Renewal shock exposed: True 3-Year Cost shown for every host - no paid rankings.
True 3-Year Cost first. No paid rankings.

Compare hosting providers
for your website.

Compare 22 hosting providers by weighted metrics, true long-term cost, renewal pricing, support, and project fit - so you get the right answer, not the loudest advert.

The number that stops renewal shock True 3-Year Cost = first-year intro price plus two years of renewal pricing, shown before you choose.
Compare your needs → See renewal costs
22 hosts analysed| Renewal prices checked| 8-factor scoring| 100% independent
Server racks in a modern data centre
What we score
Speed
Uptime
Support
Features
Value
Security
Ease of use
Scalability
Weighted metrics

Performance, uptime, price, support, security, ease of use, scalability, and developer features are weighted before a recommendation wins.

Real cost

The True 3-Year Cost exposes the intro-price trap by combining year one pricing with two years of renewal rates.

Drill-down picks

Shortlist the hosts you care about, compare them side by side, and see the practical pros and cons before you buy.

What matters most to you?

Pick your priority and we'll show you the best hosts for it.

What kind of hosting do you need?

Click a category to filter the comparison — or read the plain-English explainer for each.

VPS Hosting
Need server control? Compare VPS providers on Best VPS Match.

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Three questions. We'll recommend the right category and top providers.

What's your monthly budget?
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Top hosting picks (June 2026)

Editorial scores out of 100. A different winner for each priority — no single "best" for everyone.

Hosting guides

Plain-English guides for every situation — each with editorial picks and the real 3-year cost.

Cheapest hosting Best WordPress hosting Renewal price trap For beginners For small business For agencies For nonprofits For high traffic Reseller hosting Green / eco hosting

Popular head-to-head comparisons

The matchups people search most — scored side by side, with the real 3-year cost.

Hostinger vs Bluehost Hostinger vs SiteGround SiteGround vs Bluehost Kinsta vs WP Engine Cloudways vs Kinsta DreamHost vs Bluehost Hostinger vs Namecheap

Compare all 22 providers

Sortable. The True 3-Year Cost column shows what you actually pay — intro year plus two renewal years.

+ Provider Our Score iWeighted across 8 factors: Performance 25%, Uptime 20%, Price 20%, Support 15%, Security 10%, Ease 5%, Scalability 3%, Dev 2%. Performance iHow fast your site loads. Based on TTFB, Core Web Vitals, and CDN. Entry Price iIntroductory price for the first term. Renewal rates are often higher. Renewal iWhat you pay after the first term. Many providers increase this significantly. True 3-Yr Cost iThe real cost: 12 months at the intro price + 24 months at renewal. The number nobody else shows. Uptime SLA iGuaranteed uptime. 99.9% = ~9 hours downtime per year. Support Best For Visit
Kinsta wordpress
Premium managed WordPress on Google Cloud C2 — best performance
 89/100 96/100 $35.00/mo $35.00/mo $1,260over 3 years 99.9% 24/7 Premium WordPress performance Visit
Cloudways cloud
Managed multi-cloud — choose DigitalOcean, Vultr, AWS, or GCP
 89/100 92/100 $11.00/mo $11.00/mo $396over 3 years 99.99% 24/7 Agencies, developers, high-traffic WordPress Visit
SiteGround shared
Industry-leading support and performance — worth the premium
 88/100 92/100 $3.99/mo $14.99/mo $408over 3 years 99.9% 24/7 Sites that need top-tier support Visit
Hostinger shared
Affordable hosting with custom hPanel — best for beginners
 87/100 82/100 $2.99/mo $9.99/mo $276over 3 years 99.9% 24/7 Beginners & budget sites Visit
DigitalOcean cloud
Best developer ecosystem — App Platform, managed k8s, one-click deploys
 87/100 86/100 $6.00/mo $6.00/mo $216over 3 years 99.99% 24/7 Developers building custom applications Visit
Vultr cloud
32 global locations, high-frequency NVMe, GPU instances
 87/100 90/100 $6.00/mo $6.00/mo $216over 3 years 99.99% 24/7 High-performance global deployments Visit
Linode (Akamai) cloud
Enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure, now backed by Akamai CDN
 87/100 86/100 $5.00/mo $5.00/mo $180over 3 years 99.99% 24/7 Enterprise infrastructure with CDN edge Visit
WP Engine wordpress
EverCache technology, Genesis framework — enterprise WordPress
 86/100 92/100 $20.00/mo $20.00/mo $720over 3 years 99.95% 24/7 Enterprise WordPress, eCommerce Visit
Rocket.net wordpress
Cloudflare Enterprise network — fastest edge delivery for WordPress
 86/100 94/100 $30.00/mo $30.00/mo $1,080over 3 years 99.9% 24/7 Security-focused, high-speed WordPress Visit
Liquid Web dedicated
"Most helpful humans in hosting" — best support for dedicated servers
 86/100 92/100 $150.00/mo $150.00/mo $5,400over 3 years 100% 24/7 Mission-critical applications needing best-in-class support Visit
Pressable wordpress
Automattic-owned managed WordPress — the WordPress.com enterprise tier
 85/100 88/100 $25.00/mo $25.00/mo $900over 3 years 99.9% 24/7 WordPress sites wanting Automattic reliability Visit
Flywheel wordpress
Agency-first WordPress hosting with white-label client billing
 85/100 86/100 $15.00/mo $15.00/mo $540over 3 years 99.9% 24/7 Freelancers and agencies managing client sites Visit
Hetzner cloud
Exceptional value in Europe — GDPR-native, NVMe at absurdly low prices
 85/100 85/100 $4.00/mo $4.00/mo $144over 3 years 99.9% Limited European developers wanting best price per spec Visit
A2 Hosting shared
Turbo speed option delivers NVMe performance at shared pricing
 83/100 86/100 $2.99/mo $11.99/mo $324over 3 years 99.9% 24/7 Speed-focused shared hosting Visit
GreenGeeks shared
300% renewable energy offset — ethical hosting without compromise
 83/100 80/100 $2.95/mo $10.95/mo $298over 3 years 99.9% 24/7 Eco-conscious website owners Visit
Bluehost shared
Official WordPress-recommended host — great for new WP sites
 82/100 78/100 $2.95/mo $11.99/mo $323over 3 years 99.9% 24/7 New WordPress sites Visit
DreamHost shared
97-day money-back guarantee and transparent renewal pricing
 82/100 76/100 $2.59/mo $4.95/mo $150over 3 years 100% Limited Budget-conscious WordPress sites Visit
InMotion Hosting shared
90-day money-back guarantee with solid US-based support
 82/100 78/100 $2.99/mo $8.99/mo $252over 3 years 99.9% 24/7 US-based sites needing reliable support Visit
IONOS Dedicated dedicated
Affordable dedicated servers with phone support from £65/mo
 80/100 82/100 $65.00/mo $65.00/mo $2,340over 3 years 99.99% 24/7 Budget dedicated — entry-level without the Liquid Web premium Visit
IONOS shared
Cheapest entry price in shared hosting — bare-bones but functional
 79/100 70/100 $1.00/mo $8.00/mo $204over 3 years 99.9% 24/7 Absolute budget minimum Visit
HostGator shared
Budget-friendly household name — simple and reliable
 78/100 72/100 $3.75/mo $10.95/mo $308over 3 years 99.9% 24/7 Simple, no-fuss shared hosting Visit
Namecheap shared
Cheap domain + hosting bundle — lowest renewal pricing
 78/100 72/100 $1.98/mo $4.48/mo $131over 3 years 99.9% 24/7 Ultra-budget first website Visit

New to hosting? Start here

Plain-English explainers. Click to expand the technical detail when you want it.

What is web hosting? +

Short version: Web hosting is where your website lives — like renting space on the internet. When someone visits your site, the hosting provider delivers your pages to their browser.

When you buy hosting, you're renting space on a server — a powerful computer that stays online 24/7. Your website files (HTML, images, code) live on that server. When someone types your domain name, the server sends those files to their browser.

Shared hosting is like an apartment building (many sites share one server). VPS is like a townhouse (dedicated space, some sharing). Dedicated is like a single-family home (the whole server is yours). If you specifically need VPS control, use Best VPS Match.

Shared vs WordPress vs Cloud vs VPS vs Dedicated +
TypeBest forProsConsPrice
SharedBeginners, small blogsCheap, easySlower, neighbours affect you$2–15/mo
WordPressWordPress sitesOptimised, often managedWP-only, pricier$10–50/mo
CloudGrowing sitesScalable, pay-as-you-goMore complex$5–50/mo
VPSDevelopers, high trafficDedicated resources, controlNeeds technical knowledge; compare separately at Best VPS Match$5–100/mo
DedicatedEnterprise, huge trafficFull control, max performanceExpensive, needs sysadmin$80–500+/mo
What to look for in a hosting provider +
  • Uptime — 99.9% minimum. If your site is down, you lose visitors and money.
  • Speed — TTFB under 200ms, Core Web Vitals pass. Slow sites lose rankings.
  • Support — 24/7 live chat or phone for when something breaks.
  • Price — check the renewal price, not just the intro. The cheapest isn't always best.
  • Backups — daily automatic backups, 30-day retention.
  • SSL — free SSL included (Let's Encrypt). Encrypts visitor data.
  • Money-back guarantee — 30 days minimum for a risk-free trial.
The renewal price trap — read this before you buy +

Introductory prices are discounts to attract new customers. After the first term, you pay the standard (renewal) rate — often 3–8× higher. Hostinger's $2.99 becomes $9.99. SiteGround's $3.99 becomes $14.99.

That's why our table shows the True 3-Year Cost: 12 months at the intro price plus 24 months at renewal. It's the single most honest number when comparing hosts.

→ See the full renewal price comparison

Hosting questions, answered

Simple answers for beginners, with detail for pros.