The best web hosting for small businesses should come complete with a few crucial features.
Security, for example, is an important consideration for any firm. Small businesses need to ensure they have enough server resources, therefore the provider you choose should have reliable performance at the very least.
But with so many options out there, it can be difficult to select the right one based on your unique circumstances and needs. Do you opt for a budget choice, or is it worth spending a bit more?
The price for a reliable web hosting plan can range from a couple of dollars each month to tens, or even hundreds. Typically, you should be able to host multiple websites on the same account, so you should only need one hosting subscription.
Similarly, what features should you look for in a web hosting service? All of these are vital considerations, and ones that you can’t afford to swerve.
Luckily, we’ve drawn upon years of research and testing to bring together a range of the leading small business hosts. In our list below, you’ll find the best budget options, eco-friendly options, and services for small businesses that are likely to grow in the future.
What is the best web hosting for small business?
Our choice for the best web hosting for small businesses is Hostinger, which is an excellent option for those on a tight budget, offering a range of top features and tools and ranking highly across the board.
Hostwinds, meanwhile, offers advanced shared hosting for high-traffic sites as well as more advanced hosting plans, while GreenGeeks’ eco-friendly, unlimited hosting policies will attract many businesses.
Liquid Web’s advanced solutions also offer excellent scalability and market-leading customer support and service while DreamHost delivers a well-rounded package with generous features across a range of hosting types.
The best web hosting for small business ranked
Hostinger
Best budget-friendly web host for small business
SPECIFICATIONS
- Free domain: Yes, with upgrade
- Unlimited storage: No
- Unlimited bandwidth: Yes, with upgrade
- 24/7 support: Yes
REASONS TO BUY
- Very competitively priced
- Excellent security offerings
- Leading performance
REASONS TO AVOID
- Limited server resources
- No high-end hosting
Score: 4.5/5
Hostinger sits at the top of our list for good reason. It’s a beginner-friendly service, offers loads of great security features and other tools, as well as some of the best prices in the industry.
It’s also our top pick for the best cloud hosting, VPS cloud hosting, Wordpress hosting, and VPS hosting.
Prices start from just $8.99 a month on the ‘business’ plan. All plans come with Hostinger’s native hPanel control panel, which is right up there with the best we’ve used.
The 24/7 customer service is excellent, and you will find the service team to be friendly and knowledgeable. There’s also an excellent domain registration portal that you can use to register a new domain for your business.
Overall, we’d highly recommend considering Hostinger for the hosting of your small business website. If you have money to spend, a higher-end option could be better, but you just can’t get past Hostinger when it comes to value for money.
Read our full Hostinger review.
Hostwinds
Best for large websites
SPECIFICATIONS
- Free domain: Yes
- Unlimited storage: Yes
- Unlimited bandwidth: Yes
- 24/7 support: Yes
REASONS TO BUY
- Unlimited storage and bandwidth
- Generous shared hosting plans
- Leading support resources
REASONS TO AVOID
- Price structure is a little confusing
Score: 4.5/5
Hostwinds is competitively priced compared to most of the other options on this list, but it also offers much more advanced hosting solutions.
All three of its shared hosting plans come with unlimited storage and bandwidth, making them great for slightly larger business websites. It’s worth noting, however, that only the priciest ‘ultimate’ package offers unlimited domains.
On top of this, Hostwinds is known for its performance. It offers an excellent 99.9999% uptime guarantee, and its server response times have always been fast during our tests. We also like Hostwinds’ 24/7 support services and its neat self-help library.
If you’re looking for an advanced host that supports long-term scalability, we’d suggest checking Hostwinds out.
Read our full Hostwinds review.
GreenGeeks
Best eco-friendly hosting for small business
SPECIFICATIONS
- Free domain: Yes
- Unlimited storage: Yes (with upgrade)
- Unlimited bandwidth: Yes
- 24/7 support: Yes
REASONS TO BUY
- 300% green energy match
- Data centers across the world
- Excellent value for money
REASONS TO AVOID
- Customer service could be better
- Underpowered high-end options
Score: 4/5
If you’re looking for an eco-friendly host for your small business, GreenGeeks has you covered. Its 300% green energy match ensures that your website is built on sustainable infrastructure that isn’t straining the environment.
Apart from the environmental aspect, GreenGeeks’ hosting actually stands out as super affordable and great for business sites. Its cheapest shared plan starts at just $11.95 a month (renews at £9.15), and it comes with everything you will need to run a basic business website.
There aren’t a lot of options for larger sites or those with a traffic-heavy store, but GreenGeeks remains a leading eco-friendly hosting option.
Read our full GreenGeeks review.
Liquid Web
Best advanced small business hosting
SPECIFICATIONS
- Free domain: No
- Unlimited storage: No
- Unlimited bandwidth: No
- 24/7 support: Yes
REASONS TO BUY
- Excellent uptime and performance
- Friendly customer support team
- Loads of scalable options for large businesses
REASONS TO AVOID
- One of the more expensive options
Score 4/5
Liquid Web’s powerful hosting solutions will be too much for the average small business website, but it’s the perfect option for those who have outgrown shared hosting. Its WordPress plans are pricier than other options on this list ($21 per month), but its VPS, cloud, and dedicated server options are even more powerful.
On top of this, Liquid Web is known for its great customer service team. You won’t have any trouble at all getting help, and the support agents generally have excellent technical knowledge.
Many Liquid Web plans also come with full root access, although managed options are available too. But if you want an advanced hosting option for a slightly larger small business website, Liquid Web is our number-one pick.
Read our full Liquid Web review.
DreamHost
Best all-around web host for small business
SPECIFICATIONS
- Free domain: Yes
- Unlimited storage: No
- Unlimited bandwidth: Yes
- 24/7 support: Yes (not llive chat)
REASONS TO BUY
- Very competitive prices
- Industry-leading 97-day money-back guarantee
- Excellent uptime and performance
REASONS TO AVOID
- Somewhat confusing control panel
- Few one-click installations
Score: 3.5/5
DreamHost is among our leading hosts for small businesses for a number of reasons. It’s beginner-friendly, affordable, and boasts unlimited bandwidth with all of its plans. And on top of this, you get a free domain for your first year with a shared hosting subscription.
It also offers three-year, one-year, and monthly plans, making it flexible for your individual needs.
Another thing we liked was its 100% uptime guarantee. This is outstanding, and the company guarantees a full day of free service for every hour that your website goes down. However, our research suggests that outages are extremely rare.
DreamHost offers excellent introductory deals, with an initial 12-month plan coming in at $2.59 a month.
On the downside, DreamHost’s management panel is a little confusing. But this is a minor flaw, and we still recommend it as an excellent all-around small business host.
Read our full DreamHost review.
Web hosting for small business FAQs
Want to find out more about web hosting for small business? Check out these popular answers that demystify hosting and its uses.
How much storage do I need for a website?
Very basic small business sites won’t require any more than 10GB of storage. The average small business should look for around 50GB, although you may require more if you have an online store or a large number of pages.
What type of hosting is best for small business?
The best hosting for small business sites is usually shared hosting. As your site grows, you may need to upgrade to VPS or cloud hosting for a little more power.
Is free web hosting worth using?
No, you shouldn’t use free hosting for a business website. It may be a viable option for small, basic sites, but it’s usually just too limited and insecure for small business sites.
The benefits of web hosting for small business
There are a number of notable benefits of web hosting for small businesses, including built-in security, the ability to register domains and configure servers, and also the ability to build websites.
Hosting that’s designed for business use typically comes complete with excellent security tools. This can include everything from free SSL certifications to proactive malware scanning and removal.
Many hosts come with built-in or integrated website builders, some of which will be included among the rankings of the best small business website builders.
By taking advantage of these, you will be able to create an attractive small business website with a minimum of fuss.
If you opt to use a hosting provider that offers its own domain registration and management panel, this can make things very easy. However, watch out for hosts that charge too much for domain registrations.
If you go for a slightly more advanced VPS or cloud hosting option, you will likely have access to highly configurable servers. This enables you to set them up the way you need to, ensuring optimal performance is maintained at all times.
How we review web hosting for small business
There are hundreds of hosting options out there, and we’ve spent countless hours reviewing them to see which are worth using. We begin by creating a new account with the providers and types of hosting we want to test.
Once this is done, we move on to testing the usability and functionality of the platform. We look at how beginner-friendly the management dashboard and control panel are, how easy it is to start a new website, and what sorts of tools are included.
We also set up ongoing performance testing that we use to monitor uptime, average server response times, and various other metrics. Customer support is tested, and anything particularly notable is recorded during the review process.
Further reading on web hosting and website builders
Once you've found the best website builder, and are looking for cheaper hosting, look into the best cheap web hosting for your next project, or even the best free web hosting if you're on a tight budget.
If you're searching for hosting for a small business website, take a look at the best web hosting for small business.
Do you want your site to focus on European and UK customers? Ensure your chosen host is among the best European web hosting providers. Finally, if you've got a WordPress website or are looking to create one with one of the best WordPress website builders, the best WordPress hosting is ideal and is provided by many of the best web hosts.
