Web hosting is nearly as important as your business itself. Without a proper provider, your site will not be accessible to your customers, making your site-building efforts completely meaningless. Fortunately, you don’t have to break the bank to get a reliable hosting provider. There are numerous services available for a wide range of small business budgets, from startups to relatively large enterprises.
The best web hosts for small businesses include Bluehost, WP Engine, Host Gator, GreenGeeks, and GoDaddy. These providers offer the three S’s: speed, support, and security – as well as top-notch scalability, all at affordable prices.
The plans offered by these hosts can be adapted to any business’s needs. Whether you are a sole proprietor who only operates locally, or a 300-person team serving people across the nation, you can find the perfect plan for you in the hosting packages described here.
Which Service is Best for Web Hosting?
Many new website owners are under the impression that purchasing and registering a domain is enough to maintain a stable online platform. On the contrary, a reputable website can only be achieved by selecting a reliable web hosting service and this helps tremendously with your SEO. Registering a domain will serve no purpose if you do not host the platform, rendering your efforts to maintain an online presence completely useless.
Using a web hosting service enables your site to be accessed by all who use the internet, giving you precisely the visibility and accessibility you need to nurture an authoritative online presence. Your web host is essentially responsible for providing a server for your site in which the files or your platform are stored. (Source: net4)
The best web hosting services excel in the following areas and are sure to help drum up (and maintain) considerable traffic to your small business (Source: CNET; Web Solutions):
| The Three S’s | ||||
| Speed | Support | Security | Scalability | Price |
| Whether you are using your business’s website as an online store or as an advertising and customer relationships platform, you must think of your site as a virtual extension of your business. When your customers enter your store, they do not want to wait around for service. Instead, they want to be acknowledged, assisted, or served within a few seconds. Anything longer than that will drive visitors away. Note that search engines like Google will also use your site’s speed as a factor in your earned ranking. Too slow, and you may fall below some of your competitors in search results. | Things are likely to go wrong with any website, even when you have the most reliable hosting service available. When inevitable hang-ups like slow loading time, performance bugs, and related issues arise, you need to be sure that your web host can quickly and efficiently resolve the matter. Ideally, they should provide site monitoring and be available for support 24/7. · Note: Though any web host you select should have these support features, it is best to first determine how much you will rely on the host versus your own IT (information technology) team. The efficiency of your existing IT staff may save you some money. | The security of your website is of the utmost importance. Neglecting to research the dependability of a server can severely backfire, at times, even costing you your entire business. Experts predict that cyber-attacks will cost the world approximately $6 trillion by 2021. More than half of their targets (58%) are small businesses, and only 14% of them are able to recover and remain in business after the incident. Your web host should be fortified with firewalls, authentication methods, and continuous monitoring to thoroughly protect your business. (Source: Forbes; CNBC) | According to the head of digital media services at Nasdaq Corporate Solutions, Simon Ball, scalability is central to your business’s online performance. “You need the ability to rapidly scale your website as your target audience grows and the resiliency to handle sudden bursts of high traffic.” Estimate the amount of traffic you expect your site to get, as this will not only influence the price (due to charges based on bandwidth usage) but the type of server you’re looking for as well. Some hosting services may offer shared servers, whereas others will provide dedicated or cloud servers for your business. | You don’t want to break the bank when choosing your web hosting service; however, you don’t want to go to cheap either because, as the saying goes, “you get what you pay for.” As previously mentioned, factors such as your projected bandwidth usage and support features may influence the price point. Review your business needs and determine whether your own IT support can fill in the gaps if you want to reduce the monthly or annual rates – but don’t fall for the “free” deals. |
Fortunately, you won’t have to look far for the web hosting services that meet, or rather, exceed these criteria. The top five best web hosting services for small businesses are listed below. And if you want more tips for choosing the right web hosting platform for your business, check out the steps in that blog!
The 5 Best Web Hosting for Small Business
The following web hosts are tried-and-true and have outshined competitors in their reliability for small business owners, protecting and maintaining their security, customer satisfaction, and, thus, their revenue. It may be tough to choose between the hosts listed here, so look closely at your business’s unique characteristics to determine which service best meets your budget and projected site performance.
Bluehost
Bluehost stands out from competing web hosting services due to its wide range of server options available to users. This maximizes flexibility for small businesses, as this provider allows site owners to transition between plans as necessary, offering the greatest range of scalability for growing businesses. These hosting plans are also incredibly budget-friendly, which makes this service ideal for both startups and established companies.
Bluehost’s four hosting packages are as follows (Source: Bluehost):
| Shared (best for modest budgets) | Virtual Private Server (24/7 support, money-back guarantee) | Dedicated Hosting (24/7 support, money-back guarantee) | Cloud Hosting (best for scalability) | ||||
| Basic | At $7.99 monthly, users can host a single website with this plan and store up to 50GB of data with 100MB of email storage. This plan comes with one primary domain, five parked domains (a domain you are not actively using), and 25 subdomains (domains used to navigate to the various pages of your website). | Standard | For $29.99 monthly, your site will perform at consistently high speeds (2 CPU Cores), with 30GB SAN (storage area network, a high-speed, centrally-managed pool of resources) of available storage, 2GB RAM, and 1TB of available bandwidth. This plan comes with one primary domain and IP address. | Standard | You can have notably higher site speeds (4 x 2.5 GHz CPU), an incredible amount of storage space (1TB, Mirrored), 4GB of RAM, and 5TB bandwidth all for $109.99 per month. An incredible deal for small businesses with higher traffic volumes. With this plan, you will get one included domain and three IP addresses | Starter | With this $9.99 monthly plan, you can host a single website with 100GB storage space and unmetered bandwidth. You will have 2GB of available RAM and two available server CPUs as well. This plan also comes with a free complimentary domain, 100 email accounts (with 500MB of email storage), and $50 worth of marketing offers. Perks include local caching and 1-click resource scaling. |
| Plus | By bumping up your plan to $10.99 monthly, you can have unlimited website storage space, host as many websites as you please, and own an unlimited number of email accounts and data. This plan also includes a single primary domain, with unlimited parked and subdomains. Users will also have over $200 in marketing offers and receive complimentary SpamExperts service. You will also benefit from more than $24 worth in extra annual perks and services. | Enhanced | At $59.99 per month, you get the same site speed as the Standard plan as well as 60GB of storage, 4GB SAN of available RAM, 2TB of bandwidth, and an additional IP address. | Enhanced | Increasing your subscription to $159.99 monthly earns you the core benefits available in the Standard plan, along with 8GB of RAM, 10TB of bandwidth, and an additional IP address. | Performance | Enjoy all the Starter plan benefits for $13.99 per month, but for an infinite number of websites with unmetered storage space. RAM is increased to 4GB, and you will have two additional CPUs, unlimited email accounts, and $200 worth of marketing offers. You will also have access to Bluehost's SpamExperts service. |
| Prime | At $14.99 per month, Bluehost customers can experience all advantages from the Plus plan, in addition to SiteBackup Pro and Domain Privacy services and over an $80 value in yearly perks and services. | Premium | For those who are willing to pay more at $89.99 per month, your business site will experience much faster speeds (3 CPU Cores), have 120GB of storage, 6GB SAN of available RAM, 3TB of bandwidth. One domain is included in this plan, as well as two IP addresses | Premium | For an extra $50 ($209.99 monthly), you can have higher speeds (4 x 3.3 GHz CPU), double the RAM (16GB), 15TB of bandwidth, and five IP addresses. | Business Pro | For an additional $12 ($25.99) per month, you can have everything offered in the Performance plan, with 6GB of RAM, 6 CPUs, a dedicated IP address, SSL certificate, domain privacy, and site backup and restore functionality. |
| Ultimate | For those who expect higher volumes of traffic, you may want to dish out the $119.99 monthly subscription charge for lightning-fast speeds (4 CPU Cores), 240GB SAN of available storage space, 8GB of available RAM, and 4TB of bandwidth. Like the Premium plan, the Ultimate plan also comes with one included domain, as well as two IP addresses. | ||||||
Is Bluehost a good host? Bluehost is a highly flexible hosting provider with a vast range of services available for small businesses of all kinds. You will have unmatched flexibility in the speed and scalability of your site, all at budget-friendly prices and with constant support. If you’re unsure of what exactly you’ll need from Bluehost, feel free to start small with a shared plan, then monitor and adapt your hosting preferences from there.
WP Engine
WP (WordPress) Engine is a bit more on the pricey side, yet their services are well worth it. Small business owners who have specific needs for their professional platforms should consider this hosting service, considering their customizable option. Their plans are designed for intuitive control and management, even for those who are not so tech-savvy.
You can design your site with as little hassle as possible, given their Atomic Blocks drag-and-drop functions combined with Gutenberg-optimized StudioPress themes. Further, your site will be readily accessible at high speeds to visitors from around the world, thanks to WP Engine’s global CDN. (The CDN, or content delivery network, is a collection of servers that work together to deliver your content to viewers at high speeds.) (Source: WP Engine)
WP Engine offers the following plans for small business owners (Source: WP Engine):
| Startup (great option for sole proprietors or small companies) | Growth (perfect for growing businesses) | Scale (best value and scalability) | Custom (great for larger enterprises) |
| With this $30 monthly plan, you can host one website with 10GB of web storage, 50GB of bandwidth. You can save $60 per month with the annual prepay option. Ideal for up to 25,000 monthly visitors. | Get 20GB of web storage, 200GB of bandwidth, and host up to 10 websites for $155 per month, or save $230 by choosing annual prepay. Ideal for up to 100,000 site visitors per month. | For those expecting higher traffic volumes, this $290 monthly plan offers hosting for up to 30 websites with 50GB of web storage and 500GB of bandwidth. Ideal for up to 400,000 visitors per month. Choose the annual prepay option to save up to $580 on your subscription. | If your business's site grows too big for the previous plans, WP Engine will work with you to meet your exact business needs to achieve high-speed performance, complete with readily available support. Customized plans can support millions of visitors per month. They range between 100GB to 1TB of storage space, can be equipped with over 400GB of bandwidth, and can support up to 30 separate websites. |
Host Gator
Host Gator is an incredibly small business-friendly hosting service, complete with low-budget pricing options and a myriad of free features, including (Source: Host Gator):
- Unlimited web storage, providing ample space for business owners to store as much data on your site as you please.
- Unmetered bandwidth, so you can welcome as many visitors as possible while your business grows.
- Complimentary domain registration.
- SSL (secure sockets layer) certification – your customers will feel safer and secure when they see that your site is verified and encrypted. This is critical for businesses that wish to execute transactions online.
- One-click installs for any business owners that need app integration for a smoother, more streamlined customer experience.
Host Gator’s available plans are as follows:
| Hatchling | Baby | Business |
| Users can host a single website with one-click WordPress app integrations and free site transfers from WordPress and cPanel. There is great flexibility in the plan duration, from $10.95 for a single month to $2.75 per month for a three-year subscription. | You will have access to all the perks of the Hatchling plan, with unlimited domains instead of one. Prices range from $11.95 for a single month to $3.95 per month for a full three-year subscription. | Business owners can enjoy the perks of the Hatchling and Baby plans for unlimited domains, with the addition of a free dedicated IP and a positive SSL upgrade. (The SSL upgrade is supported by a $10K warranty, and is available to secure a primary and subdomain.) You will also have a $50 value of free SEO tools |
Each plan comes with a 45-day money-back guarantee, a $100 Google AdWords offer, and $100 credit for Bing Ads. You can also enjoy free business emailing and MySQL transfer.
GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks is highly unique in that their approach to hosting is not merely focused on your business’s online performance, but the health of the planet as well. The company is committed to “matching three times the amount of energy [they] consume from the grid in the form of renewable energy credits.” (Source: GreenGeeks)
Their peculiar approach to hosting does not hold back their stellar service, either. According to a 24-month analysis by Hosting Facts, Green Geeks maintained above average uptime (amount of time that the server hosting your site is running) of 99-100%. They also maintain excellent loading speeds, pulling up your site’s content in only about 445 milliseconds. (Source: Hosting Facts)
For all plans, they offer one complimentary domain registration, free site transfers, and free site migration. You can easily build a new website from the ground up as well with their Drag & Drop website builder. Those who use other content management systems such as WordPress can easily integrate their content into Green Geek’s hosting as well. Their plans are as follows (all offered with a 30-day money-back guarantee):
| Lite | Pro | Premium |
| Have one website hosted with unlimited web storage space, databases, and email accounts. This plan also comes with complimentary nightly backups, and a free CDN, LSCache, and a free one-year domain registration. This is available at a standard $9.95 per month. | Benefits of the Lite plan are available on the Pro subscription with double the performance rates and the ability to host an unlimited number of websites. You can purchase this service for $14.95 per month. | This plan offers similar benefits to the Pro option, with 4x the performance of the Lite plan and a free dedicated IP. This is available to you at $24.95 per month. |
GoDaddy
GoDaddy is one of the most well-known web hosting providers, having been around since the beginning of the internet (the business began in 1997). The company is distinguished as the world’s “#1 web host” and certainly lives up to the expectation. They guarantee a 99.9% uptime, fast loading speeds, and 24/7 support.
No matter which operating system (OS) you prefer, GoDaddy has got you covered, as they offer specialized hosting services for Linux and Windows systems. Each of their plans includes (Source: GoDaddy):
- 24/7 network security supported by DDoS (distributed denial of service) protection
- 1GB of MYSQL database storage
- 1-click app integration for over 150 free apps
- Streamlined CPU, RAM, and I/O (input/output) upgrades
GoDaddy business hosting is available via the following plans:
| Launch (great for startups) | Enhance (best for those who expect high traffic volume) | Grow (ideal for eCommerce) | Expand |
| You can host unlimited websites for $29.99 per month with 60GB of storage, 2GB of RAM, and 1 CPU. This plan offers unmetered traffic and a standard SSL certificate. | For a monthly subscription of $49.99, you can host as many websites as you want with up to 90GB of storage, 4GB of RAM, 2 CPUs, and a standard SSL certificate. | Users can host unlimited websites with 120GB of storage, 6GB of RAM, and 3 CPUs. You also get a standard SSL certificate. This plan is available at $69.99 monthly. | Have as many sites as you want to be hosted with 150GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, 4 CPUs, all secured with a standard SSL certificate for $99.99 monthly. |
What is the Cheapest and Best Web Hosting Service?
As you can see, hosting services, such as those listed above, are available for a wide range of price points. Of the options listed above, GreenGeeks and Host Gator are the cheapest, yet incredibly high-value options. These two are incomparable services, achieving incredibly high-performance rates, maintaining reliable security, and supporting high traffic volumes for even those businesses with a modest budget.
Companies that are highly concerned with their business’s carbon footprint are encouraged to rely on Green Geeks for their hosting services. This way, you can give back to your community and protect the environment, all while growing your business and expanding your customer reach.
Gator Host, on the other hand, offers a vast range of highly flexible pricing options, and the available plans are not too dissimilar. The numerous plans make it incredibly easy to scale your website as needed, allowing you to rapidly adapt to fluctuating supply and demand.
How Much Should You Pay for Website Hosting?
Your small business’s budget is the primary determinant of which option is ideal for you. However, you do want to remember that “you get what you pay for.” First and foremost, you may want to avoid getting sucked into marketing campaigns that push free hosting and almost unbelievably low offers, as these may provide a sub-par business and customer experience.
However, this does not mean you can’t keep your eye out for cheap providers. As demonstrated above, there are some incomparable services available for little money, and many of them are available with highly adaptable payment plans. All you must do before you commit to a specific web host is determine how much you are willing and able to pay and your specific platform necessities.
Does Google Have Free Web Hosting?
There is a lot of confusion surrounding whether Google offers free web hosting or not. Technically, the answer to this question is yes and no. While you can set up and host a website on Google Cloud Platform for free, the setup, maintenance, security, and nearly all other features offered by the services listed above are your sole responsibility. (Note that others have also found ways to host sites on Google Drive as well.)
Further, choosing to self-host your site on either Google Cloud Platform or Google Drive for free requires coding knowledge. This alternative is not necessarily free of costs, either, as there may be restrictions imposed by the “Always Free” program. Those who exceed these restrictions are liable to be charged for the excess usage.
So, in a way, you may be able to finagle your way into getting a free web hosting service on Google. However, when it comes down to it, the providers listed above are much cheaper than the amount of work you would have to do to build and maintain your site on your own. Plus, these services come with no hidden or surprise fees. It’s best to depend on the professionals for your web hosting services. (Source: Chris Titus Tech; Process.st)
In Conclusion
Nowadays, web hosting services are available for a vast expanse of prices and platform types. Many providers offer their services for incredibly low rates, yet maintain the best performance metrics in the industry. When looking for your ideal web host, keep in mind that they should fulfill the three S’s (speed, support, and security), along with impeccable scalability and a suitable price.
Some of the best web hosts for small businesses include:
- Bluehost
- WP Engine
- Host Gator
- GreenGeeks
- GoDaddy
Each of these offer plans at budget-friendly price points, and even present customizable plans that meet the exact needs of your business. Take a close look at your business’s and customers’ needs to determine which is best for your cash flow and company growth.
Sources:
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-choose-a-web-hosting-provider/
https://www.websolutions.com/blog/how-to-choose-a-web-hosting-provider/
https://www.bluehost.com/blog/which-bluehost-hosting-package-is-right-for-you/
https://wpengine.com/more/wordpress-hosting-for-small-business/
https://www.greengeeks.com/web-hosting
https://hostingfacts.com/hosting-reviews/greengeeks/
https://www.godaddy.com/hosting/web-hosting
https://www.process.st/how-to-host-a-website-on-google-drive-for-free/