The Best Web Hosting Services of 2020 Perfect for Small Business Owners

The role of a website has dramatically changed over the past years. From just being an online brochure, it has become an essential part of businesses of all sizes. More than being a luxury for companies, it evolved into being a must-have even for small businesses. Yet, having a website is not enough – you also need to employ the web best hosting service you can find to make the most out of your site. 

Having and maintaining a website is hard, and finding the best web hosting service provider is even harder for small businesses. As a small business owner, looking for the right provider is a bit of a challenge. 

Given the constraint in your budget, you get little room for mistakes. So, to get the best web hosting service to employ on your business website, you need more options on your plate. In this article, we listed some of the best web hosting service providers you can find in the market. 

Types of Webs Hosting Services

Before getting and utilizing any web hosting service for your site, it is a must to know first the general classification for hosting services. This knowledge will help you determine what you need for your website and what fits your requirements. 

• Shared – More than one website is stored on a single server. The least expensive among web hosting services, it is a popular option for small businesses with minimal web traffic. 

• Dedicated – A single server host for a unique website. Usually, more expensive than a shared server, but the extra cost can help your business thrive as it is concentrated on your website. 

• Cloud Hosting (VPS) – Virtual Private Servers (VPS) also allows more than one website to be hosted by a  cloud-based server. It is a cloud-based version of a shared server. However, because of its flexibility, scalability, and similarities with cloud computing, leveraging on a cloud hosting server can give you more features. If your business needs computational and your web hosting requirements change over time, VPS is the right choice. 

Things To Consider in Finding The Best Web Hosting Service 

When finding the best web hosting service, you also need to keep in mind several factors to help you decide which provider to integrate on your website. 

• Speed – Check on how fast your webpages can load using a particular web hosting server. This factor is crucial as part of the SEO parameters checked by search engines is how fast your webpages load. Having fast load times for your website improves your visitor’s user experience and helps you rank high in different search engines. 

• Cost – As a small business owner, it is essential to get the most out of your budget. So, always remember to check the features that come with the price. Make sure to read and understand what the web hosting service contract states because some providers will offer you the lowest price for just a year or two and double or triple the price after the promotional period. While this is usually the case, it pays to know when you have to shell out additional expenses to adjust your budget. 

• Uptime – Finding a web hosting service that offers a 100% uptime is quite impossible, but it is possible to find a web host that can make your site go online by 99.999% most of the time.

• Security – Aside from speed, cost, and uptime, your web hosting service should also provide you with a secure website infrastructure. As a small business, you are not immune to any possible attack. Your server should have the latest updates, patches, and, most importantly, active safety protocols. 

• Customer Support – You cannot expect to have a smooth operation all the time. You’ll experience bumps and challenges along the way. It is why your web hosting service provider must have an established customer service support that you can connect to any time of the day. 

While these are essential things you need to check for your web hosting service provider, you can also check the bandwidth it can offer and the level of storage you need for your small business website. Determine your provider’s scalability as you might change your requirement over time. The performance it can provide based on your needs – whether it can give you shared, dedicated, or VPS.

Best Web Hosting Services You Can Choose From

Once you have identified your website needs and requirements, do not settle on the first web hosting service you encounter. It would be best to conduct thorough checking of all the providers in the market these days. To help you, here are some of the best web hosting services you can consider. 

1. Bluehost

Bluehost is recommended by many experts and a top contender for being the best web hosting service in the market these days. It can give your comprehensive features; a one-click installation can give you an uptime of 99.99% and an average speed of 405 ms.  It is highly favored and recommended by the WordPress community. 

This top-tier web hosting service starts with a pricing plan at $2.75 per month for a 3-year initial contract, which gives you a single website, 50GB SSD storage space, and a free domain for a year. 

2. InMotion Hosting

If you are looking for pricing flexibility for your small business website, InMotion Hosting can be a top choice. It offers a wide range of subscription plans, starting at $6.99, which you can check depending on your needs and requirements. Though not the cheapest, it can offer you six different programs you can choose from that can cover most types of websites. 

InMotion can give excellent service when it comes to security, customer support, and storage space. All plans also include free domain registration, data backups, and unlimited email accounts. It comes with an uptime of 99.95% while it has 767 ms for its average speed. 

3. HostGator

Another popular option you can find in the market these days, HostGator is best known for its feature-rich offerings. It has a one-click installation like BlueHost. It has an uptime of 99.99% and a speed of 399 ms, making it an excellent choice for those who are just starting with their site. 

The cheapest plan for HostGator starts at $2.75 per month for a 12-month contract and gives you flexible features like unlimited email account, unmetered disk space and bandwidth, built-in cache, and more. Like BlueHost, HostGator is another top contender for being beginner-friendly. 

4. Hostinger

With the financial challenges you face as a small business owner, finding a cheap option for your web hosting service needs is a must. Hostinger can be an excellent option for this kind of challenge as the plans it offers start at $0.99 per month for a 48-month contract. 

Though one of the top choices for being the most affordable, surprisingly enough, Hostinger is full of features that can work to your advantage. It can provide you with an uptime of 99.95% and a loading time of 350 ms, which is a fast option considering its starting offer price. Hostinger also comes with 24/7 customer support, an easy website builder, and a free SSL certificate. 

5. GoDaddy

GoDaddy is an established, one of the largest and well-known web hosting service company. It even has the most significant number of domains in the world. With facilities located around the world, it can cater to both big enterprises’ websites and those who are just starting with their business. 

GoDaddy offers an uptime of 99.95% and a speed of 554 m. It is also notable of its security features like DDoS protection and monitoring, making it one of the most reliable web hosting providers. 

6. SiteGround

Another web hosting service provider recommended by the WordPress.org community, SiteGround, has been in the market since 2004 and has over two million domains worldwide. 

SiteGround provides an average speed of 673 ms and comes in with 99.99% uptime. Though speed is quite not the most notable with this provider, it comes strong with its impeccable customer service. Many commend how SiteGround is always prompt in answering queries and how easy it is to connect to their chat support. 

Starting at $3.95 for their cheapest plan, SiteGround comes with a free SSL certificate, a website builder, and a backup. 

7. A2 Hosting

If you are looking for a cheap yet fast web hosting service provider, then A2 hosting is for you. It has an impressive 317 ms load time, the fastest in this list. It will also only require you of $2.99 per month for a 3-year contract for its starting plan. A2 also tops when it comes to cloud hosting service and one of the few who offer Windows hosting. 

8. OVH

Finally, if you want a dedicated server plan, you can go ahead and check OVH. Though for a small business owner, this is a bit more expensive than the rest on this list, it can give your site a much better performance. 

OVH data centers are scattered around the globe, which means it will host your site nearer to your location, which can improve your website performance. Priced at $7.50 per month, way more than the other web hosting service providers, yet you can get an excellent service for your website.

Final Thoughts

The flock of many web hosting service providers in the market today will make it difficult for you to make up your mind. However, what you always have to remember is that the decision you have to prepare for your web hosting service provider will always depend on you. Depending on your personal needs and your website requirements, you can consider the best provider that you think would fit you the most. 

Do not settle quickly on any provider you encounter. There is always benefit by looking around first. You can also check what your competitors are using but do just copy what they have. Their requirements may be different from yours. Always make a checklist and tick it off whenever you review a particular web hosting service. This strategy will make your hunt fast and ensure that you find the best web hosting service provider you are looking for to help your website’s performance grow.

AUTHOR’S BIO

Maricar worked as a marketing professional for almost a decade and handled concerts, events and community service-related activities. Leaving her corporate job for good to pursue her dreams, she has now ventured in the path of content writing and currently writes for Softvire Australia – the leading software e-Commerce company in Australia and Softvire New Zealand. A Harry Potter fan, she loves to watch animated series and movies during her spare time.