A complete comparison of photography website hosting
Selecting a web host may be difficult since it affects your website’s performance and storage capacity, among other things. Since storage, backups, and price are all important variables that affect a photography website’s performance; we’ve researched the top hosting companies for photographers’ websites.
We analyze how each provider’s shared & VPS plans fare regarding hosting photos in this rating. Furthermore, numerous of the here-mentioned companies provide cloud and/or dedicated hosting, two distinct but equally scalable hosting kinds. However, given that most small to medium-sized photography websites may benefit from shared & VPS hosting, we’ve chosen to concentrate on these options.
Top photography hosting
- Bluehost – best all around provider for photography websites.
- HostGator – best for storage space.
- InMotion – best for value for money.
- A2 Hosting – best for those looking to sell online.
- SiteGround – best for reliability.
- DreamHost – best for back ups and recovery.
- Hostinger – best for offering cheap hosting.
- GoDaddy Hosting – best for extra features.
1.Bluehost
Because Bluehost excels in all key areas, including uptime, customer service, and value for money, it is the finest hosting service for photographers overall. Bluehost is the best option available if your site is (or will be) built on WordPress since it is the hosting company that WordPress most often recommends. Check out how it did in our study:
Plans and Costs
Public hosting
The starting pricing for Bluehost’s shared plans is $2.95 per month. Although DreamHost begins at $2.59/month, which is not the lowest beginning price available, those additional 36 cents bring you a host of priceless services, including:
- Unmetered bandwidth,
- Free SSL certificate,
- 25 subdomains
You will get the following if you select one of Bluehost’s shared plans designed specifically for WordPress, which start at $2.95/month:
- Automatic installation of WordPress
- Automatic updates for WordPress
- Environment for staging WordPress
You may preview updates to your website in a “staging environment” before making them live.
Hosting VPS
With 30GB SSD storage, 2GB RAM, & 1TB bandwidth included in Bluehost’s most affordable VPS plan, your site will be well prepared to manage the traffic that your gorgeous photographs will bring without losing performance.
The most sophisticated VPS package from Bluehost costs $59.99 a month and includes 120GB of SSD storage, 8GB of RAM, and 3TB of bandwidth. That’s a lot of influence, so if your website becomes busier, we advise beginning with a less expensive VPS package and working your way up to this one.
Aid and Assistance
Due in major part to its round-the-clock phone and live chat assistance, Bluehost receives a flawless score of 5 out of 5 in our study for help and support. Access to aid and support around the clock is one thing, but whether it is of any use is another. Bluehost’s live chat worked well when we tried it out for ourselves, and the support staff members were genuinely interested in the discussion and offered useful follow-up questions.
2. HostGator
HostGator is excellent in many aspects, despite not being as all-around as Bluehost. Particularly for hosting photography websites, HostGator comes in a strong second because of its storage capabilities. If you are the owner—or soon will be—of a photography website, you’ll need a service that can manage a lot of high-quality photographs in a hurry. You may examine how HostGator does in other categories below to determine if it is up to the task:
Plans and Costs
Public hosting
The shared plans from HostGator start at $2.75 per month and include:
- No cost SSL certificate
- Unmetered bandwidth and storage
- free website transfer to WordPress
HostGator’s free transfer function is a fantastic choice if you currently have a WordPress website and are considering switching hosting companies. Any fairly sized photography site will have plenty of capacity to expand thanks to unmetered storage, which means you won’t be charged according to how much disk space you use.
Hosting VPS
The most affordable VPS hosting plan from HostGator is $29.95 a month, and it comes with 2GB of RAM, 120GB of disk space, & 1.5TB of bandwidth.
Indicated in bold. Did you realize? Disk space & storage are the same regarding web hosting: the quantity of server space designated for your website!
Full root access, which provides administrator-level control over your server, is another feature of HostGator’s VPS services. To guarantee optimum server dependability, HostGator additionally uses several bandwidth suppliers.
Aid and Assistance
Although HostGator provides phone and live chat assistance around the clock, we were most pleased by its comprehensive Knowledge Base.
Thanks to HostGator’s searchable Knowledge Base, you have immediate access to a wealth of useful knowledge on any subject, from security measures to Windows hosting.
3. InMotion
You won’t be compromising quality here since InMotion’s shared hosting fees are relatively affordable, yet it still received a flawless 5/5 for features! It also offers a far longer money-back guarantee than the industry norm of one month, at 90 days. Below is a brief overview of InMotion:
Plans and Costs
Public hosting
Shared plans from InMotion start at $2.49/month and include unlimited disk space, bandwidth, email, and an SSL certificate. There is a ton of value for just $2.49!
The following pricing plans start at only $4.99/month and include two websites compared to the typical one you receive with the basic plans from most providers.
Hosting VPS
Most individuals see VPS hosting as just an expensive next step in expanding their website. You’re correct in thinking that VPS hosting costs more than shared hosting, but with InMotion’s VPS services, you can be confident that the additional cost is justified.
The most affordable InMotion VPS plan is $22.59 per month, and it comes with 75GB of storage, 4TB of bandwidth, and 4GB of RAM. You also receive free site migrations and root access for your money.
Aid and Assistance
InMotion provides round-the-clock phone and live chat assistance, much like Bluehost & HostGator, so you won’t have to worry about being in the dark if your website ever has a problem.
Additionally, InMotion’s Support Center has many useful articles you may read at your convenience, all of which were authored by InMotion staff members.
4. A2 Hosting
Customers will feel secure sharing their financial data on your site thanks to A2 Hosting’s strong security features, making it the ideal choice if you’re trying to sell your images online. A2 also offers an internal Perpetual Security effort, including free HackScan protection, server hardening, and strengthened Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack defence, in addition to the normal free SSL certificate.
Plans and Costs
Public hosting
Three shared hosting packages are available from A2 Hosting, with prices ranging from $3.92 to $9.31/month and including:
- Endless SSD storage
- 25 email accounts
- Free site migration
Additionally, every A2 Hosting plan has an anytime cash guarantee, so you may test the service without risk.
Hosting VPS
A VPS plan is something to consider if you want to sell online because of its strength and scalability. The lowest managed VPS package from A2 is $25.00 per month and includes 4GB of RAM, 75GB of storage, and 2TB of transfer.
The significant price difference between shared & VPS plans reflects that VPS plans are far more powerful than shared server plans. Starting with a shared hosting plan is always an option, but you can rest easy knowing that when your site needs to expand, the supercharged capabilities of a VPS plan will be there for you!
Aid and Assistance
The customer service staff at A2 Hosting, known as The Guru Crew, is accessible round-the-clock by phone & live chat. You have a lot of alternatives for support and assistance thanks to A2’s availability of both an email ticket system and a searchable knowledge base.
5. SiteGround
For hosting a photography website, SiteGround is excellent since it is dependable and simple to use. Among the numerous ways, SiteGround has your back free, automated daily backups and automatic WordPress upgrades. However, this supplier isn’t the most scalable one available. You would be good going elsewhere if you needed a lot of space or wanted to host a big website.
Plans and Costs
Public hosting
The shared plans from SiteGround cost between $6.99 and $14.99 a month and provide unlimited traffic, free SSL certificates, & free email accounts. You can feel good about the environmental effect of your web hosting thanks to SiteGround’s 100% renewable energy match on all its shared plans. The most basic shared plan from SiteGround gives 10GB of web space and can handle around 10,000 monthly visitors. The most sophisticated shared plan provides 30GB of web space and can handle approximately 100,000 monthly visits.
Hosting VPS
Uh-oh! This is where SiteGround’s scalability is lacking. If you anticipate seeing rapid development for your photography website, you should seek elsewhere since it does not provide VPS hosting.
Aid and Assistance
SiteGround provides a well-organized knowledge base and specific lessons for various technologies, including WordPress and Magento. You may contact the SiteGround staff via phone & live chat seven days a week in addition to using the knowledge base.
6. DreamHost
You can be confident that your gorgeous pictures are in excellent hands if you use DreamHost to host your website. Whether you require shared hosting or VPS hosting, DreamHost offers free daily backups for all of its plans, ensuring the security of your data. Below are some more details about DreamHost’s features:
Plans and Costs
Public hosting
Shared hosting packages from DreamHost start at $2.59 per month and included SSD storage, a free SSL certificate, plus limitless bandwidth. Conveniently, DreamHost’s shared plans have WordPress preinstalled as well.
Unlimited email @ your domain is also included with DreamHost’s more sophisticated shared plan, which costs $4.95 per month. Larger, more commercial websites will benefit from this functionality since domain-specific email addresses offer your website a more polished appearance!
Hosting VPS
The lowest of DreamHost’s VPS plans is $10.00/month and includes the following features:
- 30GB SSD storage
- 1GB RAM
- Unlimited email at your domain
- Unlimited traffic
DreamHost provides greater choice than other providers regarding how much RAM & storage you’d want to pay for, with four distinct VPS options to select from.
Aid and Assistance
DreamHost is dependable. Therefore you probably won’t need to get in touch with the support staff at three in the morning to deal with an emergency. The assistance and support offered by this company cannot match those of the other top suppliers. Although DreamHost’s support staff will call you back in answer to your inquiries, this is a significant downside since you cannot reach DreamHost directly.
If you don’t mind the absence of round-the-clock service, the rest of DreamHost’s support offerings will more than makeup for it. From 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. PST, live chat is accessible; however wait times might be prolonged during busy periods. Thanks to the knowledge base, a wealth of knowledge is available at your fingertips. Additionally, you may always send email support requests.
7. Hostinger
It’s no joke that Hostinger’s shared plans feature an incredibly cheap initial pricing of only $0.99/month, as you may have observed. This inexpensive hosting company has many positive aspects, but you won’t receive as many features as you would with the other, more costly providers. View Hostinger in the following snapshot:
Plans and Costs
Public hosting
The Single Mutualistic plan at Hostinger’s shared plans starts at $0.99 per month. At this cost, you receive:
- A little bandwidth (100GB)
- No cost SSL certificate
- single email
For a brand-new website, these restricted features could be worth the cost, but for $2.89/month, the sec Premium Shared Hosting plan will undoubtedly provide you greater value with the following features:
- Unrestricted capacity
- No cost SSL certificate
- many email addresses
- recurring backups
Hosting VPS
Hostinger provides six distinct VPS plans divided into groups based on the server’s Main Processing Unit (CPU) power. Plans range in price from $3.9 to $29.95 a month, and the costs also increase all the standard features. The ranges for each VPS feature are shown below:
- 1–8 GB of memory
- 1000-8000GB of bandwidth
- 20-160GB of storage
You probably won’t require as many resources as Hostinger’s more expensive VPS plans provide for hosting photography websites. Instead, the two lowest VPS plans offered by the company—1 CPU at $3.95/month & 2 CPU at $8.95/month—are excellent choices.
Aid and Assistance
Hostinger provides live chat, email help, a knowledge base, and submittable tickets around-the-clock.
Hostinger offers a collection of lessons covering a wide range of subjects, like launching a blog and buying a domain name. The absence of phone assistance is Hostinger’s customer service’s one flaw. Hostinger will provide phone service in 2020, but until then, its round-the-clock live chat is the best alternative.
8. GoDaddy Hosting
GoDaddy Hosting is a touch more costly than its leading rivals, but you receive some great hosting options for those additional dollars. Even the most basic shared plan it offers is more comprehensive than its rivals.
Plans and Costs
Shared hosting
The least expensive shared plan from GoDaddy Hosting begins at $5.99/month and includes:
- 100 GB of space
- limitless bandwidth
- no cost domain
- Free email for a year with Microsoft Office 365
These benefits are increased when you upgrade to a second-cheapest shared plan, which costs $7.99 monthly.
- Numerous websites
- Unlimited capacity
- Countless subdomains
To us, it seems to have limitless possibilities!
Hosting VPS
The VPS plans from GoDaddy Hosting include even more features than the shared plans. They are available for $4.99 to $69.99 monthly, with correspondingly more features. The most expensive package gives 16GB RAM & 400GB SSD storage, while the least expensive one comes with 1GB RAM and 20GB SSD storage.
Aid and Assistance
The knowledge base and phone assistance offered by GoDaddy Hosting are fantastic tools, as well as its live chat feature is accessible Monday through Friday from 5 am to 6 pm MST.
When live chat isn’t accessible, you may always contact phone support if you need assistance. Don’t discount the advantages of the searchable information base, however! With only a few clicks, you can probably use it to locate a comprehensive solution to most issues.
Hosting the best photographer websites:
Using the summaries in this rating, you may choose the ideal web host for your photography website with confidence. To sum up, the following are the main suppliers in order:
Top hosting service for photographers
1. Bluehost – best all around provider for photography websites, from $2.95/month.
2. HostGator – best for storage space, from $2.75/month.
3. InMotion – best for value for money, from $2.95/month.
4. A2 Hosting – best for those looking to sell online, from $3.92/month.
5. SiteGround – best for reliability, from $6.99/month.
6. DreamHost – best for back ups and recovery, from $2.59/month.
7. Hostinger – best for offering cheap hosting, from $0.99/month.
8. GoDaddy Hosting – best for extra features, from $5.99/month.
Picking should be based on the qualities you value most. InMotion’s affordable rates and many features will meet your needs if you want to get the most value for your money. HostGator will not fail to please if you want the most storage possible for your high-quality pictures.
Unable to pick what you cherish most? The ideal, fail-safe hosting option for photography is Bluehost. A few things that propel it to the top of the list are its unmetered bandwidth, excellent customer service, and competitive price.
Hosting for the best photography websites: FAQs
Why does hosting matter for my photography site?
Selecting a capable hosting company is important for every website since it affects your website’s uptime, load speed, and other elements that improve user experience. But because it’s crucial to load high-quality, large-sized photographs as fast and effectively as possible, proper hosting is crucial for photography websites.
Which aspect should I give top priority?
For photography websites, storage & bandwidth are especially crucial, and most providers provide comparable quantities of these resources in their shared plans. After that, whether saving money and having a high uptime % truly depends on what matters to you the most individually.
