Choosing the right web hosting services is crucial to getting online and making your website available worldwide. From dedicated hosting accounts to cloud services and top WordPress hosting, the best web hosting can help you meet your goals. In this guide, I ranked and reviewed the best 7 web hosting services, along with my top 5 choices, so you can pick the best one.
Nexcess
Build better sites and stores with fully managed hosting from Nexcess with faster speeds, stronger security, scalability, and trusted support.
Bluehost
Whether you’re looking to create a website, blog or online store, Bluehost has a hosting plan tailored to your specific needs.
WP Engine
WP Engine is a great solution for all your WordPress hosting needs, offering streamlined speed, superior security and excellent support.
Cloudways
Cloudways is a great choice for those who are looking for managed cloud hosting. Their platform gives you the flexbility you need.
Hostinger
An affordable web hosting provider with amazing technology, support, and more – all making the web hosting experience seamless.
Did you know that mainstream web hosting started in 1994 with a platform called Geocities?
We’ve come a long way since then.
When it comes to web hosting, there are thousands of service providers to compare.
And all provide different features, performance, ease of use, and price ranges – not to mention various discounts and savings at checkout.
These web hosting reviews will give you two simple takeaways:
- How to pick the best host for you.
- How to save the most money at checkout with the most significant discounts (up to 90%).
Whether you’re starting a blog, an online store, or a local business site, let’s pick the best host and save money.
What Are The Best Web Hosting Services?
The best web hosting services provide reliable site speed, security features, uptime, ease of use, and integrations that your website needs.
My top picks are Nexcess, Bluehost, and WP Engine.
Most hosting companies give you steep introductory discounts, making it easy to get started.
Here are my top picks for the best web hosting:
- Nexcess.
- Bluehost.
- WP Engine.
- Cloudways.
- Hostinger.
- HostGator.
- GreenGeeks.
- Siteground.
- HostPapa.
- Dreamhost.
- iPage.
- Liquid Web.
- Kinsta.
- A2 Hosting.
- Inmotion Hosting.
- AccuWeb Hosting.
- WebHostingPad.
- Namecheap.
- Domain.com.
- GoDaddy Web Hosting.
- WordPressVIP.
- EasyWP.
Best Managed WordPress Hosting ($19 per month).
Arwa’s Take
Do you want a selling tool that your team can use out of the box? Salesforce is my #1 recommendation for anything (and everything) CRM-related. If you want to get more leads, close more sales and build relationships with your audience, Salesforce gets my top recommendation.
Powering over 500,000 websites, Nexcess is a fully managed WordPress hosting provider. They also provide hosting for various other platforms, such as e-commerce stores.
Nexcess is an excellent option for ecommerce businesses since it has everything you need to handle dynamic sites. You get 2TB bandwidth even with the basic plan, free SSL certificate, automatic image compression, compatibility with PHP 7, etc.
On top of that, free WordPress migrations are available with all their plans.
You don’t need special skills to create a WordPress website, as Nexcess provides stencils for rapid site creation.
And you can always reach out to their customer support if you have any questions. WordPress experts are available every time of the day via phone or live chat.
Key Features:
- Advanced caching.
- Daily backups.
- Image lazy loading.
- Unlimited email accounts.
- WordPress core updates and WordPress plugin updates.
- One-click staging site (clone of your live website).
- A built-in CDN with 22 locations.
- Unlimited traffic.
- Always-on security monitoring.
- 24/7/365 customer support.
Visual Regression testing also ensures system updates do not interfere with your code structure or features.
The hosting plans also come powered with plugins like iThemes Security Pro, WP Merge, Visual Compare, iThemes Security Pro, TinyPNG, and Qubely Pro.
User Experience:
Cloud auto-scaling features allow the site to adjust server resources on the fly according to traffic spikes, which is great for larger businesses that experience significant traffic fluctuations.
In addition, various cloud acceleration features mean that the site will load quickly regardless of where the visitor is.
Pricing:
Nexcess offers seven pricing plans:
- Spark – $190 annually (1 website, 15 GB storage, 2 TB bandwidth)
- Maker – $790 annually (up to 5 sites, 40 GB storage, 3 TB bandwidth)
- Designer – $1091 annually (up to 10 sites, 60 GB storage, 4 TB bandwidth)
- Builder – $1490 annually (up to 25 sites, 100 GB storage, 5 TB bandwidth)
- Producer – $22990 annually (up to 50 sites, 300 GB storage, 5 TB bandwidth)
- Executive – $5490 annually (up to 100 sites, 500 GB storage, 10 TB bandwidth)
- Enterprise – $9990 annually (up to 250 sites, 800 GB storage, 10 TB bandwidth)
What I Like/Dislike About Nexcess:
Like:
- Good dashboard to keep track of server resources and usage.
- Uptime means the site will rarely go down, and speed is essential for keeping visitors engaged.
- Quick, comprehensive support helps you troubleshoot any problems that do come up.
Dislike:
- NGINX for our dedicated servers would be nice to see.
Product Updates:
- Mobile Experience Improvements so people can better use your site on the go.
- Support Ticket Enhancements allow users to get even better support when they need it.
Follow this link to get 50% off the pricing plans for the first six months.
Best Web Hosting Service Powering Over 2 Million Websites Worldwide ($2.95/month)
Arwa’s Take
Bluehost is my top pick for those who want a tailored solution to their business needs. Whether you run a website, blog, or online store, you will find what you need at Bluehost.
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 plans start at $2.95/month (63% off) and have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
They are an all-encompassing platform tailor-made for WordPress and powering over 2 million websites.
Their easy-to-use interface allows you to sign in, choose your domain, install WordPress with one click, choose your themes, and create your site.
They launched in 1996, and they now have a staff of over 750 employees. They have a 99.99% uptime, making them a very reliable option.
With average load times under half a second, site speed won’t be an issue.
With my WordPress site and their cheapest plan, I leveraged a few easy plugins and got my desktop site speed to 100.
One of the most significant selling points for me was their security and integration with Cloudflare – a content delivery network (CDN). This CDN prevents DDoS attacks and fake traffic from various sources.
Using a CDN also increases site speed by allowing you to host your web files on their worldwide network of servers. This service shortens the time it takes to fetch data from your server based on a visitor’s location.
If you’re reading other web hosting comparisons and looking for extra features, Bluehost integrates with different software in their MOJO Marketplace. For example, installing software is easy if a customer needs shopping cart software or e-commerce functionality.
Finally, they are the “official” WordPress.org recommended web hosting platform, and you can read my full review here.
Key Features:
- cPanel Account Control Panel makes it easy to manage your hosting account,
- Forwarding E-mail Accounts allows you to set up custom email addresses using your domain name.
- Support International Domain Names allows you to use your domain name with multiple internationalized domains.
- Unlimited Domain Hosting means you can host as many websites as needed on your account.
- Unlimited Disk Storage gives you plenty of space to grow your website.
User Experience:
The interface is easy to understand and relatively intuitive, so it’s easy to get started whether you are a beginner or have some experience.
Pricing:
What I Like/Dislike About Bluehost:
Like:
- Free domains are a great way to get started with a new website
- Customer support is always available to help you troubleshoot any problems.
- The Bluehost Builder makes it easy to create a professional-looking website without learning to code.
Dislike:
- Renewal charges are a bit high.
- Website Migration Fees can be expensive if you move your site to another host.
Product Updates:
- Integration with various WordPress updates so you can keep your site up-to-date.
Here’s how to get started:
- Go to Bluehost.com and click Get Started
- Choose the plan you want ($2.95/month is the cheapest)
- Either enter a new name or select one you own
- Enter your account information, account plan, and billing information
- I would uncheck the add-ons Sitelock Security and Codeguard Basic
- Click Submit, and you’re ready to go!
I recommend you get started with their Basic Plan for $2.95/month, which is 63% off their regular price.
How to Save the Most:
- Plan: Basic Plan at $2.95/month
- Term: 36 months
- Total cost at checkout: $106.20
- Savings: $181.44
Best Professional and Enterprise Hosting ($20/month)
Arwa’s Take
WP Engine is a great hosting solution for any business looking to get more out of their WordPress site. With added protection options custom-built for WordPress environments, WP Engine guarantees your WordPress sites stay secure and running at their best. They also offer the possibility of effortless scalability on demand across cloud platforms.
WP Engine is a managed hosting company based in my town of Austin, TX.
They primarily focus on speed, security, and scalability.
Their Managed hosting is specifically built for WordPress sites and comes at a higher price.
It’s not precisely hosting but dedicated services to keep your WordPress site live.
Site speed is where WP Engine excels.
While other providers may include customized servers, you can still get bogged down by installing many WordPress plugins.
But with WP Engine, they have a network of servers with more aggressive caching than other providers.
Key Features:
- Advanced Custom Fields help you create a rich content editing experience for your users.
- WP Migrate makes it easy to migrate WordPress sites with a few clicks.
- WP Offload Media helps you offload media assets from your site and serve them up lightning-fast from different locations worldwide.
- WP Offload SES lets you send emails through Amazon’s Simple Email Service (SES) for improved deliverability.
- Reliable customer service and high-end custom plans for the enterprise.
Pricing:
They also offer specific plans for eCommerce along with more advanced solutions.
Each program comes with proactive threat-blocking automated WordPress updates and customizable workflow tools.
Best Managed Cloud Hosting ($12/month)
Arwa’s Take
Cloudways offer high performance and reliability at an affordable price. Their platform is easy to use, and they provide excellent customer support. With simplicity and flexibility, you’ll still be able to get the performance and features you need without having to overspend.
As its name suggests, Cloudways uses a scalable platform built for speed and simplicity.
Unlike shared web hosting, cloud servers give you more dedicated resources, which can help with speed and stability.
It’s a robust hosting service for web developers, as it allows PHP developers to deploy containerized applications and other advanced features.
Besides supporting PHP7, Cloudways supports many other high-performance technologies like HTTP/2, Nginx, and Redis.
All Cloudways customers can add cloud servers to their accounts at any time.
You can also set up a virtual cloud server in under a minute.
WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) used with Cloudways (not surprising), followed by Drupal and Magento.
And if you’re looking for security, they provide SSL certificates with domain mapping.
If you’re an experienced developer and want more control over your website, Cloudways is a good option.
Key Features:
- Server Monitoring Dashboard ensures your site’s availability by keeping a watch on the performance of all your servers.
- CloudwaysCDN Integration speeds up your website’s loading time by caching its content on a Content Delivery Network.
- Application Monitoring Dashboard gives you detailed insights into the performance of your applications.
- IP Whitelist allows you to whitelist IP addresses for increased security.
- SSD-based hosting gives you increased website and application speed.
User Experience:
From creating new members and ensuring the correct permissions are in place to monitoring the performance of your servers and applications, Server Management Dashboard is easy to use and provides a great user experience.
Pricing:
Pricing is tiered based on the server specs you choose and the cloud provider. It starts as low as $12/month, and there is a free 3-day trial.
It seems like a short trial, but it gives you enough time to dive into the platform and test its functionality.
What I Like/Dislike About Cloudways:
Like:
- You get out-of-the-box usability with Cloudways. You don’t need to set up or configure anything, create an account, select your application and server, and you’re ready to go.
- The performance is also excellent, so site visitors don’t have to wait long for pages to load.
Dislike:
- You can’t easily host DNS for free there, so you’ll have to use a third-party service if needed.
Product Updates:
- SafeUpdates feature for WordPress is now in General Availability. If something goes wrong when you update a plugin, theme, or WordPress, you can quickly and easily roll back to a working version.
Fast and Affordable at a 90% Discount ($0.99/month)
Arwa’s Take
While Hostinger is excellent for those that want web hosting on a budget, the service is still top quality. You get free features such as SSL and migration, a speed boost for PHP, and even 24/7 tech support. If you’re looking to start a website without spending a fortune, I recommend you check out Hostinger.
Hostinger is a great hosting company because of its speed and price.
Using Hostinger allows developers to learn to code and experiment with PHP, FTP, cPanel, and MySQL without the added cost.
Using free hosting sites and learning PHP, you can learn to build free WordPress sites and hone your skills simultaneously.
They have a super knowledgeable 24/7 multilingual (20+ language) Customer Success Team and are known to pick up a live chat in less than two minutes.
They are also one of the fastest web hosting providers, with an average page load speed under 200 ms and guaranteed uptime of 99.9%.
Hostinger has a custom, easy-to-use dashboard.
The design is clean and straightforward, which is what you need when building a site.
Additionally, they are running a massive sale offering free SSL certificates and domains.
Hostinger provides a free WordPress site with a 1-click installation so you can start your blog free of charge in minutes. They also have their Zyro website builder with thousands of templates.
Key Features:
- Cloudflare CDN means having a cached site worldwide, so it will load quickly, no matter where visitors are.
- Daily Backups ensure that your data is always safe and secure.
- Unlimited Bandwidth means you can have as much traffic as you want without worrying about overage charges.
- Unlimited Databases mean you can store as much data as you need.
- Managed WordPress means that Hostinger will take care of all the technical details of running a WordPress site, so you can focus on creating content.
User Experience:
With a left-hand side menu that gives you all the needed information to get started, Hostinger’s interface is clean and easy to understand.
All the product options are categorized into separate tabs, so you can easily find what you’re looking for.
The steps to get up and running with their services are easy:
- Go to hostinger.com and click get started.
- Choose your hosting plan – the best savings are with the $0.99/month plan for 48 months.
- Enter your email and create a password.
- Choose either WordPress or build your site.
- Edit and publish your site.
If you want a mighty host on a budget with one of the fastest loading times and an incredible 90% discount, I recommend you get started with Hostinger for $0.99/month ($47.52 for four full years of hosting).
What I Like/Dislike About Hostinger:
Like:
- Multiple FTP accounts mean you can give different people access to other areas of your site, which is great for larger businesses.
- The user interface is clean and easy to understand, so you can get started quickly.
- You can choose the server of the desired country, which is helpful if you want your site to load quickly for visitors in that area.
- Affordable rates mean you can get started with Hostinger without breaking the bank.
Dislike:
- Their support system is a bit lacking and could be improved.
Product Updates:
Focus on fast loading speed means your site will load quickly regardless of where visitors are.
How to Save the Most:
- Plan: Single Shared Hosting at $0.99/month
- Term: 48 months
- Total cost at checkout: $47.52
- Savings: $432
Best Cheap Web Hosting Service ($2.78/month)
Arwa’s Take
I recommend HostGator if you’re looking for a proven web host with a guaranteed uptime of 99.9%, ensuring that your website is up and running when anyone tries to access it. I also like HostGator because they offer easy WordPress installation, free SSL certificates, and a free domain for the first year.
HostGator is a well-known hosting provider based in Houston and hosts over 9 million websites.
They are one of the cheapest options, with plans starting at $2.78/month on 36-month plans and savings from 30-60%.
To dive deeper, you can read my complete comparison to Bluehost and review vs. GoDaddy.
As you can see below, they stack up well against GoDaddy and website builders like Squarespace in both price and feature set:
They also hit a 99.98% uptime, which is better than the industry average of 99.94%.
They make the website building process easy, with simple drag-and-drop functionality and the ability to add unlimited domains to your account.
They’ll also assist with free migrations within the first 30 days of your sign-up.
HostGator offers 24/7 customer support through live chat, email, and phone, and they have pretty good response times.
Key Features:
- One-click WordPress installs make it easy to get started with a WordPress site.
- Free WordPress/cPanel website transfers mean you can move your existing site to HostGator without paying any fees.
- Free SEO tools help you optimize your site for search engines.
- The free upgrade to Positive SSL means your site will be more secure and trusted by visitors.
- The free dedicated IP gives you a unique IP address that is not shared with any other sites, which can improve your site’s security and performance.
User Experience:
- With a menu dedicated to server stats, you can easily keep track of your site’s performance with HostGator.
- The interface is easy to understand and gives you all the information you need to start.
- In addition, there are shortcuts to the most popular functions that you can use to get started quickly.
Pricing:
They offer three main plans, including Hatchling, Baby, and Business. The higher-tier plans include dedicated IP addresses and SEO tools to grow your online presence.
They have a 45-day money-back guarantee if you’re unsatisfied with your purchase.
Here’s how to get started:
- Go to HostGator.com and click Get Started.
- Choose a domain (or add one you own).
- Pick your billing cycle. Select the $2.78/month plan for 36 months for the most savings.
- Enter your billing info.
- Click Checkout, and you’re all set!
You can get 30-60% off with promo code ADAMENFROY.
What I Like/Dislike About HostGator:
Like:
- Lots of tools and interfaces make it easy to find what you need.
- An affordable solution that can save you money in the long run.
- The interface is easy to understand and use.
Dislike:
- Sending emails in bulk can be a bit tricky and time-consuming.
How to Save:
- Plan: Hatchling at $2.75/month
- Term: 36 months
- Total cost at checkout: $100.08
- Savings: $150.12
Best Green Web Host ($2.95/mo)
Arwa’s Take
If you’re environmentally conscious, GreenGeeks is your web hosting solution. With no server wastage when using GreenGeeks, you’ll be doing your part in helping the environment while having a great host to run your website on. In addition, GreekGeeks also plant a tree for each hosting account created, which is a nice touch from their side.
GreenGeeks is an environmentally friendly web host with over ten years of experience.
They boast 99.95% uninterrupted time and feature load times under 500ms.
They have data centers in the U.S., Canada, and the Netherlands – specifically Chicago, Phoenix, Toronto, Montreal, and Amsterdam- a solid international setup.
They’re an exciting choice if you’re looking for an environmentally-conscious web host.
GreenGeeks confirms that they buy 3x the amount of wind energy credits to account for the energy used to power their platform.
They’re a Green Power Partner with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
If you sign up for their services, you get unlimited file storage, bandwidth, and email accounts, enjoy their strong performance – and get a free domain.
And they don’t just slap WHM/cPanel on a dedicated server and call it a day like some other hosts – they go deeper than that.
Using a VPS, container-based approach, they provision accounts with dedicated computing resources and a secured virtual file system (Secure vFS).
Secure vFS ensures accounts cannot access other accounts, protecting your site against malware and other malicious activity.
Key Features:
- Free SSL Certificate so that your site is more secure and trusted by visitors.
- Unmetered Transfer means you can have as much traffic as you want without worrying about overage charges.
- On-demand Backups ensure that your data is always safe and secure.
- Free Dedicated IP gives you a unique IP address that is not shared with any other sites, which can improve your site’s security and performance.
- One-click WordPress installs make it easy to get started with a WordPress site.
- Object Caching (Memcached & Redis) means that your site will load quickly no matter where visitors are located.
User Experience:
With their data stored on SSD drives, the experience is great and allows you to focus on what you’re doing without worrying about your site’s performance.
I like that you can manage various SSL certificates as part of the user interface, making adding them to your site easy.
The navigation is straightforward, and I had no trouble finding what I was looking for.
Pricing:
They have their Lite plan at $2.95 per month, their Pro plan at $5.95 per month, and their Premium at $11.95 per month.
What I Like/Dislike About GreenGeeks:
Like:
- Bandwidth and resource allocation so you can have as much traffic as you want without worrying about overage charges.
- Good solid support by their team in case you run into any problems.
- Server performance is much improved with their object caching system.
Dislike:
- Software deployment could have been easier to implement.
Product Updates:
GreenGeeks is now offering Redis on its eco site premium hosting plans so that you can have the best performance for your site on all the plans.
How to Save the Most:
- Plan: EcoSite Lite at $2.95/month
- Term: 36 months
- Total cost at checkout: $116.15
- Savings: $225.85
What Are Web Hosting Services?
Web hosting services provide space on a server owned or leased for clients’ use and Internet connectivity, typically in a data center.
Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for other servers located in their data center, called colocation.
Web hosting services provide the technology and services needed to get a website or web page up and running.
They include server space, file transfer protocol (FTP) access, domain name registration, and web design software, among other features.
Most hosts offer additional value-added services like email accounts, application hosting, dedicated servers, and search engine optimization (SEO).
Web hosting services provide customers various website options, from basic shared hosting to higher-end virtual private servers (VPS) and dedicated server hosting.
Shared hosting is the most affordable option since it allows multiple websites to be hosted on one single physical server.
VPS hosting provides more control and flexibility, while dedicated server hosting is the most expensive option but offers the highest level of performance and security.
No matter what type of web hosting service you choose, it’s essential to make sure that you select a reliable and secure provider.
It’s also necessary to check reviews to ensure that the host provides quality customer support and technical assistance.
Additionally, read the service provider’s terms and conditions before signing up for their services.
What is the Best Cheap Web Hosting?
Our best cheap web hosting comparisons range from $0.80 to $3.95 per month. These affordable plans provide high discounts and different term lengths.
For example, you may get the $1.99 pricing but must sign up for three years – if you only want to pay for 12 months, the price goes up.
Also, renewal prices are usually higher than the discounted rate, so watch out for that.
- Hostinger.
- HostGator.
- Bluehost.
Wrap Up.
When choosing a website hosting provider: focus on security, reliability, speed, and technical support.
I hope this guide gave you some context about which hosting companies fit your situation.
If you’re looking for the best web hosting platform, I recommend Nexcess, Bluehost, and WP Engine.
A host provides site speed, security, and ease of use, allowing you to focus on growing your business, not dealing with issues.
Give these recommendations a try, and happy hosting!
Further Reading on AdamEnfroy.com: For more in-depth comparisons, check out my articles on the best cheap web hosting and VPS hosting to use this year.
