Best Web Hosting for Photographers 2024
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We discovered that the best web hosting for photographers is InMotion, which tops our research with an impressive 4.7 out of 5 overall. Its feature-rich, with the second best feature score of 3.8 out of 5. InMotion also has robust security, adaptable backups, and has excellent performance so images will always be shown clearly.
We’ve conducted extensive research into the best photography website hosting providers, paying special attention to factors like features, storage, backups, and pricing – all of which help determine the success of a photography website.
In this ranking, we discuss how each provider’s VPS plans perform in terms of photography hosting. Many of the providers mentioned here also offer shared, cloud, and/or dedicated hosting. We’ve decided to focus on VPS hosting, though, because these plans are ideal for most midsize photography websites.
Best Hosting Providers for Photographers
- InMotion – Best overall provider for photographers
- Bluehost – Best value for money
- HostGator – Best for features
- GoDaddy Hosting – Best for getting online fast
- DreamHost – Most popular with users
- Liquid Web – Excellent help and support
- A2 Hosting – Good for performance
- Hostinger – Best for keeping backups
Without further ado, here’s a closer look at each provider.
Best Web Host for Photographers: Side-by-Side Comparison
This side-by-side chart can be moved using the arrows, and you can easily compare the providers key features and prices.
BEST IN TEST | | ||||||
InMotion | Bluehost | HostGator | GoDaddy | DreamHost | Liquid Web | A2 Hosting | Hostinger |
Overall rating 4.7 | Overall rating 4.6 | Overall rating 4.6 | Overall rating 4.5 | Overall rating 4.4 | Overall rating 4.2 | Overall rating 4.1 | Overall rating 4.0 |
Starting from - VPS $14.99 | Starting from - VPS $24.99 | Starting from - VPS $23.95 | Starting from - VPS $5.99 | Starting from - VPS $13.75 | Starting from - VPS $45 | Starting from - VPS $49.99 | Starting from - VPS $5.99 |
Uptime 99.98% | Uptime 99.98% | Uptime 99.99% | Uptime 99.97% | Uptime 100% | Uptime 100% | Uptime 99.95% | Uptime 99.99% |
Money-back guarantee 90 days | Money-back guarantee 30 days | Money-back guarantee 45 days | Money-back guarantee 48 hours to 30 days | Money-back guarantee 97 days | Money-back guarantee 30 days | Money-back guarantee 30 days | Money-back guarantee 30 days |
Free backups | Free backups | Free backups | Free backups | Free backups | Free backups | Free backups | Free backups |
Free domain | Free domain | Free domain | Free domain | Free domain | Free domain | Free domain | Free domain |
Storage space 75GB – Unlimited | Storage space 10GB – Unlimited | Storage space Unmetered | Storage space 25GB – 100GB | Storage space 50GB – Unlimited | Storage space 40GB – 200GB | Storage space 100GB – Unlimited | Storage space 30GB – 200GB |
Max bandwidth 10TB | Max bandwidth 3TB | Max bandwidth 3TB | Max bandwidth Unmetered | Max bandwidth Unlimited | Max bandwidth 10TB | Max bandwidth 4TB | Max bandwidth 8,000GB |
Max RAM 14GB | Max RAM 8GB | Max RAM 8GB | Max RAM 16GB | Max RAM 8GB | Max RAM 16GB | Max RAM 32GB | Max RAM 8GB |
Max CPUs 14 | Max CPUs 4 | Max CPUs 4 | Max CPUs 16 | Max CPUs N/A | Max CPUs 8 | Max CPUs 8 | Max CPUs 8 |
Visit InMotion | Visit Bluehost | Visit HostGator | Visit GoDaddy | Visit DreamHost | Visit Liquid Web | Visit A2 Hosting | Visit Hostinger |
- Price – We see it as an important ranking factor for photographers to save money on their hosting and spend it more on marketing their work.
- Performance – This is super important in keeping your photography site running and specifically how each provider handled images.
- Features – We delved into what add-ons and essentials would help an image-based website.
- Help and support – We put the providers help and support under the microscope, to see how easy it is to solve issues that might arise.
- Market analysis – We researched what how each provider performs in the market.
After we analyze these factors we collect the data and give them scores in each of the categories. We then find the average to give an overall score.
But, how did we focus our scoring system on photgraphy?
Next up we tailored our research approach to focus on elements that are most important for photographers. So, we emphasized:
- VPS hosting – The hosting type that applies the most to photography websites.
- Features – We paid particular attention to backups, performance, and testing image security.
If you’re still curious about our research process, take a look at how we conduct our hosting research for more information.
Find the right hosting plan for your website in just six questions.
#1. InMotion
Best Overall Provider for Photographers
VPS Hosting: $24.99–$59.99/month
InMotion
Best Overall Photography Hosting Provider
- Unlimited bandwidth
- 99.98% uptime
- Expensive renewal rates
Paid Plans: $3.49 - $539.99 / month
Pros
- Free expert migration
- Free SSL and malware protection
- Good features
Cons
- Only cPanel
- No money-back guarantee on cheapest plan
- Poor site speed
Features
InMotion VPS plans offer a massive 90 day money-back guarantee which is part of the reason InMotion is the best photography host on the market! InMotion also achieves the second best feature score due to its really robust security and backups, getting a feature score of 3.8 out of 5 in the photography category. It also has the second best performance so your website images will always be shown clearly.
InMotion’s VPS 4GB RAM plan comes with 99.98% uptime, 2TB bandwidth, two free IP addresses, and the full range of help and support.
Plans and Pricing
Most people think of VPS hosting as an expensive next step growing their website. You’re right to assume that VPS is more expensive than shared hosting, but with InMotion’s top tier plans, you can rest assured that the extra money is worth it. InMotion recieved a value for money score of 3.5 out of 5, placing it third best for VPS plans and fourth best value for photography hosting.
InMotion’s VPS plans range from $24.99-59.99/month, and the most basic plan includes 90GB storage, 4TB bandwidth, and 4GB RAM. For your money, you also get root access and free site migrations.
Help and Support
InMotion offers email support, a help center, community center, 24/7 phone and live chat support, so you won’t have to worry about being left in the dark if your site ever has an issue. InMotion’s help and support score was the third best (behind HostGator and Liquid Web), getting a 4.7/5 for help and support for a photography website.
In addition, InMotion’s Support Center provides tons of helpful articles, all written by InMotion employees, so you can access in-depth information on your own terms.
Find out more
- Weigh up this provider’s strengths and weaknesses with our InMotion Hosting Review
- Check out the 41 best free photography website templates
#2. Bluehost
Best Value for Money
VPS Hosting: $23.99–$83.99/month
Bluehost
Best Value for Money
- Best value
- 99.98% uptime
- Good prices
Paid Plans: $2.95 - $119.99 / month
Pros
- Free SSL
- Unmetered bandwidth
- 30 day money-back guarantee
Cons
- No backups
- No free trial
Features
Bluehost is the best value for money photography hosting provider because it delivers on all of the important fronts: uptime and customer support are both excellent considering the affordable price you pay.
Bluehost’s cheapest VPS plan comes with 99.98% uptime, 2GB RAM, 30GB of storage, and 1TB of bandwidth. You also get unlimited domains and a 30 day money-back guarantee.
It has the best price score of 4.1 out of 5, and getting a joint second most popular rating. It’s also the number one recommended hosting provider by WordPress, so if your site is (or will be) built on WordPress, Bluehost is as good as it gets.
Plans and Pricing
Bluehost’s cheapest VPS plan starts at $23.99/month, for a year – with the features above your site will be well equipped to handle all the traffic that your stunning photos will generate!
Bluehost’s most advanced VPS plan starts at $59.99/month, and comes with 120GB SSD storage, 8GB RAM, 80GB storage, and 3TB bandwidth. That’s a lot of power, and we’d recommend starting with a cheaper VPS plan and eventually scaling up to this one as your site grows!
Help and Support
Bluehost scores a pretty good 4.2 out of 5 in our research for help and support, due in large part to its 24/7 phone and live chat support. Having 24/7 help and support is one thing – whether it’s any good is another. When we tested out Bluehost’s live chat ourselves, we found that the support team asked helpful follow-up questions and seemed genuinely invested in the conversation.
Find out more
- Interested in Bluehost? Learn more about this affordable, feature-rich provider from our Bluehost Review
- If you want more detail on Bluehost’s price plans, check out our in-depth Bluehost Pricing Review
#3. HostGator
Best for Features
VPS Hosting: $23.95–$59.95/month
HostGator
Best for Features
- Best feature score
- 99.9% uptime
- Pricey renewal rates
Paid Plans: $3.95 - $159.99 / month
Pros
- Free SSL
- Unmetered bandwidth
- 45 day money-back guarantee
Cons
- No free trial
Features
While not as well-rounded as InMotion for photography hosting, HostGator excels in a lot of areas. HostGator’s features in particular earn it a strong 4.3 out of 5, making it the best photography host for features on this list! As the owner or soon-to-be owner of a photography website, you’ll want a provider that can offer the best features.
HostGator’s cheapest VPS plan feature highlights are a huge 120GB of storage, unmetered bandwidth, unlimited domains, and weekly automated backups. Plus it has a generous 45 day money-back guarantee. And that’s why it got the best feature score of 4.3 out of 5!
Plans and Pricing
HostGator’s VPS hosting plans range from $23.95-59.95/month, which is good value considering it’s top notch features. In our photography testing, we scored HostGator a 3.1/5 for value for money.
Did you know? For web hosting purposes, disk space and storage refer to the same thing: the amount of space on a server that’s allocated to your site!
HostGator’s VPS plans also offer full root access, which gives you administrator-level control over your server. HostGator also uses several bandwidth providers to ensure maximum server reliability.
Help and Support
In testing HostGator got the very best help and support score too. A mammoth 4.9 out of 5 – nearly a perfect five out of five!
HostGator offers 24/7 live chat and phone support, if you need quick live help HostGator is fantastic. But we were most impressed by its extensive Knowledge Base. HostGator also offers you a great community center where you can ask questions to other users, and email support if you prefer.
HostGator’s searchable Knowledge Base gives you instant access to tons of helpful information, on every topic from website security to Windows hosting.
Find out more
- Find a full breakdown of HostGator’s features and services in our HostGator Review
- If you want to know more about your pricing options, check out our in-depth HostGator Pricing Review
#4. GoDaddy Hosting
Best for Getting Online Fast
VPS Hosting: $5.99–$88.99/month
GoDaddy
Best for Getting Online Fast
- Good value for money
- 99% uptime
- Has a good web builder
Paid Plans: $6.99 - $469.99 / month
Pros
- Daily backups
- Unmetered bandwidth
- 30 day money-back guarantee
Cons
- No domains
- Only 1GB RAM on cheap plan
- No free trial
Features
GoDaddy Hosting has some really great prices for Linux users, getting a value for money score of 4 out of 5, putting it second place out of eleven providers tested (after Bluehost). GoDaddy is also great for those who want to get online fast, since you’re able to build a website with the GoDaddy builder super quickly and use its hosting.
However GoDaddy hosting falls a bit short in the features it offers and in performance – so you do get what you pay for. In the cheapest VPS plan, you’ll get just 99% uptime, 1GB of RAM, unmetered bandwidth, no domains, and daily backups.
Plans and Pricing
You may be thinking, wow $5.99 for VPS hosting! But that’s only available for Linux users, if you’re using Windows the cheapest VPS plan is $23.99 per month (billed annually). That being said GoDaddy got a great value for money score of 4 out of 5, placing it second best behind Bluehost.
GoDaddy Hosting’s VPS plans range in price from $5.99-88.99/month, with features increasing accordingly. With the priciest plan offering 16GB RAM and 400GB SSD storage, but still no domains.
Help and Support
GoDaddy Hosting’s knowledge center and 24/7 phone support are great resources, and its live chat function is available Monday-Friday from 5am-6pm MST.
If you have a problem when live chat is unavailable, you could always call phone support. But don’t write off the benefits of the searchable knowledge base, either! Chances are, it can help you find a detailed answer to most problems with just a few clicks.
But if you prefer your support via email, GoDaddy doesn’t have it, so might not be the provider for you.
Find out more
- Our comprehensive GoDaddy Hosting Review will tell you everything you need to know about this provider
- If you want more info on cost, we’ve broken it down in our GoDaddy Hosting Pricing Review
#5. DreamHost
Most Popular With Users
VPS Hosting: $13.75–$110/month
DreamHost
Most Popular With Users
- Free monthly backups
- 100% uptime
- Unlimited bandwidth
Paid Plans: $2.95 - $379 / month
Pros
- Free SSL
- 30GB storage on cheapest plan
- 30 day money-back guarantee!
Cons
- No phone support
- No free trial
Features
If you decide to host your site with DreamHost, you can rest assured that your fabulous photos will be in good hands. DreamHost provides free twice a month backups on its VPS plans, so your files will be safe.
DreamHost scored amazingly in our market analysis, gaining a 4.1 out of 5 for its popularity with users and placing it number one. It also has joint second place with InMotion for its features, getting a 3.8 out of 5.
On its cheapest VPS plan you also get a free domain for the first year, 1GB RAM, 30GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, and a whopping 100% uptime guarantee!
Plans and Pricing
DreamHost’s VPS plans range from $13.75-$110/month, for a years plan. The value for money score for DreamHost is a pretty good 3.5 out 5. With four different VPS plans to choose from, DreamHost offers more flexibility than most providers when it comes to how much RAM and storage you’d like to pay for – making a good option for scaling up incrementally.
Help and Support
DreamHost is reliable, meaning you’ll probably never need to contact the support team at 3am over an unexpected issue. That being said, this provider’s help and support just can’t compete with the other top providers. While DreamHost’s support team offers callbacks in response to queries, you can’t contact DreamHost directly over the phone, which is a major drawback.
If you don’t mind the lack of 24/7 availability, then the rest of DreamHost’s support features will definitely compensate. Live chat is available from 5:30a.m. to 9:30p.m. PST, although wait times can be long at peak hours. The knowledge base offers a world of information at your fingertips. You can also submit email support tickets at any time.
Find out more
- Want to learn more about DreamHost before you make a decision? Check out our DreamHost Review for more information
- You can also read our in-depth DreamHost Pricing Review for a breakdown of DreamHost’s affordability
#6. Liquid Web
Excellent Help and Support
VPS Hosting: $45–$125/month
Liquid Web
Excellent help and support
- Best help and support
- 100% uptime
- Very expensive
Paid Plans: $15.83 - $832.5 / month
Pros
- Expert plan optimized for high traffic
- Best sitespeed
- Good features
Cons
- Really expensive VPS plans
- Low amount of features
- No community center
Features
Liquid Web is the most expensive of all the photography hosting providers we’ve tested – but is it worth the extra money? Features wise, it comes in last on this list of providers. Liquid Web has a score of 2.8 out of 5, placing it pretty low on features.
What Liquid Web does do well is an incredible 100% uptime (only Liquid Web and DreamHost offer 100%), it has good security with DDoS prevention and server monitoring.
Plans and Pricing
Liquid Web’s cheapest VPS plan is an eye watering $45/month when you pay for 12 months. It offers four plans with the most expensive $125/month, with all plans you do get a 30 day money-back guarantee. Overall Liquid Web is pretty expensive compared to competitors, gaining a low 2.9 out of 5 for value for money.
Help and Support
Liquid Web has the second best help and support score of 4.8 out of 5, from the eleven builders we tested. That’s because it offers fantastic 24/7 help and support via it’s live chat, email, and phone.
Liquid Web offers an organized knowledge base. In addition to the knowledge base, you can also contact Liquid Web via 24/7 phone, 24/7 live chat and even 24/7 email support.
#7. A2 Hosting
Good for Performance
VPS Hosting: $42.99–$124.99/month
A2 Hosting
Good Range of Features
- Lots of choice of plans
- 99.9% uptime
- Free SSL
Paid Plans: $6.59 - $529.99 / month
Pros
- Unlimited subdomains
- Great security
- Good storage
Cons
- Not as good value for money
- Average help and support score
- No free plan
Features
A2 Hosting scores consistently high for performance and features across hosting types, getting a feature score of 3.5 out of 5. It is a solid middle of the road choice for photography websites. A2 Hosting came in second for performance beaten only by InMotion. It also has a choice of six VPS plans and its security measures make it the perfect option if you’re looking to sell your photos online, because customers will feel safe sharing their payment information on your site.
In addition to the standard free SSL certificate, A2 also has an in-house Perpetual Security initiative, which includes free HackScan protection, server hardening, and and reinforced Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack protection.
A2 Hosting’s six choices offer a range of features from 4GM-32GB of RAM, 2TB-4TB bandwidth, 150GB-450GB of storage – allowing you to pay for what you need and explore growing your photography website.
Plans and Pricing
A2 Hosting offers a huge six VPS plans ranging from $42.99/month to $124.99/month, when you pay for the year. What’s great about this much choice is you can get really granular with the amount of bandwidth, storage and other features you pay for. Making it possible to get a tailored plan for what you need.
However, A2 Hosting isn’t the most budget friendly with a poor score of 2.9 out of 5 for value for money. This places it joint last for value with Liquid Web out of the eight providers on this list.
Help and Support
A2 Hosting got a fairly average help and support score of 3.4 out of 5, since it offers a pretty good knowledge base, phone, and live chat support – but no email or community center for users. If having the right support safety net is important to you, we recommend the previous hosting providers.
Find out more
- If you’re wondering about A2’s pros and cons, learn more with our A2 Hosting Review
#8. Hostinger
Best for Keeping Backups
VPS Hosting: $3.99–$117.99/month
Hostinger
Best for Keeping Backups
- Good storage
- 99.99% uptime
- Lacks help and support
Paid Plans: $2.99 - $109.99 / month
Pros
- Good data center locations
- Free SSL
- 30 day money-back guarantee!
Cons
- No phone support
- Low performance score
- No free trial
Features
Hostinger came up top of the chain behind DreamHost in our market analysis, scoring 4 out of 5 for photography market analysis. Showing that Hostinger’s quite the popular photography host. But has it got what it takes to back up its popularity?
One step further than A2 Hosting, Hostinger offers eight VPS plans! Starting at an incredibly low $2.99/month, for twelve months. Across the eight plans you get a wide range of features from 1TB-12TB of bandwidth, 20GB-250GB storage, 1GB-16GB RAM, and 99.99% uptime on all VPS plans.
Plans and Pricing
Hostinger offers eight different VPS plans, with prices ranging from $2.99/month to $117.99/month, when you pay for an annual plan. Although that sounds pretty good value, the renewal rates are quite high with a renewal range of $8.99/month-$219.99/month. Making it the second-highest renewal rate of the eleven providers we’ve tested.
Hostinger scores 3.1/5 for value for money, so even though its renewal costs are high, its super cheap discounts are enough to keep its value score from tanking in our research. E.g we recommend its cheap plans but you may want to switch providers to avoid renewal costs.
Help and Support
Hostinger scores 3.2 out of 5 for help and support, putting it last for support out of the eight providers on this list. The reason for its low score is Hostinger’s knowledge base wasn’t as in-depth as its competitors and it also does not offer phone support. However, we did like its live chat support, so if you’re alright with just having live chat support then Hostinger may be the photography host for you.
Hostinger also provides a library of tutorials on tons of topics, from purchasing a domain name to starting a blog. The one weakness of Hostinger’s customer service is that there is no phone support. Its live chat, email, and knowledge base is the next best thing.
Find out more
- Curious about Hostinger? Learn more about this European provider with our Hostinger Review
Best Photographer Website Hosting: Summary
It’s best to choose based on the factors you value most. If you want the most bang for your buck, InMotion’s huge 90 day money-back guarantee and incredible performance will showcase your images best. If you want value for money for your photo website, then Bluehost is sure to impress.
With the overviews in this ranking, you’ll be able to make an informed decision about the best web hosting provider for your photography site. To recap, these are the top providers in order:
Best Hosting Providers for Photographers: Recap
- InMotion – Best overall provider for photographers
- Bluehost – Best value for money
- HostGator – Best for features
- GoDaddy Hosting – Best for getting online fast
- DreamHost – Most popular with users
- Liquid Web – Excellent help and support
- A2 Hosting – Good for performance
- Hostinger – Best for keeping backups
Can’t decide what you value most? Our expert recommendation for photography hosting is InMotion, try it for 90 days and see if it fits your needs!
Best Photographer Website Hosting: FAQs
Our expert advice is to do both; create a website where you can sell your printed photographs, while also creating a social media presence to attract more people to your website. This can be easily done using a website builder to create your portfolio yourself!
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