The website services industry has a negative impact on the environment, and if you've found your way to this page, you're probably looking for a company that values correcting this. That's fantastic!
You may hear web hosting described as "renting a digital plot of internet land," and that's true, but you also have to keep in mind that each website's data is stored somewhere (in this case, in a data center).
As you can imagine, there's a lot going on with these data centers, and the hardware ends up getting very hot – like an old laptop with that many tabs open. In the event that you've ever left your phone out in the sun, you'll know that temperature and technology don't mix very well.
So, what's the answer to this problem? There will be a lot of air conditioning. Web hosting makes up for 2% of the world's carbon emissions, the same as the airline industry, due to the energy consumption of this process. Hosting a website has the same carbon emissions as traveling 5 000 miles driving a new vehicle every 10,000 visitors. Yikes!
Thanks to their attention and actions, several of the world's largest web hosting firms are taking environmental effect reduction seriously.
However, if your hosting company is environmentally conscious but ultimately ineffective, it is pointless; you must find a middle ground.
In our search for the top green hosting service, we considered not only the company's environmental impact but also its green initiatives as a whole. The most eco-friendly type of hosting, shared hosting, includes a domain, SSL certificates, backups, assistance, disk space, uptime and price. We also looked at the aspects that make for a good and trustworthy shared hosting package. The following are the seven best web hosting companies, as determined by this comprehensive approach:
Just what does it mean for a hosting company to call itself green? One or even a combination of various strategies are commonly employed by hosting providers:
$2.95 - $109.95 monthly
GreenGeeks is the greenest web hosting company around. For every kilowatt-hour it consumes from the grid, Bonneville Environmental Foundation invests three times that in renewable energy. In other words, when you use GreenGeeks, you're reducing your carbon emissions by three times.
Relevant organization member: GreenGeeks is a member of the Green Power Partnership Program (GPP).
A green hosting company like GreenGeeks is the finest available today.
GreenGeeks' initial pricing is standard, but their renewal rates are higher than those of most of their competition.
GreenGeeks has a lot going for them, including a guarantee of 100% sustainable energy.
Are GreenGeeks hosting plans worth the price tag?
However, GreenGeeks does not offer every sort of hosting service. It offers shared, reseller, WordPress, and VPS hosting plans. If you're looking for the most environmentally friendly sort of web hosting, hosting provider is the way to go, but this could leave large websites with few options.
We've concentrated our efforts on shared plans, which are the greenest yet most popular. The Lite plan from GreenGeeks delivers a serious punch. Starting at just $2.95 a month (if you sign up for three years), you have a lot for the money - unlimited domains, limitless email accounts, unmetered bandwidth and space, and free backups, free domain, and a free SSL certificate.
Aside from email and live chat, GreenGeeks' customer service is lauded by many.A guaranteed 30-day money back and free website migration if you are already hosted somewhere else make it easy to test out their services risk-free. Aside from simply being environmentally friendly, GreenGeeks is clearly committed to doing more.
Starting at $2.95/month, GreenGeeks plans renew from $9.95/month.
Paid plans range from $2.29 per month to $739.99 per year.
For InMotion, minimizing its initial energy use is more important than offsetting, as GreenGeeks and HostGator believe. Rather than relying entirely on air conditioning, its green data center in Los Angeles uses an air cooling method that circulates outside air. As a result, InMotion has been able to reduce its annual carbon emissions by more than 2,000 tons.
We've also teamed up for Trees For The Future to grow 5,000 trees in poor countries.
InMotion has a wide variety of hosting options, but we'll be focusing on its shared and VPS plans here because they are the company's greatest offerings – indeed, InMotion ranked highest for both in independent research!
Initial consideration should be given to programs that provide shared web hosting services. InMotion has four WBE-exclusive options ranging from $2.49 per month to $12.99/month, all of which are reduced. If you're a WBE visitor, the Lite plan is the cheapest, but we encourage upgrading to the Power plan, which costs $7.99/month. Additionally, your visitors will never have to wait for a page to load because you'll have twice the power (i.e. more CPU cores) and all the same fantastic features (unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, 1 free SSL certificate, a free backup, 1 free domain name).
VPS hosting is another area where InMotion shines. During our testing, it received a 95 percent rating for features, thanks to limitless CPU cores, root access, free backups, and one of the biggest storage capacity and bandwidths of every VPS plan. This, in our opinion, is the best-managed VPS package out there. InMotion's plans vary from $39.99 per month to $144.99 per month, however new users can save up to 55% on this cost by signing up for a free trial.
InMotion's customer service and support are second to none. Only 99.97% uptime is guaranteed, which is a minor drawback. Although this is a minimal guarantee, it's important to understand that it only covers a few hours per year. When it comes to web hosting, you should give InMotion a try and then take advantage of the large guaranteed money (30 days for VPS hosting and 90 days with shared hosting) if you have any issues with uptime performance.
Starting at $6.39/month, InMotion's shared hosting services renew at $7.99/month.
Paid plans range from $2.99 a month to $349.99 a year.
Since 2007, A2 Hosting has maintained its carbon neutrality through the use of an energy offset strategy. Employees are encouraged to work remotely to reduce road emissions, and outdated computer hardware is recycled with great care. A2 Hosting was one of the earliest hosting providers to provide SSD hosting, which is significantly less carbon-intensive than typical HDDs..
Every time a new customer signs up for A2 Hosting, three trees are planted as a part of Carbon.org's special program.
Relevant organization member: Carbonfund.org
A2 Hosting excels in all areas. Although it didn't come out on top in our analysis for a certain sort of hosting, we found it to be the best deal for your money.
Aside from losing a free domain, you'll get free site migration, 24/7 support, and a money-back guarantee if you don't like what you're getting from the service. True story - If for any reason you are dissatisfied with A2 Hosting's products, it will give you a full refund. You can't help but admire a company that has faith in itself!
There are four different shared plans available from A2 Hosting, so you can easily upgrade as your needs change. A free automatic backup is included with the Drive plan ($11.99 monthly) and above, so you can even divide your hosting across many sites. Even if you only have one website, we'd suggest this plan the most.
To begin with, A2 Hosting's shared plans cost $2.99 a month and automatically renew at $8.99/month.
It costs $1.99 a month for a paid plan.
We were impressed by the efforts iPage has done to reduce its environmental footprint as a hosting company that's often referred to as 'cheap and cheerful'. Because it obtains renewable energy certificates (RECs), iPage's hosting is powered entirely by wind energy (Renewable Energy Certificates). To be more precise, it buys enough to offset its carbon emissions by 200 percent, or more than double what it really consumes. You may even put an eco-friendly logo on your website if you host it with iPage.
The plans offered by iPage are quite reasonably priced. You can get a shared plan for $1.99 per month and a VPS plan for $19.99 per month if you take advantage of the company's promotional pricing. Keep in mind, though, that iPage's shared plans begin at $7.99/month, which is the equivalent of InMotion's monthly renewal fee.
iPage's low promotional pricing, however, comes at a price, and that price is speed. When compared to other hosting providers, iPage constantly ranks low in terms of functionality. The uptime guarantee of 99.94 percent is the lowest of any company we've evaluated, making it the worst choice for most people.
To run a large website, iPage just does not have the resources or reliability. But if you need to host a tiny, personal website on a budget and in an environmentally friendly manner, this is a viable alternative.
Individual plans at iPage cost $1.99 per month and renew for $7.99
Paid plans range from $6.99 a month to $240 a month, depending on your needs.
While SiteGround is still in the early stages of development, the company is steadily maturing. Using Google Cloud as a part of its infrastructures will begin in 2020. The Google Cloud platform was made available to all new clients in the United States and Europe, and SiteGround began the process of moving some existing customers as well.
Google uses renewable energy equivalents to replace all of the energy it consumes (by purchasing RECs). As a result, all new SiteGround customers in the United States and Europe (as well as those who signed up before 2020) will have carbon neutral subscriptions.
Member of relevant organization: N/A
SiteGround is a dependable service with a reasonable price tag.
SiteGround's knowledge base has a lot of good information on it, and we found it quite helpful.
However, SiteGround's backup and uptime policies are worth the price of admission.
There are a number of beneficial features offered by SiteGround including automated, free daily backups, and automatic upgrades to WordPress. It provides a 99.98% uptime guarantee and a thorough help and support system, with someone accessible to assist via live chat at all times.
SiteGround is a logical choice if reliability and environmental friendliness are important to you.
SiteGround is one of the best hosting providers out there, but it's also one of the most expensive, which is why it's ranked fifth. At $6.99/month for a 36-month contract, shared plans start at twice the cost of other entry-level shared hosting plans, and then renew at $14.99/month. Unfortunately, you won't get a free domain name at this price. SiteGround does not provide VPS hosting, which many individuals find to be a beneficial move up from shared hosting when their website grows.
Hosting plans with SiteGround start at $6.99 then renew at $14.99.
Paid Plans: $3.95 - $249.99 / month
With the purchase of enough renewable energy certificates (RECs), HostPapa has achieved carbon neutrality and became one of the earliest hosting companies to do so. Several banners and badges are available to you if you host your website with HostPapa to show your customers that you're making environmentally-friendly choices.
Organization: N/A Member of relevant group
We were amazed by HostPapa's carbon neutrality status.
HostPapa is a low-cost option, but there is little room for expansion.
It's all right. With renewal fees starting at $7.99/month, HostPapa's shared plans are competitively priced and offer many of the standard freebies, such as a free domain, free SSL certificate, free site transfer, etc. A two-website plan is included in the cheapest shared package.
However, there are a few things to keep an eye out for. In comparison to competitors' limitless capacity, the cheapest Starter plan makes use of two websites but has a high disk cap of 100GB. Also, the 30-day money-back promise only applies if you've been a subscriber for more than a year; otherwise, you'll only have 48 hours to get a refund. With a HostPapa package, you'll also have to fork over extra cash for backups.
HostPapa falls to sixth place due to these flaws, as well as the company's good but unspectacular green policy.
Shared hosting with HostPapa starts at $3.95 per month and renews for $7.99.
Paid Plans: $2.95 - $379 / month
For example, DreamHost partners with an energy business that uses various renewable ways, and uses recycled water in its chilling systems to reduce its environmental footprint. Even yet, DreamHost doesn't quite measure up to the other providers on this list when it comes to the environmental impact of their services.
Member of relevant organization: N/A
Over 1.5 million websites are hosted by DreamHost.
This service provider has a wide selection of hosting plans to choose from.
WordPress users can also benefit from DreamHost's capabilities.
Like A2 Hosting, DreamHost's hosting plans are in the center of the pack. DreamHost does not expect the same benefits of solid support as A2 Hosting.
Its (full-priced) cheapest shared plan works out to be one of the cheapest at $2.59/month (assuming you commit to three years) if you're looking for bargains. Both the VPS and the dedicated server plans come in at a reasonable price.
However, what makes DreamHost superior to the other companies on this list? In terms of dedicated plans, DreamHost has a lot of storage capacity available. 'Summer Moon SSD 64,' a plan with an oddly catchy name, grants you access to a whopping 64GB of RAM as well as 24 CPU threads and 12 CPU cores.
Having so many devoted plans to select from, DreamHost makes it easy to start with the lowest plan ($169/month) and progressively upgrade, so you never spend more than you need to. As a result, DreamHost is a great choice for environmentally concerned, media-rich websites that are just getting started with dedicated hosting.
Starts at $2.59/month, renews for $9.95/month for DreamHost's shared plans.
DreamHost! Additionally, DreamHost provides free web hosting for organizations as part of their commitment to environmental stewardship. This is true: DreamHost will maintain your charity's website at no cost to you whatsoever. That's very impressive progress by DreamHost!
Simply put, this means that the corporation continues to utilize energy as usual while also making investments in renewable efficient to pay for the purchase of the same amount of energy (or more) that will be generated through renewable methods. For additional information on Renewable Energy Certificates (sometimes referred to as "Credits").
Confusing and polluted are the words that best describe the hosting sector. No need to stress - our guide to web hosting covers all the different options, so be sure to read it before making a decision.
This concludes our ranking and evaluation of the best green web hosting companies. GreenGeeks had to take the #1 spot on our list because it's clearly "their thing" and has a good product to match.
To sum things up, the best strategy is to try one out and then switch providers if you don't like it, as all companies offer some type of money-back guarantee.
Check out our guides on shared vs. VPS or the top dedicated hosting services if you're still not sure what kind of service you need.
