Choice of either Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud Platform cloud hosting. He now brings his knowledge and skillset to PCMag as a Managing Editor. Here are some simple rules of thumb: For just about everyone, free hosting is not worth it. Do you have a CDN for your content? It’s a straightforward approach we like, especially for small businesses and websites that aren’t overly complex. By following these rules, you’ll be happy with the host that you get and won’t have to switch any time soon. If you’re interested in trying HostGator, I recommend taking full advantage of the 45-day money-back guarantee and testing out their support thoroughly before committing. DreamHost offers a fantastic shared web hosting plan—with very affordable month-to-month prices. More importantly, its excellent dedicated hosting plans are where this web host truly excels. Now that many people use it for all their shopping, Amazon’s site can’t be fast enough. This hosting option is something that you'd typically find with dedicated servers, so it's a business-centric addition. How affordable? Customer service is a little less traditional: email support is available 24/7, but live chat is only on during business hours. In fact, their month-to-month plans start at $3.95/month. Unlike shared or VPS hosting, dedicated hosting makes your website the lone tenant on a server. No matter which cloud host you choose, it will be noticeably more expensive than a shared hosting package. The aforementioned features are valuable to the web hosting experience, but none matches the importance of site uptime. I’ve managed multiple sites with hundreds of thousands or millions of visitors per month. Second: Sites get more secure and stable. You’ll be paying more in order to get a lot more. That’s what makes them the best for beginner website creators. I want to give you a quick warning though. It does come at a price though. Other sites can’t take your site down. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Learn more about our secure and reliable hosting services today! The single-site plan only costs $2.15/month, one of the lowest rates in the industry. GoDaddy, for instance, sells email packages starting at $3.49 per user, per month. That being said, there are some great free and discount web hosting plans for nonprofits and educators. Cheap definitely isn’t always great when it comes to web hosts. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology. Try for yourself. Everything can be tailored to making WordPress work its best, whether that’s optimizing website caching or tinkering with the command line tools. A2 has a strong foundation, with a host of excellent features. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Along with DreamHost and Bluehost, SiteGround is one of WordPress’s three recommended web hosts. InMotion’s 90-day free trial period for shared hosting is one of the longest around and gives you plenty of time to test out InMotion’s support team. Choosing the best WordPress hosting for your needs can improve your SEO and increase sales. That’s an incredible deal. If you’re a smaller site and intend to keep it that way, skip managed WordPress hosting. HostGator is our top choice on our 20 best web hosting companies list without a doubt. Don’t believe it? Web Hosting + Free Domain. (WordPress.com bundles WordPress.org’s software with hosting.) Windows hosting is often more expensive than Linux hosting, especially in the dedicated server area. Their reputation is stellar. So which hosting companies are the best for shared hosting? The days when they'd just look you up in the yellow pages are long gone. If you don’t agree, use our 91 Day Guarantee and get your money back. That said, not all web hosts offer email. The free trial period is the longest in the business — 97 days. While choosing the best web hosting for small business in 2021, there are a number of things to keep in mind. Cloud hosting is similar to VPS but instead of having space on once server, you get space across multiple servers. Let’s say you start with a standard shared hosting plan and want to install WordPress. For every site I’ve ever managed, we used our host for years on end without ever switching once we had a host we were happy with. For more than a decade, they’ve used renewable energy to power their web hosting services. So it’s no real shock that Nexcess makes our list for best web hosts. If you’re building a site with the goal to generate tons of traffic (50,000+ visitors/month), it’s absolutely worth it. The ability to easily and quickly migrate an existing site will save you weeks of time. With their Turbo Boost and Turbo Max plans, you’ll get access to their Turbo Servers. Where they really shine is their shared web hosting. Depending on your business' focus, you may need a web host that can handle pageviews or visitors that rank in the high thousands or millions. Their lowest plan starts at less than a dollar: All of these rates are promotion so they’ll go up at renewal. This is one of the lowest hosting prices out there, it’s a great option for anyone looking to save every dollar. The host introduced a free plugin that moves your WordPress site for you in just five steps. Or maybe, you just need a page that describes what your business is all about. The Definitive Guide to 2020's Best Web Hosting. Our thorough testing shows that these 2 web hosting companies are among the best web hosting services for everyone from casual bloggers to massive corporate companies. Then if your site keeps growing and you want to upgrade to managed WordPress hosting to speed up your site and improve security, they have that too. 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. Often overlooked, web hosting is one of the key components of every successful website. The best cheap web hosting providers offer domain names, email addresses, website builders, loads of website templates, ample storage and … Many web hosts offer limited features in their starter packages and then expand the offerings (sometimes tremendously) for higher-tier plans. In fact, it can be extremely low cost. They have a 99.9% uptime guarantee along with 24/7 support whenever you need help. A few companies toss in a SSL certificate free of charge; others may charge you roughly $100 per year for that extra security layer. Back in the day when Amazon just sold books, their site needed to be fast but it didn’t need to be instantaneous. If you’re switching hosts and handling the migration yourself, look for an easy migration feature. These cookies do not store any personal information. Read the small print to make sure the plan you are selecting offers what you need. WP Engine is one of the best known managed WordPress hosts out there—and for very good reason. HostGator tends to rank highly on tech publications like PCMag. Cloud hosting is a bit different than shared hosting. Start Now. Especially for smaller sites that can handle a little downtime every once in awhile, having shared hosting is a great trade-off in order to get the hosting bill lowered. A2 Hosting is the best all-around ecommerce provider, and it offers ecommerce hosting on every one of its plans. Keep an eye on your inbox! This type of hosting sees the web host act as your IT department, handling a server's maintenance and upkeep. It’s endless. In that sense, it resembles entries in our online site builder roundup. This minimizes the extra tasks for the owner while also keeping expenses low. For all other sites, get a web host that’s fast, has great uptime, and amazing support. Best web hosting reviews with real info on uptime, speed, and cost of services of leading hosting provider – is all you need to make the right web hosting choice for your website. There’s a few major advantages to getting specialized WordPress hosting: There is one major downside though: the cost. I also don’t worry about chasing promotional offers to save a few dollars. In fact, SiteGround’s infrastructure is fully optimized for WordPress. You're probably familiar with SSL; it's the green padlock that appears in your web browser's address bar as you visit an online financial institution or retail outlet. Do you have an SSL certificate? GreenGeeks is the eco-friendly alternative to other web hosting providers. Up to. It's definitely easier, but if you want to tinker and adjust and optimize every aspect of your site, it might not be for you. People discover new businesses—even local business—via Bing, Google, and Yahoo. Others are hosting plans with terrible support and uptime. Any impact from other sites on the same site will be minor. Instead of a bunch of different sites using the same server, your site will get spread across multiple servers. https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-web-hosting-services. Website builder packages, or those with drag-and-drop software capabilities, tend to cost a bit more at a lot of hosts, though many of the best top web hosting providers may include them for free. PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. WordPress.com - beginner-friendly free web hosting. For example, their Nexcess Cloud Accelerator—a feature that adds a layer on the cloud stack that increases the speed of your websites loading time. It specializes in website, VPS hosting, and dedicated services for over 9 million users so far. We also offer instant setup, so you can be online in seconds, not days. This means you’re site is always available and never goes down. One thing we learned in reviewing the services listed here (and many more) is that even though the packages are very similar, they are not identical. Choose your web hosting solution and make the perfect website! 2. These days, I always get managed WordPress hosting for my high traffic blogs. Nexcess is a web hosting solution from Liquid Web — a provider we’ve featured on our lists for best dedicated web hosting, best VPS hosting, and best WordPress hosting. SiteGround’s servers are ultra-fast and extra secure, and they are constantly deploying new updates to keep them that way. While their service isn’t quite as good as the others that we recommend, it’s good enough if you’re trying to get the cost down. The first step in building your online presence is finding a web host, the company that will store your website's files on its servers and deliver them to your readers' and customers' browsers. In these instances, the WordPress environment typically comes pre-installed on the server. I recommend using this time to really dig into your host’s customer support — its knowledge center and especially support staff across all channels. On top of that, they have a dedicated support team available 24/7 to help you address any technical issues as they occur. Consider cloud hosting if you’re planning on building a large site or have a business that can’t afford any downtime whatsoever. For example, its lowest tier of shared hosting jumps from $6.99/month to $14.99 and its highest tier jumps from $14.99/month to $39.99. Why? Managed WordPress hosting tends to be more expensive. Shared hosting plans start at $2.75/month. In such instances, you must email accounts from a company other than your web host. In fact, you can find an option for less than $10 per month. Your site will be down on a regular basis, you’ll never be able to get a competent support rep to help you, and every task you try to complete will have a horrendous user experience. And, if it's integrated with your hosting service, you're more likely to have a smooth, supported experience. If you’ve set your site up on a bad host and want to migrate, this is a fantastic deal. If you’re looking for a “green” hosting company, GreenGeeks is just what you need. That way, one provider going offline won't completely bork your business. That’s why they call it “cloud” hosting. The amount of traffic that you get has a huge impact on the hosting that you need. In your research, you'll find shared, virtual private server (VPS), dedicated hosting, and WordPress hosting plans. 10 Best Web Hosting Companies (2020) Below is a list of 10 best website hosting providers that we’ve found reliable and with good speed. That's not always the case, but it's something you should be aware of as you shop around. But when you factor in what WP Engine does for that price, it’s an incredibly appealing option for WordPress site owners. It's a simpler but less flexible and customizable way to approach WordPress hosting. If you don’t find the answers you need, you can turn to phone, live chat, and email support. And if I’m planning on building a large site, I look for a host that can easily scale to millions of visitors per month. They offer four years of hosting for $0.99/month if you pay for the four years upfront. 90% OFF. In web hosting terms, all the sites share a single server's resources, so huge traffic spike on Site A may impact the neighboring sites' performances. From shared hosting and domains to VPS - we have all you need for online success. Hostinger doesn’t feel like cheap hosting. Free SSL included . Since you’re already using multiple servers, it’s really easy to add more or take some away. Virtual private servers (VPS) also has multiple sites on the same server But these sites have dedicated space that’s managed by software. Want search rankings? You can quickly scale your site bandwidth up and down. SiteGround comes with two things a lot of web hosts don’t: a rabid fan base and glowing reviews. That’ll tell you the real story. 11/19/20. You, naturally, should want unlimited email. When you're done with that, click the links below to read our in-depth, tested reviews of the biggest and best names in web hosting. Bluehost is one of the largest website hosting providers and powers millions of websites. In housing terms, VPS hosting is like renting your own apartment in a larger building. Many customers love it because it’s intuitive. A2 Hosting does a lot of things right, which is why we consider it to be among the best web hosting providers. First and foremost, you want a web host with great uptime. Make it fast. An internet-connected world demands that businesses have websites, even if the pages simply detail locations and hours of operation. To try to avoid the “just trust us” promise of near-perfect uptime, most hosts provide some sort of guarantee of at least 99.9 percent uptime. InMotion also has some of the best VPS hosting options. That’s an amazing deal. They even have two types of VPS hosting so you can get the exact amount of support or flexibility that you want: InMotion regularly runs promo pricing, with deals that start as low as $5/month. Best Web Hosting Service Powering Over 2 Million Websites Worldwide ($2.95/month) Bluehost is my #1 hosting platform recommendation, with a free domain, free SSL included, 1-click WordPress install, FTP, and 24/7 customer support. Their highest tier plan (GoGeek) is suped up with tools developers will find especially useful, including a staging server and Git repo creation. If my site has above 50,000 visitors a month or will in the foreseeable future, I move it to cloud hosting. Even how you pay (month-to-month payments vs. annual payments) can be radically different, too, so taking the time to plot exactly what your company needs for online success is essential. It's a convenient way for potential customers and clients to send you a message, Word document, or other files. No hoops to jump through either. When you get over 50,00 visitors/month, move towards cloud hosting and then a dedicated host if you really need it. Don’t worry about a dedicated host until spending thousands of dollars per month on hosting sounds like a rounding error in your annual budget. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. However, we found that they’re best for any business that’s looking for simple websites. Deal ends in:-days:-hours:-minutes:-seconds. The extra cost is well worth it. We recommend going to town with customer support during that trial period. If you think there’s a chance you’ll need to upgrade to some serious hosting power once you generate lots of traffic, SiteGround is a great option that will make upgrades easy later. But it comes with a big caveat: It makes things much more difficult to migrate off DreamHost. If you plan on building a high traffic WordPress blog, get WP Engine. It’s a waste of time and tells me exactly what I need to know about the host. There is one true test for assessing the customer support quality at any host. If you’re running an ecommerce website or if you have a startup that you know will grow quickly, Nexcess should definitely be in consideration. If someone else gets a huge traffic spike, it could impact everybody on that server before the web host throttles their traffic. Sure, you can close the bedroom door, but they can still cause nightmares for you in the kitchen and the bathroom. Pretty much every web host has some sort of money-back guarantee on their shared hosting plans, which means you can set up your website and see what you think of the service with relatively low stakes — just your time and any add-on fees you opt into, like paying for domain registration. The Best Courses for Learning How to Build Websites is an excellent start, too. Aside from being good to the planet, their web hosting services are top notch. In the early days, you need a host that’s fast “enough.” It doesn’t have to be blistering fast but it needs to be fast. Bluehost, Siteground and InMotion are your best bets here. The best web hosting providers for 2020 Web hosting deal: Custom domain, custom design and 1 year of hosting for $99 Best laptops, desktops and tablets for designers and creatives in 2020 The login takes you to cPanel. If you want a hosting plan that’s cheap and includes support, this is the host for you. Developers or business websites should only potentially use a free website hosting provider temporarily, such as quickly testing a new technology or getting familiar with the host’s management tools. The customer support is also among the best. That doesn’t feel great. Very important when it comes to web hosting. Promotional offers come and go pretty quickly. This has a few major advantages: All these benefits do come with a higher cost. The best website hosting is fast and secure and has great after-sales support. I also appreciate that the support is available at your level — whether you’re just starting and need someone to walk you through the ultimate basics with a friendly and supportive demeanor, or you want someone who can talk specs and technical nuances like a pro, the InMotion support has you covered. There’s no reason to worry about the advanced stuff. Liquid Web is expensive and lacks shared Web hosting, but it's a flexible, feature-packed online host with outstanding customer service. I go this route even if I don’t have the traffic volume yet. If it's a short-term project—say, less than a month or two—you can typically receive a refund should you cancel your hosting within 60 days. They also provide daily backups and advanced security features in order to help you keep your data safe and secure. Unlike other sites, we’ve actually signed up for dozens of web hosting services and reviewed them personally, so you can confidently choose the right hosting provider to perfectly fit your needs. WP Engine, for example, does not. In fact, SiteGround is one of our top picks for cloud hosting. You’ll get 2 years of hosting for free. As long as I’ve set a goal to build that traffic over time, I’ll choose a managed WordPress host from the beginning. The Best Web Hosting Services for 2021 If you're looking for a home for your website, consider the 10 services on this list. This is how web hosts get the price of hosting down. 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. SiteGround and InMotion come second and third for their powerful ecommerce functionalities, while Bluehost’s impressive uptime earns it a respectable fourth place. So if there’s something wrong, there’s probably a guide out there to help you. WP Engine’s lowest-priced plan is $30/month, and that’s only for one 10GB site with max 25,000 visitors/month. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. If you’re worried about the price of hosting, I’d say you need to worry about generating revenue and traffic before trying to save a few extra dollars cutting hosting costs. If you're ready to select a great web hosting service, check out the chart above to see PCMag's top picks in the space. The best web hosts for small business are super reliable, have world-class support when the odd issue does come up, and have a reasonable price. They offer fast speeds, solid uptime, and great solutions for: This makes them a perfect solution for environmentally conscious ecommerce websites. I use the 50,000 visitors rule. My rule is if the price sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Get a fast site. They also offer 24/7 support available by phone, chat, or via their ticket system. The downside is that other sites can impact the performance of your site. You also want a web host with 24/7 customer support—if not by phone, then at least by chat. They are typically very quick to respond and can assist with a wide range of issues. Companies like GoDaddy and Liquid Web boast incredibly knowledgeable and helpful customer support squads—a fact that we confirmed in our in-depth reviews of those web hosting services. If you have specific server-side applications that require Windows, such as SQL Server or a custom application written in .NET, then you need to make sure your web host has Windows hosting. If you really want to get the cost down, do with Hostinger or Hostgator. You may want to host a personal website or blog, too. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. It’s also extremely scalable for your own site. Of course, web hosting isn't just for businesses. You get many of the benefits of having a dedicated server (you own IP address, less volatility in uptime, etc) without needing an entire server for just yourself. 8/26/20. Sign up for What's New Now to get our top stories delivered to your inbox every morning. Some companies offer 30-day money-back guarantees, others offer 90-day money-back guarantees. The cPanel is an app on your server that lets you manage it through a UI without needing to know how to code anything. Excellent dedicated, reseller, and VPS hosting plans. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Let’s jump to the best hosting providers first, then move down the list to see which ones you should avoid. To find the best web hosting providers, I have tested the performance, pricing, user-friendliness, support, and features of nearly 100 web hosting companies. 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