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Without a doubt, website owners must prioritize website security. Without proper protection, your website is vulnerable to hackers, online viruses, and malicious bots. You could lose your website data and even put your web visitors in danger. To avoid all these, you need to select a secure web hosting provider.
When choosing a provider, consider basic security features such as SSL, DDoS mitigation, automatic backups, and server firewalls. You should also look for advanced features such as malware scans, round-the-clock server monitoring, and domain privacy.
This article will show you the best secured web hosting providers that perform excellently in various areas, such as pricing, customer support, and website performance.
Here Are The Top Secured Hosting Providers
- HostArmada – Best Secured Hosting Provider Overall
- Hostinger – Best Secured Hosting Provider for Budget Prices
- FastComet – Best Secured Hosting Provider for Cost-Effective Managed Hosting
- Kamatera – Best Secured Hosting Provider for VPS Hosting
- Verpex Hosting – Best Secured Hosting Provider for Beginners
- A2 Hosting – Best Secured Hosting Provider for Small-to-Medium Business Sites
- InterServer – Best Secured Hosting Provider for Simplicity and Affordability
- IONOS – Best Secured Hosting Provider for WordPress Sites
- Ultahost – Best Secured Hosting Provider for NVMe SSD Hosting
The Best Secured Hosting Providers of 2024 (Bought and Tested)
HostArmada is a top-tier web hosting provider and domain registrar. They have a wide range of hosting solutions, including shared hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, reseller hosting, and dedicated servers. All their plans come with 24/7 customer support and run on cloud servers. They also offer fast-performance servers in nine data center locations across North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia-Pacific.
- Overall score – 4.9
- Features – 4.9
- Support – 4.9
- User-Friendly – 4.8
- Pricing – 4.7
- Reliability – 5
Features: All their hosting plans have free security features: SSL certificates, regular backups, anti-DDoS protection, malware scanning and removal, proactive server monitoring, and WAF and network firewall. Other features include SSD storage, cPanel, SSH access, free domain for the first year, free website migration, user account isolation, and free website optimization (on demand).
Support: HostArmada offers 24/7/365 customer technical support powered by their response, fact, and precise support staff. All customers get premium support regardless of their hosting plan or the complexity of their hosting issues. The support communication channels are phone, live chat, and the ticketing system. They also offer free website analysis and optimization for the best web hosting experience.
User-friendly: All HostArmada plans are easy to use, but the shared hosting plans are the most beginner-friendly. The web host also offers support services such as website migration, application installation, and DNS management to make your hosting experience easy and pleasant. You can also request assistance from the support team to help you with all web hosting issues, including security.
Pricing: HostArmada offers three shared hosting plans: Start Dock, Web Warp, and Speed Reaper. The Start Dock starts at $2.49/mo for a three-year plan and renews at $9.95/mo. This plan offers one website hosting, 15 GB SSD storage, 2 CPUs, 2 GB RAM, free domain registration for the first year, free SSL, daily backups, malware scan and removal, and WAF & IP Firewall.
Reliability: HostAramda offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee on all plans. They also combine modern technology and fast servers to offer fast website loading speeds. These technologies include their intelligent Cloud architecture on SSD servers and the LiteSpeed Caching plugin for lightning speed. Other technologies include the Memcached on-demand caching and free Cloudflare CDN service to boost content delivery.
Additional Parameter: Best Overall Secured Hosting Provider: HostArmada is our best web host for website security due to its world-class security efforts and tools. These tools include the web server security fleet that secures your website at the server level and the environment security fleet that ensures threats on one user account do not spread to another client’s accounts.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- State-of-the-art security tools and technologies
- Super fast server performance powered by cloud servers
- Fast, responsive, and helpful 24/7 customer support
- Lots of free hosting and security features on all plans
- Mouthwatering discounts if you sign up for longer-term contracts
Cons
- LiteSpeed is only available on the highest shared hosting plan
Hostinger is an all-time favorite for getting reliable web hosting at an affordable cost. At first glance, the web host’s low prices might seem suspicious, but there is nothing to worry about. Hostinger packs a lot of security features and other hosting essentials in all their plans, including the entry plans. The company also offers domain registration and a drag-and-drop website builder.
- Overall score – 4.5
- Features – 4.5
- Support – 4.5
- User-Friendly – 4.5
- Pricing – 4.5
- Reliability – 4.5
Features: Hostinger offers many features in the security department: a free SSL certificate, Cloudflare DNS firewall, two-factor authentication, automated backups, SpamAssassin, Patchstack WordPress security, in-house developed WAF, Hostinger internal server security, Bitninja, and Bastion servers.
Support: Get round-the-clock support on all Hostinger plans. The 24/7 support agents are available via live chat. The web host also offers step-by-step video walkthroughs and guides to help you get started in no time. If you run into issues, you can check the vast knowledge base of in-depth tutorials for insights on resolving them.
User-friendly: Hostinger offers user-friendly hosting solutions, a fantastic customer experience, and effortless migration. They provide an intuitive hosting dashboard for beginners, and their hosting solutions are pre-configured for performance. You can get by even if you have no web hosting experience.
Pricing: Hostinger offers three shared hosting plans: Single ($1.99/mo), Premium ($2.99/mo), and Business ($3.99/mo). The single plan renews at $3.99/mo and offers hosting for one website, 50 GB SSD storage, one email account, 100 GB bandwidth, unlimited SSL, and Cloudflare protected nameservers.
Reliability: Hostinger is a very dependable and reasonably fast performance. The provider offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee but, in reality, provides a perfect 100% uptime over a long testing period. Their website loading speed is also below the market’s average of 600ms. They offer four data center locations (USA, Netherlands, Lithuania, and Singapore), so you can choose the one closest to your audience for faster loading speeds.
Additional Parameter: Affordability: Hostinger is a perfect choice for small businesses and individuals who want to build a solid online presence without breaking the bank. Their hosting plans offer so many features to give you the best bargain. For instance, the Premium plan offers unlimited bandwidth and 100 GB SSD storage for only $2.99/mo. You also get security features such as Cloudflare DNS and unlimited SSL certificates.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Unlimited bandwidth and databases on most plans
- Robust security features such as Cloudflare-protected DNS servers and SSL certificates
- Daily and weekly backups
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Support for 15 languages
Cons
- Most features are not available on the entry plan
FastComet started operations in 2013 and has become one of the few independent web hosting companies in the industry. They offer a wide selection of fully-managed hosting projects, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers. They also offer domain registration, SSL certificates, and a website builder. All their managed plans come with many security features and other hosting essentials.
- Overall score – 4.6
- Features – 4.8
- Support – 4.5
- User-Friendly – 4.6
- Pricing – 4.5
- Reliability – 4.7
Features: FastComet offers its in-house security suite, FastGuard. This suite offers defense from malicious actors, botnet attacks, spam, and other threats. Other security features include 2FA support, account isolation, and daily backups with a point-and-click restore manager.
Support: You get 24/7 technical support on all plans. The support staff typically resolves web hosting issues in less than 15 minutes and uses three escalation levels to ensure you get help from the right person. Their support services include hardware upgrades and replacement, OS installation and configuration, and security updates and patching.
User-friendly: The FastComet hosting platform has a simple interface and offers easy-to-use yet powerful tools. You can manage and optimize your hosting areas with a few clicks on your desktop computer or smartphone. You can request support, manage billing invoices, and manage your accounts, products, and domains from the client area.
Pricing: There are three shared hosting plans to choose from. All plans come with SSD storage and cPanel. FastCloud (the cheapest option) costs $2.49/mo and renews at $9.95/mo. This plan hosts one website and offers free website and domain transfer, cPanel & Softaculous, and 15 GB SSD storage. All plans come with a 45-day money-back guarantee.
Reliability: You get outstanding performance and fast page load times thanks to FastComet’s optimized hosting infrastructure. AMD EPYC and NVMe SSDs power their hardware to deliver faster queries and page loading. They also offer 11 data centers worldwide, so you can deliver content from a server closest to your target audience.
Additional Parameter: Cost-Effective Managed Hosting Solution: FastComet is a preferred option amongst many managed web hosts due to its many features. The web host offers free support on various issues and provides enterprise-grade features on even its lowest plans. All these features come at very affordable fees.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- 24/7 comprehensive customer support
- Easy-to-use control panel and client area
- 11 data centers in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia
- 99.9% network uptime commitment
- FastGuard Hosting Security available on all plans
Cons
- No free domain name on any of the plans
Kamatera is a leading cloud service provider specializing in cloud hosting infrastructure and managed cloud servers. They offer fully customizable hosting plans at affordable fees and maintain 18 data centers across North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Australia, and Israel. Their cloud hosting products include VPS, dedicated servers, private cloud networks, and load balancers. Other services are fully managed cloud servers, firewalls, and block storage.
- Overall score – 4.9
- Features – 5
- Support – 5
- User-Friendly – 4.5
- Pricing – 5
- Reliability – 5
Features: Kamatera’s primary security offering is the cloud firewall, which protects your network infrastructure from unwanted traffic. You can use this cloud firewall on your servers and private network to protect against DDoS attacks, viruses, code injection, and suspicious traffic. Other web hosting features include instant server setup, unlimited email, and instant scaling.
Support: All Kamatera hosting plans come with 24/7 customer support and fast response times. However, the specific level of support you can expect depends on your hosting plan. The managed service offers complete support for all hosting issues for free. The VPS plan offers only technical support. The support team offers 24/7 proactive server monitoring to keep your server running.
User-friendly: Kamereta offers a user-friendly hosting platform for developers and enterprises. As such, beginners may only be able to use their services if they go for the fully managed service. Developers will love the complete flexibility, instant availability, and other add-ons designed to improve website functionality and performance.
Pricing: Kamatera allows you to pay for only the services you need. The primary cloud VPS plan starts at $4 per month and goes up to over $3,000 per month. This plan offers 1 GB RAM, one vCPU, and 20 GB SSD storage. The managed cloud services cost $50 per month for each server. You also get a 30-day trial period to use the service for free.
Reliability: You get stable and fast performance and a 99.95% uptime guarantee from Kamatera. The web host has multiple data center locations worldwide to deliver unparalleled website speed to clients. You also get excellent web delivery thanks to the company’s premium network equipment, high internet connectivity, and top-tier cloud hosting infrastructure.
Additional Parameter: VPS Hosting: Kamatera offers secure, stable, and cost-effective VPS hosting solutions. You can pay hourly or monthly and cancel the plan at any time. The plan comes with instant availability, 24/7 technical support, and a wide range of customization options. The plan also includes advanced cybersecurity features and backup and restoration services. They also offer server management service at extra cost.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- 30-day free trial period
- Flexible payment options with any-day cancellation
- Fully customizable VPS and dedicated hosting solutions
- 99.95% uptime guarantee on all plans
- 18 data centers located in North America, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe
Cons
- No shared hosting options
Verpex is a web hosting provider and domain registrar that offers cheap, reliable hosting for beginners, small and medium businesses, and resellers. Founded in 2018, the company is relatively new in the web hosting industry but now operates in three countries worldwide. All their plans come with superfast server performance, expert technical support, and low fees. They also offer top-tier security solutions and policies to safeguard their servers and client websites.
- Overall score – 4.8
- Features – 4.8
- Support – 4.7
- User-Friendly – 4.7
- Pricing – 5
- Reliability – 4.8
Features: Verpex uses a wide range of security solutions and strong policies to keep their systems and your website under lock and key. These solutions include Imunify360 to protect against malware and viruses, an automatic Let’s Encrypt or Comodo SSL certificate for secure data transfer, and Jetbackup to manage your daily backups. Other hosting features include a free domain for the first year, cPanel, and free website migration.
Support: The web host offers 24/7 phone and live chat support. The support teams are located in London, Sofia, and Bali and are ready to help you with any questions or queries. Verpex doesn’t offer tiered support, so all customers get the same access to high-quality assistance when needed.
User-friendly: Verpex begins to assist you when you sign up for any of its plans. They offer free domain registration for new websites and free website migration for existing sites. They also provide website optimizations to ensure your website runs optimally. If you require dedicated support, go for the managed plan. This plan takes all server management off your hands.
Pricing: There are four web cloud hosting plans: Iron, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. The Iron plan offers the lowest fees. It begins at $0.99/month and renews at $1.66/mo. This plan hosts one website and offers 10 GB bandwidth, 1 GB NVMe storage, free domain registration/transfer, free SSL certificate, website migration, daily backups, LiteSpeed web server, and cPanel control panel. All web cloud hosting plans come with a 45-day money-back guarantee.
Reliability: Verpex offers a fully-managed hosting environment to ensure fast and stable website performance. They deploy an optimized software stack with a mix of in-house technology and third-party tools such as cPanel, CloudLinux, Imunify360, and JetBackup. They combine data centers provided by global cloud providers with their in-house optimizations to create the best-managed hosting environment.
Additional Parameter: Beginner–Friendly: Verpex’s low prices, guaranteed security solutions, and easy-to-use hosting plans make it a perfect web hosting provider for beginners. They also offer fully-managed WordPress hosting plans for those who want the best performance without needing to configure or maintain their hosting environment.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- 24/7 live chat and phone customer support
- 45-day money-back guarantee on all plans
- Unlimited free migrations and free SSL certificates
- Fully-managed server service available on demand
- Easy-to-use drag-and-drop website builder
Cons
- Small storage space in the cheapest plan
A2 Hosting is famous for its low prices, fast performance, and excellent security tools. It offers a wide range of hosting products, from shared hosting to dedicated servers. All its hosting plans come with basic security like SSL certificates, and advanced tools, such as server hardening. Its low price, excellent support, and ease of use make it a great choice for SMBs and growing businesses.
- Overall score – 4.7
- Features – 4.8
- Support – 4.5
- User-Friendly – 5
- Pricing – 4.5
- Reliability – 4.7
Features: A2 Hosting offers automatic backups, free SSL certificates, anti-DDoS protection, and two-factor authentication. Other advanced features are HackScan malware protection, Patchman enhanced security tool, dual firewall, auto-heal protection, virus scanning, and an additional dedicated IP.
Support: All customers have 24/7 access to the A2 Hosting Guru Crew support via live chat, phone, email, and ticketing system. The support staff is always ready to provide technical support to all customers. You should check out their managed WordPress, VPS, or bare metal plans if you need full hosting support.
User-friendly: A2 Hosting plans are beginner-friendly, particularly their shared and WordPress plans. However, those who are too busy or lack the skills to manage their hosting plans should get the managed plans. These plans offer complete server-side configuration and ongoing maintenance for optimal website hosting performance.
Pricing: A2 Hosting offers four shared hosting plans. The most affordable option (Startup) starts at $2.99 and renews at $9.99 monthly for a 12-month plan. This plan offers hosting for a single website, 100 GB SSD storage, free website migration, unlimited email accounts, unlimited data transfer, cPanel, free SSL certificate, and website builder.
Reliability: The web host offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee but surpasses this during live tests. They also offer faster loading speeds than most providers, even without using the Turbo server. You can also experience better performance using a data center closest to your audience. The web host’s data centers are in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Additional Parameter: Hosting for Small and Medium Businesses: A2 Hosting offers reliable hosting solutions at affordable prices. Its plans come with many features and 24/7 customer support and are very easy to use. They are great for small and medium businesses looking to establish their online presence at a reasonable cost. The web host also offers e-commerce hosting for online brands.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Affordable plans with fabulous discounts upon sign up
- Offers many basic and advanced security features
- Reliable performance with a 99.9% uptime guarantee
- 24/7 live chat, email, phone, and ticket support
- Quick and easy setup
Cons
- The entry plan is limited in terms of features
InterServer offers simple-to-use hosting solutions. Their shared hosting is an excellent recommendation for anyone looking for a simple hosting solution to host their website site. The same applies to the rest of their hosting solutions. However, InterServer stands out due to its helpful security tools and measures. Even the shared hosting plan comes with top-tier security measures to protect your website and visitors.
- Overall score – 4.6
- Features – 4.8
- Support – 4.5
- User-Friendly – 4.6
- Pricing – 4.5
- Reliability – 4.7
Features: All the basic security features, such as automated backups, SSL certificates, 2FA login, and email spam filtering, are available on all plans. Advanced security features include file scanning and monitoring, a web application firewall, an in-house malware database, an inter-Insurance recovery package, and Imunify360. They also offer DDoS protection for the VPS and dedicated servers.
Support: InterServer offers a 24/7 dedicated support team to provide swift assistance when you need it. You can contact the epic support team via phone, the ticket system, or live chat. You may also get a response by chatting with the support staff via Facebook.
User-friendly: InterServer offers easy-to-use features and excellent technical support to get a great web hosting experience. They also support many control panels, such as cPanel, CloudLinux, DirectAdmin, and Plesk. They also support popular CMS and languages such as WordPress, PHP, Rails, Perls, and Python.
Pricing: The shared hosting plan starts at $2.50 per month. This plan offers SSD storage, unlimited email accounts, Intershield protection, free website migration, one-click installs and SSL certificates, website builder, and support for over 450+ cloud apps. You also get a 30-day money-back guarantee if you change your mind.
Reliability: InterServer offers above-average server performance and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. The overall web loading speed is better than the market average of 600ms. Since InterServer has data centers exclusively in the United States, you get the best speed results if you target audiences in North America.
Additional Parameter: Simplicity and Affordability: InterServer is a simple web hosting provider for those with simple needs. It doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, but it gets the job done at reasonable prices. It offers an easy-to-use cPanel, reliable performance, instant upgrades, 24/7 support, free website migration, and solid security features.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Unlimited SSD storage for ultra-fast read/write time
- InterShield security and Inter-Insurance included for free
- Easy-to-use control panel with 24/7 support
- Free website migration service
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- DDoS protection is not available with shared hosting.
IONOS is a reliable cloud hosting provider and a domain registrar. They are famous for domain and hosting offerings starting at $1. Their hosting solutions include shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers. They also offer eCommerce solutions and email hosting. All their hosting plans come at affordable prices with solid security features, including their WordPress solutions.
- Overall score – 4.5
- Features – 4.5
- Support – 4.5
- User-Friendly – 4.5
- Pricing – 4.5
- Reliability – 4.5
Features: IONOS key security features include distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection, up to six days of data backup, one free Wildcard SSL certificate, malware protection Site Scan with each plan. Their WordPress hosting plans also feature SSD storage, caching, automatic updates, and 99.98% uptime.
Support: You get free 24/7 customer support on all plans. The support team is accessible via chat, email, and phone. Alternatively, you can get the WordPress Pro hosting plan for personalized support from WP experts.
User-friendly: All IONOS hosting plans have user-friendly features to enrich your hosting experience and enhance your websites. These include support for popular applications and comprehensive solutions for various hosting needs. They also offer round-the-clock customer support to assist their clients.
Pricing: The web host offers three shared hosting plans: Essential, Business, and Expert. From a long-term perspective, the Essential plan is the cheapest. It starts at $2/mo and renews at $6/mo. This plan offers 10 GB storage, ten databases, basic CPU and MEM resources, a free domain for one year, a free Wildcard SSL certificate, and daily backup. The WordPress starter plan costs $2 for the first year and then renews at $4. It offers 25 SSD storage, 9 GB RAM, one email address, free domain and SSL, malware scanning, and SSH access.
Reliability: Hosting your website on IONOS assures you of blazing-fast website loading speeds. The web host offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee powered by their geo-redundant hosting services. They also use cutting-edge server-side security to secure your website and ensure stable performance.
Additional Parameter: WordPress hosting: IONOS offers the latest version of the WordPress CMS with comprehensive service that features high-speed servers, 24/7 support, automatic updates, and high-tech security. They also provide flexibility so you can install your plugins and server management so you can focus on your business while they take care of everything else.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- ISO 27001-certified data centers with geo-redundancy
- Fully-managed professional WordPress hosting plan
- 99.98% uptime guarantee in the WordPress plans
- 24/7 expert chat, email, and phone support
- DDoS shield and Malware scan and repair on all plans
Cons
- Steep renewal prices
UltaHost is a Turkey-based web hosting provider with data centers in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, and Germany. All these data centers are owned and managed by UltaHost. The web host offers budget-friendly web hosting solutions for individuals and small enterprises. Their hosting product lineup includes shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers. They also offer domain registration.
- Overall score – 4.5
- Features – 4.5
- Support – 4.5
- User-Friendly – 4.5
- Pricing – 4.5
- Reliability – 4.5
Features: UltaHost security features include dedicated firewalls with firmware upgrades and patches, free SSL certificate, two-factor authentication, IP Whitelisting, BitNinja Security, and a built-in database security system to prevent unauthorized access. Other hosting features include SSH/SFTP access, 24/7 monitoring, and a built-in team collaboration feature.
Support: You get 24/7 live chat, ticket support, and an active community where you can get knowledge and insights. There is also an extensive knowledge base for DIY users. You can get the Advanced or Premium support add-on if you want dedicated support. However, even the standard support provides enough services, such as website troubleshooting.
User-friendly: UltaHost offers cPanel on all shared hosting plans like other hosting providers. The cPanel comes with an easy-to-use interface and allows easy management. UlhaHost also offers automated daily backups for free on all plans.
Pricing: The Shared Hosting starter plan costs $3.29/mo. It includes a free domain for one year, 15 GB NVMe SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, free daily backups, free domain transfer, free SSL certificates, 24/7/365 support, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Reliability: UltaHost offers many performance features to eliminate single points of failure and deliver 100% uptime. These include NVMe SSD storage, built-in cache mechanism, optimized stack, PHP 5.6.x, and the latest versions of PHP 8.x. Their in-house owned and maintained servers are powered by ultra-optimized 14th-generation Dell servers and configured to offer maximum redundancy.
Additional Parameter: NVMe SSD Hosting: UltaHost offers NVMe Storage on all hosting plans. NVMe technology offers faster read/write data times than SATA HDD and SSD drives. However, many providers do not offer them due to their high costs. As such, it is impressive to see UltaHost offering NVMe drives to all their customers.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- 24/7 live chat and ticketing customer support
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- cPanel and NVMe drives on all plans
- Free SSL and daily backups
- 24/7 malware scanning and server monitoring
Cons
- High renewal rates
Ranking comparison between the Top Providers
Best Secured Hosting Services: Final Recommendations
All web hosts offer some level of website security. However, the best hosting providers take extra security measures such as SSL certificates, server monitoring, 2FA login, and DDoS protection.
The best secure web hosting provider on our list is HostArmada. Their enterprise-grade security solutions secure your website data and protect your visitors. In addition, all their hosting plans come with 24/7 customer support, easy-to-use features, and affordable prices.
Other great web hosts in terms of security, performance, and customer support include A2 Hosting, Cloudways, and Kamatera. If web security is your primary concern, you can not go wrong with any web hosting providers mentioned in this article. You can also check the section on choosing the best-secured web hosting provider for your needs.
How do we rank, and how should you choose your Secured Hosting?
- Uptime and speed8%
- Ease of Use15%
- Customer Support7%
- Hardware Resources8%
- Security Features5%
- Valuable Extras12%
- Pricing15%
- User Reviews30%
The key feature we focused on in this article was website security. However, that is not all there is to web hosting. Here is a rundown of our ranking factors for the best Secured Hosting providers:
- Uptime and speed (8%): When it comes to uptime, our minimum is a 99.9% uptime guarantee. However, it is common to find providers that offer a 99.95% SLA-backed uptime guarantee. Some hosts, such as UltaHost, even advertise 100% uptime. Beyond uptime, you should see how the web host performs in real time. An uptime guarantee is a promise to compensate you if your website is down for a certain period. So it would be best if you focused more on server speed and performance and less on uptime guarantee. For website speed, anything below the average loading speed of 600 ms is suitable for an average website.
- Ease of Use (15%): Ease of use comes in two types: beginner-friendly and developer friendly. Most shared hosting plans are beginner-friendly, while VPS and dedicated servers are mostly developer-friendly. You should go for fully managed plans if you are a beginner and still want to use an advanced hosting solution. These plans provide management service from the web host technical team.
- Customer Support (7%): You want round-the-clock customer support, preferably by live chat and ticketing system. Other support channels include email and phone. Some providers offer tiered support, while others provide the same level of support for all customers.
- Hardware Resources (8%): We check the hosting allocation on the entry plan and how they compare to competitors’ offerings. We also award extra points for SSD storage types, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited storage.
- Security Features (5%): The basic features we look out for are DDOS mitigation, data backups, SSL certificates, and malware scanning. Some providers offer 2FA logins, dedicated firewalls, account isolations, and IP whitelisting.
- Valuable Extras (12%): Other extras that we consider are free domains, free website migration, multiple support channels, multiple payment options, and zero setup fees.
- Pricing (15%): For pricing, we judge each provider based on the features they offer for each plan. Sometimes, the most affordable plans are not the cheapest. Instead, they are the ones that provide all the features you need at a budget-friendly price.
- User Reviews (30%): We use user reviews to ensure we cover all the critical benefits and disadvantages of using any web hosting provider.
Security Features To Look Out For Before You Purchase A Hosting Plan
Here are some specific security features we like to see in a hosting provider’s plans and brief explanations on why they’re essential. We recommend you ignore any web host that does not offer these basic hosting security features:
- SSL Certificates: SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is an encryption protocol that protects any data sent by your visitors to your site. An SSL Certificate indicates that a website uses this encryption protocol to protect user data. Most browsers will flag your website as unsafe if it doesn’t have an SSL certificate.
- Firewall: A firewall blocks unauthorized access to your website server. It prevents hackers from making changes to your website or uploading files to your hosting environment. Your web host can also use the firewall to stop brute force attacks, especially when they come from one or more specific IP addresses.
- Antivirus Protection: Antiviruses software helps protect websites that allow users to upload files. Malicious actors may attempt to use this uploading feature to upload viruses on the website, which can infect the server and put your visitors at risk.
- DDoS Protection: Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks happen when someone uses a network of computers to access your website simultaneously and repeatedly. These repeated attacks will drain your hosting resources and prevent legitimate web visitors from accessing your site. DDoS protection provides temporary resources to ensure your regular users can access your wife while the web host identifies the source of the attack and blocks them.
- Customer Support: There are instances where you need assistance with resolving security issues. As such, you need a customer support team that is always available and responds swiftly. If you are running mission-critical support websites, we recommend you get a support add-on for faster response times and extensive support services.
- Extras: Other features that can help boost security include two-factor authentication, automated website monitoring features, and a Web application firewall (WAF). These features are great but are often limited to selected plans. Some providers also develop their in-house security suite to protect their customers. These solutions may also be available on all plans, selected plans, or as a paid add-on.
What Is Secured Hosting, And Who Is It For?
Secure hosting is any hosting solution with website security as one of its key features. All hosting solutions are secure at the server level, given that the host will employ physical security for its data centers. Beyond that, a secure host will also protect against online attacks such as DDoS and viruses and provide SSL certificates to secure transmitted data.
Why Is Website Security Important?
Website security is essential for all websites. Hackers do not discriminate when they are on the prowl. In many cases, they target small websites, take over their servers and coordinate them into attacks on bigger websites.
They could also attack smaller websites to mine sensitive information such as payment details and personal data. As such, you should make website security a priority. An unsecured website can lead to
- Loss of reputation
- Data breaches
- Severe damages
However, the level of website security you need depends on the nature of your service and the type of data stored on the server.
A simple personal blog only needs the basic security package. These include automatic backups, firewalls, SSL certificates, and DDoS protection.
Online stores, large-traffic websites, and enterprise applications may require advanced security features. These advanced security solutions are Web Application Firewalls, malware scanning and repairing, security plugins, and domain privacy protection. Depending on the provider, these features may be included in the hosting plan or require extra fees.
