Web Hosting

How We Ranked the Leading Web Hosting Services

Classification

We started by identifying different groups of services, which helps us make detailed and accurate comparisons. At this stage, we are looking into providers’ industry and business size focus.

Industry Focus

While most software types target different industries, that is not quite the case with web hosting. All websites, regardless of the vertical they operate in, need a place to live on the internet, meaning that web hosting sites don’t have a specific industry focus.

We can, however, divide websites into ecommerce and non-ecommerce. Web hosts with ecommerce functionalities and add-ons would be a preferred choice for online store websites, which is the closest thing to a specific industry focus in the field.

Business Size

When it comes to business size, the situation is somewhat different. There’s a wide array of features that classify different platforms as suitable for SMBs, large organizations, or personal use.

For instance, many web host providers limit the number of sites you can create on a server to a single website. If you want to start a blog, this limitation won’t affect you. However, if you have a large organization with multiple website entities, you would want a provider that allows you to create an unlimited number of sites.

Storage space and bandwidth limits can also be a deciding factor whether a platform is better suited for a small business or large organization.

Types of Web Hosting Services

The web hosting market is thriving, and, in just five years from now, is projected to reach $216.59 billion. While this stat alone tells us that there are many providers, what’s important for the next step of our classification process are the types of hosting on the market.

Shared Hosting

This is undoubtedly the first choice for individuals and small businesses. The reason why shared web hosting service enjoys such tremendous popularity is its affordable pricing.

The question is — how can providers offer low prices? Easily. Shared hosting is designed to offer a single server to a multitude of websites. On the flip side, you’ll often find severe limitations in terms of storage space and bandwidth.

Ideally, all websites should use an equal amount of resources. However, due to resource limitations, as soon as a website starts getting a higher volume of traffic than predicted, its performance goes down. Luckily, the best website hosting providers allow users to upgrade their packages so that they can get more resources as their website grows. This type of service is perfect for first-time users, as well as for individuals and startups with static websites.

VPS Hosting

A Virtual Private Server or VPS hosting is similar to shared hosting, as it also uses one physical server. The difference, however, is that VPS hosting deploys several virtual machines on a physical server, with each of them having predetermined computing power.

Web hosting companies that offer this service separate accounts. This prevents a problem on one account from affecting another. In addition, VPS hosting comes with a higher level of security and customization levels. Users have more computing power, but the pricing is somewhat higher compared to shared hosting. Also, VPS hosting is not ideal for beginners that don’t have the technical knowledge to reap the benefits of the sheer level of customization of this service.

Dedicated Hosting

With this type of service, a single user gets a server entirely for themselves. Dedicated hosting providers offer managed and unmanaged hosting. With managed dedicated hosting, the host is responsible for server configuration, maintenance, and updates. Unmanaged dedicated hosting meanwhile puts all of these tasks in the hands of the end-user. This type of service is an excellent option for large web projects that require a significant amount of resources.

Cloud Hosting

This is somewhat similar to VPS hosting, as it, too, utilizes virtual machines. However, instead of a single physical server, cloud hosting companies offer a network of servers. One of the biggest advantages of this type of service is flexibility. Namely, users can scale up and down computing power, bandwidth, and storage based on their requirements. This level of scalability is particularly useful in handling unexpected traffic spikes.

Reseller Hosting

This type of service allows users to buy services from a hosting provider and sell them as their own.

Essential Features of Best Web Hosting Services

Before we look into the essential features, it’s important to emphasize that we’ll be talking about shared hosting. The reason for this is that this type of service is considered to be the starting ground, and, as we’ve already noted, it is a budget-friendly option.

Uptime Guarantee

Excellent customer support, lightning-fast page loads, and other crucial features expected of the best hosting sites mean nothing without high uptime rates. To prevent excessive downtime, web hosts have data centers in multiple locations.

With low uptime rates, a website can experience hours of downtime, which hurts its overall ranking and user experience. With that in mind, we look for hosts that provide an uptime guarantee of 99.9%, which is the industry standard. These percentages translate to 8.6 hours of downtime per year. Needless to say, providers with higher uptime rates have a better ranking in our table.

Technical Support

Another crucial element of good hosting is the technical support of website hosting companies. Despite shared hosting being user-friendly even for the inexperienced, customers should be able to get in touch with the support team easily.

Customer support availability and communication channels are therefore essential. A good host will make its support team available at all times and via different communication channels, including live chat, phone, email, and web ticketing system.

Speed

While evaluating the best web hosting sites, and classifying their servers as fast, we take two things into account: solid-state drives and CDN networks.

Solid-State Drives (SSDs)

Web servers can be installed with hard disk or solid-state drives, the latter securing higher server speed and performance. To illustrate the difference between HDDs and SSDs, we’ll add some numbers behind the average handle times of input and output requests. Namely, SSDs can process I/O requests 20 times faster than standard hard drives. With that in mind, we focused on finding website hosting sites that utilize SSDs.

CDN Network

Another component that improves a website’s performance is a content delivery network or CDN. Web hosts that run their servers on traditional disk drives often include a CDN service in their offering. The reason? Enhanced website performance and speed.

Namely, a CDN network consists of numerous servers in many different locations. Based on a site visitor’s physical location, the network delivers website content from the server closest to the visitor. This way, visitors get access to requested content quickly. Some of the best hosting companies out there rely on CloudFlare CDN. Additionally, many of them have in-house CDN networks.

Storage/Disk Space

Storage space is the amount of space users get on a web host’s server. This space is used for storing text files, emails, databases, images, and other types of files related to a web project. The amount of storage space you’ll need depends on the type of website you want to host. If you plan on launching a media-rich website, it’s best to look for a web hosting provider with unlimited storage space.

Bandwidth/Data Transfer

Bandwidth is commonly put in the same basket with storage space. This term revolves around the amount of data that can be transferred between your site, the internet, and your site’s visitors. However, almost every provider will specify how much data can go through your account, even if they offer unlimited bandwidth.

What you want to focus on is whether the bandwidth is metered on unmetered. The top web hosting companies usually offer unmetered bandwidth, but that means that there’s an upper limit to how much of it you can use. If you cross this limit and use more than what is considered “normal usage,” you’ll get a warning from your provider, reminding you to cut down on bandwidth usage.
You shouldn’t worry, though, as the best hosts will allow you to track your resource usage, and, more importantly, easily scale resources according to your needs. Moreover, if you’re just starting, the amount of bandwidth hosting sites offer will be more than enough for your site. As it starts to grow, you’ll easily switch to a plan with more bandwidth capacity.

Extra Tip: Calculate How Much Bandwidth You Need

What you can do to ensure the package you choose will offer enough resources for your web project is to calculate how much bandwidth you’ll need. Simply multiply the number of monthly visitors on your site by the average size of your webpage and by the average number of pages your visitors view each time they go to your site.

Finding the best web hosting is largely dependent on knowing your own needs. Having the information about the amount of bandwidth you need will allow you to find the plan that best suits your requirements, as well as avoid paying for resources you won’t actually use.

Databases

With databases, you shouldn’t put the emphasis on whether a web hosting service limits the number of databases since that doesn’t affect your site’s performance. You should check these limitations if you plan on hosting multiple sites, and want to add custom code sets in separate databases.

In the latter scenario, you should check the supported database management systems (typically MySQL and PostgreSQL). Ideally, hosts should offer the option of having an unlimited number of databases.

Control Panel

An intuitive, easy-to-use control panel is synonymous with a great user experience. cPanel is the most common choice among the best web hosting companies, even though many of them have proprietary control panels.

From a control panel, users can easily manage their website. That includes domain, SSL, and email management, web page creation, as well as application installations. Taking this into account, a user-friendly control panel is a core feature of web hosting.

1-Click Software Installations

1-click software installations are another crucial component of the top web hosting sites. As the name suggests, these programs allow users to install various applications on their account with a single click.

As is the case with control panels, many providers have in-house app installation tools, while others rely on installers such as Softaculous. Some of the many apps you can install with this tool include WordPress, Prestashop, and others that can improve your site’s functionality. Plus, you’ll save a lot of time with auto-installers.

Email Accounts

The best web hosting companies often include email hosting in their offer. With top-priced shared plans, the number of email accounts you can create is typically unlimited, while basic plans limit you to a single email account. Autoresponders, spam protection, different filtering options, mobile phone access, and email forwarding are some of the many features included in email hosting.

Security Features

Top hosting companies should have a myriad of security features to keep their servers, as well as your website protected from security threats. Some of the core features in this regard include:

• Server monitoring — a good web host will monitor its servers 24/7/365, and have a reliable system for detecting and resolving server problems before they impact stability and performance.
• Backup and restore options — users should be able to access backup data easily, and if possible, automate the backup process. Some of the best web hosting service providers offer 1-click restore systems, too, allowing users to regain access to their sites’ databases, files, etc.
• DDoS protection — every web host should have adequate DDoS protection in place, as well as a good recovery strategy. Hosts that support a CDN provide even higher security levels, with these systems, apart from distributing content to site visitors, also absorbing DDoS attacks.
• SSL certificate — reliable web hosts will make sure your site uses an SSL certificate. This feature encrypts the data between a server and a client, which is especially important for online stores.

Domains & Subdomains

In terms of domain hosting, the best providers will often include free domain registration with different packages. In most instances, users can obtain the best domain hosting service with a free domain transfer or registration by opting for a yearly package.

While ranking hosts, we paid special attention and rated each host based on whether they have a free domain offer, as well as the number of domains and subdomains a user can have on their account. The ones offering unlimited domains and simple domain management got a boost in our rankings.

Site Migration

Apart from a free domain, the best web hosting company will also offer a free site migration to its clients. Site migration is not one of the tasks users should do with the help of tutorials, which is why we’ve selected website hosts that offer technical support to migrate a website to their servers.

Website Builder

Finding a place on the internet where your website will live is a big step towards launching your web project, but it’s not the only step. You have to create the website in question, which for newbies or non-techy users can be a costly project — that is, without the proper tools.

With that in mind, we’ve researched the best website hosts that offer a free website building tool. The question remains though — what website development tools qualify as the best website builders? An intuitive user interface, drag-and-drop functionality, and a wide variety of website building modules should help beginners and experienced users alike build a website in no time.

Pricing Policy

In terms of prices, cheap web hosting isn’t our main agenda. Our goal instead is to find affordable solutions, but we won’t recommend a host that risks the quality of services they offer for the sake of helping you save a few bucks a month.

We’ve therefore evaluated dozens of providers to find the ones that offer excellent service within a reasonable price range. Since we’ve reviewed numerous solutions, we are quite familiar with industry standards when it comes to web hosting prices. Any provider that offers packages that are either way below or above the industry standard won’t make it on our list.

We look at two more things in our evaluation, namely introductory and regular prices. Some web hosts will make an introductory offer you can’t resist, only to overprice their regular services. Needless to say, such providers are not included in our table. Lastly, the best web hosting site should offer a money-back guarantee. Users should have the freedom to take a plan for a test drive, and if they’re not satisfied, to get a refund.

Reviews of Web Hosting Services

Hostinger

At a Glance

What best describes Hostinger is its perfect price-to-quality ratio. The host offers budget-friendly plans and allows its customers to easily scale up their website’s resources. The company’s 99.9% uptime guarantee helps Hostinger rank among the best hosting websites on the market. Apart from a free domain, SSL certificate, and site migration, Hostinger also offers an easy-to-use in-house control panel, which makes managing your website as easy as a breeze.

Pros

• Custom-built easy-to-use control panel
• SSD storage
• 30-day money-back guarantee
• Free drag-and-drop website builder
• Affordable pricing

Cons

• Not all plans come with free SSL and domain
• Locating live chat support somewhat tricky

Features

Speed and affordability are Hostinger’s primary strengths. The provider further offers plenty of features that help it rank among the best web host platforms out there. Speed-wise, Hostinger has data centers in seven countries. Behind Hostinger’s servers is LiteSpeed Web Server, a web server software that uses minimal CPU and memory resources, serves thousands of clients simultaneously, and delivers blazing-fast page load times. Even though LiteSpeed is equipped with a cache plugin, the platform also has its in-house caching tool to increase websites’ speed even further.

As one of the best hosting providers, Hostinger has uptime rates at 99.9%. The company’s customer support is available at all times, and users can get all of their questions answered by friendly and knowledgeable support agents.

Now, even though Hostinger limits the amount of bandwidth you can use on a monthly basis, the chances that your website will reach the limit are quite low. The provider offers generous 100GB of bandwidth per month, which is a lot given that 99% of websites use 5GB of bandwidth per month. Other features that make Hostinger a top web hosting company include SSD storage, and an intuitive website builder, as well as free daily backups, site migrations, SSL, and domain name available with the host’s top-tier shared plan.

Pricing

When it comes to pricing, Hostinger’s fees are tough to beat. The cheapest option is the Single Shared plan, which goes as low as $0.80/month with a four-year subscription plan. This affordable web hosting plan includes one website, one email account, and 100GB of bandwidth, while the renewal plan price ranges from $7.99/month to $2.15/month depending on the length of the subscription.

If you want unlimited bandwidth, email accounts, databases, and a free domain, among other features, you’d have to go with the Premium Shared Hosting plan. Its monthly introductory price stands at $11.95/month, same as the renewal fee. You can also subscribe to a four-year plan for $2.15/month, and get all the benefits that come with this cheap web hosting package. The renewal fee for this subscription sits at $3.49/month.

Lastly, the Business Shared Hosting plan includes everything from the Premium plan, and much more. Daily backups, free SSL, and four times more processing power and memory than what you’d get with the Single Shared plan are all available with the Business plan. The price of this package is $3.45/month with a 48-month subscription, while the renewal fee stands at $7.95/month. Some services, however, are not included in any of Hostinger’s website hosting plans, and you have to purchase them as add-ons. Two such services are SEO Toolkit Pro and Priority Support.

HostGator

At a Glance

A dedicated customer support representatives available around the clock, in-house developed 1-click app and script installation tool, and unmetered bandwidth are some of the features that classify HostGator as one of the best web hosts on the market. This provider also includes a free domain and SSL certificate with its entry-tier shared plans. Plus, all hosting accounts are installed within 15 minutes and for free.

Pros

• 99.9% uptime guarantee
• Unmetered disk space and bandwidth
• An unlimited number of databases
• Competitive pricing
• Promotional ad credits

Cons

• 1-click restore charged as an add-on
• Customer support response times could be quicker

Features

Taking into account speed, customer support, and uptime rates, HostGator is undoubtedly among the top web hosting sites out there. The uptime guarantee is at 99.9%, which means that you, as a website owner, won’t have to worry about excessive downtime.

While HostGator’s customer support team doesn’t have the fastest response times in the industry, they are always ready to help. The live chat representatives are extremely knowledgeable and will help you understand all the basics and features even before you become a customer. They want you to know what you’ll get if you sign up with them, which marks a level of transparency seen only in the best website hosting services.

Next, HostGator includes site migration in all plans. So, if you’ve already signed up with another host, and want to move your content to Hostgator, you can do so for free. The number of domains you can have on your account ranges from one to unlimited, depending on the plan you choose. One of the crucial features of this top web hosting company is the ease of use that comes with the latest version of cPanel. From here, users can manage their website files, databases, email accounts, as well as check their website traffic, and CPU and RAM usage.

Lastly, HostGator performs weekly server scans, and if it finds any malware files, it sends them directly into a quarantine folder. HostGator will also inform the account owner about scan results and suggest the best security practices.

Pricing

HostGator offers three packages — Hatchling, Baby, and Business. These web hosting plans are priced at $2.75/month, $3.95/month, and $5.95/month, respectively.

All plans include unlimited storage and bandwidth, and a free SSL certificate. The Hatchling plan allows one domain only, whereas, with Baby and Business plans, there’s no limit on the number of domains. Features included in the Business plan only are anonymous FTP, free dedicated IP, and positive SSL upgrade.

SiteGround

At a Glance

Our website hosting reviews wouldn’t be complete without SiteGround. The company not only provides high-quality web hosting, but it also sets new standards for technology and customer support. The outstanding customer support at SiteGround goes through rigorous training to deliver the ultimate user experience. The provider is also always looking for and employing new technology with the goal of taking website hosting to an entirely new level.

Pros

• Storage space of up to 30GB
• Free SSL and email accounts
• 30-day money-back guarantee
• Automated daily backups
• Excellent customer support

Cons

• Priority support available with a top-tier shared plan
• Free site transfer not available on all shared plans

Features

Many users consider SiteGround to be the best hosting site, and rightfully so, given its wealth of features. First of all, the host has developed some in-house tools, including a control panel and a 1-click script installer. Secondly, CloudFlare is available with all plans, which means users’ websites have faster page loading times and enhanced security levels, as CloudFlare also serves as excellent protection against DDoS attacks, abusive bots, etc.

SiteGround further checks their website hosting servers every half second, and uses an AI-powered system to prevent brute-force attacks. In other words, your site is safe in the hands of this top hosting provider. We also like the host’s custom-built control panel, which is quite friendly towards novices and supports email, domain, and database management. The platform also allows account owners to add collaborators, as well as revoke their access rights when needed.

Pricing

Pricing-wise, SiteGround offers three plans — StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek. The StartUp website hosting cost is $3.95/month, and includes one site, 10GB of storage space, and it is suitable for sites that have around 10,000 visits per month. Other features of this plan include free SSL, email accounts, CloudFlare CDN, and daily backups. An unlimited number of MySQL databases, SSH access, and a free website builder are also part of this plan.

The GrowBig plan has a regular price of $19.95/month, while the introductory offer keeps the fee at $5.95/month. The plan includes everything from the StartUp plan, as well as advanced on-demand backup, SuperCacher, the option of adding collaborators, WordPress staging, and free site migration. The last of the three shared website hosting plans, GoGeek, costs $11.95/month and includes more storage and higher traffic limits, priority support, one-click Git Repo creation, and white-label site management. The regular price of the plan is $34.95/month.

BlueHost

At a Glance

BlueHost is another top web host that helps its users establish their online presence quite easily. The company offers competitively priced web hosting and a myriad of features. A free website builder, SSD storage, intuitive account management, and a free domain name are all available with BlueHost’s top web hosting offerings.

Pros

• Unlimited storage and bandwidth
• High uptime rates
• Excellent customer support
• Free SSL certificate
• Perfect for WordPress sites

Cons

• High renewal costs
• Site migration isn’t free
• Overwhelming upsells

Features

There are many things to like about BlueHost, including its unlimited SSD storage and bandwidth. The only exception is its entry-level plan that has a storage limit of 50GB. BlueHost also includes a free SSL certificate in its offering. To ensure users get the best web hosting services, the provider monitors all sites on its servers, making sure that no site is using more resources than the others. This is what the host refers to as “normal usage,” and as a result, your website won’t have slow loading times due to the high resource consumption of other accounts.

Another thing we want to emphasize is how much BlueHost invests in customer support. The support team currently counts over 750 representatives, and they are available at all times. When it comes to security, this web hosting provider uses SiteLock to make sure the search engines don’t quarantine your site. This tool also scans your site for malware and checks for database and cross-site attacks.

The host also supports site monitoring, daily backups, and 1-click restore via CodeGuard. This service is paid for the entry-level plan but comes free of charge with the Choice Plus and Pro plans. The email filtering tool, SpamExperts, is available with three out of Bluehost’s four plans. This tool helps protect your email account from phishing attacks, spam, and viruses.

Pricing

To secure top website hosting, BlueHost offers four packages to cater to users with different requirements. The Basic plan, priced at $2.95/month with a 36-month subscription, includes one website, 50GB of storage, free SSL, and 1 domain, 25 subdomain, and 5 parked domains.
Next comes the Plus plan at $5.95/month. It allows for unlimited storage, bandwidth, websites, domains, subdomains, and parked domains. This plan also supports the SpamExperts tool, and one Microsoft Office 365 Email Essentials license free for a month. SiteLock is billed separately at $1.99/month.

The features this top web hosting company includes in its Choice Plus plan are similar to those in the Plus package. The difference is that Choice Plus additionally includes site backups with CodeGuard, and domain and privacy protection. The price of this plan is $5.95/month with a 36-month subscription, and SiteLock is billed separately at $1.99/month.

Lastly, the Pro plan, priced at $13.95/month, offers the same features as the Choice Plus plan, scaling the offering up with a dedicated IP and Comodo Positive SSL. Additionally, like many other top hosting sites, BlueHost too significantly lowers the number of users on a single server with its top-tier plan.

HostPapa

At a Glance

HostPapa offers all the tools needed to launch an online business — from web and domain hosting to email accounts and powerful marketing tools. This host has excellent uptime rates, and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Additionally, HostPapa is the best website hosting for small business owners. The company helps small companies grow by providing them with incredible site performance and speed.

Pros

• Excellent website speed
• 24/7 support available
• Free 30-minute 1-on-1 training with HostPapa experts
• Intuitive user dashboard
• 99.9% uptime guarantee

Cons

• Backup isn't automated with lower-tiered plans
• Renewal fees somewhat pricey

Features

If you plan on having an account with HostPapa, you won’t need to worry about excessive website downtime, slow page load times, or unreliable support. As over 5,000 5-star hosting reviews suggest, this host delivers on its promise. The uptime guarantee of 99.9% is a good indicator of reliable hosting. Instant customer support response times via live chat and phone further prove that HostPapa backs up its services with top-notch support.

Next, websites hosted on HostPapa enjoy incredibly fast loading times, thanks to the CloudFlare content delivery network included with all the provider’s plans. HostPapa is also beginner-friendly, which is evident from the cPanel and user dashboard that are extremely simple to navigate.

As one of the top hosts on the market, HostPapa offers a lot of freebies. Free domain, site migration, website builder, and SSL are all part of the plans available with HostPapa. Plus, the builder has an in-house developed installation tool. It also supports Softaculous 1-click installs, allowing you to add to your site’s functionality with any of the 400 free apps.

Pricing

Starter, Business, and Business Pro are the three plans available with HostPapa. The Starter package has web hosting prices of between $3.95 to $5.95/month, depending on the subscription length. The plan includes two websites, unlimited bandwidth, free domain registration, 100GB of storage space, free SSL, and website transfer.

Next is Business Pro, which has the same price range as the Starter plan, but includes unlimited storage, websites, bandwidth, email account, and MySQL databases. It also comes with twice as much CPU and MySQL resources.

Lastly, the Business Pro plan costs between $12.95 and $17.95/month based on the subscription term. The plan offers performance enhancements, such as four times more CPU and MySQL resources, and fewer accounts on a server. Other web hosting services included in the Business Pro plan are automated site backups, domain privacy, Wildcard SSL certificate, and the highest level of security. Note that all plans allow you to choose a server location — the USA or Canada.

DreamHost

At a Glance

DreamHost is one of the oldest website host companies, launched back in 1996. What also makes DreamHost stand out from the competition is its 97-day money-back guarantee, which is more than two times longer than what rivals offer. This provider is also endorsed by WordPress which is something to consider if you’re planning on hosting a WordPress site.

Pros

• 97-day money-back guarantee
• 100% uptime guarantee
• Recommended WordPress host
• Free SSL and domain
• Unmetered bandwidth and storage

Cons

• No free site migration from other web hosts
• Email accounts charged with Started Shared plan

Features

DreamHost strives to provide its customers with high-quality services, including a 100% uptime guarantee. If you look at the website host list we’ve put together for you, you’ll notice that all hosts in our table guarantee 99.9% uptime. DreamHost is the only host that goes one step further and promises zero downtime. This means your site will be online 24/7/365, and if it goes down, the website host has a money-back offer.

The second noteworthy feature is DreamHost’s dedication to fast-loading websites. The provider’s servers use solid-state drives, which translates to faster database queries, caching, and overall, better site performance.The top website hosting coming from DreamHost also includes free SSL, which saves you around $170 a year.

In addition to unlimited storage space and bandwidth available with the higher-priced plan, the host protects these unlimited resources, meaning that other users cannot drain CPU or RAM. If that happens, DreamHost has the policy to warn them about above-average resource usage, and advise them to move to a plan better suited to their requirements. When it comes to freebies, the list includes a free domain with an annual subscription, free SSL and domain privacy.

Still, DreamHost didn’t take the title of being the very best host in our table. It has few 1-click installations, and, although quite affordable, email hosting doesn’t come free with the Shared Starter plan.

Pricing

DreamHost has two plans — Shared Starter and Shared Unlimited. As the name suggests, the Shared Unlimited plan allows unlimited storage, bandwidth, email accounts, and MySQL databases. The lowest price of this plan is $5.95/month with a 3-year subscription. After the introductory offer expires, the renewal price is $7.95/month, which qualifies DreamHost as one of the best cheap web hosting providers.

The price of the Shared Started plan meanwhile remains the same, i.e., $2.59/month with a three-year subscription, $3.95/month with a yearly subscription, and $4.95 with a monthly subscription. This plan has its limitations — one website, six databases, five subdomains, and 50GB of storage.

FastComet

At a Glance

FastComet is one of the best hosting providers out there, and they pay special attention to two things — security and speed. For this reason, the company has data centers in 10 locations, including Amsterdam, Newark, Singapore, Toronto, and Mumbai. They use CloudFlare CDN service, and keep all websites secure through software solutions such as BitNinja and SafeGuard, so you won’t have to worry about DDoS attacks, malicious IPs, SQL injections, etc.

Pros

• Outstanding customer support
• 99.9% uptime guarantee
• Over 350+ 1-click installs
• Free site and domain transfer

Cons

• Limited domains and storage

Features

FastComet could easily qualify as the best hosting service provider, as it offers a ton of features. Users can have anywhere between one and an unlimited number of websites, depending on the plan they choose. The host uses SSD storage, although it would’ve been nice if they didn’t limit storage space, which applies even to their top-tier plans. On the bright side, most users won’t need that much storage space.

The bandwidth is based on a fair-usage quota, which is a plus, considering that you share a server with other accounts. You certainly don’t want others to slow down your site’s load times. FastComet offers the best web hosting for beginners as it relies on the intuitive cPanel and Softaculous, a 1-click installer that offers over 350 free apps. The host also includes free SSL and site transfers, unlimited databases, emails, and subdomains, and daily backups. One of the features worth noting is that FastComet has a point-and-click restore tool, and unlike others, they don’t charge anything for this service.

Pricing

As one of the most reliable hosts out there, this company offers three plans, namely FastCloud, FastCloud Plus, and FastCloud Extra. While the special prices are within the industry standards, regular prices are three times higher. So, for instance, the introductory price of the FastCloud plan is $2.95/month, whereas the regular monthly price is $9.95/month.

That said, FastComet offers a wealth of features starting from SSD storage and multiple server locations to rather impressive security features. Plus, even the host’s entry-tier plan boasts a lot of features and freebies, which only get better with higher-priced plans.

A2 Hosting

At a Glance

Anyone looking for the best hosting services shouldn’t overlook A2. The company has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and its customer support is available around the clock. Plus, you can test their services, and if you decide the host is not a perfect fit for your web project requirements, you can cancel your subscription anytime.

Pros

• Unlimited storage and bandwidth
• Free website migration
• Free CloudFlare CDN
• Nearly 49,000 5-star web hosting reviews
• Softaculous 1-click installs

Cons

• Priority support billed separately ($19.99)
• More focused on developers than beginners
• Aggressive upsells

Features

A2 Hosting’s motto is speed. To help websites hosted on their servers achieve blazing fast page loads, the company offers data centers in multiple locations, including Amsterdam, Arizona, Michigan and Singapore. Next, the provider includes a free CDN network with its packages. Thanks to CDN functionality, content is distributed at a faster rate. Plus, this web hosting service uses SSDs, which are way faster than HDDs.

The Server Rewind feature meanwhile allows users to restore their site files for free. However, this option isn’t available with the lowest-tier plan. Similarly, unlimited storage, traffic, databases, and email accounts are only available with the two higher-priced plans. Additionally, only Turbo plan users can experience the ultimate website speed with A2’s Turbo Servers that offer enhanced performance and more resources.

Security-wise, A2 offers an excellent Reinforced DDoS defense solution. Plus, the provider uses Virus Scanner, Dual Firewall, and Brute Force Defense. When it comes to customer support, A2’s representatives are knowledgeable and ready to help. Users can contact them 24/7/365 via live chat, phone, and email.

Pricing

A2 does not offer the most competitive prices, meaning you should look elsewhere for a cheap hosting solution. The cheapest plan is Lite, and it costs $3.92/month, while the renewal fee stands at $7.99/month.

The initial price of the Swift plan is $4.90/month, and $9.99/month regularly. Lastly, the Turbo plan powered by Turbo Servers comes at the introductory price of $9.31/month, whereas its regular price stands at $18.99. Regardless of the wealth of features the hosting company offers, A2 is not the best web hosting for beginners. So, unless you are an experienced user, you might want to look at alternatives.

InMotion

At a Glance

As the web hosting industry leaders, InMotion promises 99.9% uptime, and a money-back guarantee. Customers can cancel their subscription at any time during the first 90 days of subscribing to one of the company’s packages. The InMotion’s hosting services also include a free website builder, in addition to automatic daily backups, unlimited storage space and email accounts.

Pros

• Unlimited disk space with all shared plans
• 99.9% uptime guarantee
• 90-day money-back guarantee
• Free website transfers
• Excellent customer support

Cons

• Pricey
• Shared hosting doesn’t include CDN

Features

One of the biggest advantages of signing up with SiteGround is the host’s support team. They are available at all times via phone, live chat, and ticketing system. Based on web hosting ratings from satisfied users, the team is quite knowledgeable and ready to help. They will also go a step further to advise you on the best plan based on your requirements, and throw in a discount at times.

Speed-wise, the web host company uses SSDs, which ensures great speed and enhanced performance. For simple account management, users can rely on cPanel and manage website files, email accounts, domains, and personal preferences.

InMotion also supports Softaculous, a 1-click installation tool that allows users to install over 440 apps, including shopping carts, content management systems, blogs, etc. While not the best hosting company in our table, InMotion surely stands shoulder to shoulder with the best-in-class web hosts, providing secure, reliable, and fast experience.

Pricing

The Launch, Power, and Pro are the three plans available with InMotion. The Launch plan comes with a price tag of $4.89/month (regularly $7.99/month), and includes two websites, free SSL, unlimited storage and bandwidth, free domain, unlimited email, marketing tools, and a website security suite.
Next up is the Power plan at $6.29/month (regularly $9.99/month).

Apart from features from the Launch plan, the website host company powered up the Power plan, providing users with twice as many resources, and allows for six websites. Lastly, the Pro Plan is similar to the Power plan. The difference is that it includes four times more server resources than the Launch plan, and supports an unlimited number of websites and pro-level support.

GreenGeeks

At a Glance

Some of the qualities of the best website host include a reliable and secure environment. GreenGeeks checks these boxes, and, on top of that, provides eco-friendly hosting. The company also boasts 24/7/365 technical support. GreenGeeks’ money-back guarantee extends to 30 days, so if you’re not satisfied with their services, you can cancel them at any time.

Pros

• Green web host
• Unlimited disk space and bandwidth
• 24/7 technical support
• 30-day money-back guarantee

Cons

• Steep pricing with regular rates
• A setup fee with a monthly subscription

Features

GreenGeeks has been on the web hosting market for 12 years. They host over half a million websites, and for 40,000 GreenGeeks customers, this is the best place to host a website. Feature-wise, GreenGeeks users get unlimited storage space and bandwidth.

The number of email accounts is also unlimited, even with the host’s entry package. The same applies to the number of databases. A free SSL and domain are also included in the offer, while the number of websites you can have on a single domain varies from one plan to another.

Pricing

The best hosting plans offer similar prices in terms of discounted and regular fees. We have to admit that with GreenGeeks, this balance is a bit off. For example, while the lowest-priced plan is advertised at the price of $2.95/month, the regular monthly price is $9.95/month. The reason for this is that you need to subscribe to a three-year plan to get the advertised price.

What we cannot deny though, especially after an extensive web hosting comparison, is that you get a host of features with all three GreenGeeks plans — Ecosite Lite, Ecosite Pro, and Ecosite Premium. The latter two plans come with two and four times more resources, respectively, compared to the Lite plan. The highest-priced plan, Ecosite Premium, also includes a free dedicated IP.

How to Choose the Best Web Hosting For You

After we’ve reviewed the top providers, we want to help narrow your choices down, and find a host that matches the requirements of your web project.

Step 1: Business Size

Business size is not of much importance here, given that shared hosting is the best web hosting for small business companies. As a result, the most logical thing you can do is check what types of hosting are on offer with a particular provider. This way, you can start out small, and switch to another type if it is better suited to your business.

Step 2: Define the Features You Look For

The next step is to decide which features matter to you the most — uptime, speed, the ability to have unlimited domains and websites. At this point, you should eliminate website host companies that don’t excel in those areas.

Step 3: Set Your Budget

The final step is to look at the pricing of each plan, considering the fees and the length of a subscription. After that, you should decide on your budget and compare it with the hosts you’re left with after Step 2. The best web hosting will match both your preferred features, and fit into your budget.