Rank | Company | Uptime | Speed | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Krystal | 99.996% | 485ms | £4.99 |
2 | 20i | 99.993% | 546ms | £4.99 |
3 | eUKhost | 99.992% | 1000ms | £3.66 |
4 | tsoHost | 99.953% | 499ms | £3.99 |
5 | Webhosting UK | 99.848% | 885ms | £2.65 |
After months of tracking uptime statistics and server performance metrics, I discovered the best cheap web hosting in the UK is Krystal hosting. They deliver fast website loading speeds, consistent server uptime and award-winning support.
Unfortunately, the majority of cheap web hosting review websites you will come across while you are doing your research are motivated by how much they are paid in commissions when you signup through their links.
The companies they are recommending right now as I write this post will entice you with the lowest priced introductory offers for the first year, that actually TRIPLE or even QUADRUPLE on renewal, none of which you’ll find here.
Here’s just a couple of examples of what some websites are willing to recommend:
Now think about it, before you found Hosting Spy, how many other web hosting review websites have you visited which recommend companies that charge similar fees to the above examples? All of them!
They obviously don’t care if you’re going to get ripped off and are clearly motivated by how much they earn in commissions when you sign up through their links as these companies pay the most to their affiliates.
Do you really want to hand over your payment details to a company that will keep them on file and then automatically charge you 4 times the amount you paid for the first year and then be refused a refund, well that’s what happens…
IF you place your trust in the wrong recommendations and choose the wrong host that is.
Usually it’s the cheapest web hosting companies who you see recommended the most on other web hosting review websites that are the worst performing services, which is why you won’t see the same companies recommended here.
The rankings you see here are based on actual historical performance data based on real-time tracking of server uptime, server response times and page loading speeds over long periods of time.
Over the last 12 months I have performed extensive daily testing on features, support, uptime and server performance for a large list of the UK’s most popular website hosting companies that are on the cheaper end of the scale.
Here’s a list of the ones that performed the best.
TOP 5 CHEAP WEB HOSTING SERVICES
Krystal Web Hosting Best Host
Krystal is the largest independent web hosting company in the UK and has been delivering a range of shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting services for 18 years.
Unlike other large faceless companies who often have hidden extras or extortionate renewal fees, Krystal are honest, reliable and personal which is why they have become so popular within the UK.
Here’s a quick overview of Krystal’s web hosting features.
SPEC | AMETHYST | RUBY | SAPPHIRE |
---|---|---|---|
Sites Hosted | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Disk Space | 10GB SSD | Unlimited SSD | 100GB Premium NVMe |
Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Performance | Standard | Enhanced | High |
SSL Certificate | FREE | FREE | FREE |
Backups | Daily | Daily | 4-hourly |
Free Domain | NO | YES | YES |
Control Panel | cPanel | cPanel | cPanel |
In all of our manual and automated tests such as server response time, website loading speed and server uptime, Krystal hosting outperformed all of their competitors who offer similar packages and pricing.
This is the exact reason why I’ve been a customer of Krystal web hosting myself for the last couple of years as I host this website you are reading right now and my clients websites on their reliable servers.
Krystal’s web hosting services are easy to setup and are very simple to use so you can literally start building your website in the next 10 minutes, knowing you have a solid foundation to build it on.
Above Average.
20i
20i web hosting was launched around 5 years ago by Tim & Jonathan Brealey, who created WebFusion, 123-reg & Heart Internet. These 2 founders are no strangers to growing industry leading web hosting companies that develop innovative web hosting software and tools.
My extensive testing has shown that they have consistent server uptime and blazing fast server response times, so your website will load fast on a consistent basis which is a great sign of a good host.
While I’m amazed at what they have been able to achieve, I’m just not a fan of their in-house built control panel (My20i), but that is just my own personal preference as I’ve been using cPanel for about a decade.
Here’s a quick overview of 20i’s web hosting features:
SPEC | STARTUP | PREMIUM | BUSINESS |
---|---|---|---|
Sites Hosted | 1 | 2 | 5 |
Disk Space | 10GB SSD | Unlimited SSD | Unlimited SSD |
Bandwidth | 50GB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
SSL Certificate | FREE | FREE | FREE |
Backups | Daily | Daily | Daily |
MySQL Databases | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Mailboxes (10 GB) | 1000 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Free Domain | NO | NO | NO |
Control Panel | My20i | My20i | My20i |
However, they do charge the same monthly fee as Krystal but offer you less for your money as you can only host 1 website on the startup plan (compared with 2 on Krystal) with a 50GB monthly bandwidth limit (compared to unlimited on Krystal) which is not really a big deal to be fair.
Excellent Uptime.
eUKhost
eUKhost (part of the Hyperslice Group) are a fully managed web hosting provider that offer cloud, VPS, dedicated and email hosting with a range of website security services and domain name registration.
They operate from their registered office in Leeds and through their data centres located in Wakefield, Maidenhead and Nottingham, allowing them to offer reliable hosting services across the UK.
Here’s a quick overview of eUKhost’s web hosting features:
SPEC | BASIC | INTERMEDIATE | ADVANCED |
---|---|---|---|
Sites Hosted | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Disk Space | 2GB SSD | 10GB SSD | 20GB SSD |
Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
SSL Certificate | FREE | FREE | FREE |
Backups | Daily | Daily | Daily |
MySQL Databases | 10 | 30 | Unlimited |
Mailboxes | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Free Domain | YES | YES | YES |
Control Panel | cPanel | cPanel | cPanel |
Over the last 90 days, eUKhost has recorded the best uptime statistics out of all the web hosting companies featured on Hosting Spy and their website loading speed is pretty good too.
However, when you first signup to a web hosting package there is a couple hours delay while you are waiting for your account to be activated and can be quite confusing to set up for beginners.
You also only get 2GB SSD diskpace on the Basic Plan which is far less than what all other web hosting companies offer you on their entry plans, so allowing you to host unlimited websites is not much use.
Average Performance.
tsoHost
tsoHost based out of Hayes, Hillingdon has more than a decade within the hosting industry and is a popular UK web hosting provider that offers a range of low cost web hosting services for personal or business use.
You’ll discover cloud based cPanel hosting along with VPS, dedicated and managed servers with website security packages and domain name registration services at really competitive rates.
Here’s a quick overview of tsoHost’s web hosting features:
SPEC | ECONOMY | DELUXE | ULTIMATE | MAXIMUM |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sites Hosted | 1 | 5 | 10 | 200 |
Disk Space | 100GB SSD | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Memory (RAM) | 512MB | 512MB | 1GB | 2GB |
SSL Certificate | NO | NO | YES | YES |
Backups | Daily | Daily | Daily | Daily |
MySQL Databases | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Mailboxes | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Free Domain (Yearly Plan Only) | YES | YES | YES | YES |
Control Panel | cPanel | cPanel | cPanel | cPanel |
Although tsoHost are quite popular and you get tons of resources for such a low price, the uptime I have recorded over the last 90 days is below average, so they still have a long way to go.
One of the biggest put downs of this web hosting provider is the fact that they don’t offer free SSL on their starter plans like their competitors do and they charge more per year for standard SSL than they do for hosting.
Best Monthly Price.
Webhosting UK
Webhosting.UK.com (WHUK) offers a wide range of affordable web hosting services including email, shared, cloud, WordPress, reseller, VPS and dedicated hosting packages, along with website security and domains.
They were founded in 2001 (now part of the Hyperslice® Group) and are one of the UK’s largest web hosting providers with more than 35k customers and 1 million+ websites hosted on their platform.
Here’s a quick overview of the features:
SPEC | STARTER | PREMIUM | ADVANCED | DEVELOPER |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sites Hosted | 2 | 5 | 15 | Unlimited |
Disk Space | 5GB SSD | 10GB SSD | 20GB SSD | 40GB SSD |
Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
SSL Certificate | FREE | FREE | FREE | FREE |
Backups | Daily | Daily | Daily | Daily |
MySQL Databases | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Mailboxes | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Free Domain | YES | YES | YES | YES |
Control Panel | cPanel | cPanel | cPanel | cPanel |
WHUK is one of the most affordable web hosting providers on the list although their server performance is fractionally out performed by their competitors, but not by much I might add.
The amount of features you get for such a low monthly fee would attract startups or existing small business owners who want to establish an online presence on a super tight budget.
However, this is the only web hosting company we have featured that requires a minimum of 3 months payment upfront, so if you want to test out their services for a month then there is a 30-day money back guarantee if required.
Answers to your most popular questions.
In this section we will answer some of the most popular questions that have been asked by our readers to help you learn more about the cheap web hosting companies we have featured in the list above.
Which cheap web hosting has the best uptime?
Uptime is a measurement of how long the website remains online without it becoming inaccessible and low uptime is bad for you and your business as you want your website to remain online as much as possible for obvious reasons.
Just because you want a web hosting service at the cheaper end of the scale, this does not mean that your provider should deliver poor uptime, although you will see from our actual research below, some are far better than others.
Many cheap web hosting providers promise a specific percentage of uptime, although not all of them deliver what they promise, which is why we constantly track them to get the real data.
Here’s how they performed (the higher the number the better):
Company | Last 90 Days |
---|---|
Krystal | 99.996% |
20i | 99.943% |
eUKhost | 99.992% |
tsoHost | 99.953% |
Webhosting UK | 99.848% |
Which cheap web hosting has the best server response time?
Server response time is another important metric that we test on a regular basis as you want your server to respond quickly to requests as your website cannot start to load until the server starts to respond.
The better these metrics are, the better experience your potential customers will have when browsing your website as slow server response times will make your website load slower and will annoy people.
We test the server response times in the exact same way for every web hosting company we have featured on this page to ensure it’s fair and the server in which the test is initiated from is based in London.
Here’s how they performed (the lower the number the better):
Company | Server Response Time |
---|---|
Krystal | 2 ms |
20i | 4 ms |
tsoHost | 53 ms |
eUKhost | 172 ms |
Webhosting UK | 201 ms |
Which cheap web hosting has the best website loading speed?
Website loading speed is another important metric that we test on a regular basis as you want the pages of your website to load fast for your website visitors.
When you have a fast loading website, this can have a massive impact on your results by improving user experience and increasing your conversions.
I test the website loading speed the exact same way for all the providers to ensure it’s fair such as the website is exactly the same size on each host and is tested from the same London based server.
Here’s how they performed (the lower the number the better):
Company | Website Loading Speed |
---|---|
Krystal | 485 ms |
tsoHost | 499 ms |
20i | 546 ms |
Webhosting UK | 885 ms |
eUKhost | 1000 ms |