The Best Web Hosting for Small Business Websites
Here are my picks for the best small business web hosting solutions.
Struggling to find the best web hosting for small business websites?
If you’re looking for the perfect web hosting company but don’t know where to start, you’ve come to the right place.
In this post, I’ve ranked and reviewed the best web hosting for small business websites, to help you solve the struggles of looking for the right web hosting companies. I’ll also talk about how these web hosting services differ.
Let’s look at the top picks.
Here are my picks for the best small business web hosting solutions.
Omar's Take
Bluehost is a small business web hosting solution that is simple yet doesn’t lack features. This hosting provider is the best solution if you’re looking for the right web hosting for small business websites without any technical background.
Bluehost offers a wide range of web hosting services like dedicated hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, reseller hosting, and shared hosting for beginners. This web hosting solution also includes efficient solutions for when your website becomes more extensive.
If you outgrow your shared web hosting plan, you can easily gravitate to dedicated or VPS hosting.
There are also web hosting solutions that cater specifically to users of WordPress or WooCommerce.
Unlike other web hosts focusing on a small business website, Bluehost scales with you. The web host also supports unlimited websites if you plan to own multiple ecommerce sites.
Here are Bluehost’s features.
30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
Bluehost is very considerate of those that want to test the waters before committing to any web hosts. With its 30-day money-back guarantee, you can effectively ask for a refund for your hosting plans just in case the hosting service doesn’t fit your needs.
Free Domain
A free domain name helps lets you get started when you subscribe to Bluehost’s services. While many web hosts provide a free domain name, Bluehost offers a free SSL certificate.
Free Consultation
Bluehost ensures you know what you are looking for before subscribing to any plan on the web host. Its free consultation helps you pick between shared hosting, dedicated hosting, VPS hosting, or WordPress hosting.
If you’re a developer, Bluehost might not have your desired features. This web host is beginner-friendly with freebies like a free domain name or SSL but lacks the developer-oriented tools and approaches you can find on other web hosts.
Here are Bluehost’s Shared Hosting pricing plans.
Omar's Take
Hostinger is one of the most affordable solutions and considers its users’ safety, security, and backup routines.
With automatic free weekly backups for its first two plans and daily backups for its third plan, you can quickly reboot your website if the server crashes.
With its Premium Web Hosting plan, you can create up to 100 free emails related to your domain.
This plan allows you to use a professional business email address instead of the typical @gmail that might seem unprofessional to clients.
Hostinger also comes with Website Builder to make building websites much more accessible from the ground up. Instead of hiring a website developer or spending hours trying to experiment and build your site, you can use this tool to create a site in minutes.
You will also get unlimited SSL certificates for your website to ensure that each remains safe under the hosting service. Hostinger also promises a 99.9% uptime guarantee, leaving room for just a 0.1% downtime.
AI Logo Maker
Instead of needing to design everything on your website from start to finish, there are tools like the AI Logo Maker that let you come up with the perfect Logo or symbol in a matter of seconds.
File Manager
Hostinger’s systems avoid clutter whenever possible. If you have a website with multiple files, you can use its file manager to ensure you neatly store everything away.
Vulnerable Plugin Detector
Instead of leaving you out to dry, Hostinger’s Vulnerable Plugin Detector identifies whenever a plugin is questionable or untrustworthy. Rather than have you risk website infection, it automatically gives you a warning when it spots something suspicious with a plugin.
The problem with Hostinger is that it does not offer unlimited disk space like competitors. Unless your website is simple and only contains light files, you’ll struggle with the 100 GB storage limit, especially if you handle several websites.
When you experience a technical problem, Hostinger’s customer service is also hard to reach. Although they are available 24/7 via chat, they do not have email or phone support, making it harder to contact them.
Here are Hostinger’s pricing plans.
Omar's Take
GoDaddy is a small business web hosting service that helps beginners with a free website builder that makes it easy to create your site from scratch. With its 30-day money-back guarantee, you can test whether this solution is best for your business.
Without a website builder, WordPress installation or website building becomes complicated. The WordPress installation requires you to download, upload, and activate files which might result in a struggle for first-time website owners.
GoDaddy mainly relies on shared hosting but also offers VPS hosting plans and WordPress hosting if you need something that focuses primarily on WordPress or other apps. With unmetered bandwidth, you won’t need to upgrade your plan when your site receives an uptick in traffic.
The hosting solution also offers a free SSL certificate for all your websites under whatever hosting plan you use. Free SSL certificates are often limited to one or two websites, but GoDaddy’s Deluxe shared hosting plans provide free SSL certificates for all websites under your plan.
The shared hosting solution offers up to 33% off if you purchase its 3-year plans. However, trying the service through its one-month 30-day money-back guarantee period is more advisable before committing to the whole plan.
Here are GoDaddy’s features.
Social Media Integration
GoDaddy makes it easy to run your full-on business through your website with social media integration. Instead of manually inputting your social handles, you can add icons on each page to link to your social media accounts.
SEO Analytics
GoDaddy provides instant SEO analytics to tell you when your website is optimized. Its analytics also helps you assess the performance of your website to know where your site needs improvements.
Easy eCommerce
GoDaddy has a brand called Poynt that ensures you immediately get paid when you make your WooCommerce store. This integration makes building an online store with automatically activated plugins easier.
While GoDaddy is great for beginners that don’t know how to build a website, it lacks the sophisticated features for experts or developers that don’t mind more complicated processes to get better results.
Here are GoDaddy’s pricing plans.
Omar's Take
TMD Hosting is a very speed-oriented hosting provider that uses next-generation SSD technology to ensure a high-speed web hosting service.
An SSD (solid state drive) has a significantly faster writing speed than an HDD (hard disk drive).
While an HDD can copy 30 to 150 MB per second, an SSD can do it at 500 MB per second.
When loading 4K content, an HDD will only go 0.1 to 1.7 MB per second. Meanwhile, an SSD and NVMe (a newer type of SSD) can reach 50 to 250 MB per second.
TMD Hosting is one of the best web hosting services for focusing on fast speeds for your small business site.
Among web hosting options, this one has features like Cloud hosting if you want to use cloud technology. It also has Reseller hosting that helps you make websites or sell hosting to other small business clients.
Here are TMD Hosting’s features.
Free Daily Backups
TMD Hosting offers free daily backups to ensure your files and data are protected if the server suddenly shuts down. Unlike other hosting providers, TMD doesn’t charge you separately for automated backups.
Malware Protection
TMD Hosting uses BitNinja-powered firewalls to ensure that its servers remain safe from bad actors or brute force attacks. Although no malware system is 100% effective, this web host takes extra precautions to ensure your website’s safety.
Free Application Installation
TMD Hosting’s servers are compatible with over 13,000 apps for added features to your website. Instead of programming features, you can simply add apps to improve the UI/UX of your small business site.
Like any of the best web hosting companies, TMD Hosting is not foolproof. Although its cloud and dedicated server hosting plans are more secure, its shared hosting is not as safe because you share your resources with others on one server.
If someone uploads malware to the server on a shared hosting, despite its firewall, this could still affect the security of your small business site. The risk is virtually the same with other shared hosting providers.
Here are TMD Hosting’s pricing plans.
Omar's Take
Hostwinds offers a unique service that lets you take a step back and enjoy having your own website without managing it. Unlike other web hosting providers, hosting plans are available for managed Linux or Windows VPS hosting.
Another benefit of Hostwinds is it comes with unlimited bandwidth, even for its more affordable shared hosting plans. With unlimited bandwidth and storage, this small business web host ensures your hosting plans can scale as your small businesses grow.
Aside from unlimited bandwidth, Hostwinds also offers unlimited domains if you want to handle multiple websites. With its managed web hosting plans, you can own multiple websites for different small businesses without the added stress of managing each one.
Hostwinds is very generous with its resources as a small business hosting solution. This makes it easy for small businesses to focus on the website and not on how much additional bandwidth or storage they need to purchase.
There is also cloud hosting on top of its shared hosting for small businesses that want to leverage cloud technology for more controlled performance.
Here are Hostwind’s features.
60-Day Money-Back Guarantee
Hostwinds ensures that small businesses are happy with its services by providing a 60-day money-back guarantee. With this risk-free approach, you can try their hosting plan for almost two months, and if you aren’t satisfied, you can ask for your money back.
24/7 Customer Support
Hostwinds offers web hosting services with additional email, live chat support, or phone support for small business owners.
Free Unlimited Email Accounts
Aside from unlimited storage and bandwidth, Hostwinds also gives you unlimited emails. With its Ultimate plan, small businesses get unlimited domains, which go well with unlimited email accounts for different websites.
The problem with HostWinds is that its hosting plan is a little too generic. Although the hosting company offers unlimited storage, it does not offer other helpful features like a website builder like some other web hosts.
Hostwinds also only has three data centers around the world. This makes it slower than other web hosting services with more global data centers with two of its data centers in the US, while one is in Europe.
Here are Hostwind’s pricing plans.
Omar's Take
IONOS is the best hosting for small businesses on a limited budget. If you want to create a website but dread the starting costs, this hosting solution offers the most affordable introductory price for its hosting services.
The default IONOS shared hosting Business plan costs only $1 monthly for 12 months.
One year is enough to build, manage, and refine your website. After the first year, the price goes up to $10 monthly.
With minimal additional costs, IONOS also includes these features.
If free domain registration, unlimited storage, and a free SSL certificate aren’t enough, IONOS also offers a professional email as well.
IONOS offers a free SSL certificate for up to 10,000 subdomains.
Small businesses that aren’t happy with their shared hosting experience can avail of IONOS’s 30-day money-back guarantee.
Here are IONOS’s features.
Superb User Interface
Unlike most web hosts, IONOS makes an effort to create an easy-to-use, easy-to-navigate user interface for small businesses. If you’ve tried other hosting services before, you can see a significant difference in how easy it is to navigate through your hosting’s menu, options, and tools.
Compatible With Many Popular Apps
IONOS integrates with some of the most popular web apps like Drupal, Joomla!, TYPO3, and PrestaShop. The plugins are free and easy to install.
With multiple options, you can customize your website or online store to its maximum potential.
Support For Older PHP Version
If you are using older PHP versions, IONOS ensures you aren’t left behind. If you struggle with your online stores using older technology, IONOS makes sure PHP versions as early as its 4.0 are supported.
IONOS sounds like one of the best web hosting services for small businesses.
However, one significant downside is its slower uptime of 99.97% compared to the 99.99% of other providers.
Another problem small businesses have with IONOS is that it functions on limited customer support. Although you can reach them, you might not get the technical answers you need regarding mitigation, server management, or other problems.
Here are IONOS’s pricing plans.
Omar's Take
DreamHost has beginners and professionals in mind with options like cloud or WordPress hosting.
If you have little to no experience, you can opt for the WordPress hosting option to have the hosting solution manage your WordPress website.
Meanwhile, the cloud hosting solution suits you if you’re a developer needing better ways to access files for your projects.
The hosting service comes with additional options like managed WordPress hosting if you want to take a completely hands-off approach and leave your website in the care of professionals. On the polar opposite, DreamHost has two services for developers under its cloud hosting option, DreamCompute, and DreamObjects.
Regarding its standard web hosting, DreamHost starts at a fair price, offers a one-click WordPress install, and many other features. Its main advantage is that it doesn’t cap users in terms of traffic or websites through its Shared Unlimited plan.
DreamHost’s unique advantage is that it caters to both beginners and professionals with options like dedicated hosting or VPS hosting. The service’s unique offering is its cloud hosting, providing developers full root control access and a place to store files/code on the cloud.
Unlike other services, DreamHost also maintains its position as a developer-first hosting solution with services like domain hosting. The provider also offers website-building services that allow you to hire a professional to create your site from start to finish.
Unlimited Websites
If you need multiple websites for your business or sell them to other companies, having a hosting provider that doesn’t limit the number of websites you create is essential. DreamHost’s Shared Unlimited plan offers unlimited websites with unmetered bandwidth.
Domain Management Tools
With unlimited websites, DreamHost offers domain management tools to help you take control no matter how many domain names you have. These tools let you add new domains to your hosting with a few simple clicks.
WordPress Staging Feature
DreamHost’s WordPress staging feature allows you to change your website without going live. Instead of visitors seeing the changes you make, you can enter its staging mode to see how the changes feel before officially applying them.
The problem with DreamHost is that although it is great for developers, its cloud hosting is often too complicated for regular users. The service does not have phone support, making it harder to reach professionals should any technical issues happen along the way.
Another problem of the hosting provider is its average uptime. Compared to other providers at a 99.98% uptime, DreamHost lags at 99.77%, with studies finding that you’ll experience at least 10 hours of downtime within six months.
Here are DreamHost’s pricing plans.
Omar's Take
As a web host, InMotion Hosting takes a high-powered approach to hosting storage by ditching the standard SSD for the more powerful NVMe for even its most affordable plans. If your site constantly pulls massive data from storage, this hosting solution helps expedite the file transfer process.
While the typical SSD driver performs at 400 MB per second, NVMe SSDs can average 4000 MB per second (or 4 to 7 GB per second). With a ten times faster speed, a 100 GB file would only take a couple of seconds with the NVMe while taking a few minutes with the standard SSD.
This web hosting service has a committed open-source community, making tools more accessible. You also have the option to host apps, build stacks, and pick your OS.
InMotion Hosting provides a generous 90-day money-back guarantee and prides itself on having the “most website transfers” in the industry. Its most affordable plan already includes ten email addresses with free 2048-bit encryption SSL.
The hosting provider also gives you free advertising credits and customer management tools to optimize your website’s performance. It also has 24/7 live chat support to ensure an expert is always available to answer your technical inquiries.
Here are InMotion Hosting’s features.
Highly Trained Customer Service
InMotion’s customer support receives over 160 hours of special training to ensure they can help with both simple and technical questions.
Aside from answering questions, the staff can also walk you through any hosting setup complications.
Coding Language Support
InMotion Hosting offers different version control options in various coding languages and tools, including Python, Node.JS, Ruby, and GIT. These options help developers pool other open-source resources to improve your website.
DDoS Protection
DDoS Protection helps protect your website from malicious traffic and blocks potential DDoS attacks. It’s free with all InMotion Hosting plans.
The primary disadvantage of InMotion Hosting is its reliance on Linux servers. It doesn’t offer any Windows option. Adjusting to Linux’s code-centered or developer-focused approach will require some learning if you prefer Windows.
This web host charges extra for its automatic backups and its UltraStack feature. Ultrastack uses advanced layered caching for added speed and is only available on its more expensive plans.
Small businesses must consider different things when choosing a hosting solution.
Aside from unlimited bandwidth, free domains, or other bonuses, assessing the qualify of the web hosting service is essential for small businesses.
Here are four things to consider when choosing a hosting provider.
Depending on how long-term you plan to run your website, you can adjust your hosting plan to fit this period. Although extended plans are often the cheapest, paying for something you may not use long-term is wasteful.
Unless you’re an expert at building, handling, and managing websites, support is critical in managing your website. Before subscribing to a service, test their email, live chat, or phone support.
A site’s SSL is an essential measurement of security.
Perform a Google search to check if your chosen web host has been a recent victim of hacking or if the service has a firewall. You should also understand the provider’s backup process.
On average, if your website takes more than three seconds to load, 53% of mobile users exit the website. Many factors affect your speed, like storage, bandwidth, and the hosting provider’s data center locations are some of them.
Aside from fast websites, you must ensure your website is always available. While all sites promise high uptime, look for providers with a consistent track record.
Shared hosting is when a single server hosts multiple websites. Dedicated hosting is when a single website exists on a dedicated server. Dedicated hosting tends to be more reliable and secure, and expensive.
Shared hosting is when multiple websites are on the same server, while VPS hosting is when each website exists on its virtual private server. VPS hosting offers more control and flexibility than shared hosting.
Managed hosting can be worth the added cost for businesses that don’t have the technical skills to manage their servers. It also offers more reliable performance, increased security, and faster response times.
I hope my list helped you choose the best web hosting service for your small business website.
Don’t hesitate to contact any of the providers mentioned in this article. Ask them about their services, pricing, speeds, and more to determine if they can cater to your unique needs.
A functioning website is crucial to your small business, so choosing the right hosting provider is vital.
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