Top Free Web Hosting Sites
The popularity of free web hosting has exploded in recent years.
- Top Free Web Hosting Sites For Wordpress
- Top Free Web Hosting Sites In India
- Free Web Hosting
- Top Free Web Hosting Sites No Ads
And it’s easy to see why – with all the different expenses required to run a successful website, it’s tempting to try and cut costs wherever possible to stay within your budget.
Here is the list of websites that provides you with a guaranteed Free Web Hosting Service. Wix is a completely free website designing platform and one of the most famous free website Hosting provider. The firm does so by displaying ads on your website.
The Top 15 Web Hosting Providers: BlueHost. InMotion Hosting. Network Solutions. AccuWeb Hosting. Web Hosting Hub. Out of 18 free web hosting providers, Infinityfree is our recommended choice with Byethost, Googiehost, 000Webhost, FreeHostingNoAds, and FreeWebHostingArea being the other options.
And what’s more budget-friendly than free web hosting, right?
Well, not exactly…
Free web hosts aren’t always what they market themselves to be. Tight restrictions they place on bandwidth, storage capacity, server speed, and uptimes can make your new site all but unusable.
But don’t worry… we’ve done the heavy lifting for you. In this review, we compare 7 free hosting options to help you find the best fit for your site.
Let’s dive in:
1. Hostinger.com
The Best “Almost-Free” Hosting ($0.99/mo)
Sub-domain included: | Yes |
Bandwidth: | 100GB |
Disk Space: | 10GB |
Support: | Live Chat 24/7 |
Max. Websites: | 1 |
Max. Email Accounts: | 1 |
Uptime & Speed: | Very Good |
Limitations: | See terms of use |
Official website: | www.Hostinger.com |
After nearly 15 years in business and a client base of more than 29,000,000 people spread across 178 countries, Hostinger has become one of the free web hosting industry’s most dominant players.
Ok, so they aren’t technically “free”…
… But at only $0.99/month for their limited shared hosting plan they’re still one of the most budget-friendly web hosts on the market.
With average load times of only 355ms (the second-best we’ve ever recorded), they’re also one of the fastest.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Even their most basic plan comes armed to the teeth with a whole bag of goodies including:
- 1 MySQL database
- 1 FTP user
- Access to their website builder
- One-click install of WordPress or other CMS
- A free domain name for 1 year
- 24/7 customer support (seriously, it’s one of the best)
- 100GB of Bandwidth and 10GB of Disk Space
- One free email account
And, if the needs of your site outgrow the limits of their basic hosting plan, you can always upgrade to their premium shared hosting plan.
Which include:
- Unlimited websites
- Unlimited email accounts
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Weekly memory backups
Limitations
One of the only major annoyances we had while reviewing Hostinger is that their user interface doesn’t give you access to a classic cPanel…
Instead, you’ll get a slightly downgraded made-in-house interface called the hPanel.
It’s not our favorite user interface, but – considering the exceptional speeds, customer support, and features – we’re hard-pressed not to hold it against them.
Hostinger’s “shared plan” average uptime and load time in 2019:
- Here’s our Hostinger “test site”: hostingfacts-hostinger.com
- Click here to find complete uptime and load time statistics for the last months
With some of the fastest speeds we’ve ever seen and uptimes on par with those of HostGator’s Cloud, Hostinger is the best “almost free” host that we’ve ever reviewed.
…or read our full Hostinger review here.
2. 000WebHost.com
$0/mo – But 2 Hours Offline Every Month
Sub-domain included: | Yes |
Bandwidth: | 10GB |
Disk Space: | 5GB |
Support: | Forum/Knowledge Base |
Max. Websites: | 1 |
Max. Email Accounts: | 0 |
Uptime & Speed: | Bad Uptime, Good Speed |
Limitations: | See terms of use |
Official website: | www.000WebHost.com |
“Zero cost web hosting with PHP, MySQL, cPanel, and no ads!”.
That’s the marketing slogan of 000webhost.com, Hostinger’s partner company and one of the top-rated free web hosts in the world.
Now, if it sounds just a little too good to be true – IT IS!
Yes, 000WebHost offers impressive speeds (especially for a shared free host), and their no-ads policy makes for a much cleaner and friendlier user experience.
Unfortunately, these two factors alone simply aren’t enough to compensate for the myriad of other limitations.
*Note: It’s worth mentioning that 000WebHost experienced a massive security breach back in 2015 where the private information of more than 13,000,000 customers was leaked.
Limitations
Of the many problems that we experienced while reviewing 000WebHost, none was more prevalent or frustrating than their utterly unusable uptimes.
With an average uptime of only 99.70%, you can expect to experience at least an hour of downtime every other week on your site. Think of all the traffic and sales you might lose every single month.
To make matters worse, you’re also limited to a mere 10GB of bandwidth, 1Gb of disk space. To top it off, there is no email or live chat customer support to assist you in the (all but certain) event you encounter a problem with their service.
Here’s 000WebHost free plan average uptime and load time in 2019:
- Here’s our 000WebHost test site: http://hostingfacts-0ewrwer.com/
- Click here to find complete uptime and load time statistics for the last months
Despite having admittedly impressive speeds, with such horrible uptimes and heavy limitations, we cannot recommend 000WebHost to anyone unless it’s an absolute necessity.
3. InfinityFree.net
Most Unlimited Features
Sub-domain included: | Yes |
Bandwidth: | Unlimited |
Disk Space: | Unlimited |
Support: | Forum/Knowledge Base |
Max. Websites: | 400 |
Max. Email Accounts: | 10 |
Uptime & Speed: | Good |
Limitations: | See terms of use |
Official website: | InfinityFree.net |
With only 200,000 customers, InfinityFree is a relatively small player in the web hosting game.
Despite their small client base, they’ve managed to carve out a reputation for themselves as the most feature-rich free web host on the market.
Even though you will undoubtedly experience some problems with their service, this reputation is well earned.
InfinityFree comes with the following:
- Free SSL certificate with all plans (a very nice bonus)
- No front-end ads
- Free CloudFlare CDN
- 10 email accounts
- 1 FTP account
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage space
- 400 MySQL databases.
It’s safe to say that InfinityFree gives you a big bang for your unpaid buck.
But when you skim through their terms of service and acceptable use policies, things start to get a little more “interesting.”
Limitations
What InfinityFree doesn’t advertise on their website is that their offers of “unlimited” bandwidth and storage space come with some seriously limited restrictions.
In their terms of service, they place significant and ambiguous restrictions on the types of content and files you’re allowed to upload. Also, the amount of the so-called “unlimited” bandwidth on offer is also questionable.
/sally-gardens-pdf.html. And the best part?
The penalty for non-compliance with the limitations on their “unlimited” offer is the suspension or elimination of your website and data – Ouch!
Here’s InfinityFree’s free plan average uptime and load time in 2019:
- Here’s our InfinityFree.net test site: http://hostingfacts.epizy.com
- Click here to find complete uptime and load time statistics for the months
Generally, their uptime is pretty good, but this January, for example, we experienced over 40 hours of downtime.
4. Sites.Google.com
Great For Personal and Small Business Websites
Sub-domain included: | Yes |
Bandwidth: | Unknown |
Disk Space: | Unknown |
Support: | Forum/Knowledge Base |
Max. Websites: | Unlimited |
Max. Email Accounts: | G-Suite($6/mo) |
Uptime & Speed: | Very Good |
Limitations: | See terms of use |
Official website: | Sites.Google.com |
Despite being very well known for their search engine and other online products such as Sheets, Docs, and Gmail, they also offer a free website builder since 2008. The website builder got a complete rebuild in 2016 and currently hosts over 70,000 live websites.
Just like most other Google products, it is entirely free to use.
They offer responsive templates, drag and drop editing, embedding HTML and Javascript, and integrations with most of their other services(Drive, Maps, Calendar, and more).
You also get a free subdomain with an SSL certificate, and Google Sites features no ads on your website.
Limitations
It’s not all good though; the styling options are very limited. There is no way to add custom CSS or to even add fonts from their own Goole Fonts catalog.
The SEO options are also limited, and you cannot host Google Adsense advertisements.
- Here’s our Google Sites test site: https://sites.google.com/view/hostingfactstest/
- Click here to find complete uptime and load time statistics for the months
Although we are still running our own tests to gather more concrete data on the real uptimes and load times of GoogleSites hosting, a superficial glance at the other reviews around the web suggests that it’s reliable and fast.
5. AwardSpace.com
Free web hosting that sounds too good to be true, because it is.
Sub-domain included: | Yes |
Bandwidth: | 5GB |
Disk Space: | 1GB |
Support: | Live Chat 24/7 |
Max. Websites: | 4 |
Max. Email Accounts: | 1 |
Uptime & Speed: | Decent |
Limitations: | See terms of use |
Official website: | www.AwardSpace.com |
With over 2.5 million customers and 15 years in the web hosting business, AwardSpace has carved out a name for itself as one of the top free hosting providers available.
Some of their best features include:
- 100% ad-free hosting to the MySQL database
- 24/7 customer service (an admittedly enticing bonus)
- One-click CMS (WordPress/Joomla) installation
- 99% uptime guarantee
Everything looks amazing, right?
Unfortunately, a closer look will reveal questionable features.
Limitations
Although AwardSpace does a few things well, there are several glaring issues with their free hosting, which prevent them from serving as a viable option for any serious webmasters.
For starters, free users are limited to only 1 GB of disk space and 5GB of bandwidth. It means that your new site will be little more than a glorified “demo” of AwardSpace’s premium hosting packages.
There are also a few disconcerting lines of legal jargon in their ToS that seem to permit them to sell off your data to third-party vendors.
None of it really matters since the biggest problem with AwardSpace is the abysmally big downtime which on average is more than an hour a week.
Here’s AwardSpace free plan average uptime and load time in 2019:
- Here’s our AwardSpace “test site”: hf-as.atwebpages.com
- Click here to find complete uptime and load time statistics for the last months
6. FreeHosting.com
Slow speed and no sub-domain
Sub-domain included: | No |
Bandwidth: | Unmetered |
Disk Space: | 10GB |
Support: | Tickets |
Max. Websites: | 1 |
Max. Email Accounts: | 1 |
Uptime & Speed: | Horrible |
Limitations: | See terms of use |
Official website: | www.FreeHosting.com |
With nearly a decade in the web hosting business and 15,000 customers, a European company, FreeHosting.com has grown exponentialy. Nonetheless, as we’ve seen time and time again – popularity and performance aren’t always correlated.
Equipped with unmetered bandwidth (granted your website complies with their rather stringent acceptable use policy), you also get the following
- A multilingual cPanel
- 10 GB of disk space, one email account
- A MySQL database
FreeHosting.com seems like one of the better free hosts available.
As is self-evident with free web hosts, the endless stream of technical issues posed by FreeHosting’s service makes it all but unusable.
Limitations
With abysmally slow load times that border on the 2-second mark – it’s one of the worst uptimes we’ve ever seen (seriously… they’re AWFUL), and countless customer complaints of deleted websites and non-responsive customer service, FreeHosting.com is yet another web host that makes big promises but ultimately fails to uphold any of them.
Here’s FreeHosting free plan average uptime and load time in 2019:
- Here’s our FreeHosting test site: hostingfacts-fh.com
- Click here to find complete uptime and load time statistics for the last months
With some of the worst uptimes and slowest speeds we’ve ever recorded, we recommend that you avoid FreeHosting.com at all costs.
7. FreeHostia.com
Low disk space and bad speed & uptime.
Sub-domain included: | No |
Bandwidth: | 6GB |
Disk Space: | 250MB |
Support: | FAQ/Tickets |
Max. Websites: | 5 |
Max. Email Accounts: | 3 |
Uptime & Speed: | Bad |
Limitations: | See terms of use |
Official website: | www.freehostia.com |
FreeHostia sets itself apart from the competition with its unique plan names (who knew you could buy “Chocolate” web hosting?). In addition, they also have load-balanced server clusters – which allows for increased load times across the company’s assets.
However, these unique “features” don’t do very much to improve the quality of their hosting.
Their customer service has earned many glowing recommendations in recent years, they offer 3 free email accounts and up to 5 hosted domains (a rarity in the free web hosting space). Yet, these enticing offers aren’t nearly enough to offset the hefty restrictions and performance issues with which you’ll be faced.
Limitations
The biggest problem with Freehostia’s free hosting is the restrictions they place on your storage and bandwidth.
With a paltry 250MB of storage and 6GB of bandwidth, even the most minimalist of webmasters will struggle to build a site that contains more than a few images and a line or two of plain text.
Top Free Web Hosting Sites For Wordpress
However, the real nails in the coffin are the unreliable uptimes and incredibly slow speeds.
Top Free Web Hosting Sites In India
Freehostia might work for hosting a simple test site or low traffic blog… Nevermind – even that might be pushing it.
Here’s FreeHostia free plan average uptime and load time in 2019:
FreeHostia’s uptime and speed 2019
- Here’s our FreeHostia test site: hostingfacts-fhostia.com
- Click here to find complete uptime and load time statistics for the last months
Although the uptimes and load times aren’t the worst we’ve seen (they’re still pretty bad), there’s no reason to use a company like FreeHostia when you have so many other decent service providers available.
Why We Recommend Avoiding Free Hosting Services
Although the providers we’ve shared are among the best (which sadly isn’t saying much), even the most reputable ones struggle to live up to their promises. Instead, they present their “customers” with slow, and often unusable websites with no chance of succeeding in today’s competitive online space.
Also, they can delete your website (or online business) within seconds, leaving you no control…
So, does this mean that hope is lost for the low-budget webmaster-to-be?
Not quite…
Best Alternatives for Free Web Hosting
Free hosts might talk a big game, but at the end of the day will leave you with a shell of a site. All their services are unable to meet even the most basic standards required to run a successful business website.
Even with the tight restrictions on bandwidth, storage, and basic features like email accounts and website installations.
However, you can secure fast and reliable hosting with truly unlimited bandwidth and storage for pennies on the dollar. This is thanks to the advances in technology and competition in the marketplace.
In fact, with the plethora of new-customer discounts and other offers, you can easily buy 2-3 years of web hosting for less than $100.
So if you didn’t find anything useful on this list, we recommend you to browse our cheap web hosts.
Do You Need a Web Host?
Every business needs a website. In this always-connected world, even local brick-and-mortar businesses must be discoverable via the web. A company needs a page with a location and business hours, and, in many cases, ecommerce pages for selling products and services.
Why? Because word of mouth only gets you so far in the internet era. People discover new businesses—even local business—via Bing, Google, and Yahoo. The days when they'd just look you up in the yellow pages are long gone. If you don't have a sharable website address, your chances of building online word of mouth via social networking plummet, too. In other words, no website, no discoverability, no money. Of course, web hosting isn't just for businesses. You may want to host a personal website or blog, too. Either way, the services here have you covered.
See How We Test Web Hosting Services
The first step in building your online presence is finding a web host, the company that will store your website's files on its servers and deliver them to your readers' and customers' browsers. Bluehost, a PC Mag Business Choice winner, is a reader-recommended option.
Web hosting services offer varying amounts of monthly data transfers, storage, email, and other features. Even how you pay (month-to-month payments vs. annual payments) can be radically different, too, so taking the time to plot exactly what your company needs for online success is essential. Many of these companies also offer reseller hosting services, which let you go into business for yourself, offering hosting to your own customers without requiring you to spin up your own servers.
You should also familiarize yourself with the many web hosting tiers that are available. In your research, you'll find shared, virtual private server (VPS), dedicated hosting, and WordPress hosting plans. Each tier offers different specs and features that you should take the time to analyze. I'll break them down.
What Is Shared Web Hosting?
Shared hosting is web hosting in which the provider houses multiple sites on a single server. For example, Site A shares the same server with Site B, Site C, Site D, and Site E. The upside is that the multiple sites share the server cost, so shared web hosting is generally very inexpensive. In fact, you can find an option for less than $10 per month.
You could think of the sites that share your server as your roommates; there's really not that much separating you from them. Sure, you can close the bedroom door, but they can still cause nightmares for you in the kitchen and the bathroom. In web hosting terms, all the sites share a single server's resources, so huge traffic spike on Site A may impact the neighboring sites' performances. It's even possible that another site could take down the shared server altogether, if it crashed hard enough.
What Is VPS Web Hosting?
VPS hosting is similar to shared hosting in that multiple sites share the same server, but the similarities end there. A dedicated web host houses fewer sites per server than is the case with shared hosting, and each site has its own individual resources.
In housing terms, VPS hosting is like renting your own apartment in a larger building. You're much more isolated than in the roommate situation mentioned above; it's still possible that a neighboring apartment could causes annoyance for you, but far less likely. In web hosting terms, Site A's traffic surge won't have nearly as much impact on Site B or Site C. As you'd expect, VPS hosting costs more than shared hosting. You'll pay roughly $20 to $60 per month.
What Is Dedicated Web Hosting?
Dedicated hosting, on the other hand, is both powerful and pricey. It's reserved for sites that require an incredible amount of server resources.
Unlike shared or VPS hosting, dedicated hosting makes your website the lone tenant on a server. To extend the housing metaphor, having a dedicated server is like owning your own home. The means that your website taps the server's full power, and pays for the privilege. If you're looking for a high-powered site—an online mansion for your business—dedicated hosting is the way to go., That said, many dedicated web hosting services task you with handling backend, technical issues, much as homeowners have manage maintenance that renters generally leave to their landlords.
What Is WordPress Web Hosting?
WordPress hosting is for people who want to build their sites on the back of the popular WordPress content management system (CMS) from WordPress.org. There are multiple ways to set up shop using this free, open-source blogging and site-building platform.
You gain the most web-building functionality if you create a self-hosted site. This typically involves transfering the free WordPress CMS to server or signing up for a web host's optimized WordPress plan. With an optimized plan, the host automatically handles backend stuff, so you don't have to worry about updating the plug-ins and CMS, and enabling automatic backups. In these instances, the WordPress environment typically comes pre-installed on the server.
You can also host your website on WordPress.com, but that's different from the kind of hosting mentioned above. WordPress.com uses the same code from WordPress.org, but it hides the server code and handles the hosting for you. In that sense, it resembles entries in our online site builder roundup. It's a simpler but less flexible and customizable way to approach WordPress hosting. It's definitely easier, but if you want to tinker and adjust and optimize every aspect of your site, it might not be for you.
Extra Web Hosting Info
If you're not sure of the type of hosting your business needs, you might want to start small, with shared Web hosting. You can always graduate to a more robust, feature-rich package of, say, VPS hosting or even dedicated hosting in the future. Unfortunately, some hosts don't offer all hosting types. Consider how much you expect to grow your website, and how soon, before you commit to anything longer than a one-year plan. It's worth spending the time up front to make sure that the host you select with is able to provide the growth you envision for your site, as switching web hosting providers midstream is not a trivial undertaking.
Once you decide you price range, you need to consider how long you'll need web hosting. If it's a short-term project—say, less than a month or two—you can typically receive a refund should you cancel your hosting within 60 days. Some companies offer 30-day money-back guarantees, others offer 90-day money-back guarantees. Once again, it's beneficial to do your homework.
The Web Hosting Features You Need
Many web hosts offer limited features in their starter packages and then expand the offerings (sometimes tremendously) for higher-tier plans. Read the small print to make sure the plan you are selecting offers what you need. If you need a site builder application to design your website, make sure that the low-cost web host you are picking actually comes with a site builder. Many of them require you to pay for the builder as a separate add-on. Website builders usually don't cost a lot of money, but if you can find a web host that includes one for free, that's money in your pocket. And, if it's integrated with your hosting service, you're more likely to have a smooth, supported experience.
You also want a web host with 24/7 customer support—if not by phone, then at least by chat. Forums, knowledge bases, and help tickets are all well and good, but sometimes you just need to communicate with another human to get things ironed out as quickly as possible. That said, not all 24/7 customer support teams are equal. Companies like GoDaddy and Liquid Web boast incredibly knowledgeable and helpful customer support squads—a fact that we confirmed in our in-depth reviews of those web hosting services.
When it comes to server operating systems, Linux is typically the default option. Still, some services offer a choice of Linux or Windows hosting. If you have specific server-side applications that require Windows, such as SQL Server or a custom application written in .NET, then you need to make sure your web host has Windows hosting. But don't let the idea of a Linux host intimidate you. Nowadays, most web hosts offer a graphical interface or a control panel to simplify server administration and website management. Instead of typing at the command line, you'll click easily identifiable icons.
Windows hosting is often more expensive than Linux hosting, especially in the dedicated server area. That's not always the case, but it's something you should be aware of as you shop around.
See How We Test Web Hosting Services
Email Hosting
If you aim to have a web presence, you've got to have email. It's a convenient way for potential customers and clients to send you a message, Word document, or other files. Thankfully, most web hosts include email in the price of their hosting plans. Some web hosts offer unlimited email account creation (which is great for future growth), while others offer a finite amount. You, naturally, should want unlimited email.
That said, not all web hosts offer email. WP Engine, for example, does not. In such instances, you must email accounts from a company other than your web host. GoDaddy, for instance, sells email packages starting at $3.49 per user, per month. That might sound like a hassle, and just one more thing to keep track of, but there are actually some webmasters who feel that separating your email hosting and web hosting services is smart. That way, one provider going offline won't completely bork your business.
Uptime, Uptime, Uptime!
The aforementioned features are valuable to the web hosting experience, but none matches the importance of site uptime. If your site is down, clients or customers will be unable to find you or access your products or services.
Recently, we've added uptime monitoring to our review process, and the results show that most web hosts do an excellent job of keeping sites up and running. Web hosts with uptime issues are heavily penalized during the review process and are unable to qualify for top ratings.
Ecommerce and Marketing
Free Web Hosting
One thing we learned in reviewing the services listed here (and many more) is that even though the packages are very similar, they are not identical. Some are more security-focused than others, offering anti-spam and anti-malware tools. Others offer a variety of email marketing tools. While most of the hosts we've reviewed have built-in e-commerce, you may want to consider using a more-robust third-party online shopping cart application like Shopify instead.
Top Free Web Hosting Sites No Ads
If you're ready to select a great web hosting service, check out the chart above to see PCMag's top picks in the space. When you're done with that, click the links below to read our in-depth, tested reviews of the biggest and best names in web hosting.
If you're just getting started in the web hosting game, make sure to check out our primer, How to Build a Website, and How to Register a Domain Name for Your Website. The Best Courses for Learning How to Build Websites is an excellent start, too.
Best Web Hosting Services Featured in This Roundup:
HostGator Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $10.95
Pros: A variety of feature-packed hosting plans. Excellent shared hosting offering. Good for novice webmasters. Useful site-building software. Good customer service. Outstanding uptime.
Cons: No Windows-based VPS hosting.
Bottom Line: HostGator is an excellent web hosting service that's simple to use and offers an array of useful plans for consumers and small businesses. It's our top pick for shared web hosting and for novice webmasters in general.
Read ReviewHostwinds Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $4.50
Pros: Terrific uptime in testing. Excellent dedicated, reseller, and VPS hosting plans. Good customer service. Minecraft server hosting.
Cons: Not every plan has a Windows server option.
Bottom Line: Hostwinds is an excellent web hosting service that has the tools you need for building attractive, functional websites. It's a top choice overall, and VPS and reseller hosting plans are particularly strong.
Read ReviewA2 Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $7.99
Pros: Robust hosting packages, particularly WordPress. Excellent customer service. Terrific uptime. Good money-back refund plan.
Cons: Not every plan has a Windows server option. Relatively expensive.
Bottom Line: Packed with features, A2 is a web hosting service that's more than worthy of being the foundation for your website, especially if you're looking to use WordPress.
Read ReviewDreamHost Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $4.95
Pros: Strong security features. Extensive domain-management tools. Excellent cloud hosting offerings. Unlimited data transfers per month. Generous money-back guarantee. Useful WordPress staging feature.
Cons: No Windows-based servers. No true reseller hosting plans. No telephone support.
Bottom Line: DreamHost boasts outstanding features that should satisfy most expert users, and a new easy website builder tool makes the web host more welcoming to newbies as well.
Read ReviewAccuWeb Hosting Review
MSRP: $3.36
Pros: Stellar uptime. Excellent dedicated hosting plans. Good customer service. Offers a choice of Linux or Windows servers.
Cons: Lacks unlimited email with Windows accounts. No month-to-month shared hosting plans.
Bottom Line: AccuWeb Hosting has many useful features, including terrific uptime, customer service, and server options, but its excellent dedicated hosting plans are where this web host truly excels.
Read ReviewLiquid Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $59.00
Pros: Excellent dedicated, VPS, cloud, and reseller packages. Prorated VPS plans. High-end specs. Terrific customer service and uptime in testing.
Cons: Lacks shared hosting plans. Expensive.
Bottom Line: Liquid Web is expensive and lacks shared Web hosting, but it's a flexible, feature-packed online host with outstanding customer service.
Read ReviewWP Engine Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $35.00
Pros: Excellent uptime. Good customer service. Daily backups. Real-time threat detection. Useful Staging Area. Choice of either Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud Platform cloud hosting.
Cons: Limited phone support for Startup plan customers. Doesn't come with email. Doesn't sell domains.
Bottom Line: Excellent uptime, reliable customer service reps, and platform flexibility make WP Engine more than worthy of hosting your WordPress pages, even if you're running an enterprise-class site.
Read ReviewGoDaddy Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $7.99
Pros: Excellent 24/7 customer support. Windows- and Linux-based servers. Email tightly integrated into Microsoft apps. Managed WordPress hosting.
Cons: No cloud hosting. Skimpy default email plans.
Bottom Line: GoDaddy has evolved into a mature and flexible web hosting provider that offers a slew of tools and services to help satisfy most website needs.
Read ReviewCloudways Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $10.00
Pros: Very easy to set up. Excellent uptime. Supports numerous apps. Several flexible account tiers. Pay-as-you-go plans. Can try service for free before signing up. Site cloning.
Cons: No domain registration option. Email costs extra. Phone support not functional in our testing.
Bottom Line: Cloudways leverages the power of the cloud to deliver affordable, powerful, and easy-to-set-up web hosting. Getting a customer service rep on the phone proved challenging in our testing, however.
Read Review1&1 Ionos Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $7.99
Pros: Excellent customer support. Dependable uptime in testing. Offers basic and advanced hosting packages. Linux- or Windows-based servers. Easy-to-use website creation tools.
Cons: Lacks reseller hosting plans. Relatively skimpy storage options.
Bottom Line: Web hosting service 1&1 Ionos has rich website-creation tools and excellent customer support options. It's particularly good at large-scale cloud hosting, for which it wins an Editors' Choice.
Read Review
Best Web Hosting Services Featured in This Roundup:
HostGator Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $10.95Pros: A variety of feature-packed hosting plans. Excellent shared hosting offering. Good for novice webmasters. Useful site-building software. Good customer service. Outstanding uptime.
Cons: No Windows-based VPS hosting.
Bottom Line: HostGator is an excellent web hosting service that's simple to use and offers an array of useful plans for consumers and small businesses. It's our top pick for shared web hosting and for novice webmasters in general.
Read ReviewHostwinds Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $4.50Pros: Terrific uptime in testing. Excellent dedicated, reseller, and VPS hosting plans. Good customer service. Minecraft server hosting.
Cons: Not every plan has a Windows server option.
Bottom Line: Hostwinds is an excellent web hosting service that has the tools you need for building attractive, functional websites. It's a top choice overall, and VPS and reseller hosting plans are particularly strong.
Read ReviewA2 Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $7.99Pros: Robust hosting packages, particularly WordPress. Excellent customer service. Terrific uptime. Good money-back refund plan.
Cons: Not every plan has a Windows server option. Relatively expensive.
Bottom Line: Packed with features, A2 is a web hosting service that's more than worthy of being the foundation for your website, especially if you're looking to use WordPress.
Read ReviewDreamHost Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $4.95Pros: Strong security features. Extensive domain-management tools. Excellent cloud hosting offerings. Unlimited data transfers per month. Generous money-back guarantee. Useful WordPress staging feature.
Cons: No Windows-based servers. No true reseller hosting plans. No telephone support.
Bottom Line: DreamHost boasts outstanding features that should satisfy most expert users, and a new easy website builder tool makes the web host more welcoming to newbies as well.
Read ReviewAccuWeb Hosting Review
MSRP: $3.36Pros: Stellar uptime. Excellent dedicated hosting plans. Good customer service. Offers a choice of Linux or Windows servers.
Cons: Lacks unlimited email with Windows accounts. No month-to-month shared hosting plans.
Bottom Line: AccuWeb Hosting has many useful features, including terrific uptime, customer service, and server options, but its excellent dedicated hosting plans are where this web host truly excels.
Read ReviewLiquid Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $59.00Pros: Excellent dedicated, VPS, cloud, and reseller packages. Prorated VPS plans. High-end specs. Terrific customer service and uptime in testing.
Cons: Lacks shared hosting plans. Expensive.
Bottom Line: Liquid Web is expensive and lacks shared Web hosting, but it's a flexible, feature-packed online host with outstanding customer service.
Read ReviewWP Engine Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $35.00Pros: Excellent uptime. Good customer service. Daily backups. Real-time threat detection. Useful Staging Area. Choice of either Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud Platform cloud hosting.
Cons: Limited phone support for Startup plan customers. Doesn't come with email. Doesn't sell domains.
Bottom Line: Excellent uptime, reliable customer service reps, and platform flexibility make WP Engine more than worthy of hosting your WordPress pages, even if you're running an enterprise-class site.
Read ReviewGoDaddy Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $7.99Pros: Excellent 24/7 customer support. Windows- and Linux-based servers. Email tightly integrated into Microsoft apps. Managed WordPress hosting.
Cons: No cloud hosting. Skimpy default email plans.
Bottom Line: GoDaddy has evolved into a mature and flexible web hosting provider that offers a slew of tools and services to help satisfy most website needs.
Read ReviewCloudways Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $10.00Pros: Very easy to set up. Excellent uptime. Supports numerous apps. Several flexible account tiers. Pay-as-you-go plans. Can try service for free before signing up. Site cloning.
Cons: No domain registration option. Email costs extra. Phone support not functional in our testing.
Bottom Line: Cloudways leverages the power of the cloud to deliver affordable, powerful, and easy-to-set-up web hosting. Getting a customer service rep on the phone proved challenging in our testing, however.
Read Review1&1 Ionos Web Hosting Review
MSRP: $7.99Pros: Excellent customer support. Dependable uptime in testing. Offers basic and advanced hosting packages. Linux- or Windows-based servers. Easy-to-use website creation tools.
Cons: Lacks reseller hosting plans. Relatively skimpy storage options.
Bottom Line: Web hosting service 1&1 Ionos has rich website-creation tools and excellent customer support options. It's particularly good at large-scale cloud hosting, for which it wins an Editors' Choice.
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