Within the past 5 years, the number of domain registrars and website hosting companies have grown exponentially. As a result of this explosive growth, it can be challenging to select a domain registrar among the many companies that provide domain registry services.

Some registrars specialize in selling domain names. While others sell additional features such as web hosting, security, email marketing solutions and cloud services. With some domain registrars, the list of services they offer are endless.

Two of the most well known domain registrars are Namecheap and GoDaddy. Before we take a look at the features of each of these services, let’s explore some features that you should look for in a great domain registrar.

How to Select a Reliable Domain Registrar

When you are researching domain registrars, you must remember that each registrar has access to the same domain names and URLs. This means that no company can provide you with better URL names than other companies.

Here are a few questions you should ask yourself before you select a domain registrar. What features are being offered with the domain registry package? Is the price competitive with other domain registrars? If not, what features are being offered to compensate for the price difference? Has the company created processes that make it easy for you to manage your services without assistance?

This is a list of things you should pay attention to as you conduct your research.

1. Additional or hidden fees associated with transferring your domain name
2. History and reputation of providing quality services
3. Reasonably-priced services
4. Accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned of Names and Numbers(ICANN)
5. Easy domain transfer and forwarding services
6. 24/7 customer support
7. Private WhoIs registration
8. Manual and automatic renewal features

There are plenty of domain registrars that come and go. It is important to pay close attention to the terms and conditions of your service provider.

When you visit your prospective domain registrar’s websites, you should stay focused on your immediate needs. With all of the services that are provided, it can be easy for you to get distracted by the numerous specials and offerings on the website.

Competitive pricing should be a factor as you select your domain registrar, but it should not be the only factor. Make your final decision by considering all of the features that were mentioned earlier in this review.

Many experts recommend that customers use a different domain registrar and website hosting service. If you decide to change to another website hosting service, having your domain name with the same registrar can complicate the matter. You should ask the customer representative of your prospective domain registrars if switching your domain registry to another website host will cause any disruptions.

Namecheap vs GoDaddy – Which Domain Registrar is the Best?

If you have been contemplating whether to subscribe to Namecheap or GoDaddy, this review will help you sort out the details associated with each domain registrar. Our primary goal is to help you make an informed decision after you read this comparison of Namecheap and GoDaddy.

Namecheap

As a leading domain registrar that is accredited by ICANN, Namecheap has developed a strong market share since it was founded in 2000. Namecheap has provided over 4 million domain names to customers throughout the world. Although Namecheap’s core business is domain registry services, it provides additional services including web hosting, email hosting, security and cloud-based services.

Godaddy

In terms of size and market domination, GoDaddy is the largest domain registrar. In fact, GoDaddy has over 30 percent of the domain registry market share.

This company has provided more than 59 million domain names registered throughout the world. GoDaddy provides a wide array of services including email aliases, online marketing tools, search engine optimization, privacy protection and sub domains.

Price

Both Namecheap and GoDaddy offer various advertisement promotion codes that are available on several websites on the internet. Since both sites offer so many services to customers, it would be difficult to compare the prices of each service. For the purposes of this review, we will compare the prices of a 1-year renewal rate for domain names of each site.

Namecheap

$10.69 each year to purchase a .com domain
and $8.88 + ICANN fee, for new domain name registrations.

GoDaddy

$11.99 each year to purchase a .com domain

Namecheap and GoDaddy offer various prices on .net, .org, .info, .co, .biz .io and .us domains. On both sites, you can receive additional discounts if you pay in full for service for multiple years. GoDaddy and Namecheap allow you to register your domain name for up to 10 years. There are also several Godaddy alternatives.

Overall, prices are cheaper on Namecheap + they offer you Privacy Protection for FREE, where as on GoDaddy this is a premium addon.

Namecheap and GoDaddy – Pros and Cons

When you are looking for a domain registry service, you must keep in mind that the perfect domain registrar does not exist. Every domain registrar has good and bad aspects.

With that said, there are pros and cons associated with Namecheap and GoDaddy.

Pros – Namecheap

• Good service and security features
• ICANN Accreditation
• Domains are simple to transfer
• Minimal upsell tactics
• Knowledgeable help desk
• 24/7 customer support via help desk
• Competitive price points for all services

Cons – Namecheap

• Some new domain extensions can be very expensive.
• Customer support needs improving

Pros – GoDaddy

• Large, trusted brand in the domain name registry industry
• Easy to purchase and select a domain name
• Website seems easy to navigate and understand the offerings
• 24/7 customer support
• A wide range of services with GoDaddyPro
• Customer support representatives are helpful and knowledgeable
• Accredited ICANN

Cons – GoDaddy

• Check-out process can cause confusion
• Domain manager is not integrated into same window as other features
• Difficult domain transfer process
• Too many instances of upsell
• Long customer support wait times
• Due to promotions and upsell tactics, there are a lot of pop-up specials on the screen. This can be annoying when you are trying to navigate quickly around the site.

As you compare Namecheap and GoDaddy, be mindful that GoDaddy is a larger company. There some problems that large companies experience. For example, GoDaddy may not have as many personal touches as Namecheap.

Namecheap is a smaller company. As a result, it can provide more personalized attention and services for its customers.

Overall User Experience

Your time is limited. So your domain registrar should provide an easy-to-navigate user experience for you. Managing your domain name should not consume a large amount of your time during the day. This section of the review will explore the overall user experience including point of purchase, use and navigation.

Namecheap
The overall check-out process for this domain registrar is quick and seamless. The process is straightforward, and there are not a lot of upselling tactics to disrupt your experience.

Namecheap provides a good search engine for domain name suggestions. When you enter this site, you will notice that Namecheap does not have all of the bells and whistles like its larger competitor. Namecheap offers a quick live chat feature, but it lacks telephone support services.

GoDaddy
The GoDaddy website experience is lively and colorful. At first glance, you can the company has a lot of offerings. However, the hustle and bustle associated with this website can be confusing.

First of all, GoDaddy is the epicenter of upsells. With each click of your mouse, you will be bombarded with an advertisement for a different special. If you want to get a domain name quick, fast and in a hurry, the constant upsells can stall your progress.

GoDaddy offers both telephone and live chat support options. This feature is good for you if you need a solution to a problem that you cannot figure out on your own.

GoDaddy offers a domain management feature. However, the domain manager opens in another window. This feature makes the user experience feel segmented and disjointed.

DNS Management Interface

The DNS management window is the sections that enables you to make changes. Unless you have a technology manager, you will be making all of your DNS changes manually. You may have to reroute your DNS to your web host, configure sub domains and set up emails related to your domain. The DNS management interface needs to be user-friendly.

Namecheap’s DNS Management Interface
Namecheap offers a streamlined DNS management interface. It is free from clutter and unnecessary upsell offers. Namecheap’s layout is straightforward. It is constructed in a way that minimizes the time it takes for you to quickly make changes and leave the site.

GoDaddy’s DNS Management Interface
GoDaddy has a more cluttered DNS management interface. There are additional features on the management interface that do not add value to the customer experience.

For example, you may notice features on your DNS management interface that you did not purchase. This part of the site features extra settings for GoDaddy’s upsell subscriptions. These features get in the way of functionality and make the user experience burdensome.

Domain Name Extras

It is not uncommon for domain registrars to provide extra services that are included in the price of your subscription price. After all, there is so much competition that they need to do make an extra effort to differentiate their services from the other companies in the domain registry industry.

Namecheap Extras

• 100 percent free email forwarding services
• Reliable DNS (no history of company being hacked)
• WhoIs privacy feature is bundled
• Namecheap charges $3 for photo storage and limited hosting package
• Free custom name servers

GoDaddy Extras

• GoDaddy charges an additional fee for custom name servers
• GoDaddy provides a limited hosted package and photo storage for free for 1 year
• GoDaddy charges an additional fee for WHOIS guard
• GoDaddy offers email as an upsell package
• GoDaddy offers a reliable DNS, but the site has been hacked

Namecheap and GoDaddy Upsell Tactics

The internet has evolved so much during the past 20 years that it is hardly recognizable. As technology improves, the need for specialized services grow.

As a result of the internet’s continuous growth, it is not unusual for both Namecheap and GoDaddy to provide customers with the opportunity to take advantage of other offers. This tactic is actually a valuable service for customers, and a lucrative marketing opportunity for domain registrars.

When it comes to using upsell tactics, the GoDaddy website seems to be aggressive and pushy. It seems as if the annoying upsells advertisements do not give you time to make a conscious decision about whether you need to purchase the additional service. If you do not like pushy marketing strategies, visiting the GoDaddy website can frustrate you.

In terms of upsells, Namecheap and GoDaddy offer some of the same packages for hosting and storage. Some of the most common upsells for each of the domain registrars include SSL certificates.

Company Values

If you are like most people, you like to support companies that have admirable company values. When you support any company, you are providing them with the means to further their messages and position in the marketplace.

Namecheap publicly opposes the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA). The purpose of this legislation was to limit the freedom of internet users. Namecheap believes that every person should have the right to use the internet as they desire in a responsible manner without legislative restraints.

GoDaddy actively supports the SOPA legislation. They also support marketing practices that attempt to lock their customers into extended agreements. Another practice they have is using sexual exploitation to market their services.

Although many of these practices may not offend you, it is good to be aware of the values of each of the companies.

Namecheap vs. GoDaddy – Conclusion

The purpose of this review is to provide you with enough information to help you select a domain registrar that meets your needs. Our goal for this review is to tell you whether Namecheap or GoDaddy is the best domain registrar, in our opinion.

Our opinion is that NameCheap is the the best.

Namecheap and GoDaddy are both good domain registrars in their own right. Both of the registrars provide domain names at reasonable prices. They have solid security features, flexible domain management services, around the clock customer support and dynamic DNS performance. Another positive feature associated with Namecheap and GoDaddy is they provide freebies when you get services.

If you like domain registrars that offer a few services, provide a user-friendly interface and minimizes upsell tactics, Namecheap might be a clear choice for you.

Thanks to platforms like Wix, the process of building a website became intuitive, fast, and highly visual.

Wix is a live editor, artificial intelligence page designer, and has hundreds of professional themes. So, it could be all you ever need when making a website.

But how good Wix really is? Is it only simple to use – or is it a proper tool for you to make a functional, professional website?

In this Wix review, we look at its main features and list the pros and cons of this platform. Let’s see how it goes.

Wix Pros

Over the years Wix has earned over 150 million users – so it has to be doing something right. Most people are with this provider because of beautiful templates and an intuitive drag-and-drop editor.

Others are using Wix for Artificial Intelligence designs, hundreds of apps to customize, and a plan that lets you create a website absolutely free.

So, let’s look at what good and bad Wix has to offer.

1. Designer-made templates

Wix is best known for hundreds of beautiful templates it has to offer. The platform employs an in-house team of designers, working on creating responsive, functional, and award-winning designs.

There are over 500 templates covering themes for all kinds of businesses. Templates are designed for online stores, blogs, portfolios, and are also separated into different categories for various businesses.

You can make them look even better with scroll effects and other interactive features:

But if the pre-made templates are not customizable enough for you, Wix also has blank templates. It means you can start completely from scratch and create a custom design that suits you best.

If you want to start building a template on your own but you don’t know where to start, don’t worry. Wix has a page where you can explore impressive and beautiful websites created with its builder.

You can visit those websites to find a lot of great ideas.

2. User-friendly website builder

Wix claims to offer the best website builder in the industry – and for this Wix review, we had a chance to check that out for ourselves.

The process of customizing a theme includes dragging-and-dropping elements – images, text boxes, buttons, etc. on your website-to-be.

Everything you drop jumps on an invisible grid and attaches to the website. Yet,you may still put the elements wherever you wish, and it still looks tidy.

It gives you the freedom to create the website you want.

Wix also offers hundreds of fonts but you can upload your own if that’s not enough. Furthermore, depending on the background you choose, or the template, Wix suggests using a matching color scheme.

But if you wish, you can play around with all sorts of color combinations.

This feature is easily accessible once you try designing particular elements of the website.

One more feature of the website builder is the integrated Corvid code editor. It’s accessible at the bottom of the builder’s page at all times and can be used to add extra functions to your website.

Corvid uses JavaScript as its language base, so you can edit and create features right in the Wix website builder. If you want to add custom CSS or HTML to your website you have to go through site settings.

There you can use the Tracking and Analytics page to add tools and code.

While being more complicated to use, you can add new or modify any element of your page. You also can select pages that will be affected by your code and where you would like to place it.

While still focusing more on the drag-and-drop editor and easy to control features, Wix has tools and features developed for more tech-savvy users.

3. Wix Artificial Design Intelligence

If you don’t have much time for customizing and testing every little detail and if a personal web developer is not a solution for your budget, Wix has you covered.

It has a feature that is certain to please people looking for ultimate ease of use. It’s called Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (or ADI) and promises to create a personal design based on a few questions you answer.

It chooses a fitting layout, matches the color scheme to your logo, adds fonts, styles, and all that. You can also select what added functionalities you need – a blog or a live chat, for example.

Also, based on the topic of your website, ADI can recommend some features that it thinks you might like. Below we tested just how long it takes to have a functioning website created with the help of ADI.

Two and a half minutes later we have a website. Complete with a blog, fitting stock images, contact form, and text placeholders. So, now that ADI created the base for your websiteyou can modify and add finishing touches.

What is left to do is to upload your content, images, and press Publish.

4. Hundreds of useful apps

You can easily enhance the functionality of your website by visiting Wix App Market. Hundreds of Wix apps are put into 21 different categories including forums, blogs, online store tools, and must-have apps.

You’ll find both free and paid apps available here. Other apps have a free version that you can use and a paid version to upgrade to when your business grows.

Some of our favorite must-have apps are:

Visitor Analytics – lets you analyze and track tons of information about your customers. What are your most popular pages, how much time users spend on your website and much more. Its a bit more beginner-friendly version of Google Analytics and is GDPR-compliant.

Wix Pro Gallery – This plugin has been downloaded more than 2,5 million times and allows you to add beautiful looking galleries to your website. With it, you can optimize and control the size of your photo, add a video or text elements, and choose from 12 different layout options.

Wix Chat – allows you to have a live chat option directly on your website. You can connect to your customers faster and create auto-replies for different situations.

5. Free plan

Whether to test it out, or use it as a learning tool, Wix has a great option – a free plan. You can use it to create up to 2 websites using all of the offered features with one account.

What does it include?

Wix free plan gives you 500MB storage space and 500MB bandwidth. It’s enough for a lightweight website. You simply register with Wix (credit card info is not required).

Unfortunately, you cannot connect your own domain. The subdomain is generated automatically according to your website name and added to the .wixsite.com domain, eg. mywebsite.wixsite.com.

Wix also displays its ribbon at the top of the page that anyone that visits your website will see. While it’s annoying you are getting a free website in return.

Apart from that, you can use every feature Wix has to offer including ADI, Corvid code editor, and apps with the free plan.

Wix Cons

While Wix is great in general, it does have some drawbacks.

Let’s see where Wix can make some improvements.

1. Wix pricing

Wix is not cheap. There are 8 premium plans and the cheapest one starts at $13/month. For a more advanced website, you can scale up to the VIP plan for $39/month.

eCommerce plans for business start at $23/month and can cost up to $500/month for enterprises.

All of the plans get you a free domain and also allow connecting your own. With the Combo plan, you’ll also get 2GB of bandwidth and 3GB of storage. Wix suggests it’s best for personal use.

You can update premium website plans up to unlimited bandwidth, 20GB storage, 2 hours of video allowed, and priority support.

As for the business and eCommerce plans, Business Basic for $23/month will get you unlimited bandwidth, 20GB storage, and is 100% commission-free for payments. The Enterprise plan, on the other hand, offers unlimited bandwidth, even more unlimited services, and individualized maintenance support.

All the main features, included with each of the plans, can be seen here:

All in all, Wix services are a bit costly. However, for many, the features in the plans will be well worth the expenses.

2. Help center and customer support

Wix customer support (tickets and call-backs) in English, Spanish, and Portuguese can be reached on Monday-Friday from 5 am to 5 pm PST. Italian support is available from Monday to Friday, from 8 am to 5 pm GMT+1.

But if you wish to reach it, you’ll need to work for it.

That’s because instead, Wix intends to solve the main issues through an extensive help center – it has a lot of articles and step-by-step tutorials.

And while the help center is incredibly thorough, sometimes it may not be enough.

For example, for this Wix review, I wanted to ask the support about optimizing their video background which was causing serious performance issues.

First I discovered an article related to my problem where I found a link to the Troubleshooter.

And there, I eventually discovered a way to contact the support (a very small button at the bottom of the page).

Luckily, I only waited 30 minutes for a response. The answers were also extensive and helpful. So if the help center won’t give you the information you need, 30 minutes later, someone from the ticket service will.

Now, about the live chat:

Currently, Wix does not have a live chat support option. But with the request from multiple users, it’s planning to introduce the option at some point.

While preparing this Wix review, I got extremely lucky. I managed to get a sneak-peak to the upcoming live chat.

As far as I can understand, they are testing it – and from what I got to see, they’re heading in the right direction.

Waiting time was about 2 minutes, and overall, the agent was informative and ready to help.

So, while currently, Wix customer support isn’t perfect, it’s clearly trying to improve its current awkward state.

And that’s a very good thing – hopefully, the live chat feature will soon be available to all users.

3. Technical limitations

First, when using Wix, you can’t choose your own hosting provider or a server.  You are automatically assigned with hosting – Wix is your host, website builder, developer, and even marketing specialist.

Wix aims to be a reliable hosting provider that has everything you need. It even introduced some enhancements to its servers to offer speed faster than Captain Marvel with the new Wix Turbo feature. Or so they claim.

However, some of the website elements are not well optimized. Namely – the video backgrounds. A small looping video, selected from Wix’s own library has slowed the website down significantly.

Another technical problem might occur if you decide to move elsewhere.

Wix claims that everything on the website is yours and only yours. But transferring a website will most probably require the services of an experienced web developer.

But there are no Wix-approved tools for website transfer from and to Wix. So while you can create a great page using a website builder like Wix, it does come with a few limitations.

Wix will be great for projects both small and large. However, it might never overrun the flexibility of platforms like WordPress where you have full control over every detail.

Wix Review – The Verdict

Wix offers elegant templates, customizable editor, artificial design capabilities, and hundreds of powerful applications. This makes it a great option for personal and business use.

There are areas for improvement: the customer support needs some improvement, the video backgrounds slow the website down significantly, and the premium plans could be just a little bit cheaper.

But if those issues are not massive dealbreakers to you, then I strongly suggest you give Wix a try. It could be just a perfect website builder for you.

Pros

• ADI Website builder
• Quick response times
• Tons of beautiful templates
• Free plan available

Cons

• Free version has a lot of advertising
• Expensive premium plans

Finding a good web hosting can take a lot of time and money.

To date, we’ve signed up, tested and reviewed over 30 different web hosting companies.

This also means that we have their performance data.

Uptime and load time are two of the most important factors when choosing a web host (next to their cost).

Here is our review process in detail:

• We sign up with the web hosting plan offered by the hosting service
• We set up a blank WordPress website
• We monitor their performance, such as uptime and speed
• We check their features, limitations, pricing and customer support
• We publish the review (updating once a year)

The current ranking formula is based on average uptime, average speed and cost. If you want more detailed data, see this Pingdom data page.

10 Best Website Hosting Providers

Here is a list of 10 best website hosting providers that have performed well in 2017-2020:

1. SiteGround – Best WordPress Support ($3.95/mo)

SiteGround Pros:
+ Very Good Uptime (99.99%)
+ Fast and Knowledgeable Support
+ High-Performance WordPress Hosting
+ Free Site Migration
+ Easy to Use, includes cPanel

SiteGround Cons:
– ‘Setup Fee’ for Monthly Billing
– Limited Storage Space

With an introductory rate of $3.95/month (for a minimum of 12-months) and a renewal rate of $11.95/month, SiteGround is not the cheapest web host on our list.

And sure, you can probably justify this hefty price tag by pointing to their free SSL certificates, site migration, CDN, email accounts, and daily backups.

Or the impressive WordPress features, intuitive cPanel and highly knowledgeable support team…

… But when you consider that your site will be limited to only 10GB of storage space, 10,000 monthly visits, and a ‘fast-but-not-fast-enough’ speed of 713ms, it starts to become a harder sell.

However, on the good side, they have data centers across US, Europe and Asia, a strong reputation in the marketplace, and plenty to offer new customers. But you can get more bang for your buck by using one of our top three hosts like Bluehost or HostGator.

Visit SiteGround.com

2. Bluehost – Best Uptime Hosting ($2.75/mo)

Bluehost Pros:
+ Best Uptime (99.99%)
+ Fast Load Time (0.41ms)
+ Cheap “Intro” Cost ($2.75/mo)
+ Easy to Use and Signup
+ Fast Support (Live Chat and Phone)
+ 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee

Bluehost Cons:
– No Free Site Migrations

Bluehost is our top-rated web hosting company because their last 16-month uptime and speed is very strong – 99.99% and 0.41ms respectively.

Their 3-year introductory price is $2.75/mo and that comes with features like free domain name, website builder and one-click install for WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. So for starters (someone without a website), this is probably the best option. They also have a 30-day money back guarantee.

They use their built-in admin panel (along with cPanel) that makes setting up and managing websites very simple and straightforward.

While their bandwidth is unmetered, the maximum storage varies from 50GB to unlimited – depending on which plan you choose. We recommend getting the prime plan for the most value.

SSL certificate (HTTPS://) is included for free on all plans as well as email accounts. You can let Bluehost transfer your existing website to their hosting environment, but this will cost $149 per website.

Visit Bluehost.com

3. HostGator Cloud – Most Unlimited Hosting ($2.99/mo)

HostGator Cloud Pros:
+ Good Uptime (99.98%)
+ Fast Load Time (0.43ms)
+ FREE Site Migration (1)
+ No Bandwidth/Storage Limit
+ Unlimited Email Accounts
+ Free SSL Included

HostGator Cloud Cons:
– Higher Renewal Cost

HostGator cloud hosting offers their users unlimited bandwidth, storage space, and email accounts.

On top of that, they have free site migration if you decide to transfer your website from another host without the hassle. Their last 16-month performance stats aren’t bad either, 432ms load time and 99.98% uptime.

They’re one of the fastest hosts we’ve reviewed, their servers are perfect for WordPress websites. Most of their data centers are based in the US, but the host does well to serve European clients too.

Before you sign up, be sure with the higher renewal prices that start right after your billing period ends. For example, the $2.99 is for the first 1-6 months, then the price jumps to $9.95 – $14.95/mo.

They do have fast and efficient live chat, SSL certificate is included as well as daily backups.

If you need a scalable hosting, HostGator Cloud is probably your best option.

Visit HostGator.com

4. Hostinger – Cheapest Web Hosting ($0.80/mo)

Hostinger Pros:
+ Fast Load Time (0.37ms)
+ Cheapest Plan ($0.80/mo)
+ Datacenters in 7 Regions
+ FREE Domain Name (1 year)
+ Uptime Guarantee
+ 30 Days Money Back

Hostinger Cons:
– SSL Not Included

Hostinger is one of the cheapest hosting providers that costs only $0.80/mo when choosing their longest (48 months) subscription.

They have data centers and servers across the world in seven different regions.

While being one of the cheapest, they still manage to achieve a just “okay” uptime of 99.91%. If we were to count only the last 15-months instead of 16-months, then their uptime would be a solid 99.97%. Their average page load time is very fast though, only 0.37ms.

Bandwidth and databases are unlimited unless you choose the “Single Web Hosting” plan. With the latter you’ll be limited to 10GB of disk space, 100GB of bandwidth, one MySQL database, and one email account.

Unfortunately, not everything is cheap. The important add-ons which aren’t included in the basic plans are priority support and SSL certificate which will set you back some more money.

Similarly to Bluehost, they too offer a 30-day money back guarantee on all the hosting plans.

5. GoDaddy – Most Popular Web Host ($3.66/mo)

GoDaddy Pros:
+ Good Uptime (99.97%)
+ Fast Load Time (0.52ms)
+ Many Great Features
+ Well Known Brand

GoDaddy Cons:
– Unreliable Support
– Emails, Backups and SSL Cost Extra

GoDaddy’s brand is easily one of the most well-known domain registrar and hosting provider on the market.

But is their reputation well deserved when it comes to performance and delivering fast page speed?

While their page loading speed is relatively fast, just above 500ms, their uptime isn’t ideal – 99.97%.

A glance at what they offer – a 99.99% uptime guarantee, 100GB of website storage (a lot), unmetered bandwidth and free trial for their website builder, seems like a too good deal.

But when you look at the sheer number of highly pried upsells and sneaky marketing tricks (like charging for site backups, SSL certificates, email accounts, and more), it becomes harder and harder to give credence to the brand’s reputation.

In addition to the many shameless money grabs present inside of GoDaddy’s pricing structure, the inefficacy of their customer support team and lack of compelling freebies (like the industry standard SSL certificate and unlimited email accounts) makes us hard pressed to recommend them above any of the aforementioned hosts.

Visit GoDaddy.com

6. WebHostingBuzz – Small, But Reliable Web Host ($4.99/mo)

WebHostingBuzz Pros:
+ Good Load Time (0.47ms)
+ Excellent Support
+ 45-Day Money Back Guarantee
+ Free Migrations & Domain Name
+ Solid Uptime (99.98%)

WebHostingBuzz Cons:
– Payment Terms

Founded in 2002, WebHostingBuzz is specialized in the UK web hosting market.

With more than 250+ server locations worldwide, site load times of only 474ms, and a 99.98% average uptime (which is almost as good as what they advertise) this “under the radar behemoth” brings a lot of value to the table.

Their customer support is some of the best we’ve ever experienced–we had all of our (very technical) questions answered in a matter of minutes–and, when you consider that they offer a 45-day money back guarantee, unlimited bandwidth, 20GB disk space, free site migrations, and a free domain at only $4.99/month… they appear like one of the best hosts on our list.

However, with a 12-month minimum payment term and a 48-month minimum for the advertised price of $4.99, you can get a lot more for your money with another provider.

Visit WebHostingBuzz.com

7. A2Hosting – Fastest Shared Web Host ($3.92/mo)

A2 Hosting Pros:
+ Fastest Load Time (0.34ms)
+ Quick and Efficient Support
+ Free Site Migration
+ Compatible With Common CMS’s
+ Environment-Friendly

A2 Hosting Cons:
– Uptime could be better (99.92%)
– Restrictions on Cheapest Plan

US-based A2 Hosting is the fastest shared web hosting we’ve tested to date.

Hands down, they’ve managed to achieve 336ms average load time over a period of 16-months. All of their plans offer unlimited bandwidth and storage, responsive customer support (phone and live chat), free SSL certificate, site migration, and domain name…

It’s easy to see why A2 Hosting was almost our favorite host on this list.

However, they were held back from a top-three spot due to two big problems.

First and foremost, their uptimes. With an average uptime of 99.92%, the unreliability of A2’s hosting simply won’t meet the needs of most webmasters.

Furthermore, there are some hefty restrictions placed on their basic web hosting package: like the one-website limit, five database limit, exclusion of addon domains, and WordPress cache limitations. If you want to avoid the limitations, you just need to choose a more flexible hosting plan.

Although they are still one of our favorite hosts, with a $3.92/month price tag renewed at $9.99/month, we can’t recommend them above providers like Hostinger.

Visit A2Hosting.com

8. iPage – Best for Small Websites ($1.99/mo)

iPage Pros:
+ Strong Uptime (99.97%)
+ Enhanced Security Options
+ Cheap Inexpensive Hosting ($1.99/mo)
+ Environment-Friendly
+ Upfront Pricing

iPage Cons:
– Expensive Domain Names
– No cPanel

iPage hosting brings a lot to the table.

From 99.97% uptimes, upfront and affordable pricing – $1.99/mo for the first three years then $7.99/mo, free 24/7 live chat and over the phone support, unlimited bandwidth, storage, and domain names and a free SSL certificate and email address… iPage has a lot to offer.

But, as with A2 Hosting, there are a few things that stopped iPage from earning a higher ranking on our list.

Specifically, iPage charges $17/year per domain, $150 for every site transfer, and offers a below-average site speed of only 787ms (the slowest of our top ten hosts).

Furthermore, they don’t offer cPanel access and the purported “unlimited” bandwidth and storage aren’t quite what they appear to be.

If you need a fast, feature rich, and fully equipped website to grow your online business, iPage simply doesn’t cut it. Yet, it might be a solid option for beginners with less money to spend on web hosting.

Visit iPage.com

9. Dreamhost – Best for Web Developers ($2.59/mo)

Dreamhost Pros:
+ Knowledgeable Support
+ 97-Day Money Back Guarantee
+ Unlimited Bandwidth
+ They’re Carbon Neutral

Dreamhost Cons:
– Possible Delayed Setup
– No cPanel

With more than 400,000 active customers and a hosting roster of more than 1.5 million websites, DreamHost is one of the biggest players in the web hosting game.

Founded in 1996 and offering pricing plans that start at only $2.59/mo (for the first 12-months), they’re also one of the oldest and cheapest.

However, there are a few key issues that prevent us from giving them a full endorsement.

Although they offer fast load times of 719ms, a 99.96% average uptimes, a 97-day money back guarantee, and completely unlimited bandwidth, the complete lack of live chat support and a traditional cPanel (in all fairness they do offer their own unique cPanel… but as web professionals, we weren’t fans) makes Dreamhost a hard sell.

With so many amazing hosts out there, DreamHost simply doesn’t offer anything that you can’t get from another host at the same price.

Visit Dreamhost.com

10. GreenGeeks – Best Green Web Host ($2.95/mo)

GreenGeeks Pros:
+ Good Uptime (99.95%)
+ Fast Load Time (0.49ms)
+ Environment-Friendly
+ Free Domain Name & Migration

GreenGeeks Cons:
– Higher Renewal Rates
– Questionable Refund Policy

With 99.95% uptimes and load speeds of 493ms, GreenGeeks offers fast and reliable hosting at an affordable rate of $2.95/month.

Add to this their feature-rich bonuses, high-quality customer support, and environmentally friendly practices and it’s easy to see how GreenGeeks are quickly carving out a name for themselves in a wildly oversaturated market.

If you decide to purchase their “Eco-site Starter”, your patronage will be rewarded with unlimited bandwidth, storage, and email accounts, a free SSL certificate, free domain (for the first year–then $13.95/year after), and a free website migration.

Their customer service is responsive, helpful, and available through live chat, email, and over the phone.

Unfortunately, the $9.95/month renewal rate, limited data centers (located in the U.S. and Netherlands only) and questionable refund policy may dissuade some webmasters from choosing GreenGeeks over other hosting providers.

Visit GreenGeeks.com

All 12 Web Hosts Reviewed…

About Our Web Hosting Review Process

Unlike other sites, we actually sign up and pay for web hosting.

We break down information about available packages and services, hidden fees, payment methods, and more. When we look at a web host, we start by reading over their terms of agreement to find out if there are any hidden, unfair terms that consumers should know about.

Then, we take a look at what kind of customer support they offer, whether it’s a live chat, phone, ticket, or email. Once we get a test site up and running, we evaluate the user interface of the host’s control panel and the total activation time.

We also monitor our site performance by plugging our domain names into Pingdom to look at speed and uptime.

We look at how fast sites load in certain countries and across certain devices. Our reviews also look at the quality of customer support for each host. We actually contact each host to see how long they take to respond and whether or not they are friendly and helpful.

Based on everything we look over, we assign a total rating for each host that ranges from 0 to 10

Why Uptime and Load Time Matters

Uptime and load time matter because they affect traffic, which in turn, most likely will affect your overall revenue.

You’ve got to keep an eye on both of these metrics because they indicate your site’s quality of performance. Uptime refers to the total time that your website is up and running without problems. Downtime refers to the time when your website is offline and unavailable to visitors and potential customers.

The time your website isn’t running, you’re losing money.

At the same time, if you have a slow load time, your bounce rate will be off the charts. People don’t want to wait forever for web pages to load. In fact, they won’t wait longer than 3 seconds if they’re using a mobile device to browse. Today, more page views happen on mobile than on desktop.

That’s why you should make sure that your load times are fast and that your uptime is high.

What is Shared Hosting?

Shared hosting consists of multiple websites on the same web server owned by the web host.

This is easily the most popular (and cheapest) method of web hosting. If your site has high traffic, you might not want to go with shared hosting. Sometimes, resources aren’t shared equally when it comes to this hosting method.

Remember how I told you that a server provides resources for storing files? Well, these resources, like hard drive space and RAM, can slow down if a site you’re sharing the server with is receiving tons of visitors or has incorrect coding.

This can lead to your website going down or experiencing super slow load times, therefore only go with shared hosting if your revenue doesn’t depend on your site’s performance (or if you’re not receiving gobs of traffic).

What is Cloud Hosting?

Unlike shared hosting that relies on one server, cloud hosting uses a cluster of servers that work together to store your website’s files and data.

Cloud-based hosting is great because it’s more efficient and secure than other hosting methods. These cloud systems protect your site against attacks better than traditional hosting systems because all the resources of multiple servers are in one virtual network.

Since the servers are virtual, clients only pay for what they need and use. When a physical server connected to the cloud goes offline or malfunctions, the virtual servers won’t be affected.

Think of it as a pay-as-you-go cell phone plan: You’ll never pay for resources you don’t need. And, if you need more to cover a jump in traffic, all you’ve got to do is pay a bit more money for that period of time.

What is WordPress Hosting?

WordPress hosting is for WordPress websites only. It’s fast because every aspect of WordPress servers has been optimized for setting up WordPress.

Your loading speeds will be much faster on WordPress in comparison to some other shared hosting sites. This is also true for your uptime. It’s also more secure because you’ve got a support team of WordPress experts to back you up if your website is attacked. Plus, your server will always be up to date.

WordPress is a bit less customizable than other hosts, though. For example, certain plugins aren’t permitted, and some plugins can’t be altered. Also, if you choose WordPress as your host, then you will also have to use WordPress as your CMS; it won’t allow you to use other CMS providers.

Site Transfers (FREE or Not?)

What if you pick a web host only to discover that you don’t like it? Site transfers allow you to move your website to another host.

Moving to another website consists of transferring the website’s files and databases, configuring your site with the new host, and directing your domain’s DNS to the new host. Once you pick a new site host, they can usually help you out with this process. The cost will depend on the host you’re switching to, but it will probably be anywhere from $150-$400.

But some web hosts on our list, like HostGator and GreenGeeks, offer free web transfers.

For paid transfers, you can usually transfer more than one site. It’s only $149.99 to migrate as many as five websites and 20 email accounts to Bluehost.

The site transfer will usually take a few days.

For a host like HostPapa, it will take 5 to 7 days to complete a site transfer. They recommend modifying DNS entries before starting the transfer so that it takes less time.

They can also update your DNS entries, but this service will add 24 to 72 hours before your site becomes live. With A2 Hosting, it’ll take anywhere from 2 to 4 days.