Welcome to Hosting Foundry, as a collective of web agency owners, between us, we have accounts with around 35+ web hosts. So you might say we know something about hosting sites (and creating them).
When it comes to finding a quality web host for membership websites, we’re really lucky as a lot of the big web hosting services do accommodate your needs. This made creating this web hosting comparison fairly easy! 🙂
Based on our reviews, here are the best web hosting services for membership websites:
| Web Hosting Company | Cost/mo | Features | View Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
 | USD $2.99 | Huge Discount |
| View Plans |
 | USD $35 |
| View Plans |
 | USD $25 |
| View Plans |
Table of Contents
Best Web Hosting for membership websites
Here are the 10 best web hosting reviews for membership websites, including their rates, disk space, support options, and load times.
1. SiteGround – Best Overall
- Price: $3.99
- Disk space: 10GB
- Support: Phone, Live Chat, and Tickets
- Load time: 359 milliseconds
- Uptime: 99.99%
SiteGround is a popular hosting option for membership websites, with over 2.6 million domains. The company offers various hosting options and plans at different rates, and an excellent customer support team. Small blog owners and medium to large-sized businesses have an option on SiteGround.
SiteGround Performance
SiteGround’s uptime performance is a 99.99% average, making it one of the most reliable hosts in the industry. A strong uptime keeps your site visitors happy while guaranteeing the website is available almost around the clock, so customers never miss a chance to make a purchase.
Above Average Load Time
SiteGround offers 359ms loading time, which is above average. The platform does not experience load time spikes that would otherwise ruin a visitor’s experience.
Extra features such as SiteGround Optimizer further bolster speediness for for membership websites. The tool is responsible for delivering content to your site visitors fast. Ultrafast PHP is the company’s proprietary feature available on GrowBig and GoGeek, which helps reduce time to the first byte by 30%.
A Focus on Quality
Some ways SiteGround ensures quality include:
- A full 30-day money-back guarantee in case you’re not 100% happy with the services
- All clients have free access to a global Content Delivery Network (CDN) to ensure their websites load fast
- The company has carbon-neutral data centers and can match the electricity your server uses with renewable energy generation
Hosting Plans
- Startup—$3.99/mo, 1 website, 10GB space
- GrowBig—$6.69/mo, unlimited websites, 20GB space
- GoGeek—$10.69/mo, unlimited sites, 40GB space
Pros
- Excellent customer support
- WordPress recommends SiteGround
- A low introductory rate and a 30-day money-back guarantee
- Great site speed and uptime statistics
- Free website transfer
- Free daily backups
- Excellent for scalability
Cons
- The renewal rates are high
2. Kinsta – Best Managed WordPress Host
- Price: $35
- Disk space: 10GB
- Support: Phone, Email, and Chat
- Load time: 468 milliseconds
- Uptime: 99.9%
Kinsta is an enterprise-grade host provider for WordPress. The company carefully balances resource allocation to offer solutions for membership websites, plus custom server configurations.
Kinsta Powerful Resources
Kinsta offers WordPress plans that run on dedicated resources. Each pre-built server handles between 25,000 and 3 million visitors, depending on the package you choose.
The web host offers tips on the ideal plan for your business or project. State the kind of website you want to create for a recommendation. For instance, does not recommend Starter and Pro tiers for membership and e-commerce sites.
Kinsta Speed and Security
Kinsta uses KeyCDN for content delivery services to customers. The service allows a host to cache your website across over 34 data centers worldwide. It routes requests from visitors to the nearest server, which enables fast page loading.
Kinsta also uses IPv6 technology for real-time content caching, including JavaScript, CSS, and image files. The technology compresses the data to improve speed delivery.
Kinsta processes traffic via the HTTP/2 protocol for speedy end-to-end data encryption between the server and site visitors. The protocol also helps eliminate using SSL on your site. While not a requirement, the protocol is a recommendation for browsers that don’t support SSL technology.
Hosting Plans
- Starter—$35/mo, 1 WordPress site install, 10GB disk space
- Pro—$70/mo, 2 WordPress sites, 20GB disk space
- Business 1—$115/mo, 5 WordPress sites, 30GB disk space
- Business 2—$225/mo, 10 WordPress sites, 40GB disk space
- Business 3—$340/mo, 20 WordPress sites, 50GB disk space
- Business 4—$450/mo, 40 WordPress sites, 60GB disk space
- Enterprise 1—$675/mo, 60 WordPress sites, 100GB disk space
- Enterprise 2—$1,000/mo, 80 WordPress sites, 150GB disk space
- Enterprise 3—$1,350/mo, 120 WordPress sites, 200GB disk space
- Enterprise 4—$1,650/mo, 150 WordPress sites, 250GB disk space
Pros
- Solid loading speeds
- Over 25 server locations worldwide to choose from
- Pleasant and straightforward navigation and user experience
- Unlimited users at the site and company levels
- Automatic website backups
- Optimized for hosting WordPress sites
- Free migrations into Kinsta
Cons
- Limited monthly visits, storage, and CDN levels
- Renewal prices are high
- Kinsta bans some WordPress plugins due to performance and security issues
- You cannot install any other Content Management System (CMS) on a Kinsta server
3. Rocket.net – For Cutting-Edge WordPress Optimization
- Price: $25
- Disk space: 10GB
- Support: Live Chat, Email, Phone
- Load time:
- Uptime: 99.99%
Rocket.net is a fully managed WordPress hosting platform that has been offering its services since 2020. It’s great for membership websites. The relatively new platform sets itself apart because it uses Cloudflare’s Enterprise CDN.
Rocket.net and Cloudflare Enterprise CDN
The Enterprise CDN is a content delivery network from Cloudflare. It guarantees fast loading speeds, a 100% uptime guarantee, and advanced security. Pricing for the solution starts at $6,000 a month.
Rocket.net divides the premium CDN service among multiple customers, significantly lowering costs for membership websites. The strategy means you gain exceptional benefits at lower rates.
Some benefits of the partnership include:
- Google font optimization for up to 36 hours so text-based content on a site loads swiftly
- Web Application Firewall (WAF) protection that secures your website from online threats such as bots
- Full page caching, so web pages load quickly and improve the user experience
- Brotli compression format for improved page loading times
- Automatic WebP conversion for images to reduce their size without compromising quality
An Attractive User Interface
Rocket.net boasts an interface featuring a modern design and colors. The dashboard shows metrics for bandwidth usage, disk use, and the number of visitors monthly. You can also create and manage support tickets, affiliates, billing, and websites.
The platform has an intuitive and easy-to-use control panel in place of a cPanel. As a fully managed WordPress host, Rocket.net enhances ease of use, and you don’t need to worry about CDN installation, site optimization, and security.
Hosting Plans
- Starter—$25/mo, 1 WordPress site, 10GB storage
- Pro—$50/mo, 3 WordPress sites, 20GB storage
- Business—$83/mo, 10 WordPress sites, 40GB storage
- Enterprise—$166/mo, 25 WordPress sites, 50GB storage
Pros
- Cloudflare Enterprise CDN
- Fast speeds
- Image optimization
- Advanced security
- Unbeatable uptime
- Easy backups
Cons
- Expensive
- No email hosting
- You can’t create sub-domains
4. A2 Hosting
- Price: $2.99
- Disk space: 100GB
- Support: Chat, Phone, Tickets
- Load time: 50 to 284 milliseconds
- Uptime: 99.99%
A2 Hosting is a platform that’s been around since 2001 and is famous for fast page load speeds. The company has a strong uptime, making it a reliable hosting service for membership websites.
Supports Multiple CMS Solutions
A2 Hosting works seamlessly with major content management systems, including WordPress, Magento, Joomla, and Drupal. Installing your preferred CMS takes a few clicks without help from a developer.
Performance-enhancing plugins make the CMSs faster from the Turbo Boost plan. Customers access a free Cloudflare CDN with all the hosting plans, contributing to site speed. A2 Hosting comes with multiple developer-friendly tools. For example, use the A2 SiteBuilder to create your website quickly.
SSD Storage for Fast Loading
All A2 shared hosting plans come with SSD storage, which contributes to faster page loading speeds. SSDs are 30% faster than conventional hard disks. Plans in the higher range use Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) SSD storage for guaranteed low latency, fast website performance for better SEO ranking, and improved security.
A Unique Anytime Money-Back Guarantee
Most hosts have a 30-day money-back guarantee. A2 Hosting instead goes further by offering an anytime money-back guarantee. While you can get a full refund within the first 30 days, you can cancel the service anytime and get a prorated sum back for the remaining prepaid time.
Hosting Plans
- Startup—$2.99/mo, 1 website, 100GB SSD storage
- Drive—$5.99/mo, unlimited websites, unlimited SSD storage
- Turbo Boost—$6.99/mo, unlimited websites, unlimited NVMe SSD storage
- Turbo Max—$12.99/mo, unlimited websites, unlimited NVMe SSD storage
Pros
- Excellent uptime and load speeds
- An extensive knowledge base
- Free website migration
- Compatible with several CMSs
- Green web hosting
Cons
- The domain name is not free
- High renewal rates
- Restrictions on the lower plans
5. HostPapa – Best Independent Hosting Provider
- Price: $3.95
- Disk space: 100GB
- Support: Live Chat, Phone, Tickets
- Load time: Up to 500 milliseconds
- Uptime: 99.99%
HostPapa is a Canadian hosting platform that offers shared, WordPress, reseller, and VPS hosting services. The company is one of the first in the industry to power its data centers with renewable energy. The low-cost, high-value provider currently hosts over half a million websites.
Exceptional Speed
HostPapa invests in the latest technology to ensure web pages load fast, including:
- Fast servers that deliver content up to 50 times faster
- Cloudflare CDN to cache your content and deliver it quickly when required
- Solid State Drives (SSDs) that are faster than HDDs
- Built-in caching via Cachewall to optimize, protect, and improve website response time
- PHP7 to ensure you take advantage of the latest technologies
Secure Data Centers
HostPapa boasts reliable hosting infrastructure, including:
- Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) for servers
- Climate and temperature controls for the centers
- Fire suppression and fault protection systems
Tools for Small Businesses
HostPapa customers get the tools required to support websites for small businesses, such as:
- Inexpensive domain names
- Email Hosting
- Free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate and premium Wildcard SSL
- Daily automatic site backups
One-on-One Training Sessions
HostPapa offers training sessions for beginners. New customers can schedule a 30-minute session with a professional where they ask anything they need to know about hosting a site. Customers can request tutorials and guides on topics of interest.
Hosting Plans
- Starter—$3.95/mo, 1 website, 100GB SSD storage
- Business—$3.95/mo, unlimited websites, unlimited SSD storage
- Business Pro—$12.95/mo, unlimited websites, unlimited SSD storage
Pros
- Excellent uptime guarantee and speed
- Multiple support options
- A 30-day money-back guarantee
- Proactive security features
Cons
- High renewal rates
6. Hostinger
- Price: $1.99
- Disk space: 50GB
- Support: Email, Live Chat
- Load time: 20 to 250 milliseconds
- Uptime: 99.99%
Founded in 2011, Hostinger is a major shared and cloud hosting provider. The company operates in over 178 countries, serving over 29 million customers daily. Hostinger provides quality hosting for membership websites and helps users create the perfect sites for their businesses.
Excellent Introductory Rates
The Hostinger introductory prices set the company apart from the competition. You get almost all the same features as a premium web host at a fraction of the rate. The Premium plan costs less than $3 a month, while the entry-level package is only $1.99.
In comparison, other hosting providers cost you as much as $6 per month for similar performances and specifications. Hostinger provides value and is a good option, especially when you’re just starting.
Hostinger Unlimited Features
The premium plans continue to impress with multiple unlimited features, such as:
- Unlimited sites in a single account
- Unlimited bandwidth, so you don’t have to worry about downtime because of unusually high traffic to your website
- Unlimited email to suit your personal and professional needs
- Free Let’s Encrypt SSL for all shared hosting packages
Free Domain Name and Website Builder
The Hostinger Premium and Business web hosting plans come with free domain names, which helps you save some money. However, you’ll pay extra if you require more than one domain.
Hostinger also offers their website builder, Zyro, for free. The builder includes tons of templates to choose from and customizes each page with a drag-and-drop interface to your liking. Zyro also contains blogging, SEO, and email services and tools.
Hosting Plans
- Single Shared Hosting—$1.99/mo, 1 website, 50GB SSD storage
- Premium Shared Hosting—$2.99/mo, 100 websites, 100GB SSD storage
- Business Shared Hosting—$3.99/mo, 100 websites, 200GB SSD storage
Pros
- Fast load time and good uptime guarantee
- Multilingual support team
- The free domain name and website builder
- Affordable for small to medium-sized businesses
- An easy-to-use interface
- Data centers in multiple countries
Cons
- Cannot run demanding websites
- No phone support
7. Cloudways – Best for Cloud Hosting
- Price: $10
- Disk space: 25GB
- Support: Live Chat, Phone, and Email Tickets
- Load time: Depends on the cloud provider
- Uptime: 99.99%
Cloudways is a bit of an odd one out in the hosting industry because it adopts a unique approach. Instead of using its infrastructure, the company lets you choose between Google Cloud, AWS, Linode, Vultr, and DigitalOcean.
Cloudways handles the configuration and maintenance part while providing multiple website management tools. This approach ensures you get excellent performance at a low price.
Enhanced Security
Cloudways offers free managed backups so you can restore a website to an earlier state in case of a problem. The process is easy and fast.
Pricing includes Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates that provide an extra layer of security. You also get Two Factor Authentication (TFA) as a secondary protection layer to ensure you’re the only one logging into your account.
Free Site Migration
Cloudways helps with website migration so you don’t deal with the lengthy and sometimes painful process. The migration service is free of charge, no matter the plan you choose. WordPress users have access to a Cloudways plugin that ensures issue-free and smooth migration.
Hosting Plans
- DigitalOcean Data Centers—$10 to $80 per month
- Vultr Data Centers—$13 to $100 per month
- Linode—$12 to $90 a month
- AWS—$36.51 to $274.33 per month
- Google Cloud (GCE) Data Centers—$33.78 to $225.93 a month
Pros
- A user-friendly way for cloud hosting a website
- Full control over server resources
- Scaling resources is easy and available at any time
- Cloudways handles server optimization for you
- Setting up a WordPress site takes minutes
- Excellent performance
Cons
- You require server management experience to determine the resources a website needs
- The pricing structure is complicated, and some options are costly
8. WP Engine – Great High-End WordPress Host
- Price: $20
- Disk space: 10GB
- Support: Limited phone support for Startup users, Chat
- Load time: 337 milliseconds
- Uptime: 99.95%, 99.99% with enhanced SLA
WP Engine is one of the best managed WordPress hosting services for membership websites if you’re looking for a hands-off approach to site management. The company offers you fast servers, security, and peace of mind.
Advanced Security Measures
WP Engine tests all core updates before they upgrade your site. Proprietary intrusion and prevention software blocks DDoS, malware, JavaScript injection, and brute-force attacks. The company also partners with third-party security firms to carry out code and security reviews and audits regularly. Plus, WP Engine will fix your website for free in case of hacking.
Multiple Data Centers
WP Engine has several data centers worldwide to lighten your server’s load by making your website available to visitors at any time based on their location. The servers are in the U.S., Australia, and the United Kingdom, among other countries.
Hosting Plans
- Startup—$20/mo, 1 website, 10GB storage
- Professional—$39/mo, 3 websites, 15GB storage
- Growth—$77/mo, 10 websites, 20GB storage
- Scale—$193/mo, 30+ websites, 50GB storage
- Dedicated—Custom pricing, 30+ websites, 50GB+ storage
Pros
- An advanced custom control panel
- Top-tier security measures
- Hosting on high-end cloud infrastructure
- Expert WordPress support
- Free website backups, CDN, and SSL
- Easy staging tools
- Over 10 premium themes
Cons
- WordPress only hosting
- No free domain
- Expensive
9. GreenGeeks – Best Beginner-Friendly Green Host
- Price: $2.95
- Disk space: 50GB
- Support: Email, Phone, Chat
- Load time: 445 milliseconds
- Uptime: 99.9%
GreenGeeks is a beginner-friendly hosting company with data centers in the U.S. and Canada. The platform is a leading WordPress hosting service for small businesses or membership websites looking for budget-friendly, secure, and reliable services.
GreenGeeks Eco-Friendly Web Hosting
The platform commits to providing eco-friendly hosting. If you didn’t know, the internet is one of the largest polluters with data centers contributing up to 2% of the world’s CO2 emissions.
GreenGeeks supports the environment by:
- Designing a platform with a no-waste mindset
- Matching three times the amperage it pulls from the grid with renewable energy
- Planting a tree for each hosting account
LightSpeed Web Server
GreenGeeks has customer web servers managed by LiteSpeed. The technology is faster compared to others such as Apache. LiteSpeed caches your site and optimizes features such as CSS codes to enhance page load speeds.
Reliable Security
GreenGeeks implements advanced firewall protection to protect your website from attacks. You get daily site backups and assistance removing malware at no extra cost. The free SSL certificate your website gets automatically renews each year you are a client.
Hosting Plans
- Lite—$2.95/mo, 1 website, 50GB space
- Pro—$4.95/mo, unlimited websites, unlimited storage space
- Premium—$8.95/mo, unlimited websites, unlimited storage space
Pros
- Eco-friendly hosting
- The free domain name and unlimited disk space, and data transfer
- Nightly automatic data backups
- Fast servers
- Free Cloudflare CDN and SSL certificate
- Free migrations
- LiteSpeed servers
- A 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- Server setup and domain fees are not refundable
- Limited support
- Price increase on renewal
10. DreamHost – Good Value for Money
- Price: $2.59
- Disk space: 50GB
- Support: Live Chat, Email Tickets
- Load time: 559 milliseconds
- Uptime: 100%
DreamHost is one of the longest-reigning hosting providers in the industry today. The platform is home to over 1.5 million websites because of its reliable services. DreamHost integrates email hosting, domain names, and site builders into your website affordably and efficiently.
Multiple Automatic Integrations
DreamHost boasts automatic integration and easy installation of multiple CMS options, including Joomla, WordPress, and MediaWiki. This offers you an option to select different websites and transitions.
WordPress is the most popular CMS option DreamHost supports. You can choose any WordPress plugin or theme for your site and gain full control over the appearance.
Unlimited Network Transfer and Disk Space Limits
DreamHost offers many unlimited features on its plans, including bandwidth, disk space, and websites. The structure means you don’t have to worry about storage and network transfer after your site becomes popular.
However, make sure you build your site properly. DreamHost may try to move your website to a private server if it’s hogging server resources and causing issues with others. Email, VPS, and DreamPress services don’t fall under the unlimited policy.
Monthly Hosting
Most web hosts offer a 30-day refund period, so you have a month to test the services before risking the prepaid amount. DreamHost’s money-back guarantee is good for 97 days, giving you over three months to make sure you are happy.
The host does not include hidden terms likely to jeopardize a refund. Plus, you can pay month-to-month and cancel the subscription anytime.
Hosting Plans
- Starter—$2.59/mo, 1 website, 50GB space
- Unlimited—$3.95/mo, unlimited websites, unlimited storage
Pros
- Affordable web hosting services
- Good uptime and speed performance
- Unlimited bandwidth and generous storage
- A contemporary backend
- No aggressive upgrades or upsells
- A long 97-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- Few one-click CMS installations
- US-only servers
- The starter plan does not come with free email accounts
- Live chat support is only available between 3 AM and 9:30 PM Pacific Time
How to choose a web hosting service for membership websites
Websites can be a pain to maintain. There are hosting details, domain registrar services, SSL certificates, and email accounts to set up and configure. For membership websites, all of these can be even more challenging.
Luckily, a reliable web hosting service can help you keep these issues out of the way. If you're looking for a web hosting company to host your membership-based website, you'll want to be sure that the hosting company offers excellent security, scalability, and customer service.
We highlight what to look for in a web hosting provider.
What Type of Web Hosting Do I Need?
Shared web hosting allows multiple users to access the same server. This service is best for those who need space for a handful of small websites or blogs.
It's also very economical if you have hundreds of regular visitors daily. However, shared servers have less control over resources and performance than dedicated servers.
VPS, or virtual private server hosting, hosts your website on its dedicated server, separate from other people's websites. VPS is a good choice if you need to host multiple websites together in one place, such as memberships or affiliate sites. VPS servers are more secure and stable than shared web servers, but they can still be less robust than dedicated hosting.
Dedicated hosting is the ultimate hosting solution. Your membership website has a server to itself and will perform faster and more consistently with no contention from other websites sharing the server.
You will want a dedicated server to sell products or offer a subscription service. Dedicated servers provide more resources, so your website won't slow down or crash due to high traffic levels.
Essential Features a Good Web Host Should Provide
Here are some essential features to look for when you're looking for a good web server hosting company:
Website Builder
Newcomers to website design and development sometimes spend unnecessary time learning to code. However, you can use a web hosting service to build a website.
The hosting company should offer some website builders in its plans. Some have templates and drag-and-drop options, while others just come with fundamental tools and AI guides.
You'll want to control your web design and layout for a membership website. You'll also need pages optimized for conversions. That is, they're easy for members to sign up on and have eCommerce capabilities if you plan on selling products or adding a tier-based subscription service to your membership website.
Uptime
One of the main reasons you're looking for a web hosting service is to provide a stable user experience to your members. Site availability and uptime are crucial factors affecting your site's performance.
How likely is it that your website will go down? If your website crashes often, members will get frustrated, and you might lose customers.
High-quality hosting providers strive for 99% uptime. While you probably won't be able to avoid downtime altogether, a good host will limit the number of times your website crashes and how long it takes to resolve the issue. That's more than other hosting companies can promise for their hosting packages.
Security
Data loss and hacking are some of the greatest threats to online security. Your membership website becomes vulnerable to cyber attacks without a secure hosting environment.
While you can do your part to protect your website, such as installing an SSL/TLS certificate, you don't have complete control over external threats. Your hosting provider should provide multiple security mechanisms, such as firewall management and HTTPS security.
A reliable web host can defend against DDoS and botnet attacks, as well as hackers trying to steal user information from your database. In a malicious hack, a good host will respond quickly and take measures to prevent data loss and further damage.
Scalability
In the future, you may want to expand your membership website. Say you have 100 members today and want to add another 200 in a few months. Or maybe your website is used by thousands of customers a day, but you're planning an event that will double the number of visitors to your site at one time.
If these things happen, your website may slow down or even crash from too much traffic. Your provider should be able to scale quickly and efficiently when faced with a situation like this.
Customer Service
While you may be able to set up your hosting plan yourself, there will come a time when you need some help from customer support. When dealing with technical aspects or when problems arise with your website, you'll want a provider that is responsive and capable of solving problems within minutes.
A good host will provide easy access to customer service via phone and email. Some companies even offer live chat. The customer service representatives should be knowledgeable and friendly and respond promptly to your queries.
Payment Methods
Membership websites may need to accept payment online via credit cards, cryptocurrencies, and payment platforms like Paypal. Your hosting company should support the payment methods you want to use on your website.
Some platforms you'll want to accept payments through include Stripe, Visa, or Mastercard processing.
Bandwidth
Membership websites need a large amount of bandwidth to accommodate member access and downloads to content such as online courses. You should also be able to handle high-traffic surges, such as increased visits during a live webinar.
That's why we recommend a provider with unlimited bandwidth or one that has no cap and is transparent about their pricing.
Backup
Backup is essential for your membership website, as you may experience data loss or accidentally delete something. Look for a web host that provides regular backup services for all your website files and important data.
An easy-to-use backup service can help, as you can create backups without contacting customer support. Keep an offline copy of your website that you can restore if anything goes wrong with your main website or server.
Final Thoughts
Web hosting is an essential component of your membership website. It's the foundation you need to build your online business. Select a web host with the above features and a long-term customer support and maintenance commitment.
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