Are you aspiring to start a new business online?
Or do you run a small business without a website?
Then it’s high time you need to set up and install a website to scale up your online business.
Are you worried about what is the best web hosting service for your small business?
Then you have landed on the right page.
It’s easy to set up a WordPress website without even knowing the codes.
As the world is becoming digital, it’s more desirable to own a website.
Before setting up a Website, you need to know the best web hosting service for your small business.
Don’t worry. I will walk you through the various steps for choosing the best web hosting service or the best hosting company for your small business that helps you in all aspects.
Do you know that every small business must have a website?
Website will give you lots of benefits but not limited to the following:
Globally more than 4 million people search on the internet for finding a suitable product for their purchase. So making your online presence is more important to reach your customer and at the same time, it’s easy for the customers to reach you as well.
Though you can build your brand using social media presence, to earn credibility and to build brand awareness and trust among your audience, a website is the best choice.
It proved that more than 77% of small businesses succeed through their websites by providing value to their customers. It not only attracts the local audience but also new customers from outside.
Nowadays customers want to know all the details about the product, from whom they buy, where to buy, what’s the rating of the product, what are the benefits they get, etc., before making their purchasing decision. Unless you provide them with a solution, you might lose your customers.
I hope you have understood that the website is more important for small businesses. Now which is more important is choosing the best web hosting service for your business.
You need to understand what criteria you have to follow while choosing a hosting provider.
Before discussing in detail the best hosting services and companies for small businesses, I will give you a quick walkthrough of the criteria for choosing the best web hosting service for your small business :
Uptime: Uptime is the most significant criterion for your website. It is the time during which the server stays up and runs without any interruption.
Security: It represents how well the hosting providers protect your website from cyber-attacks. Hosting companies provide SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates which ensure secured transactions for buying products or services online. This certification keeps your customers’ details safe and secured.
Website Backups: Website Backup is the ability to recover your website back if you lose your data.
Storage: Storage refers to the space provided to you by the hosting service providers to store your data. The data might vary from HTML files, text files, images, etc.
Speed: It refers to the loading speed of your website pages. Loading speed has to be high as the audience or customer will not have the patience to wait for more than 1 or 2 seconds.
Customer Support: You need to ensure how the hosting provider responds to your queries through calls or chat. You need to check whether they respond immediately.
Now we will dive into an exact comparison of the best web hosting services for small businesses.
The two most competitive and the best web hosting companies for small businesses are Bluehost and HostGator.
Bluehost Vs Hostgator – a Quick Overview
Undoubtedly both the hosting services go head to head in competition with affordable price web hosting plans for small businesses. There are slight ups and downs in both the hosting providers.
WordPress recommends Bluehost making it one step ahead of the Hostgator.
Bluehost comprises a very well-organized dashboard with high-end security. It is super-fast, highly flexible, and offers several extraordinary features and benefits with affordable pricing plans.
On the other hand, Hostgator is not lesser than Bluehost in any aspect.
It offers extraordinarily high uptime, reliability, and efficiency, free migration of websites, best c-panel, and good customer support.
It comprises an integrated website builder making it suitable for both experts and beginners.
Pros and Cons: – which is the best hosting service for small business?- Bluehost Vs Hostgator
Pros: Bluehost vs Hostgator
| Bluehost | HostGator |
| 1. Highly Flexible 2. Scalable 3. Free Domain 4. Very easy to use 5. Super-fast and highly secured 6. High-performance servers 7. Extraordinary customer service 8. WordPress recommended since 2005 | 1. User-friendly control panel 2. Budget-friendly 3. Strong uptime guarantee 4. Easy to install 5. Free site migration 6. Ease to add and delete subdomains 7. Availability of multiple web building tools 8. Exclusive FAQs information 9. SSL certification is free |
Cons: Bluehost vs Hostgator
| Bluehost | HostGator |
| 1. No guarantee for uptime 2. Expensive renewal price 3. Free site migration is not allowed 4. Less storage | 1. Customer support could be better 2. Limited features 3. The Hosting dashboard is slightly slow and hard to navigate 4. The Interface could be simpler |
Referring to the table above, both Hostgator and Bluehost have pros and cons, more or less equal.
Bluehost seems to be one step ahead of the Hostgator as WordPress recommends it.
On the other hand, Hostgator stands out to be the best as it has a guaranteed uptime of 99.98%.
If you’re a beginner and yet to start establishing your website, Hostgator would be the best hosting service for small businesses as it provides one-click installation and the best c-panel, guaranteed uptime, and affordable hosting service.
Performance and Simplicity – which is the best hosting service for small business? – Bluehost Vs HostGator
| Sl.No. | Description | Bluehost | HostGator |
| 1 | Money-back guarantee | 1. It offers you a money-back guarantee on canceling your hosting services within 30 days. But it does not apply to the add-on products and especially domains. 2. If you cancel within 30 days and your plan comprises a free domain, then Bluehost will cut a charge of $15.99 so that you can retain your domain for yourself. At a later stage, you can transfer it to some other registrar at your convenience. 3.No refunds are there after 30 days of cancellation. | 1. HostGator guarantees you a full refund of all their services if you cancel within 45 days. |
| 2 | Domain | 1. Every new account registering with Bluehost has free domain registration, free and easy transferability for the first year. 2. Exclusive facility to host as many domains as you want from one account. The domain may vary from primary domains, parked domains, add-on domains, and even subdomains. 3. It offers you with auto-renewal option so that you don’t need to worry about losing your domain name if it expires. | 1. It offers one free domain with the new registration if you are planning to purchase cloud, shared, and optimized WordPress hosting plans with a billing cycle of at least 12 months. 2. All the top-level domains ending in .com, .co, .biz, .info, .me,.org, .store, .club,. Host, .net, .tech, .website etc. are eligible. 3. Existing customers can also avail themselves of this offer if they are purchasing additional hosting packages. |
| 3 | WordPress Migration | 1. It’s free since April 2020. 2. You can freely transfer your website within 30 days after successfully signing up. 3. It is limited to one WordPress.org site in which emails and domain transfers are not included. 4. The Bluehost has fixed a few criteria to get your site transferred. | 1. Hostgator allows free transfer of contents for new accounts within 30 days of sign-up. 2. It also offers inter-server migration between Hostgator and servers. 3. It provides facilities for transferring the website files, databases, scripts, and one free domain registration transfer. |
| 4 | WordPress Installation | 1. Once you’ve purchased the hosting and registered successfully, Bluehost allows the easy and automatic installation of the website. 2. It allows the installation of the latest updated version and the most protected Website hosting. 3. Offers easy drag and drop options that include quick, brilliant templates, mobile editing, custom CSS, stock image library, and much more. 4. It offers highly Secured login credentials. | 1. The easiest and one-click installation for the new website users. 2. It possesses state-of-the-art infrastructure with varnish cache, globally distributed CDN, and a faster loading website of the order of 2X times. 3. Scalability is much simpler. In just one click, you can upgrade the website resources such as RAM and CPU. 4. HostGator facilitates immediate and automatic recovery of the website. It maintains three copies of your content, and hence it’s easy to recover in case of failure. 5. Provided with advanced caching. |
| 5 | Website builder | 1. Bluehost provides quick and easy drag and drop content to build your website. 2. If you are a beginner or a pro, this website builder tool is easy to build a professional-looking website. | 1. HostGator provides an outstanding website builder with its AI-powered tools to convert your website well organized and customized. 2. Gator builder will automatically build your website in an optimized layout. 3. It provides you with a separate builder for an eCommerce store. It offers management tools for inventory, shipping, and much more. 3. It goes one step ahead of other competitors and offers automated email marketing. It has an inbuilt integrated lead capture forms, AI-driven landing pages design, a CRM, and many more. |
Based on the above features and performance, HostGator outperforms Bluehost in terms of website builder tools.
HostGator provides an easy and super cool one-click installation and free migration or transfer of websites. Also, it offers a free domain for new registrations with top-level domains ending with .com,.net,.org, etc.
Additionally, they allow the existing users to avail this offer when they purchase additional hosting packages.
If you are a newbie or an expert, it’s simple to build a professionally-looking website. To set up your eCommerce store with Hostgator builder is a cakewalk.
At the same time, it can not be denied that Bluehost is recommended by WordPress as one of the best hosting services.
Hostgator is the best web hosting service for small businesses in terms of performance and ease of installation and use.
Uptime, Speed, and Security – which is the best hosting service for small business? – Bluehost Vs HostGator
| Sl.No | Description | Bluehost | HostGator |
| 1 | Uptime | 1. Bluehost outperforms the industrial Standard by providing an uptime of 99.9%, which is the minimum. 2. If you opt for dedicated hosting in VPS hosting plan, it reaches up to 100%. 3. It does not give the users an uptime guarantee. You cannot expect any compensation if you face downtime below the prescribed level. | 1. Hostgator provides a consistent uptime guaranteed with 99.98% to 100% 2. If the uptime drops below 99.98%, it offers its users one month of credit on their accounts. |
| 2 | Speed | 1. Incredibly fast loading of the page of the order of 713 milliseconds. 2. It offers a consistent superfast loading which is the main requirement of web hosting for small businesses. | 1. It is extraordinarily super-fast than Bluehost, with an average loading speed of 707 milliseconds. |
| 3 | Security | 1. Bluehost offers an excellent security system with Secure Shell Access (SSH), allowing admin and web developers to access configuration files. 2. Anti-spam tools like Spam Experts, Spam Hammer, and Apache Spam Assassin are the tools provided by the Blue host to avoid the bot attack. 3. In addition to the above, they also provide other security features like password-protected directories, IP address blacklist, email account, and user account filters, digital certificates, and private keys management access. | 1. HostGator provides Comodo SSL for all users and their host domains. 2. There is no problem with encryption between websites and web browsers you use. 3. HostGator has highly secured from DDoS attacks also. 4. It provides datacentre enable network level flood protection. 5. It also offers services at discount rates to protect your website additionally from cyber-attacks and security breaches. |
Both HostGator and Bluehost are in neck-to-neck competition as both provide high security, fast loading speed, and uptime. Bluehost is slightly better with its top-notch security than Hostgator.
Similarly, HostGator outperforms Bluehost by providing a highly reliable and uptime guarantee. The uptime guarantee is of vital importance in web hosting for small businesses.
Up To 75% Off Select Yearly Shared Hosting Plans!
Both Bluehost and HostGator can invariably be considered the best web hosting for small businesses in terms of uptime, speed, and security.
Customer Support – which is the best web hosting service for small business?- Bluehost Vs HostGator
| Sl.No | Description | Bluehost | HostGator |
| 1 | Customer service and Support | 1. Highly efficient customer support system. 2. You can get live support via live chat and phone supports exclusively for different types of hosting plans you use, forums, and social media. 3. Extensive support library with detailed explanation and FAQs. | 1. Hostgator Knowledge center provides support 24/7 with live chat and documentation. 2. It offers an extensive support library comprising customer reviews, suggestions, pre-sales questions, general announcements, and video tutorials. 3. Phone support and a ticket system are also provided. |
Pricing: Bluehost Vs HostGator
Bluehost Pricing:
HostGator Pricing:
Conclusion: which is the best web hosting service for small business?
Both Bluehost and Hostgator are highly reliable, user-friendly, and affordable web hosting services for small businesses. Based on the following summary, you can very well decide, which one is the best hosting service for your small business.
Bluehost outperforms Hostgator in the following features:
- WordPress recommended hosting service.
- Superfast and highly secured.
- Highly Scalable and Flexible.
- Powerful Application and Library integration.
- Exclusive customer support.
- Affordable pricing and various Plans.
At the same time, Bluehost has a few shortfalls like:
- Expensive renewal plans.
- No guaranteed uptime.
- Absence of ASP.net/wondows hosting and no free website transfer or migration.
Hostgator outperforms Bluehost in the following features:
- Extraordinarily reliable and guaranteed uptime.
- User-friendly and high-end control panel infrastructure.
- Easy and quick single-click installation and free website migration.
- Free SSL certificate and domain for new registrations.
Similarly, Hostgator has a few shortfalls like:
- Limited features.
- Absence of free daily backups.
Before buying your hosting, don’t forget to consider your basic website requirements and make the decision according to your priority.
Frequently asked Questions:
1. What is cPanel?
cPanel is the control panel based on Linux provided by the hosting company to manage your website hosting conveniently.
2. Which company is best for domain and hosting?
Both Hostgator and Bluehost are the most affordable web hosting companies suitable for blogging, small business, or setting up your eCommerce store.
3. What are the different types of hosting?
There are five hosting like Shared hosting, Virtual private server (VPS) Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting, Cloud Hosting, Managed Hosting, and Colocation.
4. What criteria should you follow when choosing a hosting provider?
While choosing a hosting provider, you need to check for uptime, security, website backups, storage, speed, and customer support.
5. How do you buy a host?
First, you need to choose your domain name and extension that suits your business. Then check the availability and register your domain and hosting with either Bluehost or Hostgator or any other domain and hosting service providers of your choice.
6. Which server is the fastest?
The hosting services with the fastest server speed are:
- Hostwinds Cloud Hosting – 435 ms
- Hostgator Cloud Hosting – 654 ms
- Bluehost Cloud Hosting – 682 ms
7. What is the difference between cPanel and WordPress?
WordPress is a content management technology on which you can host your website, whereas cPanel is the control panel based on Linux provided by the hosting companies to manage your website more conveniently and easily.
8. What is a host and domain?
A domain or domain name represents the location of the website. For example, google.com represents the IP address “216.58.216.164”. Since it’s hard to remember the series of numbers, the domain is represented by names. Hosting is the online service that enables you to publish your files on the internet.
9. Which is the cheapest web hosting service?
Bluehost – Best features
Hostgator – Best uptime guarantee
Hostinger – cheapest shared hosting
iPage – Simple pricing plans and unlimited disk space
Inmotion – Value for money
Dreamhost – more suitable for media-heavy files
GreenGreeks – best green hosting
A2 Hosting – Solid customer support
10. Which hosting is the best for beginners?
Both Bluehost and Hostgator are the best hostings for beginners.
Hope this will be helpful. Don’t forget to share your thoughts in a comment.
Cheers,
Shenbagalakshmi
Pingback: Setting up a Free Blog Using WordPress Step by Step-Beginners Guide