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Web Hosting Reviews

Websites have become a necessity for all business types. With a surprisingly large percentage of the world’s population being online, every business needs an online presence to keep up with the competition. However, in creating and maintaining a website, you also need a web hosting provider—and finding one that best suits your needs can be a difficult process. Web hosting is the foundation of a website, so it’s important to build your website on a foundation that meets your needs now and in the future.

While it can be difficult to select the appropriate web hosting service for your website, StatCounter can help. Not only do we provide detailed metrics for your website via our web tracker, we also seek to share valuable insights with our members. With this, take a look at our web hosting reviews, consisting of the top hosting providers, to simplify the process.

Suggested Reading

If you’re ready to move on to further reading with regards to web hosting, you can view the articles below:

Web Hosting Reviews: Top Providers

Of course, the provider you choose will also come down to what type of web hosting your website will require. That could be shared, VPS, cloud-based, or dedicated hosting. Regardless of the type, here are some of the top web hosting providers:

GoDaddy

A domain registrar and hosting company, GoDaddy is one of the more popular hosting providers. As with most on this list, GoDaddy offers shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting. They utilize Linux and Windows servers, however, they do not offer unlimited monthly data transfers for every plan.

  • Price: The first year of hosting can start as low as $1.00/month. After the first year, the price goes up to $7.99. This includes a domain, one website, unlimited bandwidth, and 100 GB storage.
  • Uptime: GoDaddy offers dependable uptime for personal and commercial websites. Websites are continuously accessible on their servers.
  • Server Plans: Customers can choose between Windows and Linux servers. They can host on a shared server, VPS, and dedicated server. Businesses can scale up their plans to handle growing traffic.
  • Security Features: Their SiteLock service starts at $17.88 per year and provides a site-verification certificate, app scanning, and spam and malware monitoring.
  • WordPress Hosting: WordPress hosting is difficult to implement on GoDaddy web hosting. The setup process is intimidating for most users to undergo.

Summary

Overall, GoDaddy is reliable and gives users plenty of options for hosting their websites. It is exceptional for both personal and commercial websites. However, for users hoping to implement WordPress CMS on their server, it can be difficult to set up.

HostGator

HostGator is best suited for those seeking shared and dedicated hosting. HostGator integrates with WordPress (but is not limited to such) and also offers both Windows and Linux servers. They also offer customer support 24/7. Much like GoDaddy, HostGator does not offer unlimited monthly data transfers in all plans.

  • Price: On a 36-month contract, pricing for their lowest tier starts at $2.78 per month and then increases to $6.95 per month once the plan renews. It includes one domain and unmetered bandwidth. Bandwidth is subject to their terms of service, however.
  • Uptime: Their uptime is stable and offers a reliable connection to websites.
  • Server Plans: HostGator doesn’t offer Windows VPS servers. It does offer Linux and Windows servers for dedicated server plans.
  • Security Features: HostGator is intended for smaller websites and doesn’t offer extensive security features.
  • WordPress Hosting: HostGator offers managed WordPress hosting, but is more expensive than a lot of competitors. WordPress can be installed on their servers manually, but it isn’t a one-step process.

Summary

HostGator is intended for small websites and offers a quick and simple solution to getting content online. Unfortunately, there isn’t much room for scalability, so larger websites should use a host more suited to fit their needs.

Bluehost

Having started in 1996, Bluehost offers simple and secure hosting. It’s optimized for WordPress and offers a variety of plans. While it offers shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting, Bluehost does not offer Windows servers, nor do they offer unlimited month data transfers for every plan.

  • Price: Basic plans start at $2.95 per month on a 36-month contract and increase to $7.99 upon renewal. This includes one website, 50GBs of webspace, and unmetered bandwidth.
  • Uptime: BlueHost offers reliable uptime for the websites hosted on their servers.
  • Server Plans: Choose between shared, VPS, and dedicated servers. Prices for VPS and dedicated servers are more expensive than most competitors.
  • Security Features: Offers Site Backup and SiteLock Security services as add-ons. Gives users recovery solutions and protects from malware.
  • WordPress Hosting: Option for 1-click WordPress installation on their web hosting servers, but it’s unmanaged. Managed WordPress hosting is more expensive than most competitors.

Summary

Bluehost offers great plans for shared servers and add-ons for users who host on their servers. It is easy to implement WordPress on their basic web hosting plan, but for managed WordPress, prices can get expensive.

SiteGround

SiteGround offers an extensive list of features and plans, which can be customized to closely match a variety of needs for different websites. Often recommended for those using WordPress, as well as smaller businesses, SiteGround is a viable option.

  • Price: The basic plan starts at $4.95 per month and increases to $9.95 per month after the contract renews. It includes one website, 10GB web space and is suitable for websites with 10,000 monthly visitors.
  • Uptime: SiteGround is stable and provides reliable uptime for websites hosted on their servers.
  • Server Plans: They do not offer Windows server options, but do allow customers to choose where their server is located.
  • Security Features: Offers several security options through their $1 add on, HackAlert Monitoring. Provides anti-spam tools, hotlink protection, and IP address blocklists.
  • WordPress Hosting: Managed WordPress hosting is similar to web hosting pricing with a $24.95 setup fee. Lowest tier is limited to 10GB of storage and 10,000 monthly visitors.

Summary

SiteGround provides plenty of options for security on their servers. Small businesses can easily host their websites and ensure a secure website. However, their plans lack webspace and limit the amount of traffic websites can acquire.

1&1 Web Hosting

Lastly, we have 1&1 Web Hosting. Recommended for those sites utilizing WordPress, 1&1 caters to a variety of business types. They offer dedicated, VPS, and shared hosting, while utilizing both Windows and Linux servers. Plus, they offer unlimited monthly data transfers in each plan.

  • Price: 1&1’s Unlimited plan starts at $0.99 for the first 12 months and increases to $7.99 a month after the 1st year. It includes security with SSL Certificate, unlimited webspace, unlimited websites, 20 databases, and 1 free domain.
  • Uptime: Excellent uptime for incredibly stable connection to websites hosted on their servers.
  • Server Plans: Offer both Windows and Linux servers for all their plans. VPS offerings are especially price-friendly at $4.99 per month.
  • Security Features: 1&1 includes a GeoTrust Dedicated SSL Certificate with every plan. SiteLock is available for $0.99 per month on basic packages and protects from hackers, malware, and unauthorized access.
  • WordPress Hosting: 1&1 offers the best WordPress hosting solutions. WordPress can be easily installed in one click on a standard Linux or Windows-based server. Managed WordPress hosting is also available starting at $0.99 per month and comes packed with SSD storage, unlimited visitors, and a domain.

1&1 is the trusted domain and web hosting provider of StatCounter. With affordable plans that offer quality web hosting solutions, 1&1 has one of the best reputations in the web hosting market.

While our list of web hosting reviews above consists of some of the most popular providers, there’s plenty more to choose from—some of which could suit your website needs better than others. In short, when it comes to choosing a web hosting service, you’ll need to do your research. In an effort to help you in the process, we’ve provided a few resources below:

Monitor Web Traffic with StatCounter

When you do select an appropriate hosting provider and begin to build your website, it’s important you monitor traffic to your site to ensure it’s performing well and answering the demands of site visitors. With StatCounter’s web tracker, you can view detailed analytics displaying where traffic is coming from and how users are interacting on your site. From here, you can then implement SEO strategies to further improve your website.

To learn more about SEO, check out our SEO Insights to get started. If you ever need assistance in using our tools, be sure to contact StatCounter support by filling out the form below.

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