A great small business hosting should have stable hosting uptime, great server speed, reasonable pricing, and necessary features (built-in POS, email host, etc) that ease up or help your business to grow.
At the top of my list – Hostinger, is the best value-for-money hosting for those who are running a simple business website. For e-Commerce and online stores, we recommend Cloudways for its affordable cloud platform and Shopify for its powerful store builder.
| Web Host | Entry Price | Suitable for... | Site Migration | Free SSL | Budget Choice? | Host Email? | Eco-Friendly? | Easy Site Builder? | POS System? | Payment Gateway? | Managed WP Hosting? | Free Domain | Upgrade Plans | Free Daily Backup? | Learn More | Order Now |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger | $1.99/mo | Simple business websites | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | VPS / Cloud, Dedicated Hosting; WordPress-optimized Hosting | No | Hostinger Review | Click Here |
| GreenGeeks | $2.95/mo | Eco-friendly business websites | Free | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Free First Domain | VPS / Cloud, Reseller, Dedicated Hosting; WordPress-optimized Hosting | Yes | GreenGeeks Review | Click Here |
| AltusHost | €5.98/mo | EU-based business websites | Free | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | VPS / Cloud, Dedicated Hosting | Yes | AltusHost Review | Click Here |
| Cloudways | $12.00/mo | eCommerce / larger business websites | Free | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Higher-tier Cloud Hosting | Yes | Cloudways Review | Click Here |
| InMotion Hosting | $2.29/mo | Small-to-mid business sites | Free | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | VPS / Cloud, Dedicated Hosting; WordPress-optimized Hosting | Yes | InMotion Hosting Review | Click Here |
| A2 Hosting | $2.99/mo | Small-to-mid business sites | Free | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | VPS / Cloud, Reseller, Dedicated Hosting; WordPress-optimized Hosting | No | A2 Hosting Review | Click Here |
| Shopify | $29.00/mo | eCommerce / online stores | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | - | No | Shopify Review | Click Here |
| ScalaHosting | $3.95/mo | eCommerce / larger business sites | Free | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | VPS / Cloud, Dedicated Hosting; WordPress-optimized Hosting | Yes | ScalaHosting Review | Click Here |
| TMD Hosting | $2.95/mo | Small-to-mid business sites | Free | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Free First Domain | VPS / Cloud, Reseller, Dedicated Hosting; WordPress-optimized Hosting | Yes | TMDHosting Review | Click Here |
| BigCommerce | $29.95/mo | eCommerce / online stores | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | - | No | BigCommerce Review | Click Here |
Click “+” to learn more about each web hosting services.
Hostinger is relative new but it has the cheapest hosting on our list. Start at as low as $1.99 per month, Hostinger Single allows users to host one website and one email account with 100 GB bandwidth. and upgrade to higher plans (known as “Premium” and “Business”) at $2.99 and $4.99 per month later.
Hostinger premium plan – “Business” is cheaper than the market average (signup at $4.99/mo) and comes with various premium features including Cloudflare CDN ($9.95 value), WordPress staging tool (for easy site development), SSH Access (for better security), free SSL, auto daily backup, and pre-optimized servers for site speed.
| Shared Hosting Features | Single Plan | Premium Plan | Business Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Websites | 1 | 100 | 100 |
| Disk Space (SSD) | 30 GB | 100 GB | 200 GB |
| Bandwidth | 100 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| MySQL Database | 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Email Accounts | 1 | 100 | 100 |
| Free Domain | No | No | Yes |
| Domain Parking | 2 | 100 | 100 |
| Free Migration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Backups | Weekly | Weekly | Daily |
| Free CDN | No | No | Yes |
| Git Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Signup Price | $1.99/mo | $2.99/mo | $4.99/mo |
| Regular Price | $9.99/mo | $11.99/mo | $16.99/mo |
Get more details about Hostinger in my review.
If all you need is a simple static website to showcase your business (ie. a flyer website), then look no further – Hostinger is your answer. The $1.99/mo Single Plan is the cheapest business website hosting solution you can ever get.
Bear in mind, however, that you get what you pay for – some useful features, such as daily backups, unlimited cron job, and SSH access, are available only in Premium or Business plans. I would recommend you to go (or upgrade later) with Hostinger Business if you are serious about your business.
For business websites running on WordPress, Hostinger also offers optimized WordPress solutions at affordable price.
Starts at just $1.99 per month, Hostinger is highly valuable for small business who is hosting a simple website. Do take note that, however, the cheap fees increase after first term.
Founded by Trey Gardner, GreenGeeks is a North America-based company that’s been in the game since 2008. As an eco-friendly hosting company, GreenGeeks has dedicated itself to leaving a positive energy footprint and replacing used energy with triple the energy credits that are used.
The best things about GreenGeeks as a business hosting are their speedy server and business-friendly control panel.
Running the usual gamut of our server performance tests, GreenGeeks lights up… well, green across the board. Our GreenGeeks-hosted test site scored an “A” in most speed tests at Bitcatcha and WebPageTest. For a sign-on fee of $2.95 per month (renews at $10.95 after initial sign-up duration), you’ll get practically unlimited amounts of everything, plus a ton of business-friendly features including Sitepad Site Builder, HTTP/2 & HTTP/3 support by default, free site migration service, and built-in Let's Encrypt Free SSL integration.
| Features | Ecosite Lite | Ecosite Pro | Ecosite Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Storage (Pure SSD) | 50 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Email Accounts | 50 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| WP Repair Tool | No | Yes | Yes |
| Dedicated IP | $48/yr | $48/yr | Free |
| Object Caching | No | No | Yes |
| Managed WordPress | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| On-demand Backups | No | Yes | Yes |
| Signup (12-mo) | $4.95/mo | $7.95/mo | $12.95/mo |
| Signup (24-mo) | $3.95/mo | $6.95/mo | $11.95/mo |
| Signup (36-mo) | $2.95/mo | $5.95/mo | $10.95/mo |
| Renewal Price | $10.95/mo | $15.95/mo | $25.95/mo |
| Order | Ecosite Lite | Ecosite Pro | Ecosite Premium |
More about GreenGeeks in my review.
GreenGeeks Pro Plan is good enough for any new, or small business website.
Priced at $5.95 per month for first term, you'll get to host unlimited websites with essential features such as automatic virus scanner, free malware cleanup, advanced firewall protection, and nightly data backup.
GreenGeeks is an ideal place to host a small business to host their site, given the facilities, pricing and resources available. Note that GreenGeeks prepared various ”eco-friendly seals” for users who wish to show off their environmentally friendly-hosted website.
Established in 2008, AltusHost has been one of the popular names among Europe hosting users for almost two decades. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company provides topnotch customer support and server locations in Bulgaria, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
With numerous hosting plans (VPS, Reseller, Colocation) available and business hosting as low as €5.95 per month, AltusHost offers an affordable and highly scalable solution for businesses who are looking for premium hosting based outside of the United States.
| Features | Biz 20 | Biz 50 | Biz 100 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Websites | 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Storage (Pure SSD) | 20 GB | 50 GB | 100 GB |
| Monthly Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| CPU Cores Available | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| RAM Avalibility | 2 GB | 4 GB | 8 GB |
| Website Builder | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free Let's EncryptSSL | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Daily Backup | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Full Money Back Guarantee | 45 days | 45 days | 45 days |
| Price (24-mo) | €5.56/mo | €9.56/mo | €15.96/mo |
| Order | Biz 20 | Biz 50 | Biz 100 |
Learn more in our AltusHost review.
AltusHost Biz 20 plans feature 20 GB SSD storage, 2 GB RAM, free daily backup, free Let's Encrypt SSL, and a premium website builder – which I believe is good enough for any new small business website. For upgrades and larger business websites – their KVM based VPS hosting plans are powerful and reasonable priced.
Not only are AltusHost's plans available well thought out, but their servers also show strong performance when taken in context. This especially applies to businesses with majority of their customers based in the European countries.
Cloudways is a systems integrator that provides a handy interface to simplify the cloud hosting experience. It also takes responsibility for various aspects of the Cloud solution, such as security and support.
I’ve run various websites on Cloudways for years now – including this site you are reading – WebHostingSecretRevealed.net, and it’s performed like a champion. Think of it as the ultimate all-in-one that even a newbie to web hosting should have no problems managing. Plus, if you need help, Cloudways support is only a phone call away.
Learn more in our Cloudways review.
For Cloudways, it’s more a matter of which Cloud Server Hosting you’d like to host with via their platform. They act as a gateway to several, all of which may be suitable for various business needs.
Smaller business websites can opt for Digital Ocean, Linode, and VULTR, offering cheaper lower-tier plans. Larger business websites or online stores should consider the more prominent brands like AWS and Google Cloud for potentially better speed performance and more data center locations.
Cloudways is ideal for certain businesses – such as SaaS providers, start-ups, developers, or businesses that need more than just an informational website. The flexibility of scale in terms of both server power and data transfer is invaluable for elastic sites that demand agility.
Although Shopify functions as a website builder it is technically more inclined towards those seeking to build an online store. This makes it very much in-sync with many businesses today which are competing in the digital space.
The ease of use that am online store builder can bring towards building an eCommerce store cannot be underestimated. Most small businesses would not have the in-house competency to do this and outsourcing it would likely cost much more than what you could achieve with Shopify.
Aside from that you can also integrate your Shopify site with your retail POS system and make use of add-ons to manage inventory. This will let you move past the physical versus retail divide and provide a truly integrated experience to customers
In retrospect, Shopify might not be right for everyone but there is no denying that it has a specific focus – and that is to help you sell. To me it seems the ideal partner for many businesses, especially since all their plans include eCommerce functionality.
Learn more about Shopify in Timothy's review.
Shopify is, to be honest, pricier than most other site builders in the market. However it is also very much dedicated to the eCommerce scene and that can be a big plus for businesses, especially given their POS integration feature. The pricing structure is simple though and you just need to align your business needs to the right one.
If your online business is new, Shopify Basic is a good start.
For business owners, Shopify offers flexibility and the ability to grow your business. From creating your product page to delivery or download, Shopify has everything you could ever need.
A2 Hosting has been in the business for a long time – since 2001, to be exact. Unlike many others who have swayed over the years, the company remains privately owned. This steadfastness has resulted in some impressive results.
While A2 Hosting offers a complete range of web hosting plans are impressively feature-packed and powerful. The end result is much better potential for those wanting to host business websites. Even shared server here is robust and comes with a good range of developer-friendly features.
A2 Hosting is backed up by all three methods of support (live chat, phone and email ticket). Contacting via phone call is the quickest way to get your problem solved professionally.
| Features / Plans | Startup | Drive | Turbo Boost | Turbo Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Storage | 100 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Databases | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Rewind Backups | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Turbo Server | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Free Migration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free SSL | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Price /mo | $2.99/mo | $5.99/mo | $6.99/mo | $12.99/mo |
Learn more in my A2 Hosting review.
A2 Hosting sells on more than just plan types and this is good news for business users. It has very specific plans that suit a diversity of corporate needs, from those offering CRM support to WHCMS license-packed plans. Their plans are also eco-friendly, fulfilling Zero Carbon needs.
A2 Hosting represents of the “old school hosting providers” – reasonable pricing, wide range of hosting products, and powerful features for all kinds of websites. A2 is a great choice for businesses looking for a mid-range web hosting solution.
As a business owner myself – I truly understand why businesses are often cautious and picky about their web host. You need to stick with the right hosting company at the right price and right quality.
The “best” web host may not be the best choice.
In case you were choosing a web host for the first time – let's get to know some of the must-have features in a good business hosting.
Budget is always a big issue for small businesses. So, most owners will consider the overall cost of building a website (which include web hosting cost) in the first place. However, because of the importance for business reputation, pricing may have to take a back seat to other factors when it comes to web hosting.
A basic fundamental for a web host is to have good server reliability. It’s important that your business website consistently has a fast and stable server and network.
If your website goes down even for a minute, you might lose out on customers and potential sales for your business. Hosting uptime rates are a good indication of how reliable a server is in keeping your website online. Generally, a 99.95% uptime rate is considered the minimum nowadays and it's recommended to avoid any web hosts that provide less than that.
There are certain qualities that you need to check when looking at server performance. The two major ones are the Time-To-First-Byte (TTFB) and speed. A fast server is needed if you want to provide the best user experience to your visitors and improve your overall ranking in search engines.
Note: Your website performance is also affected by the types of hosting you are using – typically a dedicated hosting offers best speed performance; followed by VPS and Shared Server Hosting.
Your business will grow, so your web host must be able to cope with it. For starters – always start small with an affordable shared server hosting and upgrade (ie. to VPS or cloud hosting) when your business takes off.
Businesses that start off (especially small businesses) seldom need to pay for expensive top-of-the-line hosting right off the bat. It would be far more prudent to move from plan to plan progressively as your needs evolve.
There are multiple factors that can generate trust for online websites. An SSL certificate is one of them and has become an increasingly important factor today.
This is important to take note of because there are various types of SSL and some of them can be quite expensive. SSL certificates are especially important to business sites that deal with customer data or financial information.
Also read – Best sites to purchase your SSL certificates.
It will be definitely hard to sleep if you have a good amount of money at stake. Automated server backup will ensure you that whatever happens, you won’t lose your website.
Different hosts have different backup capabilities and processes so this is something important to take note of. Most hosts will offer basic backups for free, but for a business site I would recommend investing in additional capabilities and also keeping an updated copy offline as well!
Web hosting is basically space and the capacity to allow traffic to reach your website. It’s like the plot of land that you build your hose on. However, there are hosts that can help make your life much easier in your quest to build and manage a website.
Most small businesses won’t have dedicated IT staff and having to outsource web management work can get expensive. Today, many web hosts are including website builders and basic IT support into their packages so customers can operate their business websites more easily.
Again, this goes back to what additional functionality you need for your site. Being able to sell online can be a big plus for businesses.
If you’re looking to build a site that has eCommerce capabilities, you need to take into consideration other factors such as inventory management, payment processing, shipping processing, flexible shipping and tax rates, customer segmenting, dropshipping integrations, and much more.
Also read – 15 free Shopify apps to grow your online business
Running a website is hard work and odds are you’re going to face some troubles down the road. When that happens, you’re going to have to revert to customer support to help you out.
A web hosting company with great customer support should have fast response times when it comes to handling customer inquiries. They should also have a number of technical experts on hand to handle any problems or situations that a customer might face.
Having multiple support channel is also a good sign of a comprehensive customer support. Be sure to check if the web host offers contact via live chat, Skype, email, and phone call.
Security should be a top concern for most businesses, especially those that are running an eCommerce website. Most reputable website hosts are PCI/DSS compliant, have SFTP access and protection against DDoS attacks.
Other security features that are great to have include: Auto malware scanning, built-in network monitoring tools, firewalls, and in-house security expert support.
Also read – Essential cyber security guide for small business
Last but not least – smaller business websites tend to have peculiar needs. Identifying these needs will go a long in choosing the perfect web host for you.
The more you understand your business (website) and its needs, the better and easier it will be to choose the right web host. It's all about finding the right balance of good features in a web host while still fulfilling the needs of your website.
Dave has a locksmith business and set up a website to expand his customer base. Since he is only looking to increase his client base, it is likely that a simple digital presence can be all he needs to start off with.
These basic requirements will only require that he has a domain name and web hosting. Ideally, a simple site done up form a template would be good, but even the most basic shared plan would do.
A site like this could cost as little as a few dollars a month to maintain.
Covering many aspects of web hosting and related industries, our site WebHostingSecretRevealed (WHSR) is a good example of a small business with a high traffic volume website. In order to meet resource demands it is hosting with Cloudways, one of the best in the business.
, Shopify
A very recent addition to the circle of Shopify online stores, Japan Objects STORE was intended to showcase Japanese culture, arts and design. However, it also has traditional clothing items for sale, such as Kimonos, Yukatas and Obi Belts.
That the site is new might not be surprising, but it can give you a good idea of how great a site (plus eCommerce store) you can build with Shopify. Beautifully elegant and with good use of a combination of imagery set in a minimalistic layout, Japan Objects STORE is clean and crisp.
By this point you probably already know that there is a vast range of web hosting that you can buy into for your business site. Knowing that and your own business are two of the key factors to getting your first site up.
At the beginning we all start small and for web hosting that’s in the budget shared web hosting space. Typically, prices here range between $3 to $8 per month, depending on what you get with the package. Normally, Wordpress shared hosting follows this pricing scheme closely, although managed WordPress hosting will cost more.
Once you pass the shared hosting stage then the next logical progression will be VPS or Cloud Hosting.
VPS / cloud hosting offers more power and security than shared hosting plans but will cost more as well. This can be daunting as the technical skills required are usually higher than for shared hosting. Opting for managed VPS hosting can be expensive and range from between $16 to $28 per month.
Remember that these are just rough guidelines, and choosing the best match for your business goes far beyond price alone.
Learn more in our recent web hosting price survey.
Hostinger, GreenGeeks, AltusHost, Cloudways, and A2 Hosting are our top business hosting picks. If you are selling your products directly from our website – Shopify may be a good choice too.
Technically, most business websites are not much different from standard websites, but may require more reliable web hosting to avoid downtime doing reputational damage.
GoDaddy may hold the largest market share but it might not be ideal for business hosting. Based on our research, there are other companies with faster and more reliable web hosting available (see list above).
Yes, you can. Transferring a website to another web host is an easy process and you can do it by yourself without much downtime. Here's a step-by-step DIY guide for those who wish to learn. Note that many hosting companies offer free website migration support to their new customers.
Cheapest and best will not often cross paths in many scenarios, especially in web hosting. This equipment and infrastructure-heavy industry require significant capital to build and operate. As such, it is difficult to offer quality, reliable hosting at rock bottom prices. If you are searching for a budget business hosting solution – we recommend Hostinger and GreenGeeks.
Yes, GreenGeeks is a good choice for businesses that wish to be more eco-friendly. In fact, some businesses have mandates on carbon footprint, and these can be satisfied by hosting with GreenGeeks.
The term “web hosting” usually refers to companies that rent out server, as well as other needed infrastructure and services (network switch, backup power generators, server maintenance, etc), for users who want to host a website. Generally, there are four kinds of hosting: shared server , dedicated server hosting, VPS / cloud, and bundled hosting. All four types have their own advantages and disadvantages – you can learn more in our Web Hosting Basic Guide.
Most web hosting companies offer reseller plans. Make use of these and combine it with other business elements such as invoicing and your own branding to create a web hosting reseller business.
No. Everything you need to run a functioning website – from hosting to domain registration and shared SSL, are included in Weebly package.
Web hosting refers to companies that rent out their server to users to host their websites. Web publishing commonly refers to publishing content, in the form of texts, graphics and videos, on the Internet. Web publishing can be done on your own website (which then requires you to host a website) or on a third party platforms like Medium and Typepad.
For simple business websites – I recommend Startup or Drive Plans – the main different between the two are domain and storage capacity. For eCommerce or advanced business websites – TurboBoost Plan offers the new NVMe storage and loads 20x faster.
AltusHost Biz 20 plans feature 20 GB SSD storage, 2 GB RAM, free daily backup, free Let's Encrypt SSL, and a premium website builder – which I believe is good enough for any new small business website.
If all you need is a simple static website to showcase your business (a flyer website), go with Hostinger's Single Plan – it is the cheapest business hosting solution you can ever get.
Business websites can be unique in many ways and you do not always need the best of everything. What another website owner may find to complain about, you may discover to be an ideal fit for your needs.
Some web hosts might be good in certain areas – such as speed and latest technology; while others might focus on providing a stable server and cheaper rate. Be sure that you understand your needs and find the best match for what you want.
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