Shared web hosting implies sharing a server and all its resources with other websites and, at the same time, splitting the costs. It’s the cheapest web hosting solution, but it’s so much more with the proper web host. The best web hosts deliver comprehensive packages with high uptime levels, superior speed and security, tools to build your site, room to grow, and someone watching over you (hint: customer support). Still, finding the perfect shared hosting plan might be tricky due to the trade-off between price and quality.

Our HostAdvice professionals have engaged in long-term, real-life performance testing of dozens of shared hosting companies. They have purchased the plans and went through the entire process, reporting from a beginner’s viewpoint, tested the uptime, speed, reliability, customer support, and money-back guarantees of various web hosts, backed by thousands of user reviews.

If you are in a hurry, let’s cut to the chase, not to keep you any longer. Here’s our selection of the best shared web hosting providers.

Short on Time? Check Our Top Shared Hosting Providers

• ChemiCloud – Best Linux Shared Hosting
• HostArmada– Best Shared Hosting for WordPress
• A2 Hosting– Fastest SSD Shared Hosting
• Hostens – Best Windows Shared Hosting
• IONOS – Best Shared Hosting for Security
• HostGator – Best Shared Hosting for Scalability
• Hostinger – Shared Hosting with The Best Feature Set
• Ultahost – Best Shared Hosting Provider for Beginners
• FastComet– Best cPanel Shared Hosting

What Is Best Shared Hosting, And Who Is It For?

Shared hosting is exactly what it sounds like: you share a server with other people who are operating their own websites on it. Every client gets their own share of the actual server, and it’s generally the cheapest method to purchase a web hosting service.

The key benefit is that this is a low-cost option, and because you’re willing to share hardware with others, you’ll naturally spend less than you would with other solutions (say dedicated server hosting). For more insight on shared hosting pricing check out our Shared Hosting Pricing Page.

By the same token, you’re sharing resources with others, which means the performance you’ll get will almost certainly be slower (and, indeed, generally less consistent). That may be okay for low-traffic sites, but it may be an issue if your bandwidth requirements are higher or if your website requires dependable and constant performance.

Ranking comparison between the Top Providers

Shared hosting, in general, delivers a reasonable price with low maintenance. Still, you don’t want to trade quality altogether, so there are many other factors you should consider.

Our experts put down a list of the most critical factors that make up for the best shared hosting. While each of these criteria contributes to the “ideal web host,” not all of them are equally important. So, you’ll find an allocated percentage next to each factor, depending on its weight in the overall score.

At HostAdvice, we test independently of other providers and ranking sites. We rely on two parties exclusively – our in-house web hosting experts and thousands of user reviews worldwide. It’s not a one-time job because we continually update our methods to reflect the newest ways of doing things. For instance, we have recently updated our performance and uptime monitoring processes.

Here are the factors our AI technology used to rank the best shared web hosting providers:

• Solid Uptime & Speed (8%): Your server performance is critical for any hosting. Your site should stay up and don’t go down for unplanned reasons. Downtime means readers, visitors, or customers cannot reach your content and products. So, an uptime of 99.95% and above is the first thing you should consider. In this regard, it’s also essential to look for fast-loading speeds so that your website visitors don’t experience too much latency. Reviewing reliable uptime and speed will help you eliminate hosting options that flat-out don’t make the cut.
• Incredible Ease of Use (15%): The best shared web hosts provide a smooth setup process, i.e., set it and forget it. Creating a website with shared hosting should be a breeze. At this point, you should look for a beginner-friendly control panel to start with, 1-click installs, and guidance through the setting up. For instance, the web host might offer tutorials, hints, step-by-step guides via email, or an employee to give you directions in real-time.
• Customer Support You Can Count On (7%): Technical assistance is important for everyone, including experts, especially beginners and first-time users. You want to get the most helpful and comprehensive customer support at a moment’s notice. First, 24/7/365 availability is a must, so you should ask for their hours of operation. Second, does the web host offer multiple communication channels, such as live chat, email, phone, and ticketing system? Is support available in English or multiple languages? What about self-help availability, such as a Knowledge Base, video tutorials, or a FAQ section? Can you call the company outside the US and so on? Keep in mind that the number of support channels doesn’t tell the whole story. The support agents should be able to resolve your issues quickly, and the best way to check this is by signing up for a free trial.
• Resources That Don’t Box You In (8%): You should pick a shared web host with high-traffic hosting capacity, including sufficient storage, bandwidth, and monthly visits. You’ll frequently stumble upon the terms unlimited storage and bandwidth; this implies no hard limits on what you use (but the limits still exist). So, it’s best to check the fine print before you purchase a shared hosting plan. One danger in this regard is your neighboring websites consume more resources than anticipated, which will leave less capacity for your website. After all, you are sharing the server. What safeguards does the web host have in place? And finally, what about scalability – can you easily add more resources to your plan and upgrade when needed to a VPS, cloud, or dedicated hosting?
• Robust Security Features (5%): When you pick a hosting provider, especially a shared server hosting provider, you need to be convinced that your data remains safe, that your live website cannot be easily compromised or bombarded with spam, etc. Generally speaking, the shared hosting provider needs to provide you with a way not to have to worry about typical fluff when it comes to security risks, including features such as Firewall support, DDoS protection, Virus Protection, Malware Protection, Spam Filters, SSL Certificates, Domain Name Privacy, and more. This list can be endless, but these are the main things you need to look out for to remain as safe as possible.
• Shared Hosting Valuable Extras (12%): You need a lot more than just hosting when you sign up for a shared hosting plan. It would be best to look for package deals that can save you both time and effort, including a domain name, domain privacy, an SSL certificate, simple Website Builder, email services, automated backups, a CDN, WordPress optimization, other CMSs, and apps. Usually, you get a free domain name with your plan if you sign up for at least a year. However, you must check this manually before picking the perfect web shared hosting provider. Also, opt for one-click simple installers that are programmed to automatically transfer the required files for installing a specific application on your website, such as WordPress, Magento, etc.
  Tip

  Tip: You might want to skip the free SSL and get a paid one instead. Doing so will help you avoid financial data leaks that might cause you to lose all your customers. Most free SSL certificates do not offer insurance, so using it on an eCommerce website that offers credit card transactions might not be the best idea.
• Transparent Pricing (15%): Shared web hosting is the most affordable way to get your site up and functional. And while you can find lots of cheap plans, you should pay attention to several other details. Usually, you can get an attractive introductory price. However, web hosts tend to significantly increase prices on renewal (consistent rates are tough to find). Consider how can you get the best price – is it through a binding years-long agreement? Usually, you would have to make a hefty initial investment to get the best price, paying for a year, two, or three years ahead. Also, review the refund policy; how many days does the money-back cover? And what can you expect a refund for (usually, you cannot get a refund for domains and SSLs)?
• Positive User Reviews (30%): Your best reference for a web host’s quality is other customers, beginners, and small business owners. User reviews are the most valuable and honest indicators of shared hosting service, and we do our best to eliminate misleading comments or rankings.

Things to Know Before You Purchase Shared Hosting

If you are browsing for shared hosting plans, chances are, you are a beginner in the industry. So, before you rush in and spend your money, you should take the time to understand a few essential web hosting concepts. Sure, signing up and using a provider’s website-building tools to quickly develop an appealing, functioning front end is very simple. However, there are several associated phrases and ideas to grasp. Some of it is perplexing, if not blatantly contradictory, as you’ll see.

Here are the things you should know before signing up for a shared web hosting service.

Shared Web Hosting vs. Other Web Hosting Types

When it comes to web hosting, most start-ups and small enterprises go for shared hosting. However, if you want to make the best choice, you must first grasp the fundamental distinctions between different hosting solutions.

• Shared Web Hosting: As the name implies, your website will be kept on a server shared with other websites. In other words, numerous websites are housed on the same server, resulting in a reduction in the quantity of hosting resources utilized by a single web owner and lower costs. As a result, shared hosting options are the most cost-effective.
• Virtual Private Servers (VPS): Once again, you will be sharing the server with other websites, similar to shared hosting. However, with a VPS, you’ll be given a dedicated virtual compartment for your website. As a result, VPS is a safer alternative than shared hosting. However, if your VPS plan is not maintained by your provider (managed VPS hosting), you’ll need previous technical skills to operate your own Virtual Private Server (unmanaged/self-managed VPS).
• Dedicated Servers: These are for huge websites or if you want complete control over your hosting environment and several websites. A dedicated server plan gives you access to the whole server’s resources with no limitations. If you aren’t purchasing a managed dedicated hosting package, however, you must have prior technical experience and skills.

• Reseller Hosting: Some hosting companies allow their customers to open their own hosting companies and become resellers. You may buy a reseller hosting package and give hosting services to your own customers without worrying about server maintenance.
• Business Hosting: The server will not limit your bandwidth, FTP, databases, or email IDs if you have a business hosting or unlimited hosting package. When opposed to shared hosting, it provides greater power and better performance.
• WordPress Hosting: A WordPress hosting option would be ideal for you if you don’t have much technical knowledge. You may create a website and a hosting environment that caters to the most widely used CMS with WordPress hosting.

Unlimited Is Not Really Unlimited

Web hosting companies will lure you into signing up for their services by promising limitless storage or monthly data transfers. In most cases, the bargain isn’t entirely truthful. Now, I’m not saying that these web servers are lying outright, but the claims of “unlimited” storage or data transfers almost always come with restrictions that differ per firm.

Unlimited storage and data transfers are usually linked with shared or WordPress plans, which let you go wild within reason. You’ll be in excellent shape if your blog receives a continuous stream of respectable traffic (whatever that means). You shouldn’t expect to upload or stream 50TB of data in a single day, though.

The Concepts of Bandwidth and Disk Space

New web owners sometimes overlook bandwidth and disk space because they believe their site will not receive significant traffic. But what happens when your company expands? You must ensure that your website will continue to function correctly even if you have a large number of visitors at the same time. As a result, pick a strategy that fits your needs.

The best shared hosting providers allow for scalability. Once you exceed the storage and bandwidth limits, you can easily upgrade to a more advanced version of shared hosting or even VPS or a dedicated server (depending on your needs and budget).

Data transmission is the real quantity of information that may be utilized over a specific period of time—typically a month—while bandwidth is the total amount of data that can be moved at one time. Consider this; the shared web hosting company may have 5GB bandwidth but grant you a maximum of 1GB data transfer for your site each month, as specified in the hosting package.

The Importance of Inode and Entry Process Limits

The total number of files and folders you can have in your hosting plan is measured in inodes. Emails, temporary files, session files, folders, and a variety of other items fall into this category. Keeping this in mind, make sure your inode limit is relatively high.

The number of PHP scripts executing at any given moment is referred to as an “entry process.” An entry process takes only a fraction of a second to complete.

On shared hosting, most hosting firms offer between 20 and 40 processes. However, this does not imply that the website may only be accessed by 20 persons at any particular moment because it’s extremely unlikely that all 20 individuals will visit your website at the same time. To gain a general estimate of the server’s ability to handle several visitors at once, multiply the number of input processes by three. Also, if you have a lot of Cron Jobs or scripts that use a lot of resources, choose the web hosting with a greater Entry Process limit.

Renewal / Upgrade Cost of a Shared Hosting Plan

DNS setups, webpages, and databases are all time-consuming chores. It’s not something you’d want to do again and over again. Furthermore, if you move hosts in the future, moving websites will take a lot of time and work unless your new provider offers this service. If you keep the same plan or upgrade with the same host, you won’t have to deal with such issues in the future. As a result, it’s a good idea to examine renewal pricing as well as different scalability options.

The best shared web hosting providers include a website migration with each plan free of charge, meaning you’ll experience no data loss or downtime. You can easily transfer from another web host or upgrade to a more advanced plan, such as a VPS or a dedicated server, hassle-free.

The Hard Disk Drive/Solid-State Drive Tradeoff

If you sign up for cheap shared web hosting, you’ll almost certainly be assigned space on a standard hard disk drive (HDD) server. An HDD-based server has the advantage of being able to provide large amounts of storage for a low price.

The fastest shared hosting plans, in turn, utilize solid-state drives (SSDs). However, SSD technology is still pretty expensive, so SSD-based servers often have substantially lower storage capacities than HDD-based servers. You’ll seldom encounter 1TB SSD servers, despite the fact that this is a popular quantity in the HDD world.

Factors to Consider in A Shared Web Hosting Service

Here are the most important factors to consider when picking the best shared hosting providers.

The Speed of Your Web Host

You certainly want your website to load quickly, even if you buy a cheap shared web hosting plan. A website that takes an eternity to load is a turn-off. Essentially, the web hosting service determines the speed of your website.

Tracking a few prior surveys that are periodically done to evaluate the quickest web hosting service is a simple tip to choose a shared web host that gives a good performance. Choose a company that has continuously ranked at the top of the list.

Proper Website Security

Website security is a major concern with shared hosting environments. Hackers can get access to your site if it isn’t adequately secured and monitored, steal your sensitive data, and misuse it. Furthermore, spyware, frauds, and viruses are always a possibility.

As a result, ensure that the hosting package you purchase has the best possible website security and proactive monitoring.

Good Customer Support

Let’s be honest: websites aren’t always reliable. With shared web hosting, your website may have difficulties such as delayed page loading, server unavailability, and so on. In the event of a problem, who would you call? Your host, of course.

You should make sure that the help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Support through chat and email is desired. Also, make sure you can communicate with a real person rather than a machine when necessary.

I have one more secret to reveal. The majority of support staff can handle questions about hosting. However, not every web hosting business has enough people to answer technical problems. As a result, you must assess if the web host is competent in resolving any technical issues.

Features and Add-Ons

It is worthwhile to investigate what other benefits the shared web host provides. Just to mention a few, there is free domain registration, free SSL certificates for all primary and add-on domains, SSH access, and the sort of control panel provided are other important factors to consider.

For easier hosting administration, some businesses provide a customized control panel. Still, a normal full-featured panel, like as cPanel, may be more comfortable for you. So, before you buy shared web hosting, double-check these features and add-ons.

Addon Domain Services

You’ll want to have add-on domains as your company grows. Using add-on domains, you may create many domain names and websites while staying on the same server. It also saves you money by eliminating the need to pay several hosts and allows you to profit from SEO.

Your Budget vs. Costs Involved

In a web hosting service, there are primarily two fees. The initial cost of setting up or installing a web hosting service is the first consideration. The other expense is the cost of renewal, which is incurred at regular periods to keep the service running. While some providers may charge less when you first sign up, their renewal charges may be considerable.

You must match the web hosting costs with your budget, so transparent pricing will help you. You must know what to expect in the future – how high are the renewal rates? Are you capable of keeping it up with the provider, or not? Opt for the best price-value ratio, not just the cheapest shared hosting plan available.

Reputation and Reviews of The Shared Web Host

Take some time to research the web hosting company’s reputation in the industry before falling for tempting offers. User reviews of hosting services give valuable insight into their quality standards and reliability. Always choose a web hosting company with a reasonable market value over one that provides steep discounts.

Pros and Cons of Shared Web Hosting

Shared Hosting Advantages

• Low Cost: The most cost-effective web hosting server solution is shared web hosting servers and packages. Your websites are housed and run alongside other websites on the same server when you share the server with other hosting customers. This can significantly reduce hosting costs because you’ll need to cover a small part of the server’s total cost. Shared web hosting is the most cost-effective option for small to medium-sized websites with limited resources and those who lack the technical expertise to maintain dedicated servers.
• Simplicity and Ease of Set-Up: Shared web hosting is so simple to use that even beginners with no prior hosting expertise may get started right away. You don’t have to set up the server on your own. Any shared hosting service provider will set up the shared server, as well as install and update all required software. They’ll also keep an eye on the servers to prevent downtime and resolve security concerns to maintain server safety and website availability. As a shared hosting customer, you must add your domains and websites to their server, as well as manage your own content using the hosting control panel and other tools given by your web host.
• Efficiency: The fact that shared hosting is inexpensive does not imply that it is inefficient. It’s the polar opposite. A variety of things influence the performance of a website. Two of the most important resources are disk space and bandwidth. Users of shared hosting can purchase additional bandwidth and storage. You don’t even need to go via a technical or support staff to do the task. Your host will provide you access to a portal where you can easily do it yourself. This means you can satisfy the expectations of your website without losing time, money, or other essential resources.
• Customization: Shared hosting appears to be a never-ending present. It’s not only economical, practical, and efficient; it also allows you to tailor your website to your specific needs and aspirations. It’s a major deal that you can do that since there’s a misconception that users won’t be able to because the resources are shared. Individual users can personalize their sites using the control panel or cPanel, supplied by most web hosting providers.

Shared Hosting Disadvantages

• Security Concerns: Because shared servers are extremely apparent to cyber thieves, a cyber assault on the main server can damage all of the websites that rely on it, and your website is very exposed to an attack. Furthermore, because shared hosting provides you with a platform on a server rather than the server itself, you are unable to put custom antivirus or firewall software on your site.
• Limited Resources: The resources available to web hosting are restricted. As a result, each website that uses these services is allotted a certain number of resources, which may be rather intimidating. If one website receives a lot of traffic, it will consume the majority of the server’s resources, and other websites on the same server may suffer; as a result, making it harder for people to access them. Not only will your website slow down, but another site’s excessive use of your system may lead it to crash.
• Less Server and Bandwidth Resources: You will have fewer server and bandwidth resources than dedicated hosting servers since your websites and domains will be housed on the same server as other hosting accounts. As a result, once your website becomes really popular, you’ll need to move it to a dedicated server for faster access and more consistent performance. Your websites will be affected if other websites on the server are using too much server or bandwidth resources. On a shared hosting server, you cannot pick your neighbors. Although your web provider will continue to monitor the shared server’s performance and take appropriate steps to prevent those websites from using excessive system resources, you face a higher chance of downtime.
• No Dedicated IP: Because shared hosting websites lack a dedicated IP address, you won’t be able to visit your website using an IP address if something goes wrong with your domain name. The server would be confused if you tried this since it wouldn’t know which page to load.
• No Dedicated SSL: Individual users of shared hosting are unable to have SSL installed on their websites. Why? Because SSL is based on IP, and, as previously noted, shared hosting does not enable websites to have a dedicated IP, subscribers must use the same SSL scripting.

Best Shared Hosting Services: Summary

Shared hosting is the best choice for small businesses, new bloggers, people that are just getting online, websites that do not get too much traffic, and budget-oriented individuals. It is the ideal option to establish a new website from scratch or already have a modest website. If your site grows and you receive more traffic, you can upgrade your hosting if necessary, but it’ll be enough for a start.

However, not all shared web hosting providers are the same. Some providers have more comprehensive policies than others. When evaluating packages, speed, power, performance, support, and scalability should all be taken into account. How well does the hosting service scale? What kind of security features does it have? How much bandwidth and storage does it offer you? Does it include one-click simple installers? Do you gain free SSL certificates? Do you gain a free domain name with the plan? What kind of level of support can you expect? And so on.

The easiest way to find the best shared hosting for yourself is through expert and user reviews. Third parties that have already used the service might be your best indicator of its quality. Also, don’t be afraid to test the shared hosting plan yourself; just ensure you can get a free trial or a money-back guarantee before entering your card details!