sometimes you need extra guidance really dial in your digital marketing strategy.

Whether you need help with a new campaign or want general consulting, a digital marketing agency provides you with the marketing assistance you need to reach your goals.

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The 10 Best Digital Marketing Agencies of 2022

• Ignite Visibility — Best overall digital marketing agency for mid- to enterprise-level businesses
• 97th Floor — Best for enterprise B2B brands with bigger budgets
• Rise Interactive — Best for attracting ecommerce customers
• WebFX — Best for dominating local SEO
• DigitalMarketing.com — Best for nailing your campaign the first time
• WebiMax — Best if you also need online reputation management
• Mad Fish Digital — Best for socially-conscious brands and nonprofits
• Split Reef — Best for climbing to the top in the App Store
• Max Audience — Best for creating an automated B2B marketing system
• Location3 — Best for brick-and-mortar franchises

These are the most well-respected and trusted agencies on the market today. Check out the in-depth reviews for each agency below.

I cover their service offerings, their specializations, the budgets they work with, and the business types that will benefit most from their services.

Best Digital Marketing Agencies Reviews

Ignite Visibility — Best overall digital marketing agency for mid- to enterprise-level businesses

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• Great for SMBs
• Customized quarterly marketing plans
• Multichannel strategy
• Industry experts for each service

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Ignite Visibility is a San Diego-based digital marketing agency with expert services in SEO, paid media, email marketing, and more.

They have helped companies capture leads, increase conversions, and draw more visibility to their brands via paid media and SEO campaigns.

Ignite also stands out for its offerings for businesses to deal with the global pandemic crisis. When lockdowns began, they rolled out a variety of COVID-19 marketing response plans for companies to effectively navigate the changing landscape.

In fact, they won the Best B2B Search Marketing Initiative by Search Engine Land in 2020—a year that saw many marketing agencies having to pivot to crisis communication and deal with global industry disruption.

Ignite Visibility focuses on forecasting, timelines, competitive analysis, and project plans for all services, which include:

• SEO
• PPC management
• Conversion rate optimization (CRO)
• Social media marketing
• Email marketing
• Public relations
• Website design
• Website development
• Reputation management
• International SEO
• Franchise marketing
• Amazon media management

The firm employs approximately 100 industry experts to lead each of its service lines. Each one can offer you a multichannel approach to your marketing campaigns.

Another reason to like Ignite Visibility is that they offer quarterly business plans which show the work that has been done, the results, and the plan moving forward. Quarterly business plans also include unique industry research done by Ignite Visibility and their partners—such as Google, Yelp, Facebook, and Microsoft.

Learn more about getting started with Ignite Visibility here.

97th Floor — Best for Enterprise B2B Brands with Bigger Budgets

• Experience with enterprise
• Real-time data
• Focus on SEO, paid media, creative, & automation
• Big budget friendly

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97th Floor is a full-service digital marketing agency that stands out for its impressive client roster, which includes Salesforce, Dell, Oatly, and even the NBA’s Utah Jazz. They’re no stranger to larger, enterprise-tier organizations.

Where they stand out though is in their patent-pending Palomar software suite. This is a set of tools that will analyze relevant marketing data in real-time to help you develop a marketing strategy that’s optimized for your brand.

Included in this suite are:

• Customer Search Intent. This is their keyword research tool that allows your team to see the ROI of relevant target keywords.
• Semantic Analysis. This tool analyzes the word choices for a large volume of web pages related to your brand’s topics — and furnishes you with valuable context and data about what topics and words people focus on so you can use them for your marketing.
• SERP Intelligence. Palomar crawls through competitors’ digital content and analyzes it for the best topics your team should focus on and target for keywords.

97th Floor offers digital marketing services across four main categories—SEO, paid media, creative, and automation. Top services in those categories include:

• Link building
• Keyword research
• Technical SEO
• Retargeting
• Social media ads
• Audience testing
• Copywriting
• Graphic design
• Content marketing
• Email marketing
• Lead nurturing
• Analytics

Overall, 97th Floor aims to reach current and prospective clients across every potential digital channel to maximize consumer interaction with your brand.

After your initial consultation, 97th Floor will give you a customized game plan for your strategy. You’ll be provided with a dedicated marketing team based on factors like work experience, industry knowledge, area of expertise, and even common interests.

But with that said, it’s a better option for larger businesses with substantial marketing budgets. Consider hiring 97th Floor if you have a monthly marketing budget of $10k-$25k. They even have plans for companies with marketing budgets of $100k+ per month.

Rise Interactive — Best for Attracting Ecommerce Customers

• Excellent ecommerce offerings
• Amazon & Walmart advertising services
• Cross-channel integrations
• No monthly budget requirements

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Rise Interactive is a full-service digital marketing agency that has offices based throughout the United States and in Mexico City and Buenos Aires.

Where they stand out is their offerings when it comes to online marketplace listings and advertisements.

For example, their Amazon advertising services help you capture more customers on Amazon through on-page ads and cross-channel integrations. They will also work with you to optimize your advertising game on other online marketplaces such as the Walmart Media Group.

The marketplace listing services are perfect for ecommerce businesses that sell products on multiple platforms. As such, I highly recommend them to ecommerce websites looking to make a bigger splash online.

Here’s a more comprehensive list of Rise’s offerings:

• Paid search
• SEO
• Amazon marketing
• Programmatic advertising
• Affiliate marketing
• Social media marketing
• Email marketing
• Marketplace listing
• Web design
• Content marketing
• Customer experience analytics

This agency developed a proprietary multi-channel strategy called “Interactive Investment Management.” The idea behind this approach is to fluidly optimize media content to whichever tactics or channels drive the highest ROI.

Rise is a top choice to consider for businesses that prefer an analytically-driven approach to digital marketing.

You’ll also benefit from a suite of tools to provide you with real-time performance metrics, analysis, and optimization for your campaigns and strategy as a whole.

Unlike some of the other options on our list, Rise does not have specific monthly budget requirements to be considered as a client. They work with companies of all different shapes and sizes.

WebFX — Best for Dominating Local SEO

• Great for local Google ranking
• Over 255,000 page-one rankings
• 20+ years of experience
• Free quotes

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WebFX is an award-winning digital marketing agency with over 20 years of experience.

While they offer many of the typical services you expect from a full-service agency, WebFX is best known for its SEO services. In fact, they’ve driven clients to have over 255,000 items ranked on page one of Google.

Where they really stand out is in their local SEO service. They’ll give you a dedicated local SEO expert, on-page local SEO services like product keyword research, citation management across in-network citations, review management, and custom reporting.

Overall, they’re a great choice whether you already have a local SEO campaign, just getting started, or you just want someone to take care of the nuts and bolts for you.

In addition to SEO services, WebFX also provides:

• PPC services
• Social media marketing services
• Web design services
• Content marketing services
• Conversion rate optimization (CRO)
• Amazon optimization
• Lead generation services

They work with businesses across a wide range of industries, including education, food and beverage, finance, automotive, industrial, legal, home and repair, insurance, medical, professional services, nonprofits, real estate, retail, tech, tourism, and more.

WebFX can accommodate budgets of all different sizes. Whether you’re looking to spend $300 per month or $10,000+ per month, this will be a top digital marketing agency for you to consider.

DigitalMarketing.com — Best for Nailing Your Campaign the First Time

• Beta test your campaigns
• Full-service agency
• Clients include Ferrari & CBS

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DigitalMarketing.com offers all things related to—you guessed it—digital marketing.

This full-service digital marketing firm has worked with some of the fastest growing and most well-established brands in the world. Some of their top clients include Ferrari, AT&T, Fox, CBS, Coca-Cola, Warner Brothers, Boeing, and Bank of America.

Their most standout offering, though, is a tool used to beta test your marketing campaign. In fact, they have their own technology called “Capture it All” which uses data to simulate beta tests. That helps you plan the best possible course of action for your marketing campaigns.

That can help you anticipate how your marketing campaign will ultimately perform. However, it should be taken with a grain of salt, as there are many outside factors that can ultimately determine the course of your campaign.

However, this is a pretty incredible feature and one I haven’t seen other digital marketing agencies offer. It can help you ensure you launch the best marketing campaign for your brand on the first try—rather than investing a ton of money only for it to flop.

They also offer a great PR management service that’s great for brands who need to put their best foot forward after a dent in their reputation. A more comprehensive list of their offerings includes:

• SEO
• Content marketing
• PPC management
• Social media advertising
• Public relations
• Reputation management

Like most marketing firms, DigitalMarketing.com does not have prices listed on its website. They don’t require you to disclose your budget to receive a quote. Contact them today to schedule a free consultation.

WebiMax — Best If You Also Need Reputation Management

• Great for reputation management
• Full-service agency
• Smaller teams for personalized service
• Services as low as $400/month

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WebiMax is best known for its reputation management services. In fact, this agency made our list of the best online reputation management companies on the market today.

While they offer much more beyond that—such as PPC, social media, and SEO marketing—I highly recommend them if your brand is looking for a reputation refresh.

This can happen to businesses that recently received negative press or for businesses that would like to change their image entirely and rebrand.

But WebiMax does so much more than just improve online reputations. As a full-service digital marketing agency, they also specialize in:

• SEO
• PPC marketing
• Local marketing
• Online reviews
• Social media marketing
• Lead generation
• Web design
• Online PR

As a WebiMax client, you’ll have access to an online portal where you can manage all of the details associated with your account. The reporting dashboard gives you real-time results for marketing campaigns, including keywords, traffic, analytics, and other live stats.

WebiMax has over 50 marketers on its team, but it’s still on the small side compared to some of the other organizations on this list. This is an ideal solution for those of you who prefer working with smaller teams.

Pricing for WebiMax services starts as low as $400 per month—which is definitely on the lower end when it comes to marketing agencies, plus you get a free consultation.

Mad Fish Digital — Best for Socially-Conscious Brands and Nonprofits

• Smaller firm for a more personal touch
• Great for nonprofits
• Excels with healthcare & higher education
• Eco-conscious philosophy

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Mad Fish Digital is a digital marketing firm that chooses to work with businesses that have a positive impact on their communities and the environment.

Top Mad Fish Digital services include:

• Content strategy
• Email marketing
• Social media marketing
• Data-driven design
• Visual storytelling
• Branded video campaigns
• PPC
• Lead generation and CRO
• Brand awareness
• SEO
• Keyword mapping and on-site optimization
• Technical SEO

As you can see, Mad Fish Digital covers all aspects of digital marketing. They specialize in certain industries, such as healthcare, higher education, sustainability and environment, SaaS, B2B, banking, hospitality, event planning, and more.

Mad Fish Digital is innovative, genuine, and fully accountable for your campaigns. They’ll keep you informed through each step of the process.

If you have a nonprofit, environmentally friendly, or sustainable organization, Mad Fish Digital will be a top agency for you to consider working with.

Split Reef — Best for Climbing to the Top in the App Store

• SEO & CRO services
• Social media marketing
• Reputation management
• Offices in Ohio & Florida

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Split Reef is a digital marketing agency with offices in Ohio and Florida.  They provide a wide range of digital marketing services, including other offerings like custom web applications, iOS and Android app development, progressive web apps, and more.

If you’re also in the market for custom design and development, you can use Split Reef as an all-in-one solution.

For example, let’s say you want to create an app designed for wearable devices, like a smartwatch. Split Reef can help you design the app, develop it, and then handle your digital marketing as well.

Split Reef also specializes in responsive web designs and website speed optimization. Their overall list of offerings is a bit smaller than the other services:

• SEO
• CRO
• Social media marketing
• Reputation management

Another unique niche carved out by this agency is the legal industry. Split Reef has extensive experience with digital marketing for law firms. They have a team of legal content writers, and other tools that are specifically designed to boost traffic and conversions for legal websites.

While the two are definitely unrelated, Split Reef is a top choice for both mobile app marketing and law firm marketing.

No matter what type of budget or project you have in mind, Split Reef can work with your budget. Services start in the $1,000-$5,000 range and go all the way up to over $50,000.

Max Audience — Best for Creating An Automated B2B Marketing System

• Great CRM tool
• PPC, SEO, & content marketing
• Prioritizes your campaign ROI
• Customer messaging solution

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Max Audience has offices on both coasts of the United States, with three locations in California and another in New York.

While they offer a variety of marketing solutions—including content, PPC, and SEO marketing—they also offer a great marketing automation solution. This allows you to automate repetitive tasks so your system captures leads and customer data without you needing to constantly check in on it.

They’ll work with you to set up a lead generation, lead nurturing, and segmentation system.

They’ll even pair it with a CRM to really boost your ROI. This will help inform you and keep you connected with your customers no matter where they are in your funnel.

Their CRM also gives you analytics to help translate data about your clients into insights that can help enrich their experience and turn them into customers.

Overall, they leverage automation to maximize ROI in marketing campaigns. They follow the lead of Fortune 500 companies and B2B organizations by applying cost-effective and fail-proof automated campaigns to great success.

A full list of their offerings can be found below:

• SEO
• SEM
• Email marketing
• CRM marketing
• Social media marketing
• Marketing automation
• Brand management

Max Audience has worked with small organizations and large companies throughout the world. They prioritize ROI with all digital marketing campaigns.

In addition to digital marketing services, Max Audience also provides web design services and messaging solutions for its clients. The messaging solutions will help you reach your customers across various digital touchpoints.

Prices for the Max Audience digital marketing services are unavailable online. You’ll need to speak to their sales team for a custom quote.

Location3 — Best for Brick-and-Mortar Franchises

• 20+ years of experience
• A pioneer in digital marketing
• Serves global & local businesses
• Specialized marketing for franchise brands

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Location3 is a full-service digital marketing firm that specializes in marketing services for franchise brands. They work with national franchise chains like Honey Baked Ham, Advantage Rent a Car, and Edible Arrangements.

As such, they’re especially great if you have a brick-and-mortar presence.

They have a property platform called “LOCALACT” that is designed for franchise systems and companies with a significant brick-and-mortar footprint. These custom online dashboards allow Location3’s clients to scale and power their digital marketing campaigns in real-time on a national and local level.

A more comprehensive look at their offerings includes:

• Local listings management
• Paid search
• Paid media
• SEO
• Content creation
• Local SEO
• Web analytics
• Franchise development

If you own a franchise and need assistance marketing your locations online, Location3 will be the best option for you.

How to Find the Best Digital Marketing Agency For You

With so many options out there, finding the best digital marketing agency for your business can be a challenge. To find a firm that will deliver the best results for your company’s needs, there are certain factors you should take into consideration.

This is the methodology that we use and recommend here at Quick Sprout to evaluate the best digital marketing firms. It isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, though. Some factors will be more important than others, depending on your business needs.

Outcomes and Outputs

Be wary of services that promise to simply give you “more customers.” Not only is that incredibly vague, but it should already be an obvious goal of every single digital marketing service.

Instead, focus on services that offer specific services like increasing traffic or getting qualified leads.

Beware of any marketing agency that promises you the moon. Any goals you and the agency set should be realistic and attainable while still being ambitious.

Claims promising a 200% engagement increase or a #1 ranking on Google should be treated with suspicion. This is not to say that those goals won’t happen or the business hasn’t helped other brands achieve such success. It’s just a red flag if they overpromise a specific outcome and underdeliver. 

Industry and Niche Experience

As you narrow down your list, keep an eye out for digital marketing agencies with experience that’s relevant to your type of business. They’ll be able to draw from experience to tailor their services to your business and target audience.

Startups, for example, can benefit from agencies like WebiMax. Ignite Visibility and Location3 are better suited for franchises and Fortune 500s. If you run a non-profit organization, consider using a digital marketing service like Mad Fish Digital. 

Looking at an agency’s client list will give you a good idea of the types of businesses and industries where they’ve delivered proven results.

If you are having trouble finding an agency that can handle your specific industry, consider sorting your candidates into broader categories first. For example, if you are a B2B company, you can eliminate agencies that focus on B2C. 

Further sort the remaining agencies on your list by whether they have expertise with the type of customer you’re seeking. For example, marketers that focus on clients in service industries will offer different skills than those that focus on clients that sell products.

Team Scope and Capacity

Digital marketing agencies come in diverse shapes and sizes—ranging from agencies with less than a dozen employees to those with several hundred people working on digital marketing efforts.

If you want a bit more focus on you and your brand, a smaller agency will typically be able to provide that. If the agency only has a dozen people and you’re one of their hand-picked clients, the entire staff will be aware of your brand and its marketing efforts.

Conversely, smaller agencies may not offer all of the services you’re looking for. So you should stick with larger firms if you want a wide range of digital marketing solutions under one roof. 

The best agencies also provide you with a dedicated point of contact or account manager that’s readily accessible when you have questions or concerns. 

Marketing Channel Focus and Methods

While there is definitely some overlap from company to company, some marketing agencies specialize in one area over another. 

For example, Ignite Visibility might specialize in technical SEO and link building, whereas WebFX puts more focus on local search listings or marketplace optimization.

Beyond basic digital marketing services, some agencies offer specialty solutions for things like web design, online reputation management, app development, and other needs in the digital space.

For example, Spit Reef stands out from the pack for its custom web application, iOS, and Android app development. DigitalMarketing.com is also excellent because they offer a powerful, technology-driven approach. Rise Interactive is great for ecommerce businesses because they help market your brand on different online marketplaces and listings.

The Top Digital Marketing Agencies in Summary

Ignite Visibility is the best digital marketing agency for most businesses. They deliver excellent SEO services, paid media, email marketing, and everything else you need to take your marketing strategy to the next level.

Of course, all of the choices on this list are full-service digital marketing firms. They each have unique standout features and services that appeal to different business types and marketing objectives. The one that’s right for you is the one that meets your unique needs.

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Compare The Best Call Center Services

Want to jump straight to the answer? The best call center services for most people is Nextiva.

Call centers are essential for helping medium and large businesses manage communication with customers. But trying to organize an in-house call center can be costly and labor-intensive, especially if your company has limited resources.

That’s why we recommend using a call center service to outsource all of your calls. This takes a huge responsibility off your shoulders and allows you to provide outstanding service to your clients or customers. We’ve identified the top six call center services for you to choose from. 

The 6 Best Call Center Services of 2022

• Nextiva — Best overall (For a limited time get 25% off, plus a free phone, when you sign up!)
• Go Answer — Best inbound call center outsourcing for small business
• TeleDirect — Best call center service for managing reservations
• Five Star Call Center — Best outbound call center outsourcing
• SAS — Best outsourced call center answering services
• Signius — Best call center service for low-volume calls

This guide contains an in-depth review, including the top features, benefits, and other information about these companies below.

Best Call Center Service Reviews

Nextiva – Best Overall

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• VoIP call center from anywhere
• Contract remote call center workers
• Affordable, predictable pricing
• Keep control of your call center

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One of the drawbacks of fully outsourcing your call center is being in the dark about the people handling your callers. It’s no good if you’re getting poor feedback from customers and you don’t have the means to train current staff to improve or replace poor performers with new hires.

Nextiva offers you an in-between solution that still delivers savings.

Nextiva’s call center software allows you to run it entirely from the cloud. That means you can have a fully distributed network of independent contractors manning your call center phones from any location.

Yes you’ll still pay for some labor, but there’s no need to outfit a wing of your building with a full PBX phone system and the expenses that come with that. With Nextiva, you’re saving money while still maintaining full control over your call center and the people fielding calls.

Nextiva’s call center software runs on its Nextiva One platform. That may sound like a big investment itself, but it’s not. There’s no need to install new equipment. Since it is a VoIP solution, Nextiva implementation is a snap.

Plus, it’s altogether affordable. Nextiva One starts with the entry-level Essential plan, which comes with unlimited voice and video calling, toll-free numbers, an auto attendant, and mobile and desktop apps.

Pricing scales based on the number of users. Four or fewer means you pay $23.95 per user per month. As your team grows, price per user decreases.

Adding call center capability increases your per user per month charge by just $50. You get everything you need to set up a remote call center at a predictable cost of around $70 per user per month. That price includes no limits on minutes or callers in the queue.

Get the best of both worlds—keep control of your call center workers while still saving money by letting them work from anywhere (including their own mobile phone) with Nextiva.

Go Answer – Best Inbound Call Center Outsourcing for Small Business

• Specializes in inbound services
• Email, web chat, and SMS
• HIPPA compliant
• Used by 5,000+ businesses

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Go Answer specializes in inbound call services for small businesses. They also provide answering services and legal intake services. More than 5,000 businesses throughout North America trust Go Answer for their outsourced contact center needs.

Go Answer expands beyond simply using the phone to communicate with your customers. They also handle communication via email, web chat, and SMS.

These are some of the top features and benefits of using Go Answer as your call center service provider:

• 24/7 live agents
• Order entry
• After-hours availability
• HIPAA compliance
• Appointments
• Legal intake
• SMS and email alerts
• Real-time mobile app and dashboard

All of your messages and voicemails are available in the mobile app. You get real-time updates and notifications delivered via push notification, text, or email.

The contact center services from Go Answer are designed for medium to large businesses with a high call volume. They provide customized solutions for a wide range of industries. The agents become an extension of your team.

Go Answer supports multi-channel communication and ticketing for customer support inquiries as well. It also boasts some of the fastest pickup times in the industry.

You’ll also have free access to their mobile app, AlwaysOn, and you can try the answering service risk-free for 30 days with a trial.

The answering service is geared toward smaller organizations. It’s a reliable way to make a professional impression on your customers. Some of the most common industries using Go Answer include legal, real estate, publishing, finance, and ecommerce.

Like most call center services, the rates for Go Answer are unavailable online. You’ll need to contact their sales team for a custom quote based on the specific needs of your organization.

TeleDirect – Best for Managing Reservations

• Inbound & outbound services
• Agents available 24/7/365
• For businesses of all sizes
• Friendly and professional

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TeleDirect works with Fortune 500 companies, startups, and everything in between.

It offers both inbound and outbound call center services for businesses. Teledirect also has specific solutions for reservations and managing leads.

Businesses can use TeleDirect’s inbound call services for things like processing orders, qualifying leads, tech support, and help desk assistance. Since TeleDirect has agents available 24/7/365, it’s a top solution for after-hours support and call overflows.

TeleDirect has experience handling calls from a wide range of businesses. Common industries that trust this call center service include retail, financial services, healthcare, insurance, and tech.

The outbound calling services from TeleDirect are exceptional as well.

Your business can use this call center service for things like appointment setting, market research, lead generation, customer retention, event registration, surveys, and callbacks.

TeleDirect specializes in registration services. The company has handled over 1.6 million customer reservations across multiple industries. It’s a fast and efficient way to get people to RSVP. This service is perfect for seminars, events, workshops, and open enrollments.

The call center reps at TeleDirect are friendly and professional. They know how to make an excellent first impression for both inbound and outbound calls, regardless of the call reason.

I’d recommend TeleDirect for businesses of all sizes. It’s even a top solution for smaller businesses that just need assistance with after-hours calls and overflow.

Five Star Call Center – Best Outbound Outsourcing Service

• Based in the United States
• Inbound & outbound services
• Works with both B2C & B2B
• In business 35+ years

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Five Star Call Center has everything your business needs to manage customer service calls. They provide call center outsourcing, inbound voice, outbound voice, contact center software, and call center consulting.

This company has 35+ years in the call center outsourcing industry.

Common inbound call center outsourcing services from Five Star Call Center include:

• Scheduling
• Referral services
• Tech support
• Help desk
• Upselling and cross-selling
• Reservations
• Order management
• Customer loyalty programs
• Consumer information

Five Star Call Center also provides outbound calling for both B2C and B2B companies. Here are some of the popular outbound calling services:

• Lead generation and lead qualification
• Sales for products and services
• Market research, surveys, and polls
• Quality assurance
• Customer retention programs
• Crisis management
• Membership renewals
• Email and direct mail follow-up
• Payment reminders

As you can see from both lists, the services offered by the outsourced professionals at Five Star Call Center are extensive. All of the call center hubs are based in the US. There are five call centers in the midwest located in South Dakota, North Dakota, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

With over three decades in the call center service industry, Five Star Call Center knows it all. They’ve helped businesses across every industry you can imagine.

However, there are certain industries that Five Star Call Center specializes in. That includes retail, hospitality, product support, finance, healthcare, and professional services.

Many call center services on the market today offer inbound and outbound calling. But sometimes, these providers have an edge in one category over another.

Five Star Call Center definitely qualifies as a top outbound call center service.

The outbound services are robust and results-driven. The agents go above and beyond just reading from a script. They know how to connect with the caller on the other end of the line to accomplish whatever goal you’re trying to achieve.

SAS – Best Outsourced Call Center Answering Services

• Specialty Answering Service
• Bilingual personal receptionists
• Business & personal use
• Straightforward pricing

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SAS stands for Specialty Answering Service. As the name clearly implies, the SAS call center’s primary focuses is an answering service.

In addition to the answering services, SAS provides call center outsourcing, dedicated call centers, lead generation services, and virtual receptionists.

SAS has bilingual receptionists and virtual office capabilities for their live operators.

The answering service is very diverse. While it’s obviously geared toward businesses, many people use SAS for personal use. Entrepreneurs, business owners, and busy professionals rely on SAS as a personal receptionist.

SAS has dispatching services with operators that answer calls in three rings or less. They have toll-free numbers, emergency answering services, and support international calls.

Unlike most call center services, SAS has simple and straightforward pricing listed on their website. Here’s a quick overview of those plans and prices:

• Economy — $31 per month + $1.19 per minute
• 100 minutes — $117 per month + $1.09 per additional minute
• 220 minutes — $199 per month + $1.09 per additional minute
• 500 minutes — $490 per month + $0.99 per additional minute
• 1,000 minutes — $925 per month + $0.95 per additional minute
• 2,500 minutes — $2,200 per month + $0.89 per additional minute
• 5,000 minutes — $4,199 per month + $0.85 per additional minute
• 10,000 minutes — $7,749 per month + $0.79 per additional minute

SAS has a plan for everyone. Whether you need 10 minutes per month or 10,000+ minutes per month, this answering service is perfect for you. As you can see, higher volume businesses get a better discount per minute. But even the low-volume plans are affordable.

While SAS specializes in answering services, they also provide outsourced calling for lead generation, dedicated customer service reps, and other popular call center services.

Signius – Best for Low-Volume Calls

• 100% US-based
• Custom live call centers
• Modern technology
• 24/7 Online reporting

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Signius is a call center service that is 100% US-based. They work with small businesses to Fortune 500s and everyone in between.

Your business can benefit from a custom live call center that matches your brand image and fits within your budget. Signius offers call center services as well as answering services.

Some of their popular call center services fall into the following categories:

• Customer care
• Direct response
• Hotlines
• Help desk
• Order taking
• Disaster backup

Signius takes the time to understand your business. They go through this process to become an extension of your existing team. You have the ability to outsource all or just a portion of your call center functions.

Signius is known for its quick pickup times and modern technology. You’ll also have access to online reporting 24/7.

Your client portal gives you the ability to measure the effectiveness of your call center strategy. The platform gives you information related to single calls as well as your historical data at scale.

Common industries that take advantage of the call center services provided by Signius include:

• Small business
• Contractors
• Property managers
• Franchises
• Government
• Legal
• Utility Companies
• Healthcare
• Universities

For me, the small business call center and answering services from Signius stand out the most.

As a small business owner, you likely won’t need a full call center of agents on-site handling phone calls 24/7. That’s obviously not an effective use of your resources. But Signius is available 24/7 and can answer calls even when your store is closed.

Signius has call transfer services, customized scripts, and bi-lingual solutions. Even if you don’t get a high volume of calls, this will be an excellent option for you to choose.

How to Choose the Best Call Center Service For Your Business

Reviewing the top call center services on the market today is a good start. But how do you choose the right one for your business?

There are certain factors you should take into consideration when evaluating a prospective service. This is the methodology we recommend and use at Quick Sprout.

Use these criteria to narrow down your options.

Variety of Services

Most call center services do much more than just answer phone calls. They usually offer a wide range of other services for things like market research, lead generation, event registration, and call forwarding.

What does your company need help with?

If you’re a small business owner that wants your customers to speak to a live agent instead of an answering machine when they call after hours, you can get by with just an answering service.

But if you’re a larger organization that needs outbound calls for things like lead qualification, sales, payment reminders, or membership renewals, you’ll need a company that offers these extra functions.

Availability and Call Center Locations

The best call center services have live agents available 24/7/365. I wouldn’t consider a call center service that doesn’t offer this.

In addition to consistent availability, it’s essential there are enough agents to quickly answer inbound phone calls. Consider only working with larger services that have multiple locations and plenty of staff on hand.

If a US-based call center is important to you, there are plenty of great choices to consider. You don’t have to outsource your call center overseas if you don’t want to.

Industry

Your call center is an extension of your business. While the live agents making and receiving calls don’t work directly for your company, they are the face of your business to customers when they call.

It’s important to find a call center service that has experience working in your industry.

For example, a B2B company that is using an outbound call center service for event registrations and a doctor’s office using an answering service for post-discharge patients will have very different needs.

Custom Solutions

As consumers, we’ve all experienced phone support where the agent is clearly using a generic script. Those canned responses are applied to every business, regardless of industry or customer need.

It’s frustrating when this happens. You don’t want your customers to have this same experience.

That’s why you need to find a call center service that will take the time to understand your business and its needs. They’ll help you come up with a custom solution to improve the customer experience via phone support.

For further personalization for your customers, some call centers offer dedicated agent services. This means that you will have a few agents who have special training to answer questions specific to your business. 

If you need to provide things like technical support for your customers, you may be able to hire a call center that will specialize in helping with these customer queries. 

Some call centers may even give you custom overflow capabilities. If all your own salespeople are on the phone, a customized service of the call center may be to take overflow calls as needed.

The pricing structure for most answering services will be completely customized as well. Make sure you understand how you’re being charged before you commit to a contract. In many cases, it’s the most cost-effective to be billed based on usage.

The Top Call Center Services in Summary

Traditional call center services help with a variety of tasks, including recording incoming calls, taking messages for team members, and responding to customer queries based on your company script. Many businesses prefer using the service to enhance their lead generation and lead marketing campaigns.

Nextiva is hands down the superior call center solution, but you can always opt for other solid solutions we’ve reviewed above. In the end, it all boils down to your specific requirements, budget, and locations.

Compare Quotes From The Best Call Center Services

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Compare The Best Cloud Web Hosting Plans

Want to jump straight to the answer? The best cloud hosting company for most people is Kamatera or Hostinger.

If your website is outgrowing the traditional hosting service you’ve used for years, cloud web hosting may be exactly what your business needs. With cloud hosting, your data is spread across a virtual network of servers—a cloud environment—instead of a single server.

In this buying guide, we explain what cloud hosting is and how it works. We’ll also review the top 10 cloud web hosting providers on the market today to help you decide which ones to test out.

Best Cloud Hosting Services for 2022

• Kamatera – Best for affordable versatility
• Hostinger – Most bang for your buck
• Scala Hosting – Best cloud hosting for custom resource allocation
• Cloudways – Best customizable managed cloud hosting
• HostGator– Best cheap cloud web hosting
• Nexcess – Best cloud hosting for ecommerce sites
• DreamHost– Best cloud hosting for developers
• SiteGround – Best cloud hosting for scaling resources
• A2 Hosting – Fastest cloud web hosting
• InMotion – Best cloud hosting for small businesses

Read on for detailed reviews of each service so you can start comparing features and pricing.

Cloud hosting works a little differently than other popular types of hosting, such as shared hosting, VPS (virtual private server) hosting, or dedicated server hosting.

Each host also does things a little differently as well. After the reviews is a short guide that will help you assess each cloud hosting option.

Kamatera — Best for Affordable Versatility

Visit Kamatera

• Extremely flexible and scalable
• Starts at $4 per month
• 99.95% guaranteed uptime
• 30-day free trial

Try for free

Kamatera has been in the IT business since 1995 and has become a global cloud services platform provider working with startups through enterprise-level organizations.

One of Kamatera’s most attractive features happens before you ever pay one cent for its services: a full 30-day free trial. The free trial is available for all cloud-based products and requires no contract or commitment. 

Free trial users get full access to Kamatera’s cloud management platform, a designated account manager, 24/7 tech support, and includes the following:

• 1 cloud server (up to $100 of any configuration you choose)
• 1000 GB cloud block storage
• 1000 GB outgoing internet traffic

Kamatera has a 99.95% uptime guarantee but every speed test I’ve seen has shown 100% uptime. Along with affordable rates and instant scalability and flexibility and you get a fantastic VPS cloud hosting experience.

Kamatera has 13 data centers around the world, including one in Canada (Toronto), three in the United States (New York, Texas, California), three in Europe (the Netherlands, Germany, the UK), one in Asia (Hong Kong), and five in Israel (Petach Tikva, Rosh Haayin (2), Tel Aviv, Haifa). Each data center is AICPA SOC 2 Type II-compliant or better and every single component has a parallel backup, including the main power supply.

Developers and other experienced IT professionals will love the performance and customization options, which include choosing from 60 operating systems, RAM, processors, storage, IP address, and more.

It is important to note that Kamatera is not incredibly beginner-friendly at first glance. There are no drag-and-drop builders and cPanel is a $20 monthly add-on. But with 24/7/365 customer support and an intuitive, easy-to-use dashboard, even beginners will be able to use it.

Of course, if you want a more hands-off cloud hosting experience, Kamatera offers fully managed hosting at an additional cost.

Here are some of the features you get with Kamatera’s VPS cloud hosting servers:

• 60-second server setup
• 99.95% uptime guaranteed
• Instantly scalable resources–when you add or change your resources, they will be added to your account right away.
• 60+ operating systems to choose from, including Windows and Windows Server, Linux, Free BDS, Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, Gentoo, or a custom one.
• You can create unlimited email accounts to use for your website.
• User-friendly and customizable server management portal
• A built-in firewall system + a team to help you get servers back up should anything happen

Kamatera does not offer shared hosting or domain registration services, though you do get free automatic SSL certificates with each server.

Kamatera’s pricing is straightforward. It is a true pay-as-you-go system, where you can start out with only what you need right now and then scale up as needed. Add CPU, RAM, load balancers, and more from your dashboard and it will be available immediately. Plus you only get charged for what you actually use.

Here is a look at some of the pricing:

• Cloud Servers: starting from $4 per month or $0.005 per hour
• Cloud Block Storage: $0.05 per month per GB
• Private Cloud Network: Free
• Cloud Load Balancer: starting from $9 per month
• Cloud Firewall: starting from $9 per month
• Fully Managed Cloud Services: starting at $50 per month per server

Kamatera is a great cloud hosting option for anyone looking for extreme versatility and flexibility at an affordable price. And with a generous 30-day free trial, you can try it out in its entirety to make an informed decision about if it is the right provider for your business.

Hostinger — Most Bang for Your Buck

Visit Hostinger

• Normally $29/month
• Month-to-month pricing
• Free domain and SSL certificate
• 30-day money back guarantee

Get a 74% discount

Hostinger offers quality web hosting at competitively low prices. Their most affordable cloud web hosting plan is currently $9.99 per month.

You’ll have to sign a contract to get this deal, but it’ll let you host up to 300 websites for less than 10 bucks a month.

It’s one of the lowest prices for cloud web hosting out there. Couple that with their 99.9% uptime guarantee and decently fast speeds, and you have yourself an excellent host.

These are fully managed plans with 24/7 support. You might think that the low price would mean no customer service, but Hostinger takes care of and the server uptime, monitoring, and automated daily backups.

One thing that really sets Hostinger out from the rest of the pack is their dedicated IP. Customers receive free dedicated IP with any of their cloud hosting plans—which is incredible.

Their hPanel dashboard is also very intuitive and user-friendly. Even if you’re new to using a dashboard like that, you’ll have no trouble getting the hang of it.

Full pricing is as follows. Overall, it’s a very lucrative cloud hosting plan that’ll give you the most bang for your buck.

Pricing for Hostinger cloud hosting starts at $9.99 per month, though the monthly price will go up when you renew. This is completely standard in the hosting industry, but it’s something to be aware of.

What’s helpful about Hostinger pricing is that the longer you sign up, the cheaper it is to renew. You can lock in rock-bottom rates for up to 4 years and get a discount down the road.

HostGator offers even cheaper cloud web hosting than Hostinger–just know that HostGator isn’t giving you as much RAM, a dedicated IP, or automated daily backups.

When it comes to bang for your buck, nothing gets you as much for as little as Hostinger cloud hosting.

There’s a 30-day money back guarantee, so you can see if cloud hosting makes a difference for your business risk free. Get in touch with Hostinger to learn more.

Scala Hosting — Best for Custom Resource Allocation

Visit Scala Hosting

• Fully customizable VPS resources
• Generous maximums on CPUs, RAM, & storage
• Affordable at scale
• Flexibility to adjust on the fly

Create Your Plan

Scala Hosting offers cloud VPS for customers, bringing the granular management of VPS together with the flexibility and scalability of cloud hosting.

But Scala truly rises above the pack in terms of its customization. They’re one of the only hosting providers out there that lets you set a precise, custom set of resources before you even sign up.

While they do offer pre-configured hosting plans starting at $14.95 per month, Scala allows you to create a bespoke hosting package with the perfect blend of memory, storage, and processing power to fit your specific needs.

Best of all, it’s super easy to do this. Scroll down on Scala’s main cloud VPS page, and you can move the sliders for each up and down to your heart’s content. Minimums and maximums depend on whether you choose Scala’s managed or self-managed options.

Preset Scala managed cloud VPS plans:

• Start at $14.95/month for the Start Plan and go up to $152.95 for the Enterprise plan.
• CPU cores: Start provides 2 cores, Advanced gives 3, Business has 5, and Enterprise has 9 cores.
• RAM: Starts at 4GB and goes up to 18GB.
• SSD storage: Start has 50GB, Advanced has 80GB, Business has 160GB, and Enterprise has 320GB.

Scala self-managed cloud VPS is completely build-your-own and starts at:

• Starts at $59/month for 4 CPU cores, 8GB RAM, and 240GB SSD.
• CPU cores: minimum of four, maximum of 24, $6/month per each additional core
• RAM: minimum of 8 GB, maximum of 64 GB, $2/month per each additional GB
• SSD storage: minimum of 240 GB, maximum of 2 TB, $1/month per each additional 10 GB

There are also a bunch of additional add-ons you can purchase for self-managed cloud hosting, including LiteSpeed domains, WHMCS licenses, cPanel licenses, and more.

Either allows you a wide array of potential resource allocation options and Scala doesn’t really gouge you for adding more in any category. They don’t punish you for scaling to any extent.

You can also choose your preferred data center location, as well as your preferred control panel (on managed plans) or operating system (on self-managed plans).

Another notable standout of using Scala is its free site migration service. So if you’re currently using another hosting provider, you can switch to Scala without any hassle or headaches.

So, Scala Hosting is an excellent option for anyone who knows exactly what they need from their hosting provider—especially if you know of a custom setup that would benefit your site but isn’t commonly offered by other providers (like if you just want blazing speed without a ton of storage space).

And pricing stays competitive despite all the customization you’re allowed. When you get up into the higher ranges of resources, Scala’s custom plans are more than competitive with top-of-the-line cloud hosting offerings from others—even outright beating them on both price and flexibility.

Get exactly what you need, scale freely, and reap the benefits of a precise combination of resources by going with Scala Hosting today.

Cloudways — Best Customizable Managed Cloud Hosting

Visit Cloudways

• Seven data center options.
• Very fast managed hosting.
• Many CMS to choose from.
• Use coupon code QUICKSPROUT to get 25% off for 3 months

Try it for free!

Cloudways sets itself apart from many other cloud-based web hosting services with its flexibility and customizable options along with lightning-fast speeds and 24/7/365 support.

In terms of options, you are unlikely to find a host with more of them. As a managed cloud host, Cloudways takes care of server management for you. When getting started, you select your CMS and can be ready to go in moments. Cloudways prides itself on simplicity with exceptional performance.

CMS options include:

• WordPress
• Magento
• Drupal
• Joomla
• Koken
• Media Wiki
• PHP Stack
• Prestashop

For plans and pricing, the rates depend on several factors, including selecting from seven data center options (and locations) and what level of RAM, processor cores, storage, and bandwidth you need. The data center options are:

• Linode
• DigitalOcean
• DigitalOcean Premium Droplets
• Vultr
• Vultr High Frequency
• AWS
• Google Cloud

The plans run the gamut of pricing. The least expensive is $12 per month including DigitalOcean standard hosting charges, with 1 GB of RAM, 1 core processor, 25 GB of storage, and 1 TB bandwidth.

The most expensive is $274.33 per month including the AWS hosting charges. That plan includes 16 GB of RAM, 4 vCPU, 20 GB of storage, and 2 GB of bandwidth.

What is more impressive is the pay-as-you-go type of pricing. Cloudways offers some hourly packages that only actually charge you for any time you use, as opposed to paying for an entire month even if you cancel after 2 weeks. Of course, Cloudways also offers regular monthly plans, too.

All plans come with 24/7/365 support, free SSL, CDN add-on, free migration, unlimited application installation, 24/7 real-time monitoring, automated backups, advanced caches, auto healing, and more.

While Cloudways is not perfect — it lacks a cPanel and does not offer domain registration — it does offer a host of add-ons and integrations so it works for your needs. Add-ons include Rackspace email hosting Gmail SMTP, application migration, and more.

You can try Cloudways for free with a three-day free trial that does not require a credit card to get started. Use coupon code QUICKSPROUT to get 25% off for 3 months.

HostGator — Best Cheap Cloud Hosting

Visit HostGator

• Starts at $12.95/month
• $4.95/month if you pay annually
• Free domain and SSL certificate
• 45-day money back guarantee

Get up to 45% off

HostGator offers some of the most cost-effective cloud hosting on the market today. They’re certainly the most affordable options on this list.

Let’s take a look at some the three basic cloud hosting plans offered by HostGator:

Hatchling Plan

• Starting at $4.95
• 2 CPUs
• 2 GB of memory
• Single domain

Baby Plan

• Starting at $6.57
• 4 CPUs
• 4 GB of memory
• Unlimited domains

Business Plan

• Starting at $9.95
• 6 CPUs
• 6 GB of memory
• Unlimited domains

These rates are for for 36-month contracts. They are 45% cheaper than the actual price, which you’ll end up paying when you renew your contract.

All HostGator cloud hosting plans come with a free SSL certificate. The Business plan comes with a dedicated IP, free SEO tools, and free domain as well.

Not only are they affordable, but they don’t sacrifice quality either. HostGator’s dashboard makes it easy for you to monitor the performance of your website. You can quickly view data related to page speed, uptime, reach, and more.

Scaling your server resources is simple as well. This can be done with just one click, without any downtime, reboots, or data migrations. Read more about their services in my full HostGator cloud hosting review.

Nexcess — Best for Ecommerce Sites

Visit Nexcess

• Starts at $49.00/month
• Great for ecommerce sites
• 24/7 customer service
• Choose from 6 different plans

Learn more

Nexcess is a web hosting solution brought to you by the good folks at Liquid Web. We’ve featured them before for their great hosting services, and Nexcess is no exception.

Their primary offerings are managed Magento, WooCommerce, and WordPress hosting (along with a few other CMS). That makes them perfect for ecommerce websites looking to grow.

But they also have a standout cloud hosting service too, that are great for scaling businesses. The specific plans vary depending on what your CMS is, they offer a wide variety of them.

That makes Nexcess perfect for growing businesses who plan to rapidly scale their growth—and are looking for a cloud host that will scale with them.

One tool I really like is Nexcess Cloud Accelerator. This is an additional layer in front of the cloud stack that boosts load times. That means your site will be nice and speedy for your customers.

They also have a dedicated support team on call 24/7 to help your business address any technical issues, or if you want to switch plans.

Here’s a look at the plans they offer:

Everything is tuned for online business. You’ll be set up for taking payments securely and all customer info is kept secure.

Traffic spikes? No problem. Nexcess cloud hosting lets you scale up for a limited period of time if you need. You’re not going to locked into paying for more than you need to handle the busy hours.

You’re also not spending time making sure that your website is up. Nexcess manages everything on the backend so you can concentrate on selling.

Set up your store with Nexcess cloud hosting today.

DreamHost — Best for Developer Projects

Visit Dreamhost

• Starts at max $4.50/month
• 100 GB of block storage
• Free SSD & bandwidth
• Full root access & control

Get up to 47% off

DreamHost has the easiest cloud setup in the industry. You can get your cloud servers live in less than 30 seconds. With that said, DreamHost cloud is best for developers.

They have server options that are made for databases, web apps, and running tests in addition to websites.

You can continue working the with DevOps tools that you’re already using. DreamHost also gives you full root access for complete control over your cloud servers.

The best part about DreamHost is that you only pay for what you actually use. You’ll get charged for resources on an hourly basis based on the size of your server.

• 512 MB of RAM Server — $0.0075 per hour (maximum $4.50 per month)
• 2 GB of RAM Server — $0.02 per hour (maximum $12 per month)
• 8 GB of RAM Server — $0.08 per hour (max $48 per month)

The 2 GB server is the recommended option for websites.

You will not be billed anything when you sign up. Instead, you’re billed based on your monthly usage.

The only area where DreamHost falls short that I found in my complete review of DreamHost web hosting services is their customer support. You can only contact customer service via email or live chat, which is only available for 16 hours daily. So if you prefer phone support or need help in the middle of the night, you’re out of luck until the morning.

SiteGround — Best for Scaling Resources

Visit Siteground

• Starts at $100.00/month
• Automatic scaling
• Daily & on-demand backups
• Priority support

Try now with a 30-day money-back guarantee

SiteGround offers fully managed, high-performance cloud hosting built on Google cloud infrastructure. This means you’ll get auto-updates, tools to make managing websites easier, optimized servers, and a handy auto-scaling tool so your site stays running even with unexpected traffic spikes.

These plans are fully managed. That means they take care of your account for you.

SiteGround handles the IT of your hosting. This allows you to focus on other areas of your website. Plus, Siteground’s speed and performance are great. Every cloud hosting plan has the SG Optimizer plugin preinstalled and a unique PHP setup for extra speed boosts.

SiteGround cloud plans come equipped with an Automatic Scaling tool, preventing traffic loss and downtime. You can also add CPU and RAM at any time with one click in your admin settings.

With SiteGround, you can completely configure your own cloud and plan based on the resources you need. For example, they have six data centers on four continents to choose from, so you choose the one that is closest to your users. Here is a look at their plans:

The Business or Business Plus plans should be more than enough resources for the majority of you, so that’s what I would recommend starting with. As your traffic rises, you can always scale as needed.

You’ll also benefit from webmaster tools like a dedicated IP, free CDN, free SSL, daily backups, and a private DNS. Check out my in-depth SiteGround web hosting review for more information about their overall services.

A2 Hosting — Fastest Cloud Web Hosting

Visit A2 Hosting

• Starts at $5.00/month
• Up To 20X Faster Servers
• Managed & unmanaged options
• 30-day money back guarantee

Learn More

A2 Hosting offers some of the fastest hosting services out there.

While they don’t offer traditional cloud hosting services, they do offer VPS hosting solutions with dedicated server resources. With a turbo plan from A2, you’ll benefit from a fully optimized hosting solution and that’s 20x faster than traditional cloud packages.

Plans start at $5, $10, and $15 per month, respectively. But you only pay for the resources that you use based on how you configure your cloud servers.

If you want to have cPanel, it’s an extra $19.95 per month and not available with the lowest-tier pricing plan.

As I mention in my full review of A2 web hosting services they offer a 99.9% uptime promise as well as an anytime money-back guarantee. Although there are some contingencies to both, so make sure you read the fine print of your contract.

If customer support is important to you, then you’ll definitely be satisfied with A2’s 24/7/365 guru support team.

This cloud hosting provider is ideal for those of you who want unmanaged cloud hosting with lightning fast page loading speed.

InMotion — Best for Small Businesses

Visit InMotion

• Normally $64.99/month
• Free domain and SSL certificate
• Free launch assist service
• 90-day money back guarantee

Get up to 64% off

InMotion offers some of the most understated cloud hosting services out there.

They have cloud hosting solutions for everyone.

• Small business cloud hosting
• Agency cloud hosting
• Application cloud hosting
• Enterprise cloud hosting plans

Altogether, InMotion has 10 different plans and pricing tiers for cloud hosting, which is the most I’ve seen offered by any provider.

For website owners, you’ll want to focus on the small business plans. InMotion makes it easy for you to scale your resources as your site grows I found in my complete review of InMotion hosting services.

You’ll also get a resource monitoring dashboard, free auto backups, rapid provisioning, and full snapshots of your servers. InMotion offers a free SSL and free cPanel license with all of its cloud business plans.

What Is Cloud Hosting?

Typically, your site is hosted on a single server. It could be your own dedicated server, or one that you share with other websites.

With cloud hosting, your web host isn’t connected to one physical location. Your website resources are maintained across multiple virtual servers in the cloud.

Each cloud server is responsible for specific sets of tasks. If one of the servers in the cloud fails or goes down, the others will automatically pick up the slack to provide those required resources.

Your website will continue to run smoothly with cloud hosting, even if there is a problem with one of the servers.

With cloud hosting your website benefits from increased uptime rates and won’t be as susceptible to unplanned downtime.

With a singe, physical server, you’re essentially putting all of your eggs in one basket. This is a huge risk when you’re dealing with something as important as your website.

In addition to eliminating the potential problems inherent with one server, cloud hosting will keep your site stable, even as your traffic increases.

Cloud hosting is also extremely easy to set up. For those of you who want to start hosting on the cloud right away, it can be a faster deployment option than something like a dedicated server or shared server.

Cloud hosting has a few different benefits for those who choose to use it, including:

• Scalable bandwidth: If you often experience spikes in traffic to your site, or if you have different demands at the site during particular times of the year, it’s easy to scale your bandwidth to match these changes.
• Variable costs: Rather than paying a flat fee for hosting, cloud hosting allows you to pay for only the resources you use. You won’t overpay for services and bandwidth that you don’t use.
• Limited downtime: If your traditional network has an outage, you don’t have much recourse for rerouting traffic. However, with cloud hosting, the traffic naturally travels in multiple paths, providing ways to avoid bottlenecks and downtime.

Who Is Cloud Hosting For?

Cloud web hosting is ideal for medium to larger-sized businesses and websites that are growing rapidly. Cloud web hosting allows businesses to scale rapidly. That’s great for growing businesses.

Most cloud hosting plans have flexible pricing options, meaning you’ll only pay for the resources that you’re actually using.

If you’re anticipating random traffic surges or a steady increase in website traffic in the coming years, then cloud hosting is the perfect option for you.

However, cloud web hosting isn’t right for every business.

For those of you who have a small personal website, small blog, or a micro-business, you probably don’t need to use cloud hosting if there is no growth coming in the future. A shared hosting plan is fine for those types of websites.

When you’re ready to grow your website, you should consider upgrading to a cloud hosting plan as opposed to a VPS. While a virtual private server will be able to deliver enough server resources, a cloud plan is usually more cost-effective.

Enterprise-level websites with the need to customize their server settings would benefit from a dedicated hosting plan rather than a cloud solution.

Any website with more than 50,000 monthly visitors is a viable candidate for cloud hosting. It’s the perfect option for larger websites that can’t afford to have any downtime.

How to Find the Best Cloud Hosting Plan For You

Not every cloud hosting plan is the same. Some hosting providers offer different features and benefits compared to others.

When you’re evaluating a cloud web host, these are the factors that you should take into consideration.

Scalable Resources

You need to make sure that you get a web hosting plan with enough bandwidth, storage, and disc space. To do this, you need to know how much traffic you’ll get. But new websites face a common dilemma when they’re looking for a hosting plan.

They have to decide if they want to get the highest possible bandwidth, even if they won’t come close to exceeding those limits. Or should they start with a lower bandwidth plan and upgrade as their traffic starts to increase?

Cloud hosting solves this dilemma.

Since your website is hosted on multiple servers, you won’t have to worry about exceeding bandwidth. If one server is maxed out, you can always pull resources from another.

Look for a cloud hosting plan that lets you easily manage and configure your server resources in-real time.

Here’s an example of what this looks like on HostGator Cloud, which is a provider that we reviewed earlier in this guide.

I’d recommend a cloud hosting plan that allows you to scale your server resources without needing any approval from the provider. This is something that can be managed from your admin dashboard.

Price

Most traditional hosting plans require you to pay a fixed monthly rate. You’ll be charged this amount even if you don’t use all of the resources on the server.

But cloud hosting is much more flexible in terms of pricing. So I’d look for a hosting provider that charges you based on the resources that you actually use.

Here’s an analogy. Let’s say you go to an all-you-can-eat buffet, where the food options can also be purchased à la carte. The buffet price is $20 per person, which is the most you’ll have to pay, regardless of how much food you eat.

But if you only eat $10 worth of food, then wouldn’t it be nice to get $10 back?

That’s how some of the best cloud hosting plans are structured.

This relates back to our previous point about being able to scale your resources on demand. For example, let’s say you just built a bunch of new backlinks and you’re expecting a particular blog post on your website to go viral.

Rather than upgrading your entire plan (which you’d have to do with other types of web hosting) you can just increase the resources needed during that traffic spike and put everything back to normal when your traffic levels out.

In this case, you’d only pay for the actual server usage during the surge. Here’s an example of this pricing structure from another one of the providers on our list, DreamHost.

As you can see, pricing is based on usage. Each plan has a maximum monthly rate. Even the fine print at the bottom of the page states that you’ll only be billed for what you use.

So look for a hosting provider that offers a similar pricing structure.

Speed and Performance

If your hosting plan doesn’t deliver the best performance, then it’s a pretty crappy hosting plan.

The majority of cloud hosting servers will increase the capacity of your website, which boosts your page loading speed.

Cloud hosting doesn’t put as much strain on a singular server. If your website has lots of resource-intensive data such as videos, images, and other media content, then cloud hosting is something that you need to take advantage of.

Look for a cloud hosting plan that delivers content from the nearest remote server. This will ensure that all of your loading times are as fast as possible.

At the end of the day, your website visitors don’t care what type of hosting plan you’re using. They just want your site to be responsive and load quickly.

By prioritizing things like uptime and loading speed with cloud hosting, your website will ultimately perform better from the user end.

Security

No matter what type of web hosting plan you have, security always needs to be a priority.

Fortunately, cloud hosting is known to be very safe. That’s because your website is isolated from any potential problems with a physical server. Everything is being handled remotely, which wouldn’t be the case if you were relying on a singular server that’s hosted locally.

If a local server was compromised, then your website would be at risk. Whereas if one server in your cloud network was hacked, failed, or had a system overload, your website would stay up and running without any downtime or delays.

Look for a web host that offers any additional security protection as an incentive with your cloud hosting plan.

The Top Cloud Hosting Plans in Summary

Cloud web hosting is a great solution for growing websites. If your shared plan can no longer accommodate the needs of your site, then you should consider switching to a cloud solution since it can give you more resources, space, and performance power.

The majority of websites can benefit from cloud hosting. The increased flexibility, scalability, and resilience make it ideal for companies that need hosting resources on-demand. It’s a good choice for interactive sites, online stores, web apps, and IoT deployments.

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