Are you searching for the best hosting for Magento 2? We’ve got you covered.
This guide lists the top Magento hosting providers and explains how to choose the best one for your business.
If you’re in a rush, here are the best hosting providers for Magento 2:
- Nexcess — best overall.
- A2 Hosting — best for performance.
- Cloudways — best for managed VPS hosting.
- HostGator — best for businesses on a budget.
- InMotion Hosting — best for tech-savvy business owners.
- Siteground — best for custom server configurations.
- Liquid Web — best for enterprises using unsupported Magento 2 versions.
Keep reading if you want to learn how and why we chose them. We’ll explain everything you need to know, starting with the basics, and share two Magento hosting alternatives.
Introduction to Magento hosting
First, let’s explore what Magento hosting is, why you need it, and what to look for in a Magento hosting provider.
What is Magento hosting?
Magento hosting is a service that provides hardware and software configured for the Magento application. It ensures Magento can perform optimally in a secure environment.
Adobe publishes online documentation to help merchants configure hardware and software for Magento 2. However, you need technical expertise to understand and implement Adobe’s recommendations.
Magento hosting companies handle server setup and management, so anyone can use Magento 2 without dealing with the technicalities of hosting, maintaining, and securing it. All you do is pay a small monthly fee for their service.
What to look for in a Magento hosting provider: 10 factors to consider
Now that you understand what Magento hosting is and why you need it, let’s look at the factors you should consider when choosing a provider.
1. Magento-specific resources
Magento relies on the CPU to serve uncached and uncacheable requests. Without enough processing power, your store will slow down when you perform routine tasks such as adding products or setting up price rules.
That’s why it’s important to choose a provider that offers CPU-optimized hosting for Magento 2, in addition to Varnish, Redis, and Elasticsearch support.
2. Pricing plans
Another critical factor to consider when choosing the best hosting provider for Magento 2 is pricing. Of course, you want to choose hosting that fits within your budget. But it’s just as important to ensure the provider’s services meet all your needs, even if it costs a bit more.
Choosing a provider that offers lower pricing with lesser support or fewer resources can prove expensive if you need to migrate hosts down the line.
3. Storage and bandwidth
You need images and video content to promote your products online. Those usually require a sizable amount of storage and bandwidth. So make sure you account for both when you choose a provider.
The storage and bandwidth you need will vary depending on your store size and traffic. A minimum of 10GB of storage space and 1TB bandwidth should serve a few hundred daily visitors to a small Magento store.
4. Data center locations
Your server’s physical location can impact website performance. If your server is far from your customers, high network latency can cause slugging performance, especially during checkout. That, in turn, can lead to cart abandonment and fewer sales.
Choose a provider with data centers close to your target audience. Ideally, pick one with an integrated, SSL-secured content delivery network (CDN). That way, your website will load fast regardless of where your customers access it from.
5. Performance-oriented features
A Magento-optimized hosting environment and CDN go a long way toward ensuring speedy performance. But if you want the best website performance, you should consider a provider that offers more than the basics.
For example, Nexcess offers Cloud Accelerator, an intelligent caching technology that uses NGINX to optimize static content delivery and improve website performance. It’s available with all Magento plans and you can set it up with a single click from the Nexcess Client Portal.
6. Infrastructure security
Ecommerce stores are lucrative targets for hackers. That’s why you should choose a provider that offers multiple layers of security across its hosting infrastructure.
The easiest way to identify a secure host is to check for PCI compliance. Only hosts with a reliable security infrastructure will offer PCI-compliant hosting.
7. Support channels
Things often go wrong unexpectedly. And when they do, you need to be able to reach out to your hosting provider quickly and easily. So make sure you choose a provider that offers 24/7 support across multiple channels such as phone, email, and live chat.
Better yet, test their response time and quality of support by contacting them with a few Magento-specific questions before signing up. That way, you’ll know what to expect once you’re a customer.
8. Scalability
Look for auto-scaling features in your hosting provider to ensure they can support your website during traffic surges. Viral moments happen unexpectedly. And when they do, your website shouldn’t struggle to keep up with demand.
It also helps to pick a host that lets you upgrade your hosting plan easily with minimal downtime. That’s essential when your business is experiencing rapid growth and needs more resources.
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9. Value-added services
Value-added services make it easier to manage your website. Whether that’s staging sites, automatic backups, or free SSL certificates, it all adds up to a hassle-free Magento ownership experience.
It’s okay if those services aren’t free. What’s important is that you can access them easily when you need them.
10. Customer reviews
Finally, check for customer reviews across different platforms. Negative reviews aren’t always a bad sign. They can help you identify common customer complaints and how the company deals with them.
7 best Magento hosting providers
After careful consideration and analysis, we identified the best Magento hosting providers on the market. Here are our top five, plus two Magento hosting alternative picks:
- Nexcess
- A2 Hosting
- Cloudways
- HostGator
- InMotion Hosting
- Siteground
- Liquid Web
Keep reading to discover why we chose them and who they’re best suited for.
1. Nexcess
Nexcess offers a perfect balance of affordability, simplicity, performance, and control. It doesn’t matter if you’re a small business looking for a managed solution or a large corporation that needs an enterprise-grade server — Nexcess has a Magento hosting plan for you.
Nexcess Magento hosting includes daily automated backups, extra PHP workers to handle unexpected traffic spikes, and continuous server monitoring. Plus, it provides easy access to staging environments to test updates and upgrades without downtime.
Best Magento hosting for: All types of ecommerce businesses. Nexcess also has cloud, bare-metal, and clustering plans for enterprises.
Why choose Nexcess:
- Magento-optimized servers: Nexcess servers support the latest Magento-compatible PHP, Varnish, Redis, Elasticsearch, and RabbitMQ versions.
- PCI-compliant hosting: Nexcess is a PCI DSS Level 1 provider listed on the Visa Global Registry of service providers. And if you need it, Nexcess can also help you prepare your store for a PCI assessment.
- Global CDN: The Nexcess Edge CDN powered by Cloudflare has over 280 points of presence globally. That ensures your website remains fast no matter where your customers are.
- Automated scaling: Nexcess offers up to 24 hours of free autoscaling each month. Whether it’s a flash sale or a seasonal spike, Nexcess automatically increases the PHP workers available to your website to keep up with demand.
- Friendly customer support: Nexcess provides 24/7/365 support across phone, chat, and email.
Price: Starts from $29.50 for the first three months, then $59 per month.
Wondering how we compare?
Learn how Nexcess delivers more value than any other host
2. A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting gives you complete control over your hosting environment with root access to your server and the ability to choose the software versions for all applications. If you don’t need that much control, it also offers managed hosting plans.
That said, A2 Hosting isn’t beginner-friendly. You need to be hands-on when working with them since A2 Hosting’s entry-level Magento hosting plans do not support HTTP/2, Edge Side Includes, or provide any significant performance optimizations.
Best Magento hosting for: Magento websites that need a performance-optimized hosting environment.
Why choose A2 Hosting:
- Flexible plans and deep discounts: A2 Hosting plans come with different levels of server management services and hardware support. Plus, A2 Hosting provides massive discounts on annual payments.
- High-speed servers: A2 Hosting uses high-performance SSDs for VPS hosting. All hosting plans also come with preconfigured OPcache optimizations for optimal performance.
- Reliable hosting: A2 Hosting offers ultra-reliable servers with a 99.99% uptime guarantee.
- Root-level access: A2 Hosting gives you root access for tasks like Composer and PHP upgrades.
- Complementary services: A2 Hosting provides free SSL certificates and unlimited email addresses with all plans.
Price: Starts from $59.99 per month, paid annually, for unmanaged VPS hosting. Managed hosting starts from $86.99 per month, paid annually.
3. Cloudways
Cloudways is an online platform that lets you install and manage Magento 2 on servers hosted by Google Cloud, DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, and Amazon Web Services. What makes them such a great choice is that they empower you to manage servers without technical skills.
The only downside is that using the Cloudways admin panel requires a basic understanding of the different Magento-related technologies. Without it, you might break your store if you enable or disable a mission-critical application or change an important setting.
Best Magento hosting for: Ecommerce businesses that need cost-effective managed VPS hosting.
Why choose Cloudways:
- Access to five cloud hosting providers: Cloudways supports five VPS hosting providers, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and DigitalOcean.
- Unlimited applications and easy upgrades: You can install as many supported applications as you like on your server and even upgrade your server in a few clicks.
- Usage-based billing: Cloudways bills on an hourly basis. You can spin up a server and delete it without being charged for an entire month.
- Low-cost email hosting: Cloudways provides email hosting powered by Rackspace for as little as $1 per month.
- Cloudflare Enterprise support: Cloudways gives you access to Cloudflare Enterprise for better website performance and security at discounted rates.
Price: Cloudways offers a 3-day free trial. Paid plans start from $42 per month for a standard DigitalOcean VPS.
4. HostGator
HostGator is one of the cheapest Magento hosting providers on the market. Their shared hosting plans let you build a Magento store with unlimited bandwidth, email hosting, and free SSL certificates for under $4 per month if you pay for the entire year.
HostGator also offers VPS and dedicated hosting for businesses that need more resources. The only thing we don’t like about HostGator is their plan-based support. Entry-level plans only receive chat support. You need to upgrade your plan for phone support.
Best Magento hosting for: Small ecommerce businesses and bootstrapped startups looking to host a Magento store on a tight budget.
Why choose HostGator:
- Low pricing: HostGator’s hosting plans are priced competitively with heavy discounts on annual purchases.
- Unmetered bandwidth: All HostGator plans come with unlimited bandwidth. You don’t need to worry about extra costs for streaming video content on your store.
- Free email addresses: HostGator supports unlimited email addresses with their hosting plans.
- Multiple application support: Besides Magento, you can install other applications like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla on your server.
- cPanel and analytics tools: HostGator uses the latest cPanel version for its hosting control panel and offers useful analytics tools like AWStats and Webalizer.
Price: Shared hosting plans start from $11.95 per month or $3.95 per month when paid annually.
5. InMotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting is the best hosting for Magento 2 users who need control over their hosting environments. It provides managed and unmanaged VPS hosting and dedicated servers with Softaculous for 1-click application installation.
InMotion Hosting lets you set up your server environment the way you want with root access and a choice of two control panels. You also get two dedicated IP addresses with the base plan and more with every incremental plan.
Best Magento hosting for: Tech-savvy business owners and companies with in-house developers.
Why choose InMotion Hosting:
- Resilient servers: InMotion Hosting servers are resilient with real-time redundancies and DDoS attack protection.
- High-performance hardware: All hosting plans, excluding the base plan, use high-performance NVMe SSDs for storage.
- Server management tools: InMotion Hosting gives you Softaculous for easy application management and the option to choose either cPanel or Control Web Panel for your control panel.
- Multiple support options: InMotion Hosting offers 24/7/365 live chat and email support for all plans.
- Easy backups: You can easily save and restore the data and processes running on your server with InMotion Hosting’s live-state and scheduled snapshots.
Price: Monthly VPS hosting plans start from $54.99 per month. Annual plans start from $14.99 per month.
Magento hosting alternatives: Honorable mentions
Need hosting for an enterprise store or an unsupported Magento version? Here are two Magento hosting alternatives you should consider.
6. Siteground
Although Siteground no longer offers a managed Magento hosting service, its high-redundancy managed cloud hosting works with Magento 2.
The benefit of choosing Siteground for hosting Magento is that it lets you customize your cloud server’s CPU, memory, and storage resources. You can enjoy the resiliency of the cloud while fully customizing your server to suit your business needs.
Best Magento hosting for: Businesses that need managed cloud hosting with custom server configurations.
Who choose Siteground:
- Choose your hosting configuration: Siteground lets you build custom Magento cloud hosting configurations in a few clicks.
- Account and access management tools: You can easily collaborate with developers and team members using Siteground’s account and user role management tools.
- Dedicated IP address: You get a free dedicated IP with every cloud hosting plan to protect your website from IP blocklists.
- Free backups and SSL certificates: Siteground creates daily backups automatically and stores seven copies offsite for extra security.
- Easy resource scaling: You can upgrade your hosting resources manually from your account or opt for Siteground’s auto-scale feature to handle sudden spikes in traffic.
Price: Siteground cloud hosting plans start from $100 per month.
7. Liquid Web
Liquid Web offers two cloud hosting solutions that are ideal for Magento. Its Cloud Dedicated servers provide the processing power of a dedicated server with the resilience of cloud hosting — two things every Magento store needs.
On the other hand, Liquid Web’s managed Private Cloud provides a secure hosting environment for end-of-life applications like Magento 1 and unsupported Magento 2 versions.
The best part about Liquid Web’s hosting is that no matter which solution you choose, you get 24/7/365 support with a 59-second initial response guarantee for phone and chat requests. So when things go wrong, you can reach customer support in under a minute.
Best Magento hosting for: Ecommerce businesses using unsupported Magento 2 versions.
Why choose Liquid Web:
- Complete control: You retain control of your Magento store with root access for easy updates and software management.
- 100% network and power uptime SLAs: Liquid Web provides an industry-leading 100% uptime guarantee for its network and power infrastructure.
- Unlimited websites: There are no limits on the number of websites you can host on Liquid Web’s Private Cloud and Cloud Dedicated servers.
- Advanced security measures: All plans include a free secure firewall and DDoS protection as standard.
- Multiple add-on options: Liquid Web provides services such as PCI compliance scanning and email hosting as add-ons for your convenience.
Price: Cloud Dedicated hosting plans start from $149 per month. Private Cloud pricing starts from $375 per month.
Ready to choose the best hosting for Magento 2?
We’ve described the factors you should consider when choosing the best hosting for Magento 2 and shared our top picks. Now, it’s your turn to decide which Magento hosting provider is right for you.
If you still don’t know which hosting to choose, we recommend signing up for managed Magento hosting with Nexcess.
Nexcess is a well-rounded Magento hosting solution with excellent performance, multiple layers of security, and 24/7/365 support. It gives you everything you need for a stress-free Magento hosting experience.
Ready to start? Browse Nexcess Magento hosting plans to get started today.
