We will come back to this later, but the most important factor when choosing a web host is the performance, the speeds offered, as well as the overall stability of the service.
The more efficient and faster your web hosting, the more your site will be appreciated by visitors. In addition, the speed aspect plays an ever-greater role in the referencing of your site on Google. This aspect should therefore not be overlooked (but also all the others that make up an offer – because web hosting remains a set of features, services, etc.).
If you don’t have time, here is already our ranking of the five best web hosts in 2022 (out of more than 20 different hosts tested and compared by us):
- Hostinger
- PlanetHoster
- Infomania
- o2switch
- Ex2
- OTHER
Contents
1) Hostinger
Hostinger is an increasingly popular host in France but also around the world. Above all, it offers, in our opinion, the best web hosting in 2022.
The main reason comes from the fact that it offers excellent shared hosting plans which prove to be efficient and available at more than reasonable prices. They are made to measure to satisfy both those who wish to create their very first site and a slightly more professional public.
Hostinger does more than just offer shared hosting. You will also find VPS, Cloud Hosting, or specialized WordPress hosting. Regardless of the type of plan you choose, the conclusion is the same: you will have access to really affordable hosting (see prices at the end of the presentation).
See Hostinger offers
From a performance and uptime point of view, Hostinger is impeccable. This is also what earned it, in large part, its place as the best web host in this ranking. With data centers located in Europe and certified Tier III, you will be guaranteed that your site will be available 99.99% of the time. For those to whom this indicator does not speak too much, this means that your hosting will be on average, for over a year, only unavailable for a few minutes.
The average loading time is also impeccable with values below 400 ms (more details on this subject in our complete file on Hostinger ).
The company will also provide you with key elements and features such as a free domain name, free SSL certificates, or even LiteSpeed Server technology which allows you to accelerate and optimize the speed of your WordPress site.
Unless you go on its “Unit” plan (which is the most basic shared hosting in its range), you can also count on free email addresses, unlimited bandwidth, weekly or daily backups, as well an unlimited number of manageable databases. It is for all these reasons that we advise you rather go on its “Premium” plan which offers a better quality/price ratio in our opinion. In addition, you will have the right to host several sites via a single subscription.
Overall, it is also worth noting that the Hostinger host offers customer support that can be reached 24/7/365 and can answer you in French. From our own experience, you will never have to wait more than a few minutes for a response. And that, no matter the time of day or night.
Hostinger also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee with all of its hosting. You will therefore take no risk by trying the best web host in our comparison. Better yet, if you want to transfer your site to its web hosting, Hostinger will take care of it for you, all for free. You can also do it yourself very well by relying on a tool that will simplify your task.
To obtain such rates, you will have to commit to several years with the Hostinger host. By using our exclusive promotional code valid on the whole site, you will also be able to benefit from an additional 10% discount: JOURNALDUGEEK.
See Hostinger offers
2) PlanetHoster
PlanetHoster provides a high-quality hosting service, all at relatively affordable prices.
Its The World offer, available from €6.00/month, will be of interest to people who want to create their first site as well as those who need to host several dozen sites. This plan comes with a lot of benefits including a free domain name for life, totally free SSL certificates, unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth and traffic, and free inbound migration.
See PlanetHoster offers
If you are hired with another host and want to change dairy, know that PlanetHoster will take care of everything … and it will cost you absolutely nothing. It is also worth noting that you can upgrade your web hosting at any time. Need more CPU? More RAM? No problem, in a few clicks you can adapt the configuration of the whole.
These are not the only things that make us consider PlanetHoster to be one of the best web hosts in 2022.
The customer support provided by the company is one or even the best that you will be able to find in the French-speaking market. He has everything going for him: competent, available, and reachable through various contact methods. You can of course contact an agent 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In this regard, telephone support is available 7 days a week and this 24 hours a day on weekdays.
Whether you are looking to create a WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or another site, PlanetHoster optimizes its hosting for more than a hundred different CMS. The goal? Giving you the best performance possible. As we had the opportunity to prove in our PlanetHoster review, the host is irreproachable at this level. Although it is a little slower than Hostinger, you will be able to benefit from a really low loading time. An automated installer is also available to help you install the content management system that interests you.
Regarding uptime (availability rate), PlanetHoster ensures that its data centers based in France and Canada meet the standards that define a Tier III data center. What does this mean to you? Simply that you can count on the availability of over 99.982% throughout the year.
It is possible to lower prices even further by committing to 2 or 3 years. Thanks to the promotional code PHA-Journal-du-geek, PlanetHoster will give you a 25% discount. This is valid on both of its hosting plans.
Discover HybridCloud PlanetHoster
3) Infomania
Infomaniak is a web host that comes to us from Switzerland. Unlike PlanetHoster or o2switch (presented below), you will not find a data center in France. Infomaniak’s infrastructure is located in Switzerland (in Geneva).
Be reassured, however, that does not prevent it from offering a very good performance. Although it is a little behind the members of the podium for best web hosting, it will be able to guarantee you an uptime of 99.98% (Infomaniak’s datacenters meet the requirements necessary to obtain the Tier III). In terms of speed, the loading time will be a little higher but will remain generally correct.
Infomaniak mainly offers shared and cloud hosting. We advise you to click on the links available a little further down to have access to the details of each of the offers.
See the Infomaniak offers
To create the first site or host several, the plan called “Web Hosting + Mail” seems to us to offer the best compromise. With it, you will have access to an SSD storage space of at least 100 GB, free SSL certificates, an unlimited number of databases, as well as 5 email addresses. It will also be possible to customize at any time the disk space, the number of email addresses, and the number of sites that can be managed via your web hosting.
The regret we have is that Infomaniak does not offer a domain name to its new customers. You will need to purchase one when placing your order. It’s a shame in our eyes because for a few euros less, you can enjoy it for free at Hostinger and PlanetHoster.
That said, the Swiss host makes up for it by offering automatic backups to another data center as well as more than 80 professional themes offered (worth $249 on the Elegant Themes platform).
This leads us to tell you about the optimization of its plans vis-à-vis the main CMS on the market. Regardless of the hosting, you take with Infomaniak, you will be able to easily and quickly install more than 120 different CMS (including WordPress, Magento, PrestaShop, and others), and you will be able to benefit from automatic security updates. In terms of customer support, we would have liked it to be a little more available by phone. You will only be able to use this means of contact on weekdays at specific times. Apart from these, you will have to settle for opening a ticket.
To find even more information about this very good host, take a look at its site or read our detailed opinion on Infomaniak.
4) o2switch
o2switch is a web host founded and based in France that currently hosts more than 280,000 sites. All of its data centers are also located in France and more specifically near Clermont-Ferrand. Everything belongs to the host, which allows them full control of their servers.
o2switch has the particularity of not offering VPS, Cloud, or dedicated server offers. Its only offer is shared hosting which is adapted and optimized for the use of the most popular CMS in 2022 (this includes WordPress).
After multiple tests and measurements carried out on our side, o2switch proves to be the third fastest and most stable web host in the French-speaking market. Do not hesitate to take a look at our complete test to find the details. We want to reassure you, that this is not negative. We just wanted to inform you of the position of this 100% French host against the competition.
According to our tests, the average load time will be just under 500ms, and the uptime will be above 99.99%.
The big advantage that o2switch has is that everything is simple: from the choice of web hosting to its administration, you will not feel lost even if you are new to the field of website creation. The administration panel offered by o2switch is based on cPanel which is a reference in the field. You will also be able to test everything by clicking HERE, then going to the Infrastructure > Technical Interface section.
Through its unique offer available at €6.00 incl. VAT/month, o2switch will give you access to a lot of things: 1 free domain name, free SSL certificates, security worthy of the name with anti-DDoS protection and malware, the ability to change your site’s IP, unlimited disk space, and a more than adequate configuration (48 GB of RAM and 12 CPU threads).
Like Hostinger and PlanetHoster, the web hosting offered by o2switch comes with a money-back guarantee. Here it is valid for 30 days.
If you want to entrust the hosting of your website to o2switch, remember to apply the promo code JG15 at the time of your order to obtain -15% on its unique offer. You will thus have access to one of the best web hosting of 2022, for just over €5 including tax/month.
Discover the unique o2switch offer
5) Ex2
Ex2 is not the most popular web host in our comparison. Indeed, as mentioned in our full review of Ex2, it turns out that this Canadian host only supports a few tens of thousands of sites. But is this a weak point?
For us not really and our tests have confirmed our thinking. The quality of service offered by Ex2 is more than adequate, which allows it to rank in the top 5 of the best web hosting.
Although the company is relatively “small”, you will find practically all possible and imaginable types of hosting: shared, WordPress, VPS, green hosting, reseller…
In addition to the wide variety of accommodations, Ex2 does not skimp on the means by giving access to a lot of advantages. This includes the provision of a free domain name and SSL certificate, the possibility of performing daily backups outside, or even the choice of the data center in which you wish your hosting to operate (USA, Canada, and of course France).
What about customer support? This is for us one of the other great strengths of Ex2. Due to the small size of its structure, you will be able to benefit from personalized customer support as close as possible to its customers. Support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can open a ticket or go through the live chat function to get help. In addition, a relatively extensive knowledge base is made available to all.
Before giving you an overview of the prices charged by Ex2, we would like to quickly tell you about the performance offered. They are a little worse than with the best hosts in our comparison, but overall they are still excellent. You can count on a substantial uptime and a low average loading time (provided that you also do what is necessary on your side by optimizing your site).
Visit the Ex2 website
As promised, here are the prices of the main accommodations offered by the Ex2 host. Do not hesitate to click on each of them to obtain more details.
6) OVH
OVH is certainly the most popular web host in France. It is indeed the leader in the French and European markets. But does he live up to the expectations that many places in him?
Well, as we were able to prove during our full OVH review, we found the Roubaix-based host to be a little behind. Especially when it comes to personal or small business use. Where OVH truly excels is in professional hosting. The host offers a fairly impressive variety of solutions.
To come back to the subject of performance and loading time, by opting for OVH, you will not have a web hosting as powerful as Hostinger. The average loading time will be higher, and above all, you will have access to far fewer features and benefits. This is the consideration for prices that are low (see the details below).
OVH ensures in any case that its accommodations are optimized for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or even PrestaShop. Through its different offers, you can host at least up to 5 sites and enjoy 100 GB of storage space. In addition, you will be entitled to a free domain name for one year. After that, you will have to pay every year to keep your domain name.
As for customer support, we cannot be gentle with it despite the position OVH occupies in our comparison of the best hosts. As an individual, you will have to deal with a response time that is far too long. And whether you open a ticket or call an OVH technical support agent.
This will work out if you have professional hosting with OVH or if you take a paid package that will guarantee you personalized customer support. We would have liked the level of service offered in these cases to be the same no matter what you pay… but that is not the case.
To sum up, if you are looking for shared hosting, it is better to turn to Hostinger or PlanetHoster. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a dedicated server or cloud hosting, it may be worth considering OVH.
- Shared hosting from €3.59/month
- VPS from €5.52/month
- A dedicated server from €56.99/month
How to find the best web host?
To establish the previous ranking, we paid attention to a lot of different aspects. Something you should also do on your side is to choose the right web hosting for your needs and expectations.
Discover a non-exhaustive list of the main points to take into account to find the best possible web hosting:
- Uptime (availability rate)
- Site speed (load time)
- Support client/Support technique
- The volume of traffic supported
- Prices
- Migration tool or service (in case you are already committed to another web host)
- Features offered (free domain name? Cache plugin? Free SSL certificate? Automated site installer?…)
Be aware that all the hosts listed in our comparison of the best web hosting in 2022 will not disappoint in the aspects listed. Now, some will turn out to be better in terms of performance, customer support, or even features offered. It will therefore be up to you to decide between them and to see which aspects you prefer.
What type of web hosting to choose?
Now that you know the names of the best web hosts, let’s take a look at the different types of hosting they offer. We will take this opportunity to give you in each of the categories (shared, WordPress, VPS, Cloud, dedicated server), the name of the host which turns out to be the reference in 2022.
In most cases, we recommend using shared hosting. This is the solution that will offer you the best value for money.
As its name suggests, shared hosting means that your website will be on the same server as other websites. A vast majority of sites available on the Internet do not need all the resources of a web server. As a result, hosts pool their infrastructure to optimize the use of their servers and lower costs for their customers.
Despite the many advantages, you should know that shared hosting, even if it is the best, comes with disadvantages. The main one is that potentially (it happens very rarely), your website can be negatively impacted (slow down or go offline) because another site hosted on the same server as yours is subject to a traffic spike. consequence or a DDoS attack (for example). It is therefore possible that your site may experience disruptions without it depending on you.
See Hostinger shared offers
Now as said above, this is something that happens very rarely and may be acceptable to many (if you have a small personal site or blog).
To sum up, shared hosting is the entry-level plan offered by the best web hosts. Even if it has flaws, it will make the greatest number happy.
Which host offers the best-shared web hosting? According to us, Hostinger with its Premium plan is available for only 2.89€/month.
The Best WordPress Hosting
If you are looking to create a blog or a site in a relatively simple way, it is more than recommended to opt for the CMS (content management system) WordPress. It is a reference in terms of ease of use and administration.
Are you in this case? If the answer is yes, it’s a good idea to consider using web hosting optimized for WordPress. On paper, this type of hosting looks like two drops of water to a shared plan.
Except that in fact, you will have access to some more than interesting advantages:
- Total optimization of your hosting for WordPress use
- Even easier installation process
- The dedicated support team for WordPress
- Automatic management of CMS updates
The only drawback is that WordPress hosting turns out to be, in general, a little more expensive than a shared offer.
Do you aim to create a website on WordPress capable of welcoming more than 15-20,000 visitors each month? So in this case, do not hesitate!
After testing a lot of solutions, the best WordPress hosting to start with is, according to our teams, Hostinger’s WordPress Starter plan. If you are aiming for 100,000+ visitors/month traffic for one or more sites, its Premium plan will suit you more.
See the WordPress Hostinger offer
The Best VPS Hosting
VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting is the evolution of shared hosting. This is the preferred solution if you see that your site traffic is increasing sharply and your current shared plan is no longer able to support such a load.
With a VPS, you will have access to dedicated resources and you will share a physical server with far fewer other customers compared to share. Thus, you will be able to enjoy better service stability, and very often, much better performance.
What is the best web host to subscribe to a VPS? Hostinger once again offers well above average value for money. However, we can not suggest a particular plan because it will depend exclusively on your needs. In any case, you will have a lot of choices and you will be able to change the whole thing very well over time.
See Hostinger VPS offers
The Best Cloud Hosting
Are you looking to create a substantial website or do you want to have an availability rate close to 100%? Cloud hosting will meet your expectations.
As a reminder, hosting your site on a Cloud infrastructure will use several servers. As a result, such web hosting will come with very different advantages from those offered by a shared plan:
- The sites of other customers will have no impact on yours. If ever one of them were to face a traffic spike, your cloud hosting will simply rely on other servers so as not to be impacted. The distribution of the load is done automatically and intelligently.
- The availability rate (uptime) of your site will be much better because you will benefit from redundancy between the servers that will host it.
- You will very easily be able to meet significant resource needs (if you ever expect a peak in traffic over a few hours/days/weeks). In a few clicks, you will be able to increase the power of your hosting, then bring it back to normal once the set is finished. The flexibility offered is maximum.
The downside to all of this is that cloud hosting is going to cost a lot more. And it doesn’t matter which host you trust.
The offer we recommend you consider in this context is PlanetHoster’s hybrid cloud. It is a reference in the field of web hosting based on cloud technology.
Discover HybridCloud PlanetHoster
The best-dedicated server
The last type of hosting we wanted to tell you about in this comparison as the best host is the dedicated server.
As its name suggests, this type of hosting will allow you to benefit from a server dedicated to your website(s). You won’t have to suffer the inconveniences that your “neighbors” could cause.
It is the cream of the crop when it comes to web hosting. But it is also its most expensive form.
Who is the use of a dedicated server for? To those with a site that generates more than 50,000 / 100,000 visitors per month, minimum. Traffic volume isn’t the only thing to consider.
By opting for a dedicated server, you will be the sole owner of your hosting. You will be able to set up the settings that you like or even use the technologies that best meet your expectations. In terms of flexibility, it will also be possible to add power (CPU, RAM, disk space) to the card.
Which web host do we recommend to get the best-dedicated server? The hybrid cloud plan proposed by PlanetHoster seems to us to offer the best compromise. The latter is available from €49.99/month and will offer you maximum flexibility.
Discover HybridCloud PlanetHoster
Our advice: ignore free web hosts
Before concluding this article presenting the best web hosting of 2022, we would like to give you one last piece of advice: avoid free web hosts, they are not worth it, no matter what your goals and desires are.
When creating a website, it is important not to try to save money on the side of web hosting. It is the centerpiece of a site capable of attracting visitors and positioning itself as it should on search engines.
Free web hosting is only going to be suitable for someone who is looking to learn how such a service works, or who only needs to create a site with one or two pages. Even in the latter case, if you want your site to look professional, it is better to opt for a cheap web host (it will cost you between 1.49€/month and 3.00€/month).
To discover all the disadvantages and shortcomings of such a solution, we recommend that you read our comparison of the best free web hosting. You will find all the details about this type of service.
Conclusion
As always, you must first consider the needs and objectives you have for your website(s) when choosing a host from whom to take web hosting.
If you are still struggling to know which plan and type of hosting to turn to, here is a quick recap of the situation:
- For the creation of a blog or a personal site, the “Premium” shared hosting offered by Hostinger offers the best quality/price ratio, an automated installation tool, as well as great ease of use. This is our #1 recommendation.
- If your website already generates more than 15 to 20,000 visits per month, Hostinger’s Business plan should give you the necessary guarantees without costing you too much.
- Do you want to create an E-Commerce site using WordPress (and WooCommerce)? PlanetHoster’s The World hosting will provide you with everything you need. You can also use it to create an online store on PrestaShop or Magento.
- Finally, for more professional use (web agency, for example), PlanetHoster’s HybridCloud plan will meet your needs with large storage space and the possibility of upgrading the whole thing easily.
The most important thing is that your web hosting guarantees you a fast loading time, a consistent uptime, as well as maximum security against possible dangers and attacks.
Although many don’t consider technical support to be important when choosing a web host, it will help you get help quickly if you have a problem or question. So don’t neglect it!
We remind you once again that you will find all this with all the web hosting that we had the opportunity to present to you in our comparison. Especially with the top 3 hosts.
Do you have doubts about which web host to choose? Do not hesitate to try. Whether with Hostinger, PlanetHoster, or Infomaniak, you have the right to a money-back guarantee. By proceeding in this way, you will be able to see for yourself which web hosting best meets your expectations.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is website hosting?
Hosting a website is the fact of deploying your site (as well as all the files, images that make it up) on a server (which will be located in a datacenter). This will allow you to make it accessible to everyone on the Internet, all without any interruption.
What is the best web host in 2022?
The best web host currently available on the French-speaking market is Hostinger. No matter what type of hosting you are looking for, you will find what you need with him, all at fair prices and with the guarantee of excellent performance.
Which accommodation to choose?
You don’t know which type of web hosting to turn to to host your site? It must be said that the choice is really substantial: shared hosting, WordPress, VPS, Cloud, dedicated… Unfortunately, there is no good answer to this question. Everything will depend on your needs and the number of visitors you expect on your website. For more details on this, read our complete guide to choosing the right web hosting. Spoiler: if you are just starting out, choosing shared web hosting is still the best decision.
Why do you need to “host” a website?
For the simple and good reason that it is a mandatory step if you want to make your website accessible to anyone. Without web hosting to host your site, it will not be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Why do we say this? Well because it is quite possible to host your site on your computer… except that as soon as it is turned off, needs to be updated, or even restarted, your site will become inaccessible. This is the reason why it is essential to host your site with a professional service and ensure an irreproachable quality of service. In addition, the performance that you can guarantee to your visitors/customers will be much better. You will find what you need by consulting our comparison of reference web hosts in 2022.