If you’re looking to start a small business, there are a few things you need to consider. One is website hosting, and the best way to find the right provider can be difficult. But with this guide, you’ll have everything you need to make your dream website come true. From choosing an provider to getting started, we’ve got all the info you need in one place. So go ahead and start building the business of your dreams—and leave the website hosting worries behind!
For small business website owners, picking a reliable shared hosting provider is vital. Your choice will have a large impact on revenue and customer satisfaction, and to ensure that those impacts are positive rather than negative, we’ve compiled this guide to the Best Small Business Website Hosting America.
Best Small Business Website Hosting America
What is Small Business Website Hosting?
Small Business Website Hosting services provide web hosts with the ability to create and operate websites. The three most common types of Small Business Website Hosting are ASP (Asynchronous Processing) hosting, S3 (Storage Service Level Agreement) hosting, and Cloud Hosting.
What are the Different Types of Small Business Website Hosting
Different Types of Small Business Website Hosting can include:
-Web design
-Content management systems (CMS)
-Email marketing
-And more.
Best Hosting Providers for Small Businesses
1. Bluehost: Best for beginners
Bluehost is a perennial favorite for personal and business web hosting because of how easy it is to set up and use the company’s services. Like Namecheap, Bluehost offers very affordable web hosting solutions for small businesses that need simple sites and complex e-commerce outfits alike. You can even get a free domain when signing up for some of their one-year plans.
Bluehost offers the following hosting packages:
- Shared: The most commonly used option by individuals and small-business owners alike. Includes e-commerce compatibility, WordPress integration and dedicated customer service for $7.99 per month.
- VPS: Upgrades from the Shared tier to provide a virtual private server, which adds a level of security and access for businesses that need more flexibility with how they use their server space. Costs $29.99 per month.
- Dedicated: Provides the utmost level of security and support for high-traffic websites. This is one of the best web hosting options for small businesses with robust e-commerce websites that need as much bandwidth and security as possible. Costs $119.99 per month.
2. HostGator
Best Overall Shared Hosting Provider
Shared Hosting: $2.75–$17.95/month
Editor’s Choice
HostGator
Best overall shared hosting provider
EXCELLENT
4.9out of 5
- Excellent site speed
- Powerful features
- Best help and support
HostGator is our top recommended hosting provider for small businesses, scoring an impressive 4.9 out of 5 in our research overall. This is a huge leap from its previous third place position in our pre-2022 rankings when it scored 4.3! It’s a beginner-friendly, feature-rich service with a reliable uptime of 99.99%.
HostGator’s plans are relatively cheap, and they come with a 45-day money-back guarantee, so small businesses can test out the water without risking precious savings. It’s also worth mentioning that HostGator has the highest help and support score of any hosting provider we tested – across all categories, not just small businesses!
Price: 3.7/5
When it comes to HostGator’s shared plans, there’s plenty for you to sink your teeth into. The three shared packages are:
- Hatchling – from $2.75/month. Entry-level, and great value for money.
- Baby – from $3.50/month. Offers more help for those growing a small business.
- Business – from $5.25/month. Best for businesses that are already growing fast.
We highly recommend shared hosting plans for small businesses. They don’t cost a lot of money, and you get a lot of bang for your buck. Plus, the 45-day money-back guarantee is a low-risk way of trying it out for yourself before making a decision.
3. Namecheap: Best for technical support
If you’re a newcomer to managing your website, the best web hosting for your small business might be the one that provides you with round-the-clock technical support, and is willing to go the extra mile to make sure your site is up and running just the way you want it.
Namecheap goes above and beyond in this department, offering 24/7 support through chat — no question is too big or too small for Namecheap’s team of technical support specialists, who are even willing to step in and make changes for their customers if they don’t have the technical savvy to do it themselves. And as the name implies, their web hosting prices are pretty competitive as well.
There are several Namecheap hosting tiers:
- Stellar Business: Provides unmetered bandwidth so your site never slows down during high-traffic periods. Comes with free automatic backups as well, and is PCI compliant and e-commerce friendly. Costs $4.44 per month for the first year, then goes up to $8.88 per month.
- EasyWP Turbo: Inexpensive hosting for WordPress sites with up to 250,000 visitors per month and 50 gigabytes of storage included. Costs $7.88 per month, with the first month for $2.
- Qasar: Full VPS hosting with Linux-based servers, allowing companies that need a total command of their networks the flexibility to run their digital presence as they see fit. Costs $24.88 per month, with a new signup promotion of $19.88 per month.
- Xeon E3-1240 v3: A physical server solution for businesses that need to go the extra mile for their websites and digital environments. Costs $74.88 per month, with the first month for $36.88.
4. DreamHost
Longest Money-Back Guarantee
Shared Hosting: $2.59–$8.95/month
With its quality features and immense storage space, DreamHost is great value for money for any small business that has plenty of content to host – plus there’s room to grow! WordPress comes pre-installed, and you get automated daily backups, free domain privacy, as well as advanced features like Shell access – all at a cheap price.
Price: 4.1/5
For a three-year contract, DreamHost’s shared hosting plans start at these affordable introductory prices:
- Shared Starter: $2.59/month
- Shared Unlimited: $3.95/month
It’s worth noting that you can get the Unlimited plan for the same price as the Starter if you lock in for one year only!
While it isn’t top of our research for price, it scores well thanks to the partnership between price and all of its other wonderful features. You get a lot for your money!
One of the biggest standout features for DreamHost is its excellent 97-day money-back guarantee, which means you can try it totally risk-free and get a full refund if you find it’s not the right fit for you.
5. iPage
Having a super-robust web host might be the only viable option for some business owners. But for others, a straightforward, simple and inexpensive option may be all that’s needed.
If you fall into the latter category, then iPage could be a great option for you. With iPage, you can opt for shared, VPS, dedicated or cloud hosting for your website needs. You’ll also get one-click installs of popular apps and CMS platforms and excellent customer service. Best of all, you won’t spend a fortune in the process.
Here are iPage’s product options:
- Web hosting: The leanest of iPage’s options, as well as the least expensive. Includes unlimited disk space and domain names, a free online store builder, email support, one-click installers and more for $7.99 per month.
- Business VPS hosting: Less intense and expensive than HostGator’s dedicated servers, which makes this plan a better fit for businesses with lighter needs for their websites. This plan includes unlimited domains, unmetered bandwidth, free SSL certificates, SEO tools and even a free domain for $59.49 per month.
6. GoDaddy Hosting
Awesome Help and Support
Shared Hosting: $5.99–$19.99/month
GoDaddy’s shared hosting plans aren’t as brilliant as HostGator, but it’s a fairly well-rounded hosting provider with consistently good scores for help and support. The major negative of GoDaddy Hosting is its expensive price point, and mediocre performance. Interestingly, it’s our second best hosting provider for server response time, but struggles when it comes to site speed – if GoDaddy could remedy the issue, they’d be in a much better position.
Price: 3.7/5
GoDaddy has four shared hosting plans, starting with Economy and going up to the Maximum plan. Its three year subscription has the cheapest introductory prices:
- Economy: from $5.99/month
- Deluxe: from $7.99/month
- Ultimate: from $12.99/month
- Maximum: from $19.99/month
As you can see, GoDaddy’s Hosting plans are pretty pricey in comparison to others we’ve reviewed on this list, and we know that cost can be an important factor for small businesses.
Best Web Hosting For Beginners
1. SiteGround
SiteGround is one of the most popular web hosts with a first-class reputation stretching far and wide, from Canada to Singapore. You know why? They tick all the boxes. Not only do they offer a custom-built beginner-friendly dashboard, but also an easy onboarding process, and excellent support.
Maybe that’s why SiteGround is a little pricier than Bluehost, but they make up for that with some of the best support in the hosting industry.
Top features for beginners
- Website setup wizard – after you sign up, SiteGround offers a simple wizard to help you launch your website.
- User-friendly custom dashboard – SiteGround built its own user-friendly hosting dashboard that makes it easy to manage your website(s) and access key tools.
- Free email hosting – SiteGround makes it easy to create your own branded email address.
- Automatic WordPress updates – if you’re using WordPress, SiteGround automatically updates the software for you.
- Automatic backups – SiteGround automatically backs up your data on all plans to keep for peace of mind.
- Excellent 24/7 support – SiteGround offers 24/7 support via phone, live chat, online tickets, and has top-rated support according to the 800+ users who participated in our WordPress hosting survey.
Pricing
SiteGround offers three hosting plans:
- StartUp – $2.99 per month for a single website.
- GrowBig – $4.99 per month for unlimited websites.
- GoGeek – $7.99 per month for unlimited websites with more resources and priority support.
For most beginners, we recommend the GrowBig plan because it gives you the ability to host unlimited websites and adds new features that speed up your site and help you more conveniently manage your site.
2. DreamHost
| Features | Custom control panel, WordPress website builder, automated migration |
| Uptime | 99.99% |
| Speed | 231ms |
| Best for | Flexible billing options and great performance |
DreamHost is known for its cheap and easy to manage shared hosting. With a beginner-friendly control panel, affordable prices, and a built-in WordPress website builder, DreamHost is one of the best hosting solutions for beginners that you can find.
Let’s take a glimpse at DreamHost’s highlights:
- DreamHost has a control panel that is organized and intuitive, while the setup process is effortless. WordPress installation can be done in just a single click and, if you already have a website built, site migration is quick and painless because of a dedicated plugin.
- There are only 2 shared hosting plans and both are inclusive. They’re relatively cheap and come with a free domain, SSL certificate, daily backups, and domain privacy protection.
- You get a functional DreamHost’s website builder (BoldGrid), which makes website design and development on WordPress much easier.
Such strong factors make DreamHost look like an excellent WordPress hosting solution for beginners and smaller businesses. Easy installation of WordPress and an included website builder make it a highly tempting option.
DreamHost performance
DreamHost produced impressive results and turned out to be extremely reliable and fast. With a >99.99% uptime, there was only 1 outage in a few months and the sample website took only 1.6 seconds to load. On top of that, DreamHost is not the one to stress during exams. It handled 50-user traffic without any problems.
However, all its data centers are in the USA, which is an advantage if your intended audience is located in North America.
DreamHost pricing
DreamHost offers 2 affordable shared hosting plans, priced at $2.59/mo and $3.95/mo, respectively. I’d say the costs are pretty competitive, considering that the more expensive plan has unlimited resources.
Whichever plan you choose, a free domain, SSL certificate, unmetered bandwidth, automatic daily backups, and domain privacy is included. Here’s the difference between the 2:
- Shared Starter ($2.59/mo) – 1 website and 50GB storage.
- Shared Unlimited ($3.95/mo) – unlimited resources, including websites, storage, and email accounts.
3. Bluehost
Bluehost is a popular web host that makes a great option for beginners thanks to its affordable pricing and beginner-friendly onboarding process.
Once you sign up for Bluehost, the Bluehost website wizard will guide you through setting up your website in just a few minutes. Bluehost also has built their own custom hosting dashboard on top of the “standard” cPanel dashboard that makes it a lot easier to manage important parts of your hosting account, like creating your own custom email address.
Top features for beginners
- Simple setup wizard – Bluehost has built a super simple onboarding process that helps you quickly get up and running with your first site.
- One-click installers – Bluehost also includes a one-click installer if you want to create additional sites after you go through the initial onboarding.
- Custom hosting dashboard – Bluehost built their own custom dashboard (on top of cPanel) that makes it easy for beginners to perform key actions.
- Automatic WordPress updates – if you’re using WordPress, Bluehost automatically updates the software for you to keep you up to date.
- Free email hosting – Bluehost makes it easy to create your own email account at no extra cost.
- 24/7 support – get help whenever you need it via phone or live chat.
Pricing
Bluehost offers affordable plans, especially if you’re willing to pay for multiple years upfront.
- Basic – from $2.75 per month for a single website.
- Plus – from $5.45 per month for unlimited websites.
- Choice Plus – from $5.45 per month for unlimited websites with added features like CodeGuard backups.
Most beginners looking for a simple web hosting solution should go with at least the Plus plan because it gives you the flexibility to create multiple websites. The Choice Plus is also a good option because it adds automatic backups, which will keep your data safe.
How to Get Started with Small Business Website Hosting.
When you want to start a small business website, the first step is to choose the right hosting account. There are a number of different hosting services available, and you’ll need to find one that fits your needs and budget. You can also research which tools are best for managing your website and see how they work in practice.
Set Up Your Site
Once you have a host account and site set up, it’s time to start building your site. This will include creating an index file, setting up your content management system (CMS), and coding your website’s pages into HTML or XML.
Use the Right Tools
You should use the right tools when building your small business website: software like WordPress, Medium, or Squarespace; web development frameworks like Ruby on Rails or Laravel; or marketing materials like an eCommerce store or social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter. By using the correct tools, you can make sure that your site is easy to use, look great, and get the most out of your hosting service.
Tips for Success With Small Business Website Hosting.
One of the most important factors in choosing a successful small business website hosting company is the tools they use to manage and host your site.
Here are a few tips for getting started:
Use the Right Tools for Your Site
Tools that help with website hosting include web hosting, domain name registration, email marketing, and social media management. Make sure you choose the right tools for your specific needs, and make sure to test them out on different types of websites before committing to them full time.
Set Up Your Site the Right Way
Use common sense when setting up your site’s design and layout – make sure everything is easy to find and navigate, and use clear titles and headings to avoid confusion. Use images that are properly captioned and size appropriately for their content, and keep any banner or ad content below 1KB in size.
Use the Right Tools for Your Site
Check out our blog post on how to get started with web hosting if you need some tips on setting up your site correctly!
Conclusion
Small Business Website Hosting can be a great way to increase your business’s reach and grow your online presence. However, it is important to take the time to set up your site correctly and manage it properly. By using the right tools and following common best practices, you can make sure that your small business website is successful. Thanks for reading!