Why You Can Trust CNET Best Web-Hosting Services for 2023: Top Hosting Providers
We compared popular web-hosting services to help you find web hosting that fits your needs.
If you recently graduated and want to put together an easy to access digital portfolio, or you want to kick off a side hustle, you might need to build a website. To do that, you'll need the best web hosting service provider.
Web hosting service providers house your website on one or more servers in data centers around the world. Think of these servers as like apartment buildings, and depending on what kind of hosting plan you select for your site, your site can live in a shared space in the building, its own private area or it can live in the entire building.
Comparing website hosting services and plans can be confusing, and that can make choosing the right hosting service for you more difficult. Pricing can be especially puzzling, due to introductory rates and monthly versus annual pricing. We looked over the data for 22 popular web hosting services to make things a little easier on you.
You can read more about our criteria for the best web-hosting services, including how we assess security and customer support, and you can check out important web-hosting terms to know.
Web host comparison
| Best for... | Monthly shared plan pricing | Security features | Uptime guarantee | Customer support | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ionos | Security features | $1 | Great | 99.9% | Great |
| GreenGeeks | Clean-energy web hosting | $3 | Good | 99.90% | Good |
| A2 Hosting | Customer service | $3 | Great | 99.9% | Great |
| InMotion Hosting | First-time website owners | $2.29 | Great | 99.99% | Great |
| HostGator | Data-heavy sites | $2.75 | Good | 99.90% | Great |
| AccuWeb Hosting | Global customers | $3.49 | Good | 99.99% | Good |
Best web-hosting services
- Ionos: Great security features
- GreenGeeks: Climate-conscious web hosting
- A2 Hosting: Customer service-focused
- InMotion Hosting: Good for first-time website owners
- HostGator: Good for data-heavy sites
- AccuWeb Hosting: Worldwide data centers
Other web-hosting services to consider
These services don't offer one of the three hosting options, don't include sufficient security features, an uptime guarantee or have some limited customer service options. The following services aren't as robust as our top picks, but they're still reasonable offerings.
Dreamhost offers a 97-day money-back guarantee, which is the longest time frame for a web-hosting service on this list. However, this guarantee is applicable only for shared plans. If you're new to web hosting, this window could give you enough time to make an informed decision about whether to stay with Dreamhost's shared plan. Dreamhost offers shared, VPS, dedicated and WordPress hosting plans, as well as an upgraded WordPress plan called DreamPress. Dreamhost has a 100% uptime guarantee, and plans come with security features like SSL certificates and malware remover. Chat and email support are available 24/7. Phone support is available via callback, but one phone callback request costs an additional $10. You can also purchase three callback requests a month for an additional $15. Callbacks are also only available between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. PST. Dreamhost offers a step-by-step online user guide with how to handle technical issues. The least expensive plan includes one month of hosting. Afterward, the price renews to the standard rate, which is about quadruple the starting price.
NameCheap offers some of the cheapest pricing plans. Month-to-month plans in particular are less expensive compared with monthly plans from other services. Some other services might offer monthly shared hosting plans for $20, but all NameCheap monthly shared hosting plans cost less than $10. NameCheap also offers VPS, dedicated, WordPress and reseller hosting plans. NameCheap has a 99.9% uptime guarantee for VPS and reseller plans, as well as a 100% uptime guarantee for most shared, VPS and dedicated plans. Each Namecheap plan comes with a free virus scanner, two-factor authentication and DDoS protection to help secure your data and your visitors' data. SSL certificates are free for one year. After that year, you can buy SSL certificates through NameCheap. Prices start at $6 a year with a five-year contract. NameCheap offers 24/7 email and chat support but no phone support. The pricing for some plans can be confusing. For example, the cheapest dedicated hosting plan comes with a one month contract for $47.88, and then the price reverts to the standard rate of $60.88. Over a one-year period, this plan will cost $717.56. This appears to be a good deal, but the same plan with a one-year contract costs $639.88, a difference of about $78.
Hostinger offers a competitive price point. Shared and WordPress plans start at $2 a month, VPS plans start at $4 a month, and cloud hosting plans start at $10 a month. There are also video modules on YouTube to show you how to, for example, build your WordPress site or how to change your domain name. Plans include SSL certificates, and all servers have advanced security modules to protect your data. Some lower-tier plans offer weekly backups, while higher-tier plans offer daily backups. Hostinger has a 99.9% uptime guarantee too. Customer support is limited, though. Live chat is available 24/7, as is email, but Hostinger doesn't offer phone support.
SiteGround is a good option if you're new to web hosting. It offers 99.99% uptime, customer support is available 24/7 over phone, chat or ticket, and plans include security features like SSL certificates, spam protection and a web access firewall to help protect your site. The company also has a 100% renewable energy match. However, Siteground offers shared, cloud, WordPress and reseller hosting options, so while these are good options to have, as your site grows and gains more traffic you might want to consider a service that offers VPS or dedicated hosting options.
GoDaddy Web Hosting offers unmetered storage and bandwidth with its plans, so you can upload as many images and videos onto your site as you want. GoDaddy offers shared, VPS, dedicated and WordPress hosting plans, has a 99.9% uptime guarantee and 24/7 customer support by phone or chat. GoDaddy is also the only web hosting service on this list you can text for customer support. However, some security features are inconsistent. For example, SSL certificates are included with all shared hosting plans, but with the lower-tiered shared plan, you have to purchase an SSL certificate after one year -- no matter how long your contract length is. SSL certificates are also a paid option in lower-tiered VPS and dedicated hosting plans, but they're included in the higher-tiered options. If this is your first site, or the first VPS or dedicated hosting plan, you might want to start with a lower-tiered hosting option. But the inconsistent security features might push you to get a more expensive plan.
HostPapa has global data centers, so you can choose the best data center to reach your visitors the quickest. Hosting options include shared, VPS, managed and unmanaged WordPress hosting, reseller hosting and PapaCare Plus, which is similar to managed shared hosting. HostPapa has free SSL certificates, DDoS protection and other security features included in each plan, a 99.9% uptime guarantee and 24/7 phone, chat and email support. However, the lack of a dedicated hosting option means that if your site grows too large, you'll have to migrate to another service. Also, if you choose HostPapa, make sure to look over what you're buying when you're checking out. As I went through checkout, some features, like automated backups and a security tool, were automatically added for an additional charge. When comparing plans, these additional features are mentioned and marked as included in higher-tier plans, but not in all plans.
Hostwinds offers unlimited storage and bandwidth, as well as unlimited free business email accounts with each plan. It offers shared, managed and unmanaged VPS, dedicated, reseller and cloud hosting plans, as well as a business-centered shared hosting plan it calls business hosting. Hostwinds has a 99.9999% uptime guarantee, which is above average, and it offers 24/7 chat support. Hostwinds plans also come with free SSL certificates and free nightly backups. However, in comparison with other services, Hostwinds isn't as forthcoming with information on other features or plan differences. Usually services show detailed charts that lay out what features come with plans. Hostwinds' shared chart, for example, lists only bandwidth, disk space and how many domains come with each plan. Since bandwidth and disk space are unlimited, the only noticeable differences with each plan are the number of domains offered, the price and the name of each plan.
Bluehost specializes in WordPress hosting and offers additional resources, like its Blue Flash customer support team, for anyone who chooses WordPress hosting. It offers shared, VPS, dedicated hosting, managed and unmanaged WordPress hosting as well as an option called Online Store that includes additional e-commerce tools with each plan. All plans include free SSL certificates, two-factor authentication and anti-spam protections. Bluehost customers can call or chat with a customer support representative 24/7. Bluehost doesn't offer an uptime guarantee but instead says it resolves issues within 15 minutes of them being reported. However, it doesn't say how many issues you should expect on average. If your site is down for about 15 minutes a week, your site could be down for about 13 hours a year, which is higher than standard.
GlowHost offers a 91-day money back guarantee, which is one of the highest guarantees of services on this list. Glowhost offers shared, cloud VPS, dedicated, semi-dedicated, reseller and what Glowhost calls an elastic plan, which it compares to a managed VPS plan. Security features include free SSL certificates and McAfee Secure, which starts at $30 a year, and customer support is available by phone or chat 24/7. Uptime is harder to discern though. Some dedicated hosting plans guarantee 100% uptime, but a Glowhost administrator in 2008 said it could be 99.7% or higher, which means your site could be down for at least a day over the course of one year.
iPage offers customers a free website builder to get their site up and running, as well as e-commerce tools to easily integrate into your site. iPage offers shared and WordPress hosting plans and has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. The service only offers 24/7 chat support. Each iPage plan comes with a free SSL certificate, but additional security features like daily malware scans and backups aren't included. To fill those security gaps, iPage offers SiteLock, which starts at an extra $4 a month. However, iPage no longer offers VPS or dedicated hosting plans, which you might want to consider if your site grows.
Mochahost, unlike most other web-hosting services, offers a lifetime discount guarantee. However, this discount doesn't apply to every contract, so it can be a headache to figure out where the lifetime discount does or does not apply. From what we've seen, the lifetime discount guarantee is usually attached to three-year contracts and a few two-year contracts, but these contract lengths aren't usually the lowest priced. The advertised prices might be the lowest price, but that doesn't mean they'll save you the most money. The largest discounts often apply for just one month, and the renewal price could be double that original cost. Longer contracts, like those that are three years long, are more expensive for the first month, but you'll save money in the long term because the lifetime discount is lower than the renewal price of shorter plans. In other words, longer contracts that appear more expensive can save you money after about the second month. Mochahost offers shared, VPS, dedicated cloud, WordPress and reseller plans, a 100% uptime guarantee and 24/7 live chat support. Phone support is also available on callback. Free SSL certificates are included in each plan as well, but other security features, like spam and malware filters, come at an additional cost or with more expensive plans.
WebHostingPad offers shared, managed and unmanaged VPS, WordPress and a mini hosting plan for smaller sites. Each plan includes free SSL certificates and SiteLock Lite, and WebHostingPad has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Chat support is available 24/7, but phone support is only available Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. CST. WebHostingPad also offers competitive prices, starting at $2 a month, but they're only available with four-year and five-year contracts. There is a mini plan that has a fixed price point of $3 a month, but it's offered with a three-year contract, otherwise the price is $3.50 a month for one year or $3.25 a month for two years. Domains are an additional $17 at checkout, or you can use the code FREEDOMAIN at checkout for a free domain.
More web-hosting services we looked at
Most of these services specialize in one type of hosting, like shared or WordPress, which means they're not the best if you plan to grow your site. They also tend to be missing some security features and customer support options. However, they could be right for you and your needs if you have specific or smaller-scale hosting needs.
Liquid Web: No shared hosting. Security features include an integrated firewall and standard DDoS protections. Offers 99.99% uptime and 24/7 chat or phone support. Prices start at $8.85 a month. However, that's for a monthly plan, and it renews at $59 a month after your first month. For the best value, a 24-month contract starts at $15 a month.
Web Hosting Hub: Offers shared and WordPress hosting. Has free SSL certificates but other security features cost extra. Offers 99.9% uptime and has 24/7 chat and phone support. Prices start at $6 a month.
WP Engine: Offers WordPress hosting. Security features like free SSL certificates and daily backups. Only custom managed WordPress plans have an uptime guarantee, and the company offers 24/7 chat and phone support. Prices start at $20 a month.
Kinsta: Offers WordPress hosting. Security features like free SSL certificates and automatic backups. Has a 99.9% uptime and 24/7 chat support. Prices start at $35 a month.
Pantheon: Offers WordPress hosting. Security features include DDoS protection and automated backups. Offers 99.9% uptime and customer support is available 24/7 via chat, phone or even Slack. Prices start at $41 a month.
Finding the right web-hosting service can help you launch a blog or a website for your small business.
How we chose the best web hosting services
While we didn't test the services, we did carefully examine each service's offerings and ranked them according to essential web-hosting features. Here's what we looked for to determine the best web-hosting services. You can also check out CNET's 11 things to know about web hosting for more information about these and other features.
- Hosting plans: We checked to see if the service offered shared, VPS and dedicated hosting plans. Inclusion of all three plan types allows customers to scale their plan up as their site grows.
- Security features: Services need to include some basic security features such as SSL certificates, DDoS protections and backups to protect your data as well as your visitors'. The best web hosts do this at no extra charge.
- Uptime of 99.9% or higher: An uptime of 99.9% or higher ensures your site won't go down for more than 20 minutes a month, so you keep losses of readers and sales to a minimum.
- Customer support: All services offer some kind of customer support. Most services offer email support, which is a good start. Others offer live chat -- which is better -- and others offer phone support -- which is best. The best services offer all three at no additional charge. Even if phone support is only available in a certain timeframe, it's better than nothing.
The best web-hosting services meet all four of those criteria. If a service falls short on one or more of those measures, you'll find it in our list of other web-hosting services to consider or our list of additional web hosts we looked at.
Web-hosting terms to know
CMS
Content management systems can help create and maintain your website. A CMS is a lot like the tools used to create posts or upload pictures to your social media profile, for example. A CMS does the same thing, but for your site. You don't need a CMS, but without one you'll have to code your site from the ground up. In addition to WordPress, a few other CMS tools are Joomla and WooCommerce.
FTP
A file transfer protocol is a method for transferring large files -- like videos and other data-heavy files -- from one location, like a server or computer, to another. Think of FTP as a type of delivery service. Imagine you order a television from a company and have it delivered to your home. The delivery truck that drops off the television at your home is the FTP. If you've ever used software like FileZilla, you've used an FTP. While FTP is generally vulnerable to malicious actors intercepting your data, secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) and FTP over SSL/TSL (FTPS) offer safer ways to transfer your files and data with security measures, like firewalls and data encryption. If given the option, always choose SFTP or FTPS rather than FTP when choosing a web-hosting service.
E-commerce
Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is buying and selling items online. If you've bought anything online like a new shirt, food or digital music, you've participated in e-commerce. Web-hosting services will usually mention e-commerce in plan descriptions to signal it includes tools to help get your online shop up and running. If you plan on opening an online store or selling items online, you should look for plans that include e-commerce tools and resources.
CDNs
Content delivery networks, or content distribution networks, are groups of data centers and servers that help deliver content to people on the internet based on a visitor's physical location. Imagine you are hosting a site out of Dallas:
Without a CDN, if people from the Netherlands try to access your site, your visitors might have to wait a while for the content of your site to be delivered to them because of the distance. However, if your web-hosting service uses a CDN and has a data center in the Netherlands, your visitors from the Netherlands will access a version of your site stored in the much closer data center. This version of your site has some cached files stored in it to boost webpage load times and reduce bandwidth usage. This is good for you since some web-hosting services limit bandwidth usage, and faster load times means happier visitors.
According to a study by Digital.com, half of shoppers expect a site to load in three seconds or less, and almost a quarter of shoppers said slow load times are their main source of dissatisfaction when shopping online.
IP address
An internet protocol address is a unique address represented by a string of numbers separated by periods that helps identify a device online or connected to a localized network, according to Kaspersky. What that means is, an IP address makes it possible for your device to communicate with the internet.
Pricing for web hosting
Pricing for web hosting is a bit tricky to follow. Listed prices are generally introductory rates attached to contracts that usually last a year or more and renew at the regular -- read: higher -- rate at contract's end. Make sure to take regular rates into account when trying to figure out a long-term hosting provider. You can also see our recommendations for how web-hosting providers should advertise their prices.
Pricing is listed as a monthly expense, but more often than not this monthly expense is attached to a contract length that you have to pay upfront. Let's say a web hosting provider advertises its shared hosting plans at $5 a month. However, to get that price, you have to sign a one-year contract, and you have to pay for the whole contract today. That means you should expect to pay at least $60 when you sign up, not $5.
Prices for different web hosting plans vary, too. According to WebsiteBuilderExpert, shared hosting usually costs between $2.20 and $23 a month, VPS hosting usually costs between $2 and $110 a month and dedicated hosting usually costs between $47 and $540 a month.
These prices are also for just web hosting. Add-ons can increase the price you pay exponentially. Two add-ons, like automated site backups and additional security measures, combined could add $60 a year to your bill. Depending on what add-ons you select, these additional could cost double or triple what you pay for web hosting.
Web-hosting FAQs
You can check out CNET's web-hosting FAQ or tips to help secure your site for more information, too.
What is web hosting?
Web hosting is the act of storing a website's data on a server or series of servers. Imagine a website as a work of art. That art needs to be housed somewhere for people to see, and web hosting is like a gallery where your art can be stored for others to view.
Data centers are filled with servers that can house hundreds of websites.
What are the basic types of hosting?
There are three common types of web hosting: shared, virtual private server and dedicated hosting.
What are some other types of hosting?
Some other types of hosting include reseller, cloud and WordPress hosting.
What's uptime and why is it important?
Uptime is a measurement of how long your site operates without going offline. The longer your site stays up, the more traffic it can handle and the more money you can potentially make if your site is for a business. Imagine you've narrowed down where to hang your art to two places: One is open two days a week and the other is open seven days a week. You want more people to see your art so you go with the place open seven days a week. That's similar to uptime. However, uptime can be confusing. Generally when you see something is 99% effective, you think that's pretty good. But a 99% uptime means your site is down for over three days a year. The industry standard uptime is 99.9%, and anything more is best for you and your visitors. Most web-hosting services have uptime guarantees and offer some form of reimbursement if your site is down longer than the guaranteed uptime.
What are the differences between unmanaged and managed hosting?
Unmanaged hosting plans place responsibility for some administrative work on you as the customer. Managed hosting plans, however, leave the heavy lifting to the web-hosting service provider. Unmanaged is like if you hang your art in a gallery and you have to clean it, make sure it's hung right and generally maintain it. Managed is like gallery employees handling those tasks for you. Unmanaged plans are generally more cost effective, but managed plans free up your time to focus on your site.
What security features should I look for in a hosting service?
Some of the key security features you should be on the lookout for are secure socket layer certificates, distributed denial of service protections and web application firewalls.
DDoS attacks can make your site unreachable for an extended amount of time.
What are website builders? Do I need one of those?
Not necessarily, but if this is your first site you might find a website builder helpful, and some web-hosting services offer free website builders with plans. Instead of coding your site from scratch, website builders are tools that help you easily create your site through simpler interfaces.
What is site migration? Can I do that myself?
Site migration is the process of moving your already established website from one web-hosting service to another. You might do this because the price to renew your current web-hosting service increased dramatically or you're unhappy with your current service. Some services will migrate your site for free, while others will charge you to migrate to their service. You can migrate your site manually, but you could lose traffic as well as content if done improperly. If it's your first time migrating from one service to another, it might be best to let someone else handle it.
Should I use a Linux or Windows server?
It depends on your goals, but a Linux server will work for most people. Servers that run the Linux operating system support most programming languages and have more features web developers might expect. Linux is also the more popular server operating system, powering about 37.8% of all websites on the internet, according to Web Technology Surveys. A lot of website-creation tools and applications run on Linux so they will work on these servers with no extra effort. Linux servers are also generally cheaper than Windows servers. If you're a small business owner maintaining your own site, or you're starting your own blog or online store, a Linux server has what you need.
For more on web hosting, check out the best website builders, the best VPN services and the best identity theft protection services.