Best Web Hosting for Small Business Sites in 2024: 9 Favorites

Since 2013, I’ve tried many web hosts for my small business, including Bluehost, SiteGround, and Squarespace. And I’m here to give you the lowdown.

For this post, I’ve drawn upon my personal experience as a blogger who has used some of these hosts. For hosts I haven’t used before, I reviewed their sales pages and documentation, chatted with their sales/support reps, tested their signup process, and read user reviews from sites like G2 and Reddit.

Based on my research and experience, I’ve rounded up the best web hosting for small business sites to answer your burning question: “What is the best web hosting site for small business owners to use?”

Table of Contents

• The Best Web Hosting for Small Business Sites: Key Features to Look For
• Which type of hosting is good for small businesses? Shared vs. Cloud vs. VPS
• What is the best web hosting site for small business owners to use?
• Best Web Hosting for Small Business Sites: My Final Thoughts

The Best Web Hosting for Small Business Sites: Key Features to Look For

Below are four scoring criteria that I used when reviewing the best website hosting for small businesses, taking into consideration the unique needs of small business owners.

Website Builder

Before we get started, here’s a major distinction you need to understand. There is a difference between:

1. Standalone hosting providers. These are web hosts that provide only web hosting. This is what people are referring to when they say “self-hosted.” For example, SiteGround is a standalone hosting provider and WordPress is a CMS.
   
   You could purchase your hosting from SiteGround and then install WordPress to use as your CMS. This would create a “self-hosted” site. Going this route requires two separate providers and slight technical knowledge to connect the two (though I promise it’s totally doable even if you’re not a developer).
2. Web hosts that are also website builders/CMSs. This option makes it much easier for nontechnical folks to build and manage their website all in one place.
   
   For example, Content Hub is an all-in-one website builder, web host, and CMS. That means you sign up for just one account, and from this centralized place, you can host your site, design it using a template and a drag-and-drop builder, and then manage content, such as blog posts.

So, if you don’t have developer resources, I recommend you build your business site on a combination website builder/web host. But I’ll give you options for standalone hosting as well.

Security

When looking for the best web hosting provider for small business sites, take security seriously. For small businesses in particular, having a security breach can be especially daunting when you don’t have a dedicated IT or cybersecurity team.

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Customer Support

Since small businesses have small teams, you may need to lean more heavily on your web host’s customer support. For that reason, it’s crucial to look at what kind of support they offer. Look for 24/7 multichannel support.

Affordability

Last but not least, small businesses often have relatively small budgets, but you still deserve to have reliable, secure website hosting. The good news? I found some very affordable web hosting plans.

Pro tip: It’s common practice for web hosts to offer a promotional rate for the first year of web hosting and then raise the rate substantially when you renew. In my reviews below, I will outline both the promotional and renewal prices so you don’t get caught off guard.

Speaking of which, let’s dive into the best web hosting for small business websites.

Which type of hosting is good for small businesses? Shared vs. Cloud vs. VPS

To avoid confusion, I’ll briefly describe the five types of web hosting you’ll likely see during your search for the best website hosting for small businesses.

TLDR: For a small business, shared hosting is sufficient. Managed hosting is even better. And dedicated? Most likely, you don’t need that.

Shared

Shared hosting is your cheapest option and is enough to get the job done. This means your website is hosted on one server shared with multiple other websites. Because you're sharing, the resources are not guaranteed. For example, you might experience slower speeds if other websites on your shared server are using a lot of resources at the moment.

Cloud

Cloud hosting is pricier, and it uses a network of servers. Because there are multiple servers sharing resources with multiple other websites, you can better optimize performance.

VPS

VPS stands for “virtual private server,” and it means your website is hosted on one server shared with multiple other websites — but your website gets an isolated section of that server. This means you get guaranteed space, meaning better performance than shared hosting.

Dedicated

Dedicated is the cream of the crop in web hosting. As the name implies, you’ll get one server dedicated to only your website — no sharing! Because of this, dedicated hosting can handle the highest loads and give you the best performance.

Managed

Managed hosting has nothing to do with server type. You can have managed shared, cloud, or VPS hosting, for example. Managed hosting simply means the web host will take care of things for you, such as plugin updates, website monitoring, security, and more.

For example, some of my WordPress websites are hosted on BigScoots, and I subscribe to the most basic plan that is not managed. This means that when I started those websites, I had to log into my BigScoots cPanel and install WordPress myself. But if I'd subscribed to the managed WordPress hosting plan, the BigScoots support team would have done the installation for me.

What is the best web hosting site for small business owners to use?

To make evaluating your options easy, I built tables below for each web host comparing two or three plans that make the most sense for small businesses.

1. HubSpot Web Hosting

Best for: Small businesses that want free web hosting integrated with a leading customer platform and CRM

G2 rating: 4.5/5 stars

HubSpot offers free web hosting — yes, you read that right. There’s no charge for usage, storage, or traffic. You also don’t have to go find a third-party host. That’s because HubSpot is a customer platform (with a CRM), content management system, and web host all rolled into one.

With HubSpot, you get a fully managed hosting experience designed to scale with your business. You only pay if you choose to upgrade to a plan to access premium features such as HubSpot Payments and AI assistants or to remove HubSpot branding.

Security: HubSpot hosting offers 24/7 security to monitor threats, SSL, and a dedicated security team determined to resolve any issues promptly. It also has a 99.95% uptime.

Customer Support: HubSpot support is available 24/7.

Website Builder: One of the best parts of hosting your website with HubSpot is it comes with a free drag-and-drop website builder. You can choose from one of the prebuilt themes and then customize as you see fit — no coding skills needed.

2. SiteGround

Best for: Small businesses that want speedy managed WordPress hosting on a budget

G2 rating: 4.3/5 stars

Pro tip: Don’t let the separate landing pages confuse you: “Web Hosting” and “Managed WordPress Hosting” are the same plans. They’re just advertised differently.

SiteGround is one of my personal favorites, as it’s the one I moved my largest WordPress website to (roughly 100,000 monthly visits), and the hosting performance and customer service were top-notch.

I recommend SiteGround for small businesses that want managed WordPress hosting at a relatively low cost. Why? SiteGround routinely tops the lists of fastest web hosts — right up there with another host on this list, A2 Hosting. However, A2 Hosting’s cheapest managed WordPress plan is $7 more per month than SiteGround’s.

When I was doing research, their live chat reps responded instantly — no wait time.

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Security: All SiteGround plans come with a free in-house built CDN, SSL certificate, a custom WAF, 24/7 server monitoring, a WordPress security plugin, and an AI anti-bot system.

Customer Support: 24/7 support is available via live chat, phone, and helpdesk tickets. From personal experience, I can tell you that SiteGround is quick to respond and helpful. All cloud hosting plans come with advanced priority support, which means your requests are sent to SiteGround's most experienced agents.

Website Builder: While SiteGround itself is not a site builder or CMS, it does offer two site builders on all of its plans: WordPress (which is also a CMS) and Weebly.

3. Bluehost

Best for: Small business websites that need WordPress-optimized hosting

G2 rating: 3.5/5 stars

Bluehost was the very first web host I used when I started my first self-hosted blog in 2012, and I was a happy customer for four years.

Bluehost is also one of only four web hosts officially recommended by WordPress. It’s actually "WordPress.org's longest-running recommended host.” I can’t think of a greater vote of confidence for WordPress website owners.

However, I migrated my site to SiteGround in 2016 because I was experiencing slow server response times with Bluehost. Many bloggers I knew were in the same boat. On top of that, Bluehost has the lowest rating on the G2 reviews site of any host on this list: 3.5/5 stars.

Having said all of that, I do believe Bluehost should be on this list of best web hosting for small business sites. No web host will be perfect, especially when you’re on shared hosting (which I was with Bluehost).

Also, WordPress is the most popular CMS. I trust that if it officially recommends Bluehost, it’s for a good reason.

Bluehost offers four types of hosting: shared, cloud, VPS, and dedicated. Having access to a full range of web hosting options is very appealing for small businesses as they scale. Start with the most affordable, and as your website grows, you can always upgrade.

Something that alarmed me at first was seeing that the Basic shared hosting plan supports 100 concurrent visitors. When I asked the chat agent, though, they assured me the site will still handle the increased traffic — but users will experience a lag or delay. For that reason, if you expect more visitors, upgrade to a higher plan.

An important thing to note is that, as of writing this, Bluehost no longer offers its managed WordPress hosting plans and has since launched its more premium managed Bluehost Cloud hosting instead.

Security: Bluehost’s shared hosting plans include a CDN powered by Cloudflare, a Web Application Firewall (WAF), DDoS protection, and free malware scanning.

Customer Support: All of Bluehost’s shared hosting plans include 24/7 chat support. Its Choice Plus and Pro plans include phone support.

Website Builder: Bluehost recently launched its AI website builder, WonderSuite. Now, you can describe your site and AI will build three different options for you.

4. Hostinger

Best for: Small businesses that want powerful cloud hosting at an affordable price

G2 rating: 4.4/5 stars

I was floored by how much bang for your buck you can get for Hostinger’s cloud hosting. Of all the cloud hosting plans on this list, Hostinger’s most basic one is by far the cheapest, and yet it offers the highest-tier tech specs for it (e.g., it supports 300 websites, unlimited bandwidth, and 200GB of NVMe storage!). This makes Hostinger a fantastic option for small businesses with higher-traffic websites or ecommerce sites that require more resources.

On top of that, Hostinger’s cheapest shared hosting, Single, starts at a promo price of just $2.99/mo for the first year and then renews at $5.99/mo after that. That makes it the cheapest first-year hosting plan on this list. It’s great for new businesses that are starting their first website and are unsure if they’ll want to continue after a year.

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• No setup required
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• Keep your website secure

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If you need to migrate your preexisting small business website from one provider to another, Hostinger shines there too with its free website migration.

As far as support during the buying process goes, Hostinger has an AI-powered chatbot, Kodee. I found Kodee to be very fast and accurate in answering my hosting-related questions. But I did reach a messaging limit, at which point Kodee told me to book a sales call (which I did not).

Security: Hostinger uses a WAF and DDoS traffic filter. Its Business web hosting and cloud hosting plans get an in-house CDN. It also offers malware protection, daily or weekly backups (depending on the plan), and SSL certificates.

Customer Support: Shared and cloud hosting plans get 24/7 support via live chat, but cloud plans get priority support.

Website Builder: Hostinger comes with a drag-and-drop website builder plus AI tools like heatmaps and SEO tools.

5. GoDaddy

Best for: Small business owners looking for low-cost hosting from an established brand

G2 rating: 3.9/5 stars

Founded in 1997, GoDaddy is one of the oldest brands on this list, so it’s got a lot of history. It also offers some very affordable hosting plans, with its Basic plan costing only $4.99/mo (and no, that’s not just a first-year promotional price).

There are three different types of hosting: shared, managed WordPress, and VPS. In total, GoDaddy has at least 19 hosting plans — plenty to choose from. Note that GoDaddy stopped offering dedicated hosting in 2024.

Even with the most basic version of shared hosting, you get unmetered bandwidth and daily backups. When you start with the most basic plan, you also get a free domain for a year and a free SSL certificate.

On three separate days, when I tried the AI chat and tried to connect to a human, GoDaddy’s site said it was experiencing “higher than normal volumes.” It took about one to several minutes to get connected.

GoDaddy does offer migration assistance for free for managed WordPress plans and for a fee for others.

Security: Depending on your plan, GoDaddy offers daily or weekly backups, network security, DDoS protection, CDN, and free SSL.

Customer Support: GoDaddy offers 24/7 chat and SMS support. Certain plans, such as Managed WordPress Ultimate, get priority support.

Website Builder: GoDaddy has a website builder, but it’s separate from its hosting plans and requires a subscription. As with the other hosts, though, you could always install WordPress for free and use that as your website builder.

6. DreamHost

Best for: Small business owners that want the peace of mind of a 97-day money-back guarantee

G2 ratings: 4.0/5 stars

DreamHost stands out because its shared hosting has the most generous money-back guarantee on this list. You get 97 days to request a refund from the point of opening an account (note: this is only for shared hosting).

It’s also worth noting that DreamHost’s managed WordPress plans use a cloud server environment, which stands out from others on this list with managed WordPress hosting in a shared server environment.

DreamHost’s sales support live chat started me with a chatbot that gave me responses to choose from. After three tries, I was connected to a human agent who quickly answered my questions about the different hosting plans.

Security: DreamHost offers free SSL, automatic WordPress updates, and daily backups on its shared and managed WordPress plans. VPS hosting includes automatic software updates, including installing security patches.

Customer Support: DreamHost provides 24/7 ticket support, live chat support, and phone support callbacks for its shared and managed WordPress plans. Its DreamPress Pro plan gives you access to priority support.

Website Builder: DreamHost has an AI website builder that comes free with hosting. It also offers custom website design starting at $1,499.

7. Squarespace

Best for: Small ecommerce businesses looking to build and host their website on one platform

G2 reviews: 4.4/5 stars

Squarespace is an appealing choice because, similar to Content Hub, you can build your website and host it in one place. However, it’s a more costly choice, as there isn’t a free option, so you’ll need to allocate money for it in your budget. Squarespace does offer a 14-day trial.

If you’re building an ecommerce site, Squarespace has many commerce features, such as secure checkout.

I moved my freelance business website from WordPress to Squarespace in 2023, and I was really pleased. In my opinion, Squarespace’s templates have superior design, and they were easy to modify using the drag-and-drop builder.

Unlike many other hosts, Squarespace does not offer a live chat during the buying process, so getting answers quickly is tougher. It does have a self-serve knowledgebase you can search, though.

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• Fully managed hosting
• No setup required
• No storage, traffic, or usage hosting fees
• Keep your website secure

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Security: Squarespace offers many security features, including free SSL, DoS protection, and two-factor authentication.

Customer Support: Squarespace has 24/7 customer support via email and X (previously called Twitter). It also offers live chat support Monday-Friday from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET.

Website Builder: This is Squarespace’s bread and butter. It’s a popular website builder with premade templates and a drag-and-drop editor. Most recently, it launched an AI builder called Blueprint AI.

8. Wix

Best for: Those looking to build and host a small business website for free

G2 rating: 4.2/5 stars

Similar to Squarespace, Wix is a website builder and host with ecommerce options, so you can create and host your website in one platform. Unlike Squarespace, you can use Wix for free for your small business. However, if you do so, you’ll have Wix branding on your site.

Wix offers four different plans: Light for $16/month, Core for $27/month, Business for $32/month, and Business Elite for $159/month. Wix has advanced security monitoring options to ensure your site is protected and an automatic setup when you create your website.

When I was researching the Wix website, there was no AI-powered chatbot or live chat option available to answer my questions.

Security: Wix security features include free SSL, CDN, 2-step verification, secure payments, DDoS protection, and more.

Customer Support: Wix customer service offers 24/7 phone support and live chat support Monday-DFriday from 2 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET.

Website Builder: Wix is a website builder with over 900 prebuilt templates, a drag-and-drop editor, and an AI builder.

9. A2 Hosting

Best for: Small business websites with lots of traffic and higher performance requirements

G2 rating: 4.4/5 stars

A2 Hosting is known for its speed, boasting unlimited NVMe storage and up to 20x faster performance on its Turbo shared hosting plans. It also offers free site migration and free SSL certificates.

The team is available to support you around the clock. A2 Hosting offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee and will even give you your money back if you try the platform and are not satisfied within 30 days.

A2 Hosting’s live chat instantly connected me to a human who promptly answered my questions about the plans. It’s worth noting that A2 Hosting has one of the most generous website migration services I’ve seen, offering it on all of its shared and managed hosting plans.

Security: A2 Hosting has security measures that include DDoS protection, web hosting firewall, virus scanning, 24/7 monitoring, and free SSL.

Customer Support: A2 Hosting provides 24/7 customer support. You can reach support via phone or live chat or submit a ticket.

Website Builder: A2 Hosting's SiteBuilder is free for a one-page website on a shared hosting plan, but it costs extra beyond that.

Best Web Hosting for Small Business Sites: My Final Thoughts

I know that finding the best web hosting for small business sites is overwhelming. I’ve spent countless hours trying to find one for mine, and I’ve even switched hosts a few times.

My two cents? If you don’t already have a website that you want to transfer to a new host, opt for a website builder with a free plan, such as Wix or HubSpot’s Content Hub. You’ve got nothing to lose by taking Content Hub for a spin because you don’t even have to enter your credit card details.

If you do have a website that you want to transfer to a new host, and you want to keep that exact design, try one of the hosts on this list that offers free website migration assistance, such as Hostinger or A2 Hosting.

Don’t let those multiple hosting types scare you. For a small business website, shared hosting plans are a great place to start.

If you have a WordPress site and you want someone else to take care of security and maintenance, look for a managed WordPress plan.

And if you have a high-traffic site, you’ll need more server resources, so opt for a VPS or cloud hosting plan. Dedicated hosting is top-tier, but few small business websites actually need it. Remember, you can always upgrade to more premium plans as your website grows.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in September 2023 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Free Web Hosting with HubSpot

Host your website on a fully managed and optimized infrastructure that scales with your business.

• Fully managed hosting
• No setup required
• No storage, traffic, or usage hosting fees
• Keep your website secure

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