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The Best [Cheap & Fast] Web Hosting Providers of 2023
Whether you want to start a blog about your cat, or build a website for your business, you’ll need a hosting provider. Preferably one that includes a free domain, a backup, and enough storage space to outgrow YouTube. Oh, and of course, it must load faster than a SpaceX rocket ship. But which one to choose? There are 100’s of web hosting providers out there. And you don’t have time to test all of them.
So we’ve done it for you. Since 2014, we’ve been comparing the best cheap web hosting services. At first, it was for our site. Today, we do it for fun (it’s no secret: we’re a bit geeky). We’ve tested 32 shared hosting providers, 11 cloud hosting services, 7 VPS, and 5 dedicated servers. When we compare shared web hosts, we want to make sure we compare apples to apples. So our process is the same for each provider:
- We sign up for a web hosting service and buy the best package for up to $ 5,00 per month.
- We build the same basic WordPress website, using the same free WordPress theme, at every host.
- We don’t install a caching plugin, and we don’t use a CDN. We test each service “out of the box.”
- We measure the load speed (LCP in GTMetrix) and uptime (UptimeRobot) throughout the year.
- We compare what’s included for free and what’s not (domain, SSL, SSD storage, backups, CDN, etc.).
- We chat with customer service, serve them a complex problem and ask them to solve it (they love us).
- We read the user reviews on Trustpilot and study what people love and hate about the service.
We then crunch the numbers, have a heated discussion, and don’t leave until we agree on the best web host of 2023:
1 / Most popular
IONOS
The best web host of 2023. IONOS is super fast, reliable, and includes all you need for free. Plus it features an excellent first-year discount.
- Uptime: 99.98% 98% 98%
- Load time: 1.0s 100% 100%
✓ Datacenters: USA and Europe
✓ Money-back guarantee: 30 days
✓ Automatic Backup: Daily
✓ SDD Storage: Unlimited
✓ SSL Certificate: Free
✓ Domain: Free
2
Hostinger
It’s fast, reliable, and affordable. It includes all you need for free and has servers around the world.
- Uptime: 99.98% 98% 98%
- Load time: 1.0s 100% 100%
For $ 5,00 or less, you’ll get Hostinger’s best package: “Business.” It includes:
✓ Datacenters: USA, Europe, and Asia
✓ Money-back guarantee: 30 days
✓ Automatic Backup: Daily
✓ SDD Storage: 200 GB
✓ SSL Certificate: Free
✓ Domain: Free
3
DreamHost
DreamHost is fast, reliable, affordable, and includes everything you need for free.
- Uptime: 99.98% 98% 98%
- Load time: 1.2s 90% 90%
✓ Datacenters: USA
✓ Money-back guarantee: 30 days
✓ Automatic Backup: Daily
✓ SDD Storage: Unlimited
✓ SSL Certificate: Free
✓ Domain: Free
VERY GOOD
Review Score
4
SiteGround
SiteGround is lightning fast and reliable, thanks to using Google Cloud servers. But it’s not cheap.
- Uptime: 99.99% 99% 99%
- Load time: 1.0s 100% 100%
✓ Datacenters: USA, Europe, Asia & Australia
✓ Money-back guarantee: 30 days
✓ Automatic Backup: Daily
✓ SDD Storage: 10 GB
✓ SSL Certificate: Free
✓ Domain: Not included
VERY GOOD
Review Score
5
Cloudways
Cloudways is the best cloud hosting provider: Ultra-fast at a reasonable price. But it’s not for beginners.
- Uptime: 99.99% 99% 99%
- Load time: 1.0s 100% 100%
✓ Datacenters: USA, Europe, LATAM, Asia & Oceania
✓ Money-back guarantee: No refund
✓ Automatic Backup: Daily
✓ SDD Storage: 25 GB
✓ SSL Certificate: Free
✓ Domain: No domain
VERY GOOD
Review Score
6
HostGator
HostGator isn’t the fastest. But it’s reasonably priced, reliable and includes a lot for free.
- Uptime: 99.94% 94% 94%
- Load time: 1.4s 80% 80%
✓ Datacenters: USA
✓ Money-back guarantee: 45 days
✓ Automatic Backup: Weekly
✓ SSD Storage: Unlimited
✓ SSL Certificate: Free
✓ Domain: Free
GOOD
Review Score
7
HostPapa
HostPapa is fast, reliable, powered by green energy, and has excellent customer service.
- Uptime: 99.91% 91% 91%
- Load time: 1.2s 90% 90%
✓ Datacenters: USA and Europe
✓ Money-back guarantee: 30 days
✓ Automatic Backup: Not included
✓ SDD Storage: Unlimited
✓ SSL Certificate: Free
✓ Domain: Free
GOOD
Review Score
IONOS Review – The best cheap & fast web hosting
IONOS by 1&1 is a perfect example of solid German engineering. From humble beginnings back in 1988, the company has grown to be Europe’s largest hosting company. And for good reason: It is incredibly fast, reliable, and has a wide range of servers in both the US and Europe.
Unless you need your server to be in Asia, IONOS is a perfect choice.
We highly recommend it.
Below, we’ll discuss in more detail:
- The company
- Load speed in our tests
- Uptime in our tests
- Features
- Data centers
- Customer support
1. The company: 8 Million customers
1&1, as IONOS was originally called, was founded by Ralph Dommermuth in Germany in 1988. Back then it was a marketing service provider, which worked for companies such as IBM, Apple, Microsoft, and Deutsche Telekom.
After its initial success in marketing, it became an internet service provider in 1996, and went public as Germany’s first internet company in 1998. By the height of the internet boom in 2000, it had amassed stakes in a great variety of internet companies, and Dommermuth decided to rebrand the company United Internet. 1&1 continued to operate under its own brand name, belonging to the bigger conglomerate.
In 2018, 1&1 merged with cloud infrastructure specialists ProfitBricks, and was rebranded to IONOS. The name is inspired by the ionosphere, which is the upper part of Earth’s atmosphere.
Fast forward to today, and United Internet is one of Europe’s leading internet companies. Across its many brands, it serves 25.7 million paying customer accounts and 39.4 million ad-financed free accounts. Of these, IONOS is responsible for serving 8 million customers, using 90.000 servers spread across 10 data centers in the US and Europe.
IONOS’ product line is what you would expect from a huge hosting company, and covers all the usual suspects: Domain registration, SSL certificates, website and store builders, fast web hosting on Linux or Windows, WordPress hosting, dedicated servers, and VPS hosting.
2. Load speed: Superfast – 1.0s in our tests
Load times matter a lot. This is because Google’s algorithm strongly favors websites that don’t keep their visitors waiting. So the faster your website loads, the higher it will rank in Google’s search results.
When we test and compare web hosting providers, we buy the best shared hosting plan available, for up to $ 5 / month at each provider. We then install our lightweight test website on a North American server and load the site from three locations (the US, UK, and Hong Kong) using GT Metrix.
IONOS performed extremely well. Together with Hostinger and SiteGround, it was among the top-performing brands in our test. As IONOS prides itself on delivering top-tier hosting infrastructure, the speed results are not surprising. After all, leave it to the Germans to deliver great engineering.
To deliver such impressive performance, IONOS relies on the latest technology: HTTP/2 network protocol, PHP 8.0 (although lower versions up to 4.0 are supported too), DDoS protection, and a RailGun CDN with 60 data centers. It’s all there.
USA | UK | HK | |
IONOS | 1.0 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
Hostinger | 1.0 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
SiteGround | 1.0 | 1.3 | 2.0 |
DreamHost | 1.2 | 1.4 | 2.4 |
HostPapa | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.5 |
HostGator | 1.4 | 1.7 | 2.5 |
GoDaddy | 1.5 | 2.0 | 2.6 |
Bluehost | 1.8 | 2.8 | 2.8 |
Note: When we measure load time, we actually measure the Largest Contentful Paint, also known as LCP. This is Google’s preferred speed measurement factor among its Core Web Vitals.
3. Uptime: Wonderfully reliable with an uptime of 99.98%
Another favorite test by Google is the Uptime test. This stands for the amount of time, expressed in percentages, that your website is available to your users. If your website is unavailable, also known as “down”, uptime decreases.
IONOS promises a minimum uptime of 99.9% due to its geo-redundant hosting service. This is a fancy way of saying that your website will be stored in two separate data centers. If one is unavailable, either for maintenance or due to outage, your website is loaded from the other one.
In our tests using UpTimeRobot, IONOS scored even better than its promise, reaching an uptime of 99.98%.
4. Features: Everything you need is included for free
When we compare the best cheap web hosting providers, we expect to get a lot of bang for our buck. For a maximum of $ 5 / month we want to see at least the following:
- A domain
- An SSL certificate
- A free daily backup
- 50 GB of SSD storage
- The ability to host at least 10 websites on the server
IONOS delivers on all requirements. At the time of writing, its Business package was only $ 1 / month for the first 12 months in all of IONOS’ global stores. And this package included all of the above.
In fact, storage, traffic, and databases were even quoted as “unlimited”, although we both know that there is no such thing as unlimited in this world. But as long as you don’t try to compete with YouTube on your shared hosting account, you don’t need to worry about any limits.
Entry-Level | Top-Level | |
Best Price | $ 1 | $ 8 |
Websites | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Storage | Unlimited | Unlimited |
SSL | Free | Free |
Domain | Free | Free |
Backup | Daily | Daily |
5. Data Centres: 10 Centers in the US and Europe
Hosting your website in a data center close to your target audience speeds up your website. This makes logical sense. If you fly from Brazil to Spain, you’re slower than if you fly from Germany to Spain. The same is true for data. The shorter the distance between the end-user and the server, the quicker the load time of your website.
IONOS has plenty of data centers in Europe and North America, but none in Asia. Its data centers are located in the USA (Las Vegas and New Jersey), the UK (London), Germany (Berlin, Frankfurt am Main and Karlsruhe), and Spain (Logroño).
So if you target a North- or South-American audience, or perhaps a European one, you’ll be well served by IONOS. Should you target an Asian or Australian audience, have a look at Hostinger, which has a data center in Singapore that will serve you better.
6. Customer support: Quick, capable and friendly, 24/7/365
IONOS leaves little to be desired when it comes to customer support. They’re available by phone and chat around the clock, any day of the year. When we reached out to them, they were polite, capable, and to the point. Although we missed the GIFs and emojis we got from Hostinger’s support team, IONOS’ team was professional and capable.
But don’t just take our word for it. If you take a look at IONOS’ TrustPilot reviews, you’ll notice a score of 4.1 out of 5.0 from over 13.000 user reviews. That’s simply excellent.
Conclusion:
What to conclude about a German hosting company that has grown to be Europe’s largest? Well, it’s exactly that: Reliable German engineering at an incredible scale. It offers just about every hosting service under the sun, at a wide range of highly reliable data centers in the US and Europe. On top of that, they’re incredibly fast and offer a very generous first-year discount.
The only reason not to choose IONOS is when you target an Asian audience. In that case, opt for Hostinger, which has a data center there. Otherwise, IONOS by 1&1 is an excellent choice.
We fully recommend IONOS.
Hostinger Review
It’s ultra-fast, reliable, cheap, and includes everything you need for free: Domain, SSL, backup, and plenty of SSD storage. On top of that, it has data centers all around the world, including North America, Europe, and Asia, which allows you to host your site close to your visitors and improve the load speed.
Below, we’ll discuss in more detail:
- The company
- Load speed in our tests
- Uptime in our tests
- Features
- Data centers
- Customer support
- Hostinger’s hPanel
1. The company: Serving more than 29 million customers
Hostinger started in Kaunas, Lithuania, and has grown into one of the world’s biggest and best cheap web hosting services. Today, they serve over 29 million users from 174 countries and sign up 15.000 users per day. That’s 1 user per 5 seconds. Pretty crazy.
Although famous for its competitively priced shared hosting. It also offers a website builder called Zyro, WordPress hosting, cloud hosting, VPS hosting, Minecraft hosting, email hosting, and cPanel hosting (in case you don’t like their custom control panel, called hPanel).
All of their servers, from shared to VPS, run on Linux.
2. Load speed: The FASTEST in our test – load time of 1.0 second
Load speed is one of the most important factors when choosing a web host. A fast site is excellent for your users, as no one likes to wait. It’s been proven time and time again that a fast website converts more visitors into customers.
But equally important, load speed is part of Google’s ranking algorithm. This means that fast websites end up higher in the search results. And you and I both know that higher ranking websites get more visitors. After all, when was the last time you clicked to the second page on Google.
When we test load speed, we want to compare fast web hosting providers fairly. So at each host, we buy the best shared hosting plan we can get for $ 5.00 / month or less.
We then install our test website on the North American server and load it from three locations globally using GT Metrix: The USA, the UK, and Hong Kong.
Hostinger certainly did not disappoint. Together with SiteGround, it was the fastest hosting provider in our test. You can see the load times in the list below compared to the other hosting services we tested.
USA | UK | HK | |
IONOS | 1.0 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
Hostinger | 1.0 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
SiteGround | 1.0 | 1.3 | 2.0 |
DreamHost | 1.2 | 1.4 | 2.4 |
HostPapa | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.5 |
HostGator | 1.4 | 1.7 | 2.5 |
GoDaddy | 1.5 | 2.0 | 2.6 |
Bluehost | 1.8 | 2.8 | 2.8 |
This excellent result is not surprising, as Hostinger supports all the latest and greatest in speed optimization: PHP8, NGINX caching, HTTP/2, and LiteSpeed. Compare that to the old Apache technology that GoDaddy still uses, and you’ll understand why Hostinger is so much faster.
But don’t let those technical terms intimidate you. All of that stuff comes pre-installed, and you won’t need to touch a thing if you don’t want to. When you install WordPress, LiteSpeed’s caching plugin (LSCache) will come pre-installed and pre-configured. Nice and easy.
And for those among us who enjoy some technical wizardry, the LSCache plugin will allow you to have some fun: You can optimize what is cached and for how long. Alter minify settings for CSS and JavaScript. Access image optimization features. And even play around with the database crawler.
But if that is all too much micromanagement for you, no worries. You’ll get most of the performance straight out the box, without needing to do anything. Just leave it as it is (most customers never change a thing).
Note: We measured the Largest Contentful Paint, also known as LCP, which Google uses as a ranking factor in its algorithm via its Core Web Vitals.
3. Uptime: Super reliable with an uptime of 99.98%
Uptime is a well-known ranking factor in Google’s algorithm: If your website is frequently down and unreachable, Google will show it less in its search results. So it matters.
Hostinger gives you a 99.9% uptime guarantee. In our test, using UptimeRobot, we measured the average uptime of 99.98%. That’s simply excellent.
4. Features: Everything you need for free
We buy shared hosting packages up to a maximum of $ 5.00 per month from each provider in our tests. For that price, we expect that a few things are included for free:
- A domain.
- An SSL certificate.
- A free daily backup.
- 50 GB of SSD disk space.
- The ability to host at least 10 websites on the server.
Hostinger delivers on all fronts. For $ 5.00 or less per month, you’ll get the top-level package, which includes everything you could ever need and more.
Below you can see what you get at Hostinger and at what price. Do note that prices vary from country to country due to local currencies. So make sure to visit Hostinger and see what it costs in your part of the world.
Entry-Level | Top-Level | |
Best Price | $ 0.99 | $ 3.99 |
Year Price | $ 2.99 | $ 6.99 |
Websites | 1 | 100 |
Storage | 30 GB | 200 GB |
SSL | Free | Free |
Domain | – | Free |
Backup | Weekly | Daily |
If you want to host only one website, the entry-level package is excellent. But keep in mind that it doesn’t include a domain for free. If you’re going to host multiple websites, the mid-level package is perfect. You’ll get everything you need for free and can host up to 100 websites.
If you plan to work on your site frequently, we think it’s worth choosing the top-level package to get the free daily backup (it certainly saved our butts a couple of times). However, if you’ll only touch the site a few times per month, then the weekly backup will do just fine.
5. Data Centres: 7 Locations on 3 continents
If you host your website on a server that is close to your users, it will load faster. That makes logical sense. Loading a website in Germany from a server in Japan takes a bit of time. Loading it from the UK is much faster. Luckily, Hostinger has servers in North America (USA), Europe (UK, Netherlands, and Lithuania), and Asia (Singapore, Indonesia).
6. Customer support: Knowledgeable, fast and friendly
If you’ve ever had the “pleasure” to deal with tech support while your website is down, you know how painful it can be. Imagine: Your site broke. You don’t know what happened. You’ve waited 20 min on hold before someone answers. Only to have some monkey point you to a useless tutorial blog that doesn’t solve the issue. Frustrating. But luckily, that doesn’t happen at Hostinger.
The support team is fast and intelligent, the interface is slick and modern, and emojis and GIFs are flying all over the place. It made us smile while the problem was being fixed. It was pretty awesome.
The only downside is that support is limited to live chat. If you prefer phone support, you won’t find it at Hostinger. We prefer live chat anyway, as it allows us to do something else while support is fixing your problem. But that’s just our preference.
And just FYI, we’re not the only ones who think Hostinger’s support is excellent. On TrustPilot, it scores fantastic user reviews with a very impressive 4.4 out of 5.0 from over 2.400 reviews.
7. Hostinger’s hPanel: A beautiful control panel
We love custom control panels (we’re a bit weird like that). Most hosting services use the standard cPanel; Hostinger has built a custom unit: hPanel (undoubtedly an abbreviation for Hostinger Panel).
This panel is, in our opinion, much cleaner and easier to use. It allows you to access the website builder Zyro (Hostinger’s answer to Wix), access auto-installers for WordPress (or other CMS), alter DNS zones, set up email accounts, access your MySQL database and file manager, and more. It’s a great tool.
However, if you have grown emotionally attached to cPanel, you might miss Softaculous and its cloning and staging features, which are not present. If you think Softaculous reminds you more of an exotic ice cream flavor than a hosting feature, ignore these last 3 paragraphs.
Conclusion:
If you read this far, don’t allow us to take up any more of your time: Hostinger is one of the fastest web hosting services in our comparison. Its price is highly competitive, it includes everything you need for free, and its support team is incredible.
We fully recommend Hostinger.
DreamHost Review
DreamHost offers the best one-year contract at only $ 2.95 per month
DreamHost is an excellent alternative to Hostinger. It performs well in our speed tests and includes all the resources a beginner needs to get started: Unlimited hosting, a free domain, free SSL certificate, and daily backups. On top of that, their customers love them, and they offer the best 12-month deal at only $ 2.95 per month.
Below, we’ll discuss in more detail:
- The company
- Load speed in our tests
- Uptime in our tests
- Features
- Data centers
- Customer support
1. The company: Hosting more than 1.5 million websites
DreamHost was started in 1996 by 4 university friends in Claremont, California, USA. Since those early beginnings, the company has grown to serve 400.000 customers from over 100 countries, hosting more than 1.5 million websites on their servers.
More than half of those websites are powered by WordPress, giving DreamHost specific expertise in the area. For those customers, it offers three types of hosting: WordPress basic, WordPress Managed (which includes staging, caching, and on-demand backups), and WooCommerce (for e-commerce stores running on WordPress).
Outside of WordPress, all the usual suspects are present: Shared hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, email hosting, and dedicated servers.
Nearly all their servers are exclusively Linux. However, the cloud and dedicated servers can be Linux, BSD, or MS Windows-based.
But that’s not all. In contrast to most hosting providers, DreamHost offers one step more: It also a range of “pro services,” which include design, management, and marketing services.
In other words, if you want a website but don’t have the time or expertise to design, manage and market it, DreamHost can do all that for you. Pretty cool and uncommon in the hosting industry.
2. Load time: It’s FAST, loading in 1.2 seconds
Load time is one of the most important things to look for in a fast web hosting service. It not only makes your users happy but also Google, which in turn boosts your presence in its organic search results.
To test how fast DreamHost is, we installed our test website on the data center in Virginia. From there, we tested its load times, with GT Metrix, from servers around the world. Below you can see the results and how they compare to the other cheap web hosting services that we tested:
USA | UK | HK | |
IONOS | 1.0 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
Hostinger | 1.0 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
SiteGround | 1.0 | 1.3 | 2.0 |
DreamHost | 1.2 | 1.4 | 2.4 |
HostPapa | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.5 |
HostGator | 1.4 | 1.7 | 2.5 |
GoDaddy | 1.5 | 2.0 | 2.6 |
Bluehost | 1.8 | 2.8 | 2.8 |
As you can see, DreamHost is more than fast enough straight out the box. And if you want to take it even one step further, upgrade to DreamPress. It is the managed hosting service for WordPress, which includes DreamHost’s advanced caching.
And if you would rather do it yourself, DreamHost has an excellent range of guides on the best caching solution, Gzip compression, CDN, and more.
Note: When we test load time, we measure the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) in GT Metrix. It is the preferred metric of Google and part of its ranking algorithm.
3. Uptime: Excellent – 99.98% in our tests.
Uptime matters. If your website is down, your visitors can’t access it. And on top of that, Google doesn’t like it. So it will show your website less frequently in the organic search results.
We tested DreamHost’s uptime using UptimeRobot. Although DreamHost promises 100% uptime, we measured 99.98%, which is more than close enough if you ask us.
4. Features: It includes a domain, SSL, and daily backups
We buy the best hosting package at each provider in our tests that we can get for less than $ 5 / month. For this, we expect to receive a domain, SSL certificate, daily backup, 50 GB of SSD storage, and the ability to host 10+ websites.
DreamHost can match our expectations perfectly. For $ 2.95 per month, we get the top-level “unlimited” hosting package, with all the bells and whistles.
Entry-Level | Top-Level | |
Best Price | $ 2.59 | $ 2.95 |
Year Price | $ 2.95 | $ 2.95 |
Websites | 1 | Unlimited |
Storage | 50 GB | Unlimited |
SSL | Free | Free |
Domain | Free | Free |
Backup | Daily | Daily |
We don’t think you’ll need a tremendous amount of advice to decide which package is best for you. But just in case: Take the Top-Level plan, called “unlimited.” At $ 2.95 per month, it is by far the best 1-year contract of all hosting providers in our comparison.
5. Data Centres: the USA only
Loading a website that is hosted on the other side of the planet takes a few seconds longer. That makes logical sense. So it’s wise to host your website in a data center that is close to your visitors.
DreamHost operates two data centers. Both of which are in the USA (Ashburn, Virginia and Hillsboro, Oregon). If you’re targeting users in Europe or the USA, those data centers will serve you perfectly.
Should you target an audience in Asia, perhaps have a look at Hostinger instead. Hostinger has a data center in Singapore, which will help serve those users quicker.
6. Customer Support: Simply excellent
DreamHost offers customer support via Live Chat, Ticket Service, or Callback (which means that you can’t call them but can request them to contact you). In our experience, their team was quick, polite, and knowledgeable.
This is reflected by their score on TrustPilot, where they receive a score of 4.7 out of 5.0 from over 1.650 user reviews.
Conclusion:
There is a lot to love here. DreamHost is fast, reliable, and offers the best one-year deal of all the hosting providers in our comparison. On top of that, it gets excellent customer reviews.
If you target Asian customers or want the absolute lowest price per month, have a look at Hostinger. If not, then DreamHost is an excellent choice.
We fully recommend DreamHost.
SiteGround Review
Full disclosure: We were a SiteGround customer from 2016 to 2020. But moved away. So we’re a bit like an ex-lover after a rough breakup. Sad and angry, but also slightly nostalgic about the good times we’ve had.
SiteGround has repositioned itself in the market. It used to be a reasonably-priced shared hosting provider, known for exceptional customer service. Since then, it has attempted to become a premium web host.
It now uses lightning-fast and ultra-reliable Google Cloud servers. It has built a custom interface with a premium feel. And it has a range of speed optimization tools that will make your site fly.
At the same time, its pricing seems to have lost touch with reality. It now starts at $ 6.99 per month (7x the entry price of Hostinger) and does not include a free domain.
It makes us wonder, is SiteGround heading in the right direction? Read on to learn more. Below we’ll discuss the following in detail:
- The company
- Load speed in our tests
- Uptime in our tests
- Features
- Data centers
- Customer support
1. The company: Hosting more than 2 million domains
SiteGround was started by a few university friends in Sofia (Bulgaria) in 2004. Fast forward to today, it has grown to a company with 4 offices around the world (Bulgaria, Spain, UK, and the USA) and 500 employees.
Although it doesn’t provide exact user numbers, it says that it is “hosting 2,000,000 domains while making website owners less stressed, more productive, and hopefully just a little happier”.
Next to its “affordable” shared hosting, SiteGround offers WordPress hosting, WooCommerce hosting, and cloud hosting.
Note that all their servers are Linux-based (Fedora 29 at the time of writing) and are configured to work with Nginx and Apache. It means that you won’t be able to run Windows on any of their servers.
2. Load speed: It is ULTRA fast, loading in 1.0 seconds
Speed is essential. Google is steadily making load speed a more significant part of its ranking algorithm. So the faster your site loads, the happier your customers are, and the better your website ranks in Google search (SEO). Which in turn delivers you even more customers. Everybody wins.
To test how fast SiteGround is, we built a test site on its US data center. We then used GT Metrix to load our test website from 3 locations worldwide and measured its load times.
Below you can see the load speeds and how SiteGround compares to the competition.
USA | UK | HK | |
IONOS | 1.0 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
Hostinger | 1.0 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
SiteGround | 1.0 | 1.3 | 2.0 |
DreamHost | 1.2 | 1.4 | 2.4 |
HostPapa | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.5 |
HostGator | 1.4 | 1.7 | 2.5 |
GoDaddy | 1.5 | 2.0 | 2.6 |
Bluehost | 1.8 | 2.8 | 2.8 |
These are awe-inspiring times. But truth be told, it’s no surprise that SiteGround is this fast. Just look at all the optimization features:
- Rapid SSD storage on Google Cloud servers.
- Its own SuperCacher. It is a 3-tier NGINX caching system (Static Cache, Memcache, and Dynamic Cache) that stores a cached version of your website in the server’s RAM, from where it loads faster.
- A unique PHP implementation reduces the “time to first byte” (TTFB) and speeds up your site by about 30% while lowering memory usage.
- HTTP/2 enabled servers. It is the newest version of the HTTP protocol, allowing modern browsers to load your site faster.
If this is all a bit technical, don’t worry. Put simply: SiteGround is fast.
Note: When we measure load speed, we measure the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). It is a cornerstone in Google’s method to test the speed of websites and a part of its ranking algorithm.
3. Uptime: Very reliable, with an uptime of 99.99%
Uptime is critical. It makes sure your website is always available to your users and Google. And we all know that Google strongly dislikes websites that are offline frequently. If you want to get those organic visitors from Google’s search results, you better have excellent uptime.
Luckily, there is no problem here. SiteGround is one of the most reliable, although not ever cheap, web hosting services we have tested. This is due to the multiple redundancies built into the Google Cloud. In the unlikely event that one server fails, SiteGround will instantly deploy a backup on a virtual machine.
Said differently: Your site is rarely offline.
4. Features: Not enough for the price
When we test a hosting provider, we buy the best shared hosting package they offer for under $ 5.00 / month. For that price, we expect to have a free domain, free SSL certificate, 50 GB of SSD storage, and the ability to host 10 websites or more.
SiteGround sadly disappoints. It doesn’t offer a shared hosting package under $ 5 / month – it starts at $ 6.99. And even at the higher price, it doesn’t include a free domain. What’s up with that?
Entry-Level | Top-Level | |
Best Price | $ 6.99 | $ 14.99 |
Year Price | $ 6.99 | $ 14.99 |
Websites | 1 | 5 |
Storage | 10 GB | 40 GB |
SSL | Free | Free |
Domain | – | – |
Backup | Daily | Daily |
As you can see, we don’t get a free domain, can’t host the number of sites we like, and don’t get the storage space we were looking for.
Sure, SiteGround uses Google Cloud servers, has a good custom interface, and offers several fantastic speed optimization features. But it remains shared hosting, and people will compare prices and features:
Companies like Hostinger and DreamHost offer similar performance to SiteGround, and a lot more features, for significantly less.
5. Data Centres: North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia
Hosting your website close to visitors is a smart move. It speeds up the load time of your site, making them happy, and Google. Everybody wins.
SiteGround features 6 data centers across 4 continents: Iowa (USA), London (UK), Eemshaven (Netherlands), Frankfurt (Germany), Singapore (Singapore), and Sydney (Australia).
In our comparison, many of the hosting providers include data centers in the USA, Europe, and Asia. But SiteGround is the only one with a data center in Australia. If you focus purely on an Aussie audience, that might be a reason to choose SiteGround.
6. Customer Support: Excellent, but slipping.
We were a SiteGround customer for about 4 years up to 2020. And during that time, customer support saved us far more than once. They’ve been accommodating via live chat, phone, and ticket system. We loved them.
And our experience is reflected on TrustPilot, where SiteGround scores an astronomical 4.7 out of 5.0 from over 8.000 reviews.
Yet over time, especially since the introduction of the new interface, our opinion is that customer support has fallen into the “cost optimization” trap.
A great example is trying to get in touch with support. It now takes 5 clicks and 3 different pages to go from the admin panel to posting a message to support. And those clicks are not positioned in obvious locations.
I’m sure that somewhere at SiteGround, there is a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) looking very pleased with him or herself, boasting about the reduced cost of the support team.
But for us, it was a big disappointment. Because we were paying over $ 150 per month for a cloud server and had trouble connecting to support and getting to help we were used to. It was a big part of why we left SiteGround.
Conclusion:
SiteGround has gone premium with Google Cloud servers, a new interface, and higher prices. But we believe they took it a step too far pricing-wise.
If having a shared hosting server on the Google Cloud excites you, and you’re willing to pay a hefty premium for that, SiteGround will be good to you.
If you’re looking for equally good performance but also want value for money, get Hostinger or DreamHost.
Cloudways Review
Cloudways are not for everyone. If you are new to hosting, skip this review and head over to IONOS or Hostinger instead. Cloudways is, in our opinion, not for beginners.
If, however, you are experienced with hosting services but not a computer developer, Cloudways might be perfect for you. So ask yourself:
- Are you experienced in the hosting space and already own a domain or website
- Are you looking for a cloud server at one of the big providers like Google or AWS
- Are you not interested in the complications of manually setting up a complex server
Then Cloudways might just be for you.
Via Cloudways, you can migrate your existing website (or set up a new one) at one of the industry giants: Google Cloud, AWS, DigitalOcean, Linode, or Vultr. And best of all, you won’t need to be a programmer or server expert to do so.
If you want to know more, keep reading. Below, we’ll discuss in more detail:
- The company
- Load speed in our tests
- Uptime in our tests
- Features
- Data centers
- Customer support
1. The company: A unique approach to managed cloud hosting
Cloudways is an innovative cloud hosting service from Malta. It was founded by Uzair Gadit, Aaqib Gadit, and Umair Gadit in 2010. The three men (brothers?) have created and acquired companies in Cyber Security, Cloud Computing, Gaming, Fintech, and more. Notable brands include PureVPN and Cloudways.
Cloudways takes a unique approach to cloud hosting. To understand it, we must take a tiny detour and explain to you a thing or two about the hosting industry. Don’t worry, it only takes a second.
Some hosting companies own and operate their own servers, and then rent out sections of those servers to you. Many other hosting services, however, don’t want to own their own servers, as these require a huge investment up front. Rather, they rent servers from specialized cloud providers like Google Cloud, Amazon AWS, and Microsoft Azure (also known as infrastructure-as-a-service providers).
A good example is SiteGround, which leases server space from Google Cloud, and then re-sells it in smaller parts (called shared hosting). And for their effort, SiteGround charges a generous premium.
Cloudways recognizes that some of us want to host directly at these top-tier cloud providers like Google Cloud and AWS, but don’t have the technical skills to set up and manage a server. So via Cloudways, you can rent directly from 5 different cloud providers, and deploy a WordPress or Magento website (or any other application) in minutes.
Currently, the cloud providers on offer are DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, AWS, and Google Cloud. But note that this is all that Cloudways offers. There is no shared hosting or domain registration. The service is purely focused on getting you set up with a cloud server, with minimum fuss, at one of the big boys like Amazon AWS.
2. Load time: Ultra-Fast, under 1.0 seconds easily
Load speed is one of the most important elements when building a website. It will not only be appreciated by your users, but also by Google’s algorithm. And because you’re keeping our digital overlords at Google happy, your website will appear higher in the search results and receive more organic visitors.
Usually, when we test and compare the best cheap web hosting providers, we go through three steps:
- We sign-up for a shared hosting plan costing less than $ 5 / month.
- We set up our test site on a server in North America.
- We measure its load speed, via GT Metrix, from the USA, UK, and Hong Kong.
Of course, this is not possible with Cloudways. There are no shared hosting plans, and the cheapest cloud hosting option starts at $ 10 / month. So you simply can’t compare the results to a shared hosting package at Hostinger, IONOS, SiteGround, or HostGator. So we also didn’t try.
Instead, we went shopping for our own server. Specifically, we were looking for a 2 core 4 RAM cloud server in Europe (because most of our users are European). This led us to test the following 4 options:
- DigitalOcean (Germany): 2 Core CPU / 4 GB RAM / 80 GB SSD at $ 42 per month
- AWS (Germany): 2 Core CPU / 4 GB RAM / 20 GB SSD at $ 87 per month
- Google Cloud (Netherlands): 2vCPU / 7.5 GB RAM at 20 GB SSD / $ 140 per month
- Vultr HR (Netherlands): 2 Core CPU / 4 RAM / 128 GB SSD at $ 50 per month
Unsurprisingly, all were FAST. All test sites loaded between 0.8s and 1.0s, without any caching plugins or CDN installed. After installing the WP Rocket cache plugin at optimal settings, speeds shot further up to 0.4s and 0.6s.
More surprisingly was that DigitalOcean was the fastest of the four servers we tested. Not by much to be honest, it was a matter of 0.15s compared to Google and Vultr, and 0.05s compared to AWS. But considering that DigitalOcean is a lot cheaper than a comparable server at Google Cloud and AWS, we found this a pleasant surprise.
Long story short: The website you are currently visiting (softwarelab.org) is happily humming on a DigitalOcean server in Frankfurt, Germany. Bought and installed via Cloudways.
Note: We measured the Largest Contentful Paint, also known as LCP, which Google uses as a ranking factor in its algorithm via its Core Web Vitals.
3. Uptime: Super reliable at 99.99%
Uptime is important for any website, blog, and online business. Have you ever attempted to visit Google or Facebook, but couldn’t because the server was down? No, me neither. Perhaps our websites don’t need to live up to those standards, but these days each website should be online at least 99.9% of the time.
Using UptimeRobot, we measured the uptime of our website and reached a beautiful 99.99%. That’s about as good as it gets.
4. Features: Lots of power, but no domain
When buying, testing, and comparing hosting providers, we expect to get a lot for our $ 5 / month. At the very least, we want to have the following included for free:
- A domain
- An SSL certificate
- A daily backup
- 50 GB of SSD disk space
- The ability to host 10 sites or more
Of course, the story at Cloudways is a bit different, as it doesn’t provide shared hosting.
At Cloudways, an SSL certificate and daily backup come as standard. And you can host as many websites or applications as you like on a single server. The SSD storage starts at 25 GB and expands as you choose a more expensive package.
A bit stranger is the story around domains. Not only is there no free domain, but there isn’t even the option to register a domain. The service is purely focused on servers and applications.
Not offering the ability to register a domain is clearly not ideal if you want to attract customers that are new to hosting. These users want a one-stop shop, where everything is easy and included in the price. But let’s be honest, these users are not attracted to premium cloud hosting in the first place. It’s simply not Cloudways’ target customer.
Users that are interested in Cloudways probably already have a website and are looking to upgrade their server. These do not care about a free domain. Instead, they’re more interested in the free website migration, CDN, firewall, back-up, 1-click cloning, and staging.
This is also precisely what’s so interesting about Cloudways. They understand that there is a customer segment that is interested in premium cloud servers, but unable or unwilling to manage them directly. These are neither beginners nor experts. And if you find yourself falling somewhere between the two, Cloudways might just be for you.
5. Data Centres: 60+ locations across 5 continents
The closer your website is to your user, the faster it loads. This makes intuitive sense. If you send a letter from Tokyo to London, it takes longer to arrive than if you send it from Paris. The same is true for data. Travel time is load time.
To get the fastest loading website, it really helps to host your website close to your target audience. Luckily, with Cloudways, there is no shortage of options. Among the 5 cloud providers on offer, there are 60+ data centers spread across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Oceania.
6. Customer Support: Capable, fast and available 24/7/365
Whether you want to speak to an agent on Christmas night or Sunday morning at 3:00 am, there is always someone available at Cloudways. At the time of writing, we’ve been a customer at Cloudways for about a year and only had to speak to them twice. This is largely thanks to the service being intuitive and the documentation extensive. But the two times we did need them, they were fast, well-informed, polite, and solved our issue in minutes.
But as always, don’t just take our word for it. Take a look at their user reviews on Trustpilot, and you’ll see 4.8 out of 5.0 stars from over 1.000 user reviews. That is simply amazing.
Conclusion:
If you are new to hosting, Cloudways is not for you. You won’t be able to register a domain, and the servers will be too powerful, complex, and expensive for your needs. You’ll have a better experience shopping at IONOS or Hostinger.
But if you have experience with hosting services, have an existing website with a growing audience, and you are looking for more power, then look no further. Rather than paying premium prices for a cloud server at GoDaddy or SiteGround, get one for $ 10 / month at DigitalOcean via Cloudways.
We fully recommend Cloudways.
HostGator Review
It isn’t the fastest host in our test, but it is reasonably priced and includes all the resources that beginners and startups need. Even the entry-level package, designed to host a single website, consists of a free domain, free SSL certificate, and weekly backups.
Below, we’ll discuss in more detail:
- The company
- Load speed in our tests
- Uptime in our tests
- Features
- Data centers
- Customer support
1. The company: Hosting more than 2 million websites
HostGator was launched from a university dorm room in Florida in 2002. Over the following 20 years, the company would be sold twice. First to the Endurance International Group (EIG) in 2012. And later in 2021 to Clearlake Capital Group.
Clearlake formed a holding company (called Newfold Digital) to manage all its hosting brands (it owns quite a few). Amongst others, these include HostGator, Bluehost, A2 Hosting, Web.com, Register.com, CrazyDomains, Domain.com, and several others.
Together, they serve 6.7 million users around the world. Of these, HostGator is responsible for hosting 2 million websites.
Although HostGator is most known for affordable shared hosting, it also offers a website builder, WordPress hosting, reseller hosting, dedicated servers, and VPS hosting.
And finally, although most of their servers use Linux and cPanel, you can also buy Windows hosting plans using the Plesk control panel.
2. Load speed: Just “okay” at 1.4 seconds – it’s not the quickest.
Load speed is one of the most important factors when choosing a hosting provider. It not only creates happy customers but also pleases Google: A slow loading website is given less exposure in Google organic search results, which means you’ll get fewer visitors. So it matters.
We built our HostGator test site on HostGator’s server in the USA. This location choice is hardly surprising, as HostGator has only two data centers, both in the USA.
You can see its load speeds, measured from 3 locations worldwide using GT Metrix, in the table below.
USA | UK | HK | |
IONOS | 1.0 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
Hostinger | 1.0 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
SiteGround | 1.0 | 1.3 | 2.0 |
DreamHost | 1.2 | 1.4 | 2.4 |
HostPapa | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.5 |
HostGator | 1.4 | 1.7 | 2.5 |
GoDaddy | 1.5 | 2.0 | 2.6 |
Bluehost | 1.8 | 2.8 | 2.8 |
It’s not entirely shocking that HostGator isn’t the fastest host on the block. It doesn’t support PHP 8 yet and has no unique NGINX cache like SiteGround’s SuperCacher. In everyday language: It’s a bit old-fashioned, technology-wise.
Note: We use Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) to measure the load time. It is a ranking factor in Google Algorithm.
3. Uptime: “Up” 99.94% of the time, which is a great score
Another essential factor to look out for is Uptime. Unavailable websites frequently can’t be reached by your visitors or by Google. It leads the friendly folks at Google to include your website less often in their organic search results. Making you miss out on valuable visitors.
HostGator guarantees a minimum uptime of 99.9%, which we were able to confirm using UptimeRobot. In our tests, HostGator was available 99.94% of the time, which is an excellent result.
4. Features: Everything you need for free
When we test fast web hosting services, we buy the best package that $ 5.00 / month or less allows us to at each provider. However, for that price, we expect to get a lot: A free domain, SSL certificate, daily backup, 50 GB of SSD storage, and the ability to host 10+ websites.
HostGator serves us perfectly. Although its top-tier package (called “business” in the US) is just out of reach at $ 5.25 / month, the mid-tier package (called “baby” in the US) already has everything we need: A free domain, a free SSL certificate, unlimited websites, unlimited storage, and free weekly backups.
The only downside is the daily backups, which will cost an additional $ 2 / month.
Entry-Level | Top-Level | |
Best Price | $ 2.75 | $ 5.25 |
Year Price | $ 3.95 | $ 7.25 |
Websites | 1 | Unlimited |
Storage | Unlimited | Unlimited |
SSL | Free | Free |
Domain | Free | Free |
Backup | Weekly | Weekly |
From where we stand, the choice is pretty simple at HostGator. If you want to host just 1 website, get the entry-level package. Otherwise, get the mid-level package. The extras provided by the top-level package are nice-to-haves but not required.
5. Data centers: Two server locations, both in the USA
An easy way to speed up your website is to host your site at a data center close to your end-users.
HostGator’s data centers are located in Provo, Utah, and Houston, Texas. As both are located in the USA, there is little to optimize here.
If most of your customers are from North America, this is no problem. Even European customers are served quickly from an American server. But things slow down if you want your website to load rapidly in Asia.
Should your target audience be in Asia, we’d recommend looking at Hostinger, which has servers in Singapore.
An alternative is to use a CDN, like CloudFlare, together with your server at HostGator. It hosts your static content – like images – on servers worldwide, speeding up their delivery. Luckily this doesn’t have to cost a lot, as Cloudflare has a free plan.
6. Customer support: Bad user reviews
HostGator offers ticket, live chat, and phone support. Sadly, it isn’t good. Most of the hosting companies that were part of Endurance (HostGator’s previous owner) suffer from a bad customer service reputation.
If you look at their reviews on Trustpilot, you’ll see that HostGator scores a 3.4 out of 5.0 from 1250+ user reviews. And that its sister company Bluehost is even worse with 2.5 out of 5.0 from 1000+ user reviews.
Hopefully, this will improve now that they are part of Newfold Digital.
Conclusion:
HostGator is not perfect. It’s not particularly fast, its customer service has a bad reputation, and it only has servers in the USA. But it’s fast enough, reliable, reasonably priced, and includes everything you need for free. And although it has its flaws, it remains hugely popular.
We recommend HostGator. But prefer Hostinger and DreamHost.
HostPapa Review
HostPapa is fast, reliable, and fully featured. It means that its hosting packages come with all the resources a beginner or startup could need: A free domain, free SSL certificate, and unlimited SSD storage space. Only the automated backup costs extra.
On top of that, HostPapa is committed to delivering exceptional customer service and powers its data centers and offices with renewable energy. Pretty cool.
Below, we’ll discuss in more detail:
- The company
- Load speed in our tests
- Uptime in our tests
- Features
- Data centers
- Customer support
1. The company: Hosting more than 180.000 websites
HostPapa was founded in 2006 in Burlington, Canada, by Jamie Opalchuk, who is still the company’s CEO. HostPapa was an early adaptor in using exclusively renewable energy for its data centers.
As its brand name suggests, it’s a friendly company that’s good to its customers, employees, and the environment.
In recent years, the company has been growing via the acquisition of other hosting brands. On top of that, it has been expanding its data centers in California and the Netherlands. At the latest publication, the company hosted 180.000 websites.
Outside of shared web hosting, it offers WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, reseller hosting, and email hosting.
2. Load speeds: It is FAST, loading in 1.2 seconds
Load speed is critical because a faster website makes both your users and Google happier. And in a world in which we increasingly build our websites to please algorithms, the latter is essential. After all, the more content Google is, the higher you rank, and the more visitors you get.
At HostPapa, we signed up for the “Business” package and installed our test website on its data center in the USA. We then loaded our test site from 3 different locations globally, using GT Metrix, and compared the results to the other fast web hosting services in our comparison. Below you can see the results:
USA | UK | HK | |
IONOS | 1.0 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
Hostinger | 1.0 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
SiteGround | 1.0 | 1.3 | 2.0 |
DreamHost | 1.2 | 1.4 | 2.4 |
HostPapa | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.5 |
HostGator | 1.4 | 1.7 | 2.5 |
GoDaddy | 1.5 | 2.0 | 2.6 |
Bluehost | 1.8 | 2.8 | 2.8 |
As you can see, HostPapa sits right in the middle of the pack. Although not industry-leading, its 1.2 second load time is more than quick enough.
Note: When we test load speeds, we measure the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). It is the preferred measure of Google and part of its ranking algorithm.
3. Uptime: Great stuff – online 99.91% of the time
Uptime is important. It makes sure your visitors can visit the site at any time and keeps Google happy, which improves your ranking in search.
HostPapa’s uptime is excellent. In our test using UptimeRobot, it was online 99.91%.
4. Features: Everything for free, except the backup
When we test hosting companies, we sign up for the best shared web hosting package that we can get under $ 5.00 / month. In return, we would like to get a free domain, free SSL certificate, a daily backup, at least 50 GB of SSD disk space, and the ability to host at least 10 websites.
As you can see in the table below, HostPapa’s mid-level package (called “Business”) fits our requirements well: A free domain, free SSL certificate, unlimited SSD storage, and unmetered bandwidth. Only the daily backup is a paid extra, costing $ 19.95 per year.
Entry-Level | Top-Level | |
Best Price | $ 3.95 | $ 12.95 |
Year Price | $ 5.95 | $ 17.95 |
Websites | 2 | Unlimited |
Storage | 100 GB | Unlimited |
SSL | Free | Free |
Domain | Free | Free |
Backup | – | – |
5. Data Centers: USA, Canada, and the Netherlands
Hosting your website closer to your visitors speeds up your site. It is good for your business and your ranking in Google. So it matters.
HostPapa has servers in 3 locations, the USA, Canada, and the Netherlands. Upon purchasing your hosting plan, you can select the preferred location.
So if you are targeting North American or European users, HostPapa is an excellent option. If you, however, target specifically Asian users, perhaps have a look at Hostinger, which also has servers in Singapore.
Alternatively, you could set up your site on a HostPapa server and install the free Cloudflare CDN to speed up your website in distant lands.
6. Customer Support: This is where it shines
HostPapa goes the extra mile for its customers. It is the only hosting company we know of that includes a free 30 minutes one-on-one training session when you sign up. That’s pretty amazing.
On top of that, HostPapa offers phone, ticket, and live chat support in English, Spanish, French, and German. In our experience, they were exceptionally polite and helpful. But then again, it’s a Canadian company. What else could one expect?
If you don’t want to take our word for it, have a look at the score on TrustPilot. Here HostPapa scores a solid 4.1 / 5.0 from over 400 user reviews.
Conclusion:
HostPapa has no servers outside of Europe and North America, and it doesn’t include an automated backup for free. Not even a weekly one. But those are its only flaws.
If you want a fast and reliable hosting company with excellent customer service and 100% renewable energy, HostPapa is an excellent option.
Hosting Types
Shared hosting
When to choose shared hosting?
- If you serve less than 100.000 visitors per month
What is shared hosting?
Shared hosting is the entry-level form of hosting. Multiple websites are hosted together on a single server, and they share the same hardware resources (CPU, SSD storage, RAM, etc.). Think of it as apps on your phone. You don’t have a separate phone for each app. Instead, these apps share the hardware of your phone.
For 95% of all people looking for a hosting provider, this is the right place to start. It’s affordable and usually includes everything you need for free (like a domain, SSL certificate, and automated backup). It will serve you well until you reach about 100.000 visitors per month (which is a lot).
WordPress hosting
When to choose WordPress hosting?
• If you serve less than 100.000 visitors per month
• If you are sure that you will build a WordPress website
What is WordPress hosting?
More often than not, WordPress hosting is identical to shared hosting. Hosting companies understand that many people want to build a WordPress website, and by calling the service “WordPress hosting,” some of the confusion is taken away.
In most cases, though, you get the same resources as on a shared hosting package, only now WordPress is pre-installed. On a regular shared hosting package, installing WordPress would take one additional click or a request to the customer support at your hosting provider. So all in all, it’s the same service.
Cloud Hosting
When to choose cloud hosting?
- You have more than 100.000 visitors per month
- You want the most reliable and scalable option
What is cloud hosting?
With shared hosting, a single server hosts many websites. This has some limitations, such as speed and storage, as all websites need to share the same resources. But also, if the server is down (/unreachable), every website hosted on it is down too.
With cloud hosting, a group of servers (called a cloud cluster) host many websites. As you can imagine, a group of servers has more hardware firepower (CPU, RAM, and storage) than a single server. And by building the architecture intelligently, the hosting company can send these resources dynamically to the websites that need them the most.
In practice, this translates to two significant advantages: The first is that your websites will be faster, especially when many users visit simultaneously. The second is that downtime (when your website is unreachable) is very uncommon. After all, if one server goes down, several others in the cluster can back it up.
95% of the people that upgrade from shared hosting choose cloud hosting.
VPS Hosting
When to choose VPS hosting?
- You have more than 100.000 visitors per month
- You want root access to your server to customize it completely
What is VPS hosting?
With shared hosting, a single server hosts many websites. And they share all the resources equally. VPS hosting is similar, as there are several websites on a single server. However, you will be assigned specific parts of that server that will be exclusively yours. For instance, you would get exclusive access to 2 CPUs on a server with 16 CPUs.
As the name Virtual Private Server (VPS) suggests, a single dedicated server becomes several “private servers” by dividing the resources.
What is the difference with cloud hosting?
People often compare and confuse VPS hosting and cloud hosting. The confusion is entirely understandable, as they both fill the gap between shared hosting and having your own dedicated server. However, the two are very different. Luckily, that difference is less complex than it might seem:
Cloud hosting is the right choice for most people.
- It’s very scalable: If needed, you can easily upgrade by adding more resources.
- It’s very reliable: As multiple servers host your website, you will rarely run into speed and uptime issues.
VPS hosting is the right choice for software developers with specific needs:
- It’s very customizable: As you’ll get root access to the server, you can install anything you want on it. So you can run custom software, scripts, and plugins.
- But it’s less reliable than cloud hosting: As you share a single server with others, speed and uptime problems can arise when the others demand a lot of processing power.
If you want full customization, choose VPS hosting. If not, choose a cloud hosting package.
Dedicated Servers
If you are serving millions of users and want the full customization potential of your server, a dedicated server is the way to go. The concept is quite simple: Instead of renting a part of a server (like shared and VPS hosting) or renting a part of a group of servers (like cloud hosting), you rent the entire server. This gives you complete control over it.
Web Hosting Features
Which shared hosting package is best for you?
Although some details vary, it’s roughly the same with each provider. Usually, there are three packages to choose from, and the split is like this:
- If you want to host a single website and have up to 15.000 visitors per month, the entry-level package is usually enough. But it doesn’t always include a free domain.
- If you want to host multiple websites, and have between 15.000 and 30.000 visitors per month, choose the mid-level package. It usually includes a free domain.
- If you want to host multiple websites and enjoy advanced features (such as daily backups), and have between 30.000 and 100.000 visitors per month, choose the top-level package. It nearly always includes a free domain.
In the meantime, ignore everything called “unlimited,” such as unlimited websites, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited SSD disk space. Every hosting provider has limits. Even when it says “unlimited.”
If you dig deeper into what’s called the “fair use policy,” you’ll quickly find out that you can only use as much as the “average website” does. And that makes total sense too. You can’t run YouTube (which would genuinely require unlimited SSD space and bandwidth) from a shared hosting package.
What is a domain?
Currently, you are on https://softwarelab.org. This is the domain name: softwarelab.org.
In reality, websites are tied to numbers, called Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. For instance, the IP address of SoftwareLab.org is 165.227.148.211.
However, we humans cannot remember strings of numbers. That’s why we invented domain names. You type in a domain name, and the browser will automatically take you to the correct IP address. This is called the Domain Name System (DNS), which is like the internet’s phone book.
What is an SSL certificate?
An SSL certificate converts your domain name from HTTP to HTTPS. It’s nothing more than a file that you can install on your server, which increases its security by enabling SSL/TSL encryption.
Don’t skip out on it, though. Google wants websites to use HTTPS. By implementing it, you will increase your ranking in Google’s organic search results. So if you don’t know how, ask your host to install it for you.
What is SSD storage?
Just like phones and laptops use data storage, so does a web server. After all, all the text, photos, videos, and software on your website take up storage, expressed in kilobytes (KB) and gigabytes (GB).
Back in the day, these were stored on spinning hard disk drives (HDD). Are you old enough to remember that sound your PC made when you started it? That was the hard drive waking up.
These days, HDDs are replaced by solid-state drives (SSD). These don’t have moving parts and are much faster. If your web host still uses HDD instead of SSD, don’t sign up with them. Your website will be slower.
What is a backup?
Sometimes when you’re working on your website, you make a mistake. We have made plenty. And sometimes, these mistakes can have a significant impact, ruining hours, days, or even weeks of work.
In such moments, the joy of having a backup is almost indescribable. With a few clicks, you can restore an older copy of your website and database.
Nearly all cheap hosting services provide a free weekly automatic backup, usually enough if you don’t plan to work on your website every day. If, however, you plan to do a lot of work on your site, it’s often worth it to upgrade to the highest package, which includes a daily backup.
Navigate this page
- Back to the top
- IONOS review
- Hostinger review
- DreamHost review
- SiteGround review
- Cloudways review
- HostGator review
- HostPapa review
- Web hosting types
- Web hosting features
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Author
Tibor Moes
Founder of SoftwareLab
Welcome. We started SoftwareLab in 2014 to help you find the best software at the best price.
Over the years, we have enjoyed testing the best antivirus for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS, as well as the best VPN and hosting services.
We are proud and humbled to have helped millions of readers since then, and we hope you will find our work helpful. If we can improve our service to you, please let us know here.