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VPS (virtual private server) hosting plans and dedicated servers are typically the most secure types of hosting. For all hosting types, you’ll want to look for SSL (secure sockets layer) certificates, CDNs (content delivery networks), firewalls, and attack protection. For e-commerce security, your host should offer you a way to obtain PCI (payment card industry) compliance. Here’s our list of the best hosts for secure hosting:
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For new WordPress sites
Starts at $2.95 per month
- Guided onboarding
- Recommended by WordPress
- 24/7 support
Best security and scalability
Starts at $3.75 per month
- All types of hosting
- Enhanced security tools
- Affordable as you grow
The easiest option
Starts at $2.75 per month
- Great for absolute beginners
- Drag-and-drop website builder
- 150+ free templates
Best Secure Hosting: Our Shortlist
Bluehost is our top pick for its reliability, customer service, uptime, and great overall value for your money.
Our Top Picks
Best Overall Hosting
Best Managed WordPress Hosting
Best Dedicated Hosting
Best Hosting Bandwidth
Best Hosting For Customer Support
Digital.com dives deep into every topic it covers to offer trusted and reliable recommendations for the best business tools. See how we review secure web hosting providers.
The Top Secure Hosting Providers of 2023
Features
- Free site builders
- Dozens of site tool add-ons
- Free Cloudflare integration
#1 Top Pick for 2023
Why it’s best: Bluehost is an incredibly reliable hosting provider that has strong customer service, offers uptime, and provides great value for your money.
Price
$2.75 per month
Money-Back Guarantee
30 Days
24-7 Support
Yes
Free Domain
Yes
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Reasons to choose Bluehost
- Solid uptime
- Generous storage
- Includes several security features such as unique IPs (internet protocols), SSL, & SiteLock protection
Reasons to avoid
- No automated daily backup
- Bluehost only offer servers in Linux; Windows hosting is not available
Bluehost is a large website host well known in the industry for its WordPress expertise. It is also popular for its variety of “one-stop-shop” solutions and services, as well as its bargain prices. Bluehost currently powers over two million sites worldwide, mainly out of its huge data center in Utah.
Also, the company offers almost every website hosting service that you might possibly need, such as advanced hosting like VPS, managed WordPress hosting and dedicated server. Besides offering a complete range of website hosting services, the company provides SEO (search engine optimization) services, marketing training, social media marketing, graphic design services, and content creation.
Bluehost’s incredible uptime was the main thing we noticed when reading both consumer and professional reviews. While Bluehost doesn’t offer any specific uptime guarantee, we couldn’t find any current or past subscribers who reported experiencing any significant downtime on their Bluehost site.
Features
- 24/7 support
- Automated plugin updates
- DDoS protection
Price
$24 per month
Money-Back Guarantee
60 Days
24-7 Support
Yes
Free Domain
Yes
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Reasons to choose WP Engine
- Local development environment
- 60-day money-back guarantee
Reasons to avoid
- No shared or VPS hosting
- No domain names or email
WP Engine doesn’t offer standard web hosting, so they aren’t the right provider for you if you aren’t planning to use WordPress as your content management system.. What they offer is managed WordPress hosting, and they can help you create everything from blogs to enterprise-level websites.
They also offer a free WordPress development environment called Local, which you can install on Windows, Mac, and Linux devices to build, test, and deploy WordPress sites. When you’re ready to go, you can connect it to WP Engine and deploy your sites. All plans include a global CDN, automated SSL certificates, and an SSH (Secure Shell) gateway.
One customer speaks highly of their experience with the support team: “I’ve needed help with technical questions and troubleshooting several times … and the chat tech support specialists are always excellent. I get really clear answers in a very timely manner and they often think of things I haven’t even thought of yet.”
Features
- 24/7 online customer support
- Signature management
- Archiving/retention
Price
$45 per month
Money-Back Guarantee
30 Days
24-7 Support
Yes
Free Domain
Yes
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Reasons to choose Liquid Web
- High-performance plans
- 100% network/power uptime guarantee
- Excellent support team
Reasons to avoid
- High entry-level price
- No free ad credits offered
Like some of our other choices, Liquid Web targets the business owner who wants to grow their business — and their website. Itdoesn’t offer shared hosting, which is where many websites start out, but once you’re getting good traffic and need additional speed and storage space, the company comes through with high bandwidth, great uptime, and a choice of three control panels.
Liquid Web, like our other choices, has 24/7 tech support, with trained staff who are, the company says, “the most helpful humans in hosting.” The support teamguarantees that you’ll get a response in less than a minute when you contact them by phone or live chat, and less than an hour when you submit a ticket.
Business customers describe Liquid Web as a hidden gem that supports web developers, resellers, and other related professionals. The provider has a reputable brand name, reliable service, an above-average management interface, and highly competent support staff. Users comment approvingly on the many features and how it’s always evolving and improving.
Features
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage
- 24/7 support
- Free domain
Price
$2.59 per month
Money-Back Guarantee
97 Days
24-7 Support
Yes
Free Domain
Yes
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Reasons to choose DreamHost
- 97-day money-back guarantee
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage
Reasons to avoid
- Limited options for Windows
DreamHost is one of the biggest names in the business, notable for WordPress hosting plans and 97-day money-back guarantee.
DreamHost promises 24/7 availability, although live chat is only available between 5:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. PST (Pacific standard time). There’s also an online knowledge base where you can find detailed guides and answers to frequently asked questions. If you’re in the market for something other than shared hosting, you can also choose cloud hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, or standalone email hosting.
With a 97-day money-back guarantee and unlimited bandwidth and storage, DreamHost is a cost-effective hosting provider with a range of different services. However, not all of their offerings are available on Windows servers, so you’ll need to confirm its suitability before settling on a plan. For example, their cloud servers come preloaded with Linux, but can be configured to run Windows or another operating system of your choice.
DreamHost gets positive reviews for its technical capabilities and customer support: “I have never had an issue that was not resolved quickly, and in some cases, DreamHost proactively dealt with the issue before I was aware of it.”
Another customer says, “I’ve rarely had a problem with their service… when there is a glitch, they are on it, helping a not-particularly-computer-literate person fix the problem quickly.”
Features
- One-click Weebly, WordPress, and Drupal
- Reseller and collaboration tools
- Unmetered SSD storage and bandwidth
Price
$1.99 per month
Money-Back Guarantee
30 Days
24-7 Support
Yes
Free Domain
Yes
Read More
Reasons to choose SiteGround
- Blazing fast servers
- Fast and secure tech stacks
- Staging environments provided
Reasons to avoid
- Limited storage space on starter plans
- Requires a 3-year contract for the lowest rates
SiteGround is one of the more popular shared hosting providers and the company provides multiple server types like shared, WordPress, WooCommerce, and cloud hosting services. When it comes to the performance of its servers, SiteGround beats out most of their competition. These servers have an average page loading speed of 534 ms (milliseconds) and an uptime of 99.99%.
SiteGround also excels at customer service and tech support. These support teamsare available to help with any issues that develop with your site 24/7. The reps are very knowledgeable about their systems and resolve most issues promptly.
SiteGround’s hosting services come with a variety of bonuses like a free SSL certificate, email accounts, and CDN. The plans also offer free website migrations for customers who already have websites hosted by a different provider.
SiteGround doesn’t offer much storage compared to other shared web hosting providers. However, it receives nearly universal praise for its customer service, with customers reporting near-instantaneous responses. That response time adds a significant element of peace of mind for users who need some extra help setting up the platform or working through any unexpected issues.
What Is Secure Hosting?
While security is a key concern, there’s no single feature that makes one hosting platform more secure than any other. Instead, a constellation of individual factors contributes to overall web hosting security.
Most web hosting companies are engaging in at least a few of the standard security practices, but that doesn’t tell you how secure they are compared to competitors.
It’s important to look at a number of different security measures that you and your hosting company might take to keep your site secure.
Compare Secure Web Hosting Providers
We recommend Bluehost as the best secure web hosting for most people.
Secure Web Host
Best Features
Pricing
Best Overall
- Free site builders
- Dozens of site tool add-ons
- Free Cloudflare integration
$2.75 per month
Best Managed WordPress Hosting
- 24/7 support
- Automated plugin updates
- DDoS protection
$24 per month
Best Dedicated Hosting
- 24/7 online customer support
- Signature management
- Archiving/retention
$45 per month
Best Hosting Bandwidth
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage
- 24/7 support
- Free domain
$2.59 per month
Best Hosting For Customer Support
- One-click Weebly, WordPress, and Drupal
- Reseller and collaboration tools
- Unmetered SSD storage and bandwidth
$1.99 per month
What You Need to Know
What is secure hosting?
Secure hosting is an approach to web hosting with a focus on keeping a website and its visitors safe from cyber attacks. At the most basic, a secure host will provide security for its physical servers. Beyond that, it will provide security against online attacks like DDoS. It also provides protection like SSL certificates that encrypt information flowing from the website to its users.
Is shared hosting secure?
Shared hosting can be secure. The same things that make VPS or dedicated hosting secure apply to shared hosting. However, shared hosting comes with specific security threats because of shared configuration. There is also the potential for security failures on other sites affecting you. If you want the most secure hosting, you best go with a VPS or similar plan.
Which hosting provider is the best?
Every web host offers different advantages and disadvantages. When it comes to security, it matters what you want to do. Overall, we recommend Bluehost. However, WP Engine is an excellent choice if you run a WordPress site.
How do I install an SSL certificate?
Some web hosts that provide SSL certificates require you to install them via your control panel. This is normally easy to do with a point-and-click interface. Contact your host’s customer support team if you have questions. If you wish to use a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate that isn’t integrated with your hosting, follow the instructions provided by this company.
Is Linux more secure than Windows?
At one time, Windows computers were less secure than Unix machines like Linux and FreeBSD (Free Berkeley Software Distribution). That’s not really true anymore, especially when it comes to Windows Server operating systems. There are still many reasons why you might choose one operating system over another, but you should be able to get good security with either.
How We Review Secure Web Hosts
We evaluated the security features of over 300 hosting companies. We chose hosts that provide server monitoring, malware detection, attack protection, two-factor authentication, and integration with security add-ons.
Then we picked the hosts that got the best customer reviews.
It’s easy for a web hosting company to claim that they are “secure,” because that word doesn’t have a clearly defined technical meaning. This can make it difficult to choose a secure host. The following recommendations should help you understand what to look for in a host:
- An included SSL certificate, or the option to purchase one easily
- The ability to process secure credit card payments
- Two-factor authentication to protect website and server logins
- The option to upgrade to a more secure managed hosting environment
- Inclusion of the SiteLock security tool that scans for malware and vulnerabilities
- Email anti-spam protection included
- Bundled automated backups and system restore points
- Regular network monitoring for unusual site traffic activity
- Ability to assign user permissions on a site and server level
- DDoS mitigation services available
Learn more about our review methodology.