From Buyer’s Remorse to Better Hosting

Buying a domain can be an exciting experience, but it often comes with buyer's remorse. Whether it's regretting the name you chose or questioning the features of your hosting provider, it's common to second-guess your decision. For a number of people a GoDaddy registered domain for example can feel more like a limitation.

After some research and experimentation, there are alternative solutions for those looking to take control of their domain and hosting setup without breaking the bank. Enter PikaPods, a Docker-style hosting platform that offers flexibility, affordability, and full control over your WordPress site, or anything you are putting together. I’ll walk you through how I made the switch from GoDaddy to PikaPods.

There are a number of Docker-style hosting platforms available that provide a more flexible and cost-effective solution than site builders. These platforms allow you to self-host applications like WordPress in containers, giving you full control over your setup while keeping costs low in comparison to what your domain host may offer.

Once you’ve chosen your platform (in this case, PikaPods), the setup process is straightforward.

Sign Up and Create an Account: Head to PikaPods and create a free account. It’s quick and easy.

Search for Apps: In the dashboard, search for the app you want to run. The majority of apps can be run for less than two dollars per month.

Launch Your Instance: Within minutes, you’ll have a fully functional application running on PikaPods.

Once your site is up and running on PikaPods, you’ll need to connect it to your domain.

Update DNS Settings: PikaPods will provide you with an address (e.g., your-pod.pikapods.com) that you need to use for your domain. You’ll need to add a CNAME or ALIAS record to your domain registrar.

But here's a problem, CNAME can not be applied to your root domain so for example using CNAME will allow you to make your address www.yourdomain.com but ALIAS will allow yourdomain.com, so what's the difference? Some bots for services or indexing may not trust your site if you cannot prove your identity properly

After setting up your DNS records, give it some time for the changes to propagate across the network. Once everything is live, you’ll have your rull application running under your own domain name. This is useful for example say if you have a Wordpress site or some other service that has a restricted free version or a costly premium version that allows you access to the complete application, this is the way to go for less. Self hosting your site gives you freedom to experiment, customize, and grow without being constrained by traditional hosting providers or paying for features that you wont use, want or even hinder your process.