So you are wanting to build your very first website, but you aren’t sure where to find the best web hosting for beginners?
No problem, I know exactly how you feel. I remember when I built my very first website. It was clear back in 2002! I was so excited to get something online. I had spent months learning HTML and was tired of not having a website of my own.
While I was so excited inside, I was also totally petrified. I had no idea what web hosting really was, how to set it up, and how to keep it going without getting hacked and things like that. Plus, I did have a lot of money at the time, I was working my way through college.
Sound familiar?
Well guess what…if you feel that way, it is TOTALLY normal. When you are a beginner, taking the first steps can often be the hardest.
When you are launching a website for the first time, there are only two things that count:
- Easy
- Affordable (cheap)
The tricky thing is that not everything that’s easy is cheap, and not everything that is cheap is easy (or worth your valuable time.) It’s a good thing that you found this web hosting review, because I am going to help you find the middle ground.
How can I do this for you?
Well, it’s simple. I have built or supported hundreds of websites over the last 18 year. For myself, clients, and friends/family. I have seen so many web hosting companies, and dealt with their support. I am also a seasoned IT Professional, and have helped support a data center with over 1,000 servers running in it.
Even more importantly though, to make open and honest web hosting reviews, I setup a WordPress site of my own on 10 of the most popular web hosting companies so I can see how they really operate. I keep track of how fast they are, how often they go down, how good their support is, etc.
Based on everything I have seen and heard, here are the Top 3 Web Hosting Plans for Beginners:
- Hostinger – very fast and the most affordable
- Bluehost – best overall hosting company and works great out of the box
- SiteGround – best customer service and support
1. Hostinger
Affordable plans with knowledgeable support and easy-to-use site builder – starting at $0.99/month
Hostinger is the best place to start for beginners. Their basic plan starts for less than a dollar a month! It comes with plenty of bandwidth and disk space for a new website.
Their drag and drop website builder is a great way to get to get a site up and going. They also have an incrediable one-click WordPress installer that I used to get our WordPress site up in less than 10 minutes. All their plans all full-featured with everything you need.
One of the things I like about Hostinger the most is that they are an new and innovative player in the web hosting space. Their control panels are modern looking and very easy-to-use compared to others I have tried. It really makes life running a website so much easier.
Their support is top-notch and available via chat 24/7/365. I asked them a very technical question once and got an answer back within moments of sending it over to them. It was very impressive. Some of the other web hosting companies I have tried had to scramble for the answer, or not even answer at all. Ouch!
All Hostinger plans come with a free SSL certificate, which is very important for trust with your website visitors, and ranking in Google/Bing as well. Their servers are very quick, too. In our ongoing testing of Hostinger, I am getting 1,610 ms page load speed and 99.78% average uptime.
Long term, I recommend getting the Business plan with Hostinger. With this plan you get more features like unlimited websites and email addresses, faster CPU/RAM resources, a free domain registration, and daily automated backups (very important).
Pros
- Free SSL on all plans
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- SSD hard drives on all plans
- Best in class control panel
Cons
- No phone support
- Free domain registration only available on upgraded plans
2. Bluehost
Long-term track record and officially recommended by WordPress – starting at $3.95/month
Bluehost is the best overall web hosting company that I have tested and compared for features. They don’t offer prices as low as Hostinger, but out of the gate you are going to get a lot more.
Bluehost has gone out their way to make the WordPress experience easy and pain-free. This makes a lot of sense since WordPress is by far the most popular website platform, and one I highly recommend. Their one-click installer is very well thought out and works flawlessly.
Once you have WordPress installed, it is very easy to manage from the Bluehost control panel. It is also very easy to manage other aspects of your account like billing, email addresses, etc. Once you are familiar with managing your website, you can get deep into the management with the ever classic cPanel administration was well.
If WordPress isn’t quite your cup of tea, they also have a really great website builder. It is drag and drop and comes with a lot of different themes. Anyone can quickly find the colors and look/feel to match their niche or industry they are trying to serve with their website.
Bluehost has been around for a long time, and does have an official recommendation from WordPress. A large part of their success is due to the quality of their support. Their data centers are world class and servers are very fast. Our testing site on Bluehost is getting 1,216 ms page load speed and 99.95% average uptime.
All their plans come with a free SSL certificate that is easy to install, and a free domain registration. All plans also come with unmetered bandwidth and fast SSD storage. I recommend their Choice Plus plan because it comes with unlimited storage and automated backups using the CodeGuard tool.
Pros
- Free domain registration
- Free SSL certificate
- SSD storage
- Telephone support
Cons
- No month-to-month billing options
3. SiteGround
Emphasis on support and performance – starting at $0.99 for 3 months
SiteGround is a another web hosting company that is officially recommended by WordPress. They try to stand out of the crowd by placing extra emphasis on high-quality support and high performing web servers. They also charge a premium for it. They are one of the more expensive providers, so you have to weigh which is a more important benefit to you. Price vs. support.
SiteGround has a very extensive knowledge base with thousands of articles about hosting a website, and about WordPress. They are very thorough and up to date. They also tout their “no hold time” support line where you can get support over the phone. They also tend to help with WordPress specific questions than other web hosting companies.
They have developed software solutions that are supposed to make their hosting faster than others. However, this hasn’t really shown to be the case in our testing. They haven’t shown to be a stand out as far as speed goes. Our testing site gets 993 ms page load speed and
99.98% average uptime.
SiteGround has a very nice control panel, but it hasn’t been updated in awhile and can be a bit tricky to navigate. They offer you cPanel administration, and it was very easy to get a WordPress website installed on their platform.
I like how every plan comes with free SSL certificates and daily backups. These are both very important to running a successful website, and often get overlooked by beginners. All plans offer unmetered bandwidth and their basic plan offers enough resources for approx. 10,000 visitors per month.
Overall, SiteGround is a solid web hosting company. They are a bit more expensive, but they offer the additional support offerings. Perfect for someone who is looking for more guidance in their journey and is willing to pay extra for the benefit.
Breaking News: Starting in April 2020, SiteGround is no offering three months of their StartUp package for only $0.99. They are making this offer to help people get online during the COVID-19 challenges.
Pros
- Affordable COVID-19 introductory price
- Excellent customer support
- Extensive online tutorials
- Fast SSD storage and servers
Cons
- Few unlimited options – such as storage, etc.
- More expensive than others
Final Verdict – Which One is the Best Web Hosting for Beginners
All three of the web hosting companies listed above are fantastic web hosts for beginners. They all meet both criteria that are important for someone just starting with their website. Easy and affordable.
Deciding which one out of these three really depends on you. People’s preferences for features, levels of support, and their budgets will always widely vary.
So, to help you in your final decision, here is a quick summary of which type of beginners each of these web hosting providers is best for:
Hostinger is the best for someone who wants a cheap and stable web hosting platform.
Bluehost is best for someone who wants to build a WordPress site easily out of the box.
SiteGround is ideal for a beginner who wants to pickup the phone whenever they have a question and is willing to pay extra.
Overall, Hostinger and Bluehost are the two best web hosting providers that I recommend for beginners. They are have great prices, their support is top-notch, and they will give you everything you need to get your website started as soon as you sign up.
Thank you for taking time to read our review. If you have any questions or comments, then don’t please leave a comment below.