The best shared hosting providers can give you the best bang for buck but with some compromise. Your site is stored on a web server along with many others, which means everyone shares the server costs and resources and can use a piece of that physical server. A shared hosting plan is popular due to its affordability and ease of use. It is an excellent way to create and maintain a website when you expect little traffic or work with a tight budget. It is also a perfect option for beginners due to its simplicity.
Once you grow out of your shared plan, or if you already have a site that needs it's own resources then you can check out the hosting options on our best web hosting guide.
The best shared web hosting services of 2026
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Best shared hosting overall
This shared hosting recommendation is not your run of the mill shared hosting plan. It's not an all-in-one platform style solution for hosting newbies. Instead it's really what you need if you're specifically looking for shared hosting.
InMotion Hosting gives you a lot more for your money than most other companies and supports a lot more than WordPress, including Node.js on shared hosting plans. While many budget hosts limit your space and speed to keep costs down, InMotion provides high-speed storage and plenty of room for your files right from the start.
One of the main reasons people trust them is their long-term trial period. They give you three full months to test their services, which is much longer than the standard thirty days offered by their competitors. This shows they are confident in their service and gives you enough time to make sure your site runs perfectly before you are locked into a long-term commitment.
Security and help are also built into every plan. They include tools that automatically protect your site from hackers and viruses without you having to be a tech expert. If you do run into a problem, they have a dedicated support team available at any hour of the day or night. Because they handle the technical maintenance and security updates behind the scenes, you can focus on your work instead of worrying about your server.
Finally, they make it very easy to get started or move an existing project. If you already have a website elsewhere, they will move it over for you for free.
Read our InMotion Hosting review.
Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
Price | $4.79/mo for Power plan. | ★★★★★ |
Design | Slightly complex layout but cPanel and Softaculous will solve most problems. | ★★★☆☆ |
Performance | Fast and feature-packed. | ★★★★☆ |
Best value shared hosting
A popular provider, Hostinger somehow manages to delivers plans which combine amongst the longest feature lists in the business, with the lowest of prices.
The Premium plan starts at only $2.49 a month for a 2-year commitment (renews at $12.19 a month), for instance, but it still gives you a free SSL, 1-click WordPress installation, a website builder, a free domain (with free privacy protection), a malware scanner, Cloudflare-protected nameservers, and can host up to 100 websites and 100 email accounts.
There are potential issues, too. The Premium plan only includes weekly backups, perhaps unacceptable for regularly updated sites where you can't afford to lose data. If you'd much rather accept daily and on-demand backups, one of the other two plans will be a better choice. The Business plan is priced at $3.49 a month (renews at $13.99 per month), and you can get the Cloud Startup plan, which can host up to 300 websites, for as little as $7.59 per month ($24.99 per month upon renewal).
Whatever plan you choose, Hostinger's user-friendly and intuitive control panel walks you through the process of creating email accounts, managing domains and other key tasks. Hostinger's servers are distributed across multiple data centers worldwide, minimizing latency and enhancing the overall user experience. Additionally, 24/7 support is available, and they offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee, ensuring your website remains accessible to users at all times.
Overall, we find Hostinger's shared hosting excellent value for money. But if the service doesn't work for you, you're protected by a no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee.
Read our Hostinger review.
Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
Price | Extremely good value | ★★★★★ |
Design | Customizable, designer-made templates available; no coding skills required. | ★★★★★ |
Performance | They provide fast loading times and high uptime rates to ensure your site visitors can access your site whenever they need to. | ★★★★☆ |
Best shared hosting for beginners
We often consider Bluehost an excellent choice for beginners because it removes the technical hurdles typically associated with starting a website. From the moment you sign up, the platform guides you through a setup wizard that handles the complex parts, such as connecting your domain and installing software.
The main advantage for a first-time user is the simplified dashboard. Instead of forcing you to navigate complex technical menus, Bluehost uses an intuitive interface where you can manage your site, email, and security in one place. They also include an AI-powered website builder that lets you create a professional-looking design by answering a few questions and dragging elements into place. This means you can go from having nothing to a live website without ever touching a line of code.
To make the process even more affordable and straightforward, Bluehost bundles all the essentials into its entry-level plans. You get a free domain name for your first year, a free security certificate to keep visitor data safe, and automatic updates to keep your site running smoothly. This all-in-one approach prevents the common frustration of having to buy multiple different services from different companies just to get a single site online.
Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
Price | Balances affordable entry-level. | ★★★★☆ |
Design | beginner-friendly design in most customer-facing areas. | ★★★★☆ |
Performance | Excellent for the price you pay. | ★★★★☆ |
Best shared hosting for small business
SiteGround offers some low-end shared hosting plans which may cost a little bit more than some budget rivals you’ll find on this page, but the upside is that they include all the core features that you’ll likely need.
The firm’s StartUp account is $2.99 a month initially, and $17.99 for renewal. With that you get unlimited traffic, email accounts and databases, not to mention one-click installation of apps like WordPress. It also bundles features that rival firms often charge for as extras like daily backups or CDN capabilities (Cloudflare).
Prices may seem high, but SiteGround gives you a lot for your money, and its shared and cloud hosting plans could be a smart choice for experienced business users with demanding or high-traffic websites.
StartUp hosting plan supports one website and provides plenty of features: unmetered traffic, free SSL, daily backup, free email, and more. It allows up to 10,000 visits monthly. Advanced plans support unlimited websites and extra web space. GrowBig allows 100,000 and GrowGeek 400,000 visits monthly. Also, backup copies are available on demand; you get 30% faster PHP, and they come with extra features we are sure you will love.
Another nifty touch is the provider’s SuperCacher system which caches frequently-accessed data in RAM, aiming to improve site performance. This could certainly help busy websites. Not everything is rosy here, though – for example the basic account limits you to 10GB of web space. Also, website support via the company’s knowledgebase is a rather shoddy experience, but there are other avenues of tech support which perform much better.
With free installation of the shopping cart of your choice, you can enjoy free features such as SSL, daily backups, and more to the bundle. A website-building option is also available. WordPress or Weebly is included in all plans.
With prices slightly higher than competitors, SiteGround's shared plans could be a good choice for anyone looking for fast and reliable hosting and is more interested in features and service quality than getting the lowest possible price.
Read our SiteGround review.
Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
Price | $17.99/mo for StartUp. $29.99/mo for GrowBig $44.99/mo for GrowGeek. (discounts available). | ★★★★☆ |
Design | WordPress or Weebly is included in all plans. | ★★★★☆ |
Performance | They use a system that caches frequently-accessed data in RAM, aiming to improve site performance. | ★★★★☆ |
Best cheap shared hosting
If you want to do web hosting on a budget, then as this provider’s name suggests, it aims to be inexpensive. You get some impressive value-for-money with Namecheap, particularly with an initial discount for the first year, and there are some heavyweight plans here.
However, note the starter ‘value’ plan only gives you 20GB of drive space and 30 email accounts, but you can get that at a price as cheap as $1.58 per month (over a 2-year contract). Note that this plan renews at $4.48 per month, which is also super affordable.
As this provider name suggests, Namecheap is popular for its affordability. The basic plan supports hosting three websites, while most providers only allow a single site on their starter shared plan.
All plans come with unmetered bandwidth, a free website builder, domain name and privacy protection, free automatic SSL installation, and 24 hour website migration.
Softaculous app installs, updates, and maintains WordPress and 150+ other apps. cPanel gives you complete website control via your browser. A good set of core features includes a free domain, free migration, unlimited bandwidth, free website builder, and a minimum of twice-weekly backups. With advanced plans, auto-backup is available.
Namecheap offers a 99.9% connectivity guarantee and is a straightforward service to set up, with an initial welcome email pointing you in the right direction for everything you might need (backed up by some impressive FAQs). It also plays host to an excellent searchable knowledge base.
To round things off, testing proved that this company generally offers above average speeds compared to rivals, making this a great hosting provider for those who aren’t keen on doing too much damage to their wallet.
Read our Namecheap review.
Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
Price | $1.98/mo for the Stellar plan. $2.98/mo for the Stellar Plus plan. $4.98/mo for the Stellar Business plan. (for 12 months subscription). | ★★★★☆ |
Design | The free website builder is included. | ★★★★☆ |
Performance | Their Cloud Storage guarantees 100% uptime, the highest performance, true stability, data protection. | ★★★★☆ |
HostArmada
Right off the bat, it’s important to understand the unique advantages of shared cloud hosting – and what HostArmada is trying to offer here. As the name suggests, shared cloud hosting combines the best of both worlds: shared hosting and cloud hosting. From shared hosting, it picks up affordability and resource-sharing, whereas from cloud hosting, it brings the benefits of scalability, geo-redundancy, and better performance.
Speaking of affordability, HostArmada’s packages start from just $1.99 a month (on a 3-year commitment, renews at $9.95 a month). If you don’t want to sign up for that long, however, you'll be glad to learn that both the 2-year and annual plans are also super cheap – at $2.19 (renews at $10.95) and $2.39 (renews at $11.95) a month, respectively. This is for the basic plan, which, despite being cheap, doesn’t pull any punches. You get 15 GB of fast NVMe storage, 2 CPU cores, and 2 GB of RAM, as well as free SSL for your website, unlimited email and FTP accounts, and 7 daily backups.
It’s worth noting that the entry-level plan allows you to host just a single website, but upgrade to the plan right next to it and unlock the ability to create and manage unlimited websites, with double the storage, CPU cores, and RAM. Furthermore, I liked the fact that irrespective of the plan you pick, essential security features such as malware/virus scanning and removal, brute-force protection, and network firewall are all there.
Additionally, quality-of-life features such as free website migration and cPanel for easy management are much appreciated. To round off an excellent package, HostArmada offers 24/7 customer support via live chat and email, meaning you can get your queries ironed out in a jiffy. Lastly, you get an industry-leading 45-day money-back guarantee with all shared hosting plans, giving you ample time to try out the service risk-free before committing.
Read our HostArmada review
Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
Price | HostArmada has a range of well resourced plans at good value | ★★★★★ |
Design | A well laid out website showing you clearly the different features in plans and an intuitive control panel | ★★★★☆ |
- We discuss the merits of shared hosting vs dedicated hosting
Best shared hosting FAQs
What is shared hosting?
Shared hosting involves multiple websites sharing the same physical server and its resources, such as bandwidth, memory, email accounts, and databases. It's ideal for beginners and small businesses that cannot afford a costly hosting service. Since the server is shared, all of its resources will be divided among the websites, which means each site will get a limit on how much of the resources it can use.
It's also ideal for people who aren't very technically adept because most of the maintenance work is taken care of by the provider itself. You also get dedicated technical support around the clock. Mode of support varies from provider to provider.
Is shared hosting safe?
Shared hosting providers offer decent security. They look after the server maintenance and ensure that there are no vulnerabilities. Some providers even offer a free SSL certificate. However, if security is your top priority, shared hosting might not be for you.
The biggest issue is that if one website is under attack, the malware might spread to other sites on the server. Similarly, if one website has a malfunctioning script, it might affect the performance of other sites.
Another issue is that shared hosting providers run common software for every site, and users cannot control that software. So, if there’s a vulnerability in that software, all the websites on that server will be at risk.
Is shared hosting efficient?
Shared hosting is efficient and works really well as long as you have a small site. If you're not getting a lot of traffic and if you're operating within the limits of your resources, everything will be fine. You won't face much speed or connectivity issues.
However, for websites with high traffic or a lot of assets (such as lots of high-res photos and videos), shared hosting is probably not the best option. Then, something like VPS or dedicated server hosting would make more sense.
What are the benefits of shared hosting?
The biggest benefit of getting shared hosting is its affordability. Most new businesses cannot afford to get a single server to themselves. However, when you only take up a part of that server, the pricing becomes much more affordable since the cost is effectively split between all the users on that shared server.
The next significant benefit is its usability. As we mentioned above, maintenance and updates are handled by the provider itself, and you also get technical support for other issues. In addition to that, the interface itself is quite easy to use. The cPanel (which is your control panel) has a simple, easy-to-navigate layout that doesn't need any coding knowledge to operate.
Are there any limitations of shared hosting?
Since shared hosting is usually used as a starter plan, it comes with a few limitations. For instance, the resources are divided among different websites, and the limits are strict. If your website’s needs grow beyond it, you'll have to upgrade to a higher plan.
Also, the performance of another website might impact all the other websites on that server. For example, if another website is getting high traffic, it might temporarily slow down your website.
There are also very few customization options with shared hosting. You have no control over the server environment or the software installed on it.
How is shared hosting different from VPS hosting?
Both shared and VPS hosting work similarly in that multiple websites share the same physical server. However, the biggest difference between the two is that VPS hosting provides a virtual partition between two websites so that the performance of one does not impact the other.
In the same way, if another site is going through a security issue, it won't impact your website in any way. VPS hosting also offers more customization options—you get root access to your server, you can change the OS, install your own control panel, and much more.
Due to these added benefits, VPS hosting is usually more expensive than shared hosting. It's not very beginner-friendly, either, and you’ll need some technical expertise to set up your site.
How to choose the best shared hosting service
When it comes to choosing the right shared hosting plan for you, you firstly need to know what your website's needs are, and check the subscription person for web hosting contracts. Last thing you want is being tied down to a web host for longer or shorter than needed.
It's also imperative to check for server reliability and uptime guarantees, and check what each web hosting provider has to offer when it comes to its refund policy. Write out your non-negotiables for features a shared web hosting package must have and be aware of what your upgrade options are.
How we test the best shared hosting providers
We test shared hosting using the same method we use to test web hosting in general. We sign up to each service provider and host our test website created by our team of experts.
Once we're in, we test the features on offer, the speed, overall performance, and general ease of use. We also use this to compare each pricing plan to work out if each service is good value for money.
Our experts are well versed on what makes a good shared hosting plan in comparison to what makes a great shared hosting plan.
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