10 Best Web Hosting (+Tips on How to Choose One)
By You can’t afford to have your website down, not when sales are involved.
Imagine running ads that direct traffic to your business website—only to have your website showing a timeout error. That’s a massive waste of dollars.
Let’s prevent that, shall we?
In this post, I’ll share the best web hosting providers and what you should look for when choosing a web host.
10 best web hosting services
1. SiteGround [Best support]
No “top 10 list” is complete without SiteGround. More than 2,000,000 domains trust this web hosting company.
Pros:
- Fantastic uptime and site speed, thanks to SuperCacher technology
- Quick and effective customer support—you usually hear back from support within minutes
Cons:
- cPanel replaced with Site Tools, which according to various customers is less user-friendly
- Expensive renewal (e.g., if you’re on the GrowBig plan and you paid $70+ the first year, be prepared to pay almost $300 to renew)
Price: Starts at $4.99/month.
2. HostGator [Fast set-up]
HostGator is a leading provider of affordable web hosting. It offers a range of hosting options, from WordPress to shared hosting.
Pros:
- Competitive pricing—low-cost plans are equipped with essential features to get you started right away
- Easy set-up, thanks to its intuitive dashboard
Cons:
- Unreliable customer support; it can take days to weeks to hear back
- Inconsistent server quality since EIG acquired it
- Slow migration that could take months to complete
Price: Starts at $2.75/month.
3. DreamHost [Best uptime]
DreamHost, voted PCMag’s “Editors’ Choice” winner five years in a row, offers the most generous uptime guarantee in the market.
Pros:
- Lightning-fast loading
- 100% uptime guarantee—for every hour your website is offline, DreamHost will give a day’s worth of free hosting
- Excellent customer support that solves issues instantaneously
Cons:
- No cPanel, DreamHost’s built-in panel only
- Unable to customize panel for reseller hosting
Price: Starts at $2.59/month.
4. AccuWeb Hosting [Great for renewals]
AccuWeb Hosting offers terrific hosting plans for WordPress users. The best part is that you can renew most of them at the introductory price.
Pros:
- Top-notch server quality and superb speed
- Free WordPress hosting for lifetime
- Multiple server locations (e.g., Singapore, India, USA, and Australia)
- Pricing for most plans remains the same during the introductory and renewal period
Cons:
- Free hosting comes with a catch—according to a TrustRadius user, you need to submit a review every three months else your account gets suspended
Price: Starts free for WordPress hosting, with paid plans scaling $2.99/month.
5. GoDaddy [Most affordable]
GoDaddy, one of the largest web-hosting providers, also provides many business-friendly features to help you succeed online.
Pros:
- GoDaddy InSight, an AI tool, shares an action plan for achieving your website goals
- Frequent discounts for new and existing customers
- Built-in digital marketing suite offers email marketing, social media management, and more
Cons:
- Customer support can be slow and inefficient when resolving queries
- Inconsistent speed performance
- Renewal fees can be expensive
Price: Starts at $1/month.
6. Hostinger [Small websites]
Hostinger excels in fast hosting for small websites, making it an ideal fit for entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Pros:
- Excellent and patient customer service that provides speedy support
- Superb hosting for small, modest websites
Cons:
- hPanel dashboard can be confusing for users accustomed to cPanel (note: cPanel requires additional fee)
- Can run slow for big websites with significant traffic
Price: Starts at $2.59/month.
7. WP Engine [WordPress websites]
WP Engine is the fastest managed WordPress hosting provider. Its headless platform with modern frameworks can increase speed up to 10X more quickly than a traditional WordPress site.
Pros:
- Multiple customer support channels from live chat to Twitter
- Enterprise-grade security with speedy performance—you can build complicated websites with speeds as fast as static sites
Cons:
- Support can be inconvenient, requires extra steps to get ahold of tech
- Expensive compared to other web providers like HostGator, but the quality makes up for it
- Different automated deploy and backup systems that involve a medium learning curve
Price: Starts at $25/month when billed annually. WP Engine offers a coupon that gives you free hosting for three months.
8. InMotion Hosting [Most user-friendly]
With its intuitive dashboard, InMotion Hosting is great for website owners who prefer to DIY their website and hosting needs.
Pros:
- Quick and easy set-up
- Frequent promotional offers that help you save money down the road
- Easy-to-use AMP hosting dashboard—you can easily reboot your VPS servers on your own
Cons:
- Slow customer support
- Pricing tends to fluctuate
- Sporadic downtime and performance issues
Price: Starts at $5.99/month.
9. GreenGeeks [Eco-friendly]
GreenGeeks is a leading green energy web hosting service. Give it a go if you want to set up your websites easily while saving the environment.
Pros:
- Environmentally responsible hosting that reduces carbon footprint
- Speedy customer support—many users share that they hear back within minutes
Cons:
- Slower performance when backing up website and updating plugins
- Stricter firewall rules that may unintentionally block IP addresses (for shared and reseller hosting)
Price: Starts at $2.49/month.
10. DigitalOcean [Best for developers]
DigitalOcean(DO) is one of the top choices in the developer community. Use it to scale your website with its reliable supporting infrastructure. Note that this is not your traditional hosting provider.
Pros:
- Excellent web interface with highly reliable server
- Exceptional customer support and documentation—a quick scan at the threads shows community admins replying within hours
- Easily launch virtual machines (Droplet) in the cloud
Cons:
- Tricky to add SSL support
- Slight learning curve even for developers (e.g., you need to learn how to manage your server from the command line)
- Slower performance for complex websites
Price: DigitalOcean operates on a “Droplet” model, which starts at $5/month.
Web hosting deals from AppSumo
Web hosting doesn’t need to be expensive. Here are our recommended providers if you’re looking to get everything you need at a fraction of the cost.
1. Umbrella Hosts [Multiple websites]
If you don’t want to pay extra for the number of domains you add, look no further than Umbrella Hosts. It’s worth noting that all your domains need to sit under a main domain control panel.
Since it’s a shared hosting platform—at least for the AppSumo plan—Umbrella Hosts is best for agencies who want complete control over their clients’ websites.
Pros:
- Superb 24/7 customer support: 95% of support tickets are replied to within ten minutes
- Unbeatable pricing: Umbrella Hosts offers many high-quality features—such as, content delivery network (CDN) & cache solution, SSL certificates, assisted migration—at affordable prices
- Easy peasy set-up: Add domains or activate SSL with one click
Cons:
- Different backend set-up: You need to upload your domains as subfolders to the main website, because they don’t have their designated control panels
Price: Starts at $4/month.
AppSumo price: $24.75 for one year.
2. StartHost [Europe-based websites]
Say hello to StartHost, a wallet-friendly and reliable SSD hosting provider.
StartHost is ideal for websites based in Europe.
An AppSumo user tested its CDN hosting on monitoring apps and discovered that their website runs 400 milliseconds from North America and 100 milliseconds from Europe.
Pros:
- Fast and easy set-up: Interface is similar to cPanel and straightforward to navigate
- Stable and speedy: An AppSumo user shared that their website speed increased significantly after switching from SiteGround
Cons:
- Average to slow import: Importing or configuring themes for WordPress websites may take a while
Price: $129.99 for life.
AppSumo price: $69.99 for life.
Free web hosting services
For small businesses, budget is a top priority. But should you use a free web hosting service?
Sure, blogging platforms like WordPress and Wix offer free hosting. But, the problem is that they’re limited to subdomains, i.e., yourwebsite.wordpress.com instead of yourwebsite.com.
Hosting options like these are not the best if you want to increase your credibility and brand recognition.
Our take? We think you should avoid free web hosting services as they’re buggy and outdated. Here’s a Reddit user detailing the dangers of using a free web host.
Source: Reddit
AccuWeb Hosting, one of the web hosts we feature in this list, is the rare exception. Based on user reviews, it does offer decent free hosting for WordPress websites.
One slight downside is that you need to submit a review every three months (yep, not just once!), or else you risk getting your account suspended.
If you find it a hassle, go with AppSumo’s one- and lifetime deals, Umbrella Hosts and StartHost. Not only are these outstanding web hosting providers, but they also offer unbeatable pricing.
How to evaluate the best web hosting provider for your business
With 400+ web hosting companies, it can be difficult to find an ideal fit for your needs. Here are five questions to help you narrow down your choice.
1.What’s your level of expertise?
Some web hosts are geared toward beginners, others experts. If you’re a total hosting newbie, you should avoid hosting providers with complex control panels.
Arm yourself with the basics! Even a web host with the best customer support will require you to flex your tech skills at some level.
For example, when I migrated my website from WordPress to SiteGround, I had to get comfortable with the technicalities even though I had the support team guiding me at every stage of the journey.
Beginner, developer, or not, opt for web providers that provide excellent support and documentation. Web host services like these are always a good sign.
2. What’s your budget?
The more premium your plan is, the quicker your support will be. Here’s an example to show you what I mean.
Source: SiteGround‘s GoGeek users get priority support, an advanced feature not available to StartUp and GrowBig users
Pro tip: Most large hosting providers, especially those acquired by giant corporations, tend to skimp on customer service for their lower-paid plans. Watch out for this.
For reliable support and lower costs, check out Umbrella Hosts and StartHost.
3. How much traffic are you getting?
Some website hosting services just aren’t equipped to handle large traffic. Word has it that Hostinger tends to run slow for big websites with high traffic, for instance.
Factors vary, of course. It could be time for an upgrade, or it could be due to the location of your web provider’s data center. This brings us to the next point.
4. Where are your web visitors from?
Your website should be as close to your target audience as possible.
For example, imagine an ecommerce store that uses a hosting provider with only one data center in the UK, while most of its customers are American.
The ecommerce website will be slow during the sales season!
Slower sites run the risk of losing revenue. Customers who become impatient will abandon the website and shop at a competitor instead.
That said, prioritize web hosting services with data centers close to your target customers.
Tip: Don’t know where your target customers come from? Go to Google Analytics and filter by geography. After identifying which country produces the highest traffic, use a test ping tool to locate the nearest data center.
Source: AccuWeb Hosting(Some web hosting providers like AccuWeb Hosting offer built-in test ping tools.)
Friendly reminder: Don’t write off a web hosting provider entirely if it doesn’t have a data center in your country or state.
Many web hosting services provide a CDN that helps websites load quicker. For example, Umbrella Hosts has a CDN that caches website content and stores them at multiple CDN nodes. That way, visitors from around the world can access them quickly.
5. What kind of server are you looking for?
Here’s a quick rundown:
Key takeaways
Your website’s performance matters.
It plays a crucial role in user experience, making the first impression, and driving sales to your business.
We hope this comparison guide and guidelines have helped you find your ideal web hosting provider!
Looking to grow your business at a fraction of the cost? We’re always adding tools and services with annual and lifetime deals. Check out the AppSumo store and save thousands of dollars today.