After Wealthy Affiliate added free SSL to the long list of things included with their membership, I removed all my domain names from Godaddy. I still have a few at Namecheap. They've been there a while and I did the whole SSL deal there so I'll just leave them for now.

But the process of moving domains and installing SSL on my websites made me realize how much WA offers for FREE, that you have to pay for in other places. If you've never hosted anywhere else or used another registrar, you might not realize that they are free in WA, but you have to pay for them with other services.

So I wanted to make a post outlining these freebies and how much they cost at other places.

Unlimited Email

You can create as many email addresses and forwards. You can check your email via the webmail app, or as, recommended, forward to a Gmail account and manage email from there.

Namecheap (Registrar)

• 1 email address = $10 per year
• 10 email addresses (1 inbox) $30 per year
• 3-10 GB storage limit

Godaddy (Registrar)

• unlimited email address = $5 per month ($60/year)
• limited to 5GB Storage
• 50GB Storage = $8 per month
• Upsells for Encryption (+$5/mo), Archiving (+$5/mo)

Both of these services have a "forwarding" option if you don't want to pay for email. But that means you have to use their own DNS, meaning you have to host with them. You only get one forward per domain.

Wix (Host + Website Builder)

• $5/month Hosting limited to 500MB Storage (insanely low) 1GB Bandwidth
• "Recommended" plan = $14 per month
• No Email Included!
• 1 Email Address Through GSuite = $5-$10 per month

Note: Some other hosts do provide free email, but limit storage to a few gigabytes. If you're running 10 websites, it fills up quickly.

SSL Certificates

SSL is the HTTPS part of your domain name. At other registrars and hosts, this costs money. Here's, it's free through SiteSSL. Installing your certificate is instant unlike with other hosts, which require you generate a certificate, connect it, and reverify every year.

This is a nervewracking process your first time around. I've done it. For complete newbies - I would guess near impossible. Easy SSL installation is another bonus of being a WA member.

Namecheap

• 1 domain = $9 - $60 per year
• Must Install SSL By Yourself

Godaddy

• 1 domain = $56 pear year
• Must Install SSL By Yourself

I still think it's pretty crazy that WA offers free SSL certificates. I don't know of any other host that does that.

WordPress Optimized Hosting Package (Multiple Websites)

Many hosts do offer "shared hosting" packages that are quite cheap, like $5-$10 per month. Keep in mind, those packages are often severely limited in bandwidth and storage space.

Sometimes, they may label them as "unlimited", but are often not truly unlimited. Though they may not limit the storage space, they will put other limitations on them. I ran into an "inode" limit, meaning the number of files I stored (not the size).

Back in 2010 I started paying Fatcow about $3 per month. Upon renewal, it was something like $15 per month. Out of frustration, I switched to Godaddy and was paying about $10 per month. When I hit the inode limit, I upgraded to about $20 per month. After 3 years of running into various issues with bandwidth and storage space, I was paying $60 per month!

Other, higher quality hosts cost way, way more, and you only get to host ONE website. Here are two examples.

WPEngine

• 1 website: $29/month
• 10 websites: $99/month
• 25 websites: $249/month

Kinsta:

• 1 website: $30/month (20,000 visits / 5 GB disk space limit)
  
• 20 websites: $300/month (400,000 visits / 30 GB disk space limit)

Note: The 10-website plan with WP Engine limits you do 100,000 visits per month, which is kind of crazy. Just 1000 visits per day is already 60k visits per month! If you have two websites that get 1k visits per month, you would automatically have to pay about $100 per month for hosting alone.

Note 2: These are very good hosts that specialize in WordPress hosting. They cost a lot of money, but are very good. However, Wealthy Affiliate also specializes in WordPress hosting and the hosting is completely free with your membership.

Spam Filter

There are many free spam filters out there. One of the most popular, Aksimet, recently stopped being free though. This is a risk for any spam filter that gets popular!

Aksimet

• $5 per month, per website!!

Security

Website security is included with any typical host, but WA goes above and beyond with their proprietary security features. The truth is, I don't really understand the inner workings of WA security. However, I do know that many people pay for added layers of security.

One such service is called Securi. I was hacked a few years ago while hosting on Hostgator, so I signed up for this service. It was great, but pricey.

• Securi Basic: $200/year
• Securit Pro: $300/year

Keyword Tool

You should be pretty familiar with the Jaaxy keyword tool! But many people have to pay for theirs!

• Longtail Pro: $25/month
• SEMRush: $99/month
• Ahrefs: $99/month
• Moz: $99/month

These tools all provide different data and perks, so the price is justified for many of them. They are not a direct comparison to the WA keyword tool! But I just wanted to show you how much other companies are charging for keyword research tools.

Plus, if you look closely, tools like Longtail Pro limit the number of keywords you can get each month!

Image Optimization

There are some free image optimization plugins and tools out there, but the best ones cost money. Why? Optimizing images requires resources, and when hundreds of thousands of blogs are using your resources, you need money to run your business.

The Price Of Running Your Business

Right now, the total cost of running your online business is $49/month + $14/year (domain).

If you're a Yearly, then the cost of your business per month is only about $30.

If you were to use the tools I've listed on this page, that price would balloon to over $300+ per month.

Once you factor in that you are essentially part of an online entrepreneur forum where you can learn how to run your business and get help with your business, Wealthy Affiliate seems even more valuable.

Even if you were paying $300 per month for all those other services, you would still have to pay for online classes or even more for an expert to mentor you!

If a friend told you they learned how to run a business and were handed all the tools they needed under one roof for $30 per month there's no way you'd believe them, but that's exactly what you get with Wealthy Affiliate!