Table of Contents
- Our review process and what makes a web host good
- Best web hosting services compared (updated monthly)
- Bluehost
- SiteGround
- WP Engine
- DreamHost
- Kinsta
- Rocket.net
- Namecheap
- InMotion
- Flywheel
- Cloudways
- Hostinger
- A2 Hosting
- IONOS
- HostGator
- GreenGeeks
- FAQ: all your questions about web hosting answered
- How to pick your best web hosting services?
Not having to worry about the technical aspects of owning a website is a blessing. Your website should just work(!), without much maintenance having to be done on your part. Signing up with one of the best web hosting services on the market will give you such peace of mind.
Today, we compare some of the top options out there and name the best hosting services available!
This guide will show you how to pick a host for your next website project, which details to pay attention to, how much to spend, and which of the hosting providers is going to be the best fit for your specific needs.
Our review process and what makes a web host good
To determine what the best web hosting services are, we looked through the popular companies on the market and signed up for the most appealing offers from each company. Next, we did a series of tests:
⚙️ We set up a standard website on the server and populated it with demo data.
🏎️ We tested the performance of the host – the load times from various locations around the globe.
🔋 We took note of the uptime/downtime numbers across a period of time.
⭐ We rated each host based on their price, performance, and features available for the price.
What you see below are the results of these tests.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, if you want to learn how to pick the ideal web hosting service for your website, here are the factors and features that you should look for:
💰 Price: Quite naturally, there are more and less expensive web hosting services out there; and the more expensive doesn’t always mean better. Though, often it does – at least to an extent. To start with, prepare your budget and decide how much you can spend on a hosting plan. In general, you can get a web server for anything between $3-$100 a month. On the cheap end of the scale, you will have to do with shared hosting spaces and server parameters that don’t allow for many concurrent visits.
On the high end, you get highly-optimized servers, often dedicated spaces, concierge maintenance services, and the ability to handle hundreds of thousands of visitors each month. As awesome as it sounds, it can actually be overkill for new websites. If you’d prefer a cheap host, check out our other resource where we compare the best cheap hosting options on the market.
🚦 Traffic allowed: Some hosting plans limit the number of visitors that your website can handle. For new sites, this might not be a problem, but if you’re expecting higher volumes of traffic from day one, you can quickly run into a wall. Having the ability to get at least 5,000 visitors a month is a good start. Of course, the higher the number, the higher the price.
🗃️ Disk space available: Your website files will take space on the server’s disk. Though websites are not the most disk-heavy resources in general, the images that you want to display on the site will consume the bulk of that disk space. Having at least 3GB of disk space is a good start. Most hosts will give you that on their entry level plans. (You can also use a service like Optimole to get more mileage out of your server’s disk space.)
📄 # of websites: If you want to launch just one website then you really don’t need to worry about this part. If you want to host more than one site, make sure your host will allow you to do that.
📛 Domain name: Some hosts will throw in a free domain name when you sign up for a hosting plan. But not all do. Buying your hosting from a company that has this offer is a great way to save money (a domain name is normally $15 a year or so).
⚙️ WordPress compatibility: Some web hosts are purpose-built to work with WordPress websites. This is great since you’re probably going to be using WordPress anyway – like everyone else does. Check if your host pre-installs WordPress on your server and if they give you any additional features.
🆘 Customer support: The best web hosting services out there offer good customer support. What you want is 24/7 live chat support and also phone support, ideally. Good customer support is always willing to help you figure stuff out regarding your hosting setup and website.
🌎 Server locations: You always want to pick a server location that’s the closest to your target market. If you cater to people in Europe, for example, then you want a server in Europe, not in New York, and so on. Some hosts will allow you to pick a location during sign up. The more locations available, the better.
🏎️ Speed: Some hosts are extra-fast while others are rather slow. This has impact on your website load times, which will translate into your rankings on Google as well as your audience’s overall satisfaction and experience browsing your website. We test the performance of each host featured in this comparison later on.
Without further ado, here’s a shortlist of the best web hosting services on the market – with each host described in detail below:
Best web hosting services compared (updated monthly)
After searching the market wide and deep, we’ve decided to feature the following companies:
- Bluehost
- SiteGround
- WP Engine
- DreamHost
- Kinsta
- Rocket.net
- Namecheap
- InMotion
- Flywheel
- Cloudways
- Hostinger
- A2 Hosting
- IONOS
- HostGator
- GreenGeeks
While there are many more web hosting companies out there, these 15 have proven to provide good user experience, performance, and they work well with WordPress and other website software.
If you’re in a hurry, check out this summary table for a bird’s eye view of each host and its parameters:
Best web hosting services: SUMMARY
| Host | Price From (Mo.) | Traffic | Disk Space | Free Domain | Uptime | Load Time US | Load Time EU | Load Time Asia |
| ————- | —————- | ——————– | ———- | ———– | —— | ———— | ———— | ————– |
| Bluehost | $2.75 | unmetered | 50 GB | ✅ | 99.73% | 1.28s | 1.76s | 2.49s |
| SiteGround | $2.99 | 10,000 visits/month | 10 GB | ❌ | 99.99% | 1.4s | 0.38s | 2.14s |
| WP Engine | $20.00 | 25,000 visits/month | 10 GB | ❌ | 100% | 1.16s | 1.73s | 2.31s |
| DreamHost | $2.59 | unmetered | 50 GB | ✅ | 99.93% | 1.64s | 4.65s | 3.23s |
| Kinsta | $24.00 | 25,000 visits/month | 10 GB | ❌ | 100% | 0.95s | 1.14s | 2.59s |
| Rocket.net | $25 | 250,000 visits/month | 10 GB | ❌ | 100% | 0.43s | 0.44s | 0.77s |
| Namecheap | $1.58 | unmetered | 20 GB | ✅ | 99.98% | 1.23s | 2.26s | 2.41s |
| InMotion | $2.29 | unmetered | 10 GB | ❌ | 100% | 0.82s | 1.5s | 3.5s |
| Flywheel | $13.00 | 5,000 visits/month | 5 GB | ❌ | 95.49% | 0.63s | 3s | 0.41s |
| Cloudways | $11.00 | 1 TB bandwidth | 25 GB | ❌ | 100% | 1.18s | 0.32s | 1.95s |
| Hostinger | $1.99 | 10,000 visits/month | 50 GB | ✅ | 99.26% | 1.38s | 0.43s | 2.06s |
| A2 Hosting | $2.99 | unmetered | 100 GB | ❌ | 99.94% | 2.05s | 3.32s | 5.03s |
| IONOS | $1.00 | unmetered | unmetered | ✅ | 100% | 0.41s | 0.66s | 1.32s |
| HostGator | $3.75 | unmetered | unmetered | ✅ | 99.31% | 0.14s | 0.11s | 0.12s |
| GreenGeeks | $2.95 | unmetered | unmetered | ✅ | 99.93% | 2.11s | 1.22s | 3.59s |
Now, let’s dive into the details of each hosting service:
Bluehost
From: $2.75 / month
Traffic allowed: unmetered
Disk Space: 50 GB
Free Domain: ✅
Uptime: 99.73% (last 3 months)
Load time US: 1.28s
Load time EU: 1.76s
Load time Asia: 2.49s
Best for: our best overall pick ⭐
Bluehost stands tall as one of the leading web hosting companies on the market, known for tailoring their services to accommodate different users with different websites and goals.
If you’re just starting out and a bit strapped for cash, Bluehost has got your back. You can grab a basic hosting setup starting from $2.75 / month. This plan will be more than enough to handle most websites with moderate traffic.
Now, for the heavy hitters with lots of traffic or tech-savvy users, Bluehost steps up its game with VPS hosting, WooCommerce hosting and dedicated servers. The overall scalability of Bluehost’s services means you can always upgrade to a more extensive plan whenever required.
One more thing, if you’re new to this or have plans to build a WordPress site, Bluehost makes it super easy. They have tools that make WordPress installs a breeze (with one click) and a user panel that’s equally easy to navigate. There’s also a very interesting web builder tool available, which makes it possible for everyone to craft a nice-looking website on their own. No web server geek-speak needed.
⚡ Pro tip: If you get a web hosting plan from Bluehost and pay for at least one year upfront, you’ll get a free domain name for the first year included.
Bluehost uptime 📶 June 2023 – August 2023: 99.73%
Bluehost loading times 🔃
East Coast, USA: 1.28s
West Coast, USA: 1.76s
London: 1.28s
Paris: 1.76s
Mumbai, India: 2.49s
Sydney: 2.49s
SiteGround
From: $2.99 / month
Traffic allowed: 10,000 visits/month
Disk Space: 10 GB
Free Domain: ❌
Uptime: 99.99% (last 3 months)
Load time US: 1.4s
Load time EU: 0.38s
Load time Asia: 2.14s
SiteGround has made a name for itself as a quality WordPress hosting platform, but it’s grown to offer other types of web hosting as well.
These days, SiteGround allows you to host a site built on Weebly (popular builder), Joomla, Drupal, and other popular CMS platforms. SiteGround is also perfectly capable of hosting your eCommerce store.
Oh, and about that WordPress hosting thing, SiteGround is still one of the top companies you can choose for that. In fact, it’s one of the few web hosting companies openly endorsed by the WordPress.org crew.
Feature-wise, SiteGround delivers everything you might expect from a quality host. There’s an easy-to-use panel, you can take advantage of a handful of one-click website software installers (including for WordPress), and SiteGround will offer you good support and more than capable servers.
SiteGround uptime 📶 June 2023 – August 2023: 99.99%
SiteGround loading times 🔃
East Coast, USA: 1.4s
West Coast, USA: 0.38s
London: 1.4s
Paris: 0.38s
Mumbai, India: 2.14s
Sydney: 2.14s
WP Engine
From: $20.00 / month
Traffic allowed: 25,000 visits/month
Disk Space: 10 GB
Free Domain: ❌
Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
Load time US: 1.16s
Load time EU: 1.73s
Load time Asia: 2.31s
Best for: best managed WordPress host 🎛️
WP Engine is the first for-WordPress-only web hosting service on our list. It is also one of the more expensive solutions out there, starting at $20.00 / month.
Feature-wise, however, WP Engine offers you pretty much everything you might need for your WordPress site to thrive. Except for just the hosting-related features, there are also additional perks such as 30+ free StudioPress themes, dev/stage/prod environments, advanced caching solutions, and a user dashboard that lets you get to every setting of your site quickly.
That said, this is more of a solution for the savvy user who wants to get the most out of their WordPress site. If you’re just a beginner with a new WordPress site, or you’re not planning on using WordPress at all, you’re going to choose a different company.
WP Engine uptime 📶 June 2023 – August 2023: 100%
WP Engine loading times 🔃
East Coast, USA: 1.16s
West Coast, USA: 1.73s
London: 1.16s
Paris: 1.73s
Mumbai, India: 2.31s
Sydney: 2.31s
DreamHost
From: $2.59 / month
Traffic allowed: unmetered
Disk Space: 50 GB
Free Domain: ✅
Uptime: 99.93% (last 3 months)
Load time US: 1.64s
Load time EU: 4.65s
Load time Asia: 3.23s
DreamHost is one of the most affordable of the best web hosting services on the market, especially for new website owners who don’t have experience with web servers and the like.
Their entry-level hosting plan, for instance, offers a free domain name included, a free SSL certificate, and WordPress pre-installed if that’s the platform that you want to use.
Besides shared hosting, DreamHost also offers VPS hosting options, managed hosting, dedicated servers, and affordable email hosting if you need a new home for your inbox.
DreamHost uptime 📶 June 2023 – August 2023: 99.93%
DreamHost loading times 🔃
East Coast, USA: 1.64s
West Coast, USA: 4.65s
London: 1.64s
Paris: 4.65s
Mumbai, India: 3.23s
Sydney: 3.23s
Kinsta
From: $24.00 / month
Traffic allowed: 25,000 visits/month
Disk Space: 10 GB
Free Domain: ❌
Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
Load time US: 0.95s
Load time EU: 1.14s
Load time Asia: 2.59s
Best for: best managed WordPress host 🎛️
Kinsta is another WordPress-only host on our list. The overall offering is quite similar to WP Engine’s, but it comes in a bit different package.
Under the hood, Kinsta runs their servers on Google Cloud Platform, and everything is fully managed for you – with daily backups and other useful features.
Kinsta also lets you choose from 24 global data center locations, there’s automatic database optimization, WordPress multisite support, malware removal, support for PHP 8.0, staging area, and more.
Price-wise, Kinsta isn’t the cheapest – starting at $24.00 / month – but it does deliver good value if you’re expecting your site to receive a lot of traffic each month. Still, just like WP Engine, not a solution for new sites with zero traffic or sites not built on WordPress.
Kinsta uptime 📶 June 2023 – August 2023: 100%
Kinsta loading times 🔃
East Coast, USA: 0.95s
West Coast, USA: 1.14s
London: 0.95s
Paris: 1.14s
Mumbai, India: 2.59s
Sydney: 2.59s
Rocket.net
From: $25 / month (first month for $1)
Traffic allowed: 250,000 visits/month
Disk Space: 10 GB
Free Domain: ❌
Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
Load time US: 0.43s
Load time EU: 0.44s
Load time Asia: 0.77s
Best for: fastest loading times ⚡
Just stepping onto the scene in the hosting market, Rocket.net is making waves with its fast, secure, and user-friendly WordPress hosting services.
It comes pre-configured for optimal speed in relation to what WordPress sites need, in a way that helps you bolster SEO scores and conversions. The company also assures security with free SSL, CDN, WAF, and malware protection, keeping your websites online and safe.
With Rocket.net, managing websites is a breeze thanks to their intuitive dashboard. They back their services with 24/7 expert support, free unlimited migrations, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. The cherry on top? An introductory offer of just $1. Amid the crowd, Rocket.net stands out, offering peace of mind for all website owners.
Rocket.net uptime 📶 June 2023 – August 2023: 100%
Rocket.net loading times 🔃
East Coast, USA: 0.43s
West Coast, USA: 0.44s
London: 0.53s
Paris: 0.34s
Mumbai, India: 1.17s
Sydney: 0.37s
Namecheap
From: $1.58 / month
Traffic allowed: unmetered
Disk Space: 20 GB
Free Domain: ✅
Uptime: 99.98% (last 3 months)
Load time US: 1.23s
Load time EU: 2.26s
Load time Asia: 2.41s
Best for: cheapest host on the list 💸
Namecheap, as the name would suggest, is one of the cheapest web hosting services on the market. Currently, you can get started for only $1.58 / month (for the first year), and for that price you get to host not one but three websites. Plus, there’s a free domain name included as well.
And it’s not like anything crucial is missing from Namecheap’s offer. You do get a free SSL certificate, there’s enough disk space available, you get the AutoBackup feature, and there’s even email hosting included for free.
Overall, Namecheap is the best web hosting service for users who want to test out a website concept and would like to spend as little money on it as possible.
Namecheap uptime 📶 June 2023 – August 2023: 99.98%
Namecheap loading times 🔃
East Coast, USA: 1.23s
West Coast, USA: 2.26s
London: 2.26s
Paris: 2.26s
Mumbai, India: 2.41s
Sydney: 2.41s
InMotion
From: $2.29 / month
Traffic allowed: unmetered
Disk Space: 10 GB
Free Domain: ❌
Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
Load time US: 0.82s
Load time EU: 1.5s
Load time Asia: 3.5s
Best for: best value for money 💰
InMotion Hosting is one more very affordable web hosting service that’s not missing out on any of the important features.
Even on the entry-level plan, you still get a free SSL, free email address, hack and malware protection, DDoS protection, automatic backups, custom server optimizations to improve speed, and even a website builder tool to make it easier for beginners to craft their own websites.
Apart from shared hosting, InMotion Hosting also offers WordPress-optimized hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, plus additional solutions for freelancers, resellers, and agencies building websites for their clients.
Overall, InMotion Hosting is a good hosting platform that can match your business needs not only today but also in the future as you grow.
InMotion uptime 📶 June 2023 – August 2023: 100%
InMotion loading times 🔃
East Coast, USA: 0.82s
West Coast, USA: 1.5s
London: 1.5s
Paris: 1.5s
Mumbai, India: 3.5s
Sydney: 3.5s
Flywheel
From: $13.00 / month
Traffic allowed: 5,000 visits/month
Disk Space: 5 GB
Free Domain: ❌
Uptime: 95.49% (last 3 months)
Load time US: 0.63s
Load time EU: 3s
Load time Asia: 0.41s
Best for: best entry-level WordPress host 🎛️
Flywheel is yet another firm among the best web hosting services that supports WordPress websites only. Don’t worry, though, it’s the last such host here.
Still, we felt that we had to highlight it due to its more than affordable pricing among the other “WordPress hosting” firms. This makes Flywheel a great entry-level platform for new WordPress projects.
Flywheel is actually owned by WP Engine, which means that moving to its bigger brother should be easier if you ever need it.
In terms of building your site with Flywheel, you can take advantage of one unique tool of theirs called Flywheel Local. You can install it on your local computer, build your site, and then export it to Flywheel servers.
Flywheel uptime 📶 June 2023 – August 2023: 95.49%
Flywheel loading times 🔃
East Coast, USA: 0.63s
West Coast, USA: 3s
London: 0.63s
Paris: 3s
Mumbai, India: 0.41s
Sydney: 0.41s
Cloudways
From: $11.00 / month
Traffic allowed: 1 TB bandwidth
Disk Space: 25 GB
Free Domain: ❌
Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
Load time US: 1.18s
Load time EU: 0.32s
Load time Asia: 1.95s
Best for: best cloud hosting ☁️
Cloudways is a unique offering on the web hosting landscape. Instead of renting space on servers owned by the company, Cloudways is your gateway to popular cloud hosts with high capacity.
Basically, when you sign up for Cloudways, you get to choose from cloud hosting setups offered by DigitalOcean (our choice), Linode, Vultr, Amazon AWS, and Google Cloud.
The main problem with those cloud hosts is that they’re not the easiest to use, especially for someone who has no experience with server work. Cloudways solves that by acting as your gateway to cloud hosting and also handling all the heavy lifting on their end. At the end of the day, you interact with the user-friendly dashboard at Cloudways rather than with the cloud hosts directly.
This is a really cool solution for web projects that need good scalability or host something other than a classic website (like a mobile app or a web tool).
Cloudways uptime 📶 June 2023 – August 2023: 100%
Cloudways loading times 🔃
East Coast, USA: 1.18s
West Coast, USA: 0.32s
London: 1.18s
Paris: 0.32s
Mumbai, India: 1.95s
Sydney: 1.95s
Hostinger
From: $1.99 / month
Traffic allowed: 10,000 visits/month
Disk Space: 50 GB
Free Domain: ✅
Uptime: 99.26% (last 3 months)
Load time US: 1.38s
Load time EU: 0.43s
Load time Asia: 2.06s
Best for: cheapest host on the list 💸
Hostinger has made a name for itself by being the budget-friendly option among the best web hosting services, and it’s hard to argue against that. The entry-level plan at Hostinger is the cheapest on this list, and the server parameters aren’t too shabby either.
Apart from that, Hostinger offers many different hosting types, starting from shared options, to cloud hosting, VPS (running on Linux), WordPress hosting, and even other unique types of hosting such as Minecraft server hosting.
But that’s not all. Hostinger is also a good place to check out if you’re unsure of how you want to build your site and need guidance in general. For instance, they do have a website builder which is free with all hosting plans. It allows you to create your site from scratch without ever leaving Hostinger.
Hostinger uptime 📶 June 2023 – August 2023: 99.26%
Hostinger loading times 🔃
East Coast, USA: 1.38s
West Coast, USA: 0.43s
London: 2.06s
Paris: 2.06s
Mumbai, India: 2.06s
Sydney: 2.06s
A2 Hosting
From: $2.99 / month
Traffic allowed: unmetered
Disk Space: 100 GB
Free Domain: ❌
Uptime: 99.94% (last 3 months)
Load time US: 2.05s
Load time EU: 3.32s
Load time Asia: 5.03s
Best for: best value for money 💰
What we like about A2 Hosting in particular is that they have a big portfolio of different types of web hosting types, plans, and offers.
For instance, apart from classic shared hosting, there are also plans for unmanaged and managed WordPress hosting, VPS hosting (unmanaged and managed), offers for resellers, and dedicated servers.
Then, if you’re interested in running a specific CMS – like Drupal, Joomla, or Magento – A2 Hosting has plans optimized for that as well.
Last but not least, A2 Hosting is among the best web hosting services for doing quick tests of new projects. The main reason is because they allow month-to-month payments instead of forcing you to buy hosting for a year up front.
A2 Hosting uptime 📶 June 2023 – August 2023: 99.94%
A2 Hosting loading times 🔃
East Coast, USA: 2.05s
West Coast, USA: 3.32s
London: 2.05s
Paris: 3.32s
Mumbai, India: 5.03s
Sydney: 5.03s
IONOS
From: $1.00 / month
Traffic allowed: unmetered
Disk Space: unmetered
Free Domain: ✅
Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
Load time US: 0.41s
Load time EU: 0.66s
Load time Asia: 1.32s
Best for: best value for money 💰
IONOS is a web host most known for its focus on the European market. They’ve been offering web hosting since 1988, which gives them a unique 30+ year experience that’s not too common in the web hosting industry.
They offer a wide range of different hosting options, including shared hosting, WordPress hosting, ASP.NET hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, web hosting plans for agencies, and more.
IONOS is also equipped to help you with other aspects of your website creation process. They’ll get you a domain name and SSL, plus there are website builders available for standard websites as well as eCommerce stores. Lastly, if you require a more personalized experience, there’s also their web design service (where they create the website for you).
IONOS uptime 📶 June 2023 – August 2023: 100%
IONOS loading times 🔃
East Coast, USA: 0.41s
West Coast, USA: 0.66s
London: 0.66s
Paris: 0.66s
Mumbai, India: 1.32s
Sydney: 1.32s
HostGator
From: $3.75 / month
Traffic allowed: unmetered
Disk Space: unmetered
Free Domain: ✅
Uptime: 99.31% (last 3 months)
Load time US: 0.14s
Load time EU: 0.11s
Load time Asia: 0.12s
Best for: best value for money 💰
HostGator is one of the best-known web hosting companies out there. I guess those Super Bowl ads helped with that a bit. 🤷♂️
They’ve revamped their offering lately and now offer several interesting hosting plans and tiers (based on your needs). You’ll find classic shared web hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers.
HostGator also has a website builder tool that’s integrated with their hosting platform. As in, you can sign up with HostGator and have everything involved with having your website built handled in one place.
HostGator uptime 📶 June 2023 – August 2023: 99.31%
HostGator loading times 🔃
East Coast, USA: 0.14s
West Coast, USA: 0.14s
London: 0.11s
Paris: 0.11s
Mumbai, India: 0.13s
Sydney: 0.11s
GreenGeeks
From: $2.95 / month
Traffic allowed: unmetered
Disk Space: unmetered
Free Domain: ✅
Uptime: 99.93% (last 3 months)
Load time US: 2.11s
Load time EU: 1.22s
Load time Asia: 3.59s
Best for: best value for money 💰
GreenGeeks is one of the first web hosting companies on the market that position themselves as eco-friendly web hosting. 🍀
What this means in practice is that GreenGeeks claims to be “putting back three times the power they consume into the grid in the form of renewable energy.”
Offer-wise, GreenGeeks doesn’t lag behind the other players out there. There’s standard shared hosting, WordPress hosting, specially optimized WooCommerce hosting, VPS hosting, and also plans for resellers.
Overall, a great choice if you want to be part of the solution and not the problem for global warming.
GreenGeeks uptime 📶 June 2023 – August 2023: 99.93%
GreenGeeks loading times 🔃
East Coast, USA: 2.11s
West Coast, USA: 1.22s
London: 3.59s
Paris: 3.59s
Mumbai, India: 3.59s
Sydney: 3.59s
FAQ: all your questions about web hosting answered
What is web hosting? Web hosting is where websites are stored. Web hosting is a service that allows individuals and organizations to have a website on the internet.
How does web hosting work? Web hosting works by storing your website files on a server. When someone types in your web address, their computer connects to your host’s server, which then serves (sends) the files to their computer or mobile device, allowing them to access and view your website.
What are the main types of web hosting? The main types of web hosting are shared hosting (several websites share one server), VPS hosting (you share a server but have your own dedicated portion), dedicated hosting (you have an entire server to yourself), and cloud hosting (resources are spread across multiple servers). The choice depends on your website’s needs.
What should I look for in a good web hosting service? Look for excellent uptime, robust security features, scalability, solid customer support, and features like one-click WordPress installation, email hosting, and domain registration. Pricing and the availability of a user-friendly control panel also matter.
Are expensive web hosting services always better? Not necessarily. While some expensive hosts offer extensive features, cheaper options like Namecheap can be equally robust and efficient. Always compare features, user reviews, and specific needs before deciding. For example, our top recommended host, Bluehost, is also one of the cheapest ones (at $2.75 / mo).
How important is uptime in a web host? Uptime is crucial as it determines the time your website is accessible to visitors. Choose a host that guarantees at least 99.95% uptime to ensure your site’s availability. Keep in mind, though, that even a 99.95% uptime still results in around 21 minutes of downtime every month.
Why would I choose a WordPress-specific host like WP Engine? A WordPress-specific host offers features tailored for WordPress sites, such as one-click installations, WordPress-optimized speed and security, and other dedicated WordPress tools, which can significantly enhance your site’s performance. WP Engine in particular also gives you access to premium WordPress themes and plugins for no additional charge.
Is getting a free domain with my hosting a good idea? Yes, a free domain can save you some money in the first year. However, renewals might be pricey, so make sure to check the costs for subsequent years. Usually, you can expect to pay in the range of $15 / year for each consecutive year.
What is cloud hosting, and why would I choose it? Cloud hosting involves using resources from multiple servers. It offers high reliability, scalability, and performance. If your site expects fluctuating traffic or is growing rapidly, cloud hosting is ideal – like that offered by Cloudways.
Can I host multiple sites with one hosting package? Yes, many hosting providers offer the ability to host multiple websites under one package. This can be a cost-effective solution if you plan to operate more than one site. Here are some of the companies that let you do that on their cheapest plans: Namecheap, InMotion, Cloudways.
How to pick your best web hosting services?
As you can see, there’s a lot to choose from if you’re looking for a reliable web hosting firm. There are offers available on the whole spectrum of prices, server parameters, and even the software that you’ll then use to build your site.
Overall, you generally can’t go wrong here. The reason all these companies have such good ratings is that we’ve only selected the very best of the web hosting market to include in this comparison.
Here are our final recommendations for certain types of users and use cases:
🌱 If you’re completely new to website building but you still want to handle everything on your own, get Bluehost. They have good entry-level plans that are very affordable. You also get a free domain name for the first year.
⚙️ If you’re looking for a reliable WordPress host specifically, go for WP Engine or Flywheel (budget-friendly choice). Both platforms deliver great performance for WordPress sites and are easy to use.
💪 If you’re moving from another sub-par host that haven’t delivered the results you wanted, go for Cloudways. The platform gives you access to the most powerful cloud hosting setups in the industry at an affordable price.
What’s it going to be, have you made your pick as to who will be your next web host?