We get it – all the website terminology can feel confusing. Our team at Studio Adagio is here to keep you informed while presenting facts and our opinions! We work primarily with clinicians and have had years to formulate our opinions on what’s best for our clients. In this post, we’ll be reviewing our opinion on the best website hosting for small business and breakdown comparison to other leading companies.
Best Website Hosting for Small Business: Why It Really Matters
A website host is responsible for storing and managing all of your website files. You’re probably thinking, “what’s a website file?” and without getting too technical, all that you need to know is that everything on your website is correlated to a file onto web servers for it to actually be made “live” on the internet.
When you are making the decision about who should store and manage these files, you want to consider a couple things:
- Amount of website support
- Location of website hosting
- How they store your files
- Amount of visitors included in your plan
Small businesses need reliable, fast and scalable hosting so that your website can always have a top-tier user experience. As you may know, if your website speed is slow, your SEO can be affected. If you struggle with sitespeed, the first place to look is your website host.
While there are many options available out there, in this post we’ll be reviewing the top 3 hosts we see that clients work with: BigScoots, Bluehost and Godaddy. Continue reading to see which is our preferred host.
What Small Business Owners Should Look for in Website Hosting
There are a lot of things to consider when searching for the right website host. Oftentimes, we find clients choose a website host because someone else told them about it, it was the first thing they saw on Google or it was the cheapest option.
Instead, we recommend actually researching viable things that matter when choosing a website host such as:
- Website speed & server performance
- Customer service
- Security & backups
- Pricing
- Scalability
To us, the best website hosting for small business has a satisfactory or above satisfactory level for each of these criteria. Throughout this post, we’ll be reviewing this criteria for each of the three website hosts so that you can choose the best for your practice.
BigScoots Hosting Review: Fast, Personal, and High-Touch Support
Our personal top choice (and who we use for our own host) is BigScoots. After using Bluehost for almost two years, I started researching the best website hosting for small business and found BigScoots pop up several times. Soon enough, a lot of my clients who have high-performing websites used it, too!
Strengths of BigScoots as The Best Website Hosting for Small Business
There were many reasons why I couldn’t pass up switching my domain host to BigScoots; the ones that stick out the most to me are these:
Exceptional support. To me, this is one of the top things to look for when finding a website host. How will this company support you if something goes wrong on your website (and it will). BigScoots provides exceptionally fast support and I’m always confident they will find a solution without asking me to pay more money.
Fast for WordPress. Their managed hosting plans are great for WordPress. I firmly believe because they use a CDN (content delivery network) for websites that this is a strong reason why our clients’ website speed is so fast on BigScoots.
Hands-off onboarding. Don’t want to be in on your onboarding? Totally great. BigScoots will handle nearly everything for you. However, if you do want to be included, they allow you to do it yourself too!
Weaknesses of BigScoots
The only drawbacks I could think of for this platform were:
Higher price point. Individuals who don’t know how important a website host is may find their pricing a bit expensive. The lowest tier is around $34 a month. This is high in comparison to other options at $15 or $24 a month.
Less DIY websites are on this platform. People who use this host are usually out of the DIY realm. It comes with experience!
BigScoots is the best website hosting for small business if you…
I’d recommend BigScoots to nearly anyone. In my opinion, it’s the best hosting provider for 2025. However, if you find yourself in these categories, it’s a shoe in.
- Service-based businesses
- Your website is on WordPress
- You want a boutique experience and the premium support for your site
BlueHost Hosting Review: Balance of Price, Performance, and Support
Bluehost would be my second option if someone said BigScoots wasn’t in their budget. We used Bluehost for nearly two years before making the switch to BigScoots.
Strengths of Bluehost
Keep this in mind: while these are strengths, I think all of this is better with BigScoots. However, going with the perspective that BigScoots isn’t for you, I think you’d like these features:
Fast speed. With a Bluehost website, you can definitely have a fast website. Our client Toddler Dietitian Tiff was on Bluehost for over a year with a high performing website. They keep things simple which is great!
Intuitive dashboard. The inside of Bluehost is fairly simple. I appreciate how everything is clearly laid out. It makes it so easy to navigate!
Weaknesses of Bluehost
These were the weaknesses I’ve experienced firsthand and were partially reasons why we switched over to BigScoots. Again, the best website hosting for small business is all up to what you prioritize.
Less responsive website support. As of the last three years, I really think Bluehost has made changes or not prioritized website support as much. There were many times my website needed help or a clients website went down and I was in the “queue” for nearly 30+ minutes trying to get ahold of someone.
Sales pitches. When signing up, it felt like we were constantly being sold to. This wasn’t always great to get!
To determine if Bluehost is the best website hosting for small business…
If you feel that Bluehost might be your website host of choice– this is who we feel it’s the best for:
- Small businesses just getting started
- Beginner WordPress websites
GoDaddy Hosting Review: Budget-Friendly, But Is It Worth It?
Candidly, we would not recommend Godaddy to any clients. We have not used Godaddy ourselves but have used it frequently when dealing with our client websites if they have already purchased this as their website host. While I don’t think there are many strengths, I want to lay it all out there for you!
Strengths of GoDaddy
Brand familiarity. Most individuals know of this brand and assume because of that it’s the best option. Kudos to them for making a well-known brand!
Ease of setup. Clients have said that this platform is very easy to setup. We love this for beginners.
Weaknesses of GoDaddy
We don’t recommend Godaddy for several reasons. Let’s outline them below:
Slow speed. Godaddy is notorious for having slower websites. This is not a great option if you are trying to rank significantly on Google Search.
Bad website support. If you are okay waiting hours for a support request, only to be told to “contact your website developer” or to pay for someone to answer a question, this platform would be great for you!
Constant upsells. Anytime I’ve been in my client accounts for Godaddy, I’m always being sold to. To answer a question, I need to pay. To improve speed, I have to pay. This is not normal.
To determine if GoDaddy is the best website hosting for small business…
First, consider other options! If other options are not available or if you’ve already paid for a 3 year plan, it’s okay! We aren’t going to suggest someone to purchase this platform so we’d only say this platform is for you if you’ve already purchased before finding this information out.
Our Top Pick for the Best Website Hosting for Small Business
Based on the facts, data and experience of all of these website hosts, we firmly believe that BigScoots is the best website hosting for small business. Whether you have a smaller scale website or a larger, high-performing website, BigScoots is able to support you in growth.
The main reasons we recommend this platform is:
- Website support is top-tier
- Bang for your buck pricing
- Fast load times
- Ability to grow with you
Consider reading our blogpost on BigScoots!
Last year we wrote a full blogpost on BigScoots in depth. Read it for more information on BigScoots itself and why we recommend it.
Final Thoughts: Hosting That Supports Your Small Business Growth
To wrap up this post, keep in mind that great hosting is a combination of several criteria: speed, growth and ability to provide you peace of mind.
As a small business owner, you never want to stress about the downtime your website may have if an error arises. With BigScoots, I feel complete confidence that my site will be fixed promptly or they will provide context to any situation.
At Studio Adagio, we only recommend the best platforms for our clients. The best combination is:
- BigScoots website hosting
- WordPress platform
- Namecheap domain registrar
- Elementor page builder plugin
- All in One SEO plugin
For more recommendations of software, follow us on Instagram!
