Updated 04-15-2013
In-depth, Independent Research
Web hosting services give you a presence on the web, by enabling you to build or upload a site on your very own domain. Create a blog, store, photo gallery, personal page, and more. While many things go into making a good web host, we've noticed that our visitors particularly appreciate a good value. That's why we've given our highest ratings to sites that offer not just quality web hosting, but also inexpensive pricing. To measure web hosting quality, we signed up for each service and then went about doing the things a normal user would do. We tested Wordpress installations, shopping cart programs, and site builders. We also contacted technical support at each web host to determine the quality of customer service. Of course, a web host must perform well too. We used Pingdom's website uptime monitoring tools to gauge the reliability and server response time for each web host. You'll find that reliability data in each review and on the performance tab. For more information on how we did our web hosting reviews, check out our web hosting FAQ.
Web Hosting Reviews & Prices
- Basics
- Advanced
- Performance
Features to Compare:
| Service Name: | Cheapest Price: | Storage/Data Transfer: | Money-Back Guarantee: | Domain: | Email Addresses: | Support: | Bottom Line: |
  | $3.95/mo | Unlimited | 30 days | Free for 1 year | Unlimited | Email, Phone, Chat | Great balance of price, features and support: includes exclusive 50% discount |
 | $3.71/mo | Unlimited | 45 days | $15/yr | Unlimited | Email, Chat, Phone | Reliable web host with a 25% exclusive discount (code: NEXTDISCOUNT), particularly strong for advanced users |
 | $2.62/mo for 12 mos, then $3.49/mo | 100 GB/1000 GB per month | 30 days | Free for 1 year | 250 | Email, Phone | Best choice for beginners serious about web hosting; great interface and support; 25% off first 12 mo |
 | $3.15/mo | Unlimited | 30 days | Free for 1 year | Unlimited | Email, Phone, Chat | Low cost plan with good reliability; easy shopping cart creator; green host; 60% exclusive discount |
  | $2.99/mo with NextAdvisor discount | 300 GB/Unlimited | 30 days | Free for 10 years | 1000 | Email, Phone, Chat | Good price and great performance, but a few quirks keep it from being a gold standard; offers Windows hosting |
| Service Name: | Cheapest Price: | Storage/Data Transfer: | Money-Back Guarantee: | Domain: | Email Addresses: | Support: | Bottom Line: |  | $4.95/mo | Unlimited | 30 days | Free for life | Unlimited | Email, Phone, Chat | Green host with solid reliability, free domain privacy, but clunky beginner tools; better for intermediate and advanced users |
 | $4.95/mo | Unlimited | 30 days | Free for 1 year | Unlimited | Email, Phone, Chat | Nice service and features, exclusive discount, but it's a pricier version of Hostmonster |
 | Unlimited plan: $4.99/mo for the first 12 months, then $6.99/mo | Unlimited | 90 days | Free for 1 year | 500 | Phone, Email | A good bargain with strong tools and Windows hosting, but the outsourced support is only average |
 | $4.95/mo | Unlimited | 30 days | Free for 1 year | Unlimited | Email, Phone | Easy online site builder for beginners but tricky control panel; strong performance, offers Windows hosting |
 | $1.99/mo for three mos, then $2.95/mo | Unlimited | 30 days | Free for 1 year | Unlimited | Email, Phone, Chat | Inexpensive one-year plan and fast server response time; uptime not the best; exclusive discount |
| Service Name: | Cheapest Price: | Storage/Data Transfer: | Money-Back Guarantee: | Domain: | Email Addresses: | Support: | Bottom Line: |  | $3.95/mo | Unlimited | 30 days | Free for 1 year | 10 | Email, Phone | Very basic web host at a reasonable price, but questionable uptime, lacks features and options for intermediate and advanced users. |
  | $3.25/mo | Unlimited | Prorated refund | Free for 1 year | Unlimited | Email, Chat | A mid-priced option with solid performance but poor customer support and policies |
 | $8.95/mo | Unlimited | 97 days | Free for 1 year | Unlimited | Email, Chat | For intermediate to advanced users; fast data transfer and free domain privacy but very limited support |
 | $3.95/mo | Unlimited | 30 days | Free for life | Unlimited | Phone, Chat, Email | Green hosting and domain privacy are pluses, though interface was challenging and support uneven |
 | $5.95/mo | Unlimited | 30 days | Free for 1 year | Unlimited | Email, Phone, Chat | Adequate web hosting but needs upgrades; limited MySQL databases, advanced features. |
| Service Name: | Cheapest Price: | Storage/Data Transfer: | Money-Back Guarantee: | Domain: | Email Addresses: | Support: | Bottom Line: |  | $4.95/mo | 5GB storage 20GB transfer | 30 days | Free for 1 year | 1 | Email, Phone, Chat | Discounted first year; frustrating limitations for advanced users, counterintuitive for beginners |
  | $19.99/mo | 5GB storage 100GB transfer | 30 days | Free for 1 year | 5 | Phone (first 90 days) | Pricey and limited plan aimed at small businesses, includes full-featured site builder, good uptime |
 | $3.99/mo | 1GB disk space 150GB transfer | Prorated refund | $9.99/yr | 1 | Email, Phone | Easy for beginners but very limited; a lack of blog and shopping cart are disappointing |
| Service Name: | MySQL Databases: | Available OS: | Shell Access: | Google Adwords: | Wordpress: | Programming Languages: | Host-Based Backup: |
| Unlimited | Linux | Yes | $100 | Yes | PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, CGI, SSI | Yes |
| Unlimited | Linux/Windows | Yes | $100 | Yes | PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, CGI, SSI, ASP | Yes |
| Unlimited | Linux | No | $50 | No | PHP, Perl | Yes |
| Unlimited | Linux | No | $100 | Yes | PHP, Python, CGI | Yes |
| 25 | Linux/Windows | No | None | Yes | PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, Zend,CGI, SSI, JSP, ASP, .NET | No |
| Service Name: | MySQL Databases: | Available OS: | Shell Access: | Google Adwords: | Wordpress: | Programming Languages: | Host-Based Backup: | | Unlimited | Linux | Yes | None | Yes | PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, CGI, SSI | Yes |
| Unlimited | Linux | Yes | $100 | Yes | PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, CGI, SSI | Yes |
| 25 | Linux/Windows | Yes | None | Yes | PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, Zend, SSI | Yes |
| Unlimited | Linux/Windows | Yes ($2/mo) | $50 | Yes | PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, CGI, SSI | No |
| Unlimited | Linux | No | $100 | Yes | PHP, Perl, Python, CGI, SSI, ASP | Yes |
| Service Name: | MySQL Databases: | Available OS: | Shell Access: | Google Adwords: | Wordpress: | Programming Languages: | Host-Based Backup: | | 3 | Linux | Yes | $25 | Yes | PHP, Perl | No |
| Unlimited | Linux | Yes | $50 | Yes | PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, CGI, SSI | Yes |
| Unlimited | Linux | Yes | $75 | Yes | PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby | Yes |
| Unlimited | Linux | No | $100 | Yes | PHP, Perl, CGI, SSI | Yes |
| 2 | Linux | No | $75 | Yes | PHP, Perl, Python, CGI, SSI | Yes |
| Service Name: | MySQL Databases: | Available OS: | Shell Access: | Google Adwords: | Wordpress: | Programming Languages: | Host-Based Backup: | | 1 | Linux | No | None | Yes | None | Yes |
| 0 | N/A | No | None | No | None | No |
| 0 | N/A | No | $100 | No | None | No |
| Service Name: | User Level: | 44-Month Avg. Reliability: | 44-Month Avg. Response Time: | 77MB Download Test: | Number of Domains: | SiteBuilder: | Ecommerce Components: |
| Beginner to Advanced | 99.83% | .822s | 49s | Unlimited | Intermediate | Good |
| Beginner to Advanced | 99.98% | .256s | 1m 08s | 1 | Easy | Excellent |
 | Beginner | 99.95% | .803s | 1m 04s | 1 | Easy | Excellent |
| Beginner to Advanced | 99.76% | .448s | 4m 56s | Unlimited | Intermediate | Excellent |
| Beginner to Advanced | 99.97% | .905s | 48s | 3 | Intermediate | Excellent |
| Service Name: | User Level: | 44-Month Avg. Reliability: | 44-Month Avg. Response Time: | 77MB Download Test: | Number of Domains: | SiteBuilder: | Ecommerce Components: | | Beginner to Advanced | 99.76% | .663s | 2m 18s | Unlimited | n/a | Good |
| Beginner to Intermediate | 99.98% | .429s | 1m 22s | Unlimited | Easy | Excellent |
| Beginner to Advanced | 99.30% | .519s | N/A Test Pending | 50 | Intermediate | Excellent |
| Intermediate to Advanced | 99.87% | .911s | 25MB maximum file size | Unlimited | Intermediate | Fair |
| Beginner to Advanced | 99.84% | .821s | 48s | Unlimited | Intermediate | Good |
| Service Name: | User Level: | 44-Month Avg. Reliability: | 44-Month Avg. Response Time: | 77MB Download Test: | Number of Domains: | SiteBuilder: | Ecommerce Components: | | Beginner to Advanced | 99.56% | .419s | 4m 38s | Unlimited | Easy to Intermediate | Excellent |
| Intermediate to Advanced | 99.86% | .863s | 50s | Unlimited | Intermediate | Very Good |
| Intermediate to Advanced | 99.84% | .339s | 55s | Unlimited | Intermediate | None |
| Beginner to Intermediate | 99.88% | .433s | 2m 22s | Unlimited | Intermediate | Good |
| Beginner | 99.89% | .522s | 1m 17s | 8 (w/ 6 parked) | n/a | Good |
| Service Name: | User Level: | 44-Month Avg. Reliability: | 44-Month Avg. Response Time: | 77MB Download Test: | Number of Domains: | SiteBuilder: | Ecommerce Components: | | Beginner | 99.81% | .566s | 47s | 1 | Intermediate | Fair |
| Beginner | 99.88% | .1463s | 53s | 1 | Easy | Very Good |
| Beginner to Intermediate | 99.97% | .151s | n/a | 1 | n/a | Excellent |
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