Types of Web Hosting: 6 You Need to Know About

Ideal for Single Website Hosting and New Website Owners

Shared web hosting is one of the most common packages people go for. On shared plans, your website is stored on one single server, along with multiple other websites.

The reason we recommend this type of hosting for entry-level website owners is because you may not initially know how much storage or space you need, and you don’t want to end up paying more for resources that you later realize are unnecessary!

This way, you can dip your toes in before diving off the deep end! 

How Does Shared Hosting Work? 

Just like the other websites on the server, your site will be allocated space when you pay a monthly fee. Resources are shared between all of the sites on this single server but, depending on the provider, you’ll likely have access to your own maintenance, support and security.

Shared Hosting Features 

Now that you know how this type of hosting works, let’s dive into the features you can usually expect from shared hosting:

• Free backups (generally weekly backups)
• Free domain
• One site included
• Minimum of 25 subdomains
• Free SSL certificate
• Minimum of five email accounts (generally unlimited across providers)
• Web design assistance

Shared Hosting Pricing

The starter prices for shared hosting range from $1-$6.99 per month (billed annually). As you upgrade plans or opt for a different subscription length, pricing will differ. For example, if we look at the most advanced shared hosting plans across providers, prices range from $2.95 to $21.99 per month (billed annually).

Most hosting providers also provide generous introductory discounts to new customers, as well as a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Through our in-house research, we found that DreamHost, iPage, and IONOS were the best options if value for money is an important factor for you.

HostGator, our top-ranked shared hosting provider with a score of 4.7 out of 5, offers three plans, ranging from $3.95 to $7.25 per month (billed annually).

Not Sure if Shared Hosting Is Right for You?

Remember, shared hosting is great if you’re just looking to get started with the world of web hosting. Shared hosting works well for personal websites, as well as for small business owners looking to build a site on a tighter budget. The low costs and impressive amount of storage and resources involved also make shared hosting an ideal choice for entry-level site owners.

If you feel like you need a larger storage capacity, and want to explore plans with more individual resources, this guide can help you with that, too!

Pros and Cons of Shared Web Hosting

Overall, shared hosting is the most affordable type of hosting, and it’s perfect for small business owners and personal bloggers who want to get on the internet without digging deep into their pockets.

It’s important to note that security is more limited with shared hosting, and crashes can happen because of the split between resources across multiple sites.

That being said, shared hosting is a great option to choose if you’re looking to get your site off the ground with a fair amount of storage space, too!

At this point, you’ll want to know the best places to go to get started with your shared hosting plan. There are many providers out there, but which ones have the best shared hosting packages? We’ve conducted a thorough analysis of the main hosting providers to get some results for you!

1. HostGator – Best Overall Shared Hosting Provider

HostGator is our top-rated shared hosting provider, scoring 4.7 out of 5 in our latest hosting research because of its feature-rich plans and ability to offer excellent support. Its high-quality service also shines through in its shared hosting plans, with a high uptime score of 99.99%, plus unmetered bandwidth and disk space available from the starting plan.

With HostGator, you also get a free domain for the first year, automated website backups, and a free SSL certificate.

HostGator has three shared plans to choose from. Take a look at the 12-month starting prices below, as well as key features:

• Hatchling – HostGator’s cheapest shared hosting plan starts at $3.95 per month, and includes all of the basic tools, as well as one free domain
• Baby – offers unlimited domains and bandwidth, as well as a free SSL certificate for just $5 per month
• Business – HostGator’s most advanced plan begins at $7.25 per month

2. Bluehost – Most Trusted by Users Online

Bluehost is our second best shared hosting provider, scoring 4.5 out of 5 for the hosting type. It doesn’t hold back when it comes to offering lots of free extra features and it’s well loved by customers – and, let’s face it, who doesn’t enjoy freebies?

Alongside a very cheap starting price of $2.95 per month (billed annually), Bluehost provides a free domain, free backups, and an unlimited number of sites with its Plus plan.

There’s no doubt that Bluehost could be much better in terms of its value for money, however. Though $2.95 might seem like a cheap deal, it’s the renewal prices you need to look out for! After the initial year, $2.95 per month will increase to $10.99 per month (billed annually).

Bluehost has four shared hosting plans to choose from:

• Basic – starting at $2.95 per month, Bluehost’s cheapest plan offers 24/7 customer support, 10GB storage space and one website
• Plus – for $5.45 per month, the Plus plan comes with 20GB storage, plus unlimited sites and domains
• Choice Plus – packed with all the features from the Plus plan, as well as domain privacy, from $5.45 per month
• Pro – starting at $13.95 per month, the only Bluehost shared plan that provides free dedicated IP

3. DreamHost – Best Value for Money

Rounding out our top three share hosting providers, we have DreamHost with a score of 4.5 out of 5. Not only is DreamHost the best value for money with its affordable shared hosting plans, but it also offers an impressive 97-day money-back guarantee!

DreamHost has two shared hosting plans, and its introductory price for one year is the same across them both: $2.95 per month! Similarly to Bluehost, the price differs once it’s time to renew:

• Shared Starter – with a renewal fee of $6.99 per month, the Shared Starter plan comes with a free domain and one website, but you need to pay for email accounts
• Shared Unlimited – with a renewal fee of $12.99 per month, the Shared Unlimited plan comes with a free SSL certificate pre-installed and unlimited websites

More Information

• HostGator Review: Check out our full breakdown on all things HostGator!
• Bluehost Review: Want to know more about Bluehost? We have an in-depth guide waiting for you.
• DreamHost Review: Everything you need to know about DreamHost and its affordable plans.

Ideal for Optimizing Your WordPress Site

WordPress hosting is specialized hosting for WordPress websites to help optimize their speed, performance, security, and scalability. It includes additional features exclusively designed for the platform, such as automatic software updates and a one-click WordPress installation.

Bear in mind that you don’t need WordPress hosting if you want to run a WordPress site, but it definitely works in your favor as an added benefit. You can even expect things like better support staff with this type of hosting compared to a type that isn’t designed for WordPress.

How Does WordPress Hosting Work?

Okay, let’s take it back to our housing analogy to explain this one!

We spoke about how hosting is like buying a flat and sharing its resources – but now imagine that you’re building these homes.

You’re designing homes for a specific demographic, and adding specialist features to make those people more comfortable in their homes. It’s like building homes for elderly citizens and installing ramps and bathroom rails to cater to their potential mobility needs!

This is what WordPress hosting is doing – it’s really thinking about its users and offering features that’ll make it easy for them to run their site. It’s definitely possible to use a normal web hosting service on WordPress sites, but if the option of a customized setup is presenting itself, it’s not such a bad thing, right?

WordPress Hosting Features

So, we know that WordPress hosting is going to include some pretty different elements than normal web hosting, but what exactly are they? Let’s have a look at what you can expect:

• Automated WordPress software updates
• Updates to WordPress plugins
• Free SSL certificate
• Free backups
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Free domains across most hosting platforms

When you check out WordPress hosting providers, you may see loads of different types such as shared WordPress, VPS WordPress and managed WordPress hosting.

The most popular version that users go for seems to be managed WordPress (the majority of hosting providers) – it optimizes your site performance and keeps your site secure without you having to do much!

WordPress Hosting Pricing

Considering that you get added features to optimize your website, WordPress hosting is surprisingly affordable. For a basic plan, you can expect to see starting prices range from $1-$24.95 depending on the hosting provider. And that range will increase quite dramatically if you start looking at the more advanced WordPress hosting plans.

Pros and Cons of WordPress Hosting

1. Bluehost – Best for WordPress Hosting

Scoring 4.6 out of 5 in our WordPress hosting research, Bluehost is our number one choice for this type of hosting. All plans include unlimited websites, storage and domains, plus really impressive WordPress features and site migration tools. We know that website migration can be a hassle, so it’s nice to know that Bluehost has this handled for you.

But just don’t take our word for it, Bluehost has been recommended by WordPress itself since 2005!

Bluehost has three managed WordPress hosting plans to choose between. Take a look at the 12-month fees and core features below:

• Build – from $24.95 per month, the Build plan features site analytics and domain privacy
• Grow – from $34.95 per month, the Grow plan comes with advanced SEO tools and live support
• Scale – from $51.95 per month, the Scale plan targets ecommerce sites with PayPal integration and unlimited backups

2. InMotion – Excellent WordPress features

In second place, we have InMotion with an overall WordPress hosting score of 4.4 out of 5. Coincidentally it received the same rating for its tailored WordPress features, such as free expert migration, and access to WordPress themes.

InMotion’s plans also come with unlimited storage (from the Launch plan) and a lifetime SSL certificate for free. It has four WordPress hosting plans – check out the 12-month pricing and key features:

• WP Core – starting at $4.49 per month, the basic plan comes with 100GB of storage and allows two websites
• WP Launch – the $8.99 per month Launch plan unlocks unlimited websites, storage, and email addresses
• WP Power – also for $8.99 per month (for its initial year), WP Power comes with enhanced WordPress performance capabilities
• WP Pro – from $16.99 per month, WP Pro includes dedicated IP and expert level support

3. SiteGround – Great for Website Security

SiteGround is our third most recommend WordPress hosting provider, receiving a score of 4.3 out of 5 from our research team. Not only does it provide excellent security features, such as a custom firewall and anti-bot system, but SiteGround’s WordPress hosting plans feature tons of useful tools.

All three plans come with a free domain, WordPress pre-installed, daily backups, and automatic WordPress updates – plus more!

Take a look at the 12-month pricing for SiteGround’s three WordPress hosting plans:

• StartUp – from $2.99 per month, StartUp permits one website and comes with 10GB storage space
• GrowBig – from $4.99 per month, unlock unlimited websites and 20GB storage space
• GoGeek – the $7.99 per month GoGeek plan comes with priority support and a free private DNS

More Information

• Bluehost Review: Everything you need to know about Bluehost, from pricing to security features.
• InMotion Review: We know InMotion’s great for WordPress hosting, but what else is it good for? Find out in our full review.
• SiteGround Review: Get the full breakdown on SiteGround’s hosting.

Ideal if Your Site Needs More Resources and Improved Performance

VPS stands for Virtual Private Server, and it’s a step up from shared hosting. This is where one physical server is distributed into multiple virtual servers, allowing each website more of its own resources, while staying within an affordable price range.

Shared hosting is the standard (cheaper) way of going about hosting a site, but the downfall of it is the slower speed, lack of security, and limited resources.

VPS hosting is a good halfway point between shared hosting and dedicated hosting. It offers a lot more control when managing your site, as well as root access to the server to give you the freedom to install applications without needing to go through the provider!

Let’s dive further into all things VPS…

How Does VPS Hosting Work?

If we go back to our house analogy again, you can think of VPS hosting as an apartment block. One block is separated into lots of apartments where residents (website owners) have their own resources that no one else can use. However, they’re all still under one large roof (the single physical server).

We recommend this type of hosting for those looking for a little bit more than what shared hosting has to offer. This is a great route if you realize your website now needs more storage and disk space, but you’re not quite ready to take on the world (and cost!) of dedicated hosting.

VPS Hosting Features

As a step up from shared hosting, we can expect a lot more features and benefits from VPS – so let’s see what on the table:

• Unlimited domains and websites
• More than 1 TB bandwidth
• Free SSL certificate
• 24/7 customer support
• One dedicated IP address
• Minimum allowance of 30 GB storage
• Unlimited email accounts
• Minimum 2 GB RAM available
• Free backups

VPS Hosting Pricing

VPS hosting starter prices range quite a lot across the hosting provider market. The cheapest VPS hosting we found through our research was IONOS with a starter price of $2 (for the first six months). On the other hand, basic VPS plan prices can be as high as $45 per month (billed annually) – yikes, we’re looking at you Liquid Web!

Pros and Cons of VPS Hosting

It’s key for VPS hosting providers to have impressive uptime, scalable features and good value for money. We looked at a wide range of VPS providers to see how they match up to this criteria so you have an idea of where to head if you think VPS hosting is best for you!

Our top three VPS hosting providers include Bluehost, HostGator, and InMotion – let’s find out more about them:

1. Bluehost – Best for VPS Hosting

We mentioned how great Bluehost can be for both shared and WordPress hosting, but it’s also our top-recommended VPS hosting provider as well! Scoring 4.6 out of 5 in our VPS research, Bluehost’s plans are incredibly feature-rich and great value for money.

Bluehost offers three VPS hosting plans – Standard, Enhanced, and Ultimate. Starting prices for a 12-month plan range from $24.99 to $83.99 per month.

These are all the different features you can expect when signing up with Bluehost’s VPS hosting:

• 30-day money-back guarantee
• Root access
• Free backups
• Free domain
• Minimum of 2 CPU cores
• Unlimited email accounts
• Dedicated IP address
• Unlimited domains and websites
• Free SSL certificate

See how the three VPS hosting plans differ in the table below:

2. HostGator – Best for Features, Backups, and Domains

Our second-best VPS hosting provider is HostGator, also scoring 4.6 out of 5. Though its pricing is less cost-effective than Bluehost, HostGator makes up for it with powerful VPS plans and unbeatable help and support.

There are three VPS plans to choose between, ranging from $23.95 per month to $59.95 per month (billed annually). These are cheap introductory deals, so the plan will renew at a higher cost after the first year!

All HostGator VPS hosting plans include:

• 30-day money-back guarantee
• Root access
• Weekly backups
• Minimum of 2 CPU cores
• 2 dedicated IP addresses
• Unmetered bandwidth
• Unlimited email accounts
• Free SSL certificate

See more detail below on HostGator’s three VPS hosting plans:

3. InMotion – Reliable and Secure VPS Hosting

InMotion is one of the top VPS hosting providers out there, scoring 4.4 out of 5 and securing third place in our VPS research. Its plans offer an impressive number of CPU cores and RAM – plus unlimited bandwidth and free backups!

Although the discounted starter price is slightly more expensive than other providers at $24.99 per month (billed annually), InMotion is the second best option for VPS features out of all the hosting providers we tested. This means you’re getting a good return on your investment, and there are still discounts for new customers and longer subscription lengths.

InMotion’s four VPS hosting plans range from $24.99 to $59.99 (for a one year subscription).

All InMotion VPS hosting plans include:

• Free website transfers and data migration
• Resource monitoring visual dashboard (displaying your server’s RAM and usage)
• Root access
• High-availability servers
• Minimum of 2 CPU cores
• Minimum of two dedicated IP addresses
• 24/7 live customer support
• DDoS attack protection

Check out the key differences of InMotion’s VPS plans:

Perfect for Larger Businesses Dealing With Lots of Site Traffic

Dedicated web hosting refers to a physical server being “dedicated” to a single website owner. It provides you with the highest level of resource allocation and exclusive access to the server for top security and control. Hosting providers offer the whole environment to you and the service is completely managed. If you’re looking for top-level hosting that can handle your growth in site traffic, dedicated web hosting is ideal for you.

How Does Dedicated Hosting Work?

A hosting provider will lease you a custom-configured server, which you have total control over. Within that server, you’ll have access to large amounts of bandwidth, storage space and RAM – giving you everything you need to manage a large site. Unlike shared hosting, you don’t have to split your resources with other sites, which reduces the chances of your website crashing or having technical issues.

That’s right, let’s go back to our favorite house example – dedicated hosting is like having your own property. You have all of the space you need, but it comes with a hefty price tag. With that being said, we all know there are a bunch of perks to having your own house, so, in the world of dedicated hosting, let’s see what kind of benefits you can expect!

Dedicated Hosting Features

Now that you know how this type of hosting works, let’s dive into the features you can usually find with dedicated hosting plans:

• Money-back guarantee
• Minimum of 4 CPU cores
• Minimum of 8 CPU threads
• Minimum of 5 TB bandwidth
• Multiple location options
• Free SSL certificate
• Minimum of 3 IP addresses
• 24/7 customer support
• Minimum of 500 GB disk space
• High uptime performance level

Dedicated Hosting Pricing

Looking at the basic dedicated hosting plans, starting prices can range from anywhere between $45-$199 per month (billed annually).

It’s a lot more expensive than shared and VPS hosting, but this is offset by the top-level features you’ll receive in return.

Pros and Cons of Dedicated Web Hosting

Overall, we’d say that dedicated hosting is without a doubt the most expensive type of hosting on the market. But if your website is receiving mass amounts of traffic and needs some seriously generous storage space, dedicated hosting is right for you.

It’s important to note that shared hosting will take care of administration and management for you, whereas with dedicated hosting, you’ll need to know a thing or two about running your server effectively!

Still, if you think dedicated hosting is a good fit, then let’s take an in-depth look at our top-rated dedicated hosting providers. This way we can compare pricing points, features, and more…

We’ve pooled our in-house expertise to give you a full breakdown of our best dedicated hosting providers.

1. Bluehost – Best Overall Dedicated Hosting Provider

There are generally a lot of low-cost dedicated servers out there, but the problem you’ll find is that they compromise on quality and hosting features. This is why Bluehost stands out for us and secures its place as the best dedicated hosting provider, scoring 4.9 out of 5.

Its dedicated hosting plans are also the best value for money – it manages to offer a reasonable starting price without sacrificing any key features.

Bluehost has three dedicated hosting plans, ranging from $99.99 to $139.99 per month (billed annually). All plans come with the following impressive features:

• Free domain
• Free SSL certificate
• Improved security and site protection
• Root access
• Specialized dedicated hosting support
• cPanel dashboard

But, let’s see how the three plans differ from each other:

2. IONOS – Best for Affordability

IONOS takes the silver medal, scoring 4.7 out of 5 in our dedicated hosting research. It’s incredibly affordable, plus it has the best site speed and uptime performance of all the hosting providers we tested.

IONOS has a whopping eight dedicated hosting plans, separated evenly with SSD (solid state drives) and HDD (hard disk drives) options. Its plans are a little skewed by the incredibly cheap introductory offers, with 12-month plans ranging from $45-$140 per month. However, some of these deals only run for the first quarter or half of the contract!

Each dedicated hosting plan comes with:

• Unlimited traffic
• Free domain
• Free site scan (to check your website for malware and vulnerabilities)

And here’s how the eight plans differ:

3. HostGator – Best for Help and Support

With a score of 4.4 out of 5 for dedicated hosting, we have HostGator taking the bronze. Not only is it the best for help and support – a key selling point, especially since dedicated hosting can be a lot to handle – but HostGator’s dedicated hosting plans also offer incredible features, such as unlimited bandwidth.

There are three dedicated hosting plans, with starting prices on a 12-month contract ranging from $109.97 to $159.98 per month.

Expect to see the following features across all dedicated hosting plans:

• Unmetered bandwidth
• Root access
• Linux or Windows capabilities
• Advanced DDoS protection
• Premium dedicated hosting support

Check out the full breakdown of HostGator’s different dedicated server plans here:

Now, we have two additional types of hosting to share with you, though they’re less common than the four we’ve already discussed. We’re talking about cloud hosting and reseller hosting.

With cloud hosting, your site is stored on multiple servers, letting you take resources from various different places rather than just one server. This is a perfect hosting type for websites that experience different hikes and dips in traffic because it means you can pull the resources you need, whenever you need them! This makes cloud hosting extremely reliable and scalable, without the increased cost of dedicated hosting.

With reseller hosting, you pay for a plan and then sell its resources and space on the server to other businesses or individuals. The owner of any reseller hosting plan is essentially the middleman between a hosting provider and the website being hosted. It’s unlikely a personal website or small business would need this type of hosting, but if you’re looking to host clients or multiple websites, reseller hosting could be ideal.

… And that’s a wrap! We’ve given you a full breakdown of each type of web hosting, and we’ve outlined which hosting providers are best for each. Let’s take a quick look at the types to remind ourselves:

1. Shared hosting – ideal for single website hosting and new website owners
2. WordPress hosting – good for optimizing your WordPress site for speed, performance and security
3. VPS hosting – ideal for small business owners and personal websites that require allocated resources
4. Dedicated hosting – perfect for larger businesses dealing with huge amounts of traffic
5. Cloud hosting – perfect for sites that experience hikes and dips in traffic
6. Reseller hosting – ideal if you have multiple websites or need to host sites for clients

Whether you’re just looking to set up your personal website’s hosting for the first time, or are looking to switch things up for your large business site, we hope you’ve been able to differentiate between the different web hosting types to make the best decision for you. Good luck!