The Best Cloud Hosting Providers for Small & Large Enterprises in 2022

Written by

Radoslav Chakarov

Edited by

Nick Galov

Some or all of the products/services listed on this page are from our affiliate partners from which we receive commissions. This, however, does not influence the evaluations in our reviews. Learn more by reading our Advertiser Disclosure.

Looking for the best cloud hosting for small or medium scale business, or enterprise needs?

We evaluated, compared and ranked the top 6 cloud hosting providers for small businesses, as well as the 5 best for medium-sized operations and enterprises.

Here's how we ranked the leading cloud hosts:

  • We listed the criteria for small, mid-range, and enterprise cloud hosts.
  • We evaluate features, performance, reputation and support.
  • We compare pricing packages and value for money.

Jump straight to the best:

  1. Small business cloud hosting
  2. Mid-range solutions
  3. Enterprise cloud systems
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Best Small Scale Cloud Hosting Providers 

The majority of online websites are low-demanding projects — they only take a couple of gigabytes of space, a steady amount of traffic, and rarely outgrow even the shared environment.

Still, it’s understandable if you want more.

Cloud computing is a relatively new technology, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s costly.

On the contrary, there are some cloud hosting companies that have found a way to cater to smaller projects, allowing them to get a feel of the service at the lowest possible rates.

Best Entry-Level Cloud Hosting Providers in 2022

The Lithuanian provider fixes us up with some lightning-fast cloud packages that pack a lot of heat. Your resources are completely isolated from other clients so you can take full advantage of the server. Great worldwide coverage. Full Review

  • Isolated account resources
  • Integrated caching
  • Free dedicated IP

SSD STORAGE
200-300GB
CPU
2/4/6 cores
RAM
3/6/12GB
FULLY MANAGED
Yes

Scala Hosting is one of the mavericks of cloud hosting. Its SPanel grants complete control and supervision, while the modern infrastructure guarantees flexibility and power. This is a host with transparent pricing, stellar performance and expert cloud support. Full Review

  • Superb support
  • Adjustable network speed
  • Great renewal fees

SSD STORAGE
20-80GB SSD
CPU
1/2/4/6 Cores
RAM
2/4/6/8 GB RAM
FULLY MANAGED
Managed & Unmanaged

Just as the winds blow with different intensity, Hostwinds creates servers of vastly different capabilities. Ideal for entry-level projects and small businesses, the host provides also machines with insane computing power. 99.99% uptime, 14-days money-back guarantee, and support that never disappoints make Hostwind a prime choice. Full Review

  • Wide variety of plans
  • Instant scalability
  • Top-notch support

SSD STORAGE
30-750GB
CPU
2/4/6 Cores
RAM
1-96GB
FULLY MANAGED
No

Reasonable offering with good uptime and OK speed, the HostGator Cloud is suitable for undemanding projects, as it is more akin to shared hosting than to VPS. It is scalable on demand, redundant and secure. Full Review

  • Unmetered space
  • Good extra features
  • Unlimited bandwidth

SSD STORAGE
Unmetered
CPU
2/4/6 Cores
RAM
2GB/4GB/6GB
FULLY MANAGED
No

BigRock is the best cloud host for Indian users. Flexible, affordable and scalable, the cloud setup is ideal for small and growing projects that will enjoy great safety, uptime and performance. Full Review

  • Great for Indian entrepreneurs
  • Super affordable
  • Automatic failover

SSD STORAGE
1GB-Unmetered
CPU
2/4/6 Cores
RAM
2/4/6GB
FULLY MANAGED
Yes

Vultr delivers 10 plans and automatic scalability that can host any project. Quick server deployment and proprietary speed boosters make for unparalleled control and performance. Full Review

  • Ample resources
  • LVE containers
  • Multiple data center locations

SSD STORAGE
10-1600GB
CPU
1-24 Cores
RAM
512MB-96GB
FULLY MANAGED
No

Best Cloud HostingProviders For Mid-Range Businesses

We are now in the middle ground of cloud services.

Our project has outgrown its home and amassed a fair amount of popularity in the form of traffic.

Where to from here?

The next three on the list can rightfully claim to be among the best cloud hosting providers on the market right now.

Their services don’t come cheap, but when it comes to getting a bang for your buck — you can safely trust one of those choices.

Best Mid-range Cloud Hosting Providers in 2022

A wide variety of technologies - Apache/Nginx, CentOS, MySQL, and more - on fully-optimized servers powered by advanced custom kernel boosts make SiteGround Cloud a powerhouse. Add to the mix excellent support and seamless scalability and you get a service that you won’t want to leave. Ever. Full Review

  • Great scalability
  • Top-notch support
  • Daily backups

SSD STORAGE
40GB - 1TB
CPU
2-32 Cores
RAM
4-128GB
FULLY MANAGED
Only Managed

CDN, DDoS protection, integrated firewall, and advanced security tools make Liquid Web a top choice for growing projects. All this runs on state-of-the-art servers configured by some of the most knowledgeable hosting experts in the industry. A truly stellar offer. Full Review

  • Great choice of control panels
  • Outstanding support
  • 100GB backup space

SSD STORAGE
40/100/150/200GB
CPU
2/4/8/8 Cores
RAM
2/4/8/16 GB
FULLY MANAGED
Managed & Unmanaged

1&1 Ionos is the ideal solution for businesses on tight budget. Generous plans and dedicated support make for great business collaboration with the most successful German cloud host. Full Review

  • Great price
  • Feature-rich servers
  • Generous plans

SSD STORAGE
30-480GB
CPU
1-24 Cores
RAM
0.5-48GB
FULLY MANAGED
No

Kamatera provides powerful business cloud hosting and backs it up with superb support and flexible billing practices. Weekly usage reviews, log clearings and DNS updates are some of the users of this advanced cloud host enjoy. Full Review

  • Highly-customizable servers
  • No single point-of-failure
  • Hourly and monthly billing

SSD STORAGE
20GB-4TB
CPU
1-104 vCores
RAM
1-512GB
FULLY MANAGED
Managed & Unmanaged

ChemiCloud delivers superb service. Quick, knowledgeable and efficient support, powerful infrastructure, dedicated IP and free SSL will send your project through the clouds and beyond in no time! Full Review

  • Spotless reputation
  • Free Dedicated IP & SSL
  • Free cPanel license

SSD STORAGE
80-640GB
CPU
2-8 vCores
RAM
4-32GB
FULLY MANAGED
Yes

Best Enterprise Cloud Hosting Providers

We have entered the zone where the big boys play.

Money is rarely a concern for those in need of enterprise cloud services, as long as their project gets the optimized environment it needs.

That’s not exactly as simple as it sounds.

Many enterprise projects include a complex configuration that can only run smoothly in a specific environment.

Ensuring a healthy climate is one of the prime targets of hosts in this niche.

Best Enterprise Cloud Hosting Providers in 2022

Full flexibility, unmatched choice of hosting technologies, intelligent resource management, superb support, locations ALL around the world - AWS has it all, which is why the service is the undisputed king of the global cloud hosting scene. Full Review

  • Vast array of resources
  • Numerous APIs
  • Free trial

DATA CENTERS
36 locations
SCALABILITY
Unmatched
SUPPORT
Very good
CONTROL PANEL
Anything you want

Microsoft entered the cloud hosting space with a BANG! and it means business. Microsoft Azure is ideally suited for corporate environment offering the best Windows servers and backing them up with great support and massive community. Full Review

  • Best for Windows servers
  • Great for startups
  • Free trial

DATA CENTERS
40 locations
SCALABILITY
Unmatched
SUPPORT
Excellent
CONTROL PANEL
Microsoft Azure Portal

Impressive toolset - Compute Engine, App Engine, Cloud Storage, and Big Query are just a few crowd-favorites - make Google Cloud suited for all kinds of industries. The support grows with the size of the service. Pair that with the billing system and you get a very fairly structured cloud hosting solution. Full Review

  • Per-second billing
  • Global private networks
  • Multitude of apps

DATA CENTERS
20+ Locations
SCALABILITY
Unmatched
SUPPORT
Excellent
CONTROL PANEL
Anything you want

Rackspace is ideal for projects with fluctuating traffic. Experts in cloud management, the Rackspace supports public, private, hybrid and multi-cloud to deliver smooth service and unrivaled technical expertise. Full Review

  • Multi-cloud management
  • Pay-per-use pricing
  • Superb disaster recovery

DATA CENTERS
Truly global coverage
SCALABILITY
Fully flexible
SUPPORT
Superb
CONTROL PANEL
Custom

The solution for seriously big players, IBM Cloud successfully serves even the most demanding projects. Its Infrastructure Management System provides unmatched control and customization options. Full Review

  • Free Lite account
  • Optimized workloads
  • Amazing disaster recovery

DATA CENTERS
19 Locations
SCALABILITY
Best-in-class
SUPPORT
Very good
BACKUPS
Multi-vaulting

Cloud Hosting Providers - Categories & Definitions

Cloud services have taken the technology world by storm and web hosting makes no difference.

The expansion was so rapid that a whopping 94% of all enterprises already utilize a cloud product or service in their daily operations.

Getting on the cloud is a no-brainer. It’s faster and better secured than a shared account. At the same time, it’s much more affordable than a dedicated server.

So today, the best cloud hosting providers are in the spotlight.

We often discuss the process of choosing a new host and the many hidden bits to watch out for — hardwarehandy featuressecurity measureswell-versed support operators. As important as they all are, oftentimes it boils down to the simplest decision-making factor — cost.

Our mission today is to analyze the top cloud hosts in each of the niches – entry-levelbusiness, and enterprise. We will see which providers have the most features or best support while keeping their prices at a reasonable level.

Best Cloud Hosting Providers (Small Scale Businesses)

Best for: BEST CLOUD HOSTING FOR WORDPRESS

1. Hostinger

Starts at $9.99/month
Open Account
SSD STORAGE

200-300GB SSD

CPU

2/4/6 cores

RAM

3/6/12GB

BANDWIDTH

Unlimited

FULLY MANAGED

Yes

CONTROL PANEL

Custom

Strengths
  • Ample resources
  • Daily backups
  • Free Dedicated IP, SSL, domain name
  • Integrated caching
  • LVE Containers
  • US, UK, EU, Asia, Brazil data centers
  • 30-days money-back guarantee
  • Fully managed
Weaknesses
  • No sales support
  • Fixed plans

Hostinger cloud package is a versatile and reliable platform that allows you to focus solely on your business.

Fully managed and powerful, this cloud service utilizes the latest technologies to deliver great redundancy, account isolation, and performance.

While the Hostinger system administrators take care of updates and maintenance you can optimize and perfect your online presence.

Features

Hostinger Cloud is ideally suited for business projects.

You pay not only for the hardware but also for a service – the Hostinger support team takes care of all technicalities for you so you can enjoy the ride.

Here’s the gear that powers the vehicle that will drive your online success:

You can host up to 300 websites and enjoy unlimited bandwidth. You get free domain registration, dedicated IP address, a free SSL, and CloudFlare integration to set up a secure and quick operation.

The smallest of the three plans allows for 800,000 inodes (the number of individual files you can store), while the biggest quadruples that number.

These are fairly solid numbers that fit well with the overall resource allocation:

  • 3GB / 6GB / 12GB RAM
  • 200GB / 250GB / 300GB SSD space
  • 2/4/6 CPU cores

On top of that, you get daily backups, an intuitive proprietary control panel, and LVE containers that guarantee redundancy and security through strong account isolation.

Support

Hostinger has a support team dedicated solely to its cloud clients. 24/7/365 the cloud support team monitors and maintains the machines purring.

Now, getting access to this team is a touch tricky.

Don’t get me wrong, they answer and are helpful.

The issue is that they answer only over email.

There is no phone support, nor live chat. You can find a “Chat now” button but it leads to a contact form.

As I said, the support you receive is quite OK but the medium of email makes it slower than phone or chat.

Pricing

Hostinger cloud comes in three sizes.

  • Cloud Startup – $9.99/mo
  • Cloud Professional – $18.99/mo
  • Cloud Enterprise– $69.99/mo

*Available with a 4-year prepayment

Hostinger recognizes that four years might be quite the commitment for many so it applies hefty discounts to one- and two-year deals too.

There is a 30-day money-back guarantee in place, too.

The three cloud plans scale up nicely. Each iteration adds more SSD space, RAM, CPU cores, inodes, active processes. Regardless of the chosen deal, you are eligible for some lucrative perks like dedicated IP, free SSL certificate, and daily backups.

The really awesome feature that scales up is the speed booster that quadruples with the biggest plan.

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Best for: MOST AFFORDABLE, CUSTOMIZABLE & SCALABLE

2. Scala Hosting

SSD STORAGE

20-80GB SSD

CPU

1/2/4/6 Cores

RAM

2/4/6/8GB

BANDWIDTH

Unlimited

FULLY MANAGED

Managed & Unmanaged

CONTROL PANEL

Free Spanel & Paid CPanel

Strengths
  • All Essentials Included
  • Customizable and Scalable
  • Affordable Fixed Plans
  • Free Migration On Managed Cloud
  • Best Tech and Sales Support
  • Free SPanel and Paid CPanel Options
  • Customizable network speed (100 - 500MBPS)
  • Real time security monitoring with SPanel Shield
  • Best Renewal Prices
Weaknesses
  • No Root Access On SPanel Based Plans
  • No Free Domain Name on Unmanaged Cloud VPS Plan
  • EU, US Data Centers Only
  • Centos8 OS Only On Managed Plans

Scala Hosting is a versatile hosting provider that is growing fast thanks to its undeniably innovative ideas.

Users benefit from a fully managed cloud setup enriched with numerous proprietary technologies. In fact, Scala has so much faith in its cloud hosting solutions that it guarantees 100% customer satisfaction.

From the looks of user reviews, the confidence is not misplaced.

Let’s see how Scala’s “customer comes first” culture works out for the users.

Features

When you look into Scala’s managed hosting, you’ll run into four recommended plans:

  • Start—1 CPU core, 2GB RAM, 20GB SSD storage
  • Advanced—2 CPU core, 4GB RAM, 30GB SSD storage
  • Business—4 CPU core, 6GB RAM, 50GB SSD storage
  • Enterprise—6 CPU core, 8GB RAM, 80GB SSD storage

The thing to understand is that these are just commonly used cloud hosting servers—they are suggestions more than anything else.

You are free to pick custom resource allocation for your server without any price penalty. For instance, if your app is CPU-heavy, you can just get more processing power. That way, you’re guaranteed not to overpay for resources you don’t need.

You can scale up to 24 CPU cores, 32GB RAM, and 50GB storage, which is enough to take on even complex projects.

One of the main advantages Scala brings to the table, however, is SPanel. While most providers have you pay extra for a control panel license, Scala includes a proprietary solution for free.

The control panel does practically everything cPanel does, even lets you resell unlimited hosting accounts, all at no extra charge. It also integrates with popular software like WHMCS.

If you prefer cPanel, though, the cloud web hosting provider sells licenses for it too.

As for other features, daily offsite backups are included in the price, and the servers are protected with Scala’s proprietary security suite. It gets you more reliability than you would expect from a budget-friendly host like Scala.

WordPress enthusiasts can access yet another in-house tool. SWordPress Manager adds an additional layer of WP security and efficiently handles WordPress installation and automatic updates.

The cloud-based servers can work for fresh websites as well as larger-scale projects, making Scala a host to be reckoned with.

Support

Many hosting providers like to bang their own drum when it comes to support. Scala actually delivers on these promises.

The support team is available 24/7, and all queries get a quick response.

But this is just scratching the surface. Even the frontline live chat agents go above and beyond to help. Only the most complicated of queries get escalated to a server admin, who usually quickly fix whatever is plaguing your server.

The support team exceeds all expectations.

Price

  • Start—Starts at $9.95/month, renews at $13.95/month
  • Advanced—Starts at $21.95/month, renews at $25.95/month
  • Business—Starts at $41.95/month, renews at $49.95/month
  • Enterprise—Starts at $63.95/month, renews at $67.95/month

Scala Hosting’s cloud server prices get a bit complicated since you can design a custom server. It’s your best bet to check out the provider’s price calculator for an estimate of the hosting costs

Keep in mind you need to prepay for three years to get the best deal. That said, the monthly and annual pricing isn’t much more expensive either.

All things considered, we’re talking about pretty decent value across the board. Since you don’t have to pay extra for a web hosting control panel, Scala ends up one of the most lucrative cloud hosting services.

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Best for: AFFORDABLE & BEST DEDICATED HOSTING

3. Hostwinds

SSD STORAGE

30-750GB

RAM

1-96GB

CPUS

1-16 Cores

BANDWIDTH

1-9TB

FULLY MANAGED

YES

CONTROL PANEL

Custom

Strengths
  • Wide range of plans
  • Instant scalability
  • Knowledgeable support
  • Fast SSD space
  • Custom templates
  • SSH access
Weaknesses
  • Lowest plans a little bare-boned
  • Limited company information

With nearly a decade in the hosting industry, Hostwinds has proven it is a company set to stay. There isn’t much info to gain from its website, except that the headquarters are in Washington DC, and the provider likes to make guarantees.

Like, a lot of them.

With Hostwinds, you have a 14-day money back, 99.9999% uptime, and 100% satisfaction guarantees. I see how they can back the first two claims, but the last one is a bit of a gray area.

Oh well, can’t blame a host for utilizing some marketing buzzwords as long as they can back them up.

Features

Unlike many other providers which focus on a few fixed plans, Hostwinds makes an effort to support across-the-board cloud hosting services. New and low-scale projects can start on the smallest account (1 CPU, 1GB RAM, 30GB storage) and upgrade as they grow.

The top-level server is a monster of a machine with its 16 CPU cores and 96 GB RAM. That baby can handle even complex enterprise projects without breaking a sweat.

The wide range of supported plans plays a huge part in your scalability opportunities. You can now grow your website steadily and feel safer there is always a more robust option should you need it. As for adding more space, you can hook up an extra container even without upgrading your account.

Support

With Hostwinds you are never on your own — the knowledge base is full of useful guides. What’s more, phone and ticketing is 24/7, and the Live Chat popup is always there if you need something.

So I gave it a go.

The operator was quick to answer my questions in a well-presented way. The rep wasn’t just pushing for a sale – he was actually trying to help me.

There were some unnecessary links here and there when he could’ve just answered with a few words, but overall — a pleasant experience.

Price

  • 1 CPU core (from $4.49/mo)
  • 2 CPU cores (from $17.09/mo)
  • 4 CPU cores (from $35.09/mo)
  • 6 CPU cores (from $69.29/mo)
  • 8 CPU cores (from $112.49/mo)
  • 12 CPU cores (from $193.49/mo)
  • 16 CPU cores (from $296.09/mo)

Hostwinds advertises hourly prices, though at checkout you will see your payment as one bulk sum for the billing period of your choice.

Still, we are talking about some of the most affordable prices on the market, very well suited for projects on a tight budget.

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Best for: BEST UNMANAGED SHARED SERVICE

4. HostGator

SSD STORAGE

20GB SSD

RAM

2GB/4GB/6GB

CPUS

2/4/6 Cores

BANDWIDTH

Unmetered

FULLY MANAGED

No

CONTROL PANEL

cPanel

Strengths
  • Unmetered Space/Bandwidth
  • Free SSL certificate
  • Integrated caching
  • Automated failover
  • Automated failover
Weaknesses
  • Poor support
  • Questionable reputation

Here is another hosting behemoth, standing strong so many years later. HostGator was the baby company of Brent Oxley, who sold it in 2012 to tech conglomerate EIG for a reported sum of nearly $300 million.

The early bird gets the worm, and HostGator took full advantage of the quick adoption of web hosting services.

HG remains one of the largest providers today. Hosting over 8 million domains, the company accounts for an impressive 1% of all online traffic.

Type “best cloud hosting” in Google. One of the top three results is a sponsored ad by HostGator.

Same goes for pretty much every popular web hosting related search – HG is practically everywhere.

Features

The good old hosting alligator has three distinct cloud plans in store for us.

The smallest one, the Hatchling Cloud, is quite limited — you can only host one domain name and up to 2GB of memory.

Things are getting better as we move up, but not that much.

Some nice extra perks come with the higher plans, like a free Dedicated IP and SSL certificate. But looking at things in perspective, the accounts are pretty bare-boned, basically a shared account with a cloud setup.

Storage and bandwidth caps state “Unmetered” which is something that wins many new clients over.

Support

I have had many encounters with HG operators over the years, and they have been rather unsatisfying, especially since EIG took over.

The live representatives are rarely of any help, don’t listen to your questions, and often reply by pushing unhelpful links from their knowledge base.

You can also try their ticketing system or toll-free number, but the assistance there is pretty similar.

Price

  • Hatchling Cloud (from $4.95)*
  • Baby Cloud (from $6.57)*
  • Business Cloud (from $9.95)*

*Prices are available for the initial billing period. Renewal rates are $12.95/mo.

HostGator’s cloud hosting prices are amazingly low. So much so, that the servers are more affordable than the shared deals with most providers.

Looking closer, you will realize this rate is available only if you prepay the cloud service for three years in advance. That’s a bit more than what startups can afford, but even on an annual deal, the rates are still as low as $7.95/mo.

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Best for: SIMPLE SHARED CLOUD HOSTING

5. BigRock

SSD STORAGE

1GB-Unmetered

RAM

2/4/6GB

CPU

2/4/6 Cores

BANDWIDTH

Unmetered With Limitations

FULLY MANAGED

Yes

CONTROL PANEL

CPanel

Strengths
  • Great for Indian entrepreneurs
  • Unmetered bandwidth
  • One-click installs
  • Super affordable
  • Instant scalability
  • Automatic failover
Weaknesses
  • Weekly backups only
  • Many extras paid additionally
  • Sub-par support

BigRock is a well-known name among Indian customers.

The company was part of the Directi Group, an elite league of tech companies, before finally being sold to the EIG consortium in 2014. Nowadays, BigRock supports a rich portfolio of hosting, domain, email, and security solutions.

As with other EIG brands, BR’s servers reside in the huge facility in Provo, UT, while the client support operates from India.

Features

BigRock started offering cloud hosting servers quite recently. The company divided its offerings into three distinct packages.

  • Starter – 2 cores / 2 GB RAM
  • Advanced – 4 cores / 4 GB RAM
  • Business – 6 cores / 6 GB RAM

A key thing to note here, you can scale your resources by adding up to 8 CPU cores and 8 GB RAM, but you cannot upgrade/downgrade between packages.

The entry-level plan caps your storage space to 1 GB, bandwidth to 10 GB, and the number of websites to just one. The other two deals carry no such limitations.

Things are looking a bit scarce on the Features field.

You can have a free SSL certificate installed on your server, but that’s pretty much the only thing you get for free on this cloud hosting service.

Need a dedicated IP? Sure, for a price.

How about backups? You are the one responsible.

Protection against malware? No problem, that would be $1.58/mo.

This makes BigRock mostly suited for beginners and low-demand businesses.

Support

So how is BigRock with problem-solving?

For starters, the provider ensures you can reach support via multiple channels. You’ve got the chat and phone between 8 am – 8 pm IST for Sales and Billing plus 24/7 tech assistance via internal ticketing.

EIG hosts have a bad rep for their support services, and BigRock is no different. Local clients might find it helpful, but any reputable international business might need something more.

Templated replies, upsells, and long wait times – those are all pressing issues with BigRock.

User reviews reaffirm our impressions as clients seem mostly dissatisfied with the billing and tech assistance.

Price

  • Starter – from $5.69/mo
  • Advanced – from $7.89/mo
  • Business – from $9.49/mo

BigRock’s cloud server prices look great but come with a catch – the low rates apply when you prepay for a whole three years. Paying monthly on the Starter package, for example, raises the price to $9.99/mo.

The company tries to upsell you on the very first step of the signup process, even before you choose your billing plan. Knowing that a few basic features also come at an extra cost, your total bill could easily get higher than expected.

At least there is a 30-day money-back guarantee, allowing you to test BigRock’s cloud before you commit long-term.

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Best for: HIGHLY CUSTOMIZABLE CLOUD HOSTING FOR PROS

6. Vultr

SSD STORAGE

10-1600GB

RAM

512MB-96GB

CPU

1-24 Cores

BANDWIDTH

0.5-15TB

FULLY MANAGED

No

CONTROL PANEL

Multiple Options

Strengths
  • Hourly pricing
  • One-click deploy
  • Powerful API
  • Enhanced scalability
  • Highly customizable servers
  • 100% solid-state drives
Weaknesses
  • No phone or chat support
  • Average customer service

Vultr has been offering some of the best cloud hosting packages since 2014. Although relatively new to the industry, the company quickly made a name for itself and grew to 200,000+ clients and 16 data centers in just five years.

Founder David Aninowsky already had 20+ years of experience with managed infrastructures. He was one of the first employees of DataPipe, a large provider of cloud computing and information technology services.

His mission with Vultr was to simplify the cloud and make its deployment and operation seamless for the customer.

Let’s see if he did a good job at it.

Features

Vultr is a wonderful choice for those looking for scalable cloud hosting services. Right off the bat, you get not one, not two, but 10 packages to choose from.

You can start relatively small, with an instance that carries 1 CPU core, 512 MB RAM, 10 GB SSD space, and 0.5 TB monthly traffic.

No problems expanding from there – you can gradually add more resources and grow to the colossal 24 CPU cores and 96 GB RAM.

Need more computing power?

Vultr supports a turbo-boosted feature called High Frequency Compute. Clients there benefit from speed-optimized CPU’s and NVMe local storage and can host more demanding apps.

Vultr deals come with many advanced and developer-oriented features, but that doesn’t mean its cloud hosting services can’t fit beginners and startups as well.

Deploying a server is quite easy. You can choose one of eight operating systems (CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Windows, and more) and add 15+ software apps with a single click. The library includes exciting choices like LAMP, cPanel, Docker, WordPress, and Joomla. Gamers can even run a Minecraft server.

You can go as far as deploying a completely custom project on your cloud instance.

With so many advanced features, some basic options, surprisingly, only come as paid add-ons. Even fundamental offerings like automatic daily backups and DDoS protection come at a price.

Support

Here is where things get a bit more complicated with Vultr.

Unlike many of the competitors in our cloud hosting review, this provider isn’t easy to find. There is no live chat, and neither are there any phone contacts. The only options to reach a live person are the online form and internal ticketing.

We tested both channels and the results were not particularly impressive.

It took a few replies on the online form to get precise information on some of the sales features and answers sometimes took more than 24 hours.

As for the ticketing, the operators also seem to take their time, and problem-solving involves some going back and forth.

Support is definitely an area that can use some more attention from Vultr if they want to rank higher among the best cloud hosting providers.

Price

  • Cloud 1 – from $2.50/mo or $0.004/hr
  • Cloud 2 – from $3.50/mo or $0.005/hr
  • Cloud 3 – from $5/mo or $0.007/hr
  • Cloud 4 – from $10/mo or $0.015/hr
  • Cloud 5 – from $20/mo or $0.030/hr
  • Cloud 6 – from $40/mo or $0.060/hr
  • Cloud 7 – from $80/mo or $0.119/hr
  • Cloud 8 – from $160/mo or $0.238/hr
  • Cloud 9 – from $320/mo or $0.476/hr
  • Cloud 10 – from $640/mo or $0.952/hr

Vultr works perfectly if you want to have careful control over your spendings. Instead of going for a fixed monthly rate while utilizing just part of your resources, clients of cloud hosting solutions can benefit from hourly billing.

Nothing better than a budgeted service where you only pay for what you’ve used.

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Best Cloud Hosting Providers (Mid-Range Businesses)

Best for: SCALABLE, MANAGED, WP-FRIENDLY CLOUD VPS

1. SiteGround

SSD STORAGE

40GB - 1TB

RAM

4-128GB

CPU

2-32 Cores

BANDWIDTH

5TB on All Plans

FULLY MANAGED

Only Managed

CONTROL PANEL

Site Tools

Strengths
  • Configure your own cloud
  • WordPress-optimized plans
  • Full scalability
  • Top-notch support
  • Daily backups
  • Free Cloudflare CDN
Weaknesses
  • Not very affordable

Here is one inspirational story for the history books. SiteGround started when a few college buddies from Bulgaria founded a small company, which grew to one of the largest independently-owned hosting companies today.

This is huge:

400 employees in 4 offices across Europe service over 2 million domains under the SiteGround belt.

The host has won numerous local awards for Best Employer, and the attitude toward the staff seems to directly reflect on their customer satisfaction.

Happy employees = Happy customers

SiteGround has a whole department dedicated to innovations, so it was no surprise they adopted cloud computing technology right from the get-go.

Features

When it comes to setting up a fully optimized cloud environment, few can do better than SiteGround. Its stack includes CentOS, Apache/Nginx, PHP/MySQL support, and that’s only scratching the surface.

SG is perhaps the most scalable company in this cloud hosting comparison. You can add not only more storage space but also tweak your RAM and CPU. The unique auto-scale option lets the system add on-demand resources in times of unexpected traffic spikes, avoiding server downtimes in the process.

The freebies with each account make the deal even sweeter — CDN, SSL certificate, dedicated IP, even a private DNS. These perks alone can cost you a pretty penny with lots of other providers.

Speaking of pennies:

That is one of SiteGround’s few “flaws.” Quality comes at a price, and that price is at least $72/mo with SG.

Support

When you are happy at your workplace and do your job with passion, the results will inevitably come.

This mantra finds good proof with the SiteGround support team. You can tell you are dealing with an exceptional team from the first few replies in the live chat. It’s more like having a conversation with a tech-savvy friend instead of trying to figure out things with someone who doesn’t know much more than you do.

Tried the ticketing as well, and the results came back within minutes — same effectiveness and attention to detail.

The final result?

I was absolutely delighted with the support communication and firmly back SiteGround as one of the best cloud hosting providers.

Price

  • Entry (from $80/mo)
  • Business (from $120/mo)
  • Business Plus (from $160/mo)

Super Power (from $240/mo)SiteGround might not be the most affordable cloud host, but you will struggle to find a company so clear about its pricing. Most companies advertize their best-value price, which often comes with a long-term commitment. SG shows you the monthly rate, the most you might be paying. Annual deals can bring up to 10% further discount.

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Best for: OVERALL BEST CLOUD VPS HOSTING

2. Liquid Web

SSD STORAGE

40/100/150/200GB

RAM

2/4/8/16GB

CPU

2/4/8/8 Cores

BANDWIDTH

10TB On All Packages

FULLY MANAGED

Managed And Unmanaged

CONTROL PANEL

Interworx, Paid Cpanel, Plesk

Strengths
  • Fully managed service
  • Outstanding support
  • Stable uptime
  • Choice of control panel
  • Free 100GB backup space
  • Cloudflare CDN
Weaknesses
  • No prepaid plans available

Liquid Web was founded in 1998 and for a long time focused on the shared hosting market only. The provider took а sharp turn in 2009 when it was one of the first to adopt and launch their very own line of cloud servers.

And the team hasn’t looked back ever since.

Liquid Web secured a solid position in the business cloud hosting niche and now proudly hosts over 30,000 customers in 130+ countries.

Here are some more numbers for you.

1+ million websites in 5 global data centers under the watchful eye of 500+ hosting professionals.

It sure sounds like this host is doing something right.

Features

If your project is big enough for a business cloud hosting plan, you can no longer be satisfied with the bare minimum. Your website might on the right track, but this makes it all the more “fragile” — you have to ensure its constant uptime, stellar performance, and proper data security.

Liquid Web seems to think so as well.

On top of the access to their five-star web servers, each account grants you a ton of useful extra features like CDN, DDoS protection, integrated firewall, and advanced security tools.

Speaking of the servers, they are an absolute beauty.

You can find anything between 2 to 8GB RAM and 40 to 200GB SSD space. Monthly bandwidth cap maxes at 10TB, which should be more than enough, even for more resource-hogging projects.

Support

2007 was monumental in the Liquid Web history. Their support team got the honorable title “Heroic Support,” and the company wasn’t shy to praise them as the Most Helpful Humans in Hosting™.

So what’s the big deal with that?

Many providers like to call themselves “the best” in this and that, you know, the usual marketing shenanigans.

But that’s the thing — Liquid Web strongly delivers on that promise..

Hands down, some of the best support assistants I’ve ever had the pleasure of dealing with. The chat operator was super polite and careful, and he made sure to understand my case before pointing me out in the right direction.

Certainly no complaints here.

Price

  • 2GB (from $59/mo)*
  • 4GB (from $99/mo)*
  • 8GB (from $139/mo)*
  • 16GB (from $189/mo)*

*Monthly payment

Annual, or biannual billing plans are no longer available.

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Best for: AFFORDABLE CLOUD HOSTING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

3. 1&1 IONOS

SSD STORAGE

30-480GB

RAM

0.5-48GB

CPUS

1-24vCore

BANDWIDTH

Unlimited

FULLY MANAGED

No

CONTROL PANEL

IONOs Cloud Panel

Strengths
  • Affordable
  • Feature-rich accounts
Weaknesses
  • Host a single domain name
  • No live chat assistance

The German provider to outlive them all.

If you think it’s hard to run a profitable hosting business for 20 years, imagine doing it for over three decades. Because that’s exactly what the 1&1 team has been doing since 1988.

2018 was monumental for the German host when a merge with ProfitBricks marked a new era in their chronicles — a complete rebrand and a fresh name — 1&1 IONOS.

Datacenters on two continents (Europe and North America) and 7,000 people tirelessly working to push the company forward — no wonder 1&1 is still one of the biggest providers on the market.

Features

Looking at the four cloud package deals, you will notice a couple of things.

For starters, they all look relatively cheap. That’s great, especially if you are on a tight budget. Getting a business-level account at the price of $25-$35/mo sure sounds like something you can’t easily pass on.

But when you consider what you’re getting for your money (i.e., not much) things quickly start falling into place.

The most expensive 1&1 IONOS cloud hosting package starts with only 4 CPU cores and 6GB RAM — a configuration that would be considered mid-level with most niche competitors. Default SSD storage space is on the low-side as well — only 160GB with the highest plan.

I admire one thing, though — all four offers have nearly the same toolset included; they differ mostly in the amount of dedicated resources.

Support

1&1 IONOS cloud deals have a rare feat — a personal assistant for your needs. That bears a ton of benefits — establishing a relationship with someone who knows your case quite well and can react on the spot can be a game changer.

You can activate the personal assistant option at any time and even request callbacks in a time of your convenience.

The only real downside for me is the lack of live chat, which can work much better than a phone call for international clients.

Price

  • Managed Cloud Hosting M (from $15/mo)
  • Managed Cloud Hosting L (from $25/mo)
  • Managed Cloud Hosting XL (from $35/mo)
  • Managed Cloud Hosting XXL (from $65/mo)
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Best for: HIGHLY CONFIGURABLE TRANSPARENT CLOUD VPS

4. Kamatera

SSD STORAGE

20-4000GB

RAM

1-512GB

CPUS

1-104 Cores

BANDWIDTH

5TB at 10Gbit/Second

FULLY MANAGED

Managed and Unmanaged

CONTROL PANEL

CPanel and Plesk

Strengths
  • Great cloud product range
  • Helpful support
  • Highly-customizable servers
  • No single point-of-failure
  • Disaster recovery
  • Hourly and monthly billing
Weaknesses
  • Not very beginner-friendly
  • Can get costly

Kamatera is a cloud hosting company with over two decades of IT and web service experience.

The provider started its operations in 1995 and steadily grew to the reliable cloud host with thousands of customers it is today.

Kamatera is a well-suited choice for international projects. The company has servers in 13 global data center locations, ensuring your website will run smoothly for users all over the world.

Features

If you’re looking for reliable managed cloud solutions, Kamatera has two packages that deserve attention – Basic and Advanced.

Our cloud hosting reviews for both packages revealed they come with Intel Xeon E5 v4 processors, SSD hard drives, and 600 Gbit bandwidth.

The Basic deal is rather rudimentary. Apart from the initial server and OS setup, you can contact Kamatera with backup restore requests. The company also takes care of your operating system and core Apache upgrades.

The Advanced packages look much sweeter and include a more thorough hands-on approach from the provider.

Kamatera’s team will help you with weekly usage reviews, log clearings, and DNS updates. You can also get database support by request.

Recently, the cloud hosting provider added a cool feature to the control panel that shows resource usage at a glance, across all data centers you use. It is a very handy tool.

Web developers deservedly consider Kamatera as one of the best cloud hosting providers. The platform fully supports all the major frameworks and tools like Ajax, J2EE, SVN, .NET, and more.

But the real beauty is the Build Your Server wizard. You can deploy a cloud instance after fine-tuning your CPU, RAM, space, and extra features. This way, you can be sure there will be plenty of resources to go around.

Support

Kamatera’s operators try to cover different time zones so they can provide the best assistance to as many clients as possible.

Take the Sales and Account Management teams, for example.

North American business cloud hosting customers can find support Mon-Fri, 8 am – 6 pm (UTC -5). If you are in Europe, the team is online for you in the same period, but UTC +2 time. A dedicated solution is available for users in the Middle East as well – this time it’s active between Sun-Thu, 8 am – 6 pm (UTC+3).

The sales operators await your questions over phone or email. The same goes for the tech support assistance, but at least you can reach them 24/7.

Kamatera used to have a live chat option, but that doesn’t seem active at the moment.

The level of support, though, makes you forget all the little missing things. The operators always respond promptly and with enough detail to solve the issue from the first time. Even more, our Basic package (which is far from the best cloud hosting deal) promised a 4-hour response time to tickets, but we always got assistance within a couple of hours.

Efficient support is crucial in cloud services, and Kamatera seems up to the challenge.

Price

  • Basic – starting from $50/mo per server
  • Extended – starting from $120/mo per server

Kamatera’s prices can vary, especially if you are building your own web server. This is why the company shows the costs of a bare server only. The more extras or system resources you add to the package – the higher your bill goes.

The good news is there are no hidden fees.You can clearly see your total cloud server prices while you configure your platform and before checkout. There are no introductory promos, but that also means your monthly rate won’t jump up come renewal.

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Best for: A FREEBIE-RICH CLOUD VPS

5. ChemiCloud

SSD STORAGE

80-640GB

RAM

4-32GB

CPUS

2-8 Cores

BANDWIDTH

4-6TB

FULLY MANAGED

Yes

CONTROL PANEL

cPanel

Strengths
  • Stellar performance
  • Free cPanel license
  • Free SSL
  • Free Dedicated IP
  • Website migrations
  • Spotless reputation
Weaknesses
  • High monthly rates
  • Even higher renewals
  • No knowledge base

ChemiCloud is a company with a client-first approach to hosting.

You can tell that at first glance – the website bets on transparency, easy support access, and satisfaction guarantees. A quick look at the user reviews shows ChemiCloud makes good on its client promises. You will struggle to find any negative opinions, which is always a promising sign.

ChemiCloud packs over ten years of hosting experience – let’s see if they put that time in good use.

Features

Four robust packages await on ChemiCloud’s cloud web hosting page.

The entry-level deal comes with 2 CPU cores, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD space, and 4 TB bandwidth. That’s more than enough for small and mid-sized projects, but you can easily scale up if you outgrow your account.

There are a bunch of free goods as well.

You get a no-cost cPanel license, which is particularly useful after the control panel developers changed their pricing policies.

You also get a neat bundle of an SSL certificate and Dedicated IP address for extra security and reliability.

What if your files are hosted elsewhere?

No problem – the ChemiCloud support will be happy to migrate your project. For free, of course.

CC even lets you resell its scalable cloud hosting services with your very own branded nameservers and control panel. Your clients will never know there is another provider behind your back.

Support

We always enjoy it when a hosting provider keeps clear and easily-accessible contacts to support. This means the company is confident enough in the skills and expertize of its staff.

With ChemiCloud, you’ve got the whole nine yards – live chat, phone, email address, online form. Submitting a ticket also takes a simple mouse click.

We tested the live chat on several occasions, and the support operators managed to impress us with some swift and efficient service. The guys were really polite and treated us with the utmost care and attention.

The employees are indeed a key reason as to why ChemiCloud is one of the best cloud hosting suppliers. Competitors often give nothing more than basic sales assistance. The CC support team happily helps with intricate technical questions even before you become a customer.

It’s a clear advantage, and it works heavily in ChemiCloud’s favor.

Price

  • Iron – from $59.96/mo
  • Bronze – from $89.96/mo
  • Silver – from $149.69/mo
  • Gold – from $269.69/mo

ChemiCloud is by no means a cheap provider.

But why should you expect so – on this level, you should be looking for quality and CC definitely brings that to the table. Prices start from $59.96/mo with a 25% introductory discount. This means that it might be better to commit for a longer term, as the rates for the same package jump up to $79.95/mo come renewal.

You can find a bunch of useful cloud server hosting extras at checkout as well.

  • Private SSL – from $39.95/mo
  • SiteLock web security – from $24.95/yr
  • SpamExperts email security – from $36.00/yr

All in all, ChemiCloud can offer you pretty much anything if you have the budget for it.

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Best Enterprise Cloud Hosting Providers

Best for: BEST HOST FOR FREE TRIALS

1. Amazon AWS

DATA CENTERS

36

SCALABILITY

4.9

SUPPORT

4.8

CONTROL PANEL

User choice

OS

Windows, Linux

USER REVIEWS

4.3

Strengths
  • Fully-compliant servers
  • 70 availability zones in 22 world regions
  • Vast array of security features
  • Wide selection of APIs
  • Cost management services
  • Different types of free trials
Weaknesses
  • Not suitable for beginners

AWS is one of the most profitable subsidiaries of tech giants Amazon and a prime reason why Jeff Bezos is now the world’s richest man.

The company first entered the market in 2006 and took it by storm, registering an annual revenue of over $20 billion in the last few years. Though the gap between AWS and Microsoft Azure is tightening, Amazon’s service still reigns supreme over the public cloud market, with 68% adoption.

A lot of enterprises rely on AWS for their daily operations, including companies in the real estate, healthcare, media, and gaming niches.

Features

Most AWS servers are Windows-based, but the provider offers Linux cloud hosting configurations as well.

There aren’t any distinct plans with set resources, as each client gets a fully customized experience right from the start. That can be a little confusing for the novice user, but at this level, you most probably have a trained professional handling this side of things.

That’s the kicker — if you know what you’re doing, we are talking about endless modification possibilities.

To make things even sweeter, Amazon AWS has a special cloud tier, where you can use some services for a whole year without paying a dime.

Support

The level of assistance with AWS is exactly as stellar as you would expect from a company like Amazon. The staff clearly know what they are doing and ready to address every issue with the needed care.

That is if you can get a hold of them…

Forget about live chats and phone support — you can either send AWS an email or work your way around the extensive knowledge base and video guides.

Price

Providers at this level don’t put a fixed rate on their cloud hosting solutions, due to their advanced customizability. What I do know about Amazon AWS is they have three billing models – “pay-per-use,” “save-when-you-reserve,” and “pay-less-using-more.”

The AWS support team is the one with more details on how each of those works.

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Best for: FASTEST GROWING CLOUD HOST

2. Microsoft Azure

DATA CENTERS

40

SCALABILITY

4.9

SUPPORT

4.9

CONTROL PANEL

Microsoft Azure Portal

OS

Windows, Linux

USER REVIEWS

4.3

Strengths
  • Availability zones in 58 regions
  • Windows-friendly servers
  • Great for startups
  • Migration tools
  • Easy scalability
  • Competitive pricing
Weaknesses
  • Steep learning curve

A few years after Amazon AWS’s success, Microsoft was quick to join them in the cloud game.

Enter MS Azure.

The Microsoft platform covers over 600 services in 13 distinct areas of cloud computing. Azure might still be second to AWS, but recently shows higher adoption rates than the industry leader.

16.8% of the market in less than a decade? Sounds like the provider is doing something right.

Features

Azure supports Linux, but let’s be honest — this is Microsoft, so services will always have a strong focus on Windows. The web servers can run Java, Python, and NodeJS, as well as MySQL databases.

Azure accounts scale quick and easy, giving you enough customization options to refine things as per your liking.

The cloud provider gives you everything you need to build, test, deploy, and manage your web projects. You can also make yourself feel like a tech god by connecting your devices through the IoT hub (more about “Internet of Things” here).

The best thing?

Just as with AWS, you can enjoy an Azure platform completely free of charge for the initial 12 months.

Support

You can’t be one of the best cloud hosting companies without providing exceptional support to back your clients.

Microsoft knows that for sure.

So does it apply this lesson to its public cloud services?

The live chat option is still missing, but at least MS offers round-the-clock phone operators and ticketing system. The community forums and support center are a useful solution to the most common queries.

Additionally, you can opt-in for paid assistance to maximize your public cloud experience.

Price

The cost of enterprise-level accounts greatly varies depending on the chosen setup, but from what I’ve gathered Azure offers very affordable entry-level plans. These basic configurations can go as low as $30/mo, but they’ll grant you just enough dedicated resources to start a relatively small project.

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3. Google Cloud

DATA CENTERS

20+

SCALABILITY

4.9

SUPPORT

4.8

CONTROL PANEL

User choice

OS

Windows, Linux

USER REVIEWS

4.4

Strengths
  • Per-second billing
  • Multi-layered security
  • Global private networks
  • Multitude of user-friendly apps
  • Intelligent analytics
  • Increased workplace productivity
Weaknesses
  • Costly service

You don’t really need a history lesson about Google, do you?

The household name for internet searches has been dipping its toes in practically everything — from machine learning to multimedia and from AI to self-driving cars. Sure, not all of their projects were a booming success (R.I.P. Google Plus), but those are just the kind of failures that make you grow and improve.

Today, Google’s Cloud houses over 4 million customers and earns an 8% market share. Trusted by giants like Twitter, Paypal, 20th Century Fox, and Bloomberg.

A sure sign that big enterprises can find a suitable home here.

Features

It’s safe to say you’ve got your bases covered here. I mean, this is Google — of course, they have an app for everything.

Developers love the multi-layered IT infrastructure, which allows them to stage, test, and deploy their web projects safely. The toolset is also impressive — Compute Engine, App Engine, Cloud Object Storage, and Big Query are just a few of the crowd favorites.

Google Cloud Platform is ready to help with a variety of industry-level solutions as well. Whether you are in Healthcare, Education, or Retail — Big G has got you covered.

Support

Unlike the other top cloud hosting providers in the enterprise niche, Google Cloud has a pretty comprehensive support structure in place.

You have the Basic level, which is free, but operators can help with Billing issues only. It is available via phone, chat, and ticket.

Adding some technical assistance and quicker response time will take you into the Role-Based support solutions, which comes at a couple of hundred bucks a month.

On the Enterprise level, things are kicking into high gear — 24/7 help with 15-minute response time plus additional perks, like reviews and strategy roadmaps. You can expect at least a few thousand bucks added to your monthly bill here.

Price

As with AWS and Azure, it’s hard to define an exact package price for the Google Cloud services. Entry-level packages start at around $45, but you can also take advantage of a 1-year free trial (up to $300 credit).

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Best for: BEST CLOUD HOSTING SUPPORT

4. Rackspace

DATA CENTERS

Global coverage

SCALABILITY

4.8

SUPPORT

5

CONTROL PANEL

Custom

OS

Windows, Linux

USER REVIEWS

3.8

Strengths
  • Modernized IT infrastructure
  • Pay-as-you-grow pricing
  • Multi-cloud management
  • Enhanced scalability
  • Full cloud lifecycle support
  • Optimized disaster recovery
Weaknesses
  • Can be confusing for first-timers
  • Pricing unclear

Rackspace is the brainchild of entrepreneur Richard Yoo. Launched in 1998, the company focused on the rising hosting technologies and associated support for them.

This worked wonders, and RackSpace quickly assembled a massive operation, acquiring companies like Jungle Disk (cloud storage), SliceHost (VPS services), and DataPipe along the way.

The Texas-based company is one of the top cloud hosting providers today, with clients from over 150 countries.

Features

RackSpace did not initially offer cloud services, but once it started – things really kicked off. Well-versed in technology and server management, the company managed to develop top-notch solutions for all types of environment:

  • Public cloud
  • Private cloud
  • Hybrid cloud
  • Multi-cloud

RackSpace partners with all the big players in the enterprise cloud – Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud. Their know-how and services really helped the company expand its operations to unprecedented levels.

The RackSpace platform is ideal for projects with unpredictable traffic.

The servers are highly customizable, so the provider focuses more on their use cases rather than simple cloud hosting features alone. The machines are well suited to host enterprise apps, media streaming solutions, CMS systems, dev environments…practically anything you might think of.

All servers support the latest versions of the popular Linux distributions like CentOS, Fedora, Debian, Arch, Gentoo, and more.

Support

For starters, RackSpace clients have access to an extensive library of support documentation and tutorials. Many of the users have some technical experience, so they can efficiently run the service guided by those articles alone.

But what if you are completely new to this?

RackSpace’s support has been topping the charts for best cloud hosting assistance for years. Clients from around the world are singing praises of the efficiency and knowledge of the sales and technical operators.

There are some concerns, though, as more and more people express their dissatisfaction online nowadays.

Our own experience was not flawless as well. Even though we kept things simple enough, the chat assistants did not always understand our queries clearly. Instead, they tried to rush into a possible solution without ensuring what the problem was.

Hopefully, RackSpace will take note and improve to at least its previous levels.

Price

Similar to other best cloud hosting providers in the Enterprise niche, RackSpace does not have clearly outlined packages and pricing.

Your monthly bill depends entirely on your needs and the configuration you will assemble with the support team.

So, if you think RackSpace might be a good fit for your project – simply contact the operators and see what they have in store for you.

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Best for: BEST CLOUD HARDWARE

5. IBM Cloud

DATA CENTERS

19 countries worldwide

SCALABILTY

4.6

SUPPORT

4.6

CONTROL PANEL

cPanel

OS

Linux

USER REVIEWS

4.3

Strengths
  • Free Lite account
  • Great backup and disaster recovery options
  • Wide range of data center locations
  • Market-leading data protection apps
  • Optimized workloads
Weaknesses
  • Not very intuitive
  • File management too complex

IBM needs no introduction. The tech giant has been playing around with virtualization since the ’60s and introduced its first power systems servers in 1990.

You know a cloud web hosting provider can be trusted when they have a portfolio of big clients. In IBM’s case, we are talking about 47 of the Fortune 50 companies, 8 out of the 10 biggest airlines, and all of the top 10 major world banks.

With clients like these, you HAVE to be doing something right.

Features

The IBM cloud can do wonders for you if you know what your project needs. It’s more than just a simple infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) or platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solution. You have an extensive set of cloud based hosting services, which you can combine and pair as per your liking.

You also have access to the Infrastructure Management System (IMS) that gives you extra control over customizations on your IBM cloud. If you have some skilled techies on your team, they can even help you integrate IMS into your own web project.

Ever heard of IBM Watson before?

It’s a supercomputer designed to answer questions in your natural language. IBM gives you access to this beauty to utilize as your assistant if things get too technical.

It works great with simple queries, but nothing can beat the live assistance.

Support

New users can easily get lost when they have to find an IBM representative for the first time.

The enterprise cloud hosting service provider focuses more on self-help guides and video tutorials, as most of its clients are well-experienced with technology.

Still, after some digging around, we managed to find a phone, email, and live chat contact.

It’s best if you know what you need before you contact the chat operators. Although they are helpful and knowledgeable, at times their responses get too technical and can confuse the average user.

Price

No clear information is available for the pricing of the IBM cloud packages. As you are building your infrastructure from the ground up, it all matters what components you pick. So it’s best to contact the IBM sales team for a more precise calculation.

Still, you can start on a limited free account and see if the platform syncs well with your web project before you invest in the cloud.

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What Is Cloud Computing?

  • Imagine your online project was not bound to the confines of a single server machine, solely dependent on its security and performance. 
  • Instead, you can scatter your data across a network of secure web servers around the world, making it impervious to single-point breaches.
  • We won’t dive into too much detail about how great cloud computing is (which is a lot). WebTribunal has this in-depth article to tell you all about it. 

How To Find The Best Cloud Hosting Providers

You can easily get lost in the vast pool of hosting companies that offer cloud-based services. Almost every reputable provider has either jumped on the Cloud bandwagon or is strongly considering it.

Luckily, you can increase the odds of finding the perfect match if you have a thought-out battle plan.

Here are some tips that always come in handy:

  • Outline the scope, needs, and goals of your project. What kind of website would you build? How big? What is your target audience?
  • Compile a list of hosts that seem in tune with your requirements. Which companies are versatile enough to help you grow?
  • Start with the cloud server hosting hardware. How much CPU and RAM are you getting? Is there enough disk space and bandwidth to handle your website in the long run?
  • Take a closer look at the feature set. Are there enough in-built options to run your project smoothly? How about paid extras? Anything that can complement your goals that you might’ve missed?
  • Consider your defenses. Is your cloud host doing enough to secure your project? Can it help you strengthen your account even further?
  • Test the support assistance as well. Can you reach the company operators easily? How helpful are they? Are they just focused on selling you a simple cloud hosting package or do they ask questions to determine your needs first?
  • Go through the user reviews on the Web. What are current clients saying about the services? What are the most common reasons for their dissatisfaction?
  • Add the price factor to the equation. Do the deals fit your hosting budget? How about renewal prices and hidden fees? Can you afford the cloud package in the long run?

See, if you just follow some simple steps and ask your host the right questions – you’ll have no trouble finding the right partner.

Benefits Of Cloud Hosting

Not yet convinced if cloud-based hosting services are right for you?

Let’s take a look at the most notable advantages of this state-of-the-art technology.

  • Performance – cloud technology is all about load balancing. Instead of using a single physical server to cater to all requests, your data scatters across a whole network of virtual machines. This configuration lets you utilize plenty of resources and handle traffic spikes without losing speed.
  • Scalability – the biggest benefit of them all. Having access to on-demand resources lets you adapt to your business’ current state and scale your operations accordingly. Need just a few more gigabytes of space or another CPU core for more processing power? Even cheap cloud hosting solutions can often support steady website growth.
  • Availability – server downtimes are never a good thing, especially if you’re making money off of your website. The beauty of cloud hosting is that it doesn’t tie you to a single server. Even if a machine goes down – that wouldn’t interfere with your uptime. You can see how that configuration makes a hacker’s job a living nightmare.
  • Security – let’s face it – your website’s safety is important not just for you, but for your visitors as well. The best cloud hosting providers are well aware of that fact and ensure their setup and features are up to the latest security standards. DDoS protection, SSL certificate, remote server backups, anti-spam filters, malware protection – there are countless ways of making the cloud impenetrable.
  • Customization – the cloud hardware environment gives you the freedom to tweak around and further optimize your platform. That is especially handy if you have some administration skills. But even if you don’t – the best cloud hosting suppliers offer fully managed services with seasoned professionals taking care of the technicalities.
  • Flexible Pricing – just like your server resources, you can often scale your expenses on a cloud platform. Why overpay for services you are not utilizing to their fullest when you can be in constant control of your monthly costs? Shared hosting and even VPS servers often come with fixed pricing, but most clients rarely utilize more than 10% of their account capacity. You can do the math of all the savings you can make in the long run.

Conclusion

This is where our journey ends today. This review should give you a pretty good idea of how cloud computing can boost your online project and what would be the most suitable places to start.

At the very least, the next time someone mentions “cloud technology” in a conversation you can join in instead of looking at the sky in bewilderment.

Let’s recap our findings:

-=Best Entry-level Cloud Providers=-

  • Hostinger
  • ScalaHosting
  • Hostwinds

-=Best Business Cloud Providers=-

  • SiteGround
  • Liquid Web
  • 1&1 IONOS

-=Best Enterprise Cloud Providers=-

  • Amazon AWS
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Google Cloud
FAQ
Which website hosting service is the best?

There is no such thing as best in the hosting business. The market is buzzing with providers, each trying to find their niche and unique characteristics. The proper way to find a host would be to determine the scale of your project and then go hunting with specific requirements in mind.

What services can be hosted in the cloud?

Whether it’s a cloud-native or hosted application, there isn’t any limitation to what you can accommodate in the cloud. The term refers to an infrastructural method, so as long as your project is compatible with the environment — you are free to host it in the cloud.

What is the best cloud storage for small business owners?

Entry-level cloud hosting is the right niche to start with, provided you don’t have huge space requirements. HostGator supports Unmetered capacity on all plans, and Hostwinds offers deals for up to 750GB SSD storage. All of the best cloud hosting providers on our list can be scaled space-wise without the need to upgrade.

Is cloud hosting better than shared hosting?

In many aspects – yes, cloud services are superior in many ways.

First, you have increased performance. The cloud gives a solution for data redundancy and subsequently – better speeds.

And that’s not even half of it.

The cloud setup is very flexible and lets you adjust resources on-the-go. You can give your project what it needs while being prepared for future growth.

In conclusion, shared hosting might be cheaper than the average cloud deal, but the latter gives you much better value for money.

Is GoDaddy a good host?

GoDaddy is by far the biggest hosting provider and domain registrar on the market.

Founded way back in 1997, GD was one of the pioneers in the business. Today, the company accounts for over 18.5 million customers and their 78+ million domain names.

GoDaddy bets on reliability and long experience, but its support services are often sub-par.

Plus, the host doesn’t support cloud services, so the packages cannot adapt to any type of client.

Is cloud hosting secure?

Compared to a shared account, the cloud configuration is much more secure. Physical hardware fails, but that doesn’t affect you when your website spreads across a whole virtual server network.

This environment brings an additional layer of security on what your host should already have in place – server monitoring, DDoS protection, emergency protocols.

Shared clients face another common issue – bad neighbors. If an attacker gains access to a shared – they have control over all accounts on that machine.

This is another problem solved by the best cloud hosting providers. Your network and resources lie in complete isolation, which makes them safe from neighboring breaches.

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Radoslav Chakarov
Radoslav Chakarov

The relationship between Rado and Web Hosting has been going on for 12+ years now and neither of them knew it would be so passionate. Bred as a digital marketer, Rado is fascinated by words and how they can affect people. Collects cow memorabilia. Yeah, go figure…