Best website hosting Malaysia 2024
Through independent research and testing, our team of experts offers transparent and thorough reviews of web hosting providers. We use the same testing criteria for all providers to offer a fair and unbiased assessment of each hosting service.
Our in-depth articles include feedback about our hands-on hosting experience and other crucial information for potential customers.
Learn more-
Aurelija Tomkevičiūtė
Writer
Finding the best website host in Malaysia is not easy. There are so many providers, yet not all of them offer good resources, performance, or even data centers in Malaysia. For the best web hosting experience, excellent performance, generous resources, a global content delivery network, and reasonable pricing are crucial.
To help you find the best provider, the Cybernews research team and I tested and reviewed 50 providers. I looked into their data center locations, pricing, security, and hosting management features, and also tested performance metrics like uptime and server response time. Here are my top 5 hosting providers for Malaysia (and Malaysians).
5 best Malaysia website hosts 2024 – in short
- Bluehost – the best web host Malaysia overall
- Hostinger – best control panel
- HostGator – best for beginners
- A2 Hosting – best for speed optimization
- WP Engine – best for the money-back guarantee
Our in-house research team and expert writers work hand in hand to regularly test hosting services and provide accurate and fact-checked information. Discover the ins and outs of how we test and evaluate website hosting providers.
Best web hosts for Malaysia – detailed list:
To find the best Malaysia web hosts, the Cybernews research team and I tested and reviewed 50 hosting providers. We looked into performance, features, data center locations, security, and price-to-value ratio – below is my final recommendation list for the best hosting services for Malaysia.
1. Bluehost – best Malaysia web host overall
| Rating: | |
| Starting price: | From $1.99/month |
| Servers in Asia: | No |
| Best deal: | Get up to 75% OFF Bluehost! |
Bluehost is my best recommendation for hosting websites in Malaysia. I find it to be the most useful for hosting WordPress sites – an easy-to-use interface and excellent tools for SEO and other online visibility also make it an attractive hosting option.
- Website builder for WordPress – an easy-to-use and straightforward solution that includes numerous beautiful templates, good features, and an intuitive site editor.
- Free site migration, included with most Bluehost plans, makes it easy to transfer a site if you already have one. Keep in mind that your site must meet certain requirements.
- The automatic setup process makes launching a website very easy – during my testing, Bluehost took care of everything from settings adjustments to domain and SSL certificate configuration.
- Free SSL and DDoS protection are included with most subscriptions, which means you won’t have to worry about your site’s security – everything will be set up right from the start.
Bluehost performance
The Cybernews team and I tested Bluehost's performance over a 1-month testing period. The uptime average was 99.63%, which is not as good as a perfect 100% from Hostinger, but still quite impressive.
In terms of server response time, the average result was 971 ms – way above the 600 ms market average. While this was quite disappointing, Bluehost performed almost flawlessly at stress testing and handled an increase in traffic very well. Unfortunately, Bluehost doesn’t offer servers in Malaysia – all of its data centers are in the US.
Bluehost pricing
The starting price for Bluehost is $1.99/month with the Basic plan. There are 3 more shared hosting packages: Choice Plus at $3.99/month, Online store at $7.45/month, and Pro starting from $9.99/month. All Bluehost plans include free SSL certificates, a domain name, email accounts, and unmetered bandwidth. You also get a 30-day money-back guarantee.
2. Hostinger – best dashboard and website builder
| Rating: | |
| Starting price: | From RM3.99/month |
| Servers in Asia: | Yes, in Singapore and India |
| Best deal: | Get up to 78% OFF Hostinger + 3 months free! |
One of my best recommendations, Hostinger is another good Malaysia web hosting option. It offers good pricing plans full of advanced features, excellent performance, and a support team that’s reachable 24/7. Here’s what Hostinger includes:
- Global CDN – with servers in the US, UK, the Netherlands, Lithuania, France, India, Singapore, and Brazil, as well as excellent overall performance, Hostinger ensures the fastest content delivery to all your audiences worldwide. If you’re based in Malaysia, I recommend hosting your site on servers in Singapore or India.
- Automatic website setup process and free migration – with these tools, it took me just a couple of minutes to both set up a new site and transfer an existing one.
- AI assistant for WordPress and AI website creator was a great help when I wanted to launch a brand new WordPress site – the AI website builder created a unique site in just a few seconds.
- Intuitive hPanel makes hosting managing incredibly easy – it includes both a modern interface and essential hosting features.
Hostinger performance
When I and the Cybernews research team tested Hostinger's performance, we saw excellent results on all fronts. The host had an average 100% uptime throughout a several-month testing period.
The server response time on average was 511 ms, which is faster than the industry average of 600 ms. The overall Hostinger performance is not a surprise. With its advanced speed optimization tools such as LiteSpeed web serve caching and others, the host is bound to be one of the best-performing providers.
Hostinger pricing
Hostinger offers 3 shared hosting plans, with prices starting at RM3.99/month for the Singe plan, RM8.99/month for the Premium, and RM13.99/month for the Business subscription. There's also a plan for cloud hosting, starting at RM49.00/month. It is the only provider on this list that accepts Malaysian ringgit. All plans come with a free SSL certificate, email accounts, and weekly backups. Free domain stars with the Premium plan. You also get a 30-day money-back guarantee.
3. HostGator – inexpensive host for beginners
| Rating: | |
| Starting price: | From $3.75/month |
| Servers in Asia: | No |
| Best deal: | Get up to 62% OFF HostGator! |
Based on my testing, HostGator is a Malaysia host that excels at beginner-friendly hosting and extremely affordable prices. It includes all the essential features for hosting a successful site and performs well. Here’s what you can expect from HostGator:
- Easy to use and familiar cPanel which is perfect for beginners who have never hosted a site before, as well as experienced users.
- All plans include a free domain, SSL, unmetered storage and bandwidth – these resources are a great help when setting up your site for the first time. Additionally, the support is available 24/7 with all subscriptions.
- Pre-installed WordPress with all plans – as soon as you get a subscription, you can launch a WordPress site without any delays.
- Cloudflare CDN and performance optimization are available with the Business plan. With the global CDN and performance-boosting features, your audiences will get access to your content very fast.
HostGator performance
HostGator might not be the fastest host out there, but it is one of the most reliable. During my testing of HostGator performance, it showed a 99.99% uptime on average.
The server response time, on the other hand, was closer to the industry average – just around 525ms. There are several faster providers on this list.
HostGator pricing
HostGator offers 3 plans for shared hosting: HostGator has 3 shared hosting plans: Hatchling starting at $3.75/month, Baby from $4.50/month, and Business from $6.25/month. Unfortunately, prices are only available in US dollars. All plans include a free SSL certificate, a free domain, and a free website transfer for WordPress and/or cPanel sites.
4. A2 Hosting – host with good speed optimizations
| Rating: | |
| Starting price: | From $1.95/month |
| Servers in Asia: | Yes, in Singapore |
| Best deal: | Get A2 Hosting, now up to 84% OFF |
A2 Hosting is in my Malaysia hosting recommendations list as a provider that offers feature-rich plans for reasonable pricing. Its performance is also quite good, almost at the Hostinger level. Here’s what you can expect from A2 Hosting:
- Free site migration with every plan, so even if you already have a site, A2 Hosting makes transferring it very simple, and you don’t need to start completely from scratch.
- Performance optimizations such as the A2 Optimized plugin for website load speed, and a TurboHub optimization management panel to automatically apply any improvements to all your sites.
- Free SSL, at least 10GB storage, and DDoS protection with all plans ensure your site is secured and protected from the very start.
A2 Hosting performance
When testing A2 Hosting performance, the results were pretty much the same as with Hostinger. A2 Hosting had a 99.99% uptime average resulting from a 2-month monitoring period.
In terms of server response time, the host showed results worse than Hostinger, but still below the market average – the average server response time was 597ms. A2 Hosting also offers 4 diverse server locations – I recommend choosing Singapore if your user base is in Malaysia for the best loading times.
A2 Hosting pricing
A2 Hosting offers 4 shared hosting plans, with the prices starting at $1.95/month for the StartUp plan. Drive starts at $5.99/month, Turbo Boost is at $6.99/month, and Turbo Max starts from $14.99/month. All plans include unlimited transfers, email addresses, staging, a free SSL certificate, and free migration. Unfortunately, there is no free domain. Nevertheless, you can also use the 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re unsatisfied with the service.
5. WP Engine – fast and global WordPress host
| Rating: | |
| Starting price: | From $13.00/month |
| Servers in Asia: | Yes, in Singapore, Taiwan, and Tokyo |
| Best deal: | Get up to 20% OFF WP Engine +4 months free! |
WP Engine is a managed WordPress hosting provider – one of the best options for hosting WordPress in Malaysia. It operates on cloud servers, which gives it an edge when it comes to fast site load times and overall excellent content delivery. Here’s what you get with WP Engine:
- Cloud infrastructure with servers in Singapore, Taiwan, and Tokyo. WP Engine uses Google Cloud and AWS servers, which guarantees excellent overall performance, and great content delivery to your audience in Malaysia.
- Site staging for various purposes, such as development, staging, or production. This will help with any big updates to your site, as you can test them before going live.
- Fully managed performance and security – this means that the provider will take care of any optimizations and security for your sites. It includes the CDN, caching, SSL, backups, firewalls, and more.
WP Engine performance
In my WP Engine tests, the provider showed an excellent 100% uptime over a 2-month testing period. This is just as good as what Hostinger offers.
As for server response time, WP Engine showed the best results out of all providers on this list, with the average being 489ms, below both Hostinger and the industry average 600ms. Additionally, you can expect even better site load times and server response times if you choose a server close to Malaysia – for example, in Singapore, Taiwan, or Tokyo.
WP Engine pricing
The one downside of WP Engine is its expensive pricing. The cost for entry plans starts at $13.00/month (the Lite plan). There are 4 more plans in total: Startup starting at $20.00/month, Professional, which starts at $40.00/month, eCommerce Professional is $50.00/month, and Growth is $77.00/month. All plans come with free SSL certificates, daily and on-demand backups, premium WordPress themes, caching, staging (3 environments), and CDN. You also get an extended 60-day money-back guarantee.
Best Malaysia website hosts comparison
| Rating | Pricing | Server locations | Speed | Uptime | Control panel | Customer support | Review | |
| Bluehost | From $1.99/month | The US | 971ms | 99.9% | cPanel + native | 24/7 | Bluehost review | |
| Hostinger | From RM3.99/month | The US, the UK, Netherlands, France, Lithuania, Brazil, Singapore, and India | 511ms | 99.9% | hPanel | 24/7 | Hostinger review | |
| HostGator | From $3.75/month | The US | 525ms | 99.9% | cPanel | 24/7 | HostGator review | |
| A2 Hosting | From $1.95/month | The US, the Netherlands, and Singapore | 597 ms | 99.9% | cPanel | 24/7 | A2 Hosting review | |
| WP Engine | From $13.00/month | The US, Canada, The UK, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Taiwan, Singapore, and Australia | 489 ms | 99.95% | Native | 24/7 | WP Engine review |
How we tested and ranked top Malaysia web hosts
To find the best Malaysia web host, the Cybernews research team and I tested, reviewed, and ranked 50 hosting providers. Here’s a short overview of what the website hosting testing process looked like for the Malaysia hosting list:
- Firstly, we looked into which providers offer data centers in Malaysia or other close locations, such as Singapore or Taiwan. For the hosts that don’t offer a server nearby, we considered whether they offer global CDN for the best site load times.
- After securing a potential recommendation list, we tested the performance of each provider. We considered the uptime (monitored over a 1-2 month period), server response time, site load speed, and traffic spike handling.
- Additionally, we reviewed and evaluated the resources, additional features, and security of each provider, such as backups, SSL, domains, storage, staging, automatic setups, and more
- Finally, we considered and compared the pricing plans, as well as the price-to-quality ratio. We ranked the final hosting provider for Malaysia list according to our findings.
Final thoughts
A fast and reliable web hosting service in Malaysia can help your Malaysian audience connect with your content faster. Whether you’re looking to host a business site, a blog, or other projects, a hosting provider with data centers in Asia, including Malaysia or Singapore, is the best choice.
Based on my testing, experience, and evaluations, the best Malaysian web host is Bluehost. It offers excellent introductory prices, unmatched performance with 99.99% uptime, and data exceptional dashboard and control panel to make hosting even easier.
Web hosting for Malaysia - FAQ
What is the domain name of Malaysia?
The specialized domain name for Malaysia is .MY. You can easily set up a new site in Malaysia with Bluehost – with every shared hosting plan, you get a free domain for a year.
Where to register a domain name in Malaysia?
You can register a domain name in Malaysia with any domain registrar or web hosting service. I recommend choosing a web hosting provider like Bluehost, since not only you will be able to launch and host your site but also will get a free domain for the first year with any of its plans.
Does the hosting country affect performance?
No, the hosting country will not affect your site’s performance such as site load time if your hosting provider uses a global content delivery network. Most hosting providers these days use a CDN, however, you can still choose to host your site in the country where your audience is based.
Which country is best for hosting websites?
Since most hosting providers use CDN to deliver your content to your audience, the country in which you host your website doesn’t really matter. However, it’s always a good call to choose a web hosting server in the country where your audience is based.