Selecting one of the best web hosting services is as important as finding one of the best website builders, when building your first website. Web hosting is integral to your site's success, as it's the platform upon which your site resides online, and from which it can grow, compete, and boost your business.
Many leading hosts provide one of or partner with some of the best website builders too, so you can streamline your new site journey and save too. However, choosing a web hosting provider from a busy and competitive sector can be challenging, regardless of whether you're a beginner or have the requisite experience.
We're here to help guide you through this process, and identify the top web hosting for your site. It's all much simpler when you do your research and plan ahead, as well as keep your budget in mind and know what specific type of hosting you need.
Evaluate web hosts via a range of key elements, including: reliability and security; storage and bandwidth; and customer support and maintenance levels (in particular considering both quality and response times). We ranked hosts based on these criteria and more below, to aid you in finding the best web hosting for your site.
What is web hosting? What you need to know to choose the right provider
The 3 best web hosting services right now
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What are the best web hosting services?
Our pick for the best web hosting service is Hostinger, which provides the best budget hosting, high-quality features, and with virtually no flaws. Its leading elements include the excellent, native hPanel; top security integrations; the Zyro website builder; one-click Cloudflare installation; and built-in domain registration.
Close behind is Hostwinds, which offers excellent value and high performance across its hosting plans. Next up, and rounding out our top three hosts, Namecheap's budget hosting ensures great value for money by including a wide range ofunlimited elements on multiple plans, including storage and bandwidth.
Liquid Web, GreenGeeks, HostGator, Bluehost, DreamHost, InMotion Hosting, and Domain.com are also worth your consideration. We've included them all thanks to their particular strengths and hosting focuses.
Finally, Wix and Weebly are leading options if you're looking for a top-quality website builder offering hosting.
| Web hosting service | Lowest-priced shared hosting plan | Unmetered storage? | Unmetered bandwidth? | 24/7 support? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger | $1.39 (Single) | No | No | Yes |
| Hostwinds | $6.74 (Basic) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Namecheap | $0.82 (Stellar) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Liquid Web | N/A (cheapest plan is $15 for VPS) | No | No | Yes |
| GreenGeeks | $2.49 (Lite) | No | Yes | Yes (not by phone) |
| HostGator | $2.75 (Hatchling) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bluehost | $2.75 (Basic) | No | Yes | Yes |
| DreamHost | $2.95 (Shared Starter) | No | Yes | Yes (except live chat) |
| InMotion Hosting | $2.49 (Lite) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Domain.com | $3.75 (Basic) | Yes | Yes (scalable) | Yes |
| Wix | $14 (Combo) | No | No | Yes |
| Weebly | $6 (Connect) | No | Yes | No |
The best web hosting services available today
Hostinger has earned the trust of over 30 million users, and for us it's the best web hosting service currently available. We also found it to be the provider of the the best cloud hosting, the best WordPress hosting, the best VPS hosting, and one of the best free web hosting services via 000webhost.
It relies on its own technology, and doesn't let third parties have a say in performance, feature management, or control. Customers can choose between three cloud, three shared, six VPS, and two email plans. It also offers cPanel, WordPress and Minecraft hosting, in addition to CyberPanel VPS hosting, and includes the Zyro website builder with all plans.
Shared hosting begins at $1.39 a month (increasing to $2.99 after renewal), covering one site with 30GB of SSD storage and 100GB bandwidth. Premium Shared Hosting is currently available for an exclusive price of $1.79, while Business Shared Hosting is $3.99 a month for 100 sites, 200GB SSD storage, and unlimited bandwidth.
Hostinger offers great hosting services at a fraction of the price of many competitors, and the native hPanel control panel is a standout feature that we'd argue is as good as (if not better than) cPanel, the industry standard. Streamlined SSL setup, a full CloudFlare CDN integration, and other top features combine with excellent performance metrics to keep it at the top of our hosting guide.
Read our comprehensive Hostinger review; our interview with Hostinger CMO Daugirdas Jankus; our detailed Zyro review; and our interview with Zyro CEO Giedrius Zakaitis.
Hostwinds is the master of dedicated hosting, boasting powerful configuration catering to both regular sites and high-demand, resource-draining gaming servers. It also provides shared, business, VPS (for Linux and Windows, managed and unmanaged), cloud, and dedicated hosting plans.
This highly customizable provider offers several base options you can tailor to your own needs. Even its cheapest dedicated packages come with a four-core single processor and 8GB of RAM. In fact, its range of unlimited features across its plans means it ranks as our choice for the best unlimited web hosting provider.
Additional features include specifying the number of operating systems (i.e. standard CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, or Windows Server), various RAID configuration options, and more. It also includes a Weebly builder for free; find out more in our section focused on website builders.
All plans include full server management, so you can relax and not worry about sysadmin: ideal for less tech-savvy users. It also provides server monitoring and nightly backups, and guarantees to never throttle traffic thanks to a 1Gbps network link available to all users, regardless of what bandwidth option they’ve selected.
We had a bone to pick on a couple of matters — SSL certificate installation could be clearer, and pricing could be less confusing — but excellent performance and plans more than make up for these issues.
Read our full Hostwinds review.
Namecheap focuses on providing affordable services without cutting corners on quality. It certainly succeeds, as you’ll see if you purchase one of its more advanced packages across WordPress, reseller hosting, VPS, and dedicated servers. The Site Maker website builder is also available for simpler sites, on separate monthly or annual plans.
Its cheapest shared hosting plan, at only $2.88 a month ($1.18 a month for the two-year plan), doesn’t get you much — only 20GB of storage and 30 email accounts. However, it's a real bargain, and it throws in free CDN support, one domain name, and coverage for three websites.
Increase your budget limit to $4.88 a month ($1.98 a month for the two-year plan) and you’ll get access to unrestricted SSD storage, unlimited websites, and auto-backups. At $8.88 a month ($4.80 a month for the two-year plan), you’ll receive 50GB SSD, cloud storage that guarantees zero interruptions, ultimate stability, and top-notch data protection.
As well as a 99.9% uptime guarantee and above-average speeds, Namecheap is beginner-friendly, and does its best to ease you in with helpful information in its welcoming email, alongside a huge online knowledge base.
Read our detailed Namecheap review.
Liquid Web does an excellent job of providing various expert managed hosting services for all types of users and requirements. These range from WordPress and email to WooCommerce, dedicated, VPS and cloud hosting, and its capabilities shine.
Take its WordPress solution as an example — you’re getting automated WordPress and plugin updates, applied first in an isolated environment to avoid any potential problems affecting you later, before being forwarded to your site.
Data centers run entirely on managed hardware and network infrastructure allow Liquid Web to provide a wide variety of powerful features. These include a professional-level virus and spam defense system, deep system monitoring, key software installation, updates, support, and free external migrations.
Via its WordPress plugins add-on option, Liquid Web also offers you the ability to create WordPress sites. Its incredibly expedient and professional customer support is the cherry on top, and while it doesn't come cheap, good things rarely do, this provider certainly justifying the cost.
Read our full Liquid Web review.
GreenGeeks is dedicated to eco-friendly hosting, proclaiming itself to be the "world’s #1 green energy web hosting provider". These aren’t just empty words: its 300% energy offset scheme means that for every amperage pulled from the grid, it invests three times that in renewable energy.
That said, its offering is bland at best, but shared hosting does stand out, while it also provides WordPress, VPS, and reseller hosting. Features include unlimited resources — web storage, bandwidth, databases, and email — Cloudflare CDN integration, the Softaculous app installer, shared SSL, LSCache, nightly backups, and a free domain for a year.
Prices aren’t hefty either, with the three-year deal on its Lite packages costing only $2.49 a month, after which it increases to $10.95 a month. This plan is the best for small sites and blogs that are just getting started, as it only covers one site.
If your needs are greater, you can pick one of two other options. Starting at $4.95 a month (increasing to $15.95 a month after the initial period), the Pro package will get you twice the performance. If you opt for Premium at $8.95 a month (which renews at $25.95 a month), you’ll get four times the power, a free dedicated IP, and a free premium SSL.
All packages are covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee, and it provides a user-friendly Weebly website builder via separate plans starting from $2.49 a month. There's also a phone line if you need direct contact with its customer support team.
Read our detailed GreenGeeks review, and find out more about Weebly in our section on website builders.
HostGator is one of the best web hosting services whose trump card has “budget” written all over it. Several plans are available for each and every pocket and project, with two — Hatchling and Baby — offering attractive features such as unmetered bandwidth and disk space, support for FTP and email accounts, MYSQL databases and subdomains.
You'll also enjoy the benefits of cPanel-based website management, and $150 of Google and Bing Ads credits. Hosting comes with guarantees relating to 99.9 percent uptime and a 45-day money-back period. HostGator also offers the Gator Builder as a separate subscription, a drag-and-drop editor packaged with a free domain name, unmetered storage and bandwidth, and free SSL certificate.
Other hosting offered includes WordPress, dedicated, VPS, and reseller packages. One main drawback HostGator is guilty of, like other budget providers, is that its cheapest plan covers only one site. Its security is not great either, especially compared to the competition. However, this is hardly a cause of alarm when the next plan up costs only a fraction more, and will hardly leave a dent in your budget.
Read our HostGator review, and our comparison pitting Bluehost vs HostGator.
Bluehost offers affordable yet effective shared hosting, with a variety of plans and options to suit most businesses. However, make sure to check pricing going forward, as it's not always clear how much you'll pay on renewal.
It offers managed and unmanaged WordPress, shared, dedicated, and VPS hosting. You can choose from a basic, Weebly-based website builder to get your site up and running with minimal fuss; a drag-and-drop WordPress website builder for an additional monthly rate; or something more complex via Mojo Marketplace.
We like that there are plenty of customer support options available, on the off-chance you need help or things go wrong. An inexpensive host that doesn’t skimp too much on features, Bluehost offers consistency despite having comparatively fewer features than many others.
It also has a range of potentially useful add-ons for search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising management, making it a solid choice for those willing to pay a little more for good support. Its performance does let it down on cheaper plans, however.
Read our full Bluehost web hosting review and our comparison of Bluehost vs GoDaddy.
Dreamhost offers the full gamut of hosting packages at competitive prices, ranging from shared to VPS, managed and unmanaged WordPress, dedicated, and cloud hosting.
For email hosting however, it's the top pick, and with some very reasonable rates. Monthly plans cost $1.99 per mailbox, while the annual subscription will set you back just $1.67 per mailbox. Plans come with 25GB of storage, email syncing between desktop and mobile, and handy webmail software, regardless of whether you've chosen a monthly or annual subscription.
To make sure all emails are not just spam-free, but also protected against malware and viruses, its smart anti-spam filter adapts to all new threats. If you're looking to keep everything in-house, a drag-and-drop WordPress website builder is also available from $2.59 a month.
Read our full DreamHost review.
InMotion Hosting is a web hosting veteran, and it's easy to see why, as it offers a long list of features, bundles and pricing plans for every user and budget. Starting with shared hosting, it also offers WordPress, VPS, and dedicated packages.
These come with access to a dedicated team of professionals, who offer high-level support at any time. What separates InMotion from the crowd is its propensity to offer bonus features at no extra charge, including protection from DDoS attacks and malware, email spam shield, and an option for the creation of functional backups.
Hosting is powered by cPanel and Softaculous platforms, which act as its seals of quality. All of this is easily checked within a 90-day guarantee period, more than enough time in which to make up your mind. However, its performance is poor on the cheaper packages, and not much improved on more expensive plans.
You can refer friends to earn a year of free hosting, while a website builder from BoldGrid is available if you want to build and host your site together.
Read our comprehensive InMotion Hosting review.
Domain.com is among the more cost-effective and reliable of the best web hosting providers, with shared hosting attracting the most attention. The Basic plan includes unlimited storage and plenty of bandwidth, albeit for only one site, starting at $3.75. There's also WordPress hosting available, also starting at as low as $3.75 a month.
Features include five FTP logins, ten databases, ecommerce solutions, and one Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate free of charge. At $6.75 a month, you can get your hands on the Deluxe option, which covers as many sites as you want, and extends the number of FTP logins and databases to 25 too.
The Ultra account removes all limitations, and is available at a monthly rate of $13.75. Unlike many competitors, Domain.com only offers one, two, and three-year packages. It doesn’t differ in pricing based on the monthly price equivalent, and offers its own website builder across three plans, ranging from personal to ecommerce.
Read our detailed Domain.com review.
The best website builders with web hosting
Wix is a popular website builder that prides itself on its simple, intuitive yet quality, content-rich editor. It has hundreds of meticulously designed templates, in addition to already predefined sites.
While its templates might be its most shining feature, they're hardly the only one. You also get a built-in image editor filled with various filters, and ecommerce templates. Along with the absence of transaction fees on sales, these make Wix an excellent solution for online stores and for small businesses.
Although specializing in website building, Wix offers attractive hosting plans too. Its free plan is limited in terms of storage space and bandwidth (up to 500MB each), and imposes branding on your site, but gives you a taste of what it can offer. When you’re ready for something more, you can invest in one of its paid plans.
These include Connect Domain at $4.50 a month, Combo at $8.50, or the most popular, Unlimited, at $12.50. The latter will get you unlimited bandwidth, 10GB of storage space, the Visitor Analytics app and Site Booster app (worth $60 each), and one free domain for a year. There's even a VIP option, as well as business and ecommerce premium plans for more demanding users.
Read our full Wix review; our comparisons pitting Wix vs Squarespace, Wix vs Shopify, WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace, and GoDaddy vs Wix; and our interview with Head Product Manager Michal Bignitz.
Just like other hosting providers share audiences, Weebly wants to attract the same users as Wix. It aims to be more intuitive, and its powerful drag-and-drop builder allows even the least experienced users to build a site.
More experienced users will approve of the vast template database, which turns site building into a Lego-like affair. Weebly is integrated into ecommerce giant Square's POS systems, so you can manage customers from a unified dashboard.
In future, a pivot to Square's own ecommerce store builder is in motion, which is seeing new customers already diverted towards it. However, existing customers will continue to be supported in terms of features and functionality.
When it comes to hosting, options start with the free version, with several restrictions its only “price tag”. You’ll be limited to 500MB of storage, and be unable to remove ads from your site. If it bothers you, look to the Professional plan, which offers a glimpse of a wide range of features which Weebly hands out freely.
These include support for building your own web store with functional coupons, customer reviews and inventory management, all the way through to organizing email marketing campaigns.
Read our Weebly review, our comparison of website builders pitting Wix vs Squarespace vs Weebly, and our interview with Square Online's ecommerce product lead Katie Miller.
Web hosting FAQs
What is web hosting?
Web hosting allows you to lease online server space where your site's content is hosted (images, videos, or text). When visited by a user, all of these resources are loaded onto their device from your host's server.
What are the different types of web hosting?
How to choose the best web hosting
Which web hosting is better? Paid or free?
How we review the best web hosting services
Learn more about web hosting
Find out more about our top picks for different areas of hosting in our guides covering the best anonymous hosting, the best European web hosting, and the best Minecraft server hosting. We also compared dedicated servers vs VPS, to help guide you towards the best option for your business.