In our recent research, the web hosting service provider that has the best shared hosting plans is HostGator with an overall shared hosting score of 4.7 out of 5. HostGator comes with a 45-day money back guarantee for new users and unlimited storage space and bandwidth.
Our runner up is Bluehost with an overall shared hosting score of 4.5 out of 5. Bluehost offers a great array of shared hosting types, along with really competitive prices, and from our hosting market analysis is one of the most trusted web hosting providers by
Shared hosting is great for small businesses and small websites that are getting themselves off the ground. Shared hosting keeps your costs low, but also limits your resources. If you’re already getting a lot of traffic, and need some high site speed, we recommend going for a VPS or dedicated hosting plan instead.
Wait, what is shared hosting and who should and shouldn’t use it?
Shared hosting is the cheapest way to host your website. This hosting type sees you and other users share one server to run your separate sites. You all get a bit of that server to use, keeping costs nice and low!
The downside of shared hosting is the limit on your resources. Think of it just like living in a shared house – you each have your own room, but you’re still sharing dish soap, and toilet paper. If one of your housemates has tons of people round and uses up all those things, then there’s none left for you!
For your site, that means you’ll end up with slower website speeds – or even crashes – if another website uses up too much of your shared hosting resources. This can happen if the other website gets a sudden surge in website traffic.
Shared hosting is best for one-page and static sites. Think blogs, or business websites which don’t need much on-site interaction.
It’s not a scalable hosting choice, so it’s not right for you if you need high quality content like large image galleries, or if you need to sell online. For that, we recommend VPS hosting or dedicated instead.
Shared hosting has a bad reputation for being cheap yet highly unreliable. This is the result of so many web hosting providers offering poor quality for years.
Fortunately, things have changed, and there are multiple quality shared hosting providers offering cheap hosting services without foregoing quality.
ReliableBlogger is a top-notch blog to learn how to run a profitable online business. We offer easy to follow step by step guides, tutorials and software advice to help you start and grow your online business, learn how to make money online, and be a successful entrepreneur. We are 100% supported by our readers (YOU). Disclosure: Please note that some of the links on our blog are affiliate links (e.g. Bluehost). If you click on those affiliate links and purchase the products, we may earn a commission. It comes at no extra cost to you, but it supports us in running this blog and creating even more useful content free of charge to you. |
In this article, we’ll review six such web hosting providers, going over the hosting plans and features they offer while also showcasing their cheapest hosting prices.
The Best Shared Hosting Service Providers Compared
In a rush? Here’s what you need to know about these shared web hosting service providers.
- HostGator – Best overall shared hosting provider.
- Bluehost – Most trusted by online users.
- DreamHost – Cheapest shared plans. Ideal for beginners.
- A2 Hosting – Great all-round shared hosting provider. Great features and great support.
- Siteground – Popular shared hosting that includes developer friendly features.
- Hostinger – Budget friendly and feature-rich hosting.
- WPX Hosting – WordPress managed hosting. It is technically shared but can support high volumes of traffic. Includes malware scanning, malware removal and a CDN.
- InMotion Hosting – Popular shared hosting that won’t break the bank.
- IONOS – Best for sitespeed
- GreenGeeks – Most eco-friendly hosting provider
How we test hosting providers
We tested 30 web hosting providers to evaluate them in terms of price, performance, features, help and support, and more so we can make the most useful recommendations to our readers.
Our rigorous testing process means these products have been scored and rated in five main categories of investigation– and we go through this process for every type of hosting the provider has to offer!
Our main testing categories for hosting providers are:
- Price: the cost associated with the hosting services provided by a web hosting provider, such as subscription plans, pricing tiers, and any additional fees or charges.
- Performance: the speed, reliability, and overall performance of a web hosting provider’s servers. It encompasses factors such as server uptime and response time.
- Features: the specific functionalities and capabilities provided by a web hosting provider, including storage space, bandwidth allocation, and server location.
- Help and Support: the assistance and resources available to users when they encounter issues or need guidance, e.g. hosting tutorials and email or chat support.
- Market Analysis / Customer Score: the assessment of the web hosting provider’s position and reputation in the market.
This article will break down each of these top web hosting providers, and reveal which one best meets your shared hosting needs. You’ll find out about the features of each provider, as well as how much they cost. We’ll also share with you our top tips for choosing a shared hosting service provider.
Sharing is caring, so let’s get started!
Further Information
- Web Hosting Services: What is Web Hosting?
- The Best Web Hosting Providers
- How to Host a Website
Wait, what should you look out for when comparing web hosting providers?
Prices will renew at a higher rate once the promotional period is over. Promotional periods usually last between one and three years, but it varies massively between web hosting providers, so it’s always worth checking.
Disk space is the amount of data storage you have for your site on the shared hosting server. This makes it an extremely important feature, as you need enough disk space to hold your entire site’s content (such as files, images, and web pages).
Uptime is the amount of time a server is “up” and running. This shows how often your website will be up and accessible online, rather than down because of an unreliable hosting server. 100% uptime is incredibly rare. HostGator’s 99.90% is pretty impressive, putting it in the middle of all the web hosting providers we’ve tested.
Amount of websites refers, unsurprisingly, to the number of websites you can host on your shared hosting plan! Most web hosting providers offer one or two websites on their lowest hosting plans, but if you need more than that, then you’ll need to upgrade to unlock unlimited websites.
Monthly number of visitors shows you how many visitors your website will be able to handle as part of your shared hosting plan. Different shared hosting plans have different limits, and if your traffic exceeds this amount, then your website will slow down – or even crash.
By the end of this article you’ll know which web hosting provider is best for you, based on our in-depth research.
Further Information
- Read our review of the Best Cheap Web Hosting Providers to see how these web hosting providers’ prices compare
- Is shared hosting really right for you? Find out in our comparison of Shared Hosting vs VPS Hosting
Now, let’s take a look at each web hosting provider in more detail.
- HostGator
HostGator is the best all-round shared hosting provider on the market, and this high quality service shows in its shared hosting plans. HostGator has an overall shared score of 4.7 out of 5, soaring above the competition. It also scores the best help and support rating of 4.8 out of 5 for its shared plans, due to its great knowledge base, community center, and 24/7 phone and live chat service.
All three of HostGator’s shared hosting plans provide you with top of the range features, including easy one-click installation, unmetered bandwidth, and a free SSL certificate. Add the decent uptime score of 99.9%, and this shared hosting provider is looking like a perfect choice!
HostGator’s Hatchling plan is the cheapest at $3.95 per month (paid annually), giving you basic tools and a free domain for the first year, and unlimited subdomain names. The Baby plan is the next level up, costing $5.00 per month, and unlocks unlimited parked domain names. The most advanced hosting plan is the Business plan at $7.25 per month – this gives you more technical features, such as a free dedicated IP, CDN, and free SEO tools.
All HostGator hosting plans also come with a 45 day money-back guarantee, so you can try it and see if it is the right shared hosting provider for you.
HostGator offers the very best shared hosting. Its focus on ease and affordability makes it an attractive choice!
Want The Best Help & Support?
HostGator scored the best for help and support in its shared hosting plans, it’s also the best shared hosting provider overall!
Try HostGator Today
Further Information
- Find out more in our in-depth HostGator Review
See how HostGator does in our detailed comparisons:
- HostGator vs GoDaddy
- SiteGround vs HostGator
- Bluehost vs HostGator
Bluehost
Bluehost offers a lot of handy features such as domain name privacy, but it could offer better value for money compared to its competitors. Still, it’s right up there in terms of its popularity, with the highest 4.9 out of 5 score for the shared hosting market analysis category – making Bluehost most trusted by online users. It is also snapping at HostGator’s heels with a respectable 99.98% uptime score.
Where Bluehost falls is its lack of extras. The cheapest hosting plan doesn’t include regular backups, you need to pay an extra $149.99 for migrations, and it doesn’t have a help and support community center.
The Basic hosting plan is at a great price of $2.95 per month, you will still get all the shared hosting features to support a basic website, including one domain name, 10GB SSD storage, unmetered bandwidth, and SSL security.
At $4.95 per month, the Plus hosting plan is only $2 more, but it massively increases your limits. You get 20GB storage, as well as unlimited parked and sub domain names, $200 in marketing offers, and a spam expert.
Bluehost recommends its Choice Plus hosting plan. This costs $5.45 per month for a year’s payment, and you get daily automatic backups, 40GB of storage, with the added bonus of domain name privacy.
The Pro hosting plan costs $13.95 per month, and is the great choice if your website needs a boost. It gives you more power than the three other hosting plans, as it comes with advanced features, including a high performance server.
Bluehost is also the number one recommended web hosting provider by WordPress, so if you’ve got a small WordPress website, this could be the shared hosting service provider for you.
Bluehost has four shared hosting plans which come with a range of built-in features and optional extras.
Grow Your Site With Bluehost
A strong all-rounder, Bluehost has the best VPS and dedicated plans, making it ideal for those who wish to scale their website or business in future.
Try Bluehost Today
Further Information
Read our full Bluehost Review for more details
Do you have a WordPress website? Read our review of the Best WordPress Hosting Providers
Find out about costs in our Bluehost Pricing Review
See how Bluehost compares to its competitors in our in-depth reviews:
InMotion vs Bluehost
SiteGround vs Bluehost
Bluehost vs HostGator
Bluehost vs GoDaddy Hosting
DreamHost
DreamHost is another web hosting provider recommended by WordPress themselves. It was founded in 1996 and has been well-known in the shared hosting industry ever since, especially after WordPress launched in 2003.
Like other web hosting providers who favor WordPress over other content management systems, DreamHost has two shared hosting services: one for any CMS (Content Management Systems) and one for WordPress, though the former does come with WordPress preinstalled if you so choose.
These shared hosting services are nearly identical due to DreamHost’s preference towards WordPress. Each shared hosting service has two hosting plans meant for small and medium-sized websites. Traffic and bandwidth are unmetered for both hosting plans, but website storage is limited to 50GB with the low-tier hosting plan and unlimited for the high tier.
Subdomains, FTP users and databases are limited to just a handful for the low tier and upgraded to unlimited for the high tier. A free SSL certificate is also available for the cheaper hosting plan but preinstalled on the higher one.
All hosting plans receive automatic daily backups and automatic updates for WordPress core.
Developers and advanced users have access to FTP, SFTP and shell, multiple PHP versions, Python and Perl, support for Rails, raw log files, and more. DreamHost also uses its own control panel (cPanel).
As a cheaper shared hosting provider, DreamHost’s features are stripped down compared to SiteGround’s. You can restore your website from a backup if something goes wrong, for instance, but only five days worth of backups are available at a time and DreamHost makes no guarantee that one will be available at all. They actually recommend you to set up your own offsite backups.
Caching and other performance tools are not offered, nor is staging. Plus, security is offered as a paid in-house application.
Key features
1 to unlimited websites per plan.
50GB to unlimited SSD storage.
Migration available.
WordPress preinstalled.
Daily automatic backups.
Free SSL certificate.
Free website builder developed by DreamHost.
Email hosting available or included.
Unmetered traffic and bandwidth.
Automatic WordPress core updates.
Pricing
DreamHost offers two hosting plans per shared hosting service and three ways to pay for them. The cheapest hosting plan costs $4.95/month for three months then $6.99 for each subsequent month. Annual plans cost $47.49.
Try DreamHost
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is another web hosting service provider with a preference toward WordPress despite supporting other content management systems through cPanel. It offers a shared hosting service for multiple CMSs and another for WordPress.
Each shared hosting service has four hosting plans with varying features and specs. The first two hosting plans use standard SSDs with 100GB offered on the first hosting plan and unlimited storage offered on all other hosting plans. The top-tier hosting plans use M.2 SSDs, a newer standard considered to be more efficient.
The cheapest hosting plan is designed for one small website while all other tiers support unlimited websites. The second tier has “2x more resources” while the third and fourth tiers have “turbo servers with 20x more power.” The fourth tier has “5x more resources.”
The top-tier hosting plans also have a premium service you can unlock for $3/month that helps your server maintain your website’s speed through traffic spikes. You typically have to upgrade to VPS or cloud hosting for this type of feature.
While A2 Hosting doesn’t offer manual malware removal, they do have you covered in terms of security. They offer free daily backups, and you can restore your website from a backup with the top three hosting. However, A2 Hosting states they’re not responsible for damage or bugs caused by a failed restoration and recommends their users to take and store their own backups in addition to theirs.
Fortunately, website staging is available on all hosting plans, which can help you test backup and WordPress updates. Free SSL certificates are also included on all hosting plans.
To protect your server and website, A2 Hosting offers a “dual web firewall,” advanced DDoS protection and brute force defense. A virus scanner is also included. It’s designed to be easy to use, allowing you to quarantine and delete infected files with ease.
Advanced features for developers include multiple versions of PHP, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, WP-CLI, FTP and SSH access, Git integration, and support for Python and Ruby.
Key features
Daily automatic backups.
1 to unlimited websites per plan.
100GB to unlimited SSD storage.
Free SSL certificates.
Migration available.
Website staging.
Free email hosting.
Cloudflare CDN integration.
Advanced security features.
WordPress preinstalled.
Pricing
Pricing for the cheapest hosting plan starts at $10.99/month or $83.88 for your first year and $107.88 for subsequent years. Discounts are offered when you pay for more than one year upfront. Domain names with .com extensions cost $14.95/year.
Try A2 Hosting
SiteGround
SiteGround was founded in 2004 as a traditional shared hosting service most comparable to web hosting providers like Bluehost, DreamHost, A2 Hosting and HostGator. They’ve since upgraded their infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform and now have more to offer than any other shared hosting provider in the WordPress industry despite still using a shared infrastructure by nature. They’re one of three web hosting providers recommended by WordPress themselves.
SiteGround has three shared hosting services: “Web Hosting” supports CMS like WordPress, Joomla, Magento and many others; “Managed WordPress Hosting” is a specialized version of their shared hosting service that comes with WordPress preinstalled; “WooCommerce Hosting” is a shared hosting service that comes with both WordPress and the WooCommerce ecommerce plugin preinstalled.
Each shared hosting service offers more or less the same three sets of hosting plans. As such, with SiteGround’s shared hosting service, you’ll receive support for up to 100,000 monthly visits and up to 40GB of SSD storage. The servers themselves use the latest versions of PHP, MySQL and LXC containers.
All hosting plans come with free SSL certificates and daily backups with on-demand backups available on higher tiers. Plus, SiteGround will store up to 30 days worth of backups at a time. Cloudflare’s free CDN service is also integrated into SiteGround’s custom control panel seamlessly.
Along with a free CDN, which provides DDoS protection and improved page performance, SiteGround protects your website with a WAF (web access firewall) and an AI-based anti-bot system.
The managed WordPress hosting and WooCommerce hosting services come with automatic updates and custom firewall rules optimized for WordPress. You can control automatic updates for minor and major WordPress core releases, themes, and plugins.
However, with WordPress launching auto updates for core, themes and plugins natively, receiving this feature from your web hosting provider is no longer as exclusive as it once was. SiteGround is a little different, fortunately.
They keep up to 30 copies of your website taken over the course of the last 30 days, and they also have a restore feature that allows you to roll your website back to one of those copies. This feature is complementary to their automatic update feature as it allows you to fix bugs caused by updates near instantaneously.
SiteGround also has a staging feature for higher-tiered hosting plans if you prefer to update your website manually. SSH access, WP-CLI and Git integration are also included.
For increased website performance, higher-tiered hosting plans come with the web host’s own SG Optimizer plugin free of charge. This plugin provides caching, frontend image optimization, PHP version control and more. This is on top of the SuperCacher server-side caching they offer.
Key features
10,000 to 100,000 monthly visits.
10 to 40GB of SSD storage.
1 to unlimited websites per plan.
Daily backups with 30 days of backups stored.
Free SSL certificates.
Security features built in.
Migration available.
Cloudflare CDN integration.
WordPress preinstalled.
Automatic WordPress core, plugin and theme updates.
Website staging.
Free email hosting.
Pricing
Pricing for SiteGround’s cheapest hosting plan starts at $19.99/month. You’ll receive a discount on your first year if you pay for at least 12 months upfront. This costs $83.88 for your first year and $179.88 for subsequent years. Optional domain name registration costs $15.95/year with no free discount on your first year.
Try SiteGround
Hostinger
Hostinger is another web hosting provider that offers a regular shared hosting service and a WordPress shared hosting service. However, unlike some of the other web hosting providers on this list, Hostinger has actually optimized its WordPress hosting service for the CMS itself, even going as far as to insert firewall rules specifically optimized for the application.
The traditional hosting service has three hosting plans while the WordPress service has four. Up to 100GB of SSD storage is available for either as is unlimited bandwidth. Free SSL certificates are offered on all hosting plans.
SSH/FTP access is also available as is built-in caching (and a caching plugin for WordPress), but that pretty much sums up the similarities between the two.
With the traditional hosting plans, weekly backups are offered on all hosting plans but daily backups are only available on the top tier hosting plan, though backups are stored for a month. With WordPress hosting, weekly backups are offered on the first two hosting plans with daily backups available with the top two.
Your server is protected by a firewall, as stated before, but you’ll also receive DDoS protection and integration with Cloudflare. Malware detection and removal is done through a third-party tool called Imunify360.
Email hosting is something that differs between hosting plans. 1 or unlimited email accounts are offered in the traditional shared hosting service but only a maximum of 100 accounts are available in the WordPress service.
Along with SSH/FTP access, developers and advanced users can enjoy Git integration, multiple versions of PHP, PHP configuration, WP-CLI, standard MySQL with remote access, Cron jobs, staging and more.
WordPress is not preinstalled, but you can also install it in a single click. Jetpack is also included on the top three hosting plans with the premium version offered with the top tier.
Key features
1 to unlimited websites per web hosting plan; 1 to 300 websites per WordPress plan.
100GB to unlimited bandwidth.
10 to 100GB of SSD storage.
Cloudflare CDN integration.
Advanced security features.
Daily backups available on some hosting plans.
Automatic WordPress core and plugin updates.
Free SSL certificates.
Website staging.
Free email hosting.
Pricing
Traditional shared hosting plans start at $9.99/month plus a one-time $4.99 setup fee or $35.88 for your first year and $119.88 for subsequent years. WordPress hosting starts at $7.99/month or $59.88 for your first year and $95.88 for subsequent years.
Discounts are offered when you pay for more than one year upfront. Free domain names are offered on some hosting plans.
Try Hostinger
Further Information
Read our full Hostinger Review for details on plans, features, and more.
WPX Hosting
WPX Hosting is a sophisticated web hosting provider that offers the features of a managed web host rather than a shared web host. They’re exclusively a WordPress host and only offer one hosting service broken down into three hosting plans.
You can host up to 35 websites and receive a maximum of 40GB of SSD storage. Unlimited bandwidth is also available on the top-tier hosting plan.
WPX Hosting is designed for bloggers and small business owners, so you won’t get all of the advanced features some of the other web hosting providers offer on this list. Instead, WPX Hosting manages the majority aspects of your website for you.
Backups are taken daily and stored for up to 28 days. You can also restore your website from a backup. DDoS protection is available, and WPX Hosting scans for malware daily and removes any they find.
You’ll also receive free SSL certificates and website staging. A proprietary CDN service is also included with 26 global CDN edge locations available in the network.
The only thing WPX Hosting doesn’t manage is caching. They advise you to use W3 Total Cache instead.
Key features
5 to 35 websites.
10 to 40GB of SSD storage.
100GB to unlimited bandwidth.
Daily backups stored for up to 28 days.
Free SSL certificates.
Proprietary CDN.
Website staging.
Automatic WordPress updates.
Migration available.
Advanced security features included.
Free email hosting.
Pricing
You can get started with WPX Hosting for $24.99/month or $249.99/year. Domain names with a .com extension cost $10.99/year.
Try WPX Hosting
InMotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting is another web hosting provider with two shared hosting services: one standard service and another optimized for WordPress. The former has three hosting plans while the WordPress service has four.
The standard service allows you to host one to unlimited websites while the WordPress service reduces this number drastically to a maximum of six. Regardless, 100GB to unlimited of SSD storage is available for both shared hosting services.
Automatic backups with the option to restore your website from a backup, DDoS protection and malware protection are available for both shared hosting services. Unfortunately, backup management is only available as a paid add-on.
The WordPress service includes website staging, a website builder for the CMS and automated social media posts.
Key features
1 to unlimited websites for standard service; 1 to 6 websites for WordPress.
100GB to unlimited of SSD storage.
Unlimited bandwidth for standard service.
CDN included.
Security features.
Automatic backups.
Free SSL certificates.
Migration available.
Automatic updates for WordPress core, themes and plugins.
WordPress preinstalled.
Free email hosting.
Pricing
Pricing for the standard shared hosting service starts at $3.29/month (billed annually), discount applied if brought on a 2 year hosting plan. Pricing for the WordPress service starts at $7.99/month (billed annually), discount applied if brought on a 2 year hosting plan.
Try InMotion Hosting
Further Information
Find out more in our InMotion Hosting Review
Discover how InMotion performs against the top competitor in our in-depth comparison: InMotion vs Bluehost
IONOS
Are you looking for fast website speeds, quick loading, and high uptime? IONOS has it all, and really great features as well – getting a whopping shared hosting plan feature score of 4.6 out of 5.
IONOS has three shared hosting plans: Essential, Business, and Expert. The Essential shared hosting plan starts at $4 per month (yearly), and then renews at $6 per month. On that plan you get one website, just 10GB of storage, unlimited bandwidth, a free SSL, and free domain for a year.
IONOS recommend its Business shared hosting plan that starts at an amazing $1 per month (12 month plan), but be aware that it does renew at a pricier $10 per month after your first year. But it does offer unlimited storage, and unlimited websites.
Then the Expert shared hosting plan starts at $8.00 per month, which is optimized for website performance, allowing for up to 500 visitors per minute. Plus it comes with extra security features like malware protection, a CDN, and some extra analytics tools. Overall IONOS scores 4 out of 5 for value, so you get decent bang for your buck along with its cheap discounts.
Choose from three shared hosting options with IONOS, but remember to check the renewal prices!
Get Fantastic Hosting Features!
IONOS has the features and website speed to handle large volumes of website traffic!
Get Started With IONOS
Further Information
Find out more in our detailed 1 & 1 IONOS Review
GreenGeeks
The hosting industry is a surprisingly polluting one, and GreenGeeks is on a mission to put that right – one website at a time. By buying Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), GreenGeeks offsets its carbon footprint by 300% through investing in eco-friendly energy sources. It also offers entirely free website migration, without caveats.
GreenGeeks also has the highest shared hosting plan feature score of 4.8 out of 5, offering free nightly backups, 24/7 network monitoring, a free SSL, and a free domain name for the first year.
All in all, GreenGeeks is a good, reliable web hosting provider, with features that match those of the hosting providers higher in this ranking. There are, however, a few things that hold it back from taking the top spots.
First up, it’s a little pricey. Strip back the discounts, and you’re left with a price range of$10.95 – $25.95/month, meaning a more significant start price than the majority of web hosting providers on this list. The other major ‘con’ is only getting one free backup per month – others will cost you $25 a time, which isn’t ideal for any website with regularly-changing content.
Go With Green Hosting!
If you want to shape a more sustainable website and business, then GreenGeeks is the shared host for you.
See GreenGeek’s Plans
Further Information
Discover what experts think in this GreenGeeks Review
See how GreenGeeks matches up against Bluehost in Bluehost vs GreenGeeks
Shared Hosting Pricing Comparison
Although DreamHost, Bluehost and GreenGeeks have the cheapest starting hosting prices, HostGator combines impressive performance with fairly good prices making it the best shared hosting provider.
HostGator offers the best overall shared hosting plans.
Pay More But Gain More!
Get the top rated shared hosting service to make sure your website has the very best features it needs.
Pick Your Perfect HostGator Hosting Plan
How Do You Choose a Shared Hosting Service?
If none of the shared hosting service providers in our list immediately jumped out at you, you might be wondering just how you’re meant to choose. It’s easy to be befuddled by all the free features being waved in front of your nose.
Your choice will totally depend on your specific needs, but here are our three top things to look for in a shared hosting service provider:
Uptime – it’s come up a lot so far, and for good reason! You want a hosting service provider with a high uptime percentage. Your website won’t flourish if the server is down all the time.
Value for money – how much are you paying, and how much will you be getting for your money? Shop around and compare different shared hosting providers – start by looking at DreamHost, as it offers the best value for money on the market. If you just want to keep costs low, then check out Bluehost – as it’s got the best overall hosting score of 4.8 out of 5!
Disk space and bandwidth – disk space is how much data you can store on your web server, while bandwidth is how much data can be transferred between your server and your website. How much you need of these will depend on how large your website is (you’ll need more disk space for lots of content), and how much traffic your website gets (you’ll need more bandwidth to cope with more traffic).
Uptime, value for money, and disk space and bandwidth are important, no matter the purpose of your website or your technical ability.
Help and support is always worth looking into as well, but is more subjective – make sure there are help options in place which you’re happy and confident using if things ever did go wrong.
For those of you with a WordPress website, make sure you look at the hosting provider’s WordPress integration. Bluehost, HostGator and DreamHost are the best shared hosting services for WordPress users.
If you’re finding the amount of free add-ons confusing, narrow it down to the most important factors for you. Three major ones to look out for are free domain names, free backups, and money back guarantees.
Best Shared Hosting Service Providers: Summary
The shared hosting providers on this list offer quality hosting services at great prices. However, features can vary between web hosting service providers. If you’d like to build your website with WordPress, you’re better off choosing a web hosting provider that offers a service optimized for it.
If you’re not a developer or lack the skill and time to manage your own website, you may want to choose a web hosting provider that offers backups with website restoration and advanced security features.
Price can be a factor, but considering it may not be too helpful due to shared hosting being cheaper by design. Also consider the traffic your website gets. Shared hosting is not perfect for high traffic websites. But for new websites or small websites they are perfect. Just remember that when your website grows, you may want to migrate to a different web hosting provider.
We’ve covered the hosting basics, and outlined our shared hosting winner, HostGator – thanks to its incredible help and support and reasonable prices. We hope we’ve helped you explore the features and prices of each shared hosting provider, and passed on our top tips on how to choose the right shared hosting service provider for you.
10 Best Shared Hosting Services: Recap
HostGator – Best overall shared hosting provider.
Bluehost – Most trusted by online users.
DreamHost – Cheapest shared plans. Ideal for beginners.
A2 Hosting – Great all-round shared hosting provider. Great features and great support.
Siteground – Popular shared hosting that includes developer friendly features.
Hostinger – Budget friendly and feature-rich hosting.
WPX Hosting – WordPress managed hosting. It is technically shared but can support high volumes of traffic. Includes malware scanning, malware removal and a CDN.
InMotion Hosting – Popular shared hosting that won’t break the bank.
IONOS – Best for sitespeed
GreenGeeks – Most eco-friendly hosting provider
Remember to look out for the essentials – uptime, value for money, and disk space and bandwidth – as well as the features tailored to your specific needs, such as support options or a free domain name.
Your shared hosting plan is ready, and your virtual housemates are waiting – so sign up and get shared hosting today!
Best Shared Hosting Service Providers: FAQs
Which shared hosting provider is best for hosting a WordPress website?
Bluehost is the top recommended provider by WordPress itself, but for shared hosting specifically, we would recommend HostGator. As it is the perfect shared hosting provider and it ranks pretty well for WordPress hosting too.
Is Bluehost the best shared hosting provider?
No! Bluehost is overall fantastic, and has the best VPS, Dedicated and WordPress hosting, but the very best shared hosting service provider goes to HostGator!
Do you recommend shared hosting over other types of web hosting?
Not really! Most websites require VPS hosting, which has more scalable features than shared hosting. But that doesn’t mean shared hosting isn’t right for your website – if you have a basic blog or one-page website, it could be the best choice! You can see the top hosting providers in our review of the Best VPS Hosting Providers.
Is GoDaddy shared hosting good?
No its not. It’s a very middle of the road web hosting provider when looking at other hosting plans like dedicated, VPS, and WordPress. But we would recommend HostGator for shared hosting plans.
Why is shared hosting cheaper?
Shared hosting is cheaper because it means that you will be sharing server resources, which means if another website uses up those resources you could run out! But, it’s a perfect place to start hosting small websites, as you can make some big savings.
Reliable Blogger aims to provide you with honest data. That’s why we conduct our own research and obtain direct, personal insight.