It’s 2025, and there are a LOT of hosting companies out there

If you’ve been in the web game for a while, you know that there are TONS of hosts out there, and all of them have different features and price points. There are so many options, it can be super difficult to sort out who is going to be the best match for your small business, and even moreso if you’re looking for an agency solution.

Even if you DO speak “web dev” and know what all the points in the packages offered by different entities MEAN… that doesn’t mean you can easily evaluate what company is going to be easy to work with, who has the best support system, and more.

And this is EXACTLY what I ran into when I was looking to switch away from GoDaddy back in 2020. Long story short, I no longer recommend them as a host – and I tried a ton of companies in my efforts to switch. As a result, I have a new option who I am absolutely obsessed with – you don’t HAVE to use my recommendation (spoiler, it’s Hostinger, in case you somehow missed the title of this post!) but I’m going to tell you why I think they’re the best, after having worked with them for five years now!

What to look for in a hosting company

When it comes to what you’re looking for in a hosting company, that’s going to be vastly different based on whether you need someone to host a single website, or whether you’re looking for more of a “I need to host a ton of websites for my CLIENTS” kind of approach to web management.

I personally don’t host my clients websites, I prefer that they host it on a server space in their name, in case (heaven forbid) something super weird happened with all my medical fun. But that’s just me! Hosting your clients’ websites can be lucrative, and also make your processes for updates and maintenance a lot easier. It’s even easier still, if you have access to top tier support through your host. And that’s going to be helpful no matter what, because whether you’re a small agency provider or looking to make a website for your yoga studio, customer support is VITAL.

So what’s important to look for in a hosting company?

What to look for in a hosting company

When it comes to what you’re looking for in a hosting company, that’s going to be vastly different based on whether you need someone to host a single website, or whether you’re looking for more of a “I need to host a ton of websites for my CLIENTS” kind of approach to web management.

I personally don’t host my clients websites, I prefer that they host it on a server space in their name, in case (heaven forbid) something super weird happened with all my medical fun. But that’s just me! Hosting your clients’ websites can be lucrative, and also make your processes for updates and maintenance a lot easier. It’s even easier still, if you have access to top tier support through your host. And that’s going to be helpful no matter what, because whether you’re a small agency provider or looking to make a website for your yoga studio, customer support is VITAL.

So what’s important to look for in a hosting company?

Package contents

The first thing to look into are the actual contents of the package you’re getting. As a caveat here, if you’re a service provider, you can probably skip this section, because you already know what you’re looking for in a package. But for all the DIY business owners out there, I wanted to go through these details! For web designers… you might want to skip to after this list.

Specs

Depending on your situation, you could need totally different specs for your server setup(s), so I’m going to gloss over this one slightly here and get into it in depth later. But when you’re looking at the package contents, check out the suggestions and notes from your selected host – if you’re looking to host a massive e-commerce store, are there packages with devoted resources that will ensure traffic doesn’t tank your speeds? If you’re an agency provider, are there large scale cloud packages that will allow you to host a variety of client sites under one package? Make sure that the specs on the offered packages line up with your needs.

SSL

One of my biggest sticking points with hosts these days is whether or not SSLs are included in packages. It’s also one of the reasons I love Hostinger, because they include an SSL with every domain you host through them – completely free. Which should be the standard for SSL usage these days, but many hosting companies charge an arm and a leg for an SSL. Keep an eye out for this, because companies that nickel and dime you for every element you need for your site will usually cost you a TON in the long run, even if they have (seemingly) great “starting” discounts!

Backups

Server/site backups are another area where a lot of hosting companies will get into the “nickel and dime” arena. Are backups included in the base packages? What frequency will those backups be taken at? You should think about backups as a bit of an insurance policy for your website. If you’re self-managing and you break something… it’s a lot easier to go back in time than it is to hire someone last minute to clean things up! You might lose progress, but if the surprise expense of hiring a professional to bail you out isn’t in the budget… backups are your friend. And with Hostinger, they’re included (at varying frequencies!) in all of their base packages. Because Hostinger is the best.

WordPress

This list wouldn’t be realistic if I didn’t include support for WordPress in the list – but I do have to include it with a caveat. Not all hosting packages are created equal, and even though you CAN install WordPress on essentially every hosting package you can get through hosting companies these days… I recommend looking for “Wordpress” in the list of supported tools when you’re evaluating packages. Usually, this will mean that the hosting package itself will allow you to install WordPress on setup, which will be a huge time saver if you’re DIYing your site! Beware though, of “Managed WordPress” packages. Not all managed WordPress hosting packages are created equal, and some of them severely limit your ability to move elsewhere, or track things like resource usage within your hosting dashboard.

CDN

I also recommend checking out whether a CDN is included in your package – “CDN” stands for “Content Delivery Network” and it’s basically a connected system of servers in a variety of locations that all cache your website, meaning it’s easier to load (AKA it loads faster) from vastly separated locations. If you have mostly local traffic, or you’re looking to host a site that you don’t anticipate will have tons of traffic, then it may not necessarily be a solution you NEED. But if it is, it’s DEFINITELY nice to have it included in your package, instead of being an additional cost!

Email

Finally, I recommend looking at the email options available and what’s included with your package. Does your host allow you to set up branded email directly included in your package? You might not need it anyway, if you’re looking to set your email up via Google Workspace, which is honestly what I usually recommend anyway. But again, if you’re in a low budget situation, then having an email account included in your package means you don’t have to worry about additional expense, and you can usually set them up in just a few steps (like you can through Hostinger!) so it also speeds your process up massively.

Obviously this isn’t exhaustive – there are TONS of other specs in hosting packages to keep an eye on – everything from “is AI included” to “does it include malware scanners” – but these are the ones I usually flag as most important for my clients, and that make the most sense to pay attention to if you’re trying to DIY your web situation!

You need a host with Amazing Customer Service

Whether you’re a service provider or a business owner looking to DIY their website… you’re going to need solid customer service from the company you’re working with for your hosting. There are all kinds of different support systems available now through hosting companies, just like through any other industry. Everything from “you can only talk to an artificial bot” to “we don’t have chat support, welcome to waiting 4 hours on the phone.”

But who you can talk to isn’t necessarily the only thing that contributes to customer service from a hosting company being effective – it’s also about the approach they take to solving your problems. Some hosting companies essentially approach support from an “every inquiry is an opportunity to invoice” kind of perspective. To be completely transparent, every time I’ve had a customer reach out to the big name companies (you know who I’m talking about) for help with an issue, they get to a point in the conversation where they’re told that they definitely need to purchase an upgrade to their package, which… usually they don’t actually need.

Before you start working with a hosting company, take a look at customer service reviews. How do their support agents perform? Are people happy with the responses they get? Do customers get their questions answered?

Hostinger Delivers for their customers.

I can tell you definitively that the customer service I’ve been happiest with in my ten years (and many, many hosting companies) of work as a web designer, is from Hostinger. Initially, you’ll speak with a bot – but you are quickly forwarded to a member of their team, if the resources the bot has access to can’t solve your problem, unlike some bot driven customer support systems.

The Hostinger support team has never failed to work tirelessly to help me solve complex problems with my clients’ hosting – because by the time I reach out to support, I’ve usually done as much as I humanly possibly can, and I’ve exhausted my options. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I personally believe they offer the best, kindest, most consistent, most effective support of any company I’ve ever worked with in the technology sector. It’s not dependent on who you are connected with, every single support member I’ve ever been directed to has been incredibly devoted to their job, and friendly while they support you through solving the problem. Even if it’s 3am, and I’m at my wits’ end.

The Training Resources available are also important!

Whether you’re DIYing a website or you’re an agency provider, training materials are so, incredibly important. Hosts offer new features and developments all the time, and honestly even if you’re a knowledgeable web professional sometimes it’s nice to brush up on certain elements of hosting management.

So I always recommend working with a host that has a hub of support tools and training resources that is easy to navigate, easy to understand, and most vitally: kept up to date. It is absolutely the worst to get to a support doc, go through the steps, NOT achieve the desired result, and then when speaking to support, learn that the documentation you accessed was actually just out of date. This is a rampant issue I’ve encountered with different hosting companies over the years, not just because articles aren’t updated, but sometimes even duplicate content related to a specific task isn’t removed from their support documentation when updated articles for new features or adjusted features are released.

It can be a NIGHTMARE for troubleshooting, and waste your time massively.

But again, this is an area where Hostinger stands out to me as a leader – their support documentation has been pristine every time I’ve needed to use it. If you do manage to access an article that is out of date but still available, it’s noted that way, prominently, so you don’t waste your time. Their training resources are easy to understand whether you’re a knowledgeable agency provider or a DIYer, so you don’t have to worry about wading through jargon to get to the steps to solve your problem. And that is HUGE when you’re choosing a hosting provider!

Why Hostinger Stands Out

From the items included in Hostinger’s base packages, to the prices assigned to those packages (which are insanely economical, and NOT JUST AT THE START), to the support you receive after you buy… Hostinger is a definitive leader in hosting solutions.

Working with them has been the best decision I’ve made in my business, hands down – which isn’t something I say lightly! Their customer support is best in the industry – even though they don’t offer phone support. Their server uptime claims (99.9% uptime) are experientially accurate. I’ve genuinely never had a client site (or my own!) drop from an error on Hostinger’s end, which I cannot say for any other host I’ve worked with long term. They aren’t just best-in-class – they’re best in the INDUSTRY.

Ready for self-hosted WordPress on Hostinger?

If I’ve not convinced you that Hostinger is the way forward for your self-hosted website, then we should chat, because like… they’re the best, and your business deserves the best. But if I have, and you’re ready to move forward now, GO CHECK OUT THEIR PACKAGES.

If you’re a small business owner, this offering from their hosting suites is what I would recommend you look into for your wordpress site. And if you have questions about your specific needs, let me know! I would love to answer any question you have, and help you get your small business website online quickly, and with the least stress possible!