Domain hosting for beginners ?

I recommend digitalocean or other cloud types. Why? You can easily create snapshots of the VPS/Drop you make once its complete the way you want it. You can also build a new VPS based off that snapshot. I just find it very convenient.

My the problem it solves for me is
I have different sites running different versions off PHP and MySQL. Some site run only on PHP 6.3 and another on PHP7. So I made images of each build. When I find a script I like or want to test I load up on the corresponding VPS/Droplet.

This is actually VERY important to me I don't really see how I could have done as much as I have done with out this cloud type setup.

I'm interested if anyone else is doing this or have similar setups? Something better? Better cloud? Don't mean to hijack.

WARNING NOTE
Digital ocean my not be noob friendly. Its heavy on linux. New drops imminently need sFTP setup and additional users. Your dropped right into root. If you do their pre build with wordpress obviously it has the newest versions of php and mysql. If you dont' want that you would have to just build a linux OS and SSH into it and apt-get all the crap to build your webserver from scratch. This is how I learned years ago I don't really recommend it but then your not limited to what your hosting provider has to offer. But yes their builds do help at times.

I've used HostGator and its been working out perfectly fine for me

CloudFlare for domain hosting and a reputable brand for web hosting = super fast website

The best is clearly AWS (which host the biggest websites like facebook), but it's hard to use it, so a good compromise will be to use Bitnami hosting.

This service use AWS, but hide all the hard part and provide you a vps that contains everything. The admin interface is also very simple.

And it's free the first year (for 1go of ram and 10go stockage)

I would use digitalocean + serverpilot.

Just create an droplet on digitalocean, create an account on serverpilot, connect eachother. Build an new app on wordpress, or install your own cms. Connect domain. And you're up and running.

So I'd like to drop in my 2 cents...

First of all a couple of questions you should answer for yourself, and take them into your descision:

• Where's my target audience?
  • You don't want to host your site in Australia when 99% of your visitors are from Europe
• How long termed is my project?
  • you don'T want to pay much for hosting if you build a project you gonna sell soon
  • do you plan a long term project, you want a reliable partner that can scale with you needs and supports you on the way with tech
• How do I need to scale in the long run and what do I need to scale?
  • Do I need more disk space, bandwidth, data volume, processing power?
• How much can I afford at the start?
  • Could I pay 6 month or a year in advanced to avoid loosing my hosting and my business if something happens and I have other bills to pay
• How does my provider handle attacks?
  • I've seen providers kicking customers that received some light attacks within the blink of an eye
• What technology do I need?
  • and what do I wanna do with it and does my provider allow it

Some best practices, some of them I had to learn the hardway:

• HAVE A LOCAL BACKUP,
  
  • BETTER HAVE 2 AND STORE THEM IN SEPERATED SPACES
    
  • AND NO NOT IN THE SAME APARTMENT!
• have a backup webspace
• make sure you have some one at hand that can take of server / network securityy if you're not able to do it your self when you go vps / root / dedicated boxes
  
• decouple domains & hosting
  
  • host your domains at a domain only service, in case your hosting provider is fucked you could switch hosting easily and have the site up again in under an hour
  • hosting could be switched without waiting for the dns update of aprox. 48 - 72 h when you use an A RECORD
• In the long run don't buy the cheapest, you mostly EVER get what you paid for
  • going cheap could come at the cost in lack of support, scalability and durability, missing features hidden fees
  • don't over spend at the start
• did I mentioned the BACKUP already?
• have a look at your disk / traffic quota
  • when monitoring is available set this up to send you messages early to avoid overpayment caused by attacks
• check prices for traffic / bandwidth when it exceeds your volume

That list isn't by far complete, but it gives you an idea what to take into consideration when getting a hosting. I got to leave now, if I have some off time tonight I may extend that list, if someone is interested.

Take Cloudways, it's cheap VPS, and it's much better than shared hosting

For small websites you can go with namecheap, DO is not for begginers.