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As a relatively new homeowner, I’ve enjoyed upgrading my hand-me-down furniture to make the house more comfortable and “grown up.” In the past several months, I’ve purchased a bed, some nightstands, a mattress, and a new dining room table — and not once did I think of setting foot inside a store.
That’s why it’s critical for businesses to establish a strong online impression. Websites attract new customers from around the world, and choosing a reliable, reputable hosting provider is just as important as the website itself. Uptime and performance rates matter to online shoppers like me, and finding the right host for your business needs will help sales soar. Read on to see who we say are the 10 best web hosting services for small businesses in 2018!
1. Best Overall Small Business Hosting
To see the most return on your website investment, seek out a host with high uptime guarantees — that reliability will mean your site stays online and available to customers at all hours. Strong hosting companies will also include top-notch support and powerful site builders that let you focus your efforts on your business passion and not the technical details behind running a website.
SiteGround.com
- FREE site transfer or new site setup with 1-click install
- FREE automated daily backups, CDN, email, and SSL
- 24/7 expert support with no wait time on phone or live chat
- Recommended by WordPress as a top WordPress host
- Ideal for business email hosting, with 99.9% uptime
- Get started on SiteGround now.
SiteGround: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Best Overall Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 10 GB - 30 GB | New or Transfer | www.siteground.com |
2. Most Affordable Small Business Hosting
We know you want free hosting, but the flexibility, support, and features included with even bare-bones shared hosting plans are well worth the minor investment. For $3 or less per month, hosts will give you all you need to make a successful website for your small business: a free domain, website builder, SEO tools, advertising credits, eCommerce capabilities, and around-the-clock support for prices that can’t be beat.
Bluehost.com
- Known for performance at a low price
- Endorsed by WordPress.org team
- FREE Weebly site builder and templates
- FREE Cloudflare CDN
- Get 63% off today (was $7.99/month)
- Get started on Bluehost now.
Bluehost: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Cheap Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | www.bluehost.com/shared |
3. eCommerce Hosting for Small Business
Business owners can make their products and services available to a global audience by adding eCommerce functionality — an online storefront and shopping cart program — to their website. Adding these features to your site can be complicated for beginners, but many hosts offer easy, 1-click installations of the most popular tools — and the knowledgeable support staffs to help you implement them. Boost sales by offering customers the convenience of buying from anywhere.
- 1-click installs for eCommerce tools like WooCommerce
- FREE eCommerce plugin for WordPress
- Daily backups, a CDN, and FREE Weebly site builder
- Test changes to your online store within the staging area
- 24/7 support delivered by eCommerce gurus
- Get started on SiteGround now.
SiteGround: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | eCommerce Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 10 GB - 30 GB | New or Transfer | www.siteground.com/ecommerce |
4. Email Hosting for Small Business
With customer relationships at stake, you don’t want to trust just anyone with your business communications. We appreciate a host that includes all sorts of secure, reliable, and easy-to-use email features with your hosting plan, such as unlimited accounts and a free domain. Keep an eye out for plans that include autoresponders, spam filters, forwarding, and webmail options, too.
Bluehost.com
- FREE domain and unlimited emails
- 1-click WordPress install and FREE site-builder
- $150 in advertising credits with Google, Bing, and Yahoo!
- Google app integration available
- POP3 and IMAP secure email, with 3 WebMail solutions
- Get started on Bluehost now.
Bluehost: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Email Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | www.bluehost.com/email |
5. Free Website Builder With Hosting
Hosts make it a snap to put a website together — you don’t need to learn how to code to use the simple website builders that let you drag and drop your logo, images, text, and videos exactly where you want them displayed. From blogging to online stores, website builders make your online dreams happen with just a few clicks of the mouse. The top builders come with hundreds of customizable themes, letting you find just the right look to match your brand.
Wix.com
- No coding skills needed with drag-and-drop website builder
- 100s of templates with industry-specific designs
- Add features via the App Market
- Build an eCommerce store easily
- Build small sites on a budget
- Get started on Wix now.
Wix: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Website Builder Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 days | 500 MB - 20 GB | Transfer | www.wix.com/site-builder |
See more website builder hosts »
6. Blog Hosting for Small Business
When done right, blogs set the tone for how potential customers view and interact with your business. Beyond your products and online store, online shoppers are looking for information about your brand. Blog hosting should be fast, simple, and lightweight enough to let you work, but still showcase your brand in a powerful, visually appealing manner.
InMotionHosting.com
- FREE domain and transfer, with WordPress pre-installed
- Host unlimited WordPress sites on a single account
- Unlimited bandwidth, plus FREE data backups and SSL
- User-friendly, 3-step Wizard for Google apps integration
- SPAM Safe™ email with IMAP support
- Get started with InMotion now.
InMotion: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Blog Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 90 days | Unlimited | FREE (1 year) | www.inmotionhosting.com/blog |
7. Cloud Hosting (VPS) for Small Business
Shared hosting plans will meet the needs of most small businesses starting their own website. By sharing server space with other hosting customers, small business owners can save money as their company takes off. Once you start to see that growth, however, you’ll want hosting resources that can keep up with the increased demand. Cloud hosting, or hosting on virtual private servers, gives you more control over what is powering your website.
InMotionHosting.com
- 50% off the first month with added discounts
- Real-time redundancy powered by a cloud infrastructure
- FREE cPanel licenses with enterprise-grade CentOS
- FREE server management for patches and updates
- FREE SSDs and SSL certificate for fast, secure hosting
- Get started on InMotion now.
InMotion: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | VPS Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 90 days | 75 GB - 260 GB SSD | New or Transfer | www.inmotionhosting.com/vps |
8. Dedicated Server for Small Business
Thriving businesses can outgrow cloud or VPS hosting plans, requiring more powerful computing resources to keep websites at peak performance. Upgrade to a dedicated server when your site receives high amounts of traffic. The price can be steep for the top level of hosting, but dedicated plans come with the utmost in support, infrastructure, uptime, and performance.
LiquidWeb.com
- 100% network and power uptime guarantees
- Custom configurations, SSDs, and instant provisioning
- Auto-migrations, backups, and 24/7 Sonar Monitoring™
- Block/object storage and load balancer add-ons
- Our visitors pay $96.75/month! (usually $129/month)
- Get started on Liquid Web now.
Liquid Web: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Dedicated Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | 211 GB - 1,775 GB SSD | New or Transfer | www.liquidweb.com/dedicated |
9. Video Hosting for Small Business
Videos are quickly becoming the surefire way to keep potential customers on your site longer, thereby increasing the chance of making the sale. Integrating video into your company’s marketing plan doesn’t have to be expensive or challenging. You’ll want a strong host to handle the large files with aplomb, instead of slowing down your site.
SiteGround.com
- Official hosting partner of the Joomla project
- FREE Joomla site transfer or setup with 1-click install
- Amazing speed and security features
- Complimentary staging area for your Joomla site
- Auto-updates to the Joomla Core and plugins
- Get started on SiteGround now.
SiteGround: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Joomla Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 10 GB - 30 GB | New or Transfer | www.siteground.com/joomla |
10. Starting a Web Hosting Business? Best Reseller Hosting
What about those merging business and web hosting? Now that you’re learning about the facets of what makes a good host, maybe you’ll want to start your own hosting business. Resellers basically sublease some of their server space to others. They buy hosting — typically a virtual private server, or VPS — from a provider for wholesale rates and set the retail rates for the hosting resources you want to sell to others.
InMotionHosting.com
- SSD reseller hosting with FREE cPanel/WHM access
- Keep your reseller web hosting biz organized with WHMCS
- FREE dedicated IP and site backups
- Tons of email features with IMAP and POP3 support
- Manage your reseller domains with FREE eNom license
- Get started on InMotion Hosting now.
InMotion: Our Expert's Review
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Reseller Hosting Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 90 days | 80 GB - 160 GB | FREE (1 year) | www.inmotionhosting.com/reseller |
Scale Your Small Business with a Host You Can Grow With!
Congratulations to these hosts on being named the best at helping small business owners get online and grow their companies; hosting shoppers, good luck on your company’s quest.
When business starts to boom, you’ll want to move your site to more powerful hosting packages that will scale with you. If you’re ready to start rising through the ranks of hosting, take a look at HostGator, the best host to grow with. They offer the tools to go from rookie to business tycoon.
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