Want to jump straight to the answer? The best cloud hosting company for most people is definitely Hostinger or HostGator.
Cloud web hosting may offer exactly what your business needs. Your data is spread across a network of servers, a cloud environment, instead of a single server.
It’s not for everyone, but the increased flexibility, scalability, and resilience makes it ideal for companies that need hosting resources on-demand. It’s a good choice for interactive sites, online stores, web apps, and IoT deployments.
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.
Best Cloud Hosting Services for 2021
- Hostinger – Most bang for your buck
- HostGator– Best cheap cloud web hosting
- Nexcess – Best cloud hosting for ecommerce sites
- DreamHost– Best cloud hosting for developers
- A2 Hosting – Fastest cloud web hosting
- InMotion – Best cloud hosting for small businesses
- SiteGround – Best cloud hosting for scaling resources
- Scala Hosting – Best cloud hosting for custom resource allocation
Read on for detailed reviews of each one to start comparing features and pricing.
Cloud hosting works a little differently than other popular types of hosting, such as shared hosting, VPS (virtual private server) hosting, or dedicated server hosting.
Each host does things a little differently as well. After the reviews is a short guide that will help you assess each cloud hosting option.
#1 – 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.
#2 – 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.
#3 – Nexcess — Best 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 tool I really like is 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:
Everything is tuned for online business. You’ll be set up for taking payments securely and all customer info is kept secure.
Traffic spikes? No problem. Nexcess cloud hosting lets you scale up for a limited period of time if you need. You’re not going to locked into paying for more than you need to handle the busy hours.
You’re also not spending time making sure that your website is up. Nexcess manages everything on the backend so you can concentrate on selling.
Set up your store with Nexcess cloud hosting today.
#4 – DreamHost — Best 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.
#5 – 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.
#6 – InMotion — Best 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.
#7 – SiteGround — Best for Scaling Resources
- Starts at $100.00/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:
Jump Start
- Starting at $100 per month
- 4 CPUs
- 8 GB of memory
- 40 GB of SSD space
- 5 TB of data transfer
Business Cloud
- Starting at $200 per month
- 8 CPUs
- 16 GB of memory
- 80 GB of SSD space
- 5 TB of data transfer
Business Plus Cloud
- Starting at $300 per month
- 12 CPUs
- 16 GB of memory
- 120 GB of SSD space
- 5 TB of data transfer
Super Power
- Starting at $400 per month
- 16 CPUs
- 20 GB of memory
- 160 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.
#8 – Scala Hosting — Best for Custom Resource Allocation
- Fully customizable VPS resources
- Generous maximums on CPUs, RAM, & storage
- Affordable at scale
- Flexibility to adjust on the fly
Scala Hosting offers cloud VPS for customers, bringing the granular management of VPS together with the flexibility and scalability of cloud hosting.
But Scala truly rises above the pack in terms of its customization. They’re one of the only hosting providers out there that lets you set a precise, custom set of resources before you even sign up.
That means you can make a bespoke hosting package with the perfect blend of memory, storage, and processing power you need.
Best of all, it’s super easy to do this. Right on Scala’s main cloud VPS page, you can move the sliders for each up and down to your heart’s content. Minimums and maximums depend on whether you choose Scala’s managed or self-managed options.
Scala managed cloud VPS:
- Starts at $25.95/month
- CPU cores: minimum of one, maximum of 24, $6/month per each additional core
- RAM: minimum of 2 GB, maximum of 128 GB, $2/month per each additional GB
- SSD storage: minimum of 50 GB, maximum of 2 TB, $2/month per each additional 10 GB
Scala self-managed cloud VPS:
- Starts at $26/month
- CPU cores: minimum of two, maximum of 24, $4/month per each additional core
- RAM: minimum of 8 GB, maximum of 64 GB, $1.50/month per each additional GB
- SSD storage: minimum of 80 GB, maximum of 2 TB, $1/month per each additional 10 GB
Either plan allows you a wide array of potential resource allocation options and Scala doesn’t really gouge you for adding more in any category. They don’t punish you for scaling to any extent.
You can also choose your preferred data center location, as well as your preferred control panel (on managed plans) or operating system (on self-managed plans).
So, Scala Hosting is an excellent option for anyone who knows exactly what they need from their hosting provider—especially if you know of a custom setup that would benefit your site but isn’t commonly offered by other providers (like if you just want blazing speed without a ton of storage space).
And pricing stays competitive despite all the customization you’re allowed. When you get up into the higher ranges of resources, Scala’s custom plans are more than competitive with top-of-the-line cloud hosting offerings from others—even outright beating them on both price and flexibility.
Get exactly what you need, scale freely, and reap the benefits of a precise combination of resources by going with Scala Hosting today.
What Is Cloud Hosting?
Typically, your site is hosted on a single server. It could be your own dedicated server, or maybe there are other tenants who share space on it.
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
If your hosting plan doesn’t deliver the best performance, then it’s a pretty crappy hosting plan.
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. 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.
Conclusion
Cloud web hosting is a great 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 since it can give you more resources, space, and performance power.
But all cloud hosting is made differently. The cloud hosting service you choose ultimately depends on you and your needs.
Here’s a recap of the cloud hosting reviews above:
- Hostinger – Most bang for your buck
- HostGator– Best cheap cloud web hosting
- Nexcess – Best cloud hosting for ecommerce sites
- DreamHost– Best cloud hosting for developers
- A2 Hosting – Fastest cloud web hosting
- InMotion – Best cloud hosting for small businesses
- SiteGround– Best cloud hosting for scaling resources
- Scala Hosting – Best cloud hosting for custom resource allocation
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