Choosing the best web hosting provider is a great place to start your journey towards building a solid online presence.
What is a web hosting service, and why do you need it? It’s a service that allows individuals or organizations to host a website that is usually accessible via a web browser. It’s a specialist provider that securely stores your files (HTML, pictures etc) and makes sure your site runs live on the internet.
Some things to consider when making a decision on the right web hosting provider include, whether a specific type of hosting (for example shared hosting) is for you, how much storage you really need, and whether an SSL certificate is included in the package.
As of October 2021, we have reviewed (and are continuously re-reviewing) more than 160 web hosting providers, a number that includes best website builders (as well as static site generators and landing page creators).
So, in short, we know exactly what the absolute top website hosting companies are made of. No one has reviewed more web hosting providers than us online.
We’ve provided detailed summaries for each web hosting provider and highlighted their respective strengths and features, things that may be important for your choice, plus information on pricing and why each particular web host may be ideal for you.
Best web hosting services in 2021
3. Hostinger’s Premium shared hosting
Look no further for the best price on Premium shared hosting. Hostinger is giving TechRadar Pro readers the opportunity to get shared hosting for as little is $2.19 per month, which includes 100 GB SSD storage, a free domain, free SSL and a free email.View Deal
At the very top of the web hosting provider scoreboard is Bluehost. Arguably one of the largest website hosting providers in the world, Bluehost powers over two million websites globally.
From WordPress hosting, to managed hosting and WooCommerce, Bluehost has it’s hypothetical hands in plenty of hosting pots, all while delivering its services to a great standard.
For basic shared hosting, Bluehost cheapest plan goes for $2.75 per month (on a three-year contract), and it’s WordPress plans start at $2.00 per month, which includes one website and 50GB of SSD storage (although that’s also a discounted introductory rate).
For the money, you get automated setup for WordPress, not to mention other popular apps via a Mojo Marketplace-powered system. There’s also a cPanel-based area to allow expert users to tweak things.
Bluehost now also has its own website builder that features drag and drop editing, live editing, mobile editing, and stock image repository. It also includes over 300 templates, full WordPress access and custom CSS.
Generally, Bluehost offers good customer support, as well as a free site migration tool, and the end result is a mix of user-friendly aspects alongside a good amount of power.
Bluehost also offers a professional service to get your website started and ranked in second place in our best website design services buyers guide.
Cheapest Bluehost Shared Plan | $7.99 $2.75 p/m | 65% off
A fantastic bargain for TechRadar readers, Bluehost has cut the price of its Shared Plan (regularly $7.99 p/m) down to a mere $2.75 per month for the first term only (up to four years). You get $175 in offers, 24/7 expert support, plus a free domain and site builder and 30-day money-back guarantee.View Deal
HostGator has been around since 2002 and has, over the years, grown to now cater to thousands of customers in the hosting department.
The web hosting provider is the best when it comes to shared hosting services because it’s reliable, the price is affordable and the company boasts of 99.9% uptime.
HostGator offers three specific shared hosting plans, starting with the Hatchling subscription, which comes with unmetered bandwidth, free WordPress/cPanel website transfer and a free SSL certificate. The allocations are generous and should easily accommodate the requirements of a single domain.
HostGator’s cheapest shared hosting plan is $2.75 per month if you sign up for 36 months.
Aside from shared hosting, HostGator has a remarkable range of hosting services, from domains to dedicated servers.
HostGator also provides WordPress hosting and, like Bluehost, has its very own website builder service too, which is not uncommon for web hosting companies to have these days.
Some of the additional benefits HostGator has up its sleeves include a 45-day money-back guarantee, free transfers for new accounts within the first month after you’ve signed up, 24/7/365 live chat support for its customers, and a free domain for a year.
If you are looking for a web hosting service provider that will give you more for your money, then there’s lots that HostGator checks off in that department.
Hostinger has the top spot when it comes to the best cloud hosting provider because of its speed, power and affordability.
There are three plans available, Cloud Startup, Cloud Professional, and Cloud Enterprise, all of which offer 300 websites and unlimited bandwidth for your account.
The Cloud Startup plan comes with 200GB of SSD storage, 3GB of RAM, and 2 CPU cores. The Cloud Professional plan increases these to 250GB storage, 6GB RAM, and 4 CPU cores, the Cloud Enterprise plan extends these further to 300GB storage, 12GB RAM, and 6CPU cores. All plans come with a free SSL certificate and domain name.
All plans come with a free SSL certificate, free domain, daily backups, host up to 300 websites, as well as a Google Ads credit.
Pricing depends on how long you commit to the service. For the Cloud Startup plan, it costs $29 on a month to month basis. However, if you commit for a year the monthly cost falls to $12.99 a month. For a two-year contract, it drops to $10.99 a month, and for a four-year contract it falls to only $9.99 a month.
Hostinger even encourages you to get more cloud hosting power as your website expands.
It is also one of the biggest providers of free web hosting via its 000webhosting brand, and has amassed over 30 million users, and offers some of the lowest prices thanks to low running costs and overheads.
Hostinger gives their users a convenient choice of technology – cPanel or hPanel, its own customized control panel. A more intuitive Hpanel allows a better and more comfartable control of performance and features.
In regards to your website’s security, Hostinger uses server security tool BitNinja to guard all its servers against cyberattacks. On top of that, the company boasts that it uses integrated custom security software that is regularly updated.
Hostinger’s Premium shared hosting
For the best price on Premium shared hosting, Hostinger is giving TechRadar Pro readers the opportunity to get shared hosting for as little is $2.19 per month, which includes 100 GB SSD storage, a free domain, free SSL, a free email, and so much more.View Deal
InMotion Hosting is a popular web host that’s been in business for over 15 years, with an impressive array of plans on offer including reseller hosting.
InMotion takes the lead in the reseller hosting department because its reseller plans come with a free WHMCS license, which allows for the automated setup and billing of clients.
This is great for anyone who wants to take a stab at becoming a web hosting provider. Web hosting services offer reseller schemes that allow you to buy a block of resources – disk space or bandwidth for example – to divide and sell it however you like.
InMotion’s Beginner reseller plan comes with 80GB of storage, 800GB of bandwidth, and can host up to 25 accounts, and costs $21.39 on a per monthly basis. However, this is discounted the longer you commit, with the cheapest option being $15.39 a month if you go for their 2-year contract.
Other plans increase limits and pricing based on how much more InMotion is offering, and there’s a 90-day money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied.
All plans include assisted setup and migration, especially useful for those coming from other web hosts, and you won’t need to worry about the server side of things because InMotion takes care of all that for you.
InMotion Hosting provides both cPanel and Softaculous panels, and offers excellent technical support should you get stuck with anything. In our testing, we found that this firm’s overall performance levels were well above average, which is good news for those who want to see fast-loading websites.
InMotion Lite Plan
For TechRadar readers, this top-rated web hosting service is offering its Lite plan at $2.49 per month rather than the full asking price of $7.49. That’s quite the bargain.View Deal
Hostwinds offers a range of dedicated server hosting with powerful configuration options for anything from general to heavy-duty use, which makes them ideal for hosting everything from company websites to gaming servers.
There are multiple base options to select, which you can then customize according to your preferences. The cheapest models have a quad-core single processor and start with at least 8GB of RAM, which would make them ideal for most typical users.
There are a good set of additional options available for customization, with different RAID configurations and a number of operating systems available, including standard CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, or Fedora options, as well as a Windows Server option.
A 1Gbps network link means that whichever bandwidth option you choose (all of which are generous) you shouldn’t need to worry about traffic being throttled at your end.
Full server management is provided, which will be handy for those not wanting to get overwhelmed by sys admin duties, with server monitoring and nightly backups also provided as part of the service.
If there’s one criticism we have, it’s that a control panel such as CPanel, Plesk, or Exim isn’t provided as standard, which can simplify a lot of server operations for users; however, if you contact Hostwinds, they’ll be happy to advise on the best option as an addon, if you don’t feel comfortable with setting up one yourself.
Dreamhost offers standalone email hosting among the range of different packages that this established web hosting services provider offers.
Dreamhost’s email hosting offers 25GB of storage by default, with the ability to sync emails between desktop and mobile devices. Additionally, there’s an ad-free webmail software platform included.
Another key feature is a smart anti-spam filter, which ensures the filtering of spam messages, but also viruses, malware, and phishing attacks. The filter is adaptive to emerging threats, ensuring that you remain protected.
There are a couple of key advantages in having your own hosted email account. The first is that it remains connected to your company domain name, which looks far more professional than a free email account.
Additionally, it also means you have complete control over your own data, and that your emails won’t be automatically scanned to provide advertising at you, something free email providers do all too commonly.
Pricing is relatively inexpensive, and depends on whether you wish to pay on a monthly basis or commit to annual payments. Monthly plans cost just $1.99 a month, while a yearly commitment reduces this to the equivalent of $1.67 a month.
Founded in California back in 2008, GreenGeeks proudly claims to be the ‘world’s #1 green energy web hosting provider’, not surprising given that it is dedicated entirely to green causes.
That’s a big statement, but there is some substance behind it. The company doesn’t just say that its platform has been designed for maximum energy efficiency, it also promises that “for every amperage we pull from the grid, we invest three times that in the form of renewable energy via Bonneville Environmental Foundation.” So in theory at least, your hosting isn’t just carbon-neutral, it’s carbon-reducing.
GreenGeeks’ hosting range isn’t quite as impressive. There are the usual set of plans – shared products, application hosting, VPS, dedicated – but there isn’t much choice, and what you do get is mostly very average.
There is one exception in GreenGeeks powerful shared hosting plan. This offers unlimited websites, emails, databases, web space and bandwidth, and…
Best Web Hosting Services 2021 – More than 140 real, in-depth reviews