The best web hosting services provide you with a secure and high-performance infrastructure for your website. But which one should you choose for your online course website? Here’s a quick look at some of our top choices.
Hostinger
Nexcess
BlueHost
WP Engine
A2Hosting
These are just a few of our recommendations for web hosting services, but read more to find out about some other excellent options for comparison.
How We Evaluate and Test Online Course Platforms & Related Software
Reviews of platforms and software on the Learning Revolution site are overseen by the site’s founder, Jeff Cobb, an e-learning industry expert with more than 20 years of experience working with online course platforms. All evaluations are conducted by a team of analysts who have extensive experience using, testing, and writing about these types of platforms. We dedicate numerous hours to researching each platform, ensuring each aligns with the needs of online course sellers, and vetting specific areas like core features, usability, pricing, and customer satisfaction. Our reviews are unbiased, and while we will participate in affiliate programs, if available, we do not accept payment for placement in our articles or links to external websites.
The best web hosting services provide you with a secure and high-performance infrastructure for your website and directly impact your site’s performance, user experience, and search engine rankings – all of which play an important role in growing your brand and business.
However, finding the right web hosting company isn’t easy with so many options out there.
For example, some services are cheaper and designed for beginners, some are optimized for high speed but cost a lot more, while others are fully managed by dedicated hosting professionals.
So, which one should you choose for your website?
In this article, we’ll share some of the best web hosting services and describe their strengths and weaknesses to help you make the right choice.
Let’s dive in.
What are the Best Web Hosting Companies For Creators?
We’ve handpicked the best web hosting services for online course creators, coaches, and beginner marketers in this article.
In addition, we’ve also mentioned several scalable managed hosting services that offer superior performance at a slightly higher price point.
Let’s discuss all of these options in detail and see which ones are right for you to compete in 2024 and beyond.
1. Hostinger
Hostinger has been around since 2004 but reinvented itself as one of the best web hosting services for beginners only a few years ago.
It offers multiple hosting types such as shared hosting, dedicated servers, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, and agency hosting.
However, WordPress hosting is its biggest strength making it one of the industry leaders in the shared web hosting space.
With Hostinger, you get affordable hosting plans that offer 100+ websites, 100GB SSD storage, highly secure servers, CDN integration, one-click installations, and free website domains.
However, its shared server speeds have gradually declined in the last couple of years, which is a cause for worry since server speeds impact a site’s search rankings and user experience.
According to Pingdom, a web-server performance monitoring tool, Hostinger’s average server response times (server speed) for July 2024 are:
Hostinger offers a neat and user-friendly backend interface where you can manage your domains, web hosting space, files, email accounts, FTP accounts, and lots of other options.
In early 2024, they launched their revamped AI website builder which can create websites based on user prompts.
You only need to describe your website to Hostinger’s AI website builder and choose a design template. It automatically generates your design and gives you the tools to create images and content for your website.
You can then customize your design using the website builder’s drag & drop elements and blocks.
Overall, if you’re looking for the best value for money in a shared web hosting service, Honstinger is a great choice.
Hostinger Key Features
- All-inclusive WordPress hosting
- Lightening fast server speed
- 99.9% uptime
- Multiple security layers
- SSD storage for faster speeds
Hostinger WordPress Hosting Plans And Pricing
Hostinger offers new customers a great deal, with a discount on monthly pricing. As of July 2024, new customers can get the following deals for a 48-month term:
- Premium – $2.99/month (most suitable for beginners)
- Business – $3.99/month
- Cloud Startup– $7.99/month
At the end of the introductory term, monthly pricing is as follows:
- Premium – $7.99
- Business: $13.99
- Cloud Startup: $24.99
All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Use the code LEARNREV when checking out at Hostinger and you will get 7% off all hosting plans for 12, 24, and 48 months.
Hostinger Pros And Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| World-class AI website builder | Low traffic limits for the beginner plan |
| Affordable hosting plans for beginner | Frequent complaints about its customer support |
| CDN integration | Slower server speeds than many competitors. |
| Free email, domain, and SSL |
Read our detailed Hostinger review to learn more.
2. BlueHost
BlueHost is among the most popular web hosting services used by thousands of beginners and experienced webmasters worldwide. It is also among the few web hosting companies officially endorsed by WordPress.
BlueHost is mainly popular because of its shared hosting plans that offer unlimited website storage, bandwidth, one-click WordPress installation, email accounts, an SSL certificate, and a free website domain.
In addition, BlueHost recently launched its WordPress website builder, which allows users to create eye-catching and fully responsive websites using a drag and drop interface.
BlueHost is mainly popular because of its shared hosting plans that offer unlimited website storage, bandwidth, one-click WordPress installation, email accounts, an SSL certificate, and a free website domain.
BlueHost also relaunched an improved version of their AI website builder in early 2024 that creates basic websites based on your prompts.
However, it’s only a good starting point, not a replacement for a fully functional WordPress site.
We run several websites on BlueHost and can vouch for its 99.99% Uptime claim. However, its shared hosting server response times aren’t great, which should be a consideration for high-traffic sites.
Here’s a quick snapshot of BlueHost’s server response in July 2024.
As you can see, the speeds aren’t impressive. But you can counter this by using BlueHost’s integration with Cloudflare, a leading content delivery network (CDN) that improves website performance and security.
BlueHost is ideal for beginners because of its affordable pricing and easy-to-use backend interface, specifically designed for non-technical users.
This is probably why most bloggers, content creators, freelancers, and beginner marketers choose BlueHost as their first web hosting service.
BlueHost Key Features
- Shared hosting server
- Unlimited website hosting
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Unlimited domains
- Unlimited emails
- 99.9% uptime
- Free SSL certificate
- One-click WordPress installation
- Website backup
- Domain privacy
BlueHost Shared Hosting Plans And Pricing
New users can get a deal on a 12-month plan:
- Basic – $2.95/month
- Plus – $5.45/month
- Choice Plus – $5.45/month
- Pro – $13.95/month
At the end of the 12-month term, the price renews at:
- Basic – $11.99/month
- Plus – $16.99/month
- Choice Plus – $21.99/month
- Pro – $28.99/month
BlueHost Pros And Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Affordable and beginner-friendly | Not ideal for high traffic websites |
| Excellent customer service with live chat support | Renewal pricing is quite expensive |
| Robust drag & drop website builder | |
| Reliable and secure servers with 99.9% uptime |
3. Hostgator
Hostgator is among the most established players in the website hosting industry. It’s generally considered a cheap web hosting service designed for beginners with low-traffic websites. However, it also offers advanced plans and dedicated hosting for sites that require more server resources.
But you don’t need to worry about these things if you’re starting your first website and looking to grow your online business since your site won’t need a lot of resources in the first few months.
Hostgator guarantees 99.9% server uptime, but its shared hosting’s server response times aren’t the most impressive (as you can see in its July 2024 performance).
With Hostgator, you get unlimited website storage, bandwidth, domains, and emails. Plus, you get a free domain name for the first year, along with several handy add-ons like Google Ad coupons, a site builder, and a free website transfer service.
Hostgator’s backend is a little outdated and not as user-friendly as some of the other services on this list. However, it comes packed with the necessary hosting and data management options for first-time website owners.
Overall, Hostgator is a pretty good option if you’re looking for a cheap hosting service without compromising on website performance.
Hostgator Key Features
- Secure and reliable shared hosting
- Free website migration service
- One-click WordPress installation
- Free domain for one year.
- Unlimited storage and bandwidth
Hostgator Pricing And MoneyBack Guarantee
Hostgator offers the following introductory plans:
- Hatchling Plan – $3.75/month
- Baby Plan – $4.50/month (most suitable for growing a new site)
- Business Plan – $6.25/month
All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Hostgator Pros And Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Cheap and affordable hosting service ideal for beginners | Not suitable for high-traffic sites |
| Reliable server uptime and security | Slow customer support |
| One-click WordPress installation | Outdated backend user interface |
4. A2 Hosting
If you’re looking for a high-performance web hosting service with lightning server speed and world-class security, A2Hosting is an excellent option.
Among the world’s fastest web hosting companies, it uses LiteSpeed servers to turbocharge website performance and provide up to 20x faster load times than regular services.
Pingdom’s July 2024 stats reading shows A2Hosting’s server response times are under 300 ms, the gold standard in website performance.
In addition, it offers 100% server up times even on its shared plans which is a big plus for smaller websites.
A2Hosting is specifically designed for high-traffic websites looking to sustain their performance during peak hours. However, as a web host, it is equally attractive to beginners and low-traffic site owners because of its affordable pricing plans.
A2Hosting offers shared, dedicated, and managed web hosting services with diverse plans for different end-users. All plans include one-click WordPress installation, the highest security standards, free site migration, and a money-back guarantee.
A2Hosting Key Features
- Unlimited bandwidth
- SSD storage
- Free domain name
- SSL Certificate
- Free site migration
- Linux and Windows support
A2Hosting Shared Hosting Pricing
New users can get an introductory rate. As of July 2024, the introductory rates for shared hosting are:
- Startup – $1.95/month
- Drive – $3.95/month
- Turbo Boost – $4.95/month
- Turbo Max – $13.95/month
These prices apply to 36-month plans and come with a money-back guarantee. They renew at the regular monthly price.
You can review all hosting plan pricing on A2Hosting’s website.
A2Hosting Pros And Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Lightening server response time | Its website builder is outdated and lacks modern AI features |
| Excellent data security features | Its renewal rates are quite high even for entry plans. |
| Timely customer support |
Read our detailed A2 Hosting review to learn more.
5. WP Engine
If you’re an established online business looking to scale by driving more traffic to your WordPress website, WPEngine might just be the web host you need.
WPEngine is regarded as one of the best WordPress hosting companies in the world. It not only offers world-class web hosting services but also fully manages your site’s back-end maintenance and security through a dedicated team of WordPress professionals.
It comes with unique features like Global Edge Security and easy Dev/Stage/Prod environments to enhance site management and testing.
With WPEngine, you get lightning server speeds, daily site backups, WordPress site-building tools, and hands-off site maintenance. As longtime users, we also appreciate its responsive customer support and the ease of managing updates and security
WPEngine is ideal web hosting for websites that are growing in traffic and brand authority. It strengthens website SEO and lowers bounce rates by providing optimal server speeds, SSL certificates, and world-class customer support.
For these reasons, we use WPEngine to host Learning Revolution and consider it among the very best web hosting services.
You only need to see our site’s performance metrics to understand why we’re such big fans.
However, if you’re starting your first site with a limited budget, WPEngine probably isn’t the right option.
It is more expensive than other providers and also limits certain SEO and performance management plugins. But overall, it is particularly suited for businesses that need reliable performance and robust security.
WPEngine Key Features
- Fully managed WordPress hosting
- Premium WordPress themes
- One-click staging
- Automated website migration
- WordPress server management
- 99.9% server uptime
- Website caching
WP Engine Pricing 2024
Wp Engine’s pricing is based on your website traffic, bandwidth, and storage, making it a highly scalable option. Here are the starting rates for each Essential plan.
- Startup Plan – $20/month
- Professional Plan – $40/month
- Growth Plan – $77/month
- Scale Plan – $194/month
- Core Hosting – $400/month
Large site owners can also contact WP Engine for a custom package.
All plans come with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
WP Engine Pros And Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Best in class WordPress managed hosting | Expensive for beginners and small websites |
| Lots of useful add-ons, plugins, and themes | Low traffic, storage, and bandwidth limits |
| Unpenetrable security | Only chat support for the basic plan |
| Dedicated customer support | Doesn’t allow several WordPress plugins due to compatibility and security issues. |
Read the complete WP Engine review here.
6. Kinsta
Kinsta is another established name in the WordPress web hosting industry. It is known for its lightning server speeds that can improve website performance and server response times from 20% to 200%.
It is powered by Google’s Cloud Platform, allowing you to choose from 29 different data centers worldwide to store your data closer to your physical location.
All Kinsta plans come with a free Cloudflare Enterprise account which means you get access to the world’s best CDN present in 200+ locations worldwide. Its propriety Kinsta CDN and Edge Caching significantly enhance website performance and improve SEO, user experience, and engagement.
Kinsta is an advanced web hosting service designed for websites with growing traffic numbers. So, if you’re looking to up your content marketing game to drive more traffic, Kinsta is an excellent choice.
However, if you’re on a tight budget or have a low-traffic site, you don’t need to invest in Kinsta yet.
Kinsta Key Features
- Up to 25K visitors and 10GB SSD storage for one website in the lowest tier plan
- Up to 50GB CDN
- Free Cloudflare Enterprise account
- LiteSpeed Servers
- Daily backups
- Malware and virus protection
- Staging area
- Free SSL certificates
Kinsta Pricing 2024
Kinsta has multiple pricing slabs based on your traffic and performance needs. Here are the starting rates for its main Managed WordPress subscription plans – pricing reflect a discount for annual payments.
- Starter – $30/month
- Pro – $59/month
- Business – $96/month
All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Kinsta Pros And Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Ideal WordPress hosting for established high-traffic sites | Expensive for beginners and small businesses |
| Google Cloud Platform and Cloudflare CDN support significantly improves server speeds. | Low storage limits |
| Multiple security layers to ensure data protection | The pricing plans and tiers need to be more flexible to accommodate client needs. |
| Dedicated customer support |
7. DreamHost
DreamHost used to be a market leader in the web hosting industry a few years ago.With more than 1.5 million customers, it’s still one of the big players.
But its inconsistent server uptimes and slow speeds make it a less attractive option for established website owners.
This is a significant drawback due to which DreamHost has lost considerable market share in the shared hosting space. DreamHost also guarantees 100% uptime for all its hosting plans. However, Pingdom’s monitoring shows that their claim isn’t always right.
However, for beginners, it’s still an affordable service worth considering.
DreamHost’s WordPress hosting plans include preinstalled WordPress, free SSL certificates, free domain, privacy protection, automated updates, and regular backups.
Its advanced SSD storage ensures that your website, database queries, and caching times are faster, providing an excellent user experience to your website visitors.
DreamHost Key Features
- WordPress optimized servers
- 100% in-house customer service
- Free email hosting
- Automated backups
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage
DreamHost Pricing 2024
DreamHost offers affordable shared hosting plans ideal for beginners with low-traffic sites. They provide special pricing for new customers:
- Starter – $2.59/month for 36 months
- Unlimited – $3.95/month for 36 months
All plans come with a generous 97-day money-back guarantee.
DreamHost Pros And Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Affordable hosting plans for beginners | Longer than usual downtimes in shared plans |
| Excellent customer service | Slow server response times for shared plans |
8. SiteGround
SiteGround is another leading web hosting service that provides premium performance at affordable rates, making it an attractive choice for beginners and low-traffic sites.
It’s among the few web hosting companies officially endorsed by WordPress, which adds to its credibility.
SiteGround’s managed WordPress hosting provides impressive server response times. It uses Nginx as a reverse proxy server, which works alongside other performance-enhancing technologies like its proprietary SuperCacher and Google Cloud infrastructure.
Every SiteGround website gets static and dynamic caching by default, increasing an average site’s speed by 500%.
Here’s a screenshot of SiteGround’s server response times in July 2024.
SiteGround preinstalls a performance optimization plugin for WordPress websites which gives you out-of-the-box media, front-end optimizations, and environmental control for more performance.
In addition, SiteGround offers free CDN integration, regular backups, and multiple server-end optimizations to ensure your site’s performance and security.
Overall, if you’re looking for a web host with the perfect mix of performance and value, SiteGround should be at the top of your list.
SiteGround Features
- Unlimited traffic
- Free website migration
- Free WordPress installation and backups
- SSL certificates
- SSD Storage
- eCommerce enabled
SiteGround Pricing
- Startup – $2.99/month
- GrowBig – $4.99/month (best value for money)
- GoGeek – $7.99/month
All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee
SiteGround Pros And Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Robust hosting features and affordable pricing provides excellent value for money | Not ideal for advanced users with higher traffic requirements |
| Fast server response time | The renewal pricing is a bit expensive |
| 100% uptime | |
| 24/7 customer support |
9. ScalaHosting
ScalaHosting is a cloud-based VPS that provides world-class data security and excellent server performance making it an attractive choice for beginners and advanced users alike.
It is among the most popular cloud-based web hosting services, with data centers across the US and EU hosting 700K+ websites and 55K+ customers worldwide.
ScalaHosting’s next-generation SPanel control panel is designed specifically for cloud VPS users and provides easy access to all account management tools and features. However, you can opt for the traditional cPanel for an additional price.
Its lowest tier plan offers up to 50GB SSD storage, 2 CPU cores, 4GB RAM, and unlimited bandwidth. These resources provide you impressive server response speed of under 500ms and 100% uptime.
ScalaHosting’s pricing plans are more expensive than shared hosting services, but they allow you to adjust the pricing according to your site’s needs.
ScalaHosting Key Features
- Fully managed cloud storage
- One-click WordPress installation
- Free site migration
- Flexible pricing plans
- One free site backup
ScalaHosting Web Hosting Intro Pricing 2024
- Mini – $2.95/month for 1 year
- Start – $5.95/month for 1 year
- Advanced – $9.95/month for 1 year
- Entry Cloud – $14.95/month for 1 year
All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.View updated pricing plans here.
ScalaHosting Pros And Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Extremely secure shared and managed cloud hosting | Expensive plans for beginners |
| High-performance servers well-positioned to handle high-traffic sites | Not suitable for low traffic sites |
| 24/7/365 professional customer support | Only one website in its lowest tier plan |
| 100% server uptime |
10. Ionos
Ionos is another popular shared web hosting service you can use to build a WordPress site for your online course business.
It stands out because of its affordable pricing plans and beginner-friendly features. It is also among the few web hosting companies that have gone all in on generative AI features.
For example, its AI website builder generates a complete site design based on your prompts. Similarly, it has text and image creation features to help you create your site’s content yourself.
For example, its AI website builder generates a complete site design based on your prompts. Similarly, it has text and image creation features to help you create your site’s content yourself.
You also get unlimited bandwidth, uncapped traffic, email accounts, cPanel, and other standard web hosting tools you’d expect from a web hosting company.
However, the response times of Ionos’s shared servers aren’t very impressive. Pingdom’s July 2024 tracking data shows that Ionos servers take more than 700 ms to respond.
Still, if you’re on a tight budget and looking to start a new website that doesn’t have any traffic, Ionos can still be a good option to consider.
Ionos Key Features
- Shared WordPress web hosting
- One-click WordPress installation
- Site backups
- 99.99% uptime
- Free domain name for the first 12 months
Ionos Pricing (Introductory Pricing for 36-month Plan)
- Start – $4/month
- Grow – $5/month
- Boost – $8/month
All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee
View updated pricing plans here.
Ionos Pros And Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Cheap and affordable hosting for beginners | Slow server response times compared to other shared hosting services |
| One-click WordPress installation | Significantly higher renewal prices |
| Unlimited storage, traffic, bandwidth, and emails | The customer support is slow and unresponsive |
| 100% server uptime |
11. Nexcess
Nexcess is a leading provider of managed WordPress web hosting services to over 500K websites worldwide. It specializes in eCommerce hosting but also works perfectly for regular WordPress sites.
Nexcess is owned by Liquid Web, a leading web hosting services company known for its high server speeds. This is why Nexcess provides under 300ms server response times which are among the best in the industry.
With Nexcess, you get a completely hands-off hosting solution where a dedicated team of professionals handles your website’s admin and server management tasks.
You also get one-click WordPress installation, daily site backups, free domain, email accounts, eCommerce integrations, and many other valuable features.
However, it’s an expensive option, and using it only makes sense if you have a high-traffic site that needs better hosting infrastructure.
Nexcess Key Features
- Premium WordPress plugins and themes with every installation
- Daily backups
- Visual regression testing
- Free SSL certificates
- iThemes Security Pro
- Nexcess CDN
Nexcess Introductory Pricing:
Here are the monthly costs for the first three months of each plan after which the rates increase.
- Spark – $8/month
- Spark+ – $17/month
- Maker – $34/month
- Designer – $48/month
- Builder – $65/month
- Producer – $131/month
- Executive – $240/month
- Enterprise – $438/month
All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Nexcess Pros And Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Fully managed WordPress hosting | Expensive for beginners and low traffic sites |
| Multiple advanced security layers | The prices in all subscription plans increase dramatically after the first three months. |
| Lightening fast server response time | |
| 24/7 dedicated customer support |
Read our detailed Nexcess review to learn more.
Which Web Hosting Company Is Best For You?
We’ve shared some of the best web hosting services that you can use to host, manage, and grow your online course website. However, singling out a company as the best choice isn’t possible without fully understanding your business needs.
So, we’ll share my recommendations for the best web hosting companies for different scenarios.
- Hostinger – The best value for money in shared hosting
- Nexcess – Best for high-traffic sites
- BlueHost – The most beginner-friendly
- WPEngine – Best for businesses focused on growth
- A2 Hosting – Fastest with lightning server speed
Hopefully, this will make your choice easier.
Let us know if you have any questions about this article in the comments section.
Jeff Cobb, Founder of Learning Revolution
Jeff Cobb is an expert in online education and the business of adult lifelong learning. Over the past 20+ years he has built a thriving career based on that expertise – as an entrepreneur, a consultant, an author, and a speaker. Learning Revolution is a place where Jeff curates tips, insights, and resources to help you build a thriving expertise-based business. Learn more about Jeff Cobb here.