8 Best Shared Hosting Services (2024 Comparison)

Welcome to our roundup of the best shared hosting services.

Shared hosting plans are super affordable, which makes them a popular choice for beginners working on their first website—but which one is the best?

To find out, we reviewed and compared the shared plans of all the most popular web hosts on the market. Below, you’ll find everything you need to know about each of our top picks.

The best shared hosting services compared

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#1 – DreamHost

DreamHost is our overall top pick. It’s the best option for most users, offering excellent value for money, superb speed and reliability, and all the features you could ask for.

DreamHost is one of the few web hosts that offer unlimited traffic and bandwidth no matter what plan you sign up for, so there’s no ceiling on your growth. And you don’t have to worry about unexpected overage fees.

That alone makes DreamHost outstanding value-for-money, given that their shared plans only cost a few bucks per month. But wait, there’s more.

On all plans, you also get access to a free SSL certificate and a free domain—two things that you might have to pay separately for with other shared hosting providers. Plus a raft of features that make it easier to build and maintain your site, like pre-installed WordPress, automated migrations, a WP website builder, an easy-to-use control panel, automated daily backups, and more,

You might think that if they can afford to offer all that for such a low price, they must be cutting corners when it comes to performance.

But no, DreamHost is lightning-fast and super reliable. There’s a 100% uptime guarantee and well-optimized servers that deliver stellar load times.

In fact, DreamHost is so certain that you’ll be satisfied with their service, that they back their plans up with a 97-day money-back guarantee. That’s 3x as long as most of its competitors.

One more thing worth mentioning is that DreamHost is one of just three web hosts that are officially recommended by WordPress.org. That, combined with their WordPress-exclusive features (like the WP site builder), makes them a particularly good choice for users who plan on building their site on the WordPress CMS.

Key features

• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited traffic
• SSD storage
• Pre-installed WordPress
• Free WordPress migrations
• Free SSL certificate
• Automatic WordPress updates
• Automatic daily backups
• Free domain privacy
• Custom-build control panel
• SFTP, WP-CLI, Shell Access, etc.
• 24/7 ticket support
• Live chat support

Pros

• Beginner-friendly
• Great value for money
• No limits on traffic/bandwidth
• WordPress recommended
• Fast and reliable
• Generous money-back guarantee

Cons

• Promotional pricing only applies to new accounts (price increases on renewal)
• Support response times could be faster

Pricing

Prices currently start at $4.95/month with promotional discounts and renew at $7.99/month. You can save a further 63% by signing up for a yearly plan, or 68% when you sign up for 3 years. Plans are backed by a 97-day money-back guarantee

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#2 – A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting is our runner-up pick. Like DreamHost, it’s another reliable provider that offers a good balance of speed, value, and ease of use. And it’s jam-packed with more features than most.

All A2 Hosting shared plans come with a free SSL, unlimited email accounts (this is something you don’t get on DreamHost’s entry-level plan), a free website builder, an SSL certificate, cPanel, and website staging.

Depending on what plan you sign up for, you can also get unlimited websites, free automatic backups, and a bunch of Growth and Turbo features that take your site to the next level.

These additional features include things like Performance Plus Traffic Spike Protection, which comes in useful if you’re running a site that gets a lot of sudden surges in visitors at specific times of the year. 

And on the Turbo Boost and Turbo Max shared hosting plans, you benefit from A2 Hosting’s Turbo servers, which deliver speeds up to 20x faster.

Further speed enhancements are delivered via A2 Optimized install, an A2 Hosting exclusive, which provides auto-configurations for all the most popular CMS solutions including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Prestashop, etc. It applies instant, auto-optimizations like compression and caching that can significantly boost your speeds

Another cool thing about A2 Hosting is that it lets you choose your own data center location. Options include Michigan (USA), Arizona (USA), Amsterdam (Europe), and Singapore (Asia)—the idea is to choose the one closest to your website visitors for the best possible performance.

Key features

• Choice of data center locations
• Turbo boost
• SSD storage
• Website builder
• SSL certificate
• Website staging
• Optimized speed/security
• Site migration
• Backups
• 99.9% uptime commitment
• A2 Optimized

Pros

• Fast and secure solution
• Easy site migration 
• Choice of data Center location 

Cons

• Turbo is only included in more expensive plans 

Pricing

Plans start from $11.99 but there are annual discounts available. A2 offers a money-back guarantee. You can get a full refund if you cancel within the first 30 days or a pro-rata refund for unused service after 30 days. 

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#3 – InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting is another shared hosting provider that also offers dedicated, VPS, WordPress, and reseller plans. It stands out for its developer-friendly features and tools.

InMotion Hosting’s shared plans offer most of the same stuff you get with the other hosting services we’ve looked at so far. No matter what plan you sign up for, you get a free SSL, unlimited bandwidth, your choice of data center, SSD storage, plus a bunch of features to help with security, performance, marketing, etc. 

Higher-priced plans come with additional resources, premium features, even better performance, and other benefits.

But what makes InMotion Hosting stand out is how developer-friendly it is. A lot of shared web hosts focus on catering to beginners with limited tech skills, so they don’t offer the kind of control/flexibility that developers want. But InMotion is different.

It gives you all the backend tools you need to manage your frontend apps, like SSH access, GIT version control, Python, Node.JS, Ruby resources, etc.

And if you outgrow your shared plan and want to upgrade, InMotion also offers plenty of other hosting services, including managed VPS and managed WordPress, so you can scale up as needed.

Key features

• Free SSL
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Security suite 
• Marketing tools 
• Hosting plus tools 
• Choice of data centers 
• Good support options 
• Advanced caching 

Pros

• Good selection of backend tools 
• Fast and secure plans 
• Developer friendly 

Cons

• Not very beginner friendly 

Pricing

Plans start from $2.49/month with a 3-year commitment. Month-to-month plans are also available from $19.99/month but only for the Pro plan and above. Purchases of 6 months or more are eligible for a 90-day money-back guarantee.

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#4 – HostWithLove

HostWithLove is a Singapore-based hosting company that offers fully managed and shared web hosting services. They guarantee 99.9% uptime and offer 24/7 support to all customers. 

HostWithLove offers a range of shared hosting packages that are most suitable for moderate-traffic sites like ecommerce stores, blogs, and business websites. 

It might not be the cheapest solution on the market, but it has a good reputation, particularly when it comes to speed. HostWithLove uses LiteSpeed Enterprise Web Server, which is up to 9x faster than other servers available, as well as MariaDB to boost site speeds.

With HostWithLove, you can have unlimited email accounts, autoresponders, and forwarders. And you get access to useful software such as cPanel, CloudLinux, and CageFS. 

One of the main downsides of HostWithLove is that all the plans limit your bandwidth and disk space, whereas solutions from other providers often offer unlimited options. Their most expensive shared hosting plan includes up to 50GB of disk space and 500GB, but this comes at a cost with plans starting at $15.92/month.

Another area HostWithLove stands out is its support. It offers round-the-clock support options, so help is always at hand, 24 hours a day, 7 days a month, 365 days a year. And they have an average response time of less than 30 minutes. 

If you’re looking for speed, then HostWithLove is a great solution, but it’s not the most budget-friendly option available, particularly for sites that require more bandwidth and disk space. 

Key features

• Fast LiteSpeed Enterprise Web Server
• Unlimited email accounts 
• CPanel 
• CloudLinux 
• Parked and subdomains 
• 24/7 support 
• 99.9% uptime guarantee

Pros

• Fast load speeds 
• Good support 
• CloudLinux Operating system

Cons

• Limited bandwidth and disk space 

Pricing

Plans start from $3.92 with a Triennial discount applied. HostWithLove also offers a 45-day money-back guarantee. 

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#5 – Siteground 

Siteground is a well-known web host and WordPress-recommended provider. It’s a very affordable solution that is a great choice for beginners thanks to its ease of use and functionality. 

Getting started with SiteGround is a breeze thanks to the automatic WP installation and QuickStart kit that will guide you through a quick set-up process. It’s also super easy to migrate your site from another web host thanks to the WP and email migration tools. 

SiteGround is a fairly feature-rich solution, even if you choose the most basic StartUp plan. It comes with Free SSL, CDN, daily backups, and enhanced security features. With the cheapest plan, you can host 1 website and access 10 GB of storage space.

More expensive plans also include useful additional features such as staging, faster PHP, on-demand backup copies, and more. 

On the most expensive GoGeek plan, you can also access white labeling features, making it a good choice for web design agencies. GoGeek plan users also enjoy private DNS for free and other high-tier resources. 

SiteGround also offers great 24/7 support, and you can even access priority support if you’re a GoGeek customer. 

If you’re concerned with sustainability, SiteGround also boasts that it has a 100% renewable energy match. Their data center partner, Google Cloud, matches 100% of the energy consumed with renewable energy and is committed to carbon neutrality.

All in all, Siteground is a fairly affordable option that is great for beginners. The main downside is that it’s not quite as fast as some other solutions.

Key features

• Quick start kit
• Site and email migration 
• Daily backups 
• Enhanced security 
• White labeling 
• Staging 
• On-demand backup copies 
• Free SSL 

Pros

• Recommended by WordPress
• Simple migration process
• Easy to use 

Cons

• Not as fast as some other solutions 

Pricing

Plans start from as little as $2.99 with discounts. There is also a 30-day money-back guarantee available 

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#6 – Hostinger 

Hostinger is another affordable hosting solution that offers great value for money, whether you’re hosting one or multiple sites. 

One of the best things about Hostinger is that all their shared plans include managed WordPress, which means rapid WP installation, auto-updates for plugins, software, and more. Hostinger also pre installed the LiteSpeed Cache plugin, which helps to boost your site speed. 

On top of that, plans include sought-after features like weekly backups and an email account. You also get access to Cloudflare Protected Nameservers, free migration, and a malware scanner. 

Another perk of Hostinger is that they have data centers worldwide, from the USA to the Netherlands and India. This global distribution helps with performance as the closer your website visitors are to the data center locations, the faster your site will load for them.

Although Hostinger plans include a lot of additional perks and managed features, they’re still super cheap, so it’s the perfect value-for-money option, especially for WordPress users. 

Key features

• Managed WP features
• Cloudflare Protected Nameservers 
• Free migration
• Backups 
• SSL 
• LiteSpeed Cache for WP
• Malware scanning 
• Automatic updates
• Worldwide data centers

Pros

• Good value for money
• Featured rich 
• Good for WP users 

Cons

• Plans are quite expensive without introductory discounts 
• SSD storage is limited on all plans 

Pricing

Plans start from $1.99 for the first year. This price increases to $3.99 upon renewal. Hostinger also offers a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee.

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#7 – Bluehost

Bluehost is a well-known shared hosting provider and it’s one of the few companies that is actually recommended by WordPress. 

In my opinion, Bluehost is one of the best solutions for beginners, as it’s really easy to use, and has a clean and intuitive interface that’s super easy to navigate. And WordPress comes preinstalled, making it that bit easier to get your site set up properly. 

Bluehost offers 4 different shared hosting solutions, so there’s something suitable for every type of website, and they’re quite affordable too. 

At the lower end of the scale is the Basic plan. From around $3/month with discounts applied, you get access to 10GB of SSD storage, a free CDN, and a free domain for a year. This plan is suitable for 1 website and you also get free SSL for 1 year. 

If you’re looking for shared ecommerce hosting, then Bluehost has a great plan for this too. The Online Store plan includes up to 100GB of SSD storage, a free domain, and CDN, and you can use this plan for unlimited websites. You also get access to daily website backups, malware scanning, and domain privacy. 

But one of the biggest perks of this plan is the included ecommerce plugins. You get free access to $450 worth of plugins, including shipping label plugins, secure payment plugins, and more. 

Whilst Bluehost is still quite affordable, it’s definitely not the cheapest solution on the market or the fastest. However, it’s a good option for people that are new to website hosting and want an easy beginner-friendly solution. 

Key features

• Easy-to-use interface
• Pre Installed WordPress 
• Free domains 
• Free CDN 
• Ecommerce plans with plugins included 
• Security features 
• Backups 
• Malware scanning 

Pros

• Great for beginners 
• Recommended by WordPress
• Access to free plugins on the Online Store plan 

Cons

• Slower than some options 
• Not the cheapest solution on the market

Pricing

Plans start from $2.95/month with discounts applied for 12- and 36-month commitments. There is also a 30-day money-back guarantee subject to terms and conditions.

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#8 – HostGator

HostGator is an affordable shared hosting solution that offers plans suitable for all business types and budgets. When it comes to shared hosting, HostGator offers three different plans with 99% uptime guarantees. 

The Hatchling plan is suitable for a single website and includes 10GB of disk space, unmetered bandwidth, one-click WordPress installs, and a free domain for the first year. 

If you’re in need of a hosting provider for more than one website, the Baby plan allows you to host up to 5 websites and includes up to 40GB of disk space, a free domain, plus additional perks like ad spend credits for Google and Microsoft. 

HostGator also offers an eCommerce shared hosting solution that includes tons of great perks like unlimited websites and disk space, Cloudflare CDN, a dedicated IP, positive SSL upgrade, and even a suite of SEO tools that can help your business succeed. 

If you’re pinching the pennies, then HostGator is definitely a hosting company to consider. Even though the eCommerce solution is full-featured, you can still sign up for less than $6/month with the introductory offer applied.

One of the biggest perks of HostGator is that they have some great support options available. If you need help, you can access support 24/7 every day of the year.

All plans have cPanel access too, so if you’re comfortable with website management and want more control over your site’s backend, then you can have this with HostGator. 

All in all, HostGator balances price and functionality well to make it one of the most budget-friendly solutions on the market.

Key features

• Unmetered bandwidth 
• Free domain name 
• Affordable pricing plans 
• Email accounts 
• SEO Tools 
• Addition ad spend credits 
• 24/7 support 

Pros

• Budget-friendly 
• Easy to use 
• Includes perks like SEO tools and more

Cons

• Cloud flare CDN only available in the eCommerce plan

Pricing

Plans start from $2.75/month with the introductory discount applied. There is also a 30-day money-back guarantee subject to terms and conditions.

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Frequently asked questions

Before we wrap up, here are some frequently asked questions and answers about shared hosting.

What is shared hosting?

Shared hosting is a low-cost form of web hosting in which multiple websites are hosted on a single server.

Hosting multiple websites on the same server allows web hosting providers to keep costs low, so shared hosting plans are usually the most economical option. This makes them a very popular choice for new startups and users working on their first website.

The tradeoff for the low price tag is that shared hosting plans usually come with restrictive usage limitations. For example, your traffic, bandwidth, storage, etc. may be capped. And they also tend to have poorer performance/security compared to other hosting options.

Shared hosting vs WordPress hosting: Which is better?

If you already have a WordPress site, or you plan on building your site on WordPress, then dedicated WordPress hosting plans may be a better solution for your needs.

These are similar to shared hosting in that in most cases, your website will still be hosted on a shared server, but that server is optimized specifically for WordPress. 

WordPress hosting plans also typically come with additional features that make it easier to manage WordPress sites, like one-click WordPress installation, automatic updates of the WordPress core software, plugin and theme management, staging, etc.

Some web hosting providers even offer managed WordPress hosting as a variation of VPS/dedicated hosting for those that need better security and performance, more resources, and more control.

Shared vs VPS vs dedicated hosting: What’s the difference?

On shared hosting plans, your website lives alongside others, as multiple users all utilize the same server. But with dedicated hosting plans, your website is hosted alone on a dedicated server, which you get all to yourself.

VPS (virtual private server) hosting is a little more complicated, and it sits somewhere between shared and dedicated hosting. 

With VPS hosting, you’re still sharing one server with other users, but you have your own virtual partition of that server all to yourself, with dedicated resources that no one else can touch. This gives you more control, better security, and more predictable performance. 

See this comparison of VPS hosting vs dedicated hosting for a more in-depth overview of the differences between the two. 

The other big difference between shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting is the price. Shared hosting is the most affordable, VPS hosting is the next step up, and dedicated hosting is the most expensive option.

Is shared hosting risky?

Shared hosting is riskier than other types of hosting as it’s the least secure option.

This is because having many sites hosted on the same server puts you at risk of cross-site contamination. 

You can harden your own site against attacks by managing your website security effectively, but you can’t do anything about neighboring sites hosted on the same server. 

So, for example, if another site on your server is running outdated plugins or themes, hackers could exploit these security vulnerabilities to gain access to their site, putting all other sites on the same server at risk.

That said, it’s important to remember that although shared hosting isn’t as secure as other types of hosting, it’s still relatively safe. Website hacks aren’t that common, and you can take measures to mitigate your risk.

How much traffic is too much for shared hosting?

It depends on your plan. Some shared hosting plans will cap your traffic, whereas others offer unlimited traffic. 

That said, as a general rule of thumb, I’d say that if your site is getting over 100,000 pageviews per month, it’s probably time to upgrade to a better hosting option like VPS, dedicated, or cloud hosting.

Does shared hosting affect SEO?

Shared hosting can affect SEO as it can impact your Core Web Vitals, which are important SEO ranking factors.

According to these statistics, average page load times can have a big impact on your keyword ranking position. All else being equal, sites that load more quickly stand a better chance of reaching the top of the SERPs.

That’s why it’s important to choose a shared hosting plan that offers the best possible speed and performance. All the web hosting providers in this list are great options.

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Wrapping it up

That concludes our roundup of the best shared hosting solutions. We hope you found one that fits your needs and budget.

If you’re overwhelmed by all the options and not sure which one to choose, here’s what I’d suggest:

• Choose DreamHost if you just want the best all-around option. It gets top marks across the board with an easy-to-use interface, excellent performance, and solid security. And it’s great value for money too.
• Sign up for A2 Hosting if you want a fast and secure solution with a good choice of data centers. 
• Consider InMotion Hosting if you’re a developer looking for more flexibility and backend management features.

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