Best Web Hosting UK

In most parts of the tech industry, no one product or service is objectively the best. The most favourable service is the one that you find easy to use and meets your needs.

Website hosting follows this trend. The ideal hosting service provider has the features that serve your website style, target audience, and coding knowledge. There is no one-size-fits-all website host.

We’ve spent years analysing and testing the different web hosting options on the UK market. We consider the site speed, customer support options, user interface, security options, and included features in our rankings.

Keep reading for our full list of the best web hosting UK options and to learn more about the features we consider when making our list. For other similar lists, visit:

• Best web hosting Australia
• Best web hosting Canada
• Best web hosting Malaysia
• Best web hosting Singapore

Best Web Hosting UK 2020 – Reviews

1. Hostinger – Best Cheap Web Hosting

Budget-friendly website hosting often means that you’ll miss out on features or access to helpful customer service agents. That’s not the case with Hostinger. The company has provided high-quality hosting services at competitive rates since 2004.

They make it easy for anyone to set up and maintain their website. Hostinger’s workflow is clear and logical. You don’t have to know much about web design to use their systems.

Every subscription includes 10 GB of SSD storage and access to 24/7 online chat customer support. They offer shared hosting, VPS, cloud hosting, email hosting, and WordPress optimised hosting services.

The Hostinger data centres are spread all around the world, including here in the UK. This variety of choices enables you to select the best location that’s closest to your target audience.  

With a 99% uptime guarantee and prices less than £1 per month, choosing Hostinger is a no-brainer.  

Pros

• Affordable pricing
• UK-based servers
• 30-Day money-back guarantee
• Customisable storage and features
• Easy to set up and maintain

Cons

• Customer service only available via chat

2. SiteGround – Best WordPress Hosting

If you have a WordPress website, you should consider SiteGround’s web hosting services for the UK. WordPress themselves recommend SiteGround as a preferred hosting service. Their quality, security, and customer service warrants that respected designation.

Every SiteGround site comes with automated backups, free SSL certificates, GDPR compliance, and SiteGround’s in-house security setup. Your website, customer data, and privacy is in good hands.

If a problem arises, the helpful support staff is there for you around the clock. Agents communicate via chat, phone, or support tickets and average a 10-minute response time. You won’t feel stuck or helpless for long!      

With servers located in London and custom caching technology, your site will always load quickly for your local audience. The 99.9% uptime further solidifies the quality experience you will pass along to your visitors.  

Pros

• Server in the UK
• WordPress recommended
• Free SSL and GDPR compliance
• Fast loading speeds

Cons

• Prices increase with renewal

3. A2 Hosting – Best Reseller Hosting

A2 Hosting has some of the fastest data servers of any provider on our list. They spread users out over more servers to reduce crowding and prevent any circumstances that limit resources. This setup, combined with custom cashing and multiple data centre locations, provide loading speeds up to 20 times faster than other web hosting providers.

They also provide impressive customer service 24/7. You can reach them through live chat, email, phone, or official support tickets. As a result of their popularity, there are also many A2 Hosting tutorials and guides across the internet.

Another benefit of A2 Hosting is the straightforward website migration and setup. A2 Hosting offers 1-script installers for most content management systems, including WordPress and Joomla. Plus, customer service agents are standing by to ensure that nothing goes wrong during the transition. This benefit saves you considerable time and effort.  

Pros

• No storage limits
• Money-back guarantee at any point
• Free site migration assistance
• Fast loading speeds

Cons

• Charges USD

4. GreenGeeks – Best Web Hosting for Small Businesses

The tech industry, especially big data companies, is not known for the eco-friendly nature. Running supercomputers and lots of equipment requires a lot of electricity. Most companies work the cost into their prices and go about their business. Not GreenGeeks.

GreenGeeks focuses on creating renewable energy to counteract the enormous power draw of its server centres. This company puts three times the amount of power it uses back into the grid through clean, wind energy. This green power offset is unprecedented in the web hosting community.

The benefits of choosing GreenGeeks for your hosting service don’t stop at your improved environmental impact. For a low price, they offer a powerhouse of features. You have access to unlimited disk space, bandwidth, and email accounts. Your domain registration is also free if you need it.

With a 99.9% uptime guarantee that they stick to, your GreenGeeks hosted website is sure to always be online. Plus, their cutting-edge technology keeps your site fast. They make this possible through a combination of PowerCatcher, PHP7, and Solid State RAID-10 storage arrays.

If you ever have any issues, the customer support specialists are incredibly knowledgeable and available around the clock. They offer chat, email, phone, or support ticket support, plus video tutorials made by both the company and user community.

Pros

• No storage restrictions
• Money-back satisfaction guarantee
• Consistent customer service
• Environmentally sustainable

Cons

• Charges USD

5. Kinsta – Best Managed WordPress Hosting

Kinsta web hosting services provide data homes for some of the biggest WordPress sites, including TripAdvisor, Ubisoft, and FreshBooks. Their focus on speed and security is unmatched by most other value hosting services. With subscription plans beginning at $30 per month, they aren’t a discount provider but provide an impressive number of relatively low-cost features.

Every subscription receives a free SSL certificate, website backups, DDOS protection, GeoIP blocking, and Google Cloud firewall. To say that your site is well-protected with Kinsta is an understatement. If your site gets hacked, they’ll help you restore it to its previous condition for free. These security features remain unmatched by most other WordPress hosting services.

Kinsta uses Google Cloud servers spread over 20 locations across the globe, which keeps loading speeds quick. All subscribers receive 10 GB of SSD storage. Their in-house caching plugin makes your WordPress site load at an even faster rate.   

Pros

• Unmatched security features
• Quick loading speeds
• 24/7 customer service

Cons

• Charges in USD
• Online-only customer support options

6. Bluehost – Great Web Host for Beginners

Bluehost was historically one of the most popular and respected hosting services. Then, after another company bought them out, the quality went downhill fast. Unfortunately, their reputation is proving slow to recover. Bluehost is working hard to regain the trust of the online community.  

They are changing their reputation by focusing on individuals who are new to the website management space. Their video tutorials and straightforward user interface help beginners master their site.  

When you need more one-on-one help than tutorial videos provide, their customer service team is there around the clock. You can contact them through chat, phone, or help ticket.

For UK web service providers, Bluehost is not the fastest service as all of their servers are in the United States. However, the loading speed is acceptable for some websites.

Pros

• Beginner-friendly
• Low-cost service
• 50 GB of disk space

Cons

• US servers only
• Reputation for unreliable service

7. Cloudways – Best Cloud Hosting

With most hosting subscriptions, your service provider controls how your data is stored and accessed. However, these services choose to manage everything for the good of everyone, without optimising the services for your specific site. If you understand server technology, you can use Cloudways to manage and monitor your website data directly.

Cloudways is not a user-friendly service for beginners – you need tech knowledge to use their services. When your skillset falls short or you need advice on the best next steps, their customer service agents are ready to help 24/7. Contact them through support tickets, live chat, or request a phone call.

To ensure quick websites, Cloudways has data servers around the world. They use SSD hard drives and PHP 7 ready servers to guarantee top performance further. If you understand how to use the system, you can’t go wrong with all of Cloudways’ web hosting benefits.  

Pros

• Extremely high-performance hosting
• Helpful customer support
• No limits or restrictions to data or usage
• Fast loading speeds

Cons

• Charges USD
• Not for beginners – tech skills required   

8. HostPapa

It’s rare to find extensive SDD data storage through a budget-friendly hosting service that doesn’t lack other essential services. HostPapa not only provides 100 GB of storage for £1.66 per month, but they also excel in the features they offer, site performance, and customer service.

You can contact customer service agents through any method that works for you, including live chat, email, phone, support tickets, or fax. HostPapa also provides regular instructional webinars and one-on-one training to get the most out of their hosting services.

The perks don’t stop with the 24/7 customer support. HostPapa includes free site migration, free domain registration for new websites, and free SSL certificates for each site. That many features are typically unheard of for a discount website hosting service.  

Pros

• 100 GB of SSD storage
• Free site migration
• Free SSL
• Affordable price
• Impressive customer service

Cons

• None

9. HostGator

HostGator was one of the early leaders in the website hosting space. However, they’ve fallen far from their former place at the top. They are steadily improving, but their services leave a lot to be desired.

If you’re on a tight budget and don’t need a mind-blowingly fast website, then HostGator is a decent value. For less than $3 per month, you receive unmetered bandwidth, the option to configure servers to meet your unique requirements, and 24/7 support.

The two most significant downsides to HostGator’s web hosting services are their server locations and common security issues.

HostGator sites are notorious for being hacked. When you compare them with similar sites on other platforms, you’ll see the increase in malicious activity. A hacked website will cause downtime and a decrease in visitors and sales.

All of the HostGator servers are in the United States. If your target audience is here in the UK, then they might experience a slow loading time. Lagging site speeds will cause visitors to navigate away. You also might see lower rankings from Google and other search engines as a result of your slow website.

Pros

• Low-cost subscription
• Many video tutorials
• Unmetered bandwidth

Cons

• Known security issues
• Servers only in the United States
• Less helpful customer service
• Few included features

10. DreamHost

For fast, reliable service, DreamHost has been around for many years. They’re consistently a feature-packed hosting provider that delivers.

Each DreamHost subscription level comes packed with features. You’ll receive a free domain registration if you need it and complimentary WHOIS privacy protection. They also include a secured sockets layer (SSL) certificate for every website.

Their 24/7 support is available via phone, live chat, or support tickets. The variety of communication options allows you to receive help the moment you need it, instead of waiting for business hours in the United States.   

The primary downside is the price. To make hosting somewhat affordable, you must pre-pay for three years. They do offer a 97-day money-back guarantee, which gives you sufficient time to determine if their services are right for you without being stuck for years or losing money.

The other major negative of DreamHost is that their server locations are only in the United States. For a UK-based business, this distance can lead to slow page loading. Even with DreamHost’s variety of SSD, cloud, and managed VPS servers, you won’t necessarily see the lightning-fast speeds that the company promises.

Pros

• Free domain and SSL
• High-quality, reliable service
• 97-day money-back guarantee
• WHOIS privacy protection

Cons

• US servers only
• Requires 3-year pre-payment for an affordable price

How To Find The Best Web Host for the UK

While the best website hosting for you depends on your type of website and audience, some needs are universal. For example, if your site doesn’t meet the criteria set by search engines or is too slow for your visitors, you will probably find yourself unsatisfied with your web hosting service.

Different hosting services excel in a variety of the feature areas described below. It’s up to you to decide which combination of tools that you require from your website host.

Keep reading for more information about the criteria we used to rank the best web hosting in the UK (we’ve also built individual city pages for the UK).

Server Location

Your site’s loading speed is one of the essential features for keeping visitors on your page and ranking high in search engine results. One way to increase your website’s speed is to reduce the distance that your data must travel between the servers and your audience.

Even with all of the increases in technology over the past few years, location is still relevant. Data travels faster over shorter distances, which makes your pages load more quickly as a result.

Uptime

If your website is not online, you can’t make money or see the benefits of increased traffic. Especially if your website is for a business, you need to be online as much as possible.

Uptime describes the amount of time that a website hosting service’s servers are online. When the servers are not communicating with the rest of the world, we consider them “down.”  

Many web hosting providers claim high uptimes. Only a few on our list follow through with their promise. It’s vital to read reviews such as ours to be confident that your next website host is reliable.

Disk space

Your website hosting service is storing all of your website data on their servers. When choosing your subscription, you must guarantee that there will be enough space allocated for you to meet your needs.

A reseller’s website with many product pages will need more data than a local business website with only a few pages and minimal traffic.

Bandwidth and data transfer

When a user visits your website, data flows from your web hosting service’s servers to the visitor’s personal computer. Bandwidth is the term to describe how fast this flow of information happens. You typically want this speed to be as fast as possible.

Data transfer describes the amount of information that flows between the servers and your visitors. If people come to your site to download files or watch videos, you’ll see much higher data transfer rates than a website that people visit to read information.

Speed

The longer it takes for your website to load, the more likely someone will leave your page. People want information quickly and easily.

As a result, Google and other search engines now punish websites that don’t provide information quickly to visitors. That’s why site speed is vital to the success of your online presence. Choose a website hosting service that helps keep your website blazing fast.

Support

You should expect to need their customer support team at least once during your subscription with website hosting services. You want help that’s available 24/7 or at least during your regular business hours.

Check also the types of customer service the hosting company provides. In an ideal situation, you have multiple methods to communicate with their helpers. Most companies offer some combination of support tickets, online chat, phone, or fax services.

Security

Website security is a hot topic of conversation these days – and for a good reason. You don’t want to leave your website information or your customer’s personal information vulnerable for hackers to come and steal. Website security is especially crucial for pages that accept digital payments or keep identifying information about their visitors or members.

Search engines prioritise sites that have a secure sockets layer (SSL) or other security certificates. If you don’t have this, you’ll likely find yourself struggling to show up near the top of search results.