FREE Stuff At Wealthy Affiliate
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
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.
Multiple Hosting Package
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.
WebSynthesis
- 1 website: $47/month
- 2-4 websites: $97/month
- 5+ websites: $197/month
WPEngine
- 1 website: $29/month
- 10 websites: $99/month
- 25 websites: $249/month
Note: The 10-website plan 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 WA 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.
The Price Of Running Your Business
Right now, the total cost of running your online business is $49/month + $15/year (domain). If you're a Yearly, then the cost of your business per month is only about $30, including the domain.
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 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!
I too have many websites hosted here...Not all, however...
The host we use for our e-commerce and drop-shipping sites is SiteGround...
We use the higher end shared hosting (GoGeek) and the cost is about $20 a month (we have an annual plan so get it cheaper, plus we went in on a sale) for the following:
- Full SSL
- Server hosted 3 level caching
- CDN (Cloudshare)
- PCL compliant software for secure transactions
- Solid state drives with the latest software to speed load times
- Dedicated IP address although a shared hosting account
- Unlimited sites
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Unlimited email accounts
- You set the size allowed per mail account - no limit that I know of...
- Works seamlessly with AWS S3 and buckets
- Excellent support - 24/7 plus live chat with support staff, they solve the issue while you are online
- cPanel
- Easy file/database/tool installation
- Great security from what we have experienced to now
- 100% uptime to now
- Web site building tool if you need as with WA
- More bells and whistles we do not use or need (but some do)...
This is the best hosting company I have worked with, and SiteRubix is the second best....
Telling for the company is that 96% of referrals come from current members...They do not have to have a large affiliate network to get new business, their reputation precedes them...
I am not an affiliate, and my point for mentioning this host here is that although SiteRubix is good, no doubt, they do have a way to go yet to get to number one...
Kyle and Carson are definitely working to take that position with the many moves they have made...
Looking forward to the day I CAN say they are number one!
I have worked with Hostgator - I was not happy, too limited as you mention, plus IM, Wix, and a few others...None compare or even come close to SiteRubix or SiteGround...
Why mention this?
For people looking to sell their own products online, some of the features that SiteGround offers are essential to help build trust with Google and the customers...
The most engaging experience for e-commerce clients is a must - a fast loading secure website and the best support for you as a seller is a must as well...
We have tested both hosts, and SiteGround beats SiteRubix every time...Every second delay in loading of your page costs immensely in people that bounce...
It is a matter of that for us (i.e. we use both - we are building a membership site now on SiteRubix and will move it over when tested and ready to go live)...
That $20 a month cost to us is little in the big picture...Just the plugins for the membership site is coming in at $1000, so it puts that cost into perspective...
On the whole what you are saying is correct, the many benefits here far outweigh the cost for membership, and is also why I will be hanging around here for many years!
Cheers!
Dave : )
This is literally the best web host for starting an online business, but people don't see it.
I agree fully to both of your posts.
What WA offers is fantastic and more. I really didn't do much research into WA before I joined them. I just read Nathaniell's site and recommendations. Normally I wouldn't quickly join something like that, but I tell you why I joined it.
I got loads of experience with webhosting. I used to have a business in webhosting myself. So I do know all the inns and outs of hosting and SSL. I also know all the inns and outs of security, backup and email.
It is an entire package of problems you can run into if you do everything by yourself. And it costs tremendously. I have still some VPS's running, but they are more meant for web development on a different level (coldfusion, php, databases etc).
So yeah.. when I joined WA I wasn't quite sure if it was scam or not. And I just jumped into the deal, for only one main reason: It would give me 25 hostings included and on top of the already fantastic course material. At the price that I got in here at WA, it was a no-brainer for the offered support, websites, free SSL, security AND backup.
And well Dave, that what you got there from SiteGround sounds also amazing and fantastic. Right now I will keep myself here at WA. If I would need more than 25 sites, I would probably get another WA account.
But if one of my sites would explode in visitors I would definitely consider going into another (unless WA makes an option for SuperPremium IM's). Because speed and visitors/bandthwidth is going up incrementally when you get a good and popular running website in the end.
And I believe WA is shared hosting and therefore can experience some form of load balancing issues at times, even though they are expert in managing it (way better than free hosts for that matter).
Steven
I have been trying to use Wealthy Affiliate email service but it doesn't seem to work during 1,5 years. I have also been in touch with WA-support regarding to this issue but it seems that it doesn't get fixed. Have you also faced the same issue?
Bill
I'll be bookmarking and referring people to this anytime I hear folks doing this. Great job!!!
Mickeyb
Premium membership at WA is a no brainer.
Thanks Kyle and Carson for building what we have here. There really isn't anything like it, anywhere. Keep up the great work!
Cheers
Chris