If you want to sell products or services online, your website will need a great eCommerce hosting provider. There’s a lot of factors to consider when choosing the best eCommerce hosting, which is why we’ve tried and tested the top providers to give you an idea of who to choose.
We’ve taken into account:
- Customer support
- Uptime
- Speed
- Pricing
Table of Contents
Top 8 eCommerce Providers
- SiteGround (Best Overall eCommerce Hosting)
- A2 Hosting (Best eCommerce Host Runner Up)
- InMotion (Best for Scalability)
- Bluehost (Best for Uptime)
- Hostinger (Best Cheap eCommerce Hosting)
- HostGator (Best for Support)
- Dreamhost (Best for Beginners)
1. SiteGround
SiteGround's eCommerce hosting plans are ideal for small and large online stores. All of SiteGround's hosting plans include daily backup, free CDN, free SSL certificate, and free email. Prices start from $6.99 per month for their StartUp plan and include WooCommerce pre-installed if you are using WordPress for your online store. You can sell any product and accept payments.
Features
SiteGround’s hosting plans come with auto-installation and pre-installed software. This is very useful when setting up your eCommerce hosting. Their hosting plans include a free CloudFlare CDN which not only helps your website’s speed, it also makes your customers happy as your website will load faster.
SiteGround’s eCommerce hosting plans include free shopping carts, eCommerce-optimized servers, and a choice of data centers meaning your site speed will be better for your target audience. SiteGround’s hosting plans have an uptime guarantee of 99.99%, and in our speed/uptime tests they’ve always offered 100% uptime.
Support & Security
SiteGround offers 24/7 support via phone and live chat. Their support staff are incredibly knowledgeable and are always hand if you have any issues.
In terms of security, SiteGround’s hosting plans come with free SSL certificates to protect your website and your visitor’s data. They also boast an in-house developed system that monitors your website every 0.5 seconds to ensure any problems are picked up. In addition to the above, SiteGround’s plans include advanced spam protection for incoming and outgoing mail.
Pricing
SiteGround’s WooCommerce pricing plans start from $6.99 per month. The StartUp plan renews at $14.99 per month after your first term, which is something to be aware of.
With each hosting plan you’ll get a set amount of resources, including SSD storage, unmetered bandwidth, and plenty of free features. WordPress is automatically updated, making it easy to setup your online store, as well as helpful tools to ensure your website runs smoothly.
2. A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting offer powerful eCommerce servers, as well as Turbo servers for faster loading websites. They offer multiple SSL certificates, free security tools, and 24/7 support. A2 Hosting's eCommerce plans start from just $4.25 per month, offering a wide range of pricing plans across the board for all budgets. Their plans offers SSD storage, root access, and a money-back guarantee.
Features
One of A2 Hosting’s main selling points is its Turbo servers. These claim to offer 20x faster speeds compared to their standard servers. Offering your customer’s a faster website, combined with SSD servers and unmetered disk space means you can offer an overall better service.
Whether you’re choosing a VPS or dedicated server, A2 Hosting offer eCommerce-specific servers for all hosting types. This allows you to tailor your hosting needs exactly how you want them for your online store.
A2 Hosting offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee, which is lower than SiteGround’s. While this isn’t necessarily the biggest issue, it can affect your choice of the best eCommerce hosting. In our speed and uptime tests, A2 Hosting have an overall uptime of 99.99%, which is better than their guarantee.
Support & Security
A2 Hosting is well known for its customer support. They offer 24/7 support via phone and live chat, with outstanding service agents that always respond quickly. In addition to their support, they also have a wide knowledgebase of articles that you can use to resolve any issues.
Each plan includes free SSL certificates as well as free HackScan protection. They also offer DDoS protection, dual hosting firewall, and lots more. If you host your website with A2 Hosting, you know your site will be securely protected.
Pricing
A2 Hosting’s eCommerce plans start from $4.25 per month. This will give you 150GB SSD, 2TB bandwidth, and a 1-core processor with 1GB RAM.
If you’re hosting a large eCommerce site, it’s recommended to upgrade to their Turbo servers which start from $25.99 per month. You’ll get 8GB RAM, 2 Cores, and a 150GB NVMe drive.
3. InMotion
InMotion has shared eCommerce hosting and VPS eCommerce hosting plans that can accomodate a large variety of websites and online stores. Their eCommerce hosting plans use SSD drives for faster perfromance, and start from just $5.99 per month. All of InMotion's hosting plans support eCommerce apps like WooCommerce, Magento, and OpenCart, as well as SSL certificates, a free domain, and 99.9% uptime.
Features
InMotion is well known for their features, offering plenty of helpful tools to get your online store started. Their plans include a free domain and one-click installations for eCommerce software. Their SSD drives offer faster content delivery and you can make use of their free $150 worth of advertising credits to promote your business.
InMotion’s uptime guarantee of 99.9% isn’t as generous as SiteGround’s. However, in our test results, InMotion has always performed extremely well, with a 100% uptime over the last 30 days.
Support & Security
InMotion’s support is excellent, and it’s no surprise considering each member of staff has over 150 hours of support training before the job starts. They offer 24/7 support via phone and live chat, as well as plenty of helpful articles.
Each plan includes a free SSL certifcate as well as automated backups, and regular malware protection. While InMotion don’t offer in-house software or extensive security tools, the basics will definitely keep your website secure.
Pricing
InMotion’s shared eCommerce hosting plans start from $5.99 per month. They are currently running a promotion where their Power plan is the same price as their Launch plan, so it makes sense to take advantage of this discount.
Their Power plan includes a free domain and SSL certificate to get your online store started, as well as hosting for 50 websites, 100GB SSD storage, and unlimited bandwidth. You’ll also get 50 professional email addresses which is a great option for any business.
4. Bluehost
Bluehost is one of the few hosts that's recommended by WordPress. They offer dedicated WooCommerce hosting plans for eCommerce websites and offer an excellent uptime guarantee. With seamless WordPress integration and plenty of free features, Bluehost is one of the best eCommerce hosting providers. Bluehost's eCommerce hosting plans start from $12.95 per month.
Features
Bluehost is one of the hosts that I recommend for uptime. In our review of Bluehost, they have always been incredibly reliable, offering 100% uptime over a long period of time. In fact, since monitoring Bluehost’s performance, our server has never incurred any downtime. We’ve been monitoring them since August 2020, which you can read more about in our Bluehost review.
Claiming the title of one of WordPress’ recommended web hosts, Bluehost’s eCommerce plans include plenty of helpful features that you can use for your online store. You can easily setup WordPress via your Bluehost hosting plan, as well as WooCommerce so you can customize your online store.
Support & Security
Bluehost’s customer support is available 24/7 via phone and live chat. The responses from Bluehost’s support staff are always helpful and quick, and always answered our questions.
In terms of security, Bluehost offer free SSL certificates, SpamAssassin protection, SSH, and hotlink protection. Signing up to any of Bluehost’s hosting plans will offer generous security for your online store, which is essential when running an eCommerce business.
Pricing
Bluehost’s WooCommerce hosting, designed for WordPress, starts at $12.95 per month. You’ll be able to host unlimited products on your website, as well as enjoy some of the free features like Jetpack, WooCommerce, and email marketing.
With Bluehost’s hosting plans, you’ll be able to create manual order creation, discount codes, website traffic analytics, and lots more. Their plans are tailored towards eCommerce hosting customers.
5. Hostinger
Hostinger is without a doubt the cheapest web hosting provider in our recommendations. With prices starting from just $0.99 per month, it's hard to believe they can survive in this competitive world. However, Hostinger has continued to provide a great service to its customers, including eCommerce hosting, at an affordable cost. Hostinger are a reliable web host that cater to everyone's budget.
Features
Hostinger offer a wide range of hosting services, including shared hosting, cloud hosting, VPS hosting, and even Minecraft hosting. Their shared hosting plans use SSD storage to ensure your website loads quickly. They come with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, but in our experience, they have offered a solid 100% uptime guarantee, which you can read more about in our in-depth Hostinger review.
Hostinger’s hosting plans comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, just in case you’re not happy with anything. Their plans include free email accounts, free domain registration (on their Premium and Business plans), and access to their customized control panel called hPanel.
Support & Security
Hostinger’s customer support is incredibly good. They approach their customers in a knowledgeble way coupled with a friendly and fun attitude. If Hostinger’s staff aren’t available through their live chat service, you can leave a message and they will respond to you ASAP via email.
All of Hostinger’s hosting plans include a free SSL certificate, which is essential for any eCommerce website. Their shared hosting plans feature free weekly backups and SSH access. If you sign up for one of Hostinger’s email hosting plans (from $0.99 per month), you’ll also get antivirus checks and mail filters.
Pricing
Hostinger’s Single Shared Hosting plan starts at just $0.99 per month, which is ideal for beginners and small websites. However, if you’re looking to host an eCommerce website, I highly recommend Hostinger’s Business plan at just $3.99 per month.
You’ll get hosting for 100 websites, 200GB SSD storage, free email, free SSL, free domain, unlimited bandwidth, managed WordPress, and lots more. For the price of a sandwich, you really can’t go wrong with Hostinger’s cheap and powerful web hositng.
6. HostGator
HostGator has been around the hosting market for a long time. They are experts in the field, and this shines through in their customer support. All of their eCommerce hosting plans include one-click installations for eCommerce stores, shopping carts, and payment gateways. They boast a solid 99.99% uptime guarantee and offer plenty of support and knowledgebase articles.
Features
All of HostGator’s hosting plans include unlimited bandwidth and email accounts. These are great features for eCommerce businesses, coupled with unlimited FTP accounts so that you can manage your website files. Their uptime is impressive too, with a 99.99% uptime guarantee, this is the kind of uptime we like to see in a web host.
When reviewing HostGator, we wanted to test their uptime to see if it was actually any good. Much to our delight, our server has had an overall uptime of 99.991% in the last 30 days. When you’re running an eCommerce website, uptime is important as the last thing you want to do is lose out on sales if your website is unavailable.
Support & Security
If you sign up to HostGator, you’ll have access 24/7 via phone and live chat to their customer support. Their knowledgebase is also really great, offering plenty of articles and how-to guides if you get stuck. In fact, many customers say that they’ve learned a lot more from HostGator, simply because they’ve had access to their extensive list of resources.
Like most eCommerce hosts, HostGator offers a free SSL certificate on all of their hosting plans. In addition to this, your website will benefit from 24/7 server monitoring and DDoS protection. If you opt for HostGator’s Business plan, you’ll get a free Positive SSL upgrade, which is a bonus for your online store.
Pricing
HostGator’s shared plans start from $2.75 per month. However, I would recommend signing up to the Business Plan for your eCommerce website.
The business plan offers hosting for as many websites as you like, one-click WP installs, unmetered bandwidth, free SSL certificate, free SEO tools, a free domain, and free dedicated IP. For just $5.25 per month you’ll have everything you need for your eCommerce site to succeed.
7. Dreamhost
Dreamhost is an ideal hosting provider for beginners because they make everything so easy. As one of the recommended hosts by WordPress, Dreamhost makes it simple to install WordPress and manage your WP websites in one place. Offering affordable hosting plans, Dreamhost also include free email hosting at your domain and fast SSD storage which is ideal for eCommerce sites.
Features
To remove the hassle of attempting to estimate your monthly traffic, Dreamhost’s shared hosting plans offer unlimited bandwidth and fast SSD storage. This is perfect for eCommerce sites that are starting out and aren’t yet sure of the number of monthly visitors.
All of their plans offer free backups which is another bonus for beginners who may fear they’ll make a mistake. Backups allow you to revert to a previous version of your site without losing your hard work. On top of this, you’ll get a free domain for the first year, and unlimited email accounts on every plan except the Starter plan.
When you’re ready to grow your business, you can upgrade to Dreamhost’s VPS plans which are more than enough to power an eCommerce site. However, if you then need to upgrade to a dedicated server, I recommend switching web hosts as Dreamhost’s dedicated plans are a little underwhelming.
Support & Security
While Dreamhost’s support is very good, there is one major drawback, and that’s the lack of contact via phone. However, you can request that Dreamhost call you back, but this can take a little bit of time. They do have a live chat function, though, which is really helpful if you need instant help.
Dreamhost’s plans include free SSL certificates to turn your site into HTTPS. There’s also a in-house built malware remover which is very handy as it can protect your site against potential malicious attacks.
Pricing
Dreamhost’s shared plans start from $2.59 per month. However, I would recommend starting on the Shared Unlimited plan, which is only $3.95 per month. You’ll be able to host unlimited websites, get a free domain, access to unlimited email accounts, free SSL, and free automated WP migrations.
Dreamhost offer a 97-day money-back guarantee, so signing up to them is almost risk-free. When you’re ready to grow, Dreamhost offers plenty of other hosting plans, including DreamPress, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting.
Best eCommerce Hosting Summary
Now that we’ve reviewed 7 of the big eCommerce hosting providers, it’s time for a quick recap. Remember, choosing the best eCommerce hosting is extremely important – you’ll need to make sure that your hosting provider offers the right tools in order for your site to excced.
Not only that, your customers need to remain happy. A host that offers great uptime, speed and performance, security, features, and customer support is essential. All of the hosts we recommend will ensure your website is safe, secure, and speedy:
- SiteGround (Best Overall eCommerce Hosting)
- A2 Hosting (Best eCommerce Host Runner Up)
- InMotion (Best for Scalability)
- Bluehost (Best for Uptime)
- Hostinger (Best Cheap eCommerce Hosting)
- HostGator (Best for Support)
- Dreamhost (Best for Beginners)