Trying to choose the best hosting company could be described as an unpleasant experience at best.
There are TONS of hosting companies, and new ones popping up all the time.
Just when you think you know which hosting provider is the best, another recommendation, review or article suggests you’re wrong and offers yet ANOTHER hosting company as the “best”.
Well, the truth is, it all comes down to matching your needs with the hosting provider who can best meet them.
While companies like Siteground and Dreamhost have proven themselves over and over again to be two of the best on the market, it’s tough to say they’re the best for all situations.
For example, if you’re a complete beginner, you might just want low-cost hosting that you can pay monthly. Then again, maybe you started out with lower-cost “starter” hosting, and now you’re looking to move to a more reliable and feature-filled hosting package.
Circumstances aside, here are 8 of the best hosting companies out there today, and the main features you may want to compare when shopping around for the best hosting provider.
Note: The response times referenced below come from WPSiteCare, who measured hosting speed for WordPress websites. Your experience may be different, but their test is a good gauge of overall speed of each hosting provider. The uptime percentages - except for Godaddy - can be seen at Hostingfacts.com.
Godaddy is a very popular hosting company for new businesses, startups, and solopreneurs. They tend to be a better fit for smaller websites with relatively low website traffic.
They offer flexible quarterly plans, their prices are affordable, and they’re known for their ease of use. They have a (mostly) easy-to-use interface, although they still make it tough to find certain items.
One great thing that stands out about Godaddy is they pride themselves on their customer service, and it shows. I’ve heard a handful of negative comments about Godaddy’s customer service, but they’re few and far between. Overall, Godaddy stands by their product and is available 24/7 for telephone support.
It’s worth the money spent just to know you can speak with a real (helpful) human being when you’re in the middle of a website crisis - especially if you don’t have developers on-hand for when something goes wrong.
Aside from the support, Godaddy also boasts impressive uptime percentages and their speed isn’t too shabby either.
Here are a few of the main points to know about Godaddy hosting:
Decent speed: 4.1 minutes max response time
Good uptime: 99.95% (source)
Good pricing: Starting at $3.99/month for 36 months, $7.99/month for 3 months (check Dealspotr to save money on Godaddy)
Good bandwidth at that price: Unlimited
Websites included at that price: 1
Flexible plans: Quarterly, annual
Siteground is one of the best hosting providers on this list in my opinion. If you’re researching hosting providers, it won’t take you long to realize Siteground is typically at the top of everyone’s list - especially for WordPress websites.
There’s a reason Siteground has such a great reputation. They offer fast load times, reliable uptime percentages, wonderful customer support, and they’re one of WordPress.org’s recommended hosting providers.
Siteground also allows you to choose your data center location, which is a unique advertised feature among hosting companies.
Another unique feature to Siteground is the fact that, while they only offer annual plans, they do give you the option to do a one-month paid “trial”. Basically, you pay them for a month of hosting, then after your trial month is up, you’ll have to either renew for at least one year or you can cancel your account. I’ve seen them offer a quarterly plan after the one-month trial, but I’m not sure if that’s something they offer everyone after their first month.
A few points to know about Siteground hosting:
Good speed: 1.79 seconds max response time
Good uptime: 99.96%
Affordable pricing: Starting at $3.95/month for 12 months, $18.90 for one-month trial (check Dealspotr to save money on Siteground)
Limited storage at that price: 10GB
Websites at that price: 1
Flexible plans: One-month trial (paid) or annual
If you’ve read any blog posts recently about finding the best hosting companies, you probably already have it in your mind that Bluehost is a top choice for hosting.
They have affordable prices, nice security features like anti-spam tools, 24/7 telephone support, a user-friendly interface so you don’t get lost trying to find things, and they’re one of WordPress.org’s recommended hosting providers.
While Bluehost is definitely a reputable hosting company, their lucrative affiliate program leads to many bloggers recommending Bluehost without any real experience dealing with their hosting service. Hey, bloggers want to make money, so when faced with recommending one hosting company out of many good ones, they’re going to recommend the one offering the most money.
One thing you’ll notice in the points below about Bluehost is their slow speed. While I trust the speed test performed by WPSiteCare, keep in mind that’s a max response time. To be completely fair, other Bluehost reviews have given them better speed ratings.
Having said that, although their max response time may drag a bit with multiple users in speed tests, they still have a good uptime percentage in addition to the pros we just covered.
One hurdle beginners may encounter with Bluehost is they only offer annual plans. While this may not be a big deal to some, it causes friction for those of us who like to try a product before committing to a year with it.
Here are the highlights for Bluehost:
Not necessarily blazing fast when under a load: 10.64 seconds max response time
Good Uptime: 99.94%
Good starter pricing: $2.95/month for 36 months, $4.45/month for 12 months (check Dealspotr to save money on Bluehost)
Decent storage at that price: 50 GB
Great bandwidth at that price: Unlimited
Websites at that price: 1
Not-so-flexible pricing plans: Annual
Hostgator is another one of those hosting providers you’ve probably heard a ton about. They’ve become popular among beginners because they’re easy to use, relatively inexpensive, and their shared hosting offers flexible month-to-month payment plans, unlimited storage, and unlimited bandwidth.
They also offer features like quick WordPress install that make it easy to get started (although most other hosting providers have the same quick WordPress setup capabilities).
In addition to those things, Hostgator has 24/7 telephone support, a 45-day money back guarantee, managed WordPress hosting, and Linux- or Windows-based shared hosting.
In a market where most other hosting companies stick strictly to annual plans, Hostgator’s monthly option is a big plus. Their customer service might not exactly blow you out of the water, but for the price and flexibility, it’s par for the course.
I would say Hostgator might be worth trying for a month if you’re just getting started on the web and not ready to commit to an annual plan with one of the other hosting providers like Siteground.
Here are a few points to know about Hostgator:
Okay speed: 10.16 seconds max response time
Decent uptime: 99.82%
Decent pricing: Starting at $10.95 monthly, $4.95/month for 12 months (check Dealspotr to save money on Hostgator)
Storage at that price: Unlimited
Bandwidth at that price: Unlimited
Websites at that price: 1
Plans: Monthly, 3 months, 6 months, annual
Inmotion has a reputation for being fast and having high uptime percentages. As you can see from the test WPSiteCare performed, their max response time was under one second (seen in the bullets below). Keep in mind that response time is under a load with multiple users on the site, so that’s pretty impressive.
They also have a great 90-day money back guarantee on their Business, VPS, and Reseller Hosting packages that are on 6 month and longer term plans.
Unlike most of their competition, you get 2 websites with their most basic package (plus you get unlimited storage). They only offer annual plans though, so if you’re scared of commitment they might not be the one for you.
Also unlike some of their competition, Inmotion offers (semi-managed) WordPress hosting without typical limiting the number of websites, disk space, and monthly data transfers.
Taking into account their quick response time, great uptime percentage, and generous money back guarantee, Inmotion shapes up to be one of the top hosting options on the list.
Great speed: 836.78ms max response time
Great uptime: 99.96%
Very reasonable pricing: Starting at $5.99/month for 24 months, $6.99/month for 12 months (check Dealspotr to save money on Inmotion)
Great storage at that price: Unlimited
Websites at that price: 2
Semi-flexible plans: Annual (Unless you choose a Pro plan, then you can get monthly and 6-month options)
Dreamhost is unique in that they don’t have typical tiered packages like you’d see with other hosting companies. They offer different payment plans, but all of their hosting packages get the same number of websites and bandwidth.
They even provide a 100% uptime guarantee (and you can see their average uptime isn’t much shy of 100%) as well as a 97-day money back guarantee, so it’s hard to say they don’t stand behind their product.
I’ve heard some say Dreamhost doesn’t have the most helpful support for beginners, but that may not be an issue if you know your way around hosting and websites.
Even still, Dreamhost offers malware removal tools, free SSL, free domain privacy (which you have to pay extra for with most other companies), managed WordPress hosting, affordable cloud storage plans, and more.
To top it off, Dreamhost offers monthly plans, and they were PC Magazine’s overall Editors' Choice for Web hosting services, so it’s safe to say they’re definitely one of the top hosting companies on the list.
A few points on Dreamhost:
Good speed: 3.74 seconds max response time
Great uptime: 99.98%
Decent pricing: $10.95/month if paid monthly, $9.95/month if paid annually (check Dealspotr to save money on Dreamhost)
Great bandwidth at that price: Unlimited
Websites at that price: Unlimited
Flexible plans: Monthly, annual
Hostpapa is another decent option for beginners looking for basic hosting. They offer unlimited bandwidth and monthly data transfers, and they offer a money-back guarantee.
However, Hostpapa doesn’t offer dedicated WordPress hosting and isn’t exactly known for their great customer service.
One thing that confuses me about Hostpapa is the fact that they offer 3 packages (Starter, Business, and Business Pro), but Starter and Business seem to cost the exact same.
What’s weird is that although Starter and Business cost the same, the Business package gets unlimited websites, email accounts, storage, and bandwidth. The Business package also claims to have more “Accelerated Performance” than the Starter package. I’m sure there’s a catch somewhere, but I wasn’t able to spot it during my checkout experience. So hey, go for the Business package.
With all of that in mind, feel free to give them a shot, but I would probably look elsewhere personally.
Here are Hostpapa the highlights:
Good uptime: 99.95%
Low pricing: Starting at $3.95/month for 36 months, $5.95/month for 12 months (check Dealspotr to save money on Hostpapa)
Websites included at that price: 2
Decent storage at that price: 100 GB
Great bandwidth at that price: Unlimited
Not-so-flexible plans: Annual
Decent business package: Unlimited websites, email accounts, storage, and bandwidth (possibly at the same price)
Hosting24 has a lower uptime percentage than some of the other hosting companies on this list, and they’ve been known to be a bit slower than average (one article puts them at 82% slower than their competition).
Considering that speed and uptime are two of the most important things to look at when it comes to picking a hosting provider, those two things don’t fare well for Hosting24.
That said, they do offer a monthly plan, and it’s one of the lowest-priced monthly plans on our list. They also offer unlimited storage and bandwidth at a relatively low price, so if you’re just starting out and want to get hosting quickly, Hosting24 might be worth a look.
Here are a few things to know about Hosting24:
Okay uptime: 99.78%
Great pricing: Starts at $5.99/month if paid monthly, $3.99/month if paid annually (check Dealspotr to save money on Hosting24)
Great storage at that price: Unlimited
Great bandwidth at that price: Unlimited
Flexible plans: Monthly, 3 months, 6 months, annual
In case you haven’t already figured it out, picking a hosting provider can be a nightmare from a decision standpoint. With so many companies offering so many options, pricing, and packages, it’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed by the process. Throw in the fact that most hosting companies now either only offer annual plans or pressure you to go with an annual plan, and you’ve got yourself a tough decision to make.
The single best piece of advice I can offer is: don’t get overwhelmed. If you’re just starting out, you really can’t go wrong with any of the hosting providers listed above. Sure, some are without a doubt better than others, but choosing a hosting provider is really all about finding a company that offers something that meets your needs.
If you’re just starting out, I would encourage you to try a hosting provider with a monthly payment option. With so many options, if you’re like me, it’s going to be really tough to get enough information to justify pulling the trigger on a 3 year (or even 1 year) commitment.
With that in mind, start out with something simple like Siteground’s one-month trial, Godaddy’s 3-month plan, a monthly plan with Dreamhost, or a monthly plan with a company like Hostgator or Hosting24.
However, if you’re making the switch from a monthly “starter” hosting provider like Godaddy or Hostgator, I would recommend trying Siteground’s one-month paid trial. Then if you’re not 100% satisfied, try either Dreamhost, Inmotion, or Bluehost (my personal preferences).
Mike is a husband and father of 2 who studies the art of never paying full price for anything.
