Top Web Hosting Companies for Growing Websites & Businesses

Starting a website is easier than ever. All you need is a domain name and web hosting. Though there are thousands of website hosts in the market, most of them aren’t worth your time. Before you decide which one to go with, let’s compare the best web hosts ⇣ on the market right now.

But that doesn’t mean all website hosts are the same. There are some that are the best on the internet. Not only do they offer amazing support, but they are also good cheap web hosting services that make it easy for you to launch and manage your website.

Best Web Hosting: Our Shortlist

Top Web Hosting Companies: Full List

Here I break down the best website hosting services in terms of features and price so that you have all the information you need to find the best web host to launch your website or online store.

At the end of this list, I also highlight three of the worst website hosts in 2024 that I strongly recommend you stay well clear of.

Siteground is one of the most popular hosts on the internet. They are trusted by thousands of businesses around the world.

• Friendly customer support team available 24/7.
• Trusted by thousands of businesses around the world.
• Free WordPress website migration on all plans.
• Powerful speed tools and performance features
• Hosted on Google Cloud infrastructure
• 30-day money-back guarantee

The best part about hosting your site with Siteground is that their friendly support team is available around the clock to answer your questions. It takes less than 2 minutes to get in touch with them through Live Chat. They will help you out if you get stuck anywhere in the process of starting your site.

If you already have your website hosted on some other web host, you don’t have to worry about spending hours migrating your site to Siteground. They offer a free site migration service for WordPress sites.

For non-WordPress sites and for those who want expert help transferring sites. SiteGround’s professional site migration service is done by experts and costs $30 per website.

	StartUp	GrowBig	GoGeek
Websites	1	Unlimited	Unlimited
Monthly Visits	10,000 Visits	100,000 Visits	400,000 Visits
Storage	10 GB	20 GB	40 GB
Bandwidth	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered
Free Automated Backups	Daily	Daily	Daily
Free CDN	Included	Included	Included
Price	$2.99/month	$4.99/month	$7.99/month

Pros

• Affordable prices for beginners and small businesses.
• Unlimited email on all plans.
• Free daily automated backups on all plans.
• Free website migration service.
• Live chat support & telephone support from industry experts.
• Google Cloud shared VPS infrastructure.

Cons

• Renewal prices are much higher than first-time prices.
• No unlimited storage.

Bluehost is one of the most popular hosts on the Internet. They are one of the only few officially recommended web hosts on the official site for WordPress (the most popular content management system used by millions of websites).

• Free domain name on annual plans.
• 24/7 customer support teams.
• Free Content Delivery Network
• 30-day money-back guarantee

They are not only one of the most popular but also one of the most affordable on the market. They are known for their amazing support team and have won many awards for their 24/7 available customer support. If you ever get stuck in the process of starting your site, you can reach them at any time via email, live chat, or phone.

	Basic	Online Store	Choice Plus	Pro
Websites	1	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Storage	50 GB	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free CDN	Included	Included	Included	Included
Free Automated Backups	Not Available	Not Available	Only 1 Year	Included
Bandwidth	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered
Price	$1.99/month	$7.45/month	$3.99/month*	$9.99/month

* The Choice Plus plan renews at $19.99/mo, and the Online Store plan renews at $24.95/mo.

Pros

• Affordable prices for small businesses (#1 best hosting option for a small business site)
• Easily scalable and WordPress for website creation tools.
• Award-Winning Customer Support team available 24/7.
• Best shared hosting company in 2024

Cons

• The renewal prices are higher than the starting prices.
• The domain name is only free for one year.
• Owned by Newfold Digital (expect lots of upselling)

Hostinger has made a name for itself by offering the cheapest web hosting packages in the industry. You can’t possibly find a web host that offers cheaper prices without losing quality.

• Cheapest prices on the market
• Free SSL certificates for all domains
• Free email accounts on all plans
• LiteSpeed powered servers

Their cheapest plans are great for anyone just starting out. The best part is Hostinger makes it very easy to scale your websites with simple plans that you can upgrade at any time.

Even though their pricing starts at From $2.99 per month (when you sign up for 48 months) they offer 24/7 support and are trusted by thousands of businesses around the world.

	Premium Plan	Business Plan	Cloud Startup Plan
Websites	100	100	300
Storage	100 GB SSD	200 GB NVMe	200 GB NVMe
Bandwidth	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free Domain Name	Included	Included	Unlimited
Free Daily Backups	Not Included	Included	Unlimited
Cost	$2.99/month	$3.99/month	$8.99/month

Pros

• Cheap web hosting is one of the most affordable prices on the market.
• Free SSL certificates on all domain names.
• 24/7 online support.
• Great for beginners who are just starting out.
• Great for other types of hosting like Minecraft servers.

Cons

• Free SSL is not included for addon domains.
• Renewal prices are much higher than starter prices.

DreamHost is one of the most popular choices among professional bloggers and small businesses. They offer affordable web hosting for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Over 1.5 million websites rely on DreamHost.

• 24/7 support via phone, email, and live chat.
• Free domain name with privacy on all plans.
• Flexible and worry-free month-to-month hosting, pay monthly and cancel anytime (no need to sign up for a 12/24/36 months plan).
• Free automated WordPress migrations on all plans.
• 97-day money-back guarantee.

If this is your first time launching a new website, don’t worry. DreamHost offers a 97-day money-back guarantee. You can ask for a refund within the first 97 days of service if you are unhappy with the service for any reason.

DreamHost offers a free domain name on all plans with free domain privacy, which others charge extra for. Domain registration information is publicly available and searchable by anyone. Domain privacy makes this information private.

	Starter Plan	Unlimited Plan	DreamPress
Websites	1	Unlimited	1
Storage	50 GB	Unlimited	30 GB SSD
Bandwidth	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered
Free Automated Daily Backups	Included	Included	Included
Free SSL Certificate	Available	Pre-Installed	Pre-Installed
Email Accounts	Paid Add-On	Included	Included
Price	$2.59/month	$3.95/month	$11.99/mo

Pros

• Free domain name on all plans.
• Free automated WordPress migration.
• 24/7 customer support.
• Free automated daily backups on all plans.
• 97-day money-back guarantee.

Cons

• No unlimited storage.
• No free email accounts on the Starter plan.

HostGator is one of the oldest and most popular web hosting companies on the Internet. They are trusted by thousands of business owners around the world. Hostgator is known for its shared web hosting and WP hosting services, but they also offer VPS and Dedicated Hosting.

• Free email on all plans.
• One of the best web hosting services for anyone just starting out.
• Unmetered disk space and bandwidth data transfers.
• 24/7 customer support you can reach via live chat.

Hostgator’s affordable plans are designed to scale your business. They all offer unmetered bandwidth and disk space. They also offer a 45-day money-back and uptime guarantee on all plans. And unlike a lot of other web hosting providers, they offer free email on all their plans.

	Hatchling Plan	Baby Plan	Business Plan
Domains	1	5	Unlimited
Bandwidth	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered
Disk Space	10 GB	40 GB	Unmetered
Free Automated Daily Backups	Included	Included	Included
Free Email	Included	Included	Included
Cost	$3.75/month	$4.50/month	$6.25/month

Pros

• 45-day money-back guarantee
• Free email hosting on all plans. Get an email on your own domain name for free
• Free domain name on all plans for the first year
• Free automated daily backups you can restore at any time with a single click

Cons

• Renewal prices are much higher than starter prices.
• Owned by Newfold Digital (expect lots of upselling)

A2 Hosting offers affordable web hosting solutions to small businesses around the world. Whether you are in the process of starting your first site or own a business that gets thousands of visitors every day, A2 Hosting has the right solution for you. They offer everything from shared hosting to dedicated hosting.

• 24/7 support.
• 4 different data center locations to choose from.
• Free website migration service provided.
• LiteSpeed powered servers.

A2 Hosting gives you free email accounts on all plans and a free CDN service for all your websites. They also offer a free website migration service in which they migrate your website from any other web host to your A2 Hosting account for free without any downtime.

	StartUp	Drive	Turbo Boost	Turbo Max
Websites	1	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Storage	100 GB	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Bandwidth	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free Email Accounts	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free Automated Backups	Not Included	Included	Included	Included
Cost	$2.99/month	$5.99/month	$6.99/month	$14.99/month

Pros

• Impressive speed and performance features on Turbo plans (powered by LiteSpeed)
• Free email accounts on your domain name on all plans.
• Free CDN on all plans to give your website a speed boost.
• Free website migration service on all plans.

Cons

• Renewal prices are much higher than starter prices.
• Free automated backups are not available on the starter plan.

GreenGeeks is popular for its green web hosting services. They were one of the first in the market to introduce green web hosting. Their servers run on green energy to reduce their carbon footprint. Hosting your website with GreenGeeks is the easiest way to reduce your carbon footprint.

• One of the few green website hosts on the internet.
• Private servers that run on green energy to reduce carbon footprint.
• Affordable prices for premium services trusted by businesses around the world.
• 30-day money-back guarantee.

GreenGeeks web hosting services offer free CDN service on all their plans. They also offer a free-of-charge domain name for the first year on all plans. The best part about GreenGeeks’ service is that their tech-savvy support team is available around the clock and will help you out whenever you get stuck with anything at all.

	Lite Plan	Pro Plan	Premium Plan
Websites	1	Unlimited	Unlimited
Disk Space	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Bandwidth	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered
Free Backups	Included	Included	Included
Free Email Accounts	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free CDN	Included	Included	Included
Cost	$2.95/month	$4.95/month	$8.95/month

Pros

• Free email accounts on all plans.
• Eco-friendly “green” web hosting at affordable prices.
• 24/7 online support can reach via live chat, phone, and email.
• Free CDN to give your website a boost.
• Free-of-charge domain name on all plans for the first year.

Cons

• Renewal prices are much higher than starter prices.

Scala Hosting makes it easy for small businesses to build their websites on VPS Hosting. They offer Fully Managed VPS Hosting that removes the pain of maintenance and management from it.

• Fully Managed VPS Hosting at affordable prices.
• Most affordable cloud VPS service on the market.
• Free website migration from any other platform at no cost.
• Free custom control panel called SPanel.

With Scala Hosting, you can give your site a speed boost by hosting it on a VPS without having to learn any technical commands and codes to manage the server.

Although they are known for their Managed VPS Hosting, they also offer other services such as WP Hosting, Shared Hosting, and Unmanaged Hosting (VPS). Their support team is available 24/7 to help you get unstuck and answer any questions you might have.

	Start	Advanced	Business	Enterprise
CPU Cores	2	4	8	12
RAM	4 GB	8 GB	16 GB	24 GB
Storage	50 GB	100 GB	150 GB	200 GB
Free Daily Backups	Included	Included	Included	Included
Free Dedicated IP Address	Included	Included	Included	Included
Cost	$29.95/month	$63.95/month	$121.95/month	$179.95/month

Pros

• Free automated daily backups.
• Cloud VPS for the price of shared hosting.
• LiteSpeed powered Turbo-fast NVMe SSDs.
• Automated 2 free VPS snapshots of the last two days.
• A custom control panel called SPanel saves you money and makes it easy to manage your VPS.
• Generous amounts of resources for affordable prices.

Cons

• Virtual private server (VPS) isn’t suited for total beginners.
• A little more expensive than similar providers.

Rocket.net is a fully-managed WordPress hosting platform that offers high-performance hosting services, excellent security features, and easy website management. With its intuitive dashboard and 24/7 support team, Rocket.net ensures that users can focus on their website content and leave the technical aspects to the experts.

Key Features:

• Managed WordPress Hosting: Rocket.net is a fully-managed WordPress hosting platform that provides users with the ease and flexibility of managing their WordPress websites without worrying about the technical aspects.
• Fast Load Times: With Rocket.net, websites load faster due to its global content delivery network (CDN), which provides high-performance hosting services and reduces load times.
• Security: Rocket.net provides website security features such as malware scans, firewall protection, and automatic updates to keep websites safe and secure.
• Easy to Use: Rocket.net has an intuitive and user-friendly dashboard that allows users to manage their website easily, and its 24/7 support team provides assistance whenever needed.
• Automatic Backups: Rocket.net automatically backs up all website data, which ensures that users can restore their website to a previous version if necessary.

Pros:

• #1 winner as the fastest WordPress hosting company in our testing
• Fast load times due to its global content delivery network
• Excellent security features to keep websites safe from cyber threats
• User-friendly interface and dashboard make it easy to manage websites
• Automatic backups ensure that website data is always secure
• 24/7 support team available to provide assistance when needed

Cons:

• Limited flexibility in terms of customizing the hosting environment
• Higher pricing compared to other hosting providers
• Limited storage and bandwidth options for smaller plans.

Pricing:

Cloudways offers fully managed VPS Hosting. They remove the management and maintenance part of Hosting that limits a lot of businesses from using them. The best part about Cloudways is that they let you pick between 5 different cloud hosting platforms including Google, AWS, and Digital Ocean.

• Affordable fully managed VPS hosting plans.
• Dozens of data centers to choose from.
• 5 different cloud hosting platforms to choose from.
• Cloud hosting plans using DigitalOcean servers start from From $11 per month

The choice of cloud platforms also increases your choice of data center locations. You can choose to host your website in any of the dozens of data center locations available.

If you already have your website hosted on some other platform or web host, Cloudways will migrate your website to your Cloudways account for free.

	DigitalOcean 1	DigitalOcean 2	DigitalOcean 3	DigitalOcean 4
RAM	1 GB	2 GB	4 GB	8 GB
Processor	1 Core	1 Core	2 Core	4 Core
Storage	25 GB	50 GB	80 GB	160 GB
Bandwidth	1 TB	2 TB	4 TB	5 TB
Free Automated Backups	Included	Included	Included	Included
Price	$11/month	$24/month	$46/month	$88/month

Pros

• Fully managed VPS hosting service that can give your website a speed boost.
• Choose between 5 different cloud hosting platforms that are trusted by some of the biggest tech companies in the world.
• 24/7 support to solve all your problems.
• Free website migration service.

Cons

• No cPanel or a custom control panel such as SPanel is offered by Scala Hosting.
• No free CDN.

Kinsta offers premium managed WP hosting services for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Unlike other companies, Kinsta specializes in WP Hosting. If you want your website to perform as fast as it can, you need Kinsta.

• Free CDN service on all plans.
• Free unlimited migrations from other web hosts.
• Google Cloud Platform powered servers.
• 24 global data center locations to choose from.

Their servers are optimized for WordPress performance and they offer free CDN service on every plan.

The best part about hosting your website with Kinsta is the easy scalability you get. Your website can go from 10 visitors a day to a thousand on Kinsta without any hiccups. You can upgrade your website’s plan at any point with just a click.

Kinsta is powered by the Google Cloud Platform which is trusted by millions of businesses large and small around the world. It is the same infrastructure used by tech giants.

	Starter	Pro	Business 1	Business 2	Business 3
WordPress Installs	1	2	5	10	20
Monthly Visits	25,000	50,000	100,000	250,000	400,000
Storage	10 GB	20 GB	30 GB	40 GB	50 GB
Free CDN	50 GB	100 GB	200 GB	300 GB	500 GB
Free Premium Migrations	1	2	3	3	3
Cost	$35/month	$70/month	$115/month	$225/month	$340/month

Pros

• Cloud hosting plans powered by Cloud (Google) Platform.
• Free CDN service on all plans.
• Free automatic daily backups you can restore with a single click.
• Free premium migration of your website and unlimited basic migrations.

Cons

• Can be a little expensive for small businesses.
• No email hosting.

WP Engine is a premium managed WP hosting company trusted by some of the biggest websites on the internet. They are one of the oldest in the industry and have made a name for themselves by providing affordable Managed WordPress solutions.

• Premium managed WP hosting.
• Free global CDN service is included in all plans.
• 24/7 chat support and industry leading customer service.
• Free Genesis Framework and 35+ StudioPress Themes on all plans.

WP Engine can help your business scale on any level, whether you are a hobby blogger or a business that serves thousands of customers every day. Their web hosting solutions are optimized for WordPress websites and as a result, offer a huge boost in speed.

The best part about going with WP Engine WordPress web hosting services is that they offer you the Genesis Theme Framework and 35+ StudioPress themes for free on all plans. Together this bundle would cost well over $2,000 if bought separately.

	StartUp	Professional	Growth	Scale	Custom
Sites	1	3	10	30	30+
Storage	10 GB	15 GB	20 GB	50 GB	100 GB – 1 TB
Bandwidth	50 GB	125 GB	200 GB	500 GB	500 GB+
Visits	25,000	75,000	100,000	400,000	Millions
24/7 Online Support	Chat support	Chat support	Chat and Phone Support	Chat and Phone Support	Chat, Ticket, and Phone Support
Price	$20/month	$39/month	$77/month	$193/month	Custom

Pros

• Scalable Managed WP hosting at affordable prices.
• Servers that are optimized for WordPress performance and security.
• Genesis Framework and dozens of StudioPress themes are included with every plan.
• Website and database backups.

Cons

• A little expensive for beginners.
• Limits pageviews unlike some of their competitors.

InMotion Hosting is home to over 500,000+ WordPress websites. They offer everything from Shared business hosting to dedicated servers. Their customer support team is available around the clock to help you out with anything when you get stuck.

• Free-of-charge domain name on all plans.
• 90-day money-back guarantees.
• Free email accounts on all plans.

They also offer a free website migration service. You can contact the customer support team and they will migrate your website from any other web host to your InMotion account for free without any downtime.

	Core	Launch	Power	Pro
Websites	2	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Storage	100 GB	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Bandwidth	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Email Addresses	10	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Cost	$2.29/month	$4.99/month	$4.99/month	$12.99/month

Pros

• 90-day money-back guarantee.
• Free domain name on all plans.
• Free SSL certificate for all your domain names.
• 24/7 customer support team you can reach any time via Live Chat, Email, or Phone.

Cons

• Doesn’t offer unlimited email addresses on all plans.
• Renewal prices are much higher than the starter prices.

Liquid Web specializes in fully managed cloud and web hosting services. They let your business harness the power of web hosting services that require a lot of technical knowledge to manage and maintain.

• Affordable Managed Web Hosting.
• Free unlimited email accounts.
• 24/7 online Support.

Their managed offerings include everything from Managed WordPress to Dedicated Servers and Server Clusters and everything in between.

All their WordPress plans come with free iThemes Security Pro and iThemes Sync. You also get Beaver Builder Lite and unlimited email accounts. They even offer a 14-day free trial for their WP hosting service.

	Spark	Maker	Designer	Builder	Producer
Sites	1	5	10	25	50
Storage	15 GB	40 GB	60 GB	100 GB	300 GB
Bandwidth	2 TB	3 TB	4 TB	5 TB	5 TB
Free Daily Backups	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included
Free Email Accounts	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Pageviews	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Cost	$12.67/month	$79/month	$109/month	$149/month	$299/month

Pros

• Free unlimited email accounts on all plans.
• Free iThemes Security Pro and iThemes Sync WordPress plugins on all plans.
• Free automatic daily backups on all plans are retained for 30 days.
• Complete access to the server.
• No caps on pageviews/traffic.
• Comes with developer tools such as SSH, Git, and WP-CLI.

Cons

• Can be a little expensive for beginners.

Worst Web Hosts (Stay Away!)

There are a lot of web hosting providers out there, and it can be hard to know which ones to avoid. That’s why we’ve put together a list of the worst web hosting services in 2024, so you can know which companies to steer clear of.

1. PowWeb

PowWeb is an affordable web host that offers an easy way to launch your first website. On paper, they offer everything you need to launch your first site: a free domain name, unlimited disk space, a one-click install for WordPress, and a control panel.

PowWeb offers only one web plan for their web hosting service. This might look good to you if you’re building your first website. After all, they offer unlimited disk space and have no limits for bandwidth.

But there are strict fair-usage limits on server resources. This means, if your website all of a sudden gets a huge surge in traffic after going viral on Reddit, PowWeb will shut it down! Yes, that happens! Shared web hosting providers who lure you in with cheap prices shut your website down as soon as it gets a small surge in traffic. And when that happens, with other web hosts, you can simply upgrade your plan, but with PowWeb, there’s no other higher plan.

Read more

I would only recommend going with PowWeb if you’re just starting and are building your first website. But even if that’s the case, other web hosts offer affordable monthly plans. With other web hosts, you might need to pay a dollar more every month, but you won’t have to sign up for an annual plan, and you’ll get better service.

One of the only redeeming features of this web host is its cheap price, but to get that price you’ll need to pay upfront for 12 months or more. One thing I do like about this web host is that you get unlimited disk space, unlimited mailboxes (email addresses), and no supposed bandwidth limits.

But it doesn’t matter how many things PowWeb does right, there are just too many poor 1 and 2-star reviews plastered all over the internet about how terrible this service is. All those reviews make PowWeb look like a horror show!

If you are looking for a good web host, I would highly recommend looking elsewhere. Why not go with a web host that’s not still living in the year 2002? Not only does its website look ancient, it still uses Flash on some of its pages. Browsers dropped support for Flash years ago.

PowWeb’s pricing is cheaper than a lot of other web hosts, but it also doesn’t offer as much as those other web hosts. First of all, PowWeb’s service isn’t scalable. They only have one plan. Other web hosts have multiple plans to make sure you can scale your website with just one click. They also have great support.

Web hosts like SiteGround and Bluehost are known for their customer support. Their teams help you out with anything and everything when your website breaks down. I’ve been building websites for the last 10 years, and there’s no way I would ever recommend PowWeb to anyone for any use case. Stay away!

2. FatCow

For an affordable price of $4.08 per month, FatCow offers unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth, a website builder, and unlimited email addresses on your domain name. Now, of course, there are fair-usage limits. But this pricing is only available if you go for a term longer than 12 months.

Although the pricing seems affordable at a first glance, be aware that their renewal prices are much higher than the price you sign up for. FatCow charges more than twice the sign-up price when you renew your plan. If you want to save money, it would be a good idea to go for an annual plan to lock in the cheaper sign-up price for the first year.

But why would you? FatCow may not be the worst web host in the market, but they are also not the best. For the same price, you can get web hosting that offers even better support, faster server speeds, and more scalable service.

Read more

One thing I don’t like or understand about FatCow is that they only have one plan. And even though this plan seems to be enough for someone who’s just starting, it doesn’t seem like a good idea for any serious business owner.

No serious business owner would think that a plan that is suitable for a hobby site is a good idea for their business. Any web host that sells “unlimited” plans is lying. They hide behind legal jargon that enforces dozens and dozens of limits on how many resources your website can use.

So, It begs the question: who is this plan or this service designed for? If it’s not for serious business owners, then is it just for hobbyists and people building their first website? 

One good thing about FatCow is that they offer you a free domain name for the first year. The customer support may not be the best available but is better than some of their competitors. There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee in case you decide you’re done with FatCow within the first 30 days.

Another good thing about FatCow is that they offer an affordable plan for WordPress websites. If you’re a fan of WordPress, there might be something for you in FatCow’s WordPress plans. They are built on top of the regular plan but with some basic features that might be helpful for a WordPress site. Same as the regular plan, you get unlimited disk space, bandwidth, and email addresses. You also get a free domain name for the first year.

If you are looking for a reliable, scalable web host for your business, I wouldn’t recommend FatCow unless they wrote me a million-dollar check. Look, I am not saying they are the worst. Far from it! FatCow may be suitable for some use cases, but if you are serious about growing your business online, I can’t recommend this web host. Other web hosts might cost a dollar or two more every month but offer a lot more features and are much more suitable if you run a “serious” business.

3. Netfirms

Netfirms is a shared web host that caters to small businesses. They used to be a giant in the industry and were one of the highest web hosts.

If you look at their history, Netfirms used to be a great web host. But they are no longer what they used to be. They got acquired by a giant web hosting company, and now their service no longer seems competitive. And their pricing is just outrageous. You can find better web hosting services for much cheaper prices.

If you still believe for some reason that Netfirms might be worth a try, just look at all the horrible reviews about their service on the internet. According to the dozens of 1-star reviews I’ve skimmed, their support is terrible, and the service has been going downhill ever since they got acquired.

Read more

Most Netfirms reviews you’ll read all start the same way. They praise how good Netfirms was about a decade ago, and then they go on to talk about how the service is now a dumpster fire!

If you take a look at Netfirms’ offerings, you’ll notice that they are designed for beginners who are just getting started with building their first website. But even if that’s the case, there are better web hosts that cost less and offer more features.

One good thing about Netfirms plans is how generous they all are. You get unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited email accounts. You also get a free domain name. But all these features are common when it comes to Shared Hosting. Almost all shared web hosting providers offer “unlimited” plans.

Other than their Shared Web Hosting plans, Netfirms also offer Website Builder plans. It offers a simple drag-and-drop interface to build your website. But their basic starter plan limits you to only 6 pages. How generous! The templates are also really outdated.

If you’re looking for an easy website builder, I wouldn’t recommend Netfirms. Many website builders on the market are much more powerful and offer a lot more features. Some of them are even cheaper…

If you want to install WordPress, they offer an easy one-click solution to install it but they don’t have any plans that are optimized and designed specifically for WordPress sites. Their starter plan costs $4.95 a month but only allows one website. Their competitors allow unlimited websites for that same price.

The only reason I can think of to host my website with Netfirms is if I was being held hostage. Their pricing doesn’t seem real to me. It’s outdated and is much higher when compared to other web hosts. Not only that, their cheap prices are only introductory. That means you’ll need to pay much higher renewal prices after the first term. The renewal prices are twice the introductory sign-up prices. Stay away!

What is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is a type of internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible on the Internet (Source: Wikipedia)

A website is simply a set of code files stored on an external computer. When you open a website, your computer sends a request to another computer on the internet called a server for those files and renders that code into a web page.

To start a website, you need a server. But servers are expensive; they cost thousands of dollars to own and maintain. This is where web hosting companies come in. They let you lease a small space on their servers for an affordable fee. This makes web hosting affordable for businesses of all sizes.

Why Free Web Hosting is Never Worth It

If this is your first time building a website, you might have considered free web hosting platforms. They might sound like a good idea to test the waters. But they are never worth it.

Most free web hosts display adverts on your free website. Not only that, some of them are in the business of collecting your information and selling it to spammers.

The worst part about free web hosts is that they limit your ability to scale. Imagine getting a surge in traffic to your website and finally catching a break. In a scenario like that, your website will probably go down and you will lose hundreds of potential customers.

And that’s not all. Free web hosts don’t much care about security or your data. Don’t believe me? The biggest free web hosting company 000WebHost once got hacked and hackers got access to the information of thousands of users.

Types of Web Hosting

There are many options available, from shared hosting, and VPS hosting to Podcast hosting and Minecraft server hosting, and each caters to different website needs. Don’t rush when choosing, because picking the wrong type of hosting can cause you a lot of problems down the line.

That being said, here is a breakdown of the most used types of web hosting.

1. Shared Hosting:
   • Features: Multiple websites are hosted on a single server, sharing resources such as memory, disk space, and processing power.
   • Advantages: Cost-effective, easy to manage (often comes with a control panel like cPanel), and requires no technical maintenance from the user’s side.
   • Use Cases: Ideal for small businesses, bloggers, and personal websites with lower traffic volumes.
2. Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting:
   • Features: A physical server is divided into multiple virtual servers, each with allocated portions of the server’s resources. While sharing a physical server, each VPS functions independently.
   • Advantages: Greater control and customization than shared hosting, better performance, and still cost-effective compared to dedicated hosting.
   • Use Cases: Suited for medium-sized businesses, e-commerce sites, and websites with moderate traffic that require more resources.
3. Dedicated Hosting:
   • Features: A single client leases an entire server with all its resources. This offers maximum control, including root access and the choice of operating system.
   • Advantages: High performance, security, and stability. No resource sharing with other websites.
   • Use Cases: Large businesses, high-traffic websites, and those with specific customization and security requirements.
4. Cloud Hosting:
   • Features: Hosting services are offered across a network of interconnected virtual servers, allowing for easy scalability and flexibility.
   • Advantages: Highly scalable, reliable (no single point of failure), and you generally pay only for the resources you use.
   • Use Cases: Businesses with fluctuating traffic, growth-phase startups, and websites requiring high uptime and scalability.
5. Managed Hosting:
   • Features: The hosting provider takes care of the setup, administration, management, and support of the server and/or application.
   • Advantages: Hassle-free hosting with technical aspects handled by experts. Often includes automated backups, updates, and security measures.
   • Use Cases: Businesses without a dedicated IT team, those who prefer to focus on their core operations rather than server management.
6. Colocation Hosting:
   • Features: Instead of housing servers in-house, they are located in a third-party data center. You own the server but share data center facilities.
   • Advantages: Access to higher levels of bandwidth than typical office server rooms, along with professional infrastructure and security.
   • Use Cases: Companies that own physical hardware but want the benefits of a professional data center.
7. App Hosting/Application Hosting:
   • Features: Tailored for software applications, offering hosting services that support various web-based and enterprise applications.
   • Advantages: Scalable resources, optimized performance, maintenance and updates handled by the provider, accessible from anywhere.
   • Use Cases: Ideal for businesses and developers focusing on SaaS products, mobile app backends, e-commerce apps, and enterprise software without managing server complexities.

Web Hosting Glossary

1. Content Delivery Network (CDN): A system that uses multiple servers located in various places to store static parts of your website. This setup helps in delivering content to users more quickly.
2. Content Management System (CMS): A software like WordPress that helps you manage the creation and modification of digital content on your website. It often includes tools for designing web pages and adding content.
3. Time to First Byte (TTFB): A measurement used to evaluate the performance of a hosting provider. It indicates the time taken for a user’s browser to receive the first byte of page content, reflecting the efficiency of the network and servers.
4. Solid-State Disk (SSD): A storage device used in servers and computers, known for its fast data access speeds because it doesn’t have any moving parts, unlike traditional hard drives.
5. Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe): A modern, high-performance SSD technology that provides faster data transfer rates and improved efficiency compared to traditional SSDs.
6. Virtual Private Server (VPS): A hosting service where a single physical server is divided into multiple virtual servers. Each virtual server operates independently, providing users with private resources and possibly better performance than shared hosting.
7. Domain Name System (DNS): This system translates human-readable domain names (like “example.com”) into IP addresses that computers use to identify each other on the network. DNS ensures that when you type a website’s name into your browser, you are directed to the correct server.
8. Shared Hosting: A type of web hosting where multiple websites are stored on a single server. It’s an economical option for small websites, as resources and the cost of the server are shared among all users. However, it might have limitations in performance, security, and flexibility compared to other hosting types.
9. Dedicated Hosting: In contrast to shared hosting, dedicated hosting provides a server solely for one client. This offers more control, better performance, and higher security but at a higher cost. It’s suitable for large, high-traffic websites and businesses with specific server requirements.
10. Bandwidth: This term refers to the amount of data that can be transferred to and from your website within a certain period, usually a month. Higher bandwidth allows more data to be transferred, which is important for sites with a lot of traffic or large files.
11. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate: An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that provides secure, encrypted communication between a website and a user’s browser. It’s crucial for protecting sensitive data and is often indicated by a padlock icon in the address bar. Websites with SSL are accessed via HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) rather than HTTP.

Our Verdict ⭐

If you want to grow your business without any hiccups, you need reliable web hosting that you can trust. However, most web hosts aren’t worth your time or money.

That’s why I made this list. All the companies on this list get my stamp of approval. If you can’t decide between all the options, let me make the choice easy for you:

If you are a beginner, go with Siteground or Bluehost. Both offer 24/7 customer support that is friendly and will help you get unstuck at any time of the day.

If you own a growing WordPress site, I recommend going with WP Engine or Kinsta. Both are known for their affordable premium managed WP hosting services. They offer 24/7 support and are trusted by thousands of big brands around the world.

How We Review Web Hosts: Our Methodology

When we review web hosts, our evaluation is based on these criteria:

1. Value for Money: What types of web hosting plans are on offer, and are they good value for money?
2. User Friendliness: How user-friendly is the signup process, the onboarding, the dashboard? and so on.
3. Customer Support: When we need help, how quickly can we get it, and is the support effective and helpful?
4. Hosting Features: What unique features does the web host provide, and how do they stack up against competitors?
5. Security: Are essential security measures like SSL certificates, DDoS protection, backup services, and malware/virus scans included?
6. Speed and Uptime: Is the hosting service fast and reliable? What types of servers do they use, and how do they perform in tests?

For more details on our review process, click here.

List of web hosting services we have tested and reviewed: