Best Hosting by Country on July 22, 2021 by Abdullah Fateh

When selecting a web host, there are many factors to consider, including price, speed, reliability, and more.

A good host has high uptime, fast speeds, excellent security, and readily available customer service. All these factors are essential for businesses and individuals looking to create a great site.

However, selecting the best web host can be complicated in South Africa as most of the well-known hosting providers focus mainly on Europe and the US.

To help you out, I’ve listed the top 5 best web hosting providers in South Africa, updated for 2023.

These local and international options have been proven to provide excellent reliability in South Africa to give optimal site experience. 

Let’s get into it.

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What to Look for in a Web Hosting?

Whenever selecting a web host, there are a few points that you should look into: 

  • Reliability

  • Security

  • Ease of use

  • Speed

Reliability

When picking a web host, its reliability, which is normally shown through its uptime score, is an important metric to consider. This is because high uptime will ensure that your site’s users always find your site online and available.

Look for a web host that averages at least 99.9% uptime. 

Security 

You will also want to look for a web host that offers excellent security. 

This can be found in SSL certificates that keep your customer’s sensitive personal information safe, free backups that save your important data, and much more. 

These are necessary to prevent any hacker from potentially damaging your site or stealing unencrypted data, for example, a customer’s credit card information (if you’re selling services or products through your site).

Ease of use

If you’re new to web hosting, you’d want to look out for a provider that offers a user-friendly experience, especially if you don’t want to spend extra hours trying to learn how things work. 

Speed

Who has the patience to wait for one site to load when it would be faster to go to another one?

This is why speed is so important. 

Having high loading speeds ensures that customers don’t click off pages due to long wait times. It will also lower your bounce rate, leading to greater interaction and even potential sales.

Best Web Hosting in South Africa

With that out of the way, let’s now look at the top 5 best hosting providers in South Africa.

Hosting Provider

Best

Price/Month

Uptime

Overall Use

$2.95

99.93% (August 2023)

Cheap Shared Hosting

$0.99

99.98% (August 2023)

Local Provider

R39

Average 99.9%

Customer Service

$4.99

100% (August 2023)

Speed

R99

Average 99.9%

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Let’s look at each one in detail. 

Bluehost - Best For Overall Use

Web Hosting in South Africa (Top 5 Best in 2021) BlueHost

Key features:

  • DDoS protection
  • 99.93% (August 2023) 
  • Free SSL, domain name (a year), and CDN

Bluehost is a leader when it comes to accessible web hosting for users in every country.

Boasting 99.93% (August 2023) uptime, you can be sure that it is very reliable. Your website will hardy go offline, and if it does, only for a short time. 

With Bluehost, you’ll have access to their cPanel that allows you to easily manage your site with everything from email management to site analytics and software installs all in one intuitive dashboard.

You’ll also get access to 50GB of SSD storage space in their basic plan, with unlimited transfers to boot, making it an absolute steal when it comes to value.

Supporting over 2 million sites worldwide from individuals to businesses alike, you’ll find exceptional satisfaction with Bluehost. It isn’t referred to as the “best web hosting” for nothing. 

Building a site with BlueHost is extremely easy. Check out this video to learn how to do it:


Hostinger - Best International Cheap Hosting

Web Hosting in South Africa (Top 5 Best in 2021) Hostinger

Key features:

  • Free SSL
  • Weekly backups
  • 99.98% (August 2023)

Looking for one of the cheapest international hosting providers around? Hostinger is your best bet.

With managed WordPress and WordPress acceleration to improve site loading speeds, you are more likely to get a low bounce rate and more satisfied visitors. 

Plus, with a custom-made cPanel designed with Hostinger’s features in mind, you’ll get all your site management tools in an optimized dashboard to make handling your site simpler.

However, the custom cPanel might take some time to get used to, especially if you’re used to the traditional cPanel.

Their basic plan only advertises support for 10,000 monthly visits, so that’s something to keep in mind when selecting a package with Hostinger. 

But don’t worry. They offer other plans for higher storage, monthly visits, and features. So go check it out! 


AfriHost
- Best Local Hosting Provider

Web Hosting in South Africa (Top 5 Best in 2021) AfriHost

Key features:

  • Free domain name for the first year

  • No setup fee 

  • Power generators 

This local web host provides hosting solutions tailored specifically to South Africans.

Providing both Linux and Windows-based shared hosting packages, you’ll get flexibility and excellent support with AfriHost’s managed solutions.

You’ll also get access to a whole host of different hosting types, including cloud and dedicated solutions. This ensures that your site will get the service it deserves, with little or heavy traffic.

Additionally, you’ll get exceptional customer service available 24/7 through phone, email, and live chat. Knowledgeable and friendly reps help guide you through any problem no matter how simple or complicated it may be.

However, you’ll only get 1GB of storage space on their basic plan, which means you have to get a more expensive plan if you want more space and features.  


SiteGround
- Best Customer Service

Web Hosting in South Africa (Top 5 Best in 2021) SiteGround

Key features:

  • Free CDN

  • Free SSL 

  • 30-day money-back guarantee 

While Afrihost may have excellent service, SiteGround takes it to a whole other level with service unrivaled in the industry.

With 24/7 customer support available through live chat, phone, and email, you can always expect a quick response. They usually respond within 5 minutes, ensuring any problem is resolved ASAP.

SiteGround also has a number of answered FAQs on their site that can help with the everyday problems you may face when designing your site.

What’s more, SiteGround runs on 100% renewable energy, meaning firms looking to stay true to their eco-friendly ethos will find this hosting provider a perfect fit. 

However, it is one of the most expensive options on this list and doesn’t come with a free domain. So you’ll have to fork an extra $15 to buy it separately.

Xneelo - Faster Speed in South Africa

Web Hosting in South Africa (Top 5 Best in 2021) Xneelo

Key features:

  • DDoS protection

  • 99.9% uptime guarantee 

  • Spam filtering

Xneelo, a German-based hosting provider, has been in South Africa since 1999, providing excellent and speedy hosting services.

Their basic plan comes with 5GB of lightning-quick SSD storage to ensure your content loads 20X faster than it would on a traditional HDD.

You’ll also get access to over 100 email addresses. This is helpful if you’re looking to run a business and keep in touch with clients.

Plus, you’ll get free daily backups. This makes for great value and keeping your content saved and available in the event you face any data loss.

Best Web Hosting in South Africa - FAQs

Why do I need web hosting for my site?

Web hosting is what supports your content online and allows it to be viewed by people on the web.

Without web hosting, your content wouldn’t be held or ‘hosted’ anywhere and people around the world wouldn’t have access to it.

What hosting package should I select?

The hosting package you select will depend on several factors, of which traffic is the main component.

Higher traffic such as over 50,000-100,000 page views a month normally means you’ll have to move toward VPS hosting plans that can give your site the resources it needs to operate optimally.

Shared hosting plans are normally good for anything less than 50,000 page views a month. Keep in mind that some premium shared hosting advertise support above 50,000.

What is a domain name?

A domain name, known as a URL to some, is your unique site address that identifies your site or what users would type in to reach your site e.g www.google.com

Domain names normally cost $15 per annum, but some web hosting providers usually give you the first year for free.

Conclusion 

So if you’re looking for the best web hosting in South Africa, the above list contains options that are well suited to a wide range of needs.

The providers above offer multiple different package types from managed to VPS and dedicated solutions. The option you pick will depend on what you’re looking for and how much traffic your site is attracting.

Good luck with hosting your site!

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