Today, we are taking a look at the best web hosting services available for small businesses to host their software and websites online.
Building a website is one thing but to make your website accessible to everyone on the internet, what you require is a web host.
To help our readers find the most suitable web host for their website, we went through some of the best web hosting services and made a list of the 10 services that impressed us the most.
From giants like Facebook and Google to that small bookstore in your neighborhood, regardless of the company’s size, web hosting services are necessary if you want people to be able to see and visit your website/app.
Right! Now that it’s clear what web hosts are and just how necessary their services are, it’s time to talk about this year’s best web hosting services.
Honestly speaking, there are quite a few web hosting companies out there and for anyone who doesn’t keep up with this kind of stuff, it’s quite easy to get lost in all the chatter.
The Best Web Hosting Services in 2023
Table of Contents
The Best Website Hosting Services in 2023
1. DigitalOcean – Scalable Web Hosting Service
- Rating: 4.7 out of 5.0
- Uptime: 99.99%
- Support: Helpdesk support via ticket
- Pricing: $5 per month
DigitalOcean offers a huge number of different price plans. For those who understand how web hosting services work, that’s a good thing, because it enables them to find the most suitable price plan for them.
But, for those who are new to this, such a huge variety of options will end up confusing them.
With that being said, their cheapest price plan starts at $5 per month and offers 1GB memory which makes it one of the best web hosting for small businesses.
With its total downtime in the past year being lower than 45 minutes, DigitalOcean has truly earned its place as one of the most reliable names in the world of web hosting today.
It’s of paramount importance these days that a website doesn’t just adapt to the device it is being accessed on but works well on it too. DigitalOcean aces in this aspect as well with its industry-best load time of 350ms.
What we love about DigitalOcean is that they are focused on providing the most complete suite of web hosting services.
Pricing
Take a look at their price plans for example, although the huge variety confuses beginners, once you get a hang of the technical jargon it’ll be really easy for you to find the most suitable plan for you.
And, if there’s a need for more resources in the future, upgrading is really easy as well.
2. BlueHost – Robust Website Hosting Service
- Rating: 4.6 out of 5.0
- Uptime: 99.99%
- Support: 24/7 live chat
- Pricing: $7.99 per month
From customizability and support to budget-friendly price plans and website security, BlueHost easily comes out on top in all web hosting comparisons.
Let’s start with the thing that we loved the most about BlueHost, their Basic price plan. At $7.99 per month, you get everything you need to run your website.
There is 24/7 live chat support, 5 email accounts, unmetered bandwidth, SSL certificate, and a free domain for the first year.
Now, let’s talk about BlueHost’s magnificent uptime. With 99.99% uptime, this web host is sending a clear message that it is at the top of its game right now.
Moreover, with an average load time of 400ms, it easily lands among the 5 best web hosting for small businesses in terms of load time.
Another thing that makes BlueHost of the top web hosts is the fact that it is one of the only three web hosts recommended for WordPress hosting. For those who don’t know, WordPress is the most widely used website platform in the world.
Pricing
BlueHost is offered in 3 price plans:
- Basic: Costs $2.95 initially after which it costs $7.99 per month. Hosts one website, offers 50GB of memory, and unmetered bandwidth.
- Plus: Costs $5.45 initially after which it costs $10.99 per month. Hosts unlimited websites, parked domains, and sub-domains. It also allows unlimited email accounts and email storage.
- Choice Plus: Costs $5.45 initially after which the price goes up to $14.99 per month. Offers everything in the Plus version and $200 worth of marketing offers, $80 worth of extras per year, Spam Experts, and Domain Privacy.
3. HostGator – Cheap Web Hosting Service
- Rating: 4.4 out of 5.0
- Uptime: 99.98%
- Support: 24/7 live chat
- Pricing: $2.75 per month
Being around for more than a decade, HostGator has built a strong reputation for itself. HostGator is one of those web hosting services that really impresses in some aspects but then in some areas, it leaves much to be desired.
For example, looking at their uptime it’s quite clear that HostGator is one of the best in the market. Also, whenever we tried their 24/7 live chat support; we got a reply from them within a few seconds.
But, their load time is pretty average when compared to other best web hosting for small businesses. At 1,000ms average load time, HostGator can start to annoy users which can then force them to leave the site.
HostGator seems pretty confident in the quality of its services because even though most of its competitors offer a 30-days money-back guarantee, these guys offer a 45-days money-back guarantee.
Another great thing about HostGator is that it’s quite user-friendly and so, even if you’re new to web hosting services, you’re not going to have any trouble finding the tool you’re looking for.
What we think hurts HostGator’s portfolio the most is that they offer lots of essential features like site backups, Gmail access, and SiteLock monitoring separately and then charge their customers quite heavily for those features.
Pricing
HostGator is offered in three different price plans:
- Hatchling: Costs $2.75 per month for the introductory period (36 months). Offers free SSL certificate, unmetered bandwidth, and hosts one website.
- Baby: Costs $3.95 per month for the introductory period. Offers everything in the Hatchling plan plus it supports hosting for unlimited domains.
- Business: Costs $5.95 per month for the introductory period. Offers everything in the Hatchling plan plus positive SSL, dedicated IP, and SEO tools.
4. GoDaddy – Web Hosting for Small Businesses
- Rating: 4.4 out of 5.0
- Uptime: 99.97%
- Support: 24/7 live chat
- Pricing: $8.99 per month
When it comes to web hosting services, GoDaddy is probably the most well-known name on this list. And, with great uptime and highly respectable load time (500ms), it’s not hard to see why they’re so popular. Unfortunately, it’s when you start digging deeper into their services that you realize there’s a lot of stuff missing.
Let’s talk about the good stuff first. Their cheapest plan offers 100 GB of storage! That’s ten times greater than what most of their competitors offer. Moreover, GoDaddy works pretty flawlessly with WordPress making it one the best web hosting for WordPress.
Now let’s talk about what disappointed us. First off, lots of things (SSL certificates, backups, site migrations) are being sold separately. Secondly, their support is slow and frustrating. Moreover, their money-back guarantee is so confusing that you might end up getting nothing back.
Pricing
Currently, GoDaddy offers 4 different price plans:
- Economy: Costs $5.99 initially and $8.99 per month after that. Offers unmetered bandwidth, a free domain and business email for one year and, 100 GB of storage.
- Deluxe: Costs $7.99 initially and $11.99 per month after that. Offers everything in Economy plus unlimited websites, unlimited storage, and unlimited subdomains.
- Ultimate: Costs $12.99 initially and $16.99 per month after that. Offers everything in Economy plus twice the processing power and memory, a free SSL certificate for the first year, and unlimited databases.
- Maximum: Costs $19.99 initially and $24.99 per month after that. Offers everything in Ultimate plus twice the processing power and memory, twice the maximum website traffic, a free SSL certificate for the entire term.
5. SiteGround – Simple Website Hosting
- Rating: 4.3 out of 5.0
- Uptime: 99.99%
- Support: 24/7 live chat
- Pricing: $11.95 per month
With a 99.99% uptime and a respectable load time, it was easy for SiteGround to win lots of web hosting comparisons but this web hosting service is about so much more than just uptime and load time.
First off, SiteGround has a pretty great support system. We tried contacting them multiple times and at different times of the day, their support was always helpful and responsive. Next, we tried all three hosting services that SiteGround offers; WordPress, cloud, and dedicated server. All of them were impressed.
Above that, SiteGround offers a free WordPress migration plugin. The thing that you need to know about site migration plugins is that when they are free, they usually end up being a mess. But, SiteGround seems to be an exception because their plugin worked pretty perfectly. In fact, some of our members ranked SiteGround as one of the best web hosting for WordPress.
The area that we think SiteGround could improve in is pricing. Their initial costs are pretty good but their renewal costs are a bit too much. Secondly, most web hosts offer a free domain for a year, this feature was dearly missed when testing SiteGround.
Pricing
SiteGround currently offers 3 different price plans:
- StartUp: Costs $3.95 initially and $11.95 per month after that. Offers essential features like 10GB storage, SSL certificate, unmetered traffic, email accounts, 24/7 support.
- GrowBig: Costs $5.95 initially and $19.95 per month after that. Offers everything in StartUp plus 20 GB of storage, unlimited websites, free site migration, on-demand backup, and WordPress staging.
- GoGeek: Costs $11.95 initially and $34.95 per month after that. Offer everything in GrowBig and 30 GB of storage, priority support, the highest tier of server resources, and white-label site management.
6. InMotion Hosting
- Rating: 4.2 out of 5.0
- Uptime: 99.95%
- Support: 24/7 live chat
- Pricing: $7.99 per month
InMotion Hosting has been around for almost two decades now, so you’ve likely seen or heard about them somewhere. During these two decades, this web hosting company has had the time to perfect its services, and today, it easily ranks among the best web hosting services for 2021.
Talking about their uptime and loading times, both of them are above average which is good. Their 24/7 live chat support is one of the best things about InMotion Hosting. The support reps were always helpful and responsive.
InMotion’s cheapest plan offers unlimited storage and email accounts which is pretty refreshing considering very few web hosting services offer this in their cheapest plan.
This service also supports up to 310 applications which means everything from WordPress to e-commerce systems works like a charm. Their TDS security feature is quite sturdy as well. InMotion Hosting is so confident about their services that they offer a 90-day money-back guarantee.
Pricing
Right now, InMotion Hosting offers three price plans:
- Launch: Costs $6.39 initially and $7.99 per month after that. Offer essential features like free SSL certificate, email accounts, and unlimited bandwidth.
- Power: Costs $8.49 initially and $9.99 per month after that. Offers everything in Launch plus twice the performance, security features like DDOS and hacking protection and, allows up to 60 websites.
- Pro: Costs $14.71 initially and $15.99 per month after that. Offers everything in Power plus unlimited websites, 4 times the performance, and pro-level support service.
7. 1&1 IONOS
- Rating: 4.1 out of 5.0
- Uptime: 99.97%
- Support: 24/7 live chat, online articles, call, ticket
- Pricing: $6.00 per month
Originally from Europe, 1&1 IONOS is one of the oldest web hosting services you can find online. It started back in 1998 and has kept up with the latest advancements in cloud storage and hosting technologies ever since.
Today, 1&1 IONOS is one of the best web hosting services for websites and claims to have a “blazing-fast hosting service” when compared to other leading hosting providers.
According to WebsiteBuilderExpert, IONOS powers more than 12 million websites from around the world. The average speed is 745 ms, which is quite decent for a cloud hosting service.
Their basic (Essential) plan starts at $6 per month ($4 per month for the first year) and offers an optimized cloud hosting server that meets the needs of a small website.
The more advanced (Business) plan costs $10 per month and offers 6GB of RAM along with unlimited storage.
Lastly, the Expert plan costs $16 per month and offers enhanced features, such as a CDN, SiteScan malware protection, and more.
8. Hostinger
- Rating: 4.2 out of 5.0
- Uptime: 99.92%
- Support: 24/7 live chat
- Pricing: $2.59 per month
Hostinger is one of the most budget-friendly web hosts out there considering the number of features it packs. What we loved about this web host is that all three of its versions are optimized for WordPress. It doesn’t matter if you’re on the cheapest or the most expensive plan because you’ll get one of the best web hosting for WordPress.
Hostinger’s uptime has been a little inconsistent over the past couple of months that we’ve been monitoring them but, they do offer a 99.99% uptime guarantee so it looks like they take uptime seriously.
Their load times are pretty great with average speeds of 350ms. They offer support in multiple languages which we think is great. Moreover, they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Unfortunately, like most web hosts, they aren’t clear about their price plans. Moreover, while most web hosts use the cPanel to allow users to manage everything, Hostinger offers their control panel which can be confusing for experienced users trying this web host for the first time.
Pricing
Currently, Hostinger offers 3 price plans:
- Single: Costs $0.99 the first time and $2.59 per month after that. Offers features like free support, one-click installer, business email account.
- Premium: Costs $2.59 the first time and $3.49 per month after that. Offers everything in Single plus twice the processing power and memory, unlimited bandwidth, and a free domain.
- Business: Costs $4.09 the first time and $7.95 per month after that. Offers everything in Premium plus a free lifetime SSL certificate, double the processing power and memory.
The above-mentioned prices apply only with a 48-month commitment. Without a commitment, the Single plan costs $9.59 per month, Premium costs $14.49 per month and Business costs $18.99 per month.
9. DreamHost
- Rating: 4.1 out of 5.0
- Uptime: 99.96%
- Support: Tickets
- Pricing: $2.59 per month
DreamHost has been around for more than 25 years and currently, they are hosting more than a million websites. With above-average uptime of 99.96%, a good load time of 700ms, and a basic plan that offers tons of features, DreamHost has earned its spot among the best web hosting services.
What’s astonishing about their services is that they offer a whopping 97-day money-back guarantee. Above that, their plans also offer unlimited bandwidth and unlimited storage which helps when your site starts growing.
DreamHost does offer a “24/7 live chat” but in reality, it’s just a bot that can only answer a couple of questions. Moreover, when we tried getting in touch with a rep; there wasn’t anyone available.
The company is US based and hence, customer reps are only available during US daytime which might not be suitable if you’re an international business.
Pricing
DreamHost offers 2 shared price plans:
- Shared Starter: Costs $2.59 per month with a three-year commitment. It offers one website, a free domain, unmetered bandwidth traffic, and a free SSL certificate.
- Shared Unlimited: Costs $5.95 per month with a three-year commitment. Includes everything in Starter plus unlimited websites and unlimited email addresses at your domain.
DreamHost’s WordPress Hosting plans are mentioned below:
- DreamPress: Costs $16.95 per month. Allows up to 100,000 monthly site visits. It offers 30 GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, and regular backups.
- DreamPress Plus: Costs $24.95 per month. Allows up to 300,000 monthly site visits. It offers 60 GB of memory, unlimited bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, daily backups, and unlimited CDN.
- DreamPress Pro: Costs $71.95 per month. Allows up to 1,000,000 monthly site visits. It offers 120 GB of memory, unlimited bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, daily backups, and unlimited CDN.
Other than this DreamHost also has VPS, dedicated server, and cloud hosting price plans.
10. A2 Hosting
- Rating: 4.1 out of 5.0
- Uptime: 99.92%
- Support: 24/7 live chat, online articles, call, ticket
- Pricing: $2.96 per month
A2 Hosting offers some pretty economical price plans and that too with some great features. The thing that surprised us the most about their services is that they offer an “Anytime” money-back guarantee and, that is exactly what it sounds like. In our opinion, A2 Hosting is easily one of the best web hosting for small business.
A2 Hosting’s 330ms load time is one of the best in the game right now and the fact that they offer support through live chat, ticket, call, and online articles is just wonderful.
Their free Hack-Scan feature also helps keep your website safe from any attacks and above that, they offer 1-25 free site migrations depending on your plan, which is nice to have.
The only issue we had with their service is that their uptime has kind of gone down over the past year. 99.92% is no laughing matter but it’s definitely below average.
Pricing
A2 Hosting is offering 3 price plans at the moment;
- Lite: This plan is starting at $2.96 per month. It offers features like five databases, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, free SSL certificate, and cPanel access to manage everything.
- Swift: This plan is starting at $3.70 per month. It includes everything in Lite plus unlimited websites, unlimited databases, unlimited storage and transfers, an SSL certificate, cPanel, and one free site migration.
- Turbo: This plan is starting at $7.03 per month. It includes everything in the Swift plan plus A2 Site Accelerator and Turbo which is a special feature that offers up to 20 times faster page loading.
The above-mentioned prices are what’s being charged after a 63% discount that A2 Hosting is currently offering. The actual prices are as follows; Lite costs $7.99 per month, Swift costs $9.99 per month and Turbo costs 18.99 per month.
11. MidPhase
- Rating: 3.9 out of 5.0
- Uptime: 99.99%
- Support: Helpdesk ticket and phone call
- Pricing: $3.95 per month
If we’re being honest, $3.95 for such a feature-packed service is pretty great and, their 99.99% uptime is more than enough to seal the deal but, MidPhase offers much more than just that.
Firstly, their support is quite knowledgeable and responsive. There’s very little waiting time before you are connected to a rep on a phone call.
Secondly, MidPhase offers unlimited site migrations and transfers for all cPanel accounts. If you know web hosting services you know that’s rare.
The thing we didn’t like about MidPhase is that their load time is pretty bad (1,100ms). Secondly, they do mention a 30-day money-back guarantee but there are hardly any details on it.
Another thing that was dearly missed was security. Lots of web hosting services throw extra security features to attract customers but we couldn’t any of that with MidPhase.
Pricing
Currently, MidPhase offers 3 price plans;
- Personal: Costs $3.95 per month initially and $6.95 after the introductory period. Includes features like unlimited storage and bandwidth, 1 database, 1 subdomain and, a free domain for a year.
- Professional: Costs $4.95 per month initially and $4.95 after the introductory period. Includes everything in Personal plus 3 databases, 5 subdomains, and supports up to 3 websites.
- Business: Costs $5.95 per month initially and $10.95 after the introductory period. Includes everything in Professional plus a dedicated IP address, a free SSL certificate, and free web analytics.
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Great and amazing blog post. Thanks for providing me in-depth knowledge about the topic “Web Hosting”.
Hey Dan,
You have mentioned almost every web hosting. I like the way you have explained almost every plan of these web hosting.
I was about to go for the Flywheel web hosting. But when I read about SiteGround on your website, I am confused.
On one end, Flywheel is more transparent about their services. On the other, SiteGround claims but they’re not transparent enough.
I don’t know whether SiteGround is as good as Flywheel. Please let me know which one would be best for my fashion business.