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Best for beginners
Best for budgets
Hostinger is the best web host for most users, thanks to its intuitive website and server management tools, making it an especially effective choice for beginners.
Other great web hosting services include IONOS, which offers a broad range of features at highly affordable prices, and Bluehost, which offers deep WordPress integration across all its hosting plans.
Here’s an inside look at the best web hosting services, including pricing, features, performance, and more.
Compare the best web hosting services
Hostinger: Best for beginners
IONOS: Best for users on a budget
Bluehost: Best for WordPress
Features of secure web hosting services
Bottom line
FAQs
The best web hosting services
Compare the best web hosting services
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| Best for | Best for beginners | Best for budgets | Best for WordPress |
| Star rating | |||
| Starting price | $1.95/mo | $1.00/mo | $2.99/mo |
| Money-back guarantee | Yes - 30 days | Yes - 30 days | Yes - 30 days |
| Uptime guarantee | 99.9% | 99.99% | 99.99% |
| Monthly visits | 25K - 200K | Unlimited | 40K - 400K |
| Number of websites | 25 - 100 | 1 - unlimited | 10 - 100 |
| Storage | 25 GB - 100 GB | 10 GB - unlimited | 10 GB - 100 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 Hostinger | Get IONOS | Get Bluehost |
Hostinger: Best for beginners
What we liked
Intuitive tools: All of Hostinger’s tools — from its account dashboard to its guided WordPress setup to its AI website builder — are modern, streamlined, and simple for even complete beginners to use. Hostinger is designed with its users in mind, and you can actually build a site in 13 seconds using the AI tools. Hostinger also includes extras, like Hostinger Horizons to help you build apps and Kodee, an AI assistant that can streamline online store management.
Excellent value: Hostinger’s plans start at just $1.95/mo and offer a broad range of features, including WordPress tools and a website builder with high-quality AI tools. You’ll also get great storage — starting at an impressive 25 GB — and unlimited bandwidth, giving your site plenty of room to grow before you need to upgrade to a new plan. Check out our Hostinger pricing guide to understand what you’ll pay if you choose this hosting company.
Impressive WordPress integration: Hostinger provides a fully guided WordPress installation process and proprietary site assistant to help you build your site quickly. Specialized WordPress caching tools boost site speed and reliability, while the built-in WordPress vulnerabilities scanner helps protect your site. WordPress auto-updates are also available on all Hostinger shared and WordPress hosting plans.
What we didn’t like
Lack of PCI compliance: Hostinger’s servers aren’t designed for PCI compliance, which means you’ll need to institute additional security protocols if you intend to process credit card transactions. Simply put, you’ll need a third-party integration like Stripe or PayPal for secure online processing, since the Hostinger site itself won’t store consumers’ financial data.
Test results
Hostinger had an average performance score of 97.3% during our speed tests, with an average LCP (the time it takes for the largest content element to load) of 1.1 seconds. While this is a little slower than IONOS or Bluehost, it still falls well within our recommended maximum of 3 seconds.
Our uptime monitoring showed that Hostinger is fast and highly reliable, achieving 100% uptime during our tests and maintaining consistent response times of 200–220 milliseconds.
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| Uptime | 99.95% |
| Average response time | 673 ms |
| Did Hostinger pass the stress test? | Yes |
| Learn more | Get Hostinger |
Star rating summary
Hostinger earned a 4.9 star rating from our hands-on review, thanks largely to how user-friendly its systems are — and how many options it provides. Whether you choose WordPress or the AI website builder, you’ll find it easy to create a site with Hostinger, even if you’ve never created one before.
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| Uptime | 99.95% |
| Average response time | 673 ms |
| Did Hostinger pass the stress test? | Yes |
| Learn more | Get Hostinger |
IONOS: Best for users on a budget
What we liked
Low long-term costs: Like most web hosts, IONOS offers introductory discounts for your first contract term and raises prices on renewal. However, the lowest-cost plans stay at just $6/mo. This is significantly less than the $10 to $18 per month other companies charge when their introductory discounts end. Check out our IONOS pricing guide to understand how much (or how little) you’ll pay for hosting from this company.
Robust security: IONOS provides all of the basics like SSL and firewall protection, plus advanced features like malware scanning and removal. Additionally, automated backups are performed daily on all plans, an improvement over the weekly backups offered on most competitors’ lowest-cost plans.
Excellent WordPress hosting tools: The guided WordPress installation, AI website builder, and WordPress cockpit simplify WordPress website creation in a big way. These tools are unfortunately limited to the WordPress hosting plans, which have higher introductory rates than shared hosting plans, but they’re worth the price.
What we didn’t like
Lack of advanced protocols for improving site speed: IONOS doesn’t use LiteSpeed-enhanced servers or a CDN, popular tools used by other companies (like Hostinger) to improve site speed. While our test site still had great loading times, it could be boosted further with these protocols.
Test results
IONOS had a 99.6% average performance score during our speed tests, with our site loading in less than 1 second across all locations. Response times in both our uptime monitoring and stress tests were also under 1 second.
IONOS also provides an above-average uptime guarantee of 99.99%. This means your site shouldn’t go down for more than 2 minutes per week, which is significantly less than the 10 minutes of downtime allowed under the industry-standard 99.9% guarantee. Our uptime monitoring showed that IONOS lives up to this promise, with 100% uptime during our tests.
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| Uptime | 100% |
| Average response time | 311 ms |
| Did IONOS pass the stress test? | Yes |
| Learn more | Get IONOS |
Star rating summary
IONOS earned a 4.7 out of 5-star rating in our hands-on review with its impressive security, intuitive WordPress tools, and high-value plans. The excellent server performance and availability of phone support on all IONOS packages further secured this high rating.
IONOS received a high star rating of 4.7 due to its highly intuitive dashboard, comprehensive features for affordable prices, and impressive performance.
Although we had a positive testing experience with IONOS, it received in a lower score in the experience category due to the upsells on various pages of the dashboard. IONOS also lacks built-in content delivery network.
| Decision factor | Weight | Verdict |
| Our experience | 10% | 4.5 |
| Value and capacity | 18% | 4.8 |
| Performance | 20% | 5.0 |
| Features | 25% | 4.5 |
| Security | 20% | 5.0 |
| Support and reputation | 7% | 4.9 |
Bluehost: Best for WordPress
What we liked
Impressive WordPress tools: Bluehost offers guided WordPress installation, an AI WordPress website builder, and a site assistant to help first-timers quickly build a WordPress site. You’ll also get automated updates for both the core CMS and related plugins. Best of all, all of these features are included on the lowest-tier shared hosting plans, rather than being limited to WordPress-specific hosting plans.
Solid security: Bluehost goes beyond basic firewall and SSL protection with anti-DDoS protocols and malware scanning (plus malware removal on higher-tier plans). Bluehost also has a specialized WordPress vulnerabilities scanner that can identify weaknesses in the code of the CMS, themes, or plugins.
Good value: Bluehost’s starting plan costs just $2.99/mo for your first term and includes a wide variety of features, especially for WordPress users. There is a significant jump in price on renewal (up to $10/mo), but the long-term costs remain more affordable than other companies like Hostinger (though not as good as IONOS’ $1.00/mo starting plan and $6/mo renewal). Check out our Bluehost pricing guide to understand the costs involved with hosting from this company.
What we didn’t like
Frustrating customer service: Bluehost only provides live chat to users on the lowest-cost plan. Moreover, while the live chat service was fast, the agent's responses were hard to decipher and generally unhelpful. Unfortunately, this has been our experience during repeated in-house testing. Additionally, our experience was also reflected in reviews on sites like Trustpilot.
Test results
Bluehost performed remarkably well during our speed tests, with a full 100% average performance score. Our site loaded in less than 1 second at all three locations we tested, and response times were also consistently less than 1 second during our uptime and stress tests.
Like IONOS, Bluehost offers an above-average 99.99% uptime guarantee. We monitored our Bluehost site for 4 days and were pleased to see it exceeded this promise with 100% uptime.
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| Uptime | 100% |
| Average response time | 139 ms |
| Did Bluehost pass the stress test? | Yes |
| Learn more | Get Bluehost |
Star rating summary
Bluehost earned a 4.8 out of 5-star rating during our hands-on review thanks to its intuitive account management and site-building tools. We also appreciated the high-quality security tools and fantastic server performance we experienced when working with Bluehost.
Bluehost received a high star rating of 4.8 due to its extensive web hosting features and reliable performance.
Bluehost offers everything you need from a web hosting service, but it's not as affordable as its competitors. We also believe the WordPress installation process could be improved.
| Decision factor | Weight | Verdict |
| Our experience | 10% | 4.5 |
| Value and capacity | 18% | 4.2 |
| Performance | 20% | 5.0 |
| Features | 25% | 5.0 |
| Security | 20% | 5.0 |
| Support and reputation | 7% | 4.8 |
Features of secure web hosting services
While it’s important to take your own security precautions — like using strong passwords and not sharing your account — your web host should also be protecting your website with a mix of security protocols and tools. These include:
- SSL certification to encrypt information sent to and from your site
- HTTPS to show browsers and VPNs that your site is safe
- Firewall protection to filter out viruses and other malware attempting to infect your site
- Anti-DDoS protocols to prevent malicious floods of traffic sent to your site with the intention of shutting it down
- Automated backups at least on a weekly basis to ensure that if something does go wrong, you’ll be able to restore your site quickly
- PCI compliance (if you’re planning to accept credit card payments) to ensure that payment information is kept safe
Some hosts may provide additional tools, such as malware scanning and removal, to further secure your site.
Bottom line: The best web hosting services
Hostinger is the best web hosting service for most users, offering a great mix of easy-to-use tools and advanced features at reasonable prices. Hostinger’s server performance is also excellent, ensuring fast, reliable service for all of your visitors.
We also love IONOS, which provides similarly excellent server performance and more advanced security for low prices — including low renewal prices.
If you’re looking for the best WordPress tools on the market, you’ll want to consider Bluehost, which provides a guided installation process, site assistant, and even a proprietary WordPress blocks plugin to maximize customization options.
How we test web hosting services
We use our proprietary grading rubric to evaluate web hosts based on performance, ease of use, features, support, and overall value. Our hands-on approach ensures our ratings reflect how each service actually performs in the real world, so you can choose a host with confidence.
Our process starts with signing up for each service and setting up a real website, just like you would. We run page speed, uptime, and stress tests to measure reliability and performance under load. We also explore the dashboard, test security tools, and contact support to see how responsive and helpful it is.
To learn more about how we test, check out our full testing methodology here.
FAQs
Can I host a website for free?
Technically, you can host a website for free. However, free hosts often have extremely strict limits on storage and bandwidth. As such, it’s often better to go for cheap web hosting than free web hosting.
Which is better, Hostinger or GoDaddy?
Hostinger is better than GoDaddy, with better site creation/management tools and more robust — and affordable — hosting plans. Learn more in our complete Hostinger vs. GoDaddy review.
Which hosting is best for beginners?
Hostinger is the best web hosting for beginners, with a robust collection of intuitive tools for site and server management.


