Choosing the best web hosting in UK can be difficult. With so many different web hosts out there, all advertising their massive savings and valuable bonuses, it’s hard to choose which one to sign up with. The cheapest option isn’t always the best option, and it might just cost you more in the long run if you go with a host that’ll get you hacked or fail to deliver on performance and support. Once you’ve read this article, you’ll have all the information about what makes for a great UK web hosting service.
Best Web Hosting In Uk
- Hostinger – Best Overall UK Web Host
Special Discount for Our Readers! (£1.99/Month) 💳
Key Specifications:
99.99% Uptime Guarantee
24/7/365 Customer Service
Super Fast UK Response Times
30 Day Money Back Guarantee
Free Domain Name
Hostinger Logo
Visit Hostinger
PROS
30–Day Money Back Guarantee
Super Quick Loading Times
Responsive Customer Support
CONS
Smaller User Base
Look out for hidden fees
Hostinger UK Review 📓
When I researched Hostinger, I was happy to find they offer some of the highest quality hosting services for UK clients, affordable plans, and a 30–Day Money Back Guarantee thrown in. In other words, these guys are the masters of marketing at the micro-budget level, which I’m not arguing with.
Hostinger has a clear plan structure, and is quite affordable at the small website/blog level. If you grab a mid/top-tier plan, you get a domain for free. Also, there are enough discounts to make you dizzy for bonus website services. Compared to alternatives, there can’t be a financial excuse not to get Hostinger.
Other than that, they’re a Lithuanian company with about 29 million users, originally under the name Hosting Media. Recently, Hostinger’s reached international status — 129 countries use them.
Actually Good Service ☎️
With Hostinger, you get all the features & functionalities that you’d expect from any hosting provider. So, why does that warrant having them ranked as the best UK host around?
Let’s be real, most of the website hosting services offer similar packages at similar prices to their potential customers. However, my experience has led me to doubt these before actually testing them. Oftentimes you pay for a hosting plan just to find out their 24/7 support doesn’t work over the weekend, their prices skyrocket after a year when renewing your plan, or that their uptime guarantee was a bit too optimistic.
Not with Hostinger. With these guys, you actually get what you paid for. No hidden fees, no upsells, no unexpected charges. Their support team is there all the time, their uptime guarantee is true, and their website loading speeds are consistent at all times. Many companies use pricing gimmicks and schemes, but not Hostinger.
Hostinger UK Pricing & Plans 💰
While Hostinger UK offers many different hosting plans, I recommend the WordPress Starter plan which is priced at £1.99 a month. Of course, they offer some cheaper plans (starting at 99 pennies a month) and some more expensive ones for enterprise clients. However, in my opinion, the WordPress Starter plan is perfect for someone looking to start their own blog or set up a business website.
That’s what Hostinger offers: a fast and reliable service that gets you going and you don’t have to worry about it at all. You won’t have think about it even if you’re near bankruptcy. Probably. You also won’t have to worry about your site suddenly disappearing for a week, as they have a 99.97% uptime score.
A 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
Try your luck with no risk. I doubt you’ll have any site crashing or page loading issues, based on Hostinger’s track-record. But perhaps you’re unsure on whether the features will be sufficient, or are concerned about compatibility issues with your CMS of choice.
I believe some of their advanced services are non-refundable, so please have a look at their refund policy if you want to be completely safe.
Speedy Gonzalez 🚅
Hostinger’s load time is 389ms average, which is a little above the average for host providers. Paired with incredible uptimes and affordability, you can understand why Hostinger’s top of my list.
On the topic of features, let’s have a nip inside this CMS to see what it has to offer. Not bad. Fast page loading is a user’s dream. User clicks your page and — assuming no lag on the network end — it loads instantly.
Statistics show that — in the age of distractions — users click out of a page if it takes more than a few seconds to load.
Hostinger uses a 1000 Mbps connection to secure their loading, which is a very cool selling point.
*Over the last 16 months, they’ve been well ahead of the average for page loading times, if you were wondering.
Customer Service Support for Different Languages 📞
Once again, customer service is one of those things that you don’t need until you do, so I always say.
With Hostinger, you have loads of options.
You can speak to an agent through live chat once logged into your account. Find it by clicking the smiley speech icon in the lower right side of the main page. You’ll also be supported by a substantial database of Q&A articles, which can save a bunch of time in finding the specific solution. Finally, there’s email support for the most delicate of queries.
Overall, it’s important to note that Hostinger’s support team was there all the time (even during the weekends) and they’ve responded to the most trivial of the questions I had with great patience and willingness to help me understand what’s going on.
Crypto Payments 🪙
hostinger paymentI’ll just take a brief second to point out that these guys offer Bitcoin payment. Bravo. Absolutely bravo.
As the man responsible for this guide — and a crypto enthusiast — that’s a cool sign of innovation.
I’m just a tad hesitant to go full hog on recommending Hostinger as they have a smaller user base than the other hosts on this list, though they’ve been around since 2004.
On the other hand, I’m also an entrepreneur. If your goal’s to start up by hook or by crook and your margins are by the pennies.
Zyro: A Free Domain name & Site Creator 🔧
To the business card enthusiasts who just want something up and running — Hostinger’s site creator is right up your alley. They give you a good selection of templates to choose from, based on theme and industry niche. Point and click.
It’ll populate a site for you, which you can just tweak and fill out: adding headlines, words and adding your own photos if you choose. The domain name is free too — yet another expense saved — though more than one domain does cost.
Zyro comes with a dozen never before seen features, like Zyro AI Content Generator and Logo Maker, both of which will allow you to focus on growing your business.
Classic features include a free SSL certificate to authenticate your domain, unlimited SSD storage, and unlimited bandwidth. If you are looking for a website builder that doesn’t require you to have any coding experience you have come to the right place.
- SiteGround UK – Best Customer Service
Great Discounts For First-time Buyers (£2.99 Month) 🇬🇧
Key Specifications:
Expert and Fast Customer Service
Average Speed: 263ms
Premium Performance
99.7% Customer Satisfaction
Free SSL, CDN, E-mail, SG Optimiser
Out-of-the box caching
Collaboration tools
WP Starter toolbox for easy site kick off
Siteground
Visit SiteGround
PROS
24/7 Customer Service
Fast Loading Times
Premium Service
CONS
Renewal Prices
SiteGround Review
SiteGround has been around since 2004. Independently founded in Bulgaria, they crossed the two million registered domains mark as of January 2020 (it’s over 3 million now), with around 600 employees – officially recommended by giants, WordPress.org, WooCommerce and Yoast.
Choose one of 6 data centres on 4 continents, using the centre nearest to your largest demographic, for the fastest experience. While we’re on the subject of data centres, they have a dedicated one in London, perfect for us Brits.
Top Features
SiteGround runs an annual client satisfaction survey released in January.
siteground customer satisfactionSince 2017, rates have steadily climbed – 2020 saw its pinnacle, at 97.7% (seconded by Trustpilot via mostly ‘Excellent’ scores).
1 Crazy Satisfaction
Also in 2020…SiteGround accrued a dozen Employer and 2 Stevie awards for stellar customer service – despite the pandemic.
2 Top Speeds
Let’s look under the bonnet, to see how exactly SiteGround is able to offer world-leading loading speeds in town to its clients:
☑️ Data infrastructure. Uses Google Cloud’s network, with SSD data stores and renewable energy guarantees.
☑️ Proprietary integrations. Linux containers, Apache server, and Nginx optimization (e.g. via reverse proxies).
☑️ Cool proprietary use. Of SuperCacher and Memcached: for powerful, static data caching and reverse proxies
☑️ SG Optimiser. This proprietary plugin basically keeps your website and media optimised without extra plugins.
Latest technologies. Ultrafast latest PHP, Quic technologies; and HTTP/2, OCSP Stapling, TLS 1.3.
3 Very Secure
They have an agile team who look out for patch vulnerabilities, creating in-house solutions – which they call their ‘Proactive Approach to Security’ ethos:
☑️ Server Monitoring: scans each half second and fixes issues automatically.
☑️ Auto AI-Anti Bot : prevents 500k-2 million brute-force threats daily.
☑️ Security Team: admin on constant watch, includes WAF rules.
4 Easy Use
Their custom version of cPanel called Site Tools makes getting started, managing and tuning simpler to do… We’ve already mentioned SG Optimizer – a few others:
☑️ WordPress Starter: free website builder that gets you up and running in unbeatable time.
☑️ Tons of essential features, including a free SSL, e-mail and free CDN, automatic daily backups and restoration.
☑️ Coolest Feature: 24/7 chat support.
5 Inhuman Uptimes!
Their T.O.S. has a 99,9% annual average uptime guarantee – but they’re closer to 99.99%).
Enough said!
6 WordPress Community Support
customer-supportNeed a fast tutorial that specifically tells you how to install WP on SiteGround?
SG has a long-standing reputation and alliance with the WordPress community, and takes a participative role.
They’re one of only 3 web hosts who come recommended by WordPress.org. Heck…they sponsor over 50 WordCamps annually – and even have employees who organise and speak at these events/meetups.
No surprise, the SG platform is optimised for WP websites – which most sites are. Other than caching boosts, you’ll get the SG Migrator, WordPress Staging; WordPress auto install, managements and updates – alongside expert support, available 24/7.
- HostPapa: Perfect for Small Business Owners
A Special 82% Discount for Our Readers (£1.95/Month) 🤩
Key Specifications:
100GB SSD Storage
Unlimited Bandwidth
Industry-Level Uptime
Solid Speeds – 705ms
Live Chat 24/7
Only £1.95 on Basic Plan
Uptime average: 99.95%
Hostpapa logo
Visit HostPapa
PROS
Strong Uptime
Great Support Options
30-Day Money-Back
CONS
Higher Renewal Fees
Not the Best Support Experience
HostPapa Review 🍕
HostPapa currently powers over half a million websites across North America and Canada alone. If you were browsing from the Americas, we’d recommend HostPapa over our choices above.
They perform against all of the key criteria solidly, ranking as an overall stellar value-for-money option. Basic plans are very competitive, considering the infrastructure offered (notably the customer support options).
Customer Support ☎️
On that note, they’ve accrued a great following, despite only being around since 2006.
One reason for this rise to stardom is that they provide pro customer support options, even in a few international languages, including French, Spanish, German and English.
Let’s have a closer look at exactly how they perform, measured up against the key criteria that makes for a world-leading hosting company.
Only £1.95 on Basic Plan 📉
We really like the value for money of the starter plan, which is under £2/mo. Just note that you have to go for a longer-term contract to get that deal.
The 3-year plan gives you the most value for money. Just know that the renewal prices sometimes go up quite a bit on some plans, so check out the small print.
Despite that, they do provide great value for money.
For example, on the basic starting plan, you get two websites, whereas most hosts offer only one. Plus they register your domain name for free, with 100 GB SSD storage and unlimited bandwidth.
Reliably Fast! 🎿
This is a major factor when it comes to getting great user engagement with your website’s content. The more speed you have, the more likely you are to convert visitors to customers.
A dedicated two-year tracking of their average page loading speed shows sub one- second times, of 705ms.
This is miles under the industry-standard of under 3 seconds.
Anything above 3 seconds is very bad for conversions. That means HostPapa is a clear industry-leader.
Great Support Options ☎️
Hostpapa-customer-supportHostPapa’s support gives the illusion that you are dealing with a local family business, rather than a massive web hosting company.
You get everything, from email to phone to live chat – even fax. As well as a massive library of self-help videos.
Support is 24/7. They have an immense level of phone-support, native to 18 countries. (This is far larger than most, and more than any other web host).
As mentioned in the intro, they have a wide selection of supported languages. Agents are fast, knowledgeable and chirpy –>>
STRONG Uptime 🆙
Any ‘Host Father’ needs to have 5 out of 5 stars in uptime, in order to be seen as a classic. HostPapa boasts a 99.95% uptime score, which is Godfather-worthy.
A year’s worth of monitoring shows that the most they have fallen – over the last year – is to 99.63% (in the month of February 2019).
Uptime is the amount of time that you are actually hosting a website live — and actually allowing visitors to visit!
Protection Power 💪
That’s the name of their proactive, automatic monitoring systems, which are used to give you security for any websites hosted with “the Papa.”
Once you set up a plan with them, Protection Power becomes a potential add-on feature. This puts an extra layer of security between you and potential hackers.
Protection Power is not free, but the basic plan is cheap, at £1.95 pounds / month. Definitely recommended if you’re concerned about your privacy being compromised.
Month’s Money-Back Guarantee 🗓️
Another hallmark sign that they are an industry-leading company: HostPapa honour their money-back guarantee, which is available on most of their hosting packages.
This gives you peace of mind, as it’s a no-risk commitment. Plus, when you first sign up, support will automatically transfer any website you already own, and link it to your free domain name.
➡️ And that’s it… An all-around strong choice that’s pleasantly reminiscent of pizza, and offers the works – without a crazy charge. Oh – and with top support!
- HostGator – UK Servers & Premium Support
Excellent Cloud Hosting Options (£2.20/Month)🐊
Key Specifications:
Cutting edge data center
Very experienced in the field
One click installation
More than 12000 servers
Uptime guarantee 99.99%
Hostgator
Visit HostGator
PROS
A lot of freebies
Free website creator
Solid customer support
CONS
Full potential needs to be payed for
Not the fastest
HostGator Review 🐊
If you have any confusion about cloud computing — or other hosting types — scroll down to the supporting section of this guide. I break it all down simply. Moving forward, even if this is the first time you’ve delved into the world of hosting, you’ve probably heard of HostGator.
They have over a decade in the game and are about as professional as you can get. You can expect lots of freebies: e.g. unlimited emails, disk space, and bandwidth.
Easy WordPress installation: use the one-click install.
Another impressive freebie is over £70 in Google Adwords marketing credit to promote your site.
Why It Has My Attention 🛎️
Just kidding.
HostGator are not just known due to their relentless marketing strategy in different mediums, and promotional deals.
The mega company has been around since 2002 and built serious infrastructure in that time. This allows them to make pretty big guarantees.
Their data centre is cutting-edge, with checks and balances in place that no single failure will put down the network. Very cool. They need more 😎
You shouldn’t expect issues with traffic capabilities, uptime or loading speed—particularly not with their cloud hosting service (not to be confused with cloud storage options). This takes things to the next level.
Over 12,000 servers in fact, with high-end support. This is one of the biggest around. They’ve won multiple awards and are very consistent — which is why they’ve become a household brand.
1. Cloud Hosting 🛠️
Cloud computing is mostly just called “the cloud,” which involves many computers or servers communicating in a virtual, non-physical space.
Because your virtual space can mimic having a quality dedicated server (see this guide’s supporting section), the level of security and speed are greater.
We call this a cluster cloud.
HostGator’s cloud service is standout, letting you climb into a higher plane of performance and flexibility so your customers get a stellar service.
Avoid resource constraints, because you’ll be guaranteed a level of single tenancy-style security that you simply can’t get in shared space. This gives you the edge against your competition.
You have more control: quickly increase or decrease your site’s resource capacity, based on demand. If you’re a YouTube superstar or bustling eCommerce store, this option may be critical for business, though VPS models are closely competitive.
Think of a marketer selling an online course for one week. You’ll want to take full advantage of traffic spikes.
Scroll to the supporting section of this guide — called Extra Credits — for more info on cloud hosting, VPS and other types. It could be crucial to your biz.
2. Cloud Uptime & Stability 🟢
HostGator are at the 99.99% range for Uptime — this is even in their contractual guarantee — which is a bleeding good figure.
If you use the cloud hosting package, you’ll be left with an even more robust setup—though at more cost than a shared setup (again see the end of this guide for proper explanations).
NB. Go to the host next down on the list if you are running a small up-and-coming biz and want as much guarantee as possible with less costs.
I wouldn’t go so far as to rule HostGator out — and certainly not if you have extra money for cloud hosting. HostGator even has eCommerce features, which I’ll go into in the next benefit.
They’re a serious contender, though cloud hosting is recommended more for mid-tier businesses, or those who hope to expand in the near future.
If you want to pay the cost, there is also the option for VPS hosting or even dedicated hosting which gets even more technical and costly—see the bottom of this guide for more.
3. Cloud Speed & Security 🛡️
You can expect remarkable speeds that are higher than average on the hosting market — this with a competitive price if you’re a mid-tier company.
This goes double if you choose to opt for a cloud hosting setup — it’s perhaps the second-fastest hosting plan available anywhere.
Dedicated servers are the very best, which I go into in the supporting section of this article. But that’s for the real big wigs.
You want to think of your cloud service as having all of the benefits of a dedicated server (again, see the supporting section) with fewer weaknesses.
hostgator#4 Cloud Customer Service 📟
A staple of any good host — I won’t stop pointing it out. In this case, it’s clear that Gator’s team are knowledgeable.
You can expect to talk to professionals who can get to the heart of your technical problem, when one arises.
Because of Gator’s sheer size, there may be some delay in getting through to support, but if you choose a cloud hosting plan—which costs more—you get speedier, more tailored attention.
Medium to large bizzes doing much of their business online — even indirectly — are going to want to climb the rungs of hosting types. One crash could cause irritating money losses.
5. FREE Website Creator & WordPress One-click Install ⚒️
You don’t need to have a fancy premium theme to attract customers to your site, which is why I never write off drag-and-drop editors.
If you’re advertising in other ways—or do not need to win over clients through branding—having a place to share details is good enough.
HostGator lets you rustle something up — there’s over 4,500 mobile-friendly themes to help you make a splash.
Using the native apps, you can have WordPress up and running in a few hours through the c-Panel dashboard.
Non-techies may not like c-panel but for technicians accustomed to it, they may prefer to have this as the homepage, rather than a customized version.
Choose a WordPress hosting plan specifically for increased loading speeds of up to 2.5 times—always a good way to get ahead of the competition.
6. Cloud eCommerce 🏪
As Amazon has taught us, it’s not just about building something that looks good when you’re in eCommerce. It’s all about converting visitors into sales.
eCommerce means selling online by the way. It’s the easiest it’s ever been; you don’t need to spend thousands on hiring a developer or learn to read the Matrix.
As people mostly shop on their mobiles, a responsive site is of prime importance, but most pages are nowadays anyway, so don’t worry too much.
With all the benefits we’ve already listed regarding cloud hosting, choose to use HostGator’s awesome free website builder and you’ll also find options for eCommerce.
Here’s what you get – a shopping cart to buy the selected product(s), review functionality to rank customer satisfaction publicly.
We’re not done – cool checkout options like promo codes, a search bar, and categorization options for your products based on how people shop.
Grab traffic and ensure you serve them optimally through a page with fast cloud loading times and reliability.
Should be said, I still recommend WordPress for site design, especially when you’re making sales through it (see support section of guide).
7. Long-Term Discounts/45-Day Money-Back Guarantee 💶
HostGator didn’t get as far as it did by not knowing how to market. The guarantee is notable not only for its long length but because it covers the 99.9 % uptime guarantee. You don’t need to sign a contract. Also, if you buy 36 months hosting, they’ll cut monthly hosting by 62%.
- Bluehost Review – Blue Is the New Cool
Most Popular High-Performance Host (£2.20/Month)📘
Key Specifications:
99% guaranteed uptime
491ms response time
Powers 2million websites worldwide
1 free domain
Two and a half decades of experience
Image
Visit Bluehost
PROS
Great value for budget pricing
Excellent customer support
Easy to use site-building software
One of the best sites for WordPress hosting
CONS
Add-ons can easily rack up as your choosing your plan
No Windows servers
Bluehost Review 🔵
Starting back in 1996 (which is part of the before-times), Bluehost has been at it for decades, so not only do they have tons of experience, they also have racked up over 2 million websites that they power. With those kinds of stats, you can bet your morning tea that they know what they’re doing.
1 Great for small and medium sites 📡
Given their experience, Bluehost actually serves starter business and people really, really well. If this is your first time starting a site, they have a pretty great website builder called Weebly, which is easy to use.
Not only that, but their user interface is pretty excellent, so you aren’t going to have a hard time navigating and doing things like you might with some other sites.
On top of that, Bluehost has one of the best customer support in the business, and with nearly 1,000 employees, there’s always somebody round to lend a hand or give you some advice. Thankfully this also translates to helping fix technical issues or any other problems you might be having beyond just setup
2 Competitive pricing 🪙
Bluehost also manages to have some of the most competitive pricing for small and medium sites. Shared hosting starts out at £2.20/month, VPS at £14.90/month and dedicated at £59.64/month.
Granted, you likely won’t be going for dedicated from the get go, but shared and VPS hosting are priced really well, especially considering the amount of stuff you’re getting out of them.
Ok, well maybe you’re more interested in starting WordPress, in which case you’ll be happy to know that WordPress themselves suggest Bluehost as the best WP host.
Starting at £2.20/month for shared WP hosting, all the way up to WP pro starting at £10.40/month, there’s a lot of options to go for. You also get a domain for all of these plans, plus their world-class customer support.
3 Great specs 📀
One thing that you’ll certainly appreciate is how well Bluehost operates. With low response times of 400-490ms and high uptimes of 99%, you’re getting industry-leading servers and service. Everybody wants great performance when it comes to their website, and Bluehost certainly won’t disappoint in that regard.
4 Lots of space 💿
Bluehost is one of the few web hosting providers out there that offer an unmetered plan, meaning that you can have as many people visiting your site and you can host whatever you want on there. They are also one of the few to offer unlimited space on the non-basic plans, although you do get 50GB with the basic one as well, which is still pretty good.
- Kinsta – Best for Small Business / Performance
It’s the Size of the Heart Not Wallet (£28.50/Month)🧡
Key Specifications
Best premium WordPress Hosting service
Loading speed of 307ms
20 servers worldwide
30 day money back guarantee
Five-year consecutive award streak
Kinsta Logo
Visit Kinsta
PROS
Innovating
Good for Both Starting and Big Businesses
Automatic Backups
CONS
No Email Hosting
A Tad Pricier
Kinsta Review 📙
I’ve heard this described as the best premium WordPress hosting service out there…now, that’s a pretty bold claim, but with a five-year consecutive award streak to back it up, Kinsta might be onto something.
This is a provider for serious business. From a small and rapidly growing team to an established company looking to streamline their performance, Kinsta has a plan for everyone. They’re fast, secure and comprehensive — words to make any CEO’s spine shiver with excitement.
I’ll get into loading times in the benefits section below. But first, with so much marketing gimmickry out there, let me give a smidgen of attention to who this company are.
Kinsta isn’t the only host provider that offers WordPress hosting — which we’ll discuss below — but they do some key things differently, putting themselves in a different league.
Why My Eye is on Kinsta 👀
I love innovation. People don’t often associate creativity with programming and web development. Those people would be wrong 😎
Kinsta’s the true new kid on the block. They were only founded in 2013 with a central office in LONDON TOWN (WAHEEYY!) – amongst other countries.
No, in all seriousness, this company really is standout and the speed with which they achieved their reputation says something about how innovative they really are!
But you’re a business owner, not a nerd, so I doubt you really care how cool their coding is. Well let’s put it in another language, Kinsta is robust, boasts impressive performance, and is guaranteed* to make your business grow.
*(may not actually make your business grow unless you’ve got something worth buying…but it’ll definitely help).
On the WordPress Hosting package, their team handles things like backing up and securing your website, in case something goes wrong (it can be done manually if you want, though).
Kinsta offers a pretty comprehensive range of hosting services, whether your business is just starting, or already in need of some heavy-lifting hosting.
So, whatever your circumstances, if you want some serious, premium hosting and have got the cash to splash, Kinsta is the service for you.
1. WP Hosting — Faster Loading Times ⌚
I mentioned HostGator earlier as my top cloud hosting pick. Kinsta is a bit of a mixed bag in this regard—a better expression might be “Best of both worlds.”
I’ve seen page loading speeds of 307ms over a 30-day analysis, which is well ahead of the average #ftw – that’s under a third of a second.
The loading speed may be higher with the more comprehensive “multipurpose” WordPress themes with tonnes of features. That’s to be expected, however.
Their WP plan runs on the Google Cloud Platform, which is essentially a cloud network that many companies use, including Philips, Best Buy, Snapchat, and Spotify.
Cloud hosting — also known as cluster cloud hosting — gives you the benefit of a personal virtual space without having to rent a whole server.
Kinsta uses 20 servers located across the globe, with more added all the time.
If you’re a start-up, you’ll want to attract lots of customers, and you’ll want them fast. Likewise, if you’re a big biz and you’re feeling the strain of huge customer loads, you want things sped up and optimized. Get the right package, and Kinsta’s cloud-based service will excel in either of these needs.
2. WP Hosting — Less Downtime ⏲️
With so many computers speaking to each other —“cloud computing” is another alias for cloud hosting — the chances of crashes dwindle.
It’s simply far less likely that several servers all across the world will crash at the same time, thus send your web site down the chute.
Plus, the automatic systems check for downtime issues every five minutes, while the 24/7 support team is on call to deal with any problems.
If your site suddenly needs a surge of resources to handle a spike in traffic – no problem. This is the beauty of combining WP optimization with cloud hosting.
Take advantage of viral attention without worrying about your site squeezing your bandwidth, as a shared hosting setup would automatically do.
3. WP Hosting — Outsourcing & Customer Support 🎧
The Kinsta team places your website in an environment optimized for WP websites, which explains the boosted performance metrics.
The customer support are also specialists in WordPress-related issues. Some are even WP developers!
Backups are automatic — on file for at least a fortnight (and up to a month). If you want to find lost information, it’s a straightforward process. They take place each day, with the option of making it hourly available as default.
As a last tidbit, there are data centres in Europe to choose from. If your customers are mostly in the UK, grab one closest to it. That’s a useful bit of control.
4. WP Hosting — Testing (Staging Site) 🔦
Very cool feature. The staging site lets you test out experimental and everyday edits to your site, before publishing or adding to your main site.
Maybe you have new bits of code, plugins (special features/capabilities), or changes to your look. You can quickly test these out before going live.
Kinsta’s basic plan covers you for 25,000 visitors a month, a reasonable amount for a new and growing business. Should you overshoot this (the pains of success, I know) there’s an overcharge fee. But at 76p per 1,000 extra visitors, it isn’t going to break the bank.
The plans scale up from roughly “I’m a small business owner” (25,000 visitors per month) to “I own business itself” (2,500,000 visitors per month). Like I keep saying, whatever the scale of your hosting needs, Kinsta’s got you.
All these plans come with a 30-Day money-back guarantee with all the typical bells and whistles thrown in.
You won’t get an entry-level pricing plan here, but if you’re serious about getting the best service possible, then that shouldn’t really matter.
And you’ve graduated from the first semester of our class. Now it’s time to round out our knowledge so that all the terms I’m using start to make sense. 🎓
top 10 web hosting
The best web host for the majority of our readers is Hostinger because it includes everything your website needs at a great price. Save up to 80% on Hostinger web hosting today.
- Hostinger – Best overall
- DreamHost – Best value for shared hosting
- Bluehost – Best for new WordPress websites
- HostGator – Best for simple websites
- GreenGeeks – Best eco-friendly hosting
- SiteGround – Best WordPress-certified host for speed and security
- A2 Hosting – Fast & reliable shared hosting
- InMotion – Best VPS hosting
- WPEngine – Best managed WordPress hosting
- Nexcess – Best for ecommerce hosting
Our research team reviewed and tested dozens of web hosting providers to narrow it down to the 10 on this list.
Each review covers the highlights and pricing for each web host. After the reviews is a buying guide to help you compare the best options.
Hostinger – Best Overall
- STARTS AT JUST $1.99 PER MONTH
- FREE WEEKLY BACKUPS
- FREE SSL CERTIFICATE
- 30-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE
Hostinger offers dependable web hosting at a great price. Shared hosting plans start at $1.99 per month, which includes free weekly backups and enough bandwidth for 10,000 visitors to your site.
Normally you have to back up your site yourself or pay extra, but you get that peace of mind for free with Hostinger.
The most popular option is the Premium Shared Hosting plan which costs $2.59 per month. This lets you create up to 100 websites and host 25,000 visitors. You’ll also get a free domain for one year and a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate to secure your website.
The Premium Shared Hosting plan provides 100 GB SSD storage, which is enough for various website content. Should you need more space, upgrade to one of their VPS or cloud hosting plans.
Hostinger uses its own control panel called hPanel. Thanks to the eye-catching and well-organized navigation icons, it’s user-friendly and easy to navigate. It also comes with an auto installer that lets you set up WordPress or other content management systems using only a few clicks.
Another great feature is their dedicated WordPress dashboard on hPanel.
You can manage several tasks, such as updating the core WordPress version, activating or deactivating plugins, and enabling maintenance mode from the hPanel. A navigation button lets you access your WordPress dashboard via hPanel with a single click.
LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress (LSCWP) is automatically installed when you set up WordPress. Its server-level cache and other optimization features help you accelerate the website for a better user experience.
Hostinger ensures your maximum online presence with its 99.9% uptime guarantee. Quick-response 24/7 live chat support will also assist you whenever you need help.
DreamHost – Best Value for Shared Hosting
- UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH
- FREE PRIVACY PROTECTION
- RECOMMENDED BY WORDPRESS
- 24/7 IN-HOUSE SUPPORT
DreamHost is an employee-owned web host that’s home to more than 1.5 million websites. People trust DreamHost because they provide fast websites, at great prices, in clear terms.
The company has a 100% uptime guarantee and will compensate you if your site goes down. After signing up, if you are not happy with the performance, you can cancel within the first 97 days to receive a full refund.
There are no surprises, just a streamlined web hosting experience that beginners can master quickly. Advanced users will be happy to find that they can access anything they need without having to upgrade plans.
As far as shared hosting goes, DreamHost provides the most value of any web host out there.
Free daily backups of your site? Unlimited traffic? It sounds too good to be true, but it’s not.
As long as you’re running a legitimate website, you never have to worry about bandwidth or backups, even on DreamHost’s most budget-friendly hosting plans.
Dreamhost keeps your contact information from being registered publicly with your domain. Almost all of web hosts charge a fee for this, but it’s free with DreamHost.
It’s also a great option for WordPress hosting. DreamHost is one of three web hosts that is officially recommended by WordPress. It’s virtually hassle-free with one-click WordPress installation and automatic updates.
If you have a WordPress site, DreamHost will migrate it free of charge.
They also include a no-code WordPress website builder with every hosting plan. Roll out a new site quickly and make changes going forward, even if you’ve never built a site before.
DreamHost shared hosting starts at $2.59 per month for one website with a Shared Starter plan. This is a great price for everything many small organizations will ever need.
Ticketed customer service is available 24/7, and you will always communicate with one of DreamHost’s in-house team. Phone support is an add-on for shared hosting plans, but you will be able to get help through email and live chat.
Bluehost – Best for New WordPress WebSites
- NORMALLY $8.99/MONTH
- FREE DOMAIN AND SSL CERTIFICATE
- RECOMMENDED BY WORDPRESS
- 30-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE
Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosting companies in the world, especially among people launching their WordPress websites. Bluehost is one of three hosts that is officially recommended by WordPress, and we agree.
They offer great rates and a beginner-friendly platform that makes every aspect of running a WordPress website easy. You can certainly build other types of websites on Bluehost, but it is definitely set up to work best with WordPress.
Most of the time Bluehost will walk you through a task the first time, like setting up a blog or email account on your site.
If you get stuck or have a problem, Bluehost has 24/7 support by phone or live chat. The support number and live chat options are listed right on the site, so you can reach out for help within two clicks.
Installing WordPress takes one click, as do hundreds of other apps available in Bluehost’s deep app marketplace.
Bluehost also offers fantastic analytics and SEO tools to track how well your website is ranking for specific keywords. This gives you a good idea of how you should optimize your site for the best search rankings.
The Basic shared hosting plan is usually $8.99 per month, but there are major discounts if you are a new customer. If you sign up for three years and lock in the price, you can get it at $4.95 per month.
With a 12-month commitment, the price drops to $3.45 per month. Like other hosts, renewal pricing is higher than promotional pricing, so I recommend signing up for a longer contract to lock in the low price.
Quick Sprout readers an even bigger discount on Bluehost. New customers can click here to get a rate of $2.75 per month when they sign up for a new three-year contract.
If your site keeps growing and you want to upgrade, Bluehost gives you lots of options: managed WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting. When you are ready for more server power and control, you can grow and stick with the same provider.
Bluehost is a very safe play for people who want to build their site with WordPress. If you want to use another content management system besides WordPress, there will probably be a little extra legwork and backend maintenance.
HostGator – Best for Simple Websites
- NORMALLY $8.95/MONTH
- MONTH-TO-MONTH AT $10.95
- FREE DOMAIN AND SSL CERTIFICATE
- 45-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE
HostGator offers all the hosting essentials you need at a great price, plus comes with a 45-day money-back guarantee. If you just need a standard business info website with products, services, “our story”, and so on, HostGator makes it as easy as possible.
HostGator offers an extensive list of how-to guides for technical support. If you don’t find the answers you need, you can turn to phone, live chat, and email support.
Unlike some hosts, HostGator does include support in all its plans. If you want a hosting plan that’s cheap and includes support, this is the host for you.
If you want to get your hands dirty, there is a bit of a learning curve to taking advantage of their advanced options.
HostGator does offer Windows hosting in addition to Linux, as well as a variety of options to upgrade, including cloud hosting, VPS hosting, managed WordPress, and a dedicated server. Shared hosting plans start at $2.64/month with a three-year contract.
QuickSprout readers can get up to 66% off new HostGator plans using the link.
If you’re interested in trying HostGator, I recommend taking full advantage of the 45-day money-back guarantee and testing out their support thoroughly before committing.
Overall, this is a great web host for simple deployment and uses like a company website that doesn’t necessarily see a ton of traffic each month. However, with VPS options, it’ll allow you to scale if you need.
GreenGeeks – Best Eco-Friendly Hosting
- NORMALLY $10.95/MONTH
- FREE DOMAIN NAME
- FREE WILDCARD SSL
- UNLIMITED WEB SPACE
GreenGeeks is an eco-friendly alternative to other web hosting providers.
What’s that mean? It means the company uses renewable energy to power its web hosting services. So you can feel good about creating your website while showing your support for environmental sustainability.
Aside from being good to the planet, GreenGeeks’ web hosting services are top-notch. They offer fast speeds, solid uptime, and great solutions for:
- WordPress Hosting
- WooCommerce Hosting
- Reseller Web Hosting
- Virtual Private Servers
- Shared Hosting
Bottom line: This is a fantastic option for eco-conscious businesses and websites.
Here’s a look at its prices for shared hosting.
Like other hosts, GreenGeeks provides an automatic one-click WordPress installer and auto-updates to keep your WordPress site up to date.
It also provides daily backups and advanced security features in order to help you keep your data safe and secure.
GreenGeeks also stays up to date with the latest technology like PHP7, SSD, CDN, and more. This helps make sure your website always stays fast and secure.
Finally, 24/7 support is available by phone, chat, or via a ticket system. GreenGeeks support reps are typically very quick to respond and can assist with a wide range of issues.
I’m a big fan of GreenGeeks for its great service and dedication to helping the planet with environmentally-friendly web hosting plans. If you’re looking for a “green” hosting company, GreenGeeks is just what you need.
SiteGround – Best WordPress Certified Host For Speed and Security
- STARTS AT $2.99/MONTH
- FREE SSL, EMAIL, CDN, & BACKUPS
- RECOMMENDED BY WORDPRESS
- 30-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE
SiteGround is built to deliver top-class speed and rock-solid security for WordPress hosting. Currently it’s running a huge promotion. You can get 80% off all annual hosting plans and a free website transfer. It makes a good deal even better.
Hosting on SiteGround means you won’t have to worry about speed or security at all. It starts with the technology the hosting is built upon. SiteGround utilizes Google Cloud to maintain swift and stable connections, and SSD persistent data storage to ensure low latency.
Of course, you’re not on the hook for any of this–you just have to sign up for SiteGround and launch your WordPress site–they’ll take care of the heavy lifting on the backend.
SiteGround security is on constant alert. It runs server health checks every 0.5 seconds and its AI-driven anti-bot system blocks between 500,000 and 2 million brute force attack attempts every hour.
This combination of speed and security can work for most sites. But as one of WordPress’ recommended web hosts, SiteGround is particularly skilled at delivering this performance for WordPress sites and includes an extra layer of security just for those sites.
Plus, all SiteGround plans—not just the WordPress hosting options—include one-click WordPress installation, the WP Starter site builder, and auto-updates for both the WordPress platform and its plugins.
For a limited time, you can receive up to 80% off all annual Site Ground hosting plans:
- StartUp: $2.99/month for one year, paid annually
- GrowBig: $4.69/month for one year, paid annually
- GoGeek: $7.99/month for one year, paid annually
Keep in mind that each plan will renew at a higher rate after one year. SiteGround also gives you options at checkout to pay for a 24-month or 36-month term instead– and gives nice discounts on renewals longer than one year. Two-year renewals get a 20% discount on the base renewal rate and three-year renewals get 30% off.
So, in terms of long-term value, you’re still getting the best deal by capitalizing on their great intro rate for one year up front.
Altogether, SiteGround offers the best technology and services to host your WordPress site and keep it fast and safe for all visitors.
A2 Hosting – Fast and Reliable Shared Hosting
- NORMALLY $10.99/MONTH
- MONTH-TO-MONTH PRICING AT $9.99
- FREE DOMAIN AND SSL CERTIFICATE
- 30-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
A2 Hosting stands out for its great speed and low prices. It’s what the company is known for.
At every hosting tier (shared, VPS, dedicated), A2 Hosting beats other hosts on speed. If you’re coming from another shared web host, you’re likely going to see an improvement in loading speed once you migrate to A2.
With their Turbo Boost and Turbo Max plans, you’ll get access to their Turbo Servers. They boast that it’s 20x faster than their other servers and includes:
- 40% faster AMD EPYC CPU performance
- 2x faster to first byte
- Manage 9x more traffic
- 3x faster read/write speeds with NVMe drives
A2 Hosting also has a 99.9% uptime commitment on all plans so you know you’ll have a reliable host that won’t be down often.
They offer free site migration with each plan too. If you’ve set your site up on a bad host and want to migrate, this is a fantastic deal. It’ll save you dozens of hours trying to get your site rebuilt. The A2 Hosting team takes care of it for you.
Like many of the other web hosts, there are 1-click installs for all the popular CMS tools like WordPress, Magento, and Drupal.
Note: Their startup plan includes only one website.
If you plan on hosting multiple websites, you’ll need to get the Drive plan which is an extra $2/month after the promotional period ends.
One trick to save money with A2 Hosting: the promotional prices end on renewal. To lock in the 63% discount for as long as possible, go for the tri-annual billing which will bill for three years at once. You’ll get 2 years of hosting for free.
InMotion Hosting – Best VPS Hosting
- NORMALLY $17.99/MONTH
- FREE DOMAIN AND SSL CERTIFICATE
- FREE AND UNLIMITED EMAIL
- 90-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
InMotion is the host for you if you’re looking for a virtual private server (VPS). They have the best pricing around along with top-notch customer support as an added value. Something you usually have to sacrifice for a better price. But not with Inmotion.
With VPS hosting, you get more control over the server than you do with shared hosting. This is great, but you definitely need to know what you’re doing configuring a server.
If you’re not super confident in the command line, you can opt for a managed VPS plan from InMotion. They’ll handle the technical side of things and keep an eye on security for you.
For the developers out there, InMotion VPS includes optional root access with every plan. You won’t have to upgrade to make the changes you want to the server.
Whenever questions come up, you can reach out to the company’s excellent customer support team. Don’t believe it? Try for yourself. InMotion’s 90-day free trial period gives you plenty of time to test out the quality of support.
Managed hosting, great support, and the latest technology–these are the reasons people choose to go with InMotion.
I highly recommend this option for ecommerce. Online shoppers like a fast experience with no hiccups. With InMotion VPS you can ensure that your site has the resources it needs to handle any traffic spike.
There are also a number of fail-safes built into the hosting platform. If anything happens to your server, InMotion will automatically spin your site back up almost instantly on a server in the same cluster.
You also won’t have to worry about SSL certificates, which keep your shoppers’ credit card info private. All InMotion VPS plans include AutoSSL, which lets you enable this crucial protection for every website visitor with a single click.
VPS hosting with InMotion gives you the speed you need along with the peace of mind that your site will always be safe and secure.
Managed VPS hosting starts as low as $17.99 per month. Visit InMotion to find out if you can get an even better deal today.
WP Engine – Best Managed WordPress Hosting
- NORMALLY $30/MONTH
- MONTH-TO-MONTH PRICING
- FREE DOMAIN AND SSL CERTIFICATE
- 30-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
WP Engine is one of the best (if not the best) WordPress hosts out there. Full stop.
They provide a truly excellent product, that’s highly optimized for WordPress websites. If you want all the storage and speed you can get for your WP blog or online store, this is the host for you.
It does come at a price though. A fully managed WordPress host is noticeably more expensive than shared hosting providers.
WP Engine’s lowest-priced plan is $23/month, and that’s only for one 10GB site with max 25,000 visitors/month. You get two months free when you sign up for a year, however, and can get an even better deal signing up through Quicksprout.
Yes, the price tag is higher than other hosts, but when you factor in what WP Engine does, it’s an incredibly appealing option for WordPress site owners.
As a managed WordPress host, WP Engine only provides service to WordPress users, which means its entire infrastructure can be optimized for WordPress. Your site will be wicked fast, there’s virtually no downtime, and lots of maintenance tasks get taken care of automatically.
It also offers special plans for people who are running an online store with WordPress. These are much more expensive than managed WordPress hosting, but you’ll get access to premium WordPress ecommerce themes and other tools that would cost hundreds of dollars sold separately.
Customer support is also laser-focused on WordPress, which makes for highly competent knowledgeable support staff available through tracked tickets and on live chat 24/7.
Bottom line: If you want a blazing-fast WordPress site where everything is taken care of automatically, you’ll want WP Engine. You’ll be paying more in order to get a lot more.
Nexcess – Best for Ecommerce Hosting
- MANAGED WEB HOSTING FOR 9 CMS
- GREAT FOR ECOMMERCE SITES
- 24/7 CUSTOMER SERVICE
- CHOOSE FROM 9 DIFFERENT PLANS
Nexcess is a web hosting solution from Liquid Web — a provider I’ve featured on my lists for best dedicated web hosting, best VPS hosting, and best WordPress hosting.
So it’s no real shock that Nexcess makes my list of best web hosts. Where it really shines is managed ecommerce hosting. This is ideal for people who need a speedy site, but don’t want to be the one configuring the backend.
Nexcess really specializes in these managed hosting arrangements, and offers a great selection of ecommerce platforms to build on:
- Magento
- Woocommerce
- WordPress
- Drupal
- BigCommerce
- Sylius
- ExpressionEngine
- Craft CMS
- Orocrm
Again, all of these are managed ecommerce hosting plans–you won’t be on the hook for configuring the server or troubleshooting issues that pop up.
Need more speed? Not a problem. The Nexcess Cloud Accelerator—a feature that adds a layer to the cloud stack–increases the speed of your website’s loading time. That’s a huge boon because speed is everything when it comes to keeping your customers on your website and browsing.
Here are the three most popular ecommerce plans from Nexcess.
There are many more plans available for each type of hosting, it just depends on the resources you need.
This makes Nexcess perfect for any growing business looking to scale. No matter where you are with your business, there’s likely a plan for you with Nexcess.
On top of that, it has a dedicated support team available 24/7 to help you address any technical issues as they occur.
If you’re running an ecommerce website or if you have a startup that you know will grow quickly, Nexcess should definitely be in consideration.
Prices vary depending on which CMS platform you want to use. But WordPress plans start at $13.30 per month.