Every provider is scored across 8 weighted factors using public, verifiable data, true long-term cost, and practical project fit. No paid placement. No first-person lab tests.
Scoring rubric v1.0 locked 12 June 2026. Part of BestMatch Group.
Performance matters more than developer tooling for most users, so the score reflects real decision weight.
Intro price, renewal price, included features, and three-year cost all influence value.
The best host for a beginner is not automatically the best host for an agency or developer.
Affiliate status is separate from scoring. Paid placement is not accepted.
| Factor | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | 25% | Editorial performance estimate (being re-sourced; see the note below) |
| Uptime / Reliability | 20% | SLA guarantees, historical uptime, redundancy |
| Price / Value | 20% | Entry price vs renewal price, included features |
| Support | 15% | 24/7 availability, channels, response-time reputation |
| Security | 10% | Free SSL, backups, DDoS protection, WAF, malware removal |
| Ease of Use | 5% | Control panel, one-click installs, onboarding |
| Scalability | 3% | Upgrade paths, resource limits, vertical scaling |
| Developer Features | 2% | SSH, staging environments, git, WP-CLI, API |
The weighted score is simply each factor's 0–100 score multiplied by its weight, summed, and rounded. A provider scoring 90 on Performance contributes 22.5 points (90 × 0.25) to its total.
The single most important number we show that almost nobody else does. Introductory prices are discounts to win new customers — the renewal rate is what you actually pay long-term, often 3–8× higher.
Example: Hostinger looks cheaper than SiteGround at the headline ($2.99 vs $3.99). But over three years: Hostinger $276 vs SiteGround $408 — the gap is real, and now you can see it before you buy.
| Scenario | How we score it |
|---|---|
| No published SLA | Score 70 (baseline), noted as "SLA not published" |
| No renewal price shown | Value scored lower, noted as "renewal price unclear" |
| No staging / dev-tool info | Developer Features scored lower |
| Conflicting data | Most recent or most authoritative source wins |
We draw on provider documentation, published SLA terms and public pricing pages. We are rebuilding how we source performance data, so rankings that depend on the performance score are provisional until the re-sourced data is published.
Best Hosting Match uses the same operating philosophy as Best AI Match, Best VPN Match, Best VPS Match, and Best Robot Match: transparent weighted metrics, real costs, practical diagnostics, and no paid ranking control. Each vertical has its own weights because each decision has different risks. The group hub is bestmatchgroup.com.