Table of ContentsBest for Customized Server PackagesBest for Large-Scale Cloud Web HostingBest Customer ServiceBest for Building WordPress SitesBest for Shared Web HostingBest for a Lengthy Money-Back GuaranteeBest for Managed Web HostingBest for Cloud Web HostingBest for Reseller and VPS Web HostingBest for WordPress HostingBest for Dedicated Web HostingWhich Type of Web Hosting Is Best?What Is Shared Web Hosting?What Is VPS Web Hosting?What Is Dedicated Web Hosting?What Is WordPress Hosting?What Is Cloud Web Hosting?What Is the Best Web Hosting for Beginners?What Is the Best Free Web Hosting?Should You Use a Linux or Windows Server? What Are the Differences Between Managed and Unmanaged Hosting?The Best Web Hosting Features for Small BusinessesWhat Is Email Hosting?What Is Web Hosting Uptime?What are the Best Web Hosting Services for E-Commerce and Marketing?
Which Type of Web Hosting Is Best?
Web hosting services offer varying amounts of monthly data transfers, storage, email, and other features. Even how you pay (month-to-month vs. annual vs. prorated payments) can be radically different, too. So, taking time to plot exactly what your company needs for online success is essential. Many of these companies also offer reseller hosting services that let you go into business by offering hosting without spinning up your own servers.
You should also familiarize yourself with the many available web hosting tiers. You’ll find shared, virtual private server (VPS), dedicated hosting, and WordPress hosting plans in your research. Each tier offers different specs and features that you should take the time to analyze. We break them down below.
What Is Shared Web Hosting?
Shared hosting is web hosting in which the provider houses multiple sites on a single server. For example, Site A shares the same server with Site B, Site C, Site D, and Site E. The upside is that the multiple sites share the server cost, so shared web hosting is generally very inexpensive. It’s cheap web hosting. In fact, you can find an option for less than $10 per month. Free web hosting is an option if you’re willing to make some functionality sacrifices.
You could think of the sites that share your server as your roommates; there’s really not that much separating you from them. Sure, you can close the bedroom door, but they can still cause nightmares for you in the kitchen and the bathroom. In web hosting terms, all the sites share a single server’s resources, so huge traffic spikes on Site A may impact the neighboring sites’ performances. It’s even possible that another site could take down the shared server altogether if it crashed hard enough.
What Is VPS Web Hosting?
VPS hosting is similar to shared hosting in that multiple sites share the same server, but the similarities end there. In housing terms, VPS hosting is like renting your own apartment in a larger building. You’re much more isolated than in the roommate situation mentioned above; it’s still possible that a neighboring apartment could annoy you, but far less likely. In web hosting terms, Site A’s traffic surge won’t impact Site B or Site C nearly as much. As you’d expect, VPS hosting costs more than shared hosting. Expect to pay roughly $20 to $60 per month, depending on the service.
What Is Dedicated Web Hosting?
Dedicated hosting, on the other hand, is both powerful and pricey. It’s reserved for sites that require an incredible amount of server resources.
Unlike shared or VPS hosting, dedicated hosting makes your website the lone tenant on a server. To extend the housing metaphor, having a dedicated server is like owning your own home. This means that your website taps the server’s full power, and pays for the privilege. If you’re looking for a high-powered site—an online mansion for your business—dedicated hosting is the way to go. That said, many dedicated web hosting services task you with handling backend technical issues, much as homeowners have to manage maintenance that renters generally leave to their landlords. Dedicated hosting will set you back close to $100 per month, and that number skyrockets if you opt for high-speed servers and huge RAM and storage totals.
Many web hosting services also offer managed hosting. In this type of hosting, the web host acts as your IT department, handling a server’s maintenance and upkeep. This hosting option is typically found with dedicated servers, so it’s a business-centric addition. Naturally, it adds a few bucks to the hosting cost, but nothing that should break the bank if you have the resources for a dedicated server.
What Is WordPress Hosting?
WordPress hosting is for people who want to build their sites on the back of the popular WordPress content management system (CMS) from WordPress.org. This free, open-source blogging and site-building platform has multiple ways to set up shop.
You gain the most web-building functionality if you create a self-hosted site. This typically involves transferring the free WordPress CMS to the server or signing up for a web host’s optimized WordPress plan. With an optimized plan, the host automatically handles backend stuff, so you don’t have to worry about updating the plug-ins and CMS, and enabling automatic backups. In these instances, the WordPress environment typically comes preinstalled on the server. In most cases, this shouldn’t cost much more money than a web host’s shared or VPS hosting plans.
You can also host your website on WordPress.com, but that’s different from the kind of hosting mentioned above. WordPress.com uses the same code from WordPress.org, but hides the server code and handles the hosting for you. In that sense, it resembles website builders. It’s a simpler but less flexible and customizable way to approach WordPress hosting.
What Is Cloud Web Hosting?
Cloud hosting services use a network of virtual and physical servers to store and maintain your website. This means that your site is hosted across a multitude of servers, potentially located worldwide. As a result, cloud hosting is generally much more flexible than traditional hosting, which is limited to physical servers rented via data centers.
Cloud hosting has numerous benefits, including impressive scalability with storage and RAM resources. Speed and performance are excellent as well because cloud hosting distributes workloads across several servers. Cloud hosting services are extremely reliable, and they can provide fantastic data backup and recovery for the same reason. Cloud hosting is all over the map in terms of pricing, with some companies offering prorated payment options.
What Is the Best Web Hosting for Beginners?
If you’re a web hosting novice, there are several key factors to consider when committing to a web hosting service. Many web hosts offer limited features in their starter packages and then expand the offerings (sometimes tremendously) for higher-tier plans. However, a few services, such as A2, Bluehost, and HostGator, are the best web hosting services for beginners due to their prices, feature sets, and ease of use.
Read the small print to ensure the plan you select offers what you need. If you don’t want to code the site yourself, make sure that the web host you pick comes with a website builder. Many require you to pay for the builder as a separate add-on. Website builders usually don’t cost a lot of money, but if you can find a web host that includes one for free, that’s money in your pocket. And if it’s integrated with your hosting service, you’re more likely to have a smooth, supported experience.
Remember, you want a web host with 24/7 customer support—if not by phone, then at least by chat. Forums, knowledge bases, and help tickets are useful, but sometimes you just need to communicate with another human to get things ironed out as quickly as possible. That said, not all 24/7 customer support teams are equal, which we confirmed in our in-depth web hosting reviews. Ease of use and strong uptime are important, too.
If you’re unsure of the hosting type your business needs, you might want to start with low-cost shared or WordPress hosting. You can always graduate to a more robust, feature-rich package like VPS hosting or dedicated hosting in the future. Unfortunately, some hosts don’t offer all hosting types. Consider how much you expect to grow your website and how soon before you commit to anything longer than a one-year plan. It’s worth spending the time up-front to ensure that the host you select can provide the growth you envision for your site, as switching web hosting providers midstream is not a trivial undertaking.
Once you decide your price range, you need to consider how long you’ll need web hosting. If it’s a short-term project—say, less than a month or two—you can typically receive a refund if you cancel your hosting within 60 days. Some companies offer 30-day money-back guarantees, and others offer 90-day guarantees. Once again, it’s beneficial to do your homework.
What Is the Best Free Web Hosting?
You’ve come to the wrong place if you’re looking for free web hosting. Our list here includes the best web hosting services overall, and they’re not free. Check out the best free web hosting services for our top picks in the category.
Should You Use a Linux or Windows Server?
When it comes to server operating systems, Linux is typically the default option. Still, some hosts offer a choice of Linux or Windows. Don’t let the idea of a Linux host intimidate you. Nowadays, most web hosts offer a graphical interface or a control panel to simplify server administration and website management; you click easily identifiable icons instead of tinkering with the command line.
If you have specific server-side applications requiring Windows, such as SQL Server or a custom application written in .NET, you must make sure that your potential web host offers Windows hosting. Windows hosting is often more expensive than Linux hosting, especially in the dedicated server area (you’ll typically see the price difference as you explore the options before checkout). While that’s not always the case, you should be aware of it as you shop around.
What Are the Differences Between Managed and Unmanaged Hosting?
There are many reasons to use managed hosting services, but convenience is at the top of the list. Managed hosting providers handle server monitoring, security, and website backups, giving your site vital firewalls, intrusion detection, and file-scanning functionality to keep it safe and up to date without your input. Managed hosting usually comes with extensive technical support, so you can contact your provider whenever you encounter a website problem.
On the other hand, unmanaged web hosting is a great option if you’re comfortable handling server management duties. With unmanaged hosting, you are entirely responsible for server administration, including the initial setup and ongoing maintenance and security. This may be a tall order if you’re unfamiliar with these tasks. However, if you have a strong technical background, these responsibilities also come with great flexibility. You can customize the hosting environment, such as installing a preferred control panel or security tools.
The Best Web Hosting Features for Small Businesses
When it’s time to set up shop, look for a web host that offers the aforementioned dedicated servers, advanced cloud server platforms (such as Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud), custom server builds should you need them, and 24/7 customer support. Depending on your focus, you may want a web host that can handle pageviews or visitors that rank in the thousands or millions. Many busy hosting plans also offer an onboarding specialist who can help you get started.
If you’re planning on selling a product, look for a web host that offers a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate, because it encrypts the data between the customer’s browser and web host to safeguard purchasing information. You’re probably familiar with SSL; the green padlock appears in your web browser’s address bar as you visit an online financial institution or retail outlet. A few companies toss in an SSL certificate free of charge; others may charge you roughly $100 per year for that extra security layer.
What Is Email Hosting?
If you aim to have a web presence, you must have email. It’s a convenient way for potential customers and clients to send you a message, Word document, or other files. Thankfully, most web hosts include email in their hosting plans. Some web hosts offer unlimited email account creation (which is great for future growth), while others offer a finite amount. You, naturally, should want unlimited email.
That said, not all web hosts offer email. WP Engine, for example, does not. In such instances, you must sign up for email accounts from a company other than your web host. GoDaddy, for instance, sells email packages starting at $5.99 per user, per month. That might sound like a hassle, and just one more thing to keep track of, but some webmasters feel that separating your email hosting and web hosting services is smart. That way, one provider going offline won’t completely bork your business.
What Is Web Hosting Uptime?
All the aforementioned features are valuable to the web hosting experience, but none match the importance of site uptime. If your site is down, clients or customers cannot find you or access your products or services. That can cost you money.
No matter how good a service’s pricing, specs, and features are, it can’t score well overall if it doesn’t have rock-solid uptime. Accordingly, we compare each web host’s uptime guarantee so you can understand what to expect before signing up.
What are the Best Web Hosting Services for E-Commerce and Marketing?
In reviewing the services listed here (and many more), we learned that even though the packages are similar, they are not identical. Some are more security-focused than others, offering anti-spam and anti-malware tools at every price tier. Others offer a variety of email marketing tools. While most of the hosts we’ve reviewed have built-in e-commerce tools, you may want to consider using a more robust, third-party e-commerce platform, such as our Editors’ Choice winners, Shopify and Wix Stores.
Finally, if you’re just getting started in web hosting, make sure to check out our primers, six essential tips for building an online presence and how to register a domain name for your website.