Do you want to skip the read and get right to my pick for the top rated website hosting? For most people the best and overall most reliable hosting is Hostinger.
Introduction to our top rated reliable hosting review.
Throughout my two-decade career as a professional web designer, my team and I have had the opportunity to manage websites and online stores through WordPress web hosting and email hosting services. Most people may not realise this, but finding reliable hosting is perhaps the most crucial aspect of getting your personal or business website off the ground.
Yet finding a top rated website hosting provider is often ignored because, as clients would have it, it's too complex and technical. Or, maybe you're already in a relationship with a popular web hosting platform and are unsatisfied with it. If you're thinking of dumping your current provider, this page could give you that much-needed wake-up call. Whatever situation you're in, our honest and unfettered reviews of the most reliable hosting providers aim to help you make the best choice.
Compare The Top Rated Website Hosting Companies
We understand that being confronted with technical choices such as reliable hosting can be daunting. Several questions need answering. For instance, what type of hosting is best – shared, VPS, cloud hosting, or some other form? If this is your first time launching your website, what popular web hosting platforms should you pay attention to? How to choose from good hosting providers?
This is why we reiterate that those passionate about their websites' performance should take the time to study and review even the top rated website hosting platforms. Don't worry. We've put together in-depth reviews to help ease the process of arriving at a well-informed decision. After testing and re-testing hosting platforms, we've summed their strengths and weaknesses, so you won't have to!
We have reviewed/are reviewing a continuously growing number of good hosting providers and website builders to help your website lift off and rank well. Each article contains a relevant summary of each platform, with its pros and cons highlighted. We hope our list of top rated website hosting providers helps!
Overview:
What is Web Hosting?
I'd say the most straightforward analogy of web hosting is that it's where your website lives, along with all the files associated with it. It's your house on the World Wide Web, so to speak. However, you're only renting this piece of Internet real property – and your lessor is the web hosting provider. Web hosting companies charge you for space you rent on their host, usually monthly or annual instalments.
Websites live and breathe through web hosting. But you shouldn't only gun for the first web hosting provider that offers you their space. Did you know that there are more than 330,000 web hosting providers around the world today? There is a wealth of top rated website hosting choices available! Moreover, popular web hosting providers store and serve websites by offering several hosting packages to customers.
Our advice? Don't rush. Study what each type of hosting service offers and learn about its pros and cons. It's essential to do your due diligence when it comes to web hosting. Be informed of the various web hosting types before you dive into any kind of commitment.
What are the different types of Web Hosting:
Here are the forms of popular web hosting services you can find:
Shared web hosting:
This is a type of web hosting where a provider shelters multiple websites under a single server. To illustrate, Sites A, B, C, D, and E all use the same server X. As a result, websites “share” space – hence, the name. Despite co-sharing space, however, sites operated and are controlled independently by their webmaster. It's the most cost-effective option among web hosting types and perfect for small businesses with less than 25 people working for them. Also, it's the most top rated website hosting option to pick for those starting out.
Dedicated web hosting:
If you want to rent your own home, dedicated web hosting is the web hosting type that allows you complete control. Unlike shared hosting, no other website stores files on the server you're on. It ensures that you get flexibility and autonomy over how your server is set up. Indeed, this independence comes at a price – and a high one. Therefore, this web hosting type works best for large organisations that require a massive amount of server resources.
VPS web hosting:
Virtual Private Server or VPS hosting can be thought of as a hybrid of shared and dedicated web hosting. Like shared hosting, other sites use the same server, but they do not share all resources. With VPS web hosting, RAM and CPU resources are 100% dedicated to you through a virtualised server. As a result, you're assured of your subscribed amount of disk space, RAM, and CPU. It's pricier than shared hosting and demands significant technical knowledge.
Cloud hosting:
Cloud hosting aims to balance uptime and load by having a “cluster” of physical servers comprising a virtual server. By tapping the pooled resources of this cluster, another server substitutes it in case one goes down.
WordPress web hosting:
WordPress hosting is a hosting platform devoted to WordPress-powered websites. It's not necessarily a unique type of hosting, but its objective is to “simplify, speed up and serve” WordPress sites. Given the sheer volume of WordPress users worldwide, WordPress hosting makes it easier to host these sites than the traditional Linux server setup. In fact, website hosting companies have a one-click-install WordPress feature installed.
Reseller web hosting:
If you want to make a profit, reseller web hosting can make that happen. Reseller web hosting is an arrangement where you rent bandwidth and server space from a provider and subsequently sell them to third parties. Also called “white label hosting,” reseller hosting lets you act as if you're a separate web hosting company. In sub-letting your space, you charge customers fees and pay the web host company a fixed monthly fee.
What are the Most Popular Web Hosting Providers?
The most popular web hosting providers in terms of the number of users worldwide are:
- GoDaddy, buoyed by their aggressive advertising and marketing campaign, claims 16.5% of the market share, making it the most popular web hosting in terms of number of users;
- Cloud computing giants Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform come in second and third place, respectively;
- Popular web hosting companies Bluehost and HostGator receive 2.2% of the market share;
- Fully-hosted website builders like Squarespace and Wix get 1.7% and 1.4% of the pie, respectively.
However, we reiterate in our reviews that popularity doesn't automatically equal reliability. You still need to conduct your independent research and read user reviews to determine the top rated website hosting providers that satisfy your business requirements and capacities.
Here is Our Ultimate List for The Best and Most Reliable Hosting Provider:
Ranking | Key Features | Price (Basic Plan) | My View |
---|---|---|---|
1. Bluehost | 50GB storage, unmetered bandwidth, free domain 1st year, free SSL certificate | $2.95/month Check Pricing | Best for beginners and WordPress websites |
2. SiteGround | 10GB Web Space, ~10,000 Visits Monthly, Unmetered Traffic, Free WP Installation, Free WP Migrator, Free SSL, Free Email, Daily Backup, Free CDN, Managed WordPress, Unlimited Databases, 100% renewable energy match | $3.99/month Check Pricing | Best for WordPress websites and features excellent customer support |
3. DreamHost | Fast SSD storage, free domain, automatic WordPress updates, free SSL certificate | $2.49/month Check Pricing | Best for non-profits as it offers a free plan for them |
4. A2 Hosting | Unlimited SSD Space & Transfer, Free & Easy Site Migration, Free Automatic Backups, Anytime Money Back Guarantee | $2.99/month Check Pricing | Best for speed with their turbo servers |
5. HostGator | Unmetered bandwidth & disk space, free domain, free SSL certificate | $2.75/month Check Pricing | Best for small businesses and startups |
6. WPX Hosting | High-speed, custom CDN, unlimited site migrations, unlimited SSLs, 24/7 fast-response support | $20.83/month Check Pricing | Best for those seeking high-speed hosting and excellent customer support |
7. Kinsta | Google Cloud Platform, 24 global locations, next-generation infrastructure, free migrations, 24/7 support | $30/month Check Pricing | Best for those wanting Google Cloud hosting and multiple global locations |
8. Nexcess | Auto-scaling, automatic plugin updates, automatic backups, 24/7 support | $19/month Check Pricing | Best for eCommerce with its auto-scaling feature |
9. LiquidWeb | Fully managed, dedicated IP, DDoS protection, 24/7 support | $19/month Check Pricing | Best for fully-managed hosting and those needing a dedicated IP |
10. Scala Hosting | Free domain, SSD powered, free website migration, 24/7 support | $3.95/month Check Pricing | Best for those looking for a free domain and SSD powered hosting |
How Do We Choose the Best Reliable Hosting Provider?
In coming up with our ultimate list of top rated website hosting providers, we go through a meticulous review process. We follow these steps:
We Dig Info About the Web Host
A little bit of sleuthing lets us to know more about the provider. We check their official site, hosting packages, and terms of service. Painless navigation and straightforward information are some of the elements that get our seal of approval.
We Open An Account
After we're through with the initial research, it's time to test the service. We sign up with a hosting provider and subscribe to their most popular web hosting plan. Of course, we take note if the sign-up and payment process is as seamless as possible. We also scrutinise their pricing plans, hidden fees, and discounts offered.
We Assess the Control Panel
This is the area where you access all your subscription data and manage hosting services. We judge how the control panel is set up in our reviews.
We Test It
Then we create a test site and evaluate what features the platform offers. Afterwards, we run performance tests to determine uptime, downtime, speed, server locations, databases, and others.
We See How Customer Support Is Like
Value for money involves having access to a dependable customer service. We pay attention to their customer support channels and the usefulness of their knowledge database.
We make an Overall Assessment
After considering all the above, we assign a rating from 0 to 10 for each criterion and sum the numbers up. Finally, we give each provider a final web hosting rating.
Criteria for our Web Hosting Reviews:
Here is a rundown of each criterion used to evaluate a web hosting company:
Ease of Use:
We look at how a provider makes running and keeping a website online accessible. Is the interface simple and easy to use? How does their control panel look like? Will it be complicated to navigate if you're a beginner? These are some of the questions we ask before we assign a hosting rating to a platform.
Features:
With many top rated website hosting providers available to consumers, we believe reliable hosting companies have non-negotiable features. However, the general rule is the more features, the better the rating! We look at whether the provider offers domain name, email rating, databases, and availability of applications. We also pay attention to whether they enable site staging, offer a website builder, eCommerce, and SSL certificate. Reliable hosting also requires strong security and backup features.
Performance:
An inaccessible website is your worst nightmare. Slow speeds and poor loading times undermines the entire user experience. Therefore, we review reliable hosting providers in terms of uptime, speed, bandwidth and storage space.
Support and Resources:
To be honest, the best reliable hosting providers will make running and managing your website uninterrupted and possible without need for outside support. Still, having access to dependable support makes a great customer advantage.
Pricing:
We acknowledge that pricing is probably among the top criteria on your list when purchasing a reliable hosting plan. However, the price should be considered alongside its offered features, performance, and support.
All the five factors enumerated above contribute to the hosting provider's final rating.
Free vs Paid Web Hosting Service: What's the Difference?
Worrying about cost is understandable, and many end-users place a lot of weight on the sticker price before committing. Therefore, it's no surprise that several good hosting providers offer free plans. But before you take the next step, understand what sets free and paid web hosting services apart.
At their core, they're essentially similar. They provide you with the technologies need to make your website accessible anytime, anywhere. However, as a rule of thumb: quality products come with a price. At the end of the day, website hosting is a billion-dollar business. So if they're offering anything free, there's always a catch. These could either be caps in the form of lower bandwidth or storage space on some features or forced ads on customer sites. Meanwhile, paid hosting plans ensure unlimited disk space, bandwidth, and others.
Still, free web hosting plans are a budget-friendly option for people who want to run a personal blog without premium hosting bells and whistles.
What is the Best Free Web Hosting Service?
Do you want to get your website live as quickly as you can? The most popular web hosting companies offer free hosting services, albeit with limited functionality. Completely free web hosting services exist, including the best free video hosting platforms. However, they tend to underperform compared to paid web hosting plans, and if you encounter errors, you're pretty much left to your own devices.
Nevertheless, if you absolutely need to cut costs, for most people the best free web hosting service is Hostinger.
How Much Should a Premium Web Hosting Service Cost?
To give you an idea of how much premium web hosting services cost, we've prepared rough estimates.
On average, shared hosting prices offer the cheapest services. Entry-level pricing plans can average $2.91 monthly on the first month and $3.63 monthly when you renew. For mid-level plans, you can sign up for an average of $5.24 per month and review for $6.21 monthly.
The most basic web hosting plans are usually limited to only one website, while mid-level pricing packages allow customers to host an unlimited number of domains.
Note that you should take advantage of the honeymoon prices that companies offer. Usually, these take the form of low sign-up prices to allow you to take their platform out for a spin. Moreover, always remember that cost is essentially a meaningless metric when you're paying for a hosting service. Align your needs with a host's features first before making judgments based on price.
What is the Best Cheap But Reliable Hosting?
Say you have modest needs and in need of a service that doesn't burn through your budget. The best alternative is to get a self-hosted website builder. For instance, website builders like Squarespace allow you to build and host your site using their domains. However, these services pale in comparison to the features offered by web hosting companies.
Still, if you have a minimal budget, several reliable hosting services are not expensive. For most people the best cheap but still reliable hosting service is Hostinger.
FAQ:
What's the difference between self-hosted and managed WordPress hosting?
ou can choose between managed or self-hosted WordPress hosting. What's the difference between the two? While self-hosting gives you greater control over your website, it is costlier and more complex than managed hosting.
What is cloud hosting capable of doing?
Cloud hosting provides a higher degree of reliability than standalone servers and promises zero downtime. They're also capable of scaling spontaneously in the event of a traffic surge and gives you a dedicated IP address.
How does domain differ from web hosting?
Using our housing analogy, web hosting is your lessor. Meanwhile, your domain name points to where you're located, i.e. your address. All your content, information, and files are stored via a remote computer called the host.
Our Best and Most Reliable Hosting Providers in Detail:
We hope you have enjoyed this article for top rated website hosting and have gleaned some useful information on the reliable hosting providers for small business solutions out there. Please do keep an eye out for our articles as we have lots of information relating to online services offered.
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