8 Best Linux Hosting Providers

Best overall Linux hosting provider

Bluehost is a great all-around hosting provider, and steals the show when it comes to hosting WordPress websites, or for those using dedicated hosting. Check out its strengths and weaknesses, according to our research:

What we like about Bluehost

Here are the key pros of choosing Bluehost:

1. Numerous WordPress-specific features. Install WordPress with just one click, and automate plugin/software updates.
2. Low prices. Not the cheapest on this list, but some of the best value.
3. WordPress-recommended. Bluehost is expressly recommended by WordPress, and has been since 2005. High praise indeed!
4. Excellent help and support across live chat, phone, and email. Someone’s on hand 24/7, and we can vouch for the fact that they actually know their stuff.

What could be improved

Where did Bluehost lose points?

1. Need to sign up for a minimum of a year. This feels like quite a commitment when most providers allow rolling monthly contracts, but you’ve still got the safety net of a 30-day money-back guarantee.
2. Free SSL only offered for the first year. Other providers include this for free as standard.
3. Unwanted extras at checkout. Be careful to uncheck any unwanted extras when you sign up to Bluehost because you’ll automatically opt into some you might not need.
4. No free site transfer. There’s a detailed guide to doing this yourself in the Bluehost knowledge center or, alternatively, you can pay $149.99 for Bluehost to migrate up to five websites and 20 email accounts for you.

Bluehost Linux Plans and Pricing

Bluehost is our #1 Linux hosting provider

Based on hours of careful research, we feel comfortable recommending Bluehost for all types of hosting. See if its plans match up with your needs.

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Best for help and support

HostGator is a quality hosting provider which will guarantee the support you need. Check out how well it scored across the board:

What we like about HostGator

There’s a lot we like about HostGator – it scores 4.7/5 in our research for a reason!

1. Excellent support. With help on hand 24/7 via live chat and phone. The HostGator knowledge base is also a very useful and easily searchable resource, meaning you can often answer your own questions.
2. Wide variety of Linux hosting types and plans. As your website changes and evolves, it’s good to know you have plenty of room to grow.
3. Fantastic uptime guarantee, promising 99.99%. This means – at least in theory – that a site hosted through HostGator should be up and running for the maximum possible time. If HostGator falls short of this promise, it’ll give you one month for free.
4. Free SSL certificates (essential for keeping your site secure), and a free DDos firewall, which protects your server from attacks that can shut down your server.
5. Free site transfer – although it’s worth double checking this applies to the plan you’re signing up with.
6. Best shared hosting plans. If you have a small site, with not much traffic, and also want to save money, HostGator is the best choice, according to our research.
7. One of the greenest hosting providers on this list. Web hosting is one of the worst polluting industries, but HostGator is committed to reducing its environmental impact, offsetting its carbon footprint by 130%.

What could be improved

What kept HostGator from scoring a perfect 5/5?

1. Pricing transparency. HostGator isn’t super transparent about how much your plan will cost after the initial promotion period is over. Most providers offer a low first term price as an incentive. Think of it like booking a flight and you get given one price but then, once you’ve put the add-ons in your cart, the price has quadrupled – leaving you pulling your hair from its roots.
2. Plans aren’t the cheapest, although we do consider them to be good value because of everything that is included.
3. It hasn’t got the quickest server response time. Which, for such a major hosting provider, is a little disappointing. This means that, when compared with its competitors, there’s more downtime.

HostGator Linux Plans and Pricing

HostGator has the best guaranteed uptime of any provider

Based on hours of careful research, we feel comfortable recommending HostGator for all types of hosting. See if its plans match up with your needs.

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Best for photography hosting

InMotion really impressed us with its photography website hosting because of its fantastic feature score, robust security, and adaptable backups. InMotion came in second place for performance, meaning your images will always be shown clearly. It’s a great option for fairly small or new websites because:

What we like about InMotion

InMotion’s also second best for WordPress and ecommerce hosting plans because they are feature-rich. Here are the highlights:

1. Unlimited disk space and bandwidth. Even on the cheapest shared plan. This is something few providers offer.
2. Expert staff. Every member of the InMotion support staff receives 160 hours of training, so are able to tackle complex queries.
3. Free backups, free SSL, and a free domain with all plans. Again, these are some super generous plans, and will keep your additional costs really low.
4. 90-day money-back guarantee. One of the longest money-back guarantees – meaning you can try InMotion for a decent amount of time, without worry.
5. Free site transfers. Have your site moved to InMotion free of charge.

What could be improved

Does InMotion have any major drawbacks?

1. Average uptime guarantee. At 99.98%, it’s hardly bad – just lower than other top providers.
2. Average performance score. Compared to its competitors, the performance is pretty average. 
3. Dedicated plans are pricey. This isn’t a problem if you’re not looking for this kind of hosting yet, but something to think about for the future.

InMotion Linux Plans and Pricing

InMotion is excellent for photography websites

It’s the perfect choice for smaller photography websites, and offers a massive 90-day money-back guarantee.

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Best for cloud hosting

While A2 Hosting impressed us with its cloud hosting plans and support options, it mainly fell down on value for money:

What we like about A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting may be down in fifth place overall, but it does have a clear speciality: cloud Linux hosting.

1. Best cloud hosting provider. A2 has a winning cloud hosting combination, with higher max RAM and more CPUs than the next four providers, as well as root access and affordable cloud starting prices (from $5 per month). A2 Hosting’s cloud plans are ideal for scaling your site.
2. 30-day money-back guarantee. A2 Hosting is so confident in its service that it allows you to claim a pro-rata amount of money back at any time. It’s the only provider to offer this!
3. Free expert site migration. If you’re looking to switch, A2 Hosting will migrate your site from your current provider to its system for free – a huge plus!

What could be improved

A2 Hosting knocks it out of the park when it comes to customer service and features, and has the helpful perk of free site transfers. So, why isn’t it higher up on the list?

1. Not the cheapest on the list. A2 doesn’t offer the cheapest deals and, although it has some great features, its competitors are beating the price points. It will, however, offer a 30-day money-back guarantee if you want to give it a try.
2. No domain name included. Not a problem if you already have one, of course, but it means paying for a domain name if you don’t. Expect this to be between $10 and $20 per year.

A2 Hosting Linux Plans and Pricing

Try cloud hosting with A2 Hosting

Take a look at the cloud hosting plans on offer, and pick the right one for you. There is the added benefit of being able to expand your wants and needs as your business grows.

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Reliable Linux hosting, with good help and support

SiteGround is a safe pair of hands in the web hosting world, but not a high-flyer. Check out how it performed in our research:

What we like about SiteGround

Here are the key advantages of choosing SiteGround:

1. SiteGround is big on security. Security is a priority for all hosting providers, but SiteGround really takes this to the next level; you’ll get a free auto-renewing SSL certificate and a Let’s Encrypt integration, plus SiteGround will monitor your server constantly (every 0.5 seconds) to pick up on malicious attacks.
2. Tons of WordPress-friendly features. These include Smart WordPress Staging for testing site developments, the WordPress Starter plugin for newbies, a SiteGround Migrator plugin for easy site transfers, and automatic software updates as standard.
3. Free automatic daily backups, complete with a button within your control panel to reinstate older versions of your site with just one click.

What could be improved

SiteGround has plenty of pros, and two major cons:

1. SiteGround is a pricey option. While the starter price above is only a gentle step up from the cheaper plans around, you can see from the table below that this quickly ramps up. We surveyed our readers on their most important considerations when choosing a hosting provider, and a massive 55% said pricing – so this is a pretty big blow to an otherwise good provider.
2. Low server response time and average site speed. Even a one-second loading time could send your website visitors away, so SiteGround needs to improve in this area.

SiteGround Linux Plans and Pricing

SiteGround’s security is next level

SiteGround really takes care of you when it comes to security. For sites handling personal information, it will prove to be worth the extra investment.

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Cheap Linux plans, but at the expense of speed

iPage’s cheap plans have obvious appeal. However, our research found that while they may be good value for money, they fall down in a few key areas:

What we like about iPage

iPage has some really compelling advantages.

1. Low prices! Like, really low. If you love a bargain, look no further.
2. Strong support. You wouldn’t expect 24/7 customer support via phone and live chat at these prices, but iPage delivers.
3. Joint third for site speed. If you’re looking for a provider that can handle speed, then iPage is a great choice.
4. Carbon offsetting of 200%. As hosting creates a large amount of pollution, your mind can rest easily because iPage offsets its carbon emissions.
5. Good quality shared hosting. There’s only one shared plan – but it starts at $2.99, renews at $9.99, and can support up to 500,000 monthly visits. Nice!

What could be improved

You’ll be compromising on a few factors with iPage – how much this fazes you will depend on your personal needs.

1. Limited scalability. Because there is only one payment plan on shared hosting (it doesn’t have VPS or Dedicated hosting plans) it means that your scalability options are super limited.
2. Backups will cost you, a bit! It used to be $100 each time, but now it’s between $2.58 and $3.67 per month – much more reasonable! However, many competitors do automatic daily backups for free, so it’s something to keep in mind.

iPage Linux Plans and Pricing

iPage has some of the lowest prices on the market

Take a look at its plans to see if they’ll match up with your website’s needs.

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Joint best for blogging

DreamHost’s plans are generous with storage, and great for blogging. As a provider, it is the only one to offer a 100% uptime guarantee – kiss website downtime goodbye!

What we like about DreamHost

Here are the highlights of DreamHost’s Linux hosting.

1. One of the cheapest renewal shared hosting price. While some providers’ prices really skyrocket once you’re out of the promotion period, DreamHost’s cheapest shared plan increases to just $6.99 per month – one of the lowest of all the providers featured here.
2. Generous storage. Across all the types of hosting, DreamHost’s plans regularly offer the most storage.
3. 100% uptime guarantee. Usually providers never have more than 99.99% but DreamHost provides 100% uptime, which is better than all other providers we’ve tested.
4. Longest money-back guarantee. DreamHost offers a 97-day money back guarantee which is fantastic if you want to try it out.
5. Huge range of payment options. For those looking to scale, DreamHost has a large variety of plans, so you can get exactly what you need.

What could be improved

And now, the lowlights.

1. No help and support via phone, ever. You can request support through a ticketing system, via email, or live chat 24/7. Outside of this, you are left to fend for yourself – not ideal, especially for those new to hosting. 
2. DreamHost doesn’t use cPanel. cPanel is the industry-standard hosting dashboard, and is easy to get to grips with. DreamHost uses its own panel, which will mean there’s a slight learning curve if you join afterhosting your site elsewhere.

DreamHost Linux Plans and Pricing

DreamHost is a dream for media-heavy sites

With swift site speeds, DreamHost is worth considering – especially for scaling websites and blogs.

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Stripped back features, but very cheap discounted prices

Hostinger is a classic example of a provider where you ‘get what you pay for’. Yes, the price you pay is very low – but the service you’re getting is quite stripped back, which won’t be for everyone:

What we like about Hostinger

Here are Hostinger’s main pros:

1. Very low promotional prices. Hostinger offers the cheapest way to host your website, with rock-bottom promotional prices. It’s worth noting, however, that the cheapest plan renews at a higher price than the equivalent Bluehost and HostGator plans ($9.99) once the promotion is over.
2. Free backups. Although its lowest plan is limited to 30GB, depending on which price plan you choose after this will see you jump up to 200GB.
3. Good security features. You can get free SSL certificates and DDos protection.

What could be improved

There are a few crucial areas Hostinger would need to address to compete for the top spot:

1. No 24/7 support. When something goes wrong, it’s comforting to know your hosting provider will be there in the nick of time. Hostinger isn’t quite up to speed with its support just yet.
2. Not doing any green hosting initiatives. If you’re environmentally conscious, then Hostinger might not be for you. Hostinger currently has no initiatives to try and offset their carbon footprint.
3. No dedicated hosting plans. This means there’s a glass ceiling for your site’s growth through Hostinger.

Hostinger Linux Plans and Pricing

Get online with Hostinger for as little as $1.99

You’ll be compromising on some service and features, but ultimately getting a good deal. Go to Hostinger’s website for more information on the different plans, and to find out what’s included.

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Thanks for sticking with us as we reviewed the best Linux web hosting providers! Whether you’re a beginner looking for more support, or a seasoned hosting pro looking for something feature-rich, we hope you’ve found your ideal provider. Let’s recap our top choices once more:

8 Best Linux Server Hosting Providers

1. Bluehost – Best overall Linux hosting provider
2. HostGator – Best for help and support
3. InMotion – Best for photography hosting
4. A2 Hosting – Best for cloud hosting
5. SiteGround – Reliable Linux hosting, with good security
6. iPage – Cheap Linux plans, but at the expense of speed
7. DreamHost – Joint best for blogging
8. Hostinger – Stripped back features, but cheap discounted prices

And if there’s anything we haven’t covered, or you’d like us to help with a personal recommendation, please let us know in the comments – we’d love to hear from you!