#1 Hostinger: Best Performance & Price
4.9
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Lowest prices on the market for long-term plans
Uses LiteSpeed technology for top loading speed
Simple user experience with a proprietary control panel
Supports WordPress and hundreds of other CMSs
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Hostinger is known for its aggressive marketing, so I was particularly curious to see if it was all just talk. My expectations were not very high, but what can I say? I was truly surprised. With such low prices, I never thought I’d see such excellent performance test results.
What do I mean by excellent? Well, our testing shows that even on Hostinger’s basic plan, which costs only €2.23 per month if you sign up for a year, loading speeds almost equaled what we saw from much more expensive services. This is likely thanks to Hostinger’s speed enhancements, including LiteSpeed web servers, which offer faster performance over Apache and Nginx.
If you want to host anything from a personal blog to a business page and you’d like to get your website online as quickly and as cheaply as possible, you really can’t go wrong with Hostinger. Before you sign up, visit our Hostinger coupon page to see the best deals currently available.
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#2 IONOS: Developer Features on a Budget
4.9
IONOS web hosting landing page
Instantly scale RAM and PHP memory to handle traffic spikes
One-click installation for WordPress and other popular apps
Low prices and a free domain with every plan
Free daily automatic backups on shared plans
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Despite being a budget-friendly host, IONOS offers premium features that you’d usually only find with expensive managed solutions. For example, every customer is assigned a dedicated personal advisor at no extra cost. While support is responsive, it’s not as knowledgeable as we’d like, making IONOS a better option if you’re comfortable handling things on your own.
IONOS’ shared hosting plans also offer scalable resources, allowing you to temporarily or permanently improve the performance capabilities of your website. In contrast, most other budget hosts would require you to upgrade to an entirely new plan if you need more resources.
It’s worth noting that IONOS commonly offers big discounts – sometimes it’s one of the cheapest options available. That said, watch the renewal fees! While the prices may be great for your first year of hosting, IONOS’ plans will renew at a higher price.
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#3 SiteGround: Most User-Friendly Control Panel
4.8
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A hybrid between shared and managed hosting, offering the best of both worlds
All plans on the Google Cloud network infrastructure
Powerful control panel that’s much more streamlined than cPanel
Generous resources, even on starter plans
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SiteGround has quite an interesting story. Up until lately, it was simply a very good and very dependable cPanel-based provider. After cPanel raised its licensing fees and caused an industry-wide shakeup, SiteGround became a different beast altogether.
After months of intense testing and development, SiteGround launched Site Tools, its own incredibly easy-to-use control panel. Site Tools lets you set up all the important aspects of your hosting quickly, even if you’re a total novice. From here, you can also access SiteGround’s WordPress-friendly tools like an auto-installer, caching plugins, and full security suite.
SiteGround’s shared, cloud, and reseller plans are built on Google Cloud’s top-of-the-line infrastructure. Additionally, you’ll also have SiteGround’s SuperCacher suite to further speed up your site’s loading times. Naturally, all this doesn’t come cheap… but if you’re looking for a solid, reliable hosting service, you’ll be happy here.
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#4 HostArmada: Fast and Affordable Cloud Hosting Solutions
4.8
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Impressive cloud-based hosting features
Fast website loading speeds
Worldwide data server network
Mobile-friendly client dashboard
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HostArmada is a fairly new host, but it has managed to catch up to – and in some cases surpass – its older competition. It’s done so by offering great features such as strong security measures across all its plans and a 45-day money-back guarantee. It’s also one of the few hosts to offer low-cost managed shared cloud hosting. As a result, it’s turned in some really impressive performance scores.
Our testing showed that HostArmada returned great results for time to first byte (TTFB) and fully loaded speeds. On average, our test site fully loaded in 1.1 seconds, with even faster loading speeds recorded.
Speed doesn’t count for much, though, if your server is constantly down. Fortunately, that’s not the case with HostArmada. It promises a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and our test site surpassed this mark with a 99.98% uptime score.
We also love the free SSLs, site migration, cPanel control panel, static file caching, and daily backups offered with these managed shared plans. If you upgrade to the aptly named Speed Reaper plan, you also get LiteSpeed servers and dynamic file caching. All in all, not bad for a newbie on the hosting scene.
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#5 InterServer: Best Short-Term Hosting Plans
4.7
InterServer home page
The best choice for hosting on a month-to-month or short-term basis
Data centers on both US coasts means fast loading speeds for US audiences
Budget-friendly shared hosting plan with unlimited resources
Windows and Linux hosting available
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InterServer is one of the best options if you’re targeting a North American audience. When we tested its US data centers, the loading speeds all over the US and copyright were great. Even in many Western European countries, speeds were still acceptable – but keep in mind that visitors in other parts of the world may have to wait longer for your site to load.
There are other things to like about InterServer, though. I personally like how there’s only one shared plan, and it comes with unlimited resources. You get all the generous allocation of server space and bandwidth you need without having to upgrade, and InterServer doesn’t even limit the number of domains you can connect or emails you can create on a single account. This makes it ideal if you’re looking to build multiple small websites.
The fact that InterServer’s monthly rates are among the lowest on the market doesn’t hurt either. The basic plan starts at €2.24 and you can lock in this rate for up to 2 years. Keep in mind that you’ll need to buy a domain or transfer one over (at a cost) in order to activate your hosting plan.
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#6 A2 Hosting: Speed-Optimized Turbo Plans
4.7
A2 Hosting cloud hosting features
Speed-optimized shared, WordPress, VPS, and dedicated hosting plans
Incredible loading times in North America and Europe
Beginner-friendly preconfigured caching plugin on Turbo plans
Unlimited bandwidth and storage on select plans
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A2 Hosting is one to watch if you want fast loading speeds at budget prices. As we know, your site’s loading speed not only affects your site engagement, but also your search engine ranking. While speeds of 2 seconds or less are recommended, A2 Hosting slashes that figure into fractions. Under the Turbo Boost plan, our test website loaded in under 0.3 seconds across North America and under a second in Europe, which is really, really, really fast.
However, do note that loading speeds drop to 1.5–2.5 seconds in Asia, Oceania, and South America, which is satisfactory but not quite as fast. We achieved these so-so speeds on our Turbo plan, which includes extra caching features. If you’re serving an audience here, you might want to look at faster local alternatives first.
Otherwise, A2 Hosting offers a solid range of features, including unlimited bandwidth, website limits, and storage on some shared plans. The host also scored high for ease of use and pricing. But the extra-long waits our team experienced for live chat and phone support prevented it from ranking higher on our list.