5 Best Web Hosting Services of 2022 (Providers Ranked)
Choosing the best web hosting services is critical if you need to get online and make your website accessible to the rest of the world. The best web hosting services can assist you in meeting your objectives, from dedicated hosting accounts to cloud services and top WordPress hosting.
In this guide, I ranked and reviewed the 5 best web hosting services, as well as my top 5 recommendations, so you can choose the best one for you.
There are thousands of service providers to compare when looking for the best web hosting.
And they all offer varying levels of features, performance, ease of use, and price ranges, not to mention various discounts and savings at checkout.
These web hosting reviews will give you two simple takeaways:
1. How to pick the best host for you.
2. How to save the most money at checkout with the most significant discounts (up to 90%).
I've been working in digital marketing for over ten years and have set up websites, performed site migrations, and managed more hosting providers than I can remember.
Let's choose the best host for your blog, online store, or local business site and save money in the process.
Let's start now.
What is the Best Web Hosting?
The best web hosting services provide your website with the site speed, security features, uptime, ease of use, and integrations that it requires.
Nexcess, Bluehost, Hostinger, and HostGator are my top choices.
Most hosting companies offer significant introductory discounts and make it simple to get started.
Here are my top picks for the best web hosting:
- Nexcess.
- Bluehost.
- Cloudways.
- Hostinger.
- HostGator.
1. Best Web Hosting Services: Nexcess.
Best Managed WordPress Hosting ($19 per month).
Nexcess is a fully managed WordPress hosting provider that hosts over 500,000 websites. They also host a variety of other platforms, including e-commerce stores.
Nexcess is an excellent choice for ecommerce businesses because it includes everything required to manage dynamic sites. Even with the basic plan, you get 2TB of bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, automatic image compression, PHP 7 compatibility, and so on.
Furthermore, all of their plans include free WordPress migrations.
You don't need any special skills to create a WordPress website, either, because Nexcess offers site creation stencils.
If you have any questions, you can always contact their customer service. WordPress experts are available by phone or live chat at all hours of the day.
Key Features:
- Advanced caching.
- Daily backups.
- Image lazy loading.
- Unlimited email accounts.
- WordPress core updates and WordPress plugin updates.
- One-click staging site (clone of your live website).
- A built-in CDN with 22 locations.
- Unlimited traffic.
- Always on security monitoring.
- 24/7/365 customer support.
Plugins such as iThemes Security Pro, WP Merge, Visual Compare, iThemes Security Pro, TinyPNG, and Qubely Pro are also included with the hosting plans.
User Experience:
Cloud auto-scaling features enable the site to adjust server resources on the fly in response to traffic spikes, which is ideal for larger businesses with high traffic fluctuations.
Furthermore, various cloud acceleration features ensure that the site loads quickly no matter where the visitor is in the world.
Pricing:
Nexcess has seven pricing options:
- Spark – $13.30 per month (1 website, 15 GB storage, 2 TB bandwidth)
- Maker – $55.30 per month (up to 5 sites, 40 GB storage, 3 TB bandwidth)
- Designer – $76.30 per month (up to 10 sites, 60 GB storage, 4 TB bandwidth)
- Builder – $104.30 per month (up to 25 sites, 100 GB storage, 5 TB bandwidth)
- Producer – $209.30 per month (up to 50 sites, 300 GB storage, 5 TB bandwidth)
- Executive – $384.30 per month (up to 100 sites, 500 GB storage, 10 TB bandwidth)
- Enterprise – $699.30 per month (up to 250 sites, 800 GB storage, 10 TB bandwidth)
What I Like and Don't Like About Nexcess:
Like:
- A good dashboard for monitoring server resources and usage.
- Uptime implies that the site will rarely go down, and speed is critical for retaining visitors.
- Quick, thorough support assists you in troubleshooting any issues that may arise.
Dislike:
- It would be nice to see NGINX for our dedicated servers
- Product Updates:
- Improvements to the mobile experience so that people can use your site while on the go.
- Support Ticket Enhancements enable users to receive even better assistance when they require it.
2. Best Web Hosting Services: Bluehost.
Best Web Hosting Service Powering Over 2 Million Websites Worldwide ($2.95/month)
Bluehost is my top hosting platform recommendation, offering a free domain, free SSL, 1-click WordPress installation, FTP, and 24/7 customer support. Their plans begin at $2.95 per month (63% off) and include a 30-day money-back guarantee.
They are a comprehensive platform designed specifically for WordPress that powers over 2 million websites. Sign in, select your domain, one-click install WordPress, select your themes, and create your site using their simple interface.
They began operations in 1996 and now employ over 750 people. They have a 99.99% uptime, which makes them a very dependable option.
Site speed will not be an issue with average load times of less than half a second. Using my WordPress site and their cheapest plan, I was able to boost my desktop site speed to 100 percent.
One of the most compelling features for me was their security and integration with Cloudflare, a content delivery network (CDN). This CDN protects against DDoS attacks and fake traffic from a variety of sources.
Using a CDN speeds up your site by allowing you to host your web files on their global network of servers. This service reduces the amount of time it takes to retrieve data from your server based on the visitor's location.
If you're looking for extra features while reading other web hosting comparisons, Bluehost also integrates with various software in their MOJO Marketplace. Installing software, for example, is simple if a customer requires shopping cart software or e-commerce functionality.
Finally, they are the "official" web hosting platform recommended by WordPress.org.
Key Features:
- cPanel Account Control Panel makes it easy to manage your hosting account,
- Forwarding E-mail Accounts allows you to set up custom email addresses using your domain name.
- Support International Domain Names allows you to use your domain name with multiple internationalized domains.
- Unlimited Domain Hosting means you can host an unlimited number of websites on your account.
- Unlimited Disk Storage gives you plenty of space to grow your website.
User Experience:
Bluehost makes website creation simple by offering a visual drag-and-drop editor for those who want to create their own website without learning coding.
The interface is simple and intuitive, making it simple to get started whether you are a beginner or have some experience.
What I Like/Dislike About Bluehost:
Like:
- Free domains are an excellent way to get a new website up and running.
- Customer service is always available to assist you in troubleshooting any issues you may be experiencing.
- Without having to learn coding, Bluehost Builder makes it simple to create a professional-looking website.
Dislike:
- Renewal fees are a little steep.
- If you need to move your website to a different host, website migration fees can be quite high.
Product Updates:
Integration with various WordPress updates to keep your site current.
Here’s how to get started:
1. Go to Bluehost.com and click Get Started
2. Choose the plan you want ($2.95/month is cheapest)
3. Either enter a new name or select one you own
4. Enter your account information, account plan, and billing information
5. I would uncheck the add-ons Sitelock Security and Codeguard Basic
6. Click Submit and you’re ready to go!
I recommend starting with their Basic Plan, which costs $2.95 per month and saves you 63% off their regular price.
How to Save the Most:
- Plan: Basic Plan at $2.95/month
- Term: 36 months
- Total cost at checkout: $106.20
- Savings: $181.44
3. Best Web Hosting Services: Cloudways.
Cloudways, as the name implies, uses a scalable cloud platform designed for speed and simplicity. Cloud servers, as opposed to shared web hosting, provide more dedicated resources, which can improve speed and stability.
It's a powerful hosting service for web developers, allowing PHP developers to deploy containerized applications and other advanced features. Cloudways also supports many other high-performance technologies, such as HTTP/2, Nginx, and Redis, in addition to PHP7.
Cloud servers can be added to any Cloudways account at any time. A virtual cloud server can also be set up in under a minute. Unsurprisingly, WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) used with Cloudways, followed by Drupal and Magento.
In addition, if you want security, they offer SSL certificates with domain mapping.
Cloudways is a good option if you're an experienced developer looking for more control over your website.
Key Features:
- Server Monitoring Dashboard ensures your site’s availability by keeping a watch on the performance of all your servers.
- CloudwaysCDN Integration speeds up your website’s loading time by caching its content on a Content Delivery Network.
- Application Monitoring Dashboard gives you detailed insights into the performance of your applications.
- IP Whitelist allows you to whitelist IP addresses for increased security.
User Experience:
From adding new members and ensuring appropriate permissions are in place to monitoring the performance of your servers and applications, the Server Management Dashboard is simple to use and offers a pleasant user experience.
Pricing:
Pricing is tiered based on the server specifications you select as well as the cloud provider. It starts at $12 per month and includes a 3-day free trial. It appears to be a brief trial, but it allows you to immerse yourself in the platform and test its functionality.
What I Like/Dislike About Cloudways:
Like:
- Cloudways provides out-of-the-box usability. Nothing needs to be set up or configured; simply create an account, choose your application and server, and you're ready to go.
- The performance is also excellent, so visitors to the site do not have to wait long for pages to load.
Dislike:
- You won't be able to host DNS for free there, so you'll have to rely on a third-party service.
Product Updates:
WordPress's SafeUpdates feature is now in General Availability. If something goes wrong when updating a plugin, theme, or WordPress itself, you can easily rollback to a previous working version.
4. Best Web Hosting Services: Hostinger.
Fast and Affordable at a 90% Discount ($0.99/month)
Because of its speed and low cost, Hostinger is an excellent hosting provider. They are currently offering a massive 90% discount on paid plans, with prices beginning at $0.99 per month. For $47.52, you can get four years of web hosting.
Using Hostinger, developers can learn to code and experiment with PHP, FTP, cPanel, and MySQL without incurring additional costs. You can learn to build free WordPress sites while also honing your PHP skills by using free hosting sites and learning PHP.
Hostinger is ideal for newbies. You can learn to build free WordPress sites while honing your skills.
They have a highly knowledgeable 24/7 multilingual (20+ language) Customer Success Team that is known to answer live chats in under two minutes.
They are also one of the fastest web hosting providers, with an average page load time of less than 200 ms and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
Hostinger has a custom, user-friendly dashboard called hPanel. The design is simple and straightforward, which is exactly what you need when creating a website. They are also running a massive sale with free SSL certificates and domains.
Hostinger offers a free WordPress site with 1-click installation, allowing you to start your blog for free in minutes. They also have their Zyro website builder, which includes thousands of templates.
Key Features:
- Cloudflare CDN means that your site will be cached on servers around the world, so it will load quickly no matter where visitors are located.
- Daily Backups ensure that your data is always safe and secure.
- Unlimited Bandwidth means you can have as much traffic as you want without having to worry about overage charges.
- Unlimited Databases means you can store as much data as you need.
- Managed WordPress means that Hostinger will take care of all the technical details of running a WordPress site, so you can focus on creating content.
User Experience:
Hostinger's interface is clean and simple to use, with a left-hand side menu that provides all of the information you need to get started.
All of the product options are organized into separate tabs to make it easier to find what you're looking for.
The steps to get up and running with their services are easy:
- Go to hostinger.com and click get started.
- Choose your hosting plan – the best savings are with the $0.99/month plan for 48 months.
- Enter your email and create a password.
- Choose either WordPress or build your site.
- Edit and publish your site.
If you want a powerful host on a budget with one of the fastest loading times and a whopping 90% off, I recommend starting with Hostinger for $0.99/month ($47.52 for four full years of hosting).
What I Like/Dislike About Hostinger:
Like:
- Multiple FTP accounts allow you to grant different people access to different parts of your website, which is ideal for larger businesses.
- The user interface is simple and straightforward, allowing you to get started quickly.
- You can select the desired country's server, which is useful if you want your site to load quickly for visitors in that area.
- With Hostinger's low prices, you can get started without breaking the bank.
Dislike:
- Their customer service is lacking and could be improved.
Product Updates:
- Focusing on fast loading speed ensures that your site will load quickly regardless of where visitors are located.
How to Save the Most:
- Plan: Single Shared Hosting at $0.99/month
- Term: 48 months
- Total cost at checkout: $47.52
- Savings: $432
5. Best Web Hosting Services: HostGator.
Best Cheap Web Hosting Service ($2.78/month)
HostGator is a well-known Houston-based hosting provider that hosts over 9 million websites. They are one of the most affordable options available, with 36-month plans starting at $2.78/month and savings ranging from 30-60%.
To learn more, check out my full comparison to Bluehost and review vs. GoDaddy. In terms of price and feature set, they compare favorably to GoDaddy and website builders like Squarespace, as shown below:
Their average speed is just under one second, so they aren't the fastest option, but they are better than average. They also achieved an uptime of 99.98%, which is higher than the industry average of 99.94%.
They make website creation simple, with drag-and-drop functionality and the ability to add an unlimited number of domains to your account. They will also help you with free migrations within the first 30 days of signing up.
HostGator provides 24/7 customer support via live chat, email, and phone, with reasonable response times.
Key Features:
- WordPress one-click installations make it simple to get started with a WordPress site.
- Free WordPress/cPanel website transfers allow you to transfer your existing site to HostGator without incurring any fees.
- Free SEO tools assist you in optimizing your website for search engines.
- Visitors will be more secure and trusting of your site as a result of the free upgrade to Positive SSL.
- The free dedicated IP address provides you with a unique IP address that is not shared with any other sites, which can improve the security and performance of your site.
User Experience:
- With HostGator's server stats menu, you can easily keep track of your site's performance.
- The interface is simple to use and provides all of the information you need to get started.
- There are also shortcuts to the most commonly used functions that you can use to get started quickly.
Pricing:
They have three main plans: Hatchling, Baby, and Business. Higher-tier plans include dedicated IP addresses as well as SEO tools to help you grow your online presence.
If you are not satisfied with your purchase, they offer a 45-day money-back guarantee.
Here’s how to get started:
- Go to HostGator.com and click Get Started.
- Choose a domain (or add one you own).
- Pick your billing cycle. For the most savings, select the $2.78/month plan for 36 months.
- Enter your billing info.
- Click Checkout and you’re all set!
I recommend you try the Hatchling plan and get started for $2.75/month.
Like:
- A plethora of tools and interfaces make it simple to locate what you require.
- A low-cost option that can save you money in the long run
The interface is simple to grasp and use.
Dislike:
- Sending emails in bulk can be time-consuming and difficult.
How to Save:
Plan: Hatchling at $2.75/month
Term: 36 months
Total cost at checkout: $100.08
Savings: $150.12
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I will make a small commission if you click on any of the links and ultimately make a purchase.
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