The Best Web Hosting Provider For Fast And Safe Websites

There are many web hosting providers and their tariffs and services differ accordingly.

But what is really important when deciding which features do you need and what is important when your site is online?

After extensive comparisons over the years, SiteGround has emerged as the best web host for us.

But what makes SiteGround so special?

In short: SiteGround is cheap, offers all the essential features for an average website and shines with first-class support (but only in English).

Important in advance :

If a few more euros don’t hurt you, you can use a cloud hosting provider to maximize the speed and security of your website.

For WordPress, we clearly recommend Kinsta , as they not only specialize in WordPress and offer a perfectly coordinated service package, but also because the support here is simply great.

Another good and universal alternative is Cloudways . We are also accommodated here. Cloudways gives you a little more choices, such as choosing the cloud for your website. Another advantage is that you only pay for what you really need and use. This automatically optimizes your costs and allows you to add or remove certain options at any time.

The disadvantage of Cloudways is that you have to have more technical knowledge or should have a developer at your side in order to get the most out of your website. The support is also weaker in comparison than Kinsta and Siteground. On the other hand, the performance and flexibility of the services score points, which was ultimately decisive for us, as we don’t need much technical help anyway.

But now let’s come back to the best cheap variant, namely Siteground .

The “best web host” has to meet high standards

Every website needs a solid foundation to be successful. This includes the servers and technologies used , the services and features in the respective tariff, the loading times and availability of the page , as well as competent support . The company, which was founded in 2004 and has international server locations, performs very well as a web hosting provider in all respects.

It is also easy for users to put a page online according to their ideas and needs. Even the cheapest tariffs include an insane range of services. Depending on the requirements, this is an adequate solution even for small to medium-sized companies in e-commerce.

Safety is a priority

If a website is hacked, it is more than annoying – there are serious consequences if, for example, user data is spied on and possibly even misused.

SiteGround has set itself a high security standard in order to also come off as the best web host here. The provider’s own experts take care of uncovering weaknesses and preventing attacks. Popular software solutions such as WordPress, Joomla and other CMS are particularly popular with hackers and require continuous defense measures. An extremely elaborately developed firewall with ongoing security updates prevents this damage.

In terms of security, only the aforementioned cloud hosting providers are one step ahead. Kinsta even goes as far as to fix your website for you for free in case you should get hacked.

Modern technologies also ensure that a problematic page on the same server does not affect all other websites : Otherwise, all hosted web addresses on Google could be downgraded at once based on the origin server and e-mails could be categorized as spam. If a website is uncomfortably out of line, all other websites on the same server are protected from unpleasant, business-damaging consequences. This is by no means a matter of course for providers and distinguishes SiteGround among the best web hosts.

Technologies in transition

The internet is fast moving. New technologies are constantly being developed and standards are being updated. With its sophisticated algorithms and search engine optimization criteria, Google has a not inconsiderable say in this. For a web hosting provider, this means that it must always meet the latest technical requirements , because otherwise website operators often have no chance of meeting the requirements themselves and thus staying up to date.

Software updates must therefore be carried out constantly, errors corrected promptly and any new security gaps identified and closed immediately. Not every provider stays on the ball here – some are lagging behind by waiting for someone to provide a suitable solution. At SiteGround, we like the fact that they respond quickly. If necessary, innovative and professional solutions are simply developed internally. That also impresses us: If you want to be called the best web host, you always have to be one step ahead of others.

Know-how and continuity are important aspects, experience teaches us. SiteGround was one of the first providers to work with Linux containers . The company was proactive in securing account isolation and made a Let’s Encrypt SSL integration available to its customers at an early stage. Whenever there is something to develop, the web hosting provider seems enthusiastic and dedicated. We are looking in vain for outdated solutions, such as those that are often sold as inexpensive options.

Service and support

Perhaps you know that: There is some kind of problem and a quick solution must be found. You contact support. Depending on the web hosting provider, you will receive a response a few hours later, it often takes longer and you spend the waiting time with a ticket number and your own search for a solution. Every now and then a support forum is also available. Fast and personal support often does not seem to be included in the tariff . Here, too, SiteGround surprises with its quick response time and solution orientation.

There is a small drawback: Support is only available in English. However, it should be possible to overcome this hurdle, because there are several contact options available:

The support team can be reached by phone, live chat and via a ticket system – 24 hours a day, seven days a week . If you have limited English skills, you can quickly write down relevant error messages and take screenshots before describing the problem. The support team tries to provide clear help and, if necessary, quickly finds effective solutions for more complex problems, for example by looking directly at the configuration in the administration area or by making changes for you directly. This is of great help, especially if you are less familiar with certain areas.

time is money

Under certain circumstances, a quick response time can also save sales. Failures and errors always carry the risk that prospects and customers will drop out. We are therefore of the opinion that the title “best web host” can only be awarded to those who distinguish themselves through above-average support in the interests of the customer.

Time also plays a role when it comes to adapting the page to your own needs, making administrative settings and configurations, setting up e-mail addresses or databases, installing software and much more. In this regard, we were impressed by the SiteGround control panel , in which the desired configurations can be made intuitively. WordPress is installed, a backup performed or a desired feature activated with one click .

Our choice as the best web host is therefore still dependent on how easy or difficult it is for the user to get started with his website or to make configurations during operation. In this regard, SiteGround is characterized by a transparent, well-structured user interface in the admin area that lacks nothing in terms of functionality: You don’t have to click through the settings forever until you find the option you need. Here, too, basic knowledge of English is required, as the user interface is only available in English.

The best web host has to convince with uptime

Technology always has its pitfalls. A hardware defect leads to failures just as security gaps increase the susceptibility to errors and downtimes. For us, it is extremely important to assess how a web hosting provider guarantees the availability of its services or how high the average downtime is: If your website is not accessible or can only be accessed inadequately, visitors and customers will drop out.

SiteGround shines with an uptime of 99.99% . That means an average of only 53 minutes of downtime per year . Such availability must be guaranteed – otherwise a web hosting provider simply cannot be called the best web host. In this category, even the best-known providers find it difficult, so you should pay more attention to this. Consumers are often blinded by the numbers and think with an uptime of 99.80% that the uptime is “top” or only slightly worse than 99.99%. The fact is, at 99.80%, the average downtime is over 17 hours and 31 minutes a yearand is therefore worse by over 16 hours a year. In terms of reputational damage and possible loss of revenue, this is often a concern for companies.

Reviews of web hosting providers: Speed ​​is often neglected

Ranking lists of web hosting providers can be found in comparison portals and on test sites. Mostly well-known names appear as the best web host. Are those who invest in advertising and who offer an obviously low tariff automatically the best web host? We see it a little more critically. If a brand name appears less in advertisements, this does not mean that there is no investment in the quality of the product. When comparing tariffs, we as SEO experts often lack aspects that have a decisive influence on the success or failure of a site.

An example to illustrate this:

A tariff includes many gigabytes of web space. If this volume is higher than that of the competition at a low price, this is often seen as a plus point.

Hand on heart: how much memory do you actually need? In most cases, consumers have no sense of this and can therefore quickly be influenced by high numbers. In fact, most websites are scratching the 1 GB mark, so why pay for several 100 GB?

Accordingly, it should be much more important to be, how fast the hard disks of the providers work and not whether unlimited space is available, you’ll never use. Nowadays, the best speed can be guaranteed by SSDs.

Unfortunately, most web hosting providers shy away from this investment and prefer to speculate on the ignorance of the users and brag about a lot of storage space.

Last but not least:

What use is a cheap tariff with such a scope of services, which leads to the award as the best web host, if the speed leaves something to be desired or the uptime is below the average?

It is precisely these aspects that we often lack in online reviews of web hosting providers. However, these determine, among other things, extremely relevant criteria such as search engine ranking and length of stay . Both are the pillars of the success of a website.

If, instead, subordinate factors are used to evaluate the web hosting provider, in extreme cases you will have many features that you do not need to this extent, affect performance and availability and thus the chance of more sales:

The fact that such aspects are often not taken into account in comparisons by web hosting providers is possibly due to the somewhat more complex measurement methods. If we want to find out who comes off as the best web host in a comparison, we actually have to make the effort to use such details as basic criteria in addition to clear facts such as price and storage volume.

Studies analyze chances of success

A visitor finds your site. His first impression is the loading time – only then can he get an idea of ​​the website itself and your offer. However, if it takes too long to charge, it may not get that far. Speed ​​is therefore an important part of the user experience: Users expect a quick page load and already rate a split second of waiting time as a negative experience.

Now the loading time also depends on the programming, but not only. A slow server at the web hosting provider hinders all attempts to increase the performance of a page to the satisfaction of the users. Anyone who wants to be named the best web host must therefore take this aspect of the user experience into account in their data centers. This has several advantages for you:

Several studies have now looked at the relationship between loading times and the bounce rate. The results are amazing.

In 2018, SEMrush analyzed around 150,000 websites and found performance problems in a total of 82 percent . In the same year, a Pingdom study took place, which found an average loading time of 3.21 seconds .

The recommendation from Google is that two to three seconds should not be exceeded – so this average value is higher.

As Pingdom further announced, the bounce rate for websites with two seconds of loading time was around nine percent, with three seconds of loading time, the bounce rate rose to 38 percent . According to this result, 29 percent of the visitors are lost in a single second.

The result of a study by Amazon speaks a similar judgment. One second more loading time on the giant’s website would lead to annual sales losses of around 1.6 billion euros . Since the study is older, it can be assumed that these losses would now be more than twice as high.

Google rewards fast loading times

Since users obviously want fast loading times and otherwise lose interest in a website, it is hardly surprising that Google also rates those with good performance better. A Zedwoo study confirms a better ranking for pages with lower server response times . Google’s recommendation to pay attention to loading times between two and three seconds should therefore be taken seriously.

A better ranking leads to more visitors, while at the same time the average bounce rate drops and the chance of sales increases. Google has published its own meaningful statistics on mobile devices:

Performance varies with the web hosting provider

There are different ways with which you can measure the speed of your site, you can use the tool from Google or from Pingdom . Does it meet the expectations of users and therefore has a better chance of appearing at the top of the search results on Google? Is there room for improvement in terms of speed and availability?

Perhaps for these or similar reasons you are already considering switching to another web hosting provider . It is also possible that your website should only be launched and you are looking for a suitable provider. To do this, if you are using comparison sites to find out who is recommended as the best web host, you should take a close look at which tariff details are being compared .

If such information does not appear, if it is not specifically compared with one another or if important details are missing, we consider the listing of the best web hosts to be of little meaning. Functionality, security, performance, service, support and the technologies used are fundamental pillars of success that have a significant share in your sales opportunities.

SiteGround: The best web hosting provider in years

SiteGround is rarely named as the best web host because it is not a German provider and therefore hardly advertises in our room. As a result, only a few comparison sites become aware of the provider. In the international area and among the experts in German-speaking countries, Siteground has been a revolutionary web hosting provider with a reputation for years. It is not without reason that SiteGround is officially recommended by WordPress as one of only three web hosts .

As an SEO agency, we have now analyzed numerous websites and also tested many web hosting providers. At SiteGround, we noticed several criteria positively that contribute to the classification as the best web host.

Initially, the web hosting provider operates its own data centers worldwide with SSD storage spaces that are specially designed for high speed, including a high-tech data center in Amsterdam. In Germany in particular, this ensures that websites here and in Europe in general load very quickly. With this, customers are well served when it comes to the basic requirements of a good user experience. The use of modern, always up-to-date technologies also contributes to a particularly high speed.

Last but not least, the web hosting provider has developed its own caching systems that make popular CMS such as WordPress and Joomla up to five times faster .

When it comes to security , our best web host also scores positively – this is ensured by the commitment of internal solutions to possible security problems. SiteGround continues to demonstrate commitment and know-how in support: 24-hour availability , short response times and professional competence strive for rapid support. In this way, malfunctions and failures are kept as low as possible for the web hosting provider. This is also ensured by the uptime of 99.99% .

For us, this fulfills the essential requirements that a website needs to be successful. You can check which tariff is most suitable for you directly on the Siteground website . Depending on the size of your page, you will receive a certain selection of extra features. Special tariffs for larger companies with individual requirements as well as the most common solutions for WordPress, WooCommerce and cloud hosting round off the customer-friendly overall impression.

For smaller blogs and simple websites , the “StartUp” tariff is often sufficient and can be upgraded as required over time. For larger blogs or small and medium-sized companies , the “GrowBig” or “GoGeek” tariff is ideal , depending on the requirements . For larger companies, Siteground offers separate solutions with their own server and individual services.

Conclusion

The more carefully you check the conditions, tariff details and scope of services in advance, the better the chances of success for your website. A favorable tariff does not always mean an advantageous price-performance ratio. The mere fact that less than a second of loading time has a clearly positive or negative effect on sales is reason enough for us that only one provider can be described as the best web host. That is why our recommendation after many years of experience is: SiteGround – both for new websites and for a change.

If you want the best of the best or your website is already bigger, then you should definitely check out Kinsta’s cloud hosting for WordPress or Cloudways as an alternative for tech- savvy and non-WordPress users.