A web host, or web hosting service provider, is a company that provides space on a server owned or leased for use by clients, as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Websites are hosted or stored, on special computers called servers. When Internet users want to view your website, all they need to do is type your website address or domain into their browser. Their computer will then connect to your server and your web pages will be delivered to them through the browser.
Before signing up for web hosting services, it is important to understand what kind of service your website needs, the kind of server you or your business needs, your budget, and what type of services the web host offers. The various types of web hosting services available to host your website are:
WordPress Hosting
- caters to beginners who need to host a website, but lack the technical skills and knowledge to build one.
- provide you with an online browser-based interface to build your website, and also host the website for you without any additional setup.
- comes with WordPress already installed in your environment, regular updates to your WordPress core and extras, such as free themes, better performance and specialist plugins.
Shared Hosting
- you and other website owners have to share one server.
- includes sharing the physical server and the software applications within the server.
- affordable because the cost to operate the server is shared between you and these other owners. The downside is that it makes your website slower.
Dedicated Hosting
- you have the entire web server to yourself.
- allows for faster performance, as you have all the server’s resources entirely, without sharing with other website owners.
- higher cost since you will be responsible for the cost of server operation entirely.
- good choice for websites that requires a lot of system resources, or need a higher level of security.
VPS hosting
- Similar to shared hosting in which multiple sites share the same server, but the similarities end there.
- A dedicated web host houses fewer sites per server than in the case with shared hosting, and each site has its own individual resources. For example, Site A’s traffic surge won’t have nearly as much impact on Site B or Site C
- costs more than shared hosting, roughly $20 to $60 per month.
Cloud hosting
- A new type of hosting platform that allows customers powerful, scalable and reliable hosting based on clustered load-balanced servers and utility billing.
- More reliable than alternatives since cloud hosting is decentralized and other computers in the cloud can compensate when a single piece of hardware goes down.
- Providers to charge users only for resources consumed by the user, rather than a flat fee for the amount the user expects they will use, or a fixed cost upfront hardware investment.
| Name | WordPress | Shared | Dedicated | VPS | Cloud | FTP | SSL | International | 24*7 Support | |
| HostGator | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| InMotion Hosting | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Bluehost | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| 1&1 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| TMDHosting | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| LiquidWeb | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| SiteGround | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| GlowHost | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| FastComet | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| DreamHost | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
| iPage | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| GoDaddy | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| HostWinds | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Rackspace | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Fatcow | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Doteasy | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Web.com | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| WP Engine | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
| Website.com | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ |
We evaluated all the popular web hosting services based on above-mentioned types of hosting, then checked for other features like email hosting, FTP, SSL certificate, server locations, customer support, and deployment. The following are our top picks:
Table of Contents
Hostgator
- Website, VPS hosting, and dedicated services
- Power back-ups, fire detection, and constant monitoring to keep its 12,000 servers safe and secure
- 10 different fiber providers, including hardware from Time Warner and AT&T
- 99.9% uptime guarantee and an RSS feed for service status updates
- A large number of high-profile partners such as Cisco, AT&T, and Dell & 45-days money back guarantee
Inmotion Hosting
- Shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers
- An affordable hosting solution for small to medium-sized businesses
- SSH and eCommerce hosting
- cPanel Education Channel for tutorials and articles including FAQs
- Loaded for well-known content management systems such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Moodle, OpenCart, and PrestaShop
Bluehost
- Recommended hosting provider for and by WordPress
- Cloud, VPS, and shared hosting, dedicated services, and reseller hosting
- 100% in-house services with its own fiber connections, data centers, and custom Linux kernel operating on custom-built servers
- Helps you leverage Google and Bing advertising
- Recommended for PHP applications that require lightweight CMS installs (Joomla and Drupal)
- Linux-based shared, reseller, dedicated, and cloud web hosting packages
- Flexible hosting packages for business, personal, social, and non-profit websites
- Free domain registration, unlimited email accounts, unmetered bandwidth & disk space, and constant monitoring of your data
- Support for eCommerce applications such as Social Engine, Opencart and Prestashop
- 24/7 support via live chat, email, phone, and tickets
1&1 IONOS
- Creation & hosting, domains, servers, email & office services, web security, and online marketing tools
- Service uptime guarantee of 99.99% for all its services and plans
- In case of a web page failing below 99.99%, 1&1 offers to issue credits to its clients proportional to the amount of downtime
- eCommerce and shopping cart templates for online stores
- cPanel for Basic Windows hosting, Unlimited Windows, WordPress Unlimited, and WordPress Basic
Conclusion
Most of these web hosting offer rich features but each has their unique attraction as to why you should use them. Some support a greater variety of hosting and security while others may have dedicated customer support or faster load times. Check them out and choose the one which satisfies your demands wisely.
