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When it comes to selecting a hosting service for a website, you may have heard names like Dreamhost, Siteground, Hostinger, Bluehost, Hostgator, Nexcess, InMotion, WP Engine etc. But most of us are usually confused about one thing.
Which website hosting service should you pick?
Let’s get into the details. We are bringing these results to you, after a thorough research on what various industry reviewers for hosting services are rating each service as. Based on which hosting service providers these industry gurus have included and rated, we have calculated an average rating in order to come up with the top 10 hosting service providers. Well 9 to be exact. The 10th one is a hosting provider that we feel is getting good reviews of late and should be included.
Our ratings for website hosting service providers are calculated based on the ratings given by top reviewers.
Not all of them have rated all the services but, you can get an overall idea of what the sentiment is towards a particular hosting service provider. See the sheet below. There are a few names which we haven’t considered but there’s no specific reason behind it. You could check them out too.
What affects the decision of picking the best hosting service, for most people? It’s the uptime of the servers. In other words, a hosting service provider with minimum downtime is considered the best by many. If you are into a business, then every minute of downtime could incur a loss.
But is uptime the only factor which you must consider?
Not exactly!! While uptime is “the” most important factor, there are other points too. Lets get to know what should be the criteria of picking your perfect web hosting service.
There are a few more important aspects that we are going to talk about.
Customer Support:
For a non-technical person who knows bits and pieces of website management, the customer support provided by a hosting service provider must be super fast, intelligent, and well-read. In short, the customer support staff must know their way around really well. At times when the site shoots errors or, when the site is down, it’s hard to figure out what went wrong. This is when customer support plays its part in helping you solve the problem quickly.
And, that’s just one thing. If you want to create a subdomain, or if you want to install a SSL certificate or need any other support like these, the customer support should be able to help you instantly. Thus, their 24/7 availability also matters a lot, whether it is in form of a live chat, email, phone or tickets.
Server Speeds:
Do you know the term TTFB? It’s the time taken to first byte. Yes, that’s what matters too. TTFB must be very low to ensure that the website loads super fast. The site’s load time is one of the most important aspects in terms of search engine optimization i.e. SEO. So, do check the page load speed which is usually measured in ms i.e. milliseconds.
Free SSL Certificate:
SSL certificate has now become a critical component when it comes to SEO. Search engines will take your website seriously if you have that lock icon on the address bar for your website. You must find out which hosting services provide you with a free SSL certificate along with the hosting. Well, you don’t need to go and google right away, just scroll down we have shared detailed information about the services and features, page load time, uptime and more, provided by various hosting services which are ranking on top.
Free Domain Name:
Many hosting service providers these days include a free domain name which is usually free for the first year only. However, this is a big saving if you consider the overall cost that you are going to bear in order to build your website. So you might as well consider the free domain name when choosing your hosting service.
Site Migration:
Do any of the hosting services provide a free website migration?
The answer is yes, they do.
Many hosting services like Siteground, DreamPress, Bluehost, Hostgator, InMotion, etc provide free website migration service so you don’t have to worry about the headache that comes with it.
Money-back Guarantee:
While most of the web hosting providers offer a 30-45 day money-back guarantee, some like Dreamhost have gone to the extent of giving a 97 day money-back guarantee. This is a lot of time to try out a product which, if you do not like, you will always have the option of getting your money back.
Free Site Transfer:
Transferring your website from one hosting service to another can be a real pain especially for those who lack the technical know-how. So you should consider this also as an important factor in deciding your hosting service provider to be. Many providers offer a single site transfer while some charge a fee as huge as $99. That’s a huge amount and you don’t want to be adding it to the overall cost of building a website.
There are many other aspects like the user interface of the hosting account, control panel, file management, application installations like WordPress, SSL certificates, creation of sub-domains, database management, and many other features that a website hosting service can provide. You don’t want to be stuck with a interface that is bad or has a confusing navigation.
So, do you want to know which web hosting services do we recommend? We have researched this across the internet and found out the names that truly matter in the arena of website hosting.
Here goes our list of recommendable web hosting service providers.
Top 3 – Hosting Services of 2021
#1 BlueHost
- 581ms Page Speed
- 99.98% Uptime
- 2 Million+ Websites
- 24/7 Live Chat and Phone Support
- 30-day Money-back Guarantee
- Free Domain for 1st Year
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Single Site Transfer
- Higher Renewal Price
- Restrictions on Cheapest Plans
#2 HostGator
- 1191ms Page Speed
- 99.98% Uptime
- 8 Million+ Websites
- 24/7 Live Chat
- 45 day Money-back Guarantee
- Free Domain for 1st Year
- Free SSL Certificate
- Feature-loaded Basic Plan
- Free Single Site Transfer
- Higher Renewal Price
- Restrictions on Cheapest Plans
#3 DreamHost
- 648ms Page Speed
- 99.94% Uptime
- 1.5 Million+ Websites
- Ticket & Callback Support
- 97 day Money-back Guarantee
- Free Domain for 1st Year
- Free SSL Certificate
- Feature-loaded and Hight-limit Basic Plan
- Same Renewal Price
- No Free Site Transfer
Ranked 4, 5, 6 – Hosting Services of 2022
#4 Siteground
- 673ms Page Speed
- 99.99% Uptime
- 0.4 Million+ Websites
- 24/7 Live Chat
- 30 day Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Single Site Transfer
- Free Domain Name for 1st Year
- Higher Renewal Price
- Restrictions on Cheapest Plans
#5 Hostinger
- 350ms Page Speed
- 99.95% Uptime
- 0.4 Million+ Websites
- 24/7 Live Chat
- 30 day Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Single Site Transfer
- Same Renewal Price
- No Free Domain with Basic Plans
- Restrictions on Cheapest Plans
#6 A2 Hosting
- 305ms Page Speed
- 99.98% Uptime
- 24/7 Live Chat, Email, Phone
- Anytime Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Single Site Transfer
- No Free Domain with Basic Plans
- Higher Renewal Price
- Restrictions on Cheapest Plans
Ranked 7, 8, 9 – Hosting Services of 2022
#7 InMotion
- 315ms Page Speed
- 99.95% Uptime
- 24/7/365 Phone, Email, Skype Call
- 90 Days Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Single Site Transfer
- No Free Domain with Basic Plan
- Higher Renewal Price
- Restrictions on Cheapest Plans
#8 GreenGeeks
- 445ms Page Speed
- 99.98% Uptime
- 24/7 Live Chat
- 30 Days Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL Certificate
- Free Single Site Transfer
- Free Domain for 1st Year
- Higher Renewal Price
- Restrictions on Cheapest Plans
- Refund Policy is Something that you must read
#9 WP Engine
- 425ms Page Speed
- 100% Uptime
- 24/7 Live Chat, Limited Phone Support
- 60 Days Money-back Guarantee
- Free SSL Certificate
- Unlimited Site Transfer
- No Domain Purchase Service available at all
- Higher Renewal Price
- Very Expensive Pricing
Finally, #10 NameHero
NameHero is another hosting service that we have been hearing about and would like to consider. It does claim about a 99.9% uptime. Their basic plan comes with 1 website, 1GB Ram, unlimited SSD Storage, free website migration but no domain name for free. For more details check our previous post about NameHero Web Hosting Services.
Despite all the rankings and other factors, we would like to give a special mention to Siteground where our website is hosted. We’ve not had a single instance of downtime and as many times that we contacted them for support on chat, their customer support has been prompt, knowledgeable and quick. You may want to try Siteground if this is something that impresses you.
