Reddit Picks: Best Web Hosting Services of 2023
Last Updated: May 23, 2023
It’s not easy to find impartial opinions when looking for a web hosting service these days. You’ve got a few major companies dominating the paid ad space and their affiliates running most review sites.
But there are still some places where you can find genuine user reviews and recommendations — such as G2, TrustRadius, and online forums like Web Hosting Talk. Another helpful resource where many tech-savvy folks gather and discuss different services and providers is Reddit.
So, let’s see which web hosts earn the respect and approval of Redditors…
Best Web Hosts in 2023 According to Reddit
I’ve selected a few web hosting companies that are among the most recommended on Reddit.
These providers are also reputable on other independent review sites and they are my personal recommendations as well.
Enough said, now let’s get the ball rolling!
1. KnownHost: Best affordable web hosting
KnownHost is a long-standing web hosting provider that is fully based in the USA. This is one of the most respected web hosts on Reddit as a privately owned company with a competent support team.
The company dates back to 2005 when it started out offering managed virtual and dedicated servers. In addition to those, they now also offer shared hosting as well as managed WordPress plans.
The two latter options give you plenty of resources at a very reasonable cost. KnownHost’s servers are fast (thanks to LiteSpeed), secure (thanks to Imunify360), and backed by a 99.99% uptime guarantee.
What really sets this host apart from the rest of the big names in the industry is that they don’t outsource their support. Although some of their support agents are located outside the US, they are all directly hired by the company and they do an outstanding job at answering requests promptly.
Live chat isn’t available 24/7, but the ticket support system is attended around the clock by knowledgeable and proficient staff.
2. CloudWays: Best cloud hosting for small business
CloudWays is often suggested on Reddit for those looking for high-performance web hosting with dedicated and scalable resources, particularly for demanding WordPress websites.
You can choose to host your website or app at one of the most reputable cloud providers in the industry. The most popular choice is DigitalOcean as it provides the best value for money.
Once you select your cloud provider and plan, you’ll then be able to install one of several supported apps, including WordPress. You can also host your own custom app, script or content management system as long as it’s written in PHP.
They don’t provide root access to the server and you won’t need it. You get a preconfigured server software stack that is automatically installed and optimized for WordPress and general PHP hosting.
Their custom control panel takes a bit of getting used to for a new user, but it’s pretty simple and provides several essential tools and details you’ll need for managing your website.
If you are used to cPanel, you may not like that CloudWays doesn’t have a web-based file manager, but instead you’ll have to access your server files using SFTP or SSH. They do have a web-based database manager, but it’s only good for small databases (smaller than 200 MB), otherwise, you’ll need to access your databases via SSH using an external client.
This may seem a little complicated for a complete beginner, but that’s not who this service is aimed at. CloudWays is more suitable for experienced webmasters, developers and small businesses that need powerful cloud server hosting with automatic scalability.
3. A2 Hosting: Best web hosting for startups
A2 Hosting had a humble beginning back in 2001, and since then it has steadily expanded and grown to become one of the most reputable US companies in the web hosting industry.
Nothing is too small or too big for this provide. They’ve got a wide range of hosting services starting from low-end shared hosting plans and all the way up to high-end dedicated servers.
This makes A2 Hosting a suitable choice for startups because you can kick off with an economic shared web hosting plan, and when the need for higher performance arises, upgrading to a VPS or a fully dedicated server can be done smoothly.
I’ve had an outstanding experience with A2 Hosting for one of my WordPress sites and I can definitely vouch for their services.
4. FastComet: Best web hosting for WordPress blogs
If you are looking to host one or a few relatively small blogs without spending a fortune, FastComet can perfectly fit the bill.
This web host offers a massive 80% discount on the first invoice for new customers. By taking advantage of this deal, you can get three years of service for about the same price you’d pay for a one-year plan elsewhere.
The shared hosting plans from FastComet are neatly built and can provide decent performance for a few low-traffic sites or one medium-traffic site.
If you have a large site with a sizable database and/or high traffic, their cloud VPS plans would be a better fit.
5. Pressable: Best managed WordPress hosting for small business
This one takes a bit of digging to locate on Reddit, but it is there and I think it deserves some recognition here as it’s at the top of my list for managed WordPress hosting.
Pressable is a professional, fully managed WordPress hosting service run by a team of experts who are technically experienced with both WordPress and the WooCommerce e-commerce plugin.
The parent company (Automattic) also owns WooCommerce, WordPress.com, and several other brands that most WP users know and use.
If you are launching or migrating a WordPress site that means business and needs serious performance, I believe Pressable WordPress hosting would be a great choice for you.
In addition to the expert support team, a major reason to choose Pressable is that they utilize enterprise-grade cloud server technology that is well optimized for WordPress.
Some notable features of their platform include: fast NVMe SSD storage, 100% uptime, free CDN, staging tool, automatic backups, and others.
How to Select The Best Web Hosting Service?
Different factors should be considered when choosing a web hosting provider, and these can vary based on the requirements of each project.
The following is a summary of the main criteria you should keep in mind as you try to select the best web hosting service for your site.
Performance
The key performance metrics of a web hosting service are directly associated with the underlying hardware, software and network.
Look for companies that use modern server hardware with high-frequency CPUs and fast NVMe SSD storage.
A cloud infrastructure provides better redundancy and scalability, and the LiteSpeed web server software outperforms standard Apache and NGINX servers.
Technical Features
There are several basic features you’d need in any hosting service — such as a user-friendly control panel, email client, file manager, database manager, DNS manager, and a few others.
There are also non-essential features that can make your life much easier — such as automatic software installation, automatic SSL certificate installation, and others.
Security
Whether you are going to use regular shared hosting or managed WordPress hosting, you should expect the service to be secure and well protected against malware and other types of attacks.
Some of the companies I selected have more advanced security tools than others, but they all take sever security seriously and implement the necessary measures to ensure optimal security.
Uptime
Ideally, 100% uptime should be every site owner’s ultimate requirement from the hosting provider.
While that perfect number may be impossible to achieve without the use of an external CDN, a minimum uptime of 99.9% is a more realistic expectation.
Based on the guarantees provided, as well as the numerous user reviews I analyzed, the companies listed above do an outstanding job at maintaining exemplary uptime statistics.
Support
No one likes to wait long hours for the support team to fix a critical problem causing their website to be inaccessible.
Similarly, no one likes to waste their time with clueless live chat agents who aren’t any more helpful or even faster than a Google search!
Quick and knowledgeable technical support is always at the top of my checklist when searching for a web hosting provider, and it should be the same for you.
