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Paid Hosting & Multiple Site Hosting Companies

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This is a general list of web hosting companies for business owners doing their own research. For recommendations and guides, see our blog.

If you have a side gig, you might want to check out our free website hosting page, and if you are looking to create a SaaS business, you should check out our SaaS page. If you need E-commerce abilities, check out our E-commerce category. For WordPress-specific hosts, see the WordPress category.

Web Hosting Companies

We list what is included in the cheapest hosting option:

  • Namecheap: This is our host. Commonly recognized as having great tech support, which I can attest to. You can host up to 3 sites and no visitor limit. It comes with a free SSL certificate and free business email with a hosting plan (see our help article).
  • SiteGround: Commonly recommended as one of the faster hosts even on the cheapest plans. You can run into issues on the cheapest plan if your website becomes popular and will have to upgrade though.
  • Hostinger: Very cheap if you need a single site that’s not visited much. Free SSL and 1 email.
  • GoDaddy: Free domain for one year if you buy an annual plan. Free year of Office 365 Email.
  • Bluehost: Free domain for one year if you buy an annual plan, free SSL certificate. Get $100 Google Ad credits when you spend $25.
  • Hostgator: Free SSL certificate and a free domain for one year on an annual plan.
  • Dreamhost: Free domain for one year if you buy an annual plan. Free SSL certificate.
  • InMotion Hosting: Free domain, email, and SSL on the annual plan.
  • NearlyFreeSpeech.net: A (very) old school pay-as-you-go option for people who don’t want monthly bills. Probably the cheapest option for someone who has a rarely visited site other than setting something up on AWS free tier. Also an option for people with issues related to what they say and publish.
  • Scala Hosting: Free SSL and free migration and domain with an annual plan. Has an EU data center. Pricing.
  • M5 Internet hosting: run by some engineering types, they get “conveniently” left off many lists like this because they don’t have an affiliate program. They run some large websites like Hacker News and can probably run yours.

Technical Ability Required:

These hosts are good for someone who can handle some coding or complicated DNS set-up and such. You usually save a lot of money, but are required to set up most of the settings yourself. The two on this list are the easiest to work with, but a bigger list can also be found in our Saas category.

These are popular with people with either a lot of sites to manage or a lot of sites that need to be spun up or down quickly. You usually pay for how many resources you use, so it can save you money by not getting stuck into an expensive hosting plan for a full year when you might not need it the entire year. You might use them if you are an agency or developer building sites for others, but the options below in our Agency Website Hosting are likely to be more useful in client communication and sharing sites with clients.

  • Digital Ocean: A very popular choice for people who wanted something more than shared hosting but with support and simple tools. Basically the same as Amazon but with more setting pre-configured to get you started faster. Allows quick WordPress installs. Pricing
  • Amazon Lightsail: a low-cost option that lets you build a lot of things on top of it. You can get a 1-month free trial. They have pre-configured WordPress installation. For static sites, you can get an almost free site using the AWS Free Tier.

Website Developer & Agency Website Hosting (Multiple Site Management)

These are aimed towards developers who build websites for others and charge to maintain and host them, which is a common business model for web developers, ad agencies, marketers, and design shops. You would choose this if you know how to set websites up and want some features that help you manage large amounts of websites or set up staging environments that clients can view without messing up the original site.

Many of them offer reselling services, meaning you use the vendor in the background but bill the client yourself, allowing you to add in billing for other services (or padding your profit), and some even give a (large) referral fee when you build a site for a client then transfer ownership to the client and they make their first payment on hosting. Some have client invoicing built-in, meaning you can send a bill right from the dashboard every month.

  • Cloudways: Can manage multiple sites and assign projects to different teams within your organization. Can choose which cloud provider to use and integrate some e-commerce providers. Pricing.
  • Flywheel: Managed WordPress hosting, you can add clients as collaborators, manage multiple sites, etc. Freelancers and agencies can easily transfer ownership to clients who will take over the billing.
  • Kinsta: another WordPress specific host built just for agencies.
  • Other options: Scala, Siteground, WP Engine, Namecheap, Hostgator. Many hosts we’ve listed previously in the general web host section at the top of this page also offer the ability to manage multiple sites on behalf of clients. Just search their websites for “agency,” “white label” or “reseller” options.

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Revenue Disclosure: We’re upfront people, so we want to be upfront with how we make money. We make money through affiliate links and ads. How do we NOT earn money? We DON’T get paid to add companies to our categories or sell email addresses. That means no one can pay us to put them on the list in any category, move them higher up the list, or change what we say about them. We want small businesses and entrepreneurs to trust us to point them in the right direction, and we’re proud of the fact that this is a guarantee you won’t see on other websites.