Best Website Hosting Companies in the UK

What is Website Hosting?

As of February 2022, a staggering 66 million people in the UK are internet users, and it has never been more important to have an online presence. A website hosting service is key to getting your website seen by the right people.

Put simply, website hosting is the process of an organisation or individual renting or buying space on a server to house a website on the internet.

A web host or web hosting service provider will allocate space on their web server for a website to store its files e.g., code, imagery, and text. The host provides the technology and services needed for the website to be viewed on the internet.

Every site you’ve ever visited will be hosted somewhere on the web, on something called a server. When a user is searching for a website, they simply need to type in the website’s address (also known as their domain name) into their browser. Their computer then connects to the site’s servers, and the webpages are delivered to them via their browser. Simple!

Almost all hosting companies require you to own a domain name to host with them. Visit Best Domain Name Providers UK to find the right one for your needs.

The Different Types of Web Hosting

Each website is different and will have different hosting needs, and there are different types of servers to accommodate. The type of server you choose will have an impact on everything from performance to security and scalability.

A small blog with 1,000 monthly visitors will have very different hosting needs from a large news site with millions of daily visitors. In some cases, a site may share space on a single server, whereas a large, popular site will have a server all to itself.

When choosing the right server for your business you should always consider the amount of traffic you currently— and intend to— get.

There are four main website hosting options:

• Shared: Shared hosting is the most cost-effective at just £2 a month on average as your website will share the server it’s hosted on with multiple other sites. This option is most suitable for small, lower-traffic websites. Most websites don’t need their own server, and by splitting resources you can keep costs low. If you’re not expecting more than 10,000–20,000 monthly visits to your website, then this would be the simplest, and most affordable option. Downsides include less scalability, slower loading times, and your website potentially being affected by the performance of other sites on the server.

• VPS: VPS stands for “virtual private server.” When a website gets too big for its shared plan and needs a little more room to grow, the next destination is typically a VPS. This acts as a dedicated server, but you are still sharing the server with several different websites. It’s suitable for larger, higher traffic sites, as more resources and support are available. Websites hosted on a VPS benefit from faster loading times and higher uptime rates, without the costs of hosting on a dedicated server. Average prices start from £14 a month.

• Dedicated: The most expensive of the bunch, but with good reason! Your website will have an entire server dedicated to its performance with a dedicated hosting service. This is the most suitable choice for large, complex websites with large amounts of traffic and content. With a dedicated server, you can expect lightning-fast loading speeds and complete technical control over the server’s settings. Dedicated hosting plans are typically used for enterprise-level—aka really, really big—websites that have more than 100,000 monthly visits. Sites that require the highest levels of security, such as websites that store financial data or medical information most often use a dedicated server. Costs for a dedicated server can reach £400+ a month.

• Cloud: Cloud hosting is like a hybrid version of a VPS—but more cost-effective, with packages available from around £5 a month on average. Instead of being hosted on one physical server, cloud hosting spreads all your website data across several different servers that are all connected. The advantage of this is that multiple servers are more reliable than just one. Cloud hosting is a great option for medium-sized websites that are growing at a rapid rate, as you can scale resources as and when you need them.

Almost all website hosting companies will offer at least three, if not all, the above options. Giving you the widest range possible when making the best choice for you and your company.

To learn more about the financials involved in owning your own site, visit our article How Much Does a Website Cost?

A website is only as powerful as its web host, which is why having a first-rate hosting service is so important. To make choosing as easy as possible, we’ve put together a list of the best web hosting companies available in the UK.

The Best Web Hosting Companies in the UK

1. Hostinger UK

Founded in 2004, Hostinger now provides services to over 30 million customers worldwide. With their stable servers and highly affordable web hosting, they easily made it to the top of our list. With three packages available and prices starting as low as £0.99 you really can’t go wrong.

Despite its affordable price, Hostinger is incredibly reliable and has some great key features, including ultra-fast UK server response times, a custom, user-friendly interface, 99.98% uptime guarantee, and 24/7/365 customer service.

Pros:

• Ultra-fast loading times
• Great value for money
• Choice of seven different servers (including one based in the UK)
• Fantastic live chat response rates

Cons:

• 48-month contracts
• No free domain name on the basic plan
• Limited scalability on shared hosting options

2. SiteGround

Fantastically reliable, SiteGround is known for its ultra-fast speeds (the fastest available in the UK) and exemplary customer service.

The company’s servers are built on the Google cloud, which accounts for its fast network. It’s not the cheapest, but it certainly has its perks. Users can choose from three packages to suit most business sizes, all of which include unlimited email accounts and 24/7 phone, email and chat support.

Pros:

• Server location — choice of UK, Asia, America, or Europe
• Great customer service and user support
• Excellent uptime
• Great introductory rates (often 50% less than standard prices)

Cons:

• Steep renewal rates
• No free domain name
• Not the most affordable on the market

3. GoDaddy

GoDaddy currently hosts over 72 million domains worldwide and is one of the most well-known hosting services in the UK. With packages to suit the smallest of businesses through to large, complex sites, they offer something for everyone.

The company's comprehensive plans all offer unmetered bandwidth and storage, a free domain, 24/7 email support, round the clock security monitoring and an easy-to-use customer interface. Plans range from shared to dedicated hosting — offering a platform for every type and size of business.

Pros:

• Fantastic user interface, manageable for users of all experience levels
• Unlimited disk space and bandwidth
• Free domain name
• Unlimited websites (on Deluxe and Ultimate plans)

Cons:

• Live chat support not available 24/7
• Inconsistent customer service
• Lower uptime than competitors

4. BlueHost

Since its launch in 1996, BlueHost has become one of the most recognised (and oldest) web hosting providers in the country. They are WordPress’s top recommendation and bearing in mind that WordPress currently run 43% of all websites in the world, this is a high accolade.

99% uptime is the industry standard but not all companies adhere to this. BlueHost has an uptime of 99.99%, even on their lower-level shared hosting plans. You can expect their cloud hosting, VPS, and dedicated plan servers to be nearly 100%.

Pros:

• Beginner-friendly interface
• Responsive and friendly customer support
• Free domain and SSL
• Recommended by WordPress

Cons:

• No free site migration
• Costly renewal and upgrade fees
• Slower speeds than some competitors

5. UK2

330,000 UK businesses are currently growing their online presence with Uk2’s range of hosting services. There are three main packages to choose from, but somewhat differently from their competitors, they offer several low-cost introductory deals that change regularly.

Users can expect fast speeds, affordable feature add-ons and 24/7 support through live chat and an easy-to-use cPanel platform that allows users to publish websites, manage domains, create email accounts and more.

Pros:

• Regular low-cost deals starting from £1 a month
• UK based data centres (i.e., faster loading speeds for UK based site visitors)
• Monthly billing available
• Free SSL and domain

Cons:

• Loading speeds slower and uptime less than competitors
• High renewal rates
• Phone support only available with a fee

6. HostGator

A well-recognised and respected hosting service provider, HostGator offers plans for businesses of all scales. Their variety of packages offer shared hosting, WordPress hosting, a Virtual Private Server (VPS), cloud hosting, a dedicated server, free domain names, and even their own website builder.

HostGator’s website management services are some of the best in the business, and are constantly being redesigned to ensure ease of use for everyone from beginner to web novice. Their web hosting services integrate well with most CMS platforms, but if you don’t have a CMS, all plans include access to Weebly, a free and simple-to-use website builder.

Pros:

• Value-packed plans
• Beginner friendly interface
• Free website transfer
• Low renewal costs

Cons:

• Average customer support
• Uptime needs improvement
• Some hidden fees (security and backup not included on all plans)

7. GreenGeeks

As the name suggests, GreenGeeks are one of the UK’s only carbon positive providers, in fact, they produce twice the renewable energy that they use! If you’re eco-conscious, you’ll appreciate the fact that you are helping save the environment by using their services.

Despite their web servers being based in the Netherlands, they still boast an uptime guarantee of 99.9%. The web hosting service offers unlimited disk space, bandwidth, and email accounts on all their plans. They also provide one free domain name, an excellent option for new businesses that want to make their mark.

Pros:

• Fantastic for beginners
• Secure servers and lightning-fast speeds
• Environmentally friendly
• Reasonably priced packages

Cons:

• No UK based servers
• Payment only possibly in USD
• No phone support available

8. Scala Hosting

With their consistently high uptime, Scala is one of the most secure and reliable providers available. Outside of the impressive loading speeds, free domain, SSL and site migration offers, their strengths lie in their approach to security. All packages include access to their SShield Cyber Security application that blocks 99.98% of web attacks and, thanks to their isolated and dedicated cloud environment, protects all their hosted sites in real-time

With Scala, you also get access to their comprehensive and powerful SPanel software, Scala Hosting’s alternative to cPanel, made more developer-friendly for easy navigation.

Pros:

• Fast and responsive 24/7 customer support via chat and email
• Free remote daily site backups
• Cyber security focused
• Developer-friendly environment

Cons:

• Less affordable than competitors
• No website builder available
• Steep renewal fees

9. HostPapa

Known for its reliability and wide range of services, HostPapa offers an attractive package of fast speeds, low prices, complimentary features, and fantastic customer support.

Great for start-ups and large enterprises, all their hosting plans are affordably priced. You can select shared, dedicated, or VPS hosting and expect an uptime guaranteed to never drop below 99.9%.

Another plus for HostPapa is their ‘PapaSquad’. Their award-winning customer service team offer multilingual 24/7 support in languages such as French, Spanish, and German —available via phone, chat, email or even fax if you’re feeling old school!

Pros:

• Affordable plans for all business sizes
• Very user-friendly, especially for beginners
• Responsive and accessible customer support

Cons:

• 1-year minimum subscription requirement
• Slightly slower speeds than competitors for UK sites
• No free automatic site backup

9. DreamHost

Founded in 1996, this veteran in the industry still packs a punch.

Every web hosting service boasts an uptime guarantee of 99% for websites on their servers, but DreamHost is the only one with the guts to promise 100% (excluding scheduled maintenance and user errors).

This combined with their reasonably priced plans, extensive security features, responsive customer service, and generous disk space and bandwidth makes them a great choice for sites of any size.

Pros:

• Uncluttered, easy to navigate, and informative website
• Endorsed by WordPress
• Industry leading uptime guarantee
• Award-winning customer service

Cons:

• Expensive price jumps after introductory rates expire
• Support centres only currently in the US
• Many features only available at extra cost

10. A2

One of the top picks for small to medium-sized businesses, with a focus on e-commerce. A2 Hosting offers several well-priced and comprehensive packages.

Users can enjoy super-fast speeds, free and easy site migration, an easy-to-use control panel, unlimited bandwidth and more.

A2 Hosting’s more advanced plans offer Turbo Servers which are 20x faster than the regular servers. While even their most basic plan offers great speeds, these servers are no doubt extremely powerful!

Pros:

• Scalable plans that can grow with the requirements of the website
• Choice of data centre location —USA, Singapore or the Netherlands
• 20x faster page loading available with Turbo package

Cons:

• Turbo Server only available with a more expensive hosting plan
• Clunky and confusing checkout process
• No UK server

11. Cloudways

Launched in 2011 in Malta, Cloudways stands among the pioneers of cloud hosting. When signed up for the service, users have the option of selecting between five data centre providers: Digital Ocean, Vultr, Linode, Amazon Web Service (AWS), and Google Cloud, all of which are titans of the cloud computing industry.

Aside from the reliably high performance regarding speeds and uptime, benefits include 24/7 support, managed security, automated backups, real-time monitoring and an innovative and intuitive control panel. It is most suited to small-medium sizes businesses and e-commerce sites.

Pros:

• Pay as you go billing and no lock-in contracts
• Scalable packages, with a high level of flexibility
• A choice of five cloud services
• Free site migration

Cons:

• No complementary domain name or email
• Control panel not always intuitive or easy to use
• Live chat support times are sometimes long

12. 34SP

Manchester-based 34SP boasts an honest, secure, friendly, reliable, and most importantly, fast hosting service that’ll suit a range of needs and business sizes. They offer everything from a basic website builder plan — perfect for newbies —to a Universal hosting plan that offers great flexibility and scalability that will suit larger businesses and organisations looking for a more powerful and flexible service.

Despite it not being available 24/7, they regularly receive glowing reviews for their friendly and helpful customer support. They also offer free hosting to eligible UK charities. They’re definitely some of the good guys!

Pros:

• Friendly support team
• Free charity website hosting
• Affordable and flexible plans
• UK based servers

Cons:

• Two-year contract minimum
• Support team isn’t available 24/7
• Daily backups only available at an extra cost

12. iPage

The definition of cheap and cheerful, if you sign on to a three-year deal with iPage you can get some fantastic features at an unbelievably low price. Their unlimited hosting plan offers unlimited storage, bandwidth, email addresses, two different website building platforms and more.

They’re unfortunately let down by their slower than average loading times and uptime in comparison to other hosting services on the market.

Pros:

• Complimentary search engine advertising credits to promote your website
• User-Friendly Graphic Based Control Panel
• Free security suite
• Great introductory deals and regular discounts available

Cons:

• Frequent upselling
• Three-year lock-in contract to take advantage of introductory deals
• Poor uptime and slow loading time

How to Find the Best Website Hosting Company for You

Finding the best hosting service for you and your company is key to a website’s success.

It is more important than ever to have a strong online presence, and e-commerce is now an indispensable part of pretty much any retail business. In 2020, over two billion people purchased goods online, and the numbers are growing. Who among us doesn’t have a worrying addiction to Amazon or ASOS?

When choosing the best web hosting service to fit your needs, there are several factors to take into consideration, including speed, price, customer support, security, uptime guarantee, and storage.

Visit our article Top Tips: Buying Website Hosting to discover the best way to find your perfect web hosting match.

Common Web Hosting Terms

If you’re new to the world of web hosting, then some of the terms used above may leave you more confused than when you started. But never fear! Simply take a look at the most commonly used terms below to get a better understanding.

By having a firmer grasp of these terms, you’ll be able to make the best possible decision when choosing the perfect website hosting company for you.

If this article has piqued your interest in the world of web design, visit our article The Process Behind Building a Website to get a more in-depth look.