There are numerous SMF (Simple Machines Forum) users who are looking for the best hosting packages to host their forums.
However, for a lot of them, especially those people who have little hosting knowledge, it is not easy to choose good hosting.
In this case, we have reviewed over 100+ SMF hosting providers from price, feature, installation, management, performance and customer service.
Each of the selected companies is highly recommended by a great number of SMF users. We have displayed the main information of the 3 web hosts.
>> We receive a commission for recommended services. It does not affect the price you pay and helps us to run the website.
BlueHost – Best SMF Hosting
Website: https://www.bluehost.com/
BlueHost is the best SMF hosting provider due to the highlighted features its hosting plan owns. This company offers 1 shared hosting solution for SMF users, which is integrated with PHP 5.4, Perl 5.10, Python 2.6.6, MySQL 5.5 and much more. In this way, this plan is completely compatible with SMF. In addition, this solution comes with unlimited hosted domains, storage, email addresses and monthly bandwidth.
Integrated with many highlighted features to ensure customers run forums built with SMF smoothly and stably, BlueHost shared hosting is priced at $7.99/mo.
With this plan, SMF users don’t worry about the management of forums or accounts at all, because this web host provide cPanel 11.42.x, which enables users to manage every aspect of their forums and accounts effortlessly. Another good thing is cPanel is integrated with a SimpleScripts 1-click installer, with which users are able to install this software with a few clicks. More outstanding features BlueHost offers are:
- Solid hosting uptime & satisfying hosting speed.
- Guarantee of 30-day full refund & anytime prorated refund.
- 24×7 US based customer service via online chat, phone call and email.
InMotion – Fastest SMF Hosting
Websites: https://www.inmotionhosting.com/
InMotion has been awarded as one of the fastest hosting companies in the industry because of the good hosting performance this web host provides. To provide fast hosting speed, this company utilizes 2 state-of-the-art data centers located on the East and West Coast of the US and provides free SSD. In addition, InMotion has developed its own Max Speed Zone technology to enable customers to run websites with 6 times faster speed in certain areas.
InMotion offers 3 shared hosting plans, which enables SMF users to choose the one they like best to hosts their forums, which are named as Launch, Power and Pro. The plans are priced at $7.99/mo, $9.99/mo and $19.99/mo regularly, but this company offers a huge discount below, with which the price is as low as $3.49/mo. Charging low, each of the solutions is featured with free data backups, cPanel, Softaculous 1-click SMF installer, SSH, and free site transfer.
What’s more, to guarantee customers are able to put their money in safe, InMotion offers 90 days full refund and anytime prorated refund, allowing customers to ask their money back anytime they need. As for payment methods, both PayPal and credit cards are accepted. More highlights are:
- At least $275 advertising credits.
- Unlimited disk space, monthly data transfer & email accounts.
- 24×7 high level of technical support via email, online chat & phone call.
WebHostingHub – Reliable SMF Hosting
Website: https://www.webhostinghub.com/
WebHostingHub has been highly trusted by quantities of webmasters around the world. To ensure all customers run websites with ultra-reliability, this company uses eco-friendly data centers, each of which is highly equipped with quality web servers, redundant power supply, UPS, instantly to ensure forums run with the least interruption.
In addition, WebHostingHub support staff are standing by 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Therefore, no matter when coming across any hosting issue, customers are able to contact them through email, phone and live chat, each of who is professional and experienced. Thus, they are able to provide very instant and efficient assistance to help customers resolve any problem quickly.
This web host offers 3 shared hosting plans for people to build forums using SMF, starting at $8.99/mo. Piles of highlights are integrated with WebHostingHub SMF hosting, such as unlimited hosting space, email accounts, monthly data transfer, and so forth. We have listed more highlights below.
- PHP 5, Perl 5, Python, MySQL 5, PHPMyAdmin, etc.
- cPanel control panel & a Softaculous 1-click installer.
- Free domain registration & free backup wizard.
How to Pick Up the Best SMF Hosting
Simple Machines Forum is a free and professional tool that allows you to set up and start your self-owned online community within minutes.
With it, you can enjoy the custom made template engine that gives you full control over the layout and appearance of your message board. In addition, with its unique SSI function, you can achieve a safe interaction among your sites and forums.
SMF is written based on the popular language of PHP and uses the MySQL database. It is developed with all the features you may need for starting a bulletin board and has a minimal influence on the resource utilization of the server.
Now, SMF has been supported by many web hosts available. To find the best option, you need to make sure that your selected hosting provider fully meets the below criteria in the first place.
- The hosting service is fully compatible with Simple Machines Forum by meeting the server requirements of at least 20 MB of disk space, the latest version of MySQL and PHP, as well as the correct settings in the php.ini file.
- The hosting solution can achieve a high level of cost-effectiveness. This means you can sign up with the rich-featured hosting plan without spending too much. Personally, you can choose a web host that charges you ranging from $2/mo to $5/mo.
- To make sure that you can start the website quickly and manage your hosting account without any hassle, the truly great SMF hosting generally includes the 1-click SMF installer and the cPanel control panel into the hosting plans.
- No matter what kind of website you are going to set up, you need to pay much attention to the page loading speed and the overall uptime. In this case, you’d better choose a hosting provider that leverages the solid servers and cutting-edge data centers to ensure no downtime and peak performance.
- Last but not least, the responsive and 24/7 technical support is pretty important.
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