6 best ecommerce hosting providers for small businesses

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BEST ALL ROUND
Best Best all-round ecommerce specific hosting provider	Best Best for value for money	Best Best for providing shared and VPS ecommerce specific hosting plans	Best Best for help and support	Best Best for uptime performance	Best Best for providing free extra features
Cost £2.99 – £7.49 per month	Cost £2.22 – £11.13 per month	Cost $2.79 – $13.99 per month	Cost £6.64 – £12.54 per month	Cost $2.75 – $5.25 per month	Cost $16.95 – $71.95 per month
Visit Try Siteground	Visit Try A2 Hosting	Visit Try InMotion	Visit Try Bluehost	Visit Try HostGator	Visit Try Dreamhost

Our research has identified SiteGround as the top choice of ecommerce hosting provider for those wanting to build their own online stores and select their preferred business website hosting.

Ecommerce hosting is a great idea if you’re intending to put online sales at the core of your operation, or if you run a more established online store. 

And if you want to use self-hosted ecommerce software, such as Magento, then you’ll need ecommerce hosting – it offers you the flexibility and control that combined ecommerce web builder packages can’t,  as well as all the security features you need when running an online store.

But with so many hosting providers out there, it can be difficult to know which is the best ecommerce hosting provider for you and your business. That’s why we’ve created this handy guide, which is full of insights and detailed research. 

Our research compared providers on key criteria for running a small business, including help and support, features, value for money, disk space, and uptime performance. From this, we were able to identify our top six ecommerce hosting providers for small businesses:

• SiteGround – best all-round ecommerce specific hosting provider
• A2 Hosting – best for value for money
• InMotion – best for providing shared and VPS ecommerce specific hosting plans
• Bluehost – best for help and support
• HostGator – best for uptime performance
• DreamHost – best for providing those free extra features to help you on your way to success

SiteGround: Best all-round ecommerce specific hosting provider

SiteGround Ecommerce Hosting

4.6

Ecommerce-enabled web hosting with a commitment to carbon neutrality

Try SiteGround

• Free domain No
• Free SSL Yes

• Unmetered traffic
• 100% renewable energy match
• Ecommerce enabled

Summary Siteground is a Bulgarian web hosting company that was founded in 2004. It provides shared, cloud, and email hosting, and domain registration to for around 2 million domains. Siteground offers free installation of WordPress and WooCommerce, with a free SSL certificate, which makes it easy to set up an online store. Siteground maintains a commitment to carbon neutrality, and has partnered with Google Cloud to match 100% of the energy consumed by its global operations with renewable energy.

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SiteGround has more than 500 employees located around the world, including an office and data centre in London, which is ideal for maximising loading speeds for UK-based online stores. 

It boasts a 99.7% client happiness rate, and we can definitely see what SiteGround’s customers are so happy about. In fact, SiteGround is our number one choice for ecommerce hosting, and we think it’s the best all-round ecommerce specific hosting provider out there. 

Help and support

It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that SiteGround scored top marks in our research for help and support – the only drawback is that site setup guidance isn’t available. However, it does offer:

• An online knowledge base
• 24/7 live chat and phone support
• Ticketed support  

Features

SiteGround’s features received the highest score out of all the providers in this category. 

With unmetered bandwidth, you don’t have to worry about slow speeds stopping customers from using your store, while the SSL certificates provided with all plans ensure that your site can be trusted. Plus, with cPanel access and storefront themes included, the technical aspects are taken care of – freeing you up to focus on your business.

All plans include free backups, meaning you can rest assured that your store is secure while managing your daily business. On-demand backups are also available with the GrowBig and GoGeek plans. 

However, SiteGround doesn’t offer free domains, and while a dedicated IP address is available, this comes at an extra cost. Buying a domain needn’t break the bank, however – you can expect to pay around £9-£15 per year. And either way, a dedicated IP address shouldn’t be necessary for the majority of small or new sites immediately. 

But SiteGround can cater for both WooCommerce-specific and Magento hosting, while other shopping cart software (such as OpenCart) is available as a plug-in. 

With the StartUp plan, one online store is provided, while the GrowBig and GoGeek plans offer unlimited online stores. 

Value for money

While SiteGround offers better value for money than some providers, there’s still room for improvement. If you’re really keen on keeping costs down, then A2 Hosting or InMotion are more suitable. 

SiteGround offers three plans, and its shared hosting is the specific type of ecommerce hosting that has an SSD and a recommended plan for online stores. A 30-day money back guarantee is also available.

SiteGround WooCommerce pricing

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StartUp	GrowBig	GoGeek
Cost £2.99 per month (then £11.99 per month)	Cost £4.99 per month (£19.99 per month)	Cost £7.49 per month (£29.99 per month)
Features 1 website 10,000 monthly visits 10GB space	Features Unlimited websites 100,000 monthly visits 20GB space	Features Unlimited websites 400,000 monthly visitors 40GB space

Check out Siteground's shared hosting plans Try Siteground

Note that SiteGround requires annual/multi-year purchases that are paid in advance. The prices listed above are excluding VAT, and they apply for the initial invoice only, after which the regular prices apply. 

The non-discounted rates currently range from £11.99-£29.99 per month, with prices correct at time of writing.

Disk space

The amount of available disk space could seriously be improved. SiteGround’s StartUp plan offers 10GB, while GrowBig and GoGeek offer 20GB and 30GB respectively. 

This may seem like a reasonable amount, but while 30GB is available on GoGeek (SiteGround’s top tier plan), Bluehost offers 100GB on its lowest plan. 

If you’ve just begun your online business, then a lower amount of disk space should be enough for now – but what happens if you decide to grow your business? And if you run an online store that features a lot of videos or other media, then Bluehost could be particularly ideal, as it offers 100GB of storage at an affordable price.  

Uptime performance

However, SiteGround does earn some plaudits when it comes to its 99.98% uptime performance. With the best uptime featured in this article belonging to HostGator, which offers 99.99%, SiteGround’s uptime performance is still very much one of the top scorers in this category, and one of the most reliable. 

A2 Hosting: Best for value for money

A2 Ecommerce Hosting

4

Best value for money

Get A2 Hosting now

• Free domain No
• Free SSL Yes

• Unlimited websites
• Free automatic backups
• Money-back guarantee

Summary A2 Hosting is a great value hosting provider offering all major types of hosting. All plans beyond the most basic shared hosting plan come with unlimited websites, unlimited email accounts, and a 99.9% uptime commitment. Its shared WordPress hosting is particularly good value, with automatic updates for software and plugins, free site migration, and a turbo server.

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A2 Hosting is an independently-owned hosting company that was launched in 2001 by a UNIX systems administrator. 

Help and support

A2 Hosting is another provider that scored 5/5 in the help and support category, with the following types of support available:

• Website knowledge base
• 24/7 live chat
• 24/7 phone support
• Ticketed assistance

In addition, an auto installer is available across all plans for site setup guidance. 

Features

A2 Hosting was our second placed provider based on its features, with only SiteGround scoring higher in this category. A2 Hosting provides:

• cPanel
• Storefront themes
• SSL certificates with all plans 
• Unmetered bandwidth (on all shared hosting plans) 

However, free backups aren’t possible on the Lite plan, although they are included with the Swift and Turbo plans. Free domains aren’t available, and although dedicated IP addresses are possible, they’re charged at an extra USD$4.00 per month.

A2 Hosting also offers both WooCommerce-specific and Magento-specific hosting plans. It’s possible to use other shopping cart software too, including OpenCart, Smartstore, and more – in fact, A2 Hosting offers the most amount of software options to choose from. 

You can have one online store with the Lite plan, while the Swift and Turbo plans can both cater for unlimited online stores. 

Value for money

We found A2 Hosting to be the best provider in terms of value for money, with the highest score in this category out of all six providers. While A2 Hosting has three ecommerce-specific plans available, it offers ecommerce hosting on all its plans, which all have three pricing levels. 

But be aware of the money back guarantee terms: while subscriptions that are more than a year long are eligible within a 30-day time period, but you can only claim your money back on shorter subscriptions within 48 hours of paying.

A2 Hosting’s shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting can all cater to ecommerce hosting specifically, with SSDs and plans that are recommended for online stores.

A2 Hosting shared hosting pricing

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Startup	Drive	Turbo Boost	Turbo Max
Cost £1.50 per month (then £8.26 per month)	Cost £4.50 per month (then £9.76 per month)	Cost £4.50 per month (then 15.77 per month)	Cost £8.26 per month (£19.53 per month)
Features 1 website 100GB storage Free site migration	Features Unlimited websites Unlimited storage Free backups	Features Up to 20x faster Unlimited email accounts	Features Up to 20x faster 5x more resoruces

Check out A2 Hosting's shared hosting plans Try A2 Hosting

*Note that these are starting prices which are on offer, and correct at time of writing.

A2 Hosting VPS hosting pricing

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LIFT 4	LIFT 8	LIFT 16	MACH 8	MACH 16
Cost $49.99	Cost $72.99	Cost $86.99	Cost $74.99	Cost $99.99
Features 4GB RAM 150GB SSD Storage 2 TB Transfer 2 Cores Free SSL Certificate	Features 8GB RAM 250GB SSD Storage 3 TB Transfer 6 Cores Free SSL Certificate	Features 16GB RAM 450GB SSD Storage 4 TB Transfer 8 Cores Free SSL Certificate	Features 8GB RAM 150GB NVMe Storage 2TB Transfer 2 Cores Free SSL	Features 16GB RAM 250GB NVMe Storage 3 TB Transfer 6 Cores Free SSL

Check out A2 Hosting's hosting plans today Try A2 Hosting

*Note that these are prepaid starting prices which are on offer, and correct at time of writing.

Dedicated hosting is also available from £73.92+ per month, although shared or VPS hosting will most likely be suitable for many startup online stores’ size and budgets.

Disk space

A2 Hosting also got top marks for its disk space, with unlimited storage available across all plans. If your site has a lot of media, such as video and images, or even lots of pages, you’ll need a hosting provider that can easily accommodate it – making A2 Hosting ideal.  

Uptime performance

However, A2 Hosting only has 99.95% uptime performance – the second lowest score of all the providers for this category. This ultimately means that if you opted for A2 Hosting, your online store may be offline for more than four hours a year. 

InMotion: Best for providing shared and VPS ecommerce specific hosting plans

InMotion Ecommerce Hosting

4.5

Best choice for shared WordPress-specific hosting. InMotion is offering massive savings on all hosting plans until 1/12/21. You could save hundreds of pounds on the cost of your plan.

Get InMotion now

• Free domain Yes
• Free SSL Yes

• Unlimited websites
• Unlimited email addresses
• Security tools and marketing suite

Summary InMotion is a superb choice of provider for any business looking for a hosting plan, scoring top marks for features, disk space, and help and support. InMotion claims to exponentially improve performance and speed with every plan, and all of its hosting packages are kitted out with everything you need, including a full security suite and marketing tools.

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InMotion is a US-based web hosting provider that was founded in 2001. 

Help and support

Offering faultless help and support, InMotion provides: 

• Online support centre
• Ticketed support
• Live chat and phone support (both available 24/7)

As well as this, an auto installer is available on all plans to assist with site setup.

Features

InMotion offers a good selection of features. InMotion uses cPanel, and SSL certificates – as well as a free domain – are available on all plans. 

Our research found InMotion to be the best for providing shared and VPS ecommerce-specific hosting plans. 

InMotion’s shared hosting offering includes unmetered bandwidth across all plans. 

Meanwhile, its VPS hosting plans include varying levels of bandwidth:

Although the VPS plans are capped, each plan offers a generous amount of bandwidth. For example, the VPS-1000HA-S plan is the cheapest, but still provides 2TB. This goes beyond what most small businesses would need in the beginning, so there’s plenty of room to grow. 

Free backups are possible up to 10GB. A dedicated IP address is only available with InMotion’s VPS hosting, with shared hosting providing no such option. 

InMotion only offers a WooCommerce-specific hosting plan. While Magento isn’t available, it’s possible to plug in other shopping cart software, such as OpenCart.

The number of online stores you can have depends on whether you’re using shared hosting or VPS hosting. If you choose VPS hosting, then you can have unlimited online stores, while with shared hosting, the number of online stores varies according to the plan:

• Launch plan – two online stores
• Power plan – six online stores
• Pro plan – unlimited online stores

Value for money

InMotion is a high scorer in the value for money category. Both InMotion’s shared and VPS hosting offers three plans, and both of these hosting types offer SSDs and recommended plans for online stores. 

Its 90 day money back guarantee is the most generous out of the six providers listed.

InMotion shared ecommerce hosting pricing

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Core	Launch	Power	Pro
Cost £2.09 per month (then £7.12 per month)	Cost £4.50 per month (then £9.75 per month)	Cost £4.50 per month (then £12.75 per month)	Cost £13.99 per month (then £23.99)
Features Free SSL 2 websites Unlimited bandwidth Security suite and marketing tools	Features Unlimited websites Unlimited email addresses Free domain	Features Everything in Launch Plus advanced caching	Features Everything in Pro Plus Pro Support SLA

Check out InMotion's shared hosting provider Try InMotion

InMotion VPS ecommerce hosting pricing

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2GB RAM	4GB RAM	6GB RAM	8GB RAM
Cost $26.99 per month	Cost $34.99 per month	Cost $34.99 per month	Cost $83.99 per month
Features 45GB disk space 24/7/365 U.S. based support Resource monitoring dashboard	Features 75GB disk space Unlimited monthly bandwidth Handle 10x more traffic with optimized configurations	Features 105GB disk space 3 dedicated IP addresses Unlimited email	Features 140GB disk space Free launch assist Live-state and scheduled snapshots

Check out InMotion's VPS hosting plans Try InMotion

Disk space

InMotion offers a great amount of disk space. Indeed, it scored the same as Bluehost in this category, with both providers netting an impressive 4.5/5. Unlimited disk space is available on InMotion’s shared hosting plans. 

The available disk space on the VPS plans is as follows:

Uptime performance

InMotion offers 99.97% uptime. There is definitely room for improvement here it can’t guarantee the same amount of time online as HostGator can, although you’re still likely to experience less downtime than with A2 Hosting.

Bluehost: Best for help and support

Bluehost Ecommerce Hosting

4.6

The best all-rounder for shared hosting.

Get Bluehost now

• Free domain For 1st year
• Free SSL Yes

• 24/7 customer support
• Unlimited websites
• Custom themes

Summary Bluehost is an excellent choice for small businesses looking for a hosting provider. It offers top-notch help and support, as well as strong uptime performance – all at an affordable price. In fact, in research conducted specifically for Startups.co.uk, Bluehost was found to be the best overall hosting provider. This research included analysis of ten hosting providers across a variety of categories that are crucial for small business owners, including types of hosting, features, and more.

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Bluehost is a Utah-based company, which since 2010 has been a part of the Endurance International Group. 

Help and support

Our research found Bluehost to be the best provider for help and support, and as you might expect, it earned full marks in this category. Bluehost offers a wide range of assistance, including:

• An online knowledge base
• Ticketed assistance
• 24/7 live chat and phone support 

Where Bluehost has the edge on the other providers, however, is with its site setup guidance. It even provides a free setup call, whichever plan you’re on.

Features

While unmetered bandwidth is included on all plans, Bluehost falls short in other areas. 

Free backups aren’t available on the Starter plan, for example. They are an option on the Plus and Pro plans, but only via CodeGuard, a separate provider. 

A WooCommerce-specific hosting plan is available, but for other shopping cart software, it’s advised to use either a VPS or dedicated plan and use a plug-in, such as Magento.

With the Starter plan, it’s only possible to have one online store, but the Plus and Pro plans both offer unlimited online stores.

Additional available features are:

• cPanel
• Dedicated IP addresses
• Storefront themes 
• Free domains on all plans
• SSL certificates on all plans

Value for money

In terms of value for money, Bluehost has three plans to choose from. It offers specific ecommerce plans, although it’s also possible to plug-in shopping cart software across all plans. A standard 30-day money back guarantee is offered. 

Bluehost offers shared hosting as its specific ecommerce hosting type, with SSD and a recommended plan for online stores.

Bluehost WooCommerce hosting pricing

*Note that the above prices reflect current offers, and are correct at time of writing. The prices shown exclude VAT, and apply for an initial term of 36 months. Renewals are charged at the regular rates.

Disk space

The amount of disk space that Bluehost offers is excellent – it scored 4.5/5 in this category, which puts it on a par with InMotion. 

The Starter plan offers 100GB of storage, which is considerably more than the equivalent plans on SiteGround and DreamHost. However, the Plus and Pro plans include unmetered disk space. This means that no matter which plan you choose, your online store is free to grow. 

Uptime performance

At 99.98%, Bluehost has strong uptime performance. This represents just over one hour and 45 minutes of downtime each year. 

HostGator: Best for uptime performance

HostGator Ecommerce Hosting

4.5

Best for uptime performance.

Get HostGator now

• Free domain Yes
• Free SSL Yes

• One-click WordPress installs
• Unmetered bandwidth
• Free SEO tools - with business plan and above

Summary Owned by the same company as Bluehost, Hostgator is another one of the world's most widely used hosting providers. Its prices are fairly average and it offers a very generous 45-day money-back guarantee. Our researchers found Hostgator to be the best provider for uptime with a 99.99% guarantee.

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HostGator was founded in a dorm room in Florida in 2002, and now has multiple offices around the world.

Help and support

HostGator offers top-notch help and support, scoring 5/5 in this category. You can get support from HostGator via:

• A website knowledge base
• Live chat and phone, 24/7
• Ticketed support

Note that at the time of writing, phone support is temporarily only available at a reduced schedule, between 1pm-2am BST.

All plans have an auto installer to provide guidance during site setup.

Features

However, HostGator’s features are seriously unimpressive. Not only was this the area in which it scored the lowest, but HostGator was also the worst performing when compared to the other providers’ offerings in this category. That said, it does offer:

• cPanel functionality
• Unmetered bandwidth (all plans)
• SSL certificates (all plans)

While free backups are provided, this is on a weekly basis – in contrast, DreamHost offers free backups each day on all accounts. 

Another catch is that although free domains are possible, this is only the case for billing plans of 12 months or longer. Dedicated IP addresses aren’t included – they’re still an option, but for an additional charge of USD$4.00 per month.

Neither WooCommerce nor Magento specific hosting plans are available, and indeed, HostGator is the only provider on this list to not offer at least one of these options. 

And while other shopping cart software is available – including Magento, Zen Cart and PrestaShop – this is only possible via plug-ins. 

All in all, the lack of features means that not only does HostGator not match up against the competition, but it means there’s more for you to do. For example, just think of all the time you’ll have to spend sourcing a domain and installing plug-ins, and so on – all time that would be otherwise saved with the hosting providers that score more highly. 

With the Hatchling plan, you can only have one online store, but the Baby and Business plans both offer unlimited online stores. 

However, storefront themes aren’t included, and again, HostGator is the only provider out of the six not to offer them: they’re only available as a paid feature via WordPress. 

Value for money

HostGator does offer decent value for money, though. It has three plans to choose from, and a money back guarantee that applies for an above average 45 days. 

Cloud hosting is the most suitable type for ecommerce specifically, with SSD and a recommended plan for online stores. This type of hosting is great for online stores that are likely to experience varying levels of traffic and site activity, such as those that run a lot of sales or operate seasonally. 

HostGator cloud hosting pricing

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Hatchling	Baby plan	Business plan
Cost £1.56 per month	Cost £2.24 per month	Cost £3.36 per month
Features Single website One-click WordPress installs Free domain	Features Everything on Hatchling And unlimited websites	Features Everything on Baby Plan Free dedicated IP Free SEO tools

Check out HostGator's Hosting plans Try HostGator

*The prices listed above are starting prices, which are on offer and correct at the time of writing.

Disk space

With unmetered storage available across all plans, it’s no wonder that HostGator scored 5/5 for its disk space. 

Uptime performance

But where HostGator really shines is its 99.99% uptime performance, which represents under 60 minutes of downtime each year. It deservedly scored the highest out of all the providers in this category. 

The higher the uptime, the less time your site is offline – and the less likely you are to lose sales because people can’t access your site.

DreamHost: Best for providing those free extra features to help you on your way to success

Dreamhost Ecommerce Hosting

3.2

Best for additional features, but slightly lacking in the green hosting department

Try DreamHost

• FREE DOMAIN Yes
• FREE SSL Yes

• Comprehensive range of hosting types
• Sustainable practices focused on making its facilities greener

Summary Dreamhost is bottom of our list of top providers for a few reasons. It offers a solid service, but when compared to the big providers like Greengeeks and InMotion, you will be losing out. The help and customer support you'll receive is average, you do get an online knowledge base, ticketed support and live chat - but there is no phone support function and talking to an advisor 24/7 online is also off the cards. It offers plenty of choice when it comes to the type of hosting you want, and its value for money is pretty strong compared to other providers.

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DreamHost has 400,000+ customers, located in more than 100 countries. 

Help and support

Unfortunately, DreamHost didn’t wow us with its help and support offering – in fact, it’s the only provider on our list not to score full marks in this category. DreamHost can offer support by:

• Online knowledge base
• Live chat
• Ticketed support

But note that live chat isn’t available 24/7, phone support isn’t available at all, and no site setup guidance is provided either.

Features

DreamHost also only offers a fairly standard range of features. Although all plans include unmetered bandwidth and free domains, DreamHost is the only provider not to offer cPanel, and dedicated IP addresses aren’t available at all. But, as mentioned, the free daily backups are worth bearing in mind.

DreamHost does offer a WooCommerce-specific hosting plan, but Magento isn’t available, and it’s not possible to use any other shopping cart software either.

While SSL certificates and storefront themes are included, it’s only possible to have one online store on any plan.

Value for money

DreamHost also offers considerably less value for money than the other providers, earning the lowest score in this category. While it offers the standard three plans to choose from, as well as a 30-day money back guarantee, its prices are on the more expensive side. 

DreamHost WooCommerce pricing

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Plan DreamPress	Plan DreamPress Plus	Plan DreamPress Pro
Cost $16.95 per month	Cost $24.95 per month	Cost $71.95 per month
Features 100k monthly visitors Unlimited email 30GB storage Unmetered bandwidth 24/7 support 1-click staging Built in caching	Features 300k monthly visitors 60GB storage Professional Jetpack plan 3 phone support callbacks Unlimited CDN	Features 1 millon+ monthly visitors 120GB storage 5 phone support callbacks Priority support

Check out Dreamhost's pricing plans today Try Dreamhost

Disk space

With a middle-of-the-road 3.0 score for disk space, DreamHost provides varying levels of storage across its three plans:

• DreamPress – 30GB 
• DreamPress Plus – 60GB
• DreamPress Pro – 120GB 

This is better than SiteGround, whose highest storage amount is only equal to the offering on DreamHost’s lowest plan. But it’s no match for A2 Hosting and HostGator, who provide unlimited and unmetered storage on all plans respectively.

Uptime performance

However, with a meagre 99.95% uptime performance, DreamHost lags behind in this category – in fact, it’s the joint lowest scorer, with A2 Hosting also having the same percentage. This means there’s more chance that people could try to visit your site, but not be able to because it’s offline – through no fault of your own.

Best ecommerce hosting UK: How we chose providers for small business

Selecting an ecommerce hosting provider isn’t an easy decision – some providers offer ecommerce specific hosting, while others provide ecommerce functionality across all their plans.

And it’s easy to be dazzled by a long list of features, but it’s important to dig deeper and assess if a provider offers features that are right for your business.

We’ve included some of the best ecommerce hosting providers for small business on the market in this guide. But how did we do it?

There are several factors that were considered essential for an ecommerce hosting provider to be suitable for small businesses. Our researchers analysed data in the following five categories:

• Help and support – we assessed providers based on how much assistance is on offer. This included whether a knowledge centre was available, as well as as if live chat and phone support was possible (including 24/7 options). Other areas we reviewed were the possibility of ticketed support, along with whether site setup guidance was provided
• Features – in this category, we looked at if cPanel functionality was available, and how much bandwidth was on offer. We also reviewed if free domains and free backups were included, and if dedicated IP addresses were an option. The providers were assessed on whether WooCommerce and Magento specific hosting plans were available, as well as any other shopping cart software. We also checked to see if SSL certificates and storefront themes were included, plus the number of online stores that are allowed
• Value for money – we investigated the number of plans offered, along with the starting and highest prices for ecommerce plans per month (excluding discounts). We also checked the conditions of any money back guarantees, and which hosting type was suitable for ecommerce specifically, offering a SSD and a recommended plan for online stores
• Disk space – we reviewed the amount of storage that was available from each provider, which varied from 30GB to unmetered/unlimited 
• Uptime performance – this measures the reliability of a hosting provider’s server, and is given as a percentage per year. Although 100% isn’t realistic (a certain amount of downtime can be expected), this figure should be as high as possible. For example, 99.95% uptime actually represents somewhat poor performance, while 99.99% uptime is excellent

How we test hosting providers for small businesses

We tested 27 hosting providers to evaluate them in terms of price, performance, features, help and support, and more so we can make the most useful recommendations to small UK-based businesses.

Our rigorous testing process means these products have been scored and rated in five main categories of investigation and 30 subcategories – in fact, we covered 282 areas of investigation in total and we look at these for all hosting types. We then gave each category score a ‘relevance weighting' to ensure the product's final score perfectly reflects the needs of our Startups.co.uk readers.

Our main testing categories for hosting providers are:

Price: the cost associated with the hosting services provided by a hosting provider, such as subscription plans, pricing tiers, and any additional fees or charges.

Performance: the speed, reliability, and overall performance of a hosting provider's servers. It encompasses factors such as server uptime and response time.

Features: the specific functionalities and capabilities provided by a hosting provider, including storage space, bandwidth allocation, and server location.

Help and Support: the assistance and resources available to users when they encounter issues or need guidance, e.g. tutorials and email or chat support.

Market Analysis / Customer Score: the assessment of the hosting provider's position and reputation in the market.

The Startups product testing process

Next steps

Although a provider may offer ecommerce hosting, there’s a lot more to making a decision about this type of hosting than simply knowing that it’s available. 

For instance, you should check to see which hosting type is best suited for ecommerce for each provider. Some providers offer shared or cloud hosting only, while others can offer ecommerce functionality across a full range of hosting types.

Similarly, review whether WooCommerce or Magento specific hosting plans are available, along with whether other shopping cart software (such as OpenCart) is possible, and whether that’s via plug-in only. 

The number of online stores that you can have is important too, along with the essentials like backups and SSL certificates for security. Assessing a provider based on these factors can help you to refine your choices and make the best decision for your business.

Alternatively, if you’re still feeling uncertain, why not choose our number one provider? SiteGround is the best all-round ecommerce specific hosting provider, and has the highest scoring features. Start hosting your ecommerce site with SiteGround today!

FAQs

What is ecommerce website hosting?

Ecommerce web hosting offers specific features and functions that allow you to create, monitor, and run an online store. This includes a server (whether shared, VPS, dedicated, or cloud-based), as well as storefront templates and shopping cart software. The ability to receive and fulfill purchases, manage inventory, and take card payments securely are also all necessary.

For more general information, check out our guide to website hosting for small businesses.

What type of hosting do I need for ecommerce?

Depending on your business requirements, cloud, VPS, or even dedicated ecommerce website hosting is likely to be necessary for online stores that experience high traffic volumes and need a greater amount of storage. Alternatively, shared hosting is particularly suitable for if you’re just starting out and want to get your online store running easily and cheaply, as well as for online stores with minimal traffic.

In general, VPS hosting offers the best of both worlds for ecommerce. It offers the security and reliability that shared hosting lacks, yet is a more affordable and easy to use option than dedicated hosting.

Hosted vs self-hosted ecommerce platforms: Which is better?

Self-hosted ecommerce solutions are ideal if you want complete control and have a limited budget, as long as you have the time to spend on setting it up and the ongoing maintenance. They offer the ability to create an online store that matches your exact business requirements, as well as the flexibility to choose, and move, hosting providers. 

In contrast, hosted ecommerce solutions are generally easier and quicker to set up, and require less technical knowledge. However, they’re usually more expensive, and can’t be customised as easily as non-hosted ecommerce software.