Want to jump straight to the answer? The best cloud hosting company for most people is definitely HostGator or Nexcess.
There are three main types of web hosting:
But there’s a new type of hosting that’s rapidly growing in popularity: Cloud hosting. And it can be the ideal hosting solution for your business.
So if you’re interested in learning more about this alternative type of hosting, you’ve come to the right place. I’ll explain exactly what cloud hosting is, how it works, and show you some of the best cloud web hosting providers on the market today according to our in-depth research. Use this to pick out the cloud hosting plan that best fits the needs of your website.
Let’s jump into the best cloud web hosting services to consider.
Best Cloud Hosting Services for 2021
- HostGator– Best cheap cloud web hosting
- Nexcess – Best cloud hosting for ecommerce sites
- DreamHost– Best cloud hosting for developers
- Hostinger – Most bang for your buck
- A2 Hosting – Fastest cloud web hosting
- InMotion – Best cloud hosting for small businesses
- SiteGround – Best cloud hosting for scaling resources
Read on for detailed reviews of each one to start comparing features and pricing.
HostGator – Best cheap cloud hosting
- Starts at $12.95/month
- $4.95/month if you pay annually
- Free domain and SSL certificate
- 45-day money back guarantee
HostGator offers some of the most cost-effective cloud hosting on the market today. They’re certainly the most affordable options on this list.
Let’s take a look at some the three basic cloud hosting plans offered by HostGator:
Hatchling Plan
- Starting at $4.95
- 2 CPUs
- 2 GB of memory
- Single domain
Baby Plan
- Starting at $6.57
- 4 CPUs
- 4 GB of memory
- Unlimited domains
Business Plan
- Starting at $9.95
- 6 CPUs
- 6 GB of memory
- Unlimited domains
These rates are for for 36-month contracts. They are 45% cheaper than the actual price, which you’ll end up paying when you renew your contract.
All HostGator cloud hosting plans come with a free SSL certificate. The Business plan comes with a dedicated IP, free SEO tools, and free domain as well.
Not only are they affordable, but they don’t sacrifice quality either. HostGator’s dashboard makes it easy for you to monitor the performance of your website. You can quickly view data related to page speed, uptime, reach, and more.
Scaling your server resources is simple as well. This can be done with just one click, without any downtime, reboots, or data migrations. Read more about their services in my full HostGator cloud hosting review.
Nexcess – Best cloud hosting for ecommerce sites
- Starts at $49.00/month
- Great for ecommerce sites
- 24/7 customer service
- Choose from 6 different plans
Nexcess is a web hosting solution brought to you by the good folks at Liquid Web. We’ve featured them before for their great hosting services, and Nexcess is no exception.
Their primary offerings are managed Magento, WooCommerce, and WordPress hosting (along with a few other CMS). That makes them perfect for ecommerce websites looking to grow.
But they also have a standout cloud hosting service too, that are great for scaling businesses. The specific plans vary depending on what your CMS is, they offer a wide variety of them.
That makes Nexcess perfect for growing businesses who plan to rapidly scale their growth—and are looking for a cloud host that will scale with them.
One stand out feature that they have is their Nexcess Cloud Accelerator. This is an additional layer in front of the cloud stack that boosts load times. That means your site will be nice and speedy for your customers.
They also have a dedicated support team on call 24/7 to help your business address any technical issues, or if you want to switch plans.
Here’s a look at the plans they offer:
DreamHost – Best cloud hosting for developer projects
- Starts at max $4.50/month
- 100 GB of block storage
- Free SSD & bandwidth
- Full root access & control
DreamHost has the easiest cloud setup in the industry. You can get your cloud servers live in less than 30 seconds. With that said, DreamHost cloud is best for developers.
They have server options that are made for databases, web apps, and running tests in addition to websites.
You can continue working the with DevOps tools that you’re already using. DreamHost also gives you full root access for complete control over your cloud servers.
The best part about DreamHost is that you only pay for what you actually use. You’ll get charged for resources on an hourly basis based on the size of your server.
- 512 MB of RAM Server — $0.0075 per hour (maximum $4.50 per month)
- 2 GB of RAM Server — $0.02 per hour (maximum $12 per month)
- 8 GB of RAM Server — $0.08 per hour (max $48 per month)
The 2 GB server is the recommended option for websites.
You will not be billed anything when you sign up. Instead, you’re billed based on your monthly usage.
The only area where DreamHost falls short that I found in my complete review of DreamHost web hosting services is their customer support. You can only contact customer service via email or live chat, which is only available for 16 hours daily. So if you prefer phone support or need help in the middle of the night, you’re out of luck until the morning.
Hostinger – Most bang for your buck
- Normally $29/month
- Month-to-month pricing
- Free domain and SSL certificate
- 30-day money back guarantee
Hostinger offers quality web hosting at competitively low prices.
In fact, the most affordable plan is currently $9.99 per month. Of course, that’s an annual rate. So expect it to jump up when you have to renew.
But it’s still one of the lowest prices for web hosting out there. Couple that with their 99.9% uptime guarantee and decently fast speeds, and you have yourself an excellent host.
One thing that really sets Hostinger out from the rest of the pack is their dedicated IP. Customers receive free dedicated IP with any of their cloud hosting plans—which is incredible.
Their hPanel dashboard is also very intuitive and user-friendly. Even if you’re new to using a dashboard like that, you’ll have no trouble getting the hang of it.
Full pricing is as follows. Overall, it’s a very lucrative cloud hosting plan that’ll give you the most bang for your buck.
A2 Hosting – Fastest cloud web hosting
- Starts at $5.00/month
- Up To 20X Faster Servers
- Managed & unmanaged options
- 30-day money back guarantee
A2 Hosting offers some of the fastest hosting services out there. Their cloud plans are no exception.
I like the A2 cloud options because the plans are fully customizable based on your needs.
Plans start at $5, $10, and $15 per month, respectively. But you only pay for the resources that you use based on how you configure your cloud servers.
If you want to have cPanel, it’s an extra $19.95 per month and not available with the lowest-tier pricing plan.
As I mention in my full review of A2 web hosting services they offer a 99.9% uptime promise as well as an anytime money-back guarantee. Although there are some contingencies to both, so make sure you read the fine print of your contract.
If customer support is important to you, then you’ll definitely be satisfied with A2’s 24/7/365 guru support team.
This cloud hosting provider is ideal for those of you who want unmanaged cloud hosting with lightning fast page loading speed.
InMotion – Best cloud hosting for small businesses
- Normally $64.99/month
- Free domain and SSL certificate
- Free launch assist service
- 90-day money back guarantee
InMotion offers some of the most understated cloud hosting services out there.
They have cloud hosting solutions for everyone.
- Small business cloud hosting
- Agency cloud hosting
- Application cloud hosting
- Enterprise cloud hosting plans
Altogether, InMotion has 10 different plans and pricing tiers for cloud hosting, which is the most I’ve seen offered by any provider.
For website owners, you’ll want to focus on the small business plans. InMotion makes it easy for you to scale your resources as your site grows I found in my complete review of InMotion hosting services.
You’ll also get a resource monitoring dashboard, free auto backups, rapid provisioning, and full snapshots of your servers. InMotion offers a free SSL and free cPanel license with all of its cloud business plans.
SiteGround – Best cloud hosting for scaling resources
- Starts at $80.00/month
- Guaranteed Resources
- Fully Managed Service
- 30 day money back guarantee
SiteGround cloud hosting is perfect for websites that have outgrown their shared plans.
These plans are fully managed. That means they take care of your account for you.
SiteGround handles the IT of your hosting. This allows you to focus on other areas of your website.
Add resources like RAM and CPU at any time with just one click in your admin settings.
One great feature: turning on auto-scaling. This automatically renders appropriate resources during times of unexpected traffic spikes.
With SiteGround, you can completely configure your own cloud and plan based on the resources you need. But here’s a look at their basic plans:
Entry Cloud
- Starting at $80 per month
- 2 CPUs
- 4 GB of memory
- 40 GB of SSD space
- 5 TB of data transfer
Business Cloud
- Starting at $120 per month
- 3 CPUs
- 6 GB of memory
- 60 GB of SSD space
- 5 TB of data transfer
Business Plus Cloud
- Starting at $160 per month
- 4 CPUs
- 8 GB of memory
- 80 GB of SSD space
- 5 TB of data transfer
Super Power
- Starting at $240 per month
- 8 CPUs
- 10 GB of memory
- 120 GB of SSD space
- 5 TB of data transfer
The Business or Business Plus plans should be more than enough resources for the majority of you, so that’s what I would recommend starting with. As your traffic rises, you can always scale as needed.
SiteGround provides advanced priority support to its cloud hosting clients.
You’ll also benefit from webmaster tools like a dedicated IP, free CDN, free SSL, daily backups, and a private DNS. Check out my in depth SiteGround web hosting review for more information about their overall services.
What Is Cloud Hosting?
“The cloud” typically refers to remote storage solutions. For example, you can store pictures from your smartphone or documents on your computer to a cloud storage space like Google Drive.
This is different than storing files locally on something like an external hard drive.
The same principles apply to cloud hosting.
With cloud hosting, your web host isn’t connected to one physical location. Your website resources are maintained across multiple virtual servers in the cloud.
Each cloud server is responsible for specific sets of tasks. If one of the servers in the cloud fails or goes down, the others will automatically pick up the slack to render those required resources.
Your website will continue to run smoothly with cloud hosting, even if there is a problem with one of the servers.
Your website will benefit from increased uptime rates and won’t be as susceptible to unplanned downtime.
With a singular server, you’re essentially putting all of your eggs in one basket. This is a huge risk when you’re dealing with something as important as your website.
In addition to fixing potential problems with one server, cloud hosting will keep your site stable, even as your traffic increases.
Cloud hosting is also extremely easy to set up. For those of you who want to start hosting on the cloud right away, it can be a faster deployment option than something like a dedicated server or shared server.
Who Is Cloud Hosting For?
Cloud web hosting is ideal for medium to larger-sized businesses and websites that are growing rapidly. Cloud web hosting allows businesses to scale rapidly. That’s great for growing businesses.
Most cloud hosting plans have flexible pricing options, meaning you’ll only pay for the resources that you’re actually using.
If you’re anticipating random traffic surges or a steady increase in website traffic in the coming years, then cloud hosting is the perfect option for you.
However, cloud web hosting isn’t right for every business.
For those of you who have a small personal website, small blog, or a micro-business, you probably don’t need to use cloud hosting if there is no growth coming in the future. A shared hosting plan is fine for those types of websites.
When you’re ready to grow your website, you should consider upgrading to a cloud hosting plan as opposed to a VPS. While a virtual private server will be able to deliver enough server resources, a cloud plan is usually more cost-effective.
Enterprise-level websites with the need to customize their server settings would benefit from a dedicated hosting plan rather than a cloud solution.
Any website with more than 50,000 monthly visitors is a viable candidate for cloud hosting. It’s the perfect option for larger websites that can’t afford to have any downtime.
How to Find the Best Cloud Hosting Plan For You
Not every cloud hosting plan is the same. Some hosting providers offer different features and benefits compared to others.
When you’re evaluating a cloud web host, these are the factors that you should take into consideration.
Scalable Resources
You need to make sure that you get a web hosting plan with enough bandwidth, storage, and disc space. To do this, you need to know how much traffic you’ll get. But new websites face a common dilemma when they’re looking for a hosting plan.
They have to decide if they want to get the highest possible bandwidth, even if they won’t come close to exceeding those limits. Or should they start with a lower bandwidth plan and upgrade as their traffic starts to increase?
Cloud hosting solves this dilemma.
Since your website is hosted on multiple servers, you won’t have to worry about exceeding bandwidth. If one server is maxed out, you can always pull resources from another.
Look for a cloud hosting plan that lets you easily manage and configure your server resources in-real time.
Here’s an example of what this looks like on HostGator Cloud, which is a provider that we reviewed earlier in this guide.
I’d recommend a cloud hosting plan that allows you to scale your server resources without needing any approval from the provider. This is something that can be managed from your admin dashboard.
Price
Most traditional hosting plans require you to pay a fixed monthly rate. You’ll be charged this amount even if you don’t use all of the resources on the server.
But cloud hosting is much more flexible in terms of pricing. So I’d look for a hosting provider that charges you based on the resources that you actually use.
Here’s an analogy. Let’s say you go to an all you can eat buffet, where the food options can also be purchased à la carte. The buffet price is $20 per person, which is the most you’ll have to pay, regardless of how much food you eat.
But if you only eat $10 worth of food, then wouldn’t it be nice to get $10 back?
That’s how some of the best cloud hosting plans are structured.
This relates back to our previous point about being able to scale your resources on demand. For example, let’s say you just built a bunch of new backlinks and you’re expecting a particular blog post on your website to go viral.
Rather than upgrading your entire plan (which you’d have to do with other types of web hosting) you can just increase the resources needed during that traffic spike and put everything back to normal when your traffic levels out.
In this case, you’d only pay for the actual server usage during the surge. Here’s an example of this pricing structure from another one of the providers on our list, DreamHost.
As you can see, pricing is based on usage. Each plan has a maximum monthly rate. Even the fine print at the bottom of the page states that you’ll only be billed for what you use.
So look for a hosting provider that offers a similar pricing structure.
Speed and Performance
Uptime rates, speed, and performance need to be a priority for every website owner. If your hosting plan doesn’t deliver the best performance, then it doesn’t matter how cool, new, or high-tech the solution is.
The majority of cloud hosting servers will increase the capacity of your website, which boosts your page loading speed.
Cloud hosting doesn’t put as much strain on a singular server, the same way it would if you had a shared, dedicated, or VPS plan. If your website has lots of resource-intensive data such as videos, images, and other media content, then cloud hosting is something that you need to take advantage of.
Look for a cloud hosting plan that delivers content from the nearest remote server. This will ensure that all of your loading times are as fast as possible.
At the end of the day, your website visitors don’t care what type of hosting plan you’re using. They just want your site to be responsive and load quickly.
By prioritizing things like uptime and loading speed with cloud hosting, your website will ultimately perform better from the user end.
Security
No matter what type of web hosting plan you have, security always needs to be a priority.
Fortunately, cloud hosting is known to be very safe. That’s because your website is isolated from any potential problems with a physical server. Everything is being handled remotely, which wouldn’t be the case if you were relying on a singular server that’s hosted locally.
If a local server was compromised, then your website would be at risk. Whereas if one server in your cloud network was hacked, failed, or had a system overload, your website would stay up and running without any downtime or delays.
Look for a web host that offers any additional security protection as an incentive with your cloud hosting plan.
Summary: Best Cloud Web Hosting Plans for 2021
Cloud web hosting is the perfect solution for growing websites. If your shared plan can no longer accommodate the needs of your site, then you should consider switching to a cloud solution.
So what’s the best cloud hosting provider? It depends on what you’re looking for.
Here’s a recap of the cloud hosting reviews above:
- HostGator– Best cheap cloud web hosting
- Nexcess – Best cloud hosting for ecommerce sites
- DreamHost– Best cloud hosting for developers
- Hostinger – Most bang for your buck
- A2 Hosting – Fastest cloud web hosting
- InMotion – Best cloud hosting for small businesses
- SiteGround– Best cloud hosting for scaling resources
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