Disclosure: This post has affiliate links. I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products I personally believe in. More info on my Privacy Policy page.
7 Best Web Hosting Providers for 2024
Table of Contents
What you need to know so that you can choose the best web hosting services
We have put together the best we can, to guide you to the right web provider with the right plan for you, and give you some insights into how good hosting can improve your SEO ranking (yes that’s really a thing)
Why is this guide for you?
We have written this guide to help anyone choose the right hosting for their own site. As an established SEO and web design company we have researched and used many different hosting plans and options to give you the best advice possible.
Why are speed and security important?
Website hosting, domain names, and Internet security are important factors for your website. You need to choose the best website hosting service with features that will keep hackers at bay and protect you from viruses on a global scale, as well as load quickly and give you some great aftercare by the support team!
The speed is important because Google and the other search engines do not want to offer a web page in the results which takes a long time to load, it’s a busy world these days and nobody has the time to wait, not even a few seconds for a web page to load.
Reducing the technical jargon
Well, hopefully, this advice will help you by breaking down what each web hosting service has to offer, what some of the jargon means to you, and how you can compare web hosting to ensure you start out on the right foot.
So what exactly is website hosting?
To put it simply, website hosting is where your website files are stored on an online server. It is essential to have website hosting in place, otherwise, your website will not be able to be viewed online.
But can you go for any hosting provider? Let’s find out!
The best web hosting providers quick overview
COMPANY | RATING | BEST FOR | STARTING PRICE |
 | 5.0 | Fast web hosting, bloggers, wordpress sites, business websites | $1.99 – per month |
 | 4.9 | Fast web hosting, secure, small or large businesses | £1.99 per month |
 | 5.0 | Great for WordPress hosting, fast and reliable | £4.49 per month |
 | 5.0 | WordPress hosting, small or large businesses | £19 per month |
 | 4.8 | Fast web hosting, small or large businesses, affordable plans | £2.49 per month |
 | 5.0 | Fast web hosting, great for all businesses | £1.99 per month |
 | 4.8 | Fast loading times, great for all website | £3.99 per month |
 5.0 BEST FOR Fast web hosting, bloggers, wordpress sites, business websites STARTING PRICE $1.99 – per month | |||
 4.9 BEST FOR Fast web hosting, secure, small or large businesses STARTING PRICE £1.99 per month | |||
 5.0 BEST FOR Great for WordPress hosting, fast and reliable STARTING PRICE £4.49 per month | |||
 5.0 BEST FOR WordPress hosting, small or large businesses STARTING PRICE £19 per month | |||
 4.8 BEST FOR Fast web hosting, small or large businesses, affordable plans STARTING PRICE £2.49 per month | |||
 5.0 BEST FOR Fast web hosting, great for all businesses STARTING PRICE £1.99 per month | |||
 4.8 BEST FOR Fast loading times, great for all websites STARTING PRICE £3.99 per month | |||
Choosing Reliable Hosting Services – WordPress Sites
Finding a reliable hosting provider for your website is very important, here are some of the main things you should consider when searching for website hosting:
-
Reliability
– You want to minimise downtime of your website, so you need a hosting provider that is reliable and has a strong and stable server. If you want to monitor your website uptime for free you can use this service Uptime Robot
-
Customer support
– If any problems are to arise, you want to know that support is available to deal with this as soon as possible. 24/7 support is preferable. Note that email and live chat-only support is not always the best for an urgent or complicated matter, look for UK hosting companies offering phone support!
-
Regular backups
– Even though secure servers can sometimes be targeted by hackers, it is important that your hosting provider offers regular backups in case you need to revert back to an old version of your website.
This can generally be done very easily in the hosting control panel supplied, just navigate to the date you want to roll your website back to and click go!
Often within a few minutes (depending on the size of your website), it has been restored to the date you wanted.
-
Free domain name
– If not transferring an existing domain you have, you may be pleased to hear that many of the best web hosting providers actually offer a free domain name when taking their web hosting package. It is convenient when hosting providers offer a free domain name for 12 months with your hosting – meaning it is all in one place.
-
Free Website Builder
– Although some hosting providers offer a free website builder with simple drag and drop features we highly suggest staying away from this sort of website build.
Although it may look good initially and you haven’t to pay for a web design, you will find it is missing many of the features you will need to rank high in the search results.
What is a Domain and Domain Hosting?
A domain name is what makes up the most part of your URL, and is often used for emails too. You have to have a domain name to have a website live on the internet, but there are many options of where you can purchase one from.
For example, a domain address will look something like www.yournewbusinessname.co.uk. There are lots of other domain extensions like .Com (commercial) .Org (organisations) or .Net (Network). If you do not know which one will be best for you, then speak to a professional SEO company.
How to Get a Free Domain Name
It’s not a scam, you can get a free domain name. How? By choosing a website hosting provider that offers a free domain as part of their hosting service – and many of them do! Here are just a few paid website hosting providers that will give you a free domain name:
- Hostgator
- Bluehost (free domain for 1 year)
- GoDaddy
- 123 Reg
Types of hosting
Here’s a list of different website hosting options so you can make an informed decision. We’ll go over free, paid, and shared web hosts; dedicated servers with VPS Hosting or cloud hosting as well!
I know it all sounds a bit complicated just now but by the time you have finished this guide, you will understand the differences and which one will suit you the best.
Shared Web Hosting: What is it and When to Use it?
Shared hosting is a perfect choice for those who want to maintain their budget and still get the most out of it. As resources are shared, smaller websites can run efficiently without having any performance issues like they would on an individual account with limited bandwidth or storage space! For resource-heavy eCommerce online store websites, we advise using dedicated VPS hosting or Cloud hosting instead.
Top Tip!
For those starting out and on a budget you may want to choose one of the shared hosting plans, just make sure you don’t go for really cheap web hosting shared plans as they don’t have the security in place. Hosting your own site or multiple websites on an unsecure shared server can be a bad move.
All the companies mentioned in this guide have good levels of security in place, but it is possible that anyone can be hacked. Having good security, we are just lowering the risk factor with added security in place.
Dedicated hosting: what is it and when to use it?
Dedicated hosting is perfect for those who want to set up shop on their own website. You get your very own server with plenty of storage and processing power, so you don’t need to worry about any slowdowns from sharing resources with other customers or clients!
A dedicated hosting option isn’t required by everyone but it does have its benefits – especially if speediness matters most when starting out as an entrepreneur/business owner.
For those using WordPress with an eCommerce solution like WooCommerce online shop, we suggest pushing the boat out for a semi-dedicated, or for one of the fully dedicated hosting plans.
A dedicated WordPress hosting provider will provide excellent load speeds
If you choose one of the best web hosts mentioned here you should have no problems with fast WordPress website loading speeds which are a ranking factor in Google and the other search engines.
You do not need any special website hosting service for your WordPress installation and all the hosting services in this guide can host your WordPress sites.
These are not specifically WordPress hosting plans and if you are choosing another platform for your website then fear not, these web hosting plans are still an excellent choice.
VPS hosting: what is it when to use it?
Virtual Private Servers (VPS Hosting) are a great way to get the benefits of dedicated hosting servers without paying for them. The virtual environment serves as though you have your own personal machine, so there is no need in sharing hardware with other users or relying on shared resources like RAM and hard drive space; this allows individuals root access which they can use to install applications right away!
A virtual private server can be pricey and more resources than you need to start with, for a new business I would suggest quality shared hosting and moving to VPS hosting when your business grows large enough to make the cost worthwhile.
Cloud Hosting: what is it when to use it?
Cloud hosting is a great option for those who want to avoid on-premises servers. It moves all your hosting requirements into the cloud, which means you never have to deal with maintenance and there’s no limit on what kind of features can be added to an account because they’re always available without having any downtime whatsoever!
Top Tip!
For those of you thinking of cloud hosting and are comparing cloud hosting plans then low maintenance must be one of the things that are high on your list of requirements. Cloud hosting is becoming more popular these days and is a good choice for new or more established businesses.
Managed hosting for WordPress – Web Hosting plans
You want the best WordPress hosting for your website so serious consideration should be managed hosting services. Because WordPress needs to be updated regularly to keep it running well and secure, then why not choose a company that can offer managed WordPress hosting?
Knowing that, your website will be super quick, is being managed by professionals, and will always be up to date and in good shape.
Top Tip!
Always look at the reviews for companies offering managed website hosting to make sure they are able to offer the technical support you need, and aren’t just trying to make money from you!
Reseller hosting services for design agencies
If you see the term reseller hosting then you can ignore it unless of course you own a web design agency and are looking to supply hosting for your customers. In the reseller hosting market, websites are sold by businesses to other businesses or individuals.
With these deals, you’ll find that the best web hosting providers offer large amounts of storage space and bandwidth at reduced wholesale rates so they can make a profit while providing service for their customers’ needs in addition to yours!
Top Tip!
Unless you have all the technical know-how then a reseller hosting package will not be for you. It’s not a quick way to make money and you would need years of experience to even think of doing this.
Free vs Paid website hosting, which is best?
Building your website is a complicated process that takes time, effort, and knowledge to complete. When you opt for free website hosting there are limitations on what features can be included in the design of your site, which might make it difficult or impossible at times depending upon how much customisation needs to be done before launching online business projects, like selling products through social media marketing channels, where customers expect high standards from visuals as well as content too!
Investing now will give better results later down the road so please choose wisely based off individual requirements.
Disadvantages of Choosing Free hosting services
When a website goes down, it can be frustrating for users. You don’t want your site to become just another statistic in this ever-growing list of outage statistics!
Fortunately, there are some things you should know about how internet hosting works, so that when disaster strikes (I hope not), only minimal downtime will affect functionality on the page, which means less customer frustration and more sales opportunities lost by competitors who didn’t invest as much time into their web hosting service.
Downtime can also affect your website ranking positions, Google and the other search engines do not want to rank websites that are often down as it’s a bad experience for anyone trying to access that website.
Here are some of the disadvantages of free website hosting:
1. Ads. This is one of the most common trade-offs with free hosting plans.
Signing up for a free hosting plan can sound great however you must remember the quote “If it’s free then YOU are the product!” Nothing in life is truly free, even a free site migration or a free domain are tempting extras by paid hosting companies.
For most free hosting options you will be flooded with offers to sell you things and constant requests to upgrade your account.Worse than this is that often free hosting providers will advertise the fact that you are using a free service that doesn’t look great to your prospective new customers.
In regard to SEO, there is nothing that will harm your ranking having free hosting, however this type of web hosting is often slow and lacking in features that in SEO can leverage to increase your ranking potential.
2. A lack of customer support
Web hosts are not only in business to host your website, they’re also looking at how much money can be made off of you.
If the company doesn’t have many paying customers then it makes sense that customer service might suffer too – after all who has time or energy for helping someone if there isn’t going to be any compensation?
3. Downtime
Your business success depends on having a properly functioning website. Downtime can lead to customer dissatisfaction, tarnished brand image, and loss of potential clients when they go elsewhere because you didn’t make it easy for them from the start by ensuring that your site was up throughout their entire journey with you!
Making sure you choose a web host who offers a high uptime percentage means you will not suffer from these issues, generally the cheaper the hosting the more often it is down.
4. Limited bandwidth
It is important to have a fast loading website both for usability for your website visitors, and also for ranking in Google and other search engines. The amount of bandwidth is what affects how long your website takes to load, and free hosting services often have very limited bandwidth.
This means that anything more than a one-page website with no images or media, may struggle on a free website hosting plan.
5. Paid upgrades are required for the best features
Just like that free software download you decided to get, you are going to get a restricted version with limited features, well why would you get something totally free when it costs the company money to develop?
You are going to be able to use the basic free version and constantly marketed to upgrade to get the really useful features. This can feel frustrating and annoying and sometimes people just upgrade to stop the hassle of being annoyed with upgrade pop-ups every day or two.
6. No free domain name
It is often the case that paid website hosting providers offer a free domain with your package, this means you get everything you need all in one place. You don’t get this advantage when choosing free web hosting, so you would need to purchase your domain separately which isn’t always cheap.
WordPress websites make up 455 million
At the time of writing this WordPress websites make up 455 million websites on the Internet. WordPress is a fantastic platform as it’s built for SEO.
Although a great platform, the only drawback is that if you don’t choose a good website hosting provider for your WordPress site, you may find it slow because of the back-end features.
A good SEO or website design company can make sure that the WordPress website runs really quickly without issues, you just need to make sure you choose the right hosting to complement this resulting in an ultra-quick-loading website.
Important Factors When Choosing Your Web Hosting Services
SSL Certificate
Have you ever noticed some website addresses start with HTTPS and not just HTTP? Well, the (S) is for security and will also show a green padlock on many browsers to show you are browsing safely. This is the role of an SSL certificate.
SSL certificates are an important part of establishing and maintaining trust online. They ensure that the connection between your website and browser is encrypted, preventing anyone without permission from accessing sensitive information such as credit card numbers while also ensuring users feel confident making purchases on your site because they know that their personal data is safe.
Top Tip!
Some web hosts will let you have a free Lets Encrypt SSL certificate, although free they are just as safe as a paid SSL.
The only downside is that lets encrypt SSLs need to be renewed every 3 months but the good news this happens automatically.
AUTOMATIC Malware scanning
Hosting providers are constantly scanning your website for malware and if they find a virus, you’ll be sent an email with instructions on how to remove it. You can also contact live chat or use Sucuri Website Firewall which will help protect against future infections, they also offer free malware removal while you are a subscriber of their software.
AUTOMATIC Backups
Automated backups are a great way to ensure your website is always up-to-date, and in case anything goes wrong with the server or system. The automated process will prompt you when it needs attention so that problems don’t arise during normal operations
The benefits of this type of backup includes saving time on tedious tasks like Data restores because they’re handled by an app instead! And maybe more importantly – should some issue arise due to, for example, hackers gaining access through vulnerabilities within code, the website can easily be restored to one of the previous backed-up restore points.
Hosting Control Panel
Hosting control panels provide tools for managing websites, servers, and sometimes even your email account.
These web-based interfaces make it easy to keep track of all aspects related to maintaining an online presence, however not all website hosting control panels were created equal and some are very difficult to navigate and use.
You will find that most of the better names in the web hosting industry will have invested money in creating a user-friendly control panel for your benefit already.
Email hosting services – Which is the best option?
Hosting your own email account can provide more control and customisability, but it comes at the cost of some features such as spam filtering.
If you’re looking to host an enterprise-level solution with built-in SPAM Filters, then consider finding another provider who will give these services exclusively (or else offer them separately through paid add-ons).
Do they offer a free site migration?
Once you’re happy with your plan, simply request for a free website transfer by providing them with the current hosting details.
The chosen team will then migrate and host it without you having to do anything! You can also ask about transferring or changing over any domains if needed – all at no cost whatsoever. Remember to check first as not all web hosting services offer this feature.
Technical Customer support
When choosing a hosting company, the technical support service should be one of your top considerations. This is because no matter how good their servers are or what feature they provide for you as a customer-to use on site; there could still be trouble arise and questions come up during usage which need answering by them through phone calls (or email).
When things go wrong the best support services shine through
If something goes wrong with either speed/ framing rates – then this could result in many people losing business opportunities over time since websites aren’t loading properly due to errors.
Our advice would be to choose a customer support service that offers phone support as this is often the easiest and fastest way to resolve issues.
Is it easy to change web hosts?
Changing web hosts can be complicated and it’s easy for users who don’t take steps to protect their files. Fortunately, anyone with the right technical knowledge will easily find a way through this process regardless of what level they are on when switching over from one host provider or company to another; however, good web hosts offer free migration services which make things easier by doing much work already!
Recommended best web hosting services
When it comes to hosting, there’s no one-size fits all solution. You might want a shared web host or even dedicated hosting servers for your business, depending on your needs and what you plan on doing with them in terms of traffic volume/bandwidth requirements etc.
Unfortunately, some hosts don’t offer every type available which can make things difficult if you’re not aware of your exact requirements until after purchasing – but fear not, you can usually upgrade your web hosting services as your business grows!
 | Siteground Web Hosting Site Ground is a reliable web hosting company that was founded by a group of university students back in 2004. Site Ground provides hosting for WooCommerce Hosting, Cloud Hosting plans, Reseller hosting plans and is also a WordPress hosting platform. |
SITEGROUND PROS
| |
SITEGROUND CONS
| |
TODAYS BEST DEALS Site ground currently has 80%+ off managed word press hosting plans:
| |
| | Hostinger Web Hosting Hostinger was launched in 2011 with the aim of providing customers with an easy-to-use service, the promise of regular updates to improve services and proving excellent customer support. Hostinger provides web hosting services, cloud hosting and Wordpress hosting. |
HOSTINGER PROS
| |
HOSTINGER CONS
| |
TODAYS BEST DEALS
| |
| | Bluehost Web Hosting Bluehost is a hosting company that was founded in 2003 with the goal of creating better hosting services. Blue Host power over 2 million websites all over the world and are known for their excellent customer support. |
BLUEHOST PROS
| |
BLUEHOST CONS
| |
TODAYS BEST DEALS
| |
| | A2 Web Hosting In 2001, the CEO started A2 Hosting with a mission to help the world succeed online. He wanted people from all over the planet to have an easier time accessing content and information on their devices as well as making sure they're safe while doing so! A2 web hosting provides website hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, reseller hosting and email hosting. |
A2 WEB HOSTING PROS
| |
A2 WEB HOSTING CONS
| |
TODAYS BEST DEALS A2 Web Hosting current has a summer sale which includes 1 year rapid SSL for free when purchasing any hosting plan of 1 year or longer. A2 hosting also currently has the following discounted prices:
| |
| | WP Engine Web Hosting WP Engine offers superb managed WordPress hosting plans that are fully optimised for the platform. However, when compared to many other hosts who offer a free domain name with their services or shared servers at low costs per month - WP engine's prices can be seen as costly. |
WP ENGINE PROS
| |
WP ENGINE CONS
| |
TODAYS BEST DEALS
| |
| | 123 Reg Web Hosting 123 Reg is a shared hosting hosting service that was founded in 2000. It offers web hosting, WordPress hosting, shared hosting, dedicated hosting, and managed hosting. According to 123 reg, it takes pride in ensuring an easy-to-use, professional service for all customers. |
123 REG PROS
| |
123 REG CONS
| |
TODAYS BEST DEALS
| |
Advanced hosting Security – Next Level Security!
Defender Pro
What is Defender and what do they do?
Defender scans your WordPress site for modifications and unexpected changes, while also checking if any vulnerabilities exist in the plugins or themes you use. These issues are displayed under a tab named “Issues” where they can be easily seen with all their details explained clearly by Defender’s intelligent scan engine which gives peace-of mind that no harm will come from this data breach!
Sucuri – We Fix Hacks And Prevent Future Attacks
What is Sucuri and what do they do?
With Sucuri, you can rest assured that your site is always protected from hackers and malware. Their cloudproxy firewall will protect all of the traffic before it even reaches our hosting servers so there’s no need to worry about any DDoS attacks or blacklists targeting you!
Free Malware Scan
They offer a free scan of your website for known malware and will give you an instant report, just go to their website and under the resources tab click on the SiteCheck tab here
FAQs Choosing the best web hosting provider
Are website and web hosting the same thing?
Can I have a website without hosting?
How will I know how many people visited my site?
What is disk space and how much do I need?
Choosing the best plan for space
How do I upgrade my hosting package?
How secure is web hosting?
Do I really need further security for my website?
How important is customer support really?
Summary and editors picks
In summary, our top picks for the best web hosting providers are A2 Hosting, Bluehost and WP Engine. All of these options offer WordPress compatibility, minimal to no downtime, unlimited bandwidth, and a free domain.
Need more help? Why not let us take care of your hosting and transfer?
SEO CoPilot Managed WordPress hosting service
Hopefully this guide has helped you to compare the different types of hosting and helped you to choose the right hosting at the right budget for your website.
If you would need further help and are interested in SEO CoPilot hosting your website, we can take care of the migration and set up, then please get in touch.
