If you are looking for the Best Cloud Hosting companies out there, then look no further.
In this article we have compiled our top 5 picks for cloud hosting.
Our review approach is simple; we’ve summarized each hosting provider in terms of value and rated them for your convenience. Each summary includes their plans, the cost and pros and cons.
Our buyers guide covers the top 8 factors that every cloud hosting buyer needs to consider. Trust us, this is a must read. We are confident that after you read this article, you will be ready to make an informed Cloud hosting purchase.
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Best Cloud Hosts
This table ranks the best cloud hosting providers whilst showing a few of the features and their entry-level pricing.
Rank | 24/7 Hour Support | Site Migration | Money-Back Period | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Yes | Free | 97 Days | Free trial. From $4.50 per month |
 | Yes | Free | 45 Days | Free trial. From $3.13 per month |
 | Yes | Free | 30 Days | Free trial. From $59 per month |
#4  | Yes | Free | 90 Days | Free trial. From $21.04 per month |
 | Yes | Free | 30 Days | Free trial. From $5 per month |
Best Overall Cloud Host
DreamHost
4.5/5 Overall Rating
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DreamHost is one of the most recognizable hosting companies on the market.
They are known for their great features, 100% uptime and 97 day money back guarantee. These great features, unbeatable uptime and lengthy money-back are also applicable to their Cloud Hosting plans.
DreamHost have three Cloud hosting plans on offer which are displayed according to the amount of RAM.
The entry-level plan offers 512MB of RAM. Whereas their mid and premium plans offer 2GB and 8GB of RAM respectively.
The key differences between these plans are the RAM offering and the number of CPU cores.
DreamHost have a unique pricing model relating to their Cloud hosting plans. They have opted for an hourly billing model where you will only be billed for up to 600 hours per month, which works out to 25 days.
This is a great addition to an already good service by allowing users to save even more per plan.
One gripe arises for those who are used to using cPanel or Plesk.
DreamHost have designed and integrated their own control panel, while this does not affect new website users; for those who are confident with cPanel or Plesk, this may be a major drawback.
One pro of DreamHost is their 97-day money back guarantee.
In the hosting world, a 30-day money back is seemingly the norm, with a few companies offering a slightly longer period.
With 97 days to decide whether this service is for you, we feel you will have ample time to test all the necessities before really fully committing to DreamHost.
DreamHost is a longstanding hosting giant with over 400 000 clients and powering over 1.5 million websites.
They are also the two time PCMag’s ‘Best Web Hosting Service’ award winners.
DreamHost’s reputation speaks for itself, but on top of this, they also provide a hosting service that is second to none.
Main Features
What we like
What we dislike
Key Takeaway
DreamHost provide a very reliable Cloud hosting service with excellent support and an attractive money-back policy. If reliability is what you need, then DreamHost is a perfect match.
Cheapest Cloud Hosting
HostGator
4/5 Overall Rating
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HostGator has been one of the hosting leaders for small businesses and individuals for years.
Their affordable pricing and quick website set-up have users live in no time and at their price, they’re still able to include the functionality you need.
HostGator offer three Cloud Hosting plans, the Hatchling Cloud, Baby Cloud and the Business Cloud.
The main differences between these plans lie in the memory and number of CPU cores included.
These two features are important as they will largely determine the speed and reliability of your website.
Pricing begins at $3.13 per month for the Hatchling Cloud, $4.18 per month for the Baby Cloud and $6.28 per month for the Business Cloud plan.
One drawback which applies to those small businesses which run online stores, is that HostGator websites are not automatically PCI compliant.
This compliance is maintained by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS); their function is to ensure that all websites that process credit card information do so within a secure environment.
On the positive side, HostGator offer a lengthy money-back guarantee which comes in at 45 days.
The industry norm is to offer only 30 days to request your money back, this extra 15 days we feel, will give you a clearer view on whether their service meets your site needs.
HostGator’s service has gotten much attention in the past, receiving the following awards: 'Best host to grow with', by Hosting Advice; 'Best Dedicated', 'Best Shared', 'Best Managed WordPress' and 'Overall web hosting' awards by PCmag as well as WPBeginner rating them the best web host for business.
Main Features
What we like
What we dislike
Best Performing Cloud Host
Liquidweb
4/5 Overall Rating
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When we talk about performance, Liquidweb is top of mind.
Their hosting model is geared towards performance and when it comes to the Cloud Plan offerings there is no difference.
They boast that their managed VPS Cloud plans combine the power of a dedicated server with the flexibility of Cloud hosting.
Liquidweb offer four Cloud hosting plans and are displayed according to the amount of RAM.
They offer 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB RAM plans with other key differences being related specifically to disk space and the number of CPU cores.
Prices begin at $59 per month for the 2GB plan, $99 per month for the 4GB plan, $139 per month for 8GB and $189 per month for their 16GB plan.
One drawback with Liquidweb is the price of their plans.
Liquidweb equates their entry level Cloud hosting with their competitors premium Cloud plans.
This says two very important things; firstly it says that they view their weakest offering as equal to competitors premium plans, which speaks to their performance.
Secondly, they’re saying that they only offer the most premium powered plans, and only clients seeking this type of power, are the ones they service.
Power and performance is the main positive when talking about Liquidweb.
The specs of every plan they offer will impress even the most advanced web developers.
Although the price tag is rather steep, you will undoubtedly be received more power per dollar spent than anywhere else in the market.
If you’re still unsure about Liquidweb’s power, then one look at their client list will shed some light on how respected their service is.
Liquidweb power National Geographic, Symantec, Porsche, Home Depot and Eddie Bauer to name a few.
Main Features
What we like
What we dislike
Key Takeaway
Liquidweb may be the most powerful host on the market. The specs in each plan quickly explains the price attached to it; if you've got the bucks, then these Cloud hosting plans will blow you away
Best Valued Cloud Host
InMotion Hosting
4/5 Overall Rating
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InMotion is a hosting company who's high quality service is the key to their success.
InMotion offer as they’ve put it, simple, reliable and scalable Cloud Hosting solutions.
Their Cloud hosting is aimed at providing peak performance to your site critical apps, and let us tell you, performance is what you will get.
InMotion offer three Cloud Hosting plans which are comprised of the Cloud VPS-1000, Cloud VPS-2000 and the Cloud VPS-3000 respectively.
The key differences between these three plans can be found in their RAM, storage, bandwidth and the number of IP addresses included.
InMotion’s Cloud Hosting pricing begins at $21.04 per month for their Cloud VPS-1000, $42.24 per month for their Cloud VPS-2000 and finally $69.34 per month for their Cloud VPS-3000 plan.
An obvious drawback here is price.
InMotion plans are considerably more expensive than competitors on every level and some users may wonder if their performance is equally higher than the rest?
One thing we really like is that InMotion have a US-based support team.
This may not be important when everything runs smoothly, but let me tell you, if you’ve ever had a critical website issue, then the last thing you want to do is deal with a language barrier.
You are able to connect to their support team via Ticket/email, live chat or telephone and they are available 24/7.
InMotion has been in the hosting industry since 2001 and currently service over 300 000 customers.
With just two data centers, one in Virginia Beach and the other in Los Angeles, InMotion have been able to maintain excellent performance as they’ve scaled into the hosting front-runner that they are today.
Main Features
What we like
What we dislike
Key Takeaway
InMotion has long been known for value and reliability. If you're looking to get your money's worth, then InMotion won't let you down
Most Reliable Cloud Host
A2 Hosting
4/5 Overall Rating
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A2 hosting has built their business on the back of exceptionally fast page load times and basically outperforming their competition by offering a blazing fast service.
It took a while before A2 Hosting released their Cloud hosting plans because as they put it, they wanted to it to be done right the first time.
In our opinion, that is exactly what they’ve done!
A2 Hosting offers three Cloud Hosting plans, the Entry, Mid and Elite plans.
Unlike their competitors who focus on differentiating their Cloud hosting plans largely by RAM, A2 Hosting seem to keep the RAM relatively consistent in their plans and rather differentiate through storage.
Cloud hosting plans begin at just $5 per month for the Entry plan, $10 per month for the Mid plan and finally $15 per month for the Elite plan.
The main drawback for us only affects those looking to take out their Entry-level plan.
A2 Hosting’s Entry plans do not include their turbo speed; to take advantage of this feature, you will have to subscribe to the mid or premium tier plans.
A CloudFlare account is included in each plan offered by A2 Hosting which we think is a great plus.
CloudFlare aids speed, bandwidth and CPU usage by caching website content; this means your website runs faster whilst using less resources.
Although A2 Hosting is not as well known as rival giants HostGator or BlueHost, they do provide a service centered around speed and performance.
Their service is so fast that it is confidently marketed as 20x faster than competitors.
Main Features
What we like
What we dislike
Key Takeaway
Performance and reliability is what really matters when you're searching for a hosting plan, and that is exactly what you get when you sign up with A2 Hosting.
Shared Hosting Buyers Guide
Cloud hosting is becoming increasingly popular among large companies as it allows them to reduce costs by outsourcing their IT tasks to the service provider.
With regulatory bodies such as the GDPR tightening up on compliance, hosting providers providing managed services are more appealing than ever.
Below we have included 8 factors for consideration before making your final Cloud hosting purchase. Many users need guidance so that they can make the most informed decision, therefore, we've put together the following considerations as an aid.
Let’s take a look at these factors
Technical Support
Technical support is the most vital part of any managed hosting service. When a company displays their Cloud hosting as managed, it means that there will be a split of duties between the hosting team, and the Company IT team.
The hosting team will deal with tasks relating to the operating system, any patching, monitoring and hardware; the company IT team will manage the website applications.
Because of the relation between the hosting tasks and the IT tasks, these teams need to be able to communicate at an expert level when problems arise. For this reason we've identified technical support as such a critical function and why we've chosen it as the first factor in our buyers guide.
Most hosting providers offer 24/7/365 technical support, but our advice is to look deeper at the reviews of their support to find whether they are knowledgeable, as this is what really counts.
Performance and Uptime
In our experience, hardware plays a central role in the performance of a hosting company. When selecting the host to power your website, we suggest to look at their hardware. Xeon CPUs are known for performance as well as SSD storage on an enterprise level will ensure excellent uptime.
Hardware is especially critical if your website relies on applications which need power and uptime to remain constant.
Scalability
Dealing with traffic spikes or running large data analysis means that sometimes you will require more resources. Scalable resources is important as it allows you flexibility and cost saving in the long term.
The best scalability options are going to be those which are priced on a pay-as-you-use basis, so pay special attention to these features before purchasing.
Security
If customers are to trust your website long-term they need to have confidence that their information is secure. For this reason we suggest to consider which security controls are included in your Cloud hosting plan.
You will be looking for security measures which protect against malware and intrusion as well as application security and botnet protection etc.
Control Panel
The control panel has been a heated debate for a while now, especially between avid cPanel and Plesk users. Our take is this; your control panel is central to functionality and ease of use, therefore we feel that you should choose a hosting plan which offers the control panel you are most comfortable with.
If you are confident with cPanel, then choose a plan which offers cPanel; if you are confident with Plesk, then choose a plan which offers Plesk.
Migration Assistance
Most hosting companies will complete the migration process at no cost, but be sure to check that this is included.
In terms of migration be sure that your new host keeps your site live as they complete the transfer of your files and data. This will allows users to still access your website while your files are being transferred.
When your host handles your website migration they will also identify potential problems and take preventative measures to ensure that the migration is as quick and controlled as possible.
Provider Reputation
Hosting providers have the sweetest words when describing the value, service and performance of their plans.
Customers however, know the service provider on a practical level and are usually quick to warn others against current or past issues.
Facebook, Google My Business and TrustPilot usually have a wide range of truthful reviews that will give you a clear idea of the service you can expect.
Take the time to read through reviews and avoid potential frustration.
Cost
Cost is always going to be important within a business, what we advise is that you look at the amount you’re paying vs. the value that you’re receiving.
No hosting provider is going to offer an identical plan, so rather look at value according to your website needs.
Identify mission-critical features that your website needs and then find the plan to match these needs.