From private consumers to SMBs and multi-billion dollar corporations, everyone seems to have a website today. This is all the more true with many brick-and-mortar businesses moving their presence online in light of COVID-19 lockdowns. And while website design takes care of the part of your website that everyone sees, the unsung powerhouse of all web activity is the web hosting services.
Web hosting companies provide you with a place to park your beautiful website so that anyone across the world can see it. The best web hosting services offer fun features like fast load time, uptime guarantees, and freebies like Ecommerce solutions and storage space.
Want professional-grade service? Check out the reviews below of our best web hosting services for 2021.
The Best Hosting Services - An In-Depth Look
- Price per monthStarting at $2.95
- Uptime99.99%
- Money-back guarantee30-day
With more than 2 million websites internationally, Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosting services in the industry. And that’s not hard to understand when you look at what’s being offered. 1-click WordPress installation, 24/7 expert support from trained professionals, and a 30-day money-back guarantee are just a few of the reasons we’re so impressed by Bluehost.
Choose from shared hosting to VPS and dedicated hosting plans all at affordable rates. Bluehost also has dedicated WordPress hosting plans. Or, if you have an online business, the WooCommerce website hosting plan would be a good choice for you. These plans have everything from site analytics to traffic management, security, and backups built-in.
Pros- Outstanding customer support
- Suite of added web tools
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage
Cons- Have to pay for site transfer
- A lot of upselling
- Price per monthStarting at $2.75
- Uptime99.9% guarantee
- Money-back guarantee45 days
Not too many people will fail to recognize the familiar friendly gator, the mascot of HostGator. The service is one of the most prevalent in the country, and it has the perks to keep customers coming back. HostGator kicks things off with a 45-day money-back guarantee, 24/7 live chat customer support, and a solid 99.9% uptime guarantee.
HostGator has a whole slew of options when it comes to hosting packages. From web hosting to cloud, application, reseller, VPS, and more, HostGator covers all the bases. There’s even a special WordPress hosting plan for customers who have WordPress pages. HostGator also makes it easier to get up and running with a built-in website builder that lets anyone be a designer even without a bit of design or coding experience.
Pros- Free domain for a year
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- Lots of tools and plans to choose from
Cons- VPS is only Linux-based
- So many options can be overwhelming
- Price per monthStarting at $1
- Uptime99.9%
- Money-back guarantee30 days
You’ll no doubt be familiar with GoDaddy, the somewhat snarky, slightly scandalous, and seriously silly hosting service that combines humor and website hosting in a professional and reliable way. Between that and perks like affordable pricing, 99.9% uptime, and a free SSL certificate with most plans, GoDaddy is a great deal.
You can find every type of hosting package with GoDaddy. So, whether you’re looking for VPS hosting, web, business, or reseller hosting, dedicated servers, and beyond, this is the address for you. GoDaddy has hosting centers around the world. This translates to faster load times and happier customers across the board. GoDaddy also offers truly unlimited and unmetered bandwidth, a free domain with an annual plan, and free Microsoft Office 365 business email for the first year.
Pros- One-click install for Drupal, WordPress, Joomla
- Global data centers
- Loads of hosting plans to choose
Cons- Content isn’t transferred over themes
- Pricing disclosure is not transparent
- Price per monthStarting at $0.99
- Uptime99.9%
- Money-back guarantee30 days
Hostinger is a professional website hosting platform with all the right features. It has a limited basic plan that’s perfect for small or single-employee businesses looking for quality service for less. Customer support is friendly and available at all hours to help you when problems arise. At just a dollar, you really can’t go wrong. For more features, the more advanced plans offer plenty of bang for your buck.
You’ll get unlimited bandwidth (which is only available with higher tier plans), websites, and MySQL databases. Plus, you get free domain registration and an SSL certificate if you sign up for a premium plan. There’s an easy and free website builder called Zyro that lets you throw together a website in minutes. Hostinger also offers weekly backups, access manager, and PHP configuration for more customized options.
Pros- Top-quality shared hosting
- Optimized for WordPress
- Unlimited websites and MySQL databases
Cons- Basic plan has limited bandwidth
- Renewal price is a big jump for some plans
- Price per monthFrom $2.95 per month
- Uptime100% uptime guarantee
- Money-back guarantee97-day guarantee
Dreamhost offers lots of diversity for those who need it. There’s cloud hosting, managed VPS hosting, and Wordpress-optimized shared hosting.
Additionally, the company provides a separate email hosting service and has a special Wordpress website builder product to make it even easier to get Wordpress sites on the internet.
Pros- Wordpress site builder
- 100% uptime guarantee
- Many hosting types
Cons- No Windows VPS
- Won’t help with migrations
- Price per monthFrom $1 per month for shared
- Uptime99.9%
- Money-back guarantee30 days
1&1 IONOS offers a wide variety of hosting options ranging from shared and WordPress-optimized hosting, through to dedicated servers and VPNs.
The first year prices are also remarkably low with the Business tier starting out at just $1 per month for the first year. It’s a well rounded offering with a website builder and some good prices.
Pros- Wide variety of hosting packages
- Fast SSD storage
- 99.9% uptime
Cons- Higher prices after 1st year
- Email limit on lower tiers
- Price per monthStarting at $2.49
- Uptime99.9%
- Money-back guaranteeAnytime money-back guarantee
A2 Hosting is a web hosting service that prides itself on high-powered service. Whether you’re looking at shared or dedicated hosting, reseller, or VPS, this is the place to turn to for speed. A2 Hosting offers some of the fastest hosting options out there. In fact, you can get up to 20x faster! SSH access is also free, along with free SSDs that give your site an even bigger speed boost.
A2 Hosting has loads of goodies to enjoy, including a 99.9% uptime guarantee, free site migration, and free automatic backups. A2 Hosting also gives you an anytime money-back guarantee. That’s a solid promise! Plus, you’ll get speed-optimized WordPress sites for maximum effect. Enjoy a free SSL certificate when you sign up and helpful customer support staff that is always around 24/7, 365 days a year
Pros- Anytime money-back guarantee
- Up to 20x faster than the competition
- Developer-friendly features and tools
Cons- Lackluster basic plan
- High renewal rates
![Network Solutions Hosting Service]( "Network Solutions Hosting Service")
- Price per monthStarted at $3.79
- Uptime99.9%
- Money-back guarantee30 days
Network Solutions is known as the world’s first domain provider, and that’s an impressive claim in this competitive industry. With proven reliability, secure servers, and a wide variety of developer tools to tickle your fancy and make your website really pop, Network Solutions has an excellent service to offer SMBs, medium, and even enterprise-level businesses.
Included in your hosting plan comes complete malware scanning and removal to keep your sites safer on a daily basis. You can also make use of any of the number of handy add-ons available through Network Solutions, including SiteLock, CodeGuard, and MyTimeSupport. Let’s not forget the DIY and pro website design, Ecommerce site support, and professional email services. All things included, Network Solutions is a really well-rounded option.
Pros- Live tech support
- Strong security features
- Lots of promotional offers frequently
Cons- No live chat support
- Not a lot of hosting variants
- Price per monthStarting at $3.95 per month
- Uptime99.9%
- Money-back guarantee30 days
HostPapa is a customer-centric web hosting and design service that makes getting your own professional business a reality for so many businesses out there. You can create a beautiful website in no time with the intuitive drag-and-drop website builder. And with a basic plan that starts at just $3.95 a month, anyone can afford to be professionally hosted.
With HostPapa, you can get web hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, and reseller hosting. There’s also a plan for Ecommerce hosting, a great option if you have an online store (or are thinking about opening one). HostPapa also includes 400+ business apps to enhance your business potential. You’ll get free domain registration, plenty of storage, and unlimited bandwidth with all packages.
Pros- Lots of features even with basic plan
- Softaculous with 400+ free apps
- One-on-one training
Cons- Money-back guarantee isn’t 100%
- Some hidden fees
What are Website Hosting Services and Which is Right for You?
Website hosting services are basically the plot of internet land that your website storefront sits on. If you have a website, it needs to be on the web, and these hosting services are the landlords that put up your site and keep it running so your customers can access and see it when they type in your URL.
There are different types of hosting services that cater to the varying types of businesses. Some web hosting companies will build your entire website, while others will just give you the plot of land and the shovel and leave you to it. Depending on your business model and size, you’ll choose a hosting company based on the factors explained below. Once you understand the terminology, you can weigh features and select the service that works best for your company’s needs.
How to Choose the Best Web Hosting Company?
Without the best web hosting, your ability to run a successful website is going to be seriously hindered. There is a dizzying array of web hosting providers competing for your business. How can you pinpoint the best one? Start by keeping the following points in mind:
Bandwidth
The first thing you need to do when shopping for a web host is to evaluate your disk space and bandwidth needs. If your site features lots of graphics, dozens of pages, and large amounts of traffic, you're going to need decent bandwidth and disk space. Unlimited plans are available, and they make life easier. If your site is going to be simple and not generate a huge amount of traffic, you should be able to get away with less disk space and bandwidth.
Compatibility
Keep compatibility in mind, too. In the excitement of looking for a website hosting provider, you might overlook one critical thing: the type of operating systems that are supported. You're not going to want to switch operating systems, so double-check this point before settling for a provider.
Reliability
Reliability and availability are critical characteristics to consider when shopping around for web hosting. The best web hosting companies offer availability rates of 98 and 99%, frequently referred to as “Uptime.” It's easy to make such claims, though, so make sure to see if they make good on their promises.
Security
Security is also an essential concern. Choosing a web hosting provider without learning about its available security features is a big mistake. Things like firewalls, daily backups, SSL certificates and user authentication should all be included. It's also nice to receive notifications whenever changes are made because they can alert you to suspicious activity.
Take a look at how we choose the best web hosting sites in the industry in order to make a better decision about which is right for you.
Hosting Packages and What They Mean to You
The larger or more complex a website, the more comprehensive a configuration package it's going to need. The main ones are broken down as follows:
Shared
Shared web hosting is the basic package that services offer. Your website sits on the same server along with many other websites, so you're sharing the server, and any other resources, such as memory or CPU. These are good for basic website needs such as email sending, file sharing, and base level e-commerce sites. Shared hosting is the cheapest and, therefore, smartest option for smaller or startup businesses.
VPS
A virtual private server is designated for your direct purposes, more than a shared server. You still may be sharing an actual server, but the service creates a virtual server of your very own. That means all the resources are yours alone, from memory storage to processing power and beyond. This is a safer and much more reliable option that keeps your site separate from the others while still maintaining affordability.
Dedicated
Dedicated hosting is on another level. In addition to getting your own server, dedicated hosting lets you take full control over your server. That means you have full administrative access and can set things up the way you like it. This type of package comes with a royal suite of features that may not be necessary for all types of businesses.
WordPress
WordPress is a shared hosting service that caters to a more specialized clientele. The servers themselves are optimized differently and have features that are particularly attractive to WordPress performance, such as faster load time, pre-installation, security features that work specifically with WordPress, and WordPress updates. This is useful for businesses that have websites created on WordPress.
Web Hosting Pricing & Value
Some choose web hosting providers based solely on price. While that's not a great strategy, you should certainly take pricing into consideration. The best providers offer plans for every budget, and in some cases, signing up for longer subscriptions will qualify for extra discounts.
Also, leave some room to grow. Choosing a web hosting plan that meets your website's current needs is great. But, with any luck, your site will grow and expand over time, and your needs may change. Since switching to a new web hosting provider is a major hassle, consider one that offers scalable plans. Meaning, you should be able to upgrade to another plan easily once necessary. Low prices are always nice, but if the low price comes with a limit on space or bandwidth, you need to be sure the deal is really worth it.
Along the same lines, you may want to pay attention to how many email accounts are provided. Whether or not you believe you'll need dozens of email addresses, it's nice to have the option to create as many as possible down the line. In most cases, larger numbers of email addresses are included in more expensive plans. This feature, while not very important to some, is critical to others.
Some Top Features When it Comes to Top Hosting Quality
Hosting quality is affected by several factors that are important to weigh during your decision-making process. Some of the most significant factors include:
Uptime guarantee
We mention this in more detail below, and really it’s one of the most important factors to consider, so don’t skimp on uptime. HostGator has one of the best uptime guarantees at 99.98%.
Load time
Load time is also really important. Recent studies show that the average attention span has shrunk over the years to smaller than that of a goldfish! So, if your website takes even a drop too long to load a page, your business is dead before it’s even started. To keep yourself in the running, be sure your hosting service has a fast load time. A2Hosting will deliver a 360ml load time for pages, the fastest in the industry.
Customer support
Because having an issue with your website is nothing to take lightly, you want to make sure customer service is available, knowledgeable, and easy to work with. More on this below.
Location
The number of servers and location plays a huge part in the speed of your website loading and service. Obviously, the more servers available, the faster the service, but where those servers are found in the world will also affect the quality. Look for servers in substantial locations close to you, such as the UK, US, or Israel, depending on your location.
Cybersecurity Features You Should Look for in a Hosting Package
In the United States alone, 30,000 websites are hacked with malware every day. A large number of those are small business websites which are targeted because they don’t have the cybersecurity protections that large enterprise IT teams can put up. But there is still plenty that small business owners can do to ensure the safety of their accounts. Check if your hosting provider offers any of the following, all of which can help ensure that your account does not become the next statistic.
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
Also called multi-factor authentication (MFA), 2-factor authentication adds a second security credential to the login process. If you’re on a managed hosting plan, then you probably know that cPanel is where your technical staff can configure all aspects of their hosting accounts. Because cPanel is so powerful, the risks of a hacker getting in are far more damaging than gaining access to, say, an FTP account or a Wordpress backend. That’s why it’s extremely useful if your host offers 2FA on logins to cPanel.
Free SSL Certificates
If your small business operates multiple domain names, then you’ll find it particularly helpful if your hosting provider offers free SSL certificates with their hosting package. An SSL certificate is a guarantee from a Certificate Authority (CA) that traffic to and from the website will be encrypted by Transport Layer Security (TLS). You might be more familiar with this as https:// rather than http:// before certain domain names. Using TLS gives your customers peace of mind that data they send to and from your website will be encrypted over their local networks. Because your customers’ user credentials could conceivably be used to brute force your own digital infrastructure, it’s in your interests too to make sure this is offered.
DKIM, SPF, DMARC
Email spoofing is a real concern for any small business. To combat this, look for a host that offers 3 email authentication tools on its hosting packages: Sender Policy Framework (SPF), Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) and Domain-based Message Authentication, and Reporting & Conformance (DMARC). These are configured as DNS records in your cPanel and mean that recipients can see that the email was authenticated by your organization and is not the result of a fraudster impersonating you.
Easy Update Manager
If your small business is using some popular web-hosted scripts such as the Wordpress Content Management System (CMS), then you should know that you’re wide open to any vulnerabilities in the code base. Because of how widely these systems are deployed, they’re lucrative targets for hackers. A one-click script installation and manager means that you can ensure that any such cloud-hosted programs are updated automatically and at regular intervals—without having to ask your IT staff for help.
The Low Down on Uptimes
If you're looking into web hosting, you'll hear the term uptime guarantee a lot. That makes a lot of sense, considering it is one of the most important factors when choosing a service. Uptime, which is the percentage of time that a hosting service is up and running, will be guaranteed by various companies with a certain percentage of time to be up. That doesn't mean they will definitely go down for the other percentage of the time, but they can say without fail that they will be up for at least that amount of time.
The reason this is important is because you don’t want your site constantly being unavailable or unreachable to your customers. Otherwise, why have a website at all? A high uptime percentage ensures that your audience can see and interact with your website more often. Quality brands like HostGator and Bluehost offer a more than 99% uptime guarantee, and that’s really good for your business.
Top Questions From Our Readers
We come across a lot of the same questions from our readers. Here are some of the most commonly asked questions along with quick answers for your reference:
About how much does web hosting cost?
The package and type of service you get will determine how much you pay. Prices range anywhere from $1/month to around $10/month. For a more in-depth answer, check out the pricing and value section below.
How can I learn more about hosting services?
Review sites like these have done all the work for you and condensed the information you need into short, concise reviews on each brand. Browse these reviews to get the most data in the least amount of time/effort, in order to make a well-informed decision.
Investigate Hosting Providers' Customer Service and Support
Even if you're a natural at setting up websites, it's nice to know that help is available if you need it. Confirm that the web hosting provider you choose has 24/7 support and make sure that there are several ways in which to get support, too. The most reliable providers will provide support through email, phone, and online chat, giving you the choice of convenience.
The best support includes customer freedom. Review the providers' policies to ensure that there is a clear, money-back guarantee if you're not satisfied with the product. After narrowing down the search to just a few candidates, search for online reviews about each of them. Ideally, the reviews should come from actual customers on review sites and not a list of published testimonials on the web hosting providers' own websites. It should be pretty easy to get a feel for how a web hosting provider treats its customers from the word on the street.
What Extras Are Available Beyond Web Hosting
While providing the basics like bandwidth and disk space are a given, a good web hosting plan will also have at least a few extras. If you're running an online store, keep an eye out for providers that supply Ecommerce solutions. If you want to be able to implement quick and easy updates, find a provider that offers content management systems. Make sure that they'll give you access to statistics about your site, as well.
Conclusion
As tempting as it may be to choose a web hosting provider quickly and just get on with your life, it's undeniably better to take your time. In doing so, you'll be able to find a provider you can stick with for the long haul.
