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 portfolios, 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 portfolios:
| Web Hosting Company | Cost/mo | Features | View Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
 | USD $2.99 | Huge Discount |
| View Plans |
 | USD $35 |
| View Plans |
 | USD $25 |
| View Plans |
Best Web Hosting for portfolios
Here are the 10 best web hosting reviews for portfolios, 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 portfolios, 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 portfolios. 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 portfolios, 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 portfolios. 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 portfolios. 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 portfolios.
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 portfolios 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 portfolios 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 portfolios 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 portfolios
Portfolios are built for several reasons, but always to show off one’s work. Typically, this is for professional purposes, but many use a portfolio academically. One of the best ways to use a portfolio is as a standalone site, but where do you find a host?
Deciding on the best web hosting for portfolios is challenging and has multiple factors to consider. If you’ve been looking for the best web hosting for your portfolio, we’re here to help. Read on for a quick buyer’s guide on what makes the best web hosting for portfolios.
What Makes Good Web Hosting for a Portfolio?
It’s important to note that different portfolios will require different web hosting. Therefore, you should first decide what’s essential for your portfolio. That way, you can look into sites that offer features that best work for your needs.
For example, you may be building a portfolio for your work as a photographer. In this case, your needs would differ entirely from another person building a portfolio for their professional writing.
In short, no site will make the best web hosting for all portfolios. Instead, you should consider the following features to find one that can fit your portfolio and customize from there.
Media Controls
Most portfolios will work with some sort of media. For example, a photography website may need video and image support. Your writing portfolio will focus on the text, but you’ll likely want some media in the mix to make the site more attractive.
Consider what media you’ll include in your portfolio and adapt from there. You’ll want to focus on sites that give you the features you need most. You could run into performance issues if your media-focused portfolio is hosted on a site with poor media controls.
Robust Servers
Speaking of performance issues, you should ensure that your portfolio is hosted on a trustworthy and reliable site. If you go for one of the cheaper options, you may find your portfolio on a site frequently out of service for maintenance or connectivity issues.
This may not feel like much of a problem—it isn’t your fault, after all. But if you’re sending your portfolio out for professional uses and the people attempting to access it can’t do so, they may write you off by default.
Don’t let your attempts to find a great deal end with having an inferior option! Instead, look into the testimonies of existing users. See if they have to deal with such issues and what the security of the site looks like. Taking this extra step can help you find a reliable site and avoid future unforeseen difficulties.
Adaptable Formats
Portfolios take many different shapes. A coding portfolio may include examples of work that take the form of working code. Others might be video snippets of a performance or an introductory video.
All these portfolios may require different formats, but what do you do if your portfolio requires several formats? In such a case, it’s best to have website hosting that can benefit multiple use cases.
Some sites, like WordPress, will offer everything necessary to get a portfolio of nearly any sort working. Even LinkedIn offers some use as a portfolio, though it wouldn’t be ideal for the primary location as your portfolio.
To summarize, look into what formats a site offers. If you use a site and find out it doesn’t support the format you need, you may find yourself searching for another host within weeks.
Marketable Features
A portfolio is made for marketing yourself, but why should you do all the work? Once you’ve built your portfolio, making it easy to share and marketable is crucial.
Many portfolio site hosts will offer features that make your self-marketing easier. These features include ease of access for others, social media integration, and anything else you can think of that may make you a more appealing client.
Look into what features are on offer and how they may help you sell yourself. Doing so can help you keep in mind how you’ll be seen professionally.
Social Media Integration
Social media integration is more than just a marketable feature. Networking is crucial in professional settings, and your portfolio is no exception.
Look into what social media features the portfolio offers. LinkedIn is a must, as it’s widely considered the most popular professional social media. The ability to link your professional profiles will help ensure potential employers can see everything you offer.
You can also consider this a way to put yourself in front of other like-minded people. Social media integration can get your portfolio to people that may glance through and find you an impressive candidate. This can lead to chances you hadn’t expected and greatly improve your opportunities!
Professional Appearance
Above all else, you’ll want a portfolio that gives you a professional appearance. Whether you’re using your portfolio for employment or academia, a portfolio is a professional item. There may be room to show off your personality, but the format should stick to a formal tone.
As such, you won’t want to use a site host that doesn’t provide you with the right features to assure professionalism. If the host site doesn’t give you the tools to make a professional portfolio, others may turn you away just at face value.
Your portfolio works as a CV or resume might. If the site you use to build it appears cheap or low-effort, others may assume you find such lackluster features acceptable. Keep your portfolio professional to keep your appearance formal!
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