8 Best Linux Server Hosting Providers

Best overall Linux hosting provider

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

What we like about Bluehost

Here are the key pros of choosing Bluehost:

1. Loads of great WordPress-specific features. Install WordPress with just one click, and automate plugin/software updates.
2. Strong uptime guarantee. It holds its own against the likes of HostGator.
3. Low prices. Not the cheapest on this list, but some of the best value.
4. WordPress-recommended. Bluehost is expressly recommended by WordPress, and has been since 2005. High praise indeed!
5. 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 money-back guarantee for 30 days.
2. Free SSL only offered with the Pro plan and above. Most 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, as you’ll automatically be opted in to 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 otherwise you can pay $149.99 for Bluehost to move it for you.

Bluehost Linux Plans and Pricing

Best for uptime

HostGator is a quality hosting provider which guarantees the best uptime of anyone on the market. Check out how well it scored across the board:

What we like about HostGator

There’s a lot we like about HostGator – it scored 4.6/5 in our research for a reason!

1. 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.
2. Best uptime guarantee of any provider, 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 (no provider can guarantee 100% uptime). If HostGator falls short of this promise, it’ll give you one month for free.
3. Free SSL certificates (essential for keeping your site secure) and a free domain name with annual plans – perfect if you’re starting a new site. We were especially impressed by the wealth of features available on HostGator’s shared plans.
4. 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.
5. Free site transfer – although it’s worth double checking this applies to the plan you’re signing up with.
6. Best dedicated hosting plans. If you already have a large site that requires dedicated hosting, HostGator is the best choice, according to our research.
7. Greenest hosting provider 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 price first term as an incentive, but most are clearer about what you can expect to pay once it’s over.
2. Plans aren’t the cheapest, although we do consider them to be good value because of everything that comes included.

HostGator Linux Plans and Pricing

Best for shared and VPS hosting

While HostGator took the title of best overall Linux hosting provider, InMotion really impressed us with its shared and VPS Linux hosting plans. It’s a great option for fairly small or new websites:

What we like about InMotion

InMotion’s shared and VPS hosting plans are feature-rich and affordable. Here are the highlights:

1. Unlimited disk space and bandwidth, even on the cheapest shared plan. This is super generous, and not something a lot of providers offer.
2. Expert staff. Every member of the InMotion support staff receives 160 hours of training, so are able to tackle more 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. This means you can try InMotion for a decent amount of time, without worrying about being locked in with a provider that doesn’t suit you.
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 99.97%, it’s hardly bad – just lower than other top providers.
2. 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

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 fourth place, 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 starting prices (from $5/month). A2 Hosting’s cloud plans are ideal for scaling your site.
2. Anytime money-back guarantee. A2 Hosting is so confident in the service it’s offering 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 site transfer. A2 Hosting will migrate your site over to its system from that of your current provider for no charge – a huge plus if you’re looking to switch.

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 how come it isn’t higher up on the list?

1. Low uptime guarantee. 99.95% is lower than pretty much every other provider on this list, and A2 doesn’t offer a way for you to measure your own uptime. It will, however, refund you 5% of your monthly fee for every hour your site is down.
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

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 one major con:

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.

SiteGround Linux Plans and Pricing

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. Good quality shared hosting. There’s only one shared plan – but it starts at $1.99, renews at $7.99, 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. Low uptime guarantee. So in theory, a site hosted with iPage will experience the most downtime of any provider. Again, this still only comes down to a few hours a year – whether this is make or break for your site will depend on your field.
2. Backups will cost you – a lot! $100 each time, to be precise.
3. Slow speeds. iPage’s plans aren’t very powerful, which will translate to lower page load speeds (and a potential negative impact on rankings).

iPage Linux Plans and Pricing

Loads of storage space – great for media-heavy sites

DreamHost’s plans are generous with storage, but as a provider, it falls down in a couple of key areas – namely help and support:

What we like about DreamHost

Here are the highlights of DreamHost’s Linux hosting.

1. 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 $4.95/month – 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.

What could be improved

And now, the lowlights.

1. No help and support via phone or live chat, ever. You can request support through a ticketing system, but are otherwise left to fend for yourself – not something we’d recommend, 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 after previously hosting your site elsewhere.

DreamHost Linux Plans and Pricing

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 the same price as the equivalent Bluehost and InMotion plans ($7.99) once the promotion is over.
2. Free backups. Daily for the Premium and Business plans (and above), and weekly otherwise.

What could be improved

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

1. No help and support via live chat or over the phone. Like DreamHost, a ticketing system is your only option.
2. Worst uptime guarantee. Promising just 99.91%, this is the lowest guaranteed by any provider, although it does offer a 5% refund of your monthly bill if uptime dips below 99.9%.
3. No dedicated hosting plans. This means there’s a glass ceiling for your site’s growth through Hostinger.

Hostinger Linux Plans and Pricing

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:

9 Best Linux Server Hosting Providers

1. Bluehost – Best overall Linux hosting provider
2. HostGator – Best for uptime
3. InMotion – Best for shared and VPS hosting plans
4. A2 Hosting – Best for cloud hosting
5. SiteGround – Reliable, with good help and support
6. iPage – Cheap plans, but at the expense of speed
7. DreamHost – Loads of storage space; great for media-heavy sites
8. Hostinger – Stripped back features, but cheap discounted prices

Bluehost is the best overall Linux hosting provider, with a great selection of plans across all types of hosting. If in doubt, try Bluehost.

If you’re hosting a small site, or already know that you need shared or VPS hosting, go with InMotion. You’ll get a lot of support, a free site transfer (if needed), and generally a great value service.

If you’re running a high-traffic site, and keeping your uptime as high as possible is the main priority, take a look at HostGator.

If your main concern is keeping costs as low as possible, look to iPage, DreamHost, and Hostinger – although with often just a dollar or so at stake, we wouldn’t recommend you jump straight for these providers without checking out the top three first.

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!