Finding the best cloud hosting provider can be a crucial step if your website has outgrown its shared plan or your enterprise site is getting sudden web traffic spikes. With cloud hosting, you can enjoy unparalleled scalability, robust security with SSL certificates, generous storage, and rock-solid uptime guarantees of 99.9%+.
DreamHost is our top recommendation for cloud hosting thanks to its strong offering and affordable pricing, which will appeal to beginners and entrepreneurs on a tight budget. You may find that other excellent cloud hosting providers may be more suitable for your specific needs, however.
We’ve tested some of the best cloud-based web hosting services for this guide to help you make an informed purchase decision, and we’ll explore their features and pricing in detail.
The Best Cloud Hosting Providers in 2024,
1. DreamHost
Best Cloud Server Hosting Overall
- Starting Price: $4.50/month
- vCPU and RAM: 1–8 vCPU, 512MB–16GB RAM
- Free Domain and SSL: ✅
- Starting Storage: 80GB SSD
- Unlimited Monthly Data Transfer: ✅
- 24/7 Customer Support: ✅
DreamHost's cloud computing service, DreamCompute, offers a budget-friendly hosting service with pay-as-you-go billing. Ideal for beginners, it provides flexible cloud server hosting and a straightforward pricing model. The 100% uptime guarantee ensures reliable performance.
Pros:
- Low entry point pricing
- Supports multiple operating systems and programming languages
- Fast server setup and robust security
- Free block storage (100GB)
Cons:
- No autoscaling
- Limited resources for large enterprises
2. Bluehost
Best Cloud Hosting for WordPress
- Starting Price: $29.99/month
- vCPU and RAM: 2vCPU to 150vCPU
- Free Domain and SSL: ❌/✅
- Starting Storage: 10GB SSD
- Unlimited Monthly Data Transfer: Unlimited bandwidth on some plans
- 24/7 Customer Support: ✅
Bluehost Cloud excels in speed, support, and managed cloud hosting, especially for WordPress websites. It is ideal for high-traffic blogs, ecommerce sites, and resource-intensive applications. While its pricing may not be suitable for beginners, its performance and scalability are exceptional.
Pros:
- Speedy performance and immense scalability
- Fully managed WordPress platform
- Robust security features and expert support
- 100% uptime
Cons:
- No pay-as-you-go model
- Relatively expensive
3. InMotion Hosting
Best for Advanced Linux Users
- Starting Price: $6/month
- vCPU and RAM: 1–32 vCPU, 1–32 GB RAM
- Free Domain and SSL: ✅
- Starting Storage: 30GB
- Unlimited Monthly Data Transfer: 2TB to unlimited
- 24/7 Customer Support: ✅
InMotion Hosting caters to Linux OS users with advanced technical know-how. Its solutions offer scalable cloud hosting options for various use cases, including small businesses and enterprise clients. The 30-day money-back guarantee provides peace of mind.
Pros:
- Ideal for Linux-savvy customers
- 99.99% uptime guarantee
- Powerful security features and NVMe hosting upgrade
- Comprehensive customer support
Cons:
- No Windows server support
- No autoscaling
4. Liquid Web
Best for Large Businesses
- Starting Price: $5/month
- vCPU and RAM: 1–32 cores, 1GB–128GB RAM
- Free Domain and SSL: ❌/✅
- Starting Storage: 30GB
- Unlimited Monthly Data Transfer: ✅
- 24/7 Customer Support: ✅
Liquid Web offers a variety of cloud hosting solutions, including Cloud VPS, Cloud Metal, VMware Private Cloud, and Cloud Dedicated Servers. Its robust hosting plans cater to a wide range of customers, from individuals to enterprises.
Pros:
- Highly configurable plans
- 100% network uptime guarantee
- Guaranteed customer support connection within 59 seconds
- Hot-resizing for seamless transitions
Cons:
- No autoscaling
- No free automatic backups
5. Hostinger
Best for Additional Cloud Features
- Starting Price: $9.99/month
- vCPU and RAM: 2–6 CPU cores, 3GB–12GB RAM
- Free Domain and SSL: ✅
- Starting Storage: 200GB NVMe
- Unlimited Monthly Data Transfer: ✅
- 24/7 Customer Support: ✅
Hostinger's cloud hosting plans offer a wealth of features, including daily backups, priority support, and managed WordPress support. The plans are suitable for sites with medium-to-large traffic loads.
Pros:
- Great features and resources
- Fixed monthly payment model
- Free automatic website migration
- Great for large ecommerce sites
Cons:
- No phone support
- No free backups
6. InterServer
Best for Configurability
- Starting Price: $6/month
- vCPU and RAM: 1–16 cores, 2GB–32GB RAM
- Free Domain and SSL: ❌/✅
- Starting Storage: 30GB SSD
- Unlimited Monthly Data Transfer: 2TB to 32TB transfer
- 24/7 Customer Support: ✅
InterServer offers customizable cloud VPS hosting for small and mid-sized businesses. You can choose from various operating systems and hardware configurations to suit your needs.
Pros:
- Remarkable configurability
- Wide range of hardware options
- Various control panel choices
- Access to over 440 apps and scripts for one-click installation
Cons:
- Limited scalability compared to other providers
7. IONOS
Best Cheap Cloud Hosting
- Starting Price: Plans start at $0.0056/hour
- vCPU and RAM: Variable
- Free Domain and SSL: ✅
- Starting Storage: Variable
- Unlimited Monthly Data Transfer: ✅
- 24/7 Customer Support: ✅
IONOS offers cost-effective cloud hosting with competitive pricing. Ideal for those looking for budget-friendly options, IONOS provides flexibility and scalability.
Pros:
- Affordable pricing
- Reliable uptime and performance
- Flexible billing options
- Free domain and SSL
Cons:
- Fewer advanced features compared to other providers
How Does Cloud Hosting Work?
Cloud hosting services offer website hosting on virtual servers that draw their computing resources from a pool of numerous physical servers. To better understand how it works and the benefits it provides over other hosting services, we’ll discuss how dedicated and shared hosting work.
Dedicated hosting sees a site being hosted on a single physical server and limits the site to only using that physical server’s resources. Shared hosting has multiple sites on a single physical server, restricted to sharing the same resources, often at the expense of the performance of the different sites.
There’s also more control over the hosting environment, allowing you to customize software and hardware configurations – though this requires technical expertise.
Although it’s a more expensive solution than standard or shared hosting, many providers offer a pay-as-you-go model. Since you only pay for the resources you actually use, it’s cost-effective for sites with fluctuating traffic levels.
Cloud hosting is superb for websites with large or fluctuating traffic loads, which require consistently high performance, swift scalability, and tailored configurations. Since the site isn’t anchored to a single physical server, there’s also increased uptime and reduced redundancy with the load distributed across multiple servers.
Conclusion
Choosing the right cloud hosting provider depends on your specific needs, budget, and technical expertise. We have outlined the best options available, each offering unique advantages for different types of websites and applications. Assess your requirements carefully to select the provider that aligns best with your goals and objectives.