Best Tools to Build a Business Online in 2024
Building a new business from the ground up can take considerable research, time, and effort.
Wouldn’t it be nice if someone let you know which online tools could help you get started quickly and save you time and money in the process?
Whether you’re trying to find the cheapest domains, the most secure hosting, or building a website without any coding knowledge, the list below can help you build your business the right way.
Best Tools to Build a Business
- Domain Name Registrars
- Website Hosting Providers
- Website Builders
- Content Delivery Networks
- VPN Software
Domain Registrars
Every website needs a domain name. That’s just a fact of life.
Without a people-friendly domain, it makes it harder for people to find your business online and can lose you traffic and sales to your competitors. You’ll want your domain name to match closely with your business name to help make it easier for people to remember.
Common features to look out for when buying a domain include:
- WHOIS domain privacy – a service that removes your contact information from the WHOIS records to help protect from spam
- Renewal prices – many offer first time deals, but be sure to checkout how much they renew for when it comes time
- ICANN certified – all domain registrars should be certified to sell domain names
Depending on who you buy your domain from means you could see offers for web hosting, site builder trials, email hosting, and SSL certificates.
But when it comes to finding a domain name which are the top domain registrars? Which offer the best service and the best prices without any hidden costs?
Top domain hosts
- Choose from top level domains at affordable prices
- Free Whois privacy protection and private domain registration
- Sell and buy domains via the online domain marketplace
- Cheap first year prices on domains, hosting and other website services
- Generate, find, buy or transfer domain names online
- Variety of services include Web Hosting, Website Builder, & Email Hosting
- Low purchase and renewal prices on domain names
- Offer a range of web hosting plans including WordPress hosting and Website Builder
- Free WHOIS Privacy on select domains
Website Hosting
Just as a domain name is important for your customer base to find you online, it’s essential to have some website hosting to store your website and serve it to your customers.
The best web hosts give you the tools you need to serve up a fast and secure website whether you want to manage it yourself or let them handle it for you.
There are many types of web hosting servers to pick from with some of the most common being: shared hosting, managed hosting, cloud hosting, WordPress hosting, and VPS hosting with more variations available.
Common hosting features include:
- Uptime – for a business website you need reliability to help not lose sales or annoy your customers so be sure to checkout the uptime hosts provide.
- Speed – fast web hosting is a must for any website, online store as load speeds can be an SEO factor as well as frustrating for a potential customer if your site loads to slow.
- Storage – SSD storage is a must, plus you’ll need to make sure you have enough space to hold your websites files.
- Bandwidth – how much traffic can your web host handle in terms of how much data you’re allowed to send out. Try to find unlimited bandwidth or a large amount especially if you have a lot of traffic.
- Backups – sometimes an add-on feature, backups take a snapshot of the server so you can restore it in the case of a hack or failure of some sort.
- Security – securing where your website files and website is important in mitigating any downtime from outside sources, as well as helps keeps your visitors safe while they browse.
Best web hosting providers
- Fast and secure website hosting
- Offers Shared, VPS, Cloud, Dedicated & Managed Hosting plans
- Reliable hosting with 100% uptime guaranteed
- Variety of hosting options including Shared, Wordpress, VPS, Dedicated, Reseller
- Stable hosting with 99.9% uptime guarantee
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Unmetered hosting with Free SSL & Weekly Backups
- 24/7/365 tech support available
- Plans include Cloudflare CDN & DDoS protection
If you want to find out what is web hosting and how does it work read our handy article.
Website Builders
Whether you’re building a personal blog, a photography portfolio, or an online store, website builders give those with no coding skills the tools to design, create and build a website with ease.
Featuring drag and drop style editors, with many of the best business website builders, you’ll be able to get a website idea off the ground within minutes.
Select a theme, add your brand identity, change images and text, and press the publish button to see your new website ready to promote without too much time.
A great DIY website option for the small business owner looking to save money without the need to hire freelancers or a web development agency.
Common features built-in to website creators include:
- Domain name – you can either use your own domain name or register one with them
- Web hosting – hosting is provided as part of the service they provide
- Drag and drop editor – quickly and easily lets anyone change any aspects of a website
- Website templates – pick from professionally designed websites across a variety of industries
- SSL Certificates – secure your website for your visitors
- Analytics – have tools to help analyse your website traffic built-in
- SEO Tools – add meta titles, descriptions and a use friendly urls to help your site rank better in search engines and gain better brand awareness
Not all website makers are made equal. Some are targeted to ecommerce websites and can be used to start an online store, whereas others offer more basic functionality.
Best websites to build a website online
- Drag and drop website editor with professional looking templates to choose from
- No coding needed with the ability to add and edit areas of the website with a few clicks
- Ecommerce tools available to create an online store with payment gateways included
- Make edits easily with drag & drop editor with over 70 store themes to choose from
- Comes with fast hosting with unlimited bandwidth
- Accept payments with over 100 payment gateways supported
- Create a website or ecommerce store without the need for coding
- Choose from over 800+ templates to get started quickly
- Ability to build web applications and advanced web development for added functionality
Content Delivery Networks (CDN)
When building an online business website, it’s not just the infrastructure, hosting, and CMS that you pick from that can impact how your website performs.
If your website lacks speed, has security issues, or your server is located in a country that’s not ideal for where your target audience is, then a Content Delivery Network can help with this.
In its simplest form, delivery networks cache the pages of your website and store them on servers around the world. This caching means that it takes less time for someone to load the pages of your website, making for a better user experience.
In a world where time counts, a few seconds can cost an ecommerce store hundreds of sales.
On top of that, the best CDN companies have built-in security layers and firewalls that can prevent DDoS attacks and other harmful actions, making sure your website’s uptime is maintained.
Plus, the offloading of processing for your servers means you can save on your hosting bandwidth limits, saving you some money.
CDN features include
- Global network of data centers
- Built-in security and firewalls
- Easy to use dashboard
- SSL Certificates
- Ability to clear specific cached files
Best CDNs for small business websites
- Free package available
- Easy to use user interface
- Affordable price plans
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Edge-based cloud platform
- Customisable to your sites needs
- Variety of plans available
VPN Software
Running an online business comes with security risks. Without being secure, accessing critical information, details, and your website’s backend can lead to data leaks and worry.
Virtual Private Networks (VPN) are the answer. They help provide a layer of security by encrypting your internet connection, making sure it’s private and safer from the likes of hackers.
When running a business or working for a business as an employee, we often tend to work from not just one location. We might visit the work office, but the advantages of working from home have seen an increase in people doing just that. Working at home and out at coffee shops and on your mobile phone is quickly becoming the new norm.
Adding VPN software to your devices helps secure your connection wherever you are and however you may work, adding peace of mind for you and your business. Plus, they are a low price to pay for less stress and added security.
VPN features
- Choose from a variety of server locations around the world
- Available across many platforms online and mobile
- No logs are stored so what you view is always private
- Kill switch to terminate data transfers and prevent data leakage if connection drops
Best VPN providers
- Use on unlimited devices
- In-built ad blocker
- Two-factor authentication
- Kill-switch & auto-connect
- Choose from over 5,100 servers in 60 countries
- Built-in kill switch for extra security
- Use online, mobile and tablet
- No logs policy
- Unrestricted access
- Privacy on all devices
- Never keeps user logs
- Support on hand 24/7
Check out more of the best VPN services in our in-depth article.
The tools to build your business your way
Building a business isn’t easy. Whether you’re a freelancer, entrepreneur, startup, or small business, it pays to get the building blocks right the first time.
Combine many of the tools above, and you’ll be on your way to creating a successful business, saving you time in the future swapping between services.
Just be sure to do your market research, and if you’re unsure of anything, be sure to ask customer support to try and get the answers to your questions.
