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The best web hosting providers for ecommerce

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The best web hosting providers for ecommerce

Just as they do with a physical shop, first impressions matter when it comes to online stores. It’s vital to purchase the best web hosting for your ecommerce website to ensure that your customers get the best service and you benefit from the most sales for your business. A good quality web host ensures that your website loads speedily and safely while giving you plenty of tools to make your site look great.

Web hosting for ecommerce is a little different from regular web hosting, in that there are more things to consider and more features you’ll want. It tends to include features like an SSL certificate and other security features so that you’re able to sell directly through your website. A good ecommerce host appreciates those challenges and makes such features simple for you to implement while also offering easy-to-use web builder tools.

Read on as we check out the best providers for ecommerce hosting and explain precisely what to look for when finding the best ecommerce platform your business needs — no matter how big or small your company may be.

What features should a hosting provider offer for ecommerce?

No single hosting provider is quite the same as another. That’s because they all provide different features. Broadly, they can also be divided up into four main categories of hosting — shared hosting, VPS, dedicated, and cloud hosting. Shared hosting is the cheapest option out there because your website is hosted alongside other websites, meaning it’ll run slower than on a dedicated server, and you typically won’t have as many advanced features available to you.

VPS and cloud hosting is an in-between option. You’re provided with a virtual private server which gives you more options, albeit at a price. There’s also web hosting such as Wix, Shopify, and Squarespace, which aims to provide an ecommerce platform in a simplified way that still proves fairly powerful.

Generally, shared hosting will be fine for an ecommerce website for smaller businesses, with Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify also great options for the less tech-savvy.

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Whichever you choose, it’s essential to look for key features such as an SSL certificate for security, along with easy-to-use interfaces for adding shopping cart functionality and other ways to help customers easily shop in your store. If you have limited experience with web design, a user-friendly web builder tool is immensely useful too, so you can focus on listing your products rather than trying to design a site from scratch. Pretty much all web hosting offers these tools now, but their quality definitely varies.

Are there web hosting providers just for ecommerce?

Only Shopify exclusively offers ecommerce web hosting. All the other web hosts listed here also provide conventional web hosting alongside their ecommerce features. Shopify focuses on making it simple to set up an online shop, but its fee system can work out to be quite expensive for the privilege.

What should you spend on web hosting for ecommerce?

It’s possible to spend relatively little on web hosting for your ecommerce business. It’s also possible to spend a lot, depending on what you need from it.

If you own a small business with only a handful of customers, then you can spend less than a thriving online business that has many more customers each day. That’s because, generally, the more visitors you have or expect to have, the more bandwidth you’ll need, and the more you’ll pay to give your customers a speedy and effective experience. Page load time is very important for ecommerce websites. Think of the last time you wanted to visit an online store, but the site wouldn’t load. That retailer probably lost a sale. Speed is also important for SEO.

Spending more can also make more features available to you, with some web hosting companies adding additional tools such as an online booking system, tax management, or simply 24/7 online support. You might not need all of these features, though, so it’s worthwhile thinking about what you’ll need before hitting the buy button.

How does the size of your store affect your choice of web hosting?

As mentioned, it’s crucial to buy according to the size of your business. If you only stock a few artisan items online, then a small ecommerce package will be sufficient. However, if you plan on selling many dozens of items and have hundreds of customers, you’ll need to purchase a package that reflects that.

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The key things to check when making a purchase is in terms of the bandwidth made available to you each month, as well as if there are any visitor limits tied to your web hosting. It’s wise to buy accordingly. A heavy-duty package is excellent for a busy company, but it’s not a great idea for a business that needs to count pennies and focus on a small user base.

All web hosting companies allow you to increase the package you’re on and grow with you, so if your business suddenly expands, you can always switch up to the next package available to you. Don’t be afraid to play it safe financially when starting out.

What is the easiest ecommerce website builder to use?

Companies like Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify are most designed with novices in mind. Typically, they offer the most uncomplicated website building experience, allowing anyone to drag and drop on a computer to design a website that can be easily accessible on both computer and mobile. Besides offering some great-looking templates, they often allow you to manipulate every element of the site in a straightforward way which means you never have to deal with the code behind the design.

However, these services also tend to cost more than other web hosting firms so you may need to factor that into your budget.

Pretty much all web hosting companies now offer some form of website builder, whether it’s a little rudimentary or involves picking from a series of templates. There are also many tutorials online for those that want to get more hands-on.

What is the best web hosting solution for ecommerce?

There are plenty of options out there, which can making picking the best solution for you quite tricky. We’ve tried to help you out by lining up a selection of standout options, including the likes of Wix and Squarespace.

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These are the web hosting solution for ecommerce in 2023.

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New WordPress.com Themes for March 2024 – WordPress.com News

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New WordPress.com Themes for March 2024 – WordPress.com News

Five of our favorite new themes.

The WordPress.com team is always working on new design ideas to bring your website to life. Check out the latest themes in our library, including great options for small businesses, sports fan, nostalgic bloggers, and more.


Feelin’ Good is a vibrant (to say the least!) blog theme with a bold vaporwave aesthetic. Its nostalgic atmosphere pays homage to the daring, over-the-top visual art and advertisements of the ’80s and early ’90s. We’ve combined a lot of elements that shouldn’t work together, but do. If you’re looking for a dynamic, attention-grabbing, eye-popping visual feast of a theme, try Feelin’ Good.

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Click here to view a demo of this theme.


1711610762 938 New WordPresscom Themes for March 2024 – WordPresscom News

Low Fi is a simple blog theme featuring a narrow column layout that’s optimized for seamless browsing on mobile devices. With six style variations, you’re sure to find a palette you’re drawn to. Taking inspiration from the lo-fi beats music scene, the theme’s design cues, such as the square header image, offer a nod to album artwork.

The overall aesthetic is deliberately understated, with each element—from the muted color schemes to the textured background—crafted to evoke a sense of nostalgia and warmth.

Click here to view a demo of this theme.


1711610763 567 New WordPresscom Themes for March 2024 – WordPresscom News

Cakely is the ultimate WordPress theme designed specifically for passionate bakers, cake enthusiasts, and dessert lovers. Tailored for small businesses aiming to shine in the world of sweets, Cakely effortlessly combines style and functionality to showcase mouthwatering creations. Its vibrant pink color scheme exudes joy while maintaining a classy, clean layout with easy navigation. This theme ultimately strikes the perfect balance between professionalism and playfulness, making it an ideal choice for showcasing your delicious masterpieces.

Click here to view a demo of this theme.


New WordPresscom Themes for March 2024 – WordPresscom News

Treehouse is a carefree, fun, and friendly theme ideal for Woo stores selling children’s products. With its unlimited customization options, Treehouse enables you to set up an online shop with just a few clicks. Utilizing a soft color palette, playful design details, and simplified layouts, your site will attract a wide range of customers, from young parents to over-the-moon grandparents. This theme is fully responsive and cross-browser compatible.

Click here to view a demo of this theme.


New WordPresscom Themes for March 2024 – WordPresscom News

Major League Baseball’s 2024 season kicks off on Thursday, March 28. What better way to show your home team the love it deserves than with a baseball-themed fan site! With a somewhat old-school layout, this theme evokes some of the classic sports sites of the ’90s, back before fantasy leagues took over. The header and accent colors are customizable, ensuring that your favorite crew is properly saluted.

Click here to view a demo of this theme.

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To install any of the above themes, click the name of the theme you like, which brings you right to the installation page. Then click the “Activate this design” button. You can also click “Open live demo,” which brings up a clickable, scrollable version of the theme for you to preview.

Premium themes are available to use at no extra charge for customers on the Explorer plan or above. Partner themes are third-party products that can be purchased for $79/year each.

You can explore all of our themes by navigating to the “Themes” page, which is found under “Appearance” in the left-side menu of your WordPress.com dashboard. Or you can click below:


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How to Get Started: Investigating Payment Gateways Online

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How to Get Started: Investigating Payment Gateways Online

When investigating a website, app, or online shop, one of the key questions you may need to answer is ‘How are they making money?’ 

Investigating the financial transactions of an organisation can reveal details about its connections and funding. Furthermore, if the website or app is engaged in illicit transactions, tracing the payment gateway can help achieve accountability by identifying what sites they are using to earn money.   Bellingcat has looked into the payment processors in previous investigations on far-right merchandise, Britain’s far-right influencers, and non-consensual deepfake pornography.

Credit: Nicolas Guyonnet / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect

Payment gateways are a technology that takes a customer’s payment information, checks it with their financial institution, verifies that the transaction is legitimate, and then completes the transaction. As explained by Forbes, online stores need a payment gateway to be able to facilitate payments. Companies including PayPal, Stripe, and Square are commonly used as a payment gateway for online purchases.

Most mainstream payment gateways (like Stripe and PayPal) prohibit their services from being used in illegal transactions including the sale of illegal drugs, the promotion of hate or racial intolerance, and non-consensual adult content. Finding evidence that someone is violating the Terms of Services of these companies – and how they are doing so- can lead to the closure of loopholes and accounts. It can also provide additional information about an organisation’s revenue streams. 

It is nearly impossible to conduct online transactions without a payment gateway. So it should be possible to find the payment gateway of an organisation earning money, even if it is not obvious at first. One resource that is extremely useful is Chrome’s built- in developer tools (other browsers also have similar tools). Below we’ll provide an overview of the tools to use and questions to ask when scrutinising payment systems. 

How are they Taking Payment?

For online transactions, you’ll typically see websites accept traditional forms of payment including credit cards, debit cards and, more recently, cryptocurrency. Since cryptocurrency is not subject to the same regulations as traditional financial systems, cryptocurrency is often used to process payments for illegal services. Since this does not need to be ‘hidden’, websites will usually disclose which currency they accept and how to transfer funds into a crypto wallet. There are other ways you can track funding through cryptocurrency, as discussed in this guide.

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If none of the above apply?  Other sites that use a payment gateway will accept money directly via credit card payment,  bank transfer, or through peer-to-peer payment apps (i.e., PayPal, Cash App, Zelle). If this is the case, you should be able to identify the payment gateway being used. In the case of the peer-to-peer apps, these services may be used by businesses and not just individuals’ transactions. They also require a bank account or credit card to use them. It is helpful to view transaction options on both the mobile app and web browser, in case the options differ.  It is also worth checking the currency that payments are being taken in – if it is a US website taking payment in a foreign currency, that can also provide clues. Further, if a website is using different payment gateways depending on the currency, this can lead to additional leads in your investigation. Payment options may also change depending on what IP address you are using. In other words, setting your IP address in the UK and then changing it to the US may result in different payment gateway options.

Where are they Soliciting for Payment?

Organisations may solicit for payment via a website or a messaging app like Telegram. It is important to investigate all avenues where  payment is being requested as each method may provide different clues for your investigation. For example, for some of the AI deep fake services we investigated here we found that companies would accept different payment methods depending on how you tried to pay – via their website, via a web browser or via Telegram. Sellers may want to direct their users away from their website to more private forums such as Telegram to facilitate transactions and avoid detection.

Is the Organisation Trying to Hide How Payment is Taken?

For some sellers, using a mainstream payment gateway may  violate the terms of service of that company. To be able to use their services, these sellers may  try to hide the nature of their goods from the payment gateway company. 

A Walk Through Example

Some sites may not show their payment options without signing up first. 

This was the case with the Nudify.VIP site which offers non-consensual AI Deep Fake pornography.  

Initially, the website states that their services are free. 

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“With our service you can undress any person in a photo absolutely FREE!” 

However, this is misdirection, as you are then prompted to log in or sign up. Only once you create an account do you discover that you need to pay to access the service and how much it costs.

After creating an account, we were presented with two options to pay, by card or crypto. 

You are then presented with an option to pay via crypto or via credit card, but it does not yet say what cards they accept or what payment gateway they use. 

Clicking through to ‘Go To Payment’ gives us a new screen that lets the user pay via credit card (ie MasterCard, Visa), a US Bank account (ie Wells Fargo, USAA), or through Cash App. 

There is no indication of the payment gateway they are using, but if we look at the URL on the checkout page, we can see that it no longer says that we are on a Nudify.VIP domain. This is a clue that users are being directed to the checkout page through another website. This method is used to hide the true source of purchases from payment gateway providers. There’s another clue  that the domain has changed- in the fine print at the bottom of the checkout page. Via the Checkout Page using either Cash App or credit card options, it discloses:

“By providing your card information, you allow aiphotos.art to charge your card for future payments in accordance with their terms.”

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This is another clue that the payment gateway does not know this belongs to an AI Deep fake service Nudify.VIP.

Three checkout options for Nudify.VIP: credit card, US bank account, and Cash App.

Use Browser Developer Tools to Investigate Further

All modern browsers have some form of built-in developer tools. You can search online for your specific browser (e.g. Firefox, Chrome, Safari). If you are in Chrome, you can right-click anywhere on the screen to get a menu and an option to ‘Inspect.’ You can also use keyboard shortcuts which can vary between MacOS or Windows. For Windows, you can click CTRL + SHIFT + I and on MacOS you can click Option + Command + I on your keyboard. Any of these actions will open the developer tools which allows you to  view the code of a webpage (such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript). This should appear on the right-hand side of your screen. While developer tools are designed to check for bugs or errors in a website, you can use them in your investigation.

There should be a list of tabbed options for you to view on the top menu bar. Clicking on ‘Sources’ shows you all the resources that the website is using. 

This is a good place to start to look for any clues about what piece of code is being used in the checkout process.  In the example below, one of the listed sources on the page is titled ‘js.stripe.com.’



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15 WordPress Pro Developers You Should Follow in 2024 – WordPress.com News

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15 WordPress Pro Developers You Should Follow in 2024 – WordPress.com News

The WordPress community can sometimes seem like a vast ocean of people, information, and resources. Here are 15 folks to follow to stay on top of everything you need to know.

WordPress is so powerful and versatile that the WP community can sometimes seem like a vast ocean of people, information, and resources. In today’s Build and Beyond video, Jamie Marsland shares 15 of the most influential developers he follows to keep on top of new features, learn cool new tips, and, ultimately, get the most out of WordPress. 

Of course, we couldn’t feature all the great people in this space, so be sure to comment below with your favorite WordPress-related follows.  

Ready to build on WordPress.com? Start a free trial today:

Here are the folks mentioned, as well as where to find them on the web: 

Nick Diego

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nickdiego.com
twitter.com/nickmdiego

Sarah Norris

twitter.com/mikachan_

Brian Coords

youtube.com/@BrianCoords
twitter.com/briancoords

Carolina Nymark

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fullsiteediting.com
twitter.com/carolinapoena

James Kemp

jameskemp.blog
twitter.com/jamesckemp

Anne Bovelett

annebovelett.de/en
twitter.com/bovelett

Justin Tadlock

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justintadlock.com
twitter.com/justintadlock

Ryan Welcher

ryanwelcher.com
youtube.com/@ryanwelchercodes

Aki Hamano

twitter.com/tetsuaki_hamano

Aurooba Ahmed

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twitter.com/aurooba
youtube.com/@AuroobaMakes

Eric Karkovack

twitter.com/karks88
twitter.com/speckyboy

Keith Devon  and Mark Wilkinson

youtube.com/@HighriseDigital

Joost de Valk

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joost.blog
twitter.com/jdevalk

Elliot Richmond

youtube.com/@elliottrichmondwp

Rich Tabor

rich.blog
twitter.com/richard_tabor

Jessica Lyschik

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twitter.com/jessicalyschik
youtube.com/@jessicalyschik


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