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Shared hosting is like living in an apartment.
It’s not the most efficient way to do things, but it is the most affordable. Plus, you don’t have to worry about everyday maintenance or upkeep, which makes it perfect for beginners.
With shared hosting, you exchange a lot of features you’ll never use for budget-friendly pricing, making it an excellent choice for anyone interested in starting a website without spending a ton of money.
However, choosing the best shared hosting provider for your new website is just as tricky as deciding which apartment complex to live in.
They all come with their fair share of quirks, features, and downfalls.
So to help make your decision easier, we looked at dozens of the top choices and narrowed it down to the seven best shared hosting plans on the market.
Bluehost
Best for WordPress Users
Recommended by WordPress. Get 24/7 customer support and a free domain for one year. Pricing starts at $2.95 per month. All plans are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
The 7 Best Shared Hosting Plans to Consider:
- Bluehost – Best shared hosting plans for WordPress users
- GreenGeeks – Best eco-friendly shared hosting plans
- Hostinger – Cheapest shared hosting plans
- A2 Hosting – Fastest shared hosting plans
- Dreamhost – Best month-to-month shared hosting plans
- Siteground – Best for customer service and support
- InMotion – Best shared hosting plans for scalability
When Does It Make Sense to Go with a Shared Hosting Plan?
If you’re starting a website from scratch, a shared hosting plan works just fine.
In fact, we highly recommend it until you start generating enough traffic and revenue to justify spending more for high-performance hosting services.
Are there better hosting options out there? Absolutely.
But they don’t make sense for new websites. In the beginning, you won’t have a lot of traffic because high-traffic websites take time to build. As such, you don’t need blazing speeds or all the extra bells and whistles VPS, managed, or dedicated server hosting offers.
And you probably won’t even use half the fancy tools and features included. So, in reality, expensive hosting is a waste of money when your website is brand new.
The bottom line: shared web hosting is the way to go for new websites. However, it’s important to choose a hosting provider that offers upgrades and high-performance packages so you can scale your hosting service as your site grows.
#1 – Bluehost — The Best Shared Hosting Plans for WordPress
Bluehost
Best for WordPress Users
Recommended by WordPress. Get 24/7 customer support and a free domain for one year. Pricing starts at $2.95 per month. All plans are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Bluehost is one of the three shared hosting providers recommended by WordPress. So, if you’re interested in creating your website using WordPress, Bluehost is our #1 recommendation.
As a recommended WordPress hosting service, their 24/7 customer support team is packed full of WordPress experts ready to help you navigate the process of building your new website. So, you can rest easy knowing you’re in good hands.
Plus, their plans are incredibly affordable, and they all include a free domain name for the first year. On top of that, each plan also comes with a wide variety of powerful features, including:
- A free SSL certificate
- One-click WordPress installation
- 24/7 customer support
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- A team of WordPress experts
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Marketing credits
- Resource protection
- Scalability in just a few clicks
Furthermore, there are several upgrades you can add to the basic plan, including domain privacy and protection, SiteLock security, CodeGuard, spam protection, and more. Alternatively, you can upgrade to a higher-tier plan to access advanced features at no additional cost.
Bluehost offers four shared hosting plans to choose from, including:
- Basic — $2.95 per month (renews at $7.99 per month)
- Plus — $5.45 per month (renews at $14.99 per month)
- Choice Plus — $5.45 per month (renews at $14.99 per month)
- Pro — $13.95 per month (renews at $23.99 per month)
I highly recommend the Choice Plus plan because it includes a ton of extra security and protection features you otherwise have to pay for separately.
Just keep in mind that you have to pay for three years in advance to get their lowest prices, and those prices jump up to their standard rates after your initial contract term.
#2 – GreenGeeks — The Best Eco-Friendly Shared Hosting Plans
GreenGeeks
Eco-Friendly Shared Hosting
Give back 3x in renewable energy with GreenGeeks. Includes 24/7 support, free CDN, nightly backups, and more. Plans start at $2.95 with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
If you’re looking for an easy (and affordable) way to do your part in being kind to the planet, GreenGeeks is the way to go. They’re the only shared hosting provider that gives back 3x the energy they pull in the form of renewable energy.
So, you can rest easy knowing you’re doing your part in making the world a better place.
Plus, they offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee and 24/7 expert customer support, so you don’t have to worry about your site going down or going through the process alone.
Furthermore, more than 45,000+ users in 150+ countries trust GreekGeeks as their go-to web hosting platform. So, you’re in good company when you purchase web hosting services through them.
On top of their 3x renewable energy promise, you also get:
- Unlimited web space and data transfer
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain name for the first year
- Nightly backups
- Content delivery network (CDN)
- Unlimited email accounts
- One-click WordPress installation
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Built-in drag and drop builder
- Scalable computing resources
Plus, they offer completely free site migration, so you can easily switch and go green without the hassle of switching things over on your own.
GreenGeeks offers three shared hosting plans, including:
- Lite — $2.95 per month (renews at $9.95 per month)
- Pro — $5.95 per month (renews at 14.95 per month)
- Premium — $11.95 per month (renews at 24.95 per month)
They also offer WordPress hosting and VPS hosting if you plan to use WordPress or want to upgrade to a faster hosting plan in the future.
#3 – Hostinger — The Cheapest Shared Hosting Plans
Hostinger
Cheapest Shared Hosting Plans
Pricing starts at $0.99 per month. User-friendly control panel, simple setups, and live chat support 24/7/365. 30-day money-back guarantee.
Hostinger is easily the most affordable option on this list. With them, you can get four years of hosting for $47.52, which is cheaper than just one year with the other shared hosting plans listed here.
So, if you’re on a shoestring budget, this is definitely the way to go. The cheapest plan includes one website, one email, 100 GB of bandwidth, and a free SSL certificate.
Which… is essentially everything you need to get started.
However, 100 GB of bandwidth may not be enough for you, so you will need to upgrade to a better plan as your business grows.
With that said, their Premium and Business plans are also extremely affordable and more suitable for most users. Plus, these plans include a free domain name for the first year, so you don’t have to worry about buying it elsewhere.
With the advanced plans, you also get:
- Unlimited websites
- Unlimited emails
- WordPress acceleration
- Unlimited bandwidth
- And extra allocated resources
On top of their extremely budget-friendly prices, the platform is easy to use, and you get 24/7/365 customer support ready to help you out along the way.
Hostinger’s shared hosting plans include:
- Single — $0.99 per month (renews at $2.15 per month)
- Premium — $2.89 per month (renews at $3.49 per month)
- Business — $3.99 per month (renews at $7.95 per month)
- Cloud — $9.99 per month (renews at $15.90 per month)
While Hostinger isn’t the most feature-rich shared hosting provider, it’s an extremely affordable way for small businesses and brand new websites to start without breaking the bank.
You can also upgrade to VPS hosting down the road as your website scales.
#4 – A2 Hosting — The Fastest Shared Hosting Plans
A2 Hosting
Fastest Shared Hosting Plans
Plans starting at $2.99 per month. Includes a wide variety of speed-boosting features. Free migrations and an anytime money-back guarantee.
Site speed matters, and if you want to have the fastest shared hosting, A2 Hosting is your best option. They promise up to 20x speeds with 99.9% uptime and 24/7/365 guru crew support, so you don’t have to worry about your site going down or struggling through problems alone.
And you can rest easy knowing that their turbo servers offer an excellent visitor experience.
Besides that, you can also take advantage of 100% free site migrations if you’re interested in switching hosts. And you also get access to a ton of excellent features, including:
- Unlimited email accounts and file transfers
- Easy cPanel controls
- Free Cloudflare CDN
- A free website builder
- Solid-state drive speed boost
- Perpetual security features
- Premium A2 hardware
- Site staging
- Various data center locations
- Free SSL certificate
All of which are available on A2 Hosting’s cheapest shared hosting plan. Alternatively, you can upgrade to a higher price point and leverage advanced features like unlimited storage, automatic backups, 2x faster first byte, speed enhancements, and more.
A2 Hosting’s shared hosting plans include:
- Startup — $2.99 per month (renews at $8.99 per month)
- Drive — $4.99 per month (renews at $11.99 per month)
- Turbo Boost — $9.99 per month (renews at $19.99 per month)
- Turbo Max — $14.99 per month (renews at $24.99 per month)
It’s important to note that the 20x speed promise is only available on the Turbo Boost and Turbo Max plans. So, expect to pay a bit than the other options on this list for enhanced speed and performance.
#5 – DreamHost — The Best Shared Hosting Plans with Month-to-Month Pricing
DreamHost
Best Month-to-Month Plans
Trusted by 1.5+ million websites. 24/7 support and 100% uptime guarantee. Pricing starts at $4.95 per month with no contracts required.
If you’re not ready to commit to a long-term contract or prefer a plan that lets you pay as you go, DreamHost offers the most affordable month-to-month pricing on the market.
Plus, with more than 1.5+ million users, you’re in good company. On top of that, they also offer one of the industry’s leading money-back guarantees at 97 days.
DreamHost’s monthly shared hosting plans are packed full of features, including things like:
- Unlimited bandwidth and traffic
- Unlimited storage (Shared Unlimited only)
- Intuitive control panel
- Powerful one-click installation
- Free privacy protection
- Free SSL security certificate
- Automated backups
- Instant WordPress setup
- Comprehensive knowledge base
- Unlimited emails (Shared Unlimited only)
Note: most shared hosting plans don’t include free privacy protection, so this, along with their month-to-month pricing are definitely standout features.
Additionally, they offer a wide variety of WordPress-specific features, including free migrations, automatic updates, pre-installation, and a WordPress drag-and-drop site builder.
DreamHost’s month-to-month plans include:
- Shared Starter — $4.95 per month (50 GB of storage + one website)
- Shared Unlimited — $10.95 per month (unlimited storage, emails, and websites)
Compared to $10.95+ on most of the other options on this list, their starter month-to-month plans are incredibly affordable. They also offer one-year and three-year plans at discounted rates. Additionally, their annual plans include a free domain name.
Furthermore, you can upgrade to managed hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, or dedicated server hosting as your site scales and outgrows your shared hosting plan.
#6 – Siteground — The Best Shared Hosting Plans for Customer Service and Support
SiteGround
Best Customer Support
Trusted by 2+ million domains. Free WordPress installations and automatic WordPress updates. Shared hosting plans start as low as $6.99 per month..
Customer service is essential, especially if you’ve never set up web hosting before. So, if you’re looking for excellent support throughout the process of building your website, Siteground is a perfect choice.
Their in-house team is second to none of the options on this list. From building the technology to providing award-winning support, you can rest assured you have a rock-solid team behind you.
Furthermore, every plan comes with a ton of features, including:
- Unmetered traffic
- A free SSL certificate
- Daily site backups
- Free CDN
- Unlimited email accounts
- Unlimited databases
- 100% renewable energy match
- Free WordPress installation
- WordPress auto-updates
- Weebly and WordPress site builder
- Free migrations
Siteground also offers advanced features on their higher-tiered plans, including unlimited websites, extra storage space, on-demand backups, speed boosting, staging, and more.
They’re also one of three shared hosting providers WordPress recommends. So, their team is packed full of experts ready to help you 24/7/365 at every step of the way. Plus, they’re swift, friendly, and knowledgeable of WordPress.
And it’s hard to go wrong with a customer base of over 2+ million users.
Siteground’s shared hosting plans include:
- Startup — $6.99 per month (renews at $14.99 per month)
- GrowBig — $9.99 per month (renews at $24.99 per month)
- GoGeek — $14.99 per month (renews at $34.99 per month)
As you can see, it’s not the cheapest option on this list, but their customer service is excellent if you plan on needing support, or you’ve never created a website before.
The few extra dollars a month are definitely worth having a team of experts ready to help you out.
#7 – InMotion — The Best Shared Hosting Plans for Scalability
InMotion
Best for Scalability
Plans starting at $2.49 per month. Free site migrations and a suite of security tools plus a 99.9% uptime promise and a 90-day money-back guarantee.
If you’re a fast-growth business looking for a shared hosting provider that can scale alongside you, InMotion is a smart choice. They have a wide variety of plans with differing limits, so you can easily upgrade from one plan to the next as you need to.
And you can upgrade to VPS, managed hosting, or dedicated servers when your site scales, and you can justify the added expense.
Plus, they offer 24/7 customer support, free solid-state drive storage, free site migrations, and a free domain name for the first year. So, whether you’re starting from scratch or transferring from another provider, InMotion has you covered.
Furthermore, all InMotion plans include:
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Free email addresses
- SSL certificate
- Malware and hack protection
- DDoS protection
- Automatic backups
- Website builder
- Advertising credits
- One-click installation of 400+ apps
- SSH access
And they now use UltraStack servers standard on every plan. So, you can enjoy faster load times, optimized server-side caching, and enhanced speeds across your entire website.
They offer four shared hosting plans to choose from, including:
- Lite — $2.49 per month (renews at $7.49 per month)
- Launch — $4.99 per month (renews at $9.99 per month)
- Power — $4.99 per month (renews at $13.99 per month)
- Pro — $12.99 per month (renews at $22.99 per month)
With each upgrade, you get better website performance, the ability to host more websites, more email addresses, and extra storage space. So, you can start on the Lite plan and upgrade as your website grows.
From there, you can switch to VPS or dedicated server hosting to further optimize your website’s performance for handling higher levels of traffic.
Methodology For Choosing The Best Shared Hosting Plan
We highly recommend every option on this list. However, choosing the right one isn’t always easy. There are dozens of shared hosting plans out there, and not all are created equal.
So, keep the following criteria in mind as you go through the process of deciding which hosting plan is right for you.
Number of Websites
Every entry-level shared hosting plan on this list includes hosting for one website. However, the higher-tier plans include hosting for a varying number of websites.
So, it’s essential to consider how many websites you want to host. If you need a lot, look carefully at the number of websites allowed for each plan because some are unlimited while others are not.
Site Speed
Site speed is an integral part of SEO and visitors expect your website to load quickly. Your site’s speed depends on a lot of things, but one of them is your hosting provider and the features they include.
The speed of a hosting provider depends on:
- A content delivery network (CDN)
- Bandwidth and RAM limits
- Resource allocation
- SSD vs. a hard drive
- Data transfer limits
So, it’s crucial to choose a plan that exceeds your minimum requirements so your website loads quickly, regardless of the number of visitors and the amount of content you’re delivering at any given time.
When your site starts to slow down, it may be time to upgrade to a better plan.
Domain Emails
A domain email looks like this: hello@yourdomain.com. And they’re much more professional than a standard Gmail or Yahoo email account.
Some hosts let you create a free email account while others charge for the service.
On the other hand, some offer unlimited email accounts, so you can create as many as you want. Be sure to carefully consider the number of emails you need and choose a plan that gives you some breathing room.
Note: every option on this list (aside from Dreamhost) includes at least one free email account with every plan. Dreamhost charges extra starting at $1.67 per month.
Bandwidth Limits
Bandwidth limits the amount of data that gets transferred at any given time. So, as you have more traffic hitting simultaneously, you need more bandwidth to handle it.
If you don’t have enough, users may experience a slowdown when visiting your site. Furthermore, if you have a lot of dynamic content, images, or videos, those require more bandwidth to deliver since they include more data.
So, the higher your bandwidth limits, the less you have to worry about the amount of content and the number of users on your website.
Many hosting providers on this list offer “unlimited” or “unmetered” bandwidth. In reality, unlimited doesn’t exist, so make sure to read the fine print to determine what this means before agreeing to anything.
Storage Limits
Disc space or web storage refers to the amount of space your website is allowed to occupy. Every piece of your website requires storage, including things like:
- Website scripts and code
- Databases
- Emails
- Text files
- Images
- Videos
Several of the introductory plans on this list include storage space limits. So, keep in mind that you’ll have to upgrade to a higher plan once you exceed that limit.
And as with bandwidth, “unlimited” storage space doesn’t actually exist. Always read the fine print and the terms and conditions page to truly understand what “unlimited” means before you sign up.
Security Features
Every web hosting provider should offer a free SSL certificate.
All of the options on this list do, and you shouldn’t choose a provider that doesn’t offer this if you decide to go with someone not mentioned here.
Furthermore, some hosts offer security packages that include other protections against brute force attacks, malware, and more. So, pay close attention to what they offer when making your final decision.
Bluehost
Best for WordPress Users
Recommended by WordPress. Get 24/7 customer support and a free domain for one year. Pricing starts at $2.95 per month. All plans are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Summary
Bluehost is our #1 shared hosting recommendation for most users. WordPress recommends it, plus it’s incredibly affordable and easy to use.
However, all the options on this list are excellent choices, depending on what you need.
So, make sure to use the methodology we talked about as you sort through the best shared hosting plans for you, your new website, and the future of your business.
This article was written by today’s Daily Eggspert.
Source: https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/best-shared-hosting-plans/
