Have you been burned by a few shared hosting services in the past?
Shared hosting has a bad reputation for being cheap yet highly unreliable. This is the result of so many hosts offering poor quality for years.
Fortunately, things have changed, and there are multiple quality shared hosts offering cheap hosting services without foregoing quality.
In this post, we’ll review seven such hosts, going over the plans and features they offer while also showcasing their cheapest prices.
The best shared hosting services compared – TL;DR
In a rush? Here’s what you need to know about these shared web hosts.
- DreamHost – Our go-to recommendation for shared web hosting. Ideal for beginners.
- A2 Hosting – Great all-round shared hosting provider. Great features and great support.
- Siteground – Popular shared hosting that includes developer friendly features.
- Hostinger – Budget friendly and feature-rich hosting.
- HostWithLove – Great shared hosting provider that offers dedicated resources for each account.
- WPX Hosting – WordPress managed hosting. It is technically shared but can support high volumes of traffic. Includes malware scanning, malware removal and a CDN.
- InMotion Hosting – Popular shared hosting that won’t break the bank.
Now, let’s take a look at each web host in more detail.
1. DreamHost
DreamHost is another host recommended by WordPress themselves. It was founded in 1996 and has been well-known in the shared hosting industry ever since, especially after WordPress launched in 2003.
Like other hosts who favor WordPress over other content management systems, DreamHost has two shared hosting services: one for any CMS and one for WordPress, though the former does come with WordPress preinstalled if you so choose. Unfortunately, installations aren’t as simple with other apps.
These services are nearly identical due to DreamHost’s preference towards WordPress. Each one has two plans meant for small and medium-sized sites. Traffic and bandwidth are unmetered for both plans, but site storage is limited to 50GB with the low-tier plan and unlimited for the high tier.
Subdomains, FTP users and databases are limited to just a handful for the low tier and upgraded to unlimited for the high tier. A free SSL certificate is also available for the cheaper plan but preinstalled on the higher one.
All plans receive automatic daily backups and automatic updates for WordPress core.
Developers and advanced users have access to FTP, SFTP and shell, multiple PHP versions, support for Rails, Python and Perl, raw log files, and more. DreamHosts also uses its own control panel.
As a cheaper shared host, DreamHost’s features are stripped down compared to SiteGround’s. You can restore your site from a backup if something goes wrong, for instance, but only five days worth of backups are available at a time and the host makes no guarantee that one will be available at all. They actually recommend you to set up your own offsite backups.
Caching and other performance tools are not offered, nor is staging. Plus, security is offered as a paid in-house application.
Key features
- 1 to unlimited sites per plan.
- Unmetered traffic and bandwidth.
- 50GB to unlimited SSD storage.
- Daily automatic backups.
- Free SSL certificate.
- Migration available.
- WordPress preinstalled.
- Automatic WordPress core updates.
- Free website builder developed by DreamHost.
- Email hosting available or included.
Pricing
DreamHost offers two plans per shared hosting service and three ways to pay for them. The cheapest plan costs $4.95/month for three months then $6.99 for each subsequent month. Annual plans cost $47.49.
2. A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is another host with a preference toward WordPress despite supporting other content management systems through cPanel. As such, it should come as no surprise to learn that this host offers a shared hosting service for multiple CMSs and another for WordPress.
Each service has four plans with varying features and specs. The first two plans use standard SSDs with 100GB offered on the first plan and unlimited storage offered on all other plans. The top-tier plans use M.2 SSDs, a newer standard considered to be more efficient.
The cheapest plan is designed for one small website while all other tiers support unlimited websites. The second tier has “2x more resources” while the third and fourth tiers have “turbo servers with 20x more power.” The fourth tier has “5x more resources.”
The top-tier plans also have a premium service you can unlock for $3/month that helps your server maintain your site’s speed through traffic spikes. You typically have to upgrade to VPS or cloud hosting for this type of feature.
A Cloudflare integration is available as well.
While A2 Hosting doesn’t offer manual malware removal, they do have you covered in terms of security. They offer free daily backups, and you can restore your site from a backup with the top three plans. However, the host states they’re not responsible for damage or bugs caused by a failed restoration and recommends their users to take and store their own backups in addition to theirs.
Fortunately, site staging is available on all plans, which can help you test backup and WordPress updates. Free SSL certificates are also included on all plans.
To protect your server and site, A2 Hosting offers a “dual web firewall,” advanced DDoS protection and brute force defense. A virus scanner is also included. It’s designed to be easy to use, allowing you to quarantine and delete infected files with ease.
Advanced features for developers include multiple versions of PHP, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, FTP and SSH access, WP-CLI, Git integration, and support for Python and Ruby.
Key features
- 1 to unlimited sites per plan.
- 100GB to unlimited SSD storage.
- Daily automatic backups.
- Free SSL certificates.
- Cloudflare CDN integration.
- Advanced security features.
- Migration available.
- WordPress preinstalled.
- Site staging.
- Free email hosting.
Pricing
Pricing for the cheapest plan starts at $10.99/month or $83.88 for your first year and $107.88 for subsequent years. Discounts are offered when you pay for more than one year upfront. Domains with .com extensions cost $14.95/year.
3. SiteGround
SiteGround was founded in 2004 as a traditional shared host most comparable to hosts like Bluehost, DreamHost, A2 Hosting and HostGator. They’ve since upgraded their infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform and now have more to offer than any other shared host in the WordPress industry despite still using a shared infrastructure by nature. They’re one of three hosts recommended by WordPress themselves.
SiteGround has three shared hosting services: “Web Hosting” supports content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, Magento and many others; “Managed WordPress Hosting” is a specialized version of their shared hosting service that comes with WordPress preinstalled; “WooCommerce Hosting” is a shared hosting service that comes with both WordPress and the WooCommerce ecommerce plugin preinstalled.
Each service offers more or less the same three sets of plans. As such, with SiteGround’s shared hosting service, you’ll receive support for up to 100,000 monthly visits and up to 40GB of SSD storage. The servers themselves use the latest versions of PHP, MySQL and LXC containers.
All plans come with free SSL certificates and daily backups with on-demand backups available on higher tiers. Plus, the host will store up to 30 days worth of backups at a time. Cloudflare’s free CDN service is also integrated into SiteGround’s custom control panel seamlessly.
Along with a free CDN, which provides DDoS protection and improved page performance, SiteGround protects your site with a WAF (web access firewall) and an AI-based anti-bot system.
The managed WordPress hosting and WooCommerce hosting services come with automatic updates and custom firewall rules optimized for WordPress. You can control automatic updates for minor and major WordPress core releases, themes, and plugins.
However, with WordPress launching auto updates for core, themes and plugins natively, receiving this feature from your host is no longer as exclusive as it once was. SiteGround is a little different, fortunately.
They keep up to 30 copies of your site taken over the course of the last 30 days, and they also have a restore feature that allows you to roll your site back to one of those copies. This feature is complementary to their automatic update feature as it allows you to fix bugs caused by updates near instantaneously.
SiteGround also has a staging feature for higher-tiered plans if you prefer to update your site manually. WP-CLI, SSH access and Git integration are also included.
For increased site performance, higher-tiered plans come with the host’s own SG Optimizer plugin free of charge. This plugin provides caching, frontend image optimization, PHP version control and more. This is on top of the SuperCacher server-side caching they offer.
Key features
- 1 to unlimited sites per plan.
- 10,000 to 100,000 monthly visits.
- 10 to 40GB of SSD storage.
- Daily backups with 30 days of backups stored.
- Free SSL certificates.
- Cloudflare CDN integration.
- Security features built in.
- Migration available.
- WordPress preinstalled.
- Site staging.
- Automatic WordPress core, plugin and theme updates.
- Free email hosting.
Pricing
Pricing for SiteGround’s cheapest plan starts at $19.99/month. You’ll receive a discount on your first year if you pay for at least 12 months upfront. This costs $83.88 for your first year and $179.88 for subsequent years. Optional domain registration costs $15.95/year with no free discount on your first year.
4. Hostinger
Hostinger is another host that offers a regular shared hosting service and a WordPress shared hosting service. However, unlike some of the other hosts on this list, Hostinger has actually optimized its WordPress hosting service for the CMS itself, even going as far as to insert firewall rules specifically optimized for the application.
The traditional hosting service has three plans while the WordPress service has four. Up to 100GB of SSD storage is available for either as is unlimited bandwidth. Free SSL certificates are offered on all plans.
SSH/FTP access is also available as is built-in caching (and a caching plugin for WordPress), but that pretty much sums up the similarities between the two.
With the traditional hosting plans, weekly backups are offered on all plans but daily backups are only available on the top tier plan, though backups are stored for a month. With WordPress hosting, weekly backups are offered on the first two plans with daily backups available with the top two.
Your server is protected by a firewall, as stated before, but you’ll also receive DDoS protection and integration with Cloudflare. Malware detection and removal is done through a third-party tool called Imunify360.
Email hosting is something that differs between plans. 1 or unlimited email accounts are offered in the traditional shared hosting service but only a maximum of 100 accounts are available in the WordPress service.
Along with SSH/FTP access, developers and advanced users can enjoy Git integration, multiple versions of PHP, PHP configuration, standard MySQL with remote access, WP-CLI, Cron jobs, staging and more.
WordPress is not preinstalled, but you can also install it in a single click. Jetpack is also included on the top three plans with the premium version offered with the top tier.
Key features
- 1 to unlimited sites per web hosting plan; 1 to 300 websites per WordPress plan.
- 10 to 100GB of SSD storage.
- 100GB to unlimited bandwidth.
- Daily backups available on some plans.
- Free SSL certificates.
- Cloudflare CDN integration.
- Advanced security features.
- Site staging.
- Automatic WordPress core and plugin updates.
- Free email hosting.
Pricing
Traditional shared hosting plans start at $9.99/month plus a one-time $4.99 setup fee or $35.88 for your first year and $119.88 for subsequent years. WordPress hosting starts at $7.99/month or $59.88 for your first year and $95.88 for subsequent years.
Discounts are offered when you pay for more than one year upfront. Free domains are offered on some plans.
5. HostWithLove
HostWithLove offers a single shared hosting service, though this service does support WordPress if that’s your CMS of choice. Four plans are available, and they really only differ in the specs they offer.
For instance, 5GB of storage is offered on the cheapest while 50GB is offered on the most expensive. The type of storage drives used is not disclosed, but they are set up in a RAID 10 array.
The other major differences between the plans are the amount of bandwidth allowed and RAM used. The lower-tier plans use 1GB of RAM while the top two use 2GB.
This hosting service operates in the same way many other shared hosting services operate. This means apart from backups, which are taken daily by JetBackup and stored for up to 30 days, you’ll be in charge of managing key aspects to your site, including security and caching.
CageFS and KernelCare are used to keep the servers themselves secure, but you’ll be in charge of implementing a WAF and malware detection. Fortunately, DDoS protection and CDN services are provided through an integration with Cloudflare.
cPanel is used as your control panel, which means you can install a number of different content management systems with ease. Developers will enjoy multiple versions of PHP, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Git integration, and support for Perl, Python and Ruby.
Key features
- 1 to unlimited websites.
- 5 to 50GB of storage.
- 50 to 500GB of bandwidth.
- Daily backups.
- Free SSL certificates.
- Cloudflare CDN integration.
- Migration available.
- Free email hosting.
Pricing
Pricing for HostWithLove’s shared hosting plan starts at $3.90/month or $39.78/year. Discounts are offered on two-year plans.
Domains cost $12/year.
6. WPX Hosting
WPX Hosting is a sophisticated host that offers the features of a managed host rather than a shared host. They’re exclusively a WordPress host and only offer one hosting service broken down into three plans.
You can host up to 35 websites and receive a maximum of 40GB of SSD storage. Unlimited bandwidth is also available on the top-tier plan.
WPX Hosting is designed for bloggers and small business owners, so you won’t get all of the advanced features some of the other hosts offer on this list. Instead, the host manages the majority aspects of your site for you.
Backups are taken daily and stored for up to 28 days. You can also restore your site from a backup. DDoS protection is available, and the host scans for malware daily and removes any they find.
You’ll also receive free SSL certificates and site staging. A proprietary CDN service is also included with 26 global CDN edge locations available in the network.
The only thing WPX Hosting doesn’t manage is caching. They advise you to use W3 Total Cache instead.
Key features
- 5 to 35 websites.
- 100GB to unlimited bandwidth.
- 10 to 40GB of SSD storage.
- Daily backups stored for up to 28 days.
- Free SSL certificates.
- Migration available.
- Proprietary CDN.
- Advanced security features included.
- Site staging.
- Automatic WordPress updates.
- Free email hosting.
Pricing
You can get started with WPX Hosting for $24.99/month or $249.99/year. Domains with a .com extension cost $10.99/year.
7. InMotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting is another host with two shared hosting services: one standard service and another optimized for WordPress. The former has three plans while the WordPress service has four.
The standard service allows you to host one to unlimited websites while the WordPress service reduces this number drastically to a maximum of six. Regardless, 100GB to unlimited of SSD storage is available for both services.
Automatic backups with the option to restore your site from a backup, DDoS protection and malware protection are available for both services. Unfortunately, backup management is only available as a paid add-on.
The WordPress service includes site staging, a website builder for the CMS and automated social media posts.
Key features
- 1 to unlimited websites for standard service; 1 to 6 websites for WordPress.
- Unlimited bandwidth for standard service.
- 100GB to unlimited of SSD storage.
- Automatic backups.
- Free SSL certificates.
- Migration available.
- CDN included.
- Security features.
- WordPress preinstalled.
- Automatic updates for WordPress core, themes and plugins.
- Free email hosting.
Pricing
Pricing for the standard shared hosting service starts at $3.29/month (billed annually), discount applied if brought on a 2 year plan. Pricing for the WordPress service starts at $7.99/month (billed annually), discount applied if brought on a 2 year plan.
Final thoughts
The shared hosts on this list offer quality hosting at great prices. However, features can vary between hosts. If you’d like to build your site with WordPress, you’re better off choosing a host that offers a service optimized for it.
Learn more in our comparison of WordPress managed hosting companies.
If you’re not a developer or lack the skill and time to manage your own site, you may want to choose a host that offers backups with site restoration and advanced security features.
Price can be a factor, but considering it may not be too helpful due to shared hosting being cheaper by design. Also consider the traffic your website gets. Shared hosting is not ideal for high traffic websites. But for new websites or small websites they are ideal. Just remember that when your site grows, you may want to migrate to a different web host.
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