15 Best Web Hosting Services Compared: Real Data for Sept 2023

Not having to worry about the technical aspects of owning a website is a blessing. Your website should just work(!), without much maintenance having to be done on your part. Signing up with one of the best web hosting services on the market will give you such peace of mind.

Today, we compare some of the top options out there and name the best hosting services available!

This guide will show you how to pick a host for your next website project, which details to pay attention to, how much to spend, and which of the hosting providers is going to be the best fit for your specific needs.

✅ Key takeaways:

Best OVERALL:

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Bluehost offers a great mix of affordable pricing and top-notch features, making it a hit with both beginners and experts alike. With its excellent uptime, handy WordPress-boosting tools, useful ecommerce extras, and lots of flexibility, Bluehost stands as a reliable choice for making your website really shine. All that starting at $2.75 / month.

CHEAPEST web hosting:

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True to its name, Namecheap offers one of the most budget-friendly web hosting services out there. Right now, you can get your site up and running for just $1.58 / month (for the initial year). This bargain price doesn’t just cover one website – it allows for hosting up to three websites. As an added bonus, they even throw in a domain name for free.

Best MANAGED WordPress hosting:

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In terms of features, WP Engine really packs a punch for your WordPress site. Beyond standard hosting features, it comes with 30+ complimentary StudioPress themes, different environment setups (dev/stage/prod), advanced caching solutions, and a user-friendly dashboard for quick site adjustments. WP Engine may be pricier, starting at $20.00 / month, but its robust offerings justify the cost.

Best CLOUD hosting:

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Cloudways presents a distinct proposition in the world of web hosting. Rather than leasing server space directly, Cloudways serves as your portal to top-tier cloud hosts boasting high capabilities. Essentially, when you opt for Cloudways, you’re granted a choice of cloud hosting configurations provided by noteworthy providers like DigitalOcean (our preferred choice), Linode, Vultr, Amazon AWS, and Google Cloud. Great choice starting from the price of $11.00 / month.

➡️ Shortcuts:

• Best web hosting services compared 👈 the complete list you’re looking for (updated monthly)
• Your ultimate comparison table 👈 for an all-in-one summary
• FAQ: all your questions about web hosting answered
• How to pick your ideal web hosting service?

Our review process and what makes a web host good

To determine what the best web hosting services are, we looked through the popular companies on the market and signed up for the most appealing offers from each company. Next, we did a series of tests:

• ⚙️ We set up a standard website on the server and populated it with demo data.
• 🏎️ We tested the performance of the host – the load times from various locations around the globe.
• 🔋 We took note of the uptime/downtime numbers across a period of time.
• ⭐ We rated each host based on their price, performance, and features available for the price.

What you see below are the results of these tests.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, if you want to learn how to pick the ideal web hosting service for your website, here are the factors and features that you should look for:

Without further ado, here’s a shortlist of the best web hosting services on the market – with each host described in detail below:

Best web hosting services compared (updated monthly)

After searching the market wide and deep, we’ve decided to feature the following companies:

1. Bluehost (www.bluehost.com)
2. SiteGround (www.siteground.com)
3. WP Engine (wpengine.com)
4. DreamHost (www.dreamhost.com)
5. Kinsta (kinsta.com)
6. Rocket.net (rocket.net)
7. Hostinger (www.hostinger.com)
8. Namecheap (www.namecheap.com)
9. InMotion Hosting (www.inmotionhosting.com)
10. Flywheel (getflywheel.com)
11. Cloudways (www.cloudways.com)
12. A2 Hosting (www.a2hosting.com)
13. IONOS (www.ionos.com)
14. HostGator (www.hostgator.com)
15. GreenGeeks (www.greengeeks.com)

While there are many more web hosting companies out there, these 15 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

1. Bluehost (www.bluehost.com)

• From: $2.75 / month
• Traffic allowed: unmetered
• Disk Space: 50 GB
• Free Domain: ✅
• Uptime: 99.73% (last 3 months)
• Load time US: 1.28s
• Load time EU: 1.76s
• Load time Asia: 2.49s
• Best for: our best overall pick ⭐

Bluehost stands tall as one of the leading web hosting companies on the market, known for tailoring their services to accommodate different users with different websites and goals.

If you’re just starting out and a bit strapped for cash, Bluehost has got your back. You can grab a basic hosting setup starting from $2.75 / month. This plan will be more than enough to handle most websites with moderate traffic.

Now, for the heavy hitters with lots of traffic or tech-savvy users, Bluehost steps up its game with VPS hosting, WooCommerce hosting and dedicated servers. The overall scalability of Bluehost’s services means you can always upgrade to a more extensive plan whenever required.

One more thing, if you’re new to this or have plans to build a WordPress site, Bluehost makes it super easy. They have tools that make WordPress installs a breeze (with one click) and a user panel that’s equally easy to navigate. There’s also a very interesting web builder tool available, which makes it possible for everyone to craft a nice-looking website on their own. No web server geek-speak needed.

⚡ Pro tip. If you get a web hosting plan from Bluehost and pay for at least one year upfront, you’ll get a free domain name for the first year included.

2. 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: 1.4s
• Load time EU: 0.38s
• Load time Asia: 2.14s

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.

3. WP Engine (wpengine.com)

• From: $20.00 / month
• Traffic allowed: 25,000 visits/month
• Disk Space: 10 GB
• Free Domain: ❌
• Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
• Load time US: 1.16s
• Load time EU: 1.73s
• Load time Asia: 2.31s
• Best for: best managed WordPress host 🎛️

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 $20.00 / 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.

4. DreamHost (www.dreamhost.com)

• From: $2.59 / month
• Traffic allowed: unmetered
• Disk Space: 50 GB
• Free Domain: ✅
• Uptime: 99.93% (last 3 months)
• Load time US: 1.64s
• Load time EU: 4.65s
• Load time Asia: 3.23s

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.

5. Kinsta (kinsta.com)

• From: $24.00 / month
• Traffic allowed: 25,000 visits/month
• Disk Space: 10 GB
• Free Domain: ❌
• Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
• Load time US: 0.95s
• Load time EU: 1.14s
• Load time Asia: 2.59s

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 $24.00 / 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.

6. Rocket.net (rocket.net)

• From: $25 / month (first month for $1)
• Traffic allowed: 250,000 visits/month
• Disk Space: 10 GB
• Free Domain: ❌
• Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
• Load time US: 0.43s
• Load time EU: 0.44s
• Load time Asia: 0.77s

Just stepping onto the scene in the hosting market, Rocket.net is making waves with its fast, secure, and user-friendly WordPress hosting services.

It comes pre-configured for optimal speed in relation to what WordPress sites need, in a way that helps you bolster SEO scores and conversions. The company also assures security with free SSL, CDN, WAF, and malware protection, keeping your websites online and safe.

With Rocket.net, managing websites is a breeze thanks to their intuitive dashboard. They back their services with 24/7 expert support, free unlimited migrations, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. The cherry on top? An introductory offer of just $1. Amid the crowd, Rocket.net stands out, offering peace of mind for all website owners.

7. Hostinger (www.hostinger.com)

• From: $1.99 / month
• Traffic allowed: 10,000 visits/month
• Disk Space: 50 GB
• Free Domain: ✅
• Uptime: 99.26% (last 3 months)
• Load time US: 1.38s
• Load time EU: 0.43s
• Load time Asia: 2.06s

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, VPS (running on Linux), WordPress hosting, 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 which is free with all hosting plans. It allows you to create your site from scratch without ever leaving Hostinger.

8. Namecheap (www.namecheap.com)

• From: $1.58 / month
• Traffic allowed: unmetered
• Disk Space: 20 GB
• Free Domain: ✅
• Uptime: 99.98% (last 3 months)
• Load time US: 1.23s
• Load time EU: 2.26s
• Load time Asia: 2.41s
• Best for: cheapest host on the list 💸

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.

9. 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: 0.82s
• Load time EU: 1.5s
• Load time Asia: 3.5s

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.

10. Flywheel (getflywheel.com)

• From: $13.00 / month
• Traffic allowed: 5,000 visits/month
• Disk Space: 5 GB
• Free Domain: ❌
• Uptime: 95.49% (last 3 months)
• Load time US: 0.63s
• Load time EU: 3s
• Load time Asia: 0.41s

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.

11. Cloudways (www.cloudways.com)

• From: $11.00 / month
• Traffic allowed: 1 TB bandwidth
• Disk Space: 25 GB
• Free Domain: ❌
• Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
• Load time US: 1.18s
• Load time EU: 0.32s
• Load time Asia: 1.95s
• Best for: best cloud hosting ☁️

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).

12. A2 Hosting (www.a2hosting.com)

• From: $2.99 / month
• Traffic allowed: unmetered
• Disk Space: 100 GB
• Free Domain: ❌
• Uptime: 99.94% (last 3 months)
• Load time US: 2.05s
• Load time EU: 3.32s
• Load time Asia: 5.03s

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.

13. IONOS (www.ionos.com)

• From: $1.00 / month
• Traffic allowed: unmetered
• Disk Space: unmetered
• Free Domain: ✅
• Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
• Load time US: 0.41s
• Load time EU: 0.66s
• Load time Asia: 1.32s

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).

14. HostGator (www.hostgator.com)

• From: $3.75 / month
• Traffic allowed: unmetered
• Disk Space: unmetered
• Free Domain: ✅
• Uptime: 99.31% (last 3 months)
• Load time US: 0.14s
• Load time EU: 0.11s
• Load time Asia: 0.12s

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.

15. GreenGeeks (www.greengeeks.com)

• From: $2.95 / month
• Traffic allowed: unmetered
• Disk Space: unmetered
• Free Domain: ✅
• Uptime: 99.93% (last 3 months)
• Load time US: 2.11s
• Load time EU: 1.22s
• Load time Asia: 3.59s

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.

FAQ: all your questions about web hosting answered

How to pick your best web hosting services?

As you can see, there’s a lot to choose from if you’re looking for a reliable web hosting firm. There are offers available on the whole spectrum of prices, server parameters, and even the software that you’ll then use to build your site.

Overall, you generally can’t go wrong here. The reason all these companies have such good ratings is that we’ve only selected the very best of the web hosting market to include in this comparison.

What’s it going to be, have you made your pick as to who will be your next web host?

* This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and then purchase the product, we’ll receive a commission. No worries though, you’ll still pay the standard amount so there’s no additional cost on your part.