Getting the best shared hosting means you’ll get an affordable price with fast performance and enough room to grow. Typically, the best shared hosts offer Linux-based servers that use solid-state drives (SSD), which are faster than electromechanical hard disk drives.
They’re also flexible, allowing you to pay on a month-to-month basis rather than locking yourself into a long-term contract.
1. Speed
The speed of your website is a critical factor in how well your site will perform and attract visitors. It is a key component of user experience and also influences search engine optimization. Therefore, it is important that you select a hosting provider that has a track record of providing fast loading times for websites hosted on their servers.
iPage offers shared hosting at cheap rates that are competitive with other providers. Their plans come with a drag-and-drop page builder, basic shared SSL, and good customer support. They also offer discounts when you sign up for longer term lengths, such as one or two years.
A2 Hosting is another fast web host that offers shared hosting at cheap rates. They use blazing fast servers and LighSpeed webservers to provide a great website performance for their customers. They have been focused on fast page loads long before Google made it a ranking signal. Their servers are also backed up by a robust network that provides resiliency and fast speeds.
2. Security
As its name suggests, shared hosting allows multiple websites to share a physical server. This can be a great option for smaller scale businesses or individuals on a budget. However, many people worry about security with this type of hosting.
Fortunately, the best shared hosting providers are committed to keeping their servers safe. These hosts offer a range of security features, including user account isolation, fast patching, and multiple hosting locations.
Bluehost is a well-known shared hosting provider with top tier services and affordable plans. Their basic Mini plan offers unmetered bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, unlimited DBs and emails, and daily backups for one website. Their more advanced plans include a free domain and real-time malware protection for unlimited websites. They also offer a cPanel control panel and support for a wide variety of content management systems.
3. Scalability
When websites have high traffic, they need a large amount of resources to perform well. Since the resources on a shared server are limited, the websites that use more than their share may slow down or even crash. In this case, website owners need to consider other types of hosting with more resources.
The best shared hosting providers have scalable plans, allowing you to upgrade your resources when needed. This allows you to host your site for a longer period of time, without worrying about the impact on performance or cost.
If you’re a beginner, then you should check out the cheap shared hosting offered by Hostinger. This provider has a user-friendly interface and affordable prices, making it ideal for beginners. It also offers excellent tech support through chat and email. This company is located in multiple data centers across the world, which provides lightning-fast website performance and reliable uptime. It also offers unlimited storage space and bandwidth, a free domain name, and a drag-and-drop website builder.
4. Customer Support
A great shared hosting service isn’t just about speed and uptime, but also has to offer a solid customer support team. It’s important to find a web host that offers 24/7 live chat and phone support, so if you ever run into any issues with your website you can get help right away.
HostGator is a big player in the world of shared hosting, offering an intuitive interface that makes building your website easy and quick. They also have a range of cheap plans, but you’ll need to sign up for longer term lengths to make the most of them.
Hostinger is another big shared hosting provider, and has a wide range of affordable paid plans starting at $1.99 per month (via an offer at the time of writing). They’ve got good quality technical support via live chat and email, plus smart extras like a free domain name and basic SSL. Their performance levels are also pretty strong.