
Best Web Hosting Providers of 2023
The best web hosting providers for most people is definitely the most famous one.
But is it always like that?
Let’s quickly understand different types of web hosting, before we jump into our Best Web Hosting Providers list.
What are the different types of hosting?
Web hosting services come in different shapes and sizes.
- Shared Web Hosting – Multiple websites will be on one server, yours will be one among them.
- Reseller Web Hosting – A buyer buys a space, chop it up, and rents it to many sites with some perks.
- Cloud-Based Web Hosting – Hundreds of servers work jointly, so your site is never down due to a surge in traffics.
- Dedicated Web Server – You get a physical server on rent.
- Virtual Private Server (VPS) – One physical server is partitioned into many independent virtual servers and you get one such virtual space.
- Colocation Web Hosting – You place your own server in a rented data center.
- Self Service Web Hosting – All yours, server, space, maintenance responsibility; everything
- Managed WordPress Hosting – Hosting provider will have to keep your WordPress installation up-to-date and protect your site.
All these different types of hosting are designed for “specific requirements“.
Remember, Hosting could be a make/ break factor for your website.
The selection of a web host that suits your need depends on multiple factors. These factors are:
- Type of website
- Expected traffic
- Your budget
So which hosting should you select?
Let’s check your requirement:
- For low traffic websites and beginners, the most cost-effective option is Shared Hosting.
- For non-technical users and who do not want much fuss, get a Managed Hosting.
- Once you outgrow your shared hosting, opt VPS Hosting.
- If your site is rapidly growing, go for Cloud Hosting.
- If you need to be “in control” and can afford it, opt for Dedicated Hosting.
Beginners can opt for Shared Hosting or a managed hosting.
So, before we move ahead, let’s hope, Based on the type of website you plan to build, you have a fair good idea of which type of hosting plan you need.
If you are still not clear about it, go back and read the requirement list again.
Our next challenge is to find the best web hosting service provider.
To pick up the right web host, we benchmarked these hosting providers performance against the following criteria to calculate our ratings:
- Loading Time: (Speed) – the time taken to load a site.
- Uptime: (Reliability)- the amount of time it was up and functioning.
- Downtime – the amount of time a website wasn’t accessible.
Other Factors:
- Security: Free SSL, Vulnerability Tests
- Support: support availability
- Domain: Free Domain, Number of domains
- Migration: how easy to migrate existing sites?
- Website Builder: provides free site builder?
- 1-click script installation availability?
- Technical Specs: Datacenters locations, Backup, Bandwidth, RAM, email accounts, number of sites, control panel, etc.
Need not to get overwhelmed by all these options and criteria. This is for your information only.
We did all the testing and hosting comparison. We tested more than 28 top hosting providers.
How we did our testing?
Except for a few, we already had hosting from almost all the well-known companies in our possession.
For those in which we didnt had our own hostings, we used sites hosted on those hosting for testing purpose.
We brought in some demo content with a heavy load.
To test and compare these hosting, We uploaded almost the same content and load on each platform.
Going by Google’s conclusion that the attention span of people is less than 3 seconds, we went for the speed test.
So, for us, “SPEED” is the first and foremost thing that matters in hosting.
To test the speed of each site, we brought in “SolarWinds Pingdom”
Each of these web hosts was tested from four or more locations worldwide. Except few…
To our utter surprise, some of the famed providers fell flat even in some basic tests.
Along with the Speed test, we continued other parameters testing using tools like GTmatrix, dotcom-monitor, and Key CDN.
We also went through the historical data to check the exact uptime and downtime data of top sites.
Using our time-based checklist, we made multiple calls from different time zones to each of the service providers to check the customer support service.
Now based on the results we got, we are going ahead with the recommendation.
The Top 15 Best Web Hosting Providers
Given below is a recommended list of the Best Web Hosting Service Providers in the market, based on specific needs.
1. Best hosting provider for Beginners
- RECOMMENDED BY WORDPRESS
- FREE DOMAIN AND SSL CERTIFICATE
- BUDGET-LEVEL PRICING
- FTP ACCOUNT AND FILE MANAGER
- NO HIDDEN CHARGES.
- PRICE STARTS AT $7.99/MONTH
- 30-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
2. Best hosting providers for Minimal Needs
- FEATURE-PACKED HOSTING PLANS
- FREE DOMAIN AND SSL CERTIFICATE
- OUTSTANDING UPTIME
- PRICE STARTS AT $6.95/MONTH
- MONTH-TO-MONTH PRICING AT $10.95
- 45-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
3. Most Affordable Month-to-Month Plan
- UNLIMITED DATA TRANSFERS
- EASY AND FREE MIGRATION
- GOOD DOMAIN MANAGEMENT TOOLS
- STRONG SECURITY FEATURES
- MONTH-TO-MONTH PRICING AT $3.95
- RECOMMENDED BY WORDPRESS
4. Fastest WordPress hosting
- FULLY MANAGED WEB HOSTING
- FREE SITE MIGRATIONS
- 24 DATA CENTERS TO CHOOSE FROM
- 24/7 CUSTOMER SUPPORT
- ON-DEMAND SERVICES AVAILABLE
- 30-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE
5. Best managed hosting for multiple platforms
- BEST FOR MANAGED HOSTING
- AUTOMATED DAILY BACKUPS
- UNLIMITED EMAIL ACCOUNTS
- FULL ACCESS TO DATABASE AND SERVER
- 24/7 CUSTOMER SUPPORT
6. Best Cheap Hosting Plans
- OPTIMIZED WORDPRESS HOSTING
- FREE DOMAIN AND SSL CERTIFICATE
- UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH AND STORAGE
- PRICE STARTS AT $7.99/MONTH
- MONTH-TO-MONTH PRICING
- 30-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
7. Best Hosting for unrestricted access to cPanel’s features
- UNLIMITED DATABASES
- FREE DOMAIN NAME
- FREE WILDCARD SSL
- UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH
- FREE WEBSITE TRANSFER
- UNLIMITED SSD STORAGE
- PRICE STARTS AT $9.95/MONTH
8. Best Managed WordPress Hosting
- UNLIMITED DATA TRANSFERS
- EASY AND FREE MIGRATION
- GOOD DOMAIN MANAGEMENT TOOLS
- STRONG SECURITY FEATURES
- MONTH-TO-MONTH PRICING AT $3.95
- RECOMMENDED BY WORDPRESS
9. Best for scaling and growth
- FULLY MANAGED WEB HOSTING
- INCREASED LOADING TIME WITH ACCELERATOR
- GOOD FOR E-COMMERCE SITES
- 24/7 CUSTOMER SERVICE
- MULTIPLE PLANS TO CHOOSE FROM
10. Best for shared and VPS hosting
- UNLIMITED DISK SPACE
- FREE DOMAIN
- FREE SSL IN BASIC PLAN
- FREE AND UNLIMITED EMAIL
- PRICE STARTS AT $7.99/MONTH
- 90-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
The concluding verdict: Who are the Best Web Hosting Providers?
- Type of website you want to build? eCommerce / A blog / small business site
- Which type of software required? Windows/ Linux etc
- The expected volume of traffic (Short term and long term)
- What is your current budget?
- Which site builder to use? Wix / word press etc.
- Extend of customer support required?
- Any unique version of PHP required?
- Your growth plan. I.e. up-gradation to a higher level of hosting
How to Find the Best Host for You?
- For a high traffic WordPress blog, get Dreamhost.
- For best email support, Get Dreamhost
- For speed, great uptime & support, get Bluehost or InMotion
- For a budget, get Hostinger or Hostgator
- For VPS hosting, Get InMotion
- For lots of extra features, get Hostgator
- All category delivery, get BlueHost
- For fast and secure option, get Inmotion
So If you want entry-level hosting. Opt for Shared Web Hosting. You scale it up as your traffic and need increases.
Moving on, If you are planning to run a blog where you are hitting a huge amount of traffic, opt for WordPress hosting.
The best small business web hosting providers
If budget is your prime concern, and you want affordable hosting without compromising the required quality features;
If you are planning to build a large website with tons of visitors, and your site cannot afford to have any downtime; opt for cloud hosting:
Which Type of Hosting Is Right for You?
- Best web hosting overall or an exceptional WordPress web host provider, Get Bluehost
- Best shared web hosting, Get Hostgator
- Best shared hosting provider with the best value for money, Get Hostinger
- Best small business web hosting, Get Hostinger or Bluehost
- Fastest WordPress hosting, Get Kinsta
- Best cheap hosting provider, Get Hostinger or iPage
- Best email hosting for a reliable Email hosting solution for your business needs, Get DreamHost
- Best green hosting service and access to Cpanel, Get GreenGeeks
- Best cloud web hosting, ideal for Cloud hosting needs, Get DreamHost
- Best reseller web hosting for all your Reseller hosting requirements, Get InMotion
- Best Managed WordPress hosting, Get Bluehost (an award-winning managed WordPress Hosting provider)
- Best VPS hosting, Get InMotion
- Best managed web hosting with Expert solution providers, Get Bluehost
- Best unlimited web hosting for a truly unlimited web hosting, Get Interserver
- Best dedicated web hosting with outstanding dedicated hosting solution, Get Liquid Web
- Best hosting for scaling and growth, Get Nexcess
- Best Customer care support, Get Mochahost