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11 Best Web Hosting Providers in 2021

Best Web Hosting Providers

Web hosting providers offer different types of Web hosting services that come in all shapes and sizes including shared hosting, dedicated hosting, VPS, managed hosting, server cores, different RAM, CDNs, and SSL certificates.

We know it can be difficult to pick the best web hosting service for your website. This article will lay out the 11 best hosting providers in 2021 on the market, giving you insights into key areas such as pricing, features, uptime, and help and support.

Related: GoDaddy Web Hosting Expert Review

Read in-depth reviews of these best web hosting providers below — plus, tips for saving money, the best types of hosting for different situations, and our method for picking the right web host.

The 11 best web hosting providers of 2021 are:

  1. Bluehost
  2. HostGator
  3. InMotion
  4. A2 Hosting
  5. GreenGeeks
  6. SiteGround
  7. GoDaddy Hosting
  8. Hostinger
  9. iPage
  10. DreamHost
  11. WPEngine

This list was carefully compiled using our thorough research process. Every web hosting service has been tested and analyzed on the following criteria to calculate our ratings:

  • Pricing and value for money – number of plans, price range, money-back guarantees.
  • Features – bandwidth, backups, RAM, domains, SSL, email accounts, number of sites, control panel, etc.
  • Disk space – the amount of server storage available on each plan.
  • Uptime – the amount of time that your website is live and accessible to visitors, expressed as a percentage.
  • Help and support – what support channels are available, and are they any good?

Whether you’re looking for a new web hosting service, or you want to switch providers, this article will help you move forwards.

What are the different types of web hosting?

Good question! Before we take a closer look at each provider, here’s an overview of the main types of the best web hosting that you’ll encounter:

  • Shared hosting: Multiple websites are housed on one physical server, and share its resources.
  • VPS hosting: One physical server is partitioned into multiple virtual servers so that each website gets more resources and space without committing to a dedicated server.
  • Dedicated hosting: An entire physical server, along with all of its resources, is used to house one website.
  • Cloud hosting: Similar to shared hosting, except that a network of multiple servers is used to pool resources and maximize uptime.
  • Reseller hosting: The owner of a reseller hosting plan can effectively lease out server space to third parties. In other words, you would be the middleman between a hosting provider and a website.

Related: How to do YouTube Channel SEO in 2021

Scroll down to discover the best web hosting providers, and for bonus advice on how to choose the best one for you!

The Best Web Hosting Providers 2021

1. Bluehost: Best Web Hosting Providers

Best overall hosting provider

Pricing plans from $2.75 a month

Bluehost Pros and Cons

Bluehost ProsBluehost Cons
  • Dependable server uptime
  • Superb WordPress integration
  • Budget-level pricing
  • Less storage on basic plan compared to competitors
  • Potential CPU throttling

Features

Three shared hosting plans by Bluehost are Basic, Plus, and Prime with a storage capacity of 100GB and 99.98% uptime. The registration provides you with a free domain, free backups, and cPanel access that is very convenient for hosting your account. It is entirely designed and recommended for WordPress pages since 2005, by WordPress itself!

Bluehost also provides 24/7 service for phone and live chat. We checked and found that live chat helpers responded with the details we needed quickly.

Bluehost is a great choice if you choose to integrate it with a WordPress website, in particular the free migration feature of WordPress.

If you sign up with a plan the on-site team from Bluehost will check your website, and if it fits their requirements, they will free of charge pass to Bluehost your current WordPress site!

Bluehost is also perfect for new pages of WordPress. This is a one-click setup, which has been designed for WordPress since 2014.

Pricing

Bluehost offers excellent value for money, though that’s partialy because you can only sign on for long-term contracts (the shortest contract is 12 months). As with many providers, the cheapest rate requires signing up for at least 36 months.

Check out the cheapest introductory price for each hosting type, compared to the cheapest renewal price, below:

  • Shared hosting: $2.95 per month, renews at $7.99 per month
  • Shared WordPress hosting: $2.95 per month, renews at $7.99 per month
  • WooCommerce hosting: $6.95 per month, renews at $13.99 per month
  • VPS hosting: $18.99 per month, renews at $29.99 per month
  • Managed WordPress hosting: $19.95 per month, renews at $29.99 per month
  • Dedicated hosting: $79.99 per month, renews at $119.99 per month

Bluehost’s Basic shared plan can be a bit restrictive to larger sites, but for most, it’s a great option. SSL, unlimited bandwidth, and 99.98% uptime come with each plan, so it’s really just a question of how much scalability you need.

Try BlueHost

2. HostGator: Best Web Hosting Providers

Best for uptime

Pricing plans from $2.75 a month

HostGator Pros and Cons

HostGator ProsHostGator Cons
  • Excellent uptime guarantee of 99.99%
  • Tons of features for shared hosts, including email marketing
  • Best all-rounder in our hosting ranking
  • Administration interfaces could do with modernization
  • No free domain offering

Features

There are three web hosting plans shared by HostGator: Hatchling, Baby, and Business. While it is evident that each feature rises, the basic offer is solid. Both schemes have unrestricted disk space, uptime of 99,99 percent (one provider’s best guarantee), and service 24/7. These obligations are taken seriously by HostGator: if uptime is short, you will get an additional credit for 1 month.

The business plan comes with free SSL, but you may need to pick SSL as a supplement for Hatchling and Baby (or not deselect it, to be more accurate). The variety of top-level areas that you will obtain (.com,.org,.tech, etc). When you register, you will have to go to a registrar such as Domain.com to register your domain separately in addition to niche areas such as start or .coffee.

Pricing

Like most web hosting services, HostGator gets cheaper the more time you commit to it. Check out the cheapest introductory and renewal prices below:

  • Shared hosting: $2.75 per month, renews at $6.95 per month
  • Cloud hosting: $4.95 per month, renews at $8.95 per month
  • WordPress hosting: $5.95 per month, renews at $9.95 per month
  • Reseller hosting: $19.95 per month, renews at $29.95 per month
  • VPS hosting: $29.95 per month, renews at $89.95 per month
  • Dedicated hosting: $89.98 per month, renews at $189 per month

A sound approach is to sign on for a month and see how the service holds up to your needs. If you’re impressed, you can renew on a longer-term contract. If not, you’re in a position to look elsewhere, and won’t be out of pocket. Just know that HostGator is no different from other web hosting services in terms of pricing commitments – and with this provider, you can rest assured that you’re committing to a great service.

3. InMotion: Best Web Hosting Providers

Best for shared and VPS hosting

Pricing plans from $6.39 a month

InMotion Pros and Cons

InMotion ProsInMotion Cons
  • Highly trained customer support staff
  • Unlimited disk space and free SSL as part of basic pricing tier
  • No sub-$5 pricing tier
  • No Windows servers

Features

The bandwidth and disk space is unlimited for all InMotion accounts. While several other businesses offer boundless bandwidth, unrestricted drive space is seldom included in the lowest level pricing plans. This is a great cause we scored the shared and VPS plans of InMotion so highly. Free SSL, free backup and hack security are also given to you.

InMotion is proud of its client service. Staff have over 160 training hours, which can be obtained via phone, live chat and e-mail.

Pricing

InMotion offers three shared hosting plans: Lite (an exclusive plan just for WBE users!) LaunchPower, and Pro. The Launch and Power shared plans start off at $4.99/month and $7.99/month, respectively, while the Pro shared plan starts at $12.99/month. InMotion’s Launch plan is ideal for hosting small business or personal websites.

That said, InMotion offers a lot more than just shared plans:

  • WordPress hosting: $4.99 per month, renews at $7.99 per month
  • VPS hosting: $22.99 per month, renews at $34.99 per month
  • Dedicated hosting: $75.69 per month, renews at $129.99/month

InMotion is reasonably priced, but its 90-day money-back guarantee is where this provider really exceeds the limits of most competitors.

4. A2 Hosting

Best for cloud hosting

Pricing plans from $2.99 a month

A2 Pros and Cons

A2 ProsA2 Cons
  • Anytime money-back guarantee
  • Windows servers available on shared hosting plans
  • Excellent cloud hosting plans
  • Priced higher than larger companies like Bluehost and HostGator
  • Automated coupon code discounts are confusing

Features

A2 Hosting offers both Windows and Linux shared hosting plans. Linux hosting is more common, and best for basic sites like blogs. The starting Linux plan comes with unlimited storage and data transfer, free SSL security, and SSD storage for your website.

Windows hosting offers the same, but with the addition of a Plesk Onyx 17.8 control panel. You’ll also get a free site migration, with one click installs for WordPress, Drupal, B2evolution, phpBB, BlogEngine, and Joomla.

Pricing

A2 Hosting offers decent introductory and renewal prices for each hosting type. We’ve summarized the cheapest prices below:

  • Shared hosting: $2.99 per month, renews at $8.99 per month
  • Cloud hosting: $4.99 per month, renews at $5.99 per month
  • WordPress hosting: $2.99 per month, renews at $8.99 per month
  • Reseller hosting: $18.99 per month, renews at $34.99 per month
  • VPS hosting: $34.99 per month, renews at $45.99 per month
  • Dedicated hosting: $141.09 per month, renews at $169.99 per month

A2 Hosting also offers an anytime money-back guarantee, but this does come with some fine print: you get a full refund for the first 30 days, and a prorated refund any time after that.

5. GreenGeeks

Best for green web hosting

Pricing plans from $2.95 a month

GreenGeeks Pros and Cons

GreenGeeks ProsGreenGeeks Cons
  • Free website transfer service
  • 300% renewable energy match
  • 98% uptime guarantee
  • No cloud or dedicated hosting
  • Limited server locations – servers only on two continents

Features

GreenGeeks offers shared, WordPress, VPS, and reseller hosting. Often the main thing people note about GreenGeeks is its impressive 300% renewable energy match, but it’s also generous with its hosting features.

Every GreenGeeks plan comes with cPanel, unlimited MySQL databases, unlimited email accounts, and a drag-and-drop website builder. On top of that, all GreenGeeks’ shared plans all come with unlimited bandwidth and SSD storage, plus free domain registration.

Pricing

GreenGeeks’ pricing plans are pretty affordable on the whole – its lack of dedicated hosting means its higher tier plans can still be classed as budget-friendly.

Check out GreenGeeks’ cheapest prices for each hosting type (along with renewal prices) below:

  • Shared hosting: $2.95 per month, renews at $9.95 per month
  • WordPress hosting: $2.95 per month, renews at $9.95 per month
  • VPS hosting: $39.95 per month, renews at same price
  • Reseller hosting: $19.95 per month, renews at $29.95 per month

The cheapest shared and WordPress plans reflect a three year subscription, whereas the VPS plan is paid month-to-month, which is why there’s no jump in renewal price.

All GreenGeeks plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

6. SiteGround: Best Web Hosting Providers

Best for reliability

Pricing plans from $6.99 a month

SiteGround Pros and Cons

SiteGround ProsSiteGround Cons
  • Automated daily backups for free
  • Automatic WordPress updates for all users
  • Excellent knowledge base pages
  • Not the cheapest web host around

Features

Much like Bluehost, WordPress websites and SiteGround go hand-in-hand. SiteGround offers WordPress hosting at every plan level, and deals with updates automatically. You’ll also get a WordPress hosting command line manager on every plan for extra support.

But it’s not just WordPress that makes SiteGround so impressive. This adaptive provider offers dedicated packages and one-click installations for many different content management systems. If you’re looking to move from an existing host, SiteGround will also let you transfer for free on any of its plans.

Pricing

SiteGround’s cheapest shared plan is StartUp at $6.99/month. The next step up is GrowBig, which comes in at $9.99/month. GoGeek is the most advanced shared plan, and costs $14.99/month. These promotional starting prices will increase in time to $14.99, $24.99, and $39.99, respectively.

We recommend starting with a shared plan, but SiteGround offers other types of hosting, too:

  • Shared hosting: $6.99 per month, renews at $14.99 per month
  • WordPress hosting: $6.99 per month, renews at $14.99 per month
  • Reseller hosting: $14.99 per month, renews at $39.99 per month
  • Cloud hosting: $80 per month, renews at the same rate

7. GoDaddy Hosting

Best for extra features

Pricing plans from $2.99 a month

GoDaddy Hosting Pros and Cons

GoDaddy ProsGoDaddy Cons
  • Excellent website builder
  • Free Office 365 email with shared hosting
  • Pricing is higher than other major website host companies
  • GoDaddy’s unlimited offerings require a close reading of the fine print

Features

Although its support has improved in recent years, GoDaddy is still lagging behind its competitors in this area. Its live chat feature isn’t available around-the-clock, but GoDaddy’s 24/7 phone support is very good.

GoDaddy also offers a free domain for one year, even on its basic plan, plus a one year subscription to Microsoft Office 365 for email. Unmetered bandwidth and unlimited storage are also major benefits of GoDaddy’s hosting plans.

Pricing

GoDaddy’s cheapest introductory and renewal prices are as follows:

  • Shared hosting: $3.99 per month, renews at $7.99 per month
  • WordPress hosting: $6.99 per month, renews at $9.99 per month
  • Reseller hosting: $39.99 per month, renews at $54.99 per month
  • VPS hosting: $4.99 per month, renews at $7.99 per month*
  • Dedicated hosting: $129.99 per month, renews at $169.99 per month

*This is GoDaddy’s cheapest VPS hosting plan, which only offers 1 vCPU and 1GB RAM, which is not sufficient to run a control panel. The second-cheapest plan, which comes with 2 vCPU, is more reflective of VPS capabilities and prices. It starts at $19.99 per month, and renews at $29.99 per month.

GoDaddy is also one of the few providers that doesn’t offer a money-back guarantee, which can be frustrating when you’re testing the waters.

That being said, GoDaddy’s ability to provide domains, hosting, and website building tools all in one place make it a strong option. But if value for money is your top priority, you’ll be better off with Bluehost or HostGator.

8. Hostinger

Best for discounted pricing

Pricing plans from $0.99 a month

Hostinger Pros and Cons

Hostinger ProsHostinger Cons
  • Super cheap discounted prices
  • Fast server speeds
  • Low uptime guarantee
  • Not the most comprehensive support

Features

Hostinger offers shared, WordPress, VPS, and cloud hosting, but it doesn’t offer dedicated hosting plans – effectively putting a cap on scalability. This is a big factor behind its seventh place position, but it’s worth noting that Hostinger’s top VPS plan is so advanced that this will never become a problem for any small to medium-sized sites.

Hostinger has proven itself to be a fast hosting provider, with servers spread out across seven countries. However, uptime is a bit of a low point. While we really respect that Hostinger is transparent about server performance, its uptime guarantee of 99.90% is considerably less than the industry-standard 99.97-99.98%.

Another area of note is disk space. While this does amp up on the more expensive VPS and cloud plans, on the shared plans in particular, it’s really low – we’re talking 10-30GB.

Disk space is essentially your website’s storage. If you’re planning on having a fairly simple, “static” website, this won’t be a problem. However, if you want to post regularly, or add a lot of “heavy” media (like high-res images and videos), you may find you’re having to upgrade pretty regularly.

Pricing

Hostinger offers plans starting from just $0.99, which is unbelievably cheap. The catch? You need to commit to a 48-month contract to lock in this deal. Still, at a total cost of $47.52, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee, this isn’t such a daunting commitment. Even after the initial promotional period is over, the renewal cost is just $2.99/month – significantly cheaper than pretty much any other provider. Check out the introductory and renewal prices of Hostinger’s cheapest plans below:

  • Shared hosting: $0.99 per month, renews at $2.99 per month
  • Cloud hosting: $9.99 per month, renews at $18.99 per month
  • WordPress hosting: $2.99 per month, renews at $3.49 per month
  • VPS hosting: $3.95 per month, renews at $7.99 per month

9. iPage

Best for cheap plans but at the cost of speed

Pricing plans from $2 a month

iPage Pros and Cons

iPage ProsiPage Cons
  • Very low introductory pricing for shared hosting
  • Free domains on numerous web hosting plans
  • Post-introductory prices are a little confusing
  • Initial VPS plan does not have the same value as competitors’

Features

iPage hosting has just one shared hosting plan. This may sound strange, but its self-described “one size fits all” shared plan offers:

  • Unlimited disk space
  • Scalable bandwidth
  • Free domain
  • Unlimited domain names
  • Free website builder
  • vDeck control panel

Unlimited domain names is a rarity for shared hosting plans. However, iPage’s 99.95% uptime will be discouraging to some.

Pricing

iPage may only have one web hosting plan, but it does vary in cost. The price is dependent on how long you sign up for: for example, if you commit to a three-year deal, you can pay as little as $2/month. After the initial period, however, this price renews at $8/month.

Two-year signups cost $2.50/month and then renew at $9/month, while one-year signups cost $3/month and renew at $10/month.

10. DreamHost

Best for storage space

Pricing plans from $2.95 a month

Dreamhost Pros and Cons

DreamHost ProsDreamHost Cons
  • 97-day money-back guarantee
  • Cheap shared hosting
  • Great for storage
  • Potentially delayed set-up
  • Lots of additional costs

Features

DreamHost’s shared plans offer a free domain, unlimited bandwidth, one-click WordPress install, and a free SSL certificate. If you upgrade from the Shared Starter plan to the Shared Unlimited plan, you’ll also get unlimited email @ your domain.

Pricing

DreamHost offers a 97-day money-back guarantee on its shared hosting plans, and a 30-day guarantee for other hosting types. DreamHost’s low-end price ranges are as follows:

  • Shared hosting: $2.59 per month, renews at $4.95 per month
  • WordPress hosting: $2.59 per month, renews at $4.95 per month
  • VPS hosting: $10 per month, renews at $15 per month
  • Dedicated hosting: $149 per month, renews at $169 per month

11. WPEngine

Best for big businesses

Pricing plans from $35/month

WPEngine Pros and Cons

WPEngine ProsWPEngine Cons
  • Excellent help and support
  • Automated services to keep site infrastructure up-to-date
  • Advanced features for pro users
  • Expensive entry level plans
  • For WordPress only

Features

As you may have guessed from its name, WPEngine is exclusively a WordPress hosting platform. Its four hosting plans are geared toward large business websites, and while the first three come at a fixed price, WPEngine’s “Custom” fourth plan requires you to get in touch for a quote.

WPEngine’s Content Delivery Network (CDN) support is its most interesting feature. This is a backend service that helps deliver your website to users around the world through a geographically diverse network of servers. On top of all that, WPEngine works automatically with WordPress to keep you up to date, and performs daily automated site backups.

Pricing

WPEngine plans aren’t cheap. But if you’re running a big business website on WordPress, you’ll be in great hands. Prices are as follows:

  • StartUp – $35/month
  • Growth – $115/month
  • Scale – $290/month
  • Custom – Contact WPEngine for a direct quote

One important point to add is that you can claim a discount by paying for any of these plans annually. If you pay a year’s lump sum up front, you get two months free – in other words, instead of paying $420 over the course of a year for the StartUp plan, you’ll pay a one-off fee of $350.

Which is the Best Web Hosting Company for Me?

The size and type of website you own will dictate the type of hosting plan you need. Your budget, the features you require, and how you built your site will also play a part in your decision. But ultimately, it’s best to choose one priority that you value most, and base your decision on that feature.

For example, if customer service and value for money are both important to you, but you’re most concerned about having great uptime, then HostGator is your best bet. But if a great value for money is your non-negotiable top priority, then Bluehost will give you the most bang for your buck.

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