The Best Web Hosting For Small And Medium Size Business's

These days, having a business website is essential, and there are a variety of tools and platforms that can help you build your online presence. Although certain website builders and e-commerce platforms include hosting as part of their product, in some cases — often if you bought your web address or domain as a standalone product — you'll need to acquire your own web hosting. If you're searching for the best web hosting for small businesses, there are a number of top options you can choose from.

In this guide, we'll break down six of the best small-business website hosting companies in terms of both features and cost so that you have all the information you need to find the right hosting platform for your website.

Best web hosting options for small business

Along with choosing a domain name and designing your site, acquiring web hosting is one of the three major components involved in building your small business website. Some website builders or e-commerce platforms will include hosting as part of their service, whereas others will require that you find your own web hosting platform.

In essence, as you search for the best hosting site for your small business, you'll want to remember that although the web hosting company you choose may not change the way your domain name works or how your website looks, it will determine how quickly your site loads, what happens if there’s an unexpected surge in site traffic, and how hacking attempts are thwarted.

With this in mind, let's break down our list of the best web hosting companies for small-business owners:

1. WPengine: Best for Managed WordPress Hosting

WPEngine is a WordPress-specific hosting provider, currently boasting of hosting over 1.5 million websites. Hailed for their great speed and performance, your WordPress website is in safe hands with WPEngine. Users get great customer service, 1-click restore points, daily backups, a 1-click staging area, and more.

As a managed hosting provider, WPEngine is a viable choice for individual site owners, small business websites, and even large business website owners who want to take a hands-off approach to host. However, because of their high prices, WPengine suits the needs of medium to large publishers, fast-growing startups, and sites that rely on online sales. So you can also have a look at the WPengine alternative as well.

Features

WP Engine provides users with features that are tailored to the WordPress platform, ensuring great performance for the sites. For example, customers have access to numerous WordPress plugins, 35+ Studio Press themes, Genesis framework, and many e-commerce tools. In addition, they have multiple data centers across the world to deliver content based on your audience location.

More features of interest at WP Engine include:

• Quick and easy migrations
• Free SSL certificate
• Performance tracking and diagnostic options
• Automatic caching

The number of features differs depending on the plan you choose. Have a look at the comparisons below.

One of the disadvantages of WP Engine is that it targets users with some technical knowledge. If you don’t have this technical knowledge, you’ll have to go through their self-help support center for detailed directions. In addition, some plugins are banned and you can't use them at WP Engine.

Support

Support at WP Engine is available to all users 24/7/365 via live chat. 24/7 phone support is available to all customers with the exception of those in the startup plan. Enterprise customers get access to 24/7 ticket-based email support.

Pricing and Renewal

WP Engine offers five packages:

• Startup – starts from $20.00 per month
• Professional – Starts from $39.33 per month
• Growth – starts from $76.67 per month
• Scale – starts from $193.33 per month
• Custom – Pricing varies

2. Bluehost: Best for beginners

Bluehost is a perennial favorite for personal and business web hosting because of how easy it is to set up and use the company’s services. Like WPengine, Bluehost offers very affordable web hosting solutions for small businesses that need simple sites and complex e-commerce outfits alike. You can even get a free domain when signing up for some of their one-year plans.

Bluehost offers the following hosting packages:

• Shared: The most commonly used option by individuals and small-business owners alike. Includes e-commerce compatibility, WordPress integration and dedicated customer service for $7.99 per month.

• VPS: Upgrades from the Shared tier to provide a virtual private server, which adds a level of security and access for businesses that need more flexibility with how they use their server space. Costs $29.99 per month.

• Dedicated: Provides the utmost level of security and support for high-traffic websites. This is one of the best web hosting options for small businesses that need to build e-commerce websites with as much bandwidth and security as possible. Costs $119.99 per month.

3. HostGator: Best for tech-heavy businesses

If you need more from your site than just a place for customers to find you online, you might be looking at dedicated server hosting as your preferred method of managing and storing your website data. Should this sound like your situation, HostGator might be the best website hosting company for your small business.

For those who don’t know, dedicated server hosting means getting your own server within a company’s existing network. Instead of sharing server space with other websites, you’ll get your own dedicated server, as well as the software and customer service tools required to keep things running smoothly.

HostGator also offers more introductory-level hosting options as well, which are on par with other providers in terms of pricing and services.

Here’s what HostGator offers:

• Dedicated server plans: There are three tiers, each using Intel Xeon-D CPU servers. Plans also come with eight, 16 and 30 GB RAM options. All dedicated servers also include three dedicated IPv4 IPs, DDOS protection, unlimited databases, fully redundant network and 24/7/365 live support. Prices start at $118.99 per month.

• Shared web hosting business plan: Less intense and expensive than HostGator’s dedicated servers, which makes it a better fit for businesses with lighter needs for their websites. This plan includes unlimited domains, unmetered bandwidth, free SSL certificates, SEO tools and even a free business domain name. Prices start at $5.95 per month.

4. iPage: Best for businesses on a budget

Having a super-robust web host might be the only viable option for some business owners. But for others, a straightforward, simple and inexpensive option may be all that’s needed.

If you fall into the latter category, then iPage could be a great option for you. With iPage, you can opt for shared, VPS, dedicated or cloud hosting for your website needs. You’ll also get one-click installs of popular apps and CMS platforms and excellent customer service. Best of all, you won’t spend a fortune in the process.

Here are iPage’s product options:

• Web hosting: The leanest of iPage’s options, as well as the least expensive. Includes unlimited disk space and domain names, a free online store builder, email support, one-click installers and more for $7.99 per month.

• Business VPS hosting: Less intense and expensive than HostGator’s dedicated servers, which makes this plan a better fit for businesses with lighter needs for their websites. This plan includes unlimited domains, unmetered bandwidth, free SSL certificates, SEO tools and even a free domain for $59.49 per month.

5. InMotion: Best for unlimited bandwidth on a budget

Few web hosting companies provide unlimited bandwidth as part of their low-cost hosting options — this isn’t the case with InMotion, however.

InMotion’s hosting options include free SSL certificates too, which is a boon for businesses that want to explore e-commerce options while giving their customers a sense of security. This is a great suite of services at a reasonable price, which makes InMotion a strong contender as the best web hosting site for most small-business owners.

InMotion offers the following business-oriented products:

• Launch: Comes with a free domain, two free websites, 50 gigabytes of disk space and unlimited bandwidth, as well as 10 email accounts for $10.99 per month.

• Power: One free domain; 50 websites; 100 gigabytes of disk space, unlimited bandwidth and 50 email accounts; as well as other marketing and security tools, all for $14.99 per month.

• Pro: Free domain; 100 websites, 200 gigabytes disk space, unlimited bandwidth and email accounts; faster performance; pro-level support; and more for $23.99 per month.

6. Cloudways: Best for cloud-based web hosting

Cloud web hosting may be easy to come by these days, but few providers offer the same level of flexibility and customization that Cloudways provides for their clients. This host allows you to choose between five different cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform, which are considered among the most popular options.

Better still, Cloudways doesn’t require users to sign up for a long-term contract either. You can set up a pay-as-you-go account or even go with a free trial — all without putting a credit card on file.

Prices vary depending on the cloud platform selected and support tier, all plans, however, include 24/7/365 support, free SSL, free migration, unlimited application installation, 24/7 real-time monitoring, free migration, team management, automated backups, and more.

How to choose the best web hosting for small business

As you can see, there are many top web hosting options for small-business sites, and it can be challenging to discern the differences between them all. Each boasts top-of-class security, loads of storage, the capability to handle ample amounts of site traffic, web analytics tools, and a slew of other features. But, at the same time, there can be slight differences between the best web hosting platforms that can help your small business in different ways.

You can begin the search process by considering your needs. A simple website that has little more than a page or two of information will not need tons of storage space. Nor will it need heavy-duty security features. More modest sites can usually get by with a less expensive, lean option. If, on the other hand, you’re running a major retail operation or a medical practice that has to store sensitive client information, expect to pay a lot more for a robust hosting solution.

Next, you'll want to think about the long-term vision for your company. If you’re not doing much with your website, but want to expand its capabilities in the future, you’ll want to factor that into your decision-making process. A good web hosting company will have different support tiers that provide you with the right amount of support and storage space to grow your website.

The final word

If you know what you need from your site, what your budget allows and what kind of platform can help you make the most of your site, you’re on your way toward picking the right host for your needs. To this point, you'll want to keep a keen eye on pricing, support, and add-on solutions — like e-commerce website builders — to help you feel confident in making the right choice.

Plus, as we've seen, most of the top web design and hosting options for small businesses offer 24/7 customer support, among other resources. If you're having trouble deciding which platform is best for your needs, you can reach out to different customer support representatives to learn more about their solutions and how they may or may not work for your business.