Magento is the second most popular CMS used by top 10k Ecommerce websites. It is used by global brands such as PePe Jeans, Caskers, Paul Smith, or Christian Louboutin. Businesses choose the CMS for flexibility, scalability, and focus on international sales. But these features are losing their significance, if your hosting is too weak to handle your website. That is why choosing the wrong provider for a Magento store can incur serious technical issues or website drop. We looked at the most popular Magento hostings to tell you which one is better for you.
Before getting to hosting providers, you need to consider that there are two editions of Magento:
- Open Source that you can download for free and create your website from scratch;
- Commerce that you can buy and get such features as cloud delivery, Page Builder, B2B features.
The latter edition was recently renamed Adobe Commerce. By buying a Commerce license, you do not have to worry about the hosting as it comes with pre-integrated cloud services and hosting. But this edition is for enterprise-level businesses as it costs from $22,000 per year. Mostly Open Source is enough for a solid, powerful website capable of handling high traffic, store lots of products, and provide custom features.
With Open Source, be prepared to find and maintain hosting yourself. The choice must be correct: Magento itself has no bandwidth limits, but some hosting plans are not scalable enough. To survive and succeed during traffic spikes, your provider should be prepared too. Making a poor choice, you risk losing potential customers or spending too much money on the resources you do not need.
Table of contents:
Types of Magento Hostings
Best Magento Hosting Providers for a Smaller Business
Best Magento Hosting Providers for a Big and Scalable Business
Conclusion and Short Summary
Types of Magento Hostings
Any provider can maintain a Magento store on the minimum level as long as it meets basic requirements:
Even if you found the plan that complies with basic requirements, the developers suggest sticking to the providers that specialize in Magento or at least have several plans specially for your CMS. They are more likely to understand Magento distinctive features and in some cases they know Magento code and can help you with hosting issues.
Depending on the size and complexity of your store, you can choose between four types of hostings.
Shared Hosting
It is a solution for newbies in the Ecommerce sphere and those who rarely sell products because of their specific or cost, thus, having low traffic and rare orders. Shared hosting means that your website has to share server resources with other websites on it. The resources include CPU, RAM, bandwidth, storage.
These hosting plans are the most affordable. They often come with such features as page builder, 24/7 support, free SSL certificate. They are mostly managed, so you can get assistance if technical issues appear.
But they are cheap for a reason. Scalability or traffic spikes are hard to handle with shared hostings. The resources on the server are limited. It means if some website uses too much of them, the others get less. Also, the security is low: one website with hodgie code can affect all websites, and data is more vulnerable when there are several users on the server.
VPS Hostings
Virtual Private Server is the next level after shared hosting. Your website gets a dedicated virtual space on the shared hosting. Meaning you still share a physical server with other websites but get private access to the RAM, CPU, bandwidth and do not share them with others.
This hosting can accommodate more users than a shared one, and bandwidth limits are higher. Also, you can still choose a managed plan or take control of your resources. VPS lets you change configurations as you need in your virtual space. On shared plans, it is impossible as it affects other websites on the server.
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Visit the pageYou get more scalability and flexibility for your store, but the resources are still limited. For example, you can buy high bandwidth for a brief period to deal with traffic spikes, but the provider can not give it constantly as it will still influence other websites on the server. The solution is also more expensive.
This hosting is applicable for medium stores that sells seasonal products and the traffic load is predictable.
Dedicated Hosting
Getting this hosting means that you rent the whole server for yourself. There are no “neighbors”. It means you can change the environment as you wish.
But great power comes with great responsibility. You have to take care of the server yourself: security, management, control. Although there is only one user, the risk of viruses is much lower.
Dedicated hosting is expensive. If you need all the resources you have, it is worth it. But if you do not use everything the server gives you, you still have to pay for unused storage or CPU. Also, you have to be tech-savvy to take care of the server. So you either spend your time on solving server issues or hire a developer.
The solution is good for large shops and enterprises which are ready to hire a team of developers and can afford the cost of the whole server.
Cloud server
The most flexible solution is a cloud server. In the case of VPS, you can rent a part of the resources. But instead of renting some space on the physical server, you get access to the virtual server running on the cloud Computing Environment. It reduces latency issues and gives opportunities to grow. For example, if one of the servers is down, you wouldn’t even notice.
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Learn moreThe cloud server gives instant scalability – when the traffic spike comes, you pay only for what you use. And vice versa, if your traffic load is lower than expected, you do not have to pay extra.
However, cloud hosting is quite expensive, and sometimes it is impossible to know what you will pay exactly, as cloud providers work with mixed pricing: fixed and pay-per-use. So if your budget is fixed, it is risky. Working with the cloud also requires extra expertise. It might be more time-consuming if dealing with it yourself or more expensive if hiring a specialist.
Managed and self-Managed
All of the hosting types can be managed or self-managed. It implies if you get technical help with your server or not.
- Self-managed hosting gives you total control over your resources. You can install the software you want, take care of the security issue, and change the environment according to your needs. You get outstanding customization potential for setting up your servers. But there is a minus in this kind of freedom – you are responsible for everything except hardware maintenance and network availability. It means that if you install something incorrectly, you will have to fix it yourself.
- Managed hosting plans imply that your hosting provider takes care of security, software installation, and environment. It is convenient if you have little technical skills or time to support the hosting yourself. But in this case, you lack flexibility in terms of server settings.
Picking the best Magento hosting partner is a tricky quest. If you choose poorly, you risk paying twice. Because at some point, you will have to change the provider. To help you avoid that situation, we prepared a hosting review that covers solutions for smaller and big Ecommerce businesses.
Best Magento Hosting Providers for a Smaller Business
A2 Hosting
A2 is a budget-friendly and reliable shared hosting. It has been hosting sites on Magento since it was released in 2008. until recently the provider offered two of its plans for Adobe CMS: Turbo Boost and Turbo Max. These two were its top-tier plans and they are still suitable for an online store that doesn’t have a high traffic load.
Now they have 4 more robust plans for Magento: Supersonic 16, Supersonic 32, Hyper 2 Intel, Hyper 2 AMD. First two are top-tier VPS plans and last two are dedicated unmanaged hostings.
Supersonic 16 and Supersonic 32 offer 250-450GB of disc space, 3-4TB transfer, 6-8 cores. They cost from $58 to $80 monthly.
Dedicated hosting plans cost $225 a month. They are pretty much the same except that they have different CPU and slightly different server resources.
All plans focus on speed issues: the provider uses Turbo servers and free SSD to host both OS and database to give a high speed boost. You can also choose the location of your server, they have servers in most parts of the world.
Another attractive feature about the host is that the Magento software comes preinstalled, so you do not even need the one-click installation others offer.
Overall it’s a good reliable hosting for a reasonable price. The provider shows it by letting you cancel the plan at any time and get a refund. It is also interesting that now Magento store owners can choose between three types of hostings: shared, VPS and dedicated. So there is a great scalability option.
Hosting Type: shared, VPS and dedicated depending on the plan
Support: the support team is available 24/7 via phone, email/ticket, or live chat. The host provides free website migration and a good knowledge base.
Features: free SSL certificate, free website builder, money-back guarantee,
Backups: daily
Price: $9.99–$$225
Cons: you still have to choose beforehand what type of hosting to use. And if your traffic expectations don’t come true you will either have your website crashed or pay for resources you don’t need.
Krystal Hosting
The provider is considered to be a great Magento 2 hosting with three plans for the CMS. The cheapest one starts from approximately $42,5. It has everything you need for the store: solid security, support, and a decent set of speed optimization tools. The provider advertises itself as Magento 2 hosting, but you can run M1 on any of them.
Krystal Hosting also declares its transparency and eco-friendly attitude. It would be a good choice for those who share the same values.
Besides the admirable values and responsibility, the host has much more to offer. It ensures frequent backups and a free domain name for as long as you use the hosting.
Krystal Hosting is also Magento PCI-compliant. It is pretty helpful if you have Open Source, which is not PCI-compliant by default.
The provider is great but has a substantial drawback – its only data center is in the UK. So you can get a great experience if your store works in Northern Europe. As for other locations, it is better to consider different options.
Hosting Type: shared hosting operating on LiteSpeed Web Server and with LiteMage module to ensure Magento-optimized caching.
Support: a support team is available for emergency phone calls 24/7 and via live chat during working hours. The host also claims to provide seamless start-to-finish migration of your website to the platform.
Features: PCI-compliance, free SSL certificate, free domain name,
Backups: every 4 hours.
Price: start from £29.99–£99.99
Cons: the data center is in the UK, which makes the provider suitable only for Northern Europe.
Hostinger
It is a reliable managed Magento hosting, which offers its cloud plans for this CMS. The prices start low. It is ok for cloud hostings – you pay for what you use. Let’s see what you can have for $9.99–$69.99.
The hosting is managed, meaning that the provider takes care of server software. It makes a platform beginner-friendly. Its specialty is the LiteSpeed Web Server that allows your store to handle multiple requests and run faster. No wonder Hostinger is considered one of the fastest Magento hosting providers.
This hosting provides daily backups and a free domain name.
Hosting Type: managed cloud hosting.
Support: the support team is decent and available 24/7 via live chat, email, and support tickets, but there is no dedicated phone line. They tried to compensate for it with an extensive library of How-to guides, but there are few materials on Magento: several guides on how to install a Magento shop manually.
Features: free SSL, free domain name, unlimited bandwidth, free migration, 30-days money-back guarantee.
Backups: daily
Price: Magento hosting costs are $9.99, $18,99, $69.99
Cons: no 27/7 phone support.
Best Magento Hosting Providers for a Big and Scalable Business
Liquid Web/Nexcess
Now we introduce a decent high-quality Magento dedicated hosting. It is fully managed. Liquid Web offers it via the subsidiary Nexcess. You can find the plan description on both Liquid Web and Nexcess websites.
It is a robust solution for big Ecommerce businesses. It offers six different Magento plans, which is a big step forward compared to 2–3 plans of previously described providers. Thus, you are free to scale within one platform: changing pricing plans is much more convenient than changing providers.
The platform focuses on security. The support team can even check if your store is PCI-compliant and fix it if not.
The other cool feature of Liquid Web is that it offers special security tools for outdated Magento 1, which reached its End of Life in June 2020, thus getting quite vulnerable. But Liquid Web provides Nexcess Magento 1 Safe Harbor if you haven’t migrated yet.
Hosting Type: Magento dedicated hosting on top-tier plans.
Support: excellent support available 24/7. The team has Magento experts and a great knowledge base, which is helpful for beginners. Provider offers free migration on every Magento Plan.
Features: Magento PCI-compliant hosting, proactive security patches, daily nightly backups, auto-scaling to cover traffic spikes.
Backups: nightly
Price: six plans from $49 to $849.
Cons: quite expensive
MageMojo
The provider focuses solely on Magento sites. They offer, as they say, Magento as a Service (MaaS) experience. It makes them one of the best hostings for Magento store owners in terms of speed, security, and support.
Let’s start with the feature this host is proud of the most, which is automatic scaling and help with choosing the pricing. You do not have to guess what plan you need, you connect Google Analytics to their website, and the team tells you what your last 12 months would have been according to their pricing plans. Thus, you understand what you are starting from and scale automatically as you grow.
MageMojo offers free migration for any plan. It also uses Magento-specific Web Application Firewall to protect your online store.
Hosting Type: cloud hosting
Support: great 24/7 support team that responds in 60 or 15 minutes depending on the plan you are using. MageMojo also has a great knowledge base dedicated only to Magento.
Features: Magento-specific security tools, operation on AWS without creating an account.
Backups: hourly
Price: the starter pack is $98.
Cons: it’s hard to plan a budget when you pay for what you use. It means if your traffic load is higher than you expected you have to pay more. If your budget is tight you may have some problems.
Mgt-commerce
We present an Amazon-powered hosting made specifically for Magento stores. It is a solution for large and enterprise stores. The Mgt-commerce is designed to work with a high-performance stack. It is a fully managed hosting.
It uses the power of Amazon Web Services to offer you robust Magento cloud hosting: hourly backups, VPN, DDoS attack protection, and page load times under 0.3 sec. It is considered one of the fastest hostings you can find for Magento.
The provider offers a pay-as-you-go price model so you can scale up or down if you need. You can also choose the server type: single server, multi-server, or auto-scaling pricing.
Hosting Type: fully managed cloud hosting
Support: great 24/7 support team that responds in 15 minutes and has Magento code knowledge. The host offers free managed migration.
Features: opportunity to choose AWS data center from any continent, Magento-optimized security, plenty of tools to speed up the site.
Backups: hourly
Price: the cheapest option is $99.
Cons: expensive and hard to plan a budget
Conclusion and Short Summary
Here is a short summary of all hostings described:
The six Magento hosting providers we described are not the only ones that can work with Magento. But what distinguishes them is they have plans focused specifically on Magento. It implies security, speed technologies, and a professional support team. So you can solve any issue briefly without losing your sales even if you are new with Magento.
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Thank you for sharing such an interesting and useful blog. Hoping to see and read more blogs like this in the future.