Historically, WordPress hosting has been a pain point for beginners. Nowadays, we’re spoiled by AWS and infrastructure-as-a-service which make it easy for developers to deploy websites. But hosting is still challenging at the beginner level. Many people wonder what is the best web host in 2020. That’s difficult to answer because everyone needs different things from their chosen hosting company. This article compares the five biggest companies in this niche to help beginners find a host that meets their needs.
Best Web Hosting In 2020
In the past ten years of managing WordPress sites, I have used more than fifteen WordPress shared hosting services, two managed web-hosting services, four cloud computing services, and three unmanaged VPS servers.
If you are planning to start a website, blog or online store, then read on and I will give you the best tips on which web hosting services to choose.
To save you time I’ve created a summary table here but please read on you will get a much deeper understanding of what makes a good web hosting service and which one is right for you.
| Web Hosting Factors | Details |
| Price | How you pay – from initial subscription to ongoing costs (they usually rise). |
| Number of sites | How many sites can you use on your web hosting provider? |
| Backups | Do they automatically backup each day? |
| SSL | Do you get a secure certificate? |
| Response times | Is the hosting fast enough to offer a good customer experience? |
| Bandwidth | Do you get enough bandwidth so that you can scale your site? |
| Storage | Do you have enough storage for all your needs? |
| Security | Do they offer good security? Most do but this is important. |
| Support | How fast do they respond to any support requests? |
Most small blogs and businesses do not need much storage. As an example, a typical small website will take up less than 1Gb or storage and barely use any bandwidth.
However, for ambitious or established bloggers and businesses that rely on high-content and storage then this will be more important.
1. WHAT IS WEB HOSTING?
Web hosting is the place where all the files of your website live. It is the home of your website and the place where you update, add and change information.
Each website has an address, much your home address. Whenever a customer looks up your domain name they are pointed to the web hosting service that holds your website.
For instance, when a customer types your domain name in a browser, the domain name is translated into the IP address of your web hosting company. This server (computer) holds your website’s files, and it sends those files back to the customers’ browser.
Web hosting companies specialize in storing and serving websites. However, different web hosting companies offer different services and pricing plans.
2. WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF WEB HOSTING SERVICES?
There are four main types of web hosting services:
- Shared Hosting
- VPS Hosting
- Dedicated Server
- Cloud Hosting
SHARED HOSTING
Shared hosting is perfect for entry-level website hosting. This is where your website will be stored on the same server as multiple other websites. With a shared hosting plan, all domains share the same server resources, such as RAM (Random Access Memory) and CPU (Central Processing Unit).
VIRTUAL PRIVATE SERVER (VPS) HOSTING
VPS hosting is where your website is hosted within its own space on the server. Although it will share the physical server with other users. They are a flexible option but cannot handle incredibly high traffic levels or spikes in usage.
DEDICATED SERVER
Dedicated hosting gives you complete control over the server that your website. Because your website is the only one stored on it. You can choose exactly what software it uses, the security setup and much more.
CLOUD HOSTING
Cloud hosting means many computers networked together, combining computing resources. It’s a networked hosting solution that spreads the demand across a range of computers. Networked computers are good for high levels of traffic and can manage peaks and troughs in demand.
Note: Most people will only need to use a shared service. The pricing rises sharply as you go from shared to VPS and then Dedicated hosting. Cloud services are increasingly becoming the main choice though. This is because they handle peak traffic, offer high levels of security and deliver on speed.
HOW TO SAVE MONEY – SHARED HOSTING
Not all web hosting services offer long term contracts and therefore discounts. The pricing plans for different web hosting varies. Some offer three-year contracts, while others only offer annual plans.
As a general rule, higher-end web hosting services like WP Engine or Kinsta offer annual, while web hosts such as Blue Host offer longer-term plans and associated discounts.
HOSTS THAT OFFER LONG TERM CONTRACTS
Many of the shared web hosting providers such as Bluehost, Dreamhost and Siteground offer discounts when you buy 36 months of hosting at checkout. This is where you can make some significant savings on your overall hosting.
HOSTS THAT ONLY OFFER ANNUAL PLANS
Cloud web hosting providers that are mainly cloud-based or premium solutions such as Kinsta, WP Engine and Cloudways don’t offer long term contracts.
3. WHAT IS THE BEST WEB HOSTING?
The obvious question is how do you choose the best web hosting services.
Generally, you can match hosting to the type of business or blog and then choose the right web hosting services.
| Type of Service | Match |
| Shared Hosting | Starter blogs. small business sites, freelancers |
| VPS Hosting | Blogs with growing traffic, Small to medium businesses, eCommerce stores |
| Dedicated Hosting | Small to large businesses, developers |
| Cloud Hosting | Bloggers with growing traffic, eCommerce stores, Small to large businesses with high-traffic, brands. |
Additional Things To Consider
Most web hosting services include free SSL certificates and backups. However, some do not. I have highlighted if these are not included in the pricing.
What is SSL? In brief, an SSL stands for “secure sockets layer” and is a form of security for sites. It creates a secure connection between a visitor’s web browser and the server of the company they’re interacting with.
The important point is that it is a trust factor with customers and is one of the many factors that Google uses to rank your website. I recommend you use SSL on your site for this reason.
QUICK JUMP MENU
Here are my picks for the best web hosting.
- Bluehost.
- Siteground.
- Cloudways.
- Hostinger.
- GreenGeeks.
- WP Engine.
- Kinsta.
- Hostgator.
- Dreamhost.
- iPage.
- HostPapa.
- Liquid Web.
- A2 Hosting.
- Inmotion Hosting.
- Accuweb.
- Namecheap.
- Domain.com.
- GoDaddy Web Hosting.
- Flywheel.
- WordPress VIP.
QUICK GUIDE FOR BEST WEB HOSTING SERVICES
1. BLUEHOST.
Why choose Bluehost?
Bluehost is my recommended low-cost WordPress hosting, and it is also the most affordable WordPress hosting available to you.
Bluehost was founded in 2003 by Matt Heaton and Danny Ashworth in Provo, Utah. They are the number one hosting service recommended by WordPress.org. Bluehost is one of four companies owned by Endurance International Group, the other three are HostMonster, FastDomain and iPage. (source: Wikipedia)
Although they position themselves as being for small businesses, they offer and deliver services to enterprise and corporate clients.
Bluehost is also the web hosting service recommended by WordPress.org.
Types of web hosting services they offer:
- Shared hosting.
- VPS.
- Managed WordPress hosting.
- Dedicated hosting.
- Cloud hosting.
| BLUEHOST | DETAILS |
| Pricing (after discounts) | $2.65/month |
| Number of sites | 1 |
| Daily backups included | Yes |
| Free Domain (1 year) | YES |
| Money-Back Guarantee | 30 Day |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered |
| Free SSL | Yes |
| Storage | 50Gb |
| Uptime | 99.9% |
| Load time | 406ms |
| Support Rating | 5/5 |
| Special Offer – $2.65/month (signup now) | BUY NOW |
HOW TO GET THEIR SPECIAL OFFER
- Go to Bluehost
- Got to create your account
- You will see a special offer
- Click on special offer
- Complete account details
- Proceed to checkout
Who should consider using Bluehost web hosting services? Bluehost is suitable for freelancers, bloggers, entrepreneurs and small to large businesses. Of course, developers will also love the pricing and flexibility that Bluehost offers.
RECOMMENDATIONS
- Bloggers – Basic Plan – $3.95/month
- Small Businesses – Plus Plan – $5.95/month
BLUEHOST PRICING
- Plan: Basic Plan at $3.95/month.
- Annual cost: $47.40.
- Cost for 36 months: $142.20
- Special offer: $2.65/month for 36 months
- Total cost at checkout: $95.40
- TOTAL SAVINGS: $46.80
2. SITEGROUND.
Why choose Siteground? Great service, reliable, affordable and ideal for first-time users of WordPress.
SiteGround is a web hosting company founded in 2004 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Looking at recent data they host more than 1,800,000 domains worldwide. What they are known for in particular is their focus on customer support. As a result, they have a customer satisfaction rating of over 98%. (source: Wikipedia)
If your someone who hates waiting around for someone to answer your call and instead want lightning-fast service and response times, give SiteGround a try today.
Their web hosting services include:
- Shared hosting.
- VPS.
- Managed WordPress hosting.
- Dedicated hosting.
- Cloud hosting.
| SITEGROUND | DETAILS |
| Pricing | $3.95/month |
| Number of sites | 1 |
| Daily backups included | Yes |
| Free Domain (1 year) | NO |
| Money Back | 30 Day |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered |
| Free SSL | Yes |
| Storage | 10Gb |
| Uptime | 99.9% |
| Load time | 713ms |
| Support Rating | 5/5 |
| Special Offer – $3.95/month (signup now) | BUY NOW |
SUMMARY OF SITEGROUND
- Who should consider using Siteground web hosting services? Freelancers, bloggers, entrepreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses who are looking for a balance between price and performance.
- What types of hosting do they offer? The full range of web hosting services.
- Do they offer WordPress hosting services? They offer fully managed WordPress solutions.
HOW TO GET THE BEST DEAL
Unless you just choose a 36 month period when creating your account, Siteground will charge $11.95/month after your first year.
- Go to Siteground
- Got to create your account
- You will see a dropdown – select 36 months
- Complete account details
- Proceed to checkout
Who should consider using Siteground web hosting services? Suitable for freelancers, bloggers, entrepreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses.
Recommendations
- Bloggers – Basic Plan – $3.95/month
- Small Businesses – GrowBig – $5.95/month
SITEGROUND PRICING
- Plan: Basic Plan at $3.95/month.
- Annual cost: $47.40 (for 36 month option)
- Cost for 36 months: $142.20
- Normal year two and three pricing: $11.95/month – Total= $286.8
- TOTAL Normal Pricing: $334.20
- TOTAL SAVINGS OVER 36 MONTHS: $192
3. CLOUDWAYS.
Why choose Cloudways? One of the best-managed web hosting services with great flexibility and excellent service (starting at $10/month). Ideal for more experienced users and developers.
Cloudways is a cloud platform that is focused heavily on the latest technologies that make websites run incredibly fast. Dispell any initial thoughts of a complex dashboard or hard to use interface though. Cloudways have a beautiful and simple design which is easy and intuitive to use.
I personally use Cloudways for my websites. I moved to them once I saw how easy they were to use plus the range of options for site speed.
If you are a web developer, you can easily set up applications and also have staging areas for testing. In addition to this, you can just click and get a complete ready-made installation of WordPress or WordPress with Woocommerce. All optimized and ready to go.
Included with your hosting is the ability to change to MariaDB instead of MySQL – technically it is faster. Similarly, Cloudways uses other technologies such as HTTP/2, Nginx, and Redis.
All Cloudways customers can add additional servers and each one can be configured differently. As you might expect, these can be set to projects and shared with other team members.
Their pricing plans start at $10/month, and they offer a free 3-day trial. Although you may think this is short, you’ll quickly realise how simple they are to use. You can easily test them out in this time.
| CLOUDWAYS PLAN | DETAILS |
| Pricing | $10/month |
| Number of sites | Multiple sites |
| Daily backups | Yes |
| Money-back guarantee | Refund minus usage |
| Bandwidth | 1Tb |
| Free SSL | Yes |
| Storage | 25Gb |
| Visitors per month | 20,000 |
| Uptime | 99.99% |
| Support Rating | 5/5 |
| Cloudways Plan | BUY NOW |
SUMMARY OF CLOUDWAYS
- Who should consider using Cloudways web hosting services? Developers, experienced bloggers who are technically minded, speed freaks, entrepreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses.
- What types of hosting do they offer? Cloud computing.
- Do they offer WordPress hosting services? They offer WordPress and Woocommerce web site hosting services but this is not a managed service. However, their support is amazing.
CLOUDWAYS PRICING
Cloudways is unique in that they allow you to use a number of other cloud hosting platforms, but configured their way. They give you access to very fast platforms like Digital Ocean, Linode, Vultr, AWS and GoogleCloud. These platforms are used by developers. Believe me, you need a lot of technical expertise to set up and play with them.
However, this is where Cloudways has been clever. They have pre-configured packages you buy that give you access to a lot of computing power at a low price. NO TECHNICAL knowledge required. One-click installations of WordPress plus great support.
Prices on Cloudways start as low as $10 – scaling is easy – simply a few clicks and you can scale to the next tier. This works great if you are ambitious and want to grow rapidly.
4. HOSTINGER.
Why use Hostinger? Hostinger offers both speed and fast support.
The web hosting services they offer:
- Shared hosting
- VPS
- Cloud hosting
Hostinger offers incredibly low pricing for shared hosting. Their single shared plan starts at just $0.80/month – this is for a single site.
Although this is a great deal at $0.80/month, you don’t get an SSL certificate, no free domain and no backups. For this reason, I recommend the Business plan which is $3.45/month. Additionally, it offers Free Domain and daily backups.
| HOSTINGER BUSINESS PLAN | DETAILS |
| Pricing | Business – $3.45/month |
| Number of sites | 100 websites |
| Daily backups | Yes |
| Free Domain | Yes |
| Money-Back Guarantee | 30 Day |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited |
| Free SSL | Yes |
| Storage | 30Gb |
| Uptime | 99.9% |
| Load time | 369ms |
| Support Rating | 4/5 |
| Best package – $3.45/month (signup now) | BUY NOW |
SUMMARY OF HOSTINGER
- Who should consider using Hostinger web hosting services? Budget-minded freelancers, bloggers, entrepreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses.
- What types of hosting do they offer? Shared, VPS and Cloud computing.
- Do they offer WordPress hosting services? They offer a fully managed WordPress and Woocommerce solution.
HOW TO GET THE BEST DEAL
Unless you just choose either a 24 month or 48 month period when creating your account, Hostinger will charge $15.95/month after your first year.
- Go to Hostinger
- Got to create your account
- You will see a dropdown – select 48 months
- Complete account details
- Proceed to checkout
Hostinger offers the lowest pricing for web hosting services. However, their low cost shared and WordPress plans do not include a free SSL or daily backups.
Hostinger also has its own website builder. If you’re not a designer but want a smart, professional-looking design without the need for coding or anything technical then try Hostinger.
HOSTINGER PRICING
- Plan: Business Plan at $3.45/month.
- Annual cost: $40.80
- Total cost for 48 months = $163.20
- Cost for 48 months: $165.60
- Normal year 2, 3 and 4 pricing: $15.95/month – Total= $574.20
- TOTAL Normal Pricing: $615
- TOTAL SAVINGS OVER 48 MONTHS: $451.80
5. GREENGEEKS.
Why use GreenGeeks? Servers use up a lot of energy and its good to see a company that genuinely is concerned about the environment. They set a great standard in the industry for how the impact of web hosting services on the environment can be reduced. Their web hosting services are focused on clients who care about the planet.
GreenGeeks offsets their use of energy by buying wind energy credits. They also are a Green Power Partner with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (Source: GreenGeeks)
Types of web hosting service they offer:
- Shared hosting (Web + WordPress hosting)
| GREENGEEKS | DETAILS |
| Pricing | $2.95/month |
| Number of websites | 1 |
| Daily backups | Yes |
| Free Domain (1 year) | Yes |
| Money-Back Guarantee | 30 Day |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered |
| Free SSL | Yes |
| Storage | 10Gb |
| Uptime | 99.95% |
| Load time | 493ms |
| Support Rating | 5/5 |
| Ecosite Offer – $2.95/month (signup now) | BUY NOW |
With 99.95% uptimes and load speeds of 493ms, GreenGeeks offers fast and reliable hosting at an affordable rate of $2.95/month.
HOW TO GET THE BEST DEAL
Unless you just choose a 36 month period when creating your account, GreenGeeks will charge $11.95/month after your first year.
- Go to GreenGeeks
- Got to create your account
- You will see a dropdown – select 3 years
- Complete account details
- Proceed to checkout
GREENGEEKS PRICING
- Plan: Ecosite Lite at $2.95/month.
- Annual cost: $35.40
- Total cost for 36 months = $106.20
- Normal annual cost at $4.95/month: $59.40
- Normal year for 3 years at $4.95: Total= $178.20
- TOTAL SAVINGS OVER 36 MONTHS: $72
6. WP ENGINE.
Who should use WP Engine? WP Engine is a professional and enterprise-level cloud hosting service. Professional bloggers, small to mid-sized businesses and rapidly growing startups. Pricing starts at $35/month.
These web hosting services are focused on the WordPress community; particularly those that need a fast site.
| WP ENGINE STARTUP PLAN | DETAILS |
| Pricing | $35/month |
| Number of websites | 1 |
| Daily backups | Yes |
| Bandwidth | 50 Gb |
| Free SSL | Yes |
| Storage | 10Gb |
| Visitors per month | 25,000 |
| Uptime | 99.99% |
| Support Rating | 5/5 |
| WP ENGINE STARTUP PLAN | BUY NOW |
WordPress is the world’s most popular and widely used content management system. It now powers 34% of all websites on the internet, but few outside the community of the most loyal WordPress users know the story of how it started.
WP Engine provides scalable cloud hosting that delivers speed, security, and scalability. A few of my clients use WP Engine and they are impressed by its speed and ease of use.
Essentially, WP Engine provides a fully managed hosting service built and optimized to run WordPress websites. In particular, it is site speed that WP Engine excels at.
WP Engine has a server environment which is heavily cached to offset any sluggish WordPress plugins. However, you’re not allowed to install some plugins in WordPress because their caching is so personalized.
WP Engine automatically performs daily backups of your website so you rest easy should anything go wrong. They also offer high-end custom plans for enterprise clients.
Their startup plan starts at $35/month and includes 25k visits/month, 50GB of bandwidth, CDN and free SSLs, and robust performance tools. Each program comes with a content delivery network (CDN) for faster load times.
Additionally, you can switch from a live to a staging environment to test new plugins, code or more generally transition to a new design.
WP ENGINE PRICING
- Startup – $35/month (1 site).
- Annual cost for monthly payments – $420
- Annual cost if you pay annually ( save two months) – $350
- Saving – $70
- Growth – $115/month (5 sites).
- Scale – $290/month (15 sites).
- Custom – contact (25 sites).
7. KINSTA.
Who should use Kinsta? Kinsta is the ideal solution for agencies, independent developers, WordPress users and shop owners who use Woocommerce. Starting prices – $25/month.
These web hosting services are targeted to agencies, larger customers and technically savvy WordPress enthusiasts.
| KINSTA STARTER PLAN | DETAILS |
| Pricing | $30/month |
| Number of sites | 1 |
| Daily backups | Yes |
| Money-Back Guarantee | Yes |
| Bandwidth | 50 Gb |
| Free SSL | Yes |
| Storage | 10Gb |
| Visitors per month | 20,000 |
| Uptime | 99.99% |
| Support Rating | 5/5 |
| Kinsta Starter Plan | BUY NOW |
Kinsta launched in 2013 with the goal of creating the best WordPress hosting platform in the world (Source: Kinsta).
Kinsta’s Starter Plan is $30 per month ($25 if paid annually) and comes with 1 WordPress install, 20,000 site visits, free SSL and CDN, and 10 GB of disk space.
Their web hosting services are just based on Cloud hosting:
- Cloud hosting.
However, if you need to scale your hosting, they have a tier of 10 different plans. Each one incrementally increases the number of websites, RAM, SSD storage, and monthly visitors.
All plans come with free SSL, automatic daily backups, manual backup points, 24/7 support, and their own cache plugin.
Overall, they provide one of the best and fastest web hosting services. Kinsta is a good choice for those that specialize in WordPress sites. As an example, if you are an agency that uses WordPress Kinsta is a great option.
KINSTA PRICING
- Starter – $30/month (1 site)
- Annual price for monthly payments – $360
- Annual price for annual payment – $300
- Saving – $60
- Pro – $60/month (2 sites)
- Business 1 – $100/month (5 sites)
- Business 2 – $100/month (10 sites)
8. HOSTGATOR.
Who is Hostgator for? Best cheap web hosting service for beginners and boot-strapped entrepreneurs. Pricing starts at $2.75 /month.
HostGator was founded in October 2002 by Brent Oxley, who was then a student at Florida Atlantic University. In 2006, the company moved from the original office in Boca Raton, Florida to a new Houston, Texas and then later that year opened offices in Canada (source Wikipedia).
Types of web hosting service they offer:
- Shared hosting.
- Managed hosting (WordPress).
- VPS.
- Dedicated servers.
- Cloud hosting.
| HOSTGATOR BUSINESS PLAN | DETAILS |
| Pricing | $2.75/month |
| Number of sites | 1 |
| Daily backups | Yes |
| Free Domain (1 year) | Yes |
| Money Back | 45 Day |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered |
| Free SSL | Yes |
| Storage | 100Gb |
| Uptime | 99.9% |
| Load time | 1071ms |
| Support Rating | 4/5 |
| Special Offer – $2.75/month (signup now) | BUY NOW |
HostGator offers 24/7 customer support through live chat, email, and phone, and they have pretty good response times.
For their shared web hosting services, they offer three plans: Hatchling, Baby, and Business.
HOW TO GET THE BEST DEAL
- Go to HostGator.com select Hatchling plan and click on Get Started
- Choose a domain (or add one you own).
- Pick your billing cycle. For the most savings, select the $2.78/month plan for 36 months.
- Enter your billing info.
- Click Checkout and you’re all set!
HOSTGATOR PRICING
- Plan: Business Plan at $2.75/month.
- Annual cost: $33.00
- Total cost for 36 months = $99
- Normal annual cost at $5.95/month: $71.40
- Normal year for 3 years at $5.95: Total= $213
- Total cost savings over 36 months: $114
9. DREAMHOST.
Who is Dreamhost for? Ambitious bloggers, freelancers and businesses that want to scale up and need to have flexibility. Prices start at $2.59 per month.
These are the generic web hosting services that can be for anyone – large or small.
DreamHost is a Los Angeles-based web hosting provider and domain name registrar. Dreamhost employs about 200 employees and has close to 400,000 customers. They host over 1.2 million blogs, websites and apps. Sources: Wikipedia and Dreamhost.
Types of web hosting service they offer:
- Shared hosting.
- Managed hosting (WordPress).
- VPS.
- Dedicated servers.
- Cloud hosting.
| DREAMHOST STARTER PLAN | DETAILS |
| Pricing | $2.59/month |
| Number of sites | 1 |
| Daily backups | Yes |
| Free Domain (1 year) | Yes |
| Money Back | 97 Days |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered |
| Free SSL | Yes |
| Storage | 50Gb |
| Uptime | 99.9% |
| Load time | 719ms |
| Support Rating | 4/5 |
| Special Offer – $2.59/month (signup now) | BUY NOW |
Designed for beginners, Dreamhost offers a range of shared hosting plans offer a user-friendly interface and flexible options to fit your needs.
Whether you’re looking to run an e-shop, business website, or killer blog, they offer shared hosting plans can get your site set up with professional, customizable themes and must-have plugins.
Additionally, they offer you round-the-clock support, regular updates, and valuable resources.
HOW TO GET THE BEST DEAL
The basic plan comes in at $2.99 unless you opt for either the 24 month or 36-month option. Furthermore, iPage will charge $9.99/month after your first year.
- Go to Dreamhost
- Select the 3 year option (as in the image above)
- Add your details
- Click on checkout
- Complete your order
DREAMHOST PRICING
- Plan: Starter Plan at $2.59/month.
- Annual cost: $31.08
- Total cost for 36 months = $93.24
- Normal annual cost for 1 year at $2.99/month: $35.88
- Charges for years 2 & 3 year at $9.99: Total= $239.76
- Otal for 3 years if you choose just an annual plan: $275.64
- TOTAL SAVINGS OVER 36 MONTHS: $182.40
10. IPAGE.
Who is iPage for? These web hosting services are ideal for users of WordPress who are just starting out: freelancers, bloggers and new business owners.
iPage is another web hosting company owned by the Endurance International Group. They offer a wide range of web hosting solutions for online businesses and a drag-and-drop-based site builder that allows you to create a website without any coding knowledge.
Types of web hosting service they offer:
- Shared hosting.
- WordPress hosting.
- VPS.
- Dedicated servers.
| iPAGE SHARED HOSTING | DETAILS |
| Pricing | $1.99/month |
| Number of sites | 1 |
| Daily backups | Yes |
| Free Domain (1 year) | Yes |
| Money Back | 30 Day |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered |
| Free SSL | Yes |
| Storage | 50Gb |
| Uptime | 99.9% |
| Load time | 1021ms |
| Support Rating | 4/5 |
| Special Offer – $1.99/month (signup now) | BUY NOW |
list of web hosting companies
A lot of organizations and individuals have shifted their operational focus to the internet, with the COVID-19 outbreak limiting their mobility. Many now have fully remote workforces while budding entrepreneurs see themselves peddling their wares online. In fact, 87% of new businesses that will open in 2021 will be primarily online. Clearly, the current need for web hosting cannot be understated.
If we look at today’s web hosting statistics, the numbers actually back that claim. The global market size of web hosting grew from $53.14 billion in 2019 to a projected $66.76 billion by the end of 2021. In 2025, the valuation will have swelled to $96.35 billion, representing annual growth of 9.6% from 2020 to 2025. Simply put, with the popularity of online ventures comes the increased relevance of web hosting.53.1453.1458.2358.2366.7666.7674.5274.5282.0382.0389.4689.4696.3596.35201920202021202220232024202502550751001252023:82.03
Global Web Hosting Revenue, 2019-2025
(in billions USD)
Designed by
Source: Statista 2021
Now that the facts have been laid out, getting reliable hosting is a critical decision in today’s times. Adjusted to your scope of operations, hosting will eliminate the risk you’re taking by adhering to free-to-use networks and services, and put you in absolute control over how your data is accessed and managed. Better yet, paid-for hosting unties your hands to brand a website as you want it, and use all the tools and plugins that can help your business. Meantime, hosting pulls the strings of all key performance metrics such as the site’s promotion on search engines and its loading speed.
The king of all benefits will nonetheless remain security—unless you’re ready to bounce off attacks and intrusions all by yourself.
Which are the best web hosting companies? There is no standardized answer to this question, as each site owner has a unique list of requirements a service must respond to. At the beginning of this demanding process, however, we should shortlist the systems that cater to our needs, which we can afford.
1. InMotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting not only pleases clients with reliable hosting tools (cloud, VPS, dedicated), but also offers web design and development services for users who’d rather have their online journey launched from a single dashboard. Depending on the website you’re creating, you can consider one of their business-exclusive hosting packages, or have the service optimized WordPress performance or upselling.
InMotion prides itself on its commitment to open source and features sponsorship with three platforms next to one with WordPress (Joomla, b2evolution, and PrestaShop). It is also a suitable choice for developing and growing business as it is very scalable and makes the transition to a different package seamless. It may be of interest that they work with PCI compliant data servers and constantly invest in new technology, and have been praised all over user forums for being professional and supportive.
Try out InMotion Hosting with their free trialVISIT WEBSITEFREE TRIAL
What makes InMotion Hosting unique?
- Shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers
- Affordable hosting solution for small to medium-sized businesses
- SSH and ecommerce hosting
- cPanel Education Channel for tutorials and articles, including FAQs
- Loaded for well-known content management systems such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Moodle, OpenCart, and PrestaShop
Detailed InMotion Hosting Review
2. GoDaddy
With a reputation that is among the best in the business, GoDaddy sets up multiple examples of how the best website hosting is supposed to function. This publicly-traded American Internet domain company went beyond HostGator’s head-spinning success and currently serves over 17 million users and supports 72 million domains all around the globe. In that aspect, GoDaddy can be considered as the world’s largest domain name hub and hosting service provider, and also praised by users for being highly secure. What makes GoDaddy unique is its focus on the corporate community – there are business-friendly .store domains that have been highly appreciated by online shoppers, as well as affordable SSL certificates that guarantee the safety of each user’s data. In a fashion reminiscent of HostGator, GoDaddy offers a hands-on website builder tool for novice users, lets owners retain control of what is happening on their websites, and comes with a 24/7/365 support and professional assistance.
What makes GoDaddy unique?
- Website, Business, WordPress, VPS, and dedicated hosting
- World’s largest domain name hub and hosting service provider
- Business-friendly .store domains
- Affordable SSL certificates for data safety
- Hands-on website builder for novice users
Detailed GoDaddy Hosting Review
3. Hostinger
If you’re looking for a cheap, yet very efficient MySQL, FTP & PHP hosting service, look no further than Hostinger. Developed to support individual site owners, small and developing businesses, Hostinger secures a free domain, unlimited disk and bandwidth, unrestricted access to premium support, and one of the fastest WordPress hosting services. In such fashion, Hostinger attracted over 29 million of free and paid clients on its side. Currently, it is investing in web design supplies to boost this number even more.
A 30-day money-back guarantee is provided alongside any paid plan, to give prospective users a chance to examine features firsthand.
Detailed Hostinger Review
What makes Hostinger unique?
- Known as the cheapest web hosting alternative
- Efficient and affordable MySQL, FTP & PHP hosting service
- Free domains, unrestricted disk and bandwidth, and unlimited access to premium support
- 3x WordPress Optimized Speed for Premium Users
- 24/7 support via live chat, email, phone, and tickets
4. HostPapa
HostPapa is a reliable, customer-centric, and environment-friendly web hosting solution. It enables the high-performance, cost-efficient, and trouble-free hosting of business websites, blogs, emails, forums, ecommerce shops, CRM and CMS systems, Linux operating systems, and Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace apps.
Through HostPapa, users can access a user-friendly website-building tool. This tool allows them to instantly make, handle, and publish SEO-optimized, mobile-friendly, and professional-looking blogs, online stores, or websites without any design or programming knowledge required. Our team of IT, customer service, and security professionals are also available for any concerns or questions about different aspects of the shared hosting subscriptions.
Try out HostPapa with their free trialVISIT WEBSITEFREE TRIAL
What makes HostPapa unique?
- Promotes corporate social responsibility, customer service, and technological competitiveness
- Uses Green Tags or Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)
- Ensures that websites, servers, applications, and data center facilities work even during emergencies, like machine failures, power outages, network downtimes, and natural disasters
- Options for managed, self-managed, or fully-managed VPS hosting
- Hosting platforms and solutions exclusively created and enhanced for WordPress websites
Detailed HostPapa Review
5. Cloudways
Cloudways, a managed cloud hosting services provider based in Malta, claims to be the best WordPress and WooCommerce hosting company. Cloudways aims to give design agencies, ecommerce store owners, bloggers, and developers the power to set up websites and manage web apps with ease. The platform caters to the need of individuals, teams, and businesses in different verticals such as media, IT, healthcare, fashion/apparel, interactive design studios, and entertainment.
Although the company doesn’t offer a variety of hosting services, its Platform-as-a-Service, cloud-based web hosting sets it apart from other hosting providers. Besides, its array of reliable features, including SSD-based hosting, pre-configured PHP-FPM, one-click backup, and PHP 7 ready servers, enable users to create better digital experiences, maximize growth, and scale operations faster. Its service is backed by 24/7 expert support, which is available via live chat and ticket.
The solution combines multiple core services such as Varnish, NGINX, Apache, MySQL, and Memcached to deliver seamless experience without impacting code compatibility. It also boasts a network of 41 datacenter locations, which make it easy to provision from the industry’s leading infrastructure providers such as Google Compute Engine, Amazon Web Services, Vultr, and DigitalOcean.
For WordPress users, Cloudways is not only highly reliable, fast, and secure; it is affordable as well. The solution offers diverse pricing plans, plus it comes with a free WordPress migration plugin designed to streamline migration on multiple hosting environments. Also, as a Cloudways user, you will probably find its one-click managed services to be particularly impressive. With the one-click installations, it’s a breeze to get your WordPress and WooCommerce website or online store up and running right from the Cloudways control panel, in minutes.
Detailed Cloudways Review
What makes Cloudways unique?
- Its ability to provision from industry giants, including DigitalOcean, Amazon, Vultr, and Google.
- Speedy one-click installations for WordPress, Magento, PHP 7, Drupal, WooCommerce, and more.
- 24/7 expert support, which works in tandem with the CloudwaysBot.
- 7% customer satisfaction rate.
- Its pay-as-you-go pricing.
- An innovative infrastructure optimized for performance, speed, and security.
6. HostGator
HostGator is our top choice on our 20 best web hosting companies list without a doubt. It specializes in website, VPS hosting, and dedicated services for over 9 million users so far. Their cloud-hosting packages are among the most affordable packages of this kind in the market, and yet guarantee 2x faster performance and 4x enhanced scalability, with a dashboard that is very easy to use. For WordPress users, HostGator offers built-for-speed plans with advanced security and free migrations, while VPS hosting users will benefit from full root access and scalable resources.
A Dedicated Hosting package, on the other hand, will equip you with an end-to-end management package for ultimate performance, and a price scaled to meet your specific needs. What HostGator is best known for is providing a streamlined hosting experience, as a support team is there to assist you 24/7 and to guarantee the company’s impeccable 99.9% uptime. Plus, you can have your existing website seamlessly transferred to a HostGator location or use their handy Website Builder to create a brand new one. As a HostGator user, you’ll also be entering a millions-wide user community, and be able to exchange opinions with website owners worldwide. In case you’re not satisfied, you can rely on the company’s 45-days money-back guarantee.
Detailed HostGator Review
What makes HostGator unique?
- Website, VPS hosting, and dedicated services
- Power back-ups, fire detection, and constant monitoring to keep its 12,000 servers safe and secure
- 10 different fiber providers, including hardware from Time Warner and AT&T
- 99.9% uptime guarantee and an RSS feed for service status updates
- A large number of high-profile partners such as Cisco, AT&T, and Dell
- 45-day money-back guarantee
7. Hostwinds
Hostwinds is considered as one of the best web hosting companies, for not only does it provide 99.999% uptime, it also offers superb 24/7 customer support. It boasts of 100% satisfaction rate for its users with a solid 60-day money-back offer. Its two data centers in Dallas, Texas, and Seattle, Washington have modern architectural design tailored for maximum data protection with natural cooling systems and a redundant A+B power system.
Hostwinds provides SSL certification, VPN, and Minecraft SSD server hosting, on top of its regular web hosting packages that offer business hosting, shared web hosting, Windows VPS, Linux VPS, and dedicated servers. Its network design has a redundant communication pathway that secures availability and continued access should there be a path failure. In addition, it has an automatic failover mechanism that reroutes to new system pathways, should a server or pathway be compromised. Hostwinds offers its enterprise-level service and tools for as low as $3.29/month.
Detailed Hostwinds Review
What makes InMotion Hosting unique?
- Cloud servers can be set-up in less than 30 seconds.
- Encrypted SSH key deployment for enhanced security and server connectivity.
- Two data centers with 24/7 armed security and recorded video surveillance.
- Unmetered bandwidth for shared web hosting.
- A free dedicated IP address for all its users.
- 60-day money-back guarantee to all users who will not find Hostwinds services satisfactory. No forms, justifications, and explanations will be required.
8. Bluehost
The third representative of the ‘web-hosting trinity,’ Bluehost also belongs to those services one could hardly dispute on any grounds. You will certainly appreciate its easy to use interface, extremely low pricing plans (featuring a free domain and site builder), and the dedicated 1-click installer for WordPress users. WordPress. org recommends Bluehost as the #1 provider for easy installation and management, and the two companies partner to provide you with the best possible hosting experience for free. The cloud solution is also surprisingly affordable, knowing that even low-tier users are provided with advanced mastery features and the expected 24/7 support for their needs. The company also offers VPS and shared hosting, dedicated services, and reseller hosting, and will help you leverage Google and Bing advertising.
Detailed Bluehost Review
What makes Bluehost unique?
- Recommended hosting provider for and by WordPress
- Cloud, VPS, and shared hosting, dedicated services, and reseller hosting
- 100% in-house services with its own fiber connections, data centers, and custom Linux kernel operating on custom-built servers
- Helps you leverage Google and Bing advertising
- Recommended for PHP applications that require lightweight CMS installs (Joomla and Drupal)