Jimmy ParkerWelcome 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 a thing or two about hosting sites (and creating them). We’ve compiled our own top 5 of the best web hosting companies for New Zealand, sorted by looking at 4 factors: Usability, Performance, Support, & Cost/Value ratio. Enjoy!
* All of the hosts below have servers close to New Zealand for decent speed – usually in Australia or Singapore.
| Web Hosting Company | Cost/mo | Features | View Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
 | USD $3.92 (around AUD 5.65) |
| View Plans |
 | USD $3.95 |
| View Plans |
 | AUD $5 |
| View Plans |
 | USD $10 |
| View Plans |
Best Web Hosting NZ 2023
1. A2 Hosting
Price
USD $3.92
Disk Space
Unlimited
Support
Phone, Live Chat, Support Tickets
For a company that has been around since 2001, A2 Hosting is hosting only a few thousand websites today. That’s not to say that it’s not a good web hosting provider – because it actually is. It simply managed to stay under the radar for so long, but now more and more people are discovering it. In fact, we’re giving it a high ranking on this review because we want you to consider it as one of your best options. Below, we listed their shared hosting plans along with a brief description of each.
- Lite Plan – As A2 Hosting’s cheapest plan, this package only costs $3.92/ month. Note that you can only use it to host 1 domain (you can actually expect this limit from most startup plans). However, in spite of its limitations, you already get unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth with this plan.
- Swift Plan – With a hosting package that provides 2 times the resources present in their cheapest plan, this package is priced at $4.90/ month. You can already host an unlimited number of domains with this – and it also comes with unlimited storage and bandwidth, of course. And as its name suggests, it’s faster than the Lite plan.
- Turbo Plan – Just by its name alone, you can already tell that this is A2 Hosting’s fastest hosting package (it comes with an accelerator feature, for one). It currently costs $9.31/ month and you are allowed an unlimited number of websites with it. Needless to say, it also comes with unlimited storage and bandwidth.
If you’re concerned about A2 Hosting’s uptime, know that it’s one of their main priorities. And their servers are very stable to deliver on their 99.9% uptime commitment.
What we really like about A2 Hosting (among other things) is their Anytime money back guarantee on top of their 30-day money back guarantee. You’ll get a prorated refund of your money (for the unused portion of your plan) should you decide to cancel your plan after 30 days .
It’s really easy to build and maintain your site with A2 Hosting. You get all the nice things we said above plus a very good customer service. As you may very well know, customer support is important in every aspect of running your website. Fortunately, A2 Hosting’s support team is known to be friendly and knowledgeable. They’re reachable via chat, ticketing system, and phone.
Do consider A2 Hosting for your hosting needs as they truly are one of the best these days.
Pros:
- Anytime Money-back guarantee
- 24/7/365 Support
- Unlimited Disk Space
Cons:
- Renewal rates are quite high
2. GreenGeeks
Price
USD $3.95
Disk Space
Unlimited
Support
Phone, Live Chat, Support Tickets
GreenGeeks is one of the pioneers of green hosting – yes, they’re environment-friendly as they’re using renewable energy in powering websites all across the globe. Listed below are their hosting packages from their most popular hosting option (shared hosting). They also offer WordPress, Reseller, and VPS hosting packages.
- Ecosite Lite Package – Usually priced at $9.95/ month, right now this plan only costs $2.95/ month. You’re allowed to host just 1 domain with it but it already comes with unlimited storage and bandwidth. If you’re just starting out or simply want to establish a single site, this package can probably handle all your needs.
- Ecosite Pro Package – If GreenGeeks’ cheapest plan seems to be too limiting for you, you can consider this more expensive package. It comes with at least 2 times the power and features of the cheaper version and it’s a great plan for growing sites. In fact, you already get unlimited domains, storage, and bandwidth with it.
- Ecosite Premium Package – This is GreenGeeks’ most expensive package and it’s regularly priced at $24.95/ month. Right now, however, you can get it for only $11.95/ month. Needless to say, it’s way more powerful and feature-rich than their cheaper plans (it’s actually 2 times better than the Pro plan). Aside from being super-fast, you can host an unlimited number of domains on it and it comes with unlimited storage, and bandwidth as well. Its overall features make it ideal for demanding websites like online stores.
As for their uptime guarantee, they’re committed to keeping your site online 99.9% of the time – which is good (and they have a good reputation for this). Their servers are also reliable – which also contributes to site speed and page loading times. Note, too, that they also employ the use of CDN (CloudFlare) to make contents accessible worldwide.
Also, note that GreenGeeks uses SSD hard drives instead of HDD (hard disk drives). SSD is so much faster and more reliable than HDD.
If you’re concerned about their customer service – well, they have a very experienced support team. There are also several ways to contact them like phone, e-mail, and chat. Their knowledge base is also full of helpful articles and tutorials (if you want to find your own way).
So, if you’re looking for an environment-friendly web hosting solution, know that GreenGeeks is a good option. You can even place their badge on your website to spread awareness on our current environmental problems. We do encourage you to take advantage of their 30-day money back guarantee so as to fully test their services with minimal risks.
Pros:
- Green hosting
- Unlimited disk space
Cons:
- No servers in Singapore
3. Panthur
Price
AUD $5
Disk Space
10 GB
Support
Phone, Support Tickets
Panthur is a domain registrar and hosting provider based in Australia. It used to be an independent firm, but was acquired by Hostopia Australia several years back. They’re currently offering shared and reseller hosting packages, but we’re going to focus on their shared hosting plans for now. Note that prices are in Australian dollars.
Economy
Panthur’s Shared Economy Plan comes in the form of 3 packages:
- Mini – This package only costs $5/ month. You only get 2,000MB of storage with it along with 100MB bandwidth, unlimited e-mail accounts, and unlimited SQL databases. As Panthur’s cheapest plan, this package is indeed very limited in a lot of things, especially storage and bandwidth
- Advanced – You can get this plan for $10/ month. It only has 6,000MB storage, 250MB bandwidth, unlimited e-mail accounts, and unlimited SQL databases. It certainly has larger storage and bandwidth features than the Mini package. It’s almost 3 times more powerful than their cheapest plan.
- Professional – Still under the Economy plans, this package costs $15/ month. Its features and capacities are better than the ones above – it comes with 10,000MB storage, 500MB bandwidth, unlimited e-mail accounts, and unlimited SQL databases. As you can see, this plan’s storage and bandwidth are almost double than the Advanced plan.
Business
Panthur also has Business shared plans and they are the following:
- Bronze – This Panthur business package is currently priced at $20/ month. It has limited storage at only 20,000MB but it comes with unlimited bandwidth, e-mail accounts, and SQL databases.
- Silver – You can get this plan for $30/ month. It has a significantly increased storage space at 60,000MB. You’ll also get unlimited bandwidth, e-mail accounts, and SQL databases with it.
- Gold – For $60/ month, this plan has the largest storage space on this list (100,000MB). Of course, it also comes with unlimited bandwidth, e-mail accounts, and SQL databases like the lower-priced packages.
Stealth
Panthur’s Stealth plans are considered to be their most powerful plans. They come in the following packages:
- Puma – Priced at $50/ month. This plan comes with 25,000MB storage, unlimited bandwidth, and 400% CPU speed. You see, CPU speed is prioritized on all Stealth plans. They’re so much faster than the Economy and Business plans.
- Leopard – At $100/ month, you’ll get 50,000MB storage, unlimited bandwidth, and 600% CPU speed.
- Panthur – This is Panthur’s most expensive shared hosting plan and it’s currently priced at $150/ month. It will provide you with 75,000MB storage, unlimited bandwidth, and 800% CPU speed.
We like that Panthur has a lot of hosting options to choose from. They also have a good record of maintaining uptimes. There are some reports of bad experiences with their customer service, however, so be warned about that. While they can be contacted via phone and e-mail, some people report of finding it hard to reach them (and poor response time).
All in all, we still consider Panthur to be one of the best hosting providers today – and that’s why they made this list.
Pros:
- Australian based
- 24/7 Support
Cons:
- No global servers
4. Cloudways
Price
USD $10
Disk Space
25 GB
Support
Phone, Support Tickets, Live Chat
If you’re particularly looking for a cloud hosting provider, CloudWays is one of your best bets. This company actually works as a bridge between you (the customer) and some of the major cloud hosting companies today – DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, Amazon (AWS), and Google Cloud. We like the flexibility of their plans as you can start at quite a low price and simply upgrade (or downgrade) as needed.
Check out each cloud hosting company’s starter plan details (and prices) below.
- DigitalOcean StartUp – Right now, DigitalOcean has the lowest startup price at only $10/ month. Their package includes a storage of 25GB storage, bandwidth of 1GB, RAM of 1GB, and a processor of 1-core. As you can see, CloudWay’s cheapest plan already comes with a lot of essential features for a growing website (not just for startups).
- Linode StartUp– This is CloudWay’s second cheapest plan and it costs $22/ month. With it, you’ll get a storage of 50GB, bandwidth of 2TB, RAM of 2GB, and a processor of 1-core. Go for this plan if you find DigitalOcean’s features to be a little limiting. As you can see, Linode comes with almost double the features of DigitalOcean (for almost twice the price as well).
- Vultr StartUp – If you’re still not contented with the features on the Linode plan, you can consider going for the Vultr package as it comes with almost 2 times the power of the previous plan. For $42/ month (yes, almost double the price too), you’re provided with a storage space of 80GB, bandwidth of 4TB, RAM of 4GB, and a processor of 2-core.
- AWS StartUp – Amazon’s startup plan comes with main features that are exactly the same as Vultr’s – yes, even the price. So, for $42/ month, you’ll also get a storage of 80GB, bandwidth of 4TB, RAM of 4GB, and a processor of 2-core. You’ll have to choose between AWS and Linode – if you’re keen on these features.
- Google Cloud StartUp – CloudWays’ most expensive hosting plan comes in the form of Google Cloud. It’s priced at $80/ month but also comes with bigtime features such as a storage of 160GB, bandwidth of 5TB, RAM of 8GB, and a processor of 4-core.
Note that all the plans listed above are scalable and cloud hosting is really REALLY fast. Uptime is also great as cloud hosting rarely goes down (if ever). Cloudways’ support team is also available 24/7 via e-mail (ticketing), phone, and chat. We also recommend taking advantage of their 3-day trial period to find out if it’s really for you. Check the Cloudways review for more info.
Pros
- Scalable
- Rapid loading speeds
- Enhanced performance
Cons
- Could be too techie for some
5. BlueHost
Price
USD $3.95
Disk Space
50 GB
Support
Phone, Support Tickets, Live chat
Bluehost is a popular domain registrar and hosting provider which offers hosting packages for shared, WordPress, dedicated servers, and VPS. You must also be familiar with some of its sister companies (e.g. HostMonster, iPage, and FastDomain).
This review will cover their shared hosting plans. We listed your options below.
- Basic Shared Hosting – Now priced at only $3.95/ month Bluehost’s cheapest plan only allows for 1 website (it’s usually priced at $7.99/ month). It also comes with a limited 50GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, 1 domain, and 5 parked domains. This plan will usually work for sites with limited needs (such as new websites).
- Plus Shared Hosting – Bluehost’s second cheapest hosting plan is not as limited in features as their Basic plan. It’s now priced at $5.85/ month, but its regular price is $10.99, so do take advantage of this big discount if you’re keen on getting it. The package includes unlimited websites, unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domains, and unlimited parked domains. So, as you can see, this one has more value for money than the Basic plan.
- Choice Plus Shared Hosting – While its regular price is $14.99/ month, this plan is currently being offered for only $5.95/ month. Like the Plus plan, it also comes with unlimited websites, unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domains, and unlimited parked domains among others. It also includes domain privacy and site backups (CodeGuard Basic) – these are not included in the Plus plan.
- Pro Shared Hosting – This is Bluehost’s most expensive plan and it promises high quality performance (when compared with the cheaper plans). Right now, it only costs $9.95/ month but its regular price is $23.99/ month. So, of course, it also offers unlimited websites, unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domains, and unlimited parked domains. It also includes domain privacy, site backups (CodeGuard Basic), and dedicated IP.
Note that all the plans above come with free SSL certificates and free CDN use (CloudFlare). The more expensive plans are faster than the cheapest ones, as can be expected. But check out their main features to see which credentials are most important to you.
Bluehost has an uptime guarantee of 99.9% – but there are reports of some downtimes here and there. These are not that frequent, though.
We also like their help center as these are full of guides and tutorials that are easy to follow. They also have live chat, e-mail, and phone support (how well these work you can read in our Bluehost review).
If you’re going for Bluehost because of their current prices, know that these are only introductory prices. Regular rates will apply when you renew your plan.
Pros
- SSL free of charge
- Affordable
- Decent for WordPress
Cons
- Data centers and servers only based in the USA
- Mixed reviews
6. DreamHost
Price
USD $7.95
Disk Space
Unlimited
Support
Phone, Support Tickets, Live chat
DreamHost has been around for quite a long time now (since 1996) and it serves as host to about 1.5 million sites today. They’re offering their customers a variety of hosting solutions such as Shared, Cloud, VPS, dedicated servers, and WordPress. In this review, however, we’re just going to focus on their shared hosting plans.
As we mention in our Dreamhost review. Unlike other hosting companies that usually have 3 or more options, DreamHost only has two shared hosting plans and they are as follows:
- Shared Starter – This is DreamHost’s cheapest plan and it only costs $2.59/ month if you’re paying for 3 years upfront. If paying yearly, it will cost you $3.95/ month. And if you’re paying monthly, the price is $4.95/ month. The plan includes 1 website, 1 free domain for a year (applicable only for 1 year on 1-year and 3-year payments), unlimited storage, unlimited traffic, unlimited bandwidth, and more. Note that free SSL certificate is also included on all modes of payment.
- Shared Unlimited – As you can already tell, this plan includes unlimited everything. It will cost you $5.95/ month if you’re paying for 3 years and $6.95/ month if you’re paying yearly. Now, if you decide to pay monthly, the price is $10.95/ month. This package will give you unlimited websites, 1 free domain for a year (for yearly and triennially payments only), unlimited storage, unlimited, traffic, unlimited bandwidth, and so much more. Free SSL certificate is also included, of course.
We actually like how DreamHost simplified their plans – they’re exactly as their name implies (starter and unlimited). You’ll also notice that all their prices are affordable – whether you pay monthly, yearly, or triennially. But of course. You’ll get the most savings when you pay for 3 years upfront.
Their most impressive service is their uptime guarantee of 100%. Although this excludes scheduled downtimes for maintenance and other similar cases, it’s still good. They’ll really strive to keep their uptime commitment as they also include reimbursements in their terms of agreement. You’ll have to report your site’s downtimes through e-mail (via ticket) to get your compensation (1 day of free hosting for every hour of downtime).
What we don’t like about DreamHost is their overall site speed. In our opinion, they’re not that fast anymore (in today’s standard).
As for their customer service, it’s quite good. They have live chat, e-mail, forums, social media, etc. And while they don’t have phone support, you can add a callback feature to your chosen package (for an additional fee).
Consider the pros and cons of using DreamHost before making your final decision.
Pros
- Great WordPress hosting options
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Eco-friendly
Cons
- US servers only
7. InMotion Hosting
Price
USD $6.39
Disk Space
Unlimited
Support
Phone, Support Tickets, Live chat
InMotion is a hosting provider that has been around since 2001. Around 300,000 live websites today are powered by this hosting company. In this review, we’re going to talk about their shared hosting plans. Although they have other hosting options (WordPress, Reseller, VPS, dedicated servers), their shared hosting packages remain to be the most popular.
- Launch Shared Plan – InMotion’s cheapest plan is regularly priced at $7.99/ month. However, it’s currently priced at only $3.99 (introductory price). When you get this package, you’ll be allowed 2 websites and get unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited e-mail accounts. It includes a free SSL certificate as well.
- Power Shared Plan – This mid-priced package is now priced at only $5.99/ month (regular price is $9.99/ month). In a nutshell, we can say that it performs 2 times better than the Launch plan. For starters, it includes 6 websites. Of course, it also comes with unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited e-mail accounts, and free SSL certificates.
- Pro Shared Plan – This is InMotion’s most expensive plan and it currently costs $13.99/ month (regular price is $15.99/ month). It promises 4 times the performance of their cheapest plan, so it’s full-powered indeed. It also comes with unlimited websites, unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited e-mail accounts, and free SSL certificates. You’ll also get priority support when you get this plan.
We included InMotion Hosting in this list because we are impressed by it. You see, even their cheapest plan includes unlimited space and unlimited bandwidth among other things. Usually, these unlimited features are only found on higher-priced plans.
We also like InMotion’s site speed – they’re actually one of the fastest on this list. Aside from being a good SEO signal, your site visitors will also appreciate quick-loading times when they access your site.
As for their uptime, they’re giving their customers 99.95% uptime guarantee. There are very few complaints (if any) with regards to this – as they’re actually reliable on this aspect.
Lastly, we took a look at their customer service. Unfortunately, they’re getting some mixed reviews on their customer support as there’s a mixture of good and bad experiences with their support team. Still, we like their overall setup as you can contact them through several avenues such as chat, phone, e-mail, and skype.
Do try them out if you’re considering them. They’re offering a 30-day money back guarantee, so you really have nothing to lose.
Pros
- High-quality hosting
- Unlimited disk space
Cons
- Servers based in North America
How To Choose A Good Web Host for New Zealand
Before we get into the best types of web hosting, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page about what exactly web hosting is.
What Is Web Hosting?
This is the online space that contains the files that all together form your website. After obtaining a domain name, you can then use that name to secure some hosting capacity so that way your site will appear in browsers. Selecting the proper type of web host can differentiate between a flourishing business and a sinking one.
There are free web hosting plans out there, but they will not get your website far due to their many limitations. We will go over the cheapest web hosting plans as well as the top-notch ones to try to help you navigate through all the different options.
Before deciding on individual properties of web hosting such as support, add-on domains, or location, it is vital to determine the type of website hosting that is needed. This decision is based off what type of website you are planning to put on the host, as well as what plans you have down the line regarding possible resource draining enterprises (such as forums or directories).
Shared Hosting
Looking for inexpensive web hosting services in New Zealand? This will be the number one option for that. True to its name, shared hosting is where your content and website share space and assets with many other sites on the same server in New Zealand. The specific hosting provider determines exactly how many other websites are shared on the same server.
The benefits of shared hosting, besides it just being the cheapest option, include that advanced tech experience is not necessary to get your website online. These often include simple single click installation scripts for major CMS’s and WordPress. A major con of shared hosting is that your website will load noticeably slower if the server is being weighed down by too many other sites. There is also more security risk with this option, and your server neighbors may take more of the available resources leading you to have less and much worse website performance.
VPS Hosting
VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. This is a unique type of service where a server is taken and split into separate parts that can each run their own operating system. This gives you the advantage of having your own server for a fraction of the cost.
With VPS hosting services come with full control and root access as well as solid performance. Unfortunately, it is a bigger investment than the previously mentioned shared hosting option. More technical knowledge is required to sustain this server as well, and if you are not interested in the technical side of things you might need to appoint a system administrator to overlook this aspect.
Dedicated Server Hosting
This type of hosting service is primarily for businesses that require top notch servers that have the most resource draining content. Dedicated servers are quite a bit more expensive but are extremely powerful. These servers have superior performance with maximum reliability and stability. Another upside to this type of hosting service is that they come with a dedicated customer service team ready to assist with any needs that arise.
The biggest downside to this type of plan is the outrageous price tag. This type is essentially for large companies with enough resources to require this strong of a server.
Cloud Hosting
If you’re still unsure about what type of New Zealand web hosting is the right pick, consider cloud hosting. Cloud hosting services provide extreme flexibility due to its cutting-edge technology. This type of hosting uses several machines that act as one system, its power increasing significantly by every machine added. Both shared hosting and dedicated servers rely on just one machine, so if something unfortunately happens to that single machine then there is a large chance of a large loss of data. The best quality about cloud hosting is the ability to increase or decrease your server space based on your website’s needs.
Reseller Hosting
Reseller hosting in New Zealand is commonly used by web designers, agencies, or simply users that strive to provide their own services to potential clients. Web designers are the number one users of this type of web hosting. Web designers tend to buy hosting in bulk and then sell it to their clients instead of their clients signing up for a random web host based off of an uneducated guess. This gives the designer additional regulation of the websites they include in their portfolio. Check out a variety of companies before purchasing this service as pricing can vary.
Managed WordPress Hosting
This type of web hosting is advertised to be especially good for WordPress content. Managed WordPress hosting in New Zealand is specialised to ease the minds of businesses or bloggers that use it and don’t want to get deep into the maintenance of running a WP site.
However, a few cons to this method include the price and having less control. These tend to be exponentially more expensive due to their high-performance engine. There are also limits on the type of plugins that can be included on your site, contributing to the shortage of control.
Web Hosting New Zealand: What to Look For!
While researching the right New Zealand web host for you, be sure to consider these features.
Server Location
Choosing the prime location for your web hosting server is easier said than done. While your first instinct may be to select the closest server, you need to first consider the power level of the server with your target location. For example, if your target users are from New Zealand, there might be a better option outside of New Zealand. Surprisingly, sometimes a server that is further away will be the better option due to its superior web hosting qualities.
Storage
Knowing the amount of storage you will need is helpful when selecting the proper web hosting service. Storage is pretty flexible in that you obtain more storage when you pay more money. As long as you are smart with how you store non-essential content, storage can be a breeze. For example, storing videos on-site wastes a lot of storage. Using a third-party service such as Vimeo or YouTube to stream your videos through is a substantial way to save storage space.
The same thing goes for music, podcasts, or any other sounds. Streaming them from another third-party source like SoundCloud will help out a lot with storage. However, photos and other images should be good directly on your site because they don’t take up nearly as much space.
Uptime
It is comforting to know if you can depend on your web hosting provider to supply consistently stable servers with optimal server uptime. Many New Zealand web hosting services promise a 99.9% uptime, but it is smart to do some research into the top providers in the area because that isn’t always the case. Keep an eye out for the web hosting services that do the best at maintaining maximum uptime! A good way to do this may be to read some customer reviews, or just research in general.
Support
This is another quality that requires a bit of research to know about. What kind of support can they offer? How do they contact you? How quick is their response time? How experienced (or inexperienced) is their service support staff? This is a big deal when choosing a great web hosting provider. Finding a provider that offers 24/7 support is always comforting to know as a client.
Backups
It is pretty common knowledge that people should back up their important data that they don’t want to risk losing. Backing up your website regularly is an important step in having a reliable website up and running, so check whether the company offers website backups and when they backup your website content. Some providers charge for a backup restore while others might do it for free. It is good to have a game plan of how to restore your website if something happens.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the speed your data can be transferred. This is dependent on how many people visit your website and the storage capacity that your files take up. This is often limited per month, so make sure you are aware of the bandwidth options when selecting your web hosting service.
Number of Allowed Domains
This is only something to look at if you intend to include more than a single site on your web hosting service plan. The inexpensive plans limit you to just one website, so keep that in mind when looking at the different plans.
All these different plans and options can appear daunting, but just take it one by one and it will work out great. New Zealand has many great web hosting options, and now that you know the ins and outs of all of them you are ready to make an educated decision on what works best for you!