I built this web hosting comparison website to provide people with easy to understand but thorough guide to finding the appropriate web hosting company for their websites. By the time you are done reading this article you will know more than most people about web hosting comparison and which company is right for you.

Hi, my name is Seth Hymes and I have been building websites and making money online since April 2010. The first thing you’ll notice that’s makes this site different from other web hosting comparison websites is that I haven’t put up any web hosting comparison charts.

Confusing, Meaningless Charts Won't Help You Choose the Right Host

The Problem With Web Hosting Comparison Charts (& the Sites That They Appear On)

Web hosting comparison charts look like a good way to look at a bunch of different web hosting companies side by side, but they’re better as a marketing tool than a research tool for web hosting comparison.

• First off, no two web hosting comparison companies ever agree on which is the “#1 web hosting company”.
• Second, you don’t really know who is coming up with these web hosting comparison charts and what methodologies they are using to rank these sites.
• Third, web hosting comparison site creators don’t usually make it clear that they have partnerships with the web hosting companies they are comparing. Meaning that when you click on their link to the web hosting company and sign up, they get a commission on the sale.

That doesn’t mean all web hosting comparison sites are dishonest. But I don’t think they provide visitors with enough functional information to make the best choices in choosing a web host. Many of these web hosting comparison sites simply throw up a chart with some 5 star ratings, then re-summarize the company information about the web host in question (by saying things like “They’ve been in business since 1998 and have great customer support!”

This web hosting comparison site is going to be different in three ways.

• First, I’m not going to tell you what the #1 web hosting company is. I’m primarily going to share with you my experience with hosting companies that I’ve dealt with personally and that I host my own websites on, and what I’ve heard about from other webmasters for companies I haven’t.
• Second, I’ll explain in detail why I chose these particular hosts, both the technical and non technical reasons, so you understand what to look for in a quality web host. I’ll also explain my other recommendations for the different needs of various webmasters.
• Third, I am disclosing that I have an affiliate relationship with the all of the web hosting companies I recommend on this site. That means that if you click on a link to these sites from my site and make a purchase, I get a commission.  I will also provide non affiliate links to the hosting companies I talk about on this site, if you don’t wish for me to get a commission. It’s your call.

What Most People Don’t Know About Web Hosting

A “Web Host” is just a fancy name for a computer that your website’s files are stored on.  It’s just like your home computer except it’s constantly hooked up to the internet. Similar names for this computer are the “server” or “mainframe”. But they all mean the same thing: the computer your website’s files are on.

What is “Shared” Web Hosting and Why Is It So Cheap?

Most of the web hosting comparison sites and services you will see advertised online are for “shared” web hosting. Basically, a web hosting company will buy tons of computers to put website files on. I mean hundreds and thousands. Each one of these computers, like your home computer, has a hard drive of anywhere from 250 GB to 1 TB of memory. That’s a lot of storage space!

A typical website only takes up a few Megabytes of memory. Which means that each computer can handle literally thousands of customers websites.

That’s why shared web hosting is so darn cheap! Web hosting companies can afford to charge so little for web hosting because they are also getting a few bucks a month from so many other customers.

The Problem with Cheap Shared Web Hosting

Shared web hosting is like renting an apartment for your website. You are literally sharing your server with thousands of other sites. It really has made web hosting affordable (as opposed to 10 years ago when it was super expensive). But like finding a decent apartment, you want to make sure your website has a home in a good neighborhood.

And just like when you’re apartment hunting, know that anything that seems “to good to be true”.. probably is. Ever see ads for an apartment complex with a fancy name like “Shady Pines” that actually looks like this:

Many companies have great advertisements and provide super cheap rates but can be an absolutely miserable web hosting service. Something to keep in mind when doing a web hosting comparison.

Super cheap shared web hosting services typically keep their prices so low by:

• Skimping on customer service and support. Many of the cheapest web hosting companies outsource their customer support to other countries or do not have any immediately chat/online support.
• Skimping on technical upkeep of servers. Cheap web hosting companies don’t have the staff or resources available to stay on top of all those computers.
• Overloading servers with too many websites and/or allowing malicious sites on their servers.

The ultimate goal of a web hosting company is to maintain the security of your website and make sure it is always online and available to your visitors.  You want a company that has the technical resources to make sure the computer with your website’s files is always up and running. You want to make sure that if there is a problem, you have immediate customer support. And you want to make sure they are smart in the number of sites hosted on your server, and that there is adequate security and backup between all the sites.

Low Cost Web Hosting Recommendations

I’m a little reluctant to recommend any super low cost company in an honest web hosting comparison. The difference in cost between low cost web hosting and “premium” shared hosting can be as little as $3 a month. The sites I use to host my sites cost between $6 to $10 a month for hosting, and with those few extra bucks I get added security and support.

However, for people who want a very low cost web hosting solution that will also provide reliable service, here is a web hosting comparison on some  companies have decent reputations.

1. JustHost – I actually used this web hosting company when I started. What’s great is that they use CPanel (a premium interface), and my sites were always up. JustHost can be as little as $2.77 a month, but there are some trade offs.

The main problem with JustHost? The telephone support. It is outsourced to India. To their credit when I did have a couple problems with my site, the overseas representatives were helpful and able to resolve my questions. But hold times varied from as little as 5 minutes to as long as 40 minutes one time (yikes!)

Justhost now says they have an instant  chat support function, but when I was with them they did not. For serious webmasters, domestic support and instant chat functions are essential.

Just Host has an Alexa ranking of 1770, meaning it’s the 1770th most popular website in the world.

2. iPage & FatCow. These two hosts are advertised as separate, but they are actually the same company (clever marketing). They also have good reputations and also claim to have Domestic 24/7 phone support. I’ve never used either of these hosts but a lot of people swear by them.

Neither of these web hosting companies use CPanel.

Ipage has an Alexa ranking of 1993, meaning it’s the 1993rd most popular website in the world traffic wise.

FatCow’s Alex ranking is 3071.

I mention the Alexa ranking when comparing web hosts because it speaks to a site’s market share an popularity.

It’s no accident that Toyota and Honda have had the biggest market share for the past few years while also being known as making the best cars. In web hosting as in many industries, you can correlate a company’s popularity with the quality of its product.

Simple Web Hosting Comparison: My Picks

With all of this in mind, I’d like to tell you about the two web hosting companies that I use and I’ve found to have the best reputations in the online community.

My Web Host #1: Hostgator

The first company is called Hostgator. It’s the company this very website is hosted on.

With my hosting plan I get unlimited add on domains, email, and bandwidth.

Hostgator has the biggest market share of all the shared web hosting companies. It’s Alexa ranking is 243. That means it’s just a couple hundred slots behind the #1 most trafficked website in the world, Google.

Hostgator is by far the most expensive of all the shared web hosting services. And by expensive, I mean that hosting can cost anywhere from $7 to $10 a month.

While I rarely pay the extra money for 93 octane premium gas, I happily pay an extra $4 a month over a cheap web hosting company for Hostgator.

I pay this royal sum every month for one thing and one thing only: support.

Hostgator’s customer support is excellent. Almost every time I have called their 866 number to Houston I am connected with a representative within 5 minutes. The longest wait time I ever had with them was around 9 minutes, during peak hours during the day. They also have online tech chat and I’ve had technical questions answered online very quickly as well.

Most of all, I believe that Hostgator’s price means that more money is going into their servers and technical support. Their facility in Texas is enormous with over 12,000 servers and fully staffed with expert technicians.

This is considered “premium” shared hosting and to me, it’s like living in an apartment like this:

And definitely worth the $10 a month I pay.

Click here to learn more about Hostgator’s different plans, discounts, and my experience with them.

My Web Host #2: Bluehost.Com

Bluehost and Hostgator are like the Coke and Pepsi of web hosting. They are both top performers, but some people are fans of one over the other.

Bluehost has been awesome. Customer service reps pick up quickly, their WordPress installs and domain management is super easy. Like Hostgator, they have 24/7 domestic phone support in Salt Lake City, instant online chat support, fast website response times, etc. etc.

Bluehost has an Alexa ranking of  387, so it makes an appropriate second to Hostgator.

Bluehost costs about $6 a month for web hosting.

Click here to learn more about Bluehost and why I use them. 

Simple Web Hosting Comparison: Conclusion

I hope you have found this page informative. This site contains more articles on web hosting if you wish to go more in depth on the topic. Feel free to email me with any questions you  may have at info a simplewebhostingcomparison.com

Thanks for reading my simple web hosting comparison!