If you are planning on setting up an e-commerce store, one of the biggest decisions you will need to make is choosing an e-commerce platform. An e-commerce platform facilitates buying and selling on your website and gives you control over various useful features when running this kind of business. There are dozens of platforms you could potentially choose from, but Magento is definitely one of the more popular.
What is Magento?
Magento is an open-source online commerce platform. Written in PHP and developed by Magento Inc, it was first released in March 2008. It comes with built-in customizable, scalable, and robust features that allow businesses of all sizes to create simple to sophisticated online stores. In 2018, Magento was acquired by Adobe. The paid, enterprise-standard Magento, formerly known as Magento Commerce, is now referred to as Adobe Commerce.
The community-edition Magento Open Source remains available and open source. Magento Open Source (previously known as Magento Community Edition) comes with diverse features out of the box such as integrated checkouts, site search, product browsing, mobile commerce, and customer accounts.
How can hosting impact the quality of my Magento shop?
As an e-commerce platform, Magento prepares your website to receive and execute customer orders. But a website does not exist in a vacuum. It must be stored on and made available via a web host’s infrastructure. So whereas Magento may be the right choice of platform, your ability to extract maximum value from it depends on the quality of service the web host you choose can provide.
An unsuitable web host would render all the sophisticated features of your chosen platform irrelevant. Ideally, you should devote as much time and thought to identify the right web host as you do the right e-commerce platform.
What should I look for in hosting for Magento?
The following are some of the more important factors you should look out for:
Is there a difference between Magento hosting and Magento 2 hosting?
The short answer: Yes. This is hosting involving older (Magento 1 or simply Magento) and newer versions (i.e. Magento 2) of Magento. Magento 2 was launched in late 2015. As the most recent version, Magento 2 comes with a richer array of features than its predecessor. These include adaptable architecture, faster loading, better customer engagement, improved payment security, more mobile-friendly, and simplified maintenance/upgrade.
Essential security features for Magento
The following are some of the key security features of Magento.
Best 8 Magento Hosting Options
Image | Product | Features | Price |
---|---|---|---|
| 9.8 | A2 Hosting | |
| 9.7 | Visit Hostgator | |
| 9.6 | Visit Nexcess | |
| 9.4 | Visit InMotion Hosting | |
| 9.4 | Visit Cloudways | |
| 9.3 | Visit MGT-Commerce | |
| 9.2 | Visit MageMojo | |
| 9.2 | Visit FastComet |
1. A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is the best Magento hosting provider. And rightfully so. With a history of Magento hosting that goes back more than 15 years, the company stands out for its Turbo servers that deliver as much as 20 times better performance than the average web host server.
All of its Magento hosting plans include root access, a free SSL certificate, free website migration, automated backups, unlimited websites, and unlimited email accounts. Its entry-level plan features 250 GB NVMe SSD storage, 16 GB RAM, 3 TB bandwidth, 6 cores, and 1 dedicated IP.
A2 Hosting has a 99.9 percent uptime commitment and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Features
One-click installation?
Yes
Pricing
Support
24/7 customer support via live chat, phone, and email/help desk tickets
2. HostGator
One of the more recognizable brands in the web hosting industry, HostGator takes second place in our best eight for its reputation in delivering customizable, scalable, and flexible Magento hosting for everyone, from individuals to global corporations.
Specifically, all HostGator Magento hosting plans have unmetered bandwidth, unlimited email accounts, root access, free website transfers, and 2 dedicated IPs. The entry-level plan includes 120 GB SSD storage space, 2 GB RAM, and 2 vCPU cores.
HostGator has a 99.9 percent uptime commitment and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Features
One-click installation?
Yes.
Pricing
Support
24/7 customer support through live chat, phone, and social media.
3. Nexcess by Liquid Web
Nexcess is a Liquid Web brand focused on providing managed e-commerce cloud hosting plans, including Magento hosting. We rank it third in Magento hosting for providing host-managed plans that feature award-winning speed, scalability, and security. Magento was actually invented by Varien (later Magento Inc) on Nexcess's own servers.
All Magento hosting plans include free SSL certificates, daily backups, and free email. Its entry-level plan comes with 50 GB storage space, 1 TB bandwidth, and up to 11 websites.
Nexcess has a 99.9 percent uptime commitment and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Features
One-click installation?
No.
Pricing
Support
24/7 customer support via live chat, phone, and email.
4. InMotion Hosting
Inmotion Hosting takes fourth for its suite of Magento hosting plans that feature industry-leading performance as well as boundary-testing tools and technologies. It is focused on open-source products, so its success in Magento hosting is perhaps not surprising.
All Inmotion Hosting’s Magento hosting plans include a free SSL certificate and free website transfer. Its entry-level plan features 90 GB SSD storage space, 4 GB RAM, 2 TB bandwidth, 2 vCPU cores, and 2 dedicated IPs.
Inmotion Hosting offers a 99.9 percent uptime commitment and a 90-day money-back guarantee.
Features
One-click installation?
Yes.
Pricing
Support
24/7 customer support via live chat, phone, and help desk ticket.
5. Cloudways
Cloudways takes fifth place for its Magento hosting plans designed with a stack built for optimal performance, reliability, and security. Unlike the rest of the top eight, you can choose from one of five hosting cloud providers – DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud.
All Cloudways-managed Magento hosting plans include free SSL certificates, free migration, automated backups, and unlimited application installations. Entry-level plans come with 3.75 to 4 GB RAM, 20 to 80 GB SSD storage space, 1 to 2 core processors or vCPUs, and 2 to 4 TB bandwidth, all depending on your preferred hosting cloud provider.
First-time customers get a 3-day free trial.
Features
One-click installation?
Yes
Pricing
Pricing varies based on your choice of hosting cloud provider”
Support
24/7 customer support via live chat (phone and Slack support available for Premium plans only).
6. MGT-Commerce
We have ranked MGT-Commerce in sixth place for its reliable, professional specialization in Magento cloud hosting. Running on Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure, the company offers turnkey managed hosting solutions in line with customer requirements. It taps into AWS’ pay-as-you-go infrastructure pricing model for plan flexibility.
MGT-Commerce commits to page loads of less than 0.3 seconds by using optimal configurations and lightweight page components. Customers enjoy managed migration, an extensive Magento knowledge base, practical developer tools, and an MGT web application firewall. Its entry-level plan includes one domain, AWS Graviton2 processors, a high-performance application stack, free managed migration, and hourly backups.
MGT-Commerce has 99.95 percent uptime and a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Features
One-click installation?
No
Pricing
Support
24/7 customer support via help desk tickets.
7. MageMojo / Webscale Stratus
MageMojo Stratus is number seven for its years-long reputation of hosting Magento-powered websites via its custom-built e-commerce-focused Magento-as-a-service platform. MageMojo was acquired by Webscale in late 2021 and is now known as Webscale Stratus.
The company’s plan accommodates the needs of everyone, from micro-enterprises to global conglomerates. Its service is driven by a machine learning-powered platform that uses data anonymously gathered from thousands of storefronts to predict and correct availability, security, and performance needs.
All Magento hosting plans are fully managed and include free migration. The entry-level plan comes with 25 GB of storage space, 2,500 visitor sessions, and 1,000 daily API calls.
All customers get a 100 percent uptime commitment.
Features
One-click installation?
Yes
Pricing
Support
24/7 customer support via phone, live chat, and help desk tickets.
8. FastComet
FastComet rounds out our top eight Magento web hosts for delivering fully managed Magento cloud VPS hosting plans that are cost-efficient, rapidly deployed, and quickly optimized.
All FastComet Magento hosting plans include SSD storage, free domain transfers, free migrations, free daily/weekly backups, free access to CloudFlare CDN, and an unlimited number of websites. Its entry-level plan comes with one core, 2GB RAM, 50 GB SSD storage, and 2 TB bandwidth.
Magento cloud hosting customers get a 99.9 percent uptime commitment and a 7-day money-back guarantee.
Features
One-click installation?
Yes
Pricing
Support
24/7 customer support via phone, live chat, and help desk tickets.
Conclusion
Magento is one of the best choices you could make for an e-commerce platform. Its advantages can, however, be accentuated or constrained depending on the web host you pick. The right web host will make Magento work for your website, while a wrong choice could make your Magento experience a nightmare.
The eight best providers we have covered here demonstrate infrastructure, capabilities, and experience in Magento hosting that exceeds their peers. It’s hard to go wrong with either one. Evaluate your Magento hosting needs and settle for the provider that best meets your requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Performance (speed, uptime, and scalability), Magento expertise/experience, ease of Magento installation, security, pricing, customer support, reputation, uptime commitment, and money-back guarantees.
Yes. However, it is recommended that Magento e-commerce stores are hosted on a virtual private server (VPS) or dedicated server hosting plans. This is especially important for medium to large online stores where security, as well as dedicated processors, RAM, storage, and bandwidth, are important considerations