At one point, I considered using Godaddy’s cheap web hosting services to save money. However, I later learned that the average web loading speed is between 1 to 2.5 seconds, according to Google Page Speed Insights. Slow loading websites can be frustrating to use for both reading and shopping, and I didn’t want my website to fall into that category.

To make matters worse, the customer support at Godaddy was not helpful. This led me to switch to Siteground, and I haven’t looked back since. In my experience, Siteground offers reliable speed, security, and excellent customer support.

Choosing the right web hosting is crucial for online businesses. I now advise others to carefully consider all factors before making a decision.

How to choose the best web hosting for yourself?

Before that, is it not prudent to ask ourselves- “What are my hosting requirements?”.

• Am I going to build a WordPress blog or a Static HTML page
• Do I know a bit of technology
• Whether I will be hosting a single or multiple websites
• How much Traffic is expected (at least while starting), and 
• The amount of storage required

After requirements, let us check factors to keep in mind while selecting the host.

Essentially factors You should recall at the same time as deciding on selecting great internet website hosting service issuer

1. Server Response Time & Uptime
2. Customer Service Quality
3. Free SSL
4. Price
5. Website Migration

But before I miss out- Let me help you on

Why is Linux Hosting better than Windows Hosting

Although, you will find support for both the types of hosting with each having its own set of pros and cons.

Let me tell you, that choosing a Linux or Windows hosting has nothing to do with Windows or Mac running on your PC or Laptop. The reason being all computers are able to communicate with Linux or Windows hosting servers.

Linux hosting is preferred because, with a Linux environment, it is relatively easy to

• Start a blog on WP, Drupal or Joomla
• Setup an online forum using phpBB
• Create online stores, bulletin boards and websites
• Display information as a brochure, in newsletter format or as data sheets

Further, Linux hosting offers a simple web interface to install all types of CMS, databases and configuring email addresses.

You can mostly have one-click installs via cPanel.

You will find more ready to use solutions, open-source applications available for Linux hosting. Whereas, any software for Windows hosting will require you to buy a license.

And Lastly, Linux is the most customizable free open source system, hence, it comes to you at a lower price.

Why shared hosting? Is it the cheap & best alternative to costly & complex dedicated hosting?

Shared hosting is a type of web hosting where multiple websites are hosted on a single server, and resources such as CPU, RAM, and disk space are shared among all the websites hosted on that server. Shared hosting is a popular choice for individuals and small businesses as it is generally more affordable than dedicated hosting, and it is often simpler and easier to manage.

One of the main advantages of shared hosting is its affordability. Because multiple websites are hosted on a single server, the cost of hosting is shared among all the website owners. This makes shared hosting a more cost-effective option than dedicated hosting, where a single website is hosted on a dedicated server.

Another advantage of shared hosting is its ease of use. With shared hosting, the web hosting company takes care of all the technical details of managing the server, including hardware maintenance, software updates, and security. This means that website owners do not need to have any technical knowledge or experience to use shared hosting, and they can focus on building their websites.

However, shared hosting also has some disadvantages. Because resources are shared among multiple websites, there is a risk of a website on the same server using up too many resources, which can slow down other websites hosted on the server. Additionally, shared hosting often has more limited resources than dedicated hosting, which can be a limitation for websites with high traffic or resource-intensive applications.

In conclusion, shared hosting can be a good choice for individuals and small businesses looking for an affordable and easy-to-use hosting solution. However, larger businesses with high-traffic websites or resource-intensive applications may need the more robust resources provided by dedicated hosting.

PRO TIP: Do not decide solely based on price. Go for value option, i.e hosting which has top features is affordable and offers quality customer service.

11 Best Web Hosting Service Provider Review (Shared Hosting)

#1. SiteGround Shared Hosting Review

Pros

• With SiteGround you have Free Migration, Content Distribution Network(CDN), SSL Certificate & E-mail, all of which are charged at most of the other service providers.
• The best part is “Transparency in Plans”. SiteGround does not employ cheap tricks by pricing the plans differently. The per month charges are the same across all time periods.
• On top of all, you have the best customer support team in case of any problem or queries.
• Finally, you will find all plans, even the lower tier ones with enhanced security features like HTTP/2 & Let’s Encrypt SSL, best of server speed with SSD disks, PHP 7, Super Cacher & CDN.

Cons

• Not everything is Unlimited or Un-metered at SiteGround. You will find the traffic to be limited to allotted cycles.
• Even though the signup prices are reasonable, there is a high renewal price (almost 200% more) after the initial term.

Best For SiteGround hosting is best for anyone who is looking for transparent, top-class, reliable, fast & secure hosting with quality customer support.

Plans include:

StartUp Plan: Great for beginners with a single website expecting approximately 10K monthly visitors at $1.99/mo. However, post renewal the regular price of $14.99/mo applies.

GrowBig Plan: The plan is apt for someone with few nascent and 1 or 2 growing websites with increasing traffic.

GoGeek Plan: The Plan is ideal for established businesses with 100K traffic and needing higher webspace.

#2. A2 Shared Hosting Review

A2 Hosting offers a range of hosting plans, including shared hosting, which is an excellent option for businesses or individuals with a limited budget.

A2 Hosting’s shared hosting plans are designed to be affordable, user-friendly, and reliable. They offer unlimited SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, and free site migration. Additionally, A2 Hosting provides automatic backups, free SSL certificates, and easy installation of popular website builders, such as WordPress.

One of the best features of A2 Hosting’s shared hosting is its SwiftServer platform, which includes a high-performance server with Turbo Boost technology to improve website speed. This is particularly important for businesses that rely on their website to generate revenue or promote their products and services.

A2 Hosting also offers 24/7 customer support via phone, live chat, and email, which is essential for businesses that need technical assistance quickly.

Overall, A2 Hosting’s shared hosting plans are an excellent choice for those who need reliable and affordable hosting services. With its high-performance servers, easy-to-use interface, and excellent customer support, A2 Hosting is an excellent option for businesses and individuals alike.

Pros

• With A2 Hosting, your website blazes on a turbo server with 20X faster page loads. Add to it the benefits of enhanced Security measures with Hackscan (HTTP/2 only with Turbo Plan) and various levels of SSL certificates.
• On sign-up, you get Free Migration, CDN, SSL Certificate & E-mail
• A2 gives you one of the best customer support in the industry with help in the form of tickets, chats, and phone support.

Cons

• You need to pay ($1.47/mo) in case of any traffic spikes to maintain speed.
• High Renewal Price when compared to the initial sign-up price.
• Under Lite & Swift Plans you need to pay for Railgun Optimizer in order to get higher speeds.

Best For: If you are looking for an alternative to big names with the fastest speed, reliable hosting with quality customer support.

Plans include:

STARTUP Plan: The plan is good for a single personalized blog or website with a complete SSD solution and without Turbo.

DRIVE Plan: Is best, if you have multiple sites and growing needs. The Plan gives you unlimited databases, Server rewind backups. However, you are charged in scenarios of traffic spikes.

TURBO Plan: Turbo is the premium plan from A2 for your full-fledged business requirements.

#3. Bluehost Shared Hosting Review

Bluehost is a well-known web hosting provider that offers a range of hosting plans, including shared hosting. Bluehost’s shared hosting plans are designed to be affordable, user-friendly, and reliable, making them a popular choice for individuals and small businesses.

One of the key benefits of Bluehost’s shared hosting plans is the included free domain name for the first year, which can help businesses save money on their website setup costs. Additionally, Bluehost offers unlimited bandwidth and storage, making it a good option for websites that anticipate high traffic and require more resources.

Bluehost also provides a user-friendly cPanel control panel, which makes it easy for users to manage their website, domains, email accounts, and other settings. They also offer one-click installations for popular website builders, such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.

In terms of customer support, Bluehost offers 24/7 support via phone, email, and live chat. They also have a knowledge base with helpful articles, tutorials, and guides.

One potential downside to Bluehost’s shared hosting plans is that they can be slower compared to other hosting providers. Additionally, they limit the number of websites that can be hosted on their shared hosting plans, which may not be ideal for businesses that plan to grow and expand their online presence.

Overall, Bluehost’s shared hosting plans are a good option for individuals and small businesses that need an affordable, reliable, and user-friendly hosting provider. However, businesses that anticipate high traffic or plan to grow their online presence significantly may need to consider more advanced hosting options.

Pros

• Bluehost still has a very impressive page load speed and uptime.  
• Further, you get a free domain name registration when signing. Apart from that you only get a free SSL Certificate.  

Cons

• Like many other hosts, Bluehost also employs tricky pricing with the cheapest plans at $4.95/mo for a 1-year plan which goes down to $2.95/mo for a 3-year plan. That too needs to be paid upfront.
• There are a whole lot of upsells while signing up which is quite irritating as well as disheartening to see a big brand doing it. The upsells are for SiteLock Security Certificate, Code Guard Basic & SEO Tools
• Bluehost charges for domain privacy protection @$0.99/mo and even Office 365 Email Essentials is charged at $ 2.99/ mo.
• There is no free website migration.

Best For: Bluehost is good if someone has a deep discount link or has made up his mind to pick cheap longer duration plans.

Plans include:

Basic Plan: Cheapest plan, which is good for hosting a single website and comes with 10GB SSD.

Plus Plan: Good plan for hosting multiple websites with unmetered storage & bandwidth. The addition being Spam Expert over the basic plan.

Choice Plus: The plan has all the benefits of Plus with an additional feature for domain privacy and site backup in the form of Code Guard Basic.

ONLINE STORE: The package is good for growing businesses and has all the essentials of Choice Plus on a high-performance server.

#4. iPage Shared Hosting Review

iPage is a web hosting company that offers shared hosting services to individuals and small businesses. Here’s a brief review of iPage shared hosting based on my knowledge and research

Pros

• iPage is one of the ultra-cheap hosting options when compared. The only catch is that the plan is for 36 months.
• You can easily create small e-commerce sites with drag & drop technology. But need to pay a for the website builder tool. Further, iPage gives you Site Lock Security Suite albeit at a cost.

Cons

• iPage offers only one “Essential Plan” under shared hosting. For higher website requirements one has to opt for VPS hosting. 
• The shared plan is not unlimited, and if you exceed an allotted level of CPU usage, the iPage can even suspend your account.
• iPage uses manipulative pricing, where the charges are higher for shorter duration plans( 12 and 24 months). Further, the renewal cost after the initial term is expensive.
• Furthermore, there are lots of upsells (like G-Suite, Website Builder & All-in-one WP Optimization) and fees being charged even for site backup & restore ($35.98/ 36mo) and Cloud-based website security solution ($19.95/ year).

Best For iPage hosting is a good choice for newbies who just need a basic simple site at a minimum cost and average tech support.

Plan includes:

iPage has only a single “Essential Plan” for shared hosting costing at $1.99/mo for 36 months.

Except for free domain registration, SSL and email address, I find that the other services and tools are charged while sign-up or are available with higher WP hosting or VPS hosting.

#5. Inmotion Shared Hosting Review

InMotion Shared Hosting is a web hosting service provided by InMotion Hosting, which is a well-established web hosting company that offers a range of hosting services to individuals and businesses of all sizes.

Pros

• All the plans, even the lower-tiered plans come with free SSD, getting you 20x faster servers.
• Inmotion employs ModSecurity to thwart DDoS attacks. It also uses an internal tool called Patchman to detect vulnerabilities in the websites and patches before the hack.
• Average uptime of 99.97% with 99.9% Uptime Guarantee. Any breach in the guarantee (for Pro plan or higher), and Inmotion promises of free one month of service.
• You get a longer 90-day money-back guarantee vs the industry norms of 30 days.

Cons

• Inmotion does not back sites exceeding 10GB storage which may sound ridiculous. On top of it, you can restore files once in four-month (in case of other backed sites). For any additional request for restore, you are charged a fee of $49/restore.
• Free website migration is applicable for 3 or fewer cPanel accounts, databases and/or websites. In case of more than 3 accounts, websites or databases, Inmotion charge you a fee of $10/item transferred.
• All new users are required to undergo a manual phone verification process for security purposes. Thus account setup and access may take time, especially for international customers.

Best For Inmotion hosting is a good choice for small to medium businesses looking to build a full-fledged portfolio of websites, forums, and e-commerce sites.

Plans include:

Core Plan:The plan is best suited to host 1 basic websites with low traffic.

Launch Plan: The plan is best suited to host 2 basic websites with moderate traffic. The plan is not e-commerce ready.

Power Plan: Go with power plan, if you have a small business and intend to build a few (max 6) WP sites, other CMS based websites, or a basic e-commerce site.

Pro Plan: The plan comes with more server resources and higher-level support. Pro plan is great for Growing businesses and Developers.

#6. Green Geeks Shared Hosting Review

GreenGeeks Shared Hosting is a web hosting service provided by GreenGeeks, which is a web hosting company that focuses on providing environmentally-friendly hosting solutions.

Pros

• The biggest plus is there are no upsells. Yes, while signing-up you would not find any pitch for additional products.
• The servers at Greengeeks races on Quad Core Processors and SSD accelerated RAID-10 local arrays. 

Further, Green Geek employs HTTP/2, PHP 7, free CDN integration and a built-in caching. All of which translates into a faster server, reliable website performance and gives you an amazing page load speed of around 500ms.

Cons

• Green Geeks to employs manipulative pricing. The cheapest Eco site Starter Plan is offered at 2.95/mo for 36 months. For shorter durations, you need to shell out more bucks.
• If you opt for monthly plans, then even have to pay for domain registration fees  $13.95/year as against free domains and a setup fee of $15 which is unusual.
• Green Geeks hosting comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. However, in case of cancellation, you will find then deducting $24.95 for a domain name registration, the setup fee and transfer fees if charged.
• The hosting is not truly unlimited, with disk space & bandwidth restricted to 75,000 files. Any breach can lead to the website getting slowed down, force an upgrade, or even account termination.
• Further, for any delay in payments of more than 4 days the account is suspended. Then you are required to pay a reactivation fee of $15.

Best For Green Geeks hosting is best for your small business if you are looking for a simple host with great speed & security features.

Plans include:

Lite Plan: This plan is best for small websites and blogs which require small initial resources and are just getting started.

Pro Plan: would be handy as you grow in traffic and is suited for growing websites that require more speed and resources.

Premium Plan: The premium plan is ideal for handling very busy websites including online stores.

#7. Hostgator Shared Hosting Review

HostGator is a popular web hosting provider that has been around since 2002. They offer a range of hosting plans, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, and cloud hosting.

Pros

• The best thing about Hostgator is uptime. They provide one of the best uptime for your website averaging nearly 99.99%. And all of which is backed by the uptime guarantee of 99.9%.

In case of any downtime that falls short of the guarantee, you are entitled to receive one month of credit on your account.

• You get a 45 days money-back guarantee, an extra 15 days than that the standard 30-day norm followed in the industry.

Cons

• Upselling: While sign-up you will find additional services already being added to the cart like SiteLock monitoring & Site Backup which can be pretty annoying.
• Hostgator too has limits on hosting resources:

• Further, the renewal charges are too high (~2.5 times the initial cost for 36 months plan).
• Hostgator does not provide free domain registration upon signing up but charges $27.9 ($12.95/yr for the domain and $14.95/yr in the name of domain privacy protection)

Best For Hostgator is best if you are looking for a cheap host with great uptime and longer money-back period.

Plans include:

Hatchling Plan: The plan allows you to host only one website and is suited for people who are starting out.

Baby Plan: With unlimited domain and private SSL, the plan is apt for scaling to the next level.

Business Plan: The plan is suitable for small e-commerce & business website. Additions being- Free dedicated IP, free positive SSL Upgrade and Free SEO tools for your website.

#8. 1&1 IONOS Shared Hosting Review

1&1 IONOS is a well-known web hosting provider that offers a variety of hosting options, including shared hosting.

• Service Quality: Average
• SSL Certificate: Free Wildcard SSL Certificate  
• Server Response time: 716ms 
• Uptime: 99.99%
• Price: Starts from $1/mo for 12-month packages

Pros

• You will find the cheapest ($1/mo) plans offered by 1&1 IONOS. However, the package is only for 12 months and regular cost after that is $8/mo. Plus you get a personal consultant.
• While you scour ToS of the hosting company to understand the term “Unlimited or Unmetered Resource”. 1&1 IONOS upfront brings clarity to it, while signing-up, which is appreciable.

• 1&1 IONOS, provide tons of storage in comparison to other hosts, even more than the big names.

The basic shared hosting plan comes with 100 GB storage which scales to 500GB for the highest plan. This means that your website files are built and sent fairly quickly. Of course, they charge you $1/mo for storage.

Cons

• Lost of upsells which are irritating while sign-up, which includes: Manage WordPress@ $3/mo, Ranking Coach Essential $10/mo, Sitelock Basic $2/mo, Hi Drive Basic $1/mo and List Local Essential which starts with $10/mo for 1 year and then increases to $20/mo.
• 1&1 IONOS uses a customized control panel instead of cPanel. Which is a learning curve for first-time users.
• 1&1 IONOS employs different channels (even twitter & personal assistant) for customer support but still, there are a large number of negative reviews.

Best For 1&1 IONOS can be a good host for persons who are on a very tight budget and want large storage space.

Plans include:

Business Plan: The plan is best for a single project limited to one website. The resources include 512MB of PHP memory limit and 2.5GB RAM which means the website can handle easily around 100 visitors per minute.

Pro Plan: The plan comes with 250GB storage, 640MB PHP memory limit & up-to 6GB RAM is suited for 200 visitors per minute.

Expert Plan: The plan is well suited to craft a portfolio of up to 50 websites. The plan includes 500GB storage, 640MB PHP memory limit and 9GB of RAM which is sufficient to handle up to 300 visitors per minute.

#9. DreamHost Web Shared Hosting Review

DreamHost is a popular web hosting provider that offers shared hosting plans. Here’s a brief review of their shared hosting service：

Pros

• DreamHost, by far has the longest refund period of 97 days. The only hitch is that – the money-back guarantee is applicable only in case of shared web hosting. Plus when the payment has been made only through credit card.

• Another, out of league pro is the 100% uptime guarantee. Yes, DreamHost has clear terms of service, with no if-else terms or no additional rules to dilute the guarantee.

Even they have a DreamHost Status Website showing the operational status of various systems. Also providing history and details of service interruptions or maintenance.

Cons

• DreamHost does not offer phone support and charges you for any callbacks. The support is mainly in the form of live chats which is available 24×7.
• DreamHost only transfers WP websites charging a fee of $99. The onus of migrating other types of websites is solely upon you. 
• The Unlimited Policy is not clear in quantitative terms: But simply speaks – “that in case of any issues you may be asked to sign up for DreamHost Private Server”.

Best For DreamHost is ideal for small businesses. The shared hosting plans are suited for personal blogs, small business sites, and portfolios.

Plans include:

Shared Starter Plan: The starter plan is good for beginners with one website and adequate resources at the given price point.

Shared Unlimited Plans: The plan can be used for creating a portfolio of websites including WP websites.

#10. Hostinger Shared Hosting Review

Hostinger is a popular web hosting provider that offers a range of hosting options, including shared hosting. Here’s a brief review of their shared hosting service:

Pros

• Hostinger gives you one of the response time. The average of the last 12 months being 355ms (test site). The speed can be attributed to 8 data centers located in the US, Asia, and Europe each reportedly having 1000 Mbps connection.

Some of the features which contribute to Hostinger solid seed include SSD, optimized WP, HTTP/2& IPv6, NGINX caching and GZIP compression.

• All of the websites on Hostinger, irrespective of the plans comes with BitNinja protection. With BitNinja you easily detect, defend, and destroy any cyber attacks on the website.

Cons

• For reaching out to customer support via Live Chat, you must be logged into the account. This means you cannot communicate until unless you are a customer with Hostinger.
• On top of that, there is no support over the phone, making it all the more difficult to reach the customer support team.
• They even charge a minimum of $1.99/mo for getting Priority Support.

Best For Hostinger is a good option for anyone on a tight budget and looking for basic hosting needs.

Plans include:

Single Shared Hosting Plan: The plan is essential for one site but you need to fork out additionally for SSL, backups and domain registration.

Premium Shared Hosting Plan: Suited for growing websites, this plan comes with 2x processing power & memory.

Business Shared Hosting Plan: The plan is good for creating small business and simple e-commerce sites. 

#11. TMD Shared Hosting Review

TMD Hosting is a web hosting provider that offers a range of hosting options, including shared hosting. Here’s a brief review of their shared hosting service:

Pros

• TMD hosting provides you extra 30 days of guarantee period i.e. 60 days guarantee when compared to others.
• The money-back-guarantee is only applicable to shared & cloud hosting and does not includes set-up and processing fees paid during the sign-up process.
• TMD servers are loaded with SSD, NGINX, Caching and SSL all of which translate into blazing fast web speed and faster server response.
• TMD allows you to choose to host servers from six global locations (Chicago, Singapore, Amsterdam, London, Sydney, or Tokyo) while signing up for better serving the targeted audiences.

Cons

• While signing up, you face lots of upsells which can be quite irritating.

Do not get surprised when you find upsells even for things like Sitemap generation($9.99), one time Google search console integration($14.99) & even for Google Analytics integration($15.99) which is hard to believe.

• TMD hosting too employs tricky pricing when offering services with monthly plans coming at a substantially higher cost than yearly/ biennial packages.
• Further, the renewal cost for the starter plan is very high ($8.95/mo) when compared to the cheap sign-up cost ($2.95/mo for 36 mo). A steep increase of 200%.

Best For:

TMD hosting is best for bloggers and small businesses that require fast and stable server performance.

Plans include:

Starter Plan: The plan supports a single website ideal for building your blog or small project.

Business Plan: Supports multiple websites and the growing traffic needs of small businesses.

Enterprise Plan: The Plan meets the requirements of a complex website with larger traffic of small to medium businesses and e-commerce stores.

I believe that- every website has a different purpose & requirements and the hosting should be picked keeping in mind those requirements.

Conclusion

After trying out various web hosting providers, I found that Siteground and A2 Hosting were the best for my needs. Currently, I use both of them for my websites.

What I particularly appreciate about Siteground is their transparent pricing, with the starting price of $2.99/month being the same for all package periods, whether it’s for 1 month, 12 months, or 36 months. I also never have to worry about speed and uptime, and the host of security features provides me with peace of mind. Additionally, every time I reach out to customer support, I receive quick and knowledgeable solutions.

It’s important to note that everyone’s experience may vary, and it’s recommended to do your own research and consider your own specific needs when selecting a web hosting provider. Nonetheless, my positive experience with Siteground and A2 Hosting may be helpful to others who are searching for reliable web hosting services.