Best web hosting services compared
After searching the market wide and deep, we’ve decided to feature the following companies:
- HostingTheUS (www.hostingtheus.com)
- Bluehost (www.bluehost.com)
- SiteGround (www.siteground.com)
- WP Engine (www.wpengine.com)
- DreamHost (www.dreamhost.com)
- Kinsta (www.kinsta.com)
- Namecheap (www.namecheap.com)
- InMotion Hosting (www.inmotionhosting.com)
- Flywheel (www.getflywheel.com)
- Cloudways (www.cloudways.com)
- Hostinger (www.hostinger.com)
- A2 Hosting (www.a2hosting.com)
- IONOS (www.ionos.com)
- HostGator (www.hostgator.com)
- GreenGeeks (www.greengeeks.com)
While there are many more web hosting companies out there, these 14 have proven to provide good user experience, performance, and they work well with WordPress and other website software.
If you’re in a hurry, check out this summary table for a bird’s eye view of each host and its parameters:
Best web hosting services: SUMMARY
| HOST | PRICE FROM (MO.) | TRAFFIC | DISK SPACE | FREE DOMAIN | UPTIME | LOAD TIME US | EU | ASIA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HostingtheUS | $1.49 | unlimited | unlimited | ✅ | 99.9% | 0.52s | 0.31s | 0.32s |
| Bluehost | $2.75 | unmetered | 50 GB | ✅ | 100% | 0.76s | 1.81s | 0.39s |
| SiteGround | $2.99 | 10,000 visits/month | 10 GB | ❌ | 99.99% | 1.15s | 0.31s | 1.75s |
| WP Engine | $20 | 25,000 visits/month | 10 GB | ❌ | 100% | 0.52s | 1.28s | 1.74s |
| DreamHost | $2.59 | unmetered | 50 GB | ✅ | 99.92% | 1.9s | 2.15s | 3.43s |
| Kinsta | $29.17 | 25,000 visits/month | 10 GB | ❌ | 99.98% | 0.55s | 0.84s | 2.23s |
| Namecheap | $1.58 | unmetered | 20 GB | ✅ | 99.92% | 1.3s | 1.79s | 3.4s |
| InMotion | $2.29 | unmetered | 10 GB | ❌ | 100% | 0.48s | 0.83s | 2.17s |
| Flywheel | $13 | 5,000 visits/month | 5 GB | ❌ | 100% | 0.23s | 0.49s | 1.12s |
| Cloudways | $10 | 1 TB bandwidth | 25 GB | ❌ | 99.99% | 1.07s | 0.28s | 1.94s |
| Hostinger | $1.99 | 10,000 visits/month | 10 GB | ❌ | 99.96% | 1.27s | 0.38s | 1.91s |
| A2 Hosting | $2.99 | unmetered | 100 GB | ❌ | 99.76% | 0.83s | 1.29s | 2.57s |
| IONOS | $1 | unmetered | unmetered | ✅ | 99.99% | 0.37s | 0.66s | 1.45s |
| HostGator | $2.75 | unmetered | unmetered | ✅ | 100% | 0.67s | 1.52s | 2.03s |
| GreenGeeks | $2.95 | unmetered | unmetered | ✅ | 99.95% | 1.29s | 0.51s | 2.54s |
1. HostingTheUS (www.hostingtheus.com)
- From: $1.49 / month
- Traffic allowed: unlimited
- Disk Space: unlimited
- Free Domain: ✅
- Uptime: 99.9% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 0.52s
- Load time EU: 0.31s
- Load time Asia: 0.32s
HostingTheUS is one of the most popular web hosting companies on the web, catering their services to different users with different websites and goals.
For instance, if you’re a beginner with not much money to spend, you can get a HostingTheUS plan for as low as $1.49 / month. Then if you ever need more, you can upgrade to a higher-tier plan easily.
On the other end of the spectrum, if you’re an advanced user or have a site that receives more traffic, you can get a VPS hosting or a dedicated server (of course, those cost more).
HostingTheUS also offers cPanel, wordPress hosting, Windows hosting beginner-friendly tools for site software installs. This is particularly useful if you’re planning on building a WordPress site. The user panel in HostingTheUS is straightforward to use and doesn’t require any prior experience or knowledge of how web servers work.
Last but not least, HostingTheUS also throws in a free domain name if you pay for your server up front for one year or more.
2. Bluehost (www.bluehost.com)
- From: $2.75 / month
- Traffic allowed: unmetered
- Disk Space: 50 GB
- Free Domain: ✅
- Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 0.76s
- Load time EU: 1.81s
- Load time Asia: 0.39s
Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosting companies on the web, catering their services to different users with different websites and goals.
For instance, if you’re a beginner with not much money to spend, you can get a Bluehost plan for as low as $2.75 / month. Then if you ever need more, you can upgrade to a higher-tier plan easily.
On the other end of the spectrum, if you’re an advanced user or have a site that receives more traffic, you can get a VPS hosting or a dedicated server (of course, those cost more).
Bluehost also offers beginner-friendly tools for site software installs. This is particularly useful if you’re planning on building a WordPress site. The user panel in Bluehost is straightforward to use and doesn’t require any prior experience or knowledge of how web servers work.
Last but not least, Bluehost also throws in a free domain name if you pay for your server up front for one year or more.
| DECEMBER 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023 |
|---|
| 100% |
| East Coast, USA: 0.45s | West Coast, USA: 1.06s |
| London: 0.48s | Paris: 3.13s |
| Mumbai, India: 0.34s | Sydney: 0.44s |
3. SiteGround (www.siteground.com)
- From: $2.99 / month
- Traffic allowed: 10,000 visits/month
- Disk Space: 10 GB
- Free Domain: ❌
- Uptime: 99.99% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 1.15s
- Load time EU: 0.31s
- Load time Asia: 1.75s
SiteGround has made a name for itself as a quality WordPress hosting platform, but it’s grown to offer other types of web hosting as well.
These days, SiteGround allows you to host a site built on Weebly (popular builder), Joomla, Drupal, and other popular CMS platforms. SiteGround is also perfectly capable of hosting your eCommerce store.
Oh, and about that WordPress hosting thing, SiteGround is still one of the top companies you can choose for that. In fact, it’s one of the few web hosting companies openly endorsed by the WordPress.org crew.
Feature-wise, SiteGround delivers everything you might expect from a quality host. There’s an easy-to-use panel, you can take advantage of a handful of one-click website software installers (including for WordPress), and SiteGround will offer you good support and more than capable servers.
| DECEMBER 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023 |
|---|
| 99.99% |
| East Coast, USA: 0.86s | West Coast, USA: 1.44s |
| London: 0.31s | Paris: 0.3s |
| Mumbai, India: 1.57s | Sydney: 1.92s |
4. WP Engine (www.wpengine.com)
- From: $20 / month
- Traffic allowed: 25,000 visits/month
- Disk Space: 10 GB
- Free Domain: ❌
- Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 0.52s
- Load time EU: 1.28s
- Load time Asia: 1.74s
WP Engine is the first for-WordPress-only web hosting service on our list. It is also one of the more expensive solutions out there, starting at $20 / month.
Feature-wise, however, WP Engine offers you pretty much everything you might need for your WordPress site to thrive. Except for just the hosting-related features, there are also additional perks such as 30+ free StudioPress themes, dev/stage/prod environments, advanced caching solutions, and a user dashboard that lets you get to every setting of your site quickly.
That said, this is more of a solution for the savvy user who wants to get the most out of their WordPress site. If you’re just a beginner with a new WordPress site, or you’re not planning on using WordPress at all, you’re going to choose a different company.
| DECEMBER 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023 |
|---|
| 100% |
| East Coast, USA: 0.73s | West Coast, USA: 0.31s |
| London: 1.26s | Paris: 1.3s |
| Mumbai, India: 2.09s | Sydney: 1.39s |
5. DreamHost (www.dreamhost.com)
- From $2.59 / month
- Traffic allowed: unmetered
- Disk Space: 50 GB
- Free Domain: ✅
- Uptime: 99.92% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 1.9s
- Load time EU: 2.15s
- Load time Asia: 3.43s
DreamHost is one of the most affordable of the best web hosting services on the market, especially for new website owners who don’t have experience with web servers and the like.
Their entry-level hosting plan, for instance, offers a free domain name included, a free SSL certificate, and WordPress pre-installed if that’s the platform that you want to use.
Besides shared hosting, DreamHost also offers VPS hosting options, managed hosting, dedicated servers, and affordable email hosting if you need a new home for your inbox.
| DECEMBER 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023 |
|---|
| 99.92% |
| East Coast, USA: 2.48s | West Coast, USA: 1.32s |
| London: 2.29s | Paris: 2s |
| Mumbai, India: 4.2s | Sydney: 2.66s |
6. Kinsta (www.kinsta.com)
- From $29.17 / month
- Traffic allowed: 25,000 visits/month
- Disk Space: 10 GB
- Free Domain: ❌
- Uptime: 99.98% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 0.55s
- Load time EU: 0.84s
- Load time Asia: 2.23s
Kinsta is another WordPress-only host on our list. The overall offering is quite similar to WP Engine’s, but it comes in a bit different package.
Under the hood, Kinsta runs their servers on Google Cloud Platform, and everything is fully managed for you – with daily backups and other useful features.
Kinsta also lets you choose from 24 global data center locations, there’s automatic database optimization, WordPress multisite support, malware removal, support for PHP 8.0, staging area, and more.
Price-wise, Kinsta isn’t the cheapest – starting at $29.17 / month – but it does deliver good value if you’re expecting your site to receive a lot of traffic each month. Still, just like WP Engine, not a solution for new sites with zero traffic or sites not built on WordPress.
| DECEMBER 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023 |
|---|
| 99.98% |
| East Coast, USA: 0.39s | West Coast, USA: 0.7s |
| London: 0.84s | Paris: 0.83s |
| Mumbai, India: 2.88s | Sydney: 1.58s |
7. Namecheap (www.namecheap.com)
- From $1.58 / month
- Traffic allowed: unmetered
- Disk Space: 20 GB
- Free Domain: ✅
- Uptime: 99.92% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 1.3s
- Load time EU: 1.79s
- Load time Asia: 3.4s
Namecheap, as the name would suggest, is one of the cheapest web hosting services on the market. Currently, you can get started for only $1.58 / month (for the first year), and for that price you get to host not one but three websites. Plus, there’s a free domain name included as well.
And it’s not like anything crucial is missing from Namecheap’s offer. You do get a free SSL certificate, there’s enough disk space available, you get the AutoBackup feature, and there’s even email hosting included for free.
Overall, Namecheap is the best web hosting service for users who want to test out a website concept and would like to spend as little money on it as possible.
| DECEMBER 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023 |
|---|
| 99.92% |
| East Coast, USA: 1.48s | West Coast, USA: 1.11s |
| London: 1.94s | Paris: 1.63s |
| Mumbai, India: 3.62s | Sydney: 3.17s |
8. InMotion Hosting (www.inmotionhosting.com)
- From $2.29 / month
- Traffic allowed: unmetered
- Disk Space: 10 GB
- Free Domain: ❌
- Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 0.48s
- Load time EU: 0.83s
- Load time Asia: 2.17s
InMotion Hosting is one more very affordable web hosting service that’s not missing out on any of the important features.
Even on the entry-level plan, you still get a free SSL, free email address, hack and malware protection, DDoS protection, automatic backups, custom server optimizations to improve speed, and even a website builder tool to make it easier for beginners to craft their own websites.
Apart from shared hosting, InMotion Hosting also offers WordPress-optimized hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, plus additional solutions for freelancers, resellers, and agencies building websites for their clients.
Overall, InMotion Hosting is a good hosting platform that can match your business needs not only today but also in the future as you grow.
| DECEMBER 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023 |
|---|
| 100% |
| East Coast, USA: 0.29s | West Coast, USA: 0.67s |
| London: 0.9s | Paris: 0.75s |
| Mumbai, India: 1.83s | Sydney: 2.5s |
9. Flywheel (www.getflywheel.com)
- From $13 / month
- Traffic allowed: 5,000 visits/month
- Disk Space: 5 GB
- Free Domain: ❌
- Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 0.23s
- Load time EU: 0.49s
- Load time Asia: 1.12s
Flywheel is yet another firm among the best web hosting services that supports WordPress websites only. Don’t worry, though, it’s the last such host here.
Still, we felt that we had to highlight it due to its more than affordable pricing among the other “WordPress hosting” firms. This makes Flywheel a great entry-level platform for new WordPress projects.
Flywheel is actually owned by WP Engine, which means that moving to its bigger brother should be easier if you ever need it.
In terms of building your site with Flywheel, you can take advantage of one unique tool of theirs called Flywheel Local. You can install it on your local computer, build your site, and then export it to Flywheel servers.
| DECEMBER 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023 |
|---|
| 100% |
| East Coast, USA: 0.24s | West Coast, USA: 0.22s |
| London: 0.56s | Paris: 0.41s |
| Mumbai, India: 1.82s | Sydney: 0.42s |
10. Cloudways (www.cloudways.com)
- From $10 / month
- Traffic allowed: 1 TB bandwidth
- Disk Space: 25 GB
- Free Domain: ❌
- Uptime: 99.99% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 1.07s
- Load time EU: 0.28s
- Load time Asia: 1.94s
Cloudways is a unique offering on the web hosting landscape. Instead of renting space on servers owned by the company, Cloudways is your gateway to popular cloud hosts with high capacity.
Basically, when you sign up for Cloudways, you get to choose from cloud hosting setups offered by DigitalOcean (our choice), Linode, Vultr, Amazon AWS, and Google Cloud.
The main problem with those cloud hosts is that they’re not the easiest to use, especially for someone who has no experience with server work. Cloudways solves that by acting as your gateway to cloud hosting and also handling all the heavy lifting on their end. At the end of the day, you interact with the user-friendly dashboard at Cloudways rather than with the cloud hosts directly.
This is a really cool solution for web projects that need good scalability or host something other than a classic website (like a mobile app or a web tool).
| DECEMBER 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023 |
|---|
| 99.99% |
| East Coast, USA: 0.8s | West Coast, USA: 1.34s |
| London: 0.28s | Paris: 0.28s |
| Mumbai, India: 1.35s | Sydney: 2.53s |
11. Hostinger (www.hostinger.com)
- From $1.99 / month
- Traffic allowed: 10,000 visits/month
- Disk Space: 30 GB
- Free Domain: ❌
- Uptime: 99.96% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 1.27s
- Load time EU: 0.38s
- Load time Asia: 1.91s
Hostinger has made a name for itself by being the budget-friendly option among the best web hosting services, and it’s hard to argue against that. The entry-level plan at Hostinger is the cheapest on this list, and the server parameters aren’t too shabby either.
Apart from that, Hostinger offers many different hosting types, starting from shared options, to cloud hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS (running on both Linux and Windows), and even other unique types of hosting such as Minecraft server hosting.
But that’s not all. Hostinger is also a good place to check out if you’re unsure of how you want to build your site and need guidance in general. For instance, they do have a website builder module (through an integration with a tool called Zyro). It allows you to create your site from scratch without ever leaving Hostinger.
| DECEMBER 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023 |
|---|
| 99.96% |
| East Coast, USA: 1.07s | West Coast, USA: 1.46s |
| London: 0.34s | Paris: 0.42s |
| Mumbai, India: 1.42s | Sydney: 2.39s |
12. A2 Hosting (www.a2hosting.com)
- From $2.99 / month
- Traffic allowed: unmetered
- Disk Space: 100 GB
- Free Domain: ❌
- Uptime: 99.76% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 0.83s
- Load time EU: 1.29s
- Load time Asia: 2.57s
What we like about A2 Hosting in particular is that they have a big portfolio of different types of web hosting types, plans, and offers.
For instance, apart from classic shared hosting, there are also plans for unmanaged and managed WordPress hosting, VPS hosting (unmanaged and managed), offers for resellers, and dedicated servers.
Then, if you’re interested in running a specific CMS – like Drupal, Joomla, or Magento – A2 Hosting has plans optimized for that as well.
Last but not least, A2 Hosting is among the best web hosting services for doing quick tests of new projects. The main reason is because they allow month-to-month payments instead of forcing you to buy hosting for a year up front.
| DECEMBER 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023 |
|---|
| 99.76% |
| East Coast, USA: 0.57s | West Coast, USA: 1.09s |
| London: 1.29s | Paris: 1.28s |
| Mumbai, India: 2.53s | Sydney: 2.6s |
13. IONOS (www.ionos.com)
- From $1 / month
- Traffic allowed: unmetered
- Disk Space: unmetered
- Free Domain: ✅
- Uptime: 99.99% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 0.37s
- Load time EU: 0.66s
- Load time Asia: 1.45s
IONOS is a web host most known for its focus on the European market. They’ve been offering web hosting since 1988, which gives them a unique 30+ year experience that’s not too common in the web hosting industry.
They offer a wide range of different hosting options, including shared hosting, WordPress hosting, ASP.NET hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, web hosting plans for agencies, and more.
IONOS is also equipped to help you with other aspects of your website creation process. They’ll get you a domain name and SSL, plus there are website builders available for standard websites as well as eCommerce stores. Lastly, if you require a more personalized experience, there’s also their web design service (where they create the website for you).
| DECEMBER 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023 |
|---|
| 99.99% |
| East Coast, USA: 0.3s | West Coast, USA: 0.44s |
| London: 0.64s | Paris: 0.67s |
| Mumbai, India: 1.42s | Sydney: 1.48s |
14. HostGator (www.hostgator.com)
- From $2.75 / month
- Traffic allowed: unmetered
- Disk Space: unmetered
- Free Domain: ✅
- Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 0.67s
- Load time EU: 1.52s
- Load time Asia: 2.03s
HostGator is one of the best-known web hosting companies out there. I guess those Super Bowl ads helped with that a bit. 🤷♂️
They’ve revamped their offering lately and now offer several interesting hosting plans and tiers (based on your needs). You’ll find classic shared web hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers.
HostGator also has a website builder tool that’s integrated with their hosting platform. As in, you can sign up with HostGator and have everything involved with having your website built handled in one place.
| DECEMBER 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023 |
|---|
| 100% |
| East Coast, USA: 0.98s | West Coast, USA: 0.36s |
| London: 1.42s | Paris: 1.61s |
| Mumbai, India: 2.42s | Sydney: 1.63s |
15. GreenGeeks (www.greengeeks.com)
- From $2.95 / month
- Traffic allowed: unmetered
- Disk Space: unmetered
- Free Domain: ✅
- Uptime: 99.95% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 1.29s
- Load time EU: 0.51s
- Load time Asia: 2.54s
GreenGeeks is one of the first web hosting companies on the market that position themselves as eco-friendly web hosting. 🍀
What this means in practice is that GreenGeeks claims to be “putting back three times the power they consume into the grid in the form of renewable energy.”
Offer-wise, GreenGeeks doesn’t lag behind the other players out there. There’s standard shared hosting, WordPress hosting, specially optimized WooCommerce hosting, VPS hosting, and also plans for resellers.
Overall, a great choice if you want to be part of the solution and not the problem for global warming.
| DECEMBER 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023 |
|---|
| 99.95% |
| East Coast, USA: 1.01s | West Coast, USA: 1.57s |
| London: 0.46s | Paris: 0.56s |
| Mumbai, India: 1.69s | Sydney: 3.39s |