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Web Hosting

Shared, managed and cloud hosting for business websites and stores.

6 tools · 2 articles

Hosting is the category with the widest gap between advertised price and renewal price. Almost every provider in the mass market advertises a heavily discounted introductory term, and the number that matters for planning is what you pay in year two.

Beyond price, the practical differences are performance under real traffic, how much of the maintenance the host handles for you, where the servers physically are relative to your customers, and how good support is when something breaks at an inconvenient time.

What to look at before you choose

  1. Compare renewal pricing, not launch pricingWork out the full cost across the term you intend to stay, including renewal. Introductory pricing usually requires a multi-year prepayment.
  2. Pick a data centre near your customersA UK or Australian audience served from a US data centre pays for it in latency. Check available regions before signing up.
  3. Decide how managed you need it to beManaged hosting handles updates, caching, staging and backups. Cheaper unmanaged plans hand that work to you.
  4. Check backups and migrationConfirm backup frequency, retention, whether restores are self-service, and whether the host migrates your existing site for free.

Start here

Featured reading

The piece we point hosting buyers to first.

Shortlist

Popular hosting tools

Ordered by our editorial score. Every entry names who it suits and who it does not.

All software
Kinsta logoHosting

Premium managed WordPress hosting with excellent tooling and support.

Best for
Revenue-critical WordPress sites and agencies managing client hosting
Pricing
Verify current pricing · None
Rating
4.4/5
WooCommerce logoEcommerce

Open-source ecommerce for WordPress — maximum control, and you own the maintenance.

Best for
Content-led businesses on WordPress that want full control of their stack
Pricing
Verify current pricing · Free plan
Rating
4.3/5
Hostinger logoHosting

Budget-focused shared and managed hosting with a genuinely usable custom control panel.

Best for
Small business sites and early projects that need reliable hosting at low cost
Pricing
Verify current pricing · None
Rating
4.3/5
SiteGround logoHosting

Managed shared hosting with a strong support reputation and solid WordPress tooling.

Best for
Small business and WordPress sites that value support quality over lowest price
Pricing
Verify current pricing · None
Rating
4.3/5
Cloudways logoHosting

Managed cloud hosting on top of major providers — control without server administration.

Best for
Agencies and developers hosting multiple sites who want performance without sysadmin work
Pricing
Verify current pricing · Free trial
Rating
4.2/5
WP Engine logoHosting

Established managed WordPress hosting with strong agency and enterprise tooling.

Best for
Agencies and businesses running WordPress as a core business system
Pricing
Verify current pricing · Free trial
Rating
4.2/5

Scores are our editorial assessment of fit and value — not an average of user reviews.

More

Latest Hosting articles

Hosting questions

How much should a small business pay for hosting?

A brochure site runs comfortably on entry-level shared hosting; a store or a high-traffic content site benefits from managed or cloud hosting. Base the decision on traffic and revenue at risk during downtime rather than on the lowest advertised rate.

Is cheap shared hosting a false economy?

Not for low-traffic sites. It becomes one when downtime or slow page loads start costing you leads or sales, at which point managed hosting is usually the cheaper option overall.

Do I need to buy hosting separately from my domain?

No, but keeping domain registration separate from hosting makes it easier to move hosts later without touching your domain.

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