Few things are better than the confidence you feel when slipping on a perfectly tailored outfit. A knowledgeable seamstress can take wholly adequate dresses, shirts, or pants and make them feel custom-made, just for you.
Cloud servers are the hosting equivalent of discovering a new tailor. The best provide top-notch, reliable service at an affordable rate, delivering a product that excels for your specific needs.
While shared, VPS, and dedicated server hosting packages rely on one physical server at a time, cloud hosting technology enables an unlimited number of servers to act as one unified system. With so much storage space and computing power at your disposal, cloud hosting introduces a greater level of scalability, availability, and performance. The added flexibility of adding or removing memory, storage, or processors, means that many hosting providers bill customers monthly for exactly the resources used.
The scalability, security, and affordability of cloud hosting makes the platform an increasingly popular option.
We’ve reviewed the internet’s best cloud hosting providers and share our results below. Whether you prioritize your budget, operating system, performance, or support, we’re confident that we can recommend the best fit.
Best Cloud Server Hosting Reviews (Top 4)
The rapidly expanding cloud hosting industry is expected to grow nearly 20% this year to almost $250 billion in worldwide revenue, fueled largely by the proliferation of data in Internet-of-Things devices, artificial intelligence, and Software-as-a-Service business applications. Nearly 40% of small and medium businesses utilize some form of cloud hosting, which provides operational agility in the forms of improved collaboration, the ability to work remotely, better control of documents, and a reduced carbon footprint.
Given the massive demand for cloud storage and computing, hosting providers are clamoring to offer the best services for the best prices. Competition is fierce, which bodes well for those shopping around for the best solution. The top providers, including our four most recommended options below, shine at offering seven key attributes: reliability, availability, scalability, security, quality, strong service-level agreements, and responsive support.
1. InMotionHosting.com
2. HostGator.com
3. Bluehost.com
4. LiquidWeb.com
Best “Cheap” VPS Hosting
Cloud hosting sometimes gets confused with a virtual private server, or VPS. Both configurations rely on the virtualization of physical server resources. Although a cloud server can be called a VPS, a VPS is not a cloud server. One of the key differences, aside from the infrastructure configurations, is the payment model — the automation and vast network associated with cloud hosting enables providers to offer cheaper, pay-as-you-go solutions that can be scaled up or down at a moment’s notice.
Some of the best VPS hosts, like the one below, power their plans with cloud networks to take advantage of server clusters boasting high levels of redundancy and availability. The optimized architecture streamlines operations for the hosting provider, who in turn can choose to pass the savings onto customers. Take a look at our recommendation for affordable cloud-powered VPS:
5. InMotionHosting.com
Best “Linux” Cloud Server Hosting
Because cloud hosting relies on a multitude of virtualized servers, the service allows for more flexibility when selecting the operating system or other software to install and configure. Pervasive Unix-based operating systems, including the CentOS, Debian, and Fedora Linux distributions, are twice as popular as servers configured with Windows. With so many options to choose from, here’s our top pick for hosting Linux in the cloud:
6. Bluehost.com
Best “Windows” Cloud Server Hosting
Microsoft’s popularity in the desktop operating system space hasn’t quite equated to server installations, but the subset of users are no less passionate. The Windows operating system enables site owners the flexibility of hosting ASP.NET or PHP websites, in addition to deploying either MySQL or Microsoft SQL databases.
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