7 Best eCommerce Hosting Providers for Malaysia in 2024 (Cost, How to Choose, Shared)

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The best eCommerce web hosts offer high speeds, reliability, and robust security features to keep both your customers and your business operations safe. They’re fantastically compatible with all the major eCommerce platforms and content management systems (CMSs), are scalable as your business grows, and come competitively priced.

This article shortlists the 7 best hosts that offer eCommerce hosting. We dive into each host’s server performance, their key unique selling points, limitations, plans and pricing. We then explain what eCommerce hosting is, exactly how necessary it is for eCommerce websites and how much it costs. We then explore how to choose an eCommerce host, whether shared hosting is sufficient, and explain the role of PCI compliance in hosting. Hostinger emerged as our top recommended eCommerce host.

Hostinger has managed to make it on our ‘best eCommerce web host’ list for a few years in a row. They first caught our attention for their affordable plans, but it’s in recent years that they’ve really outshone the competition in other areas too.

Hostinger’s performance

To test their server performance, we set up 3 premium accounts on Hostinger (with test sites on their Singapore, Netherlands and US datacenters, read our in-depth Hostinger review here for details).

Average Speed: 136 ms (US Datacenter) – See full result

When put through our speed test tool, Hostinger scored an A+ ranking – the highest grade there is! And because they have 10 data centers for you to host from around the world, your customers can expect seriously fast speeds regardless of the region they’re based in.

eCommerce owners will also appreciate Hostinger’s very own, recently launched, flexible drag-and-drop website builder.

In short – expect fast server speeds, a great global support team and industry-leading premium eCommerce features, at an affordable price point.

In all – nicely well-balanced hosting.

What we didn’t like about Hostinger

One limitation of Hostinger is that the lowest introductory price requires a 48-month commitment, though the 12-month price is also quite reasonable. They also do not offer phone support, providing assistance only through a ticket system.

Hostinger plans and features

Their VPS hosting plans start from RM15.71/mo. We’d recommend their VPS 2, which starts at a very reasonable RM22.46/mo – though mind that’s for the 4-year plan.

TMDHosting is a host from Orlando, Florida in the United States. It excels in delivering high-quality eCommerce hosting solutions that are affordable for a range of business budgets. They also offer specialized features and resource allocations tailored to support dynamic online stores.

TMDHosting’s performance

TMDHosting’s performance is fantastic and it uses cloud infrastructure and CloudLinux all-SSD RAID-10 servers to ensure high availability and fast speeds. This is crucial for eCommerce sites where page loading and transaction speeds are critical. Their global network of data centers are located in strategic locations like the USA, UK, Netherlands, Singapore, Australia, and Japan. This allows your website to perform optimally no matter where your customers are since you simply host from the data center that is closest to your audience. They also offer an uptime guarantee of 99.9% to ensure your website stays open for business at all times.

Average Speed: 126.8 ms (US Datacenter) – See full result

TMDHosting also offers robust eCommerce features. Their free Weebly site builder includes eCommerce templates and the ability to install popular eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce, Magento, and PrestaShop in one-click. Users also get managed services like automated updates, as well as staging and cloning tools. All of these are accessible via cPanel. Read our TMDHosting article for more information on the brand.

What we didn’t like about TMDHosting

One downside of TMDHosting is that their entry-level plan lacks automatic backups, which are only available in higher-tier plans. While they offer very competitive introductory rates, these prices increase significantly upon renewal, and you must subscribe to a yearly plan to unlock their lowest prices.

TMDHosting plans and features

We recommend TMD’s Business plan because it offers features like 100GB SSD storage, and unlimited bandwidth, websites, and emails. eCommerce stores needing more power have the option to avail of their VPS and dedicated server plans.

GreenGeeks focuses on environmentally responsible services without sacrificing performance or features. Their commitment to sustainability is evident as they match 300% of their energy use with renewable energy credits. This makes them a popular choice for eco-conscious eCommerce site owners and also gives them a competitive green edge.

GreenGeeks’ performance

GreenGeeks’s performance is great and consistently delivers fast loading times thanks to their use of LiteSpeed web servers and advanced built-in caching. They also provide a free Cloudflare CDN which enhances speed and security globally.

Average Speed: 118.6 ms (US Datacenter) – See full result

GreenGeeks also offers free SSL certificates for secure transactions, nightly backups for data protection, and scalable resources to support business growth. Read our GreenGeeks article for more information on the brand.

What we didn’t like about GreenGeeks

While GreenGeeks provide phone support, their phone support hours are limited, which may be inconvenient for those who prefer immediate voice communication. Additionally, their prices increase significantly upon renewal, which is an important consideration for potential users.

GreenGeeks plans and features

GreenGeeks’ Pro plan has features that make it our recommended choice for eCommerce businesses. It’s priced at RM22.28 per month. It comes with unlimited websites, storage, bandwidth, and email accounts to accommodate growing online stores. A free domain and free nightly backups are also included.

For a relatively unknown web host, A2 offers a striking value proposition.

The more we read into the long lists of features it offers, the more we became sure it deserves a place on this list.

A2 Hosting’s performance

Out of all their plans, A2’s Turbo plan was the one that caught our eye. It’s supercharged for speed in every way.

As of a 2021 update, this plan proudly utilises cutting-edge Turbo AMD EPYC Servers web hosting servers, said to load sites up to 20x quicker than standard servers. When we put this to the test, our test site on their Turbo plan also scored an A+ on our speed test, with an average response time of 169.5ms.

Fast – but admittedly not the fastest out of the hosts we tested (read up on all the juicy details in our full review here)

Average Speed: 149.8 ms – See full result

Still, A2 certainly seems to offer a LOT of things under the Turbo plan.

The 3 different options of caching are just the beginning. Not to mention you’ll get Hackscan (a very decent all-inclusive security protection), or the fact their e-commerce apps come A2 Optimized, meaning they’re configured to load pages faster and more securely.

Now, what we loved most about A2 was its very impressive list of ‘unlimited’ offerings under a low price tag.

We’re talking unlimited email addresses, websites, total databases, storage and transfers – as well as unlimited subdomains, parked domains and addon domains. You won’t even need to pay for SSL as they include a free Let’s Encrypt SSL option.

That’s a ton of unlimited value and a decent amount of room for you to grow.

All this, at a reasonable price, makes A2 a feature-rich solution for owners of small to medium e-commerce sites.

What we didn’t like about A2 Hosting

While A2 advertise ‘unlimited’ resources, this isn’t entirely accurate. In a shared hosting environment, resources are divided to ensure that no site uses more than its fair share, and if your site exceeds its limits, the web host may impose restrictions that can impact performance.

Additionally, their support can be slow; in our experience, we’ve waited between 5 to 40 minutes to connect to live chat, and other reviews report similar delays or multiple attempts needed to reach support.

A2 Hosting plans and features

Introductory prices for their shared hosting options start at RM13.46 (36-mo contract) for their Startup plan.

They also offer VPS hosting (managed and unmanaged), dedicated hosting and reseller hosting.

SiteGround is one of our absolute favourite hosts, hands-down.

Founded in 2004, they’ve won plenty of accolades since. Most notedly, an endorsement by WordPress themselves!

SiteGround’s performance

Though it’s tricky to decide which standout USP to shout about, we feel SiteGround’s biggest strength is that they offer premium hosting that’s perfect for growing business websites.

To test the speed of SiteGround’s servers (which run on speed-enhancing SSD disks), we set up a separate test site hosted on their GrowBig plan and put it through our trusty Bitcatcha speed tool.

The result: an A+ rating with an amazing average response time of 136.9 ms!

Average Speed: 136.9 ms – See full result

In practice, loading times would be sped up even more by activating their Cloudflare CDN and premium SuperCacher (built by their own engineers and said to boost load times up to 4x).

Fellow users on the GrowBig plan also enjoy premium priority support by chat or ticket. We’ve always been very impressed by the promptness of their support team, who can be contacted 24/7 by phone, chat and ticket.

On top of that, SiteGround offers 99.9% uptime guarantee, and our test sites suggest that they do walk the talk.

We’d say SiteGround is a great pick for sites that have a slightly bigger budget, or require more premium features. They’re an excellent host, and if you can afford SiteGround, you really can’t go wrong with them. To learn more, read our full SiteGround review.

What we didn’t like about SiteGround

One disadvantage of SiteGround is that you should expect to pay a bit more for domain name registration. Additionally, there is a huge jump in prices upon renewal, which is something to be aware of when budgeting.

SiteGround plans and features

We’d recommend their GrowBig shared hosting plan, and then later scaling up when necessary.

Next, meet Kinsta – a managed WordPress host that’s been around since 2013.

Kinsta’s performance

The first thing you need to know about it is that it’s powered by Google Cloud.

This gives it an interesting edge over most of the competition, and helps put Kinsta near the top of our list of favourite ecommerce hosting.

Even better, Kinsta runs off Google Cloud’s Premium Tier. This lets users tap into the highest levels of performance, speed and security of what’s already a leading brand in cloud hosting. It also gives them 29 data centre locations to pick from!

So, it came as no surprise to us that it’s extremely FAST.

We played around with a test site and put it through our speed checker. It scored an A+ rating, with an average response time of 179.5ms (you can read our full Kinsta review here). Very respectable!

Average Speed: 179.5 ms – See full result

And that’s before implementing their very impressive KinstaCDN, for which they partner with Cloudflare – one of the largest content delivery networks in the world! You’ll be able to turbocharge their media to audiences around the world, at no extra cost.

It’s this same cloud architecture that puts Kinsta’s no-downtime technology in a league of its own.

Big traffic surge? No problem. With Kinsta, your website’s container simply scales dramatically to as many CPUs as needed. Your site should stay up and running and you just need to pay the overage fee.

Compare this to shared or VPS hosting, where a sudden traffic spike can bring down your site. No wonder Kinsta also has a SLA-backed 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Their Google Cloud infrastructure also makes Kinsta super scalable. If you need more bandwidth, you can seamlessly upgrade your plan. No complicated migrations to another server or host. Simply pay the next tier up.

With such speed and scaling advantages, we think Kinsta is a great option for large or fast-growing enterprises who want to make sure they’re always open for business.

What we didn’t like about Kinsta

Kinsta has several drawbacks, including being more expensive than many competitors and not including a domain name. They also do not offer phone support.

Additionally, as Kinsta is a managed WordPress host, you’re limited to using WordPress e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce.

Kinsta plans and features

Kinsta’s plans start from RM157.50 a month (1-year rate) for their Starter plan, and go up considerably by tier.

DreamHost is one of those big-name hosts with more years of experience than most. If that’s not indicator enough that these guys know what they’re doing – they’ve also got an official endorsement from WordPress themselves!

DreamHost’s performance

This vote of confidence makes sense when you look at DreamHost’s speed performance. They’ve continually invested a lot into optimizing their SSD servers (said to be twice as fast as HDDs), and have impressive response times to show for it.

To check, we set up 2 test sites on DreamHost and ran them through our trusty speed checker. The results blew us away: not only did they score an A+ ranking, they were officially the host with the fastest average response time on this list! Just take a look.

US (Virginia) Datacenter Average Speed: 118.4 ms – See full result

Since their datacentres are both in the US, speeds are particularly zippy if you’re accessing the site nearby – we recorded 2-3ms from the East Coast. As expected, speeds got slower in regions further away, with the slowest location being Singapore at 242 ms.

But they’re not just speed demons. They offer features that are ideal for eCommerce – from a great range of security features, to an impressive 100% uptime guarantee (outshining most hosts who promise 99.9%) to help make sure your store stays online and earning. They even throw in a free drag-and-drop WordPress website builder, so even total beginners can get their business online fast. Score! Feel free to read our complete DreamHost review.

What we didn’t like about DreamHost

DreamHost data centers are located only in the US, making it less ideal for those with audiences in other parts of the world, such as Asia or Oceania. Their live chat support is limited to 5:30 AM to 9:30 PM Pacific Time, although they do offer a 24/7 ticketing system.

DreamHost plans and features

All accounts come with unlimited bandwidth. We’d recommend their Shared Unlimited account, which comes packed with value and allows you to manage more than 1 website. However, if you’ve just the one website – the Shared Starter should suit you fine.

What Is eCommerce Hosting?

eCommerce hosting, also known as online store hosting, is a type of web hosting designed to provide the infrastructure and tools necessary for businesses to set up and run their online stores. Web hosting is the necessary service that stores your website files and allows your eCommerce site to be accessible online to customers around the world.

eCommerce hosting is best seen as a subset of web hosting that focuses on empowering businesses to make a profit online via the eCommerce model. It does this by supporting integrations with essential tools like shopping cart software, inventory management systems, customer relationship management (CRM) platforms and popular payment gateways. eCommerce hosts also provide the server resources to manage content-heavy product pages and important security features. Similar to eCommerce platforms, eCommerce hosting ultimately helps your business upkeep a fast and professional online shopping environment that encourages repeat visits from your customers.

eCommerce Hosting vs eCommerce Platform: What Is the Difference?

The difference between eCommerce hosting and an eCommerce platform is that eCommerce hosting is the service provided by web hosts that’s optimized to support eCommerce businesses, whilst eCommerce platforms are software for creating and managing online stores. eCommerce hosting is chosen when businesses want more optimized server space, technology, and performance. eCommerce platforms are chosen when convenience is prioritized.

Is eCommerce Hosting Necessary for Starting eCommerce Websites?

Yes, eCommerce hosting is necessary for starting eCommerce websites. It offers optimized performance, specialized features, and eCommerce-focused support that enables business owners to build a strong foundation for their online success. eCommerce-tailored packages are especially helpful for aspiring entrepreneurs who are creating their first startup and unsure of the exact server resources they need. This is why securing reputable eCommerce hosting is always the first step we recommend in the process of creating an eCommerce site.

What Is the Cost of eCommerce Website Hosting?

The cost of eCommerce website hosting ranges from RM15.71 to RM157.50 per month. This price range gives you access to eCommerce-optimized shared, VPS (Virtual Private Server), and cloud hosting options. Shared hosting is a cost-effective option where multiple websites share the same server resources. VPS hosting is a more expensive type that provides dedicated resources within a shared server for higher performance and control. Cloud hosting distributes your website across multiple servers for better scalability and reliability and this typically makes it more expensive.

What Makes a Cheap eCommerce Hosting?

A cheap eCommerce hosting plan is priced below RM45 per month. This commonly provides access to fast SSD (Solid State Drive) or NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) storage, a free domain name and a free SSL certificate. Also look out for essential security features like firewall and DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) protection.

Can I Use Free eCommerce Hosting?

No, you cannot use free eCommerce hosting as this is likely to undermine your long-term business growth. Free eCommerce hosting services have subpar performance compared to paid hosting options and this harms your website’s functionality, brand reputation, and negatively impacts sales. A poor-performing website frustrates customers with slow load times. Free hosting also lacks the server resources needed to handle higher traffic during busy sales periods.

How Do I Choose an eCommerce Host?

Choose an eCommerce host by ensuring it meets 6 criteria. The first is fast host speed. Prioritize hosts that use distributed data centers and ensure that the geographical region of your audience is covered. Also look for CDN (Content Delivery Network) services, and proprietary caching technology for faster content delivery.

The second is reliability. Choose a host that guarantees at least 99% uptime to ensure your eCommerce site stays open for business. This needs to be supported by 24/7 customer service and a qualified team of experts.

The third is strong security. Opt for a host that provides essential security features, including free SSL certificates (Secure Sockets Layer). SSL certificates encrypt sensitive data and boost customer trust by securing eCommerce transactions. Also look for proactive monitoring, and automatic daily backups.

The fourth is wide software compatibility. Ensure the host supports essential eCommerce software, such as Magento, Prestashop, or WooCommerce. Convenience features like cPanel with Softaculous or other robust app installers are also important.

The fifth is scalability. Look for a host that offers flexible options from shared hosting for small sites to VPS, dedicated servers, or cloud solutions as traffic increases. Easy upgrades for additional storage and bandwidth are crucial.

The sixth is value for money. This helps you protect your eCommerce profitability. Evaluate the value of the hosting plan, including email hosting, free domain registration, and extra storage or bandwidth.

What Makes the Best eCommerce Host for WordPress eCommerce?

The best eCommerce host for WordPress eCommerce offers specialized WooCommerce hosting plans. WooCommerce is a WordPress plug-in that specializes in adding eCommerce functionality to WordPress. The best WooCommerce hosting plans include managed services, WooCommerce automated testing, performance monitoring, and a dedicated WooCommerce support team.

What Makes the Best eCommerce Host for Magento?

The best eCommerce host for Magento provides specialized Magento hosting plans. These Magento hosting plans include managed services, compatibility with both Magento 1 and 2, Elasticsearch support, and a dedicated Magento support team to ensure your store runs smoothly and efficiently.

Is Shared Hosting Good for eCommerce?

Yes, shared hosting is a good option for eCommerce websites, particularly for smaller businesses or those just starting out. Shared hosting is a type of web hosting where multiple websites share the same server resources bandwidth, storage, and CPU power. It’s a cost-effective solution for eCommerce entrepreneurs looking to protect their margins since it helps keep monthly or annual overheads low.

Keep in mind that while shared hosting is budget-friendly, its performance is impacted by the number of websites sharing the server. One website on the server using excessive resources slows down your eCommerce site or even causes it to go offline. Luckily, reputable shared hosting providers manage their servers well by not overselling server space. This ensures consistent performance for all users on that server.

Are eCommerce Hosts PCI Compliant?

Yes, reputable eCommerce hosts are PCI compliant. PCI compliance refers to adherence to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which sets security guidelines to protect credit card information during and after transactions. This compliance is crucial for eCommerce hosting because it ensures that your online store securely processes online payments and safeguards customer data.

Which Is the Best eCommerce Hosting Provider?

The best eCommerce hosting provider meets the critical needs of your online store, including your requirements for performance, security, scalability, and support. Priorities vary depending on your business size.

Determine the best eCommerce host for your needs by considering the quality of their offerings, such as SSD storage, SSL certificates, and strong customer support. The top eCommerce hosting providers offer features tailored to eCommerce, including dedicated resources and optimized server environments.

All the eCommerce hosting providers we reviewed meet these essential criteria. Our top choice is Hostinger because it combines advanced security features, robust performance, and specialized support at competitive prices. We recommend their WooCommerce hosting plans for WordPress users and their Magento hosting plans for more complex eCommerce setups. Here’s a final recap of our top 7:

	Hostinger	TMDHosting	GreenGeeks	A2 Hosting	SiteGround	Kinsta	DreamHost
Hosting plan	VPS 1	Business	Pro	Turbo Boost	Growbig	Starter	Shared Unlimited
Storage	20GB SSD	100GB SSD	Unlimited	Unlimited	20GB SSD	20GB SSD	Unlimited
Avg. Global Speed	136 ms	126.8 ms	118.6 ms	149.8 ms	136.9 ms	179.5 ms	118.4 ms
Uptime	99.9%	99.9%	99.9%	99.9%	99.9%	99.9%	100%
Money-back Guarantee	30 days	30 days	30 days	30 days	30 days	30 days	97 days
Starting price /mo*	RM15.71 (48-mo plan)	RM22.46	RM22.28	RM31.46 (36-mo plan)	RM30.11	RM157.50	RM13.28
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