Featured Partners
1
Wix
$17 per month
Yes
Yes
2
Squarespace
$25 per month
Yes
Yes
3
IONOS
$1 per month
Yes
Yes
4
Shopify
$29 per month
3 days free + First Month for $1
Drag & drop editor, AI Tools, Customize with 8k+ apps, Sell everywhere
5
DreamHost
$3.95 per month
Yes
Yes
Why You Can Trust Forbes Advisor Small Business
The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content and guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.
We reviewed 15 providers using a detailed process to help you find the seven best e-commerce hosting services for small businesses. Pricing, hosting features, customer ratings and a final review by our panel of experts all played key roles in determining the rankings of providers for our list. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.
The Best E-Commerce Hosting Providers of 2025
Forbes Advisor Ratings
How To Choose the Best E-Commerce Hosting Service
There are many e-commerce host companies to choose from. To find the best fit for your business, carefully consider costs, availability of customer support, customer reviews and how easy the software is to use. There are also several features you should ensure the platform provides.
Essential Features
- PCI compliance. Since 2006, companies that process or store credit card information have been required to adhere to payment card industry (PCI) standards. These regulations help ensure that customer data is protected from unauthorized transactions and fraudulent activity when they input their data on your site.
- Adequate storage. When you are uploading inventory, you need to be able to also include photos that showcase your products. Make sure the platform gives you enough storage to hold any photos and videos you need.
- Emergency backups. Even when you have layers of security in place, things can go awry. If someone hacks into your shop or an update breaks the layout you’ve put in place, restoring a site backup can help you get things up and running again quickly.
- Accessible support. Customers can purchase from your store any time, day or night, which means you may also run into issues outside of normal business hours. Choose a provider that offers support with hours that work for you—ideally, with multiple methods of contact (phone, email and live chat).
- A simple interface. Unless there’s a web developer on your team, you’ll likely need a user-friendly system that doesn’t use a lot of technical jargon. Research customer reviews to see what users think about the service and how easy it is to use, to ensure you have smooth sailing going forward.
Security and Encryption
When choosing an e-commerce hosting service, it’s important to consider the level of security and encryption that the service provides. Here are some factors to consider:
- SSL certificates: Look for a hosting service that offers SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates to encrypt data transmitted between your website and your customers’ browsers. This is especially important for online stores that handle sensitive information, such as credit card numbers.
- Data centers: Choose a hosting service that has secure data centers with multiple layers of physical security, such as biometric scanners and security cameras.
- Network security: Look for a hosting service that has robust network security measures in place, such as firewalls and DDoS protection.
- Payment processing: If you will be accepting payments on your website, make sure that the hosting service has secure payment processing options, such as PCI DSS compliance.
Methodology
When considering which are the best e-commerce hosting companies of 2025, we wanted to make sure they were cost-effective, easy to use and had features important to e-commerce business owners. We also considered real customer reviews and added benefits rarely found in a hosting company.
Here are some of the categories we used to rank the providers that made the top of the list.
Pricing
Fees should be minimal for e-commerce hosts, aside from a monthly service plan and per-transaction fees charged by the payment provider. Our focus was on each provider’s starting cost for its plans, what it charged to renew once the initial contract ended, how many sites were covered under its plan and if it offered a money-back guarantee and the length of that guarantee. The hosting services with low starting prices, lower renewal prices and lengthy money-back guarantee periods fared the best in our rankings. Pricing accounted for 10% of our weighted scoring.
Features
Certain features and functionalities are essential for an e-commerce hosting service to provide. For example, does the host company have a 100% uptime guarantee? If not, do customers have to pay extra to get help from tech support? Along those same lines is customer support. Many host companies have 24/7 support 365 days per year. This is the standard because downtime costs an e-commerce store money, so those hosting services that offered 24/7 support scored best.
Other general features we expected to see included offering unlimited storage and bandwidth―if not included in a standard plan, then definitely in a premium plan―providing free domain name and SSL certificates and offering encryption protection and cPanel control panel software developed.
Some additional features we wanted to see included providers that offered free domain privacy protection and business email addresses, a content delivery network (CDN), website builder and providing automatic backups of data. We weighted features at 50% of our total score.
Third-party reviews
We wanted to know what e-commerce business owners think of the e-commerce host they use. We turned to third-party review websites to gauge user opinions of these services, looking at reviews that scored at least 3.5 out of 5. Hosting services that had at least 300 reviews scored higher in our rankings. These accounted for 10% of the total score.
Expert analysis
Analyzing customer reviews, our experts looked at four key metrics to gauge how well these e-commerce hosting companies provide their services. One such metric is ease of use. Do business owners have to do any coding or does the host have a website builder that makes it easy to set up a storefront? The other metrics we considered were any stand-out features, overall popularity and value for the money. Altogether, this analysis made up 30% of the total score.
Learn how we evaluate web hosting services.
Bottom Line
Choosing the right e-commerce hosting provider is crucial for the success of your online store. While many factors come into play, such as pricing, features and customer support, the ideal choice ultimately depends on your specific business needs. Maybe you prioritize speed and performance, budget-friendly options or specialized features like appointment booking. Whatever it is you’re looking for, there’s a hosting solution out there to power your e-commerce venture. Carefully consider the essential features, security measures and different types of hosting services available to make an informed decision that will help your business thrive online.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the best hosting for e-commerce?
IONOS places a strong emphasis on speed and performance. Its dual-platform technology allows for faster performance by hosting web servers and storage on the same platform and it also offers scalable performance to easily handle increasing traffic.
Bluehost is a good option for businesses that want to offer booking and appointment services through their online store. It provides a range of features powered by YITH, including a user-friendly dashboard that allows you to easily sync your calendar with your store.
HostGator is a good choice for businesses on a budget because it allows you to pay for only what your business needs. As your business grows and your hosting needs change, you can easily upgrade to a higher level of service.
Is shared hosting good for e-commerce?
Shared hosting can be a good option for small e-commerce businesses that are starting out and don’t have much traffic or many resources. It is the most affordable type of hosting and can be a good way to test the waters and see if e-commerce is right for your business. However, shared hosting can have some limitations when it comes to e-commerce, and you may outgrow the resources provided by shared hosting if your website starts to receive much traffic.
Can I host my own e-commerce website?
To host your own e-commerce website, you need to own and maintain physical servers. For smaller e-commerce sites, this is cost-prohibitive but it might make sense for a larger operation.
Which e-commerce platform works best for dropshipping?
If you’re planning to start a dropshipping business, you need to ensure that your website can both handle the traffic and also help you process orders in an organized fashion. Any of the options on our list here will make a great web host. However, be sure to choose an appropriate e-commerce platform that can handle dropshipping functionality. An industry leader in this area is Shopify, one of our top picks.
What should a beginner look for in an e-commerce hosting platform?
The best features offered by an e-commerce hosting platform for someone new to building their own website, or just starting out with an online retail business, include a hosting site that offers marketing and SEO tools, assistance with e-commerce selling, security features, such as secure sockets layer (SSL) protocols and two-factor authentication (2FA) or multifactor authentication, and simple-to-use website building features, such as a drag-and-drop tool. Ideally, these will come as part of an inclusive package that you pay for all at once.
What is the difference between an e-commerce platform and e-commerce hosting?
An e-commerce platform gives you the tools to design an attractive-looking page or series of pages for customers to visit and learn more about you, but that website has to be hosted somewhere, which is what an e-commerce website host does. Websites are hosted on platforms that can support the traffic being sent to them.