2025 Web Hosting Market Share + 11 Fast Facts

It was a beautiful summer day on August 6, 1991, when the world was about to change forever. That was the day the world’s very first website went live. And when it did, no one knew how big the internet would become.

Looking back, it’s a perfect example of what life looked like through a “before” and “after” lens. What was once a novel technology that only a few households had has since morphed into an integral part of our lives — ultimately changing the way we work, learn, and socialize. In 2000, there were about 10 million websites.

Today, the internet is home to more than 1.13 billion, all of which are hosted by a physical server or somewhere in the cloud. And the web just keeps on growing — which is why we’re going to talk about how much the web hosting industry has grown, along with some insight into the key players). Let’s dive in.

In 1969, only about four web hosting companies existed. Today, there are more than 330,000 hosting providers across the globe.¹⁸ The United States is home to more than 50% of these companies, followed closely by Europe and Asia.¹²

Each country has its favorites, too: 1&1 IONOS reigns supreme in Germany, while China prefers Aliyun.¹²

The United States is also home to some of the biggest and most powerful web hosting service providers. The country boasts a heavy lineup comprising the three largest web hosting providers: GoDaddy, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform.

Other popular web hosts in the country include Bluehost (best for WordPress hosting), HostGator, Rackspace, Media Temple, Digital Ocean, Newfold Digital, Liquid Web, InMotion Hosting, and Dream Host.

The top hosting providers are AWS, Microsoft, and Google Cloud, holding a 31%, 25%, and 10% market share, respectively.¹

Amazon Web Services: 31% Market Share

AWS (Amazon Web Services) rules the cloud hosting sphere. For context, NASA, Quora, Reddit, Netflix, Twitch, Facebook, the BBC, Adobe, Twitter, and ESPN are examples of top companies that host their sites on AWS.³

Today, AWS backs more than 2,000 government agencies and at least 5,000 academic institutions and is available in more than 12 geographical locations across the globe.⁴

Microsoft Azure: 25% Market Share

Microsoft Azure is a cloud hosting provider similar to AWS. This cloud hosting platform is one of the biggest contributors to Microsoft’s financial prowess. In 2024, for example, Azure generated more than $24 billion, representing 9.8% of Google’s total revenue that year.⁵

Some of the most famous enterprises and government entities, such as Deloitte, Verizon, and the U.S. Department of Defense, host their websites and applications on the platform.

Google Cloud: 10% Market Share

Google Cloud is an undisputed king of website hosting services. This host boasts many titles under its belt — but it’s most notable for its progress in big data, analytics, machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI).

The company comprises more than 180,000 employees and at least 2 billion monthly active users.^2,14

In 1969, the U.S. was at the height of the Cold War. That was also when the first web host was born. It was called ARPANET and was commissioned at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).

At the time, this version of the internet mostly helped with academic research.⁶

Decades later, the web hosting industry has grown tremendously. In 2024, the web hosting industry in the United States was worth $159.90 billion. Two years earlier, the value stood at around $95 billion.

By the end of 2029, experts predict that this industry will be worth more than $355 billion.⁷

The hosting industry has been on an upward trajectory thanks to the emergence of new technologies that are mostly dependent on the internet.

As more people spend their time online, hosting companies are happy to reap billions of dollars by hosting those highly sought-after applications and websites.

In fact, by the end of 2024, at least 5.22 billion out of 5.52 billion internet users used the internet for socializing, entertainment, and shopping.⁸

Today, about 67.5% of the global population uses the internet. By 2027, analysts predict it to grow to 71%, with about 1 billion new users coming online⁹. One report showed that in 2028, this industry will be worth more than $395.84 billion.¹⁰

Shared Hosting is still the most affordable option, so it’s no surprise it’s the most popular in the market as well.

In a shared server environment, multiple websites are hosted on the same physical machine. These sites share resources such as storage and bandwidth.

This affordable option currently makes up a whopping 37.64% of the hosting market.¹⁸

Despite its low price, shared hosting rakes in an impressive amount of revenue — and it’s all thanks to those entering the space for the first time: Its popularity with new website owners continues to compete with cloud hosting.

Dedicated hosting makes up the second-largest fraction of the market share, at 27.9%.¹⁸ While some may prefer cloud hosting, statistics show that dedicated servers are still the most reliable choice for businesses wanting security and control of their server environment.

What you need to know about dedicated servers is that they are the most expensive option because customers get an entire server’s resources. This is a stark difference from the pay-as-you-go pricing structure of the cloud.

Although dedicated servers are decreasing in popularity, fret not: they are far from being retired.

Cloud hosting has steadily risen after the COVID-19 pandemic. As more people shift to hybrid or remote work, and as web hosting continues to move from traditional bare-metal infrastructure to cloud servers, it is clear cloud hosting is here to stay.

For perspective, one report revealed that the cloud computing market could be worth more than $1.2 trillion by 2028.¹¹

As of late 2024, the internet is home to about 1,119,023,272 websites — that’s more than 1.12 billion!¹⁹ And this number is constantly growing.

With folks making roughly 252,000 websites daily, that’s three new websites created every second. It’s no wonder the web hosting industry is booming.

The sheer number of websites online is something other-worldly. It’s physically impossible to visit even a fraction of the world’s websites in a lifetime. But interestingly, most websites are not actively used: In fact, only 17% of these websites are active. The rest are sitting on the digital shelf, collecting pixel dust.

It comes as no surprise that GoDaddy is the world’s largest domain name registrar. What else would you expect from a web hosting company with more than 84 million registered domains and 21 million customers?¹⁵

And if web hosting statistics are anything to go by, GoDaddy has the domain registrar industry in a chokehold. The company offers more than 540 domain name extensions, with new choices being added regularly.¹⁶

Tucows is the second-largest domain registrar in the world, registering an impressive 29 million domain names.¹⁵

Although Tucows may have a lot of catching up to compete with GoDaddy, its growth in recent years has built a strong reputation in the industry. It’s the parent company of some other brands you may have heard of, including OpenSRS, Enom, Ascio, and Hover.

But what’s particularly interesting is that many resellers use Tucows to sell domains to their customers, so you may have a Tucows domain and not even know it!

The United States controls the global data center market: There are more than 8,000 data center locations across the world.²⁰ Out of the 8,000, at least 5,381 are in the United States.

Germany comes second with 521, the United Kingdom comes third with 514, China takes the 4th spot with 449, and Canada seals the top five spot with 336.

According to a new report, the global data center market will grow at an annual rate of 14.52% from 2024 to 2028. Advanced robots with AI and machine learning capabilities are huge players in this change, with analysts suspecting it will increase efficiency in data centers by more than 30%.²¹

And by 2030, the global data center colocation market will be worth at least $202.71 billion.¹⁷

If the numbers are anything to go by, the future of web hosting is bright. And now that the world is witnessing inventions that depend mainly on the internet, this industry will continue growing yearly.

Based on this data, we predict a future where cloud hosting becomes the most popular hosting solution. The reasons are simple: It’s more scalable, safer, and agile than traditional bare-metal hosting infrastructure, and it’s clear that people want that type of flexibility.

So, where does this put you as a consumer? The influx of new hosting providers is healthy from a consumer’s perspective. In the coming years, we’re going to witness more affordable hosting options as providers compete to have a firm grip on the market share.

Although GoDaddy still holds the largest share in the domain registrar industry, it’s surprising to see another name — Tucows — make waves in the space. It’ll be interesting to revisit the market over the coming years to see what names continue to rise in the web hosting market.

Whichever way you look at it, you will realize that although so much has changed over the past few years in the world of technology, the growth of the web hosting industry has stayed constant.

1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/967365/worldwide-cloud-infrastructure-services-market-share-vendor/
2. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000165204424000047/googexhibit991q12024.htm
3. https://www.yahoo.com/video/15-biggest-companies-aws-011011152.html
4. https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/aws-tutorial/what-is-aws
5. https://news.microsoft.com/2024/10/30/microsoft-cloud-strength-drives-first-quarter-results-7/
6. https://100.ucla.edu/timeline/the-internets-first-message-sent-from-ucla
7. https://www.statista.com/outlook/tmo/it-services/it-outsourcing/web-hosting/worldwide
8. https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/
9. https://www.euromonitor.com/article/digital-living-who-are-the-next-billion-internet-users
10. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/05/08/2663026/0/en/Web-Hosting-Services-Market-Size-to-Surpass-USD-395-84-billion-by-2030-at-a-CAGR-of-20-3.html
11. https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2023/04/27/2655933/0/en/Riding-the-Digital-Wave-Can-the-Global-Cloud-Computing-Markets-Astounding-Growth-reach-a-whopping-1-2-Trillion-by-2028-Ken-Research.html
12. https://webtribunal.net/blog/web-hosting-statistics
13. https://techjury.net/blog/web-hosting-industry-statistics
14. https://www.contino.io/insights/whos-using-google-cloud-platform
15. https://www.hostingadvice.com/how-to/largest-domain-registrars/
16. ​​https://www.godaddy.com/en-ph/domains/gtld-domain-names
17. https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/colocation-market
18. https://www.hostingadvice.com/how-to/how-many-web-hosting-companies-are-there/
19. https://siteefy.com/how-many-websites-are-there/
20. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1228433/data-centers-worldwide-by-country/
21. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/data-center-market-to-grow-by-usd-434-8-billion-2024-2028-driven-by-multi-cloud-adoption-and-5g-network-upgrades-ai-powered-report-highlights-market-trends—technavio-302304078.html