Best Drupal Hosting Providers 2023 (Tried & Tested Review)
Are you confused about which Drupal hosting provider to go for? Our best Drupal hosting providers list can help you make the best decision for your website or personal blog. In the first place, choosing a hosting provider for your Drupal website can be tough, especially with so many overwhelming choices out there.
Likewise, with so many technical terms it is quite a daunting task. Accordingly, is it right to go for shared hosting or dedicated hosting? Therefore, how much storage will you need? Is the web host providing an SSL certificate? Again, these are a few important questions that go through everyone’s mind while looking for the best Drupal hosting provider. All things considered, if you are looking for a web host for Drupal then you are here at the right place.
As has been noted, here I have compared in detail a complete list of the best Drupal hosting providers so that you can pick the right one for your site.
Top 7 Drupal Hosting Providers
- Bluehost
- A2 Hosting
- SiteGround
- InMotion
- Cloudways
- Pantheon
- Acquia
1. Bluehost
Bluehost is one of the ‘biggest names’ when it comes to web hosting. In fact, Drupal officially recommends Bluehost as a web host. On the whole, with over 2 million customers Bluehost rightfully tops our list of best Drupal hosting providers. In fact, it is a powerful platform with great uptime, rich features and round the clock customer support. Bluehost also has a 30 days money return policy, so if you are a beginner give it a shot. Additionally, Bluehost’s VPS and dedicated hosting plans offer advanced programming language extensions for Drupal module development (which is unavailable in shared or cloud-hosted platforms). Therefore, it is a great choice to improve the performance of a website. Consequently, there are a few pitfalls too, like the renewal pricing is quite high and the starter plan does not offer some of the important features. So, without any further delay, let’s see what Bluehost has to offer as a web host.
What Does Bluehost Offer? – As Best Drupal Hosting
Bluehost offers quite a few products when it comes to a hosting provider. So, let’s have a quick look at it.
Bluehost Features & Plans:
- Domain Names: All things considered, you won’t get the cheapest domain name from Bluehost but surely, if you do not want to waste time, then purchase it directly from Bluehost. In the first place, the starting price is $17.99 which needs to be renewed after a year. But, if you’re looking for a cheaper option then do check out our list of domain name registrars.
- Shared Hosting: In essence, if you are starting a small website then shared hosting is a great way to start with. Again, in shared hosting, you share server resources with other websites. Bluehost offers shared hosting plans starting from $3.95 to $25.99 monthly.
- Cloud Hosting: In a word, it is a slight upgrade from shared hosting. Likewise, it allows you to make use of several cloud servers. As a result, you can easily switch your website to a different server, in case of any issue.
- Dedicated Hosting: Overall, a dedicated hosting means you can have the server of yourself. Not to mention it is a perfect option for large websites that generate huge traffic. For the most part, the dedicated host plans start at $79.99 monthly.
- VPS Hosting: All in all, the VPS hosting is an amalgamation of shared and cloud hosting. To sum up, with this hosting, you can use virtual dedicated hosting in a shared environment. The VPS hosting plans start from $19.99 to $119.99 monthly.
Plans:
Basic | Plus | Choice Plus | Pro | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Websites | 1 | Unlimited | No Limit | Limitless |
Storage | 50GB | No limit | Unlimited | No Limit |
Renewal Plan | $2.95 /month | $5.45 /month | $5.45 /month | $13.95 /month |
- The basic plan is perfect if you are to start a website and 50GB of storage must be sufficient for you.
- With the Plus plan, you can have unlimited websites and storage. Besides, it also offers unlimited email accounts.
- In the case of the Choice Plus plan, you get all the features of Plus along with free domain privacy and great backup.
- Lastly, the Pro subscription is great for larger websites that require higher performance. Additionally, you can host up to 200,000 to 300,000 files.
Pros:
- Great Uptime – Bluehost offers 99.96% uptime through 12 months which is just awesome.
- Loading Speed – With 641 ms Bluehost outperforms in the case too.
- Security – Bluehost provides a free SSL certificate along with free CDN, several CMS integrations, eCommerce plugins and more.
- Easy to Use – Bluehost is fantastic for beginners.
- Unmetered Bandwidth- Bluehost does not restrict traffic to your site.
- 30 Day Money Return Guarantee
- 24*7 Customer Support – Excellent customer support over live chat, phone, and email ticket.
Cons:
- Renewal Rates are Strikingly Higher – For example, the cheapest plan is for $2.95/ month so it’s renewal plan starts at $8.95 which is quite pricey.
- Frequent Upsells – The system constantly shows upsells pitches, which get annoying after a while.
- Only US servers – You can only host your website on the US servers. Therefore, visitors from other regions may experience a bit slow performance.
- Bad Backup – The starter plans do not offer a great back up option.
Do I recommend Bluehost?
Yes, Bluehost used to offer a better performance earlier however, it is a powerful and reliable solution as the best Drupal hosting providers. Although, Bluehost has a cheaper starting plan the renewal plans tend to get on the pricier side.
2. A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is at par with the best Drupal hosting provider and they are officially recommended by Drupal team. It claims to offer 20X times faster web hosting. But does it? Let’s find out. A2 Hosting is a high powered web hosting service with speed and performance its main highlights. As well as, talking about Drupal, it comes pre-installed with A2 hosting and is optimized to offer the best speed and performance. Moreover, you also get unlimited SSD storage space in shared hosting plans unlike other big names in web hosting. With 99.9% uptime, A2 Hosting also ensures a 99.99% 12-month average, which is great. You may read about how to add Recaptcha in Drupal.
What Does A2 Hosting Offers? – As a Drupal Hosting Provider?
A2 Hosting is one of the most reliable web hosting solutions. So, let’s see if it lives up to the expectations or not.
A2 Hosting Features & Plans:
- High-Speed Performance
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Free SSL Certificate
- Best Quality Developer Tools
- Reliable Uptime
- Excellent Customer Support
Plans:
Lite | Swift | Turbo | |
---|---|---|---|
Websites | 1 | Unlimited | No Limit |
Email Accounts | 25 | Limitless | Unlimited |
Pricing | $3.92 /month | $4.90 /month | $9.31 /month |
Many other features get with these three plans. Coupled with, equally important features like unlimited bandwidth, disk space, Free SDD, Free site migration, eCommerce features and more.
Pros:
- Great Loading Speed – Great average speed of 279ms.
- Reliable Uptime – A2 Hosting offers an uptime of 99.97%.
- 24*7 Malware Reporting & Scanning – Scans firewalls and top-level encryption for security.
- Money Return Guarantee – 30 days of money-back guarantee terms and conditions applied.
- CMS Management & Developer Friendly Tools- Performance-enhancing plugins i.e. free Cloudflare CDN with all plans.
Cons:
- Customer support is slow.
- Renew rates are pricier.
- The basic Lite plan does not offer much.
- Only 2 data centers.
- Less hosting plan variations for Windows users.
Do I Recommend A2 Hosting?
Yes, A2 Hosting is superb when it comes to performance and speed. With high-quality premium hosting, this is surely a great hosting provider. However, the only downsides are slow customer support and pricey renewal rates that you can manage in most cases.
3. SiteGround
SiteGround is a great option for budget-friendly Drupal web hosting. Likewise, if you are someone who is up for creativity and is not a big name – then SiteGround is definitely on board. Also, with features like a free SSL certificate and free Cloudflare CDN, SiteGround definitely makes it up to our top Drupal hosting providers list. Honestly, I find SiteGround the best fit for entrepreneurs, small businesses, startups and bloggers. Of course, anyone who is looking for creativity, quality hosting, affordable pricing and smart custom solutions.
What Does SiteGround Offer? – As a Drupal Hosting Provider?
SiteGround is a fast cloud hosting solution. However, is it the best Drupal hosting provider? Let’s see.
SiteGround Features and Plans:
- Customized hosting solutions
- In-house developed Site Tools
- great Performance and Uptime (99.9% uptime)
- Perform real-time tracking with technologies like SSDs, QUIC, PHP8, SG Optimizer and more
- Server Security and Site Backup
Plans:
StartUp | GrowBig | GoGeek | |
---|---|---|---|
Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Storage | 10GB | 20GB | 40GB |
Pricing | $14.99 /month | $24.99 /month | $39.99 /month |
Pros:
- Outstanding Uptime: 99.99% is a great uptime score.
- High-Speed Hosting: The hardware and software solutions used by SiteGround provide high-speed hosting.
- Easy to Use Interface: The system is intuitive and features further make it easy to use.’
- Unlimited Traffic: Traffic to the site is not measured.
- 4 Server Locations: You can choose server locations between America, Australia, Asia and Europe
- Free daily backup and restores.
Cons:
- SiteGround offers Linux based servers only.
- It does not offer advertising credits.
- There is a maximum database size limit for each plan which can be an issue for very large websites.
Do I recommend Site Ground?
Yes, by now you can easily analyse that SiteGround offers one of the best loading speeds as shared hosting. As well as, it is a great option for professional bloggers, online stores, or anything that needs high performance. However, it is not a great option if you need a Windows hosting, have a low budget, and require a lot of webspace.
4. InMotion
InMotion is a popular web hosting service provider that has been in the business for more than two decades. Furthermore, VPS hosting is one of the best Drupal hosting plans that you can find here. The basic plan offers 4GB RAM while the mid-level plan supports 6GB RAM, which supports more resources for the Drupal website. Moreover, all of the plans are integrated with SSD storage. But, it does not offer Windows Hosting however, it surely is a powerful web host so you can try to ignore this pitfall.
What Does InMotion Offer? – As a Drupal Hosting Provider?
Setting up a Drupal website with InMotion is very simple. But what’s more to it? Let’s see.
InMotion Features and Plans:
- Good Uptime- 99.93% uptime which is superb
- High Loading Speed- 463 ms which is again a thumbs-up.
- Ecommerce and Security- Install Prestashop and OpenCart for free. Aditionally, security services and free remote backup for accounts less than 10 GB in size, hack protection, custom FIrewall and more.
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Free Website Builder and SSL Certificate
- 90 Day Money Back Guarantee
Pricing:
This is the pricing for shared hosting plans, with other hosting you get different pricing and plans.
Lite | Launch | Power | Pro | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Website | 1 | 2 | 50 | 100 |
Storage | 10GB SSD Storage | 50GB SSD storage | 100GB SSD Storage | 200GB SSD Storage |
Pricing | $2.49 /month | $4.99 /month | $7.99 /month | $12.99 /month |
Pros:
- Excellent uptime of 99.93%.
- Fantastic loading speed
- Good customer support
- Free site transfer
- Google Apps integration
- Super Secure Smartwall Threat Defense System
Cons:
- Does not have Windows Hosting
- The verification process is often slow and delayed
- Few plans do not offer month to the monthly payment option
Do I Recommend InMotion?
Surely Yes, with good uptime, speed and performance InMotion is definitely on the list of recommendations. Although, there are a few pitfalls, like high renewal pricing and plan limits but it is an overall Yes for me.
5. Cloudways
Cloudways is an excellent managed hosting provider for Drupal. Not to mention, you can host your website on GoogleCloud, DigitalOcean, AWS, Linode or Vultr. However, what makes Cloudways worth consideration is the outstanding performance, reliability and stability. Moreover, the infrastructure also offers top security so that is a plus point as well. Additionally. Cloudways’ managed environment is superb for eCommerce sites and online stores. Besides, the users can easily configure the Cloudways environment to fit their needs and specifications. But does it fit perfectly for your Drupal site? Let’s see.
What Does Cloudways Offer? – As a Drupal Hosting Provider?
Cloudways will easily grab your attention with its simple yet powerful web hosting approach. So let’s discuss it in detail here.
Cloudways Features and Plans:
- Use any Cloud provider and manage the panel with Cloudways custom control panel
- With Cloudways hosting, the site is stored on multiple servers
- Uses SSDs to enhance site performance
- Free SSL Certificate
- Cloudways CDN improves server speed
- One-click installations of the applications
- Easy setup new sites
- Set automatic backups
Pricing:
Start-Free | Free Start | Kick-Start-Free | Get Started | |
---|---|---|---|---|
RAM | 1GB | 2GB | 4GB | 8GB |
Storage | 25GB | 50GB | 80GB | 160GB |
Pricing | $10 /month | $22 /month | $42 /month | $80 /month |
Pros:
- A 3 days free trial for cloud servers that feature 512MB to 1GB RAM.
- Server monitoring and scaling tools are the best.
- Automatic site backup is easy to configure and can be set as a preference.
- Pay as you go pricing feature ensures you pay only for what you require.
- Free 1 site migration.
Cons:
- Applications hosted on other than cloud servers are not entertained.
- Cloud-based hosting required little technical knowledge. With this in mind, if you have no technical knowledge it may seem difficult to use.
- No domain registration
Do I Recommend Cloudways?
The answer is Yes. Cloudways perfectly strikes a balance between affordability and performance. Since it is a managed service host provider you do not have to worry about your Drupal site constantly. However, if you want to have complete control over your site and on a VPS, then Cloudways is not your cup of tea.
6. Pantheon
Pantheon is a high powered platform-as-a-service host that is officially recommended by Drupal Team. Notably, it has been more than a decade since Pantheon was launched and it surely has earned a spot on our list for best Drupal hosting providers. Notably, HTTPS and Automated admin systems are two of the most interesting features Pantheon offers. Moreover, it offers 60+ global points of presence.
What Does Pantheon Offer? – As a Drupal Hosting Provider?
Pantheon effectively hosts WordPress but is it the same for Drupal, let’s find out here.
Pantheon Features and Plans:
- Audio File Management
- Customizable templates
- Free SSL for 5 to 200 domains
- Weekly and daily automated backups
- Cloud Development Environment
- Command Line Interface
- Cloud Integration Tools
- Advanced Caching
Pricing:
Basic | Performance | Elite | |
---|---|---|---|
Monthly Visits | 25k | Up to 300,000 | Up to 10M |
SSD Storage | 20GB | 200GB | 200+GB |
Pricing | $41 /per month | $160+ / per month | Customizable |
To put it differently Pantheon is slightly pricier so not a great option for beginners and small business. Moreover, you do not get free domain registration. But what you do get is a free SSL certificate and a free trial.
Pros:
- Free SSL certificate
- Get an advanced failover system with an offsite server
- Fast CDN server for fast loading sites
- SEO Management
- Version control
Cons:
- No money-back option
- No free domain registration option
Do I recommend Pantheon?
Well, Yes. But I would recommend using the basic plan first and then upgrade if needed. To be sure you can switch to other plans at any time.
7. Acquia
Last but not least, on our best Drupal hosting providers list is Acquia. For one thing, it is a powerful hosting provider which is recommended by Drupal project, that you just can’t miss. So, if you own a business and want to grow then Acquia infrastructure might suit your needs. Besides, offering excellent development tools Acquia also provides enterprise-grade security and application to upscale its performance. In like manner, Acquia is a cloud hosting platform that is dedicatedly optimized for Drupal use. In particular it also offers features that go beyond hosting, so let’s get a better insight into it.
What Does Acquia Offer? – As a Drupal Hosting Provider?
Acquia is user friendly, but is it a perfect choice for open-source CMS Drupal? Let’s have a look at it.
Acquia Features and Plans:
- User-Friendly- The drag and drop feature function at best.
- Unified Data – A customer data repository that offers a single view of customers.
- Single Tool- Create personalization with just one tool.
- Machine Learning
- Powerful tools like Acquia insights and Slack Metrics
- High-security standards
- 24*7 customer support
Pricing:
Personal | Small | Enterprise | |
---|---|---|---|
SSD Storage | 25GB | 100GB | Custom SSD Storage |
Pricing | $141 /month | $256 /month | Customized Pricing |
Pros:
- 99.95% Uptime
- Individualistic approach
- Multiple solutions especially streamlined for Drupal
- Excellent security features
- 30-day free trial
- Automated and manual backup
- Cloud hooks
Cons:
- Not suitable for beginners
- High pricing
- Most features are included in the Enterprise plan only
Do I Recommend Acquia?
Of Course, I do. Chiefly, Acquia is surely a great web hosting provider and comes with optimized solutions specially developed for Drupal. However, beginners who are no-technical people who do not have much knowledge of Drupal may not find it the best option.
Conclusion – Our Winners for Best Drupal Hosting Providers
First thing to remember, Drupal is one of the leading open-source CMS platforms that runs on PHP. Another key point is, there are over 1 million Drupal websites on the internet. According to stats, Drupal ranks 2nd most popular in the top 10k sites in the open category. Likewise, with a 3.4% share in the market Drupal ranks 3rd in the list of most popular open-source CMS platforms, after WordPress and Joomla.
In this post, I have mentioned in detail the top 7 Drupal hosting providers. However, my top three favorites have to be – BlueHost, A2Hosting, and SiteGround. Primarily, because they provide the best performance, security and pricing. Point often overlooked every web host mentioned on this list is good to go. Also, while choosing the best Drupal hosting provider, you need to consider the size of the site, traffic and of course the budget. To put it differently, if you own a huge website you would need more resources, while if you are just starting-up, most likely you won’t need many resources in the beginning. As a result, keeping all the aforementioned points you can choose the best web host for your Drupal site. Which web host do you find the best on the list? Or did I miss out any? Let me know in the comment section. For more reviews and comprehensive guides do subscribe to Template Toaster blogs.
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