Austin, Texas
Daniel Reeves
I spent 8 years building websites for clients before I started building them for myself. My first niche site launched in 2019. Today I run 4 review-based affiliate sites across health, technology, and finance — and HostingForAffiliates is the one that was born from the most expensive mistake of my career.
Why I Built This Site
In 2021, I was running my second affiliate site on a shared hosting plan that cost me $6/month. It was fine — until it wasn't.
A review I'd written got picked up by a mid-size subreddit (r/personalfinance, around 120k members). The traffic spike was about 8,000 visits in 4 hours. My shared host couldn't handle it. The site went down for 6 hours during peak traffic. By the time I got it back up, the Reddit post had moved on. I'd lost the traffic, the backlinks, and Google's crawl of the page during its highest-authority moment.
I spent the next 3 months watching rankings recover from the downtime penalty. That mistake cost me an estimated $4,000–$6,000 in lost affiliate commissions over that recovery period — from a $6/month hosting decision.
That's why this site exists. I don't want other bloggers and affiliate marketers to learn this lesson the expensive way. Hosting matters more than most people realize — especially once you have real traffic to protect.
My Timeline
Started as a front-end developer
Freelance web development in Austin. Mostly WordPress sites for local businesses. Built probably 200+ sites over 8 years.
Launched first niche review site
A technology accessories review site. Made my first affiliate commission ($37) in month 3. Was hooked.
The hosting disaster
The Reddit traffic spike, the 6-hour downtime, the 3-month recovery. See above. The motivation for this site.
Migrated to WP Engine, launched two more sites
Tested WP Engine, Kinsta, Cloudways and SiteGround systematically across new and existing sites. Settled on WP Engine as my primary host.
Launched HostingForAffiliates
Decided to document everything I'd learned about hosting for affiliate sites specifically. Wrote the first version of the WP Engine review based on 2+ years of real usage data.
Fully updated for 2026
Re-tested all hosts. Updated all performance data. New sections added on Core Web Vitals impact and affiliate program comparisons.
My Review Methodology
Every host I recommend has run at least one of my live affiliate sites. I don't write reviews based on marketing materials or specs — I write them based on real experience with real consequences (lost traffic, lost commissions, or gains in ranking).
For speed data, I use GTmetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights, testing from US East Coast, UK (London), and Australia (Sydney) server locations. For uptime, I use external monitoring tools that check every 5 minutes. I pull actual 12-month rolling averages, not cherry-picked test windows.
I earn affiliate commissions from some of the hosts I review. I disclose this on every page. My rankings are not influenced by commission rates — WP Engine is my #1 pick because it performs best, not because it pays best (though the affiliate program is also strong).
Get in Touch
Questions about hosting decisions, migration help, or just want to share your own experience? Use the contact form. I read every message, though I can't always reply to all of them.