Best web hosting of 2020

No matter how good looking or smartly designed, your website will count for nothing if it is not drawing the eyes of your target audience. Web hosting services help you prop up your creation and nurture it to become a vital tool for your business and creativity.

Yet, picking out the best web hosting service among the increasing number of providers may prove to be a challenge, particularly if you are confused by the myriad of features or pricing plans on offer in 2020.

This is why we offer a helping hand in the form of a shortcut to your desired goal, which, at least in theory, means getting your hands on the best possible web hosting service perfectly tailored to your business or individual needs.

We’ve taken into account their reliability, price and technological bells and whistles that can be useful for any type of project you want to provide for. The same goes for questions related to maintenance, quality of support, available storage and bandwidth, the focus on specific platforms (such as WordPress) and security. 

All will perform their web hosting tasks competently, with the last two providers playing a twofold role of both website builder and hosting platforms. Some of the listed website host providers may offer you access to options that your website will never have the use of, so make sure you go through the entire article instead of browsing only the first few entries before settling on your web hosting service.

(Image credit: Future)

1. InMotion Web Hosting

WordPress hosting: Yes | Business hosting: Yes | Web design services: Yes | 24×7-US-based support: Yes

Superb performance

Quality support

Support for cPanel and Softaculous platforms 

InMotion Web Hosting service is a veritable veteran in the hosting business and many users will recall seeing references to it at least here and there. With this respectful background, it is easy to see why this service offers a long list of features, bundles and pricing plans for every user and pocket.

For starters, site loading performance with this solution is simply superb. This comes packaged with an access to a dedicated team of professionals who offer high-level support at any time. What separates InMotion from the rest of the crowd is its propensity to offer bonus features at no extra charge. These include protection from DDoS attacks and malware, email spam shield, and an option for the creation of functional backups. Hosting is powered by cPanel and Softaculous platforms, which act as its seals of quality. Finally, all of this is easily checkable by any user within a 90-day guarantee period which is more than enough to make up your mind about InMotion’s offer. You can also refer friends to earn a year of free web hosting.

(Image credit: Future)

2. Bluehost Web Hosting

Unmetered bandwidth: Yes | WooCommerce hosting: Yes | Free domain: Yes | 24×7-US-based support: Yes

Intuitive

Excellent WordPress support

Website builder is basic, yet functional

This US-based company offers affordable yet effective shared hosting with a variety of plans and options to suit most businesses. That’s why Bluehost has become one of the most popular web hosting services out there right now.

So whether you want a very basic Weebly-based website builder to get your small business’s online presence up and running with the minimum of fuss, or something a bit more complex with additional apps via Mojo Marketplace’s useful array – then Bluehost should give you plenty of value for your subscription money,

We also like that there are plenty of customer support options available on the off-chance that you need help or things go wrong.

(Image credit: Future)

3. Hostgator Web Hosting

Unmetered bandwidth: Yes | Unmetered disk space: Yes | Search credit: $150 | Money-back guarantee: 45 days

Unmetered bandwidth and disk space

Light on wallet

Google and Bing Ads credits 

HostGator is the web hosting service whose trump card has “budget” written all over it. Several pricing plans are available for each & every pocket and project profile, with at least two of them offering attractive features in addition to having cute names (Hatchling and Baby, no less). Yet, there is nothing minuscule about the options you can lay your hands on with HostGator. They include unmetered bandwidth and disk space, support for FTP and email accounts, MYSQL databases and subdomains.  

You will also enjoy the benefits of cPanel-based website management, with honorable mention going for Google and Bing Ads credits in the amount of $150. The package comes with at least two guarantees, one having to do with 99.9 percent uptime and the other with a 45-day money-back guarantee.

The only “drawback” HostGator is guilty of, together with the host of other providers of budget plans, is the fact that its cheapest plan covers only one website. This is hardly a cause of alarm when the next plan in line costs only a fraction more and even it will hardly leave a dent in your hosting budget.

(Image credit: 1&1 Ionos)

4. 1&1 IONOS Web Hosting

Baremetal servers: Yes | Free SSL certificate: Yes | Secure hacker protection: Yes | Email marketing: Yes

Packs a lot of value for the price

SSL support

Excellent connectivity

German 1&1 (as of late 2018, it’s called 1&1 IONOS) remains a force to be reckoned with in Europe, with the ambition to conquer the rest of the world. This plan is to be spurred by attractive pricing (the competitors would say aggressive) for a web hosting which involves a list of features too long to be listed in full here.

SSL certificate support is included in all packages, together with your personal consultant and free domain. Topping the offer is a robust network connectivity rocking impressive 300Gbps, paired with geo-redundancy technology, free web design software as well as around-the-clock access to a top-notch support team via phone or email. Yes, you can try all of this within 30 days, with a money back guarantee if you dare to fail to be impressed.

(Image credit: Future)

5. Tsohost Web Hosting

Unlimited Bandwith: Yes | Unlimited Storage: Yes (except Economy plan) | Free SSL: Only for higher plans (50% off for low-tier plans) | Premium Email Features: Yes

Budget-friendly

Feature-price ratio

30-day money-back guarantee

At first glance, it may seem that Tsohost wants to battle it out with HostGator in the budget segment – the £3.99 per month (1-year plan) for Economy option surely gives it run for its money. This attractive package includes obligatory unlimited bandwidth, hundred mailboxes and 50% off Standard SSL (only higher plans give free SSL), with 100GB storage being shown in the fine print in the contract package.

Yet, you are hardly limited in terms of plans and options on offer which will easily satisfy even the most jaded user. First of all, you can go for cPanel hosting or the one provided with the help of Tsohost’s native cloud web hosting platform and console. In any case, performance will remain at more than satisfying levels. Tech support on the offer is fully competent and 30-day money-back guarantee is sufficiently long.

(Image credit: Future)

6. GoDaddy Web Hosting

SEO Services: Yes | Free domain: Yes | Database backup and restore: Yes | Unmetered bandwidth: Yes

Accessible and user-friendly

Fast

Versatile pricing options 

GoDaddy wants to stand out as a literal daddy of all web hosting services, at least in terms of its popularity. You will find references to it in all virtual places and all for a good reason. First, it is a fast service packaged with a largely accessible and user-friendly basic website builder. It offers access to Linux hosting with cPanel tech beating at its heart.

As for the freebies, GoDaddy will not keep its fist clenched, with gratis backup and restore options, free domain with the annual plan, and a one-year subscription to Microsoft Office 365 Business Email.  Unlimited storage is provided for all options apart from the Economy one (100GB) together with the unlimited bandwidth. The Economy plan is the cheapest one with a price of $8.99 a month (at the moment of writing there was a sale, with pricing starting at $5.99). In the end, GoDaddy gives you an option to boost your hosting capacity on demand whenever a situation, such as traffic surge, requires you to do so.

(Image credit: Future)

7. Wix Web Hosting

Online store: Optional | Free domain: Yes | Search credits: $75+ (depends on the plan) | Professional site review: Optional

Fusing website building and hosting

Accessible

Great templates

Surrounded by agile web hosting competitors, the Wix service plays the web building support card as its miracle weapon. It operates as a website building service, with hosting added not as an afterthought but as an option perfectly capable of standing on its own legs.

This fusion allowed Wix to gather a community of more than 100 million active users who get the benefit of its versatile pricing plans and rich options for building a website in line with your visions and ambition. Its robust editor allows you to tweak any aspect of the site’s appearance and functionality in a myriad of ways, while the less imaginative web builders will salute having access to more than 500 templates.

As of February, Wix Turbo was introduced which considerably improves the speed and the performance of websites. Web hosting segment is not neglected either, with both free and unlimited plans offering attractive enough set of options for any type of budget and purpose.

(Image credit: Future)

8. Weebly Web Hosting

SSL Security: Yes | Drag and drop builder: Yes | Search credits: $100 | Free SEO tools: Yes

Just like other providers on our list who share agendas and target audience, Weebly has a score to settle with Wix, as both of them want to charm the same crowd of users who are into website building. Weebly wants to be a more intuitive among the two, with its powerful drag-and-drop engine allowing even the least talented users to build a website of their own. Even their more experienced colleagues will raise their thumbs at the sight of the vast template database which will turn website building into a Lego-like affair.

As for the hosting, the options start with the Free version which will cost you zero dollars, with several restrictions being its only “price tag”. You’ll be limited to 500MB of storage and unable to remove ads from your website.  If it bothers you, you better look in the direction of the Professional plan.

Even this package offers you a glimpse of a wide range of features which Weebly hands out like a demented Santa – starting from the support for building your own web store with functional coupons, customer reviews and inventory management, all the way to the organization of email marketing campaigns for more ambitious users.

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