Best web hosting services: Create an online presence

Best web hosting services
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The best web hosting services will enable you to create and maintain an online presence for yourself or your business. As the digital world continues to become increasingly connected, there's never been a better time to create your first website or upgrade your existing web host to better serve visitors to your site. So which is the best web hosting service for you?

Our experts found that Bluehost is the best overall web hosting provider. It's an absolute no brainer if yours is a WordPress site, but that's not where its talents end. It's simple enough to use if you're a beginner working on your first website, but also has enough tools and features to suit more seasoned pros.

But it really depends on your needs. Also, new web hosting sites are arriving all the time – which is why we’ve assembled this list of the best web hosting services right now. Whether you need something in particular – like the best WordPress hosting, the best managed hosting, or a great website builder – or you’re after an all-around web hosting service, we've got you covered. Read on for our pick of the best web hosting companies right now.

1. Bluehost: Best overall

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Bluehost best web hosting

(Image credit: Bluehost)
The best web hosting service overall, especially for WordPress sites

Specifications

Unmetered bandwidth: Yes
WordPress hosting: Yes
Business hosting: Yes
Free domain: Yes
Web design services: Yes
24x7-US-based support: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
1 click WordPress installation
+
Excellent guides 
+
30-day money back guarantee

Reasons to avoid

-
No monthly payment option
-
Expensive 
-
Pricing can be misleading

Utah-based Bluehost is a popular web hosting company owned by web giant Endurance International Group. It provides comprehensive tools to millions of users worldwide, and its web hosting services power over two million websites. Bluehost provides you with everything you need to create your own website, including a free domain, free SSL certificate, access to popular apps via Mojo Marketplace-powered system and automated WordPress setup. 

If you’re an experienced user, you’ll appreciate the inclusion of a cPanel-based area where you can tweak your site further. Bluehost has plans for shared web hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, WordPress hosting and even ecommerce hosting powered by WooCommerce. You also get access to a Weebly-based website builder, though it's a basic browser-based tool with a limit of up to six pages per website. The company’s customer support options include an extensive knowledge base filled with tutorials, 24/7 phone support and live chat for urgent issues. Where it particularly excels is WordPress hosting, but Bluehost also takes the crown overall. 

2. InMotion: Best all-rounder

InMotion best web hosting

(Image credit: InMotion)
A close runner-up in the web hosting stakes

Specifications

Unmetered bandwidth: On some plans
Wordpress hosting: Yes
Business hosting: Yes
Free domain: Yes
Web design services: Yes
24x7-US-based support: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Excellent onboarding
+
90 day money back guarantee
+
Live 24/7 support

Reasons to avoid

-
Base plan only offers two websites
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Higher prices
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Year long contract

InMotion Hosting is a popular US-based web hosting company that's been in the business for over 15 years. It offers an impressive array of plans, including business-class web hosting, VPN hosting, personal hosting and dedicated servers. InMotion also throws in a lot of extras with its plans, such as hacking and DDoS protection, basic site backups and a WordPress-based website builder. 

The company gives you cPanel support to manage your site on a technical level and Softaculous to add additional applications and services. Business-class hardware ensures your website will remain online, and an online locker with unlimited storage lets you store your website’s assets and files without hassle. 

At the time of writing, WordPress Hosting starts at $7.25 per month, VPS Hosting starts at $19.99 a month, dedicated servers start at $105.69 a month and business hosting starts at only $5.99 a month. InMotion even includes a free domain and SSL certificate with all of its plans to help you get started, and a 90-day money-back guarantee gives you more than enough time to test out its services. If you're looking for a fantastic all-rounder, we think InMotion is an excellent choice.

3. HostGator: Best value

HostGator best web hosting

(Image credit: HostGator)
Fantastic cheap web hosting for anyone on a budget

Specifications

Unmetered bandwidth: Yes
Wordpress hosting: No
Business hosting: Yes
Free domain: Yes
Web design services: Yes
24x7-US-based support: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Wide variety of plans and products
+
45-day money-back guarantee
+
CPanel hosting management

Reasons to avoid

-
Pricing isn’t clear up front
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No email-based support

Houston-based HostGator is a great cheap web hosting service for anyone looking for budget hosting – as even the company’s most basic plans offer few restrictions. There are no limits on bandwidth, disk space, subdomains, MySQL databases, FTP and email accounts. HostGator provides cPanel-based management of your site and a 99.9% uptime guarantee that ensures it'll stay online, even in less than ideal conditions. Notable extras include 24/7 customer support and $200 worth of Google and Bing ad credits. 

No matter which of HostGator’s plans you choose, you get access to a free website builder, with close to 100 templates to choose from. If the company’s drag-and-drop website builder isn’t up to the task at hand, you can also add additional apps using the service’s QuickInstall-powered one click setup. New users can transfer their existing sites for free as long as they do so within the first month of signing up, and a 45-day money-back guarantee is also included.

4. GoDaddy: Best for SMBs

GoDaddy best web hosting

(Image credit: GoDaddy)
One of the best web hosting services for SMBs

Specifications

Unmetered bandwidth: Yes
WordPress hosting: Yes
Business hosting: Yes
Free domain: Yes
Web design services: Yes
24x7-US-based support: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
24/7 customer support
+
Easy-to-use website builder
+
cPanel-powered hosting

Reasons to avoid

-
Setup can seem complicated
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No SSL or site builder in starter plans
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No cloud hosting

GoDaddy is one of the largest web hosting providers in the business, and it's also the biggest domain name registrar in the world, with tens of millions of domain names in its portfolio. The company’s website hosting offerings include a wide range of plans, such as shared web hosting, business hosting, reseller hosting and WordPress hosting. GoDaddy has an uptime guarantee of 99.9 percent and the company provides free backup and restore, unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth and a free domain with its annual plans. 

However, if you need access to a website builder, you’ll have to pay an extra $5 per month as the company doesn’t include one with its plans. Alternatively, you could also use cPanel and Installatron to install a blogging platform like WordPress, content management or any other web applications you may need. 

One of GoDaddy’s best features is the fact that this web host lets you increase your hosting capacity at any time, regardless of which plan you choose. This could be particularly useful if your site experiences a sudden surge in traffic during a peak period and you can increase your capacity right from within your hosting account, making it a particularly good choice of web hosting service for SMBs.

5. Wix: Best for website builders

Wix web hosting

(Image credit: Wix website)
Excellent web hosting service for website builders

Specifications

Unmetered bandwidth: Yes
WordPress hosting: No
Business hosting: Yes
Free domain: Yes
Web design services: Yes
24x7-US-based support: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Free domain for one year
+
Easy-to-use editor
+
14-day money-back guarantee

Reasons to avoid

-
Slow support response
-
Bandwidth limits on starter plans

Wix is more website builder than web host but that shouldn’t stop you as the company provides free web hosting with all of its plans. Its goal is to enable anyone to create a professional website quickly and you have more time to build your website as you won’t have to look for a web hosting service. Wix’s free plan gives you access to hundreds of templates, unlimited pages and top graded hosting but you get even more with its paid offerings. For just $11 per month, the company’s Combo plan gives you 2 GB of bandwidth, 3 GB of storage, the ability to connect your domain, 30 video minutes and a free domain for one year. It’s worth noting that Wix’s free and Connect Domain plans include company branding at the bottom of your site but thankfully the service’s premium plans do not. You can even have Wix build your site for you for free thanks to the Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI).

6. Namecheap: Best for VPS hosting

Namecheap best web hosting

(Image credit: Namecheap)
An interesting web hosting choice for VPS use

Specifications

Unmetered bandwidth: Yes
WordPress hosting: Yes
Business hosting: Yes
Free domain: Yes
Web design services: Yes
24x7-US-based support: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Low prices
+
cPanel-powered site management
+
Detailed support database

Reasons to avoid

-
Free domain is only .name
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Few specialist plans or add-ons
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Starter plans are limited

Namecheap is known for being an ICANN-accredited registrar that provides domain name services but it also has a web hosting company based in Phoenix, Arizona. The company is the world’s 3rd largest web host by market share with over 11 million registered users and 10 million domains. Namecheap has a wide range of hosting plans available including shared hosting, WordPress hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated servers. Its shared hosting plans start with its Stellar plan for $2.88 per month which gives you 20 GB of SSD storage and the ability to create up to three websites.

Namecheap even gives its customers the option to choose whether their sites are hosted in either a UK or US-based data center but UK hosting does cost an extra $12 per year. cPanel support is also available and the company’s drag and drop website builder gives you around 200 templates to work with. You can install additional apps and services using Softaculous and Namecheap’s Google Apps integration lets you set up an email address and calendar for your site quickly. The company’s support options include live chat and a support ticket system but there is also a searchable knowledgebase with detailed articles to help you solve any problems you encounter on your own.

7. WP Engine: Best for managed WordPress hosting

WPEngine best web hosting

(Image credit: WPEngine)
Managed WordPress sites thrive with WP Engine

Specifications

Unmetered bandwidth: No
WordPress hosting: Yes
Business hosting: Yes
Free domain: No
Web design services: Yes
24x7-US-based support: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Loads of premium features
+
24/7 chat support
+
Malware scanning and removal

Reasons to avoid

-
Expensive
-
No email hosting 
-
No domain names for purchase

Austin-based WP Engine doesn’t offer the wide variety of plans that other web hosts do. Instead it only offers one kind of hosting, managed WordPress hosting. Although this could be a dealbreaker for some people, those familiar with WordPress will appreciate the company’s attention to detail. WP Engine’s prices are higher than the competition with even its entry-level Startup plan costing $25 per month. However, for that price, you get regular backups of your site, malware scanning and removal and loads of other premium features.

The company even lets its customers create a Custom plan with support for millions of visits each month, up to 1 TB of local storage, 400 GB+ of bandwidth and the ability to create up to 25 sites. WP Engine’s best feature though is its familiarity with the WordPress platform. For instance, it doesn’t allow certain plugins that have been found to hurt site performance or cause other issues. Having an expert there to advise you on which plugins could help or hurt your site is a benefit that few other web hosting providers can offer.

8. HostPapa

HostPapa best web hosting

(Image credit: HostPapa)
Another managed hosting daddy

Specifications

Unmetered bandwidth: Yes
WordPress hosting: Yes
Business hosting: Yes
Free domain: Yes
Web design services: Yes
24x7-US-based support: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Low introductory prices
+
Basic site builder included
+
cPanel host manager

Reasons to avoid

-
Add-ons pre-selected at checkout

Canada-based HostPapa is a web host that is privately owned and provides a number of plans for WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, reseller hosting and more. Since it is still a private company, this web host presents itself differently than its competition by highlighting features such as its support for sustainable business practices and green hosting. With all of HostPapa’s plans, you’ll get access to a drag and drop site builder with 120 responsive templates though the free edition has a page limit of three pages per site.

The company uses cPanel as its host manager which means experienced users will feel right at home and additional apps can be added via one-click installs from Softaculous. HostPapa’s starter plan costs just $7.99 a month and lets you create two websites. Free domain registration is also included as well as 100GB of SSD storage and unmetered bandwidth. New users can also take advantage of the fact that HostPapa offers a free 30 minute one-on-one dedicated session with one of its experts.

9. GreenGeeks: Best for green hosting

GreenGeeks best web hosting

(Image credit: GreenGeeks)
Best web hosting service for green hosting that we've seen

Specifications

Unmetered bandwidth: Yes
WordPress hosting: Yes
Business hosting: Yes
Free domain: Yes
Web design services: Yes
24x7-US-based support: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
US, Canada and EU data centers
+
Environmentally friendly
+
24/7 chat support

Reasons to avoid

-
Outdated web knowledge base
-
Setup fee for monthly billing

California-based GreenGeeks offers the cleanest hosting services around and the company backs up this claim by offsetting 300% of its power usage by investing in renewable energy. There are a variety of web hosting plans available including WordPress hosting, Drupal hosting, Joomla hosting, cPanel hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated servers. GreenGeeks also throws in plenty of extras such as a free domain, unlimited websites, emails, databases, web space and bandwidth plus a free SSl certificate. You can even choose where you’d like your website to be hosted as the company has servers in the US, Canada and Europe. In terms of website builders, GreenGeeks actually gives you two. The first of which is the company’s own drag and drop website builder but you also get a second builder in SitePad. GreenGeeks also provides customer support via email, chat and over the phone.

10. 1&1 Ionos

1&1 Ionos best web hosting

(Image credit: 1&1 Ionos)
A web hosting service primarily aimed at business

Specifications

Unmetered bandwidth: Yes
WordPress hosting: Yes
Business hosting: Yes
Free domain: Yes
Web design services: Yes
24x7-US-based support: Yes

Reasons to buy

+
Easy-to-use
+
30-day money-back guarantee
+
SSL included with all plans

Reasons to avoid

-
No cPanel
-
Limited website builder

Germany-based 1&1 Ionos is the largest hosting provider in Europe and the company offers a wide array of plans including WordPress hosting, cloud hosting, dedicated hosting and even ASP.NET hosting. Last year 1&1 combined its web hosting, applications and server product lines with ProfitBrick’s infrastructure solutions to become 1&1 Ionos. A number of great extras are included across all of the company’s plans such as a free domain, unlimited storage and a free SSL certificate. 1&1 Ionos also gives you access to its own web-based site creator, 1&1 Website Builder. You can also install any other apps your site may need including a CMS from the 1&1 App Centre. The company has 24/7 phone and email support in case you run into any difficulties and a 30-day money-back guarantee lets you test out its services.

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