Best web hosting in Australia 2023: top 6 tested websites

Running a successful website is impossible without a web hosting provider that takes care of all your hosting-related needs. In this article, we’re going to explore 6 options when it comes to web hosting for Australia. You’ll also find a few tips on how to make a smart choice.

If you ask a rookie, they will tell you that a successful website must have high-quality content. It’s not wrong, per se, but it lacks something. And that’s delivery. You can have content of the highest quality, but it has to be available easily.

Hosting provider is what builds a strong foundation on which you can establish a website.

That is speed, security, and reliability, among other perks such as ease of use and helpful tools.

So whether you or your audience is based in Australia, I have 6 recommendations that should suit the majority of needs. I actually bought and tested these providers, so you’ll find fact – and user-experience-based information here.

Best web hosting providers in Australia: ranked

1. Hostinger
2. SiteGround
3. Bluehost
4. HostPapa
5. WP Engine
6. Cloudways
7. Nexcess

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1. Hostinger

Features	Free SSL, weekly backups, SSD storage, LiteSpeed webserver
Uptime	100%
Speed	511ms
Best for	Fast and affordable web hosting

Visit Hostinger

Hostinger is among the top web hosting providers overall, no matter where you are located. What made it successful was cheap prices, speedy performance, and a strong focus on ease of use.

Here are the facts:

• There’s an automatic website setup process that helps you with WordPress installation, SSL activation, and domain registration. Very helpful for beginners.
• The control panel is custom-made and called hPanel. The functionality is almost identical to cPanel, while the interface looks more modern. Plus, Hostinger added a couple of nice tools for website management.
• In terms of performance, Hostinger has a couple of nice things: servers in 8 worldwide locations, the fastest web server technology LiteSpeed, built-in caching, and all the software updates for optimal WordPress stack.

Seeing such a set of service enhancements at a low price is really impressive. Mentioning of which…

Hostinger pricing

You have 2 shared and 1 cloud plan to choose from. The prices are not available in AUD, so we’ll have to work with USD here. There’s a Premium Shared plan that comes for US$2.69/mo, Business Shared, which starts at US$3.99/mo, and Cloud Startup starting at US$9.99/mo.

All plans come with SSL certificates, email accounts, and weekly backups. Free domain starts with the Premium package. As for the specifics:

• Premium – 100GB SSD for 100 websites and email accounts. The bandwidth is unlimited, yet you should keep the monthly visitor count below 25 000.
• Business – take everything from Premium and add daily backups and twice the processing power and memory. You can host 100 websites and emails with a 200GB SSD. This is suitable if that flirting turns into a relationship and you want your website to grow into a respectable business.
• Cloud Startup – comes with 300 websites, 200GB SSD storage space, unlimited bandwidth, 2CPUs cores, 3GB RAM, cache manager, free daily backups, and CDN.

With Hostinger, you have a 30-day money-back period for the hosting service but not additional features too. Yet, to get this advertised price, a 48-month subscription is needed.

Hostinger performance

Hostinger’s focus on performance brings out the best of it. That’s speed, reliability, and power.

When monitored over the long term, Hostinger remained up and running 100% of the time with 0 outages. Considering the regular 99.9% uptime guarantee, this is pretty impressive.

Server response times were a bit bumpy but averaged at 511ms. This is better than the max recommended 600ms.

If you’d like to see all performance tests, be sure to check out the full review.

Just one more thing to consider – server location choice. Hostinger has UK, US, Brazil, Netherlands, Singapore, India, France, and Lithuania datacenters. So choose Singapore or Indonesia if your audience is in Australia.

Altogether, Hostinger is the best web hosting Australia overall, covering all the essentials. It has great performance, is easy to use, and has good server resources.

2. SiteGround

Features	Automatic backups, caching, staging, SSL
Uptime	99.99%
Speed	217ms
Best for	Business-focused hosting

Visit SiteGround

SiteGround is the top-of-the-class hosting option for WordPress sites. It comes with a custom interface as well as security and performance-boosting features. Plus, servers in Australia are a great addition if your audience is out there.

Let’s talk facts:

• The custom control panel, Site Tools, is very functional and helpful in everyday tasks. You get an easy way of creating a staging copy of your site, backing it up (automatically or on-demand) to a remote server, and even adding multiple other users with separate login details via the Collaboration tool. It's great for managing the work of multiple departments.
• Security front is among the biggest strengths. Automated and on-demand backups with easy restore functions are stored remotely. Meanwhile, the SG Security plugin helps with all WordPress vulnerabilities. Additionally, 24/7 monitoring and Web Application Firewall (WAF) is there for you.
• Performance is a separate topic on its own. SiteGround develops its own enhancements and tests out the latest developments. This includes 3-level caching that’s enabled through the SG Optimizer plugin and SiteTools (image compression is an added bonus) and Ultrafast PHP – custom PHP setup for better speeds without sacrificing security.

Shortly, SiteGround covers all the premium web hosting essentials. It’s a pretty advanced service meant for businesses.

For such features, the prices are more business-like too.

SiteGround pricing

SiteGround comes forward with 3 shared plans. StartUp costs AU$4.99/mo. GrowBig is AU$7.49/mo, while GoGeek costs AU$12.49/mo. GST will be applied during the checkout.

All packages come with automatic backups, email accounts, cacking, free SSL, and a native CDN.

As for specifics:

• Startup – 1 website, 10GB storage, 10k visits/month. Ideal for an entry-level website. Staging is not included in this plan.
• GrowBig – unlimited websites, 20GB storage, 100k visits/month. Additionally, staging as well as Ultrafast PHP are included.
• GoGeek – unlimited websites, 40GB storage, and 400k visits/month. You also get the extra features from GrowBig plus white-label clients, a higher tier of resources, and priority support. Now, this plan suits an expanding business, for instance.

Money-back is the traditional 30 days for shared hosting. The pricing structure for different subscriptions is complex, but the cheapest one is with a 1-year prepayment.

SiteGround performance

SiteGround proves its worth by delivering the top performance results for shared hosting. That’s speed, reliability, and power all in one place.

Over 2 months, SiteGround had 3 outages, but the uptime remained at a very good 99.99%. It perfectly complies with a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

The response times were even more impressive, averaging at a very low 217ms. It rarely gets any better than this.

Other performance metrics and tests were great too. Check them out in the full SiteGround review.

And finally, the best news – SiteGround has servers in Australia. Other location choices cover the US, Europe, and Asia.

Altogether, SiteGround is the most advanced shared hosting option you can find. It’s fast, reliable, and the management features included are just impressive, not to mention helpful.

3. Bluehost

Features	Free domain and SSL, automatic setup, WordPress staging
Uptime	99.99%
Speed	361ms
Best for	WordPress hosting and ease of use

Visit Bluehost

Bluehost is a leader in web hosting and the go-to provider for many who are hosting WordPress sites. Not that hard to see why. The provider puts user experience on top of everything and provides easy and helpful tools to manage websites.

Here’s what you can expect:

• Upon the first login, an automatic setup process is activated. Bluehost asks you a couple of questions regarding your experience, adjusts the needed settings, installs WordPress, and you’re good to go. Things like domain name and SSL are activated during this step too.
• The dashboard has an interactive how-to guide on actually developing a WordPress site. It’s a first-time-users-oriented feature that will not allow you to get confused.
• There’s a website builder built onto WordPress. It’s very straightforward yet does not limit your website capabilities as other builders do.
• Other features include staging and global website settings for performance, security, and even comments.

To put it simply, Bluehost makes it extra easy to create and manage websites with a lot of focus on WordPress.

Prices are not scary either.

Bluehost pricing

Bluehost offers 4 shared plans. You have Basic, which starts at AU$4.53/mo. Plus starts at AU$8.37/mo. Choice Plus is AU$8.37/mo. And lastly, you have Pro, which starts at AU$21.42 per month. GST will be applied during the checkout.

Bluehost included enough resources in its plans. You have free SSL certificates and a domain name, email accounts, and unmetered bandwidth.

As far as particularities go:

• Basic – 1 website, 10GB of storage,5 email accounts. Ideal if you’re just starting out.
• Plus – unlimited websites, emails, and bandwidth, plus 20GB storage. Perfect if you need more storage and to connect more websites.
• Choice Plus – everything Plus offers, but the storage increases up to 40 GB and you also get domain privacy and protection, as well as site backup (CodeGuard Basic) for the first year. Would be a perfect plan, but extra features will only last one year.
• Pro – similar to Choice Plus, but the storage come sup to 100GB and the extra features are not limited to just 1 year. Great if you have use for them.

If you’d like to cancel, a 30-day money-back guarantee is in place. However, it’s only available for credit card purchases. Meanwhile, prices are lowest with a 36-month subscription.

Bluehost performance

Bluehost is a steady and reliable provider that doesn’t put a lot of focus on performance.

Over a couple of months, it remained up and running 99.99% of the time. There were 6 outages and a total of 11 minutes of downtime.

Server response time average was great – 361ms. However, the first half of monitoring showed some peaks and improved later on.

You can check full Bluehost testing in its review to find out all about its page load times and ability to handle the traffic.

The last thing – sever location; Bluehost only operates in the US data center, but you can set up Cloudflare CDN to battle latency in just a couple of clicks.

Overall, I was happy with what Bluehost had to offer. It makes the user experience amazing (I’m not exaggerating), and plans are very well equipped.

4. HostPapa

Features	Free domain, SSL, cPanel, free one-on-one training
Uptime	100%
Speed	1.19s
Best for	Small business websites and beginner site owners

Visit HostPapa

HostPapa targets global audiences, Australia included. It’s a big yet lesser-known hosting provider that’s featuring generous server resources and top-notch customer support.

Enjoy the facts:

• While HostPapa comes with plenty of features, there is one that is unique in this industry. I am referring to the one-on-one training session, which is basically a small gold mine for beginners. You can book this session and get dedicated guidance on whatever you wish – from a website set up to performance or security enhancements.
• Talking of resources, even the cheapest plan has 100GB storage and allows to host 1 websites. That’s more than any of the other hosts can offer.
• Let’s not leave the user interface out. HostPapa uses cPanel, so it’s easy and functional for both beginners and more experienced users.

All of this makes HostPapa excellent for small businesses with busy owners who don’t have time to learn about all the complex hosting technicalities.

The pricing is pretty good too.

HostPapa pricing

HostPapa offers 4 shared plans. The first one is Start, and it starts at AU$2.95/mo. As for the Plus and Pro, the packages retail for the same AU$5.95/mo, while the Ultra plan starts at AU$12.95/mo. Keep in mind that GST will be applied to the shopping cart.

All plans include unmetered bandwidth and all essential features such as free domain registration, SSL certificates, and even Cloudflare CDN. Not bad, eh?

As for specifics:

• Start – 1 website and 100GB of SSD storage with 10 email addresses. It can last you a lifetime if only 1 website is needed.
• Plus – 10 websites, 100GB storage, and more features like 100 email accounts, staging, 2xCPU and MySQL resources, plus one-on-one training session.
• Pro – this plan eliminates restrictions on the number of sites, storage, and email accounts. Plus, you get a security package (automated backups, domain privacy, and website protection basics) and more server resources as you’ll be hosted with fewer users on the server. It’s a good scalability option.
• Ultra – everything from the Pro plan, as well as larger server resources and enhanced security Protection Power Pro package.

Money-back is available for 30 days for the hosting service. Meanwhile, the cheapest rates are with a 36-month subscription.

HostPapa performance

HostPapa is not a speed-focused provider, but it is reliable. If you don’t seek to get traffic from the search engines, it’s a good fit.

During the monitoring period, it stayed 100% up and running. That’s 0 outages and 0 downtime, complying perfectly with the 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Response time is another story. HostPapa averaged at 1.19s, which does not fit into the recommended 600ms. Fortunately, there’s a trend of improvement, yet this provider is under my close attention.

If you’d like to see all of the HostPapa performance tests, check out our full HostPapa review.

By the way, HostPapa has servers in the US, Canada, and Europe. So if your audience is in Australia, make sure to set up a content delivery network.

All in all, HostPapa has many great features – generous resources and exceptional customer support offers being the most notable ones. The performance is under my close attention, however.

5. WP Engine

Features	dev/stage/prod environments, automatic backups, WordPress support
Uptime	100%
Speed	489ms
Best for	Mission-critical WordPress websites

Visit WP Engine

WP Engine is a web hosting provider that focuses on WordPress alone. It’s a premium option that makes its aim to help businesses scale and succeed by offering top-tier performance as well as management tools.

Want more details?

• WP Engine uses Cloud servers from AWS and Google Cloud, so you’re guaranteed the best infrastructure available. Also, there are many locations to choose from, including Sidney, Australia.
• The platform and control panel are custom-made to fit the needs of WordPress websites. You can easily set up staging sites in 3 environments (dev/stage/production) to help with the workflow.
• Performance and security are fully managed, so you shouldn’t need to do any optimizations on your own. That includes CDN and caching for speed, and SSL, backups, firewalls, and monitoring in terms of security.

This only covers the tip of the iceberg. WP Engine seriously focuses on business users, so you also get the possibility to transfer the site to a client or set billing for them. But my biggest argument is that WP Engine is good enough for companies like Soundcloud, AMD, and UnderArmour.

The pricing, as expected, is on the higher end.

WP Engine pricing

WP Engine offers 4 hosting plans. First, there’s Startup starting at AU$28.00/mo. Then, there’s Professional, which starts at AU$55.00/mo, Growth is AU$107.005/mo, and Scale is AU$271.00/mo. There’s also a possibility to get a custom deal if none of the options matches your needs.

All plans come with free SSL certificates, backups, premium WordPress themes, caching, staging (3-environments), and CDN.

• Startup – 25k visitors/month, 10GB storage, 50GB bandwidth, and 1 site.
• Professional – 75k visitors/month, 15GB storage, 75GB bandwidth, and 3 sites.
• Growth – 100k visitors/month, 20GB storage, 200GB bandwidth, and you can connect 10 websites.
• Scale – 400k visitors/month, 50GB storage, 500GB bandwidth, and you can host 30 websites. Ideal if you want to expand.

WP Engine doesn’t advertise this actively, but you have 60 days to get your money back. Just contact the billing team. Also, you can pay monthly or yearly, yet the latter saves you some cash in the long run.

WP Engine performance

WP Engine wouldn’t have reached the heights it’s in without top performance results.

Over several months, it was up 100% of the time. Plus, you’re backed by a good 99.95% uptime guarantee. So mission-critical projects will be up and running at all times.

The response times were very stable, averaging at 489ms. The fluctuations between the minimum and maximum times were very low.

The good trend continues into the other performance test; you can find them in the full WP Engine review.

Meanwhile, WP Engine has servers all across the world. Including Australia, so you can easily get close to your targeted audience.

Altogether, there are few more reliable and advanced options for business than WP Engine. If you’re ready to take on a global project, look no further.

6. Cloudways

Features	Free SSL, automatic backups, 50+ server locations, server management
Uptime	100%
Speed	229ms
Best for	Business websites

Visit Cloudways

Cloudways is not a traditional web hosting provider, but that is only a positive. It is a service that launches and manages the servers of top Cloud providers – DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, AWS, and Google Cloud. It’s the balance between ease of use and power.

So, what’s the point of using Cloudways?

• If you’d purchase a server directly from the provider, you’d be left alone with a command-line interface. With Cloudways, you get a neat control panel with all the management taken care of. So even if you don’t have a lot of technical expertise, it’s a pretty easy-to-use host.
• You get one-click installations for the most common apps like WordPress, SSL is automatic, and backups can be taken daily. The service is not much different from shared hosting, just much more powerful.
• With so many service providers to choose from, servers can be found all across the globe. Sidney, Australia – included.

Cloudways is definitely among the best Australian web hosting options, thanks to the flexibility of the data center and the power. It’s best for bigger websites and businesses.

The prices start at very affordable rates and can reach sky-high.

Cloudways pricing

With an unusual web hosting provider comes unusual plans & pricing. The amount you are charged depends on whose server resources you want to use. For instance, if you go for DigitalOcean, the fee varies from $8.25 to hundreds of dollars per month. Each cloud provider has its own pricing. Only USD is available.

I’ll first cover what all plans include so that I don’t have to mention it over and over. Otherwise, this article would turn into a novel. So, all packages come with features such as 24/7 support, free SSL certificates, caching free migration, unlimited apps, and automated backups, and so on. Really, the list goes on and on.

• DigitalOcean starts at US$8.25 for 1 GB of RAM, 1CPU, 25GB of storage, and 1 TB of bandwidth.
• Linode starts at US$9.00 for 1 GB of RAM, 1CPU, 25GB of storage, and 1 TB of bandwidth.
• Vultr starts at US$8.25 for 1 GB of RAM, 1CPU, 25GB of storage, and 1 TB of bandwidth.
• AWS (Amazon Web Services) ranges from US$28.92 for 2GB of RAM, 1 CPU, 20GB of storage, and 2GB of bandwidth.
• Google Cloud starts at US$24.88 for 2GB of RAM, 1 CPU, 20GB of storage, and 2GB of bandwidth.

The service is charged after each month, so you only pay for what you use.

Cloudways performance

Cloudways (tested on DigitalOcean servers) proved that Cloud VPS is the top hosting option if you’re looking for speed. Reliability is an added bonus.

Cloudways, over 6 months, stayed online 99.98% of the time. It had 2 outages that were quite big, lasting a total of 41 minutes. Fortunately, this doesn’t seem like a common occurrence.

Meanwhile, the server speed was great. Cloudways had an average response time of 229ms. I might be repeating myself, but it rarely gets any better than this.

You can check out other performance tests (all of which were great) in the full Cloudways review.

Now, the final thing to discuss is server location choice. Cloudways has over 50 of them, combining all the providers. So Australia is on the list, and you can get as close to the audience as possible.

7. Nexcess

Features	Staging, caching, free SSL, daily backups
Uptime	99.99%
Speed	479ms
Best for	Small businesses

Visit Nexcess

Nexcess is a slightly premium cloud-based provider that offers fully managed hosting solutions for both individual and business needs. Additionally, you can expect great security and performance. Especially considering that the host offers data centers in Australia.

• Nexcess makes website management easy by offering fully managed hosting services. This means that the host will take care of all the updates and optimizations for you.
• In terms of performance, Nexcess hosts its clients on a speedy cloud infrastructure. Plus, you’ll get a 100% uptime guarantee, PHP optimization, multi-layer caching, CDN, and 8 data center locations (including Australia) to choose from to improve your site’s performance.
• Nexcess also does not compromise, when it comes to security. The host includes all the necessities like free SSL and automated daily off-site backups, iThemes Security Pro plugin, automated updates, and malware monitoring.
• For easy development and change implementation, Nexcess offers staging and development environments with all its plans. Edit your site to perfection and only then release it live.

Overall, Nexcess offers an easy-to-use solution for users looking to build a fast and secure website that requires minimal upkeep.

Nexcess pricing

Now talking about prices, there are 6 managed WordPress plans to choose from, with prices starting at $15.83/mo and going all the way up to $247.05/mo. Just be mindful that Nexcess lists its prices just in US dollars.

While the prices are a little steep, the resources included are very tempting. All plans come with a free SSL, unlimited emails, WordPress core and plugin updates, daily backups, staging, caching, CDN, and iThemes Security Pro

• Spark allows hosting 1 site and includes 15GB storage and 2TB bandwidth.
• Maker supports up to 5 sites and includes 40GB storage and 3TB bandwidth.
• Designer hosts 10 sites and includes 60GB storage and 4TB bandwidth.
• Builder allows hosting 25 sites and includes 100GB storage and 5TB bandwidth.
• Producer enables hosting 50 sites and includes 300GB storage and 5TB bandwidth.
• Executive supports up to 100 sites and includes 500GB storage and 10TB bandwidth.

Nexcess performance

Throughout our monitoring period, Nexcess showed very reliable uptime and good speeds.

To start with, the provider comes with a 100% uptime guarantee, yet it does not cover planned server maintenance work. So in 2 months, we have monitored our site to be up 99.99% of the time, and that’s a very good result.

Now looking at the response time, it was just as good – 479ms. Considering that 600ms is the market’s average, Nexcess did a very good job.

If you’d like to read more about its performance, check out full Nexcess review.

As a last note, Nexcess has 8 data centers in the US, Europe, and Australia. So if your audience is based in Australia, Nexcess got you.

As a whole, Nexcess offers managed hosting solutions for both experienced and beginner users. It’s fast, secure, and best of all – has servers in Australia.

Best web hosting Australia: final recommendations

The providers described above qualify to be among the services that offer the best web hosting in Australia. With plans fit for everyone, you should find the one that suits you. Meanwhile, let’s take a quick peek at all of them, shall we?

• Hostinger is the best performance-focused cheap option for Australian web hosting.
• SiteGround is a business-centered WordPress hosting option with top speeds, security, and interface.
• Bluehost is user-experience-focused and delivers exceptional tools for WordPress.
• HostPapa is a generous provider with a focus on global markets. One-on-one training is a big bonus.
• WP Engine delivers top-of-the-class WordPress-exclusive hosting for businesses in Australia.
• Cloudways makes Cloud hosting easy with dozens of server locations worldwide.
• Nexcess offers managed hosting solutions built on cloud infrastructure for faster and more secure site.

How to pick the right hosting provider?

In this section, you will read about a few essential factors such as performance, types of hosting, as well as resources (plans), and server location. Make sure to take them into account when you choose the best web hosting service for Australia.

Performance and server location

One of the reasons why some websites do not run as they should is poor performance. Your pages take too long to load. Or your website is down for too long in a specific period. In web hosting, as you may already know, we call that response time and uptime.

• Server response time refers to the time that a provider takes to react to the first request. For example, open a page. In an ideal world, this should be as minimal as possible. However, up to 600ms is considered okay.
• Uptime refers to how long the server is up in %. 100% would be an ideal result, but it’s rarely reachable. Most providers have a 99.9% uptime guarantee (SLA). If you’re running a mission-critical project, you can look at more enterprise-focused hosts like WP Engine that have a 99.95% uptime SLA.
• Server location can have a big impact on the performance as well. That’s because laws of physics apply when it comes to the Internet – data from the server has to travel to your visitor’s computer. The longer the distance – the longer it takes. Because Australia is pretty much far away from everything, it’s best to pick an Australian data center – if your audience is there.

These are the foundations for good website performance. Of course, a lot will depend on you too. So don’t sleep on the laurels and make sure that you do your part too.

Cheap vs premium

The daily commute is best on an efficient vehicle – Toyota Corolla is just fine for that. But if you’re taking the cross-country road trip… BMW or Audi SUVs bring more comfort. Same with hosting providers – you’ll get the best bang for your buck by picking the service that matches your needs.

• Personal sites and small businesses can easily look at budget options like Hostinger, Bluehost, and HostPapa. All of them feature generous server resources, essential features and are easy to use. You can even pick what perk you need the most – performance, extra management tools, or extra helpful support.
• Business projects have bigger needs. Consider security, tools like staging, extra performance enhancements, and priority support. SiteGround, WP Engine, and Cloudways cater to these needs. They are all-around powerful services that are a pleasure to use.

Server resources

SSD and bandwidth – just numbers that don’t say much at first. As with everything, we, humans, tend to think that more is better. And if an “unlimited” buzzword comes to a mix as well... WE ARE SOLD.

But hold on a second.

What does a website actually need? Without the illusion of “unlimited” resources and the “more is better” mentality?

• Storage space. 1 page, on average, takes around 2MB. WordPress itself is around 30MB. Now, think how many pages you will have, add it up, and here you go. Most simple websites (think of a business landing page or a blog) won’t take more than 5GB. Local eCommerce sites, in my practice, take up to 50GB. And, if you’re going global – more can be needed.
• Bandwidth. The formula is simple: average page size (GB) x average page number visited per session x average monthly visitor count x 30 (days). On average, 100GB stands for around 10 000 – 15 000 unique monthly visitors.

It’s pretty simple to determine what you need and save a couple of $ by not picking the highest-tier plan.

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