Web Hosting

The Top 7 Web Hosting Solutions

Discover the top 7 web hosting solutions with capabilities like DNS resolution, server response, and security measures.

Last updated on Jun 25, 2024

Written by Mirren McDade

Technical review by Laura Iannini

The Top 7 Web Hosting Solutions include:

1. InMotion Hosting
2. KnownHost
3. Krystal
4. NixiHost
5. SiteGround
6. WPEngine
7. Zume

Web hosting is the process of storing and managing a website’s files and applications, allowing customers to access website content on the internet. Ensuring that your webhosting solution is reliable and robust gives your organization much needed security and consistency. Without an effective web hosting solution, you will not be able to keep your websites up and running smoothly.

The choice of a web hosting solution can significantly influence a website’s performance, security, and the user experience it delivers. Web hosting solutions cater to various needs, facilitating seamless website management and offering tools a platform to assist in monitoring, updating, and optimizing website performance. They employ robust security protocols to safeguard websites from potential threats and cyber-attacks.

As the market is home to a variety of strong web hosting solutions, each with their unique offerings and capabilities, choosing the most suitable one can be a difficult task. To aid in this selection process, we have put together a guide covering the top web hosting solutions, known for their reliability and performance. By the end of this article, you should be in a better position to make an informed decision that aligns well with your business goals and website requirements.

InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting offers shared web hosting services that place a focus on ease of use. Users can begin hosting domains and email functionalities promptly, with swift onboarding. The hosting experience is supported by 24/7 U.S.-based customer service, ensuring questions and issues are addressed at any hour.

InMotion Hosting’s Shared Hosting solution ensures website security and performance by actively monitoring for threats, providing hack and malware protection, DDoS prevention, and boosting site speeds via UltraStack hosting with NVMe SSD storage. Users can easily manage their sites using the cPanel and benefit from the one-click installs for popular web applications like WordPress. Hosting Plus also offers backend tools, including SSH access and GIT version control, which bolster frontend applications. For those looking for a simpler approach, a drag-and-drop website builder is available, eliminating the need for coding or design expertise.

Shared Hosting allows users to host multiple websites under one account and offers flexibility with data centers located in the USA and Europe. Other features include professional email creation linked to your domain, a complimentary SSL certificate for all hosted domains, and unlimited bandwidth. Finally, for businesses venturing into online sales, the solution also offers eCommerce tools.

KnownHost

KnownHost specializes in shared web hosting, delivering a service optimized for performance and reliability with the aid of technologies like LiteSpeed, LSCache, and NVMe. Situated in data centers in Atlanta, Seattle, and Amsterdam, their hosting service allocates dedicated resources to each account. This ensures that every user gets exclusive resources, unique IPv6 addresses, and benefits from a knowledgeable server admin team.

KnownHost takes pride in its consistent uptime, with an average of over 99.99%. This is made possible with high-end hardware such as AMD EPYC’s and NVMe Storage, paired with a robust networking framework that uses redundant links and BGP optimization. As well as offering a user-friendly and reliable hosting experience, KnownHost offers automated backups; this takes a periodic snapshot of a users’ installation, storing it off-server for security. This feature comes as a standard inclusion, along with 24/7/365 support from a US-based team.

KnownHost is quick and easy to set up; the provider promises instant account readiness, even including free migration assistance. Additionally, their hosting solution uses Softaculous software to facilitate one-click installs and updates of popular platforms.

Krystal

Krystal is a hosting service provider known for its commitment to value, quality, and transparency. They offer a 99.99% uptime guarantee, ensuring website reliability. One of the distinct aspects of their hosting plans is the inclusion of unlimited bandwidth, databases, email addresses, parked domains, and subdomains. In the realm of security, Krystal provides free SSL certificates through “Let’s Encrypt” and boasts a range of protective features, from weekly file scanning for malicious content to two-factor authentication.

Clients can manage their websites using cPanel & Softaculous, allowing control over backups and the ability to install over 380 applications. For those looking to create a website, Krystal’s website builder allows users to design a professional-looking site without the need for coding expertise. The company operates global data centers in locations including the UK, Europe, and the USA. These are optimized for speed and reliability.

For businesses undergoing a transition, Krystal offers migration services, ensuring a smooth transfer of website and email content from previous providers, regardless of their platform. Their in-house support team, available via email, live chat, and phone, ensures that clients can receive assistance quickly and directly. Finally, their network and performance infrastructure include features like 100Gbps redundant BGP connectivity, 2,000Gbps DDoS Protection, and the latest Dell enterprise-grade servers with LiteSpeed Caching and SSDs.

NixiHost

NixiHost’s shared hosting plans cater to a range of users, from hobbyists and bloggers to business owners and professionals building their first websites. The offerings are tiered into three main packages, all of which come with unlimited sub-domains, email hosting, Let’s Encrypt SSL, MariaDB (MySQL) 10.3, MultiPHP versions, and the cPanel control panel.

NixiHost’s hosting services emphasize flexibility, with unlimited and unmetered features provided as a courtesy—however, users are reminded of the shared nature of the server and to be considerate of resource consumption. The infrastructure benefits from SSD storage for faster data access and includes robust security measures like DDoS and intrusion protection to safeguard websites.

NixiHost’s “Start-Up” plan is tailored for beginners, featuring 15GB SSD disk space, 1GB DDR4 RAM, support for one domain, and unmetered bandwidth. The “Basic Hosting” package is equipped with 25GB SSD disk space, 1.5GB DDR4 RAM, and accommodates five domains. For those seeking comprehensive features, the “Professional” package offers 75GB SSD disk space, 2GB DDR4 RAM, and allows for unlimited domains. Single-click installation is available for over 50 scripts, catering to online merchants and professional bloggers.

SiteGround

SiteGround offers web hosting services tailored to a diverse range of needs, backed by two decades of industry experience. With a foundation built on security and speed, their hosting platform also emphasizes user-friendliness and performance. Users can quickly set up a website using WordPress or Weebly site builders.

For those migrating, SiteGround offers tools for seamless site and email transfer, with an option for expert-assisted transfer. Their platform is also optimized for multiple PHP-MySQL-based CMS and CRM applications, making it compatible with a variety of content management systems. SiteGround’s hosting environment is constructed atop the Google Cloud infrastructure, coupled with speed optimizations. The platform prioritizes security with server and application-level protections, free SSL, and daily backups.

Additional features include managed WordPress installations, domain management, reliable email services, and a range of tools for site management. The GrowBig and GoGeek plans offer the flexibility to host multiple sites and come with added benefits such as faster PHP, easy staging tools, and specialized support. In addition to the hosting services themselves, SiteGround offers a responsive Customer Care team with high satisfaction ratings. SiteGround also offers e-commerce support, complete with free shopping cart installation, SSL, and daily backups.

WPEngine

WPEngine specializes in WordPress hosting, offering services tailored to ensure optimal functionality with the WordPress core software, its plugins, and themes. WPEngine’s servers are optimized for maximum WordPress performance, and their hosting plans not only facilitate easy installation of WordPress through a single-click process, but also guide users through a dedicated setup wizard, installing specific tools and plugins.

To enhance website performance, WPEngine incorporates EverCache and a global CDN with over 200 data centers, ensuring fast speeds even as site traffic scales. WPEngine offers staging environments for all sites, a free WordPress migration plugin, and daily backups. The platform prioritizes security by integrating proactive threat blocking, auto-renewing SSLs, and automated updates for plugins, themes, WordPress, and PHP. If an update issue arises, the auto roll-back functionality helps restore the site.

WPEngine also carries out annual SOC 2 audits and ISO 27001 certification, aligning with stringent international security and compliance standards. The platform provides 24/7 phone and chat access to a support team of WordPress hosting specialists, who maintain a 96% customer satisfaction score. WPEngine also offers extensive WordPress-specific support documentation. For those on premium plans, a comprehensive onboarding process and a 40+ point Technical Health Check ensure a smooth migration and successful launch.

Zume

Zume is a web hosting company focused on delivering top-tier website speeds, highlighted by their Faster Site Guarantee. They promise that websites hosted with them will achieve superior speeds compared to previous providers. If, however, the speed isn’t improved, Zume offers a refund within a 14-day window.

The core of Zume’s offering lies in its advanced hosting infrastructure. By incorporating the LiteSpeed Enterprise Web Server, Zume ensures up to 20 times faster performance than traditional Apache servers. This translates to quicker page loads and a more responsive user experience. Additionally, Zume leverages ultra-fast SSD and NVMe drives for enhanced data access and site functionality. Their network, built on premium 1Gbps+ connections, supports consistent website speeds and stability, even under heavy traffic conditions.

Zume’s hosting solutions are designed for scalability, effectively handling traffic spikes and facilitating growth. Zume provides a 99.9% uptime guarantee, proving a commitment to consistent service. With Zume’s hosting services, businesses can concentrate on their core operations, knowing their website’s performance is optimized and supported by an expert team.

Everything You Need To Know About Web Hosting Solutions (FAQs)

What Are Web Hosting Solutions?

Web hosting is an online service that makes your website’s content accessible via the internet. Where your office is your physical real-estate, a web hosting solution allows your digital real-estate to function. A web host rents digital space to you, allowing you to establish your website on the internet.

Web hosts are responsible for keeping the server running, implementing hosting security measures, and making sure that any data – like images, video, text, code etc. – can be transferred successfully to the visitor’s browser. As well as storage, a good website hosting service will often provide tools for website maintenances like backups, security, and uptime.

How Do Web Hosting Solutions Work?

Web hosting solutions essentially provide the necessary infrastructure and technologies required to properly store and serve website content so that it is readily available to anyone with access to the internet. The following steps describe how web hosting solutions typically work:

The web hosting provider works to maintain a network of servers housed in data centers. These are equipped with hardware like powerful CPUs, RAM, storage devices (HDDs or SDDs), and network connectivity.
Website owners can either register a new domain through their hosting provider or configure an existing domain to link it with the hosting providers servers IP address
Website owners upload relevant files (images, scripts, videos, databases, HTML files etc.) to the web hosting providers servers.
The web hosting provider allows web server configuration, the settings of which include things like mapping domain names to specific directories containing website files, setting virtual hosts up, and enabling necessary modules.
The hosting provider retrieves users requested web pages when they search in the browser, then send it to them via the internet.
Hosting providers give technical support for sever related issues, troubleshooting, and configuration.
Web hosting provider should monitor the health and performance of your website and provide routine maintenance to ensure sites remain up-to-date and secured.
Web hosting solution should be able to adjust their server resources (CPU, RAM, storage) to accommodate changes to web traffic volume and resource requirements.

Essentially, web hosting solutions work by handling the technical aspects of website hosting, making sure that sites are always available, performing correctly, and secured. This allows users to focus on creating and managing the content on the websites.

What Features Should You Look For In A Web Hosting Solution?

It is important to find a web hosting solution capable of providing the space, tools, and support needed to take your website to the next level. Some things to look out for include:

Reliability – This is probably the most important feature for any web hosting solution you are considering. Having the highest possible percentage for uptime and keeping the possibility of downtime to an minimum otherwise customers will go elsewhere.
Speed – Similarly, a site that is slow and has large amounts of lag can also give a negative impression and put people off from exploring your site. To make sure your site visitors are not inconvenienced and do not give up, you should ensure that your web hosting solution provides reliable and high speeds.
Support – Customer support is very important because if something were to go wrong with your website you will likely need help to address and solve the problem as quickly and seamlessly as possible. With some providers offering 24/7 support, this is the gold standard that you should look for.
Security – Websites today are under constant threats from cyber-attacks, but falling victim to one could lose you much more than you expect. Reputation damage and loss of customer trust is something that, if lost, can be very difficult to regain and could end up leading to noticeable financial losses. To ensure your site remains safe from attacks, a good web hosting solution will provide security features like malware scanning and DDoS protection.
Scalability – As your website grows it is important that your web hosting solutions has the capacity to scale appropriately to meet that growth, so you should look for a service offer upgrades so you can add more resources when required.

Mirren McDade

Senior Journalist & Content Writer

Mirren McDade is a senior writer and journalist at Expert Insights, spending each day researching, writing, editing and publishing content, covering a variety of topics and solutions, and interviewing industry experts. She is an experienced copywriter with a background in a range of industries, including cloud business technologies, cloud security, information security and cyber security, and has conducted interviews with several industry experts. Mirren holds a First Class Honors degree in English from Edinburgh Napier University.

Laura Iannini

Cybersecurity Analyst

Laura Iannini is an Information Security Engineer. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity from the University of West Florida. Laura has experience with a variety of cybersecurity platforms and leads technical reviews of leading solutions. She conducts thorough product tests to ensure that Expert Insights’ reviews are definitive and insightful.