#account notice we’ve run into a problem with your office 365 subscript

[tech-battery]

HP Pavilion x360 Convertible 14 review: A good laptop with better competition

The HP Pavilion x360 Convertible 14 (dw0097nr) is a competent convertible laptop for handling the day-to-day workload of a work-from-home or distance-learning experience. It also offers some unique features, including a rare cellular option and a full-sized SD card slot. The USB-C and HDMI ports allow for two additional displays, including 4K support. While these attributes work in the Pavilion x360’s favor, its middling performance and underwhelming battery life make other laptops we’ve tested in its price range seem like a better deal.

This review is part of our ongoing roundup of the best laptops. Go there for information on competing products and how we tested them.

As a convertible, HP’s Pavilion x360 Convertible 14 rotates easily into tent mode. The hinge is engineered well, preventing the laptop from sagging, even as it approaches a 180-degree angle.

HP Pavilion x360 Convertible 14 basic features

HP’s Pavilion x360 Convertible 14 hasn’t been on the market for long, but you may find that you’ll have a difficult time buying one—evidence of the buying spree brought on by the need to work/study from home during the pandemic. The laptop is currently available for $700 on HP.com, but in the course of the review it was sometimes sold out.

In case you can’t find it, HP representatives recommended some virtually identical alternatives. The $650 HP Pavilion x360 Laptop 14t-dw000 lacks the Optane memory option and LTE WWAN. The $586.95 HP Pavilion x360 14t-dh200 is even more similar, though it also lacks WWAN options and you’ll need to pay a bit more for the 1080p display option. Both the 14t-dw000 and 14t-dh200 were in stock at press time, however, and should offer comparable performance.

Keep in mind that in all these machines, the processor’s “G1” suffix denotes the minimal amount of graphics capability provided. Higher-end members of Intel’s 10th-gen Ice Lake family offer more visual horsepower.

Here are the specs for the unit we tested:

Display: 14-inch (1920x1080, WLED) multitouch, 250 nits (rated)

Processor: Intel Core i5-1035G1

Graphics: UHD 620

Memory: 8GB DDR4-3200 SDRAM (1 x 8 GB)

Storage: 256GB SSD+16GB Optane

Ports: 1 USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps, charging, display), 2 USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 (formerly USB 3.1, 5Gbps), 1 HDMI 2.0, SD card slot, 3.5mm jack, SIM slot (as reviewed)

Camera: 720p (user-facing)

Battery: 41.3Wh (reported), 43Wh (rated)

Wireless: WiFi 6 (Intel Wireless-AC 9461 802.11ac) and Bluetooth 5, with Connected Modern Standby; Intel LTE (XMM 7360) SIM slot (as reviewed)

Operating system: Windows 10 Home

Dimensions (inches): 12.76 x 8.70 x 0.74 inches

Weight: 3.55 pounds

Color: Natural Silver (Exterior)/ Ash Silver (Interior)

Price: $700

Overall build quality and display

HP’s Pavilion x360 14 emerges from its box a bit on the heavy side, though that’d only be an issue if you actually traveled with it. Our review unit boasts the rather generic Natural Silver exterior. A narrow band of silver runs around the edge of the Dark Ash Silver keyboard deck.

Because the Pavilion is a 360-degree convertible, it flips smoothly from clamshell back into tent mode, supporting its own weight. During a year when we’ve been stuck inside most of the time, I’ve grown to appreciate laptops that can serve as portable entertainment centers during off hours.

Above the keyboard lies an unobtrusive grille from which the Pavilion x360 14 vents its warm air. The laptop puts out a steady whoosh of fan noise, even occasionally during routine tasks such as typing this review. It’s both soft and fairly constant enough, however, to fade into the background as white noise.

HP’s display is passable, a common quality level among lower-priced laptops. Its backlight has a top brightness of about 250 nits, the bare minimum for what we consider to be sufficient for indoor work. My downstairs office gets minimal outside light, and I found the display to be just slightly on the dim side. Color fidelity seemed adequate, however, with sufficient viewing angles from either side. Just don’t expect to use it outdoors.

At this price point, a laptop’s aesthetics should be a bonus, not part and parcel of the experience. No one can help but notice, though, the wide lower display bezel of about an inch and a half. Though the side (quarter-inch) and the top (three-eights of an inch) bezels are slimmer, the overall effect is that the display feels a bit cramped.

Fortunately, the available ports adorning the HP Pavilion x360 Convertible 14 make it easy to expand beyond the built-in display. HP includes both an HDMI 2.0 as well as SuperSpeed 10Gbps (formerly known as USB-C 3.2 Gen 2).

Unfortunately, though the HDMI 2.0 cable supports a single 4K monitor at up to 60Hz, the Core i5-1035G1 couldn’t manage to push my external 4K display beyond 30Hz. For those with sensitive eyes, the slow refresh rate can look jarring. Anything with motion—video, for example—can look jerky and, over time, can fatigue your eyes. Even typing on an otherwise static screen can be wearing. This problem, however, completely goes away if you have an external 1080p monitor, which the Pavilion x360 14 powers at a comfortable 60Hz.

HP supplies a 45W power supply inside of the box, which uses a round “barrel” connector to charge the laptop. Alternatively, you can use a third-party charger to charge the laptop via the USB-C port.

Typing, audio and camera

I tend to prefer keyboards with more pronounced key travel, so the shallow keyboard on the HP Pavilion x360 Convertible 14 wasn’t especially comfortable over prolonged use. I almost always write a laptop review on the keyboard of the device that I’m reviewing, and I’ll be happy to go back to something which allows my fingers more flexibility.

My only other complaint is that the individual keys aren’t especially large. Otherwise, the Pavilion’s keyboard provides a comfortable typing experience. Its only other quirk is the column of Home, Pg Up, and related keys that runs along the right side of the keyboard, rather than the lower right-hand corner (as is more common).

Laptop audio is rarely good, and the Pavilion x360 Convertible 14 failed to convince us otherwise. Its speakers are thin, tinny, and generally unpleasant for listening to music or other audio, possibly because of the lack of low-end boost. Mid- to high-pitched music, like Molly Sandén’s “Husavik (My Hometown),” for example, sounded pretty good.

Normally, audio enhancement technologies help somewhat. Bang & Olufsen tuned the speakers and provided an audio utility conveniently designed with an equalizer and noise cancellation for the available microphone. But even headphones can’t really help; your best bet is to boost the bass as much as possible.

The same utility manages the microphone’s noise cancellation, which I found to be somewhat hit-and-miss. The B&O utility can be configured to filter out everything but your voice. It did a superb job at filtering out the back-and-forth of baseball announcers calling the game while I recorded my voice. One consequence, though, is that my voice’s volume levels fluctuated unexpectedly, which would be noticeable on a Zoom call. Using a headset should bypass all these limitations.

The HP Pavilion x360 Convertible 14 uses a 720p camera (as most laptops do), and I was pleased with its color fidelity. Unfortunately, there’s no Windows Hello capability at all—no depth camera, and no fingerprint reader either.

You may notice that this laptop includes an SSD plus Intel’s Optane Memory technology, which Intel designed as a sort of cache to improve app loading times. In general, the quick access to data that any SSD offers, relative to an old laptop with a spinning hard drive, will be noticeable. Don’t buy this laptop for the additional Optane capabilities, however, as it doesn’t make a meaningful difference.

A mix of bloatware and useful utilities

HP’s consumer laptops tend to ship with a hefty serving of bloatware, extra apps that HP preloads in hopes you’ll try them. HP JumpStarts, an app that lives on the Taskbar, serves as a gateway to the HP Support Assistant plus other offers: a one-month trial of Microsoft 365 for new customers, free games from WildTangent, and more. Amazon and Dropbox have shortcuts in the Taskbar. Separate apps in the Start menu offer 25GB of Dropbox storage free for a year, and there are shortcuts to ExpressVPN, Spotify, Netflix, and more. The Pavilion also ships with a three-month subscription to McAfee Personal Security.

HP offers a wealth of its own utility software, most of which serves a useful purpose—but there’s just so darn many of them! The HP Support Assistant, for example, includes useful driver updates for various components within the system, but it’s separate from Windows Update, and that’s distinct from the app-specific Microsoft Store. Dig though and you’ll be rewarded, as there’s a terrific amount of information and diagnostics available.

We didn’t test one aspect of the HP Pavilion x360 Convertible 14: its cellular capabilities. I normally plug in a SIM and drive around my Bay Area town, testing throughput and coverage. Unfortunately, wildfire smoke levels were at unhealthy to toxic levels during my testing period, making drive tests inadvisable. I live at the periphery of a cell-phone tower’s range, which also wouldn’t be a fair test of the Pavilion x360’s abilities.

Performance is merely average

Our performance assessments takes into account repeatable benchmarks as well as direct experience. As part of the review process, I used the HP Pavilion x360 Convertible 14 for about a week, running it with dozens of Edge tabs open, alongside apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. With fifty or so tabs open, including streaming video from a MLB playoff game, I noticed a bit of input lag in how the Pavilion responded. Under the same conditions, but with an additional Zoom call running, I noticed that the laptop’s display fuzzed slightly, and briefly, as if the GPU couldn’t quite handle the load. That’s my everyday, work-at-home environment, though, and overall the Pavilion handled it very well. Streamed videos from YouTube and Netflix worked fine on the Pavilion’s own display.

Attaching an external 4K monitor created a few hiccups, and not just with YouTube streaming (where downsampling and upsampling resolutions sometimes resulted in choppy video). The Pavilion x360 Convertible 14 actually crashed twice when I was playing back YouTube videos in Edge, switching playback resolutions, and dragging videos back and forth to an external monitor. The bug wasn’t completely repeatable, but I also experienced it while highlighting fields in Excel, after I had updated the graphics driver. HP didn’t have any advice for us by press time, but to be fair, secondary displays can introduce complexities.

What follows are results from our suite of synthetic and real-world benchmarks. We compared the HP Pavilion x360 Convertible 14 to its competition within the budget and mid-range laptop PC category. Its results are highlighted in red, below.

PCMark 8 Work/Creative: Everyday tasks

UL’s PCMark 8 Work test measures how well the laptop handles office tasks, from spreadsheets, word processing, and VoIP calls. Most laptops perform competently here, and any score over 2,000 is a good thing.

The PCMark 8 Creative benchmark assesses the laptop’s ability to perform more intensive tasks like video editing and photo manipulation, leaning more heavily on the integrated GPU for some light gaming. You shouldn’t expect to do much of the latter with the Pavilion x360 Convertible 14, though we’ll look at this more closely with the 3DMark test a bit later.

Cinebench: CPU performance

We use Maxon’s Cinebench test to look at the raw output of the CPU. The R15 test is older, meaning we have a broader base of laptops for comparison. It’s also a fast test, providing a snapshot of how the PC manages a “sprint” of processing demand. We use the multi-thread benchmark to evaluate how well the laptop does with all cores enabled. The single-threaded test, while applicable to most mainstream tasks, tends to yield pretty much the same result regardless of CPU.

The Core i5-1035G1 inside is a quad-core processor, with eight processing threads. While its score is acceptable, it’s the slowest of all the compared laptops with the same CPU.

HandBrake: Sustained CPU workload

Where Cinebench is a sprint, HandBrake is a prolonged CPU test, where we transcode a movie into a format appropriate for an Android tablet. It’s useful as a measure of how well the laptop is thermally managed: An overheated laptop will have to clock down to avoid exceeding its thermal limits. Conversely, a well-cooled laptop will be able to run in an elevated turbo mode for longer, completing the job faster. It’s here that a well-designed laptop with a slower CPU can compete with a faster processor in a poorly-designed notebook PC. The Pavilion x360 Convertible 14 again posted a lower score against the competition.

3DMark Sky Diver: Graphics performance

The 3DMark Sky Diver test is where we can examine the laptop for its gaming abilities. Let’s be clear: The “G1” designation is Intel’s signal that its graphics capabilities represent the least of Intel’s Ice Lake offerings, so we’re not expecting too much here. This is clearly not a gaming PC, and its mediocre score attests to that.

Battery life (video rundown test)

We end with battery life, an ordinarily critical aspect of a laptop that doesn’t mean quite as much with a global pandemic keeping us close to home. Nevertheless, it’s good to know whether you’d have the battery life to work outside, stop at a sidewalk cafe, or just crash on the couch for a change of scenery.

The Pavilion x360 Convertible 14’s 43Wh battery is on the small side for a laptop of its size, and that hurts it here. The laptop’s lackluster seven-plus hours of life might have been par for the course 18 months ago, but many laptops we see nowadays easily exceed 10 or more hours.

Conclusion: Good but not great

The HP Pavilion x360 Convertible 14 should suffice for working or learning from home. In our real-world use, it never felt especially poky. However, the numbers don’t lie: You can do better. From a performance standpoint, this is really the moment for AMD-powered laptops, such as the $655 Acer Swift 3. Acer’s recent $650 Spin 3 also compares favorably. If performance isn’t your priority, you might still have regrets about the battery life or the dim display.

There are always going to be trade-offs in low-priced laptops. The HP Pavilion x360 Convertible 14 just toes that line between acceptable and unacceptable compromise.

[enterinit]

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19536

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19536.

What’s new in Build 19536

Optional Drivers We’re still working on making it easier for you to see all optional updates (including drivers, feature updates, and monthly non-security quality updates) in one place. When optional updates are detected, they will be listed under Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > View optional updates. For drivers, you no longer need to browse Device Manager for a specific device to update. Windows Update will automatically keep your drivers up to date, but if you’re having a problem, one of those optional drivers might help.

Re-releasing the updated Korean IME During 19H1 development, we’d started work on an updated version of the Korean IME as part of our ongoing efforts to modernize and improve your typing experience in Windows. Based on feedback, we decided not to ship this with 19H1, and instead worked on further improving the experience first. With Build 19528, we’re re-releasing the updated IME, along with some improvements that help it work better with various apps. To recap the most noticeable changes included as part of this IME work: For those who’re familiar with typing in Korean when writing in Hanja, we have a new candidate selection window that uses modern controls and clearer typography. The new IME version also comes with an updated algorithm used for text prediction when writing Korean using the touch keyboard. Text suggestions should now be more accurate and relevant to what you are writing. Family group setup Microsoft has family features that span across multiple platforms, like Windows, Xbox, and Android. On Windows, you can set things up for your family, like screen time limits, content filters, have kids ask before they buy things, or even stay organized with a shared family calendar, OneNote, and Office 365 Home subscription. If you share a device with family, it’s easy to get their account set up in a family group to take advantage of all these features. In this build, we want to help customers set up their device to be used by multiple people in their family. While we’re not releasing an ISO for this build, some Insiders who choose to reset their PC may see a screen during setup that asks who’ll be using the device. If they select People in my family, we’ll help them get set up in a family group once they get to their desktop, so that they’re ready to get started with all the features.

If you see this new page, let us know what you think by going to Security and Privacy > Child accounts and family settings in the Feedback Hub.

Other updates for Insiders

Your Phone app – new features rolling to Insiders and production Photos has evolved. View and interact with your most recent 2000 photos! We take a lot of photos on our smartphones. We heard our avid Your Phone app users when you when you said you wanted the ability to access more than 25 of your recent photos. Today, we’re happy to announce that we’ve addressed this by letting you view and interact with your most recent 2,000 photos from your Android smartphone’s camera roll on your PC! With the Your Phone Photos feature, you don’t have to email photos to yourself. Simply take a pic and see it instantly on your PC. When you need to add a recent image to your email, paper, or presentation, just drag and drop. You can also conveniently share it with family or friends or save it directly to your PC by simply right clicking on the image. Try out this newly enhanced capability and share your experience.

Photos requirements: Any Android phones running version 7.0 or higherPC running Windows 10 April 2018 Update or higher Known Issues: If the Photo selector in Messages appears blank, navigate to Photos on the left and hit refresh. Your photos should now appear in the Photo selector. This feature will gradually roll out to Windows Insiders on the Windows 10 May 2019 Update or newer, so it may take a few days to be available inside the Your Phone app. Please make sure you have the latest versions of Your Phone Companion and the Your Phone app to experience this feature. Phone screen now supports pen input The Phone screen feature is getting a boost. In addition to keyboard, mouse, and touch support, you can now use your digital pen with a compatible stylus to input on any touch screen enabled Windows 10 PC to interact with your mobile apps while in Phone screen session. Leverage your pen’s pressure sensitivity for drawing and writing like you would with your phone’s stylus with apps that support pressure sensitivity. You will also be able to hover over buttons, and it differentiates between the pen and finger touch.

This feature is available to all Windows Insiders on Windows 10 October 2018 Update or newer and requires Phone screen compatible devices. We value your feedback, so give it a try and let us know what you think. You can report any issues under Your Phone > Settings > Send feedback or directly through Feedback Hub. Pen Input Requirements: Your Phone App version 1.19102.500.0 or newerPhone screen compatible devices Calls—Fifth hero feature now gradually rolling out to all users Thank you Insiders for your valuable feedback over the last few months to help improve the quality, performance, and user experience of the Calls feature, which originally rolled out in October. We are thrilled to announce that this feature is now ready and gradually rolling out to everyone. You don’t have to split your attention between your phone and PC to answer those phone calls. With the Your Phone Calls feature, tap into your PC’s speakers, microphone, and larger screen for a richer calling experience. Effortlessly transfer calls between your devices for privacy or when you are on the go. Detailed capabilities include: Answering incoming phone calls on your PC.Initiating phone calls from your PC using the in-app dialer or contact list.Declining incoming phone calls on your PC with custom/pre-defined text or send them directly to your phone’s voicemail.Accessing your recent call history on your PC. Select the phone number to call or text.Transferring calls between your devices seamlessly.Selecting a phone number in your supported browser initiates a call.

Calls requirements: Any Android phones running version 7.0 or higherWindows 10 PC with a Bluetooth radioWindows 10 May 2019 Update or higher As a reminder, the Your Phone app has evolved over the past few months and now provides you with instant access to your recent photos, apps, texts, notifications, calls, and more on your PC. You don’t have to split your attention between your devices or break away from your PC workflows. Give this app a try and let us know what you think!

General changes, improvements, and fixes

Whether you want to increase your productivity, decrease your stress levels, or just free up some mental space, Microsoft To Do makes it easy to plan your day and manage your life. If you are opening To Do for the first time, you may notice some new UI that helps ensure you have the latest version of To Do installed. You will only see this the first time you open the app, and users who already have To Do installed will not see this step at all. Windows RE (Recovery Environment) no longer requires an administrator password to access recovery tools.We’ve updated the new File Explorer search experience to enable you to remove previous searches via an option if you right click the entry in the dropdown.We fixed an issue resulting in the first character of your query getting dropped when “automatically type into the search box” File Explorer setting was enabled.We fixed an issue that could result in unexpectedly needing to re-download the whole game when an update to your installed game came via the store.We fixed an issue that could result in Task Manager’s icon not appearing in the notification area of the taskbar even though it had been enabled in Settings.We fixed an issue that could result in Resource Manager getting stuck and not showing any disk activity.We fixed an issue with the Vietnamese Telex keyboard where after typing an upper-case letter in certain apps, Ctrl+A would stop working in that app.We fixed an issue where creating a new storage pool in the UI would fail with incorrect parameter.We fixed an issue where after dragging the bottom of a UWP app up to resize it, any further resizing actions from the bottom wouldn’t work.With this build, users who had previously used HomeGroup will no longer see a notification on upgrade about its deprecation.We fixed a typo in the text under Settings > Search > Searching Window.We’re working on adding Downloads Folder to your Privacy Settings options, and you’ll see it in today’s flight. More details will be shared later.We fixed an issue where if your device was offline, Narrator would still announce that language features were available to download when you navigated to the per-language options under Language Settings.We fixed an issue that could result in no tooltip with the full text appearing in Settings when hovering over text truncated with an ellipsis.We’re removing the separate Hotspot 2.0 setting under Wi-Fi. This setting was provided while the feature was still in experimental phase, and having it enabled is now part of having Wi-Fi enabled.We fixed an issue that could result in the Bluetooth battery level displayed in Settings getting stuck and thus reducing accuracy.We fixed an issue where if you rolled back the build you were on, Windows Update might still list the older build number under Update History.

Known issues

BattlEye and Microsoft have found incompatibility issues due to changes in the operating system between some Insider Preview builds and certain versions of BattlEye anti-cheat software. To safeguard Insiders who might have these versions installed on their PC, we have applied a compatibility hold on these devices from being offered affected builds of Windows Insider Preview. See this article for details.We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.We’re looking into reports of certain external USB 3.0 drives not responding with Start Code 10 after they’re attached.The Optimize Drives Control Panel is incorrectly reporting that optimization has never run on some devices. Optimization is completing successfully, even though it is not reflected in the UI.The Documents section under Privacy has a broken icon (just a rectangle). Read the full article

#MicrosoftWindowsInsider #Windows #Windows10

[netunleashed-blog]

Best small business web hosting for 2018

http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=21964 Best small business web hosting for 2018 - http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=21964 Every business needs a website, but finding the right hosting package isn't always easy. Many plans are targeted primarily at home users, and don't have the power that businesses need.Take email, for instance. We've seen hosting plans offer as few as five email addresses for a website, and with inboxes limited to a few hundred megabytes, that’s potentially a major issue for any business. Be sure to check out the email specs of any hosting plan before you sign up.An SSL certificate is a must-have these days for any professional or business website, but these aren't included with every plan. Fortunately, they don't have to be expensive. Many hosts now offer free SSL certificates from the Internet Security Research Group's Let's Encrypt project, and although web stores might need something more, these are perfectly adequate for standard sites.Business websites can't afford to fail – ever – so reliability is key. Choose a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or dedicated hosting plan, if you can afford it, to avoid the hassles of shared servers. Look for support that can be accessed at speed with telephone and live chat available, as well as emails and tickets. You'll probably want a plan that includes automated backups, too, but that's another area where you'll need to check the small print: backups are often an optional extra.Think about an upgrade path, too, especially if you're starting with a basic shared hosting plan. If your business grows then your website needs might also expand, and it will make your life much easier if your chosen host has the add-ons and extras to cope.There's a lot to think about, but fortunately, there are also some excellent hosting providers around that understand exactly what small businesses need. In this article we've highlighted five web hosts who have something to offer everyone, from the smallest home business to demanding corporate users. We’ve also rounded up the best overall web hosting services Shared hosting is slower and less reliable than VPS and dedicated plans, but it's still perfectly adequate for many simple websites, and the best plans will handle all the main business needs.DreamHost's shared hosting plan scores well on the fundamentals. There are no limits on bandwidth, emails or MySQL databases. Your site is secured by a free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate, and preinstalled WordPress allows you to get a quality site up and running in an afternoon – plus SSD storage as standard will keep performance high.Handy extras include the ability to host unlimited domains from a single account. And in a nice touch, DreamHost doesn't just offer a free domain name with each shared hosting plan (except the monthly plan): there's free privacy protection, too. If you've registered a domain without that, and been inundated with emails and phone calls from ‘website designers’ and assorted scammers, you'll know how valuable that can be.It's a strong all-round package, but if you need more, DreamHost also offers everything from managed WordPress and WooCommerce, to VPS, Dedicated and Cloud Hosting plans.Billing is flexible. You can avoid long-term contracts by signing up for monthly billing, which costs $10.95 (£7.80) a month for shared hosting. Choose the three-year plan and the price drops to $7.95 (£5.70) a month, though. Don't be put off by the longer term: DreamHost products are protected by an exceptional 97-day money-back guarantee, so there's plenty of time to test the service for yourself. Cloud hosting is a smart technology which spreads your website content across multiple devices, improving redundancy and speeding up load times. It's an interesting idea which has many business benefits, but if you choose wisely, you can try it out for less than the cost of some shared hosting products.HostGator's Business Cloud, for instance, delivers on the business basics with support for unlimited websites, unmetered storage and bandwidth, and a private SSL certificate.As this is a cloud plan, three mirrored copies of your website are spread across multiple devices. If there's a hardware failure, your website can immediately be switched to another server.All HostGator cloud plans give you shared access to a defined level of system resources (CPU time and RAM). Another benefit of cloud hosting is that you can purchase more of these and see the benefit immediately, with no downtime or time-consuming migrations required.The high-end features continue with a distributed Varnish caching setup to accelerate the loading of your static content, freeing up RAM and CPU time for producing dynamic content.Despite all this functionality, HostGator's Business plan is reasonably priced at $9.95 (£7.10) a month for up to 36 months, $17.95 (£12.80) on renewal.Optional extras are also good value, with CodeGuard's daily backups available for $2 (£1.45) a month, and SiteLock's malware scanning service is only $1.67 (£1.20). We've seen other hosts charge two or three times as much for similar functionality.While we've highlighted HostGator's cloud plans here, as an interesting improvement on regular shared hosting, the company also provides managed WordPress hosting, good value VPS packages, dedicated servers and more. There really is something here for everyone. Most business hosting products are focused on power and functionality above ease of use. That's not a problem if you know what you're doing, but small businesses don't always have the technical expertise to manage this kind of hosting, and it could take quite some time and effort to figure out how the service works.GoDaddy Business Hosting is a hybrid product which aims to offer the dedicated resources and similar performance to Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting, with the simplified cPanel-style management of a shared hosting service.GoDaddy's baseline Launch plan gives you 2GB RAM, one CPU and 60GB of storage, for instance. These resources are solely for the use of your website, which should give you improved and more consistent website performance, no matter what's going on with other sites hosted on your server.Restrictions elsewhere are kept to a minimum, with support for unlimited websites, databases and emails, and unmetered bandwidth. (‘Unmetered’ means there's no fixed limit, but GoDaddy reserves the right to complain if your site is hogging resources.)There's a SSL certificate thrown into the mix, and GoDaddy has included a one-year, one-user subscription to Microsoft Office 365 Business Email.GoDaddy's Enhance plan is available for $24.99 (£18.99) a month for the first term, $49.99 (£37.99) on renewal. The Grow plan gives you 3 CPUs, 6GB RAM and 120GB of storage for $34.99 (£25.99) a month, $69.99 (£52.99) on renewal. The high-end Expand plan (which is for resource heavy sites) increases RAM to 8GB and storage to 150GB, with 4 CPUs. The price is - monthly $49.99 (£37.99) initially and then $99.99 (£74.99) on renewal.Overall, the range is a little more expensive than some VPS products, but if you're looking for easy setup and simpler website management, GoDaddy could be worth a look. Basic shared, cloud and similar hosting plans are easy to use and can deliver good performance, but they also limit your control over the server environment. You can't choose to install Windows, for instance, or do anything else that would affect other websites hosted on the same server.Virtual Private Servers (VPS) are isolated environments which you can tweak, adjust and customize however you like. As a bonus, you also get CPU time and RAM allocated just for you, improving both performance and stability.Liquid Web's starter VPS product gives you two CPUs, 2GB RAM, 40GB SSD space and 5TB bandwidth, for instance, and is priced from $29.50 (£22) for the first three months, then $59 (£42) a month.Some hosts have cheaper VPS plans, but that's often because specifications have been trimmed to the bare minimum. Liquid Web takes a more honest approach, with even the most basic plans including items that are often chargeable extras elsewhere. For example, that $59 gets you built-in backups, Gigabit transfers, unlimited sites, a dedicated IP address, CloudFlare CDN, DDoS protection, antivirus, antispam, cPanel/WHM or Plesk Onyx, and more.All VPS plans are highly configurable, with Linux options including CentOS 6, CentOS 7, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04 and Debian 8, and high-level plans support Windows Server 2012 and 2016.Whatever you're installing will include server management by default, which means Liquid Web will handle maintenance tasks such as operating system updates. Proactive system monitoring allows the company to detect and fix some problems before you even notice them, and speedy, responsive 24x7x365 support will help you with anything else.Factor in the 100% uptime guarantee and generous service level agreements and Liquid Web has a lot of business hosting appeal. Dedicated server plans are the top of the standard hosting tree. Instead of sharing resources with others, you get the entire system to yourself, ensuring the best possible performance and reliability.The OVH dedicated hosting range has several benefits, and these start with its choice of data centers. While other providers can typically host your site in just two or three locations, OVH has a far more global reach, with centers available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Poland, Singapore and the UK. Hosting the site nearer to your target audience will improve performance all on its own.Configurability is another highlight. Operating systems supported include CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, CloudLinux, Gentoo, Slackware, ArchLinux, OpenSUSE, Fedora, FreeBSD, SmartOS, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016, SQL Server, VMware, Citrix Xen, Hyper-V Server and more.Advanced options include support for NVMe, non-volatile memory-based storage which can be five times faster than SSD.Prices are reasonable, especially considering the range of functions on offer. You can get a very capable system for between $74-$137 (£56-£104) annually, and there's plenty of extra power available if you need it.If there's an issue here, it's the OVH website, which does a poor job of presenting your options. There are too many baseline server configurations, they're poorly organized, and it's hard to find what you need or figure out your configuration choices.We found our way around the product range eventually, though, and overall, OVH's extensive set of features and data centers make it a must-see for demanding business users. You might also want to check out our other hosting guides: Best WordPress hosting providers Best cloud hosting providersBest Linux web hosting servicesBest e-commerce hostingBest dedicated server hostingBest Windows hosting servicesBest managed web hostingBest green web hostingBest business web hostingBest colocation hostingBest email hosting providersBest web hosting resellersBest VPS hosting providersBest shared web hostingBest cheap web hostingBest website builders Source link