The Best Web Hosts for Small Business Owners

Behind every great business website is a hard-working webmaster and a reliable web host. If you're considering getting or switching to a new web hosting service, continue reading to learn about the importance of a good web host and how to get the lowdown on the best web hosts for small business owners.

What's a web host?

A web host is a company that offers individuals and businesses the infrastructure and services they need to publish their websites on the Internet so that others can view them.  The infrastructure usually amounts to virtual space on a powerful computer known as a server. The webmaster who runs a website can upload all of the data for the site on this server. That data includes HTML files (web pages), script files that set forth specific web page behavior and style sheets and images that give the site a certain look.  The server could be a shared server that hosts multiple other sites, a VPS (virtual private server) that hosts fewer sites, a cloud server that hosts websites on a virtual partition of a server or a dedicated server that exists only for your use.  The services can vary by the web host. But the best web hosts for small business owners usually include customer support to assist webmasters with website setup and technical difficulties. They also include a suite of tools that webmasters can use to maintain and monitor their websites around the clock.

Does your small business need a web host?

The ability to host a website on a local web server run on a personal computer may have some asking whether or not they need a web host. Hosting a site on a home computer to test and troubleshoot a website before you publish it is okay. But it cannot be used to deliver web pages to a wide audience as reliably or securely as a web host. In some cases, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may prevent you from giving access to a local site to anyone outside your network.  The ability to scale up is why small business owners need both a web host and a domain (a website address) to publish web pages to the Internet. Having a web host is essential for every small business owner that plans to set up a business website, which should be every business owner given how valuable business websites are today.

What are the best web hosts for small business owners?

Web hosting options for businesses run the gamut from lower cost shared or cloud server plans to more costly VPS plans and still pricier dedicated servers. Your goal should be to find a web host that offers web hosting plans with the server type and features you need at a price point that fits your budget. Below are three of the best web hosts for small business owners according to expert reviews around the web.