How should you compare web hosts?
If you're choosing a host for the first time, it can be overwhelming to try to figure out what you should be comparing web hosts on
Do you compare only by price?
By customer support
By largest disk space?
It's really tough, since the features, wants, needs are different for everyone. Let's highlight a few.
1) Compare web hosts on value not price
You shouldn't compare web hosts just purely on the price.
If you've literally got $2 a month you can afford for hosting, well, maybe you'll just have to go with that. But if you can swing a few more dollars, there's a world of other things to compare that go into value beyond just price.
Price = the raw $ amount that the hosting will cost you
Value = what you actually get for that price
Let's use a hypothetical situation, you have two options:
- Web host A costs $3 a month, but you can only host one website, are only allowed 100 visitors a month, and you don't get email hosting
- Web host B costs $5 a month, but you can host unlimited websites, can have unlimited traffic, and it comes with email hosting
What's a better value? Clearly it's web host B.
2) Customer service for hosting is king
If you're not an experience developer or techy, you're going to need the customer service at a hosting company.
In fact, if you look at all the bad web hosting reviews, the #1 thing that comes up is customer service.
People get royally pissed off if the customer service takes 45 minutes to get on chat.
In fact, good customer service from a hosting company can more than make up for lower quality features, speed, and uptime.
3) Check the uptime percentages
It's one of the most basic things you want in a host: that the website is actually live.
Ideally your web host would have 100% uptime. But that's statistically impossible (I think).
So it's really, really important to check uptime percentages with a hosting company. The good ones will release these stats for you. The bad ones will try to hide it.
In reality, 99% uptime is not that good. It means your website will be down for 87.6 hours a year. That's not good enough for me.
Look for hosts with 99.999999% uptime.
Other hosting features to compare
There are so many things to compare, it's bewildering, here's just a few of them:
- Bandwith
- Storage space
- Site speed
- WordPress support
- SSL certificates
- Caching tools
The list goes on. What you need to do is create a list of your business needs and thoroughly research what's best for you!
Huge Top 25 Hosting Comparison Table (Our Research)
| Host | Wp Engine | A2 Hosting | Siteground | Bluehost | Dreamhost | Go Daddy | Hostgator | Inmotion Hosting | Media Temple | Ipage | Hostpapa | Green Geeks | Ix Web Hosting | Justhost | Lunarpages | Fat Cow Com | Myhosting Com | Network Solutions | One Com | Eukhost | Web Com | Web Hosting Hub | Web Hosting Pad Com | Arvixe | 1And1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Score | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | Medium | Medium | Medium | Low | Low | Low | Low | Low | Low | Low | Low | Low | Low | Low | Low | Low | Low | Low |
| Home URL | https://wpengine.com/ | https://www.a2hosting.com/ | https://www.siteground.com/ | https://www.bluehost.com/ | https://www.dreamhost.com/ | https://www.godaddy.com | http://www.hostgator.com | http://www.inmotionhosting.com/ | https://www.mediatemple.net/ | https://www.ipage.com | http://www.hostpapa.com/ | https://www.greengeeks.com/ | http://www.ixwebhosting.com/ | https://www.justhost.com/ | http://www.lunarpages.com/ | http://www.fatcow.com/ | https://myhosting.com/ | http://www.networksolutions.com | https://www.one.com/ | https://www.eukhost.com/ | http://www.web.com/ | http://www.webhostinghub.com/ | http://www.webhostingpad.com/ | https://www.arvixe.com/ | https://www.1and1.com |
| Pricing Page | https://wpengine.com/plans/#plan-finder-container | https://www.a2hosting.com/web-hosting | https://www.siteground.com/web-hosting.htm | https://www.bluehost.com/shared | https://www.dreamhost.com/hosting/shared/ | https://www.godaddy.com/hosting/web-hosting | http://www.hostgator.com/shared | http://www.inmotionhosting.com/business-hosting | https://mediatemple.net/webhosting/ | https://www.ipage.com/web-hosting | http://www.hostpapa.com/web-hosting-plan/ | https://www.greengeeks.com/web-hosting/ | http://www.ixwebhosting.com/hosting-plans | https://www.justhost.com/hosting-features | http://www.lunarpages.com/hosting/web/compare | http://www.fatcow.com/fatcow/hosting.bml | https://myhosting.com/web-hosting/ | http://www.networksolutions.com/web-hosting/hosting-package-comparison.jsp | https://www.one.com/en/ | https://www.eukhost.com/web-hosting/ | http://www.web.com/hosting/unix.aspx | http://www.webhostinghub.com/hosting-plans | http://www.webhostingpad.com/web-hosting.html | https://www.arvixe.com/linux_web_hosting | https://www.1and1.com/web-hosting |
| Cheapest Plan Name | Personal | Lite | StartUp | Basic | shared website hosting plan | Economy | Hatchling Plan | Launch | Shared Hosting - Personal Plan | The iPage Essential Plan | Starter | ONE WEB HOSTING PLAN | Expert Plan | web hosting features | Starter Hosting | The Original FatCow Plan | Personal Website | Essential Hosting | Starter | Starter Plan | Essential Hosting | Spark | Power Plan | PersonalClass | Unlimited |
| Cheapest Plan Cost Sale Price | $29/mo (20% off with current coupon) | 3.92 per mo | $3.95/mo | $3.95/mo | $7.95/mo | $3.99/month | $3.95/mo | $4.89/mo. | $20 per month | $1.99/mo | $2.95/month | $3.96PER MONTH | $3.95 per month | $3.95 per month | 3.95 per month | $49/yr | $4.95/month | $9.96/mo | 1 year free | £3.99 per month | $5.95/mo | $4.99/mo | $ 1.99 /mo | $4.00/mo | $0.99/month |
| Cheapest Plan Cost Regular Price | $29/mo | 7.99 | $9.95/mo | $7.99/month | $7.95/month | $7.99/month | $9.20/mo | $6.99/month | $20 per month | $11.95/mo | $2.95/month | $9.95/mo | $7.95 per month | $7.99 per month | 3.95 per month | $12.95/month | $9.94/mo | $9.96/mo | $2.45/mo | $5.20/mo | $9.95/mo | $8.99/mo | $ 1.99 /mo | $7/month | $6.99/month |
| Number of websites allowed | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Unlimited | 1 | 1 | 2 | 100 sites | 1 | 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | 100 | 1 | Multiple | 100 | 2 | Unlimited | 6 | 1 |
| Space | 10GB | Unlimited | 10GB | 50 GB | Unlimited | 100GB | Unmetered | UNLIMITED | 20 GB | Unlimited | 100GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | 5 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | 300 GB | 15 GB storage | 5 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth/data transfer/Visits Limit | 25k visits | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unmetered | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unmetered | Unlimited | 1TB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | 50 GB per month | no set limit | No limit | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Best for | Growing WordPress sites | Multi-site owners | Everybody | Bloggers | Bloggers | Small businesses | Tech-saavy Bloggers | Business from the early 2000s | Designers | Old-school geeks | Old businesses | Environmental bloggers | Nobody | Nobody | Nobody | Nobody | Bloggers | Old folk | Nobody | Nobody | Nobody | Randos | Nobody | Nobody | Old folk |
| Database Limit | 10GB, Scales beyond that with pricing | 5 | Unlimited MySQL DB | There is limit for database tables it is 1000 tables. | Unlimited | Unlimited | UNLIMITED | 2 | 100 | Unlimited | 25 | no limit | 1 gb | Unlimited | 1 | Unlimited | ? | 25 (300MB) | Single | 400 MB per DB | 25 (300MB) | 10 | Unlimited | Unlimited | 20 |
| Staging Area | Yes, included. | Included | No | Not included | Included | Not included | Not included | Yes, Included | Yes, Included | Yes, Included | Yes, Included | Yes, Included | Yes, Included | Yes, Included | Yes, Included | N/A | N/A | Not included | Not included | N/A | No | No | No | Included | Included |
| Free Domain? | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Discount | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Website Transfer? | Automated with plugin | Yes, free | Yes, free | 150 | FTP only | Yes, free | Yes, free | Yes, free | 150 | Yes, Free | Yes | Yes, free | Yes | 149 | No | 150 | Free for small sites | Yes, free | Yes, not free | Yes, Paid | Yes, free | Free for small sites | Yes, free | Yes, Free | Yes, free |
| Email Hosting? | No | 25 | Yes, free | 5 email account | Yes, free | Yes, free | Yes, free | Yes, free | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes, free | Unlimited | Yes, free | 5 email account | Yes, free | Yes, free | 1000 | Email is free and size of your we space will rule the limits. Example with 15 GB Starter package and one email | 25 | 100 | Yes, free | Unlimited | Yes, free | 100 |
| Support Type? | Email 24/7 and chat during business hours. | 24/7/365 US-Based Guru Crew Support | 24/7 Support | 24/7 Support | 24/7/365 via live chat, email, and Twitter | 24/7 Technical Support | 24/7/365 Support | 24 x 7 x 365 US-Based Support | 24/7 Technical Support | 24/7 phone, chat and email support | 24/7 Multilingual Support (Chat & Email) | 24/7/365 US-Based Support | 24/7/365 support | 24/7 Technical Support | 24/7/365 Support | 24x7 Support | 24/7 In-House Email, Chat and Phone Support | 24x7 Technical Support | 24/7 Support | 24/7/365 U.S. Based Tech Support | 24/7 U.S. Based Support | 24/7 Phone & E-mail Support | |||
| Email/Ticket Support? | Yes, 24/7. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Chat Support? | 6AM-8PM CST | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Phone Support? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes, callback | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Avg. Support Response Time | 30 seconds | 24 hours | 5 minutes | Within 24 hours | 24hrs | Right now our tickets are taking around 72 hours to be resolved | They will respond not later than 4 hours | 10 hours | a minute on average | few hours | 15-30 mins | 2 hours | 24 hours | There is no ETA for this. As it depends on how many tickets are in help desk. How ever we try to get back to you as fast as possible. | 12 to 24 hours | 30 mins for the the 1st response and 1-2hrs for the second response | 24 to 48 hours | We answer to our emails in 24 hours but our English chat is open 24/7 | 30-60 minutes | Within 24 hours | no later than 4 hours | 5 minutes | Depends on the way they are received. and we try our best in resolving and getting in touch with our customers. Few hours. | Up to several days | |
| Uptime (last 12 mos) | 99.95% guarantee | 0.999 | 0.99996 | we are not able to say the uptime percentage, since it is a shared hosting. | 1 | 0.999 | 1 | 0.999 | 0.999 | 0.999 | 0.999 | 0.99 | 0.999 | 0.9999 | 1 | 0.9999 | 0.9995 | 0.9999 | 99.9% or better | 0.99 | 0.999 | 0.9999 | |||
| Backup? | Daily, free. 60-day archive. | no available | Free, daily backup | Daily backup | Free, daily backups | Free Daily Backup | Instant Backup | Free data backup | snapshot backup | Website Backup Software | Alternatively if you wish you can take the backup of your website manually from cPanel | FREE Nightly Backups | Backups are done 2 times a week | daily, weekly and monthly backups | daily backup but restoring is not free hence we advise to have addon service. | last 7 days Backup | Daily Back-up | 7 day backup | two weeks | Free Backup | Manual backuping or automatically backup every 24 hrs for $1/mo | Free Backups† | Daily R1Soft Backups | daily / Webspace Recovery | |
| Website builder? | No | Yes, free | Yes, Free | Yes, Free | Yes, Free | Yes, Free | Yes, Free | Not included | Yes | Yes, Free | Yes | Yes, free | Yes, free | Yes, free | Yes, free | Yes | Yes, free | Yes, free | Yes, free | Yes, Free | Yes, free | Yes, free | Yes, Free | optional | |
| cPanel? | No, unique interface. | Yes, included | Yes, included | Yes, included | No, inhouse | Yes, included | Yes, included | Yes, included | Yes, included | not included | Yes, included | Yes, included | Not included | Yes, included | Starter plan can have cPanel for extra $2/month. | Yes, included | Not included | Not included | We do not use cPanel, we have our own control panel. | Yes, included | Yes, included | Yes, included | Yes, included | Yes, included | Yes, included |
| SSH Access? | No. "As we are a fully managed host, we do not provide ssh or root access. However, you can access your database via SFTP and phpmyadmin." | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes, we do offer SSH for extra $2/month. | No | Business, limited. Full, VPS | No | no | Purchased separately | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Money-Back Guarantee? | 60-Days | anytime | 30-Days | You can get the refund according to what you have paid anytime but according to the terms and conditions. | 97-day | 30 Days | 45 Days | 90 Days | 30 days | 30-days | 30-day | 30-day | 90 day | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | 30-day | 30 day | 15-day | 30 days | None | 90-day | 30 days | before 60 days | 30 day |
| WordPress Friendly? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Joomla Friendly? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| CDN? | $19.99/mo | Free | Free Cloudflare CDN | Free Cloudflare CDN | Yes, free | Free Cloudflare CDN | Not anymore are we in partnership with cloudflare now we promote the Sitelock CDN | No | No | Free 1GB cloud storage account | Free Cloudflare | Free Cloudflare CDN | No | Free | Unfortunately we do not offer CDN , how ever you are welcome to use it from CDN site. | 1 Gb | Free Cloudflare | No | Yes | https://www.eukhost.com/cloudflare.php ( You'll need to signup with cloudfare and get in touch with our techs) | N/A | No | Free Cloudflare | Free Cloudflare CDN | optional |
| SSL | $49.99/yr | Yes | Yes but not free | Free | not eligible | shared SSL | 1 site free for annual plan | Not Free | Free | Yes | Yes | Yes, we do offer shared SSL for emails/control panels and HTML pages. Please note shared SSL is not supported for PHP/Java pages. | Yes but not free | Vanity SSL Certificate | Yes, not free | Yes | Yes | Purchased separately | Shared SSL | no | Not Free | Yes, included | |||
| Security Details | Proactive WordPress security keeps your data and your website safe. | Perpetual Security | Sophisticated security systems. | Domain privacy, spam protection. | Malware Remover, Let's Encrypt, Free Domain Privacy, HTTP/2, mod_security, lua-resty-waf | malware removal extra cost $300/year | Making regular backups of your website | firewalls on servers, no malware scanners | Sitelock | Server Firewall, Monitoring & Intrusion Detection | Real Time Security Scanning | Sitelock | Mod Security website security software and server software firewalls. Our datacenters have hardware firewalls as well. Our senior technical staff monitor our servers using NAGIOS | Malware scan, prevents site blacklisting, and provides sitelock badge $1.94/mo | Web page password protection | Security is extra | Domain privacy | Sitelock purchased separately, with firewalls and malware scans | We make sure that the server itself is protected | Global firewalls, malware scans upon request, and sitelock for purchas extra $30/year | Nightly Security Updates | DDoS protection and geo-redundancy included | |||
| Other features | They are 100% focused on WordPress websites. ENTERPRISE-GRADE SECURITY Proactive WordPress security keeps your data and your website safe. | Google Ads credits of $200 | Unlimited storage, database, and websites |