Ecommerce hosting services offer all the resources and tools you need to set up and run an online store. These services include shopping cart software, payment processing services, SSL, database support, and safe storage for digital content, such as the website’s code, graphics, audio, and text.
Many hosting services offer unique features and functionality. But hosting services go beyond providing 24/7 tech support, backup, and speed. Other available features are uptime monitoring, dedicated/shared hosting, security, and easy installation.
We have conducted a thorough study of the leading ecommerce hosting providers. We will review each in this article so you can select the best. We’ll also highlight the factors to look out for before investing in a hosting provider.
Key Points to Consider When Choosing/Key Takeaways
Before choosing a website ecommerce hosting provider, you must evaluate the features of each available one. The most important factors to consider when selecting the best ecommerce hosting provider are as follows:
- Performance: When creating an ecommerce site, your goal should be to select a fast and reliable hosting service. Your hosting plan must contain a CDN and feature speed and uptime tracking. In addition, they should be able to provide timely notifications if something goes wrong with your site.
- Auto-Scaling: Auto-scaling implies that the hosting infrastructure can accommodate all unforeseen spikes in traffic and demand. Ecommerce stores need this because of the traffic spikes during holidays and other times when sales are high.
- Security: Online stores are a goldmine for hackers looking to steal banking details, personal information, and other sensitive data. As the owner of an ecommerce store, you must guarantee your website’s safety. Therefore, the best ecommerce hosting company should offer comprehensive data encryption. This includes firewalls, SSL certificates, malware, and DDoS threat detection and tracking.
- Integration: The best ecommerce hosting provider should seamlessly integrate with your ecommerce platform and all the payment methods your audience demands.
- File Storage and Bandwidth: Ecommerce sites have a large amount of data and need sufficient storage space. Ensure to check for the bandwidth and file storage limit of the ecommerce hosting firm you choose.
The Best Ecommerce Hosting Services of 2024 (Bought and Tested)
- Overall score – 5.0
- Features – 5.0
- Support – 5.0
- User Friendly – 5.0
- Pricing – 4.9
- Reliability – 5.0
Overall score – 5.0: HostArmada is a new hosting service situated in the United States. In less than two years, it has been making waves in the industry. It offers feature-rich SSD cloud-based hosting packages.
Features – 5.0: The primary features include daily backups, free website migration, and few customers per server.
Support – 5.0: Like any other modern web host, you may contact HostArmada’s customer service department by phone, live chat, and ticketing 24/7. Additionally, it features a sizable knowledge base with a wide range of articles and instructions.
User Friendly – 5.0: HostArmada manages its servers with a custom interface and cPanel. The interface has a lot of functionality and simplicity. For more complex functions, use cPanel. HostArmada leverages KVM virtualization and assures 99.9% uptime with its cloud architecture and Redundant Storage replication. With this configuration, it is simple to hot-swap hardware (CPUs, RAM, and SSD storage), which lowers the possibility of a system failure. For all of its plans, HostArmada collaborates with recognized companies, including Cloudflare, LiteSpeed, JetApps, Intel, SpamExperts (for email protection), and Imunify360.
Pricing – 4.9: HostArmada is a mid-tier provider, with plans ranging from $2.99 per month. Although resources are limited, other aspects provide high value. For example, you can select to be billed once, twice, or three times a year. All programs include free domain registration and website transfer. In addition, HostArmada provides a generous 45-day money-back guarantee.
Reliability – 5.0: HostArmada offers various security features such as SSL certificates, malware detection, firewall protection, and Brute-Force attack prevention. It also provides daily off-server backups and a 1-click website restoration solution in the event of a website assault.
Additional Parameter – Cloud-Based Web Hosting Provider: When you buy a Cloud SSD Shared Hosting package from HostArmada, you will receive at least one free website transfer service. Following that, you’ll still have access to HostArmada’s Technical Support Assistance team for answers to your inquiries.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Easy to use dashboard with cPanel integration.
- Feature-rich
- Fast and can handle traffic incredibly well
- Speed
- Load management
- Excellent support
- Servers in nine data centers worldwide
- Good site builder
Cons
- Renewal prices are 3x the introductory prices.
- Only the most expensive plan offers LiteSpeed web servers.
- Overall score – 4.8
- Features – 4.8
- Support – 4.9
- User Friendly – 4.8
- Pricing – 4.7
- Reliability – 4.8
Overall score – 4.8: FastComet is a powerful host because of its impeccable uptime, extremely high speed, fantastic support, and an array of tools available to both rookie and professional webmasters. The cost is reasonable, and the value they deliver in return is worthwhile. Furthermore, this ecommerce hosting provider offers a comprehensive range of hosting features that help enterprises to expand effortlessly.
Features – 4.8: FastComet is one of the most excellent deals on the market. Most free domains are only available for a year. However, a domain registered with FastComet’s web hosting is available in perpetuity. Some top features of Fastcomet include a fixed renewal fee, daily backups, SSL certificate, and Cloudflare CDN.
Support – 4.9: FastComet provides excellent customer support by email tickets, 24/7 live chat, and phone. They also offer a vast knowledge base driven by the numerous articles on their site.
User Friendly – 4.8: FastComet’s user interface appears to be functional. But the design is not very appealing or up-to-date. Regardless of this, it comes across as simple and mobile-friendly. Beginners will not have a hard time navigating the platform, and experts will find more sophisticated features that match their skill level.
Pricing – 4.7: FastComet offers three major pricing plans: FastCloud, FastCloud Plus, and FastCloud Extra. You can enjoy the FastCloud hosting plan at $2.95 monthly. For this amount, you may host one website on 15 GB of storage space, 2 GB RAM, and two CPU cores. FastCloud Plus costs $4.95 monthly. With this, you may host as many sites as you like on 25 GB of space. Also, you have four CPU cores and 3GB of RAM at your fingertips. FastCloud Extra costs $9.95 monthly. Apart from the 35 GB storage limit, you get six CPU cores and 6 GB RAM. Varnish, LiteSpeed LSAPI, APC, OPcache, and Memcached are all pre-installed.
Reliability – 4.8: FastComet caters to startups and large corporations with ease. Customers report that this ecommerce hosting provider is prompt with their responses, and their servers are incredibly fast and trustworthy. Furthermore, there are no hidden costs or high renewal rates.
Additional Parameter – Top Ecommerce Hosting Provider: FastComet is an excellent value-for-money solution for your ecommerce hosting needs. It trumps its competitors in terms of performance, data centers, and load handling. FastComet is the hosting provider to choose if you want a hosting plan with significant discounts, even on a one-year plan.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Affordable pricing
- Free site migration for first timers
- Excellent speed
- Eleven data centers around the world
- In-house site builder with 40+ ready-made widgets and 350+ modern-designed themes
- Exceptional customer support
- A 45-day refund policy
- Good load handling
- Easy-to-use dashboard
- Fixed discount percentage
Cons
- No free domain
- No server locations available in South America and Africa
- Only seven days trial for VPS Cloud users
- Limited disk space
- Overall score – 4.7
- Features – 4.7
- Support – 4.7
- User Friendly – 4.7
- Pricing – 4.6
- Reliability – 4.7
Overall score – 4.7: A2 Hosting has continuously supplied best-in-class speed for many years. Plus, they have an enhanced server uptime, which is quite reliable. Furthermore, all shared plans include a free SSL certificate and site migration.
Features – 4.7: Turbo Servers from A2 Hosting provide up to 20 times quicker page load rates than conventional hosting. The Turbo option manages connections effectively. It also offers better reliability and speed by using less CPU and memory and having fewer users per server. In addition, A2 Hosting provides a cPanel plugin suited for the pre-configured cache, ranging from Turbo Cache and OPcache to Memcached.
Support – 4.7: A2 Hosting features unshakable and highly commended customer and tech support. It also has 24/7 network monitoring and a United States-based support team available all day. They also have a team committed to WordPress help.
User Friendly – 4.7: A2 Hosting’s user interface is user-friendly, making it ideal for professionals and newbies. Self-help videos and articles are available, as well as instant chat support for any issue.
Pricing – 4.5: The most basic plan is Lite at $2.99/month. The Drive plan costs $4.99/month, while the Turbo plan goes for $9.99/month. The company’s affordable price structure extends to its VPS, cloud, and dedicated server solutions. These will appeal to more seasoned clients who will recognize and appreciate the improved and modern hardware.
Reliability – 4.7: A2 Hosting founded its solutions on the assurance of reliable servers. The enhanced software and Turbo Servers make for quick page load times. These are up to 20 times faster than normal and have a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
Additional Parameter – Best Under-The-Radar Hosting Provider: Besides hosting services, A2 Hosting sells affordable domain names. For instance, a .com domain name costs $14.95 a year. Domain extensions available for purchase include .com, .info, .net, and.org. There are no country-specific TLDs accessible.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Super-fast loading time (286 ms)
- Free site migrations
- Compatible CMS
- Excellent uptime (99.99%)
- Green web hosting
- Quick customer support
Cons
- Domain name is not free
- Expensive short-term plans
- Restrictions on cheaper plans
- Overall score – 4.8
- Features – 4.8
- Support – 4.9
- User Friendly – 4.9
- Pricing – 4.7
- Reliability – 5.0
Overall score – 4.8: Kamatera is a global cloud service platform that offers enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure products to clients worldwide. Kamatera is an incredibly scalable, adaptable cloud service that can adjust to your demands. Its extensive cloud services range from web hosting servers to block storage. It comprises a private cloud network, load balancer, firewall, and managed services.
Features – 4.8: Using Kamatera will allow you to reduce the hours required for server setup. Here, it takes about five minutes. When there are threats to your website’s content, Kamatera checks your servers for any damage-causing objects and recovers your content when the need arises.
Support – 4.9: Kamatera uses the greatest gear throughout its 13 data centers to offer exceptional and consistent service around the clock. Because of the high quality of support, they have many satisfied clients.
User Friendly – 4.9: Do you have challenges finding a hosting service provider that will meet your demands? Kamatera may be the greatest cloud hosting option since it has an easy-to-use interface. Plus, it gives you a 30-day trial time to learn how to use it and determine whether it meets your needs.
Pricing – 4.7: The Kamatera cloud server’s customizable pricing mechanism is one of its main features. They have two price plans: Simple and Customized. The starting price for a simple plan is $4/month. It includes 1 Type-A vCPU, 20 GB SSD storage, 1 GB RAM, 1 TB internet traffic, and your choice of server location and operating system. On the other hand, you may customize the complete package to meet your server setup requirements. That implies you have total control over your server type, vCPU, RAM, SSD storage, internet traffic, number of public IP addresses, Operating System, OS add-ons, and data center. You may even choose between hourly and monthly rates. The base pricing for basic setups and resources is $4.00 per month or $0.005 per hour.
Reliability – 5.0: Kamatera takes pride in its extraordinary reliability and availability and guarantees a 99.99% uptime. It puts all its policies before you and conceals nothing regarding your plans or price.
Additional Parameter – Global Cloud Service Hosting Provider: Kamatera, powered by cutting-edge cloud computing technology, brings immediate and infinite scalability to the VPS hosting industry. Its global data centers are located in London, New York, Texas, Israel, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, and California. Each cloud or virtual server comes with SSD storage and Intel Xeon Platinum CPUs. The VPS host may guarantee greater availability rates than most rivals by employing a cloud network. Indeed, Kamatera’s services are backed by a 99.95% uptime guarantee.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- 13 global data centers with hundreds of server locations
- High level of flexibility
- Customization
- 30-day trial period
- Affordable plans
- Brilliant Customer Support
- Affordable VPS hosting options
Cons
- Not very user-friendly
- Aimed at more experienced users
- Daily backups may cost extra
- Self-help options need improvement
Ranking comparison between the Top Providers
Best Ecommerce Hosting Services: Final Recommendations
So far, we have analyzed the best ecommerce hosting providers to help you choose the right one for your online store. For your business to remain at the top, you need a speedy, reliable provider with strong support and functionality.
Our recommendation is FastComet with its unmatched performance, enterprise-grade security, top-notch customer service, and extensive selection of effective ecommerce solutions. FastComet makes it simple to establish your online presence. You can build the ecommerce site of your dreams with the help of its fully managed store builder services, making you stand out from the crowd.
How Do We Rank, And How Should You Choose Your Ecommerce Hosting?
It’s crucial to research and locate a hosting provider that provides the best services if you want your ecommerce website to succeed. However, not every host will offer the same features. So, getting your business up and running will depend heavily on the following factors:
- Your budget: The size of your budget greatly determines your choice of ecommerce hosting. Many ecommerce hosting providers have different pricing plans. Also, each plan contains its unique features.
- Customer support: We advise you to prioritize customer service. Ensure the supplier provides experienced technical assistance around the clock and via accessible channels. You may examine our expert evaluations and user reviews to see how crucial a host provider’s customer care is.
- Money-back guarantees: This may seem odd, but it is best to always look out for a robust refund policy. You may receive a refund if you are unsatisfied with the service during the trial period. With this, you can always test-run a hosting service to determine if it’s ideal for your business.
- Uptime: This is the number of hours a website can run. It is one of the essential factors we use to rank providers, as it will help determine their reliability. The industry standard for uptime is presented in percentages, and the best uptime for every website is 99.9%.
- Security: This cannot be overemphasized. Imagine your website is your primary source of revenue. How secure do you feel when it’s under a cyber attack? Hence, you must determine if the service offers an SSL certificate, backup and restore, and malware scanning.
- Features: Review its RAM, CPU, developer suites, cPanel licenses, SSL certification, security solutions, and bandwidth. If you are launching your website, look for a free domain, too.
- Ease of use: Dedicated servers are user-friendly for beginners, even with fully managed hosting choices. You don’t need technical know-how to use them well. To facilitate your workflow, most providers offer managed support and solutions, so you could go for managed dedicated hosting service.
Managed Vs. Unmanaged Ecommerce Hosting
With managed hosting, your hosting company will handle most of the server-related responsibilities. These often include managing servers, applications, and domains, automating backups, restoring patching servers, and maintaining security upgrades. The managed hosting provider you select may provide different specialized services.
In comparison, unmanaged hosting has the client in charge of running and maintaining their server. This covers setting up and configuring software, keeping track of system performance, and maintaining server security. As a result, unmanaged hosting is often less expensive than managed hosting, but setting up and running it needs more technical knowledge.
An unmanaged web hosting plan may be better if your website is basic. It may also suit you well if the site only needs a few extra features or customizations.
On the other hand, a managed web hosting package is a better option if you have a complicated website that needs extensive management over its server environment. Ultimately, assessing your unique requirements is critical to choose the appropriate web hosting package for your store.
What Is Ecommerce Hosting, And Who Is It For?
Ecommerce hosting targets companies engaged in electronic commerce, and it includes features specially created for customers who want to sell goods or services online. These features often enable shopping cart software, merchant accounts, payment gateways, and email management systems.
Most ecommerce web hosting functions the same as other types of web hosting. After paying for a service plan, the customer gets server space, internet bandwidth, and unique features. In a perfect scenario, an ecommerce hosting provider would give the client all the resources they need to set up and manage a web-based store.
In addition, an ecommerce business can be managed on many platforms. The most popular ones are shared and dedicated servers. Customers who choose shared hosting must share server space and services with other company clients. Often, the shared server is the cheaper choice for ecommerce web hosting, as everyone on the server splits the cost.
On the other hand, a firm that chooses a dedicated server has exclusive access to the hardware and its resources. This approach may offer greater security and dependability for an online business; hence, it is sometimes more expensive. Many firms choose managed solutions to relieve themselves of the responsibility of maintaining an entire server, which may be complex and labor-intensive.