As a small business owner, you’ll want a hosting plan that can power your website without any issues. Ideally, your web host is able to keep your site secure and ensure that it runs smoothly at all times. But with so many hosting companies on the market, it can be difficult to choose the right one for your business.
It’s important to find the best web hosting service that provides enough resources to support your small business website. These solutions often come with advanced security features, high uptime, and optimized servers which enable you to capture maximum traffic and revenue.
In this post, we’ll take a look at key factors to consider when choosing a web hosting provider. Then, we’ll explore three of the best web hosting services for small businesses. Let’s jump in!
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Web Hosting Provider
A web hosting provider will store your website files on their server and make your content publicly accessible. But beyond this basic service, there are several factors to consider when choosing web hosting for small business owners.
Security Features
If you run an ecommerce website, it’s especially important to choose a web hosting provider with robust security features.
Your site likely handles lots of sensitive information like personal details and credit card numbers. Suffering a data breach is a quick way to lose customer trust and damage your business reputation.
Therefore, you’ll need a web hosting service that properly protects your data and helps reduce security risks like malware infections and distributed detail of service (DDoS) attacks.
For example, the best web hosting for small businesses will include regular backups to keep your data safe and secure. You can also find more advanced measures like web application firewalls (which filter web traffic) as well as round-the-clock vulnerability scanning.
Uptime
On top of this, you’ll want a hosting provider that guarantees at least 99.99 percent uptime. Uptime refers to the amount of time that your site is available and operational.
In an ideal world, web hosting providers would promise 100 percent uptime, but circumstances like server maintenance and IT failures make this impossible. That said, it’s important that your site doesn’t go down too often. Otherwise, you can lose out on significant amounts of traffic and revenue.
This is also why many small business owners prefer managed WordPress hosting or dedicated hosting solutions. Although shared hosting is the most affordable option, you’ll have to share resources with other websites.
This means you’ll be less equipped to deal with traffic spikes which have the potential to crash your website. Or, if another website on the server receives a high volume of traffic, it can destabilize the entire server and lead to performance or security issues.
Performance
Performance is also a key consideration for small business owners. Slow loading times are more likely to result in high bounce rates. This will impact your search rankings, and it will also create a poor user experience (UX) which might encourage visitors to exit your site and flock to your competitors.
The best web hosting for small businesses tends to offer a bunch of speed-focused features. Besides an optimized server environment, some hosting providers will provide built-in caching solutions. You might also get access to a content delivery network (CDN) or on-the-fly image optimization.
Cost
Most popular web hosting services offer a range of plans. Typically, higher-priced packages will include more resources to support high volumes of traffic. They also provide access to advanced features and premium customer support.
While cost is a critical factor, it’s essential to prioritize value for money. You’ll find that managed hosting plans often bundle together essential elements like a free domain name and SSL certificates. This can help you save costs and it makes for a more convenient solution.
3 Best Web Hosting Services for Small Businesses
Now that you’re aware of some key factors to look for in a web host, let’s explore the best web hosting for small business websites.
#1. NameHero
NameHero provides a range of packages for shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting, and even dedicated WooCommerce hosting. Nearly all of these plans come with a free SSL certificate to encrypt data on your site.
NameHero also promises at least 99.9 percent uptime which it has upheld since 2015. Meanwhile, with a high-performance web server and built-in caching technology, you can deliver super fast loading times. And, the support team is available 24/7, which provides total peace of mind if you encounter issues.
One of the reasons why NameHero is so great for small business websites is that you’ll receive an unmatched security service. This includes a web application firewall, real-time malware scans, and auto-application patching. It’s also easy to set up a custom website domain and matching email domain.
Features
- Easy-to-use cPanel dashboard
- Free SSL certificates
- Free domain name (with some plans)
- Free website migration
- Free LiteSpeed caching
- Personalized Security Shield
- 24/7 support
- 99.9 percent uptime
- Daily backups
- Automatic updates
Price
You can get started with a NameHero web hosting plan for just $1.34 per month. Although, the Business Cloud solution is ideal for small business owners, which costs $5.99 per month.
#2. HostGator
Like NameHero, HostGator offers a range of hosting plans and domains. Every package comes with a free domain (for one year), a free SSL certificate, chat support, and a professional email.
That said, performance features are limited to a content delivery network (CDN), which isn’t available with every plan. Additionally, the security service is extremely lacking. Malware scans are available but you’ll need the most expensive package to access daily backups (and these are only free for the first year).
However, if you have a larger budget, you can opt for specialist ecommerce hosting which is a more comprehensive service. You’ll get access to automatic updates, secure online payments, website analytics, and a whole suite of ecommerce tools.
Features
- cPanel access
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain name (for the first year)
- 24/7 support (limited to chat support with some plans)
- 99 percent uptime
- Basic email
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Malware scanning
- Cloudflare CDN (with some plans)
- Daily backups (with some plans and limited to just one year free)
Price
You can get started with HostGator for just $3.75 per month, but the Business Plan costs $6.25 per month. That said, small businesses will be better off with the Online Store plan which costs $9.95 per month.
#3. GoDaddy
GoDaddy is well-known in the web hosting world. Besides offering a range of hosting plans, GoDaddy provides domains, emails, SSL certificates, and even a website builder.
It’s important to note that GoDaddy’s prices are slightly steeper than some other web hosting services. Every hosting solution comes with a one-click WordPress installation, daily backups, a free domain, email, and SSL certificates.
GoDaddy is a particularly great option if you’re concerned about performance. You’ll get optimized servers that promise 40 percent faster response times.
Additionally, GoDaddy has data centers located across the globe to facilitate speedy page load times, regardless of where your visitors are based.
Features
- Easy-to-use cPanel
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain name
- Free email
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Daily backups
- Free migration tool
- Global data centers
- Around-the-clock DDoS protection
- 99.99 percent uptime guarantee
Price
GoDaddy’s hosting plans start at $6.99 per month. The managed WordPress hosting is slightly more expensive, with prices starting at $8.99 per month.
Conclusion
A web hosting service will store important site files and serve your content when visitors request it. But there are some variations in the availability, performance, and security of hosting servers. These factors are extremely important when selecting the right web hosting provider for a small business website.
To recap, here are three of the best web hosting options for a small business:
- NameHero: Best all-round web hosting company with high uptime and an advanced security shield.
- HostGator: Lacks performance and security features, but makes a decent starter solution for small businesses.
- GoDaddy: While slightly more expensive, GoDaddy is an excellent performance-focused web host with super fast server response times.
Do you have any questions about how to choose a reliable web hosting provider for small business sites? Let us know in the comments below!
Sophia is a staff writer at WordCandy.co, where she produces quality blog content for WordPress plugin and theme developers, hosting providers, website development and design agencies, and other online businesses.
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