Hosting

The best hosting for small business in 2024: 6 top options

As a small business owner, you probably understand how important it is to have a high-quality website. Customers use it to discover your products, make purchases, and engage with your brand. All of this makes choosing a powerful host essential. However, finding the right provider isn’t always easy.

Fortunately, there are a variety of world-class hosts to choose from. By understanding what each of the top competitors can offer your small business, you can select the one that is best suited to your needs. 

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the reasons why small businesses have unique hosting needs. Then, we’ll go over six of the top hosting options for 2024. Let’s dive right in! 

Why small businesses have unique hosting needs

You probably already know that small businesses have unique needs compared to their larger counterparts. Therefore, there are a few things to consider when choosing a hosting provider for your website.

One of the most obvious elements is pricing. Chances are you have a tighter budget than a multinational company. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re willing to settle for subpar service. As such, finding a provider that can balance affordable costs with effective features is essential.

Speed is one of those features that small businesses probably value most. Every site can benefit from lightning-fast loading speeds, but smaller sites have more to gain. Low wait times are important for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and thus for new customers to discover your site. 

Another factor to consider is scalability. You may not want your small business to stay small forever. If you have your eyes set on expansion, you might want to consider choosing a hosting plan that can grow along with your company.

By the same token, growing a small business can take a lot of work. You might want to find a host that offers options for managed hosting – the less you have to deal with technical aspects, the more you can focus on other areas of your company.

Finally, small businesses in particular may want to think about customer support. If your website goes down, chances are you don’t want to be the only one working to get it back up. A world-class support team can be essential if something goes wrong.

The 6 best small business hosts: our top picks for 2024

With those needs in mind, here are six of our favorite small business hosts for your consideration.

1. Freshy

Freshy Homepage

Let’s kick things off with our hosting service: Freshy. While we’re well-known for our professional website design, that’s not all we do – we also offer WordPress-specific managed hosting with high-quality support to back it up.

Here are a few features you can expect if you choose to work with Freshy:

  • Scalable hosting options that provide speedy service at every tier
  • Regular automated data backups to keep you safe in case of disaster
  • Top-tier security measures including privacy protection and an SSL certificate

We’re particularly proud of our technicians. These experts are always on standby to help you handle any unforeseen problems. If you’re still in the buying phase, we also have a robust customer service team to help you pick the perfect plan. 

That’s why we recommend Freshy if you want the best support for your small business. You don’t have to worry about data breaches, checkout glitches, or site crashes that could inconvenience your customer base – our team will take care of it all.

On the other hand, you may want to choose Freshy if you haven’t built a website yet. With our website building services, you can get professional-quality web design and affordable hosting in one place.

Pricing: We understand that every small business is unique. Therefore, we encourage you to reach out to our customer service team for a price quote or more information on our services. 

2. InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting Homepage

Our second host is the famously reliable InMotion Hosting. With a 99.99 percent uptime guarantee and easy onboarding, you’re unlikely to need the money-back guarantee.

A few other stand-out features of InMotion Hosting include:

  • Integrated website builder if you want to design your website yourself
  • Month-to-month, low-commitment plan options
  • Around-the-clock support based in the U.S.

This company offers a wide variety of hosting options. You can choose from Virtual Private Servers (VPS), shared hosting, managed options, and even dedicated servers. The pricing options are variable, too.

As such, we’d recommend InMotion Hosting if you’re not sure what you need yet. A large amount of options with shorter contracts means that you have more freedom to explore your hosting needs.

On the other hand, InMotion Hosting offers an impressive amount of control with its managed hosting plans. If you’d like to get as specific as choosing advanced cache settings, for example, this host should be on your shortlist.

Pricing: Shared hosting starts at $5.99 per month for one site. If you want WordPress-specific hosting, those plans begin at $6.99 per month

3. Bluehost

Bluehost Homepage

Bluehost is another popular hosting option, particularly among those with tight budgets. The company’s plans are simple, effective, and most importantly, affordable.

However, cheap plans don’t necessarily mean weak features. Here are a few powerful benefits to choosing Bluehost:

  • A free domain name included with shared web hosting packages
  • AI-driven website builder available
  • Generous 50 GB SSD storage at the lowest tier and unlimited storage for those above it

If your small business is WooCommerce-focused, Bluehost is probably worth your consideration. The company offers hosting plans that are tailored to e-commerce sites, meaning that you can start selling your products and promoting your blog even faster.

As you can probably guess, Bluehost is also a smart choice if your budget is a big concern. The lower-tier plans are admittedly a bit limited, but all your basic needs will be met.

Lastly, some small businesses need a large amount of storage. If this sounds like you, then you’ll be pleased to learn that BlueHost’s plans offer more SSD storage than most websites will realistically need.

Pricing: Shared hosting starts at $2.95 per month. If you want to upgrade to VPS, those plans begin at $19.99 per month.

4. HostGator

HostGator Homepage

Another affordable option on this list is HostGator. However, this provider also offers impressive options for scaling and migrating your site.

In addition, HostGator provides a few other attractive features, such as:

  • Unmetered bandwidth to support your site in case of an unexpectedly large traffic bump
  • One-click installs for easy application integrations
  • Built-in SiteLock fix that provides daily security scans

Moreover, HostGator offers a wide range of ways to get support. You can call, tweet, or chat with a representative. It also boasts an impressively large knowledge base to help you along.

Additionally, HostGator might be the right solution for you if you’re ready to invest in a powerful security system. You’ll get three different tools to scan, back up, and analyze your site as much as you need. If you’re ready to get hands-on with your company’s safety, HostGator is a competitive option. 

Pricing: This is another budget option, with WordPress-specific plans starting at $5.95 per month. However, we recommend you choose the higher-tier business plan to best support your sales needs. Those start at $9.95 

5. A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting Homepage

Now we’re going to switch gears a bit. We’ve covered a few well-known options, but popularity isn’t the only consideration for a web host. Despite its modest reputation, A2 Hosting is a solid choice for a fast and reliable service.

The company has an impressive customer service team, as well as a few other key features:

  • 24/7 unattended malware scanning with no impact on performance
  • Developer-friendly tools like administrative access to server settings
  • Unlimited SSD space for all your storage needs

On top of that, A2 Hosting is a green host. This means that it offsets emissions from its servers and partners with other organizations to support renewable energies. If your small business has an eco-focus, A2 hosting is worth your consideration.

Additionally, this host could be a smart choice for you if you’re tech-savvy. If you want to tailor your small business website to your exact specifications and have the skill to do so, it’s hard to beat the accessible developer tools available. 

Pricing: The shared WordPress hosting plans start at $2.99 per month. However, there’s a dramatic increase in features for the top-tier plan at $12.99, so we think that’s also worth a look. VPS and dedicated hosting options are also available. 

6. SiteGround

Let’s wrap up the list with a host that’s a small business itself: SiteGround. This company specializes in small-scale web hosting. While this means there’s less room for potential growth later on, you’ll likely find yourself well-served in the meantime.

Here are a few ways that SiteGround caters to small businesses:

  • Inclusion of free business email accounts to help your company get off the ground
  • HTTP/2 support to provide cutting-edge load times
  • Free WordPress and WooCommerce installations for a virtually out-of-the-box start

We also think that SiteGround’s staging environment is a stand-out feature. It can be a huge help if you’re looking to edit your live site without the risk of a critical mistake crashing your site. 

It may also be a wise choice if you’re not looking to scale up in the near future. However, SiteGround’s plans are also suitable for medium-sized companies, so you’ll still have some room to grow.

Pricing: Basic SiteGround pricing plans start at $3.99 per month. The same price applies to WordPress-specific and WooCommerce-specific plans.

Conclusion

If you’re running a small business, every little choice can impact your operations. That’s why choosing the best hosting provider for your site is crucial. Fortunately, understanding what each option has to offer can help you make the right decision. 

In this article, we covered six of our favorite hosting options available today:

  1. Freshy for an all-in-one solution with expert support.
  2. InMotion Hosting for tech-focused plans with multiple feature options.
  3. Bluehost for those who need basic, affordable plans.
  4. HostGator for small businesses that want a hands-on role in their security.
  5. A2 Hosting for a reliable service and in-depth developer features.
  6. SiteGround for those looking for a boutique hosting solution. 

Freshy is an affordable, powerful option for small businesses everywhere. Reach out for a hosting quote today!

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