Windows Hosting: Top 5 Best Providers 2024

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In testing, the best overall best Windows hosting provider is HostGator. There aren’t a huge array of Windows hosts but, that said, HostGator is a really good hosting provider for its features, pricing, and support. It receives an overall score of 4.7 out of 5 in our testing because HostGator has consistently affordable offers, great features (like unmetered bandwidth), free SSL certificate, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. But that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily right for your needs, so let’s take a look at our top hosts in testing for Windows:

Best Windows Server Hosting Providers: Top 5

  1. HostGator Best overall Windows server hosting
  2. IONOS Best for ecommerce
  3. GoDaddy Hosting Best for help and support
  4. Hostwinds Best for custom made plans
  5. Liquid Web Best for fast data transfers

What Is Windows Hosting?

If you’re wondering what Windows hosting is, it’s website hosting that uses a Windows operating system.

Windows hosting is the most compatible hosting solution for anyone with a website that also uses other Windows tools and languages, like Microsoft Exchange or ASP.NET. However, there’s a difference between using Windows tools and simply having a Windows computer you don’t need to use Windows hosting just because you have a Windows PC.

Compare The Top 5 Windows Hosting Providers

If you’re short on time, we’ve put together this quick comparison table for you to scroll through and see what each provider, well, provides:

Swipe right to see more
0 out of 0

HostGator

IONOS

GoDaddy

Hostwinds

Liquid Web

Overall rating
4.7
Overall rating
4.0
Overall rating
4.0
Overall rating
3.1
Overall rating
2.9
Starting from

$4.95

Starting from

$0.50

Starting from

$6.99

Starting from

$4.99

Starting from

$13.30

Money-back guarantee

45 days

Money-back guarantee

30 days

Money-back guarantee

48 hours to 30 days

Money-back guarantee

60 days

Money-back guarantee

30 days

Free backups
Free backups
Free backups
Free backups
Free backups
Storage space

Unmetered

Storage space

25GB – Unlimited

Storage space

25GB – 100GB

Storage space

Unlimited

Storage space

40GB – 200GB

Bandwidth

Unmetered

Bandwidth

Unlimited

Bandwidth

Unmetered

Bandwidth

Unlimited

Bandwidth

10TB

Standout features

High site speed

Best Help & Support

Unlimited bandwidth

 

Standout features

Best site speed & uptime

Best for ecommerce

Relatively cheap

Standout features

2nd best server response time

24/7 phone and live chat

Standout features

Free daily backups (cloud backups $1/month)

99.9% uptime guarantee

Lots of tailored plans

Standout features

10TB bandwidth

24/7 live chat, phone, and email

100% uptime guarantee

Visit HostGator Visit IONOS Visit GoDaddy Visit Hostwinds Visit Liquid Web

As you can see, each of these Windows hosting providers offers some great features, but let’s break down the pricing, security, and other features of each of them.

This list of the best Windows hosting providers was put together through testing and vast amounts of research. We tested each hosting provider to give you accurate and useful information on the right hosting products for you and your website.

Each Windows hosting provider on this list has been tested against over 13 others. We then conducted careful analysis on the following criteria to calculate our ratings:

  • Pricing – price range, number of plans, money-back guarantee, billing cycle, and more
  • Performance – server response time, storage space, bandwidth, cores, threads, RAM, and more
  • Features – migration, backups, security, domains, control panel, green hosting, and more
  • Help and support – knowledge base, support options available, contact hours
  • Market analysis – competitor reviews, search volume, and more

There aren’t as many forms of Windows hosting, but we’ve focused on those that are popular and practical for you. After all, the importance of the chosen hosting type can vary greatly depending on the business.

We take bias out of the picture and rate each host fairly and compare the best Windows hosting providers to get you the right tools for your website.

In testing, HostGator scores a 4.7 out of 5 overall rating.

1. HostGator

Best Overall Windows Server Host

Editor's Choice

HostGator

Best Overall Windows Server Hosting

Excellent

4.7

out of 5
  • Really secure
  • 99.99% uptime
  • Weekly automated backups

Paid Plans: $3.95 - $159.99 / month

Pros

  • icon yes svg Unlimited domains
  • icon yes svg Fantastic help and support
  • icon yes svg 45 day money-back guarantee

Cons

  • icon no svg High renewal rates
  • icon no svg No free trial
Read Review

Pricing

With plans that are competitive and affordable, HostGator earns the “best overall windows hosting provider” title because it offers all types of plans and offers the best help and support to boot.

Pretty much every hosting provider on the market offers noticeably low introductory prices, which then get hiked up when you renew your plan. HostGator is no exception – you get 20% off your initial payment, which can cover between one to 36 months up front. 

The price range for shared plans that are for smaller and more personal sites, is $6.36 to $15.96 per month, when paid annually. But the wonderful thing about HostGator is there are lots of plans to choose from, here’s the complete chart to see HostGator’s shared Windows options:

A blue and orange table with pricing information.

HostGator also offers Windows hosting on its dedicated plans, which range from $109.97 to $159.99 per month when you choose an annual plan. But prices can be lower if managed, or high if a shorter term payment plan.

The HostGator crocodile above pricing plan rectangles.
Keep in mind, these are the HostGator 36 month plan prices shown, but for yearly or monthly rates the price goes up.

These prices might seem like a big jump up from the shared prices, but HostGator’s dedicated prices are on par with the rest of the industry. The reason they’re so much more expensive is because, on a shared plan, you literally share a server and its resources with other websites. However, on a dedicated plan, the server is entirely dedicated to your website and its files.

Security

HostGator provides a free SSL certification with all its Windows hosting plans, which ensures that your website is flagged securely. The HostGator support team conducts 24/7 server monitoring on shared Windows plans, ensuring you’re allocated relevant server resources, as well as automatic weekly data backups to keep your files safe. HostGator even uses the SpamAssassin filter to protect emails for your Windows site.

Features

HostGator scores a 4.7 out of 5 overall which is leaps and bounds beyond the other providers on the list! That’s in part due to its feature rich offering, so let’s take a look.

HostGator’s email features aren’t just secure, but robust, too: you get unlimited accounts, forwards, and autoresponders, along with 25 mailing lists – great news if you have a mailing list ready to go. This will all come in handy too for customer engagement and automating it to make it more hassle-free. 

HostGator’s Windows plans also integrate very well with other applications. If you’d like to, you’ll be able to host a BlogEngine blog, a WordPress blog, or even a Wiki site. You’ll also be entitled to HostGator’s free website builder and 4,500 free website templates, so that you can design your site with a base to start.

HostGator’s 24/7 phone and live chat support is a major plus, too. In fact, live chat received 32% of votes when we asked users how they would most like to receive support – beating email and online tutorials. In our experience, HostGator’s live chat has a quick response time and offers useful information.

Easily integrate your host with other applications.

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2. IONOS

Best for Ecommerce

IONOS

Best for ecommerce

Excellent

4

out of 5
  • Excellent uptime
  • Really great pricing
  • Best for ecommerce

Paid Plans: $0.5 - $35 / month

Pros

  • icon yes svg Excellent site speed
  • icon yes svg Unlimited bandwidth
  • icon yes svg Great security features

Cons

  • icon no svg $50 set up fee
  • icon no svg Only offers 24/7 phone support
Read Review

Pricing

IONOS is a little trickier when it comes to Windows hosting plans than others on this list. Firstly, it only diplays 6-month rather than yearly plans, making it hard for us to compare against the other 12 month plans on the market. Secondly, it has plenty of add-on options once you click through to the plan of your choice, like so:

A list of add on options on a checkout page.
As you can see there are plenty of options to add more storage, but these come at an extra cost.

But IONOS does offer the ability to really customize your plan for an ecommerce site. You can get expert backups, a free SSL, unlimited bandwidth, and a free domain for the first year – making it simple to secure your site and keep it online and running. 

IONOS gets a little pricier for VPS and dedicated plans, especially dedicated. But compared to HostGator’s dedicated plans, which start at $109.98 per month, IONOS’ cheapest dedicated plan is a very affordable $47 per month.

Rectangles with bright blue buttons and prices in dollars.
Note that these prices are if you decide to choose the 6 month plan.

Security

All IONOS plans come with an SSL certificate, malware protection, and DDoS attack defense systems. Plus, its dedicated plans come with site scans and a CDN to help protect your website from attacks – making it score well for security.

Additionally, its WordPress hosting comes with malware scans and phishing and spam filters. That makes IONOS a protective force in the hosting market.

Features

IONOS has really good value features, a provider that is ahead of the curve when it comes to site speed and uptime. This means your website will perform well and load quickly for visitors, an important SEO factor. IONOS has an overall score of 4 out of 5, placing it in the middle of all the providers we’ve tested.

It offers optional addon domains and unlimited external domains from third parties. One downside is that IONOS only offers the Plesk control panel, so if you prefer having cPanel then IONOS might not be for you.

Offering high speed selling website hosting

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3. GoDaddy Hosting

Best for Help & Support

GoDaddy

Best for help and support

Great

4

out of 5
  • Daily backups
  • Free SSL (for 1 year)
  • 30 day money-back

Paid Plans: $6.99 - $469.99 / month

Pros

  • icon yes svg You can use Plesk Obsidian
  • icon yes svg Unmetered bandwidth
  • icon yes svg Fantastic help and support

Cons

  • icon no svg Slightly high prices
  • icon no svg Poor site speed
  • icon no svg Windows users pay more
Read Review

GoDaddy Hosting plans use Windows Server 2019, which isn’t the most recent version, following the release of Windows Server 2022 in 2021. However, we like that you can install great apps like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal, even on the cheapest plan. 

Pricing

GoDaddy Hosting prices start on the cheapest shared plan of $6.99 per month when you pay for the year. The shared plans go up to $14.99, which makes it a little pricier than builders like HostGator.

The dedicated plans for GoDaddy Hosting also leap to a price range of $259.98 to $559.98 per month (on a yearly plan). This is one of the more expensive hosting providers, but that’s because it’s a powerhouse name due to the builder.

GoDaddy provides these Windows hosting plans that are a lot more reasonable, but you’ll need to commit to three years with GoDaddy:

GoDaddy Windows plan prices three with features and pricing
You can make savings by opting for the 3 year payment plans.

GoDaddy has a really reasonable price range of $5.99 to $12.99 per month for its Windows hosting, if you pay a three year term with them. 

When renewed the price then bumps up to between $9.99 to $17.99, but that is still relatively good for Windows hosting.

Security

On the cheapest GoDaddy plan you get 24/7 network monitoring, an FTP (rather than an SSL), plus DDoS and virus prevention. So with GoDaddy you’ll feel safe and sound.

On the Windows plans too, GoDaddy offers fraud, virus, and spam protection along with email encryption to keep sensitive data safe.

Features

GoDaddy is joint middle of the road in its overall score, gaining a score in testing of 4 out of 5. GoDaddy Hosting provides free daily automatic backups, unlimited bandwidth, a free domain for the first year, and unlimited external domains. Which is great news if you’d like to add domains to areas such as your email address!

It also offers 24/7 live chat and phone support. So the GoDaddy team will be on hand to help you no matter the time of day.

Feel reassured that no matter what happens.

More Information

4. Hostwinds

Best for Custom Made Plans

Hostwinds

Best for Custom Made Plans

Great

3.1

out of 5
  • Super scalable
  • Great security features
  • 99.99% uptime

Paid Plans: $4.99 - $328.99 / month

Pros

  • icon yes svg Free expert migration
  • icon yes svg Daily automatic backups
  • icon yes svg Free SSL certificate

Cons

  • icon no svg No free domain
  • icon no svg No money-back guarantee
  • icon no svg No phone support

Pricing

Hostwinds has a whopping 10 Unmanaged Windows VPS plans between $10.99 and $376.99 per month. Once again these are not yearly prices since Hostwinds Unmanaged Windows VPS plans are already fairly good value for money.

Just when you think you can’t get more custom made plans, Hostwinds also has 10 dedicated plans. Not only are your options plentiful but these dedicated prices are pretty good compared to competitors.

If you’re wondering what Hostwinds offers in terms of storage and bandwidth in these Windows hosting plans, let’s take a look:

Hostwinds Windows plans with different CPU's and pricing
Get the right storage, bandwidth, and RAM for your websites needs.

Hostwinds offers 99.99% uptime and nightly backups on all the Windows plans.

Security

Get extra firewall protection with Hostwinds’ Windows VPS plans, protecting you from malware attacks. Hostwinds also offers an SSL and 24/7 monitoring to keep things secure.

Features

Hostwinds has unlimited subdomains, free expert migration, and allows you to use Softaculous as well as cPanel. What that means is for the tech-curious of you out there, you’ll be able to use Softaculous to install or upgrade applications more easily. This will save you a boat-load of time watching files install.

Hostwinds is not the most feature dense host, but considering how scalable it is, it’s still a fantastic option for Windows hosting.

Easily customize your plans and scale your website.

More Information

5. Liquid Web

Best For Fast Data Transfers

Liquid Web

Best For Fast Data Transfers

Good

2.9

out of 5
  • 100% uptime
  • 24/7 live chat & phone
  • Great speed

Paid Plans: $15.83 - $832.5 / month

Pros

  • icon yes svg 10TB bandwidth
  • icon yes svg High core and thread count
  • icon yes svg Great help and support

Cons

  • icon no svg Custom quote pricing
  • icon no svg Doesn't offer a free domain

Pricing

Liquid Web’s price range for its Fully Managed Windows VPS plans is $90 – $160 per month, when you pay for the year. That’s quite high compared to competitors, but it does start with 4GB of RAM and a huge 10 TB of bandwidth. Which means that you’ll have plenty of RAM storage for your website files and ideal for those with higher website traffic requirements.

The Windows hosting plans for Liquid Web are:

Three pricing rectangles with list of features and a yellow button.

Security

Liquid Web has the tools needed to prevent a DDoS attack, which is an attack that affects your traffic. You also get network monitoring and a CDN.

The Liquid Web Windows plan can also come with a Windows Virtual Machine, which is secure cloud hosting.

Features

Liquid Web compared to HostGator’s overall score of 4.7, comes in with a below average 2.9, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some good features.

Liquid Web comes with a whopping 100% uptime guarantee, which means your website won’t have any downtime. Its cheapest VPS plan comes with 10TB of bandwidth and between two to eight cores. The dedicated plans also come with some of the highest core and thread count of any provider we’ve tested – meaning your data will be quickly transferred.

Lastly, the Liquid Web Windows plan comes with 24/7 customer care, every day of the year.

For fast data transfers and a solid alternative host.

More Information

Best Windows Hosting: Recap

As you can now see, Windows hosting isn’t the most common type of hosting out there. But if you run your site with any Microsoft applications, then it’s the right type for you. If you’re looking for the best of the best then HostGator is our overall winner based on the research we’ve done.

It got the top spot due to its affordable offering and winning the best score for features, helping your business expand without overspending. Let’s take a look at your top five choices again: 

Best Windows Server Hosting Providers: Top 5

  1. HostGator Best overall Windows server hosting
  2. IONOS Best for ecommerce
  3. GoDaddy Hosting Best for help and support
  4. Hostwinds Best for custom made plans
  5. Liquid Web Best for fast data transfers

If you’re on the hunt for an ecommerce power house then IONOS might work for you. Or if you love having the choice of plans and moving up incrementally as you go then Hostwinds could be what you’re searching for.

But overall our research rates HostGator as the best Windows hosting provider. We hope that this article helped you find the best one for you, and let us know in the comments if you have any questions!

HostGator provides the best Windows Hosting plans.

FAQs

Plesk and cPanel are the two most common web hosting control panels, and the two are similar in a lot of ways. But while cPanel is only available on Linux operating systems, Plesk is available on both Linux and Windows systems, and so is a popular choice for Windows servers.
It all comes down to what you need. Linux is a little cheaper, but Windows is a little easier to use. cPanel only runs on Linux servers, but programming languages like .NET are only available on Windows servers.
Yes! GoDaddy Hosting offers really good Windows hosting, and comes in third best for Windows hosting in our research.
GoDaddy Hosting has the cheapest plans for Windows Hosting, starting at $5.99 per month, if you pay a three year contract!
You can get a Windows VPS, which is a virtual private server that runs on Windows, you can also get a VPS that is run on Linux and the two offer different things.
You can have Windows through cloud hosting, so you can have both! Instead of having real servers in a building, cloud hosting offers virtual servers, and that means easier scalability and storage capabilities. A2 Hosting is rated out top cloud hosting provider with its impressive features and an anytime money-back guarantee.
Written by:
I’m a writer at Website Builder Expert, having joined the team in March 2022. Before joining I had my own freelance content writing business and now I work to test builders and write the content you read here on the site – so you can create a website that best suits you and your needs. Over my first year here I’ve tested all the builders you’ll read about, shaped the weekly newsletter content, written social media content, and scripted YouTube videos. I’ve also created demo websites to help showcase the builder’s capabilities so you can pick the best option. I’ve also had the wonderful opportunity to pitch articles for the site like the Best Writer Websites and write guest posts for the likes of Digital Information World, using my degree expertise in Film to share tips on video optimization.
Researched by:
natasha_willett
I love to understand human behavior and the cognitive biases that drive us to do what we do. For over nine years I have worked as a mixed method researcher – research using a mix of numerical data and personal experiences – across a range of sectors, from insurance and policy development to finally arriving at Website Builder Expert five years ago. Fascinated by consumer decision-making, I meticulously built our leading ranking methodology to explore where providers like Wix sit within a competitive industry and what value they truly bring to our audience.
As a member of the Market Research Society, I’m an advocate for high ethical, commercial, and methodological best practices. All of this combines to give you the most ethical recommendations based on real data.

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