Hosting shared websites means exactly what it means: you share a server with other users who run their own websites from that material. Each client receives a portion of this physical server for their own use.
The main strength lies in the fact that it is a cost-effective solution and since you are willing to share materials with others, you will naturally play less than the dedicated expense of dedicated hosting. .
In the same way, it also shares resources with others, which means the performance you'll get will probably be a bit slower (or less consistent).
This might be suitable for low-traffic sites, but could be a problem if your bandwidth requirements are higher or more reliable and consistent performance is a priority for your website.
So of course, keep all that in mind, but if you want to go down the shared hosting route to save, what are the best providers to choose? Read on and find out.
1. InMotion Hosting
Feature-rich shared hosting by a professional firm
Excellent performance
Excellent technical support
90-day money back guarantee
Please note that the packages of this popular web hosting service are marketed as "professional" products because they apply to both individual users and businesses. There's a good range of options here, with shared hosting starting from $3.99 (£3.1) a month (2-year package).
What is also good to see here is that InMotion builds features into its shared hosting plans that other providers charge additional fees for, such as protection against hacking and DDoS attacks, a basic backup system, and a WordPress-based website builder.
Another highlight here is the way this web host provides full details of all its services on the website, and makes it easy to compare features and make decisions when you start your subscription.
You also benefit from hosting with cPanel and Softaculous, as well as exceptional technical support. In our tests, we found that this provider offered impressive performance when it came to site load speeds. Overall, there are plenty of reasons to use InMotion and a 90-day money-back guarantee doesn't hurt either.
nice accommodation
Easy to use
SSL included at all levels
1&1 IONOS (end of October 2018, 1&1 has changed its name and is now called 1&1 IONOS) is a major player in web hosting vying with GoDaddy for world domination and that is the biggest player. of Europe. Located in Germany, it offers a bewildering range of services, at prices as low as $0.99 per month (excluding VAT) (this amount increases to $7.99 after the first year).
On top of this, this shared web hosting offers smart freebies (free domain, SSL certificates for all plans, free web design software (NetObjects Fusion 2013), 24/7 email and phone support, a graphic file , a 7-day money-back guarantee period, seamless replication (the company calls it geo-redundancy), and gargantuan 30 Gbps network connectivity. You also get a free personal advisor.
Fast service
Friendly website builder
cpanel linux hosting
The US based web hosting company is one of the biggest in the game and probably the best known as well. It is also the largest domain name registrar in the world, with tens of millions of domain names in its portfolio. GoDaddy's cheapest web hosting package is $7.99 per month (at the time of writing, there was a special price for the first year: $2.99 per month).
This provider offers free backup and restore, availability guarantee (99.9%), unlimited storage (albeit 100 GB for the Economy package), unlimited bandwidth, and a free domain with the annual plan. shared hosting.
A very cool feature provided by GoDaddy in all of their packages is the ability to increase the hosting capacity on demand (for example, when you experience a sudden spike in traffic) of your account. ; accommodation.
tempting prices
helpful support
softaculous app installer
If you want to do web hosting on a budget, then as the name of this provider suggests, budget is the goal. You get an impressive price-performance ratio with Namecheap, especially with an initial discount for the first year, and there are some heavyweight plans here.
Keep in mind, however, that the starter "Value" plan only gets you 20 GB of disk space and 30 email accounts, but you get it at a price of $2.88 per month.
Namecheap offers a 99.9% connectivity guarantee. This is a very easy service to set up, with a first welcome message pointing you in the right direction for anything you might need (backed up by an awesome FAQ). It also hosts an excellent searchable knowledge base.
To conclude, tests have shown that this company generally offers speeds above the average of its competitors, making it a great hosting provider for those who don't want to hurt their wallet too much.
Various ranges of plans.
superior performance
High quality support
Based in London, right in the middle of the home territory (Shoreditch), UK2 offers a very cheap shared hosting package starting at around €2.5 (£1.95) per month excluding VAT (although the amount is €7.8 (£5.95) per month). It also offers affordable unlimited plans with unlimited email, bandwidth, a free SSL certificate (great for improving security and search visibility), a free domain, and a dedicated IP address.
Potential customers will appreciate the lack of installation costs or hidden costs, the 30-day money-back guarantee, as well as 24/7 UK phone support via a toll free and data center phone number on the United Kingdom.
6. Host Gator
Powerful web hosting and reasonable prices to start
Many options
Marked absence of boring limits.
CPanel hosting management
This is another host that caters to the more budget-conscious, and of course, that's never a bad thing. Note that you only get really low prices when you sign up for longer contracts with HostGator, it takes a commitment to achieve the best savings here.
For example, the cheapest shared hosting package is $2.64 per month if you sign up for 36 months, but $4.48 per month if you sign up for a year.
The good news is that you get what you pay for and there are no inconvenient limitations. So even the basic package allows for unlimited bandwidth, web space, email accounts, and more. Also worth looking at is a 99,9% uptime guarantee.
Customer support is generally pretty good, although it is divided in some areas, for example the web help forums are not moderated by the company itself, and we found performance to be better than average in terms of site load time .
Many smart features
fast technical support
Limited amount of web space
SiteGround offers low-cost shared hosting plans that may cost a bit more than some of the rival hosts you'll find on this page, but the bottom line is that they include all the essential features you're likely to need.
The Business Starter account starts at $3.95 per month (with increasing cost during renewal), giving you unlimited traffic, email accounts, databases, and installation. In one-click applications like WordPress. It also includes features that rival companies often charge for extras, like daily backups or CDN features (Cloudflare).
The provider's SuperCacher system, which caches frequently accessed data in RAM, is intended to improve site performance. This could certainly help busy websites.
However, not everything is rosy here. For example, the base account limits you to 10 GB of web space. Also, website support through the company's knowledge base is a pretty mediocre experience, but there are other tech support opportunities that work much better.
Unlimited web space, domains, databases.
Simple website builder is provided
Neat live chat support
It's a high-end web host with a very comprehensive 'Essentials' plan, offering plenty of features and ideal for those who want to host multiple websites (or those who want enough room to grow).
With prices starting at $1.99 per month for the base shared hosting package (via an offer at the time of writing), iPage offers unlimited web space and bandwidth, unlimited email addresses, MySQL databases, and even domains.
Additionally, iPage comes with some very clever extras like a drag and drop page builder, with a basic shared SSL certificate added. This provider also offers quality technical support via live chat and email (although other means of support are not as powerful).
Performance levels look solid and this is definitely a web host to consider for experienced users running a large number of sites.
High Value Budget Account
Well designed control panel
Somewhat limited product range
One of the smaller web hosting suites on this list, PlanetHippo has managed to keep its prices lower than most of its competitors. One Account Linux shared hosting costs just 1.33 USD (£1) per month (excluding VAT) and is an attractive budget. The company's unlimited plan offers "unlimited everything" for $8 (£5.99) per month (and this includes a free domain).
As with other web hosts, you get 30 days, 24/7 UK support (and good quality, though no phone facility) and all PlanetHippo servers are UK based . Add a well-designed hosting panel and you can't go wrong with this provider.
Flexible plans and options.
Transparent pricing
Free daily backups
This is another UK based provider, and Tsohost also plays the value card, with an entry-level starter shared hosting plan that starts at $3.8 (£2.92) per month (if you sign up for two years, that's $4.15 (£3.16) per month if you commits for one year only.). This plan limits you to 15 GB of storage and you get unlimited bandwidth, Let's Encrypt SSL, and hundreds of mailboxes.
Tsohost tech support may not be the fastest in terms of response time, at least in our experience, but they have provided clear and accurate answers to queries. Performance is also solid, and the company offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.