Using the right web hosting service may make your life a lot simpler, whether you want to create a personal portfolio site for job searching or you want your small business to have a better online presence.
However, choosing the best web hosting provider for your requirements on your own is difficult.
You’re probably searching for a web hosting company that not only offers excellent hosting but also runs well, has practically no downtime, and provides 24/7 customer support — all at a reasonable price.
Summary
- Bluehost — Best For WordPress Hosting
- Hostgator — Best Shared Web Hosting
- Inmotion – Best Reseller Web Hosting
- Hostinger – Best Cloud Web Hosting
- Dreamhost – Best Email Hosting Provider
- Liquid Web – Best Managed Web Hosting
- GreenGeeks – Best Green Hosting Service
- Namecheap – Best Unlimited Web Hosting
- WP Engine – Best Managed WordPress Hosting
- Siteground — Best For Making Your Website Secure And Fast
In this guide, we review the pricing, features, pros, and cons of the top web hosting providers, including Bluehost, Hostinger, DreamHost, WP Engine, and others.
What Is Web Hosting?
Web hosting is a service that enables people and businesses to create a website or web page on the Internet.
Every website requires a server in order to be available online. The companies that provide and maintain these servers are known as web hosts.
The vast majority of companies rely on web hosts to keep their websites up and running.
The expense of running a server is high, and it requires technical expertise.
Third-party web hosts make the process easier by renting server space or, in the case of dedicated hosting, whole servers.
Read our 10 Best Cloud Hosting
Top 10 Best Web Hosting Providers
1. Bluehost — Best for WordPress Hosting
Bluehost, which was founded in 2003, is one of the world’s largest web hosting companies. It has a client base of 2 million people.
WordPress named this service as one of the top hosting providers.
Bluehost has its hypothetical hands in a variety of hosting pots, from WordPress hosting to managed hosting and WooCommerce, all while providing excellent support.
Pricing:
- Shared hosting: Starts at $2.95 per month
- Shared WordPress hosting: Starts at $2.95 per month
- Managed WordPress hosting: Starts at $19.95 per month
- WooCommerce hosting: Starts at $12.95 per month
- VPS hosting: Starts at $18.99 per month
- Dedicated hosting: Starts at $79.99 per month
Read: Bluehost Pricing Review
Pros And Cons:
Pros
- Good uptime
- One-Click WordPress installation
- Decent speed
- Easy to use
- 24/7 support
- Free site builder and domain
Cons
- Discounts are for long-term plans only
Features:
- Automated WordPress setup
- Popular applications are available via a Mojo Marketplace-based system.
- Expert users may modify things in the cPanel-based area.
- Drag-and-drop website builder with mobile editing, live editing, and stock photo library.
- There are over 300 templates available, as well as complete WordPress access and custom CSS.
- Good customer support
- Free site migration tool
2. Hostgator — Best Shared Web Hosting
HostGator has been in business since 2002 and has grown to serve tens of thousands of clients in the hosting industry.
When it comes to shared hosting services, the web hosting provider is the best since it is reliable, the pricing is reasonable, and the company claims a 99.9% uptime.
HostGator offers a wide variety of hosting services, from domains to dedicated servers, in addition to shared hosting.
Pricing:
- Shared hosting: Starts at $2.75 per month
- WordPress hosting: Starts at $5.95 per month
- Cloud hosting: Starts at $4.95 per month
- VPS hosting: Starts at $29.95 per month
- Dedicated hosting: Starts at $89.98 per month
- Reseller hosting: Starts at $19.95 per month
Read our HostGator Review
Pros And Cons:
Pros
- Unmetered disk space
- Unmetered bandwidth
- 45-day money-back guarantee
- $200 search credit
Cons
- Limited configuration options for dedicated server and VPS
Features:
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Free WordPress/cPanel website transfer
- Free SSL certificate
- Website building service
- Money-back guarantee for 45 days
- New customers get free transfers for the first month after they sign up.
- 24/7 live chat support
- Free domain for 1 year
3. Inmotion – Best Reseller Web Hosting
InMotion Hosting is a well-known web host that has been in business for over 15 years and offers a diverse range of plans, including reseller hosting.
Because its reseller plans include a free WHMCS license, which enables automated client setup and invoicing, InMotion comes out on top in the reseller hosting field.
This is ideal for anybody interested in pursuing a career as a web hosting provider.
Reseller plans from web hosting companies allow you to purchase a block of resources – such as disk space or bandwidth – then split and sell them as you see fit.
Pricing:
- WordPress hosting: Starts at $4.99 per month
- VPS hosting: Starts at $19.99 per month
- Dedicated hosting: Starts at $75.69 per month
Read our InMotion Hosting Pricing Review
Pros And Cons:
Pros
- Good uptime
- Great Customer Support
- 90-Days Money-Back Guarantee
- Fast Speed
- Free Website Transfer
Cons
- No Free Domain with the Cheapest Plan
- Some Plan Limitations
Features:
- Beginner reseller plans from InMotion provide 800GB of bandwidth, 80GB of storage, and the ability to host up to 25 accounts.
- Money-back guarantee for 90 days
- Setup and migration assistance
- Softaculous and cPanel panels are available.
- Technical support is excellent.
4. Hostinger – Best Cloud Web Hosting
Because of its speed, power, and cost, Hostinger ranks first among the best cloud hosting providers.
Cloud Startup, Cloud Professional, and Cloud Global are the three cloud hosting plans offered.
Each of these plans includes unlimited bandwidth and a maximum of 300 websites for your account.
Hostinger, via its 000webhosting brand, is also one of the largest suppliers of free web hosting, with over 30 million customers and some of the lowest rates due to minimal operating costs and overheads.
Pricing:
- Shared hosting: Starts at $0.99 per month
- WordPress hosting: Starts at $2.99 per month
- Cloud hosting: Starts at $9.99 per month
- VPS hosting: Starts at $3.95 per month
Read our Hostinger Pricing
Pros And Cons:
Pros
- Cheap pricing
- Fast load time
- Datacenters in Asia, the US, & Europe
- 24/7 support chat
- Free SSL certificate
Cons
- No free domain
- The cheapest plan has limited bandwidth
Features:
- 200-300 GB of SSD storage, 3-16 GB of RAM, and 2-8 CPU cores.
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain
- Daily backups
- Up to 300 websites can be hosted.
- Free Google Ads credit
5. Dreamhost – Best Email Hosting Provider
Among the many packages offered by this renowned web hosting services provider, Dreamhost provides standalone email hosting.
There are a few major benefits to having your own hosted email account.
The first advantage is that it is still linked to your company’s domain name, making it seem much more professional than a free email account.
It also means you have full control over your data, and your emails will not be automatically scanned for the purpose of serving you advertising, as many free email services do.
Pricing is reasonable and varies depending on whether you want to pay monthly or commit to yearly payments.
Pricing:
- Shared hosting: Starts at $2.59 per month
- WordPress hosting: Starts at $2.59 per month
- VPS hosting: Starts at $10 per month
- Dedicated hosting: Starts at $149 per month
Read our Dreamhost Web Hosting Pricing
Pros And Cons:
Pros
- Uptime guarantee
- 97-day money-back guarantee
- Monthly plans are available
- Unlimited storage and bandwidth
Cons
- No cPanel
- Slow loading time
Features:
- 25GB of storage
- Users can sync emails between mobile devices and desktop
- Access to an ad-free webmail software platform
- Anti-spam filter for emails
6. Liquid Web – Best Managed Web Hosting
Liquid Web is a high-end managed hosting service for everything from email to WooCommerce, WordPress, VPS, dedicated, and a variety of other cloud products.
The majority of plans provide much more value than you would expect.
For example, Liquid Web not only updates WordPress automatically, but it also updates your plugins in a different, isolated environment to scan for any problems before deploying them to your live site.
The VPS and dedicated server plans from Liquid Web provide even more managed hosting features in a variety of areas.
The company operates its own data centers, which are equipped with fully controlled hardware and network infrastructure.
Key software is installed, updated, and maintained, free external migrations are available, virus and spam protection keep threats at bay, and system monitoring allows for quick problem detection.
Liquid Web isn’t for bargain seekers, and its starting costs may be much more than the competition.
You are, however, paying for top-notch service and high-end technology, so you are getting what you paid for.
Pricing:
- Managed WordPress hosting: Starts at $9.50 per month
- VPS hosting: Starts at $15 per month
- Dedicated hosting: Starts at $159 per month
Pros And Cons:
Pros
- Fast Hosting
- No Plugin Restrictions
- Guaranteed Uptime
- Excellent Support
Cons
- No Shared Hosting
- No Money-Back Guarantee
- Higher Prices
Features:
- Fully managed hosting
- Updates to plugins are made automatically, and visual comparisons are made.
- Page speed is improved by using a free image optimization plugin.
- iThemes Security Pro and iThemes Sync
- Free site migrations with a specialized team to assist you in migrating your data from your existing host.
- Industry-leading warranties backed by a worry-free uptime guarantee of 100%. They will credit you 10 times the money if you do not have 100% uptime.
- Developer tools and full server access (SSH, Git, and WP-CLI)
- Free SSL certificates
- Staging sites
- Support is available through phone, email, and live chat 24/7
7. GreenGeeks – Best Green Hosting Service
GreenGeeks, which was founded in California in 2008, claims to be the “world’s #1 green energy web hosting service,” which is not unexpected considering that it is solely devoted to environmental causes.
That’s a bold claim, but it’s one with some substance.
The company claims that “for every ampere we take from the grid, we spend three times that in the form of renewable energy through Bonneville Environmental Foundation.”
It also claims that its platform has been built for optimum energy efficiency. So, in theory, your hosting isn’t just carbon-neutral; it’s really reducing carbon emissions.
GreenGeeks offers a wide variety of hosting solutions.
There are the standard set of plans – shared hosting, application hosting, VPS, and dedicated – but there isn’t a lot of variety, and what you do get is generally mediocre.
Pricing:
- Shared hosting: Starts at $2.49 per month
- WordPress hosting: Starts at $2.49 per month
- VPS hosting: Starts at $39.95 per month
- Reseller hosting: Starts at $19.95 per month
Read our GreenGeeks Web Hosting Pricing
Pros And Cons:
Pros
- Reliable uptime
- Good load time
- Servers in Canada, the US, & Netherlands
- Free site transfer
- Unlimited email accounts and bandwidth
Cons
- Unsound money back policy
- High renewal cost
Features:
- Unlimited websites, databases, emails, bandwidth, and webspace
- Free domain
- Cloudflare CDN integration
- Shared SSL
- Daily backups
- One-click app installer
- Simple website builder
- Support via chat, phone, and email
8. Namecheap – Best Unlimited Web Hosting
If you want to do web hosting on a budget, this provider strives to be cheap, as its name implies.
With Namecheap, you get a lot of bang for your buck, especially with a first-year discount, and there are some major options to choose from.
However, keep in mind that the starting ‘value’ plan only comes with 20GB of hard drive space and 30 email accounts, but it costs just $2.88 per month.
To sum it up, testing revealed that this company offers above-average speeds when compared to competitors, making it a suitable hosting service for people who don’t want to break the bank.
Pricing:
- Shared hosting: Starts at $2.88 per month
- Reseller hosting: Starts at $19.88 per month
- WordPress hosting: Starts at $3.88 per month
- VPS hosting: Starts at $8.88 per month
- Dedicated hosting: Starts at $47.88 per month
Pros And Cons:
Pros
- The support is excellent.
- Domain names at a low cost
- Migrate from other hosting providers for free and fast.
- Backups on a daily basis.
Cons
- There is no phone support.
- Some features of the dashboard are difficult to find.
- Setting up SSL certificates is complex and often requires assistance.
Features:
- Guaranteed uptime of 100%
- Pages load very fast, which is essential for any company.
- cPanel is used.
- With the Softaculous installer, you can install WordPress or other applications in a matter of seconds.
- Unmetered bandwidth.
- Backups are performed twice a week for all plans, with Stellar Plus and Stellar Business users receiving free auto-backup.
- There are over 100 single-click apps.
- Site migration from other hosting providers is free.
9. WP Engine – Best Managed WordPress Hosting
WP Engine provides a comprehensive managed WordPress solution that includes setup, updates, security, speed optimization, and troubleshooting, among other things.
Much of this is invisible to the user, as it should be for a well-managed service.
For example, you won’t have to bother about WordPress updates since WP Engine will take care of them.
Not just when they’re released, like many other hosts: the company thoroughly tests them beforehand to ensure they don’t create any issues.
Many helpful features are included with the powerful WP Engine platform.
A staging area enables you to work on a duplicate of your site without impacting the live site, which is ideal for testing new themes, plugins, and other changes.
Integrated performance testing may also benchmark your website and provide helpful speedup advice.
Pricing:
- StartUp: Starts at $35/month
- Growth: Starts at $115/month
- Scale: Starts at $290/month
- Custom: Contact WPEngine for a direct quote
Pros And Cons:
Pros
- Excellent performance
- Expert and speedy support
- Testing area
Cons
- Beginners may be overwhelmed by the extensive features
Features:
- Incredible speed
- Powerful security
- Excellent customer service
- Optimized server settings for quicker load times
- Daily backups
- Automatic updates to WP plugins
- Free site migration
- Integration of a CDN (content delivery network)
- 60-day money-back guarantee
10. Siteground — Best For Making Your Website Secure and Fast
If you want your website to acquire traction, it has to load quickly. If a site takes five seconds or more to load, nine out of ten prospective page visitors will abandon it.
SiteGround is designed to provide its clients with world-class speed as well as rock-solid security. And this is especially true for WordPress sites.
It all begins with the technology that their hosting is based on.
SiteGround makes use of Google Cloud to keep connections fast and reliable, and its SSD permanent data storage guarantees minimal latency.
Not only that, but in late 2020, SiteGround’s forward-thinking developers released Ultrafast PHP, a faster PHP solution.
SiteGround uses it to provide 30% faster site performance than conventional PHP, as well as reducing the time to the first byte and lowering memory consumption by 15%.
Pricing:
- Shared hosting: Starts at $6.99 per month
- Cloud hosting: Starts at $80 per month
- WordPress hosting: Starts at $6.99 per month
- Reseller hosting: Starts at $14.99 per month
Pros And Cons:
Pros
- Great uptime
- Fast load time
- Unlimited email accounts
- Expert customer support
Cons
- Limited cheap plan
Features:
- 99% uptime guarantee
- Free website builder
- Updates your software on a regular basis to keep your website running smoothly.
- You have the option of choosing the server location that is closest to your users.
- Premium support option
- For super-fast speeds, advanced caching technology is used.
- A 30-day cancellation window
How To Select The Best Web Hosting?
Before you make your decision, you should think about a few key features. The best web hosting companies have very few problems with uptime or page loading speed.
Furthermore, top hosting companies provide excellent customer service and efficiently handle traffic spikes.
Besides that, all of this comes at a reasonable cost. Let’s take a closer look at each of these aspects individually.
Uptime Reliability
It’s pointless to have a website that is frequently down. Users will become frustrated if they see a blank screen, receive a 500-error, or experience hang-ups.
In addition, the website’s ranking will be harmed. Because the competition is fierce, you should aim for 99.5 percent uptime.
Fortunately, the best web hosting companies in 2021 will ensure that such instances are rare. And if something goes wrong, your provider will compensate you.
Loading Speed
Customers will be irritated if your website takes an eternity to load. Without a doubt, the ranking suffers as well.
Whatever website hosting service you select, it should ensure that your website loads quickly.
Depending on your company’s needs, the meaning of “good” may change. Your company’s website may get more complicated as it develops. As a result, it will need even faster results.
Customer Service
No matter how trustworthy your provider is, you’ll run into issues at some time. That’s where having a responsive customer support team available 247 /comes in handy. The best web hosts provide support through a variety of channels, including live chat and phone.
A reliable support team will most likely have a complete backup of your website to save you in the direst situations.
Price
Because websites come in different forms and sizes, web hosting costs may vary. There are some options that are completely free.
However, “free” offers are always subject to strict conditions. Some basic web hosting services are available for as little as $1 or even less.
It’s up to you to determine if your company needs web hosting for $1, $10, or $100 a month. But keep in mind that higher costs do not necessarily imply superior quality.
Perhaps your website doesn’t need a high-end hosting plan with a bunch of features you’ll never use.
Conclusion
Whatever industry you’re in, web hosting is an important part of your online presence.
As previously said, the ultimate decision is based on your preferences for a hosting provider.
You can’t go wrong with any of the aforementioned providers, but some will be a better match for you than others.
Is reliability your priority? Then go with SiteGround. Do you want a lot of additional features? Check out Hostinger.
That being said, Bluehost is the provider that regularly outperforms in all of these areas, which is why it is ranked first in our review. It’s a host we’d recommend for any type of website.
Also read IPage Web Hosting Pricing – Everything You Should Know
FAQs
What should I know about web hosting companies?
To begin, find out what types of hosting they provide – you should be searching for a specific type (e.g. WordPress hosting). You’ll also want to know what features they provide, how much the service costs, and how well it integrates with your website.
Can I publish a website to the internet without using any web hosting service?
Every website will need to be hosted in some way. If you use a website builder, most of them offer hosting as part of your monthly cost, so you won’t have to worry about it. You’ll need to set up hosting for anything else individually.
What are SSL certificates? Do I need one?
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is an acronym for Secure Sockets Layer. Visitors to your site will be able to access it safely if you have an SSL certificate. You should always have an SSL certificate on your site, and most hosting companies provide one as part of their package.