In today’s modern age, if you own a business, you must have a website for it, or else you will lose your customers to your competitors that have a website. There are over 15,000 web hosting services currently providing their services, most of which have the same mainstream features and service quality. Getting a website for your business doesn’t mean that you will only need a web designer and a developer to build the website; it also requires renting server space and getting a domain name registered through a website hosting service.
All of the 15,000 online companies can provide you these services, but what makes a website hosting service stand out from the crowd is its reputation for reliability, affordable rates, excellent customer service, and easy-to-use and intuitive web backend.
Best Web Hosting Services
Keeping the above criteria in mind, here is a list of the top 10 web hosting services that are dominating in 2017. Note that the following list is not in any particular order, but you can check out this ranked list of the top hosting services.
- eHost
eHost has a very user-friendly drag and drop website builder and cPanel hosting with features including an online store, blog tools, photo gallery, and 1000s of free website templates, to name a few. There is no setup fee and monthly charges are $5.50. Other highlighting features of eHost include 45-days money back guarantee, site analytics, a free domain name for life and 24/7 chat and phone support.
- HostMonster
HostMonster supports SSH Access, Front Page extensions, CGI, MySQL with cPanel control panel, site builder, and 1-Click scripts installer, and provides all of these features in their all-in-one unlimited package. This is a common solution for network and affiliate marketers. There is no setup fee and monthly charges are $4.95. Moreover, HostMonster instantly activates user accounts and provides 24/7, non-outsourced customer care service with holding times of not more than 2 minutes.
- iPage
iPage offers a relatively cheaper hosting package that includes all the important things required for setting up and running a website including online store, marketing and security suite, unlimited MySQL databases, unlimited emails, drag and drop site builder tools, photo gallery, and blog tools. The monthly charges for hosting service are $1.99. iPage also offers 100% green hosting, a free domain name for life, Facebook Marketing credits, and Google AdWords.
- JustHost
JustHost offers unlimited web space along with an all-inclusive web hosting package and free site builder, which comes with many creative templates. There is no setup fee and monthly charges are $4.45. It also provides many free add-ons such as MySpace Ad credits, Google AdWords credits, etc., and instant account setup for free. The best thing about this hosting service is that it offers anytime money back guarantee.
- BlueHost
BlueHost is one of the oldest web hosting services in the industry which is providing reliable and affordable services since 1996. The highlighting features include unlimited hosting space, SHH support, Python, Ruby (RoR), blogs and forum tools, and several others. The monthly charges are $5.99 and there is no setup fee. Moreover, BlueHost offers free domain for only 1 year, 2 500 POP/Imap email accounts, and a 24/7, highly responsive customer support service.
- InMotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting offers many great things in their package including easy to use control panel, unlimited disk space, unlimited transfer service, detailed site statistics, and business class email, to name a few. The monthly charges are $3.49, setup is free, and domain name fee is $11.99. InMotion Hosting also offers 90-day money back guarantee and great 24/7 customer support service.
- HostGator
HostGator offers free transfer service, 4,500+ design templates, and a free site builder, along with unlimited space and bandwidth. It offers two packages; one is Baby unlimited domains hosting package with monthly charges $9.95, and the other is unlimited web hosting package with $4.95 per month if users pre-pay yearly. HostGator has over 3 million domains registered to it, which makes it one of the reliable options to opt for. Other highlighting features include 45 day money-back guarantee, 24/7 technical support with USA based staff, and free account setup.
- HostMetro
HostMetro offers cPanel control panel, simple and advanced DNS zone editor, free privacy protection, two free website builders, Softaculous script installer, and maximum transfer and disk space. The monthly charges are $2.22, which are quite low as compared to many other services. HostMetro also offers a highly responsive 24/7 customer support service.
- WebHostingHub
WebHostingHub offers an all-in-one package that includes premium site builder tools, Drupal hosting, unlimited space and transfer, blog hosting, Joomla hosting and several other features. There is no setup fee and monthly charges are $4.95. This web hosting service also offers 24/7 USA based customer support, free domain registration, and a 90-day money back guarantee.
- FatCow
FatCow web hosting is perfect for small business and personal websites as its package includes store building tool, easy install of PHP, WordPress, and Joomla, SSL secure server, shopping cart, and several other features. There is no setup fee and the monthly charges are $4.67. FatCow offers a free domain, 24/7 customer support service and $50 AdWords credit.
All the above mentioned web hosting services have the following in-common features:
- Website stats, SSL, Perl, and CGI support, and virus & spam protection.
- Multiple parked/add-on domains and sub-domains.
- At least 99.9% network uptime guarantee.
- Support of Microsoft FrontPage extensions
- Multiple FTP accounts with Unrestricted FTP access
- Multiple IMAP and POP3 email accounts with the support of web-mail
How to Choose the Best Web Hosting Provider?
Keep the following points in mind when choosing a web hosting service.
- Get a feel for the web hosting service’s rates and value for money
- Technical specifications for your website hosting.
- Always investigate support and customer service of the web hosting service.
- Look for extra features other than web hosting like CMS, e-commerce solutions, access to statistics, etc.
It might seem like a daunting task to choose a web hosting service from so many options, but once you find the right service provider with whom you can stick with for the long haul, you will see that you have peace of mind and all the efforts and time spent was worth it.
