Bluehost is a popular web hosting company with millions of sites running on its servers. This company has provided hosting at an affordable price since 2003. Bluehost continues to innovate and expand to meet the ever-changing needs of its customers.
Whether you are looking to start a small business blog or need to operate a large e-commerce site, Bluehost can handle it all. In addition to ranking Bluehost as the best overall hosting provider, I rated it at the top for virtual private server hosting, too.
Bluehost, one of the few official WordPress partners, can run just about any type of website you want, including custom-built pages, WordPress websites, WooCommerce sites, and more. If shared hosting is not sufficient for your website, Bluehost offers excellent VPS and dedicated hosting as well.
I opted for WordPress hosting and WordPress installation took just a couple of clicks. If you want to make a customized site (whether with WordPress or not) you can use Bluehost’s website builders, which allow drag-and-drop site creation.
Who is Bluehost best for?
After extensive testing and a review of everything Bluehost has to offer, I found it to be a capable hosting option for individuals, small businesses, bloggers, and others who need a reliable website. Bluehost makes it easy to create and manage a site with its diverse tools, templates, and WooCommerce options, so it’s easy for those new to running websites.
Recent upgrades to Bluehost
Bluehost is constantly innovating and upgrading its systems. For example, Bluehost started offering an advanced free site migration tool for WordPress websites and a full marketplace for great site templates.
Bluehost pricing
Bluehost has options at many price points. The basic shared hosting account starts at $4.95 per month. If you need dedicated hosting, on the other hand, you can pay up to $119.99 per month for the top-end option.
SiteGround is one of the leading companies in web hosting. It is known for offering premium shared hosting solutions to all its customers, especially those who want to use WordPress. While it does not offer dedicated hosting or virtual private server hosting, the exceptional shared hosting options will be ideal for small-to-medium businesses, individuals, and many others.
SiteGround specializes in shared and cloud hosting options, which serves many customers because the vast majority of websites do not need higher-end hosting. I’ve found SiteGround hosting options to be fast and reliable by using the best hardware and software possible. This means that customers will generally pay more than with other companies, but you do get what you pay for in this case.
SiteGround hosting includes a CDN and a free Let’s Encrypt Standard SSL certificate installed. I particularly love that most hosting packages include a CDN, which helps your website load quicker by hosting copies of your site's resources closer to where your users live.
Who is SiteGround best for?
SiteGround is an excellent hosting provider for small-to-medium businesses. If you need the additional control or power a VPS or dedicated hosting provides, then SiteGround might not be the host for you, because they don't offer these types of servers.
Recent upgrades by SiteGround
One of the things I love most about SiteGround is that it is constantly upgrading and improving its hosting services. Some key upgrades SiteGround recently performed include adding a new data center in Madrid and new site scanner tools for added security.
SiteGround pricing
Hosting starts at $2.99 per month for shared hosting and can go up as high as $400 per month for its top-of-the-line cloud hosting options. While this is not the right option for everyone, those who need a fast and reliable hosting company will love working with SiteGround.
Hostinger is a popular hosting company that has options for just about any type of site you can imagine. Whether you are an individual just starting to blog, or a large company looking for stable hosting, you will find it here. One of my favorite things about Hostinger is that it is inexpensive while meeting the needs of most customers.
Hostinger best serves anyone who wants to run a website on a stable system with affordable options. I selected this company as the best hosting option for small businesses because it offers affordable hosting plans for companies to upgrade over time with automatic transfers to your new plan.
In addition, Hostinger features a variety of different options for WordPress and WooCommerce websites, which are extremely popular for small businesses. Hostinger offers some key tools and features such as a free SSL certificate installed from Let’s Encrypt, and email hosting with most hosting packages, so you can have your own custom email domain. Overall, I appreciate the tools and features from Hostinger that make it easy for anyone to run their own website.
Who is Hostinger best for?
Hostinger is especially well-suited for small businesses. This company has so many different hosting options and features available, making it easy for small businesses to get sites up and running smoothly in no time.
Recent upgrades by Hostinger
Hostinger recently added features, including advanced account sharing so you can grant account access to another person, and the ability to boost your system specs temporarily when needed, and improved WordPress website migration tools.
Hostinger pricing
Hostinger’s prices are the low, but you couldn’t call it a cheap hosting provider. Options include entry-level shared hosting starting as low as $2.79 per month, the Business Shared Hosting plan for $3.99 per month, or the advanced VPS hosting for $77.99 per month.
A2 Hosting is an excellent hosting provider that has a lot of different options available to meet the needs of just about everyone. This company is best known for offering exceptionally fast response times on its hosting, which is very important for most websites. While it is not the cheapest hosting around, it does have a good overall reputation and can more than meet the needs of most people.
In my testing, A2 Hosting stood out for its extremely fast hosting servers with an average load time of 608 ms and an average response time of 1289 ms. This speed is made possible by A2 Hosting’s top-of-the-line servers as well as the great CDN used for most hosting accounts. In addition, you will have access to the premium customer and technical support teams.
I appreciate that all the A2 Hosting packages come with top security, including a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate. Your servers will also have protection against DDoS attacks using ConfigServer and Firewall, brute force detection, Linux malware detection, and Wordfence. Free automatic backup tools keep your data safe.
Who is A2 Hosting best for?
A2 Hosting is an excellent option for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and e-commerce sites.
Recent upgrades by A2 Hosting
While A2 Hosting is a solid platform today, I’m a little concerned that this company is not actively engaged in many upgrades or improvements, at least not publicly. It keeps existing systems up to date through regular upgrades, but that is really the bare minimum for a hosting company. I do like that it added support for Magento and some other systems, but I would really like to see a bigger focus on new software packages and enhancements to existing products.
A2 Hosting pricing
Pricing at A2 Hosting ranks in the middle of its competitors: entry-level hosting starts at $2.99 per month, but only if you sign up for three years at a time. The highest-priced hosting package is the managed dedicated server with Turbo, and that will run you up to $505.99 per month (again, with the three-year commitment).
DreamHost is a highly rated hosting provider that has a lot to offer anyone who wants to run a website. While it offers excellent VPS hosting and dedicated servers, DreamHost is best known for exceptional shared hosting solutions. The shared hosting is so good that we listed it as the best shared hosting provider in the industry.
There are many reasons to use DreamHost, including unlimited bandwidth and storage, which helps to make your hosting experience worry-free.
DreamHost puts its customers first – I was offered an impressive 97-day money-back guarantee on all its hosting accounts.
Who is DreamHost best for?
While anyone can use DreamHost, we primarily recommend it for bloggers, small businesses, and entrepreneurs who are going to be running a site on WordPress.
Recent upgrades by Dreamhost
Recently, DreamHost upgraded its control panel to add more control over DNS, which is important for many users.
Dreamhost pricing
DreamHost’s prices are balanced between cost and quality. You can sign up for a shared hosting account that will only cost you $2.59 per month. If you need something more advanced, you can go all the way up to premium dedicated hosting, which will run you $279 per month.
Anytime someone brings up GreenGeeks, the main thing talked about is the use of green energy. This makes sense because that is how GreenGeeks markets itself, and it is one of the very few hosting companies that use renewable energy for all its power. That being said, this company would never have become popular if it were not able to provide excellent hosting to its customers.
While I certainly love that GreenGeeks uses eco-friendly energy sources, I am much more impressed with its hosting. This company has built up an excellent service with a large number of loyal customers because it offers fast and reliable hosting year after year.
You can choose from shared, WordPress, VPS, or reseller hosting options, all of which will provide you with an excellent environment for your website. While it does not offer dedicated servers, most websites will never need that level of service anyway, so it can hardly be considered a major reason to disregard this company.
Who is GreenGeeks best for?
GreenGeeks is an ideal option for websites ranging from basic blogs to small business sites. The managed VPS hosting solutions are quite robust and can handle a lot of traffic, so even if you have a fairly large e-commerce site, the GreenGeeks servers will be able to provide everything you need.
Recent upgrades by GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks is always working on upgrading and improving its systems. Recently, for example, GreenGeeks upgraded to fully RAID-10 SSD for storage, which is faster and more reliable. In addition, all of the servers had PHP7 installed and enabled by default, which is important for modern sites. These are just a couple of the many important improvements that GreenGeeks has made recently.
GreenGeeks pricing
GreenGeeks clearly put a lot of thought into its prices to ensure customers were getting a notable product at a fair price. Whether you want entry-level shared hosting at $2.95 per month, or you need advanced VPS hosting at just over $100, you will be getting a great service that will meet your needs.
InMotion is widely considered a high-end hosting provider that focuses on giving customers exceptional services at a somewhat higher price than its competition. This company uses premium hardware throughout its data center and configures all servers to run fast while maintaining minimal downtime. If your website is a critical component of your business, the slightly higher prices from InMotion may be money well spent.
I chose InMotion Hosting as the most reliable hosting provider because it consistently has exceptional uptime on all its servers. Running multiple tests using both my own internal experience as well as third-party testing tools, I never had any issues.
This is all on top of InMotion’s 99.9% uptime guarantee. The company offers much more than just a stable hosting environment. It also has very responsive servers at all levels. Whether you are looking for a shared hosting environment, VPS hosting, or even dedicated servers, you will find plenty of options at InMotion.
Who is InMotion Hosting best for?
InMotion is a strong fit for small businesses, entrepreneurs, bloggers with popular sites, and e-commerce websites that want a very fast and reliable hosting experience.
Recent upgrades by InMotion Hosting
Recently, InMotion started offering customers access to the full suite of Google Workspace applications for $6 per month per seat. These apps include Gmail, Drive, and Meet.
InMotion Hosting pricing
You’ll pay a little more with InMotion than you would with discount providers like DreamHost or Hostinger. For this extra monthly expense, you will get improved uptime, fast servers, and constant performance improvements. The entry-level shared hosting option with InMotion is just $2.29 per month, but after the initial three-year contract, that goes up to $8.99 per month. If you opt for shorter payment periods, you will pay even higher rates.
HostGator is perhaps the most recognized name in web hosts. This company has been around for many years and has done an efficient job at advertising itself so when the average person thinks about hosting, HostGator comes to mind. While HostGator had some issues with quality years ago, it has a lot to offer, especially for people who are looking to build their first website.
HostGator has been around for a long time and it has done a lot of marketing and advertising to become one of the best-known companies in the hosting industry. I have personally used HostGator for running websites and found the services to be easy to use and very reliable.
HostGator offers good quality hosting whether you want shared, VPS, or dedicated hosting. In addition, this company has very competitive prices no matter what type of hosting you need. The fact that HostGator has great services at affordable prices makes it easy to pick out the right option, even if you don’t have a lot of experience running websites.
Who is HostGator best for?
HostGator is the best hosting provider for entry-level sites because it offers exceptional hosting options, and its systems are very easy to use.
Recent upgrades by HostGator
HostGator has significantly expanded its support of e-commerce sites, including providing great plug-ins for the WooCommerce platform. HostGator is also the leader in web hosting when it comes to offering helpful blogs and videos to teach people how to run websites better.
HostGator pricing
HostGator is an ideal option for entry-level websites because you can get high-quality hosting at an affordable introductory rate of $2.75 per month when you choose the Hatchling Plan or $5.25 per month for the Business Plan. Even the higher-end hosting plans with this company are surprisingly affordable, so you can upgrade as needed without breaking your budget.
Nexcess is a popular web hosting company owned and operated by Liquid Web, which runs various web hosting-related websites and has a great reputation for providing excellent services throughout the industry. Specifically, Nexcess is known for the managed services offered. If you want great hosting that is virtually worry-free, this may be the perfect option for you.
Nexcess is owned and operated by Liquid Web, which has a quality reputation as a web host. You can choose from several hosting options, including those that are configured specifically for an online store. I found customer support to be extensive: whether you are using WooCommerce or another content management system, you will get the premium support that you need to make running your digital platform fast and easy.
In addition to managing the back end of your e-commerce platform for you, Nexcess will provide visitors to your site with fast response times and a stable environment. This means your online store will always be up and ready no matter when people want to shop. For e-commerce business owners, this is absolutely essential.
Nexcess specializes in helping people with e-commerce pages. I love that it has technical experts on staff who know how to use all the different e-commerce platforms including WooCommerce, Magento, StoreBuilder, and many others.
Who is Nexcess best for?
Whether you are just starting a new online store, or you have a popular e-commerce site that needs a hosting upgrade, Nexcess is an excellent option to consider.
Recent upgrades by Nexcess
Recently, Nexcess upgraded its systems to provide full integration with HubSpot. It also upgraded the WooCommerce suite to help provide better testing for busy sites. The constant attention to providing quality systems today and long into the future is one more reason I love Nexcess for any e-commerce site.
Nexcess pricing
If you are looking for cheap or mid-range hosting prices, Nexcess is not for you. With the extra work that Nexcess has to put into each customer’s account, it is not surprising that the monthly costs are higher than other companies. Still, if you’re looking for quality managed hosting over unmanaged options, Nexcess is an excellent company to work with and beats other web hosting services. The WordPress hosting plan starts at $9.50 per month, while WP Engine’s WordPress hosting starts at $20 per month.
If you want to run a WordPress-based site, but you don’t want to deal with any of the technical aspects, WP Engine is perfect for you. This company specializes in WordPress hosting and can get your site up and running without any trouble. In addition, since it offers managed hosting, you won’t have to worry about data backup, updating systems, or even troubleshooting problems, which is why I rank WP Engine among the best hosting options around.
WP Engine specializes in managed WordPress hosting and offers hassle-free hosting because it offers the best systems and support for this type of site.
The downside of using WP Engine is that it costs much more than the competition. In general, you will be able to find basic shared hosting for less than $5 per month, compared to $20 per month to start with from WP Engine. You are paying for the premium support, experience, and overall hosting quality.
I consider WP Engine the best managed WordPress hosting, finding its support options and service superior for WordPress sites. While WP Engine will only be the right option for some, it is the best for those needing this type of hosting.
Who is WP Engine best for?
If you want hassle-free premium hosting and are planning to use WordPress, WP Engine is a clear choice.
Recent upgrades by WP Engine
To ensure it stays on top, WP Engine optimized its servers for improved speed and reliability and added several new free features to its hosting services. Also, WP Engine added the Flywheel Growth Suite for when you’re ready to scale your small business.
WP Engine pricing
WP Engine is not cheap, so you can expect to pay several times more money for your hosting than you would with another provider. Its entry-level managed WordPress hosting plan starts at $20 per month (compared to Nexcess at $9.50 per month), and goes up from there. You get what you pay for, though, so if you want a worry-free hosting company, this is likely your best option.
| Web Hosting Service | Pricing | Best Features |
|---|---|---|
| Bluehost (5.0) Best web hosting
| Shared plans starting at $4.95 per month |
|
| SiteGround (4.8) Best WordPress hosting
| Shared plans starting at $2.99 per month |
|
| Nexcess (4.8) Best e-commerce web hosting
| E-commerce plans starting at $13.30 per month |
|
| InMotion Hosting (4.8) Best hosting for uptime and reliability
| Shared plans starting at $2.99 per month |
|
| WP Engine (4.8) Best managed WordPress hosting
| Managed plans starting at $20 per month |
|
| HostGator (4.7) Best web hosting for beginners
| Shared plans starting at $2.75 per month |
|
| DreamHost (4.6) Best shared hosting
| Shared plans starting at $2.59 per month |
|
| GreenGeeks (4.6) Best eco-friendly hosting
| Shared plans starting at $2.95 per month |
|
| Hostinger (4.5) Best web hosting for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs)
| Shared plans starting at $2.79 per month |
|
| A2 Hosting (3.8) Best web hosting for speed
| Shared plans starting at $2.99 per month |
|
Every website needs a server to make it available online. Web hosting services are the companies that supply and manage these servers. The overwhelming majority of businesses use web hosts to keep their websites online.
Operating a server is costly and requires technical knowledge. Third-party web hosts streamline the process by renting server space or, in the case of dedicated hosting, entire servers.
When you choose a web host for your business website, you’ll have the option of choosing either “managed” or “unmanaged” hosting. It’s an important distinction, so you’ll want to understand the differences:
There are many types of web hosting options available, and hosting plans vary by provider. The best web hosting provider often comes down to a website’s specific needs. A simple, personal blog with limited traffic can choose a different hosting option than a large e-commerce website with thousands of visitors daily.
Aside from the managed versus dedicated distinction explained above, there are different server types you should be aware of. These include:
As you research the best web hosting services, you’ll see a lot of specialized terms. Here are some key phrases you should know to help you make an informed decision on the best web hosting service.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Add-on domain | An additional website that can be added to your hosting plan. Most basic web hosting plans include one domain. Advanced hosting plans will give you multiple domains or let you add more as needed. |
| Admin or control panel | The administration panel of your hosting account lets you upload and download files, create email addresses, install applications, and more. The most commonly used control panel software is cPanel. Other admin panels include Plesk and Webmin. |
| Bandwidth or data transfer | The measurement of how much data can flow through a connection in a given amount of time. The more visitors your site has, the more data you transfer, and the more bandwidth you need. Limited bandwidth can negatively impact your website’s speed and accessibility. |
| Disk space | The amount of storage space available on the server for storing your website files, including text, images, databases, media, and more. |
| Domain name | Your website’s unique name that users enter into the browser’s address bar to access your website. Some web hosts offer a free domain name registration for one year when you purchase a web hosting plan. |
| FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access | This is how you upload your website’s file to your server. Most control panels have a File Manager tool for this. You can also use an FTP client, such as FileZilla. |
| Internet Protocol (IP) address | This is the unique numerical address that identifies your website and connects visitors to it from their browser. Because it is too difficult to remember individual IP addresses, website addresses are simplified with domain names. |
| Linux and Windows servers | The two types of operating systems used by web servers. Linux is an open-source OS that is cheaper and arguably more versatile than Windows. Linux can handle a variety of programming languages and applications. Windows OS requires a license and is more expensive, but it is ideal for websites that rely on Windows technologies. |
| Name servers | This application translates domain names into IP addresses, so when your site visitors type in your domain name, they are directed to the correct IP address. |
| Server | A powerful computer that hosts websites and provides data to other computers by running specific software depending on the server type. When someone visits your website, they are connected to the server hosting the files that make it up. |
| Subdomain | A subsection of the main domain, such as blog.yourmaindomain.com. |
| Uptime | The total time your website is accessible during a certain period. It’s usually measured in percentage, and most web hosts advertise a guarantee of 99% uptime or better. |
After choosing your web host, you’ll need to register your domain namewith the host. Some hosts offer a free domain name for a year when you sign up for a hosting plan. Many web hosts combine both steps, but with others, you’ll need to configure the service to use your company’s chosen URL.
If your company already has a website with a different host, you’ll need to transfer the website files over to the new host. All hosting providers have instructions on site migration, which is usually quick and painless.
If you don’t already have a website, then the only thing left to do is to build one! See our Best Website Builders of 2023 page for a list of top-rated website builders and the pros and cons of each.
I rate web hosts on specific plans and prices, what features web hosting services offer, the performance of a hosting company, what type of security is included, and whether the web hosting provider is engaging in ongoing improvements.
I sign up for a hosting plan with each provider to test:
I upload a basic static site to my web space, including HTML and CSS files and images, and configure Uptime.com to check my site’s availability and server response time at five-minute intervals. This test gives me a general indication of the speed and uptime you will likely experience when you decide on the best web hosting provider.
Small-Business Web Hosting Expert
Michael Levanduski is an IT professional with over 20 years of experience in the industry. He regularly advises businesses on a range of topics, including web hosting, content management and data security. He lives in West Michigan with his family where he enjoys camping, hiking, and of course, writing. Michael’s expertise has been shared on a variety of websites, including Hostadvice.com, Neweggbusiness.com and Gogetspace.com.
