Best Web Hosting Software

When approaching a theme as complex as this one, it’s important to review some factors before drawing your conclusions. Throughout this article, we will outline the best web hosting services available at this current time. It’s important that you, as the reader, know what kind of webhosting you’d like to do first. For example, if you’re wanting to know the best website hosting for your graphic design business, it will be a different answer than if you’re planning on hosting an interactive cooking blog. Similarly, if you’re very familiar with coding and are creating a site for a client or big business, you’ll have different needs and demands than someone looking to host their personal site.

Web hosting is a complex and many-layered subject. Luckily we are here to outline the best solutions that are available right now. With our list of the best options out there, you are guaranteed to find the best website hosting option for your needs.

Ranking methodology of the top website hosting services

It’s important to know exactly what method we use when choosing the best services on the web. Firstly we look up the highest-ranked products from many different software ranking services. We narrow down our results to the top 100 products or services. After this, we read and summarize multiple user and expert reviews on all of these services. From these, we compile a top feature list and extract useful metadata. Following this, we watch demos and videos on the chosen services, so that we can draw our own conclusions. Expanding on this, we let real experts evaluate the UI usability of the different products. By evaluating the long-term performance of the many hosting platforms available, we can give you a clear idea of the best options.

By taking all of these things into account, we can narrow down the services and give each one a score and a rank based on the above research. The result is that our list of recommended services contains only the best of the best.

Conclusion

Having a website is a must in this technological age, but it needs to be hosted online somewhere. This is where web hosting comes in, as these are services that ensure your site is running smoothly at all times. The best services will also ensure that uptime is optimal, that the site loads well, and that there is a lot of data that can be stored, taking into consideration visuals and graphics.

Making this list is not easy though. We take a look at each of the different web hosting services to make sure that it offers good security, an easy-to-use interface, high bandwidth and uptime, and more.

Depending on what you need, there are some web hosting services that will be better suited to smaller companies, individuals, or large enterprises. As such, our list has been created from the top 100 best web hosting services and whittled down. Each of the options on our list fits a specific niche, offering excellent website hosting services.

Best web hosting overview

Web hosting is a service provided for hosting a website on a server. Each service offers different things, such as whether you need a Virtual Private Server, the security level offered, the amount of disc space and bandwidth, and how flexible these are. Other options to consider are site migration, whether there are website builders available, free domains, and more. For anyone wanting to create a website, web hosting is a must as these services will help you run your website easily and efficiently.

What is web hosting?

This is a service that enables you to put your website up online. The host is a provider that offers the software and technology to maintain this site so that it can be viewed on the internet. The best hosting service owns the servers on which its clients’ sites are hosted.

When someone wants to view your site, all they need to do is type the domain name into a search engine. The computer then connects to the server where your website is stored. The website is then linked through to that person’s browser so that they can view your site. This does mean that you do need your own domain in order to set up the website and make it viewable. Hosting providers such as WordPress hosting and others can even help you to buy domain names and set this up as well.

What does website hosting do?

The best hosting services have relatively similar features but will differ in some of the finer details. Here are some of the things that all the best hosting services will have:

• Email accounts — Most of the providers will also make sure that you have email accounts. These will be linked to the domain name of your site so that your brand is linked across all areas of the site and correspondence. The number of email accounts available will depend on the host provider though.
• FTP access — This is the ability to upload files from your computer to your website. This is necessary when you want to build your website and add images for instance. Essentially, through FTP you are allowing the website to access these images through the internet.
• WordPress support — WordPress is a very popular online tool that’s great for blogging or content management. It powers more than a quarter of the websites found online. Most hosting providers will let you know if their plans are WordPress hosting compatible or not.

Web hosting meaning

This simply means that your website is stored on a server somewhere so that it can be accessed when a user types in the domain name. There are different server types and hosting options, but the general gist is the same no matter how the website is stored.

Main features of the best web hosting options

The best website hosting solutions will have a range of different features. These include a variety of disc space options, bandwidth, speed, storage space, WordPress hosting, device compatibility, and more. Without these features, your site might not run optimally, reducing traffic and thus causing your business to falter. With that in mind, here are some of the more important features you need to consider when choosing a web hosting service.

• Disc space and bandwidth — This is the amount of storage space you have access to on the server. This includes images, texts, files, audio, and more. The bandwidth is the amount of traffic able to access your site at any one time. If you have a lot of graphics, you will need more storage and greater bandwidth for optimal running.
• Website creator — Newcomers to website creation will benefit from website creators, which give you the building blocks to create a site through easy-to-use templates.
• Customer service — Any online hosting option should have good customer support via a number of channels. This is especially important for those who are newer to web hosting and might need help with setup and technical issues.
• Uptime — It’s never possible to guarantee 100% uptime, as there are always issues. However, there should be some type of assurance in place to limit downtime so that your site is up and running most of the time. This should be done through 24/7 network checking, the use of top hardware, network configurations, and more.

Benefits of using the best web hosting service

There are many benefits to using a hosting service. For many, it’s the simple fact that most of the complex technical aspects are taken care of. The only thing you will need to consider is the host itself, and this will be based on the features they offer and how these meet your needs.

Use case scenario

For instance, if a new business wants to get up and running, it will need a website. This can be created using any website builder, but it would still need a domain name and then a place to store it. Web hosting comes in here. The hosting service will subsequently store the entire site on its server. It will then provide the link from the domain name being typed into a search engine through to their server, giving the user access to the website and all its contents.

Benefits of website hosting

There are a number of top benefits to using a website hosting service. Here we outline some of the best features when using online web hosting.

Improved site performance

Using a website hosting service can improve your site’s performance, as this is what they are geared toward. Having slow performance times can affect your search engine rankings too. A high-quality web host will make sure that your site performs well. They can also help to optimize the site correctly too.

Strong technical support

The hosting provider should be able to offer speedy technical support whenever you need it. In particular, if there is a bug or the site goes offline, being able to get in touch, fix the problem, and get back online quickly is a must. If you don’t have these types of technical skills at your disposal, then a great web host will fill that gap.

Website security

Often overlooked, website security is a must. Top web host providers will have a number of security options available for you to add at the click of a button. You can get security plugins, SSL encryption, change permissions, get spam prevention software, and a whole lot more.

Good reliability and uptime

The final benefit of a web host provider is having good, reliable uptime. This means that while the host can’t guarantee 100% uptime, they will do everything they can to ensure its stability most of the time. This can be done through regular maintenance. However, this is something that can be time-consuming and potentially costly if you are hosting your site yourself.

Which companies should buy the best hosting services

Nowadays, most companies will use hosting services. That’s because they make everything a whole lot easier. With the hosting service in place, they take care of any technical issues, so you just have to focus on the website content. Here are some companies that should use hosting providers:

Small businesses

Independent, small businesses will often need hosting that helps them with the technical aspects. Hosting services are ideal for this as they will deal with all the technical side. The user simply needs to create the website and its content.

Large enterprises

Bigger companies also benefit from host services. But they tend to need very different things. For instance, an enterprise company will benefit from a dedicated server, and the chance to optimize their site’s performance through good uptimes. They will also need the ability to have large, unlimited storage for their site.

What does the best web hosting service cost?

Depending on the service you are looking at, web hosting can vary hugely in price. Some basic plans cost as little as 99 cents per month, but this is usually for a shared hosting plan. Cost can increase dramatically if you are looking at a dedicated server, or require high bandwidth and large amounts of storage for top-level performance. In these cases, prices can be as much as $159 or more per month.

Types of web hosting services

There are a variety of different types of website hosting solutions available. Not all of them provide the same services either. Some are much more expensive than others. Some are geared to smaller or larger businesses depending on the way they operate. As such, it’s important that you look at the cost, the disc space provided, website builder capabilities, WordPress hosting, any add-ons available, and more to figure out if this is the option for you. Here are some of the different types of website hosting services.

Shared hosting

This is the most popular form of hosting a website. It’s also the one that fits most users’ needs. The best part of this is that it’s very budget-friendly. That’s because your website will be sharing a server and its resources with as many as thousands of other sites. This means you’re not paying for an entire server for yourself. It’s also geared towards beginners too, making it a very simple setup.

VPS hosting

This type of hosting uses virtualization to create a virtual dedicated server. This means that it still takes resources from other servers that you will be sharing with other people. However, there’s a good benefit to this as you will get access to a larger portion of the server’s resources. This means that you will have better site performance. You can also scale up or down your server resources as and when needed.

Dedicated hosting

This is one of the more expensive options, as you will be paying for an entire server all by yourself. This does mean that your website will operate in a really great way in terms of performance and the storage you can use. You can customize the server as you see fit to give your website the best chance. This is best for larger companies with high volumes of traffic.

Cloud hosting

This is a unique solution as you’re only using virtual hardware. The entire environment is in the cloud and is a relatively new option. It’s cost-efficient, though, and you only need to pay for the resources you use. It’s also very reliable and if the cloud server isn’t functioning well at any particular time, your site is simply moved to another server on that network to maximize uptime.

WordPress hosting

WordPress hosting is for those sites using WordPress. Generally, WordPress hosting will be performed by WordPress itself. You’ll get a complete environment geared towards WordPress. It will also be more secure, so you can get the best performance out of it. Better still, there’s no need to take on any of the technical maintenance. The WordPress hosting software does that all for you.

Trends in the best web hosting solutions

An impressive 60% of the entire world now operates online. This means that web hosting providers will be needed for a long time to come. However, although there are more and more people looking to create and host websites, there are more demands on the type of features these services need to provide. For instance, most users demand WordPress hosting as a given. On top of that, trends and technology are constantly changing, so what is seen as a great solution one year might be obsolete the next. Here are some of the current trends to look for when selecting the best web hosting services in 2022.

• Security — Cyber security is still number one when it comes to the best hosting software. Hosting providers have put more emphasis on this in recent years so that their security protocols are better. Now you should be looking for two-step authentication options, data encryption, SSL certificates, and more. Domain privacy is also on the rise and is an additional service provided by some of the best web hosting services.
• Going green — Surprisingly, the online world is going green. Nowadays, there’s a desire to reduce the carbon footprint, with a number of web hosting services doing just that. This involves services using energy-efficient hardware, optimizing software, using intelligent load balancing, employing natural cooling for their servers, and eco-friendly disposal.
• Cloud hosting — This, as we mentioned, is growing in popularity and may soon be more popular than physical hosting. This means that instead of being limited to one physical server, your website can be bounced about on the cloud to make sure that it has the best uptime. This type of hosting is easily scalable too, so you can grow into the plan as your business expands. Better still, it’s more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly too.
• DIY Website builders — In conjunction with cloud hosting, DIY web building has increased in popularity too. Sites like this are intuitive, offer easy-to-use options, and create great websites via templates, and there’s no need to understand coding. Getting a web hosting service that incorporates a web builder can really help your brand as well as save you money.
• Add-ons — Due to high levels of competition, web hosting services often try and stand out from the crowd. This is often done through the use of various add-ons. Depending on your needs, some of these will be useful, others won’t. Some of the things to look for are free domains, e-commerce support, DDoS attack prevention, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited storage.

Which is the best hosting service?

Selecting the best hosting service can be a complicated procedure. Regardless of whether you are an individual with a small site or a global conglomerate with sites in various languages targeting audiences around the world, a top web hosting service is a must. Whether you are looking at the disc space provided, the number of email accounts that make up the service, or FTP access, there’s a lot of things to think about. But we’re here to make that easier. As a starting point, it’s a good idea to take a look at our top list as these are the web hosting services we think match a range of web hosting niches.

How to choose the best web hosting service

When looking for the best hosting services, you need to make sure it meets all your needs. A larger company will need more disc space, greater bandwidth, guarantees on upload speeds, and so on. Smaller companies will still need email accounts, good speeds, and FTP access, but not to the same level as a larger company. As such, we take all of these considerations into account when creating our top list of website hosting services.

A number of these sites have free plans or trials that you can use to see how they hold up. You should be looking at the UI, features, and if there are any add-ons available. Compatibility across devices and platforms is a must, as is security, the option to use website builders, and where the site is actually hosted.

Summary

To create and maintain an accessible, user-friendly website, the best hosting service is a must. These services provide a number of features, such as disc space — though you will need to break down your usage to see which specific areas you need more than others. But, choosing a hosting service that allows you to expand or buy more server space is a must if you intend to grow your business. With all this in mind, we have provided you with the information necessary to make a great choice when choosing the best web hosting service. Take a look at our top list to see all the website hosting options.