The Best Web Hosting Services 2023 - Complete Web Host Comparison
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The Best Web Hosting Services 2023 – Full Comparison With Reviews

The Best Web Hosting Services 2023 – Full Comparison With Reviews

Advertiser disclosure: This article may contain links that I earn commission from.

Knowing what to look for when finding a web host is not always obvious. In this guide, you'll learn how to compare web hosting and find the pros & cons of the top web hosting companies.

I'm not a web host expert.

But being an affiliate marketer for more than 15 years, and owner of more than 400 websites, I have plenty of experience using different web hosting companies.

So I've created this blog post to compare web hosts and help you find a web hosting service that will give you as little headaches as possible..

Unfortunately, most web hosts in my experience just don't deliver.

This post will help you compare web hosts so you can spend less time and money on hosting (information I would have paid a lot for when I started).

As a beginner, choosing web hosting can be a real pain if you have no idea what you're looking for.

Johannes Larsson

It's quite important to not just go for just any web host. Choosing a good web hosting service can actually make a big difference in how successful your site is going to be.

Choose the wrong web host and you'll end up with a website that takes too long to load (and Google hates that), gets infected with viruses, and requires unnecessary time to set up and administrate. Don't make that mistake.

Do I truly know the best web hosting? No. I haven't tried them all. But I know which ones to avoid, and they have been excluded from the list.

This web hosting comparison will hopefully help you on your way to finding the best web hosting for your needs.

Compare top web hosting services

In this post, I'll be reviewing my top 12 web hosting companies that I personally love working with. See those further down.

Overview of web host comparison
Web hosts:40 hosting providers
Price range:$0 – $14.99/month
Uptime:99.8 – 100%
Load time: 220 ms – 4s

I have also created the most comprehensive list of all web hosts in case you'd like to get a complete overview of all the available web hosting services that are on the market (and worthy enough to make this list).

  • The hosts in the list below are ranked by user votes.
  • We continuously update and add new web hosts to the list.

Hope it helps you!

Full comparison of web hosts 2023

This web host comparison includes the best-rated web hosting services and has been updated on the 13th of January 2023.
We aim to keep the host data and price information as up-to-date as we can.

Best web hosting services – reviews

As seen above, there are tons of web hosting services, each of them with its own unique perks. However, some outshine others and have become somewhat of industry leaders.

Let's dive into the web hosting comparison which also includes personal reviews, with both pros and cons of the top 12 best web hosts.

Here are the top web hosting companies to choose from in 2023.

Bluehost – Best Web Host Overall

Bluehost is the reigning king of web hosting. Even when you check the different hosting categories I’ve outlined in this article, you’ll see that Bluehost is featured in top 3 of most categories.

There’s a good reason why I’ve chosen Bluehost as the overall best hosting service out there: it really is one of the most versatile, reliable, and downright great hosting services for any new website owner.

Bluehost is tailored especially for WordPress and makes website building amazingly easy. It literally takes a couple of mouse clicks to get your site started.

What makes Bluehost, in my opinion, especially good for beginners is the price tag. Though they make their fair share of upselling attempts and the renewal price makes quite a hike (as with almost any hosting provider), you get awesome functionality for such a low price.

Things like Cloudflare support, SiteLock protection, unmetered bandwidth – that’s more than you could ask for.

Notable features

  • 1-click WordPress install
  • 24/7 support
  • 30-day money-back guarantee
  • Free SSL Certificate

Get started

Bluehost downsides

Bluehost is not a super-advanced hosting provider, meaning that I don’t recommend it to those who want to build huge sites with very complex technical features.

But if you’re just looking to get your blog, brand page or affiliate site up and running easily, smoothly and with minimal costs and get all of that at 99.9% uptime, I’d say you’re in good hands with Bluehost!

The only downsides to consider are speed and customer support availability. Bluehost is known to be somewhat slower than some other hosts and their customer support can be pretty flooded, so don’t expect to get quick responses every time.

💰 Pricing and fees

Basic plan$7.99/mo (1 website, 50 GB SSD storage)
Plus plan$10.99/mo (unlimited sites, unlimited bandwidth)
Pro plan$23.99/mo (unlimited sites, unlimited bandwidth + more)

Hostinger – Best Cheap Web Hosting

If you’re looking for cheap web hosting, then Hostinger is truly the best one to go for. Their price is so ridiculously low that it’s not viable to even think about a lower price.

Hostinger’s basic plan starts from $0.99 per month. Literally less than a cup of coffee.

Granted, the price gets bigger on renewal but even then it’s just $2.15.

What makes Hostinger such a great cheap web host is its reliability. Hostinger is known for having great uptime (and they offer 99.9% uptime guarantee).

Even more, Hostinger is one of the fastest cheap hosting services with its average 350 ms loading speed.

Hostinger’s basic plan works the best for small sites but if you want to build a beefier website, premium and business plans cost under $10 per month. That’s a steal!

Notable features

  • 1-click WordPress install
  • 24/7 support
  • 30-day money-back guarantee
  • Free website migration
  • Free SSL Certificate
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee

Get started

Hostinger downsides

When it comes to Hostinger cons, there honestly aren’t many. Most people who’ve chosen Hostinger have later said they never expected to get such performance, considering what they paid for this hosting service.

But if I have to pinpoint some cons, then Hostinger’s pricing plans are quite wacky. In order to actually get that $0.99/mo offer, you have to sign up for 48 months and naturally also pay for 48 months right away. So, in reality, you’ll pay around $47.

Of course, that also means you’ll have your hosting covered for 4 years.

Also, Hostinger doesn’t have a regular cPanel. That’s, of course, good for beginner users but more advanced users might not be so happy about this.

💰 Pricing and fees

Basic plan$2.15/mo (1 site, up to 100 GB bandwidth)
Premium plan$3.49/mo (unlimited sites, unlimited bandwidth)
Business plan$7.95/mo (unlimited sites, unlimited bandwidth + more)

WP Engine – Best WordPress Hosting

WP Engine is without a doubt the biggest managed WordPress host and one of the best choices for a WordPress site. Their whole service is geared around WordPress which means smoother performance and faster loading time.

But in addition, you’ll get your hands on perks like:

  • automated WordPress updates
  • automated backups
  • three development environments
  • GeoTarget, so you could create local versions of your website
  • 35 premium WordPress themes from StudioPress
  • EverCache which is built into WP Engine, so you don’t need any extra caching plugins

WP Engine is one of the most reliable options for hosting a WordPress site, especially since it’s so flexible and scalable. In other words, your site can grow as big as you wish and your host will always keep up with your traffic and storage necessities.

Notable features

  • 36 premium WordPress themes included in any plan
  • Automated site migration
  • 24/7 support
  • Free SSL Certificate
  • Tailor-made for WordPress
  • Proprietary caching system

Get started

WP Engine downsides

Both me and tens of others who’ve reviewed web hosting services agree on one thing: WP Engine has just one drawback and that’s the price.

WP Engine is not a cheap hosting service. Actually, it costs over 10 times more than Hostinger.

Even for its basic version, you’ll need to cough up $30 each month and the resources are still pretty limited for that price.

But if you’re serious about your WordPress site and you’re looking for a top-notch solution with the best possible performance, then I’d say you get a pretty good deal.

💰 Pricing and fees

Basic plan$30/mo (1 site, 50 GB bandwidth)
Next plan$115/mo (10 sites, 200 GB bandwidth)
Highest plan$290/mo (30 sites, 500 GB bandwidth)

Kinsta – Best Migration Support

Though I've highlighted Kinsta for their great migration support, their service is so packed with awesome features that I could easily spend an hour talking about their perks.

But what I especially love about them is their approach to migration. With Kinsta, you get one free migration, no matter the plan you choose. That's pretty remarkable since not many web hosts provide free migration.

That’s not where it ends though. Migration is handled by Kinsta's team. You literally don’t have to do anything, besides ask them to do the migration and give some info, so their team could handle the process smoothly.

There are a few other reasons why I feel so confident about recommending Kinsta:

  • Kinsta uses Google Cloud’s premium tier which is pretty much the best you can get in the whole world
  • Uptime is guaranteed with their service-level agreement
  • Kinsta dashboard doesn’t look like your typical cPanel. They have their own dashboard which is easy to use for any skill level (using Kinsta is as easy as scrolling in Instagram)
  • They have awesome customer support with actual IT guys helping you
  • You get daily backups and insane security functionality

Kinsta says they take support seriously and they sure do! That’s what I especially appreciate about them.

Notable features

  • Tailor-made for WordPress
  • DDoS attack detection (i.e. via DNS monitoring)
  • Free website migration
  • 24/7 support
  • SLA-backed 99.9% uptime guarantee
  • Uptime check every 2 minutes
  • 24 Google Cloud Platform regional data centers

Get started

Kinsta downsides

I had to think long and hard in order to figure out if there’s something I don’t like about Kinsta. Well, there are just two things.

Firstly, Kinsta is pretty pricey. The most basic plan that costs $30 per month gives you a site that could pack up to 20 000 visits. They also have huge enterprise plans that could cater even to 3 million visits, but, of course, those prices are on a whole another level.

Secondly and surprisingly, with Kinsta you don’t get an email address, so if you want a professional email, you’ll need to find an additional service for that.

But in my opinion, both the price and email hosting aren't big issues, especially when considering the great performance you get with Kinsta.

💰 Pricing and fees

Basic plan$30/mo (1 site, up to 20 000 visits)
Pro plan$60/mo (2 sites, up to 40 000 visits)
Business plan$100/mo (5 sites, up to 100 000 visits)
Many other plans available too.

Hostgator – Most Reliable Web Host

Many web hosts could have deserved the title of the most reliable hosting service. When I think about reliability, to me it means a service you can trust in every aspect: it delivers on its uptime promises, your site is smooth and stable even during traffic spikes and in case you have some concerns, you can rely on customer support.

HostGator ticks all those boxes and goes even beyond.

HostGator is tailored mainly to small businesses and offers pretty awesome WordPress support: thanks to its cloud hosting, HostGator delivers a much faster site speed than your average shared hosting service.

Besides speed, HostGator’s uptime is almost legendary. They offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee and you can monitor uptime straight from your dashboard. If they can’t deliver on that promise, you’ll get one month’s worth of hosting credits!

Though HostGator is mostly suited for smaller sites, they even offer VPS and dedicated servers, so the whole service is highly scalable. You can rely on HostGator to keep up with you as your business grows.

Notable features

  • 1-click WordPress install
  • 24/7 support
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee
  • Free SSL Certificate
  • Free domain included in all plans
  • 45-day money-back guarantee
  • Automatic weekly off-site data backups

Get started

HostGator's downsides

All-in-all, HostGator gives you a great bang for the buck but their pricing can be a little iffy.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s a great service and it’s on the cheaper side but they are upselling pretty heavily. In order to get the best perks, you need to sign up for a longer period. If you go for a monthly subscription, you might miss some extra features. One of those, for example, is domain: you won’t get a free domain on a monthly subscription.

HostGator is also known to be lacking in their customer support department – waiting time can be a cause of a major headache.

💰 Pricing and fees

Basic plan$10.95/mo (1 site, unmetered bandwidth)
Higher plan$11.95/mo (unlimited sites, unmetered bandwidth)
Business plan$16.95/mo (unlimited sites, unmetered bandwidth + more)

A2 Hosting – Fastest Web Hosting

A2 Hosting is the Flash of web hosts.

A2 has established themselves as one of the fastest hosting providers available, so it’s no secret why I’ve picked them as the best web hosting speed-wise.

How fast are they, you ask? Well, according to their own words, they’re up to 20 times faster than other web hosting services.

To achieve that speed, they use speed-enhanced „Turbo Servers“ with several caching systems, SSDs and they have servers all over the world. Pretty much every piece of their system is geared towards more speed – which is, of course, one of the most essential stats for any website.

On top of that, A2 Hosting has superb customer service – always available and helpful.

And one very rare perk: A2 Hosting has an „anytime money-back“ policy. They’re THAT confident in their service.

Notable features

  • Up to 20X faster servers
  • 99.9% uptime commitment
  • 24/7 support
  • Free website migration
  • Anytime money-back guarantee

Get started

A2 Hosting downsides

A2 Hosting offers 99.9% uptime guarantee (which is a great perk in itself) but several tests have shown that their uptime tends to be around 99.3% on average which, unfortunately, is not that great. Especially when compared to services like Dreamhost, SiteGround, or Bluehost who are all above 99.98%.

And funnily enough, their signup process is pretty confusing! Actually, their whole website is a little crowded and confusing.

Website design does not seem to be their forte, but I think we can all agree that clunky design is meaningless if it means our A2 hosted sites will load as fast as lightning!

💰 Pricing and fees

Startup plan$10.99/mo (1 site, up to 100 GB storage)
Higher plan$12.99/mo (unlimited sites, unlimited storage)
Turbo plan$20.99/mo (unlimited sites, unlimited storage + Turbo server)

SiteGround – Best Customer Support

How many times have you contacted technical support and said to yourself: why do I keep contacting them if I know it’s no use?

Almost every web hosting service offers 24/7 customer support but only a few rare ones offer the kind of support you actually want: reliable, quick, helpful and professional.

SiteGround is not just one of those rare ones but has such great customer service, it has even been named as the „new standard of customer support“. Problems get solved very quickly – you get a reply almost instantly via their live-chat. They also have phone support, ticket-based support, and a great knowledge base.

Besides speedy service, they are thorough and go above and beyond by giving you advice and suggestions (and they do that in a friendly way, not in an awkward robotic way). There aren’t many hosting services that can exceed that!

And while talking about speed, SiteGround has one of the fastest loading times, mostly thanks to SSD disks. You’ll also get a 99.9% uptime guarantee, daily backups, and great security.

SiteGround is such a strong hosting provider it gives heavy competition to Bluehost and could easily take over the spot of the best web hosting provider overall!

Notable features

  • Google Cloud data servers
  • Free automated WordPress migration
  • Top-rated customer support
  • Officially recommended by WordPress

Get started

SiteGround downsides

If there’s anything SiteGround could improve, it's their traffic limits and pricing. To be honest, it’s not the cheapest hosting service out there. The cheapest plan comes at 5.99 € but you get just up to 10 000 visits per month. For most sites, that limit won’t suffice.

A bit bigger plan – up to 25 000 visits – is around 9.99 € per month.

But then again, you get such a load of features that these plans are still pretty reasonable.

💰 Pricing and fees

Startup plan5.99€/mo (1 site, up to 10 000 visits)
Bigger plan9.99€/mo (unlimited sites, up to 25 000 visits)
Highest plan13.99€/mo (unlimited sites, up to 100 000 visits)

GoDaddy – Top Secure Web Hosting

GoDaddy is one of the most known web hosts out there. Since they are so well established, they are also one of the best choices for beginners who want to build a very professional site.

One thing I’ve always loved about GoDaddy though is their security. GoDaddy comes with separate security packages that are one of the most advanced ones you might encounter among shared hosting providers. They even have a „100% clean site guarantee“.

Among some of the security features are:

  • Malware detection and removal
  • Google blacklist monitoring and removal
  • Web Application Firewall
  • DDoS prevention
  • Brute force prevention
  • Injection prevention
  • Cross–site scripting prevention
  • Zero day prevention

In my book, security is #1 priority and that’s why I value GoDaddy so highly.

In addition to security, GoDaddy offers pretty much anything you can imagine – domains, emails, very user-friendly control panel, staging environment, 1-click setup and 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Notable features

  • 1-click WordPress install and Website Builder
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee
  • Huge amount of extra features
  • Advanced security monitoring, malware removal and much more

Get started

GoDaddy downsides

GoDaddy hasn’t grown so big in the hosting business for no reason. The whole service is packed with great features.

But after years of experience with them, there’s one thing I’m not happy with – that’s customer service.

I don’t know if I’ve just had bad luck or it’s a general issue but their waiting times are the worst. One time, I had to wait in line for about an hour before a customer support agent actually became available.

And once I’ve been so lucky to get a hold of their support, I just… don’t get help. I’ve either had to deal with customer support agents with lackluster English skills (and it has been a real pain to even explain my problem) or the support agent simply doesn’t know how to properly fix the problem.

Every once in awhile, I’ve stumbled upon helpful agents too who finally solve the issue but I’ve never had smooth top-notch support with them.

I’m still very happy with their security features but I don’t expect to get any help from their support.

💰 Pricing and fees

WordPress hosting$6.99/mo (shared server for low-high traffic)
Website hosting$5.99/mo (shared server for low-moderate traffic)
Business hosting$19.99/mo (dedicated server for high traffic)

DreamHost – Best Web Hosting for Small Business

DreamHost is another big favorite of mine. One of the reasons I’ve chosen them as the recommended web host for small businesses is their reasonable pricing. DreamHost’s plans are on the cheaper side: the cheapest plan starts from $2.59 which is almost equal to Hostinger.

As an extra perk, they offer a completely free shared hosting plan to US-based non-profits. And that’s a lifetime discount!

Though the price is low, DreamHost hasn’t compensated on quality and functionality. They’re known for their excellent uptime with their 100% uptime guarantee.

What’s even more remarkable is that all plans, including the lowest one, have unlimited traffic.

If you’re looking to set up a site for your business or organization, you can’t go wrong with DreamHost.

Notable features

  • 100% uptime guaranteed
  • 1-click instant WordPress install
  • 97-day money-back Guarantee
  • Free domain, SSL, email, and privacy protection
  • 24/7 support

Get started

DreamHost downsides

DreamHost is a great choice for any business owner, but it does have one pretty important caveat: it doesn’t use cPanel, but their own proprietary control panel.

In a way, that’s a good thing since their control panel is very easy to use. But if you already have a host and you’d like to migrate, there’s a problem. You can’t import any data from a cPanel host and will need to do any data transfers manually. That applies even to emails!

If you want to migrate your existing website, it will cost $99 and you can’t migrate any Wix sites (or any other website builder sites). WordPress sites will need to be completely rebuilt with a new theme and plugins since only content will be transferred.

Migration-wise, DreamHost might not be the best option.

💰 Pricing and fees

Starter plan$2.59/mo (1 site, unmetered visits and bandwidth)
Shared Unlimited$3.95/mo (everything unlimited/unmetered)
VPS basic$10/mo (unlimited sites and traffic, 30 GB SSD storage)
Managed WP$16.95/mo (up to 100 000 visits, unmetered bandwidth)

Wix – Best Web Hosting for Beginners

To be fair, most web hosting services I’ve mentioned in this post are beginner-friendly, at least to some extent.

But almost none of the ones reviewed above can be compared to Wix when it comes to simplicity.

Wix is really one of the best web hosts for beginners. I think there might not be another web host that offers such an easy setup process.

Wix is mainly known as a website builder and that’s really their essence: Wix is not so much a web host as it is a website creation tool.

It’s so ridiculously easy to create a website with Wix that I don’t even believe it. They have tons of pre-made templates and a drag-and-drop interface which makes website creation a matter of minutes.

If you’re very very new to online business and just want to start from somewhere without thinking even just a little bit about technical details, Wix is absolutely the best way to go. It can’t get any easier than Wix.

And you can create a website even for free (though you’ll have Wix ads and an ugly free Wix URL).

Notable features

  • Extremely easy-to-use website builder
  • 1-year free domain
  • 14-day money-back guarantee
  • Possible to create a website for free (with Wix ads and free Wix URL)

Get started

Wix downsides

Wix’s biggest strength is its biggest weakness.

It’s easy to set up, but very limited.

If you want to upgrade your site in the future and migrate to a more capable host, you might end up in a situation where it’s not possible to migrate your site since it was built in a website builder.

Wix’s drag-and-drop system is really only good for basic websites like brand pages or business intros, but I don’t recommend it to those who plan to build a content-heavy site. For that, you should still go for WordPress.

Wix is great for a basic beginner website but it’s more of a novelty thing that will only work for a certain kind of website.

But since it’s basically free, you can always play around with its templates and see for yourself if Wix would work out for your needs.

💰 Pricing and fees

Combo plan8.5€/mo (2 GB bandwidth, 3 GB storage)
Unlimited plan12.5€/mo (unlimited bandwidth, 10 GB storage)
VIP plan24.5€/mo (unlimited bandwidth, 20 GB storage)

GreenGeeks – Best Green Web Hosting

Have you even considered your website’s potential carbon footprint? Going „green“ with your website might be the one thing that will instantly put your site on top of your competition.

GreenGeeks is specializing in completely green web hosting. They do that by producing 3 times more energy from renewable energy sources than it actually spends, so the result is a 300% green hosting.

In other words, by hosting your site with GreenGeeks, your site’s carbon footprint is not just eliminated, your site actually does extra good for the environment.

What’s even more impressive is that their stats are equal to some top hosting services. They offer 99.9% uptime guarantee (and tests have even put their average to around 99.98%) and they are known to be one of the fastest hosts with average time around 445 ms.

If you want to build a truly environment-friendly website, GreenGeeks is one of the best options out there.

Notable features

  • Industry's leading eco-friendly web host
  • 1-click WordPress install
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee
  • Free site migration and SSL
  • 24/7 support
  • 30-day money-back guarantee

Get started

GreenGeeks downsides

I'm not too happy about GreenGeeks pricing. You might be surprised by this claim since at first glance, they seem to be one of the cheapest options – their starting price is $2.95.

But when you look more closely, the price is actually $9.95 once you renew after the promotional period.

And they also ask a setup fee of around $15 (which isn’t initially shown). These tricks and upselling attempts are just in bad taste.

Even for $9.95, it’s not a bad value for money though. You get loads of features and you’ll always know you have a completely eco-friendly website.

💰 Pricing and fees

Lite plan$9.95/mo (1 site, unlimited storage)
Pro plan$14.95/mo (unlimited sites, unlimited storage)
Premium plan$24.95/mo (unlimited sites, unlimited storage + more)

Inleed – Best VPS Hosting

The web hosts I’ve reviewed above are all mainly geared around shared hosting, though many of them offer more complex hosting too.

Swedish web host Inleed, however, is on a whole other level – they only offer VPS and dedicated servers.

For that reason, Inleed is meant for more advanced website owners who want better scalability or who are just tired of the limitations their shared servers impose on their site.

Inleed is not so widely known but one of their greatest perks is their price. You can get a dedicated server under 50 € per month or a VPS for just 19.9 € per month (with 8 GB RAM).

Inleed delivers great value for money and works especially well for European site owners since Inleed's servers are all in Sweden.

Notable features

  • 1-click WordPress install
  • Daily backups
  • Unlimited domains and emails
  • Easy-to-use control panel
  • Servers in Sweden

Get started

Inleed downsides

Inleed is actually surprisingly beginner-friendly but since they specialize in VPS and dedicated servers, they're not really meant for your everyday small site owners.

Shared hosting is still the best way to go for many sites, so I'd recommend Inleed only if you're more advanced and want to reap the rewards of using VPS.

💰 Pricing and fees

Standard plan1.9€/mo (2000 MB SSD storage, 50 GB traffic)
Special plan2.9€/mo (10 000 MB SSD storage, 250 GB traffic)
Reseller plan9.9€/mo (50 000 MB SSD storage, 2000 GB traffic)

Find the Best Web Hosting for Your Needs

Overall Best Web Hosting Services

These three companies tick all the boxes: great value for money, reliable service, huge functionality, easy setup, and brilliant customer support. With these, you really get the best bang for the buck.

RankWeb hostVisit
#1BluehostLearn more
#2SiteGroundLearn more
#3HostingerLearn more

Best Cheap Web Hosting

Cheap web hosting services can really be lackluster or just downright disappointing. However, there’s a difference between cheap and budget-friendly. These three cheap web hosting providers are not just friendly on your wallet, but also rich in features.

RankWeb hostVisit
#1HostingerLearn more
#2BluehostLearn more
#3InleedLearn more

Best WordPress Hosting

Over 70 million websites use WordPress, including myself. One thing we, WordPress fans, have in common: we rely on good WordPress hosting services. These three web hosting services are top-notch choices for any website builders who use WordPress as their CMS.

RankWeb hostVisit
#1WP EngineLearn more
#2SiteGroundLearn more
#3BluehostLearn more

Best Migration Support

What if you’re not happy with your current hosting service? No problem, that’s where migration support comes into play. Several hosting services provide free migration, so you could easily move your website from your old host to a new and better option. These below are the best choices when it comes to website migration.

RankWeb hostiVisit
#1KinstaLearn more
#2WP EngineLearn more
#3HostPapaLearn more

Most Reliable Web Hosts

Price, customer support, speed, or any other perks won’t matter if your website is simply down all the time. Uptime matters – if your site is not up and running, it’s no use. These three hosts below excel when it comes to uptime and providing a stable, reliable service.

RankWeb hostiVisit
#1HostGatorLearn more
#2Miss HostingLearn more
#3BluehostLearn more

Fastest Web Hosting Services

Speed is everything. In today’s competitive market, your site is simply not going to earn any money if it’s slow and sluggish. No one is going to wait for your site to load – they’ll just move to your competitors. More often than not, your site’s speed depends greatly on your host.

These three below are generally recognized as one of the fastest web hosting services out there.

RankWeb hostVisit
#1A2 HostingLearn more
#2SiteGroundLearn more
#3HostingerLearn more

Best Web Hosting Customer Support

No matter your experience level, you'll most likely need to deal with your web hosts' customer support sooner or later. These three web hosts are known for their excellent customer support. Kinsta, for example, has actual real IT people helping you out!

RankWeb hostVisit
#1SiteGroundLearn more
#2WP EngineLearn more
#3KinstaLearn more

Most Secure Web Hosting Providers

You can build the greatest site but sad truth is, there are people out there who wish to harm others. To protect your site, you need to pick a host who can offer you vast security options. These web hosting companies below have easy-to-use security features that will keep your site safe and sound.

RankWeb hostVisit
#1GoDaddyLearn more
#2SiteGroundLearn more
#3BluehostLearn more

Best Web Hosting for Small Business or Organization

Some web hosts are specially tailored for small businesses or even non-profit organizations (like schools or charities). Sometimes, these hosts might even offer special deals for just small businesses! The three web hosting services below might work well for you, if you run a small business:

RankWeb hostVisit
#1DreamHostLearn more
#2HostingerLearn more
#3InMotion HostingLearn more

Best Web Hosting for Beginners

If you're new to affiliate marketing or website building in general, the whole process can be incredibly confusing.

Luckily though, there are web hosts that are perfectly suited for even complete newbies. Below you can find the best web hosting for beginners – all so easy to use that building a professional website is literally easier than making coffee.

RankWeb hostVisit
#1WixLearn more
#2BluehostLearn more
#3EgenSajtLearn more

Best Green Web Hosting

Did you know that 2% of the whole planet's CO2 emissions comes from digital activities? Environment-friendly web hosting is not just “trendy”, it's necessary. Here are top 3 green web hosts that help to reduce our digital carbon footprint.

RankWeb hostVisit
#1GreenGeeksLearn more
#2HostGatorLearn more
#3InMotion HostingLearn more

Best VPS Hosting

If you want more freedom and a better performance than a shared hosting can provide, VPS hosting might be the next best option. Here are the best VPS hosting services that help you take your site to the next level.

RankWeb hostVisit
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Frequently asked questions about web hosting

How much does website hosting cost?

Website hosting cost is probably the first question that pops into your mind when choosing a hosting service.

So, how much does website hosting cost? Short answer: it depends on the type of web hosting.

The cheapest option (and the most common one) is shared hosting. Since your site is hosted on the same server with some other sites too (hence, its shared), it’s a lot less expensive than dedicated hosting where your site is hosted on just your own server.

Shared web hosting won’t break your bank. Most options cost around $3 to $8 per month.

But now, this is where things get interesting. Some cheap web hosting options might not even be that cheap. Actually, some „free“ or extremely cheap hosting services tend to be the priciest.

When choosing a hosting provider, you need to understand the difference between entry price and real price:

  • Entry price is a promotional price that usually applies to a first year or two. Its sole purpose is to lure you into buying with its seemingly low price.
  • Real price is the renewal price, a.k.a the price you’re actually going to pay after the promotional period ends.

The one you really want to focus on is the real price. After all, you’re going to run your website for more than 1-2 years, so in reality, the renewal price is the one that matters.

From the table above, you’ll find both the intro price and real price, so you could figure out which web hosting service fits your budget the best.

What if you choose the wrong web hosting?

What if you already have a web host but you're not happy with the service?

I have good news for you: you can migrate your website to another host.

Some web hosting companies even offer special deals to migrated sites and usually, migration is completely free, since they want you as as customer.

If you're in a pickle with your current host, check out the hosts with best migration support from the table above.

What does unlimited web hosting really mean?

When you compare web hosting companies, you might come across a term “unlimited web hosting” quite often.

Sounds good, right?

Well, in reality, there is no such thing as unlimited web hosting or unlimited bandwidth. It’s simply physically not possible.

Absolutely each and every hosting provider that offers unlimited space has some limits. In other words, with unlimited web hosting, you get a pretty huge storage space, but it’s still limited.

Unlimited web hosting offers are really nothing more than just marketing catchphrases. When you see the term “unlimited”, be sure to read the hosting provider’s conditions since there’s always a specific limit in place.

What is web hosting uptime guarantee?

Uptime is a tricky term. Most hosting providers promise some sort of uptime percentage which describes approximately how long your site might go down every year.

In ideal world, you want your site to be live all the time but clearly, outages can happen. Usually, hosting services promise at least 99 – 99.9% uptime which already sounds pretty great.

When comparing web hosts, you should definitely consider the uptime.

Here comes the tricky part. If you do some calculations, you’ll understand that, in reality, there’s a huge difference between 99% and 99.9%.

Take this for example:

  • If uptime is 99%, your site might be down for a whopping 7.2 hours per month
  • If uptime is 99.5%, it means your site might go down for about 3.6 hours per month
  • If uptime is 99.9%, it means your site might be down just for 0.72 hours per month

It goes without saying that every downtime means potential lost business.

However, the best web hosting services offer a lucrative uptime guarantee which promises to refund some of your hosting cost if downtime is longer than agreed.

Uptime guarantee itself might not always work out as well as it sounds though, for several reasons:

  • It might be hard to realistically measure downtime and it’s very possible you might just end up arguing with your host without coming to an agreement
  • Uptime guarantees don’t cover scheduled maintenance (so, your site might actually be down longer than you anticipated)
  • The refund might not be so significant that it would actually cover business losses

Uptime is very, very tricky. But if you have a choice, always go for the host with the best uptime policy.

How to realistically choose the best web hosting for your needs

Choosing the best web hosting is no easy task. I can only do as much as give you some guidance on making the choice but ultimately, you have to figure out a few things yourself.

Before you settle for the final choice, you should ask yourself these 3 questions:

1. What do you need your website for?

This is the one thing you must figure out before you can can compare web hosting offers.

Do you:

  • Want to build a site in WordPress?
  • Need a professional site for your business?
  • Need to host a big forum?
  • Want to open an eCommerce site?

There's a suitable hosting service for each of those (and I've laid out some suitable options above too). If you know exactly what you want to build and how big your site might be, you'll understand which service is the best for you.

Shared hosting vs VPS hosting vs dedicated server:

  1. Shared hosting – This means that your site will share the server with other sites. This is the cheapest and most common option and works the best for smaller sites.
  2. VPS hosting – VPS hosting is pretty similar to shared hosting since you're still going to share the server with others. However, your site won't be affected by other sites anymore since you'll have your own resources. VPS hosting is a little pricier but much more flexible.
  3. Dedicated hostingDedicated server is the highest level – this means you'll have the entire server for yourself. However, this comes with a heftier price tag and is also a better choice for more advanced users.

Typically, you would want to start off with shared hosting if this is your first website. Cheapest, easiest to setup, and easy to upgrade.

2. How much do you want to pay for web hosting?

We all know that good things ain't cheap. But web hosting doesn't have to be expensive, and price is definitely something you need to consider when comparing web hosts. Actually, as you can see from the table above, web hosting is pretty cheap, especially if talking about shared hosting.

Don't be fooled by promotional prices or “free” offers. Nothing comes for free. Keep in mind that in order to host a website, some physical resources are still needed. Free web hosting services can never get even close to the level of an actual paid hosting service.

When comparing web hosting services, keep that in mind but also think about your budget. If money is tight, your best bet is to choose one of the cheap web hosting services mentioned above. You'll still get great, professional service!

3. What's your skill level and support needs?

Last but not least, you should consider your skill level . If you just need a brand page or a simple professional website, but you're new to website building, consider one of the beginner choices I've outlined above.

There's nothing wrong with choosing a more beginner-friendly web host. Your site doesn't need to be built by professional IT guys and you don't have to spend days or even weeks on building a site, in order to have a nice profitable website.

And even if you want to go for something more complex than a simple site builder, choose a web host with the best customer support. This way, you'll always have a helping hand.

Happy web host hunting!

As you now understand, comparing web hosts can be a tricky business, but I'm sure you'll make the right choice now that you're equipped with all this knowledge.

To start building your site, just scroll to the big web hosting comparison above and choose the one that fits your needs the best.

Thank you for your time.

Happy web host hunting!

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Written by
Johannes Larsson
Join the discussion

19 comments
  • Wix is not a host but a CMS platform. And why is Siteground number 1? It’s not a good host (IMO)

    • True, but Wix also offers hosting of their websites, so you don’t need a host if you go with them.

      The comparison list is ranked by users.

  • Really wonderful.. I have been researching “web hosting sites” for a while now, and I think this is helping me greatly.

  • I want a simple site where I can create my own pages in software, and upload them. I can’t afford much. WordPress and SiteGround are too complicated. Pl advise.

    • I would advice you to learn WordPress. It’s one of the best platforms and once you learn it, it’s easy to use.

  • Wow .. owner of 400 websites… since last 1 year I purchased few domains… but nothing is up… only money going out.. When I want to buy domain/ hostings/ CMS… everyone springs bright up promising the moon.. once I pay everyone vanishes… hope reading this post something real works out. The problem I faced is this – 1. I need a blog (but dont know how to go about it), 2. Host it – but dont know which is cheapest best ?? 3. CMS?? The main problem is to grab more market each one promising everything and delivering nothing. What will greatly help is an optimised way to create to site/blog… thnx for openning my eyes to reality…

  • Along with great prices, DreamHost also stands out for the way they manage their web hosts. They don’t use the standard cPanel that most hosts use. Instead, DreamHost offers a completely custom control panel to manage your website. This is great for developers who want more control over their websites.