11 Best Website Hosting Providers In Australia

Changing web hosting providers is complex, clunky and expensive. Which is why you need to choose the right one from the start. I’m here to help.

You’ll find a bit of nerd talk in this review, but I promise it won’t be overwhelming. Just enough to help you compare different providers and help you make the right choice.

1. Hostinger.

Monthly prices starting at $2.99

Hostinger is an employee-owned web hosting service and domain registrar that offers all manner of packages, from shared hosting to private dedicated servers, and even cloud hosting. It even comes with a drag-and-drop website builder.

Pros.

Hostinger’s lowest-tier package, Premium, packs some serious firepower for a package starting at $2.99.

Are you currently paying more?

Does your current host allow you to stack up to 100 different websites under the same plan? You know, we really ought to be sharing our web host subscriptions like we do our Netflix subscriptions.

Other hosts like GoDaddy, literally only allow you to host one website under their base package. If you’re a website builder, you can offer hosting to your clients and charge a small markup to give them a fully comprehensive website management service.

GoDaddy’s base package will cost you over twice as much at $7.95, hardly justification for the imperceptible speed difference.

Hostinger has great server location coverage, including servers in Singapore and Indonesia. Some web hosting providers literally concentrate their resources in the USA or Europe – leaving us Aussies under-serviced.

Hostinger also offers free domain registration and a free SSL certificate. For comparison, Namecheap charges an annual fee of $5.99 for an SSL certification (more details on what they are in the FAQs section).
The lowest-tier package also includes automatic weekly backups of your website, whereas other hosts will charge you for the luxury.

You’ve also got 50GB of storage with the basic plan, so content-rich websites need not worry about limits. A typical plan has around 10GB to 20GB, some have as low as 5GB

Cons.

Although Hostinger stipulate unlimited bandwidth, there is a fair use policy – but almost all website hosts use some kind of trickery to suck you in.

Like it or lump it, that’s the industry we’re dealing with. If you’ve got time to set up a petition and organise a rally, you can count on my signature. But your time is better spent researching to find the actual policy and the actual limitations.

Hostinger states:

Doesn’t sound like it’s unlimited, does it?

Most web hosts use this marketing phraseology (I cover the difference between unlimited bandwidth and unmetered bandwidth later in this article).

Hostinger also dispenses with the most popular control panels that are widely used across other web hosts (cPanel and Plesk).

hPanel is available, and while it’s an intuitive control panel and easy to use, you might already be familiar with the widely adopted cPanel. I suspect those who are will begrudgingly adopt this new control panel.

In the past, I’ve had serious issues when migrating from one host to another, and other challenges in the day-to-day operations of my site.

If your website is down, especially if it’s generating you a tonne of revenue, you can’t afford to hang around waiting for someone to get back to you a few hours later.

Serious businesses should consider paying for Liquid Host, which guarantees 100% uptime and has a 59-second guaranteed response time on the telephone. Basic hosting plans cost you over ten times as much, though.

Verdict.

Hostinger is the best web hosting service, a superb all-round option that pleases most of the people most of the time, and prices are totally reasonable, perhaps because they’re employee-owned.

The biggest detractor is the inability to get through to a human on the telephone like you can with Liquid Web, GoDaddy, and Bluehost. It’s rare you’ll need to, but it’s a feature you may wish you had if your online trading comes to a sudden halt.

Specifications.

Uptime:	99.5%
Customer Support:	Webchat – Yes Telephone Support – No 24/7 Availability – Yes
DDoS Protection:	Yes
Free SSL Certificates:	Yes
Free Domain Registration:	Yes
Bandwidth:	Unlimited
Speed:	377ms
Server Locations:	USA, UK, Brazil, Lithuania, Netherlands, India, and Singapore.
Basic Plan SSD Storage:	50GB

2. Bluehost

Monthly prices starting at $4.42.

Bluehost is one of the stalwarts of the industry and has been around since 2003, and they’re trusted by over two million people.

It’s the longest-running WordPress-recommended host, but what does being a veteran of the hosting space mean for you?

Pros.

Bluehost packages come at an excellent price. Despite not being the cheapest, the basic package costs just under $4.50 per month when paid for annually.

They offer a free domain with most hosting plans. That’s not something that Crazy Domains, Namecheap, and Liquid Web offer.

A free domain can save you around $20 to $50 + GST per year.

This is especially ideal for startups. You want to minimise the costs you sink so you can dip your toes in the water to see if your venture is viable.

It’s great that Bluehost has telephone support, despite being somewhat limited operating hours (7 am-12 am EST).

If you’re in Australia, you can call them from around 8 am till 4 pm, which is fairly decent, although that’s not quite as generous as GoDaddy’s 24/7 service for their Melbourne and Sydney offices.

Bluehost also has an awesome uptime guarantee of 99.98% (yes, to two decimal places). Other hosts like Namecheap and Crazy domains guarantee only 99.9%.

You might not think that makes a huge difference, but that works out at about three additional days of uptime across the whole year.

Can you stop trading or your online activities for three days every year?

An uptime guarantee of 99.98% guarantees your site will run for at least 364.3 days per year.

Bluehost is heavily focused on attracting the WordPress and WooCommerce market, and with each account, they automatically install and update WordPress.

Their bespoke web hosting services provide a suite of plugins and tools designed specifically for optimising these websites. If you’re in that space, you’ll benefit from the additional features and support they offer.

Such features include Yeost SEO, store creation, gift cards, and web analytics.

Cons.

The speed of Bluehost isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be (maybe it is for those in other corners of the world). Website page loading speeds surpassed one second.

In Australia, when using Bluehost, our closest server location is in China. That’s potentially the reason why we’re not getting our bang for our buck.

It’s not the kind of speed that will send visitors packing, but it might impact their engagement levels on your pages.

As for what’s included in their plans, they’re hardly feature-rich. The basic plan only covers you for one website, and the pro plan only covers you for five websites.

Wait a minute.

Hostinger’s basic plan covers you for up to 100 websites – and it’s more than twice as fast.

If you’re managing multiple websites, Bluehost will cost you an arm and a leg.

Those who are starting new projects and need time to warm up domain authority don’t want to be encumbered with hosting costs while you’re in the build phase of your enterprise.

The basic package doesn’t come with telephone support, nor do they carry out backups or malware scanning – features which I would argue are basic.

While you get a free domain in your first year, the renewal rates are ridiculously high, at around $20 per year. At Hostinger, renewal will cost you between $10 to $15 per year for popular extensions like .com.

Bluehost offers you a Free SSL certificate for the first year – Namecheap and Liquid Web don’t. You have to pay a monthly fee for those, starting at $5.99 per year.

Even so, others are non-discriminatory and offer you a free SSL certification every single year.

Verdict.

If you’re building WordPress sites or WooCommerce stores, Bluehost is a front-runner.

However, anyone who owns a suite of websites will want to find a more cost-effective solution. Multiple subscriptions soon get expensive.

Specification.

Uptime:	99.98%
Customer Support:	Webchat – Yes Telephone Support – (Plus membership and above: 7 am to 12 am EST) 24/7 Availability – Yes
DDoS Protection:	Yes
Free SSL Certificates:	1st Year
Free Domain Registration:	Yes
Bandwidth:	Unmetered
Speed:	1.1 seconds
Server Locations:	India, USA, UK, China.
Basic Plan SSD Storage:	10GB

3. Dreamhost.

Monthly prices starting at $2.59.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a budget-friendly host that offers a 100% uptime guarantee.

But is the promise of 100% uptime worth sacrificing a little speed? With data centres based exclusively in the US, those on different continents are the most impacted by slower speeds.

Pros.

Dreamhost is the second-cheapest web hosting service in this review, with hosting plans starting at $2.95 per month. The cheapest is Namecheap, whose prices start at $1.98 per month.

But Namecheap doesn’t promise a 100% uptime guarantee.

If they don’t, they recompense the customer in line with the established guidelines.

A failure to provide 100% uptime will result in customer compensation in line with the terms of service.

Okay, so they’re not going to reimburse you for lost sales, but a web hosting company that pays out is willing to take a hit themselves.

That kind of financial pressure keeps them on their toes.

Dreamhost also offers a free SSL certificate regardless of whether it’s your first or tenth year. You can also register a domain for free, too.

You have little to lose, as they offer a 97-day money-back guarantee. The likes of Bluehost and Hostinger only offer 30 days. Ninety-seven days is by far the most generous I’ve come across.

SSD of 50GB is also very generous and ten times what VentraIP offers (5GB).

Cons.

Dreamhost is a great budget-friendly option, but it does not deliver high performance. Their servers are slow.

Website page speed averages around 1.75 seconds, which is dangerously close to the three seconds that experts unanimously agree drives traffic away.

I suspect it’s down to the servers being exclusively located in the USA.

Australians are likely to suffer more due to the geographic distance. If you want a stable connection, VentraIP (discussed shortly) has a server based in Sydney, which provides us Aussies with reliable web hosting!

If you go over your allocated transfer bandwidth for a month, they bill you at the rate of $1 per additional 10GB.

I find their acceptable use policy wholly unacceptable – not because of the charges but because of the smoke and mirrors surrounding the mention of “unlimited”.

You also have to pay for malware bolt-ons like DreamShield Protection, which costs an additional $3 per month.

Malware protection is included in Hostinger and Crazy Domain hosting plans.

Even though there is no telephone support, they came back to me in less than 30 seconds and they were helpful when I deliberately asked a couple of dumb questions.

When choosing your hosting plan, there’s a tiny imperceptible drop-down arrow in the upper-right corner that allows you to switch from a shared plan to a starter plan.

There appears to be no difference in price. The only difference is that one allows you to host unlimited websites.

So many people will miss that and look elsewhere.

Verdict.

The promise of 100% uptime, unlimited website hosting, and free SSL certificates is enticing, but the trade-off of sluggish speeds and lack of malware protection means your performance will, at times, suffer.

Why would you want to pay an additional $3 per month for malware protection (a cost that is higher than the hosting service itself)?

Specification.

Uptime:	100%
Customer Support:	Webchat – Yes Telephone Support – No 24/7 Availability – Yes
DDoS Protection:	Yes
Free SSL Certificates:	Yes
Free Domain Registration:	Yes
Bandwidth:	Unlimited
Speed:	1.75 seconds
Server Locations:	USA
Basic Plan SSD Storage:	50GB

4. Crazy Domains.

Monthly prices starting at $7.50.

You want to know what’s crazy about Crazy Domains? They have servers in Australia, Europe, Asia, India, New Zealand, the Middle East, the UK, and the USA. No other web hosting provider in this review has a comparable geographic spread.

Pros.

For websites that attract international audiences from all over the world, having this kind of server spread gives you greater consistency over speed.

Our tests registered an average speed of 867ms. It might not be as fast as GoDaddy’s 292ms, but anything less than one second is generally considered fast.

Being fast is one thing, but being consistently fast is another. You see a wider range of speeds when using faraway servers.

I’d rather see a much less volatile range of speed with a less volatile moving average.

For business plans, Crazy Domains promises up to four times faster hosting. We’ve yet to test this, and there is no reference to what this is being benchmarked against. So the jury is still out on this.

Malware protection is included in all hosting packages, so you won’t feel coerced into purchasing any hidden bolt-ons at the checkout.

And if things don’t work out, you’ve got a 60-day money-back guarantee.

Not that this matters to the hedonists among you, but Crazy Domain says it uses low-power servers, resulting in a 16% reduction in power usage.

It’s not like they’re making a big difference like GreenGeeks, who are carbon neutral, but it’s a step in the right direction towards a greener future.

Cons.

Crazy Domains is on the stingy side when it comes to SSD storage. Their basic plan comes with 10GB, and if you want to unlock greater storage, it’s going to cost you $19.50 per month for 50GB.

The average webpage is 230MB, so you’re covered for around 40 to 50 pages of content.

Let’s not forget that Hostinger offers 50GB right off the bat with their basic plan. A2 Hosting offers 100GB. So if you’re a content creator, or if you publish visual media regularly, Crazy Domain will start to verge on expensive.

Your hosting under the basic plan covers you for one website, whereas Hostinger lets you host up to 100.

Only those looking to host a single site will find Crazy Domains good value for money.

That said, you don’t get the freebies like domain registration. And you only get an SSL certificate for your first year.

Hostinger and Dreamhost provide SSL certificates every year.

There is no telephone support with Crazy Domains, either.

They’ve got a telephone line for sales though… because making money is more important than keeping you online – at least, that’s my cynical view, but perhaps there’s some truth in there. What do you think?

Verdict.

For Australian web traffic, this is as good as it gets.

But if you need more storage, you have to be prepared to spend a little extra. But why would you when Hostinger has 200GB of NVMe (faster than SSD) of storage for their business plan, which costs less than $4?

Specification.

Uptime:	99.9%
Customer Support:	Webchat – Yes Telephone Support – No 24/7 Availability – Yes
DDoS Protection:	Yes
Free SSL Certificates:	1st Year
Free Domain Registration:	No
Bandwidth:	Unmetered
Speed:	867ms
Server Locations:	Australia, Europe, Asia, India, New Zealand, the Middle East, the UK, and the USA.
Basic Plan SSD Storage:	10GB

5. Namecheap.

Monthly prices starting at $1.98.

Namecheap, as the name implies, is unsurprisingly – you guessed it – cheap. In fact, it’s the cheapest web hosting service in this review. But is there a compromise in quality? Let’s take a closer look.

Pros.

If you self-identify as a cheapskate, your eyes will be drawn immediately to the price tag of $1.98 per month. Rub your eyes – pinch yourself if you must. You’re not dreaming.

When ogling the prices of Namecheap packages, it’s a little like wearing beer goggles, when the effects of alcohol make a person seem more attractive.

The stellar prices can distort our logic in this same way. But get up close and personal, and you start to see some imperfections (which we’ll discuss in a moment).

Wow!

All that for around $3 per month.

In fact, I’ve not been totally honest, because you can get these plans even cheaper when you sign up for the 2-year plan. The basic plan (Stellar) comes at $1.58 per month, and the Stellar Plus works out at $2.28 per month.

Based on that, you’d expect there to be some major catch, but you get a free SSL certificate for the first year, a 100% uptime guarantee, and free domain registration.

It’s well worth the extra dollar per month for the Stellar Plus package because that gives you access to AutoBackup – their proprietary technology that archives your all-important files.

In the worst-case scenario of losing your site, you’d never have to rebuild it from scratch with outdated versions. You get access to six daily, three weekly, and five monthly backups.

Not only does Namecheap back your website up, but your account files, databases, emails, and settings are all stored too.

Plus, while 20GB is a modest amount of SSD storage, it’s a damn site better than the 10GB you get with Bluehost or the paltry 5GB you get with VentraIP.

Cons.

Namecheap performed pretty poorly in our speed tests, and that’s likely due to the servers being based in the US, the UK, and the Netherlands.

A website page download speed of just under two seconds is noticeable. It’s right on the verge of the point where visitors consider clicking the back button.

When it comes to managed WordPress hosting, as opposed to the standard shared hosting, they boast 0.7 seconds loading time, suggesting that they’re faster than Bluehost and GoDaddy.

But these results have not been independently verified, so I remain dubious.

By the way, if you want to tap into a UK server, you have to pay an extra dollar per month. Seems a poor excuse for picking a man’s (or woman’s) pockets every month.

I also found it confusing that their mid-tier plan, Stellar Plus, has unlimited space, but the upper tier has a limit of 50GB.

I asked the question, but the response I got from Namecheap was that there is extra caching with the premium tier.

I was also peeved to learn that free SSLs are not included in the EasyWP Starter subscription. Namecheap does a clever job of only revealing this to you once you’ve signed up.

Even though an SSL certificate costs around $5.99, I still can’t condone the lack of transparency. They know what they’re doing.

Verdict.

Namecheap is the cheapest standalone hosting service I could find, but if you’re not price-sensitive, you might want to consider choosing a web hosting provider that provides a faster service.

If you’re blogging for a hobby or setting up one of your first websites, Namecheap is a sound choice.

Specification.

Uptime:	100%
Customer Support:	Webchat – Yes Telephone Support – No 24/7 Availability – Yes
DDoS Protection:	Yes
Free SSL Certifications:	1st Year
Free Domain Registration:	Yes
Bandwidth:	Unmetered
Speed:	1.88 seconds
Server Locations:	USA, UK, Netherlands.
Basic Plan SSD Storage:	20GB

6. Liquid Web.

Monthly prices starting at $17.50.

Liquid Web is one of the few web hosts that doesn’t rely on woolly marketing phraseology like “unmetered bandwidth” and “unlimited bandwidth” to plug its products. So if it’s not offering unlimited anything, then what is it offering?

Pros.

Let me kick off with that point specifically. Here we have a host for serious business, with prices starting at $17.50 per month (ten times as much as Namecheap).

Did you spit your proverbial coffee out?

Here, wipe it up with this: Liquid Web offers 2TB (or 2,000GB) of bandwidth. All the other hosts out there claim to offer unlimited or unmetered bandwidth, but we already know those guys give you the sucker punch in their “fair usage” policies.

Lol.

It’s a wonder the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission doesn’t crack down on this blatant false advertising.  

Hostinger states, “Shared hosting accounts are allotted up to 3GB for database usage.” 3GB versus 2,000GB?

Each website is different, but businesses need approximately 100Mbps per 1,000 users.

You’ll quickly run out of bandwidth on other plans. Can you afford to run out?

I wanted to hammer that point home, but there’s so much more to shout about. Liquid Web offers lightning-fast website loading speeds of 400ms, almost as fast as GoDaddy’s (292ms), the fastest in this review.

You’ve also got unlimited access to tech experts. And the best part? They commit to answering your call within 59 seconds.

They self-certify as the most helpful humans in hosting. I don’t disagree. Oh, and they guarantee 100% uptime like Bluehost and Dreamhost.

To do this, they’ve pumped a lot of resources into proactively monitoring server performance, and they detect most issues before they cause disruptions or downtime.

Cons.

Liquid Web is expensive, but is it really? When you weigh up the value you’re getting, there are many who would argue that it’s inexpensive.

If Hostinger will hold you ransom to an unlimited-but-not-really-limited cap of 3GB of bandwidth, that means they’re only offering 0.15% of what Liquid Web is.

Granted, if you’re a startup or freelancer, you’re much better off signing up to Namecheap and saving yourself a few bucks every month.

You don’t get free SSL certificates or free domain name registrations with Liquid Web. It’s not a hosting service that’s operating in the same space as those with broader appeal.

It’s a service aimed at keeping businesses operational, to protect their omni-channel presence.

Yes, the packages are confusing. There are eight main plans, ranging from $17.50 to $912.50 per month.

Move on swiftly if you’re not prepared to pay this kind of money.

Their plans go up to 10TB of bandwidth.

Verdict.

I could go on at length about the business packages that Liquid Web offers, but I don’t want to overwhelm you. If you’re prepared to spend a little more, you gain a whole lot more.

If your websites generate tens of thousands of dollars in revenue, what’s $20, $50, or a few hundred bucks a month? A sound investment to keep you operational, that’s what. You’re buying peace of mind.

Specification.

Uptime:	100%
Customer Support:	Webchat Telephone Support 24/7 Availability
DDoS Protection:	Yes
Free SSL Certificates:	No
Free Domain Registration:	No
Bandwidth:	Metered (but refreshing to see some transparency)
Speed:	400ms
Server Locations:	USA, Netherlands.
Basic Plan SSD Storage:	15GB

7. VentralP.

Monthly prices starting at $7.

You want a custom plan? VentraIP enters the chat.

You have complete control over your resource limitations that suit your hosting needs – with the freedom and flexibility to change this anytime after you’ve activated your plan. It’s also an Australian web hosting provider.

Pros.

Ever been locked into a plan only to find yourself looking for ways to get out of it? You don’t need to do that with VentraIP.

You can ramp up your disk space (starting at 5GB and going up to 100GB), your CPU usage, and memory.

However, the custom plans don’t always work out as competitive. If you want 50GB of storage, plans start at $19 per month. Hostinger gives you that for $2.99 – A2 Hosting (discussed shortly) gives you a whopping 100GB with prices starting at $2.99.

The customisability is welcome, but the economics behind it… not so much.

There are other standard plans (without the customisation) starting at $7 per month.

All plans come with a free SSL certificate, indefinitely. They won’t start suddenly billing you the following year like Namecheap.

Local servers are more reliable and will give you consistent speeds. If most of your online business is domestic trade, go with a host with an Australian server. The only other hosting service in this review with Aussie servers is Namecheap.

You get hourly backups of your web files too, which is the most superb version control being offered in this review.

They even offer reseller hosting plans, something many hosts refrain from dabbling in.

Cons.

If you have an international reach, your traffic might be consistent for Aussie users but substandard for those on the other side of the world.

VentraIP has no European or American servers.

The storage in the basic plan is about the most minimal money can buy.

But why would you want to pay $7 for 5GB of storage when you can pay a lot less with A2 Hosting and unlock 100GB?

VentraIP isn’t the best hosting provider as far as value for money is concerned. Their basic packages are so watered down that you’ll need to upgrade to a medium tier to get a comparable basic service.

Their Starter+ is in “free trial” territory, and I wouldn’t advise anybody to part with $7 a month for it.

You might as well go with Liquid Web and get access to the best experts in the marketplace and a response time of less than 59 seconds.

What next, a charge on mouse clicks?

Come on, guys, you can do better than this.

Verdict.

Despite being an Australian web hosting company, something which we should always make an effort to support to keep the money circulating in our own country, it has a long way to go to be viewed in the same light as the market leaders.

Their speeds are great, but the bolt-on charges suck. The price isn’t consistent with the service being offered.

Specification.

Uptime:	99.9%
Customer Support:	Webchat – Yes Telephone Support – Yes 24/7 Availability – Yes
DDoS Protection:	Yes
Free SSL Certificates:	Yes
Free Domain Registration:	Yes
Bandwidth:	Unlimited
Speed:	480ms
Server Locations:	Sydney, Australia.
Basic Plan SSD Storage:	5GB

8. A2 Hosting.

Monthly prices starting at $2.99.

A2 Hosting packs a serious punch and does things that few other hosts do at this price. Take a look at any Reddit forums and you’ll find tonnes of fanboys singing their praises, and rightly so.

Pros.

A2 Hosting comes at an excellent price, regardless of the package you pay for. The Startup package comes as low as $2.99, and the Turbo Max (the highest tier) starts as low as $14.99.

Regardless of which plan you opt for, SSL certificates are included, as is the 24/7/365 guru crew support.

Submit a ticket, email them, chat with them, call them. Get in touch with them however you prefer –whether it’s at 3:00 am, New Year’s Eve, or February 29th.

Where A2 Hosting is superior is its generous SSD storage of 100GB in the base package. Remember, VentraIP charge $7 and only offers 5GB.

No cap.

(And I mean that in both senses – no cap as in the American slang that’s infiltrating Aussie lingo these days, meaning “no lie”.)

A2 Hosting offers you a hassle-free 30-day money-back guarantee. And they genuinely mean it.

They don’t interrogate you if you want to part ways, and you don’t have to send what I refer to as a shitter-gram (strongly worded emails that can’t be ignored) just to get your money back.

Cons.

Website loading speeds on A2 Hosting were just below one second. It’s acceptable, but it’s not lightning-quick. If you’re publishing lots of visual media, every millisecond counts.

Get yourself a subscription with GoDaddy that can deliver speeds up to 292ms.

That’s even more exceptional considering they don’t have an Aussie server. Our closest one for GoDaddy is Singapore.

You don’t get a free domain with A2 Hosting. If you want the full package (including a free domain and SSL certificates), VentraIP has you covered.

Verdict.

With lots to love and little to loathe, A2 Hosting has become one of the top web hosting companies in the industry since its launch in 2001. The storage space is a huge draw.

If you’re a photographer uploading high-resolution images or a videographer uploading 4K or 8K footage, you won’t run out of space for a long time with A2 Hosting.

Specification.

Uptime:	99.9%
Customer Support:	Webchat – Yes Telephone Support – Yes 24/7 Availability – Yes
DDoS Protection:	Yes
Free SSL Certificates:	Yes
Free Domain Name:	No
Bandwidth:	Unlimited
Speed:	980ms
Server Locations:	USA, Netherlands, Singapore.
Basic Plan SSD Storage:	100GB

9. GoDaddy.

Monthly prices starting at $7.95.

GoDaddy is the original gangster of domain registrars. It was founded in 1997, and it ditched its butt-ugly, goofy daddy mascot from its logo in 2018. It’s undergone quite an evolution since its conception.

It’s the largest hosting company in the world, hosting over 15% of all websites. However, it’s in the process of handing over the keys to Bezos and Amazon Web Services. Eugh.

Pros.

Like many, GoDaddy was the first host I ever used. You pop in a Google search and GoDaddy is likely to be the one at the top of the list.

That’s exactly the kind of stable speed you need when you’re an ecommerce site. You don’t want to give customers a single reason to abandon their shopping carts.

Give them speed, and they give you money.

This impressive speed paves the way for seamless transactions. It’s even more impressive considering their server locations are only in the USA, Netherlands, and Singapore. Sadly, there are no Aussie servers like Namecheap and VentraIP.

But who cares if they can deliver on what truly matters?

Included in all packages is telephone support, a free SSL certificate, and domain registration. The basic plan comes with 25GB of SSD storage, which is better than most, although not as amazing as A2 Hosting’s 100GB.

So, why does GoDaddy feature towards the back end of this review?

Cons.

GoDaddy loves to pester you with constant phone calls, trying to upsell you. If you ever part ways, they’ll still pester you until you block their number.

I wish they put as much effort into developing a great customer service team. They’re seriously lacking where competitors are thriving.

They have nothing on VentraIP’s guru crew or Liquid Web’s tech experts.

The chat support is inconsistent too. A default response from a human adviser consists of signposting you to the FAQs forums to do it yourself.

Back when I was a complete noob to the web hosting game, I had serious issues trying to manually change my nameservers when migrating from another host.

The process wasn’t convoluted by any stretch, but it wouldn’t have been difficult for the adviser to intervene and roll up their sleeves instead of turning me away.

At least they have telephone support, though. Hostinger, Dreamhost, and Namecheap are only available through chat and ticketing.

Verdict.

GoDaddy is a brand you can trust, make no mistake about that. Despite their size, they’re not some faceless, inaccessible corporation.

With blazing-fast speeds, free domain registration, and free SSL certificates, it’s a solid all-rounder that more than covers most.

Specification.

Uptime:	99.9%
Customer Support:	Webchat – Yes Telephone Support – Yes 24/7 Availability – Yes
DDoS Protection:	Yes
Free SSL Certificates:	Yes
Free Domain Registration:	Yes
Bandwidth:	Unmetered
Speed:	292ms
Server Locations:	USA, Netherlands, Singapore.
Basic Plan SSD Storage:	25GB

10. Cloudways.

Monthly prices starting at $12.63.

Cloudways by Digital Cloud offers managed cloud hosting that caters to the technophiles out there, and it’s a host that offers true scalability.

Pros.

Cloudways doesn’t have any physical data centre and instead acts as an intermediary, enabling you to host your data at different centres. You can choose from around 65 data centres around the world.

This makes it super easy to scale your business across different regions when demand and traffic increases.

With Cloudways, you can pay as you go on an hourly or monthly basis and simply stop paying when you deactivate.

I like the pricing page and how they list the packages instead of showing them side by side. The only differences between the plans are RAM, processors, storage, and bandwidth. So it’s actually simpler to make a decision based on your system requirements.

VentraIP has a never-ending list of features, and while they’re trying to create an impression that it’s a feature-rich hosting provider, all that information is bamboozling.

At Cloudways, help is always given to those who ask for it. You’re only 90 seconds away from being able to get in touch with a human.

My favourite feature that’s unique to Cloudways is the real-time server monitoring application that’s available on your own dashboard.

Liquid Web offers real-time monitoring, but they don’t give you visibility. You have to trust that they’re doing what they say they are.

With Cloudways, you can see for yourself how you’re performing versus your hosting plan limitations.

Cons.

When looking through their website, they make a tonne of claims about performance and power and reliability and flexible and ironclad security. They talk about how they’re powered by a fully optimised stack with built-in advanced cache and CDN.

But what the hell does this mean for us buffoons?

Without context, it’s hyperbole. For the average user, it makes it hard to compare what’s actually being offered.

Just give us the facts, and we’ll make up our own minds about how you measure up versus the other industry veterans.

Cloudways packages are expensive, starting at $12.63, but cloud hosting is a separate service in its own right. But now is not the right time to digress and discuss the differences.

But on paper, cloud hosting can seem like a costly option compared to shared hosting and WordPress site solutions.

The average website loading speed was the slowest at 2.1 seconds. That’s dangerously close to the 3-second threshold where 50% of users will abandon a website.

Verdict.

Only go for Cloudways if you’re up to speed with the benefits of using a cloud hosting service. There are better value-for-money packages out there for hobbyists, freelancers, and SMEs alike.

Specification.

Uptime:	99%
Customer Support:	Webchat – Yes Telephone Support – Yes 24/7 Availability – Yes
DDoS Protection:	Yes
Free SSL Certificates:	Yes
Free Domain Registration:	No
Unlimited Bandwidth:	No
Speed:	2.1 seconds
Server Locations:	No Physical Data Centres.
Basic Plan SSD Storage:	25GB

11. HostPapa.

Monthly prices starting at $2.95.

HostPapa is a cheap web hosting solution on par with Hostinger, Dreamhost, Namecheap, and A2 Hosting for its budget-friendly prices.

Its infrastructure is basic, but there’s nothing overtly offensive about its product offering. Storage is where HostPapa trumps them all.

Pros.

HostPapa’s monthly prices are competitive – great if you’re looking to host a blog or a startup business.

With their basic plan, they give you a generous 100GB of storage. That’s higher than any other in this review, like A2 Hosting.

They’re an international team, though. You won’t get through to a fellow Aussie like with VentraIP.

HostPapa offers a free SSL certificate, free domain registration, and decent speeds.

Cons.

HostPapa’s base package only covers you for one website, so serial entrepreneurs and website owners with multiple sites need to look elsewhere.

If you’re looking for unlimited bandwidth, I hate to burst your bubble. It doesn’t exist. Despite the marketing spiel, you don’t actually get that with HostPapa.

They’re one of the most pedantic when it comes to so-called fair usage. According to their policy, there is “no defined upper limit”, but that doesn’t stop them from imposing an upper limit.

They’ve been known to send out automated messages and shut down small blogging websites, basically holding people to ransom until they upgrade their package and pay a much higher monthly fee.

When you have little technical knowledge, what else can you do?

Their ethics and business practices are questionable.

Verdict.

HostPapa, for all its freebies, just doesn’t set the world on fire. It seems to be lacking an identity, a certain je ne sais quoi that distinguishes it from all the other hosting services in this review apart from the 100GB storage.

They offer shared hosting, reseller hosting, WordPress hosting, and dedicated hosting – everything but cloud hosting.

Specification.

Uptime:	99.9%
Customer Support:	Webchat – Yes Telephone Support – Yes 24/7 Availability – Yes
DDoS Protection:	Yes
Free SSL Certificates:	Yes
Free Domain Registration:	Yes
Bandwidth:	Unlimited
Speed:	610ms
Server Locations:	Canada, USA.
Basic Plan SSD Storage:	100GB

What To Look For In A Web Hosting Service.

There’s a whole heap of marketing jargon that web hosting services like to throw out there, like DDoS protection – which is pretty standard across all services.

You might need them a little when setting up, but I doubt it’s ever going to be an emergency.

As for uptime guarantee is much of a muchness, with most promising and delivering above 99%. And almost all web hosting providers offer you a free site transfer or migration.

So, here’s where the difference lies:

1. Loading Speeds.

If your web pages take longer than three seconds to load, over 50% of your traffic will move on.

Amazon carried out a study back in 2006 that found that every 100ms in added page load time cost them 1% in sales. Walmart carried out a similar study that saw a +2% conversion per one-second load time improvement.

Although many web hosting services boast lightning-fast speeds, they rarely offer any guarantees or display transparent information about their average speeds, partly because there are so many variables.

The biggest one? Server location.

The closer your traffic is to your server location, the faster the loading speed.

If you’re living in Australia, you’ll want a hosting service like VentraIP which has a server based in Sydney. Failing that, find a host with a server location in Singapore.

2. Unlimited Bandwidth Versus Unmetered Bandwidth.

You’ll often hear of a hosting company offering unmetered bandwidth and unlimited bandwidth, both of which are slightly different.

Bandwidth is a measure of speed, that is, the maximum amount of data your connection can handle (measured as Mbps or Gbps). So it’s misleading to suggest bandwidth is unlimited. Data transfer speeds cannot be limitless.

Even the speed of light, the fastest known substance in the universe has a limit.

There is always a maximum.

Prioritise transparency and providers who are explicit about their limitations. That way, there won’t be any nasty surprises as you scale your business.

3. SSL protection and certificates.

If your website is requesting personal information from visitors or customers, it needs to have an SSL certificate, though it’s not a legal requirement.

An SSL certificate:

Many website hosts will include a free SSL certificate, some offer a free certificate for the first year of your subscription, and others will charge you a flat monthly fee.

Most websites need SSL security, so find a host that offers you one as part of the package.

Frequently Asked Questions About The Best Web Hosting Services.

Here are some frequently asked questions that add further context to the subject of web hosting services.

What Are The Three 3 Main Types Of Web Hosting?

There are three main types of hosting, each offering a slightly difference service and user experience.

What Happens If I Don’t Host My Website?

Without a host, your website will be invisible. Even a direct search using the web address will return an error. You need a host.

Even if you intend on building your website from the ground up, there is no DIY option for hosting.

If you cancel your hosting service without transferring your domain to another service, your website is at a higher risk of being wiped.

Your only backup is with your current website builder. You are unlikely to delve into archives to restore previous versions of your website.

When you cancel your hosting plan, they’ll keep your website files for around 30 days. If you’re unhosted, be sure to manually backup your files from your site’s root directory.

Keep your backup in a safe place, such as an external hard drive or cloud storage. If you ever lose a website, visit the Wayback Machine. This awesome internet archive has captured more than 869 billion web pages (yours included).

What Is The Difference Between Windows Hosting And Linux Hosting?

Most hosting services fall under one or two operating systems: Windows hosting and Linux hosting. The general consensus is that, because Linux is open-source and free, it remains the most flexible solution for web developers.

Hosting companies that run on Windows servers have to pay Microsoft a license, the cost of which will raise the price slightly for end customers.

The price difference might be a couple of bucks per month, so it’s not eyewatering. But why pay more for a web hosting service that has less flexibility? Linux uses customer software and supports most programming languages like MySQL.

Save Money On The Best Web Hosting Services.

More often than not, the best web hosts offer great introductory offers. You can sign up with one host and get up to a 70% discount on your first year, then switch to another host the following year.

Keep shopping and hopping about on an annual basis.

I know life admin sucks, and it often feels like you’re drowning in renewals of subscriptions and direct debits, but squandering money sucks more, doesn’t it?

Set up a recurring event reminder in your calendar, and bookmark this page to revisit next year. You’ll save hundreds of bucks over the next decade for just a few minutes of your time.

Tommy