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Best Web Hosting Companies for 2019

The Best Web Hosting Companies Updated for 2019

Here are our annual rankings for the best web hosting company for 2019. The tech world is a rapidly-evolving landscape and web hosts are not a small part of it. It wasn’t so long ago that your choices for hosting were either GoDaddy or Network Solutions. The few companies available weren’t concerned with things like customer satisfaction, performance, or anything else beyond making money.

Fast forward to today and that world is virtually unrecognizable. There are hundreds of hosting choices now…and every one of them tend to have a few coupons flying around to entice new customers.

Not only that, but there are also lots of types of hosting: from regular shared hosting, VPS, Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, among many others. You used to have options: shared or dedicated.
Skip past our rankings and discover how we ranked the web hosts.

The Top Web Hosts for 2019:

#:

Host:

Features:

Score:

Visit:

-Free Domain Name
-Unlimited Bandwidth
-25% off custom coupon code
-30-day money back guarantee
-renewal rate lock
-two free website builders
Speed:
4.95 Stars (4.95 / 5)
Uptime:
4.75 Stars (4.75 / 5)
Customer Service:
4.85 Stars (4.85 / 5)
Read More
Visit Hostmetro

2.

- unlimited databases
- unlimited FTP accounts
- Free Domain and 2 Free Months
- SSD Drive (15x Faster)
90-day money back guarantee
Speed:
4.90 Stars (4.90 / 5)
Uptime:
4.00 Stars (4.00 / 5)
Customer Service:
4.55 Stars (4.55 / 5)
Read More
Visit A Small Orange

3.

- Fastest Server Response Time
- Secure shell access
- Unlimited Domain Hosting
- Fast Online Support
Speed:
5.00 Stars (5.00 / 5)
Uptime:
4.45 Stars (4.45 / 5)
Customer Service:
4.25 Stars (4.25 / 5)
Read More
Visit Bluehost

4.

- Seamless Cloudflare Integration
- 100% Uptime Guarantee
- Green Hosting
Speed:
3.75 Stars (3.75 / 5)
Uptime:
5.00 Stars (5.00 / 5)
Customer Service:
4.45 Stars (4.45 / 5)
Read More
Visit Dreamhost

5.


- Free Domain Name
- Free Website Builder
- Free Toll-Free Phone Number
- 100% Wind Energy Powered
- Customer Service in <1 minute
Speed:
4.6 Stars (4.6 / 5)
Uptime:
4.00 Stars (4.00 / 5)
Customer Service:
4.75 Stars (4.75 / 5)
Read More
Visit Fatcow

6.

- 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
- Linux or Windows Hosting
- Free Domain Name
- Cpanel
Speed:
4.85 Stars (4.85 / 5)
Uptime:
4.65 Stars (4.65 / 5)
Customer Service:
3.50 Stars (3.50 / 5)
Read More
Visit GoDaddy

7.

- Business Friendly Features
- Easy Scalability
- Built-in helpdesk software
Speed:
4.60 Stars (4.60 / 5)
Uptime:
4.50 Stars (4.50 / 5)
Customer Service:
4.60 Stars (4.60 / 5)
Read More
Visit Lunarpages

8.

- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Unlimited Domains
- Free Domain Name
- State of the Art Datacenters
- Anytime Money Back Guarantee
Speed:
4.70 Stars (4.70 / 5)
Uptime:
3.80 Stars (3.80 / 5)
Customer Service:
4.25 Stars (4.25 / 5)
Read More
Visit iPage

9.

- Integration with Cloudflare
- Free Domain Name
- Personal, Business and eCommerce Hosting
- Unlimited Domains
Speed:
4.75 Stars (4.75 / 5)
Uptime:
3.60 Stars (3.60 / 5)
Customer Service:
4.00 Stars (4.00 / 5)
Read More
Visit Myhosting.com

10.

- Free Domain Name
- Personal and Business Hosting Plans
- Free Website Builder
- Unlimited Bandwidth
Speed:
3.95 Stars (3.95 / 5)
Uptime:
4.35 Stars (4.35 / 5)
Customer Service:
4.00 Stars (4.00 / 5)
Read More
Visit Netfirms

Here’s how we rank the hosts:

Hosting Speed and Performance:

server response time test

An example speed test.

In many of our online polls, our readers suggested that ‘Making Your Website Run Fast’ is the number #1 thing people consider important when choosing a host. But how do you know which hosting company is the fastest?

We created a massive testing platform: we added dozens of websites to multiple servers across many hosting companies. Then we tested these websites to check on factors like ‘Server Response Time’, among other factors.

To conduct the tests, we used Websitepulse.com to check server response times. Of course these response times vary from moment to moment, so each of these websites were tested multiple times per day over the course of three weeks.

All of our test websites were added to shared servers.

Who’s The Fastest Host? Bluehost

Bluehost was the overall winner, with an average response time of ‘0.079 sec’. Hostmetro came in a close second, with 0.096 sec average response time.

Customer Support:

Since we were signed up with these hosting companies, we tested out their customer support via two methods: 1. response time for phone calls, and 2. response time for online support.

1. Phone Support

we made multiple phone calls during the morning, afternoon and evening and then calculated the average time it would take before actually speaking to a person. A lot of terrible country music was listened to, but it was all in the name of creating good data.

Winner: Fatcow

It took an average of 56 seconds before speaking to a real person. When you first set up a hosting plan with Fatcow, they also call you a couple of days later to see how you’re doing and offer advice.

2. Online Support

With some hosts you are able to open a chat window and connect to a live person. We counted how long it took before connecting to a real person. Other hosts, like Godaddy, only allow you to submit ‘support tickets’, where responses can come hours (and in one case, over a day) before a response.

Winner: Bluehost

Bluehost is a bit contradictory in that the phone support takes a long, long time to connect with a real person. But online support was the quickest (obviously they want you to use the online system). So it depends on what kind of support you think you will need for your website.

Website Uptime

We used tools from Monitor.us to track the uptime of our websites. Monitor.us checks the websites each 30 minutes to ensure that they are still up and running. While our sample size is too small to truly generalize to the whole, our data can again give you a sense of what your experience will be like with a given host.

Winner: Tie Between Hostmetro and Dreamhost

Both sites scored a perfect 100% uptime during our three week testing period. Dreamhost isn’t surprising, considering it has a 100% uptime guarantee. But Hostmetro, a small shared hosting company, managed to rank at the top of every test we threw at them.

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