Best Web Hosting Services for 2024
We compared popular web hosting services like A2 Hosting, HostGator and many others to help you find the best service to fit your needs now and in the future.
Our Experts
- Apple software beta tester, "Helps make our computers and phones work!" - Zach's grandparents
- National Silver Azbee Award for Impact/Investigative Journalism; National Gold Azbee Award for Online Single Topic Coverage by a Team; National Bronze Azbee Award for Web Feature Series
Our Picks
Choosing a web hosting service provider for your website is one of the most important decisions you can make for your business. Not only will it determine how well your site can handle traffic and run without crashing, but it also keeps all your data and files safe. The right server will have protections in place for you, provide the customer service you need in a moment, and keep you up and running as smoothly as possible.
Comparing web hosting services and plans can be confusing, and that can make choosing the right hosting service for you more difficult. Pricing can be especially puzzling, due to introductory rates and monthly versus annual pricing. We looked over the data for 22 popular web hosting services to make things a little easier on you. You can read more about our criteria for the best web hosting services, including how we assess security and customer support, and you can check out important web hosting terms to know.
Web host comparison
| Best for... | Monthly shared plan pricing | Security features | Uptime guarantee | Customer support | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ionos | Security features | $4 | Great | 99.9% | Great |
| GreenGeeks | Clean-energy web hosting | $3 | Good | 99.9% | Good |
| A2 Hosting | Customer service | $3 | Great | 99.9% | Great |
| InMotion Hosting | First-time website owners | $3 | Great | 99.99% | Great |
| HostGator | Data-heavy sites | $3.75 | Good | 99.9% | Great |
| AccuWeb Hosting | Global customers | $4 | Good | 99.9% | Good |
Best web hosting services of 2024
Ionos offers shared, virtual private server or VPS, dedicated and managed and unmanaged WordPress hosting. The company also differentiates between hosting plans meant for smaller and larger organizations to help customers better understand what plan is best for them.
Ionos plans include secure socket layer -- SSL -- certification, malware scans and distributed denial of service -- DDoS -- protections. Ionos also offers daily backups on all plans and storing a copy of your data in a separate data center so you always have access to it, even if one data center is brought down by a cyberattack.
Support is available at any time, either by phone or chat. A directory also provides customer support numbers for customers in 14 different countries.
Pricing
Ionos' prices start lower than most other web hosting services for similar services, but you must sign up for a three-year plan to access the best discounts. The price increases on renewal -- significantly so for some plans -- but most plans are still more affordable than their counterparts at other popular web hosts.
- Shared hosting starts at $4 a month.
- WordPress hosting starts at $4 a month.
- VPS hosting starts at $2 a month.
- Dedicated server hosting starts at $32 a month.
Climate-conscious web hosting
GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks offers shared, VPS, dedicated, WordPress and reseller hosting plans. Each plan offers tiered options that let you scale up as your site's needs grow. Some plans are managed but at a higher cost. Each plan also includes a website builder so you don't have to build your site from scratch.
Each plan includes a slew of security features like SSL certificates, DDoS protection, daily backups, malware cleanups and more to help protect your site.
GreenGeeks says it checks its servers every 10 seconds for any issues, while other services might check every 30 seconds, every minute or longer. For more direct customer support, GreenGeeks offers 24/7 chat support. You can also email GreenGeeks support, and the company says you can expect a resolution in about 15 to 20 minutes. GreenGeeks phone support is active every day, but only from 9 a.m. to midnight ET.
The other thing that stands out about GreenGeeks is its commitment to the environment: for every hosting account, GreenGeeks plants a tree, and GreenGeeks also creates three times the amount of energy used through wind power credits.
Pricing
GreenGeeks' pricing is average compared to other web hosting services. Most of the lowest prices from GreenGeeks require a three-year contract paid in full upfront. Other contracts are available at an increased price per month, but must also be paid in full upfront.
- Shared hosting starts at $3 per month.
- WordPress hosting starts at $3 per month.
- VPS hosting starts at $40 per month.
- Dedicated server hosting starts at $169 per month.
- Reseller hosting starts at $20 per month.
Excellent tools for first-time site builders
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting offers shared, VPS, dedicated, WordPress, reseller and cloud hosting, including tiered options within each plan. Shared hosting, for example, offers plans labeled Startup, Drive, Turbo Boost and Turbo Max. These additional plans give customers more options to choose from to better fit their needs and allow customers to scale their operations as needed.
Most A2 Hosting plans include numerous security features, including SSL certificate, dual firewalls, virus scanner, DDoS protection and brute force defense. Most plans also include automated backups, though this isn't available on the lowest-tier plan.
Our A2 Hosting review showed that A2 Hosting also has great tools for beginners, including a guided WordPress setup process and site assistant. Server performance was also good, with 100% uptime during our week of testing and good overall site speed. Customer support can be slow when contacted via support ticket or phone.
Pricing
A2 Hosting pricing is about average at first glance, but renewal pricing is relatively high when compared to other popular web hosts. When you factor in all of the security features and additional features like the site assistant and unlimited email hosting, A2 Hosting is worth the price.
- Shared hosting starts at $3 a month.
- WordPress hosting starts at $10 a month.
- Unmanaged VPS hosting starts at $3 a month.
- Managed VPS hosting starts at $27 a month.
- Dedicated server hosting starts at $200 a month.
- Reseller hosting starts at $16 a month.
Above-average uptime guarantee
InMotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting offers shared, VPS, dedicated, WordPress and reseller hosting with different tiered options for each type of hosting. InMotion Hosting also offers managed hosting services. These services can be purchased for one hour for $90, or you can purchase these services for three months, six months or a year with prices starting at $48 a month.
Each plan comes with free SSL certificates, DDoS protections, and hack and malware protections. Automatic daily backups are also available, but these are an additional $2.50 a month.
InMotion Hosting offers 99.99% uptime, meaning customers should expect less than an hour of downtime per year, compared to nine hours a year with the standard 99.9% guarantee offered by other hosts.
Customers can contact a customer support representative at any time via chat or email. Phone support is only available on Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET.
Pricing
As with other web hosting services, the listed price is only applicable before the renewal cost. However, you can only get introductory pricing for shared hosting on a one-year plan. On the one hand, this means you don't need to sign up for three years right away. On the other hand, you can't lock yourself into the discounted prices for more than one year. Conversely, VPS hosting and some other hosting types only offer introductory prices with a three-year plan, so pay close attention to the fine print of any plan you're considering.
- Shared hosting starts at $3 a month.
- WordPress hosting starts at $3.50 a month.
- VPS hosting starts at $10 a month for a three-year plan.
- Dedicated hosting starts at $35 a month.
- Reseller hosting starts at $17 a month for one month before reverting to the regular price of $36 a month.
- Managed hosting assistance starts at $48 a month for one hour per month.
Good for simple websites
HostGator
HostGator offers shared, VPS, dedicated, WordPress, eCommerce and reseller hosting plans with tiered options.
Most of HostGator's plans include free SSL certificates and a firewall with DDoS protections. Some plans come with automated backups, but HostGator writes that anyone with "critical business information or important data are STRONGLY encouraged to seek a third-party backup service…" (emphasis theirs). Undermining your own backup system is an odd choice.
In theory, customer support from HostGator is available via chat, email or phone 24/7. Some plans limit the types of customer service you can access and we experienced inconsistent service across support channels during our HostGator review.
Otherwise, we found HostGator satisfactory for simple sites, with good site setup tools and decent server performance.
Price
HostGator offers decent starting prices, but you'll have to sign up for a three-year plan to get the best deal on most hosting types. You also can't see the renewal pricing without going through the checkout process.
- Shared hosting starts at $3.75 per month.
- WordPress hosting starts at $4.50 per month.
- VPS hosting starts at $37 per month.
- Dedicated hosting starts at $92 per month.
- Reseller hosting starts at $37 per month.
- eCommerce hosting starts at $10 per month.
Worldwide data centers
AccuWeb Hosting
AccuWeb Hosting offers shared, VPS, dedicated, WordPress, app, reseller and cloud hosting options. Customers can also choose which of AccuWeb Hosting's global data centers will host their data. This means if you anticipate that most of your traffic will come from outside the US, you can choose to have your data in a different data center so your site loads quicker for non-US visitors.
AccuWeb Hosting offers free SSL certificates with each plan, free antivirus tools and free daily backups, which are an upgrade over the more standard weekly backups. AccuWeb servers are also LiteSpeed enhanced for improved speed and performance.
Customers can chat and file tickets with customer service 24/7, but phone services are limited. Right now, phone service is available from Monday to Saturday, but there's no phone service on Sunday.
Pricing
Some AccuWeb Hosting plans, like shared plans, are a little higher than other services, while midlevel plans, like VPS plans, are cheaper than other services. Introductory prices for most hosting types are only available with a three-year term, but the price increases on renewal are reasonable when compared to other popular hosts.
- Shared hosting starts at $4 a month.
- WordPress hosting starts at $2.75 a month.
- VPS plans start at $6 a month.
- VPS cloud hosting starts at $6.50 a month.
- Dedicated hosting starts at $123 a month.
- Reseller hosting starts at $12 a month.
Factors to consider when choosing a web hosting service
Finding the right web-hosting service can help you launch a blog or a website for your small business.
Hosting types
Look for at least shared, VPS (virtual private server) and dedicated hosting options. You might start with basic shared hosting, but as your site grows you might have to scale up to VPS or dedicated hosting, both of which cost more but also offer more features, like more storage and security options. Other hosting types like WordPress and Reseller are good options too, but not necessary.
Security
It's important to secure your site so you don't compromise the personal information of your site's visitors or yourself. At the bare minimum, your web host should provide SSL certification and a firewall. Many of the best web hosts also provide brute force and DDoS protection, malware scanning/repair and automated backups.
Uptime
Uptime is the amount of time your site spends online. The industry standard site uptime is 99.9%, which means your site won't go down for more than nine hours per year. Some hosts provide uptime guarantees as high as 99.99%, which means your site won't go down for more than 56 minutes per year. Note that this guarantee only refers to server performance; your site may still go down due to other reasons, such as being hacked or a botched WordPress update.
Customer service
You could run into an issue with your site at any time, so choosing a web hosting service that can give you 24/7 customer service is vital. Email support is good, chat support is better and phone support is best. Addressing any issues or outages as quickly as possible ensures your site is reachable and your visitors have a good experience.
Pricing
Web hosting pricing can be confusing. For example, a service might list its lowest shared hosting price as $5 a month. That price is a promotional rate and comes attached to a one-year contract. At the end of the contract, the price reverts to its regular price of $10 a month, double what you were paying. With that in mind, shared hosting can cost anywhere between $2 and $23 per month, VPS can cost between $2-$110 a month and dedicated hosting can cost between $47-$540 a month on average.
How we test the best web hosting services
Choosing the right web hosting service for you can be an intimidating task. That's why we've carefully combed through these hosts' websites, plus reviews of these hosts, to determine their offerings and the quality of their services.
We are also in the process of testing and reviewing web hosting companies with our new framework for testing web hosts. This involves researching plan options and testing site setup, speed, uptime and customer service. Notes from these tests are being added to the appropriate listings as new reviews are published.
Other web hosts to consider
Data centers are filled with servers that can house hundreds of websites.
The following services aren't as robust as our top picks, but they're still reasonable offerings. Some specialize in one type of hosting, like WordPress hosting, so they're not ideal for hosting a non-WordPress site or accommodating its long-term growth. Others have extremely high renewal costs or lack certain types of customer service. Pay close attention to the details when choosing one of these hosts.
Namecheap
NameCheap offers some of the cheapest pricing plans. Month-to-month plans in particular are less expensive compared with monthly plans from other services. Some other services might offer monthly shared hosting plans for $20, but all NameCheap monthly shared hosting plans cost less than $10. NameCheap also offers VPS, dedicated, WordPress and reseller hosting plans. NameCheap has a 99.9% uptime guarantee for VPS and reseller plans, as well as a 100% uptime guarantee for most shared, VPS and dedicated plans.
Each Namecheap plan comes with a free virus scanner, two-factor authentication and DDoS protection to help secure your data and your visitors' data. SSL certificates are free for one year. After that year, you can buy SSL certificates through NameCheap for $6 per year with a five-year contract.
NameCheap offers 24/7 email and chat support but no phone support.
NameCheap plans start at $2 per month.
Hostinger
Hostinger offers competitive prices, with shared and WordPress plans starting at $3 a month, VPS plans starting at $5 a month and cloud hosting plans starting at $10 a month. Hostinger also offers a website builder with AI site generation tools; all you need to do is enter some basic information about your website, choose a color scheme and let Hostinger build your site.
Plans include SSL certificates, and all servers have advanced security modules to protect your data. All plans offer weekly backups, while higher-tier plans offer daily backups. Hostinger has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, but customer support is limited. Live chat is available 24/7, as is email, but Hostinger doesn't offer phone support.
Hostinger plans start at $3 a month.
SiteGround
SiteGround is known for its WordPress-optimized hosting plans and award-winning customer service available 24/7 via phone, live chat and email. Plans include security features like SSL certificates, spam protection and a web access firewall to help protect your site. The company also has a 100% renewable energy match.
SiteGround plans start at $3 a month, but it's worth noting that prices increase significantly on renewal. The most basic plan rises from $3 a month to $18 a month and the increases for higher-tier plans are even more extreme.
GoDaddy
GoDaddy offers shared, VPS, dedicated and WordPress hosting plans, a 99.9% uptime guarantee and 24/7 customer support by phone or chat. GoDaddy is also the only web host on this list you can contact via text, and we found customer service highly responsive during our GoDaddy review. GoDaddy also had impressive server performance.
The big drawback of GoDaddy is that some security features are inconsistent. For example, SSL certificates are included with all shared hosting plans, but with the lower-tiered shared plan, you have to purchase an SSL certificate after one year no matter how long your hosting contract is. SSL certificates are also a paid option in lower-tiered VPS and dedicated hosting plans, but they're included in the higher-tiered options.
GoDaddy Web Hosting plans start at $6 a month.
HostPapa
HostPapa has global data centers, so you can choose the best data center to reach your visitors the quickest. Hosting options include shared, VPS, managed and unmanaged WordPress hosting, reseller hosting and PapaCare, which is similar to managed shared hosting.
HostPapa has free SSL certificates, DDoS protection and other security features included in each plan, a 99.9% uptime guarantee and 24/7 phone, chat and email support. The lack of a dedicated hosting option means that if your site grows too large, you'll have to migrate to another service. In addition, renewal pricing isn't listed on plan pages and can be quite expensive. Moreover, some features, like automated backups and a security tool, are automatically added for an additional charge during check-out. These features are included in higher-tier plans, but not in all plans.
HostPapa plans start at $3 per month.
Hostwinds
Hostwinds offers unlimited storage and bandwidth, as well as unlimited free business email accounts with each plan. It offers shared, managed and unmanaged VPS, dedicated, reseller and cloud hosting plans, as well as a business-centered shared hosting plan it calls business hosting.
Hostwinds has a 99.9999% uptime guarantee, which is above average, and it offers 24/7 support via live chat, email and support ticket; there are no hours listed for the support phone number. Hostwinds plans also come with free SSL certificates and free nightly backups.
In comparison with other services, Hostwinds isn't as forthcoming with information on other features or plan differences. Usually, services show detailed charts that lay out what features come with plans. Hostwinds' shared chart, for example, lists only bandwidth, disk space and how many domains come with each plan.
Hostwinds plans start at $5.24 a month.
Bluehost
Bluehost specializes in WordPress hosting and many of its plans include custom themes and other WordPress tools. It offers shared, VPS, dedicated hosting, managed and unmanaged WordPress hosting, as well as an option called Online Store that includes additional e-commerce tools with each plan. All plans include two-factor authentication and anti-spam protection. You'll also get an SSL certificate, but it's only free for the first year on the lowest-tier plan; after that, you'll be paying $90 a year.
Bluehost customers can call or chat with a customer support representative 24/7.
Bluehost doesn't offer an uptime guarantee but instead says it resolves issues within 15 minutes of them being reported. It doesn't say how many issues you should expect on average. If your site is down for about 15 minutes a week, your site could be down for about 13 hours a year, which is higher than standard.
Bluehost plans start at $3 per month.
Glowhost
Glowhost offers shared, cloud VPS, dedicated, semi-dedicated, reseller and what Glowhost calls elastic site hosting, which it compares to a managed VPS plan.
Security features include free SSL certificates and McAfee Secure, which is included for free, and customer support is available by phone or chat 24/7. Glowhost also promises 100% network uptime and 99.95% overall uptime. If it doesn't live up to those expectations, you can take advantage of the 91-day money-back guarantee.
Glowhost plans start at $3.50 per month.
Mocahost
Mochahost offers shared, VPS, dedicated cloud, WordPress and reseller plans and 24/7 live chat support. Phone support and ticket creation are also available.
Free SSL certificates are included in each plan as well, but other security features, like spam and malware filters, come at an additional cost or with more expensive plans.
Mochahost plans start at $3.18 per month, and the renewal prices are affordable too, with the lowest-tier plan renewing at $6.35 a month.
Liquid Web
Liquid Web: No shared hosting. Security features include an integrated firewall and standard DDoS protections. Offers 100% uptime and 24/7 chat or phone support plus you can create tickets. Prices start at $5 a month for Cloud VPS hosting.
Web Hosting Hub
Web Hosting Hub: Offers shared and WordPress hosting. Has free SSL certificates but other security features cost extra. Offers 99.9% uptime and has 24/7 chat and phone support as well as ticket submission. Prices start at $6 a month.
WP Engine
WP Engine: Offers WordPress hosting. Security features like free SSL certificates and daily backups. Only custom-managed WordPress plans have an uptime guarantee, and the company offers 24/7 chat support, phone support is offered at higher plan levels. Prices start at $20 a month.
Kinsta
Kinsta: Offers WordPress, web app, managed database and static site hosting. Security features like free SSL certificates and automatic backups. Has a 99.9% uptime and 24/7 chat support. Prices start at $30 a month for WordPress hosting.
Pantheon
Pantheon: Offers WordPress hosting. Security features include DDoS protection and automated backups. Offers 99.9% uptime and customer support is available 24/7 via chat, phone or even Slack. They require you to sign up for both a Workspace and a Site plan; there's a free Workspace plan and prices start at $42 a month for the Site plans.
Web Hosting FAQs
What is web hosting?
Web hosting is the act of storing a website's data on a server or series of servers. Imagine a website as a work of art. That art needs to be housed somewhere for people to see, and web hosting is like a gallery where your art can be stored for others to view.
What are the basic types of web hosting?
There are three common types of web hosting: shared, virtual private server and dedicated hosting.
Shared hosting is typically the most basic, and the least expensive, type of hosting. Continuing the art example, shared hosting is like a small gallery presented in a coffee shop. Yes, the art you created is there, but so is art by other people. Shared hosting is similar. You're usually charged a few bucks a month to house your site, but you don't get a lot of resources to help you take care of your site. These plans usually cost between $2 and $20 a month.
VPS hosting is a step up from shared hosting and is a little bit more expensive. Here, your art is stored in a gallery downtown. Other art is still stored and displayed alongside yours, but unlike shared hosting, each artist has their own booth within the gallery. With VPS hosting, you get more resources which allows you to handle more traffic and display more items. These plans usually cost between $2 and $110 a month.
Dedicated hosting is when you house your site on a whole server without anyone else. This is like having the entire art gallery to yourself. Everything there is your art and you get dedicated people to help take care of your art. These plans are the most expensive, but you get the most resources. Dedicated hosting plans usually cost between $47 and $540 a month.
Check out our guide about types of web hosting for more details.
What are some other types of hosting?
Some other types of hosting include reseller, cloud and WordPress hosting.
Reseller hosting involves subscribing to a web hosting service and selling that space to a person who wants to put a website online. Back to the art example: Imagine you don't own any art, but you see a bunch of people who want to display their art. You have some money so you buy a space in a building for artists to display their work and charge them for using that space. That's reseller hosting. You buy space on a server, not to use, but to resell to people in order to make money.
Cloud hosting is like having copies of your art featured online, instead of just physical locations. That way, even if one gallery is closed your art is still viewable somewhere else. Cloud hosting is similar in that your data is stored in a network of servers so if anything happens to one server, visitors can still view your site like usual. These are generally used by larger businesses and organizations.
WordPress hosting is optimized to use WordPress as a content management system. WordPress is a popular system used by many organizations, offering over 54,000 plugins to help build your site. This system is designed to be easy to learn, which means WordPress is a good choice for people who are hosting their first site.
For gamers, there is also Minecraft hosting. Minecraft continues to be one of the most popular games, and hosting a dedicated Minecraft server can ensure you and your friends have your own place in the game to enjoy.
What security features should I look for in a hosting service?
Some of the key security features you should be on the lookout for are secure socket layer certificates, distributed denial of service protections and web application firewalls.
SSL certificates are a form of cryptographic protocol that encrypts and authenticates data between servers, machines and applications operating within a network. These are like a coded language between the server your site is hosted on and the computer of a visitor. Only your server and your visitor's computer have the keys to the coded language, ensuring no one intercepts any of your or your visitor's data.
A DDoS attack is a flood of traffic to your site that overwhelms and shuts down your site, and potentially the sites of others depending on your hosting plan. Imagine you hang your art up in a coffee shop, for example, and someone doesn't like your art, so they convince hundreds of thousands of protesters to swarm the shop to stop anyone from seeing your art. Not only can most people not see your art because of the crowd, but people can't see other artist's work either. Having DDoS protections in place helps monitor your site's traffic for anything suspicious, and stops DDoS attacks from happening before they cause significant damage.
A WAF is a layer of security on your site that filters, monitors and blocks malicious traffic from accessing your site. You have hung your art up, and to protect your art and anyone who's come to see it, the gallery has hired a bouncer to pat down people as they walk in to see your art. The bouncer is the WAF. If traffic looks suspicious, the WAF blocks it.
What web hosting is best for beginners?
A2 Hosting's shared hosting is the best web hosting for beginners thanks to its guided WordPress setup process and site assistant. A2 Hosting also offers good server performance and excellent live chat support, though phone and email support can be slow.