The most comprehensive web hosting test ever conducted

We tested the world’s most popular web hosting services to see which ones really live up to their claims. We launched actual websites on each provider’s servers and recorded loading speeds and uptime. We also evaluated features and pricing, and challenged the support teams to see if they could provide adequate help – even when things got tricky.March 07, 2024

Our team spent long months carefully testing and collecting data on hundreds of web hosts from all over the world, and now, the results are in. We had quite a few surprises along the way – some of the hosts we were betting on ended up performing poorly, while others greatly exceeded our expectations. Let’s take a closer look at the best of the best.

#1 Hostinger: Best Performance & Low Cost

• Lowest prices on the market for long-term plansUses LiteSpeed technology for top loading speedSimple user experience with a proprietary control panelSupports WordPress and hundreds of other CMSs

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• Aggressive Marketing, Impressive Performance: Hostinger is known for its aggressive marketing, but my expectations were surpassed when I tested its performance.
• Excellent Performance at Low Prices: Despite its low prices, Hostinger delivers excellent performance. Even on its basic plan, which costs only $2.99 per month when signing up for a year, loading speeds almost match those of much more expensive services.
• Versatile Hosting Solutions: Whether you’re hosting a personal blog or a business page, Hostinger is a great choice. It offers quick and affordable solutions to get your website online efficiently.

Before you sign up, visit our Hostinger coupon page 

#2 IONOS: Premium Features on a Budget

• Dedicated support advisor and instantly scalable performanceOne-click installation for WordPress and other popular appsLow prices and a free domain with every planDaily automatic backups

• Premium Features at Budget Prices: Despite being a budget-friendly host, IONOS offers premium features usually associated with expensive managed solutions.
• Dedicated Personal Advisor: Every customer is assigned a dedicated personal advisor at no extra cost. They tailor support based on your experience level and website goals, which is incredibly helpful for beginners.
• Scalable Resources: IONOS’ shared hosting plans offer scalable resources, allowing you to improve the performance of your website temporarily or permanently without needing to upgrade to a new plan.
• Big Discounts: IONOS commonly offers significant discounts, sometimes being one of the cheapest options available. However, be cautious of renewal fees, as plans may renew at a higher price.
• Watch Renewal Fees: While initial prices may be attractive, keep an eye on renewal fees to avoid surprises.

#3 InterServer: Best Monthly Hosting Plan

• The best choice for hosting on a month-to-month basisData centers on both US coasts let you serve American audiences quicklyMultiple security protocols included, including a malware scanner

• Targeting North American Audience: InterServer is an excellent choice if your target audience is in North America. Testing its US data centers showed great loading speeds throughout the US and Canada.
• Versatile Shared Plan: InterServer offers only one shared plan, but it comes with unlimited resources. This includes generous allocations of server space and bandwidth, along with no limit on the number of domains you can connect on a single account.
• Ideal for Multiple Websites: With unlimited resources and no domain limits, InterServer is ideal for building multiple small websites.
• Affordable Pricing: Despite its features, InterServer offers some of the lowest monthly rates on the market. The basic plan costs only $2.83 for the first month

#4 Nexcess: Best Managed Hosting

• Best managed hosting for multiple platforms, from WordPress to MagentoStreamlined, custom-built control panels for maximum efficiencyExcellent worldwide speeds on a cloud-based networkAutomatic full-website backups to a remote server

• Managed Hosting with Nexcess: While Hostinger offers cost-effective solutions, you’ll need to handle optimizations and reconfigurations yourself. Alternatively, Nexcess, part of the Liquid Web family, provides managed hosting services.
• Easiest, Safest, and Worry-Free: With managed hosting, Nexcess offers the easiest, safest, and most worry-free way to host a website, although it comes at a higher cost.
• Autoscaling Technology: Nexcess primarily offers premium shared hosting with autoscaling technology. This feature allows Nexcess to adjust your available resources in response to traffic surges, included in all plans free for 24 hours per month.
• Optimized Hosting Environment: With Nexcess, you get an optimized hosting environment right out of the box, requiring minimal setup before building your website and attracting traffic.

#5 Kinsta: Fastest Managed WordPress Hosting

• Fastest, most consistent loading speeds in our testingEasy-to-use, minimum-fuss control panel30+ worldwide data center locations built on Google CloudSpecifically designed for WordPress hosting

• Top Choice Regardless of Price: If price weren’t a concern, Kinsta would easily top the list. The service offers a stylish and ultra-easy-to-use panel, along with phenomenal page loading speeds consistently observed during testing.
• Fully-Managed WordPress Hosting: Like Nexcess, Kinsta is a fully-managed service, but with some key differences. It exclusively supports WordPress, boasts a professional support team available 24/7 with responses in under one minute, and offers even better performance.
• Focus on Quality: Kinsta prioritizes delivering the best product possible rather than focusing on affiliate deals or advertising like other providers. This dedication to quality shines through in every aspect of their service.
• Considerations: While Kinsta excels in many areas, it lacks email hosting and comes with a higher price tag, even more expensive than Nexcess. However, if budget permits, Kinsta should definitely be the top choice.

#6 FastComet: Best Servers Outside of US & EU

• Best for reaching audiences in Asia and OceaniaDecent performance and uptimeGreat management dashboard with smart cPanel integrationsA great support experience almost all of the time

• deal for Reaching Asian Audiences: FastComet is an excellent choice if you want to target audiences in Asia without paying a premium. It offers reliable service that makes it easy to serve audiences from India to Japan, without the risks associated with local hosts.
• Global Deployment and Performance: While FastComet’s deployment and performance in the US and Europe are commendable, it’s the additional locations that truly set it apart. Serving visitors from South Asia with data centers located in Asia minimizes loading times and improves user experience.
• Streamlined Service: FastComet provides a streamlined and easy-to-use service, ensuring a hassle-free experience for users looking to serve audiences across various regions.
• Highly-Trained Support Agents: FastComet boasts highly-trained support agents who provide mostly fantastic experiences. While there may be occasional encounters with less enthusiastic agents, the overall support service is reliable and helpful.

#7 InMotion Hosting: Best US-Based Support

• US and European data centers90 Day money-back guaranteeExcellent 24/7 supportA detailed knowledge base, superior to most other hosts

• Expanded Server Coverage: InMotion Hosting has recently expanded into the European market, providing more options for website owners on both sides of the Atlantic to reach their audience.
• Stellar Customer Support: While InMotion Hosting may not perform as well as some other top hosts, it stands out with its exceptional customer support. This makes it an excellent choice for new website owners who need assistance and guidance.
• Multiple Support Channels: InMotion Hosting offers a variety of channels to contact support, including live chat, email, ticketing system, snail mail, Skype, and phone. This ensures you can get help whenever you need it, however you prefer to communicate.
• Comprehensive Knowledge Base: In addition to direct support channels, InMotion Hosting provides one of the most detailed knowledge bases in the industry. It’s filled with countless tutorials on various hosting-related tasks, making it an invaluable resource for beginners building their first website.

#8 SiteGround: Easiest-to-Use Control Panel

• Hybrid Hosting: SiteGround offers a hybrid between shared and managed hosting, providing the benefits of both worlds for users.
• Streamlined Control Panel: With Site Tools, SiteGround offers a ridiculously easy-to-use control panel that lets users set up all important aspects of their hosting quickly, even for total novices.
• User-Friendly: SiteGround’s hosting platform is very user-friendly, making it easy for users of all levels to navigate and manage their websites.
• Generous Resources: Even on starter plans, SiteGround provides generous resources, ensuring users have the power they need to build and grow their websites.
• Improved Control Panel: SiteGround’s switch to Site Tools has significantly improved the user experience, offering a more streamlined and intuitive interface for managing hosting settings and features.
• Server Performance: While page loading speeds could be improved, SiteGround still offers an attractive set of features that make it one of the easiest platforms to work with.

#9 HostArmada: Better-Than-Average Service

• Impressive Features: HostArmada offers impressive features, including strong security measures across all plans and a 45-day money-back guarantee.
• Fast Loading Speeds: HostArmada delivers fast loading speeds, with great performance scores for both time to first byte (TTFB) and fully loaded times. On average, the host fully loads test sites in just 1.1 seconds.
• Great Uptime Score: With a promised 99.9% uptime guarantee, HostArmada surpasses expectations with a 99.98% uptime score for test sites. This ensures minimal downtime and reliable performance for users.
• Intuitive User Interface: HostArmada provides an intuitive user interface, making it easy for users to navigate and manage their hosting accounts and websites.
• Reliability: HostArmada’s combination of fast loading speeds and excellent uptime scores showcases its reliability, making it a strong contender in the hosting industry despite being relatively new.

#10 GreenGeeks: Best Customer Support

• Top-notch Support: GreenGeeks offers the best support available for shared hosting, with dedicated and well-trained support agents who always go the extra mile to assist customers.
• Bargain Prices and Free Domain: In addition to its exceptional support, GreenGeeks provides bargain prices and includes a free domain with long-term plans, offering excellent value for money.
• Environmentally-Conscious Hosting: GreenGeeks is committed to environmentally-conscious hosting and invests in renewable energy. With multiple data centers delivering surprisingly fast speeds, GreenGeeks proves that eco-friendly hosting doesn’t mean sacrificing performance.
• Powerful cPanel Features: Every GreenGeeks plan includes powerful cPanel features, making it easy for users to manage their hosting accounts and websites with a user-friendly interface.
• Professional Live Support: GreenGeeks’ support team outperforms even premium hosts, maintaining a professional live support service 24/7. Their expertise, dedication, and accessibility make them a pleasure to work with, ensuring customers always receive the assistance they need.

Popular Hosts That Didn’t Make the Cut

While compiling my top ten list, I encountered some big names in the hosting industry that didn’t quite make the final cut. Here’s a closer look at these notable hosts:

1. A2 Hosting: Known for its lightning-fast loading speeds and “anytime” refund policy, A2 Hosting is a solid choice for shared hosting. However, with limited space on the list, there wasn’t room for a deserving #11.
2. ScalaHosting: While ScalaHosting offers excellent VPS plans, we found its shared web hosting to be overshadowed. It’s a great option for those ready to upgrade from shared hosting to VPS.
3. Kamatera: With top-notch VPS hosting tailored for advanced users, Kamatera didn’t make the cut due to its niche appeal. It may be too complex for those seeking basic hosting or lacking server management skills.
4. Namecheap: Renowned for domain services, Namecheap also offers decent shared hosting. While it didn’t make our top ten, it’s a strong contender for the “next-best” list.
5. Bluehost: Bluehost offers solid budget hosting, especially suitable for beginners with its user-friendly platform and generous discounts for first-time users.
6. GoDaddy: Despite its fame, GoDaddy fell short during our testing, offering a weak service at prices that don’t justify the quality.
7. HostPapa: While HostPapa has been dependable in the past, our recent experience revealed disappointing speeds, missing features, and poor value compared to competitors.
8. WP Engine: While WP Engine is often touted as one of the best WordPress hosting providers, it didn’t secure a spot on our top ten list due to various factors, including pricing and specific requirements of our selection criteria.

The Global Web Host Comparison Project: How We Did It

In a world where every web hosting provider claims to be the best, it’s hard to separate fact from fiction. Terms like “blazing speeds” and “24/7 expert support” are thrown around, but do they truly deliver?

To find the answer, I embarked on a journey to uncover the truth behind the claims. The question at the forefront of my mind was simple yet critical:

Which web hosting services are actually the best ones today?

Testing became the only way to truly evaluate these companies. I knew I had to dig deep and ask:

1. Which are the most popular and most appreciated web hosts today?
2. What am I looking for in a quality hosting service?
3. After signing up to and thoroughly testing the contenders, how do they compare in terms of features, performance, ease of use, prices, and support?

The process wasn’t without its challenges. With fierce competition, I had to be meticulous in my analysis. But the results were worth it, and they often surprised even me.

It’s important to note that our testing wasn’t confined to just one location. While our sites were hosted on servers in the US data centers of these providers, we went further. Over 30 Website Planet experts from around the globe conducted tests in their own countries, comparing these hosts to local providers.

So, while you can view the results on this page, remember that our exploration extended worldwide. To see how these hosts performed in various regions, simply change the language in the upper right corner of this page.

In the end, our goal was simple: to provide you with unbiased, comprehensive insights to help you make the best decision for your hosting needs.

Who Are the Top Web Hosts Available Today?

In my quest to uncover the world’s #1 web host, I sought out versatile companies offering hosting solutions for a wide range of clients – from simple shared hosting to managed WordPress, cloud instances, VPS machines, and dedicated servers.

First and foremost, Hostinger emerged as an obvious contender. With its ever-growing customer base numbering in the millions, I was curious to see if this industry giant could live up to its reputation or if it simply coasted on name recognition alone. Real testing was necessary to determine its true standing.

Delving deeper, I didn’t want to rely solely on popularity. I sought insights from Website Planet experts worldwide, conducting Zoom meetings to gather their opinions on the best services available today. I also tapped into various web development communities, groups, forums, and subreddits, gathering feedback from every possible source.

The hosting companies that consistently surfaced during this extensive research phase form the core of my list.

If You Want To Test a Web Host, You Have To Build a Real Website

It isn’t possible to evaluate the quality of a web host without using it for real, and to use it for real, you need to build a website. WordPress was my obvious go-to platform, but my website still needed to be about something…

Which brings us to a dark and rainy February night. I was waiting for the bus when I realized my head was a bit stuffy and my throat a bit sore. I was catching a cold! Then I remembered an article I’d read about how vitamins and good nutrition could boost your immune system and possibly avoid the dreaded common cold. Out of my misery and regret, I hit upon a brilliant website idea.

I’m honored and pleased to introduce you to my very own fictional startup, Nutritionistica!

Armed with my revolutionary idea, I bought a flexible WordPress theme, and designed a series of similar websites that I launched on each of the 10 hosts’ platforms.

For each host, I repeated the same process:

Before signup, I had a long chat with support to size them up. I played dumb (really dumb), asked a ton of questions, and noted how honest and professional the agents were.

If they tried to push me into buying an advanced plan I didn’t need, told tall tales of how performance in Australia would be amazing (even though their servers are located in the US), or showed a general lack of comprehension, I took points off.

After that, I created hosting accounts and linked domain names with each of these providers. I almost always went for the most basic shared hosting plan available, and thoroughly documented the process. I wanted to understand how easy each host is to use, and to check which ones try to weasel some extra bucks off you when you’re not looking. I made note of the data center locations, and if the host offered domain name registration, I used it for that, too.

In each instance, I installed WordPress, an SSL certificate, uploaded my custom theme, and evaluated what the plans actually include. What resources will you be getting and what tools are at your disposal? What features are freely available and what lies locked behind a paywall?

When all my websites were up and running, I contacted support again, telling the agents that my loading speed was disappointing, and requested help to make my website load faster. I then proceeded with any suggested optimizations.

The final step (that is still ongoing) was my performance tests. I measured loading times in the US and all over the world, and enabled uptime monitors to see which hosts were the most reliable. The tools I used were:

• GTmetrix PRO
• Sucuri Load Time Tester
• UptimeRobot’s Pro plan

Results and Analysis: How Did Each Host Fare?

After months of experimenting with the hosts and gathering data, I was finally able to complete my mission – to compare all these hosting providers and find the best one.

I’ve ranked each service in five categories:

1. Features
2. Ease of Use
3. Performance
4. Support
5. Pricing

You’ll find a detailed table for each category, followed by an explanation and in-depth discussion of all comparison criteria.

Features

Features are what each service gives you. This consists of the options, resources, tools, services, perks, and bonuses that are provided as part of the plan.

	Hostigner	IONOS	InterServer	Nexcess	Kinsta	FastComet	InMotion Hosting	SiteGround	HostArmada	GreenGeeks
Disk Space	100 GB	10 GB	Unlimited	15 GB	10 GB	15 GB	Unlimited	10 GB	15 GB	10 GB
Bandwidth	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	2 TB	~ 25,000 visits	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	3 GB to 30 GB	Unlimited
Control Panel	hPanel (proprietary)	IONOS (proprietary)	cPanel	Nexcess (proprietary)	Kinsta (proprietary)	cPanel	cPanel	Site Tools (proprietary)	cPanel	cPanel
AutoInstallers	AutoInstaller	Click and Build	Softaculous	Pre-installed	Pre-installed	Softaculous	Softaculous	App Manager	Softaculous	Softaculous
SSL Certificates	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Backups	Automatic weekly	Automatic daily	Automatic weekly	Automatic daily	Automatic daily	Automatic daily	Paid add-on	Automatic daily	Automatic daily	Automatic daily
Number of Domains	1	1	Unlimited	1	1	1	2	1	1	1
Number of Email Accounts	Unlimited	1	Unlimited	Unlimited	✘	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	50
CDN	Cloudflare	Cloudflare	Cloudflare	Nexcess CDN	Kinsta CDN	Cloudflare	Cloudflare supported (not included)	Cloudflare	Cloudflare	✘
Caching	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✘	✘	✔	✔	✔
Security Tools	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✘	✔	✔	✘
Final Features Score	4.8	4.8	4.6	4.8	4.0	4.6	4.5	4.7	4.3	4.1

See Coupons for All These Hosts

Disk space

Everything you host is going to take up space. From your WordPress (or any other platform) installation to your text, images, videos, and files, it all counts towards your allotted disk space. InterServer and InMotion Hosting provide unlimited space.

IONOS, Kinsta, GreenGeeks, and SiteGround provide the smallest amount of space, with Nexcess, FastComet, HostArmada, and Hostinger doing slightly better.

Still, don’t jump to the conclusion that more is always better. 10GB is certainly enough for blogs, business pages, and even e-commerce stores with thousands of HD pics. “Unlimited space” sounds amazing, but it’s always bound to some “fair use agreement” and you’re never the one who gets to decide what’s fair.

Bandwidth or data transfer

When people visit your website, the host sends them the page they requested. In the same way that all your hosted data counts towards your disk space limit, your bandwidth is how much data you’re allowed to send in a month. The more visitors you have, the more bandwidth you’ll require.

SiteGround and Kinsta provide the least amount, although they will still do well for small-to-medium audiences. Most of the other hosts do significantly better, offering unlimited bandwidth. However, much like with disk space, these “unlimited” claims are often misleading. You’ll likely encounter restrictions if your site uses too many resources. For this reason, Nexcess is the true bandwidth champion, guaranteeing an obscene amount of traffic.

Control panel

Do you speak Linux? Nope. That’s why control panels were invented. They allow you to easily edit and configure your hosting solution, from DNS records to databases and email accounts.

Most hosts offer cPanel, which is the most popular option out there. As far as basic hosting management is concerned, you can never go wrong with it. Hostinger, IONOS, and SiteGround developed panels of their own, and while all of them mimic cPanel in some ways, they fail to deliver an equally powerful solution.

Kinsta  and Nexcess completely did away with the idea of a fully-fledged control panel. They don’t offer nearly as many options as the contenders, but there’s a reason for that – both services are managed, meaning most configuration is already taken care of for you.

Auto-installers

Installing CMSs (content management systems) like WordPress used to be a tedious manual process, but today, most providers offer an easy-to-use automatic installation.

Most hosts went with Softaculous, a very capable auto-installer that offers easy installation for hundreds of CMSs. Hostinger, IONOS, and SiteGround have self-developed solutions that work similarly. Kinsta and Nexcess, true to their promise of managing things for you, don’t give you access to such a service. Instead, your CMS of choice comes pre-installed.

Platform support

What CMS can you actually install with each service? WordPress is popular, but it’s far from the only website platform available today – hundreds of options exist, from Joomla and Magento to self-developed PHP-based projects.

Almost all hosts provide “full” platform support, meaning that you can run any CMS you desire. SiteGround is slightly more limited, offering a few dozen options or so. Nexcess supports the most popular platforms, but servers are highly-optimized for each type; or, you can opt for a Flexible Cloud Plan and host whatever you wish. Kinsta is strictly a WordPress service, and can’t be used for any other CMS.

SSL certificates

I can’t stress the importance of an SSL certificate enough. It secures and encrypts your visitors data, guaranteeing their safety if they are logging in to or submitting data on your site. It’s a must for e-commerce sites, and is also known to positively affect Google rankings and SEO in general.

While SSL certificates used to be quite expensive, today there’s a much cheaper solution. Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates are free to use, and any host can easily choose to provide them. That is exactly what almost all of these hosts have done.

SSL Qualys score

Qualys tests the strength of your website’s SSL protection, ranking it on an A to F scale. Care about your visitors, your SEO, and about being a responsible adult? Anything less than an A ranking is cause for concern.

Apart from FastComet and InMotion Hosting, all other hosts scored an A or above, guaranteeing you complete peace of mind. What should you make of the B score? That these hosts could’ve done better, but for reasons unknown, chose to neglect this aspect of the service. That’s bad news.

Backups

While all auto-installers can be configured to run a CMS backup onto your disk space, I’m looking for full system backups that are automatically made and stored on a remote server. So if your hosting space was compromised by hackers, an untouched backup still exists.

Most hosts only provide these backups as a paid add-on, which is a crying shame. It’s absolutely necessary. InterServer doesn’t provide such a service at all for its shared plans. GreenGeeks performs nightly backups that are available in the event of a service malfunction, but you can’t access them yourself.

The only saints are IONOS, Nexcess, Kinsta and SiteGround. They provide you with easy access to backups, and let you freely restore them. You can also run more backups on demand.

Number of domains

This does not refer to the domain names you’ve registered, but to the number of separate websites you can host with your plan. One domain is obviously the minimum, and is usually what basic plans offer. Pay more for advanced plans, get more domains.

This is true of all the hosts on this list except InMotion Hosting and InterServer. InMotion Hosting gives you 2 domains on the basic plan, while InterServer’s plan comes with unlimited domains – which is undoubtedly the host’s biggest selling point. Just remember that behind-the-scenes computing resources are still limited, so use this plan for running multiple landing page sites and average-sized blogs – not resource-hungry megastores.

Number of email accounts

If you want a domain-specific email account, and are planning to use this address for business purposes, be sure to check what your host offers. Hostinger and IONOS, for example, offer just a single email account with their basic plans. GreenGeeks does better, with 50. All others, except Kinsta, let you open unlimited accounts.

Kinsta, sadly, has no email hosting at all, meaning you’ll have to shell out for a separate email service such as G Suite.

CDN

Your website is hosted on a physical server somewhere in the world. The farther your visitors are from this location, the longer it will take them to load your website. Looking to offset this? Enter a CDN (content delivery network). A CDN caches (creates copies) of your website’s assets (images, code, and rendered versions of your site’s pages) and spreads them over a global network of servers, speeding up content delivery.

Nexcess and Kinsta excel here, giving you access to premium CDN services. Most other hosts offer easy, one-click integration with the 3rd-party Cloudflare. Cloudflare has a free service, but it’s not the fastest. Hostinger hides this easy integration behind a paywall, which is truly ridiculous.

Caching

A CDN isn’t the only thing that can cache your website pages. Your hosting server can do it too! Why let your server “rebuild” your homepage every time a visitor arrives, when it’s the exact same homepage every time? A caching tool creates ready-to-send versions of your pages, significantly reducing the load on your server.

Almost all of these hosts offer some form of server-level caching, which allows site pages to be delivered more promptly. Sadly, A2 Hosting and InMotion offer no such option, limiting you to the vastly inferior client-level caching plugins. FastComet only includes caching in its advanced plans.

Security tools

A malware scanner, WAF (web application firewall), and any other tool that helps you secure your hosting, are highly recommended. It’s a dangerous world online, and it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Most hosts turned out to be disappointing on this front, not providing a single security tool out of the box. Among the ones that do, it’s usually a basic cPanel malware scanner. InterServer takes the prize here by letting you access a full range of scanners and security suites, all pre-installed and easy to use.

Features – Bottom Line

InterServer and Nexcess share the win. InterServer wins by using cPanel, going the “unlimited” route, and including powerful security measures. Nexcess and its custom panel might not have as many security tools, but the inclusion of automatic 30-day backups generated a lot of appreciation on my side.

Ease of Use

Not enough companies take the time to plan out the user experience and make it as seamless as possible. Still, ease of use is of the utmost importance. Learning how to play nice with a badly designed service can cost you hours, even days.

	Hostinger	IONOS	InterServer	Nexcess	Kinsta	FastComet	InMotion	Siteground	HostArmada	GreenGeeks
Ease of Signup	4.5	4.8	5.0	4.0	5.0	4.7	4.0	4.5	4.5	4.0
Account Activation	Immediate	Immediate	Immediate	Immediate	Immediate	Immediate	Immediate	Immediate	Immediate	2 days
Connecting Domain	5.0	4.5	3.0	5.0	3.5	4.5	5.0	5.0	5.0	5.0
Installing CMS	4.5	4.5	5.0	4.0	5.0	4.5	3.5	4.7	4.7	4.0
Using the account area	3.5	4.0	5.0	3.0	5.0	4.5	3.5	4.7	5.0	4.0
Final Ease of Use Score	4.9	4.8	4.3	4.7	4.7	4.7	4.0	4.9	4.7	4.5

Easy signup

Nobody wants signing up to a service to feel like high school homework. I’ve ranked each service on a 1-5 scale according to how easy it was to get on board, which in a perfect world consists of me inputting my email address, choosing a password, and entering payment information. If they asked me annoying questions, requested irrelevant data, or in any way complicated this process – I took points off.

Most hosts did pretty well here. Some had me going through extra pages and were slightly confusing, but that’s a relatively minor offense. Still, Nexcess and Kinsta asked for the least amount of details, did not hinder my progress in any way, and basically let me finish the whole process in under a minute.

Immediate account activation

Silly me, thinking that after signing up and entering my very legitimate payment information, I’d immediately be activated. How wrong I was. Many hosts have “anti-fraud” protocols in place, and these protocols were very quick to block my purchase and send me back to the drawing board. You might not get tagged by the protocols, but in many cases, I was.

Hostinger, IONOS, Kinsta, and InMotion Hosting were the only hosts to immediately activate me. SiteGround and InterServer made small charges to my credit card, which took a while to show up. I then had to confirm these to be verified successfully. FastComet asked for a screenshot of my credit card charge.

GreenGeeks blocked my order on account of “fraud.” The process of getting in touch with the sales team, providing a copy of my passport (which I didn’t feel comfortable at all with), and finally switching to PayPal, took two days.

Connecting the domain

Ranked on a 1-5 scale. It’s really easy to score highly here. All a host has to do is to put the nameservers or server IP in a visible spot, and include a quick guide on what to do. How can you fail this super-basic step that every client has to go through?

Kinsta made this surprisingly difficult, and had me manually configuring DNS records. This is something that almost all other hosts automatically do for you, and it took me an hour I’m never getting back. With InMotion Hosting, I needed to change my primary domain. It took me time to find out this extra step was required, but the process itself was relatively easy.

Installing a CMS

From 1 to 5. As long as an auto-installer is included, this is easy. Just click it, enter your new website details, and go live.

SiteGround and Hostinger did well, letting me install WordPress automatically right after signup. IONOS, Nexcess, Kinsta, and InMotion Hosting were the best – WordPress was already pre-installed and waiting for me on WordPress hosting plans.

Using the account area

Ranked from 1 to 5. Between the hosting control panel and you stands the account area. This is usually some weird twilight zone that lets you view your plans, go over billing, purchase more stuff, or really, sometimes, just be there. The more complicated it is to navigate, or the more it’s filled with annoying upsells, the less happy I get.

InterServer scores very low here as its account area is an under-designed mess, filled with upsells and links to products you don’t have. Hostinger is very sleek, but constant upsell popups pushing you to upgrade your plan or purchase more add-ons are a pain. InMotion Hosting’s account area looks like it was designed by my grandma, who despite being a phenomenal person, is not a user interface expert.

Kinsta and Nexcess offer what is basically a perfect user experience, seamlessly integrating an easy-to-use account area with the hosting control panel. That means less time loading pages, navigating menus, or making wild guesses about what lies where.

Ease of Use – Bottom Line

Kinsta and Nexcess, despite suffering from some silly issues that could’ve easily been remedied, still win this one. Pre-installed CMSs and super easy-to-use account areas mean you’ll be able to enjoy the full power of your hosting while wasting the least amount of time trying to fiddle with it.

See Nexcess’ Latest Deals >>

Performance

This is the most important aspect of a web hosting service. My test website is very similar to the blog, business page, or portfolio you might want to host, so these results are a very close approximation of your actual performance.

You might’ve seen other “testing” websites that offer performance metrics of various web hosts. I’m sad to say that most of them are going about it entirely the wrong way. 

	Hostinger	IONOS	InterServer	Nexcess	Kinsta	FastComet	InMotion	SiteGround	HostArmada	GreenGeeks
Data Center Locations	2 in the US, 4 in Europe, 2 in Asia, and 1 in South America	US, UK, Germany, France, and Spain	6 in the US	US, UK, NL, AU	Global GCP cloud servers	US, CA DE, NL, SG, JP, IN, AU	US, EU	US, NL, SG	4 in North America, 2 in Europe, 2 in Asia, 1 in Australia	US, CA, NL
Web Server	LiteSpeed	Apache	LiteSpeed	NGINX	NGINX	Apache	Apache	NGINX	NGINX	LiteSpeed
GTmetrix Typical Fully-Loaded Time	0.78 seconds	0.78 seconds	1.2 seconds	0.55 seconds	0.82 seconds	1.2 seconds	1.9 seconds	1.1 seconds	1.1 seconds	1.2 seconds
Uptime	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	99.96%	100%	99.98%	100%
Uptime Guarantee	99.9%	99.9%	99.9%	100%	99.9%	99.9%	✘	99.9%	99.9%	99.9%
Final Performance Score	4.9	4.8	4.6	4.8	4.9	4.3	4.3	4.7	4.8	4.6

Data center locations

The geographic locations where the companies’ servers are. Most hosts operate more than one data center, although there’s nothing wrong with focusing on just one. Just remember, you need a data center that’s close to your target or majority audience. Running a French politics blog, written in French, aimed at French citizens? Don’t host it in Los Angeles. Go for Paris, or at least Amsterdam.

Using Google Cloud’s servers, Kinsta is easily the winner when trying to reach those hard-to-serve audiences in such locations as Japan or Australia. FastComet comes in a close second, and most other hosts operate from Amsterdam and the US east coast, sometimes also running a data center in Singapore. InMotion Hosting and InterServer also run data centers in Los Angeles, making them a great choice for US west coast audiences.

Web server

The technology that powers your website. Think of it as the code (not to be confused with the actual server, which is the physical machine that runs the code) that was written by some very talented people to make sure your visitors can view your pages and interact with your site. Apache and its successor, Apache 2.x, are the oldest web server technologies commonly used today. They’re great and reliable, but newer web servers, like NGINX and LiteSpeed, are known to outperform Apache.

IONOS, InMotion Hosting, and FastComet are all lagging behind in this aspect, as they only offer Apache.

Loading speed

Page loading speed, measured in seconds, is based on a large number of factors, some under your control and some beyond it. Visitors from different locations, and sometimes even the same visitor at a different time of the day, will get slightly different loading speeds. Still, average loading times of over 3 seconds aren’t desirable Many users will simply click away if they have to wait too long for a site to load.To help gauge each hosting provider’s performance. I’ve used GTmetrix to measure loading speeds over a long period of time.

GTmetrix speeds: How long the GTmetrix testing server took to load our website, in seconds. I ran these speed tests on an almost daily basis, and now I present you with the average speed to fully load our test site. Unsurprisingly, our top two hosts, Hostinger and IONOS, returned the fastest scores.

Uptime

Uptime is measured in percentage, and I used UptimeRobot to test it over several months. 100% means the website was never down. 99% means that it was down for 1% of the testing period. That’s 1% of the time when no visitor was able to view your website. Translate that to lost customers, lost readers, whatever – they may never try to visit your website again. Most hosts guarantee (or at least aim for) around 99% uptime. I like my websites shaken, not stirred, and with at least 99.99% uptime.

I’m happy to report that uptime results were fantastic for all hosts. Give it time – when they falter, I’ll be here with the update.

Uptime guarantee

Reliable hosts guarantee uptime in their SLA (Service-Level Agreement). They stand by their guarantee, and offer you reimbursement if they can’t live up to their promise.

Thing is, some companies are sneaky. They use misleading language to avoid responsibility, or define an “uptime guarantee” in ways that work for them – but not for you.

For example, InMotion Hosting advertises a “99.9%” guarantee, but this isn’t backed up within its Hosting Agreement. So, they’re actually under no formal obligation to provide you with 99.9% uptime. Hostinger guarantees uptime under very vague conditions, and will only reimburse you for 5% of your fee as “solely determined by them.” I can’t count these as actual guarantees.

Even premium host Nexcess isn’t entirely truthful. It proudly displays a 100% uptime guarantee, but if you dig into the SLA, you’ll find that you’d need to accumulate 15 minutes of downtime across a given month to be due compensation. This is hardly a 100% guarantee, but at least it’s still better than the standard 99.9% guarantee.

Performance – Bottom Line

The winners are clear: Kinsta, Nexcess, and Hostinger. How the budget-friendly Hostinger manages to be as speedy and reliable as the two most expensive services on this list is beyond me. Hostinger agents did provide me with a long and useful optimization guide, but I never expected performance to be this great.

Support

When you have a question, or simply need help, you’ll have to rely on the host’s support agents, tutorials, and knowledge base. If you’re a beginner or a little less tech-savvy, you have to be sure that these guys will be there for you.

	Hostinger	IONOS	InterServer	Nexcess	Kinsta	FastComet	InMotion	SiteGround	HostArmada	GreenGeeks
Support Channels	Chat, Email	Chat, Email, Phone	Chat, Ticket, Phone	Ticke, Phone	Chat, Email	Chat, Ticket, Phone	Chat, Phone, Ticket	Chat, Phone, Ticket, AI search tool	Chat, Ticket, Phone	Chat, Ticket, Phone
Support Hours	24/7	24/7	24/7	24/7	5am to 10pm UTC	24/7	24/7	24/7	24/7	24/7
Professionalism	4.2	4.0	3.0	4.6	4.5	4.7	4.0	4.5	4.7	5.0
Final Support Score	4.4	4.0	4.9	4.8	4.3	4.6	4.5	4.4	4.7	4.9

Pre-sales support

Ranked from 1 to 5. If you’re looking to sign up, you probably have questions. That’s why having a professional sales support agent available is important. One that knows their stuff and won’t try to sell you plans or products you don’t need. I tried to talk with all the hosts before signing up. Surprisingly, it wasn’t always an option. Live chat is obviously my preferred way, but prompt email responses are also appreciated. Just don’t make me call you – I don’t want to.

Nexcess’ professional agent was honest, quick to respond, and simply got me psyched about signing up. FastComet was also great, promptly answering my questions with a solid knowledge of the service and no overselling. A2 Hosting and GreenGeeks faltered here and there, but were generally dependable. Best thing about all of these hosts? They were available through live chat.

Hostinger made me use email. I got good answers in less than an hour, but I was still not impressed. Kinsta also made me use email, which was surprising considering how much the service costs. I didn’t get an answer to my questions, but the option to make a phone call was available. Ugh.

I had a lot of trouble getting in touch with IONOS’ sales team. The live chat service was frequently unavailable, and there didn’t seem to be an email address for sales support. Again, the only option left to me was phone support – which was a bit of a pain as I only had a few brief questions.

InterServer’s agent was disappointing. He had a weak grasp of the English language, and didn’t seem to understand how loading speeds are affected by physical distance from the data center.

SiteGround doesn’t get a score in this category because the company didn’t offer any pre-sales support when I tested it. It now offers live chat, so we’ll update this page once we have a chance to test it.

Support channels

As a customer, I want to be able to contact support when I need it, in the way most convenient to me. I also want live chat and the option to get support through phone, email, and tickets.

All of the hosts offer the standard mix of chat, tickets, and phone support. Nexcess was particularly quick to respond on live chat and equally quick to offer a solution.

In-house support

To provide the most reliable support, the team needs to be in-house. Hopefully, that means in the very same building as the technicians, sales staff, and all other company personnel. Outsourcing support to second and third-rate manpower companies in India or elsewhere makes things a lot cheaper for the hosts themselves, but it spells disaster for you. When speaking with such agents, expect broken English, a general lack of knowledge, and sometimes a complete inability to assist outside of reciting scripted responses.

Eight of the ten did okay, but not A2 Hosting and InterServer. The situation with InterServer became downright depressing as testing progressed. Agents struggled with basic English, and interactions ended up taking way longer than they should. A2 Hosting’s outsourced support is not as bad, although you still have to use “baby-talk” with them, at least for most of the time.

Availability

When I contact a support team, I want an agent to be available to me 24/7. And to answer my message in a timely manner, which in my book is around 30 seconds. I gathered data on how long it really took to get support, and what the working hours were.

All hosts advertise a 24/7 support service, but with some, this isn’t actually the case. Hostinger, IONOS, and InMotion Hosting took a very long time to answer questions on live chat, sometimes making me wait up to an hour, or even longer.

Professionalism

What good is a support agent that answers immediately, but doesn’t know the first thing about connecting a domain to a hosting account, or about setting up an SSL certificate? No good. I’ve ranked them from 1 to 5 based on my experiences. I had multiple interactions with each provider’s support team, and got a good idea of the overall standards.

Simply put, you can’t count on InterServer for help via live chat. The agents are not trained for the job, and are only there to give you the illusion of support. InterServer does have actual agents available through tickets, so I eventually gave up on chat support.

SiteGround, Nexcess, Kinsta, and GreenGeeks are the complete opposite. These guys know hosting. They have experience with it. They were able to handle every problem I had, quickly and with ease.

What about the rest? They’re hit or miss. With FastComet, for example, one agent tried to reinstall my website in an attempt to solve an unrelated issue. Another agent turned out to be an optimization machine, spending a long half hour improving my site’s loading speeds and earning an A in my book.

Going the extra mile

Sometimes you’re going to be in need of a helping hand, but the specific issue you’re dealing with isn’t covered by the service level agreement. Many times, the agents know exactly what needs to be done. It’s up to them to either make you a happy customer, or to cling to rules and regulations and say “Sorry! That’s not part of the service!” It’s okay to do the latter. Really. But if you want a place in my heart, you’ve gotta go the extra mile.

InterServer fails miserably because it can barely go the first mile, never mind the extra ones. Nexcess was open to making my life easier – a Nexcess agent installed a WordPress theme for me. While this is a one-click no-brainer, many other hosts tell you to either Google it or look for the button. FastComet also scored highly here, although it really seems to depend on the given agent, and on how Jupiter aligns with Mars.

But the absolute winner here? GreenGeeks. I’m not exaggerating – these guys want to help. Badly. They will sit with you for an hour and guide you through how to use WordPress for the first time. They will optimize your website for you, thoughtfully taking care of every issue and providing full information each step of the way. They’re the best.

Support – Bottom Line

GreenGeeks, knocking it out of the park. As I said, this is how support should be. Nexcess, FastComet, and Kinsta are good, but they all suffer from some issue – annoying ticket system, minor mistakes, or a strict adherence to not doing anything they’re not obligated to do.

Pricing

How much do these services actually cost, and how much value are you getting for your money? Additionally – what payment options exist, what aren’t the hosts telling you, and can you leave if you’re not happy?

	Hostinger	IONOS	InterServer	Nexcess	Kinsta	FastComet	InMotion	Siteground	HostArmada	GreenGeeks
Lowest Current Price	$1.99	$.99	$2.75	$23.00	$33.00	$1.98	$3.28	$3.28	$3.28	$3.24
Payment period (in months)	1, 12, 24, 48	1,12	1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 36	1, 12	1,12	1,3	12, 24	12, 24, 36	1, 12, 24, 36	1, 12, 24, 36
Payment Options	Credit card, PayPal, Bitcoin	Credit card, PayPal	Credit card, PayPal	Credit card	Credit card	Credit card, PayPal	Credit card, PayPal, Skrill, transfer	Credit card, PayPal upon request	Credit card, PayPal	Credit card, PayPal
Money-back guarantee	30 days	30 days	30 days	14 day free trial	30 days	45 days	90 days	30 days	45 days	30 days
Free Domain Name	✔	✔	✘	✘	✘	✘	✔	✘	✔	✔
Final Pricing score	4.9	4.9	4.9	4.7	3.0	4.5	4.8	4.2	4.5	4.7

Entry-level monthly plan price

Simply put, the monthly price of the most basic shared hosting plan. Sometimes monthly plans aren’t available, and in those cases I’ve calculated the monthly price as the plan price divided by the number of months.

Wondered where Kinsta and Nexcess were going to get you? It’s right here. The basic monthly price is much, much higher than any other host on this list. Kinsta is actually six times more expensive than InterServer, who’s the obvious winner. Even when paying monthly, the price is still an amazingly fair $5.

Annual term plan price

The trick with most hosting companies is, to get the best possible prices, you need to sign up for the longest possible term. In the table above, I’ve included the monthly price if you sign up for a year with any host.

Hostinger becomes one of the absolute cheapest options in the history of web hosting… when you sign up for four years. It’s truly an amazing price, but it’s up to you to consider how your needs will change in four years – the plan will likely stay the same.

Payment periods

Some people want to sign up to a service and start a business that you know is going to be around for a long time. You might be alright with signing up for years in advance. But otherswant flexibility. Monthly payments give you the ability to change your mind and be done with the plan by next month.

Sadly, you’re not getting that with InMotion Hosting, where it’s a minimum one-year signup. SiteGround is even worse, letting you choose a monthly “trial” plan, but after a month, announcing that the trial is over and now it’s either a yearly subscription or bust.

Interserver offers the most flexible payment periods, with a staggering number of options. You can sign up for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, or 1-3 years.

Payment options

Please God, let me pay with PayPal. But credit cards are also okay. And I appreciate having other options, like bitcoin or chickens.

Kinsta gave me no PayPal and no chickens, instead sticking to credit cards like it’s the jolly 1990s. GreenGeeks let me pay with PayPal, but it’s not recurring. I had to manually pay my monthly invoice every time. These were both major disappointments.

No automatic upsells

When signing up to the service, some hosts automatically add extra services you never asked for. Because… they want you to pay more. It’s a sneaky, disgusting business practice.

The main offenders here are SiteGround and InMotion Hosting. They all seem to think that they know better than you, and add a backup service or some other extra that balloons the monthly cost past the Kinsta stratosphere. I recommend being very careful with them during the signup process.

No hidden fees

Hidden fees are almost as annoying as upsells. These are fees that surprisingly pop up, usually when you’re already set on buying the product. Made-up terms like a “setup fee” (it’s all automatic – nobody is “setting up” your new account) that come with a $15 price tag are a big no-no in my book.

SiteGround fails this one completely, and on multiple levels. It charges a setup fee only when signing up for the monthly trial (what kind of trial costs extra?), and doesn’t refund it even if you sign up for an annual plan after the month is over. GreenGeeks also has a setup fee in place, but a sales agent was kind enough to remove it upon my request.

Money-back guarantees

If hosting with a company doesn’t work out, you’ll want to bid them adieu and get your money back. Thankfully, all the hosts on our list have a money-back guarantee or a free trial, allowing you to try them completely risk-free.

It’s worth pointing out how InMotion Hosting gives you a full three months to make up your mind, which is one of the more generous policies I’ve encountered.

Free domain name

I don’t recommend hosting your website and purchasing your domain name from the same company, but sometimes the deal is too good not to consider.

IONOS, GreenGeeks, and InMotion Hosting will throw in a free domain name if you sign up for a year or longer. InterServer lets you purchase a heavily discounted one, and Hostinger changes its offering often. I got a free domain name when signing up, but it isn’t always there.

Domain name registration

Even if you got a free domain, it’ll only be free for one year. The second year, you’ll pay full price. FastComet and Hostinger have the lowest prices among these ten (for a .com domain), and all others are surprisingly expensive. But seriously, guys, don’t buy a domain where you host. Just go with Namecheap or Namesilo. They’re cheaper, more reliable, and include WHOIS protection for free.

Pricing – Bottom Line

This is one section where Kinsta didn’t stand a chance. Our speedy and powerful hero is not only more expensive, but also offers less flexibility and no payment methods other than credit cards. Shame.

The winners are Hostinger and InterServer. Hostinger easily wins for long-term hosting, boasting what are simply the cheapest plans on the market. You can sign up for anything between one month and four years, and you can even pay with bitcoin if you so desire.

See Hostinger’s Latest Plans >>

InterServer is best for keeping things flexible and affordable. The monthly price is very fair, making InterServer an obvious choice for you savvy customers who want to get more and pay less without committing for years to come.

See InterServer’s Best Deals >>

Final Conclusions and Recommendations

Feeling a bit lost after being bombarded with all this data? Well, not to toot my own horn or anything, but the most detailed hosting comparison ever done can seem confusing at first.