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Best Web Hosting for Small Business in 2020

I signed up (with our credit card) and put each web hosting service through a test to make sure our data is accurate.

This time, I'll be giving you a complete review of the top 5 web hosting providers to help choose the best web hosting for small business.

To elaborate on this guide, let's consider the following:

  • Reasonably priced plans
  • Enough web resources
  • Steel-forged security
  • Ease of use and set up
  • Great customer support

As seen in :

As-seen-in | The-Hosting-Institute

Chances are you do not have a massive budget that you can exclusively destine for hosting, yet, you still need a high-quality service, and that is exactly what you will get out of this guide, the best hosting choice for your small company.

Here you have the choices we are going to review:

They meet the criteria I’ve shared with you moments ago, and you can find the review for each one right below:

SiteGround for Small Biz: Is It The Best Web Hosting?

SiteGround-for-Small-Biz-Is-It-The-Best-Web-Hosting-The-Hosting-Institute

Company Info

SiteGround is one of my favorite companies. They bring you the best value for your money. Their hosting plans are equipped with innovative technology and features while remaining affordable. This is perfect for small companies, be it a brick-n-mortar business or an eCommerce shop.

They have been in the web host market for almost 15 years. Since then, they have been helping thousands of businesses like yours around the world, collecting plenty of excellent reviews and testimonials.

Advantages

They are 100% transparent because they let you see exactly how many resources you get with each plan, which is best for selecting the right hosting plan for your needs.

They have a money-back guarantee that covers initial orders for their shared hosting plans and cloud hosting services.

Their plans offer the latest web hosting technology to ensure superior speed. It is critical for delivering the best User Experience (UX) to your visitors.

  1. SSD Storage technology
  2. Cutting-edge NGINX tech
  3. SuperCacher for ensuring optimal loading time for your visitors
  4. System modulated and boosted by their Linux-based code
  5. CND by Cloudflare to guarantee optimal performance of your websites
  6. Unparalleled uptime guarantee of 99.9999%

Speed without security is simply nothing. Fortunately, SG is dedicated to ensuring the security of your websites:

  1. Regular malware and virus scanning
  2. Daily automatic backups
  3. DDoS attack protection
  4. Dedicated team for detecting and solving vulnerabilities and bugs timely.

Summary of SiteGround Web Hosting Benefits

Now you have a clear understanding of why SiteGround is amongst the top-ranked web hosting solutions. Let's summarize its benefits;

  1. Affordable pricing for small businesses in all of their hosting plans
  2. Superior speed and uptime guaranteed
  3. Superior security features to ensure the safety of your site
  4. Super easy to use, very intuitive interface
  5. A dedicated customer support team to assist you whenever you need it (ticket replies within 10 minutes)

Let's move up to the next stage: The Plans.

SiteGround has different hosting plans, however, for this review; we will focus on the following:

  1. Shared Hosting (StartUp, GrowBig, GoGeek) – MOST AFFORDABLE
  2. Cloud Hosting (Entry, Business, Business Plus, Super Power)
Shared Plan:
 
SiteGround
Plan
StartUp
GrowBig
GoGeek
Price (month)
$3.95
$5.95
$11.95
N° of Domains
1
Unlimited
Unlimited
Website Space
10 GB
20 GB
30 GB
Bandwidth
Unmetered
Unmetered
Unmetered
Email Accounts
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Uptime Guarantee
99.9%
99.9%
99.9%
Cloud Plan:
 
SiteGround
Plan
Entry
Business
Business Plus
Super Power
Price (month)
$80
$120
$160
$240
N° of Domains
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Website Space
40 GB SSD
60 GB SSD
80 GB SSD
120 GB SSD
RAM
4 GB
6 GB
8 GB
10 GB
Available CPU
2
3
4
8
Bandwidth
Unmetered
Unmetered
Unmetered
Unmetered
Local Caching
YES
(SuperCacher)
YES
(SuperCacher)
YES
(SuperCacher)
YES
(SuperCacher)
Dedicated IP
YES
YES
YES
YES
SSL Certificate
YES
YES
YES
YES
Email Accounts
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Uptime Guarantee
99.9%
99.996%
99.996%
99.996%

Need more info about this provider? Check out this comprehensive SiteGround review

HostGator (Cloud): Is It Reliable?

HostGator-Cloud-is-it-Reliable-The-Hosting-Institute

Company Info

HostGator is another solid company that has been in the industry since 2002. From its plans, cloud hosting solutions are excellent for small businesses. They offer a solid value for a low price but, is it the top web hosting service out there?

The majority of their data centers are located in the USA (Utah and Texas). If your business is in the same region, you will get better hosting performance. They include flood protection at the network level which is essential for keeping your websites safe from DDoS attacks.

Advantages

To guarantee optimal performance, their servers are equipped with cutting-edge Linux container tech, enhanced with the best built-in redundancy. In simple terms, it will make your site run faster.

To ensure the security of your websites, they feature a partnership with SiteLock, protecting it against malware, viruses, and spam. They stack this with their strong DDoS attack protection, which is essential for running your site safely and efficiently.

The biggest advantage of HostGator for small business owners is that their cloud hosting plans bring you superior performance. It is similar to a VPS hosting or dedicated server in many aspects, for a much lower price, and without having to manage it on your own.

For example, it brings your site extra protection thanks to content mirroring across different devices. Furthermore, you are also protected against failovers. If it ever happens to your server, HostGator will automatically switch you to another server to keep your site running perfectly.

With their cloud hosting plans, you won’t have to worry much about traffic limits. The resources will be more than enough even if you receive more visits to your server than an average small business site. This is why the cloud solution of Hostgator is on our list as the top web hosting out there.

Let’s summarize why HostGator is a good pick.

  • Great speed and performance
  • Strong security features
  • Server failover protection
  • Great customer support team
  • Tons of tutorials and videos to help you
  • Very easy to use (it includes a website builder with 100+ templates)


As you can see, it is a solid hosting choice. Below, you have a summary of the different cloud hosting plans for comparison and evaluation so you can and pick the one that better suits your requirements:


HostGator

Plan
Hatchling
Baby
Business
Price (month)
$4.95
$7.95
$9.95
N° of Domains
1
Unlimited
Unlimited
Website Space
Unmetered
Unmetered
Unmetered
RAM
2 GB
4 GB
6GB
Available CPU
2
4
6
Bandwidth 
Unmetered
Unmetered
Unmetered
Local Caching
YES
YES
YES
Dedicated IP
NO
NO
YES
SSL Certificate
NO
NO
YES
Email Accounts
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Uptime Guarantee
99.9%
99.9%
99.9%

However, a word of caution: the “unmetered” website space, as explained in the SiteGround review, is not what it seems.

These hosting plans are designed for small websites that don’t receive enormous quantities of traffic, let alone super big traffic spikes. Therefore, once you surpass the limits, you will be alerted to stop.

If you need something with far more resources, you can always indulge in VPS hosting or a Dedicated Server.

Further reading: HostGator Review

InMotion Hosting for Small Companies: A Good Idea?

InMotion-Hosting-For-Small-Companies-A-Good-Idea-The-Hosting-Institute

Company Info

InMotion is one of the top-ranking web hosting companies for businesses in 2020. Their hosting offers are exactly made to cater to small companies.

To be precise, we are talking about the following:

  1. Shared Hosting
  2. WordPress Hosting
  3. Cloud Hosting

You can also get your VPS hosting or Dedi with them, but because of their higher price and more complex use, the three aforementioned plans are the best for you.

Before we move on, remember that InMotion includes cutting-edge SSD storage in all of their plans, be it their lowest-tier shared web hosting plan or their most expensive dedicated server. You get the best technology for superior speed.

Shared hosting is the lowest tier. It is the best choice if you are on a very tight budget and your website gets very little traffic. You will share resources with other websites but it will be more than enough. For as low as $3/month, it does sound like it's a top contender for the top-ranked web hosting solution in 2020.

This web hosting offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you cancel the hosting plan within 30 days, you will receive a full refund. If you cancel after 30 days, you will receive a prorated refund for the rest of your hosting term.

For websites with more traffic, bigger needs, and goals, you need to look into their Cloud and WordPress hosting plans. They offer many more resources and exclusive features that will make your website work efficiently.

If you want to build your website on WordPress – the best CMS out there – then you should go with their specific plan for this case. Exclusive features and add-ons to super-charge your website:

  1. BoldGrid – FREE WP Themes and Easy-to-use Page Builder
  2. Enhanced Security – Automatic backups + malware and virus scanning + hack protection
  3. Managed Updates – Automatic updates + automatic security patches

If you want a plan exclusively made for running with WordPress hosting, this is the ideal choice for you.

Let’s not forget about Cloud hosting which is perfect for small business websites getting far more traffic than your average case.

It features important advantages for your business web:

  1. Enhanced Speed and Performance – More RAM + High Availability + Unlimited CPU Cores*
  2. Resources Monitoring – A Dashboard to truly understand how you are using your resources
  3. FREE Add-ons – Free Dedicated IPs + Free SSL Certificates

InMotion doesn’t restrict you to a specific number of CPU cores which is something that virtually all companies do. Instead, it balances your needs across their different servers to bring you an excellent performance.

Therefore, if you want superior performance, more resources, exclusive features, and free add-ons, then their cloud hosting plans are the best choice for you!

Some of their plans are more expensive than the competition but they are completely worth every penny you pay. However, if you factor in the incredible bonuses they give you for free, you will realize that they are not that expensive.

Let’s summarize why InMotion is a solid choice:

  1. Outstanding Speed (Cutting-edge Tech like SSD and built-in redundancy, incredible response time even on shared hosting plans)
  2. Great Uptime Guarantee (99.97%)
  3. Incredible Security (dedicated team to detecting bugs and vulnerabilities, DDoS protection, hack attack protection)
  4. Reliable Customer Support
  5. FREE Website Migrations.

Needless to say, they bring you tons of value. Therefore, you should consider using their web hosting services for your website.

Here are the full details of their plans:

Shared Hosting:
 
InMotion
Plan
Launch
Power
PRO
Price (month)
$6.39
$8.49
$14.71
N° of Domains
2
6
Unlimited
FREE Domain

YES

Includes Transfer

YES

Includes Transfer

YES

Includes Transfer

Website Space
10 GB
20 GB
30 GB
Bandwidth
Unmetered
Unmetered
Unmetered
Performance
Normal
X2
X4
Datacenter Location
You Can Choose
You Can Choose
You Can Choose
SSH Access
YES
YES
YES
Email Accounts
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Uptime Guarantee
99.97%
99.97%
99.97%
Cloud Hosting:
 
InMotion
Plan
VPS-1000HA-S
VPS-2000HA-S
VPS-3000HA-S
Price (month)
$29.19
$47.39
$69.34
FRE Domain
YES
YES
YES
N° of Domains
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Website Space
75 GB SSD
150 GB SSD
260 GB SSD
RAM
4 GB
6 GB
8 GB
CPU
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Bandwidth
4TB
5TB
6TB
Dedicated IPs
3
4
5
FREE SSL
YES
YES
YES
Email Accounts
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Uptime Guarantee
99.97%
99.97%
99.97%
WordPress Hosting:
InMotion
Plan
WP-1000s
WP-2000s
WP-3000s
WP-4000s
WP-5000s
WP-6000s
Price (month)
$7.26
$11.38
$15.50
$31.10
$62.24
$119.28
N° of Domains
1
2
3
6
10
20
Monthly avg. traffic
20K
50K
125K
300K
600K
1.2M
Website Space
40 GB SSD
80 GB SSD
120 GB SSD
160 GB SSD
200 GB SSD
240 GB SSD
FREE Backups
YES
YES
YES
YES
YES
YES
Bandwidth
Unmetered
Unmetered
Unmetered
Unmetered
Unmetered
Unmetered
Dedicated IP
NO
NO
NO
YES
YES
YES
SSL Certificate
YES
YES
YES
YES
YES
YES
Email Accounts
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Uptime Guarantee
99.97%
99.97%
99.97%
99.97%
99.97%
99.97%

Check this out: InMotion Review

Bluehost - the Best Web Hosting for Small Business

Bluehost-the-best-web-hosting-for-Small-Businesses-The-Hosting-Institute

Bluehost is another excellent choice at your disposal. They have over a decade in the market and their plans are perfect for small business owners and those starting in the world of the internet.

We will focus on the following plans:

  1. Shared
  2. WordPress
  3. WooCommerce

Let’s start with a complete overview of why Bluehost for your business website hosting is a great choice.

It meets the requirements for being ideal to host your business site:

  1. Affordable prices
  2. Great technology
  3. Modern infrastructure
  4. Specialized plans
  5. Easy to use

They are one of the very few companies offering a specific eCommerce solution for small shops. That is why their service is one of the high-ranked web hosting for small business eCommerce.

They bring your website an optimal speed and performance, thanks to these features:

  1. 99.99% uptime guarantee, to keep your website working around the year without problems
  2. Servers equipped with CPU Segregation Tech
  3. SSD Storage (not included in all plans)
  4. Multiple data centers around the world
  5. Content Delivery Network by Cloudflare

They also take care of security:

  1. Malware and virus scanning thanks to SiteLock
  2. Brute force attack protection
  3. Protection against DDoS attacks
  4. Constant monitoring and patching of vulnerabilities and bugs
  5. Daily automatic and FREE backups.

Also, take into account that Bluehost has a dedicated, experienced, and reliable customer support team. It is very efficient at answering your question and solving problems even if they are very technical.

Let’s summarize why it is among the best.

Pros:

  1. Great Speed & Performance
  2. Solid Security
  3. Great Variety of Plans
  4. Good Customer Support Service

Let’s look into the different plans so you can compare and make a decision.

Shared Plan:
 
Bluehost
Plan
Basic
Plus
Prime
Price (month)
$2.95
$5.95
$5.95
N° of Domains
1
Unlimited
Unlimited
Free Domain
NO
NO
NO
Website Space
50 GB
Unlimited
Unlimited
Bandwidth
Unmetered
Unmetered
Unmetered
Email Accounts
5
Unlimited
Unlimited
SSL Certificate
NO
NO
NO
Uptime Guarantee
99.99%
99.99%
99.99%
WP Hosting:
 
Bluehost
Plan
Standard
Enhanced
Premium
Ultimate
Price (month)
$19.99
$29.99
$39.99
$49.99
N° of Domains
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Free Domain
YES
YES
YES
YES
Monthly avg. traffic
100 million
300 million
600 million
Unlimited
Website Space
30GB
60GB
120GB
240GB
Backup Space
30GB
60GB
120GB
240GB
RAM
2GB
4GB
6GB
8GB
Bandwidth
Unmetered
Unmetered
Unmetered
Unmetered
Dedicated IP
1
1
1
1
SSL Certificate
YES
YES
Positive SSL
Positive Wildcard SSL
Email Accounts
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Uptime Guarantee
99.99%
99.99%
99.99%
99.9%
WP Hosting:
 
Bluehost
Plan
Standard
Enhanced
Premium
Ultimate
Price (month)
$19.99
$29.99
$39.99
$49.99
N° of Domains
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Free Domain
YES
YES
YES
YES
Monthly avg. traffic
100 million
300 million
600 million
Unlimited
Website Space
30GB
60GB
120GB
240GB
Backup Space
30GB
60GB
120GB
240GB
RAM
2GB
4GB
6GB
8GB
Bandwidth
Unmetered
Unmetered
Unmetered
Unmetered
Dedicated IP
1
1
1
1
SSL Certificate
YES
YES
Positive SSL
Positive Wildcard SSL
Email Accounts
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Uptime Guarantee
99.99%
99.99%
99.99%
99.9%
WooCommerce Hosting:
Bluehost
Plan
Starter
Plus
Pro
Price (month)
$6.95
$8.95
$12.95
Website Space
100 GB
Unmetered
Unmetered
Bandwidth
Unmetered
Unmetered
Unmetered
Free Domains
1
1
1
Add-on Domains
5
Unlimited
Unlimited
Free SSL
Positive SSL
Positive SSL
Comodo SSL
Priority 24/7 Support
YES
YES
YES
Email Accounts
5
Unlimited
Unlimited
Email Storage
100 MB/account
Unlimited
Unlimited

If this is not what you're looking for then find out our top rated alternatives to Bluehost.

iPage - The Cheapest Option?

iPage-The-Hosting-Institute

Here's our last web hosting for this review — iPage.

Company Info

iPage has been around for more than 19 years. In 2010, they've been acquired by Endurance International Group (EIG).

Advantages

Cost-wise, iPage has one of the most compelling offers as it's starting price is just $1.99/mo along with a 30-Day money-back guarantee. This price only comes with a 36-month upfront payment. If you go with the shortest one (12-months) then the price goes up to $2.99/mo.

One thing you should be aware of is that these web hosting companies don't make their profit when you first sign up with them — only when your initial contract is over and up for renewal.

As part of the sign-up deal, you also get a FREE DOMAIN name which will save you another $10. They also offer 24/7 support and their agents are rather pro-active when it comes to solving problems.

The other thing that makes iPage stand out is its SiteLock security option which acts as a firewall for your site. SiteLock users benefit from regular scans of their servers and if they detect any malware issues, they will also remove them for you without having to pay an external service.

It also comes with daily backups so if anything happens to your site then you can easily do a rollback and restore your site.

In terms of uptime, iPage is doing very well with a strong track record of 99.98% in the last 15 months. If we consider the price and the uptime then iPage could be the best business hosting solution for you.

What are the cons?

iPage loading time is quite slow (around 953ms) compared to other business hosting providers we've reviewed here. Less than 1s, that doesn't sound too bad, does it?

But we have to keep in mind that slow-loading pages can harm the search engines. If your site will get fewer people on it, you will also have fewer sales.

Renewals cost you more than 420% than what you paid the first time. Considering that it's a minimum 12-month renewal plan, then that's going to cost at least $$ extra. Also, with the domain name, the renewal for it costs more than it normally would if you go with a 3rd party domain name provider.

If you've had other web hosting providers before, then more than likely you used a cPanel. It is not so much of a user-friendly solution and there's not that much info out there about it in case you get stuck.

All in all, we compared iPage vs Bluehost and it turns out it is a good solution for the cost if the price is the first thing you look at. If performance is a must, then the best advice would be to go with SiteGround or HostGator instead.

Question: Is going for the cheapest option worth it? Check out this iPage review to know!

How Do You Choose a Web Host Based on Your Needs?

What is the top web hosting company for your hosting services needs? Well, as I’ve told you many times, it all depends on your hosting services requirements. You already have a review for each web hosting company, but here we will take a closer look at this matter.

What Is Your Budget?

First, calculate your exact budget. Web hosting plans for your business must be realistic.

You cannot expect to get a powerful private server for $10 bucks per month. But, you can surely get a great shared hosting plan for that price which will suffice all of your needs.

I would recommend you not to be cheap, especially when your business hosting plans and requirements are higher than average (plenty of traffic), but with the plans I’ve shared with you, you will get the best value for your money.

Realize that web hosting is a crucial investment for your online business. If it lacks hosting services, is poor in security and the customer support is deficient, then you are in for problems.

Nonetheless, with these recommendations, you will not suffer any of those difficulties!

Are You Tech-savvy?

Do you consider yourself well-versed with technology? If so, and if you have the budget, you can venture yourself with your own VPS hosting or Dedicated Server, going the unmanaged web hosting route.

It is a high-reward, high-risk situation. If your web host server goes down, then you will have to fix it. You will have to be a lot more careful with the security and use of resources of your web host server.

Nonetheless, most small business owners are not as tech-savvy with managing their web host server. Many times, it might escape your budget and be an overkill for your needs.

That is why we have focused on the types of web hosting which suit the needs of the majority of small biz owners the best. They will bring the resources you need and will make your life easier with a user-friendly interface, easy-to-use website builders, and a dedicated customer support team.

If you want to keep things simple, easy, affordable, and straight to the point, just browse the different plans we suggest from each company, evaluate your needs and pick the one that best suits your needs.

How Much Traffic Will You Get?

It is important to accurately estimate how much traffic your site might get. The more traffic you receive, the more resources you will need.

Expecting to run a site getting 300K visits per month on a basic shared hosting plan is a big threat to your business web. Your site will go down at any given moment. It includes plans that offer “unlimited” webspace and bandwidth.

How so?

The “unlimited” webspace and bandwidth are misleading. Once you pass a certain limit, your web hosters will contact you to desist, or otherwise, your business hosting server will go down.

This is an aspect where SiteGround is better than the majority of web hosting companies. They are 100% honest about how much webspace and resources they assign you with each plan.

Nonetheless, chances are that you will not have a massive traffic influx, and hence, most affordable and shared hosting plans will suffice your requirements.

However, if you ever start receiving more traffic, consider upgrading your plan dedicated to protect and keep your business web running smoothly.

We hope that this complete review about the best web hosting for small business helped you with the high-ranked web hosting services dedicated to getting your site live and running!

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below or to contact us.