Easiest Web Hosting Services for Beginners in 2025

The best web hosting for beginners puts accessibility front and center. For this reason, we recommend GoDaddy web hosting as our top pick for beginners in 2025. It’s affordable, has an easy-to-use interface, offers tools to help you launch and maintain your site, and provides free backups to protect you from attacks.

You also can’t go wrong with either Hostinger or DreamHost, both of which have specific advantages for new users with a few acceptable tradeoffs. Read our detailed breakdown of the top choices for the easiest web hosting providers below.

The easiest web hosting services for beginners

Compare the easiest web hosting services for beginners

Best for	Best for small businesses	Best for AI-powered site building	Best for reliability
Star rating	4.8 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.	4.9 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.	4.9 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.
Starting price	$5.99/mo	$1.95/mo	$2.89/mo
Money-back guarantee	Yes — 30 days	Yes — 30 days	Yes — 30 days
Uptime guarantee	99.9%	99.9%	100%
Monthly visits	Unlimited	25K - 200K	40K - 1 million
Number of websites	1 - 200	25 - 100	1 - 100
Storage	10 GB - 400 GB	25 GB - 100 GB	25 GB - 125 GB
Free SSL certificate	On all plans	On all plans	On all plans
Free domain for a year	On all plans	On all plans	On all plans
Learn more	Get GoDaddy Read GoDaddy Review	Get Hostinger Read Hostinger Review	Get DreamHost Read DreamHost Review

GoDaddy web hosting: Best for small businesses

What we liked

Unmetered bandwidth: GoDaddy’s pricing structure doesn’t impose bandwidth limitations even on shared hosting plans, so your sites can handle traffic spikes without overage fees. If you run a website that’s prone to a surge in visitors during promotions on viral marketing campaigns, this can be a great advantage.

Daily automated backups: GoDaddy is one of the few providers that offer free automated backups every day, even on its entry-level hosting plans. Restoring a past version of your site after a breakdown or attack is as easy as a few clicks, no technical knowledge needed.

Small business suite: GoDaddy spent a lot of time investing in building a small business toolkit that gives you all the features necessary to maintain an online presence, like SEO, social media marketing, email campaigns, and logo design. GoDaddy’s AI website building service is also in the same package. While you may end up paying extra for some of the more advanced features, GoDaddy’s small business appeal is hard to beat.

What we didn’t like

Security costs extra: GoDaddy offers a bundle called Site Security that includes essential performance and security optimizations, such as a content delivery network (CDN), a web application firewall (WAF), malware scanning, and uptime monitoring. But with the shared hosting plans, you get only one month of free access to Site Security, after which you’ll have to pay an add-on cost to keep using these features.

Troublesome history: GoDaddy has had several major security incidents, especially in 2019 and 2022. It’s currently under fire from the FTC for failing to implement basic security measures that publicly exposed sensitive user data, such as passwords and email addresses.^[1] While GoDaddy claims it’s working to address the FTC's concerns, businesses that handle sensitive data might want to take this into account.

Test results

With a perfect 100/100 performance score across Montreal, Dallas, and Strasbourg, GoDaddy aced our speed tests with flying colors. There were no issues during stress testing with 250 virtual users either. However, a single DNS error took down our site for 15 minutes during the monitoring period, leading to a slightly blemished uptime report.

Star rating summary

We award GoDaddy five stars for its performance and features. Even the most entry-level hosting plans offer good value. But while security features do sound good on paper, GoDaddy’s history of security incidents paints a slightly troublesome picture for users who deal in sensitive information, like credit card information or social security numbers.

Hostinger web hosting: Best for AI-powered site building

What we liked

AI site builder and Horizons app: When it comes to equipping you with all sorts of AI tools to launch your website or app with minimum effort, Hostinger is a tough one to beat. Hostinger’s AI website builder features a grid-based editor, branding and design tools, an SEO toolkit, and 170+ predesigned templates.

If you’re looking to build something a bit more complex, Hostinger offers its own coding platform, Hostinger Horizons, which can turn simple prompts into full-fledged web-based software applications.

AI website builder for WordPress: If your mind is set on WordPress, Hostinger also has a separate platform for building dynamic WordPress sites with AI-generated components. You can choose between the default Gutenberg block editor or Elementor as your page builder base, then let Hostinger generate all the layouts you need with AI.

Accessible hPanel UI: If you’re intimidated by the complex, cluttered cPanel interface, Hostinger offers a simplified server management system called hPanel that makes navigation and setup much easier. You can manage multiple websites, quickly glance through key metrics and settings, and access all your databases and files from one place.

What we didn’t like

Throttling on shared plans: Hostinger adopted an unfortunate policy of throttling data transfer speeds once your plan exceeds its monthly traffic threshold. Traffic limits range from 25,000 to 200,000 visitors a month on Hostinger’s shared plans, depending on the tier you choose. The only way to get rid of throttling is to upgrade to the next tier for a higher traffic limit.

Entry-level plan lacks CDN: Hostinger’s entry-level Premium hosting plan doesn't include a CDN, which improves worldwide performance and caching for faster speeds. If you’re targeting a global audience, it’s best to sign up for the Business or Cloud Startup plan instead.

Test results

We encountered zero uptime with Hostinger over the entire testing period, leading to an Uptime Robot score of 100%. In speed tests across Montreal, Dallas, and Strasbourg, we got an average performance score of 97/100.

The average server response time during our testing period was as low as 207 milliseconds, while no failed HTTPS requests were noted during stress testing with 250 virtual users.

Star rating summary

It’s hard not to recommend this web host as a great entry point for beginners, considering how much effort it puts into accessibility. While Hostinger can’t compete with GoDaddy’s small business toolkit, professionals and solopreneurs may actually find Hostinger a better value for the variety of no-code tools it offers.

DreamHost: Best for reliability

What we liked

100% uptime SLA: While even high-performance VPS hosting providers hesitate to offer anything more than a 99.99% uptime guarantee, DreamHost web hosting plans promise a perfect 100% uptime. If your site goes down for even a minute, you’re eligible for free credits that can be redeemed against any of its products in the future.

Automated site builder with AI: DreamHost may not offer as many AI tools as Hostinger, but its proprietary site builder, Liftoff, is very beginner-friendly and customizable. It’s a WordPress-native platform with an AI site assistant, help center, content generator, and a library of predesigned components.

Control panel design: DreamHost also offers its own control panel for web hosting management — and it’s one of the most fuss-free options we’ve used. Everything is clearly labeled and organized, with built-in site traffic and server performance analytics

What we didn’t like

No phone support: In a rather odd choice from the support team, DreamHost doesn’t offer any direct phone support at all. Instead, you can request a callback from its agents for $9.95/call or $14.95/3 calls every month. Live chat response is quick and helpful, but we would have appreciated not having this restriction on a platform that caters to beginners.

Lacks cPanel: While the DreamHost control panel is well designed, some users prefer cPanel’s familiarity. It’s also much easier to look up tutorials and guides for cPanel, since it’s the most commonly used option among web hosts.

Test results

DreamHost delivered excellent performance with a 100% uptime record and a 98/100 average speed score across three testing locations. Stress tests encountered 0 failed requests, which means the servers can handle traffic spikes well.

Star rating summary

DreamHost is a great starting point for your web hosting journey, with accessible design choices and enough built-in tools to make your site launch go faster. The lack of free phone support is our only real gripe with the platform. However, while the cPanel exclusion is more of a choice than a flaw, we’d have appreciated the option to pick our control panel.

What to look for in a beginner-friendly web hosting service

Depending on what you’re looking for, web hosting can get really complex with different server configurations, hardware options, and integrated software. Web hosting costs also greatly vary by provider and plan.

But picking your first web host won’t require you to get a degree in software engineering just yet. Keep reading for our tips on what to look for:

• One-click installation: Many web hosting companies offer one-click installation for popular CMS platforms such as WordPress, Drupal, and Magento. They do this either by giving you an option directly inside their control panel or by partnering with a platform called Softaculous. Either way, it seriously cuts down on the time spent downloading different software files and uploading them to your server database.
• Straightforward setup: No one wants to parse through 20 pages of documentation just to get a server up and running. With shared hosting plans from beginner-friendly web hosts, you’ll get everything preconfigured with little or no manual setup necessary.
• Intuitive dashboard and tools: cPanel is a classic choice for a web hosting dashboard, but we actually wouldn’t recommend it for new users. It’s cluttered, old school, and a bit jarring design-wise in 2025. Better to find a host with a well-designed custom dashboard with the same breadth of features.
• Strong customer support team: Prioritize web hosts that offer 24/7 support through multiple channels, like phone and live chat. Avoid hosting companies that push AI chatbots too aggressively, since they don’t work so well with complex queries or workflows.

5 tips to get started with your web hosting provider

Once you’ve chosen a web host, there are a few things you will need to do to get your site up and running. Here’s a quick list of what to expect:

1. Register or connect a domain. Before you launch your website, you’ll need a domain name (like allaboutcookies.org) so people can access it on their browser. Most web hosts let you register a domain for $10-15/year. You can also connect an existing domain you bought from a third-party registrar. With the three providers on this list, you get a free domain name for the first year of your purchase right away.
2. Install WordPress or use a website builder. WordPress is the most popular content management system on the internet, powering more than half of the internet’s websites today. But there are plenty of newer options that can be easier for beginners, such as AI website builders from Hostinger or DreamHost.
3. Play with site customizations. Customization options can vary between providers, but with GoDaddy, Hostinger, or DreamHost, you can use predesigned layouts, custom components, and color or font choices to differentiate your site from the rest of the web. You can also just describe your ideal design to the AI chatbot, which makes the process even faster.
4. Preview your site. Even though most website builders these days have “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) editors that let you preview changes live, you should still test your website across different devices and browsers. Ideally, testing should be performed in a private staging environment that visitors can’t access, before you make it go live. This can save costly mistakes that damage people’s first impressions of your site or hurt conversion rates during a sale, for example.

Bottom line: The easiest web hosting service for beginners

GoDaddy is our pick for the easiest web hosting service in 2025, thanks to its vast selection of small-business marketing tools. Tools, like SEO checklists, logo generators, AI content writers, and one-click installers for platforms like WordPress, can really make a difference when you want to get launch-ready ASAP.

Apart from GoDaddy, both Hostinger and DreamHost offer beginner-friendly management interfaces with feature-rich hosting plans and enough AI tools to help you build and maintain your site without extensive technical knowledge. Ultimately, you can’t go wrong with any of the three, but one of them may fit you better than the others depending on your priorities.

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