Web hosting services are the backbone of the internet, providing the infrastructure that allows websites to be accessed by users around the world. As more business and communication moves online, web hosting has become a massive industry composed of some highly influential companies.
In this guide, we will count down the 10 largest web hosting providers globally based on their market share of active websites, while exploring key details of their histories, offerings, and positions in the marketplace.
An Introduction to Web Hosting
Before diving into the major players, let’s quickly review what exactly web hosting is and why it’s important.
Web hosting provides servers, storage space and computing power that enables organizations and individuals to make websites accessible on the internet. At a basic level, web hosts rent physical server hardware that websites are hosted on. But they also handle critical background services like security, software updates, uptime monitoring and customer support.
Without web hosting services delivering the foundation and maintenance support, websites would not be able to be published online for users to access.
As internet usage explodes globally, demand for hosting scales right alongside it. Hosting providers enable this growth by delivering solutions tailored to needs of different website owners, from individual blogs to enterprise e-commerce sites.
The web hosting ecosystem includes a range of company types and service models, but several clear leaders have emerged when it comes to market share. Next we’ll look at the 10 biggest hosts worldwide.
#10: Liquid Web
Founded in 1997 in Lansing, Michigan by Matthew Hill, Liquid Web has grown into an industry staple focused primarily on managed hosting solutions.
With over 500,000 sites supported, Liquid Web accounts for around 2.12% market share of websites hosted globally. The company employs over 250 web hosting experts to design, manage and support their clients‘ sites.
Liquid Web is known for exceptional customer service (with a 59 minute response time guarantee), as well as high performance managed hosting tuned for e-commerce and businesses. Their offerings range from shared hosting starting around $13/month, up to fully customized enterprise hosting that can cost thousands per month.
A few major Liquid Web customers include Samsung, Hawaiian Airlines, Dyson, Olympus and Groupon.
#9: DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean is a younger hosting company launched in 2011, but has already grown to serve over 623,000 websites across 185 countries. Headquartered in New York City, DigitalOcean maintains a 2.19% share of the global hosted sites market.
Led by CEO Yancey Spruill, DigitalOcean focuses specifically on providing infrastructure and platform services for software developers and tech companies. Their key offering is cloud services charged per usage, allowing flexible scaling.
With simple, affordable pricing starting at just $4/month for baseline cloud server resources, DigitalOcean has become popular among startups and mid-sized businesses. But major customers include Docker, GitLab, Ticketmaster and General Assembly.
#8: WP Engine
Specializing in managed WordPress hosting, WP Engine powers over 1 million websites globally, translating to around 2.3% market share of all sites hosted worldwide.
Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, WP Engine offers tailored WordPress hosting plans that scale with traffic needs. For small businesses, their Startup plan begins at $23/month for up to 25k visits. VIP enterprise-grade plans for high traffic sites can cost several thousand dollars per month.
Under CEO Heather Brunner, WP Engine has embraced a remote-first workforce with over 1,000 employees working from home offices globally. Their clients include major brands like AMD, Petco and Yelp that require high performance, secure WordPress hosting.
#7: Hetzner
The first non-U.S. company on our list, Hetzner is an international web hosting and cloud services provider based in Germany. Founded by Martin Hetzner in 1997, the company now employs around 300 staff.
Hetzner operates an extensive network of data centers in Europe and has earned a reputation for excellent service, competitive pricing and green initiatives around renewable energy. They host over 2.86% of sites globally, focusing on European customers in particular.
In addition to standard shared hosting from just €1.90 ($2.00) per month, Hetzner offers feature-rich cloud servers, storage solutions, dedicated machines and colocation services. Major companies using their services include EA, GitLab and CodeCanyon.
#6: Bluehost
Owned by Newfold Digital, Bluehost is one of the most recognizable American hosting brands. The company was founded in 2002 and purchased by Newfold (formerly Endurance International Group) in 2010 as part of a roll-up strategy in the hosting market.
With over 750 employees and well over 2 million websites now hosted on its platform, Bluehost accounts for around 3.25% of sites globally. One of Bluehost‘s major differentiators is providing full website design services alongside standard shared hosting and WordPress packages.
Their cheapest shared hosting plan starts at just $4.95 per month. Fully managed WooCommerce hosting is also available for online stores, beginning at $12.95 monthly.
Major Bluehost clients include Credit Karma, Fandango and The Motley Fool.
#5: HostGator
Operating under the same Newfold Digital parent entity as Bluehost, HostGator is another leading U.S.-based web hosting provider. Originally founded in 2002 by Brent Oxley, HostGator was acquired by Newfold in 2012.
From shared reseller hosting to dedicated servers, HostGator now powers over 2.5 million websites for a respectable 5.7% global market share. HostGator‘s diverse clients range from individual bloggers to high traffic sites like Dictionary.com and Craigslist.
Like Bluehost, HostGator frequently offers major discounts making it one of the most budget-friendly options for standard shared hosting. Plans start at just $2.75 per month for new customers. WordPress hosting begins at $5.95 per month with unlimited traffic.
#4: Ionos by 1&1
Formerly known as 1&1 IONOS, Ionos is one of the oldest and largest web hosting providers worldwide. Founded originally in Germany in 1988 as 1&1, the company merged with cloud infrastructure provider ProfitBricks in 2018. After rebranding to Ionos in 2021, the company now manages over 12 million domains and 8 million customer accounts globally.
With data centers across Europe and the U.S., Ionos boasts capacity to host over 90,000 servers total. Their market share based on domains registered is approximately 6.89% of sites worldwide, establishing Ionos as the largest host in Europe.
In addition to dominating the European market, Ionos is aggressively expanding in North America and globally with budget-friendly hosting packages. Shared hosting plans start at just $0.50 per month including a free domain. WordPress hosting is also available from $4 per month.
Notable Ionos customers include the European Space Agency, Nintendo, Volkswagen and Samsung.
#3: Google Cloud
As one of tech’s most influential giants, Google makes its presence known in the web hosting sphere with Google Cloud – a suite of public cloud computing services launched in 2011. With over 44 million live websites hosted on their infrastructure, Google Cloud accounts for 7.83% of sites globally.
While not its only focus, a major component powering those millions of sites is Google Cloud’s shared public cloud servers. Costs for these linux "Compute Engine" instances start at around $10 per month, scaling up based on computing resources required.
On top of basic cloud infrastructure, Google offers an abundance of other services under its Google Cloud brand – over 200 products in total! These range from the productivity tools of Google Workspace to advanced machine learning APIs. Major Google Cloud customers paying up to millions per year include Snapchat, Spotify, Paypal and Bloomberg.
#2: Amazon Web Services
The cloud computing arm of e-commerce leader Amazon, Amazon Web Services (AWS) opened its virtual doors in 2006. Although not exclusively dedicated to web hosting, AWS provides the server infrastructure behind over 10.96% of all websites globally, cementing its status as the second largest host worldwide.
Similar to Google Cloud, Amazon offers businesses pay-as-you-go access to computing power, storage and cloud services. Small scale customers can launch a basic WordPress site on AWS from around $3.50 per month. Major brands running huge workloads on AWS include Netflix, ESPN, Expedia and Samsung – each spending over $50 million per year.
With an astounding 33% share of the total cloud infrastructure services market, AWS dominates as the top cloud provider globally. And with web hosting intrinsic to those services, AWS is poised to overtake competitors for the leading web host worldwide.
#1: GoDaddy
Established in 1997 in Arizona by Bob Parsons, GoDaddy is the world’s largest web hosting company and one of the most instantly recognizable brands in technology. Boasting over 21 million customers spanning ventures of all sizes, GoDaddy currently powers more than a remarkable 15% of all websites on the internet globally.
Alongside shared hosting from $6.99 per month, GoDaddy offers an extremely wide range of products. These include domain names, email, Microsoft 365 plans, online store builders, security certificates, design services and more. Their extensive solutions have proven extremely popular for small businesses in particular.
In 2018, GoDaddy began a multi-year transition of its core web hosting infrastructure over to AWS to better leverage its scale and cloud capabilities. So while AWS actually provides hosting resources, GoDaddy manages the customer relationships and software powering over 84 million websites.
With a commanding lead industry, solid infrastructure and diverse customer base firmly established, GoDaddy is likely to remain the world‘s top web hosting provider for years to come.
Conclusion
In closing, while competitive and constantly evolving, the managed web hosting segment has seen impressive growth and consolidation around a group of major players. Currently, top providers globally based on market share are:
- GoDaddy — 21+ million customers
- Amazon Web Services – 10.96% market share
- Google Cloud – 7.83% market share
- Ionos — 8+ million customers
- HostGator – 5.7% market share
- Bluehost – 3.25% market share
- Hetzner – 2.86% market share
- WP Engine – 2.3% market share
- DigitalOcean – 2.19% market share
- Liquid Web – 2.12% market share
Together the top 3 companies (GoDaddy, AWS and Google Cloud) account for over 33% of websites hosted worldwide.
The future looks bright for hosting companies like these that can leverage scale and cloud economics to the benefit customers of all sizes – from individual blogs to enterprise corporations. As internet usage and web apps continue proliferating globally, demand for capable, affordable hosting services will only accelerate.
The biggest opportunities ahead involve expansion into emerging markets and transitioning existing infrastructure to cloud-native technologies like containers and serverless computing. Expect the veterans leading today to battle innovators like DigitalOcean aiming to disrupt the space with developer-friendly offerings.
Regardless of who comes out ahead competitively, the real winners are internet users that get to enjoy more sites and services enabled by the crucial foundations of web hosting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the largest web hosting company globally?
With around 15% total market share, GoDaddy is the world‘s largest web hosting provider – offering domain names, shared hosting, WordPress plans and more.
How did AWS become so big in hosting?
AWS excels so much in cloud computing, that web hosting is included by default in the large scale infrastructure services they provide to massive companies. This benefits smaller AWS customers too with cost efficient WordPress hosting.
Do international companies have much presence?
Currently the global hosting market is still dominated primarily by major U.S. brands like GoDaddy, AWS and Google Cloud. However Ionos (European) and Hetzner (German) have strong footholds in their respective regions.
Which shared hosting plans are most affordable overall?
Some of the cheapest introductory rates can be found at HostGator and Bluehost – starting from $2.75 per month. Liquid Web has managed WordPress hosting from $13 monthly. Total cost comes down to needs and scale.
