12 Most Secure Web Hosting Services: 2020's Safest Servers

Finding the most secure web hosting services can seem intimidating to many website owners, given that even many global corporations and Fortune 500 companies can’t seem to get it right.

Yahoo, Facebook, Marriott, and Equifax are just some of the businesses that have experienced among the largest data breaches in the 21st century, exposing the private data of millions of customers. Roughly half of all data breaches stem from malicious or criminal attacks, giving site owners ample opportunities to safeguard their online presence from vulnerabilities.

Following web hosting security best practices, such as regimented backups, monitoring, installing SSL certificates, and regularly scanning for malware, will get you started in the right direction, but there’s no substitute for a web hosting provider’s tech expertise and attention to cutting-edge innovations that protect your website and user data. Take a look at the highest-rated hosts at all levels when it comes to ironclad security.

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The good news, especially for first-time site owners, is that secure web hosting doesn’t have to be expensive. Nor is it reserved for high-traffic websites and elite companies with vast technical resources at their disposal. In fact, many standard security tools are included for free with even the cheapest shared hosting plans.

Website security costs can be extremely small at the introductory levels of shared web hosting, with beginners able to take responsibility for creating strong passwords and updating their content management systems and plugins.

The best hosts, like the ones listed below, will provide security tools like free SSL certificates, automated backups, antivirus or malware scanning, and DDoS protection. Because hundreds of customers host their website on these shared servers, the providers take serious care when protecting your information. Read our reviews for more information:

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More than 90% of all cyberattacks begin with a spear-phishing email, according to research from the security experts at Trend Micro, signaling that email-based attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and effective. The dangerous messages aim to get recipients to open an attached file or click on an infected link, often by impersonating an employer or online service like Microsoft Office 365.

Given the key role that email marketing plays in the growth of a website, featuring a 43:1 return on investment, you’ll certainly want to protect your website and organization from malicious incoming messages. Plus, once an email address is compromised, it can then be used to impact other inboxes across your domain.

While the best defense against email-based attacks is an informed, skeptical, and cautious approach to attachments and links from suspicious senders, site owners will be well served by hosting their email with a provider that includes strong spam filters and malware scanners. The best webmail hosting services, like the ones we’ll highlight shortly, provide the encryption and other tools needed to protect your inboxes.

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Already feeling overwhelmed by all this web hosting security talk? Worried you don’t have the expertise needed to adequately protect your data? Don’t worry, it’s completely understandable. Cybersecurity education and training is in extreme demand, with 69% of organizations saying their security teams are understaffed.

That being said, your website’s security doesn’t have to be your day-to-day responsibility. Managed hosting offloads the stress of protecting your site against vulnerabilities and emerging threats and gives it to the hosting experts working each day with the infrastructure powering your site. Instead of spending time with tedious — but critically important — tasks, like updating WordPress, themes, and plugins, managed hosting customers can instead concentrate on concocting content, perfecting products, and otherwise building their business.

Given the luxurious nature of managed hosting, however, the services can get a little pricey. You can find high-value managed hosting at all levels of service, especially with more affordable VPS hosting plans, but managed dedicated hosting represents the cream of the crop. Take a look at our reviews of the top-tier managed hosting providers ready to cater to your every need.

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At the base level, dedicated servers represent the most secure type of hosting. With only one tenant occupying the server, there are no concerns about how the poor security of other hosting customers may affect the machine supporting your website or application. However, dedicated hosting customers will have the ultimate responsibility for securing their environment.

Using an entire server implies you have a large organization or see lots of web traffic — increasing the target on your back and making you a more valuable opportunity to criminals. Malware scans, strong passwords, network monitoring, and firewalls are vitally important to your server’s security.

Unsurprisingly, the best dedicated hosting providers ramp up their security measures to match the increasingly high stakes. Because our favorite companies offer custom configurations of secure servers, they maintain an on-site presence and hands-on support to instantly respond to a perceived threat. Here are our reviews of the best hosts for secure servers:

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Web hosting security is vitally important to a site’s reputation and longevity. The damaging effects of a data breach, which can be costly and hard to control, can manifest in different ways: restitution to customers, fines from regulators, closer scrutiny, and fewer sales. Your brand’s reputation and trustworthiness can vanish in an instant.

Secure hosting solutions exist across all server configurations to safeguard against attacks and protect your online success. There is no singular component or feature that makes a web hosting plan secure, rather it’s a collection of tools and technologies that contribute to your website’s overall protection. These features signal that a hosting provider or plan takes web security seriously:

In addition to the services listed above, other signals of a reliable and safe hosting provider include the option to protect accounts with two-factor authentication and the ability to set user permissions or password-protected folders, along with secure payment processing services and a content delivery network.

Finding a reliable, security-minded hosting provider is just one piece of the puzzle. Just like the saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink,” the most protected hosting company can be easily infiltrated if a site owner doesn’t take the proper actions. A host can provide all the latest safety measures, but they won’t do any good if you never use them.

Website security is a responsibility shared between site owners and hosting providers. Once you’ve identified and purchased a hosting plan, make sure you’re creating strong passwords. Next, actually set up the various security features that drew you in. Hosts that include a free SSL certificate will likely direct you to the AutoSSL feature in cPanel for an extremely simple setup process; if you don’t have a free SSL certificate at your disposal, check out the free and automated options from LetsEncrypt.

Your hosting control panel is also where you’ll likely turn to configure your automatic backups and install the most recent version of WordPress or other popular software. Be extremely judicious in which platforms you choose and even more leery in the themes, plugins, and other add-ons you install. Most importantly, stay on top of all those updates!

Generally speaking, no web hosting service is always 100% secure. The best companies safeguard against all known vulnerabilities, but attackers are always on the hunt for new ways to expose network weaknesses. Plus, hosts can’t fully vaccinate against human behavior, such as reactions to suspicious or infected email messages.

Shared hosting typically carries the worst reputation when it comes to security, but that scarlet letter may not be entirely deserved. Site owners have very low levels of access to the inner workings of their server, minimizing the trouble they can find and placing more responsibility on the host’s IT and network administrators.

With virtual and dedicated server hosting, the onus is placed squarely on site owners’ shoulders to secure their data. VPS and dedicated hosting gets the best hype when it comes to secure environments, but that’s usually for highly technical, experienced users. If you need to use a website builder to design and launch your site, chances are you aren’t going to effectively protect a VPS or dedicated server.

However, that doesn’t mean shared hosting customers are not vulnerable. With hundreds or thousands of other websites residing on the same server, you’re counting on everyone adhering to stringent coding standards and security best practices. It’s rare, but one compromised site can expose the entire server to an attack.

Whether the perceived threat is based on human error or malicious third-party attackers, many of the hosting providers and included security features we’ve covered will protect your site and your customers’ data from common website security vulnerabilities. As fellow enforcers of web security, here is our police lineup of the usual suspects and weaknesses:

As you can see, data breaches occur for a number of reasons, ranging from weak coding standards to subpar encryption that exposes the data and files in transit between your computer and your server or between visitors and their web browser. Once that connection is breached, attackers have a much easier time gaining access and wreaking havoc.

When in doubt, be sure to reach out to your hosting provider and ask for help. Websites are a tricky and technical business, so it’s perfectly fine to admit when you’re in over your head. Given the dire consequences associated with getting website security wrong, you’ll certainly want to err on the side of caution.