Web hosting providers support approximately 2 billion websites and the industry is expected to reach $216.59 billion by 2025. Their services provide the heart of the online presence of any website, whether it’s a small online business, huge enterprise, or a family blog.
Measuring the success of web hosting companies can be difficult because it depends on whether one is comparing revenues, the number of hosted websites, traffic generated, or domains registered.
10 largest web hosting companies according to their market percentage
The largest regional market for web and cloud hosting is the U.S. and it is the world leader in web connectivity per capita. The continent of North America has 59% of the global web hosting market.
GoDaddy
GoDaddy has been around for over 20 years and is known for its low-cost domains and affordable hosting services. It manages 77 million domain names, 18 million customers, and has 8.000 employees globally. The company’s headquarters are in Arizona, but also has facilities in California, Washington, Iowa, India, England, and Northern Ireland.
GoDaddy hosts 20.8% of U.S. websites, is user friendly, and offers excellent load times. It also offers specialized options for website builders and a variety of hosting options. GoDaddy is popular with eCommerce stores and WordPress users, offering many options including SSL certificates, web security, email, and online marketing tools.
Adriaan Brits, CEO at Sitetrail Media explains that people should not rush into rip-off deals that seem too good to be true. He says that “some smaller hosting providers can help consumers end the ordeal they suffer from falling for Godaddy hosting plans by providing better security and faster load speed – for this reason, comparing hosting providers from an unbiased source is a necessary step to take”.
Amazon Web Services
With an 8.6% market share, Amazon Web Services offers more than 90 services including cloud computing, networking, analytics, developer tools, database, etc. Cloud hosting means that you pay as much as you use, but AWS does not support eCommerce nor does it have website builders.
AWS is preferred by established businesses and developers because their cloud services have a high learning curve. It also doesn’t offer the same support like most other web hosting services.
Google Cloud Platform
Google offers scalable cloud services and has 6% of the market. It is the world’s largest private cloud network with a presence of more than 100 points in 17 regions. It is trusted by some of the largest companies since its internal infrastructure powers high-traffic websites.
Like AWS, Google Cloud Platform has over 90 on-demand services and is also a pay as you go service with no eCommerce or website builder.
Bluehost
With a varied collection of services, Bluehost oversees 2 million domains and has 5% of the website market. Bluehost has many dedicated hosting options and platforms that are specially tailored for WordPress and endorsed by it. It is also a good platform for eCommerce and offers free SSL certificates.
Bluehost maintains its servers in Utah from a 50,000 square-foot facility and employs over 750 people. It is successful against competitors like WIX, largely because it offers superior WordPress hosting.
HostGator
With a full range of web hosting services HostGator, like Bluehost, is owned by Endurance International Group. The beginner-friendly host has an easy-to-use cPanel and offers unlimited disk space, email, and bandwidth with all its hosting programs.
The company was started in 2002 in Florida by a student and now manages 9 million domains for 500,000 customers giving it a 3.7% market share.
Liquid Web
Liquid Web offers all types of web hosting services and employs more than 500 on-site professionals at five global data centers, including Phoenix and Amsterdam. It has a 3.6% market share, and its headquarters are in Michigan.
They are considered the elite of web hosting services because they promise 100% uptime and typically respond to customers in less than 30 minutes. Liquid Web supports eCommerce through WooCommerce and WordPress but does not have a web builder.
Squarespace
Squarespace is a premium website builder that also has hosting services. It was founded in a dorm room in Maryland and has over 800 employees in New York, Portland, and Dublin.
Squarespace has a 3.5% market share due to its robust eCommerce tools, analytics, and domain name services.
1&1
German-based 1&1 has a 3.3% market share in the U.S. It offers a well-rounded suite of services, affordable prices, and excellent customer support. The company has a presence in 10 countries across Europe and North America with 7,000 employees and 70,000 servers. 1&1 offers full-service web hosting, including dedicated hosting, and has a website builder, eCommerce, marketing and security tools, domain name registrations, and email.
DreamHost
DreamHost has a 2.7% market share and has a WordPress optimized platform called DreamPress for faster WordPress hosting. Across the globe, it hosts more than 1.5 million websites and its headquarters are in Los Angeles.
Shopify
Finally, Shopify is the Canadian eCommerce platform that has a 2.6% market share. Online entrepreneurs find everything they need for their online stores from this all-in-one eCommerce hosting giant. Shopify powers more than 600,000 businesses across the globe with more than $72 billion in sales.
Comparing options
Choosing a web hosting service may not always be easy, and these are just some of the thousands of options out there. Reviews and feature comparisons can help any website owner choose the perfect web host, no matter what their website needs are.
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