Top 14 Best Web Hosting Companies (and 3 You Should Avoid)

Starting a website is easier than ever. All you need is a domain name and web hosting. Though there are thousands of website hosts in the market, most of them aren’t worth your time. Before you decide which one to go with, let’s compare the best web hosts ⇣ on the market right now.

But that doesn’t mean all website hosts are the same. There are some that are the best on the internet. Not only do they offer amazing support, but they are also good cheap web hosting services that make it easy for you to launch and manage your website.

Best Web Hosting Companies Compared in 2023

Here I break down the best website hosting services in terms of features and price so that you have all the information you need to find the best web host to launch your website or online store.

At the end of this list, I also highlight three of the worst website hosts in 2023 that I strongly recommend you stay well clear of.

Siteground is one of the most popular hosts on the internet. They are trusted by thousands of businesses around the world.

• Friendly customer support team available 24/7.
• Trusted by thousands of businesses around the world.
• Free WordPress website migration on all plans.
• Powerful speed and performance features
• Hosted on Google Cloud infrastructure
• 30-day money-back guarantee

The best part about hosting your site with Siteground is that their friendly support team is available around the clock to answer your questions. It takes less than 2 minutes to get in touch with them through Live Chat. They will help you out if you get stuck anywhere in the process of starting your site.

If you already have your website hosted on some other web host, you don’t have to worry about spending hours migrating your site to Siteground. They offer a free site migration service for WordPress sites.

For non-WordPress sites and for those who want expert help transferring sites. SiteGround’s professional site migration service is done by experts and costs $30 per website.

	StartUp	GrowBig	GoGeek
Websites	1	Unlimited	Unlimited
Monthly Visits	10,000 Visits	100,000 Visits	400,000 Visits
Storage	10 GB	20 GB	40 GB
Bandwidth	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered
Free Automated Backups	Daily	Daily	Daily
Free CDN	Included	Included	Included
Cost	$2.99/month	$7.99/month	$4.99/month

Pros

• Affordable prices for beginners and small businesses.
• Unlimited email on all plans.
• Free daily automated backups on all plans.
• Free website migration service.
• Live chat support & telephone support from industry experts.
• Google Cloud shared VPS infrastructure.

Cons

• Renewal prices are much higher than first-time prices.
• No unlimited storage.

Visit SiteGround.com

… or read my detailed SiteGround review

Bluehost is one of the most popular hosts on the Internet. They are one of the only few officially recommended web hosts on the official site for WordPress (the most popular content management system used by millions of websites).

• Free domain name on annual plans.
• 24/7 customer support teams.
• Free Content Delivery Network
• 30-day money-back guarantee

They are not only one of the most popular but also one of the most affordable on the market. They are known for their amazing support team and have won many awards for their 24/7 available customer support. If you ever get stuck in the process of starting your site, you can reach them at any time via email, live chat, or phone.

	Basic	Online Store	Choice Plus	Pro
Websites	1	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Storage	50 GB	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free CDN	Included	Included	Included	Included
Free Automated Backups	Not Available	Not Available	Only 1 Year	Included
Bandwidth	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered
Cost	$2.95/month	$9.95/month	$5.45/month*	$13.95/month

* The Choice Plus plan renews at $19.99/mo, and Online Store renews at $24.95/mo.

Pros

• Affordable prices for small businesses (#1 best hosting option for a small business site)
• Easily scalable and WordPress for website creation tools.
• Award-Winning Customer Support team available 24/7.
• Best shared hosting company in 2023

Cons

• The renewal prices are higher than the starting prices.
• The domain name is only free for one year.
• Owned by EIG (expect lots of upselling)

Visit Bluehost.com

… or read my detailed Bluehost review

DreamHost is one of the most popular choices among professional bloggers and small businesses. They offer affordable web hosting for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Over 1.5 million websites rely on DreamHost.

• 24/7 support via phone, email, and live chat.
• Free domain name with privacy on all plans.
• Flexible and worry-free month-to-month hosting, pay monthly and cancel anytime (no need to sign up for a 12/24/36 months plan).
• Free automated WordPress migrations on all plans.
• 97-day money-back guarantee.

If this is your first time launching a new website, don’t worry. DreamHost offers a 97-day money-back guarantee. You can ask for a refund within the first 97 days of service if you are unhappy with the service for any reason.

DreamHost offers a free domain name on all plans with free domain privacy, which others charge extra for. Domain registration information is publicly available and searchable by anyone. Domain privacy makes this information private.

	Starter Plan	Unlimited Plan
Websites	1	Unlimited
Storage	50 GB	Unlimited
Bandwidth	Unmetered	Unmetered
Free Automated Daily Backups	Included	Included
Free SSL Certificate	Available	Pre-Installed
Email Accounts	Paid Add-On	Included
Price	$2.59/month	$3.95/month

Pros

• Free domain name on all plans.
• Free automated WordPress migration.
• 24/7 customer support.
• Free automated daily backups on all plans.

Cons

• No unlimited storage.
• No free email accounts on the Starter plan.

Visit DreamHost.com

… or read my detailed DreamHost review

HostGator is one of the oldest and most popular web hosting companies on the Internet. They are trusted by thousands of business owners around the world. Hostgator is known for its shared web hosting and WP hosting services, but they also offer VPS and Dedicated Hosting.

• Free email on all plans.
• One of the best web hosting services for anyone just starting out.
• Unmetered disk space and bandwidth data transfers.
• 24/7 customer support you can reach via live chat.

Hostgator’s affordable plans are designed to scale your business. They all offer unmetered bandwidth and disk space. They also offer a 45-day money-back and uptime guarantee on all plans. And unlike a lot of other web hosting providers, they offer free email on all their plans.

	Hatchling Plan	Baby Plan	Business Plan
Domains	1	5	Unlimited
Bandwidth	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered
Disk Space	10 GB	40 GB	Unmetered
Free Automated Daily Backups	Included	Included	Included
Free Email	Included	Included	Included
Cost	$2.75/month	$3.93/month	$5.91/month

Pros

• 45-day money-back guarantee
• Free email hosting on all plans. Get an email on your own domain name for free
• Free domain name on all plans for the first year
• Free automated daily backups you can restore at any time with a single click

Cons

• Renewal prices are much higher than starter prices.
• Owned by EIG (expect lots of upselling)

Visit HostGator.com

… or read my detailed HostGator review

GreenGeeks is popular for its green web hosting services. They were one of the first in the market to introduce green web hosting. Their servers run on green energy to reduce their carbon footprint. Hosting your website with GreenGeeks is the easiest way to reduce your carbon footprint.

• One of the few green website hosts on the internet.
• Private servers that run on green energy to reduce carbon footprint.
• Affordable prices for premium services trusted by businesses around the world.
• 30-day money-back guarantee.

GreenGeeks web hosting services offer free CDN service on all their plans. They also offer a free-of-charge domain name for the first year on all plans. The best part about GreenGeeks’ service is that their tech-savvy support team is available around the clock and will help you out whenever you get stuck with anything at all.

	Lite Plan	Pro Plan	Premium Plan
Websites	1	Unlimited	Unlimited
Disk Space	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Bandwidth	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered
Free Backups	Included	Included	Included
Free Email Accounts	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free CDN	Included	Included	Included
Cost	$2.95/month	$4.95/month	$8.95/month

Pros

• Free email accounts on all plans.
• Eco-friendly “green” web hosting at affordable prices.
• 24/7 online support can reach via live chat, phone, and email.
• Free CDN to give your website a boost.
• Free-of-charge domain name on all plans for the first year.

Cons

• Renewal prices are much higher than starter prices.

Visit GreenGeeks.com

… or read my detailed GreenGeeks review

Hostinger has made a name for itself by offering the cheapest web hosting packages in the industry. You can’t possibly find a web host that offers cheaper prices without losing quality.

• Cheapest prices on the market
• Free SSL certificates for all domains
• Free email accounts on all plans
• LiteSpeed powered servers

Their cheapest plans are great for anyone just starting out. The best part is Hostinger makes it very easy to scale your websites with simple plans that you can upgrade at any time.

Even though their pricing starts at From $1.99 per month (when you sign up for 48 months) they offer 24/7 support and are trusted by thousands of businesses around the world.

	Single Plan	Premium Plan	Business Plan
Websites	1	100	100
Storage	10 GB	20 GB	100 GB
Bandwidth	100 GB	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free Domain Name	Not Included	Included	Included
Free Daily Backups	Not Included	Not Included	Included
Cost	$1.99/month	$2.59/month	$3.99/month

Pros

• Cheap web hosting is one of the most affordable prices on the market.
• Free SSL certificates on all domain names.
• 24/7 online support.
• Great for beginners who are just starting out.
• Great for other types of hosting like Minecraft servers.

Cons

• Free SSL is not included for addon domains.
• Renewal prices are much higher than starter prices.

Visit Hostinger.com

… or read my detailed Hostinger review

A2 Hosting offers affordable web hosting solutions to small businesses around the world. Whether you are in the process of starting your first site or own a business that gets thousands of visitors every day, A2 Hosting has the right solution for you. They offer everything from shared hosting to dedicated hosting.

• 24/7 support.
• 4 different data center locations to choose from.
• Free website migration service provided.
• LiteSpeed powered servers.

A2 Hosting gives you free email accounts on all plans and a free CDN service for all your websites. They also offer a free website migration service in which they migrate your website from any other web host to your A2 Hosting account for free without any downtime.

	StartUp	Drive	Turbo Boost	Turbo Max
Websites	1	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Storage	100 GB	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Bandwidth	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free Email Accounts	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free Automated Backups	Not Included	Included	Included	Included
Cost	$2.99/month	$5.99/month	$6.99/month	$14.99/month

Pros

• Impressive speed and performance features on Turbo plans (powered by LiteSpeed)
• Free email accounts on your domain name on all plans.
• Free CDN on all plans to give your website a speed boost.
• Free website migration service on all plans.

Cons

• Renewal prices are much higher than starter prices.
• Free automated backups are not available on the starter plan.

Visit A2Hosting.com

… or read my detailed A2 Hosting review

Scala Hosting makes it easy for small businesses to build their websites on VPS Hosting. They offer Fully Managed VPS Hosting that removes the pain of maintenance and management from it.

• Fully Managed VPS Hosting at affordable prices.
• Most affordable cloud VPS service on the market.
• Free website migration from any other platform at no cost.
• Free custom control panel called SPanel.

With Scala Hosting, you can give your site a speed boost by hosting it on a VPS without having to learn any technical commands and codes to manage the server.

Although they are known for their Managed VPS Hosting, they also offer other services such as WP Hosting, Shared Hosting, and Unmanaged Hosting (VPS). Their support team is available 24/7 to help you get unstuck and answer any questions you might have.

	Start	Advanced	Business	Enterprise
CPU Cores	2	4	8	12
RAM	4 GB	8 GB	16 GB	24 GB
Storage	50 GB	100 GB	150 GB	200 GB
Free Daily Backups	Included	Included	Included	Included
Free Dedicated IP Address	Included	Included	Included	Included
Cost	$29.95/month	$63.95/month	$121.95/month	$179.95/month

Pros

• Free automated daily backups.
• Cloud VPS for the price of shared hosting.
• LiteSpeed powered Turbo-fast NVMe SSDs.
• Automated 2 free VPS snapshots of the last two days.
• A custom control panel called SPanel saves you money and makes it easy to manage your VPS.
• Generous amounts of resources for affordable prices.

Cons

• Virtual private server (VPS) isn’t suited for total beginners.
• A little more expensive than similar providers.

Visit ScalaHosting.com

… or read my detailed Scala Hosting review

Rocket.net is a fully-managed WordPress hosting platform that offers high-performance hosting services, excellent security features, and easy website management. With its intuitive dashboard and 24/7 support team, Rocket.net ensures that users can focus on their website content and leave the technical aspects to the experts.

Key Features:

• Managed WordPress Hosting: Rocket.net is a fully-managed WordPress hosting platform that provides users with the ease and flexibility of managing their WordPress websites without worrying about the technical aspects.
• Fast Load Times: With Rocket.net, websites load faster due to its global content delivery network (CDN), which provides high-performance hosting services and reduces load times.
• Security: Rocket.net provides website security features such as malware scans, firewall protection, and automatic updates to keep websites safe and secure.
• Easy to Use: Rocket.net has an intuitive and user-friendly dashboard that allows users to manage their website easily, and its 24/7 support team provides assistance whenever needed.
• Automatic Backups: Rocket.net automatically backs up all website data, which ensures that users can restore their website to a previous version if necessary.

Pros:

• #1 winner as the fastest WordPress hosting company in our testing
• Fast load times due to its global content delivery network
• Excellent security features to keep websites safe from cyber threats
• User-friendly interface and dashboard make it easy to manage websites
• Automatic backups ensure that website data is always secure
• 24/7 support team available to provide assistance when needed

Cons:

• Limited flexibility in terms of customizing the hosting environment
• Higher pricing compared to other hosting providers
• Limited storage and bandwidth options for smaller plans.

Pricing:

Visit Rocket.net

… or read my detailed Rocket.net review

Kinsta offers premium managed WP hosting services for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Unlike other companies, Kinsta specializes in WP Hosting. If you want your website to perform as fast as it can, you need Kinsta.

• Free CDN service on all plans.
• Free unlimited migrations from other web hosts.
• Google Cloud Platform powered servers.
• 24 global data center locations to choose from.

Their servers are optimized for WordPress performance and they offer free CDN service on every plan.

The best part about hosting your website with Kinsta is the easy scalability you get. Your website can go from 10 visitors a day to a thousand on Kinsta without any hiccups. You can upgrade your website’s plan at any point with just a click.

Kinsta is powered by the Google Cloud Platform which is trusted by millions of businesses large and small around the world. It is the same infrastructure used by tech giants.

	Starter	Pro	Business 1	Business 2	Business 3
WordPress Installs	1	2	5	10	20
Monthly Visits	25,000	50,000	100,000	250,000	400,000
Storage	10 GB	20 GB	30 GB	40 GB	50 GB
Free CDN	50 GB	100 GB	200 GB	300 GB	500 GB
Free Premium Migrations	1	2	3	3	3
Cost	$35/month	$70/month	$115/month	$225/month	$340/month

Pros

• Cloud hosting plans powered by Cloud (Google) Platform.
• Free CDN service on all plans.
• Free automatic daily backups you can restore with a single click.
• Free premium migration of your website and unlimited basic migrations.

Cons

• Can be a little expensive for small businesses.
• No email hosting.

Visit Kinsta.com

… or read my detailed Kinsta review

WP Engine is a premium managed WP hosting company trusted by some of the biggest websites on the internet. They are one of the oldest in the industry and have made a name for themselves by providing affordable Managed WordPress solutions.

• Premium managed WP hosting.
• Free global CDN service is included in all plans.
• 24/7 chat support and industry leading customer service.
• Free Genesis Framework and 35+ StudioPress Themes on all plans.

WP Engine can help your business scale on any level, whether you are a hobby blogger or a business that serves thousands of customers every day. Their web hosting solutions are optimized for WordPress websites and as a result, offer a huge boost in speed.

The best part about going with WP Engine WordPress web hosting services is that they offer you the Genesis Theme Framework and 35+ StudioPress themes for free on all plans. Together this bundle would cost well over $2,000 if bought separately.

	StartUp	Professional	Growth	Scale	Custom
Sites	1	3	10	30	30+
Storage	10 GB	15 GB	20 GB	50 GB	100 GB – 1 TB
Bandwidth	50 GB	125 GB	200 GB	500 GB	500 GB+
Visits	25,000	75,000	100,000	400,000	Millions
24/7 Online Support	Chat support	Chat support	Chat and Phone Support	Chat and Phone Support	Chat, Ticket, and Phone Support
Price	$20/month	$39/month	$77/month	$193/month	Custom

Pros

• Scalable Managed WP hosting at affordable prices.
• Servers that are optimized for WordPress performance and security.
• Genesis Framework and dozens of StudioPress themes are included with every plan.
• Website and database backups.

Cons

• A little expensive for beginners.
• Limits pageviews unlike some of their competitors.

Visit WPEngine.com

… or read my detailed WP Engine review

Liquid Web specializes in fully managed cloud and web hosting services. They let your business harness the power of web hosting services that require a lot of technical knowledge to manage and maintain.

• Affordable Managed Web Hosting.
• Free unlimited email accounts.
• 24/7 online Support.

Their managed offerings include everything from Managed WordPress to Dedicated Servers and Server Clusters and everything in between.

All their WordPress plans come with free iThemes Security Pro and iThemes Sync. You also get Beaver Builder Lite and unlimited email accounts. They even offer a 14-day free trial for their WP hosting service.

	Spark	Maker	Designer	Builder	Producer
Sites	1	5	10	25	50
Storage	15 GB	40 GB	60 GB	100 GB	300 GB
Bandwidth	2 TB	3 TB	4 TB	5 TB	5 TB
Free Daily Backups	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included
Free Email Accounts	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Pageviews	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Cost	$12.67/month	$79/month	$109/month	$149/month	$299/month

Pros

• Free unlimited email accounts on all plans.
• Free iThemes Security Pro and iThemes Sync WordPress plugins on all plans.
• Free automatic daily backups on all plans are retained for 30 days.
• Complete access to the server.
• No caps on pageviews/traffic.
• Comes with developer tools such as SSH, Git, and WP-CLI.

Cons

• Can be a little expensive for beginners.

Visit LiquidWeb.com

… or read my detailed Liquid Web review

Cloudways offers fully managed VPS Hosting. They remove the management and maintenance part of Hosting that limits a lot of businesses from using them. The best part about Cloudways is that they let you pick between 5 different cloud hosting platforms including Google, AWS, and Digital Ocean.

• Affordable fully managed VPS hosting plans.
• Dozens of data centers to choose from.
• 5 different cloud hosting platforms to choose from.
• Cloud hosting plans using DigitalOcean servers start from From $11 per month

The choice of cloud platforms also increases your choice of data center locations. You can choose to host your website in any of the dozens of data center locations available.

If you already have your website hosted on some other platform or web host, Cloudways will migrate your website to your Cloudways account for free.

	DigitalOcean 1	DigitalOcean 2	DigitalOcean 3	DigitalOcean 4
RAM	1 GB	2 GB	4 GB	8 GB
Processor	1 Core	1 Core	2 Core	4 Core
Storage	25 GB	50 GB	80 GB	160 GB
Bandwidth	1 TB	2 TB	4 TB	5 TB
Free Automated Backups	Included	Included	Included	Included
Price	$11/month	$24/month	$46/month	$88/month

Pros

• Fully managed VPS hosting service that can give your website a speed boost.
• Choose between 5 different cloud hosting platforms that are trusted by some of the biggest tech companies in the world.
• 24/7 support to solve all your problems.
• Free website migration service.

Cons

• No cPanel or a custom control panel such as SPanel is offered by Scala Hosting.
• No free CDN.

Visit Cloudways.com

… or read my detailed Cloudways review

InMotion Hosting is home to over 500,000+ WordPress websites. They offer everything from Shared business hosting to dedicated servers. Their customer support team is available around the clock to help you out with anything when you get stuck.

• Free-of-charge domain name on all plans.
• 90-day money-back guarantees.
• Free email accounts on all plans.

They also offer a free website migration service. You can contact the customer support team and they will migrate your website from any other web host to your InMotion account for free without any downtime.

	Core	Launch	Power	Pro
Websites	2	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Storage	100 GB	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Bandwidth	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Email Addresses	10	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Cost	$2.29/month	$4.99/month	$4.99/month	$12.99/month

Pros

• 90-day money-back guarantee.
• Free domain name on all plans.
• Free SSL certificate for all your domain names.
• 24/7 customer support team you can reach any time via Live Chat, Email, or Phone.

Cons

• Doesn’t offer unlimited email addresses on all plans.
• Renewal prices are much higher than the starter prices.

Visit InMotionHosting.com

… or read my detailed In Motion Hosting review

Worst Web Hosts (Stay Away!)

There are a lot of web hosting providers out there, and it can be hard to know which ones to avoid. That’s why we’ve put together a list of the worst web hosting services in 2023, so you can know which companies to steer clear of.

1. PowWeb

PowWeb is an affordable web host that offers an easy way to launch your first website. On paper, they offer everything you need to launch your first site: a free domain name, unlimited disk space, a one-click install for WordPress, and a control panel.

PowWeb offers only one web plan for their web hosting service. This might look good to you if you’re building your first website. After all, they offer unlimited disk space and have no limits for bandwidth.

But there are strict fair-usage limits on server resources. This means, if your website all of a sudden gets a huge surge in traffic after going viral on Reddit, PowWeb will shut it down! Yes, that happens! Shared web hosting providers who lure you in with cheap prices shut your website down as soon as it gets a small surge in traffic. And when that happens, with other web hosts, you can simply upgrade your plan, but with PowWeb, there’s no other higher plan.

Read more

I would only recommend going with PowWeb if you’re just starting and are building your first website. But even if that’s the case, other web hosts offer affordable monthly plans. With other web hosts, you might need to pay a dollar more every month, but you won’t have to sign up for an annual plan, and you’ll get better service.

One of the only redeeming features of this web host is its cheap price, but to get that price you’ll need to pay upfront for 12 months or more. One thing I do like about this web host is that you get unlimited disk space, unlimited mailboxes (email addresses), and no supposed bandwidth limits.

But it doesn’t matter how many things PowWeb does right, there are just too many poor 1 and 2-star reviews plastered all over the internet about how terrible this service is. All those reviews make PowWeb look like a horror show!

If you are looking for a good web host, I would highly recommend looking elsewhere. Why not go with a web host that’s not still living in the year 2002? Not only does its website look ancient, it still uses Flash on some of its pages. Browsers dropped support for Flash years ago.

PowWeb’s pricing is cheaper than a lot of other web hosts, but it also doesn’t offer as much as those other web hosts. First of all, PowWeb’s service isn’t scalable. They only have one plan. Other web hosts have multiple plans to make sure you can scale your website with just one click. They also have great support.

Web hosts like SiteGround and Bluehost are known for their customer support. Their teams help you out with anything and everything when your website breaks down. I’ve been building websites for the last 10 years, and there’s no way I would ever recommend PowWeb to anyone for any use case. Stay away!

2. FatCow

For an affordable price of $4.08 per month, FatCow offers unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, a website builder, and unlimited email addresses on your domain name. Now, of course, there are fair-usage limits. But this pricing is only available if you go for a term longer than 12 months.

Although the pricing seems affordable at a first glance, be aware that their renewal prices are much higher than the price you sign up for. FatCow charges more than twice the sign-up price when you renew your plan. If you want to save money, it would be a good idea to go for an annual plan to lock in the cheaper sign-up price for the first year.

But why would you? FatCow may not be the worst web host in the market, but they are also not the best. For the same price, you can get web hosting that offers even better support, faster server speeds, and more scalable service.

Read more

One thing I don’t like or understand about FatCow is that they only have one plan. And even though this plan seems to be enough for someone who’s just starting, it doesn’t seem like a good idea for any serious business owner.

No serious business owner would think that a plan that is suitable for a hobby site is a good idea for their business. Any web host that sells “unlimited” plans is lying. They hide behind legal jargon that enforces dozens and dozens of limits on how many resources your website can use.

So, It begs the question: who is this plan or this service designed for? If it’s not for serious business owners, then is it just for hobbyists and people building their first website? 

One good thing about FatCow is that they offer you a free domain name for the first year. The customer support may not be the best available but is better than some of their competitors. There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee in case you decide you’re done with FatCow within the first 30 days.

Another good thing about FatCow is that they offer an affordable plan for WordPress websites. If you’re a fan of WordPress, there might be something for you in FatCow’s WordPress plans. They are built on top of the regular plan but with some basic features that might be helpful for a WordPress site. Same as the regular plan, you get unlimited disk space, bandwidth, and email addresses. You also get a free domain name for the first year.

If you are looking for a reliable, scalable web host for your business, I wouldn’t recommend FatCow unless they wrote me a million-dollar check. Look, I am not saying they are the worst. Far from it! FatCow may be suitable for some use cases, but if you are serious about growing your business online, I can’t recommend this web host. Other web hosts might cost a dollar or two more every month but offer a lot more features and are much more suitable if you run a “serious” business.

3. Netfirms

Netfirms is a shared web host that caters to small businesses. They used to be a giant in the industry and were one of the highest web hosts.

If you look at their history, Netfirms used to be a great web host. But they are no longer what they used to be. They got acquired by a giant web hosting company, and now their service no longer seems competitive. And their pricing is just outrageous. You can find better web hosting services for much cheaper prices.

If you still believe for some reason that Netfirms might be worth a try, just look at all the horrible reviews about their service on the internet. According to the dozens of 1-star reviews I’ve skimmed, their support is terrible, and the service has been going downhill ever since they got acquired.

Read more

Most Netfirms reviews you’ll read all start the same way. They praise how good Netfirms was about a decade ago, and then they go on to talk about how the service is now a dumpster fire!

If you take a look at Netfirms’ offerings, you’ll notice that they are designed for beginners who are just getting started with building their first website. But even if that’s the case, there are better web hosts that cost less and offer more features.

One good thing about Netfirms plans is how generous they all are. You get unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited email accounts. You also get a free domain name. But all these features are common when it comes to Shared Hosting. Almost all shared web hosting providers offer “unlimited” plans.

Other than their Shared Web Hosting plans, Netfirms also offer Website Builder plans. It offers a simple drag-and-drop interface to build your website. But their basic starter plan limits you to only 6 pages. How generous! The templates are also really outdated.

If you’re looking for an easy website builder, I wouldn’t recommend Netfirms. Many website builders on the market are much more powerful and offer a lot more features. Some of them are even cheaper…

If you want to install WordPress, they offer an easy one-click solution to install it but they don’t have any plans that are optimized and designed specifically for WordPress sites. Their starter plan costs $4.95 a month but only allows one website. Their competitors allow unlimited websites for that same price.

The only reason I can think of to host my website with Netfirms is if I was being held hostage. Their pricing doesn’t seem real to me. It’s outdated and is much higher when compared to other web hosts. Not only that, their cheap prices are only introductory. That means you’ll need to pay much higher renewal prices after the first term. The renewal prices are twice the introductory sign-up prices. Stay away!

What is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is a type of internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible on the Internet (Source: Wikipedia)

A website is simply a set of code files stored on an external computer. When you open a website, your computer sends a request to another computer on the internet called a server for those files and renders that code into a web page.

To start a website, you need a server. But servers are expensive; they cost thousands of dollars to own and maintain. This is where web hosting companies come in. They let you lease a small space on their servers for an affordable fee. This makes web hosting affordable for businesses of all sizes.

Why Free Web Hosting is Never Worth It

If this is your first time building a website, you might have considered free web hosting platforms. They might sound like a good idea to test the waters. But they are never worth it.

Most free web hosts display adverts on your free website. Not only that, some of them are in the business of collecting your information and selling it to spammers.

The worst part about free web hosts is that they limit your ability to scale. Imagine getting a surge in traffic to your website and finally catching a break. In a scenario like that, your website will probably go down and you will lose hundreds of potential customers.

And that’s not all. Free web hosts don’t much care about security or your data. Don’t believe me? The biggest free web hosting company 000WebHost once got hacked and hackers got access to the information of thousands of users.

Types of Web Hosting

There are many options available, from shared hosting, and VPS hosting to Podcast hosting and Minecraft server hosting, and each caters to different website needs. Don’t rush when choosing, because picking the wrong type of hosting can cause you a lot of problems down the line.

All types of website hosting will put your website online; the only difference is the amount of storage, control, server speed, reliability, and technical knowledge required.

That being said, here is a breakdown of the most used types of web hosting.

Shared Web Hosting

Shared web hosting is the most affordable form of web hosting for small businesses and beginners. It is also known as WP hosting, which is essentially the same exact thing except it comes with WordPress CMS (content management systems) preinstalled. Think of shared hosting as vanilla and WP hosting as a flavored version of the same thing.

Due to the low cost and easy setup process, shared hosting is perfect for beginners. Whether you’re an aspiring writer creating your first website with a website builder, a stay-at-home mom looking to start a blog, or a small business without much traffic, you’ll find shared hosting quite adequate for your needs.

On a shared hosting account, your website has to share resources with other websites on the same server. This means that your website only gets a very small slice of a server’s resources, but those resources are enough for a beginner website or a small business.

Pros

• Much more affordable than other types of web hosting.
• The easiest way to start your first website.
• Customer support will help you out with almost anything.
• Most shared hosts offer unlimited disk space and bandwidth.

Cons

• Not as fast or scalable as other types of web hosting such as VPS, Managed, or Dedicated.

Top 6 Shared Web Hosting (WordPress) Providers:

Bluehost

Bluehost offers affordable shared web hosting for small businesses. They are known for their award-winning customer support team who is available 24/7. Their prices start at $2.95/month. You get 50 GB of storage, a free domain name, free CDN, and unmetered bandwidth.

SiteGround

SiteGround is trusted by owners of over 2 million domain names. They offer affordable shared web hosting at $2.99/month. For that price, you get unmetered bandwidth, 10 GB disk space, ~10,000 monthly visitors, free CDN, free Email, and Managed WordPress.

DreamHost

DreamHost offers affordable, scalable web hosting services for businesses of all sizes. Their shared hosting plans start at only $2.59/month and come with a 97-day money-back guarantee. You get a free-of-charge domain name, unlimited bandwidth, free website migration, 50 GB storage, and unmetered pageviews.

HostGator

Hostgator hosts about 2 million+ websites. They offer 24/7 customer support to help you get unstuck anywhere in the process of launching or fixing your website. They offer a 45-day money-back guarantee. For an affordable price of $2.75/month, their Hatchling shared hosting plan gives you free website transfer, unlimited storage, unmetered bandwidth, a free domain name, and free email accounts.

GreenGeeks

GreenGeeks is the most popular eco-friendly web hosting company. They are one of the oldest in the market to offer eco-friendly web hosting. Their pricing for shared hosting starts at $2.95/month and gives you: unlimited storage, unmetered bandwidth, a free domain name for the first year, free CDN, and free unlimited email accounts.

FastComet

FastComet is a force to be reckoned with in the hosting industry when it comes to cheap web hosting. FastComet offers SSD hosting, promises site loads 300% faster than the competition. FastComet also gives you a 45-day money-back, the same renewal prices, and no cancellation fees.

HostPapa

HostPapa is a cheap web hosting provider aimed at beginners and small business sites with plans that include a free domain name, unlimited bandwidth and disk space, and free SSL & Cloudflare CDN.

Managed WordPress Hosting

This type of hosting lets you sit back and focus on growing your business while experts take care of the maintenance part of running a WordPress site. This type of web hosting is not just optimized for WordPress sites, it is built especially for it.

If you want better speed without having to worry about maintaining your website, this is the way to go. Managed WP Hosting costs more than Shared Hosting but comes with much greater scalability and performance.

With Managed WP Hosting, you can scale your business without having to tweak and tune your backend every time your traffic levels rise.

Pros

• Easily scalable. Your website can handle millions of visitors without a hiccup.
• No need to worry about the backend.
• Much more secure than Shared Web Hosting.
• Much easier to manage than other types of web hosting that offer the same level of performance such as VPS and Dedicated Hosting.

Cons

• If you are short on budget, this may not be the best hosting option.
• Not worth it if you don’t get a lot of traffic.

Top 6 Managed WordPress Hosting Providers

WP Engine

WP Engine is the most popular managed WP hosting company on the market. They have been around the longest and are trusted by some of the biggest WordPress sites on the internet that get millions of visitors every month. Their pricing starts at $20/month for 1 website. You get 50 GB bandwidth, 10 GB storage, 25,000 visitors, and 35+ StudioPress themes for free.

Kinsta

Kinsta is known for its affordable managed WordPress Hosting plans. They have solutions for everyone from hobby bloggers to multimillion-dollar online businesses. Their pricing starts at $35/month, which gets you 1 site, 25,000 visits, 10 GB storage, 50 GB free CDN, a free premium website migration, and 24/7 customer support.

Liquid Web

Liquid Web specializes in fully managed cloud hosting services. They offer fully managed WordPress hosting that is managed by experts at very affordable rates. Their pricing starts at only $12.67/month and gets you 1 site, 15 GB storage, 2 TB bandwidth, unlimited email accounts, and iThemes Security Pro and Sync plugins for free. The best part about their service is that they don’t put a cap on the number of visitors you can get each month.

A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting’s Managed WordPress service is one of the most affordable in the market. Their pricing starts at only $2.99/month and gets you 1 website, 100 GB storage, free site migration, and unlimited bandwidth. They also give you a free Jetpack Personal license per website allowed on all plans.

DreamHost

Dreamhost is trusted by thousands of businesses around the world. Their Managed WP Hosting plans start at $2.59/month. For that price, you get ~100k visits, unlimited email accounts, 30 GB storage, unmetered bandwidth, 1-click staging, and free automated website migrations.

BionicWP

BionicWP’s 90+ score on GTMetrix and Google Page Speed Insights guarantee + malware and “hack guarantee” are fantastic features. PLUS unlimited edits (30-minute edits to get help with updating content, uploading a plugin, or making minor CSS adjustments) are redefining the WordPress industry.

Servebolt

Servebolt is a fully managed web host with a strong focus on scalability, security, and a provider of amazingly fast web hosting! It’s not the cheapest managed hosting company out there but if you want fast, secure, and scalable cloud hosting then it’s a good option.

Namecheap EasyWP

EasyWP is one of the easiest to use and cheapest managed WP hosting providers right now where you can get your WordPress site installed and ready to go.

BigScoots

Bigscoots is a reputable web hosting company that offers reliable and high-performance hosting solutions to businesses and individuals, with a strong focus on customer satisfaction. They provide exceptional support and a range of hosting options to meet the unique needs of their clients.

WPX Hosting

WPX Hosting offers unparalleled speed, exceptional customer support, and top-notch security for your WordPress site.

WPX Hosting is the ultimate WordPress hosting solution for businesses and individuals who want a fast, secure, and reliable website. With its exceptional features, responsive customer support, and competitive pricing, WPX Hosting is the smart choice for your WordPress site. Give it a try and experience the WPX difference today!

Check out my WPX Hosting review for 2023

VPS Hosting

A VPS (virtual private server) is a virtual slice of a bigger server. It is a virtual server that gives you access to more resources than Shared Hosting or Managed Hosting. It also gives you a lot more control as it acts just like a dedicated server would.

VPS hosting is suitable for businesses that don’t mind getting their hands dirty with back-end tech for a substantial gain in performance. This type of hosting can outperform shared hosting any day and if well-optimized it can give you better performance than managed hosting at less than half the price.

Pros

• Affordable web hosting that is built for performance.
• Fast response times as you don’t share resources with other websites.
• More security as your website is isolated from other websites on the server.
• Can give you better speed than managed hosting for a cheaper price.

Cons

• Steep the learning curve if you aren’t good with computers.

Top 5 VPS Hosting Companies

Scala Hosting

Scala Hosting offers fully managed cloud VPS hosting to small businesses. They help you run your website on a VPS server without any technical knowledge. Their affordable pricing starts at only $29.95/month and gets you 2 CPU Cores, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB Storage, daily backups, and a dedicated IP address. You also get free website migrations.

Cloudways

Cloudways lets you choose between the top 5 cloud hosting providers including AWS, Digital Ocean, and Cloud (Google). They manage your VPS servers for you so you can focus on growing your business. Their pricing starts at only $11/month, which gets you 1 GB RAM, 1 Core, 25 GB Storage, free website migration, and 1 TB Bandwidth.

GreenGeeks

GreenGeeks offers eco-friendly web hosting services at affordable prices. Their Managed VPS Hosting starts at $39.95/mo and gets you: 2 GB RAM, 4 vCPU cores, 50 GB Storage, and 10 TB Bandwidth. You also get a free website transfer and a free Softaculous license.

Liquid Web

Liquid Web is known for its fully managed web hosting services. Their Managed VPS Hosting service starts at only $25/mo and gets you 2 GB RAM, 2 vCPUs, 40 GB Storage, and 10 TB Bandwidth. You also get 24/7 customer support.

InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting is trusted by thousands of businesses around the world. Their managed VPS Hosting plans start at $9.99/mo, which gets you 4 GB RAM, 90 GB Storage, 2 TB Bandwidth, and 2 Dedicated IPs. You also get up to 5 cPanel and WHM with every plan.

Dedicated Server Hosting

Dedicated server hosting gives you access to your very own dedicated server. It gives you complete control over the server without having to share it with other customers and websites. The reason why a lot of businesses choose to go the dedicated route is the security it offers over VPS and Shared Hosting.

On both VPS and Shared Hosting, you are sharing server resources with other customers and websites. Hackers on Shared and VPS Hosting can potentially, through advanced attacks, gain access to information on your servers. Although it is highly unlikely to happen for a small business, it can be a real threat to a business with thousands of customers.

Better performance is another reason why some businesses choose to go with Dedicated Hosting. Because you have complete control over the server and there are no neighbors to share the resources with, a Dedicated Server can give your website a boost in speed.

Pros

• The most secure type of web hosting is as only your website has access to the entire server.
• You have complete control over the entire server.
• Unlimited traffic and you can scale your website’s performance indefinitely.
• Dedicated server hosting gives you unparalleled server response times.
• Can easily handle millions of visitors and huge traffic spikes (depending on the configuration and hardware).

Cons

• Managing and optimizing a dedicated server requires a lot of technical server-side knowledge.

Top 5 Dedicated Hosting Services

Liquid Web

Liquid Web offers fully managed cloud hosting and web hosting services. Their pricing for managed dedicated hosting starts at $149.25/mo and gets you 16 GB RAM, 4 CPU Cores, 2 x 240 GB Storage, and 5 TB Bandwidth. You also get cPanel included with every plan.

Bluehost

Bluehost is known for its award-winning customer support team that is available 24/7. Their unmanaged dedicated hosting plans start at $79.99/mo. You get 4 Cores, 4 GB RAM, 5 TB Bandwidth, 3 IP Addresses, and 500 GB Storage. You also get a domain name for free for the first year.

GreenGeeks

GreenGeeks offers affordable eco-friendly web hosting to small businesses around the world. Their dedicated hosting pricing starts at $169/mo and gets you 2 GB RAM, 500 GB Storage, 5 IP Addresses, and 10,000 GB Bandwidth.

A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting offers scalable web hosting solutions for businesses of all shapes and sizes. They offer unmanaged dedicated hosting starting at $155.99/mo. You get 16 GB RAM, 2 x 1 TB Storage, 6 TB Bandwidth, and 2 Cores.

InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting is home to thousands of websites around the world. Their dedicated hosting solutions start at $89.99/mo. You get 4 Cores, 16 GB RAM, 10 TB Bandwidth, 1 TB Storage, and 5 Dedicated IPs. You also get 2 free hours of managed hosting.

Web Hosting FAQ

Summary – Best Web Hosting Companies (2023 Comparison Chart)

If you want to grow your business without any hiccups, you need reliable web hosting that you can trust. However, most web hosts aren’t worth your time or money.

That’s why I made this list. All the companies on this list get my stamp of approval. If you can’t decide between all the options, let me make the choice easy for you:

If you are a beginner, go with Siteground or Bluehost. Both offer 24/7 customer support that is friendly and will help you get unstuck at any time of the day.

If you own a growing WordPress site, I recommend going with WP Engine or Kinsta. Both are known for their affordable premium managed WP hosting services. They offer 24/7 support and are trusted by thousands of big brands around the world.

List of web hosting services we have tested and reviewed: