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Gizmodo
5 days ago
- Business
- Gizmodo
6 Best Web Hosting Services for Small Business in 2025
Small businesses and start-ups face a long and challenging journey to success. Fortunately, the right web hosting service can help keep them on track. In 2025, establishing a strong online presence is no small task, and competition is fierce. Without a reliable foundation to host your website, your efforts risk going nowhere. As a small business owner, it's also crucial not to overpay for features you don't need. That's why choosing a hosting service tailored to small business budgets is essential. Our experts reviewed numerous options — from average to outstanding — and identified the best hosting providers offering plans starting as low as $1.99/month. These services not only deliver excellent value but also provide the flexibility to scale with your business as it grows, even into a mid-sized or large enterprise — which we certainly hope will be the case. Best Hosting for Small Business: A Quick Recap Hostinger — the best small business hosting overall SiteGround — best performance for small businesses InMotion Hosting — scalable and flexible option for growing companies DreamHost — beginner-friendly option with a lengthy free trial (97 days) Bluehost — cheap WordPress hosting for small businesses (A2 Hosting) — affordable VPS hosting plans Best Small Business Web Hosting Services Reviewed A quick recap from above simply won't cut it — and it shouldn't! Don't worry. All of the test results are in place and we're ready to report them to you. Scroll down a bit more and read our full, in-depth reviews of each recommended option from the list. 1. Hostinger Pros Free daily backups AI website builder Fast NVMe storage LiteSpeed servers DDoS protection Free WHOIS privacy Cons No unlimited storage Email hosting is a free trial only Visit Hostinger Hostinger offers a vast selection of plans, which is always a plus. However, our favorite is Business at $3.99/mo, with 50 GB of NVMe storage, 50 websites, and a built-in Website Builder. With AI tools at your disposal, designing your website from the ground up is easy. Adding to its value is a free domain for a year with free SSL and WHOIS privacy. This plan includes forever-free daily backups to keep things tidy, while managed WordPress ensures you get timely updates and optimization for a smooth ride. What about professional email? Worry not — Hostinger gives you 50 mailboxes free of charge for a year, with each having 1 GB of storage. It'll make your business stand out from those relying on free email hosting. Hostinger's Business plan is e-commerce friendly, which will benefit small online shops. It offers full support for WooCommerce and it allows for 100+ payment methods and 0% transaction fees. AI-enhanced website design includes an AI writer, image generator, and SEO tools, which help populate and optimize your online store promptly. Small business website hosting needs proper security, and Hostinger shines here. DDoS and malware protection spiced up by a malware scanner — how does that sound? Another focal point is speed, where Hostinger excels thanks to LiteSpeed and fast object caching. Hostinger offers cloud or VPS hosting if you need more resources. Drawing from our experience, the Business plan is more than sufficient and pretty affordable due to a low renewal price. By the way, you can test it for free for 30 days thanks to a nifty free trial. 2. SiteGround Pros Unlimited business emails Managed WordPress NGINX caching for maximum speed Daily website backups Website staging Worldwide server locations Cons Not the cheapest pick No free domain Visit SiteGround SiteGround is an all-in-one hosting solution for small businesses. First, it's eco-friendly, with a 100% renewable energy match. Second, it's blazing-fast, even faster than Hostinger in some cases, thanks to NGINX caching, a built-in CDN, and ultra-fast PHP implementation. Our favorite GrowBig plan at $6.69/mo is all you need to grow your business. It offers unlimited websites and 20 GB of web space. However, managed WordPress permeates all plans, allowing for speed and security optimization, plus automated WordPress updates. SiteGround has ample freebies. For instance, you have unlimited free emails with an email migrator for added convenience. SiteGround has daily backups in all plans, with a free SSL that's automatically applied to your websites. Collaborators are there in all plans, as well! This means you can gather your crew and start working like a team without added cost. We picked the GrowBig plan for two features — on-demand backups and staging. The latter is especially important for testing new designs and features on a copy of your website. In our SiteGround review, we were thoroughly impressed with its vast data center span, as it covers North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Additionally, it uses Site Tools, an in-house panel, which screams beauty and simplicity, allowing for one-click WordPress installations. The only downside is the lack of a free domain, which will be an inevitable investment at the start. However, we can't blame SiteGround because its packages are so choke-full of features, that they'll spill out. The cherry on top is cloud hosting which adds scalability, just in case. 3. InMotion Hosting Pros Unlimited storage Free website migration Unlimited business emails 24/7 chat/phone support Flexible VPS hosting plans Cons Daily backups are a paid extra Slightly outdated interface Visit InMotion Hosting If scalability is your main concern, here's InMotion Hosting. It's all about motion here, and if your small business goes up, that's great. The Power plan at $3.59/mo is all you need to flourish, with unlimited NVMe storage, bandwidth, and websites — talk about excellence! InMotion Hosting even packs a free domain and an automatically applied free SSL for good measure. It's a flexible option that offers multiple web hosting plans, paired with affordable VPS and dedicated servers if you need them. To that, we'll add its reliable email hosting. Our favorite Power plan includes unlimited email addresses with 2 GB of backup storage. A 99.9% guarantee endorses industry-leading stability, while its LiteSpeed servers promote super-short loading times. InMotion Hosting is essentially a cPanel hosting solution. This means it's easy to get around even for newbies. But if you don't like it, you can use its Control Web Panel. Unlike GreenGeeks, which we left out, it will migrate your website for free. While you're at it, it'll also employ Godlike security measures such as DDoS protection, malware removal, and a web application firewall. The best web hosting for a small business needs support and InMotion delivers it. 24/7 live chat support will help you get settled and cozy without hesitation. It'll also let you enjoy the service for free for 90 days and be refunded if you make up your mind. Any negatives? Weekly backups. You have to pay $2.99/mo on top for daily site backups. Other than that, InMotion Hosting is immaculate. We advise exploring its other plans, especially VPS, which you can get for as low as $4.49/mo. 4. DreamHost Pros Cheap (renewal) prices Fast and reliable performance 97-day money-back guarantee AI Business Advisor One-click WordPress Installer Cons Unimpressive cloud hosting CDN is an optional purchase Visit DreamHost DreamHost is budget-friendly and easy to navigate. Just what you need from one of the top web hosts for 2025. The highlight is a 97-day money-back guarantee, which gives you ample time to test it. DreamHost Shared Unlimited plan at $3.95/mo is our favorite pick. It hosts unlimited sites on unlimited SSD storage. Its renewal price is surprisingly low, and at $10.99/mo, it's among the least pricier web hosts. Small businesses will love its WordPress installer and free website migration, which helps set you up quickly and without hesitation. DreamHost's AI website builder is phenomenal if you want to go that route. If not, it'll perform well for WordPress instead, thanks to fast US and EU servers with surprisingly low response times and reliable, nearly 100% uptimes. DreamHost has very few restrictions. For example, this plan comes with unlimited emails for your domain, a free SSL, a free domain, and automated daily backups. An optional purchase is CDN, which can speed up page loading by caching static assets. One of its best features is the AI Business Advisor. Based on GPT-4o, it recommends actionable insights and problem solutions to overcome hurdles in your small business development. DreamHost's security is excellent too, with proper DDoS protection, a web application firewall, and constant 24/7/365 site monitoring. Like the rest, DreamHost's plans are diverse. VPS hosting is incredibly affordable, and if your business grows like a mushroom after rain, you can purchase a dedicated server with customizable computing resources. Flexible, affordable, and reliable — an ideal combo. 5. Bluehost Pros Great for WordPress Cloudflare CDN is included Malware scanning VPS, cloud, and dedicated plans Cons Servers only in the USA Bluehost Pro Email isn't free forever Visit Bluehost Bluehost is the cheapest web hosting for a small business. At $1.99/mo for the Basic plan, you can host 10 websites and enjoy blazing-fast 10 GB SSD storage. Our go-to is the Choice Plus plan at $3.95/mo, which includes 50 websites and 50 GB SSD storage. This is just the start — Bluehost also packs a free domain for a year, a free website migration, and a Cloudflare CDN. In a recent Bluehost vs DreamHost comparison, we praised the former for its managed WordPress in all plans, making it much easier to maintain a WordPress site. Bluehost also comes with static content and object caching, both of which make it admirably fast and reliable. A handy addition is staging, allowing for experimentation on a copy of a website, instead of the live version. Bluehost's real-world performance is top-notch, overall. For example, it offers ample security, such as free SSL, free malware scanning/removal, WAF, DDoS, and even domain privacy. The said plan includes free daily website backups, and as a bonus, there's a free trial of Bluehost Pro Email. Later on, it's $2.99/mo if you want to get it. During our extensive tests, Bluehost displayed an impressive level of support, too. With 24/7 phone and chat support, this small business web hosting will come to your aid at the drop of a hat. Versatility extends to other hosting plans, like eCommerce Essentials for selling online. However, Bluehost has beefy VPS, cloud, and dedicated hosting plans for small businesses, too. Our only complaint is the server location, which is limited to the US. Also, some plans have higher renewal prices, which puts Bluehost at a disadvantage to the rest of the crew. 6. (A2 Hosting) Pros 200 staging websites Turbo LiteSpeed servers Choice of hosting panel Cheap business VPS hosting Cons Limited to 50 pro email accounts No NVMe storage Expensive managed VPS plans Visit or A2 Hosting, is a key player in the small business web hosting market. It's affordable overall, with the VPS XS plan starting at just $4.99/mo. However, if you'd rather use shared hosting and get more for less money, the Max plan is seriously packed. You get 50 websites and 100 GB of SSD storage. drops in a free domain name, which wasn't the case before, and there are 50 pro email accounts to fuel your desire for success. We love that uses so-called Turbo servers that leverage LiteSpeed caching. It makes hosting so much faster and dwindles loading times to ensure smoothness. An interesting addition is MariaDB as a MySQL replacement. It's a database with a higher degree of scalability and query speed for larger bits of data. This is amplified by 200 staging sites. This means you can make up to 200 copies of your websites to experiment with new features. security is decent too, and you can expect 24/7 malware scanning and removal. Plus, there's a decent selection of cPanel hosting if you don't want the proprietary panel. Interestingly, is limited to VPS and shared hosting for small businesses. With no cloud and dedicated servers, it's hard to deem it the #1 small business web host in 2025. At the price, however, is a decent pick, especially for speed and ease of use. Besides, there's a 30-day money-back guarantee for all plans, so it's a nice opportunity to test out this revamped provider. If nothing, you'll get a refund if you don't like it and opt for Hostinger or SiteGround instead. Best Web Hosting for Small Business: Methodology Choosing web hosting often boils down to your needs and preferences, but needs should always be your numero uno criterion. If you're a single entrepreneur with no support from other people, then you won't need tons of professional mailboxes and collaborators. Meanwhile, small businesses need that additional nudge in the right direction. That nudge is exactly what our favorite options offer. Here's how we cherry-picked the best options to specifically fit small business needs: Generous hosting limits . By this, we mean the ability to host multiple websites, generous storage, unlimited bandwidth, etc. All of these give small businesses ample space to grow and progress over time. . By this, we mean the ability to host multiple websites, generous storage, unlimited bandwidth, etc. All of these give small businesses ample space to grow and progress over time. Professional email . All options on this list offer professional email addresses in their plans. While some are less generous than others, in the beginning, you won't have to invest in expensive email hosting for that 'Professional' feeling. . All options on this list offer professional email addresses in their plans. While some are less generous than others, in the beginning, you won't have to invest in expensive email hosting for that 'Professional' feeling. Free domain . As an owner of a small company, you want to minimize investments, and getting a domain name for free is a great path to follow. Apart from SiteGround, every top-rated small business hosting offers this feature. . As an owner of a small company, you want to minimize investments, and getting a domain name for free is a great path to follow. Apart from SiteGround, every top-rated small business hosting offers this feature. Speed and performance . With a 99.9% uptime guarantee (and fulfillment), our top six providers never fail to deliver on the performance front. All of them use advanced caching (LiteSpeed or NGINX) to ensure fast loading times with no slowdowns. . With a 99.9% uptime guarantee (and fulfillment), our top six providers never fail to deliver on the performance front. All of them use advanced caching (LiteSpeed or NGINX) to ensure fast loading times with no slowdowns. Flexibility . You need something flexible that can swiftly adapt to your growing needs. Don't fret. All providers have multiple plans and types of hosting to accommodate more visitors, site features, and other needs that you'll eventually express. . You need something flexible that can swiftly adapt to your growing needs. Don't fret. All providers have multiple plans and types of hosting to accommodate more visitors, site features, and other needs that you'll eventually express. Security. What's a website without adequate security? This is taken care of by our top providers, with DDoS protection, malware removal, site scanning, and so on. Business Email Hosting: Which Provider is Best? A business email hosting service isn't necessary, but when you think about it, it sort of is. I mean, imagine a serious company using Gmail or Yahoo as its email service. You get in touch with the company and the returning email is something like '[email protected]'. Sounds a bit silly, doesn't it? Proper business email hosting allows you to personalize your email and look more professional. Instead of having this ' address, your addresses will look along the lines of '[email protected]', and each company member can have their email. For instance, Hostinger offers 50 mailboxes in its plan, which means you can assign 50 different email addresses to your employees. 50 is more than enough for small businesses. However, if you need more, our favorite provider by far is SiteGround, for one simple reason. Visit SiteGround Website It includes unlimited email accounts in every subscription plan. Plus, it's not a free trial or anything along those lines. It's a full-fledged email hosting service with an email migrator. If you want, you can purchase its email hosting separately, but as it's included in every plan, it would be kind of strange, except if you want to use another hosting for small business and slap SiteGround Email Hosting on top. Web Hosting vs Website Builder for Small Business Which one should you choose? First of all, we made a list of the best small business website builders, too, where we explained that they can also be a viable choice. However, website builders are more about front-end website design, and while they include hosting, it's often not as reliable. Using a website builder is nice if you don't want WordPress or don't know how to code. This way, you can create a website in no time, add different elements, and enjoy built-in SEO, marketing, and e-commerce features. There's a catch, however — web hosting services often include website builders! Hostinger has an AI Website Builder, and so has SiteGround — both are fantastic. Web hosting is a different story, despite this similarity. It's a service that publishes your website on the internet, and while site-building is often included, it's less 'accentuated'. Instead, it focuses on things like security management, backups, traffic management, and so forth. Which one you should choose depends on your preferences. If you use WordPress to build your website, you'll need a web host. If you're okay with using a website builder and its built-in hosting, consider that option. Conclusion Every small business needs web hosting, and a good place to start is our comprehensive ranking. We chose the six best providers that won't break the bank while allowing you to get on your feet in no time. For the lack of a better term, they're an insignificant investment into your bright future. Hostinger tops the list as the best-performing option overall. However, each consecutive provider has something unique to offer. SiteGround is best for email hosting, InMotion is great for scalability, and DreamHost packs a lengthy 97-day free trial for testing. At the end of the day, your choice should reflect your needs and goals. Pick the one that matches your business aspirations the most and ride the escalator to success. Try Hostinger Risk-Free Today Frequently Asked Questions Has our comprehensive ranking helped you choose the best web hosting for your small business? If you're still unsure, perhaps these few questions and answers will help clear up your mind additionally. What's the cheapest small business web hosting? The cheapest introductory offer is Bluehost at $1.99/mo for the Basic plan. However, in the long run, the least expensive renewal prices are in Hostinger and DreamHost. SiteGround is among the pricier, but simultaneously the most feature-rich choices. How much is a business email? It's included in your subscription at no additional cost. Bought separately, it usually starts at under $2/mo and goes up to $10/mo, depending on the number of mailboxes, storage, etc. In our experience, you'll save the most by opting for a hosting plan with email included. Which type of hosting is best for small businesses? The most cost-effective and efficient option is shared (web) hosting. VPS is for mid-sized businesses that need more computing resources. Cloud and dedicated options fall into this category as well, with the latter being more suited to large companies and enterprises. Check out our dedicated server hosting ranking if you feel you need that much computing power.
Gizmodo
5 days ago
- Business
- Gizmodo
SiteGround vs WP Engine 2025: Honest Review by Experts
We understand your struggle. You're looking for an adequate WordPress hosting solution. However, after days or weeks of searching, you've become dead-set on SiteGround or WP Engine. You've heard plenty of good stuff about them — speed, security, ease of use, etc. Well, the rumors are true. SiteGround is impeccable, with ample performance, feature-packed plans, and tons of security features. WP Engine is renowned for its reliable WordPress hosting too, with flexible, scalable, and diverse plans to suit everyone's growing needs. In our SiteGround vs WP Engine analysis, we liked SiteGround more, as it's cheaper and simultaneously more reliable than WP Engine. However, our goals and preferences don't have to align with yours. That's why you should examine our comparison, be the judge, and make the decision accordingly. SiteGround vs WP Engine – Quick Comparison 🏆 SiteGround WP Engine 🌐 Shared (WordPress) Hosting Price $3.99/mo (StartUp plan) $25/mo (Essential Startup plan) 💾 WooCommerce Hosting Price $3.99/mo (StartUp plan) $30/mo (Essential eCommerce Startup plan) ☁️ Cloud Hosting Price $100/mo (Jump Start Plan) / 🧑 Dedicated Hosting Price / / 🆓 1-Year Free Domain No No 🔐 WHOIS Domain Privacy No No 🌎 Data Centers Ashburn, Council Bluffs, Dallas, Los Angeles, London, Madrid, Eemshaven, Frankfurt, Paris, Sydney, Singapore Iowa, Oregon, Virginia, Sydney, South Carolina, Montreal, London, Netherlands, Dubai, Tokyo, Singapore, Tel Aviv, and more. ✅ Uptime Guarantee 99.95% 99.95% 🖥️ Free SSL Certificate Yes Yes ⏬ Automated Backups Yes, daily Yes, daily 💿 Storage 10 GB to 40 GB 10 GB to 50 GB #️⃣ Number of Hosted Websites 1 to unlimited 1 to 30 🤖 AI Website Builder Yes No 💸 Money-Back Guarantee 30 days 60 days Hosting Plans, Pricing & Features One of the main criticisms of WP Engine is the price. It's not for everyone, especially for people on an inflexible budget. However, SiteGround isn't the least expensive pick either. On the other hand, these are premium WordPress hosting services, so naturally, they'll going to cost slightly more. Before we discuss their prices, it's smart to look at their hosting types which are in the table below: SiteGround WP Engine WordPress ✅ ✅ WooCommerce ✅ ✅ Cloud ✅ ❌ Shared ✅ ✅ Dedicated ❌ ❌ VPS ❌ ❌ Both providers primarily rely on shared hosting but with a caveat. SiteGround's shared hosting is out-of-the-box ready for WordPress and WooCommerce, with no upselling trickery. WP Engine begs to differ, splitting its shared hosting plans into two — you guessed it, WordPress and WooCommerce. That's practically it in the case of WP Engine. SiteGround, however, includes a few cloud hosting plans and reseller options if you're interested in that. Variety-wise, SiteGround takes the crown, but once we examine their prices and features, we can paint the whole picture. WordPress & WooCommerce Plans As said, SiteGround is a great WooCommerce hosting option regardless of the chosen plan — no need to spend more. Thus, you can start selling online at as low as $3.99/mo, although you can have only one online store with 10 GB of web space. That's why SiteGround's GrowBig plan is the best. GrowBig costs $6.69/mo and comes with unlimited sites, 20 GB of web space, staging, on-demand backups, and so on. Visit SiteGround Website On the other hand, WP Engine WordPress hosting starts at $25/mo for the Essential plan, which you can customize to get more sites and storage. Essentially, WP Engine goes from $25/mo to $242/mo based on your needs. The Core plan is the next tier at $400/mo, and there's the Enterprise plan with a custom price. Moving on, WooCommerce plans start at $30/mo for Essential eCommerce with only one site and 10 GB of storage. Core eCommerce is a gargantuan $500/mo, which is out of many people's budgets. Despite costing much less, SiteGround lacks nothing from WP Engine. In fact, we'd bravely say it offers more and doesn't charge you on top of silly things like automated updates, extra security, speed boosts, etc. WordPress & WooCommerce Features Now that we touched on extra features and features in general, it's time to compare them. So, SiteGround offers the following things outside the box, in its best-value GrowBig plan: Unlimited sites 20 GB of web space Managed WordPress (auto-install, auto-updates, WP-CLI, SSH, …) Fully enabled WooCommerce Free SSL, email, email migratory, and CDN Daily backups (+ on-demand backups) Enhanced security Out-of-the-box NGINX caching Collaborators 30% faster PHP WordPress Staging Unmetered traffic 100,000 monthly visitors But then, the Essential Professional plan at $50/mo from WP Engine offers: 3 websites 75,000 monthly visitors 15 GB of storage 150 GB of bandwidth Proactive WordPress security Managed WP updates Global CDN 24/7 WordPress technical assistance Daily and on-demand backups Website staging You'll agree that WP Engine is no slouch, but SiteGround is a less expensive alternative and a better one at that. WP Engine charges you $17 for each additional site. You'll also spend $3 on top, for automated plugin updates and $26 for SOC 2 level security with a WAF. Do you want speed boosts? Spend $17 to get 30+ site optimizations. Plus, if you want an e-commerce package, that would be another $13 to spice things up. Add all of this, or at least half of it, and WP Engine will become a bloody expensive investment from the get-go. One of the worst things about WP Engine is the lack of unlimited websites, bandwidth, and monthly visitors. As you see above, all three are quite limited, especially monthly visitors and bandwidth. SiteGround's GrowBig plan alleviates all restrictions for the best experience. Ultimately, it's not that WP Engine doesn't offer specific features. It's that you have to spend a ludicrous amount of money to get them. This, in turn, makes SiteGround a more sensible option that'll save you a fortune. Winner: SiteGround SiteGround is a better package at a lower price. It also offers cloud hosting which aids scalability, as well as the GoGeek plan that offers more than WP Engine's equivalent at a vastly lower price. WP Engine's 60-day money-back guarantee is better than a 30-day one in SiteGround. Apart from that, it's hard to deem WP Engine a better value for money. That's why our choice would always be SiteGround, whether it's a simple WordPress site or a rich WooCommerce online store. Get Started With SiteGround SiteGround vs WP Engine Performance Comparison SiteGround is a logical choice if you seek maximum performance, speed, and uptime. WP Engine is a solid performer, but with a rival so strong in front, it'll be hard to do some serious damage. Nevertheless, we compared WP Engine vs SiteGround fairly. For example, we used their US-based server to host our websites. Our websites were made in WordPress and we used the same minimalist theme called Astra. We always pick this theme because it's lightweight, while still allowing us to make a good-looking and functional site. That's what we did! We made two identical websites, with some compressed images, a few blog posts, and a couple of interactive segments, just to make things more interesting. GTmetrix Speed Test Comparison Okay, so now, it's time to examine our GTmetrix speed tests. They'll tell us more about page-loading times and give us a broad image of both websites' performances. During our SiteGround vs WP Engine speed test evaluation, we focused on these five metrics: TTFB or Time to First Byte FCP or First Contentful Paint LCP or Largest Contentful Paint CLS or Cumulative Layout Shift FLT or Fully Loaded Time Also, we used the default server in Vancouver for this test. This meant that the test would simulate the performance of the website for users located in Vancouver. We knew using the US server would yield better performance results, but that wasn't the point of our testing. The point was to gauge the performance in non-ideal conditions. GTmetrix, Vancouver SiteGround WP Engine TTFB 40 ms 161 ms FCP 281 ms 457 ms LCP 321 ms 878 ms CLS 0.02 0.02 FLT 683 ms 1.0 s It's clear which web host is the fastest — SiteGround. However, WP Engine performed admirably and well within the recommended limits. For instance, TTFB should be under 200 ms, and as you see, both providers are well above that. SiteGround is exceptional, though. Fully loaded time or FLT should ideally be under 2 seconds, and in both cases, it never goes above 1 second. FCP, which is the time it takes for the browser to render the first element on the page, is relatively low in both cases, at under 500 ms. We'll also mention LCP, which is the time it takes for the largest element on the page to load. At under 900 ms for WP Engine and under 400 ms for SiteGround, both have displayed fantastic results. However, SiteGround's industry-leading performance is tough to defeat. Uptime Analysis & Response Times Our next testing adventure continued on Pingdom, where we examined their uptimes and response times. We'll start with uptimes because both providers scored impressive scores. We tested SiteGround and WP Engine for 3 months and monitored their downtimes. The results were 99.95% for SiteGround, which had a few minor outages in this period. All three combined didn't last for more than 10 minutes, so it's really nothing to be up in arms about. WP Engine, however, didn't have a single outage in 3 months, which was surprising. With WP Engine's 100% uptime score, it gained the upper hand on SiteGround for a while. But when you examine their average response times, you'll see that SiteGround was a speck better at 299 ms versus 403 ms in WP Engine. To be clear, both are fairly impressive. However, after examining our Pingdom results, we found that WP Engine's graph danced up to 600+ ms and went as low as ~220 ms, which resulted in the given average response time. SiteGround kept things much lower and didn't have these spikes. At one point, SiteGround's response time even went well under 200 ms, indicating impressive performance that couldn't be beaten easily. Overall, at under 600-650 ms, which is the upper range for shared hosting, both providers passed our exhaustive tests with flying colors. Winner: SiteGround Despite flying colors on both sides, SiteGround was ever so slightly more vibrant and its outstanding performance metrics brought it yet another trophy. Though, even if you went with WP Engine, you wouldn't be disappointed with the performance. It's just that SiteGround is a notch or two above. Visit SiteGround Which Hosting Provider is Easier to Use? We'll press on to hosting management and ease of use, where we had ample time to test and evaluate SiteGround and WP Engine. To be frank, we preferred SiteGround at first, but after using WP Engine for a while, we found them equally functional and simple to use. SiteGround Interface & Ease of Use SiteGround offers its good, old Site Tools. It's an intuitive hosting management system, which operates on a single page and we always praise that. This results in unbelievable snappiness that permeates the experience and makes website management and updates insanely quick. The left-hand side holds different menus, like the dashboard, site management, security settings, speed optimization, WordPress updates, emails, and so on. The upper portion is reserved for pinned tools, and you can pin as many as you like for added convenience. Scroll a bit and you'll find insightful site information, such as disk space, name servers, and more. Even if you prefer cPanel hosting, which is arguably great, Site Tools will match it in flexibility, ease of use, and functionality. An adequate case in point is the WordPress setup. SiteGround completes it in a few simple steps thanks to a built-in WordPress installer. Better yet, there's the option to install WordPress + WooCommerce at once, and have your online store ready in no time. WP Engine Interface & Ease of Use WP Engine doesn't have a cPanel. It uses an in-house solution that… well, looks slightly more advanced at first glance. Again, you'll find your tools on the left, and from there, you can access your websites, CDN, backup points, migrations, error logs, and so much more. We love that WP Engine has staging and website development put separately. For example, to make a staging copy, click Add Staging on the left, and you'll be offered to make an experimental copy of the website. Another highlight of this interface is the live checklist. It's a simple list that allows you to track tasks and see which ones are complete. WP Engine is, overall, very simple to use, and like SiteGround, lets you install WordPress promptly. You simply have to choose if you'd like a WordPress or WooCommerce site and follow the steps. Winner: Tie SiteGround is usually our benchmark for ease of use, along with Hostinger's hPanel. This time, however, WP Engine stood up for itself and defended bravely against its rival. With both options having some of the best hosting panels around, we have to go with a tie. It's the only logical outcome. Which Web Hosting Is More Secure? One of the most important aspects of the WP Engine vs SiteGround comparison is security. Based on our in-depth research and testing, SiteGround stood out slightly in this area. As mentioned earlier, SiteGround includes key security features by default, without requiring optional add-on purchases. SiteGround is also featured in our ranking of the most secure hosting providers—thanks to its strong security features, including: Automated daily backups Free SSL Proactive WAF (Web Application Firewall) Self-learning AI Anti-Bot system DDoS protection Real-time website monitoring system That's a serious arsenal that makes SiteGround leaps and bounds above its competition. By far the most innovative feature is the AI Anti-Bot System, which detects and removes even the most stubborn threats. Its real-time monitoring is powerful, as well, as it scans the server for issues every 0.5 seconds. We then have WP Engine that secures your website using: Automated daily backups Free SSL Server monitoring Layer 3 + 4 DDoS protection The list is a bit shorter, but you can top it up by buying a managed WAF and DDoS as optional add-ons. Can you guess the price? It's a whopping $300 a year! I mean, WP Engine's basic security features are sufficient, and in our testing, we haven't had a single problem. We must say we're baffled at the fact that a managed Web Application Firewall and associated DDoS protection cost this much when SiteGround offers them free of charge. Again, WP Engine doesn't lack the tools — it just charges you a premium to enjoy them. Winner: SiteGround SiteGround puts no restrictions on your website security, no matter the plan you opt for. Having an impressive track record and some innovative security measures (like AI Anti-Bot), it's a no-brainer option in this WP Engine vs SiteGround 2025 comparison. Visit SiteGround Customer Support The thing we're not fond of in SiteGround is the way its customer support functions. Inspect Hostinger and you'll see that you'll be able to get in touch immediately. SiteGround likely doesn't favor lazy customers and wants them to search for answers within its knowledge bases, FAQs, tutorials, etc. If they can't find what they seek, they can get in touch. SiteGround offers live chat, phone, and ticketing support, which works reliably. However, it's all a bit perplexing, as some requests are for ticket support, while some can be addressed based on your choice — through chat or phone support. We think we got the gist of it. More complex requests are transformed into tickets, while quick questions can be tackled on the spot. WP Engine's support is mainly realized via live chat. The cheapest plan limits you to 24/7 live chat, while all higher-tier plans include a phone service on top. We found it baffling that WP Engine's live chat support was so much quicker to respond and without fluff, so to speak. If you want, you can get in touch right away. No need to sift through the knowledge base. On a few occasions, our interactions with the support agents were lengthy, but as a result of the agent's hard work and dedication to answering our questions and satisfying us. We also noticed that WP Engine has sort of a ticketing system, which can be found under the Contact Us section on the website. It's an efficient way of getting in touch, albeit if you're not urgently seeking an answer. Winner: WP Engine SiteGround's support is helpful, but we'd like it to be more concise and easy to reach, without needing to seek help in the knowledge base. Meanwhile, WP Engine's support is equally helpful but quicker to respond, while also being reachable directly through the live chat widget at any time. Conclusion: SiteGround is Better than WP Engine Our WP Engine vs SiteGround analysis ends on a good note, as both services' valiant efforts are expectedly successful. However, having hosted multiple WordPress sites and WooCommerce stores on WP Engine and SiteGround, we ended up settling for the latter. SiteGround is so much cheaper, but the price difference isn't felt in any way performance-wise. We'll bluntly say we enjoyed SiteGround just a bit more, and even found it better for security and speed. WP Engine is a high-quality web host, but with its premium pricing, it may only be suitable for users with more flexible budgets. To remind you, SiteGround starts at under $7/mo for its best-value GrowBig plan. WP Engine is at least 4 times more expensive just to start, not counting optional add-ons. At the end of the day, it's not only about the price. Even if you have more to spend, again, pick SiteGround. You can spend the rest on something else, like marketing or SEO, and achieve better results in the long run. There you go. You have our two cents about which web hosting is better — for us, that's SiteGround. Try SiteGround Today
Gizmodo
5 days ago
- Business
- Gizmodo
The 6 Best Web Hosting Providers for Singapore in 2025
While some website owners target a global audience, others focus more on the local market. Having the best web hosting in Singapore can make a significant difference if you're targeting an Asian audience. With servers located in Singapore or nearby countries, visitors from Asia will enjoy a seamless experience on your site. Characterized by blazing-fast loading times and undeniable smoothness, your website is sure to become a go-to option. Unfortunately, finding reliable web hosting in Singapore isn't always easy. Even extensive searching doesn't guarantee that the provider has servers in the country. But don't worry, your search ends here. We've got you covered. Today's article presents a comprehensive ranking of the six best web hosting providers for Singapore. Most of them have data centers in or near the country, ensuring maximum satisfaction for Asia-based visitors. All that's left for you to do is scroll down and enjoy the ride. Best Singapore Web Hosting: Top Six Picks Ranked Hostinger — the best web hosting for Singapore overall SiteGround — fast servers in Singapore InMotion Hosting — flexible and feature-rich plans DreamHost — reliable uptime for Singaporean sites GoDaddy — beginner-friendly Singapore hosting WP Engine — WordPress hosting with Singaporean servers Best Web Hosting for Singapore: Detailed Reviews Don't think we'll just churn out the list and run away like scared foxes. Our experts have tested and examined the providers above just for you. Here are our detailed reviews of the best hosting options for Singapore. 1. Hostinger Pros Servers in Singapore 99.95% server uptime Managed WordPress NVMe storage LiteSpeed caching Strong website security Cons No CDN in the Premium plan Email hosting is free only for a year Hostinger was exceptional in our review, excelling in all aspects — speed, security, ease of use, and pricing. Within 10+ global server locations, Hostinger also includes Singaporean hosting servers, as well, making our #1-rated Singapore web hosting. It's also pretty cheap. The Business plan, our favorite, is currently off by more than 70% and costs $3.99/mo for 48 months + 3 free months. Hostinger allows you to host up to 50 websites in this plan, on blazing-fast 50 GB NVMe storage. Moreover, Managed WordPress is in all plans, as well. This ensures you can set up WordPress on your site with one click. Additionally, Hostinger will take care of WordPress updates and optimization, so yours will only be content management. As a freebie, Hostinger includes a domain name backed by WHOIS privacy. Visit Hostinger The Business plan also includes free CDN and leverages LiteSpeed servers with advanced caching to further improve the speed. As the best web hosting in Singapore, Hostinger displays a nearly 100% uptime with an average response time of well under 300 ms. This is far below the 600 ms standard. The recommended plan comes with automated daily backups, although you can perform them on demand. Security-wise, Hostinger keeps your website intact with DDoS protection, WAF, and 24/7/365 malware scanning and removal. Hostinger puts no bandwidth restrictions, plus, it includes round-the-clock support to help you get started. Bear in mind that Hostinger also includes VPS and cloud hosting plans if you need more computing power. The former can also be used for Minecraft hosting if you like. Versatile, inexpensive, and packed with extreme firepower — Hostinger is the equivalent of Rambo! 2. SiteGround Pros NGINX servers in Singapore Many WordPress features Daily backups in all plans Industry-leading security Surprisingly fast load times Unlimited sites in the GrowBig plan Cons No free domain name for a year It's not the cheapest option SiteGround is renowned for managed WordPress hosting that also offers servers in Singapore. These aren't ordinary servers. They use NGINX caching to ensure some of the best web hosting speeds you'll see. SiteGround might not be as affordable as Hostinger. However, the GrowBig plan at $6.69/mo does tick plenty of boxes — more than you expect. For example, you can host unlimited websites and enjoy freebies like Let's Encrypt SSL, email hosting, an email migratory, unlimited databases, CDN, and more. WordPress-related features are its forte, as WooCommerce is also enabled to endorse online sales in Singapore. Visit SiteGround SiteGround offers Speed and Security WP Optimizers as tasty spices for the served dish. On top of that, it allows for collaborators, so you can invite your colleagues to work with you on your dream. SiteGround limits you to 20 GB of web space in the given plan which isn't ideal. On the flip side, this reputable Singaporean web hosting compensates with WordPress staging and on-demand backup copies. Interestingly, daily backups are in all plans, which sounds awesome, considering that Hostinger doesn't offer them in the cheapest plan. In our SiteGround review, we were blown away by its security. There's advanced DDoS protection and a self-learning AI anti-bot that fights malware and viruses. Plus, SiteGround employs managed WAF, which proactively monitors your site and deters online threats. As the icing on the cake, SiteGround relies on Google Cloud servers. They're 100% energy renewable, making SiteGround just a smidge less polluting than some of its competitors. Do something good for our planet — pick SiteGround as your web hosting in Singapore. To make sure you get the best deal, check out our article listing the valid coupons for SiteGround. 3. InMotion Hosting Pros Unlimited email addresses 90-day money-back guarantee Malware and DDoS protection Flexible VPS hosting plans Choice of control panel Cons No servers in Singapore Daily backups are paid extra (~$3/mo) InMotion Hosting has servers in the US and EU — not Singapore. However, after testing it extensively for years, we noticed just how admirably it performs in spite of that. Asian websites hosted on InMotion Hosting are just as smooth, with rock-solid 99.95% uptime. Its web hosting is surprisingly flexible and with down-to-earth prices. The 1-year Power plan is an absolute unit. It packs unlimited websites, NVMe storage, email addresses, and bandwidth. Check this out — it also includes a free domain for a year to help you out more. InMotion Hosting's Power plan supports weekly backups, with 2 GB of backup storage. You can purchase daily backups at roughly $2.99/mo. Apart from that, InMotion Hosting is pretty simple to use, and later on, you can select from cPanel or InMotion's proprietary dashboard. Visit InMotion Hosting Flexibility extends with its inclusion of a free website migration with out-of-the-box malware and DDoS protection amped up by managed WAF. One of its key features is a 90-day money-back guarantee, which lets you test this Singapore web hosting for about 3 months. InMotion Hosting can be a great place to build a WordPress site, as it includes a WordPress-based website builder called BoldGrid. If you need more resources and powerful hosting, consider its VPS or dedicated servers, both of which will scratch your itch at a higher price. Just be aware of its managed WordPress hosting, which will be costlier than Hostinger and SiteGround. Also, keep in mind that InMotion Hosting doesn't offer cloud server hosting, which is why it's behind Hostinger and SiteGround in this Singapore hosting ranking. 4. DreamHost Pros Cheap web hosting prices WordPress installer 97-day money-back guarantee Let's Encrypt SSL Capable VPS hosting plans Cons No Singaporean servers Expensive managed WordPress hosting DreamHost offers American and European servers like the previous pick, but hold on. After testing DreamHost in Singapore, we were shocked at how reliable it was. With a 100% uptime and an average response time of under 250 ms, it's surprisingly dependable when using its US servers. That's great news because DreamHost won't peel the skin off your back. It costs only $3.95/mo for the Shared Unlimited plan, which hosts unlimited sites on unlimited NVMe storage. But catch this — there's a one-click WordPress installer and a handy free domain. DreamHost will also gladly migrate your site for free or help you build a new one thanks to its competent AI-powered website builder. DreamHost's 97-day money-back guarantee lets you test it for even longer, and apart from hosting, enjoy its unlimited emails for the domain. Visit DreamHost The provider's 'gifts' are vast — from an SSL to DDoS protection, a business advisor, and industry-leading 24/7 support. DreamHost's VPS plans are also worth mentioning. They start at $10, offering more flexibility and computing power for the best Singapore hosting experience. Unlike SiteGround, DreamHost includes virtually all types of hosting — cloud, WordPress, dedicated, etc. We dislike that DreamHost doesn't have Singaporean servers and that it keeps some of its best features reserved for managed WordPress hosting plans. These happen to be the priciest and contain NGINX caching, 1-click staging, and essential CDN. While DreamHost's renewal prices are favorable, it's a shame so many features are available only for wealthier users. That is why DreamHost took the fourth spot on the list. 5. GoDaddy Pros Easy to set up and use Singaporean VPS servers Global CDN AI website builder Cons Not the best value for money You can host just a few sites Non-generous storage Going back to web hosting providers with servers in Singapore, we have GoDaddy. It's a jack of all trades and master of none. Honest, it's not even the cheapest pick, as its best-value Managed WordPress Basic plan is $7.99/mo for the first year. The plan allows for hosting a single site on 10 GB NVMe storage. Users get a free domain, SSL, and free email hosting, too. We love GoDaddy because it's beginner-friendly. Its control panel is sleek and modern, allowing you to dive right in without extensive knowledge. A huge perk is that WordPress is pre-installed, so once you subscribe, you just have to pick the theme and start working. This plan aids your website creation with an AI website builder, while ambitious performance promises are upheld by GoDaddy's Global CDN that leverages reliable caching for improved load times. GoDaddy's weekly backups are useful, although we'd like to see daily backups from SiteGround. This is compensated by something called Site Security. The package includes Malware & Uptime Monitoring, Automated Malware Removal, and Web Application Firewall. Having weighed up GoDaddy and Hostinger, we liked the latter more. It's way less expensive, with daily backups in the Business plan, and superior WooCommerce support. Still, we take nothing from GoDaddy's greatness as one of the most popular web hosting picks in Singapore. Besides, it has some of the most flexible VPS plans where you can choose between Windows and Linux hosting or cPanel and Plesk panels. The great news is that its Virtual Private Servers are in Singapore for added convenience. 6. WP Engine Pros Daily website backups WordPress staging Respectable performance Servers in Singapore Cons Very expensive No free domain Not many security features WP Engine is a WordPress-certified hosting for Singapore. It's widely used for WordPress and WooCommerce websites by those on a more flexible budget. Unfortunately, WP Engine is costly, and the Essential WordPress plan starts at a jaw-dropping $25/mo for one website, 10 GB of storage, and 75 GB of monthly bandwidth. The Professional plan at $50/mo hosts 3 sites on 15 GB of storage and 150 GB of bandwidth. WP Engine offers the Core plan at $400/mo, which includes added security, performance insights, and advisory services. If you can spend on it, we think you'll enjoy every moment. WP Engine is fast and reliable, with ample servers in Singapore. Its in-house dashboard is also beginner-friendly, inviting even newbies to give it a spin. Speaking of that, WP Engine is a managed hosting service, so you don't need to move a finger if you're too lazy to do so. All updates and optimization processes are handled by WP Engine. Furthermore, the provider uses EverCache with global CDN for a smoother experience. We also shouldn't forget daily and on-demand backups, with famous staging environments, handy for various experiments. The other side of the medal isn't so shiny — WP Engine does lack a lot. Comparing it to SiteGround made us realize there's no AI website builder or even a free domain (SiteGround lacks it too). At least you can test it for free for 60 days, but you'll have to rid of a small fortune if you're going for the long haul. Our Ranking Methodology For some of you, the six best web hosting in Singapore might be insufficient. For some, it might be a lot. Whatever it is, making this list was very difficult and time consuming, as we had to take into account: Server locations . We primarily looked at Singaporean servers when ranking the providers. However, some, as you saw, don't have them, but still perform admirably despite the fact. . We primarily looked at Singaporean servers when ranking the providers. However, some, as you saw, don't have them, but still perform admirably despite the fact. Speed and uptime . Now that we mentioned it, all providers on this list provide at least 99.95% uptime with some of the top speeds. This is quintessential for stable and fast-loading websites. . Now that we mentioned it, all providers on this list provide at least 99.95% uptime with some of the top speeds. This is quintessential for stable and fast-loading websites. Website security . Features like DDoS protection, WAF, and malware blocking are only some of the freebies you'll get. These features ensure end-to-end server and website security to prevent threats from spoiling the fun. . Features like DDoS protection, WAF, and malware blocking are only some of the freebies you'll get. These features ensure end-to-end server and website security to prevent threats from spoiling the fun. Ease of use . hPanel, Site Tools, and cPanel are some of the simplest-to-use panels on the market. You'll find these in our top six options, as they ensure even total beginners can get their hands on and learn the ropes quickly. . hPanel, Site Tools, and cPanel are some of the simplest-to-use panels on the market. You'll find these in our top six options, as they ensure even total beginners can get their hands on and learn the ropes quickly. Flexibility and hosting diversity . You don't have to settle for shared hosting if it won't cover your needs. These are simultaneously capable VPS hosting providers or even solid options for cloud and dedicated hosting. . You don't have to settle for shared hosting if it won't cover your needs. These are simultaneously capable VPS hosting providers or even solid options for cloud and dedicated hosting. Pricing . As you saw, our best-rated Singapore hosting in 2025 starts at way below $5/mo. While their prices fluctuate, it's good to know you can start with pennies in your bank account and even have up to 97 days to evaluate your decision risk-free. Conclusion The best Singapore web hosting offers a mix of computing power, security features, and functionality to help you achieve your goals. Whether you need hosting for small businesses or something else entirely, you'll find Singapore-based servers and tick all the boxes quickly. Hostinger tops our comprehensive ranking, as the best overall option. With servers in Singapore, managed WordPress, fast loading times, immaculate ease of use, and steel-like security, it's a no-brainer in 2025. SiteGround was a close second, also with servers in this country and some of the best performances we had the chance to witness. Despite their greatness, we still invite you to explore the other four picks. Each company has something unique that separates it from the rest. We know all six are enthralling, to say the least, but now that we're officially saying 'Goodbye!, it's your turn to pick your side. Try Hostinger Risk-Free Today Frequently Asked Questions Our Singapore web hosting ranking is coming to an end, but let's go over a few final tidbits to wrap things up on a high note. Is Singapore web hosting necessary for Asian websites? A rule of thumb is that the server location should be as close as possible to your audience. If you're targeting an Asian audience, Singapore web hosting is much better than, let's say, the European one. It will result in faster loading times, better response times, and so much more. That's why we put Hostinger at #1. It's already fast and reliable, and Singaporean servers are only the strawberry on top of the cake. Which type of Singapore web hosting is best for me? It depends on your business goals. Shared hosting is usually enough, but if you want better server isolation and dedicated resources, VPS hosting is for you. Cloud hosting is fantastic for reliability and speed, while dedicated servers are very expensive, but pack the most punch in terms of performance. The last ones are usually employed by large businesses and companies with an unquenching thirst for computing resources that surpass what standard shared hosting offers. We recommend starting with shared (web) hosting and working your way up gradually if needed. What's the best WordPress web hosting in Singapore? That's SiteGround for us. Its managed WordPress permeates all plans, so even if you spend under $4/mo for the StartUp plan, you can still enjoy premium WordPress updates, security optimization, and WooCommerce support if you plan on starting an online shop in 2025.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Best Cloud Web Hosting for 2025
Cloud hosting is a great choice if you're building a business website and you want web hosting that's easy to scale up. Your site will be able to pull from a network of servers when it needs more resources so you can grow it exponentially without switching to a different type of hosting. Using cloud hosting also allows your site to retrieve data from a secondary server if the primary server goes down, ensuring more consistent uptime. I compiled this list of the best cloud hosting companies based on the hundreds of hours I've spent researching and testing web hosting companies for CNET. I've included a balance of low-cost, mid-range and high-cost cloud hosting options, so you're certain to find something that meets both your tech needs and your budgetary requirements. SiteGround is the best choice for cloud web hosting because it provides a great mix of tools for beginners and developers. Beginners will love the pre-built plans, expert support and WordPress management. Developers will love the staging tools and Git integration, plus the ability to create custom hosting packages for client sites. SiteGround performed well in our hands-on SiteGround review thanks to its robust WordPress management tools, good server performance and spectacular customer service. SiteGround has also earned a great reputation in the web hosting space more generally, including recognition from the Stevie Awards for its phenomenal customer service. Cloud hosting customers with SiteGround will enjoy the easy WordPress onboarding process, a specialized optimization plugin that includes caching settings, automated WordPress updates and 24/7 access to WordPress experts via phone, live chat and email. You'll also get free SSL — secure socket layer — certification and automated backups for improved data security, plus a CDN, or content delivery network for improved global site speeds. SiteGround offers some developer tools for cloud hosting customers, including staging tools for safer testing of site updates and Git integration for simplified editing of the WordPress source code. Agencies can also create custom hosting packages for client sites and act as resellers. SiteGround offers four pre-built cloud hosting plans. The most affordable plan is Jump Start, at $100 a month, which lets your site store 400 pages (or more, depending on page size) and accommodate five million monthly visitors. Jump Start users can also sign up for six months or one year to receive a 10% discount. The highest-cost cloud hosting plan from SiteGround is Super Power, which costs $400 a month. You can save 5% of this monthly cost by choosing a three-month plan. SiteGround also lets you create a Custom Cloud plan. You can't get anything less than the Jump Start plan, but you can adjust individual resources — like storage — to meet your needs. These adjustments increase the cost by increments of $10 a month. You can also increase your CPU cores, memory and storage past what's offered in the Super Power plan if you need more resources. See at SiteGround Cloudways is a developer-focused cloud hosting company partnered with cloud infrastructure companies like Google Cloud Hosting and Amazon Web Services. The Cloudways purchase process lets you choose the company you want to purchase cloud space from, then provides an easy-to-use admin interface you can use to manage your hosting. This creates a smoother user interface than you might experience when working with one of these companies separately. The best of these infrastructure options is DigitalOcean thanks to its affordable and flexible pricing. All Cloudways DigitalOcean plans include free SSL certification, dedicated firewall protection, automated backups — with the ability to choose your backup frequency — 24/7 monitoring, and regular security patches. There's a Cloudflare CDN and advanced caching built into DigitalOcean servers to improve site speed. Cloudways also offers great developer tools, including an isolated staging area for testing updates without breaking your site and advanced server management. Cloudways customer service is available 24/7 via live chat and support tickets. There is no phone support. There are two plan types available through Cloudways' DigitalOcean service: Premium and Standard. Premium servers use the newest generation of hardware, providing a 30% improvement in speed and reliability over the Standard servers. Standard servers use hardware from the previous generation, so the speed and reliability are lower than what you'll get with premium plans but still good enough for many websites. Premium plans start at $14 a month and let you create 250 pages (or more, depending on page size) and handle one million visitors per month. The highest-tier Premium plan costs $487 a month for enough resources to create at least 120,000 pages and accommodate nine million monthly visitors. The most affordable Standard plan costs $11 a month for enough resources to create at least 250 pages and accommodate one million monthly visitors. The highest-tier Standard plan costs $1,056 a month for enough resources to create at least 384,000 pages and accommodate twelve million monthly visitors. Most users should choose a Premium plan, as you'll only spend a few extra dollars per month for the 30% improvement at most levels. The only reason to choose a Standard plan is if you need more resources than you can get on the Premium servers. See at CloudWays Liquid Web offers cloud hosting solutions for website owners at all budgets and experience levels, including both managed (where Liquid Web handles all server maintenance for you) and unmanaged (where you handle server management yourself) options. Every Liquid Web cloud hosting plan includes firewall protection, DDoS protection and SSL certification. 24/7 expert support is available through live chat, phone and email. Liquid Web offers three types of cloud hosting: Cloud VPS — virtual private server — Cloud Metal and Managed Cloud. Cloud VPS starts at $5 a month for enough resources to create at least 300 pages and accommodate one million monthly viewers. That only includes a self-managed VPS. You'll pay $39 a month for server management, $10 a month for the Interworx server management tool, $28 a month for the more commonly used cPanel, and $0.05 per gigabyte per month for backups, all essential features for first-time site owners. This brings the cost up to $54.05 per month, making the Managed Cloud Hosting plans more cost-effective unless you're prepared to handle the server yourself. Cloud Metal plans start at $26.70 for the first six months ($89 a month after) for enough resources to create at least 48,000 pages and accommodate ten million monthly viewers. This option is unmanaged by default, and server management is an extra $39. You'll also pay $10 for Interworx ($28 a month for cPanel) and backups cost $0.05 per gigabyte per month. Make sure you factor these costs into your budget. Managed Cloud Hosting includes Interworx, 100GB of backups and full server management, without any additional fees. The most affordable plan starts at $38.40 for the first six months ($128 a month after) and includes enough resources to create over 4,800 pages and accommodate 10 million visitors. Interworx is also included, but cPanel will cost an additional $35. If you can't find what you need in Liquid Web's three core cloud hosting offerings, choose Custom Cloud and work with Liquid Web to create a custom plan. See at LiquidWeb Hostinger is a rapidly growing web host that received top marks in our hands-on Hostinger review. All Hostinger cloud hosting users get full access to the visual website builder, complete with AI tools for site generation, copywriting and SEO to help beginners quickly set up a website. Hostinger cloud hosting plans also include one-click WordPress installation, WordPress acceleration through LiteSpeed, smart auto-updates for WordPress, a specialized WordPress vulnerabilities scanner, caching and developer tools like a staging tool and GIT access. You'll also get support for WooCommerce and an Amazon affiliates plugin. Additionally, you'll get unlimited SSL certification, a free domain for the first year, a free CDN, daily backups and email hosting for up to 100 email addresses. Your site will be protected by a firewall, enhanced DDoS protection and a malware scanner. There are two potential drawbacks to Hostinger. First, customer support is only available via live chat. This can be frustrating if you prefer phone or email support. The other potential drawback is that Hostinger uses a proprietary server management system called hPanel. If you're comfortable with the more commonly used cPanel, you may dislike having to learn a new system, even one as easy to use as hPanel. The Cloud Startup plan starts at $8 a month with a 48-month (four-year) plan and rises to $20 a month on renewal. This plan uses nonvolatile memory express — NVMe storage — for faster performance than the standard solid state drive — SSD storage — and includes enough storage for at least 20,000 pages. Cloud Startup also claims unlimited bandwidth at the top, but if you click 'See all features,' it's revealed that this plan can only handle 200,000 users a month. The Cloud Enterprise plan sits at the other end of the spectrum, costing $30 a month with a 48-month (four-year) plan and $55 a month on renewal. You'll get enough storage to store at least 30,000 pages and enough bandwidth to accommodate 400,000 monthly visitors. Hostinger's cloud hosting plans are great for small-to-medium websites expecting a moderate amount of traffic and growth. They're an especially good choice if you're new to cloud hosting and want the simplest managed hosting option around. The traffic limits mean that you may need to switch hosts if your site experiences massive growth. See at Hostinger ScalaHosting has been recognized as one of the best web hosting companies by numerous outlets. It earns these recommendations with flexible plans, high-quality servers and fast 24/7 customer support via live chat and email. ScalaHosting also offers an unconditional, anytime money-back guarantee, so you won't be stuck with them if you don't like the service. All ScalaHosting cloud hosting users get access to the proprietary SShield, a custom security system that monitors your website 24/7 and claims to block 99.998% of attacks. SShield also sends you information about any attacks -- including a detailed report of any data compromised -- and attempts to resolve any issues created by hacking. You'll also get SSL certification, basic firewall protection, brute force protection, basic DDoS protection and automated daily backups. ScalaHosting offers LiteSpeed-enhanced servers, Cloudflare CDN integration, caching and static content compression to improve site speed and reliability. The cloud hosting plans also use NVMe storage for further improvements in speed and reliability. ScalaHosting uses the proprietary SPanel for server management. SPanel includes WordPress management tools for tasks like manual backups, site cloning and enabling/disabling automatic updates. You can also use this tool to lock your WordPress site, preventing users from modifying your files. All of this makes SPanel great, but you don't have to use it -- you can buy cPanel licenses starting at an additional $26.50 a month for five licenses. ScalaHosting offers both managed and unmanaged cloud VPS hosting. Self-managed cloud hosting is more affordable -- the introductory rate is $20 per month instead of $30 per month for the lowest-tier plan -- but it's also more difficult for beginners, so we'll focus on managed cloud hosting in this section. There are four pre-built managed cloud hosting plans, all featuring unlimited bandwidth, plus the security and performance features mentioned above. The cheapest option is Build #1, which includes enough storage for at least 50,000 pages and costs $50 on a month-to-month plan. You can save money by signing up for a one-year or three-year contract, with both of these options starting at $30 a month and renewing at $50 a month. This makes Build #1 a great choice for most businesses. The most expensive pre-built cloud hosting plan from ScalaHosting is Build #4, which includes enough storage for at least 200,000 pages and costs $240 a month on a month-to-month plan. You can save money with a one-year contract, which costs $95 a month for the first term and rises to $240 a month on renewal. A three-year contract for Build #4 starts at $170 per month ($240 a month on renewal). You must sign up for at least one year to receive the introductory discount. ScalaHosting also lets you build a custom cloud hosting plan. You can't choose anything with fewer resources -- or a lower cost -- than Build #1, but you can create a custom cloud hosting package that sits between the existing plans in both resources and cost. You can also choose to purchase more resources than what's offered in Build #4 if you're building a complex website or expecting massive monthly traffic. See at Scalahosting Website builders and content management systems are different types of tools for creating your website. A website builder is a visual design tool that typically uses front-end editing, letting you see how your changes will appear to visitors as you make them. These tools are easy to use, with no need to install extensions or update the software yourself. Website builders often have limited design flexibility. Most website builders are also proprietary, making it difficult to switch hosts later on. A content management system or CMS is a tool for building, maintaining and organizing blog posts and other website pages. They typically don't require code, but you will need to install themes (site templates) and extensions. The most popular CMS is WordPress — powering 43.4% of all websites — an open-source tool you can install on any third-party web host for free. Buying cloud hosting can be a highly involved process because most web hosts use complex pricing structures, but once you're in, you should have an easy time finding server management and site creation tools. Most web hosting companies use cPanel to make this possible. Managed hosting is where the host handles all of the details of server maintenance and management, often including auto-updates to your CMS. Unmanaged hosting requires you to update your CMS yourself and may also require you to configure things like your server's operating system and security software. Unmanaged hosting may be less expensive up front, but you'll need to invest either time or money to make sure everything is kept up-to-date. Using a proprietary website builder means your hosting will be managed by default, as the hosting company does all software maintenance and updates to the website builder. Your cloud hosting service should provide at least three layers of security: Secure Socket Layer — SSL — certification: A security protocol that encrypts data sent to and from your site, protecting key information like email addresses submitted through your contact form. SSL certification also tells browsers and VPNs your site is safe, and some won't even let users open a site without it. Google may also penalize sites without SSL certification. Firewall: Software that scans all data submitted to your website/web server and filters out malware and spyware. Firewalls can't promise 100% protection — new malware is created every day — but a good one will filter out the majority of malware to keep your site safe. Domain privacy: If you're registering your domain through your chosen hosting service, make sure the company offers domain privacy. This ensures that your contact information won't be publicly available in the WHOIS database. Many cloud hosting services offer additional layers of protection as well, like distributed denial of service — DDoS — and brute force protection. Uptime measures how much time your website spends online. This is essential because visitors who can't access your website will go elsewhere, resulting in lost traffic, lost trust and potentially lost income. The industry standard for regular web hosting is 99.9% uptime, which means server issues and maintenance shouldn't shut your site down for more than 10 minutes per week. Some cloud hosting services go beyond this, promising 99.99% or 100% uptime -- a promise made possible by using multiple servers. Site speed is how long it takes your website to load. The faster your site loads, the better -- bounce rate decreases by 32% when loading times go from three seconds to one second. Most cloud hosting services offer the following tools to improve server/site speed: Caching: A system that stores website data in a specialized storage layer called a cache that operates at the speed of the server's CPU (or sometimes the visitor's CPU), which is typically faster than the RAM traditionally used to access data. Content delivery network or CDN: An interconnected group of servers that store website data in locations around the globe, allowing users' browsers to pull from the data center closest to their location. Storage determines how many files — like blog posts and landing pages — your site can host. Generally, 1GB can store either 10 large pages or up to 100 smaller pages. 5GB is plenty of storage for most static websites, but long-running blogs and e-commerce sites often need more storage. You'll also want to consider the storage type. Most hosts use solid state drive — SSD storage — for fast and reliable performance. Some offer NVMe — nonvolatile memory express — storage, which provides slightly faster and more reliable performance than regular SSD storage. If the host's storage type isn't specified on this list, assume it uses SSD; we've pointed out NVMe storage where applicable. Bandwidth, sometimes expressed as data transfer, dictates the amount of data your server can send to users per month. Cloud hosting plans typically express bandwidth as GB or TB. This makes it tricky to figure out how much bandwidth you'll need because every visitor accesses a different amount of data. If 100 people visit your site each day and view five pages with an average size of 5MB, you'll need 7.5GB of bandwidth. If those same 100 people view 10 pages, you'll need 15GB of bandwidth. The good news about cloud hosting is that many plans come with 1TB or more of bandwidth (or 1,000GB), meaning that you won't need to worry about this math until you're getting more than one million monthly visitors. You should be able to contact customer support quickly — and get helpful solutions — if your site breaks. Most high-quality web hosting companies offer 24/7 customer support via live chat, phone and email. Many companies offer both generic customer support and specialized WordPress experts. Technically, being able to access 24/7 support doesn't always mean you'll get the help you need, though. Some hosting companies' customer service is quite slow and/or relies on poorly trained customer service agents, making it difficult to get help with advanced issues. This is where sites like Trustpilot come in: you can read reviews there — or the web hosting reviews here on CNET — to find out how effective a company's customer support is. There are a few things to watch out for when considering web hosting prices: Introductory pricing: Many web hosting companies offer steep discounts — often 50% or more — for the first term. When your contract renews, you'll pay what's typically listed as the 'regular price.' Always factor this price increase into your long-term budget. Contract length: You may be required to sign up for a two- or three-year contract to get the best discount. This means you'll have to multiply the monthly price listed on the site by 24 or 36 to understand what you'll actually be paying. Additional fees: These include things like your domain and maybe email hosting and security tools. Some companies provide domain registration for free in the first year of hosting, but you'll be required to pay annual domain registration fees in future years. There are also two types of pricing for cloud hosting specifically: Package pricing: Cloud hosting packages with resources — like bandwidth and processing power — and cost predetermined by the hosting company. These packages typically allow for a significant amount of website growth before you need to upgrade. Modular pricing: A package you create by choosing the exact amount of bandwidth, storage and processing power you need, with a price based on the resources you require. You can then add resources incrementally — for example, adding 100GB of storage at a time — as your site grows. Adding resources incrementally may be more affordable than upgrading from one pre-set package to another. Package pricing is easier to understand, especially if you're new to web hosting, but modular pricing can be more cost-effective. Our test process for web hosting starts with reading a hosting company's website to evaluate the overall quality of its plans and pricing. If a hosting company's plans look good, we move on to reading reviews on Trustpilot and checking the Better Business Bureau for complaints against the company. Companies with at least 4 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot and minimal unresolved complaints on the Better Business Bureau website can be included in our best lists. We also have an extensive web hosting test process that involves purchasing a plan, creating a test site and reviewing the following: Ease of use Uptime Server speed Customer service These tests look at shared hosting, so results for uptime and server speed may not be relevant for cloud hosting and are not included in this list. Notes about ease of use and customer service have been added to hosts we've reviewed. Companies that performed poorly in our reviews are excluded from our best lists, even when discussing services other than shared hosting. PlanetHoster offers dedicated cloud server hosting that it calls 'HybridCloudwho.' The base plan — priced at $85 a month — allows for unlimited traffic and includes enough disk space for at least 60,000 pages. There are no other plans listed on the main page, but you can customize the plan with additional CPU cores, RAM and storage during checkout. PlanetHoster's HybridCloud solution includes firewall protection, SSL certification, DDoS protection, brute force protection and daily backups. You'll also get email hosting for unlimited accounts. FastComet offers managed cloud hosting plans that include full WordPress management — installation, auto-updates and tools for staging/cloning sites — on top of the server management. FastComet protects its cloud hosting servers with SSL certification, a firewall, brute force protection, malware monitoring/protection and automated daily backups. Cloud hosting through FastComet starts at $46.16 a month ($66 a month on renewal) for one CPU, 2GB RAM, 50GB of storage and 2TB of bandwidth, enough resources to build at least 50,000 pages and handle two million monthly visitors. Cloud hosting provides better uptime, speed and reliability than regular shared web hosting. The improvements aren't always significant enough to justify the extra cost. If you're running a blog, hobby site or small business website with a tight budget, I recommend using shared hosting. You can transition to cloud hosting later on if your budget and resource requirements grow. Cloud servers can cost anywhere from $5 to thousands of dollars per month. If you're starting a hobby site, blog or small business website, you can expect to pay $10 to 100 a month for a cloud hosting plan that meets all of your needs. Google offers free website creation through Google Sites, but it's not clear if Google Sites uses Google Cloud to host websites. The most cost-effective cloud hosting is Cloudways by DigitalOcean, starting at $11 per month for managed hosting with 1GB of RAM, one CPU core, 25GB of storage and 1TB of bandwidth. Cloudways by DigitalOcean also offers numerous plans, so you can increase your plan's resources without paying a significant amount of additional money.
