You’re here to find the best web hosting.
Assuming you want a fast website, great customer service, and the best price, the best web hosting of 2020 is SiteGround.
Our research team tested over 50 web hosts and ranked the best overall web hosting companies.
Rankings
#1: SiteGround
Think: Bluehost, but better customer service.
Fast servers and super affordable. The #1 option for most.
SiteGround is the best web host for local businesses or beginning to intermediate bloggers.
Their OMG-worthy, USA-based customer service team makes it a no-brainer.
You’ll be able to easily integrate with WordPress, Joomla, or Magento just like most shared hosting accounts, but with faster load page times.
The SSD servers are spread across the globe in the U.S.A., Europe, and Asia to help users access your files fast. As one of the most highly-rated hosts online, most of their customers have only good things to say about them. All of these factors add together to make them our overall best hosting platform available.
Unique features: Free SSL certificate (that makes your site https – very important), 99.99% uptime, CMS friendly, Linux SSD servers, free daily backup
Pricing: Starting at $3.95
#2: Bluehost
Bluehost is the perfect platform for bloggers, internet marketers and WordPress fans due to their affordable and powerful shared plans.
Bluehost has become one of the best options for small businesses, bloggers, and niche site webmasters.
Their plans give an all-inclusive solution for anyone looking for one place for their hosting. Their 100% U.S. based customer phone support team can help you any time of day and night if you have any problems. If you use WordPress for your sites, you’ll be happy to know that Bluehost was the first hosting company recommended by WordPress.
Due to their early adoption of the WP platform, Bluehost has been adopted by many affiliate marketers and has a very well known an easy to use affiliate program.
Unique features: Free domain, USA-based support, easy-to-upgrade
Pricing: Starting at $3.49
#3: HostGator
HostGator is a top-3 favorite for bloggers and small business owners due to the upfront options and clear pricing structure. Super simple.
HostGator is one of the best entry level hosts on the market.
A great option for beginners who’re starting a blog. Their plans are robust, easy to understand and affordable. E-commerce stores and entrepreneurs can benefit from the free 1-800 number that is given to all “business” plan customers.
HostGator also offers one of the most generous affiliate programs with an increasing payment system that tops off at $125/sale. The environmentally conscious will enjoy that the company has no carbon footprint because they purchase renewable energy credits equal to 130% of their emissions.
With a significant portion of the entire internet’s traffic running through their servers, this host is one of the most popular online.
Unique Features: 99.9% uptime guarantee, WordPress-friendly, affordable, 24/7 phone support
Pricing: Starting at $5.56
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Best of the rest:
#4: iPage
One of the most affordable options online, iPage offers versatile and reliable shared hosting for low prices.
iPage really is Bluehost or Hostgator. Owned by the same company (2). If you need shared hosting on a budget, its not a bad way to go.
Unique features: Free domain, daily backups, 30-day money-back guarantee
Pricing: Starting at $3.25
#5: Arvixe
Arvixe is a great all-around provider that has a ton of versatile hosting options for just about anyone who needs a website.
If you outgrow the plan you start with, Arvixe makes it incredibly easy to move up to the next plan, or even the next hosting type.
Unique features: Free domain, 99.9% uptime, free site transfer
Pricing: Starting at $3.27
#6: Web Hosting Hub
Web Hosting Hub specializes in providing shared hosting to small businesses with top notch service.
Web Hosting Hub understands that you’re busy running your company, so many of their options help you get started quickly with minimal legwork on your part. Some of these features include an open community, tutorials, and a premium website builder that makes creating your new site a breeze.
Unique Features: 90-day money-back guarantee
Pricing: Starting at $3.99
#7: InMotion
InMotion is all about speed and service, and their customers are some of the most satisfied on the internet.
Best known for good customer services, but they’re not on Siteground’s level. They also care a lot about speed, with SSD hardware, advanced routing, and premium bandwidth a priority for all shared accounts.
Unique features: Free data backups, SSD hard drives, 90-day money back
Pricing: Starting at $4.89
#8: DreamHost
DreamHost has become one of the most reliable hosting providers trusted mostly by startups.
Uptime is more important for startups and e-commerce sites that need constant traffic for exposure and sales. Dreamhost has a “100% uptime” guarantee. While it’s not the cheapest hosting, it is a reasonable price for all of the features offered. Probably better for someone looking for VPS (which they offer starting at $15/mo)
Unique features: 100% uptime guarantee, free daily backups, 97 day money-back guarantee
Pricing: Starting at $5.95
#9: FatCow
Another generic brand from the Endurance International conglomerate.
FatCow seeks to help those who don’t know much about having a website. Their original FatCow plan is their only shared hosting option that they claim is “simply smart web hosting”. It’s the only plan that individuals and business owners will need to get a site up and going. This won’t be a host for developers or anyone who wants a host with a lot of options.
Unique features: Runs on green energy, free domain
Pricing: Starting at $4.08/mo
#10: A Small Orange
A Small Orange is an upfront host that is clear about what you get with each of their plans.
There are so many hosting companies that offer “unlimited” bandwidth and disk space, but when your site reaches a certain traffic level or your files take up so much space you often hit what hosts call a “soft cap”. A Small Orange doesn’t have any unlimited plans and clearly labels all the resources that you get. You’ll know your limits and have a site that will never run poorly due to invisible limits.
Unique features: 99.9% uptime, free data backups
Pricing: Starting at $2.92 (this is the bare minimum, people)
#11: A2
A2 is an incredibly advanced and versatile hosting platform that provides developers and programmers a place to build powerful applications and websites.
This is for the gamers. Not the “beginners”. A2 is a host that was started by developers to create a place for other coders and developers to build awesome sites. You’ll find almost every web programming language available, including the latest version of PHP. There is also a unique feature to switch between different versions of a few of the languages they offer to make it easier to create robust programs.
Unique features: 99.9% uptime, free backup tool, resources for developers
Pricing: Starting at $3.92
#12: GoDaddy
GoDaddy is one of the better-known registrar brands.
Mainly a domain registrar and manages over 53 million domains on their servers. Their site also has a domain marketplace where anyone can buy and sell their domains in an auction style, although its not recommended. Hit or miss on the customer support.
Unique features: DDOS protection, 99.9% uptime
Pricing: Starting at $2.99
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Process
Our rankings process included page speed, customer support, ease of starting a website.
Recap
You want the fastest host with the best customer service? Get Siteground.
It’s basically what Bluehost, Hostgator and iPage offer, but better customer service.
You get the point.
Hi JP,
Really great reviews on the current hosting options available. If you were to pick one hosting company for a new Ecommerce startup, what would you recommend?
I’d still use Siteground