Having a website is a no-brainer for modern businesses. Every business wants an effective online presence to drive conversions and engage its customers. Deciding to put your business online means finding the perfect home or website host. Many startups and small business owners are not familiar with the industry jargon of web hosting.

Before we jump in, let’s get familiar with the essential requirements for small business web hosting. We surveyed over 1000 small business website owners to find out what they focus on when deciding on a web host. Web owners mentioned these five essential elements the most:

1. Performance – Uptime and page loading speeds are the most critical performance metrics.
2. Pricing – Affordability and value for money are vital considerations for small business owners.
3. Hosting Features – What features and other offerings are included?
4. Customer Support – How easy and fast can you get help when needed?
5. Ease of Use – How easy is setting up and managing a website?

Other essentials of small business web hosting include a custom domain name, SSL Certificate, backups, and enough bandwidth to accommodate your monthly web visitors.

Most small business websites are hosted on shared hosting plans and a few on VPS hosting plans. We based our research on the provider’s shared hosting and VPS hosting plans.

All web hosts are not built the same. Choosing the right hosting for your business can mean the difference in loading speeds, uptime, and search engine rankings. We did the heavy lifting for you through extensive research and testing to bring you the top eight web hosts for small businesses.

This post will cover each of the hosts in detail, but first is our list of top hosting providers for small businesses in 2022.  

• Bluehost Hosting
• HostMonster.com
• JustHost Web Hosting
• Namecheap Hosting
• Netfirms Hosting
• iPage Web Hosting
• WebHostingPad.com Web Hosting
• Interserver.net Web Hosting

1. Bluehost Web Hosting

Bluehost is our best hosting provider for small businesses in 2022. Bluehost offers a comprehensive variety of hosting features at affordable prices backed by a solid performance. Bluehost also provides easy integration with WordPress, one of the most popular CMS, with its one-click installation feature.

Other features include 50GB storage, unmetered bandwidth, a cPanel control panel, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Bluehost also offers new customers a free domain for the first year, a free SSL certificate, and 24/7 support via phone and live chat. Bluehost’s knowledge center is very resourceful for those who prefer DIY solutions.

Bluehost hosting offers reliable performance with an uptime rate of 99.98% and fast loading speeds. The good news is you get all this at affordable prices, starting at $2.95/month for shared hosting and $18.99 for VPS hosting.

2. HostMoster.com

HostMonster is one of the oldest pioneers in the industry. It is quite common for industry veterans to become complacent and fail to maintain their service standards. So how does Hostmonster stack up against other hosts for small businesses?

HostMonster has a reasonable uptime rate of 99.97%, well above the industry average of 99.93%. This rate means that you may only experience up to two and half hours of downtime annually. They also offer fair loading speeds averaging 986ms, we have seen better speeds, but this is still within the acceptable limits.

HostMonster offers decent technical support via phone, email, and live chat. Their agents are available and knowledgeable to help with your problem.

HostMonster hosting plans are not the cheapest, but they are loaded with goodies. The basic plan comes in at $4.95/month and offers you 50GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, a free domain for the first year, and a free SSL Certificate.  

Other offerings include free WordPress site transfers and an easy-to-use control panel for fast setup and site management.

3. JustHost Web Hosting

JustHost is an affordable web hosting provider that focuses on the growth of small businesses. JustHost web hosting offers a lot of value by allowing business site owners to use a host of valuable tools. Their Pro Plan package of shared hosting offers unlimited disk space, unlimited websites, and email accounts.

Other offerings with shared hosting include a free SSL Certificate, dedicated IP address, and free ads credit, free domain for a year, free site builder, and access to hundreds of templates.

JustHost offers over a hundred open source apps, themes, and plugins with one-click installation for those who need more features but have no coding skills. JustHost also offers great ecommerce features and support.

4. Namecheap Web Hosting

Staying true to its name, Namecheap offers very competitive hosting package prices. They also boast reliable 24/7 customer support with knowledgeable and helpful agents.

Our pick of Namecheap shared hosting packages is the Stellar Business Plan. The yearly plan costs $4.98/month and gets you 50 GB  SSD storage, unlimited websites, unmetered bandwidth, free CDN, auto backup, and cloud storage.

Other offerings include a free website builder, privacy protection, a free SSL Certificate, and free site migrations.

5. Netfirms Web Hosting

Netfirms offers three straightforward web hosting solutions suitable for personal and small business websites. Netfirms web hosting provides reliable uptime, speed, and stability. Their hosting services are supported by a dedicated customer support team available 24/7 to help you with hosting issues. Netfirms offers several add-ons with each of their three packages.

Netfirms packages its services as a one-stop-shop for personal and small business websites. With over 20 years of industry experience, the host focuses on offering affordable domain names, hosting services, web design, and online marketing services.

All three shared hosting plans offer unlimited storage, multi-domain hosting, scalable bandwidths, free SSL Certificates, and promotional free domain for a year. The website says all plans include a free domain, but it is only available if you have a coupon. Netfirms also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee intended for credit card payments only. However, they do not tell you that – be sure to read the fine print before purchasing a plan.

6. iPage Web Hosting

iPage offers a single shared hosting plan making it a straightforward choice for small businesses. The Linux-based hosting plan starts at $2.99 per month for the one-year option, but the price drops to $1.99/month with a three-year plan.

iPage’s shared hosting plan offers unlimited websites, storage, bandwidth, SSL certificate, free domain for the first year, and 24/7 customer support. The plan also comes with dependable uptime rates and speed.

Other offerings include an AI-powered website builder, WordPress one-click installer, customizable layouts, and easy-to-use setup wizards.

7. WebHostingPad.com

WebHostingPad offers all-inclusive shared and WordPress hosting packages with everything you need to create a business website. The basic shared hosting plan starts at only $1.99/month and gets you unlimited websites and domains, emails, free domain name, free website builder, and free SSL and SiteLock Lite.

WebHostingPad enables you to set up and manage your business site with a host of valuable tools. A user-friendly interface and a simple control panel with one-click installation and drag and drop features. All hosting plans also come with free analytics tools to track and improve website performance.

WebHostingPad offers a scalable plan Structure to accommodate your growing business. They also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied with their services.

8. InterServer.net

Interserver offers one size fits all hosting packages ideal for growing businesses. They swear by their reliable customer support and straightforward pricing without hidden charges.

Interserver’s standard web hosting starts at $2.5 per month. Their hosting services come with free site migration, free SSL Certificates, global content caching, a website builder, and a host of cloud apps.

Interserver Hosting offers an easy-to-use control panel InterShield Security, their in-house security solution. Interserver is committed to your business growth and utilizes only 50% of available resources to enable scaling without performance issues.

Choosing the Best Web Host for your Small Business

There are several contenders for the top web host for small businesses, and it is challenging to decide on the perfect choice. Each top host boasts affordable pricing, the best hosting features and add-ons, reliable customer support, and several other features. However, the slightest differences in web hosting can help small businesses significantly.

The best way to choose your web hosting provider is to look at your business hosting needs. A simple website that does not expect much traffic does not need unlimited hosting features. Such a site will also not need sophisticated security as its cybersecurity risk is minimal. Minimalist websites can effectively get by with less expensive lean hosting options.

On the other hand, if you are hosting a retail store or medical practice website, expect to pay more for extended hosting and robust security features. Additionally, you need to consider your company’s long-term goals, such as expansion. A good web host will have scalable hosting packages so that you do not have to migrate when your business grows.

Final Thoughts

You can easily pick your winner if you know what type of hosting can make the most of your business, have a budget, and other hosting considerations. Remember to keep an eye on hosting features, add-ons, technical support, and pricing plans to help you make a confident choice. You can call customer support to inquire more and judge how helpful they are for you.