Linux shared hosting refers to a particular type of hosting that uses an open-source Linux operating system. It is the most famous shared hosting due to its affordability and flexibility. Linux-based hosting uses custom software and is compatible with various programming languages. This type of hosting is preferred if you want to enjoy more control over the server and expect better performance.
Here at HostAdvice, we consider different factors when ranking a shared hosting service. These include Performance, Security, Customer Support, Uptimes, Pricing, and User Reviews. You can choose your preferred Linux shared hosting by going through the hosting providers discussed below. Our ranking criterion relies on the independent study based on surveys, tests, and user reviews.
Key Points to Consider when Choosing the Best Linux Shared Hosting Providers
- Choose a Linux shared hosting that comes with an easy-to-use interface.
- Find a Linux shared hosting service that ensures 99.99% uptime.
- One-click installer is another key aspect to consider when looking for a Linux shared hosting provider.
- Search for a Linux shared hosting with strong security features.
- Your preferred Linux shared hosting must offer industry-leading features at affordable rates.
The Best Linux Shared Hosting Services of 2023
HostArmada boasts its AI-based and innovative security features. So, your website gets an extended level of protection against cyber-attacks. With 99.9% guaranteed uptime, HostArmada stands among the best Linux shared hosting providers.
- Overall Score: 4.8
- Features: 4.9
- Reliability: 4.8
- User-Friendly: 4.9
- Support: 4.8
- Pricing: 4.7
HostArmada is a popular cloud-based hosting. This Linux shared hosting provider stores customer data on multiple servers, which offers a wide array of benefits. Cloud-based hosting tends to be more secure and also improves the page loading speed and overall website performance. Furthermore, strategic distribution of resources lowers the load on each server.
HostArmada restricts the number of clients per server to a minimum. This ensures optimal uptime, better load management, and minimum hardware failures. This host also offers daily backup solutions. The intuitive and impressive caching mechanism allows your website to load faster.
Features: HostArmada comes with a range of attractive features. These include native SSD Drives, LiteSpeed web server, RAID controllers (battery-powered), free Domain, malware detection & removal mechanism, free SSL, 99.9% uptime, unmetered bandwidth, cPanel, free SSL certificate, and daily backups.
Reliability: HostArmada is a fast and reliable hosting provider. The Cloud SSD drives perform much better and are fast too. This helps improve the overall performance of your website. In addition, the 99.99% uptime guarantee is another notable feature.
User-Friendly: The 1-Click Installer and cPanel are two of the most user-friendly features offered by HostArmada. You can install a range of software and applications within no time. With cPanel, controlling and managing your website is also convenient.
Support: HostArmada offers a vigilant and highly responsive support service. You can contact the support team via multiple channels including, phone and live chat. In most cases, the response comes within 10 minutes of ticket submission.
Pricing: Start Dock is the basic shared hosting plan that costs $2.99/month. Features available with this plan include, 1 Website, 2 Cores CPU, 15 GB SSD Storage, 2 GB RAM, etc. Other key features are free domain, free SSL, and 7 Daily Backups.
Pros
- Free website migration service
- 45 days money-back guarantee
- No cancellation fees
- Automatic daily backups
- 1-click application installer
Cons
- Relatively expensive upon renewal
- LiteSpeed web server is only available with the Speed Reaper plan
Hostens is known among customers for its highly affordable, blazing-fast, and secure hosting services, including Linux shared hosting. It has attracted over 120,000 clients with its outstanding hosting plans, which include a free website builder, professional 24/7/365 customer support, and many free features, all powered by a top-quality tier III data center infrastructure.
- Overall Score: 4.4
- Pricing: 5.0
- Features: 4.5
- Performance: 4.0
- Support: 3.8
- User Friendly: 4.7
Pricing: The cheapest Linux shared hosting plan Hostens offers costs $2 monthly on a three-year billing cycle. You can also purchase a plan on a monthly, annual, and two-year basis. The cheapest plan includes hosting for up to ten websites, 10 GB disk space, 1 TB bandwidth, ten databases, 100 email accounts, the cPanel, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Features: The provider offers many free and paid features, including free SSL certificates, scheduled backups, a free domain with annual plans, a free website builder, installation of 100+ scripts and CMSs, cPanel/WHM, CloudLinux, a professional mail filter, DNS manager, a VPN service, SEO tools, and security audit.
Performance: All Hostens services come with a 99.95% uptime guarantee. The provider also has a tier III data center in Lithuania, which powers its robust cloud infrastructure. Also, all of its servers use SSD drives and deliver a 256 ms response time. However, since it only maintains a data center in Lithuania, Hostens’ reach is quite limited.
Support: You can contact Hostens’ customer support via email, social media, and a ticketing system, 24/7/365. The provider also has a live chat option on its website, but it does not work. Moreover, Hostens maintains a vast blog and knowledge base, which contains numerous helpful articles and guides on many topics.
User Friendly: Hostens provides one-click installs for over 100 apps, including WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. It also has an intuitive UI and uses the latest cPanel version across all plans. Moreover, Hostens provides a free website builder that is quite easy to use.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Affordable prices
- Instant server setup and deployment
- Many free features
- An intuitive website builder for free
- SSD servers and a tier III data center
Cons:
- Only one data center location in Lithuania
- Free domains are only available on annual plans
Hostinger is among the best Linux shared hosting providers. It not only offers affordable plans, but it provides them with top-tier features. It proves to be a suitable option especially when you are setting up a new site.
- Overall Score: 4.6
- Features: 4.7
- Reliability: 4.6
- User-Friendly: 4.7
- Support: 4.6
- Pricing: 4.7
All of Hostinger’s shared plans ensure impressive speed and performance. They also offer a free domain if you subscribe for Premium and Business shared plans. Zyro collaborates with Hostinger to offer its free website builder. With this free website builder, creating your website from scratch is a breeze.
Features: Hostinger offers a wide array of standard features such as SSD storage, lightning-fast speed, Cloudflare CDN, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, SSL certificate, PHP speed boost, free migration, and DDoS protection. Some hosting plans also offer a one-click installer, unlimited MySQL databases, and SSH access.
Reliability: With a 99.9% uptime guarantee, Hostinger deserves a good score in terms of reliability. You can enjoy fast page load speed with its LiteSpeed servers.
User-Friendly: The 1-click installer allows you to install all types of web apps and CMSs. The user-friendly interface and guided setup make it easy for those who are getting started with their website’s setup.
Support: The customer care service is accessible via live chat. The trained support team is capable of offering quick solutions to your hosting-related issues.
Pricing: Single Shared Hosting plan costs $1.99/month. It comes with features like 50 GB SSD storage, 10,000 Visits Monthly, 1 Email Account, 100 GB Bandwidth, 2 Databases, Security, Unlimited Free SSL, Cloudflare, etc.
Pros
- Affordable Linux shared hosting provider
- Optimized performance
- Friendly support team
- 1-click installer
- Dedicated IPv6
- Datacenters at multiple locations
- Free SSL and domain
- Full root access
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- Lacks daily backup feature
A2hosting is among the oldest players in the industry. This hosting provider started its journey in 2001. After 20 years of its inception, A2hosting is now ranked among the top hosting providers around the world. It comes with a range of high-end features at an affordable price.
- Overall Score: 4.7
- Features: 4.8
- Reliability: 4.7
- User-Friendly: 4.7
- Support: 4.7
- Pricing: 4.7
A2hosting promises blazing fast speed and outstanding performance. This is possible due to its high-tech and top-performing servers. Each of these servers hosts only a limited number of clients. This strategic distribution of resources improves performance and minimizes downtime.
Features: A2hosting offers some great features including, SSL certificate, cPanel, 1-click installs, Softaculous, CMS integrations, free migrations, free A2 website builder, up to 20X faster page load times, and 3X faster NVMe storage.
Reliability: A2hosting is a Linux shared hosting provider with lightning fast speed. It relies on the SwiftServer platform to ensure 99.9% uptime. So, you might not face any downtime issues.
User-Friendly: A2hosting has always looked for solutions and products that are user-friendly. This hosting platform has a simple and easy-to-use control panel (cPanel). Besides, the knowledgebase and chat support provide you with required assistance whenever required.
Support: This hosting provider offers 24/7 live chat support in multiple languages. You can also contact their support team via email, phone, or ticketing system. The customer care agents are friendly and ready to offer a solution to your prevailing issues.
Pricing: A2hosting is among the most affordable Linux shared hosting providers. Its Startup plan costs $2.99/month. The features you get include 1 website, 100 GB SSD storage, free site migration, a money-back guarantee, a free SSL certificate, cPanel, etc.
Pros
- Free Cloudflare CDN
- Unlimited storage
- Free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates
- cPanel control panel
- Free migrations
- WordPress optimized
- Money-back guarantee
Cons
- Doesn’t offer a free domain name
- Higher renewal costs
FastComet stands second in our list of the best Linux shared hosting providers. Just like any other top-rated hosting provider, FastComet offers a plethora of features. It is best known for its performance, reliability, and affordability.
- Overall Score: 4.7
- Features: 4.8
- Reliability: 4.8
- User-Friendly: 4.7
- Support: 4.6
- Pricing: 4.8
Talking about the speed, FastComet is capable of enhancing your site’s speed up to 70%. There are certain reasons for making such a huge claim. This host relies on speed boosting factors like free CDN, NVMe SSD drives, AMD EPYC™ CPU, and WordPress LiteSpeed Cache (LSCWP).
Security is another area where FastComet outperforms other shared hosting providers. Imunify360 is the latest security feature that performs malware scans. For extended security against cyber-attacks, this host takes advantage of the Web Application Firewall (WAF) system.
Features: FastComet comes with top-of-the-line features including, SSD-only storage, a free CDN, Let’s Encrypt SSL, free daily backups, malware scanning, SpamExperts spam filtering, Softaculous, cPanel, etc.
Reliability: This shared hosting provider is a reliable option, as it guarantees 99.9% uptime. FastComet has distributed its data centers at 11 different locations throughout the globe. This particular strategy improves the speed and performance of a website. So, it’s likely that you won’t face any reliability-related issues when using FastComet.
User-Friendly: For hassle-free management of your site, FastComet offers an easy-to-use and intuitive control panel named cPanel. It is popular for its user-friendly interface and flawless performance.
Support: With a 24/7 support system, the technical team is always at your disposal. You can connect with the support team via multiple methods including, live chat, phone, and email. According to the customer reviews, FastComet takes only a few minutes to resolve most of the issues.
Pricing: FastCloud is the shared hosting plan that costs $2.95/month. The key features you get are a free website & domain transfer, cPanel & Softaculous, 15 GB SSD storage, 2 GB RAM, 2 CPUs, 4/7 Human support, and 45 days money-back guarantee.
Pros
- Regular backups
- Free domain transfer
- Exceptionally strong security
- Developers can take advantage of its advanced features
- Free SSL & domain transfer
- 45-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- Limited disk space
- Slightly expensive
IONOS is one of the best and largest hosting providers in Europe, serving over 22 million domains. It uses cutting-edge cloud technology to deliver maximum performance across all plans. It deploys each service from 10 sustainable, geo redundant, ISO-certified data centers located across the US, UK, and Europe. Moreover, it provides many free and paid features across all plans and has a 99.9% uptime guarantee for all services.
- Overall Score: 3.9
- Pricing: 3.9
- Features: 3.5
- Performance: 4.3
- Support: 4.0
- User Friendly: 3.8
Pricing: The cheapest IONOS Linux shared hosting plan costs $1 per month and renews at $12 after one year. It includes hosting for unlimited websites, unlimited storage, unlimited databases, a free domain for one year, free SSL, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Features: IONOS provides many free and excellent features, including free SSL, DDoS protection, a cloud infrastructure, free plugins for TYPO3, Joomla, Drupal, and PrestaShop, daily backups, support for multiple PHP versions, Cloudflare CDN, HTTP/2 support, and free professional email.
Performance: The provider offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee across all plans. It maintains geo-redundant data centers in 10 locations across the US, UK, and Europe, which are all ISO-certified and PSI-DSS compliant.
Support: IONOS offers 24/7 customer support via live chat, phone, and cloud support. You can also get your own personal consultant at an extra cost. Additionally, the provider has a vast help center filled with many helpful solutions.
User Friendly: IONOS provides its own cloud control panel, which is simple and easy to use. It also has a special “Deploy Now” feature that allows you to deploy your site in three quick steps.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Ten geo-redundant, ISO-certified, and PCI-DSS-compliant data centers
- Many free features
- Cloudflare CDN
- A 99.9% uptime guarantee
Cons:
- Some hidden fees
HostGator is a great option when searching for reliable, convenient, and high-quality Linux shared hosting providers. HostGator offers a 99% guaranteed uptime. The 1-click installation is another great feature especially for beginners.
- Overall Score: 4.7
- Features: 4.8
- Reliability: 4.7
- User-Friendly: 4.7
- Support: 4.7
- Pricing: 4. 8
HostGator collaborates with SiteLock to secure their customer’s data. The positive SSL servers as a secure site badge, which makes your site more trustworthy. With automated backups, all your files are continuously backed up. The lost files can be recovered with just a click.
Features: HostGator offers impressive features such as unlimited storage and bandwidth, free MySQL transfer & script transfer, SSD storage, weekly backups, unlimited free SSL, 24/7/365 Support, 99% uptime guarantee, free migrations, and 45-day money-back guarantee.
Reliability: Without strong safety measures, a hosting provider won’t be considered a reliable option. HostGator secures its client’s data by using BitNinja. So, your site stays up and running without experiencing issues caused by malware or viruses.
User-Friendly: HostGator offers a one-click installer, making it easy for you to install Linux templates, web apps, or CMSs. In addition, the overall interface is user-friendly.
Support: HostGator offers 24/7 phone and live chat support. The customer service representatives are friendly and knowledgeable. The support team is capable of resolving all types of technical issues within a matter of minutes.
Pricing: The Hatchling Plan costs $2.75/month. It offers features like one-click WordPress installs, free website transfer, unmetered bandwidth, free SSL certificate, free domain, etc.
Pros
- 99% uptime guarantee
- 30 days money-back guarantee
- Impressive performance
- Free migration
- Easy-to-use interface
Cons
- Renewal cost is much higher
Verpex is a fast and well-optimized Linux hosting provider. With the availability of cPanel, managing and controlling your site won’t be an issue. The customer service is outstanding too. You can access the support team round the clock and resolve your issues within minutes.
- Overall Score: 4.7
- Features: 4.8
- Reliability: 4.6
- User-Friendly: 4.6
- Support: 4.8
- Pricing: 4.7
Verpex offers cPanel, an easy-to-use control panel, suitable for both Linux and Windows-based websites. Another amazing feature is the auto-installer, which makes it easy to install any kind of web app or CMS.
This hosting provider owns state-of-the-art hardware. So, you might not face issues like disruption or downtime. The infrastructure runs automatically without any input. On the other side, the servers continue to run without any issues, thanks to multiple cloud providers.
Features: Verpex is a feature-loaded Linux shared hosting provider. A few of the most notable features include SSD storage, unlimited SSL certificates & website migrations, LiteSpeed web server, and multiple PHP versions. Besides, SitePad, Imunify360, JetBackup, Softaculous, and Cloudlinux are some additional features that Verpex users can enjoy.
Reliability: Talking about performance and reliability, Verpex proves to be a highly reliable hosting provider. It ensures fast page loading speed and better load handling during peak traffic. The 99.99% guaranteed uptime is another factor that improved Verpex’s reliability score.
User-Friendly: Just like other top Linux shared hosting providers, Verpex offers an easy-to-use interface. It relies on cPanel, which is a simple and user-friendly control panel. Even if you come across any difficulty, the expert team is at your disposal for required technical assistance.
Support: The customer care team consists of experts and friendly people. The knowledgeable technical assistants can assist you with almost any kind of issue related to your hosting plan. The support team can be accessed via phone or live chat.
Pricing: The Iron Plan costs $0.50 for the first month. Upon renewal, you will be paying $5/month. So, this might not be a cheap Linux hosting option. The features that come with this plan include 10GB bandwidth, 1GB SSD disk space, free SSL Certificates, free migrations, and daily Backups.
Pros
- Free domain name
- Softaculous app installer
- Impressive customer support
- Free and unlimited migrations
- 45-day money-back guarantee
- 99.99% guaranteed uptime
Cons
- Renewal rates are considerably higher
Ranking comparison between the Top Providers
Best Linux Shared Hosting Services: Final Recommendations
Our compilation of the best Linux shared hosting providers will help you choose an option that is affordable and meets your website’s needs. The information provided allows you to dig deeply into the key features of listed hosting providers.
When making a decision, make sure to consider the factors like reliability, performance, scalability, ease of use, pricing, etc. The Linux shared hosting providers discussed above have their pros and cons. A particular hosting provider that serves as the best option for one user might not work for the other.
However, when it comes to our recommendation, we prefer HostArmada. This hosting provider comes with impressive features. It also leaves behind its competitors in terms of reliability and performance.
How Do We Rank and How Should You Choose Your Best Linux Shared Hosting?
- Performance20%
- Security10%
- Customer Support15%
- Uptimes15%
- Pricing15%
- User Reviews25%
Here at HostAdvice, we consider a few critical factors when ranking different hosting providers. The most noteworthy and essential factor of all is user reviews. This allows us to analyze the satisfaction level of the customers regarding a particular Linux shared hosting provider.
Other key aspects include performance, security, features, price, customer support, uptime, etc. Every factor listed in our chart is awarded a specific percentage. A factor with a higher percentage means it is of great importance.
Performance: Performance is among the most critical factors that we look into when ranking a Linux shared hosting. A host can offer the required performance if it owns powerful and latest servers. In addition, the location of the servers also affects the performance of a hosting provider. So, make sure to choose a hosting service having its servers at multiple locations around the world.
Security: Without taking strong security measures, it won’t be possible for a hosting provider to ensure the safety of the client’s data. So, security stands out as another key aspect that we consider when ranking a hosting provider. A high-rated and reliable hosting service takes strong security measures to prevent or defend against cyber-attacks.
Customer Support: A Linux hosting provider should offer 24/7 technical support to its customers. Also, clients must have no issues when connecting to the support team. A popular and reliable hosting provider offers multiple ways to access the support team including, phone, live chat, email, etc.
Uptime: This aspect is directly related to the reliability of a hosting service. We test a hosting company for its functionality and accessibility. A hosting provider offering 99.99% uptime guarantee is referred to as a reliable player in the industry.
Pricing: Price also plays a critical role when it comes to ranking a hosting provider. A reliable, fast, and feature-loaded hosting provider deserves a higher rank if it is affordable too.
User Reviews: The user reviews have a higher percentage value, which indicates the importance of this aspect. We go through the customer reviews and analyze how satisfied the users are with a particular hosting service. This allows us to understand whether a hosting provider lives up to its claims.
Ease of Use: The Linux hosting you choose should offer certain features, which promote ease of use and compatibility i.e. one-click installation.
Scalability: Your preferred Linux shared hosting should be scalable. This is essential, as once the website grows, it needs more resources. So, choose a highly scalable Linux hosting provider.
What is Linux Shared Hosting and Who is it for?
Linux shared hosting uses an operating system known as “Linux”. It’s an open-source and free operating system. Since its development in 1991, Linux has been serving as the most popular operating system for companies offering shared hosting.
One of the reasons Linux is so popular among webmasters, is that it works with a range of programming languages including, PHP, CGI, Python, and Pearl. Also, you need Linux hosting if your website depends on applications like PHP, Perl, MySQL, WordPress, and SSH. These apps require Apache modules, which run better on Linux-based shared hosting.
Linux is a perfect option for shared hosting, as it offers a variety of free features. This type of operating system is also a perfect option if you prefer flexibility and performance. For instance, a Linux server lets you perform different tasks including, creating a website, blog, multimedia application, forum, etc. With General Public License (GNU), Linux works with different distributions such as SUE Linux, Ubuntu, and Red Hat. Hence, Linux serves as a more flexible option than any other operating system.