Top 10 Shared Hosting Services of 2024

Say you have a very good idea for a new website and you even finally found the perfect domain name. You’re probably now thinking about the design and future content, but wait, aren’t you forgetting something? That’s right, before you begin setting up your new website you’ll need to find a good web hosting service. If you’re not familiar with web hosting, the first thing you need to know is that there are multiple types to choose from. And, more often than not, it is recommended that you go with one of the top shared hosting services if you’re just starting out or want to build a small-to-medium sized website.

Best Shared Hosting Providers

So what services are considered good? That depends on who you ask but as far as we are concerned, we think that only a small fraction of the total number of services you can find on the market today can truly be considered reliable and trustworthy. With that in mind and in an effort to help you make a well-informed decision, we put together a top 10 list of companies that offer fantastic shared hosting services at very reasonable prices. Here’s a quick summary of our picks:

• Dreamhost – Easy to use custom control panel and support for monthly payments
• A2 Hosting – Plenty of features and the best refund policy on the market
• Hostwinds – Great performance coupled with simple hosting management options
• InMotion Hosting – Very good scalability and many hosting packages to choose from
• SiteGround – More data centers compared to your average hosting provider
• Bluehost – Very popular option for beginners and WordPress enthusiasts
• HostGator – Classic jack-of-all-trades that has its own website builder
• Namecheap – Very cheap shared hosting plans, just as the name implies
• iPage – One-size-fits-all hosting plan designed to cover the needs of any type of user
• Hostinger – The cheapest service out there, provided you don’t mind long-term contracts

Before we delve deeper into each of our entries and talk about what you can expect from these companies, we do want to mention that this is a ranked list. However, we also think that every single company on you’ll find here has something interesting to offer. Make sure to read until the end because some of the services found near the bottom can actually be better than those found at the top in certain situations.

1. Dreamhost

Dreamhost is hands down one of the best shared hosting services out there when it comes to value for money. Perhaps the best. The company ranks first on our list of hosting providers that support monthly payments and is a particularly good option for users who are interested in building WordPress-based websites. Along with SiteGround and Bluehost, Dreamhost is one of only three companies officially endorsed by WordPress.

For just $2.59 per month (with a long-term contract) you can get a shared hosting package that includes a free domain name for the first year, 50 GB of SSD storage, SSL certificate, free domain privacy, automated daily backups, custom WP site builder, and an impressive 97-day money-back guarantee. You can only host a single website with the cheapest package but it comes with WordPress pre-installed and a few other features like shell and FTP access, MySQL databases, subdomains, and more.

The only thing missing from the base package are domain emails, which you will need to purchase separately for $1.67 per month. Alternatively, you can simply grab the Unlimited shared hosting plan for $4.95/mo and get free emails along with support for an unlimited number of websites. There are only two shared hosting packages to choose from so the service is pretty straightforward. And once you’re ready to take things to the next level, you can easily upgrade to a VPS for as little as $10 per month.

Complete Transparency

One of the things we appreciate the most about Dreamhost is the fact that you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into before signing up for the service. The company is completely transparent when it comes to its pricing and doesn’t try to sneak any extra services or add-ons into your cart, which is a pretty common practice for a surprising number of hosting providers.

Dreamhost also doesn’t try to hide the fact that paying for a hosting package using monthly billing will cost you quite a bit more than if you were to sign up for a 1-year or 3-year contract. The prices for the various terms are displayed in a clear manner on the company’s website and there are no hidden fees. You also don’t have to look elsewhere to find out how much you’ll need to pay for your hosting once the initial term expires because the renewal costs are clearly displayed as well.

You might be thinking that all of that sounds pretty obvious but most hosting providers aren’t always forthcoming when it comes to some of this stuff, often forcing you to do a bit of digging in order to find out the real prices for the hosting plans you want to purchase.

Custom Control Panel

While most hosting services are happy to stick to the tried-and-true cPanel, Dreamhost decided to do things a little bit differently by going with a custom control panel instead. If you’re a cPanel loyalist you might see this as a drawback but if you’re looking for something new and interesting, on the other hand, you’re definitely going to love what Dreamhost has to offer in this department.

For the most part, the custom control panel gives you the same level of functionality as the standard cPanel but sports a more modern look that blends perfectly with the rest of the client area. There are also some unique features here that you might not find elsewhere, such as the ability to quickly and automatically migrate any WordPress website to Dreamhost with zero downtime. 

2. A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting is a veteran provider that has been offering web hosting services for almost 20 years now. Originally known as Inquinet, the company later changed its name to A2 Hosting and went on to become a very popular option for aspiring webmasters looking for a reliable way of launching their websites. Saying that A2 is one of the best shared hosting services on the market today would be an understatement. Equally important to mention is that it’s also one of the cheapest providers of web hosting.

The starting prices offered by A2 are somewhat similar to the ones you can find at Dreamhost but there are more packages to choose from here. The cheapest one will only cost you $2.99/mo and comes with all the benefits and drawbacks you might expect from a plan like this. Namely, you get unlimited traffic, 100GB of SSD storage, free SSL certificate, free site migration, emails, DDoS protection and more. However, the plan only supports a single website and server backups are not included, among other limitations.

If you’re not a big fan of those drawbacks you can always can rid of them by upgrading to the $4.99/mo, $9.99/mo, or $14.99/mo tiers. Of course, each tier brings with it plenty of other benefits as well. The best part is that all plans support monthly billing, which is always a huge selling point as far as we’re concerned.

Unbeatable Refund Policy

Speaking of great selling points, A2 Hosting is known for being the host with the absolute best money-back guarantee. If you thought Dreamhost’s refund policy is generous, and it is, you’ll be blown away by A2’s anytime money-back guarantee. Sounds too good to be true? Well, there are of course certain rules in place to prevent users from abusing this system.

The way the refund policy works is, you can sign up for a hosting plan and cancel anytime during the first 30 days to receive a full refund. Otherwise, you can cancel anytime after the 30 days to get a prorated refund. This system isn’t particularly useful if you’re paying on a monthly basis but it can definitely come in handy if you’re going for a yearly or multi-annual contract.

You Can Never Have Too Many Features

A2 seems to be a firm believer in the idea that you can never have too many features. As such, the company is bundling with its shared hosting plans every single feature it can think of. The list of features is truly impressive but you should take it with a small grain of salt because some of them appear multiple times. Still, you are getting plenty to work with considering the low asking price.

3. Hostwinds

Hostwinds is perhaps best known for its cloud hosting packages that allow the company to compete with the likes of DigitalOcean and many other tech giants that have traditionally dominated the sector. But saying that Hostwinds is just a cloud-focused company would be doing it a great disservice considering that it also offers some of the best shared hosting services on the market. Hostwinds is not as cheap as some of the other entries on this list but it does give users the option to purchase hosting using monthly payments.

There are three tiers of shared hosting available, which are priced between $3.29 and $5.17 per month. The price difference between tiers is very small and that’s because all packages come with the same tools and features. The only extra feature is the number of supported domains. More specifically, the cheapest plan supports one domain, the second plan supports up to four while the most expensive one gives you support for an unlimited number of them.

Unlimited SSD Storage

Since there are next to no differences between packages, it doesn’t matter which one you choose because you’ll be getting all the features and tools on offer no matter what. And there are quite a few of them to work with. The one that immediately pops up for is the unlimited disk space. This is noteworthy because very few shared hosting services include this feature. And there are even fewer still who include unlimited SSD storage.

In addition to that, you’ve also got plenty of other great features to look forward to, such as free website transfers, unlimited email accounts, free SSL certificate, free domain name for the first year, and even a free dedicated IP. As far as we’re concerned, the only real drawback here is the nightly backups system. We think on-demand backups are always the way to go, but aside from that, Hostwinds’ packages are definitely very solid.

Simple Hosting Management

Managing a web hosting service can be a headache if you’re working with a company that doesn’t have user-friendly tools at its disposal. You often see this with providers that specialize in cloud hosting, who tend to assume their users are tech-savvy enough to handle things on their own. Fortunately, that’s not the case here at all. Quite the contrary. Hostwinds is one of the most straightforward services we’ve ever worked with.

In addition to including a traditional cPanel, the company also gives users access to the Softaculous Auto Installer. True to its name, this tool lets you easily install hundreds of applications automatically on your site without any hassles. Unlike a lot of other companies out there, Hostwinds uses Weebly as its main website builder, though it’s possible to use WordPress as well. If you’re not familiar with the site builder, you can learn more about it in our Weebly review.

4. InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting is another company that has been around for ages, having initially launched around the same time as A2 Hosting back in 2001. The company stands out in a number of different areas and offers pretty much any type of hosting you can think of. This includes several shared hosting packages with prices ranging anywhere between $2.49 and $12.99 per month.

Similar to a lot of other companies, InMotion tries to attract users by listing its cheapest prices front and center, however, you can easily find out how much each plan costs depending on the length of the contract. The differences between the various terms aren’t as big when compared to some of the company’s competitors. For example, the cheapest basic shared hosting plan will only set you back $4.99/mo if you pay yearly, as opposed to $2.49/mo with a three-year contract.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to pay for your hosting on a month-by-month basis unless you choose the most expensive package. That’s somewhat disappointing but nothing you should be concerned about if you plan on sticking with InMotion for the long haul. And there are quite a few reasons for why you may want to do that.

Scale Your Way to the Top

Something we’ve always appreciated about InMotion is the impressive scalability offered by the service. You can start off paying just a couple of bucks per month for an entry-level hosting package and slowly make your way up to the expensive dedicated servers without feeling like you’re breaking the bank every time you upgrade. This applies not only when upgrading to the next tier but also when you’re switching hosting types altogether.

Maybe scalability isn’t an important factor for you right now but it is still something that you should keep in mind if you’re hosting a website that has the potential to attract a lot of traffic in the future. The last thing you want is for your website to outgrow your hosting provider because migrating a large site to a different host can be time consuming and expensive.

Well-rounded Packages

The plans offered by InMotion can seem a bit more limited in some ways when you compare them to similar plans offered by other companies. But that’s only because InMotion doesn’t throw in a bunch of useless features as a means to justify raising its prices. Here you get exactly what you pay for and everything you get is useful for the types of websites usually hosted on shared plans.

Having said all that, we do recommend skipping past the cheapest plan if you can because it doesn’t come with a lot of storage space. Your best bet is to go straight for the Power package, which comes with 100 GB of SSD storage, 50 email addresses, a full security suite, marketing tools, free SSL, free domain, free website transfer, daily backups, eCommerce functionality, and more.

The Power package only costs $4.99/mo for the first term, which is an absolute steal. The renewal costs are pretty high but you can downgrade or switch to a different type of hosting at any time before the first term expires. Add to that the fact that Power also comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee and you’ve got a virtually risk-free way of testing some of the best shared hosting out there for a very affordable price.

5. SiteGround

SiteGround is a very solid shared hosting provider that never disappoints when it comes to performance, customer support, and the overall quality of its services. As mentioned previously, SiteGround is one of the three providers recommended by WordPress and that should tell you everything you need to know about where the company likes to focus its efforts. Admittedly, the cloud hosting packages are also very appealing but you’ll primarily want to sign up with SiteGround for one of its three shared hosting plans.

With prices starting at $6.99 per month, SiteGround is a bit more expensive when compared to a lot of similar services. But is it worth the asking price? We certainly think so, but it all depends on what exactly you’re looking for. The entry plan only comes with 10 GB of SSD storage and support for a single website, so it’s certainly a bit limited. However, you do get automated daily backups, SSL certificate, emails, CDN account, anti-hack tools, spam protection, eCommerce functionality, support for monthly billing, and access to special management tools designed in-house at SiteGround.

One of the most important features offered by SiteGround is the ability to choose the location of your server. Of course, SiteGround isn’t unique in this regard but most of its direct competitors only have one, maybe two data centers at most. SiteGround has no less than six data centers, spread across four continents – North America, Europe, South-East Asia, and Australia. It goes without saying that you can expect much better performance from a nearby server than from a server located on a different continent.

You Know Exactly What You’re Getting

An interesting thing we noticed about SiteGround is that the company tells you exactly what you’re going to get depending on which hosting plan you want to purchase. We’re not just talking about the tools and features either. Rather, SiteGround tells you everything you need to know about the resources that will be allocated to your particular server.

For instance, a basic shared hosting plan will give you access to a server that can run up to 10 simultaneous processes and connections from a single IP. As you might expect, these figures go up when you look at the higher tiers. Among other statistics shared by SiteGround you can also find things like average process execution time, shared service CPU usage, server memory per process, database sizes, email box sizes, and more.

Built for WordPress

A lot of hosting providers try to cater to the WordPress crowd but SiteGround goes the extra mile to make things as easy as possible for users who plan on working with the popular CMS. For instance, there are separate versions of the regular shared hosting plans designed specifically for WordPress. These packages are priced the same and mostly include the same features but there’s also an additional set of WordPress-specific features added on top.

Among other things, you can expect WordPress to come pre-installed on your website if you pick one of these plans and you also won’t have to worry about updates and security because SiteGround takes care of everything. In addition, the company also provides specialized WordPress customer support and allows you to transfer WordPress websites from a different provider for free. WP-CLI and staging sites are included as well and there’s even a tool that guides you through the process of customizing your WordPress website.

6. Bluehost

You probably don’t need us to tell you that Bluehost is one of the best shared hosting services around because there’s a high chance you’re already familiar with this company. Bluehost is an excellent choice for novice webmasters and anyone who wants to launch a WordPress-based website. The popular provider can be hit or miss with certain categories of users, but we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it specifically for its shared hosting plans.

Bluehost’s prices went up a bit since the last time we looked at them, however, the service continues to be quite affordable in spite of the recent price hike. For example, the basic plan will only set you back $3.95 per month if you don’t mind signing up for a long-term contract. Unfortunately, Bluehost doesn’t support monthly payments with its shared hosting plans so you’ll need to spend some money upfront if you want to sign up for the service.

The basic package comes with everything you would expect, including free domain, SSL certificate, and 50GB worth of SSD storage, among other things. Starting with the second tier you can expect unlimited storage along with various bonuses like domain privacy, automated backups or dedicated IPs. The third tier, Choice Plus, strikes the best balance between price and features in our opinion. It also includes a couple of features we would consider absolutely essential for any experienced webmaster.

Resource Protection

The main problem you’re likely to come across sooner or later when using shared hosting is performance. With this type of hosting your server is home not just to your own website/s but also several other websites owned by other users. If one of the other hosted websites experiences a sudden surge in traffic, it can end up slowing things down for everybody on the server.

Bluehost mitigates this problem by isolating websites that are using an excessive amount of resources and temporarily assigns them to isolated systems. By doing so, the company ensures that the performance of your website is not negatively affected regardless of what other users are doing on the server. This system does have some limitations but it is a good compromise for those who can’t afford upgrading to a virtual private server.

Add-Ons Galore

Bluehost is infamous for locking certain features behind a paywall and selling them as optional add-ons. While we’re not the biggest fans of this practice, which is used by a lot of other hosting providers, it does allow Bluehost to sell its basic packages for less than it could have otherwise. It’s safe to say that the company would charge a lot more than $3.95 for an entry-level shared hosting plan if it included all the optional features.

So what kind of add-ons are we looking at? Well, you’ve got domain privacy, Codeguard Basic, Bluehost SEO tools, and SiteLock Security. There’s also Microsoft 365 Mailbox but you can get the first month of that for free. CodeGuard is probably the most useful of all add-ons on offer since it provides an excellent tool for backing up and restoring your data. All the add-ons, along with a couple of other things, are included with the Pro package, which costs $13.95/mo.

7. HostGator

HostGator is always a safe choice for users who need cheap shared hosting and don’t mind dealing with some of the same business practices we’ve discussed earlier while covering Bluehost. The two companies are very similar in more ways than one, which isn’t too surprising given that they are both owned by EIG (Endurance International Group). Veteran webmasters tend to have mixed feelings when it comes to EIG-owned companies but we think it would be fair to say that HostGator is among the most reliable of that bunch.

The prices are also pretty decent, with a basic shared hosting planning coming in at only $2.75 per month. From there, you can upgrade to the second tier for just an extra $1 per month in exchange for unlimited domains, or take it one step further and get the Business plan for some additional benefits. There are only three plans to choose from but that’s all you really need at the end of the day.

Just like Bluehost, HostGator sells a bunch of optional add-ons that can enhance the service in various ways. For the most part, the add-ons are identical to those offered by Bluehost but you do get the option of buying a professional SSL certificate in case you want to replace the one that’s included for free with all packages. Another, more important, difference to note between HostGator and Bluehost is that the former supports monthly billing.

Gator Website Builder

Pretty much every provider includes easy access to a website builder with every shared hosting plan and HostGator is no exception. But while most companies bundle WordPress or Weebly (or both) with their packages, HostGator decided to do things differently and created a custom builder known simply as Gator.

Gator isn’t a particularly advanced site builder but it does come with all the standard features you would expect, including drag-and-drop functionality, mobile-friendly templates, productivity tools, and eCommerce functionality. Gator works similar to Wix or Squarespace where you’re technically paying for the builder and get the hosting, domain name, and various features for free.

HostGator’s website builder packages are a bit cheaper when compared to similar platforms, with prices starting at $3.84 per month. Whether or not that’s a good investment is a bit hard to say because the Gator packages are in some ways worse than simply buying a regular shared hosting plan. At the same time, Gator is remarkably easy to use and those who subscribe to the site builder benefit from priority customer support.

8. Namecheap

When you’re signing up with a company called Namecheap you already have a good idea of what you’re getting yourself into. Although it started out as a cheap alternative to popular domain registrars like GoDaddy, these days the company is probably better known for offering some of the most affordable shared hosting services on the market. The quality of the services isn’t necessarily the best but it’s hard to argue with the asking price, particularly when Namecheap supports monthly billing.

So what kind of prices are we looking at? $2-3 per month? Even lower than that if you can believe it. Shared hosting at Namecheap starts at only $1.24/mo on a 2-year contract or $1.44/mo with an annual plan. As far as the monthly billing is concerned, you can expect to pay anywhere between $2.88 and $8.88 per month if you go with this option. The best part is that Namecheap doesn’t charge extra for renewals so you don’t have to worry about any unexpected price hikes once your first term expires.

Just to put things into perspective, Namecheap charges you less with monthly billing than the average monthly you pay at other providers when signing up for a long-term contract. That’s pretty remarkable and makes Namecheap a very solid pick for users who are on a tight budget. There is a bit of a strange caveat, though, in that users who opt for the Europe-based data center have to pay $1 extra regardless of which package or contract term they choose.

Not a Bad Selection of Features for Such a Low Price

We wouldn’t blame you for assuming Namecheap’s hosting packages are bare-bones given their low price tags. However, they’re actually a bit better than you might expect. For starters, you get most of the essential features like a free domain name (excluding .com ones), unmetered bandwidth, free SSL certificate, website builder, CDN account, 30-day money-back guarantee, and a free website migration.

There’s also support for up to three websites included right off the bat with the basic package, which is pretty rare, along with up to 30 email accounts, cPanel, website builder, and a few other bits and baubles. The disk space is pretty limited at 20GB SSD but you can get unlimited storage by upgrading to the second tier. There, you can also expect access to a backup & restore tool. Without it, backups are done automatically by Namecheap but only twice per week.

Finally, you can upgrade to the third and final tier if you need cloud storage, though we wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. The third package is almost twice as expensive as the previous one and actually limits the storage to just 50GB. Admittedly, it is cloud-based storage, but for the same price (or cheaper) you can just as easily sign up with a provider that specializes in cloud hosting, if that’s what you’re looking for.

9. iPage

iPage is a company that has remained virtually unchanged for the past decade or so, which can be considered both a good and a bad thing depending on how you look at it. On one hand, we all love companies who innovate and try to offer us something new every now and again. On the other hand, iPage managed to come up with a good system that appeals to a lot of people and never really felt the need to change it. Nothing inherently wrong with that.

The beauty of iPage lays in its simplicity. The company only offers one shared hosting plan but it includes everything the average webmaster needs, so there’s no real need to have multiple options. To make things even more appealing, the one-size-fits-all package only costs $1.99 per month. So what’s the catch? Well, the renewal costs are fairly high at $7.99/mo and the company doesn’t support monthly billing.

The other main downside is that certain tools and features need to be purchased separately via add-ons, just like you would at Bluehost or HostGator. The add-ons include domain privacy, a website security suite, a backup & restore tool, an all-in-one WordPress optimization bundle, and a professional G Suite mailbox. Aside from G Suite, none of the other add-ons support monthly billing, so the upfront costs can potentially get pretty high depending on how many add-ons you’re looking to buy.

What’s in the Box?

If you don’t like spending extra money on add-ons, the good news is that you can easily live without most of them. The backup & restore tool is arguably the only notable exception but that’s one of the cheapest of the bunch, coming in at only about $1 per month. Alternatively, you can simply get a WordPress plugin that has the same functionality and lets you avoid that add-on as well.

So what do you get in exchange for $1.99 without paying extra for add-ons? Quite a bit actually. The main features include free domain email addresses, free SSL certificate, website builder, free domain name for the first year, 30-day money-back guarantee, unlimited MySQL databases, and the ability to host an unlimited number of websites.

You can easily build and manage one or several websites just by using what’s included in the base package. PayPal integration and various shopping carts are included as well so you can even build a small online store if you wish. If you’re serious about eCommerce, however, we would recommend going with something like Shopify or even Squarespace instead.

10. Hostinger

We’re wrapping up our list of best shared hosting services with the absolute cheapest option currently available on the market. Even cheaper than Namecheap? Yes indeed. Hostinger lets you set up a new website for as little as $0.99 per month. Of course, there are quite a few caveats to this offer, including the fact that you’ll need to pay for no less than 4 years in advance to benefit from it, but that is to be expected from a service that’s this cheap.

One of the strangest things about Hostinger is that it’s a lot cheaper to subscribe to a 4-year plan than an annual one. Let alone pay on a monthly basis. The basic shared hosting plan will only set you back a grand total of $56.55, including takes and fees, if you pay for four years in advance. By comparison, a 2-year contract comes in at $45.41 in total while an annual one is just a bit cheaper at $42.70.

Things get even more ridiculous when you consider that Hostinger charges no less than $17.83/mo for the basic plan if you want to pay on a monthly basis. That’s quite outrageous and a lot more expensive than any other provider on this list that also supports monthly billing. Even worse is that the monthly plan will cost you more than the 4-year contract if you also include all the optional add-ons.

Redeeming Factors

We couldn’t talk about Hostinger without going over its unusual pricing schemes but we also want to make it clear that the company does have a lot of redeeming qualities. We did find it a spot on our list of best shared hosting services after all.

One of the things that immediately stands out is the renewal price, which is quite a bit cheaper compared to other companies. And because Hostinger is one of the few providers that supports 4-year contracts, you actually don’t even have to worry about the renewal for a very long time. Also worth noting is that once you pay for your hosting in advance, the company will not ask you to pay anything extra if it decides to increase its prices sometime in the future.

As far as the features are concerned, they are quite limited with the entry package but they’re enough to support a basic website. Starting with the Business plan, however, Hostinger gives you a lot to work with, including unlimited emails, free SSL certificate, unlimited databases, free domain name, SSH access, daily backups, support for unlimited websites, and a lot more. All for just $3.99 per month. While the entry package is pretty situation, the Business plan is definitely something we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.

How to Compare Shared Hosting Providers

So far, we talked about what we believe to be the best shared hosting services currently available, but what if you want to try out some of the services that are not on our list? We always encourage readers to look into as many options as possible before making a final decision and this time is no different. In order to get the best results, however, you’ll need some sort of system that you can use to compare two or several services against each other.

But if you want to compare shared hosting providers on your own, we recommend starting with only two contenders and taking a look at their plans, pricing, and features. These aspects tend to be the easiest to compare because the information is readily available on the every provider’s website. You can also find some useful information regarding the customer support and ease of use simply by spending some time navigating their websites.

When it comes to things like performance, however, things get a bit trickier because most companies don’t share any concrete data. It also doesn’t help that the speed and uptime of a website is affected by a wide variety of factors, many of which are not controlled by the provider. That’s why sooner or later you’ll need to look into professional comparisons like the ones we do if you want to see how two services truly stack up against each other.

Choosing the Best Shared Hosting Provider (For You)

Every webmaster has different needs and expectations, so our top shared hosting services might not necessarily work for other webmasters. Before you decide to sign up with a certain service you’ll need to take a few important factors into consideration. Below are three of the main questions you should be asking yourself before you purchase a hosting plan. Finding the idea hosting service will be easy once you can answer all three.

What Sort of Website Do I Want to Build?

Often the type of website you want to build dictates the hosting plan you’ll need to buy. Certain websites require specific tools and features, such as a particular type of site builder, shopping cart or maybe a contact form. Others don’t necessarily need any of those things but may require a lot more resources than your average website.

How Tech-Savvy Am I?

While a lot of shared hosting services try to be as user-friendly as possible, you’ll still need some technical know-how in order to successfully manage the service and the websites hosted on it. If you already have some experience in this area, you’ll have a pretty easy time wrapping your head around most hosting services, except maybe unmanaged hosting, which is not necessarily targeted at the average user. If you’re a complete beginner, on the other hand, it’s a must to go with a company that offers good customer support, comprehensive documentation, many ease of use features, and an accessible control panel.

What’s My Budget?

The price of the hosting is a deciding factor for a lot of webmasters. Here are a few things to keep in mind when calculating your budget:

1. Most companies focus on advertising their cheapest prices but they often leave out the part where you need to sign up for a multi-year contract in order to take advantage of them.

2. A lot of companies don’t support monthly billing, which means a larger upfront investment.

3. In many cases, the listed prices are only applicable for your first term, with renewals often being a lot more expensive.

Web hosting tends to be a long-term investment for a lot of people so make sure to take all those factors into account when you’re trying to figure out if your budget can handle your ideal hosting plan.

Final Thoughts

Although not always the most efficient, shared hosting is the most popular and arguably the most important type of web hosting available. That’s because this is the type of hosting the majority of people start with when building a new website. As a result, companies that offer the best shared hosting services tend to be very popular with webmasters.

Shared hosting is now more stable and more efficient than ever before, giving even cloud hosting and virtual private servers a run for their money in some cases. And with prices starting as low as a couple of bucks per month, shared hosting is hands down the best choice for most people who are thinking about building a new website. Just make sure to carefully consider your options because some hosting providers are a lot better than others. As you can probably tell if you’ve made it all the way to the end of this article.