best web hosting for portfolio
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Not having to worry about the technical aspects of owning a website is a blessing. Your website should just work(!), without much maintenance having to be done on your part. Signing up with one of the best web hosting services in the market will give you such peace of mind.
Today, we compare some of the top options out there and name the best hosting services available!
This guide will show you how to pick a host for your next website project, which details to pay attention to, how much to spend, and which of the hosting providers is going to be the best fit for your specific needs.
Our review process and what makes a web host good
To determine what the best web hosting services are, we looked through the popular companies on the market and signed up for the most appealing offers from each company. Next, we did a series of tests:
- ⚙️ We set up a standard website on the server and populated it with demo data.
- 🏎️ We tested the performance of the host – the load times from various locations around the globe.
- ↕️ We took note of the uptime/downtime numbers across a period of time.
- ⭐ We rated each host based on their price, performance, and features available for the price.
What you see below are the results of these tests.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, if you want to learn how to pick the ideal web hosting service for your website, here are the factors and features that you should look for:
💰 Price:
Quite naturally, there are more and less expensive web hosting services out there; and the more expensive doesn't always mean better. Though, often it does – at least to an extent.
To start with, prepare your budget and decide how much you can spend on a hosting plan.
In general, you can get a web server for anything between $3-$100 a month.
- On the cheap end of the scale, you will have to do with shared hosting spaces and server parameters that don't allow for many concurrent visits.
- On the high end, you get highly-optimized servers, often dedicated spaces, concierge maintenance services, and the ability to handle hundreds of thousands of visitors each month. As awesome as it sounds, it can actually be overkill for new websites.
If you'd prefer a cheap host, check out our other resource where we compare the best cheap hosting options on the market.
🚦 Traffic allowed:
Some hosting plans limit the number of visitors that your website can handle. For new sites, this might not be a problem, but if you're expecting higher volumes of traffic from day one, you can quickly run into a wall.
Having the ability to get at least 5,000 visitors a month is a good start.
Of course, the higher the number, the higher the price.
🗃️ Disk space available:
Your website files will take space on the server's disk. Though websites are not the most disk-heavy resources in general, the images that you want to display on the site will consume the bulk of that disk space.
Having at least 3GB of disk space is a good start. Most hosts will give you that on their entry level plans.
(You can also use a service like Optimole to get more mileage out of your server's disk space.)
📄 # of websites:
If you want to launch just one website then you really don't need to worry about this part. If you want to host more than one site, make sure your host will allow you to do that.
📛 Domain name:
Some hosts will throw in a free domain name when you sign up for a hosting plan.
But not all do.
Buying your hosting from a company that has this offer is a great way to save money (a domain name is normally $15 a year or so).
⚙️ WordPress compatibility:
Some web hosts are purpose-built to work with WordPress websites. This is great since you're probably going to be using WordPress anyway – like everyone else does.
Check if your host pre-installs WordPress on your server and if they give you any additional features.
🆘 Customer support:
The best web hosting services out there offer good customer support. What you want is 24/7 live chat support and also phone support, ideally.
Good customer support is always willing to help you figure stuff out regarding your hosting setup and website.
🌎 Server locations:
You always want to pick a server location that's the closest to your target market. If you cater to people in Europe, for example, then you want a server in Europe, not in New York, and so on.
Some hosts will allow you to pick a location during sign up. The more locations available, the better.
🏎️ Speed:
Some hosts are extra-fast while others are rather slow. This has impact on your website load times, which will translate into your rankings on Google as well as your audience's overall satisfaction and experience browsing your website.
We test the performance of each host featured in this comparison later on.
Without further ado, here's a shortlist of the best web hosting services on the market – with each host described in detail below:
Best web hosting services compared
After searching the market wide and deep, we've decided to feature the following companies:
- Bluehost (www.bluehost.com)
- SiteGround (www.siteground.com)
- WP Engine (wpengine.com)
- DreamHost (www.dreamhost.com)
- Kinsta (kinsta.com)
- Namecheap (www.namecheap.com)
- InMotion Hosting (www.inmotionhosting.com)
- Flywheel (getflywheel.com)
- Cloudways (www.cloudways.com)
- Hostinger (www.hostinger.com)
- A2 Hosting (www.a2hosting.com)
- IONOS (www.ionos.com)
- HostGator (www.hostgator.com)
- GreenGeeks (www.greengeeks.com)
While there are many more web hosting companies out there, these 14 have proven to provide good user experience, performance, and they work well with WordPress and other website software.
If you're in a hurry, check out this summary table for a bird's eye view of each host and its parameters:
Best web hosting services: SUMMARY
| HOST | PRICE FROM (MO.) | TRAFFIC | DISK SPACE | FREE DOMAIN | UPTIME | LOAD TIME US | EU | ASIA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bluehost | $2.75 | unmetered | 50 GB | ✅ | 99.98% | 0.61s | 0.68s | 0.75s |
| SiteGround | $3.99 | 10,000 visits/month | 10 GB | ❌ | 100% | 2.14s | 1.16s | 3.1s |
| WP Engine | $20 | 25,000 visits/month | 10 GB | ❌ | 100% | 1.38s | 2.52s | 3.05s |
| DreamHost | $2.59 | unmetered | 50 GB | ✅ | 99.48% | 1.34s | 2.13s | 2.7s |
| Kinsta | $25.00 | 25,000 visits/month | 10 GB | ❌ | 100% | 1.9s | 2.74s | 4.62s |
| Namecheap | $1.58 | unmetered | 20 GB | ✅ | 99.88% | 0.55s | 1.23s | 1.74s |
| InMotion | $2.49 | unmetered | 10 GB | ❌ | 100% | 1.17s | 1.6s | 2.84s |
| Flywheel | $13.00 | 5,000 visits/month | 5 GB | ❌ | 100% | 0.14s | 0.15s | 0.14s |
| Cloudways | $10.00 | 1 TB bandwidth | 25 GB | ❌ | 100% | 1.23s | 0.3s | 1.99s |
| Hostinger | $1.39 | 10,000 visits/month | 10 GB | ❌ | 99.89% | 1.51s | 1.12s | 2.09s |
| A2 Hosting | $2.99 | unmetered | 100 GB | ❌ | 100% | 2s | 3.14s | 4.55s |
| IONOS | $0.50 | unmetered | unmetered | ✅ | 99.99% | 1.02s | 1.67s | 2.5s |
| HostGator | $2.75 | unmetered | unmetered | ✅ | 100% | 1.13s | 2.14s | 2.72s |
| GreenGeeks | $2.49 | unmetered | unmetered | ✅ | 99.88% | 2.06s | 1.26s | 3.09s |
1. Bluehost (www.bluehost.com)
- From: $2.75 / month
- Traffic allowed: unmetered
- Disk Space: 50 GB
- Free Domain: ✅
- Uptime: 99.98% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 0.61s
- Load time EU: 0.68s
- Load time Asia: 0.75s
Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosting companies on the web, catering their services to different users with different websites and goals.
For instance, if you're a beginner with not much money to spend, you can get a Bluehost plan for as low as $2.75 / month. Then if you ever need more, you can upgrade to a higher-tier plan easily.
On the other end of the spectrum, if you're an advanced user or have a site that receives more traffic, you can get a VPS hosting or a dedicated server (of course, those cost more).
Bluehost also offers beginner-friendly tools for site software installs. This is particularly useful if you're planning on building a WordPress site. The user panel in Bluehost is straightforward to use and doesn't require any prior experience or knowledge of how web servers work.
Last but not least, Bluehost also throws in a free domain name if you pay for your server up front for one year or more.
| July 2021 - September 2021 |
|---|
| 99.98% |
| East Coast, USA: 0.64s | West Coast, USA: 0.58s |
| London: 0.67s | Paris: 0.68s |
| Mumbai, India: 0.7s | Sydney, Australia: 0.8s |
2. SiteGround (www.siteground.com)
- From: $3.99 / month
- Traffic allowed: 10,000 visits/month
- Disk Space: 10 GB
- Free Domain: ❌
- Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 2.14s
- Load time EU: 1.16s
- Load time Asia: 3.1s
SiteGround has made a name for itself as a quality WordPress hosting platform, but it's grown to offer other types of web hosting as well.
These days, SiteGround allows you to host a site built on Weebly (popular builder), Joomla, Drupal, and other popular CMS platforms. SiteGround is also perfectly capable of hosting your eCommerce store.
Oh, and about that WordPress hosting thing, SiteGround is still one of the top companies you can choose for that. In fact, it's one of the few web hosting companies openly endorsed by the WordPress.org crew.
Feature-wise, SiteGround delivers everything you might expect from a quality host. There's an easy-to-use panel, you can take advantage of a handful of one-click website software installers (including for WordPress), and SiteGround will offer you good support and more than capable servers.
| July 2021 - September 2021 |
|---|
| 100% |
| East Coast, USA: 1.76s | West Coast, USA: 2.51s |
| London: 1.16s | Paris: 1.16s |
| Mumbai, India: 2.1s | Sydney, Australia: 4.09s |
3. WP Engine (wpengine.com)
- From: $20 / month
- Traffic allowed: 25,000 visits/month
- Disk Space: 10 GB
- Free Domain: ❌
- Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 1.38s
- Load time EU: 2.52s
- Load time Asia: 3.05s
WP Engine is the first for-WordPress-only web hosting service on our list. It is also one of the more expensive solutions out there, starting at $20 / month.
Feature-wise, however, WP Engine offers you pretty much everything you might need for your WordPress site to thrive. Except for just the hosting-related features, there are also additional perks such as 30+ free StudioPress themes, dev/stage/prod environments, advanced caching solutions, and a user dashboard that lets you get to every setting of your site quickly.
That said, this is more of a solution for the savvy user who wants to get the most out of their WordPress site. If you're just a beginner with a new WordPress site, or you're not planning on using WordPress at all, you're going to choose a different company.
| July 2021 - September 2021 |
|---|
| 100% |
| East Coast, USA: 1.7s | West Coast, USA: 1.06s |
| London: 2.54s | Paris: 2.5s |
| Mumbai, India: 3.48s | Sydney, Australia: 2.61s |
4. DreamHost (www.dreamhost.com)
- From $2.59 / month
- Traffic allowed: unmetered
- Disk Space: 50 GB
- Free Domain: ✅
- Uptime: 99.48% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 1.34s
- Load time EU: 2.13s
- Load time Asia: 2.7s
DreamHost is one of the most affordable of the best web hosting services on the market, especially for new website owners who don't have experience with web servers and the like.
Their entry-level hosting plan, for instance, offers a free domain name included, a free SSL certificate, and WordPress pre-installed if that's the platform that you want to use.
Besides shared hosting, DreamHost also offers VPS hosting options, managed hosting, dedicated servers, and affordable email hosting if you need a new home for your inbox.
| July 2021 - September 2021 |
|---|
| 99.48% |
| East Coast, USA: 1.56s | West Coast, USA: 1.11s |
| London: 2.09s | Paris: 2.16s |
| Mumbai, India: 3.29s | Sydney, Australia: 2.11s |
5. Kinsta (kinsta.com)
- From $25.00 / month
- Traffic allowed: 25,000 visits/month
- Disk Space: 10 GB
- Free Domain: ❌
- Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 1.9s
- Load time EU: 2.74s
- Load time Asia: 4.62s
Kinsta is another WordPress-only host on our list. The overall offering is quite similar to WP Engine's, but it comes in a bit different package.
Under the hood, Kinsta runs their servers on Google Cloud Platform, and everything is fully managed for you – with daily backups and other useful features.
Kinsta also lets you choose from 24 global data center locations, there's automatic database optimization, WordPress multisite support, malware removal, support for PHP 8.0, staging area, and more.
Price-wise, Kinsta isn't the cheapest – starting at $25.00 / month – but it does deliver good value if you're expecting your site to receive a lot of traffic each month. Still, just like WP Engine, not a solution for new sites with zero traffic or sites not built on WordPress.
| July 2021 - September 2021 |
|---|
| 100% |
| East Coast, USA: 1.75s | West Coast, USA: 2.04s |
| London: 2.67s | Paris: 2.81s |
| Mumbai, India: 4.78s | Sydney, Australia: 4.46s |
6. Namecheap (www.namecheap.com)
- From $1.58 / month
- Traffic allowed: unmetered
- Disk Space: 20 GB
- Free Domain: ✅
- Uptime: 99.88% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 0.55s
- Load time EU: 1.23s
- Load time Asia: 1.74s
Namecheap, as the name would suggest, is one of the cheapest web hosting services on the market. Currently, you can get started for only $1.58 / month (for the first year), and for that price you get to host not one but three websites. Plus, there's a free domain name included as well.
And it's not like anything crucial is missing from Namecheap's offer. You do get a free SSL certificate, there's enough disk space available, you get the AutoBackup feature, and there's even email hosting included for free.
Overall, Namecheap is the best web hosting service for users who want to test out a website concept and would like to spend as little money on it as possible.
| July 2021 - September 2021 |
|---|
| 99.88% |
| East Coast, USA: 0.63s | West Coast, USA: 0.47s |
| London: 1.28s | Paris: 1.17s |
| Mumbai, India: 1.8s | Sydney, Australia: 1.67s |
7. InMotion Hosting (www.inmotionhosting.com)
- From $2.49 / month
- Traffic allowed: unmetered
- Disk Space: 10 GB
- Free Domain: ❌
- Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 1.17s
- Load time EU: 1.6s
- Load time Asia: 2.84s
InMotion Hosting is one more very affordable web hosting service that's not missing out on any of the important features.
Even on the entry-level plan, you still get a free SSL, free email address, hack and malware protection, DDoS protection, automatic backups, custom server optimizations to improve speed, and even a website builder tool to make it easier for beginners to craft their own websites.
Apart from shared hosting, InMotion Hosting also offers WordPress-optimized hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, plus additional solutions for freelancers, resellers, and agencies building websites for their clients.
Overall, InMotion Hosting is a good hosting platform that can match your business needs not only today but also in the future as you grow.
| July 2021 - September 2021 |
|---|
| 100% |
| East Coast, USA: 0.93s | West Coast, USA: 1.4s |
| London: 1.58s | Paris: 1.61s |
| Mumbai, India: 2.46s | Sydney, Australia: 3.21s |
8. Flywheel (getflywheel.com)
- From $13.00 / month
- Traffic allowed: 5,000 visits/month
- Disk Space: 5 GB
- Free Domain: ❌
- Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 0.14s
- Load time EU: 0.15s
- Load time Asia: 0.14s
Flywheel is yet another firm among the best web hosting services that supports WordPress websites only. Don't worry, though, it's the last such host here.
Still, we felt that we had to highlight it due to its more than affordable pricing among the other "WordPress hosting" firms. This makes Flywheel a great entry-level platform for new WordPress projects.
Flywheel is actually owned by WP Engine, which means that moving to its bigger brother should be easier if you ever need it.
In terms of building your site with Flywheel, you can take advantage of one unique tool of theirs called Flywheel Local. You can install it on your local computer, build your site, and then export it to Flywheel servers.
| July 2021 - September 2021 |
|---|
| 100% |
| East Coast, USA: 0.13s | West Coast, USA: 0.14s |
| London: 0.14s | Paris: 0.15s |
| Mumbai, India: 0.14s | Sydney, Australia: 0.13s |
9. Cloudways (www.cloudways.com)
- From $10.00 / month
- Traffic allowed: 1 TB bandwidth
- Disk Space: 25 GB
- Free Domain: ❌
- Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 1.23s
- Load time EU: 0.3s
- Load time Asia: 1.99s
Cloudways is a unique offering on the web hosting landscape. Instead of renting space on servers owned by the company, Cloudways is your gateway to popular cloud hosts with high capacity.
Basically, when you sign up for Cloudways, you get to choose from cloud hosting setups offered by DigitalOcean (our choice), Linode, Vultr, Amazon AWS, and Google Cloud.
The main problem with those cloud hosts is that they're not the easiest to use, especially for someone who has no experience with server work. Cloudways solves that by acting as your gateway to cloud hosting and also handling all the heavy lifting on their end. At the end of the day, you interact with the user-friendly dashboard at Cloudways rather than with the cloud hosts directly.
This is a really cool solution for web projects that need good scalability or host something other than a classic website (like a mobile app or a web tool).
| July 2021 - September 2021 |
|---|
| 100% |
| East Coast, USA: 0.98s | West Coast, USA: 1.47s |
| London: 0.28s | Paris: 0.32s |
| Mumbai, India: 1.35s | Sydney, Australia: 2.62s |
10. Hostinger (www.hostinger.com)
- From $1.39 / month
- Traffic allowed: 10,000 visits/month
- Disk Space: 30 GB
- Free Domain: ❌
- Uptime: 99.89% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 1.51s
- Load time EU: 1.12s
- Load time Asia: 2.09s
Hostinger has made a name for itself by being the budget-friendly option among the best web hosting services, and it's hard to argue against that. The entry-level plan at Hostinger is the cheapest on this list, and the server parameters aren't too shabby either.
Apart from that, Hostinger offers many different hosting types, starting from shared options, to cloud hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS (running on both Linux and Windows), and even other unique types of hosting such as Minecraft server hosting.
But that's not all. Hostinger is also a good place to check out if you're unsure of how you want to build your site and need guidance in general. For instance, they do have a website builder module (through an integration with a tool called Zyro). It allows you to create your site from scratch without ever leaving Hostinger.
| July 2021 - September 2021 |
|---|
| 99.89% |
| East Coast, USA: 1.74s | West Coast, USA: 1.27s |
| London: 1.14s | Paris: 1.1s |
| Mumbai, India: 2.08s | Sydney, Australia: 2.09s |
11. A2 Hosting (www.a2hosting.com)
- From $2.99 / month
- Traffic allowed: unmetered
- Disk Space: 100 GB
- Free Domain: ❌
- Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 2s
- Load time EU: 3.14s
- Load time Asia: 4.55s
What we like about A2 Hosting in particular is that they have a big portfolio of different types of web hosting types, plans, and offers.
For instance, apart from classic shared hosting, there are also plans for unmanaged and managed WordPress hosting, VPS hosting (unmanaged and managed), offers for resellers, and dedicated servers.
Then, if you're interested in running a specific CMS – like Drupal, Joomla, or Magento – A2 Hosting has plans optimized for that as well.
Last but not least, A2 Hosting is among the best web hosting services for doing quick tests of new projects. The main reason is because they allow month-to-month payments instead of forcing you to buy hosting for a year up front.
| July 2021 - September 2021 |
|---|
| 100% |
| East Coast, USA: 1.89s | West Coast, USA: 2.11s |
| London: 3.27s | Paris: 3.01s |
| Mumbai, India: 4.82s | Sydney, Australia: 4.27s |
12. IONOS (www.ionos.com)
- From $0.50 / month
- Traffic allowed: unmetered
- Disk Space: unmetered
- Free Domain: ✅
- Uptime: 99.99% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 1.02s
- Load time EU: 1.67s
- Load time Asia: 2.5s
IONOS is a web host most known for its focus on the European market. They've been offering web hosting since 1988, which gives them a unique 30+ year experience that's not too common in the web hosting industry.
They offer a wide range of different hosting options, including shared hosting, WordPress hosting, ASP.NET hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, web hosting plans for agencies, and more.
IONOS is also equipped to help you with other aspects of your website creation process. They'll get you a domain name and SSL, plus there are website builders available for standard websites as well as eCommerce stores. Lastly, if you require a more personalized experience, there's also their web design service (where they create the website for you).
| July 2021 - September 2021 |
|---|
| 99.99% |
| East Coast, USA: 0.97s | West Coast, USA: 1.07s |
| London: 1.7s | Paris: 1.63s |
| Mumbai, India: 2.67s | Sydney, Australia: 2.32s |
13. HostGator (www.hostgator.com)
- From $2.75 / month
- Traffic allowed: unmetered
- Disk Space: unmetered
- Free Domain: ✅
- Uptime: 100% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 1.13s
- Load time EU: 2.14s
- Load time Asia: 2.72s
HostGator is one of the best-known web hosting companies out there. I guess those Super Bowl ads helped with that a bit. 🤷♂️
They've revamped their offering lately and now offer several interesting hosting plans and tiers (based on your needs). You'll find classic shared web hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers.
HostGator also has a website builder tool that's integrated with their hosting platform. As in, you can sign up with HostGator and have everything involved with having your website built handled in one place.
| July 2021 - September 2021 |
|---|
| 100% |
| East Coast, USA: 1.29s | West Coast, USA: 0.96s |
| London: 2.16s | Paris: 2.12s |
| Mumbai, India: 3.09s | Sydney, Australia: 2.34s |
14. GreenGeeks (www.greengeeks.com)
- From $2.49 / month
- Traffic allowed: unmetered
- Disk Space: unmetered
- Free Domain: ✅
- Uptime: 99.88% (last 3 months)
- Load time US: 2.06s
- Load time EU: 1.26s
- Load time Asia: 3.09s
GreenGeeks is one of the first web hosting companies on the market that position themselves as eco-friendly web hosting. 🍀
What this means in practice is that GreenGeeks claims to be "putting back three times the power they consume into the grid in the form of renewable energy."
Offer-wise, GreenGeeks doesn't lag behind the other players out there. There's standard shared hosting, WordPress hosting, specially optimized WooCommerce hosting, VPS hosting, and also plans for resellers.
Overall, a great choice if you want to be part of the solution and not the problem for global warming.
| July 2021 - September 2021 |
|---|
| 99.88% |
| East Coast, USA: 1.78s | West Coast, USA: 2.34s |
| London: 1.43s | Paris: 1.08s |
| Mumbai, India: 2.75s | Sydney, Australia: 3.43s |
How to pick your best web hosting services?
As you can see, there's a lot to choose from if you're looking for a reliable web hosting firm. There are offers available on the whole spectrum of prices, server parameters, and even the software that you'll then use to build your site.
Overall, you generally can't go wrong here. The reason all these companies have such good ratings is that we've only selected the very best of the web hosting market to include in this comparison.
Here are our final recommendations for certain types of users and use cases:
- 🌱 If you're completely new to website building but you still want to handle everything on your own, get Bluehost. They have good entry-level plans that are very affordable. You also get a free domain name for the first year.
- ⚙️ If you're looking for a reliable WordPress host specifically, go for WP Engine or Flywheel (budget-friendly choice). Both platforms deliver great performance for WordPress sites and are easy to use.
- 💪 If you're moving from another sub-par host that haven't delivered the results you wanted, go for Cloudways. The platform gives you access to the most powerful cloud hosting setups in the industry at an affordable price.
What's it going to be, have you made your pick as to who will be your next web host?
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best web hosting for portfolio
Source: https://themeisle.com/blog/best-web-hosting-services/
Posted by: thompsonfacticked.blogspot.com
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