The fastest web hosting providers offer plans with features to boost website speed, including solid-state-drive (SSD) storage, website caching, content delivery networks (CDNs), and data center choices. We reviewed 20+ fast web hosting providers to find the top six—including the best overall—based on price, add-ons, speed-boosting features, ease of use, and reviews.
Top 6 Fastest Web Hosts 2019
Web Hosting Provider | Best For |
---|---|
(Best Overall) Companies looking for fast global website speeds | |
Companies needing fast hosting for sites with dynamic multimedia or interactive content | |
Less tech-savvy businesses looking for a fast, easy-to-build WordPress website | |
Companies needing fast web hosting with guaranteed 100% uptime | |
Marketers needing fast load times for sites that experience traffic surges | |
Startups needing fast hosting for under $3 per month |
How We Evaluated the Fastest Web Hosting Providers
Small businesses need to deliver superior online experiences to make a sale; however, no matter how hard they work to design their websites, they can’t deliver superior customer experiences with frustratingly slow load times. Therefore, they not only need web hosting plans that offer an all-in-one tool set for easily hosting, creating, and running a website, but they need added features that increase site load speeds for a positive visitor experience.
As such, the criteria we used to evaluate the best fast web hosting providers include:
- Price: To ensure this list is small business affordable, we preferred providers that offer starting plans for less than $10 per month.
- Caching: Website caching is when a piece of content—like a static image or video—is saved in a server’s memory so it doesn’t have to be retrieved from your server each time a website visitor accesses it. This improves load times. We preferred providers that offer, at a minimum, static content caching to reduce load times.
- SSD storage: We favored web hosting providers that offer fast solid state drive (SSD) storage as opposed to the much slower hard disk drive (HDD) storage.
- CDN: A CDN is a system of distributed servers around the globe, each of which stores a website’s content. When website visitors access the site, content is delivered to them from the nearest server to reduce delivery time. We looked for hosting providers that offer a content delivery network (CDN) in their web hosting plans.
- Data center choices: A choice of data centers allows you to control where your website data is stored. By choosing the data center closest to your audience, content is delivered to website visitors via the fastest route possible. We included providers that offer a choice of data centers both in the United States and around the globe.
- Add-ons: The best web hosting providers offer add-ons to create an all-in-one tool set for businesses to create and run a website. Basic add-ons for building a website include a domain, a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate for website security, website backups and one-click restore options, drag-and-drop website builders, and email. We looked for all of these in our review.
- Uptime: Fast website load times don’t matter if the site is down. As such, we listed providers that offer, at a minimum, a 99.9% uptime.
- Ease of use: We sought out web hosting plans with features that make it easy to build and manage a website, including the intuitive cPanel for managing website and hosting features, drag-and-drop website builders, website themes, and one-click installations.
- Customer reviews: We preferred web hosting plans that have an overall 4-star rating on hosting review sites, as well as positive customer reviews. Where there were constructive negative comments or genuine concern about a service, we noted these as well.
Based on these criteria, we found that SiteGround is the fastest web hosting provider for small businesses. With basic plans starting at just $3.95 per month, SiteGround offers the features necessary to create and run a small business website, including a free domain, email, and website backups. In addition, they include robust speed-boosting features like SSD storage, a choice of global data centers, 99.9% uptime, and a CDN.
SiteGround: Overall Fastest Web Hosting for Small Businesses
SiteGround is a web hosting provider with plans starting at $3.95 per month. They offer three data centers across the globe so you can choose the closest one to your audience for faster load times. Their plans also offer content caching and a CDN to ensure content loads instantly. It is best for companies with global audiences and complex websites, like large ecommerce or news sites with lots of traffic and personalized experiences.
SiteGround Pricing
SiteGround’s competitively priced $3.95 per month StartUp plan covers one website and includes a 30-day money-back guarantee, 10GB SSD storage, static content caching, three databases, an SSL certificate, and a CDN. Their $5.95 per month GrowBig plan further offers unlimited websites, dynamic content caching, and 20GB SSD storage. Finally, their $11.95 GoGeek plan also offers 30GB SSD storage.
SiteGround Tiered Pricing & Features
Plan | StartUp | GrowBig | GoGeek |
---|---|---|---|
Price | $3.95/month | $5.95/month | $11.95/month |
Money-back Guarantee | 30-day | 30-day | 30-day |
Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Storage | 10GB SSD | 20GB SSD | 30GB SSD |
Email | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Backups | Daily | Daily & on demand | Daily & on demand |
Caching | Static content cache | Static content, dynamic content | Static content, dynamic content |
Uptime | 99.9% | 99.9% | 99.9% |
Data Centers | USA, Europe, Asia-Pacific | USA, Europe, Asia-Pacific | USA, Europe, Asia-Pacific |
Support | Standard | Standard | Advanced priority |
SSL Certificate | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
CDN | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
White Label Hosting & Client Logins | ✔ |
StartUp
SiteGround’s $3.95 per month StartUp plan offers a 30-day money-back guarantee and covers one website. The plan also includes 10GB SSD storage (for faster load times), an SSL certificate for website security, unlimited email, daily backups, static content caching to ensure fast load times, 99.9% uptime, and 24/7 support. Their free Cloudflare CDN caches static website content and distributes it over 100 servers worldwide to increase website load times.
With just 10GB SSD storage and static content caching (like images), this plan is best for websites that offer basic experiences and expect fewer than 10,000 visitors per month. It would be a good option for simple photography or art ecommerce sites that process payments, given the plan’s SSL certificate.
GrowBig
SiteGround’s $5.95 per month GrowBig plan offers the StartUp plan features plus unlimited websites, 20GB SSD storage, Cloudflare CDN, 24/7 support, and daily and on-demand website backups. It also offers advanced caching of static and dynamic content. Dynamic content includes text, images, and other multimedia elements that change based on user preferences and behavior—like homepages with individualized product recommendations.
This plan can accommodate 25,000 visitors per month and allows for fast load times for dynamic content. As such, it is best for more established websites that offer personalized experiences based on users’ behavior or preferences. For example, it would work well for news sites that serve specific content to different regions or ecommerce stores that personalize their homepage to reflect people’s product interests or purchase history.
GoGeek
SiteGround’s $11.95 per month GoGeek plan offers all the robust features of the GrowBig plan, plus an extra 10GB SSD storage (30GB total), advanced 24/7 priority support, and the ability to add clients to the back end of the website so they can access the website tools you’ve installed without them seeing SiteGround branding (though this plan does not offer reseller hosting). You can also assign logins for collaborators from your own team.
With advanced caching features and the ability to add clients and collaborators to websites you’re designing, this plan is best for agencies that manage highly complex websites for clients. For example, they may be responsible for designing and managing large ecommerce stores that can handle up to 100,000 monthly visits.
SiteGround Ease of Use
SiteGround offers the gold standard cPanel for managing your website hosting. This is considered one of the most intuitive control panels on the market. Because it allows you to manage hosting tasks (like installing a CMS, choosing a database, or setting up email addresses) via just a couple of clicks and by filling out simple forms, it is easy enough for non-tech-savvy users to navigate.
SiteGround Customer Support
SiteGround provides 24/7 customer support via live chat, ticket, and phone. They report an average problem resolution time of less than five minutes. If you’ve purchased the GoGeek plan, you get priority support, meaning you get priority access to the most experienced and knowledgeable technical support so your questions and problems are answered first.
What SiteGround Is Missing
SiteGround does not offer an anytime money-back guarantee. They also don’t offer unlimited storage in their shared hosting plans. For these features, consider A2 Hosting. Finally, they don’t offer free plugins like the premium Jetpack WordPress plugin. For this, consider InMotion.
What Users Think About SiteGround
Users who posted reviews on WhoIsHostingThis.com gave SiteGround an average 5-star review, saying SiteGround offers very responsive and knowledgeable customer support. They say their problems are solved within minutes. They also praise SiteGround for their fast and reliable website hosting services and an intuitive-to-use cPanel for managing their accounts.
Where to Find SiteGround
SiteGround’s advanced caching and Turbo server makes this hosting plan an ideal one for companies looking to create superior website experiences without sacrificing website speed. To sign up, navigate to SiteGround’s homepage and scroll to find the “Web Hosting” tile. Click “Get Started,” then select a plan and try it risk-free under their 30-day money-back guarantee. Click here to get started with SiteGround risk-free.
A2 Hosting: Best Fast Web Hosting for Dynamic Websites
Starting at $3.95 per month, A2 Hosting is a web hosting provider with advanced caching features. Their $9.31 Turbo plan includes a Turbo server, which offers 20x the load times of standard servers plus advanced caching and few users per server. This lends to website stability. As such, A2 Hosting is best for companies like retail brands that need super-fast dynamic website experiences, like personalized homepages for each user, to boost sales.
A2 Hosting Pricing
A2 Hosting’s $3.95 per month Lite plan offers a money-back guarantee, one website, unlimited SSD storage, 99.9% uptime, four data centers, backups, an SSL certificate, and a CDN. Their $4.90 per month Swift plan further offers unlimited websites and their $9.31 per month Turbo plan offers 20x the speed of other plans via advanced caching.
A2 Hosting Tiered Pricing & Features
Plan | Lite | Swift | Turbo |
---|---|---|---|
Price | $3.95/month | $4.90/month | $9.31/month |
Money-back Guarantee | Anytime | Anytime | Anytime |
Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Storage | Unlimited SSD | Unlimited SSD | Unlimited SSD |
Uptime | 99.9% | 99.9% | 99.9% |
Data Centers | Michigan, Arizona, Amsterdam, Singapore | Michigan, Arizona, Amsterdam, Singapore | Michigan, Arizona, Amsterdam, Singapore |
Email Addresses | 25 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Website Backups | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
SSL Certificate | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
CDN | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Turbo Server | ✔ |
Lite
A2 Hosting’s $3.95 per month Lite plan offers an anytime money-back guarantee and covers one website, unlimited SSD storage, a 99.9% uptime, an SSL certificate, four data centers (in Michigan, Arizona, Amsterdam, and Singapore), website backups, 25 email addresses, and a CDN for faster website load times across the globe. Their anytime money-back guarantee offers a full refund the first month, then a prorated refund for unused services after 30 days.
This plan offers impressive unlimited website storage but only offers one website. However, its SSL certificate makes it a good option for ecommerce sites; unlimited SSD storage means it can host an online store with a large inventory. However, without the Turbo server, it would not be a good option for complex ecommerce stores that offer personalized browsing experiences based on user behavior, demographics, or purchase history.
Swift
A2 Hosting’s $4.90 per month Swift plan offers all the features of the Lite Plan, including an anytime money-back guarantee, unlimited websites, SSD storage, 99.9% uptime, SSL certificate, CDN, and four data center choices. It further offers unlimited email and unlimited websites, meaning users can build as many websites as they’d like under this plan.
Given that this plan offers unlimited SSD storage and websites, a CDN, and a larger choice of data centers across the globe than SiteGround, it is a good option for companies that serve multiple international markets. These features enable fast load times for sites regardless of where in the world visitors access the site. As such, it would be a good fit for news sites that offer separate websites for different regions of the world.
Turbo
A2 Hosting’s $9.31 per month Turbo plan offers all the features of the Swift plan, plus powerful tools to speed up your website. It includes a Turbo server, which is 20x faster than the servers offered on other plans, and also offers advanced caching of both static and dynamic content.
The Turbo plan offers incredible speed for complex websites. It can quickly load personalized homepages or unique browsing experiences based on visitor characteristics or behavior. Unlimited websites, unlimited storage, and the Turbo server makes it great for large ecommerce businesses with multiple brands in their portfolio and lots of product images and videos. It would also work well for high-traffic news sites that publish images and stream videos daily.
A2 Hosting Ease of Use
A2 Hosting offers a cPanel for managing your hosting plan. This provides an intuitive interface that only requires a few clicks or filling out simple forms to complete tasks like managing your domains, setting up email accounts, or choosing your data center. You can also choose between different cPanel “themes” to align with your preferences by clicking “Preferences” and then “Change Style” from your cPanel entry screen.
A2 Hosting Customer Support
A2 Hosting offers customer support via live chat, phone, and ticket 24/7/365. You can access their customer support by scrolling down to their “Need Help?” section on their homepage. They also offer a robust knowledge base with a search bar you can use to find tutorials or guides by keyword.
What A2 Hosting Is Missing
Unlike SiteGround, A2 Hosting does not offer client access logins to the sites you design. They also don’t offer unlimited email addresses in their most basic plan like SiteGround does. A2 Hosting’s plans also don’t include a free premium Jetpack plugin like InMotion does, nor domain privacy like Bluehost does.
What Users Think About A2 Hosting
Users love that A2 Hosting offers knowledgeable and responsive customer support. They also love that they offer an intuitive cPanel for managing hosting plans and that the hosting plans are affordable. They also say they offer blazing-fast hosting. However, some say they have experienced downtime on their sites.
Where to Find A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is a perfect web host if you are looking for fast loading of dynamic, complex content. To learn more about A2 Hosting’s plans, visit their homepage and click “Shared Hosting” from the header menu. You can also try their services at no risk under their anytime money-back guarantee, which gives you a month’s refund if you cancel within the first month, and a prorated refund if you cancel after the first month. Click here to get started with A2 Hosting risk-free.
InMotion: Best Fast Web Hosting for Easy-to-Run WordPress Websites
InMotion’s fast WordPress hosting plans start at $5.99 per month and stand out by offering a robust set of features designed specifically for easily creating blazing-fast WordPress websites in just a few minutes. Their advanced caching, drag-and-drop website builder, free domain, and WordPress-suitable server infrastructure are just a few features that make InMotion best for businesses looking to create and run high-performing WordPress websites.
InMotion Pricing
InMotion’s $5.99 per month WS-1000S plan covers one website, 40GB SSD storage, a Jetpack Personal plugin, caching, a domain, an SSL certificate, a drag-and-drop builder, and a CDN. The $7.99 per month plan doubles the storage and websites, and offers the premium Jetpack plugin. The $9.99 per month WP-3000S adds another website, 120GB SSD storage, and advanced caching.
InMotion Tiered Pricing & Features
Plan | WS-1000S | WS-2000S | WP-3000S |
---|---|---|---|
Price | $5.99/month | $7.99/month | $9.99/month |
Money-back Guarantee | 90-day | 90-day | 90-day |
Websites | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Storage | 40GB SSD | 80GB SSD | 120GB SSD |
Email | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Jetpack Personal | Free Version | Free $39.99/year value | Free $39.99/year value |
Data Centers | Las Angeles, Virginia Beach | Las Angeles, Virginia Beach | Las Angeles, Virginia Beach |
Free Domain | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
SSL Certificate | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
WP-optimized Server Infrastructure | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Drag-and-Drop Page Builder | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
CDN | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Website Code Daching | ✔ |
WS-1000S
InMotion’s $5.99 per month WS-1000S covers one website and offers 40GB SSD storage, unlimited email, the BoldGrid drag-and-drop page builder WordPress plugin, a CDN, an SSL certificate, server infrastructure built for WordPress efficiency and speed, and advanced caching for static and dynamic content. The basic WordPress Jetpack plugin further offers tools for easy site building, like 100 WordPress themes.
For an entry-level plan, this plan is quite robust, offering small businesses everything they need to build a new high-performing and even complex WordPress website from scratch—without sacrificing speed. The SSL certificate and dynamic content caching makes it suitable for ecommerce sites that offer personalized product recommendations. This plan is best for a website that doesn’t expect any more than 20,000 visitors per month, however.
WS-2000S
Like WS-1000S, the WS-2000S $7.99 per month plan offers a free domain and SSL certificate, unlimited email, the WordPress Optimized Stack for WordPress speed and efficiency, a drag-and-drop page builder, and a CDN. It also offers 80GB SSD storage and an upgraded $39.99 per year Jetpack plugin, which includes features over and above the WS-1000S version like daily website backups and antispam filtering.
More storage and websites make this plan suitable for expanding businesses that wish to serve different regions of the United States. With a choice of data centers in both Los Angeles and Virginia Beach, a business could set up a website to serve the East and West Coasts of the United States. Businesses should use this plan if they expect no more than 50,000 website visitors and have regional audiences, like business-to-business distribution brands.
WS-3000S
The WP-3000S $9.99 per month plan offers the WS-2000S plan features plus three websites, 120GB SSD storage, and their Dedicated Opcode Cache Pool. This caches parts of website code so your website doesn’t compile your entire code every time it’s needed, thereby saving processing time. The Premium Jetpack plugin offers advanced caching, a CDN, and automatic monitoring and management features.
With ample storage and advanced caching for instant website load times, this plan is best for companies that expect around 125,000 visitors per month and need a plan that can handle complex website experiences. For example, it would be suitable for complex video streaming sites that offer a Netflix-like personalized homepage for users based on their interests, demographics, locations, or past purchase behaviors.
InMotion Ease of Use
InMotion’s WordPress plans automatically install WordPress at checkout. Then, they offer a drag-and-drop builder and hundreds of WordPress templates to easily build a website in just an hour or two. They also include add-ons like a free domain and email so you don’t have to buy and manage them elsewhere. Further, their cPanel makes tasks like setting up email addresses or building a new website as simple as filling out simple forms or clicking buttons.
InMotion Customer Support
InMotion’s customer support is offered 24/7 via Skype, phone, chat, and email. Their policy is that customer chat and phone inquiries are answered instantly, and ticket inquiries are answered and resolved within an hour of submission. Their support page also allows you to search for how-to guides and video tutorials by keyword.
What InMotion Is Missing
InMotion does not offer an anytime money-back guarantee like A2 Hosting does. It also doesn’t offer data centers in Europe and Asia like A2 Hosting and SiteGround do. InMotion’s plans also don’t offer cloud hosting for greater website stability like HostGator Cloud does.
What Users Think About InMotion
Users praise InMotion’s customer support, saying their representatives are incredibly knowledgeable, helpful, and responsive. They also love that their plans are affordable and packed with add-ons. Some complain they have experienced inconvenient website downtimes.
Where to Find InMotion
To learn more about InMotion’s fast WordPress hosting plans, visit their homepage and scroll down to find their WordPress hosting tile. Click the “Learn more” button. Because each plan also comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee, you can also try them risk-free by signing up for a plan. Click here to get started with InMotion.
DreamHost: Best Fast Web Hosting for 100% Guaranteed Uptime
DreamHost is a web hosting provider with plans starting at $16.95 per month. Uniquely, their uptime guarantee—which promises to keep sites running 100% of the time—promises a refund for one day of website hosting per hour of website downtime. Additionally, inclusions like a CDN and premium Jetpack plugin offer security and performance-boosting features. As such, DreamHost is best for companies needing reliable, secure websites, like financial services sites.
DreamHost Pricing
DreamHost’s $16.95 per month DreamPress plan offers a 97-day money-back guarantee, one website, 30GB of SSD storage, daily website backups, the free Jetpack plugin, a domain, domain privacy, an email account, WordPress pre-installed, and their 100% uptime guarantee. Their $24.95 DreamPress Plus plan adds 60GB SSD storage, a premium Jetpack plugin, and a CDN.
DreamHost Tiered Pricing & Features
Plan | DreamPress | DreamPress Plus |
---|---|---|
Price | $16.95/month | $24.95/month |
Money-back Guarantee | 97-day | 97-day |
Websites | 1 | 1 |
Storage | 30GB SSD | 60GB SSD |
Backups | Daily automatic w/ one-click restore | Daily automatic w/ one-click restore |
Jetpack | Free version | Premium version |
Domain | 1 free | 1 free |
WordPress Pre-installed | ✔ | ✔ |
Built-in Caching | ✔ | ✔ |
Domain Privacy | ✔ | ✔ |
SSL Certificate | ✔ | ✔ |
Email Account | ✔ | |
100% Uptime Guarantee | ✔ | ✔ |
CDN | ✔ |
DreamPress
DreamHost’s $16.95 per month DreamPress plan offers a 97-day money-back guarantee, a website, 30GB SSD storage, automatic daily website backups with one-click restore, an SSL certificate, built-in caching for all content types, WordPress pre-installation, the free Jetpack plugin (for easy website design), a domain, domain privacy, and an email account. Their 100% uptime guarantee refunds you one day of hosting per one hour of website downtime.
With 30GB of storage and all the basic features for starting a website, plus a 100% uptime guarantee, this plan offers the tools necessary to create a complex, secure, and blazing-fast website with impeccable reliability. Given that it can handle approximately 100,000 website visitors per month with ample site storage, it is best for businesses that rely on multimedia to disseminate information to returning website visitors, like fitness coaches or tutors.
DreamPress Plus
DreamHost’s $24.95 per month DreamPress Plus plan offers all the features of the DreamPress plan, plus 60GB of SSD storage and a CDN to boost global website load times. Normally a $299 per year value, it adds a premium Jetpack plugin for WordPress, which includes added security features like malware scanning and spam protection, plus real-time backups and uptime monitoring to ensure your website stays live and protected.
With an added CDN that boosts website load times across the globe, double the storage, and a premium Jetpack plugin for an ultra-reliable and secure website, this plan is suitable for global ecommerce sites that expect to process sensitive customer data for high volumes of traffic. Premium Jetpack security and an SSL certificate ensure payment information is secure.
DreamHost Ease of Use
DreamHost does not offer the gold standard for ease of use, the cPanel; if you’re used to using cPanel, their control panel may require a slight learning curve. Generally, however, navigation elements are easy to use. A left-hand menu offers descriptive submenus like “Domains,” “Email,” and “Billing & Account,” so it’s easy to discern where to go to complete website management tasks. Further, a search bar allows you to search for features or tasks by keyword.
DreamHost Customer Support
DreamHost offers 24/7 email support and live chat support available from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Pacific Time, seven days a week. They do not offer additional ways of contacting them (like phone or Skype), like SiteGround or InMotion do.
What DreamHost Is Missing
DreamHost does not offer 24/7/365 phone and live chat support like SiteGround does. It also doesn’t offer unlimited storage or an anytime money-back guarantee in their most-basic hosting plans like A2 Hosting does.
What Users Think About DreamHost
Users love that DreamHost offers responsive and knowledgeable customer support, plus lots of free features like an SSL certificate, a free domain with each plan, and email. Some users reported issues with email accounts and billing. Billing mistakes were resolved quickly, though.
Where to Find DreamHost
With a 100% uptime guarantee, DreamHost is ideal for news or high-traffic ecommerce sites that depend on being constantly online. To learn more about DreamHost’s plans, visit their homepage and click “WordPress” from the header menu, then “Managed WordPress Hosting” from the drop-down menu. You can also try their plans at no risk under their 97-day money-back guarantee. Click here to get started with DreamHost risk-free.
HostGator Cloud: Best for Websites With Frequent Traffic Surges
With plans starting at $4.95 per month, HostGator is a cloud hosting provider that stands out by offering static content caching and multiple cloud servers to ensure your website offers a reliable and fast experience, even during sudden traffic spikes. As such, HostGator Cloud is best for businesses that experience significant traffic surges during peak sale seasons or promotions, such as car dealerships.
HostGator Cloud Pricing
HostGator’s $4.95 per month Hatchling Cloud plan offers a 45-day money-back guarantee, one website, unmetered storage, unlimited email, an SSL certificate, a 99.9% uptime, and static content caching. Their $6.95 per month Baby Cloud plan further covers unlimited websites. Finally, their $9.99 per month Business Cloud plan offers an upgraded SSL certificate that includes a $10,000 warranty.
HostGator Cloud Tiered Pricing & Features
Plan | Hatchling Cloud | Baby Cloud | Business Cloud |
---|---|---|---|
Price | $4.95/month | $6.57/month | $9.95/month |
Money-back Guarantee | 45-day | 45-day | 45-day |
Domains | 1 Hosted | Unlimited hosted | Unlimited hosted |
Storage | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
Email | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
SSL | Free | Free | Positive SSL |
Uptime | 99.9% guarantee | 99.9% guarantee | 99.9% guarantee |
Cloud Hosting | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Static Content Caching | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Hatchling Cloud
HostGator’s $4.95 per month Hatchling Cloud plan offers a 45-day money-back guarantee, the ability to host one domain, unmetered storage, unlimited email, an SSL certificate, 99.9% uptime, and static website caching. As a cloud hosting plan, it pools resources from multiple virtual servers; this ensures your site experiences fast load times even during traffic spikes that may overwhelm one server. Unlike several options on our list, it does not offer a free domain.
With unmetered storage, the ability to host one website domain, static website caching, and an SSL certificate, this plan is suitable for sites with lots of images or multimedia. For example, it would suit a small photography website or a portfolio site for a graphic designer.
Baby Cloud
Like the Hatchling Cloud plan, HostGator’s $6.57 per month Baby Cloud plan offers a 45-day money-back guarantee, unlimited storage and email, a free SSL certificate, cloud hosting, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and static content caching. It further offers unlimited hosted domains (but no free domain) so you can set up more than one website under this plan.
Given the ability to host more than one domain and its static content caching, this plan would work well for artists or photographers wanting to showcase their different niches via multiple website portfolios. For example, a photographer who specializes in both wedding photography and family photography might set up a separate site for each portfolio and market them differently. Static content caching helps to ensure image-heavy websites load quickly.
Business Cloud
HostGator’s $9.95 per month Business Cloud plan offers all the features included in the Baby Cloud plan. It also offers a Positive SSL upgrade. This SSL certificate comes with a $10,000 warranty that reimburses lost funds (up to $10,000) to customers who may have been affected by a data breach. It also includes a TrustLogoSite® seal on your website that indicates your website can safely handle sensitive customer information.
With an upgraded SSL certificate, this plan is a better fit for ecommerce sites that handle sensitive customer data for expensive items, like furniture, rare books, or jewelry. With the $10,000 warranty, companies can reimburse customers for fraudulent purchases in the event of a data breach. Additionally, the cloud infrastructure of the plan allows businesses to handle traffic spikes in ecommerce sites during peak sales seasons or promotions.
HostGator Cloud Ease of Use
HostGator is a cPanel hosting provider, meaning you can manage your hosting account and website tasks via a well-organized, intuitive dashboard accessible via your hosting account. cPanel comes with automation tools that make tasks like setting up emails, upgrading your plan resources, installing a CMS, and setting up domains easy; in most cases, these tasks only require a few clicks or filling out simple forms.
HostGator Cloud Customer Support
HostGator offers 24/7/365 support via phone or live chat. They also offer a knowledge base with a search bar you can use to search for articles, tutorials, and guides on hosting topics by keyword. You can also browse topics like cPanel, domains, email, and website security by clicking on the appropriate icons listed under the search bar in HostGator’s knowledge base.
What HostGator Cloud Is Missing
HostGator does not offer a free domain name with their plans like InMotion, SiteGround, and Bluehost do. They also don’t offer a choice of data centers like InMotion and SiteGround do. Finally, they don’t offer features for making website design easy, such as website builders or WordPress templates. For these inclusions, consider InMotion.
What Users Think About HostGator Cloud
Users love that HostGator offers all the tools necessary to host a website for a competitive price. They also appreciate that their hosting plans offer reliable website uptime and speed, even during traffic spikes. Some say that customer support, though knowledgeable, isn’t as responsive as that of hosting providers like InMotion or SiteGround.
Where to Find HostGator Cloud
With unique cloud hosting infrastructure, HostGator is ideal for businesses that experience periodic traffic surges. To learn more about its hosting plans, visit their homepage and click “Cloud Hosting” from their footer menu. You can also sign up for a plan and try it risk-free under HostGator’s 45-day money-back guarantee. Click here to get started with HostGator Cloud.
Bluehost: Best Budget-friendly Fast Web Hosting
Bluehost is a web hosting provider that stands out by offering small business plans for under $3 per month and basic features to boost website speed. Their SSD storage increases website speed while their Cloudflare CDN compatibility allows for free website content caching and a global CDN network to boost load times. As such, this plan is best for budget-conscious startups or freelancers needing a reliable and fast website experience.
Bluehost Pricing
Bluehost’s $2.95 per month ($7.99 after 36 months) Basic plan offers 50GB SSD storage, a domain, an SSL certificate, and Cloudflare CDN compatibility. Their $5.45 per month ($10.99 upon renewal) Plus plan also offers unlimited websites and unmetered SSD storage. Finally, their $5.45 ($14.99 upon renewal) Choice Plus plan adds site backups.
Bluehost Tiered Pricing & Features
Plan | Basic | Plus | Choice Plus |
---|---|---|---|
Price | $2.95/month | $5.45/month | $5.45/month |
Money-back Guarantee | 30-day | 30-day | 30-day |
Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Storage | 50GB SSD | Unmetered | Unmetered |
Email Accounts | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Domain | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
SSL Certificate | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Cloudflare CDN Compatible | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Domain Privacy | ✔ | ||
Site Backups & One-click Restore | ✔ |
Basic
Bluehost’s $2.95 per month Basic plan renews at $7.99 per month after 36 months and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, one website, 50GB SSD storage to boost site speed, a free domain, an SSL certificate, and five email accounts. Bluehost’s plans are also compatible with the free or Premium Cloudflare CDN. The free version offers static content caching and a global CDN for added speed. To connect Cloudflare, simply contact Cloudflare.
With the ability to host one website, this plan is best for bloggers or freelancers. A free domain allows them to set up a basic website from scratch, and SSD storage with the free Cloudflare CDN allows them to create a speedy user experience. SSD storage means freelancers are free to upload images and videos about their services without worrying about slowing website speeds.
Plus
Bluehost’s $5.45 per month Plus plan renews at $10.99 per month after the first 36-month term. It offers all the features included in the Basic plan, plus unmetered storage and unlimited websites and email. Unmetered storage means they do not monitor how much storage you use; however, they do have a terms of service that you must follow in regard to the content you can store on your website.
With unmetered website storage and unlimited domains, companies can set up more than one website using this plan. For example, a healthy-living consultant may set up separate websites to dedicate a blog to the needs of men, women, or children. SSD storage allows them to upload images of client results without worrying about losing website speed.
Choice Plus
Bluehost’s Choice Plus plan starts tat $5.45 per month for the first 36 months, then renews at $14.99 per month. It offers all the features of the Plus plan, adds domain privacy to shield your contact information in public domain databases, and includes Codeguard Basic, which offers daily website backups and the ability to restore your website to an earlier version as needed. This keeps your site up and running, even if an attack happens.
This plan is a better option for larger sites that need extra protection against loss of website data. For example, it is suitable for websites that display software that can be purchased directly from the website; losing this software would mean loss of revenue, which Codeguard Basic protects against. The Cloudflare CDN enables fast load times for large photos, and website backups reduce downtime by allowing companies to restore lost content if the site goes down.
Bluehost Ease of Use
Bluehost offers cPanel, which is renowned for its intuitive user experience. It is organized intuitively by submenus like “Email,” “Domains,” and “Websites.” Large buttons allow you to easily access the tasks you’d like to complete. All tasks can be performed via a few clicks or by filling out simple forms. cPanel also makes it difficult for users to perform actions that may cause problems with their server, creating worry-free website and hosting management.
Bluehost Customer Support
Bluehost offers 24/7 chat and phone support. When we contacted Bluehost’s customer support, representatives responded in under a minute and were knowledgeable and friendly. They also offer a knowledge base where you can search for tutorials and guides by keyword using the provided search bar. This is accessible via the knowledge base link in the website’s footer menu.
What Bluehost Is Missing
Bluehost doesn’t offer a lot of the advanced speed-boosting features of other hosting providers on this list, including Turbo servers, global data centers you can choose from, and a premium Jetpack plugin. For such features, consider providers like A2 Hosting, SiteGround, or InMotion. They also have a limited money-back guarantee compared to those of DreamHost, InMotion, and A2 Hosting.
What Users Think About Bluehost
With features like cPanel, free domains, and included email, users love that Bluehost is comprehensive and simple to use. They also love that Bluehost offers some of the cheapest starter prices in the industry. They say, however, that customer support can sometimes be slow to respond and prices shoot up significantly upon plan renewals.
Where to Find Bluehost
To learn more about Bluehost’s less than $3 per month Shared hosting plans, visit their homepage and click the “Hosting” header menu, then “Shared Hosting” or “Dedicated Hosting” from the drop-down menu. You can also explore their services risk-free under their 30-day money-back guarantee, or click their “Chat” button on any web page to ask questions. Click here to get started with Bluehost.
Bottom Line: Fastest Web Hosting
The best fast web hosting providers offer plans with extra features to hasten website load times, including CDNs, SSD storage, website caching, and multiple data centers from which to choose. We considered all of these features in our evaluation to ensure users have the tools they need to deliver exceptional website experiences.
Given the criteria above, we found that SiteGround offers the fastest, most comprehensive small business hosting plans. For $3.95 per month, their starter plans offer all the features needed to host a website and boost website speed, including a domain, an SSL certificate, a CDN, several data center locations, and 99.9% uptime. You can even try them risk-free under their 30-day money-back guarantee. Click here to get started with SiteGround.
Submit Your Comment
You must be logged in to comment. Click a "Log in" button below to connect instantly and comment.
LOG IN