The best web hosting services in 2024

Best web hosting: Jump menu

man working on laptop in data center

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The list in brief
1. Best overall: Hostinger
2. Best value: ScalaHosting
3. Best budget: Bluehost
4. Best for high-end: InMotion
5. Most eco-friendly: GreenGeeks
6. Best for small sites: SiteGround
7. Best cloud web hosting: Cloudways
8. Best for WordPress: DreamHost
9. Best shared: Namecheap
10. Best cheap domain registration: GoDaddy
What to look for
FAQs
How to choose
How we test

Web hosting is the bedrock of your online presence, and choosing the right service can make or break your website's success. At Tom's Guide, we've thoroughly tested a wide range of hosting providers, from budget-friendly shared plans to powerful dedicated servers. We've built test sites, monitored uptime, and pushed customer support to its limits to bring you the most comprehensive recommendations.

Our extensive testing revealed Hostinger as our top pick. Its combination of competitive pricing, user-friendly interface, and robust features makes it an excellent choice for businesses of all sizes. Hostinger's plans offer great value, with even basic packages including essential features like SSL certificates and 24/7 customer support.

In this guide, we'll walk you through the best web hosting services available in 2024. Whether you're launching your first blog or managing a high-traffic e-commerce site, we've got options to suit your needs and budget.

The quick list

Here are our favorite web hosting services. Check out the full reviews for further details. 

The best web hosting services of 2024 

Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.

Best overall

Hostinger logo

(Image credit: Hostinger)
The best web hosting provider overall

Specifications

Lowest-priced shared hosting: $2.99 a month
Storage: 100GB
Bandwidth: Unlimited
24/7 support?: Yes
SSL certificate?: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Auto installer for your favorite web apps
+
Huge knowledge base 
+
Solid performance

Reasons to avoid

-
Limited storage on budget plans
-
Slow customer support

Hostinger has over 30m customers, and it's easy to see why: its extensive online support base and 24/7 help service complement competitive pricing. Basic shared hosting costs $2.99 a month for the first year, with 100GB of storage. While that isn’t a lot, it’s great for single-page sites and small businesses.

For those wanting more, there's VPS and cloud hosting, ranging from $4.49 to $29.99 a month. Business plans come with more resources and day-to-day backups. It’s worth noting, however, that prices increase greatly after the first year, sometimes more than doubling.  

Whichever plan you choose, check our Hostinger coupon codes to see if we can save you on those plan costs.

Hostinger's one-click installation settings in its user interface

Hostinger allows for quick and simple one-click installs when it comes to third-party apps and software (Image credit: Hostinger)

Hostinger comes with a one-click auto installer for all your favorite web apps, including WordPress. We found this makes it supremely easy for those starting to build their first website, and it also includes Hostinger website builder, which competes with leading builders across the market. 

We found that the simple, uncluttered interface is user-friendly for all levels of competence, though it's worth noting Hostinger favors those who can undertake their own administrative functions, or have the time to take advantage of its comprehensive range of online support materials.

Read our full Hostinger review.

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Hostinger's shared hosting plans
Header Cell - Column 0 PremiumBusiness
Cost per month$2.99$3.99
SSL certificate
Customer support24/7/36524/7/365
Money-back guarantee✔ (30 days)✔ (30 days)
Free domain

Best value

ScalaHosting logo

(Image credit: ScalaHosting)

2. ScalaHosting

The best value web hosting provider for small businesses

Specifications

Lowest-priced shared hosting: $2.95 a month
Storage: 10GB
Bandwidth: Unlimited
24/7 support?: Yes
SSL certificate?: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Wide range of hosting options
+
cPanel website management
+
Fast speeds

Reasons to avoid

-
More economical options exist
-
Has had reliability issues in the past

ScalaHosting has been a popular web hosting choice for over 15 years now. It offers a diverse range of hosting solutions from shared to custom-managed clusters, catering to various business needs. Its Dallas-based operations provide a stable platform for those new to web hosting.

The shared hosting plans are budget-friendly, starting at $2.95 per month if you're happy to lay down for a three-year commitment. They offer essential features like free domain, SSL, and site migration. The use of NVMe SSD storage across the board is a distinct advantage that improves site load times.

Screenshot of the ScalaHosting administration panel

Scalahosting's control panel offers simple management of all hosting elements (Image credit: Scalahosting)

ScalaHosting's WordPress hosting mirrors its shared plans in terms of pricing and features, with added WordPress-centric perks. The support team is adept at resolving WordPress-specific issues, so it's a viable option for WordPress newcomers.

The VPS hosting plans are fully configurable and provide more resources compared to shared hosting. An option to host your VPS with Amazon AWS extends flexibility, making ScalaHosting suitable for even more resource-intensive projects.

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ScalaHosting's shared hosting plans
Header Cell - Column 0 MiniStartAdvanced
Cost per month/year*$2.95$5.95$9.95
SSL certificate
Customer support24/724/724/7
Money-back guarantee
Free domain on longer plans

*We’ve listed the introductory prices here. Check the ScalaHosting website for the prices you'll pay after the first term.

Best budget

Bluehost logo

(Image credit: Bluehost)
Best budget web hosting service

Specifications

Lowest-priced shared hosting: $2.95 a month
Storage: 10GB
Bandwidth: Unlimited
24/7 support?: Yes
SSL certificate?: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Feature-rich plans and unlimited bandwidth
+
24-hour support through phone and chat
+
Great performance

Reasons to avoid

-
Plans lack customizability
-
Basic website builder

Bluehost maintains a stellar reputation in a crowded field and is our pick for the best VPS hosting and the best unlimited web hosting.

It offers shared, dedicated, managed, and unmanaged WordPress hosting, with shared offering unmetered bandwidth at reasonable prices. Its cheapest plan comes in at $2.95 a month and includes 10GB of storage, five email accounts, and a free domain.

Bluehost provides 24/7 support through phone and live chat, and while not the most customizable, we found its feature-packed plans to be well-configured and supported. Its strongest selling points are speed and uptime, key for any growing site, and an advanced yet simple dashboard for all levels of competence.

Bluehost's cPanel management interface for hosting

Simple hosting management is available via Bluehost's cPanel management interface (Image credit: Bluehost)

For WordPress hosting, it offers the most support out of the box for WordPress and WooCommerce sites, and is one of only three hosts officially recommended by WordPress. This instills a great deal of confidence, alongside extra features including automatic updates, custom themes, a free domain for the first year, a free SSL certificate, and a free CDN. 

Finally, it has its own website builder for WordPress, the Bluehost WordPress website builder, which allows you to utilize drag-and-drop functionality.

Read our full Bluehost review.

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Bluehost's shared hosting plans
Header Cell - Column 0 BasicChoice PlusOnline Store
Cost per month$2.95$5.45$9.95
SSL certificate
Customer support24/724/724/7
Money-back guarantee✔ (30 days)✔ (30 days)✔ (30 days)
Free domain

*Monthly payments aren’t available, so prices shown are derived from the price of a one-year subscription term: prices will increase significantly after this initial subscription

Best for high-end configurations

InMotion Hosting logo

(Image credit: InMotion Hosting)
The best web hosting for high-end hardware configurations

Specifications

Lowest-priced shared hosting: $2.69 a month
Storage: 100GB
Bandwidth: Unlimited
24/7 support?: Yes
SSL certificate?: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Supports multiple websites on the base plan
+
Great tech support
+
Sound hardware configuration

Reasons to avoid

-
Higher-than-average prices
-
Average performance in testing

InMotion Hosting offers a range of solutions but specifically focuses on managed hosting. Shared hosting starts at $2.69 a month, with support for two sites, 10 email addresses, lots of storage, and unlimited bandwidth. InMotion also offers VPS and dedicated servers for $9.99 and $35.00 a month respectively, while managed WordPress hosting starts at $11.67 a month

Higher prices are backed by additional features and great support, with a site builder from BoldGrid also available for those looking to build and host a site all-in-one. We found that hardware and software offerings are better than those of many rivals, and this is reflected in higher pricing at upper levels.

InMotion Hosting's AMP management interface demonstrated

InMotion Hosting's AMP user interface may be dated, but it's a top option alongside cPanel for hosting management (Image credit: InMotion)

InMotion states that customer support agents can only handle chat, phone, or support email tickets after completing a rigorous internal training program. This means that friendly, responsive staff are highly knowledgeable should you run into any issues. If you don’t mind paying extra for hosting, we found that this top-level customer service is absolutely worth it. 

Read our full InMotion Hosting review.

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InMotion Hosting's shared hosting plans
Header Cell - Column 0 CoreLaunchPowerPro
Cost per month$2.69$3.99$3.99$9.49
SSL certificate
Customer support24/724/724/724/7
Money-back guarantee✔ (90 days)✔ (90 days)✔ (90 days)✔ (90 days)
Free domain

Most eco-friendly

GreenGeeks logo

(Image credit: GreenGeeks)
The best eco-friendly web hosting service

Specifications

Lowest-priced shared hosting: $2.95 a month
Storage: 50GB
Bandwidth: Unlimited
24/7 support?: No
SSL certificate?: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Eco-friendly renewable energy plan
+
Unmetered bandwidth and storage
+
Decent value for money

Reasons to avoid

-
No 24/7 support via phone
-
Poorly configured enterprise plans

Data centers are responsible for enough global carbon emissions to rival airlines: GreenGeeks, as its name suggests, is an eco-friendly web host that invests in renewable energy to keep operations carbon neutral.

With its great shared hosting plans, GreenGeeks doesn’t force you to choose between hosting quality and environmental benefit. It also offers WordPress, VPS, and reseller hosting. 

We found that all plans come with unmetered traffic count and storage space, alongside top features such as free site migration, domain registration, and auto installation. A Weebly website builder is also available.

GreenGeeks' webpage for adding or buying a domain name

You can move over or create new domain names when signing up to hosting with GreenGeeks (Image credit: GreenGeeks)

The trade-off comes in the form of after-sales phone support, which isn’t 24/7. However, round-the-clock live chat is available, as well as email support and an online suite of resources can help with less complex issues.

Read our full GreenGeeks review.

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GreenGeeks' shared hosting plans
Header Cell - Column 0 LiteProPremium
Cost per month$2.95$4.95$8.95
SSL certificate
Customer support24/724/724/7
Money-back guarantee✔ (30 days)✔ (30 days)✔ (30 days)
Free domain

*GreenGeeks offers monthly, annual, biannual, and triannual billing with its shared hosting: monthly prices decrease with longer subscription terms

Best for small sites

SiteGround logo

(Image credit: SiteGround)
The best shared web hosting service for small sites

Specifications

Lowest-priced shared hosting: $2.99 a month
Storage: 10GB
Bandwidth: Unmetered (~10,000 visits monthly)
24/7 support?: Yes
SSL certificate?: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Unmetered bandwidth
+
Feature-packed shared hosting
+
Lets you choose server locations

Reasons to avoid

-
No dedicated or VPS hosting
-
Prices are relatively higher

SiteGround specializes in shared and cloud hosting, with its three shared plans among the best on the market. Starting at $2.99 a month, the basic plan quickly rockets after the first year to $17.99 a month. While that may seem a disadvantage, all plans are managed, meaning you can expect quality support. 

It also offers managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting, including many features that competitors usually charge for, like managed WordPress installations, migrator tools, daily backups, and staging areas. We found this solid performance is reflected in great speeds and constant uptime, while it also uses a native control panel.

SiteGround's user interface for creating websites

You can create WordPress, WooCommerce, or Weebly sites via your hosting with SiteGround (Image credit: SiteGround)

SiteGround isn't as good for enterprise-scale clients though, given its lack of VPS and dedicated hosting options. However, security features are high-level, including free SSL certificates, 2FA, and DDoS protection. And if you're looking to build a website, SiteGround packages a Weebly builder with every plan.

Read our full SiteGround review.

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SiteGround's shared hosting plans
Header Cell - Column 0 StartUpGrowBigGoGeek
Cost per month$2.99$4.99$7.99
SSL certificate
Customer support24/724/724/7
Money-back guarantee✔ (30 days)✔ (30 days)✔ (30 days)
Free domain

Best cloud web hosting

Cloudways logo

(Image credit: Cloudways)
The best cloud web hosting provider

Specifications

Lowest-priced shared hosting: N/A ($11 for cheapest cloud hosting plan)
Storage: 25GB
Bandwidth: 1TB
24/7 support?: Yes
SSL certificate?: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Easy to set up
+
Free trial with no credit card
+
Selection of platforms

Reasons to avoid

-
No domain names
-
Email not included

Cloudways, our pick for the best cloud hosting, combines affordable, reliable, and scalable managed hosting with flexible, pay-as-you-go plans and enterprise-focused tools.

It utilizes cloud infrastructure networks, including DigitalOcean, Linode, VULTR, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud. Top features we explored include a strong security focus, including dedicated firewalls and DDoS attack protection, alongside two-factor authentication, automatic patching, and advanced bot detection. 

It also integrates with WooCommerce and WordPress, with its Breeze WordPress caching plugin helping reduce page load times. All plans offer 24/7 real-time monitoring, free SSL certificates and site migrations, 24/7 customer support, automatic backups, and unlimited app installations.

Cloudways' user interface

Cloudways' user interface allows for simple management of your servers and hosting (Image credit: Cloudways)

Pricing is more complex, via hourly and monthly payments. It offers a free trial, and the ability to cancel at any time given there are no long-term subscriptions. Prices start at $11 a month for 1GB RAM, a one-core processor, 25GB storage, and 1TB bandwidth. 

With industry-leading performance, highly-configurable hosting, and scalable value-for-money, Cloudways serves as a great middle-ground between beginner-friendly hosts and technically-complex providers. It's ideal for users looking for more power.

Read our comprehensive Cloudways review.

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Cloudways’ cloud hosting plans
Header Cell - Column 0 DigitalOceanAWSGoogle Cloud
Cost per monthFrom $11From $38.56From $37.45
SSL certificate
Customer support24/724/724/7
Money-back guarantee
Free domain

*Significant discounts are available with longer-term subscriptions, and you may be required to pay more on renewal

Best for WordPress

DreamHost logo

(Image credit: DreamHost)
The best web hosting provider for WordPress

Specifications

Lowest-priced shared hosting: $2.95 a month
Storage: 50GB
Bandwidth: Unlimited
24/7 support?: Yes (except live chat)
SSL certificate?: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Unlimited bandwidth
+
Technically knowledgeable customer support 
+
Awesome performance

Reasons to avoid

-
Limited one-click installations
-
Base plan lacks free email

DreamHost is a veteran in the hosting market, and its customers enjoy great performance, zero downtime, and good speeds across shared, dedicated, cloud, VPS, and managed and unmanaged WordPress hosting. 

Shared hosting starts at $2.95 a month (rising to $6.99 after the first term), with unmetered bandwidth for one site: a better deal is perhaps Shared Unlimited for $2.95 a month (rising to $12.99 after the first term), offering unmetered bandwidth and storage. For WordPress, it offers a free automatic site migration plugin requiring no technical knowledge. 

Technical support is well-versed on a range of subjects and available via phone, chat, and a ticket system, though live chat is not available 24/7. There's also a very useful online knowledge base with answers to frequently asked questions.

BoldGrid's website builder homepage

DreamHost offers BoldGrid's website builder as a separate subscription alongside its hosting (Image credit: DreamHost)

In terms of features, its internal control panel wins plaudits from us for ease of use, while its full domain registration portal allows you to manage every aspect from one central dashboard. DreamHost’s excellent 97-day money-back guarantee, which means you can request a full refund at any time in the first three months, is an absolute standout, however. Very few competitors offer anything close.

Read our full DreamHost review.

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DreamHost's shared hosting plans
Header Cell - Column 0 Shared StarterShared Unlimited
Cost per month*$2.95$2.95
SSL certificate
Customer supportLive chat and emailLive chat and email
Money-back guarantee✔ (97 days)✔ (97 days)
Free domain

* Discounted monthly rates

Best shared

Namecheap logo

(Image credit: Namecheap)
The best budget shared web hosting provider

Specifications

Lowest-priced shared hosting: $1.98 a month
Storage: 20GB
Bandwidth: Unlimited
24/7 support?: Yes
SSL certificate?: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Low prices
+
30 free email accounts
+
Auto-installer and website builder

Reasons to avoid

-
Inconsistent performance
-
Weak managed hosting

Namecheap is known primarily for domain registration but also offers paid hosting at hugely-attractive prices. It offers shared, WordPress, reseller, VPS, and dedicated hosting, and its cheapest shared hosting plan, at just $1.98 a month, provides 20GB storage, 30 email accounts, one free domain, and 24/7 support. 

This also comes with unmetered bandwidth and a free website builder. If this sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is, a little: the price jumps to $4.98 a month from the second year. 

Namecheap's cPanel dashboard in use

Namecheap utilizes the industry-standard cPanel dashboard with its shared hosting (Image credit: Namecheap)

While free domain name registration is a lucrative plus, you can't opt for a .com or .net domain with a starter plan and are restricted to store, .online, .site, etc. For those looking for a more advanced builder, we found that one is available for simpler sites on monthly and annual plans.

Namecheap’s biggest downside however is its low speeds and poor performance. While uptime is indeed 100%, response times are unusually slow. Thankfully, a 30-day free trial provides ample time to judge performance on a case-by-case basis, while live chat and online support mean issues are easy enough to resolve.

Read our full Namecheap review.

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Namecheap's shared hosting plans
Header Cell - Column 0 StellarStellar PlusStellar Business
Cost per month*$1.98$2.98$4.98
SSL certificate
Customer support24/7 (live chat and email)24/7 (live chat and email)24/7 (live chat and email)
Money-back guarantee✔ (30 days)✔ (30 days)✔ (30 days)
Free domain

*This price only applies to the first year of your subscription, and renewal prices will be significantly higher

Best cheap domain registration

GoDaddy logo

(Image credit: GoDaddy)
The best web hosting service with cheap domain registration

Specifications

Lowest-priced shared hosting: $5.99 a month
Storage: 25GB
Bandwidth: Unmetered
24/7 support?: Yes
SSL certificate?: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Unmetered bandwidth
+
Lots of storage space
+
One-click WordPress installation

Reasons to avoid

-
Daily backups cost extra
-
No cloud hosting

Famous for domain registration, GoDaddy offers feature-packed personal and business hosting at very affordable prices, both managed and unmanaged. These include shared, VPS, dedicated, WordPress, and even standalone email hosting across Windows and Linux

GoDaddy has updated the performance of its hosting plans in 2024, and for just $5.99 a month, the cheapest shared hosting provides 25GB of NVMe storage, unmetered bandwidth, a free domain name, and Microsoft 365 email. This is for the first three years, after which it increases to $9.99 a month.

GoDaddy's web hosting support webpage

Previously maligned, GoDaddy's web hosting support is far improved and much more comprehensive (Image credit: GoDaddy)

The biggest complaints from users used to be about after-sales support, but that has improved greatly in the last few years to 24/7 coverage and a comprehensive online support center. However, we did establish that security features included as standard with other providers are charged for by GoDaddy, like SSL certificates, while backups and CDN installations have to be manually undertaken.

Read our GoDaddy hosting review and our GoDaddy website builder review.

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GoDaddy's shared hosting plans
Header Cell - Column 0 EconomyDeluxeUltimateMaximum
Cost per month$5.99$7.99$12.99$17.99
SSL certificate
Customer support24/724/724/724/7
Money-back guarantee✔ (30 days)✔ (30 days)✔ (30 days)✔ (30 days)
Free domain

Best web hosting services, compared

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Web hosting serviceLowest-priced shared hosting planStorageBandwidth24/7 customer support?SSL certificate?
Hostinger$2.99100GB100GB
ScalaHosting$2.9510GBUnlimited
Bluehost$2.9510GBUnlimited
InMotion Hosting$2.69100GBUnlimited
GreenGeeks$2.9550GBUnlimited
SiteGround$2.9910GBUnlimited
Cloudways$1125GB1TB
DreamHost$2.9550GBUnlimited
Namecheap$1.9820GBUnlimited
GoDaddy$5.9925GBUnlimited

What to look for in a web hosting service

Image

If you’ve chosen the right host, your site can achieve top performance. This means quicker loading times, catching and keeping visitor attention, before potentially converting them to customers. Search engine rankings are also boosted for sites with faster loading speeds. 

Image

Performance means improved reliability and uptime. If your chosen host has a generous uptime pledge, you’ve got the insurance of knowing that your site should remain online, and that your provider is reliable enough to keep it responsive and live.

Image

The best web hosts provide market-leading technical support, so you’ve got experts on call for help with issues or problems that you just can’t deal with, regardless of your experience levels. 

Image

Hosts often provide domain-associated email addresses (such as tom@yourdomain.com as opposed to a Gmail or iCloud address), and also provide site backups, so you can quickly resume site operations without losing anything significant should the worst happen. 

Image

Hosting offers improved security for your site, as hosts’ data centers are highly secure, while the top providers offer excellent extra precautions and measures including firewalls, automatic installations of anti-malware, virus, and spam software, and security plugins

Web hosting services FAQs

If you’re looking to find out more about web hosting, take a look at our frequently asked questions below. We’ve tackled common queries and misconceptions, to try and help you understand what to expect from hosting for your website. 

What is a web hosting service?

Web hosting refers to servers and infrastructure that store website files and deliver them to visitors. A site is basically a composition of files: text, code, images, and more. When linked together, these create an attractive, highly-functional website. 

However, files need to be stored somewhere, so that people can access them when they visit. Web hosts offer storage for and access to files, on a server connected to the internet. When someone loads your site, the files are delivered to their device.

What types of hosting are available?

Shared hosting is the simplest form, and sees your site hosted on a server with others. This tends to be cheap, but performance and security can suffer, as you need to share the resources on the server with the other websites.

VPS hosting (virtual private servers) also stores multiple sites on the same server. However, you're allocated a predefined amount of resources, which reduces the impacts other sites might have on yours.

Dedicated servers are exactly what their name suggests—an entire server dedicated to you and your business's website, and accordingly all of the resources on that server. A variant of these is bare metal servers, which are aimed at and designed for technically-expert users.

Cloud hosting is highly scalable, offering flexible solutions for businesses of all sizes. You can purchase the exact amount of storage, bandwidth, RAM, and other resources you need, and add more as your business grows to maintain optimal performance.

Managed web hosting is available across all hosting types. It allows you to hand over administration and complex, day-to-day tasks to your host; when comparing managed vs unmanaged hosting, the latter is best left to those with technical expertise and knowledge.

WordPress hosting focuses mainly on providing managed WordPress hosting for WordPress websites, with all technical updates and technical elements automatically taken care of, and sites often migrated too.

How much does the best web hosting cost?

Prices for web hosting depend entirely on what type you require. Shared hosting is more than adequate for most basic sites that aren’t expecting high levels of traffic, and starts at a very low average monthly rate of around $2.49.

As requirements become more specialized, costs rise. VPS is slightly more expensive; cloud hosting is priced via pay-as-you-use plans; and dedicated servers, designed for high traffic and performance, are most expensive: you can expect to pay more than $80 a month.

It’s important to remember that cheap web hosting can seem ideal, but discounted introductory rates are often only for the first year. We recommend you read the fine print, as many services increase rates substantially after the first year or term. 

What is the cheapest web hosting service right now?

The cheapest web hosting we rate highly comes from Namecheap, whose budget shared hosting plans come with 20GB storage, 30 email accounts, one free domain, and 24/7 support, as well as unmetered bandwidth and a free website builder. Prices start at just $1.98 a month, which you won’t find anywhere else.

Should I use free web hosting?

Although there are a few decent free web hosting services, no free hosting service comes close to the cheapest paid option. Usually, you'll be faced with major storage and resource limitations, non-existent security, adverts imposed on your sites, and basic customer support at best. 

How to choose the best web hosting service for you

To start with, identify your budget: don't look at high-end hosting if you can only spend a few dollars a month. Some hosts advertise low introductory prices, which means you pay for two or three years in advance; check if you'll face significantly higher renewal prices.

Next, look at features and web hosting security. Often, you'll have access to one of the best website builders, making it extremely easy to create a site. Look for automatic backups, proactive malware scanning, and a free domain name.

A good hosting provider offers ample storage and bandwidth, with room for expansion. These are important parameters: storage refers to the space your site needs to exist online, and bandwidth is the resources used, based on file size and traffic.

Finally, consider your own technical knowledge. Website managers can opt for unmanaged hosting and take care of day-to-day maintenance, whereas novices would need managed hosting for content management systems like WordPress.

The best web hosting is fast and secure, offers sufficient scalability to allow your site to grow as your business expands, and provides decent support to help you navigate potentially difficult situations as and when they arise.

How we review the best web hosting services

When reviewing web hosts, we build a test site with the provider, or with a separate platform if they don't offer a built-in builder. We then trial response times and uptimes over a two-week period: these indicators are key to site performance. An unresponsive or offline site can cost you both custom and revenue fast.

We analyze and test user interfaces, features, and tools, to make sure where they land on a scale from easy to use to complex. With security and site safety integral, we test how easy it is to set up or import an SSL certificate, as well as explore any other security features a host might offer. 

You'll want to know how well supported you'll be in the event of a problem: as such, we test customer service and support responsiveness, establishing not only how quickly a host responds to help requests, but how knowledgeable and reliable they are as well.

As so many hosting packages can be confusingly priced, we study and research pricing plans in detail, outlining for you whether monthly costs might increase for you after your first, cheaper initial contract period elapses.

For more information, check out our testing methodology.

Next steps with web hosting services

You might be wondering about the differences, if any, between web hosting and WordPress hosting; it's also worth looking at five myths that have been busted about WordPress if you're considering its different approach. 

All hosts offer control panels, and most use cPanel: find out more about this leading interface software. If you're considering cloud hosting, it's wise to learn why regional cloud hosting matters when it comes to the location of your provider's servers, and how that might affect your business or customers.

Ritoban Mukherjee

Ritoban Mukherjee is a freelance journalist from West Bengal, India whose work on cloud storage, web hosting, and a range of other topics has been published on Tom's Guide, TechRadar, Creative Bloq, IT Pro, Gizmodo, Medium, and Mental Floss.

With contributions from
  • PhillyPhotog50
    I would reconsider the recommendation of Hostwinds. They place limits on their shared plans that are reprehensible, and kill connectivity to your site when limits are exceeded. Operations as simple as wordpress updates tend to trigger their limits.

    We're here to help!


    Alex W.

    Alex W.
    Support Agent



    Alex W. 11:57
    Hey, Is there anything I can help you with today?
    Anthony Weiss 11:57
    my website is in an error state

    Resource Limit Is Reached

    The website is temporarily unable to service your request as it exceeded resource limit. Please try again later.

    Can this be explained?
    Alex W. 11:58
    You may have caped out a resource on your hosting plan. Just one moment while I investigate further into that for you.

    https://hw-screenshots.sea-proxy.windystorage.com/screenshots/2021-03-28_15-58-38-96c677a8-f771-4600-bf5e-c9b208821338.png One of you sites may have peaked a few times either from a drastic increase in traffic, a plugin, or a configuration error.

    I'll create a ticket to investigate further.

    Thank you for your patience. I have filed a ticket for you so that your issue can be resolved in the most efficient way possible. Please reply to the ticket either in the client area here https://clients.hostwinds.com/supporttickets.php or through your email.
    Anthony Weiss 12:02
    where can I view the data in the screenshot you provided for myself?
    Alex W. 12:02
    https://hw-screenshots.sea-proxy.windystorage.com/screenshots/2021-03-28_16-02-30-181f6d02-cfbb-4e42-8e5c-899b61ac7d68.pngAnthony Weiss 12:02
    where can I pull that up?

    in my dashboard
    Alex W. 12:03
    In your cpanel
    Anthony Weiss 12:03
    got it
    Alex W. 12:03
    Let me know if you have any further questions.
    Anthony Weiss 12:04
    what are the resource limits on my plan?
    Alex W. 12:05
    You can view them in your Cpanel to the right. https://hw-screenshots.sea-proxy.windystorage.com/screenshots/2021-03-28_16-05-48-1aa66482-8deb-4554-9853-7136ca370922.pngAnthony Weiss 12:06
    Why is the entry process limit so low?
    Alex W. 12:08
    Because its our most cost effective plan ideally meant for static mom and pop sites
    Anthony Weiss 12:09
    That is not how it is advertised

    I mean, it can't handle a simple wordpress site and a single security scan / update

    There are no limits listed on the website

    https://www.hostwinds.com/hosting/sharedAlex W. 12:11
    You are always welcome to send us your feedback about Hostwinds services and support by emailing our Senior Management team at feedback@hostwinds.com.
    Anthony Weiss 12:12
    what is the termination policy for return of unused funds, I feel like there was a bit of snake oil here
    Alex W. 12:12
    They would be refunded as account credit as a prorated refund.
    Anthony Weiss 12:12
    is that policy in writing somewhere?
    Alex W. 12:13
    https://www.hostwinds.com/guide/refunds/Anthony Weiss 12:14
    This policy sounds like you can only cancel within 72 hours of payments

    which is it, I can cancel now for a refund of unused time, or I am out of luck?
    Alex W. 12:16
    I'm asking a manager now since this change is new.

    We do as an Account credit. If they are a client that has been with us some time, we may show some lenience to the exact time, but typically it needs to be with 72 hours.

    You have a triannual plan and have been here awhile so you should be fine.
    Anthony Weiss 12:17
    So, No refund, but an account credit.
    Alex W. 12:17
    Correct
    Anthony Weiss 12:17
    can that account credit be put towards the purchase price of another plan?
    Alex W. 12:18
    Yes, It would be able to be used for anything we sell. Ideally, you would cancel the service first then request the refund via billing ticket

    We can provide you with a downloadable backup
    Anthony Weiss 12:19
    but if I cancel, I lose my website, looking to convert my current plan to something that isn't so anemic
    Alex W. 12:20
    We can't refund a service that you still are using. So at best we could provide you with a downloadable backup for another service and once the billing team approves your refund you would be able to get a higher tier service.
    Anthony Weiss 12:23
    Would a Business Basic have the same issues that I am experiencing on an advanced shared?
    Alex W. 12:23
    We offer this comparison article to elaborate on the exact differences between the two plans: https://www.hostwinds.com/guide/difference-shared-business-hosting/ Shared hosting: Entry Processes (10) I/O Usage (1 MB/s) Number Of Processes (15) Business hosting: Entry Processes (20) I/O Usage (4 MB/s) Number Of Processes (25)
    Anthony Weiss 12:24
    ok, this article indicates that there is an upgrade path to Buisness

    Excessive Resource Suspension Yes, after five (5) warnings you will need to upgrade to Business None

    How does that get arranged?
    Alex W. 12:28
    You would need to purchase the plan in question, migrate, cancel/refund the previous.

    There isn't a real upgrade "path", you would moreso be forced to get a more ideal plan to prevent the constant resource issues.
    Anthony Weiss 12:31
    Can someone call me during the week to figure this out. this seems kind of backwards.

    not sure if this is sales or tech, but there has to be a better answer here
    Alex W. 12:31
    We don't support phone services but if you email sales they would be able to guide you with ease.
    Anthony Weiss 12:32
    for the level of effort and cash I am going to outlay here, I am looking at the easier solution of just abandoning HostWinds and going to someone that is a bit more upfront about their capabilities
    Read
    Alex W. 12:33
    Understandable, you should do what is best for you. I'm just trying to offer solutions.
    Reply
  • Lex90
    admin said:
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    Well, as an experianced developer, its obvious Toms Guide -- are either affiliate sell outs, or anti-consumer.

    PC Gamer does this, they push all the highest paying affiliate hosting (Which is crap and tons and tons of issues) to make money at the expense of their customers, business and reputations.

    NONE of the hosts in that list are anywhere in a top position.

    This is "opinion" based journalism, and its a fake review. Based on not experienced but an opinion driven by profits. Its actually shocking, to see not a single editor picks one acceptable host, besides siteground which is the only one on that list useable.

    To place bluehost #1, is an admittance of pure corruption -- and your review corruption doesnt end with hosting -- it only shows that this isnt a credible site. Your editor, writer and whoever made this back door deal should seriously start considering putting the reader, honesty and customer service first.

    Bluehost, which is in a lawsuit for locking and shutting down customer sites for "malware" is being sued and losing for this practice.Their historically the worst in speed, service and features. Recommending them only hurts the people who use them.

    Hostinger has been caught endlessly for lying and spamming how amazing their service is, when it isnt according to real world data and testing.

    Honestly, Tom's Guide, during a time when everyone is struggling -- why are you exploiting your customers for back end deals /affiliate profits?

    Unreal.
    Shame on you.

    Advice, Retract the article, and hire someone to give you actual hosting advice to checkout. Stop the affiliate sellouts on hosting, since this harms businesses directly and is extremely damaging to companies who might already be struggling. You have a good enough readership that you should set an example for hosting reviews to follow -- not contiune the trend of massive review corruption.

    Until then, Reviewsignal is the only real place to get acceptable feedback on hosting.
    Reply