Web hosting is a service that offers organisations and people a location to store website files so they may be accessed online.
Because businesses and website designers typically require web hosting services to improve the performance of their websites, our specialists have searched through more than 160 hosts to identify the top-tier providers.
We examine product lines, contrast control panels, investigate tools, develop a few websites, test out various customer care methods, and conduct thorough uptime and speed testing when evaluating web hosting services.
We are aware that it takes a little time, therefore our staff of knowledgeable reviewers has already put in the effort. By purchasing domain names and setting up test websites to be hosted on each of the web hosting platforms listed below, we have also tried and tested each web host on features like ease of use, cost, reliability, and more.
In order to help you choose the best host for your online needs, we carefully selected the top 12 web hosting companies from the more than 160 web hosting and website builder(opens in new tab) providers we’ve thoroughly tested. We compared their strengths, weaknesses, and pricing.
The best web hosting services of 2022
Hostinger – Best web hosting overall
The service specifications of Hostinger(opens in new tab), which markets itself on value, become clear after two or three seconds of examination. For just $2.99 billed annually ($8.99 on renewal), you can get the company’s entry-level All-In-One package, which also includes 100GB of storage, unmetered traffic, free SSL, a free domain for the first year, support for 100 websites, a choice of six data centres, automatic backups, managed WordPress, 1GB of email storage, a virus scanner, spam filter, and other features.
Hostinger also does not bury a tonne of hidden clauses in the fine print. For instance, SSL won’t increase in price after the first year; it will be free throughout the duration of your account.
A standout feature of Hostinger is its WordPress compatibility.
For as low as $1.99 a month on the four-year account (a steal $95.52 up front), the baseline plan enables a single site, 30GB of storage, 100GB of monthly bandwidth, and free SSL if you’re only wanting to operate a tiny blog. The monthly fee rises to $3.99 on renewal.
Even the business-friendly WordPress Pro account, which supports 300 websites, 200GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, daily backups, Cloudflare CDN, and more, is still only $11.59 per month on the four-year plan, rising to $19.99 on renewal. Three additional WordPress plans offer more features.
Hostinger does not, however, provide dedicated hosting options, which may be a problem for commercial users that want the best speeds. However, the company’s cloud hosting plans give you access to dedicated system resources, which they say can deliver 4x as fast speeds. Additionally, SSH access, CDN, and daily backups are only offered as add-ons in more expensive packages.
A wide range of VPS plans, however, are nearly as powerful as dedicated servers, with the top-tier $77.99 plan including an 8-core, 16GB RAM monster with an enterprise-level 12TB of monthly bandwidth. Our investigation established the high calibre of this web host.
Bluehost – Best WordPress hosting
It is a leading choice among web hosting companies because to its wide selection of feature-rich plans, simple setup, dependable network, and excellent live chat assistance to keep your site operating properly.
We evaluated its 10GB single-site shared hosting plan, which we recommend for those who are just starting out in hosting as it costs $2.75 per month when paid annually ($9.99 when renewed) and includes a website builder, WordPress integration, free CDN, a free domain for the first year, and free SSL. You can upgrade to get unlimited sites, automated backups, and various other extras.
The starter for Bluehost WordPress plans have significant feature changes yet are priced the same. You can get started right away because WordPress is already installed. Beautiful themes, feature-rich plugins, and more might be found via the Bluehost Marketplace. Although the knowledgeable live chat support professionals were not the quickest to reply, we were able to administer many WordPress sites from an easy-to-use web dashboard and once they were online, we received the assistance we required. Another drawback to be aware of is that Bluehost’s hosting plans need a minimum one-year commitment and do not provide monthly pricing choices.
If you’re searching for something a bit easier, Bluehost’s Website Builder (starting at $2.95 per month when paid annually) allows you to create attractive websites with little more than dragging and dropping. The premium plans ($24.95 a month invoiced annually) can even develop feature-rich web stores thanks to how simple to use but powerful it is.
There is a lot for experts to enjoy here as well, including affordable VPS and customizable dedicated hosting, hosted WooCommerce plans, business-friendly Google Workspace hosting, domain registration, and even migration support to make it simple to transfer an existing website to your Bluehost account.
HostGator – Best shared web hosting
It has developed into a premier web hosting company with services and solutions for all user levels.
Like Bluehost and Hostinger, shared hosting is a strength for HostGator, with even the entry-level Hatching plan providing unlimited bandwidth and disc space, a free domain for a year, a free SSL for the duration of your plan, one-click WordPress installation, and a built-in website builder. HostGator offers a generous 45-day money-back guarantee and will even transfer a straightforward website from your current site to your new one without charge.
The costs are reasonable at $2.75 per month for the three-year plan and $3.95 per year (both renew at $6.95).
Prices for HostGator’s WordPress plans start at $5.95 per month for three years ($9.95 on renewal), but they also include necessary services like backups and malware protection that are frequently extras elsewhere.
Three VPS and three dedicated hosting plans are available for those who have higher demands, and if you’re feeling adventurous, HostGator’s reseller plans allow you to launch your own hosting company.
Although the prices for their entry-level equipment are more than we’ve seen elsewhere and the starting specs are strong, you’ll probably have more than enough power for the majority of sites. Additionally, only 99.9% uptime is guaranteed by HostGator for cloud hosting services.
Regardless of the hosting plan you choose, HostGator’s own feature-rich web dashboard and the industry-standard cPanel did a good job of managing our web space and account. And if you do encounter difficulties, have no fear—HostGator’s phone and live chat support have typically resolved our issues in a matter of minutes.
GoDaddy – Best multilingual support web host
GoDaddy, a web hosting behemoth with headquarters in the US, has an enormous selection of goods. There are many options for hosting, including shared, VPS, and dedicated servers; WordPress support for everything from basic personal blogs to fully functional web stores powered by WooCommerce; an intuitive website builder; email and Microsoft 365 hosting; domain registration; payment processing; point-of-sale systems; and the list goes on.
GoDaddy offers four acceptable shared hosting packages. All of them come with daily backups, a variety of data centres in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, as well as unusual extras like a year of free Microsoft 365 mailboxes. The lower two plans don’t offer any free SSL, and the cheapest paid SSL certificate costs $94.99 per year, making them appear slightly underpowered in other respects.
The single site 100GB Economy plan for shared hosting costs $5.99 per month on the three-year plan and $8.99 on renewal, which is more expensive than other plans. However, GoDaddy’s billing policies are surprisingly pliable, and if you’re sure you’ll enjoy the service, you can lock in those savings with a five- or even ten-year plan. We discovered that shared hosting has subpar server response times, which made for a less than ideal testing experience because it took longer to fix the hosting problem we ran into.
An automated installer instals WordPress and more than 150 other popular web apps in a few clicks, and the well-designed web dashboard is simple to use. The industry-recognized cPanel provides all the tools you’ll need to manage your web space.
All of this worked out well for us, but in the event that you do require assistance, GoDaddy more than meets your needs with its comprehensive knowledge base, multilingual live chat support, and phone support available in an impressive 15+ languages.
How we test the best web hosting services
Our reviewers sign up for each web hosting service(opens in new tab) and purchase a plan to see what each company offers brand-new customers as well as how simple it is to use each company’s dashboard. We give the assistance that is provided to you a lot of thought.
We evaluate the specifics of what you receive (as well as what you do not) and rank each web host based on the quality of its features that many customers will use and how transparent the web host is about what the customer is receiving in every product.
We concentrate on whether each web hosting provider presents its products in an honest, clear, and transparent manner because we are aware of how crucial it is to choose a web hosting company you can trust. This is apparent in our tests when we contrast the features that each company claims to offer with those that are actually available to us once we start using their service.
Last but not least, the least expensive shared hosting package offered by a provider is the foundation for our web host speed tests.
We then configure Uptime.com to check our site’s availability and server response time every five minutes after uploading a simple static site to our web space with HTML, CSS, and a few images. This provides us a basic idea of the speed and uptime you will probably enjoy once you choose the ideal web hosting company for you.
Each of the web hosts listed below has been chosen because it excels in some area of providing web hosting services. We have compiled the best of the best for you to find a web hosting provider that satisfies your specific requirements, from shared hosting to reseller hosting.
If you want to learn more about buying a web hosting service, the various hosting service types, or how to pick the best web hosting service for you, scroll to the bottom of this page.
How to choose a web hosting provider
It’s quite difficult to ignore the cryptic-sounding jargon that permeates the web hosting industry. Even choosing whatever sort of package you want necessitates some familiarity with technical jargon (what exactly is a VPS, again?). But don’t worry; it’s more easier than it seems at first.
In actuality, you don’t need to spend much time on the technical aspects, even if it helps to understand a few hosting fundamentals before you buy. You’re already off to a great start if your only knowledge of hosting is that shared products are slow but inexpensive, VPS plans are faster and slightly more expensive, and dedicated hosting is fastest but can be very expensive. It’s also important to note that selecting the best web hosting service for you requires careful consideration of customer support. After all, if you’re a beginner, you’ll want the assurance that your chosen provider will be able to respond to your inquiries promptly and helpfully.
Naturally, it helps if you can do a little more than that, which is why in this guide we’ll break down the different types of hosting you can get, explain who they’re for, and give you some buying advice. We guarantee it won’t hurt, and by the time it’s over, you’ll know much more about the hosting you require and what to look for when evaluating providers.
What are web hosting services?
If you’ve ever wondered “What is a web hosting service and how does it function,” then keep reading. Before choosing the best solution for your website’s needs, we’ve provided a thorough explanation with all the details you need to know.
Web hosting, which is essentially a service that makes your website or web application accessible on the internet, is typically regarded as one of the most crucial components required when building any kind of website.
There are many web hosts to choose from depending on the requirements and budget of your website. Web hosts manage and operate the physical servers that house websites.
Depending on the web hosting service you choose and the package you choose from the provider, the kind of server space you rent to store the data for your website can be particularly designed, ranging from shared hosting to VPS and WordPress hosting.
What is shared hosting?
In a straightforward system known as shared hosting, several websites are kept on the same web server (a type of computer.)
When you sign up for a shared hosting package, your provider allots you some server space. Then, you may visit that area to upload a personal website or install WordPress, WooCommerce, or another programme. Your website becomes accessible to the public once you purchase a domain like MySite.com and configure it to point to the web space.
The convenience of shared hosting is one advantage. Because your supplier takes care of server maintenance, you won’t have to spend any time doing it. You just need to work on your own website.
With potentially hundreds of websites hosted on one server, sharing a web server also means sharing the costs, which typically translates into extremely low pricing.
The main issue with shared hosting is that your server’s system resources, like CPU time, RAM, storage, and network connection, are also shared. There are only so many resources available, and as more websites load on your server, your own website is likely to become slower and less reliable.
In many cases, shared hosting is the best option. The shared option is best if you’re creating a straightforward blog, a site for family members, a local club, or anything else with very little traffic where nobody will care too much if the site occasionally loads slowly.
A slow or unreliable website will turn away visitors, however, if it is something more significant, such as a web store or possibly a business website. It is definitely worthwhile to switch to a more powerful option.
What is VPS hosting?
You get access to what appears to be the whole server when you log into a VPS. Although this is far more complicated than shared hosting, you have considerably more control over it. You can set up any applications, modify any server settings, and, if you’d like, even change the operating system entirely.
Although there won’t be as many accounts as with shared hosting, there will be other VPS environments on the same physical server, which will slightly lower your performance. However, you will be given your own allotment of CPU time, RAM, storage, and network bandwidth. Since they won’t be shared with other clients, your website should load faster and more consistently than it would with shared hosting.
Frequently, upgrading is also extremely simple. If website traffic increases and you require more resources, such as more CPU time, RAM, or bandwidth, you can often add them to your plan in a few clicks and they’ll become accessible nearly instantly.
It costs something to have this extra power, but it might not cost as much as you think. The least expensive shared hosting plan from Hostinger costs $1.99 per month over a four-year period, and the least expensive VPS plan costs just $2.99 over the same period. Although it’s a very basic plan, it’s not expensive to test whether a VPS might be useful for you at $8.99 for a single month.
What is dedicated hosting?
A physical server is assigned exclusively to one customer under a dedicated hosting plan, as the name indicates. The entire system is yours alone, so there will be no more performance difficulties brought on by having to share bandwidth, RAM, or CPU time with other accounts.
Most service providers let you assemble the server with any hardware you choose because you are renting the complete physical server. Typically, you can pick your CPU, operating system, bandwidth allotment, storage drives (cheap and high capacity HDDs, smaller but faster SSDs), and more. If you have the money, you can often create some incredibly powerful systems (for example, if you can think of a use for them, the top-of-the-line dedicated server from Hostwinds supports up to ten hard drives).
This may be pricey. For its most basic dedicated servers, even low-cost companies like Namecheap charge $50 to $60 per month, while Liquid Web’s top-of-the-line corporate models can go up to $500 or more (despite the fact that they are intended for large sites that may receive a million page views per month).
Additionally, operating a dedicated server requires extra labour. If your server crashes while using shared hosting, the support staff should be alerted and should repair or reboot it. But if you’re managing the server, everything rests with you unless you pay the provider more to take care of it (see “What is managed hosting?”).
However, a dedicated plan is probably the best option if you require the best performance and total control over your server.
What is WordPress hosting?
WordPress is a well-liked free platform that makes it simple to create various types of websites, from straightforward one-page offerings to blogs, expert company sites, and even full-fledged online stores.
Many web hosting companies provide WordPress plans that make it easier to set up your website and frequently come with features to increase performance and keep the site operating more efficiently.
For instance, when you purchase a plan, WordPress is typically already installed, saving you the time and effort of setting it up. WP Engine includes some chic WordPress themes, enabling you to build a stunning website even if you have no design experience. Additionally, the majority of plans attempt to automatically update WordPress with fresh patches as they become available, minimising site hassles.
You might not want a specialised WordPress hosting package if your WordPress requirements are quite straightforward. A WordPress site-building wizard, automated updates, and other useful extras are all included in Hostinger’s All-In-One shared hosting solution for as little as $2.99 per month. Shared hosting plans typically provide simple WordPress installation and a few other pertinent features.