In order to do a job efficiently, small businesses tend to balance the need to obtain better tools and services against the budget which forces them to pick and choose. However, there are some domains where it’s impossible to cut corners or find savings, but others serve excellent possibilities to reduce expenses while obtaining top services. When it comes to finding the best web hosting for small businesses, you don’t have to sacrifice quality for savings.
It’s worth noting that there are hundreds of web hosting providers clamoring for your dollar. Most web services are primarily targeted at home users and don’t have the power that businesses need. However, there are also some great web hosting services around that understand exactly what small businesses need.
In this article, we’ve broken down the best options to give you a definite idea of where a web hosting provider’s strengths lie, and what’s most important to you.
Also see: TeamWave.com – Integrated CRM, Project Management & HR platform.
Best Web Hosting for Small Businesses
A2Hosting – Fastest Shared Web Host
A2 Hosting is one of the fastest shared web hosting that provides high-quality solutions and its excellent benefits make it stand out from its bigger competitors. It offers fast, reliable hosting services with 336ms average load time.
A2 Hosting also gives users an integrated Git Repository, as well as FTP accounts and integrations. It provides an exceptional experience for novice and advanced users.
Pricing: Starts from $3.92/mo
Pros
- Fast Load Time
- Quick and Efficient Support
- Robust hosting packages for popular CMS’s
- Free Site Migration
Cons
- Not every plan has a Windows server option
- Restrictions on Cheapest Plan
- Initial setup can be daunting—especially for beginners.
HostGator Cloud – Unlimited Hosting
Packed with features, HostGator offers its users unlimited bandwidth, storage space, and email accounts. It is one of the most popular web hosting providers that offer a wide range of useful plans for consumers and small businesses.
If you decide to transfer your website to one host from another, you can do it easily with Hostgator with its free site migration. It also allows you to opt Windows or Linux once you move up to VPS or dedicated servers.
Pricing: Starts from $2.99/mo
Pros
- Outstanding Uptime
- Unlimited Email Accounts
- No Bandwidth/Storage Limit
- Free Site Migration
Cons
- No Windows-based VPS hosting.
- Higher Renewal Cost
- A confusing number of hosting packages.
DreamHost – Best for Web Developers
With more than 400,000 active customers, DreamHost links affordable prices with a huge assortment of tools to present well-rounded basic and advanced plans. It provides unlimited bandwidth, emails, SFTP users or MySQL databases.
DreamHost is a strong all-round package. Its new easy website builder tool makes hosting more welcoming to beginners as well. DreamHost also contributes to opensource initiatives.
Pricing: Starts from $2.59/mo
Pros
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Strong Security Features
- Unlimited Data Transfers
- 97-Day Money Back Guarantee
Cons
- No cPanel
- No true reseller hosting plans
- No telephone support
Hostinger – Cheapest Web Hosting
With over 29 million customers, Hostinger is one of the most affordable web hosting services with prices starting at $0.80/mo. It manages to blend their cheap pricing with plenty of features and tools, augmenting both with fast and knowledgeable support.
Hostinger also has cheap VPS packages with a starting price of $3.95. However, some major add-ons such as priority support and SSL certificate aren’t included in the basic plans which will set you back some more money.
Pricing: Starts from $0.80/mo
Pros
- Cheapest Plan
- FREE Domain Name
- Intuitive drag-and-drop website builder
- Unlimited bandwidth and SSD space
Cons
- No dedicated server plans
- SSL Not Included
- No WordPress hosting package
SiteGround – Best WordPress Support
SiteGround is an excellent web hosting service that’s more than worthy of being the foundation for your website, especially if you’re looking to use WordPress. It has a strong reputation in the marketplace and plenty to offer new customers.
Although Siteground is expensive with a starting price of $3.95/month, it offers free SSL certificates, site migration, CDN, email accounts, and daily backups. However, you need to look for other alternatives if you need VPS servers, Windows servers, or plans offering lots of storage.
Pricing: Starts from $3.95/mo
Pros
- High-Performance WordPress Hosting
- Free Site Migration
- Easy to Use, includes cPanel
- Excellent Customer Service.
Cons
- ‘Setup Fee’ for Monthly Billing
- Limited Storage Space
- No month-to-month shared hosting plans
iPage – Best for Small Websites
Founded in 1998, iPage is one of the oldest web hosting providers that brings a lot to the table. It boasts outstanding features such as intuitive drag-and-drop website builder, a diverse selection of 1-click shopping cart integrations, unlimited MySQL databases, etc that should satisfy most expert users.
iPage offers some extensive features like free 24/7 live chat and over the phone support, unlimited bandwidth, storage, and domain names and a free SSL certificate. However, they don’t offer cPanel access.
Pricing: Starts from $1.99/mo
Pros
- Enhanced Security Options
- Highly reliable uptimes and ultra-fast load times
- Free SSL Included
- Upfront Pricing
Cons
- Expensive Domain Names
- No cPanel
- Higher Renewal Cost
GoDaddy – Most Popular Web Host
GoDaddy is easily one of the most well-known domain registrars and hosting provider that emerged into a mature and adaptable web hosting provider by offering an array of tools and services to help satisfy most websites” needs.
GoDaddy offers rich website-creation tools and excellent customer support options. It also aims to offer dedicated resources and high performance to VPS hosting, with the clear cPanel-style management of a shared hosting service.
Pricing: Starts from $3.66/mo
Pros
- Excellent customer support
- Windows- and Linux-based servers
- Managed WordPress hosting
- Fast Load Time
Cons
- Emails, Backups, and SSL Cost Extra
- No cloud hosting
- Skimpy default email plans
Bluehost – Best Uptime Hosting
Bluehost is one of the best web hosting for small businesses because of their uptime and speed – 99.99% and 0.41ms respectively. It is a WordPress-recommended hosting provider that offers a wide range of tools and features that make you easy-to-setup, maintain and scale one or more websites.
Bluehost allows users to create complex backend configurations—- which can be a huge factor for smaller businesses that are just starting to build their brand and require reliable hosting.
Pricing: Starts from $2.95/mo
Pros
- Cheap “Intro” Cost
- Easy to Use and Signup
- 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
- Easy to set up a new WordPress website with a rich array of tools.
Cons
- Customer service is slow
- Insistent about upselling products you may not need during the signup process.
- No Free Site Migrations
Recommended reading: 10 Best Project Management Tools for Small Business