A web hosting service provider is someone that provides you with resources to make your websites/apps live. To host and make your website public, either you can use the old method, which is hosting your website on your personal computer itself, or you can go with a web hosting service provider.
According to a report, more than 1.2 billion people use web hosting services. A web hosting service provider has all the necessary resources that you need to host your website or app. Most hosting providers come with robust security, CMS systems, latest tech architecture.
If every hosting provider is offering almost the same thing, how do you know which hosting provider is best for you?
In this guide, we’ll teach you everything you need to know about web hosting service providers, types of web hosting services, and the best hosting provider.
Let’s get started.
Who is a Web Hosting Service Provider?
A web hosting service provider, as the term says, is a company or management system that provides tech architecture that you can use to host your websites and apps.
If you are a professional, a company, or a freelancer, do you want to make a website live? You have to find a web hosting service provider.
Types of Web Hosting
Before jumping to the end of the content and reading our list of the best hosting providers, you should know about different types of web hosting. Not all types of web hosting are the same. Different types of hosting are suitable for different purposes.
So let’s have a look at the most popular web hosting services available.
1. Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is the cheapest type of web hosting you will come across. As the name suggests, you will have to share the resources of your server with multiple users.
It means one server is shared by multiple users. Sharing resources means sharing server memory, processing power, storage space, etc.
As we said, it’s the cheapest web hosting option out there. This type of hosting is best for an individual running a small blog or site.
Reasons to choose shared hosting:
- Affordable and ideal for small-scale websites.
- Does not need advanced configuration.
- Ideal for blogging websites.
- Users can set it up without much technical expertise.
- Users do not have to worry about maintenance and server administration.
Reasons to avoid shared hosting:
- Not good for a large website.
- Can not handle traffic surges.
- Other websites on the server can affect the performance of your website.
2. Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting
Virtual private server hosting refers to a web service in which a single server is segregated into multiple private environments that share the same resources.
In layman’s terms, you’ll be getting your own server that you can configure based on your needs. You’ll get access to more resources. The best part is that you can run multiple websites/apps on the same server.
Plus, you won’t have to worry about your website going down during traffic surges, or neighbour websites impacting your website’s quality.
Reasons to choose VPS hosting:
- Provides dedicated server space.
- Great for middle-sized, large blogs, or eCommerce shops businesses.
- Allows advanced customization.
- Other websites do not impact your site.
Reasons to avoid VPS hosting:
- Users need technical expertise to manage it
- Expensive for starter websites, and blogs.
3. Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is the most sophisticated type of hosting you’ll come across. It provides a higher level of flexibility and scalability compared to shared and VPS hosting. Cloud hosting can host websites on a number of computers/servers. Businesses can choose to scale their websites whenever they want, and pay accordingly.
As in this hosting, users’ websites are hosted using multiple servers; that’s why large businesses love to host their websites on cloud hosting.
Reasons to choose cloud hosting:
- Servers support each other, and consequently, this keeps the environment stable and smooth even during times of high traffic or problems.
- Offers excellent service.
- Offers scalability.
- Incredibly secure and prevents your website from attacks.
- More flexibility and scalability as compared to shared and VPS hosting.
Reasons to avoid cloud hosting:
- May not have rights over root access.
- Users have to spend more on this kind of hosting.
4. WordPress Hosting
This is a kind of CMS (content management system) service, which provides you with a graphical user interface that helps you to create and manage your website without the need to code.
Reasons to choose WordPress hosting:
- Users do not need to download themes and plugins from somewhere else because most core facilities are provided by this service itself.
- Beginner-friendly.
- Low cost and no need to learn code.
Reasons to avoid WordPress hosting:
- Not suitable for non-WordPress websites.
5. Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting is one of the most powerful and expensive hosting services. In dedicated hosting, you have a physical server at your disposal. You can break it down into virtual servers, and scale resources up or down.
With dedicated web hosting, users are free to choose their operating systems, software that their website & apps will be using. You have 100% freedom on your server, you can customize your hosting environment as you want. If you’re planning to host multiple websites, apps, and more, you should go with dedicated hosting.
Reasons to choose dedicated hosting:
- It provides professional support for your large website.
- Can handle huge amounts of traffic.
- High performance and reliability.
- Offers complete control.
- Gives you root access.
Reasons to avoid dedicated hosting:
- Users must have technical and server knowledge to make the right decisions
- Only better for large and enterprise businesses
Web Hosting Service Provider Buying Guide
Choosing a web hosting service provider that fits your needs can be challenging. It’s a crucial decision and making the decision can cause you short-term and long-term financial loss.
That’s why, before you sign up with a provider, you need to do research. Here are some points, that you must keep in mind before choosing a web hosting service provider:
- Control Panel
The control panel is an essential factor when it comes to choosing a web hosting service provider. Using it, users can manage and perform several operations on their hosting account. So before you go to buy the service, make sure to go with hosting providers that provide a handy user interface for users, and do not expect a high level of technical expertise from the users.
- Uptime
There are many reasons why your website can go through unexpected downtime and can impact your business and customers’ trust. So, you have to make sure that the hosting provider offers an uptime guarantee in the advertising to keep the systems up and running.
- Technical Specifications
If you have the knowledge, then you should also check out some important technical specifications. For example, make sure the hosting service provider offers enough disc space, ideal processing power as per your requirements, and enough bandwidth. Having an idea of these specifications will help your website run smoothly.
- Online Reviews
Before you buy, always check for reviews online. Google reviews, other review websites, bloggers, and other sources that review hosting providers. Find such reviews, read them thoroughly and you’ll be able to make informed decisions in choosing the hosting service provider.
- Security
Security is a must-have feature of any hosting provider. Your data is important and you would want to keep it secure and safe. That’s why you need to make sure that the hosting provider you choose comes with some advanced security options. Advanced security options protect your websites from attacks like DDos, malware, etc.
- 24/7 Customer Support
Sometimes, your website can run into some errors. The reasons could be sudden traffic surges, poor connections, and not having proper maintenance. It is almost impossible to keep an eye on everything on the website. In such a case, you may need to get in touch with the customer support teams of your service providers.
Check whether the service comes with 24/7 support or not. Also, it may be a good idea to check the customer reviews about the service.
Benefits of Using Hosting Services
By now you must have got a little idea as to why we should choose a hosting service and what are their benefits. Let’s make it more clear by reading the following points:
- Greater Visibility And Control
Hosting services help you to gain more visibility into the overall performance of your website. As a result, you have greater control over your website such that you can make good strategic plans, make proactive decisions, and do some other things.
- Superior Performance
Compared to setting up a personal server, maintaining it yourself, and then hosting your website and apps is a lot of hassle. Moreover, it requires a lot of technical expertise that the average user may not have. A good hosting service provider can save you from all the hassle and offer your website and apps the superior performance they need.
- Better Cybersecurity
Hosting service providers make your website more secure against cybercrime. The best hosting service providers keep updating their security protocols to protect your digital products against digital attacks. So using hosting services means taking a safer and more secure approach.
Top 4 Web Hosting Provider Services
Choosing the wrong hosting service provider can lead to a number of issues, the biggest one being financial loss. To help you choose wisely, here’s our list of the best web hosting providers:
- Hostinger – Best Overall
- DreamHost – Best Value for Shared Hosting
- SiteGround – Best for Extra Speed and Security
- Bluehost – Best for New WordPress Websites
Let’s break them down.
1. Hostinger
If you are looking for the overall best hosting service, then we would recommend Hostinger. One of the best reasons to choose Hostinger is that you get a free domain name with your hosting.
Free domain name isn’t available with a shared hosting plan, so keep that in mind moving forward. Although that doesn’t mean it’s not worth choosing. With Hostinger hosting you’ll get a free SSL certificate, free daily and weekly backups, unlimited SSD, and some other features.
The shared hosting plan starts at $1.99 per month and comes with around 10,000 visitors bandwidth.
The Premium Shared Hosting plan costs $2.99 per month. In the premium shared hosting plan, you can create up to 100 websites and host 25,000 visitors. Moreover, you can use 100 GB of SSD storage.
Reasons to choose Hostinger:
- Uptime Guarantee and Quick Support: Hostinger guarantees a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Plus, it provides you with quick responses and 24/7 live chat support.
- Fast-Speed Servers: Hostinger is known for its faster and more powerful servers, which make your website load faster than others. In just a couple of seconds, it opens the site on both PCs and smartphones.
- Easy-to-use interface: Most of the users are not skilled. They want to use a service that offers an easy and simple interface. Hostinger is one of them. Its interface is easy to understand.
- One-Click WordPress Installation: If you plan to start a WordPress website, you can install it on your domain within a minute.
- Money-Back Guarantee: Users can get their money back within 30 days if they are not satisfied with the services of Hostinger. They can then ask for a refund within those 30 days.
Reasons to avoid Hostinger:
- No Daily Backup For All Plans.
- Refund Exceptions.
- No Free Site Migration.
- Lacks Industry Standard cPanel.
2. DreamHost
DreamHost has been gaining more popularity than other hosting providers. It is used by about 1.5 million people. DreamHost offers fast web hosting plans at good prices. It ensures no downtime with a 100% uptime guarantee.
Most of the hosting providers give you a 30-day money-back guarantee, whereas DreamHost comes with 97 days to receive a full refund. The shared hosting plan costs $2.59 per month for one website.
Reasons to choose DreamHost:
- Free WHOIS Privacy: However most of the other hosting services come with their security and privacy but DreamHost offers you more advanced anti-spam options which makes your website more secure. Moreover, It provides WHOIS privacy free of cost in all of their plans.
- Free Domain: You can get a one-year free domain name hosting.
- 100% Uptime: Most of the service provided do not come with 100 % uptime whereas DreamHost promises to provide 100% uptime. Ends-up your site could not be offline even for a second.
- Security Features: DreamHost has additional security features like automatically enabled sFTP etc.
- 24/7 Support: You can always ask for help at any time.
Reasons to avoid DreamHost:
- The pricing structure might be confusing for beginners.
- Doesn’t offer cPanel.
3. SiteGround
SiteGround provides you with top-class speed and security for WordPress hosting. If you are one who gets worried about speed and security every time then you’ll love SiteGround’s AI-driven anti-bot system. Their tech keeps your website safe from cyber-attacks with 2 million brute-force attempts every hour.
You have three options to choose from in its shared hosting plans, which range from $6.99 per month to $14.99 per month.
Reasons to choose SiteGround:
- Load Your Site 4x Faster: Faster speed always gives a faster user experience. Well, SiteGround does the same thing with your website by making it 4x faster.
- Quick Server Response Times: SiteGround offers really quick server response times. Quicker server response time means your website will load quicker compared to other hosting providers.
- Unfailing Uptime: Like other top computers SiteGround also provides 99.9% uptime.
Reasons to avoid SiteGround:
- Limited Resources: SiteGround is an amazing web hosting service provider, but there are limited resources on some plans. Based on the plan you choose, you’ll get a fixed amount of SSD. This is not ideal for websites that aim to scale quickly.
- Higher Price for Renewal: Compared to other web hosts, SiteGround has a higher renewal price. When you’re signing up for the first time, you can get as much as 73% off. When it comes to renewal, you’ll have to pay the full price.
4. Bluehost
If you want to host your new WordPress website, just let Bluehost host your website. Bluehost is one of three hosts that are officially recommended by WordPress.
Its basic shared hosting plan starts at $9.99 per month. You can get some special offers when you’re signing up for the first time with Bluehost.
Reasons to choose BlueHost:
- Best for a New WordPress Website: Bluehost is an appropriate service to host your WordPress website, but if you are using another content management system, you may have to spend a little extra time getting things done.
- 24/7 Support: Its 24/7 support allows you to make calls, have live chats, or send emails anytime.
- SEO Tools: Bluehost also offers analytics and SEO tools to let you get insights into your website.
Reasons to avoid Bluehost:
- It is not recommended for another content management system, as users may have to spend more time and energy on maintenance, and things would not be as direct.
Summing Up – How to Choose the Right Hosting Providers
This marks the end of our guide on how to choose the right hosting provider. To make an informed decision, you need to understand what type of web hosting service you need, and which is the best provider.
