Writer: Sean Garrity
Editor: Lillian Castro
Reviewer: Christina Lewis
Whether you’re taking your first steps online, building a professional portfolio, or looking for an outlet for your creativity, the best personal website hosting plans adapt to a variety of needs.
A personal website can help you land your dream job, as an online portfolio stands out amongst a sea of black-and-white PDF résumés. Whether your site is a food blog for the best burgers or just a way to keep in touch, websites are ideal to show the world who you are.
Many may look at site creation as a daunting activity. However, most hosting providers make the experience pain-free with intuitive web builders and professionally designed templates.
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Best Web Hosting Service Overall
Most people seeking to create personal websites want to be able to quickly and easily get their ideas online, and the pros provide some best practices on how to do it.
TheMuse advises avoiding burying your message’s lead and getting right to the heart of your story. This can be done through text, videos, photos, and other media. But you’re going to need a host that allows the flexibility to house large files and provides visitors with fast page load times without emptying your wallet.
Our favorite hosts offer free web builders, unlimited disk space and bandwidth, simple management with intuitive control panels, quick load times, and high availability.
Security and backup functionalities are also important items to consider when choosing your web hosting provider. To ease the decision-making process, we’ve compiled the three best overall hosts that provide some of these features.
1. Hostinger.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.69
- Unlimited everything, from storage to databases
- FREE site builder & WP performance upgrades
- FREE daily or weekly backups
- Custom control panel and auto-installation scripts
- SSH access & unlimited FREE SSL certificates
- Get started on Hostinger now.
As the shared hosting market becomes increasingly saturated, unlimited storage, bandwidth, and email accounts have become surprisingly average. Hostinger, however, extends the routine, expected metrics to greater lengths — the number of websites, databases, FTP users, subdomains, and parked domains are all unrestricted for most customers. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 25 GB SSD – 100 GB NVMe | FREE (1 year) | 3 minutes |
2. IONOS.com
Monthly Starting Price $1.00
- $1/month for 12 months
- No hidden fees, pay just $12 at checkout
- Easy setup and 24/7 expert support
- FREE domain or transfer, plus FREE SSL certificate
- Unlimited storage and databases with most plans
- Get started on IONOS now.
If budget is the main factor on your mind when searching for your next web host, search no more. IONOS has an impressive range of robust web hosting and website building packages for what may be the best price we’ve ever seen in the world of hosting. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 10 GB – Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | 4 minutes |
3. DreamHost.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.59
- Automated malware scans
- Unlimited domain hosting
- Unlimited email accounts with POP/IMAP/SMTP
- FREE eCommerce store tools and PCI compliance
- Streamlined proprietary control panel
- Get started on DreamHost now.
While DreamHost’s price might be a little steep compared to other high-value hosting providers, the company gives customers ample time and reasons to get hooked and stick around. The company, which started in the founders’ dorm room in 1997, offers an industry-leading 97-day money-back guarantee. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 97 days | Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | 4 minutes |
Best Low-Cost Website Hosting
Some businesses shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars to build highly complex eCommerce sites with functionalities akin to giants like Amazon.
Personal websites are a bit different. You want to have the seamless capability to create optimal experiences for your audiences, but you don’t want to break the bank in the process.
Don’t fret — all you budget-savvy site owners out there are in luck. Budding webmasters can blast professional-looking sites to the masses for just a few dollars per month.
The costs shouldn’t fool you. Even though the rates are low, some cheap hosts offer feature-rich plans that include site builders, domain names, and lots of bandwidth and disk space, among many other options.
Below are our top picks for cheap hosting providers. Feel free to peruse the full reviews to see just how many features you get at such low price points.
4. Hostinger.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.69
- Unlimited everything, from storage to databases
- FREE site builder & WP performance upgrades
- FREE daily or weekly backups
- Custom control panel and auto-installation scripts
- SSH access & unlimited FREE SSL certificates
- Get started on Hostinger now.
As the shared hosting market becomes increasingly saturated, unlimited storage, bandwidth, and email accounts have become surprisingly average. Hostinger, however, extends the routine, expected metrics to greater lengths — the number of websites, databases, FTP users, subdomains, and parked domains are all unrestricted for most customers. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 25 GB SSD – 100 GB NVMe | FREE (1 year) | 3 minutes |
Best WordPress Hosting for Personal Sites
Even if you’re new to the website-building game, the odds are pretty good you’ve heard of blogging software legend WordPress. The platform currently powers roughly 43% of the sites on the web and an estimated 76.5 million WordPress.com blogs.
WordPress software is open-source and free to use, but you’re going to need a host to get your site online once it’s built. You can find free WordPress hosting, but it won’t offer as much customization or functionality as cheap shared hosting plans do.
The top WordPress hosts offer tools, such as the site builder BoldGrid, to make using the CMS even more intuitive than it already is.
It’s important to also look at other factors, including the ability to run multiple WordPress sites, whether the platform comes pre-installed, and if the host offers SSDs for optimal performance.
Our top hosting option to run a personal WordPress site is below. We’ve included a comprehensive overview of all the benefits offered, so be sure to click on the review.
5. Hostinger.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.69
- Officially endorsed by WordPress.org
- Managed WordPress hosting & free site migration
- 1-click WP install, PHP 7+, HTTP/2, and LiteSpeed
- All-in-one security protections from BitNinja
- No price markup for WordPress services
- Daily backups, FREE SSL certificates, and AI Tools
- Get started on Hostinger now.
As much as we love WordPress, one of our biggest pet peeves is when hosting providers exploit the popularity of the world’s most-used content management system by offering so-called WordPress hosting that, in reality, is exactly the same as the host’s shared server plans. Fortunately, Hostinger’s ultra-fast infrastructure and easy access to SSL certificates and backups sets up the company to outperform the vast majority of the violators of our admittedly made-up rule. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 25 GB SSD – 200 GB NVMe | FREE (1 year) | 4 minutes |
Best for Cloud-Hosted Personal Projects
Sure, your site may be fairly small now — but what if you strike it big?
Web professionals are notorious for their side projects and design-showcasing portfolios. If one of your pet projects gains some traction, the flood of traffic will likely overwhelm your shared hosting plan’s server and crash your site.
Cloud hosting, on the other hand, offers a great deal of flexibility and peace of mind. Your hosting environment can easily grow with traffic demands and economically scale back down when things are slow. This setup is unlike VPS hosting and dedicated server hosting, which offer a consistent amount of resources and do not scale quite as quickly as a cloud server.
Read more about our favorite cloud hosting providers in our hosting review below to learn if cloud hosting would be a good fit for your web host.
6. Cloudways.com
Monthly Starting Price $6.60
- Managed cloud hosting with 24/7/365 monitoring
- Choose from 5 popular cloud providers
- Auto-healing cloud servers with FREE backups
- 3-day free trial with no credit card required
- Host unlimited apps with no contract lock-in
- Get started on Cloudways now.
If you can’t beat the cloud provider behemoths, offer their infrastructure as a service. Cloudways gives customers their choice of cloud platform: AWS, Google, Linode, Digital Ocean, or Vultr. Go to full review »
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 minutes | 20 GB SSD – 4 TB SSD | 1 – 96 cores | 1 GB – 384 GB |
Best Website Builders for a Personal Website
Compelling web design matters. In fact, it’s so important that 94% of a visitor’s first impressions are dictated by design, and that same percentage of people will leave your site if the aesthetic is off.
There are almost countless examples on the web of artfully crafted sites, but not everyone has the creative skill set of a professional designer.
Not to worry — most hosts include easy-to-use website builders as part of their packages. An effective builder grants users the ability to produce professional-grade personal websites without the need to code or attend a four-year degree program in fine arts.
In addition to web-building tools, the hosts with the best design solutions also offer hundreds of templates that can be customized to your site’s topic — whether that be a wedding-related theme or a family blog.
The host below is our top pick, presenting the best website builder to get your site off the ground.
7. Wix.com
Monthly Starting Price $0.00
- No coding skills needed with drag-and-drop builder
- 100s of templates with niche-specific designs
- Add features via the App Market and Wix Events
- Easily create ecommerce functionality easily
- Great way to build small sites on a budget
- Get started on Wix now.
Website building is where Wix shines. The thousands of templates, the intuitive editor, the industry-leading designs that cater to a variety of specific fields and use cases — all these facets represent a platform that excels at facilitating easy web design for the non-tech-savvy user. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14-day FREE trial | 2 GB – Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | 4 minutes |
Best eCommerce Hosting for a Personal Business
People start personal websites for a number of reasons, but many use their sites as a springboard to turn passions into rewarding careers.
If entrepreneurship is part of your goal in setting up a personal site, you’re going to need a host that supports a robust eCommerce platform, complete with secure shopping carts and checkouts.
The most effective eCommerce-friendly hosts provide intuitive web builders that allow site owners to showcase products in their online storefronts.
Customer support is also a factor to consider, as eCommerce functionalities can be complex, especially for those new to selling online.
Check out our pick for the top eCommerce host below. This host offers all the functionalities mentioned above and then some.
8. Hostinger.com
Monthly Starting Price $3.59
- Officially endorsed by WordPress.org
- Accelerate your store with FREE SSDs and CDN
- Local and global shipping with USPS and WooCommerce Shipping
- FREE automatic site migration, Amazon affiliate plugin, and AI assistant
- Full security suite: DDoS protection, malware scanner, etc.
- Get started on Hostinger now.
As the shared hosting market becomes increasingly saturated, unlimited storage, bandwidth, and email accounts have become surprisingly average. Hostinger, however, extends the routine, expected metrics to greater lengths — the number of websites, databases, FTP users, subdomains, and parked domains are all unrestricted for most customers. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 200 GB SSD – 300 GB SSD | FREE (1 year) | 3 minutes |
Best Personal Website Hosting with Free Domain
Location. Location. Location.
The old real estate mantra also rings true for personal websites. Your domain name is not just your online address; it’s also one of the first things your audience will notice.
There are a number of expert tips on choosing the right name for your site, including making it memorable, pronounceable, and easily brandable.
Most SEO gurus agree that it’s highly important to secure a .com domain, as it works wonders to lend your site credibility and helps it rank higher in search results.
Whatever the aim of your personal site, you’re going to need a simple way to find, secure, and register your domain name.
And some hosts make this easier than others.
Free domain registration and transfer should be included in the cost of entry for a hosting package. Below, we’ve found the host that makes securing your idyllic web real estate a piece of cake.
9. Hostinger.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.69
- Lowest domain prices in the industry
- FREE registration on most plans
- Host up to 100 domains on most plans
- Domain privacy protection safeguards your info
- 99.9% uptime guarantee and automatic backups
- Get started on Hostinger now.
Don’t be turned off by Hostinger’s remarkably low prices. The company’s insanely low pricing model extends to domain name services, as well as its premium support and impressive list of features. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 25 GB SSD – 100 GB NVMe | FREE (1 year) | 3 minutes |
Best Personal Website Hosting with Free Email Accounts
There’s no doubt a personalized email domain is integral to establishing credibility for people doing business online.
Not many consumers will trust someone trying to sell them something with a hotmail.com or gmail.com extension. The same goes for personal websites.
If I’m blogging about my favorite hamburger restaurants, I’d much rather reach out to people with an email address that gets right to the heart of what I’m doing, like, say, sean@ilovecheeseburgers.com.
Domain registration and email go hand in hand. That’s why you’ll need a host that provides free unique domain names and the added perks of email hosting.
Other important features to keep an eye on include email forwarding, autoresponders, and webmail. Here’s our top pick for a host that provides free email accounts as part of its package.
And, if you take a peek at the full review, you’ll see this host offers much more than just premiere email functionalities.
10. IONOS.com
Monthly Starting Price $1.00
- Business email with a personal consultant
- Choice of IONOS mail, Microsoft 365, or Google Workspace mailboxes
- FREE domain or transfer included
- Create up to 500 email accounts
- Premium tools for email marketing available
- Get started on IONOS now.
If the budget factor is on your mind when searching for a web host, rest easy. IONOS has a wide range of packages, including reduced rates for the first few months (or year) and starter plans for all of their web hosting and website building services. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 10 GB – Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | 4 minutes |
Best Free Web Hosting for a Personal Website
Famed 20th-century fashion designer Coco Chanel was once quoted as saying, “The best things in life are free. The second-best things are very, very expensive.”
While that may ring true in some walks of life, it’s not the case with personal website hosting.
With Wix, new site owners can get personal sites up and running at zero cost.
The host’s free package includes access to a web builder, a vast collection of stock art, and beautiful templates to make your site look like it was designed by a pro.
You’ll also get 500MB of storage and bandwidth, but you’ll be required to use a Wix.com subdomain and house Wix-branded ads on your site.
While Wix’s free plan is a great way to get started, spending just a few bucks on one of its premium hosting packages may be a better way to go.
Starting at just $0.00 per month, site owners can connect a unique domain name. And, by moving up the price tiers just a bit more, you’ll enjoy unlimited bandwidth, massive amounts of disk space, no Wix-branded ads, and upgraded support.
Below, we’ve outlined everything Wix has to offer. By checking out our full review, you may find Wix to be the way to go.
11. Wix.com
Monthly Starting Price $0.00
- Start designing for FREE
- FREE domain with most plans
- Drag-and-drop templates, specific to industry
- Exhaustive knowledgebase of articles
- Huge app market available
- Get started on Wix now.
Wix is known as a web-leading site builder service that’s one of the most affordable — because getting started is absolutely free and about as easy as processes get. You can log in via Facebook or your Gmail account and be editing your new web property within minutes. Go to full review »
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14-day FREE trial | 2 GB – Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | 4 minutes |
What Is Web Hosting?
You can build a website, but if you don’t have a web hosting plan then people won’t be able to see it! Web hosting gives you space on a server to host your website so people can find you online.
Web hosting comes in literally dozens of shapes and forms, including shared hosting, WordPress hosting, cloud hosting, and — you guessed it — personal web hosting. While personal web hosting doesn’t specifically refer to a type of server, it does have some typical features and characteristics that make it stand out from other hosting types.
I’ll explore those features below.
Key Features of Personal Web Hosting Plans
Just like apartments require different building materials than downtown skyscrapers, a personal web hosting plan doesn’t have the same requirements as a major eCommerce site. You should keep an eye out for these features in your personal web hosting plan:
- Ease-of-use: Most people shopping for personal website hosting don’t have the same technical expertise as organizations. Therefore, you should prioritize user-friendly control panels and website builders to improve your hosting platform’s user-friendliness.
- Customer support: Having support on standby is critical for new website owners who may not have the technical expertise to troubleshoot complex issues.
- Storage, bandwidth, and uptime: Every site needs these things, but personal sites may be able to get away with having less storage and bandwidth than larger sites. Your host should always offer an uptime of 99.9% or more.
This list covers the basics, but if you’re running an application-specific website, such as WordPress, your personal web host will need some additional features. These might include a CDN, caching, and one-click WordPress installation.
Read Our Personal Website Hosting Reviews Before Signing Up
Whether you’re looking to impress a prospective employer with an online résumé, announce your registry to wedding guests, or blog about cheeseburgers, setting up a personal website is a great way to connect with the world in the digital age.
Depending on your site’s purpose, there are hosts that can fill just about any need — from managed WordPress services to eCommerce solutions and website builders. The best web host for you will be one that can support the goals of your website.
When you’re weighing your options, keep an eye out for the best web hosting providers that offer 24/7 support through multiple channels, as well as a strong knowledge base full of articles and tutorials to help you design, build, and launch your site.
It’s important to make informed choices when looking for hosts that offer the features you’re seeking at the best prices. Our web hosting reviews provide effective resources to help you make data-driven decisions on the hosting company and hosting type that fits your personal mission.
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