9 Best Web Hosting UK Services in 2024 (GDPR Compliant and FAST!)

Trying to choose the best web host for a UK website? We’re glad you’re here. An excellent host is the foundation of any good website, so it’s important to choose well.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the world of web hosting. There are hundreds of brands out there vying for your attention. To spare you time and heartache, our team’s written up this handy guide especially for UK websites – whether you’re targeting an audience that’s within the UK, Europe, or worldwide.

Since 2014, we have been recording performance data from over 45 web hosting brands we’ve bought and tested first-hand. We believe the 9 brands shortlisted here are fantastic for UK websites: GDPR compliant, features aplenty, and all of them with response times of less than 191 ms in London – fast!

Hostinger stood out to us as the best host for UK websites. But by the end of this guide, you should have a strong understanding of what to look for, and how to pick the host that best fits your use case.

Hostinger is a Lithuanian web hosting company, spread across 7 regions, that include the UK and the Netherlands. So again, you’ve got the option between the two.

There’s one thing about Hostinger that secures it a spot in most of our top-hosts lists…

It’s so dang affordable!

Their Single web hosting plan starts from an unbelievable £1.49/mo. Fancy going large? Even their Premium plan starts from only £2.59 (at 48-months rate).

Does a low price mean a dodgy deal? Not at all! With their impressive features, global presence and wallet-friendly pricing, we think Hostinger’s place as the #1 best web host is well earned.

Hostinger performance

We ran it through Bitcatcha’s server speed checker and the numbers spoke for themselves.

Average Speed: 141.3 ms – See full result

Our test site is actually already hosted from their Netherlands server, however the numbers still blew us away!

The London response time was 9 ms.

Bear in mind this would likely be even quicker if you chose to host from the UK. However, we’re pretty happy knowing that this host offers the option to switch between Amsterdam and the UK, should Brexit cause any issue later down the road.

It scored another A+ rating with an average speed of 141.3 ms.

Hostinger features and pricing

In fact – all of Hostinger’s plans come packed with plenty of premium features, and start at a very low introductory price if you opt for their longer plans. For our tests, we went with their Premium Shared plan that starts at £2.59/mo for a 48 month plan.

Great speed and low prices aren’t the only things that qualify Hostinger as a true value-for-money web host.

They’re a very experienced company that knows the industry well. They’ve helped serve over 29 million clients to date!

What’s more? Hostinger users are protected by a 99.9% uptime guarantee, a Bitninja security suite, and you’ll manage everything from their custom, user-friendly hPanel interface. You’ll also get a free SSL cert on their business hosting plan.

Sure, there are some functions missing, like CDN and daily backups. But Hostinger definitely gives you great value for what you’re getting, and is a great option for anyone on a budget getting started. Read our complete Hostinger review to find out more.

Hostinger customer support

Hostinger’s customer service is another big reason we enjoy using their hosting services. They offer support 24/7 over live chat, and from our experience, provide almost instantaneous responses to our queries on there.

What’s even better, they currently run 4 support centers that serve over 20 countries in their native languages – much more than what most hosts offer. We just really wish they offered phone support – since it’s likely that some people may prefer talking to a real human on the phone to solve issues.

What we didn’t like about Hostinger

Hostinger’s introductory prices are really affordable BUT there’s a catch to it; you’ll be tied down to a contract of 48 months. A lot can happen in 4 years, and we’re not sure if we’re willing to be tied down for so long.

Pros and cons of Hostinger

TMDHosting was founded in 2007 and is based in the United States. They provide a variety of web hosting services focusing on rapid service delivery and robust security.

TMDHosting’s emphasis on security and reliable hosting carries across into their privacy policy. They have a solid privacy policy on their website that outlines certain GDPR-specifics and they encourage UK customers to direct any specific GDPR-related questions to their TMDHosting Data Protection Officer.

TMDHosting performance

TMDHosting excels in performance and our test site returned a global average server response time of 126.8 ms. This earned them an A+ rating on the Bitcatcha Server Speed Checker.

Average Speed: 126.8 ms – See full result

They also returned a fantastic 91ms server response time from London despite this test site being hosted on their Chicago data center in the United States. The even better news is that TMDHosting operates 6 data centers around the world including one in London. Hosting from this server is particularly effective for UK-based clients because it offers optimized speeds within a GDPR-compliant framework.

Another bonus is that TMDHosting utilizes CloudLinux servers and fast SSD storage for their shared hosting plans, which enables customers to enjoy the enhanced reliability and speed of cloud hosting at an affordable price.

TMDHosting features and pricing

TMDHosting’s features and pricing are attractive with their Starter shared hosting plan priced at £2.39 per month. This includes 50GB of SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, and a free domain for the first year. It also offers robust security features including free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates, an advanced firewall, and DDoS protection. Additionally, all plans uphold a 99.9% uptime guarantee. These security enhancements are essential for upholding site integrity and trust which is especially important under the strict guidelines of GDPR. Read our complete TMDHosting review to find out more.

TMDHosting customer support

TMDHosting’s customer support is very responsive and they have a 15-minute response time guarantee. Support is available around the clock through live chat, phone, and support tickets.

What we didn’t like about TMDHosting

We didn’t like that TMDHosting’s cheapest plans lack daily backups. Backups are an important part of keeping business websites safe and including these backups would greatly enhance the plan’s value.

Pros and cons of TMDHosting

GreenGeeks was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in California. It prides itself on being a green web hosting leader. It upholds a 300% green energy match by purchasing credits and planting a tree for every GreenGeeks plan purchased.

GreenGeeks also takes GDPR seriously and has published articles on its website outlining how GDPR affects your website. They also recently released an update to the GreenGeeks dashboard to make it easier to request your account records and delete profiles as per GDPR privacy requirements.

GreenGeeks performance

GreenGeeks boasts impressive performance metrics, with an average global response time of 118 ms. They scored an A+ ranking on our Bitcatcha Server Speed Checker which ensures fast service delivery worldwide.

Average Speed: 118.6 ms – See full result

GreenGeeks also recorded a fast 86 ms in London despite our test site being hosted on their US data center. We recommend hosting from their data center in London itself to unlock even faster speeds if you are targeting UK-based clients.

Another bonus is that TMDHosting utilizes CloudLinux servers and fast SSD storage for their shared hosting plans, which enables customers to enjoy the enhanced reliability and speed of cloud hosting at an affordable price.

GreenGeeks features and pricing

GreenGeeks’ Lite plan is designed to offer essential hosting capabilities at an affordable entry cost of just £2.36. The plan includes 50GB SSD storage, unmetered data transfer, free domain, free CDN for improved global reach, and built-in caching for enhanced website performance. You also get a free domain for the first year, a 99.9% uptime guarantee and nightly data backups. Read our complete GreenGeeks review to find out more.

GreenGeeks customer support

GreenGeeks is recognized for its responsive customer support, available through live chat, email and phone. Their support team is quick to assist with queries, typically responding within minutes, ensuring effective problem resolution and customer satisfaction.

What we didn’t like about GreenGeeks

We didn’t like that GreenGeeks’ phone support is not 24/7. It’s only available during the hours of 2PM – 5AM GMT time (9 AM to 12 AM EST). This doesn’t quite align with working hours in the UK and customers must rely on their live chat and email if they require support outside of these hours.

Pros and cons of GreenGeeks

SiteGround specialise in high-quality offerings, speeds, and service that we think is ideal for larger businesses around the world. Today, they have data centers in 6 locations across 4 regions, including one right here in London!

SiteGround performance

But how fast are they really? We hosted a test site on their GrowBig plan to get some official numbers and the result was a VERY solid A+ ranking.

Average Speed: 148.7 ms – See full result

With an average response time of 148.7 ms, SiteGround is impressively fast. It pinged a blistering 4 ms from London, which means very zippy speeds if your audience is based in the UK.

These numbers make sense when you consider that SiteGround runs on speed-enhancing SSD drives. They also recently made the move to the Google Cloud platform, providing users with Google’s state-of-the-art security, reliability, and speeds. Not to mention they also throw in free Cloudflare CDN and premium SuperCacher into their plans!

SiteGround features and pricing

SiteGround offers a range of plans for a range of users.

The GrowBig plan is fairly priced at only £3.99 a month, and comes packed with goodies, which boost your server speed and overall efficiency. Their SuperCacher boosts site load speed up to 4x quicker, you get to enjoy free daily backups, free priority support and free restores!

Aside from that, SiteGround is very reliable. Their 99.9% uptime guarantee is bolstered by a great security suite to protect you from malware and those dreaded data breaches that are a GDPR nightmare. In fact – when they became fully GDPR compliant in 2018, they adapted their Privacy Policy and listed out their Data Processing Agreement (DPA), which regulates their responsibilities as a host and helps clients run their own GDPR compliant sites.

The downside? Obviously, price. SiteGround’s renewal prices are quite expensive. Be mentally prepared to pay more than double the introductory prices to renew the contract. Is it worth it? We think so. Overall, SiteGround delivers high quality on all fronts and excellent speeds whether your audience is based in the UK, or beyond. Read our in-depth SiteGround review to learn more.

SiteGround customer support

SiteGround offers support via 24/7 Live Chat, ticketing, and also the phone. We’ve consistently found SiteGround’s team to be extremely capable, and used their Live Chat extensively. The wait is never long, and our problems were usually resolved very quickly. Users on their GrowBig plan or above get access to their 30-day priority support.

What we didn’t like about SiteGround

Whilst their ‘recommended’ GrowBig plan starts at £3.99/mo, it jumps up significantly to £19.99/mo upon renewal. That’s pretty expensive compared to the others on this list, and not everyone may have that kind of budget. Be sure to maximize your subscription period to take advantage of their 53% – 63% introductory discount!

Pros and cons of SiteGround

Fact: Kinsta is a managed WordPress host.

What’s more important to know? Kinsta’s services are powered by Google Cloud’s premium network.

That means users have access to the highest levels of performance, speed and security of Google – who is already one of the leaders in the cloud networking industry.

We’ll get into how this directly benefits you in a sec.

Kinsta performance

We whipped up a test site using their Starter shared hosting plan. The results?

Average Speed: 179.5 ms – See full result

Yes, another solid A+! With an average speed of 179.5 ms.

Best of all – they have a London data center that pinged an amazing 10 ms. That means UK audiences should definitely enjoy top speeds.

Since it leverages off 30+ Google Cloud server locations, Kinsta has a nearby server in London. You’ve got another 9 options in Europe, including Zurich, Madrid, Frankfurt, the Netherlands, and Milan. Shifting between them is just a matter of opening up a support ticket. It’s definitely the most flexible host in this aspect.

Kinsta features and pricing

Kinsta easily provides one of the best Managed WordPress Hosting solutions in the scene. Sign up, build your site, and let the Kinsta team take over from there as they manage your updates and monitor for security flaws.

Features are plentiful, you get daily backups, your uptime is guaranteed, and you get software like Kinsta CDN to turbo-charge your site. That said – Kinsta is a premium WordPress host. And that comes with premium pricing.

What about GDPR? Well. Encryption isn’t mandatory to GDPR, however comes strongly recommended. Thanks to Google Cloud Platform, all data is encrypted at rest. Kinsta has even built their own WordPress cookie consent plugin that lets users choose which types of cookies to opt in on, which helps websites guarantee legal compliance.

So out of all the hosts on this list, Kinsta seems to be the one that goes above and beyond for GDPR compliance.

Kinsta users will also enjoy other benefits from its cloud architecture that many typical shared or VPS hosts can’t offer.

For example, you’ll get great protection against traffic surges. In the event of a spike, your website’s container simply scales to as many CPUs as you need.

Similarly, if your site starts to outgrow your current bandwidth allowances, there’s no need to migrate to another server type or host. Just pay the next tier up! Learn more at our full Kinsta review.

Kinsta customer support

Kinsta offers 24/7 support via the Intercom widget. But more importantly – their support team is amazing. It’s composed entirely of veteran WordPress developers and Linux hosting engineers, so the level of tech support is pretty hard to match. You won’t be bouncing between level 1 or level 2 support reps – you’ll always be talking to real experts. From direct experience, every query we sent was replied to in under 3 minutes.

What we didn’t like about Kinsta

Among all the featured brands on this list, Kinsta is the most expensive. You’ll have to ask yourself if YOU yourself are looking for this degree of support, and resources. It’s a great fit to owners serious about growing traffic, and wanting a fully-managed solution that’s fully GDPR compliant.

Also – they don’t offer phone support. At that price point, you’d think that Kinsta would be able to at least provide weekday phone support for their clients.

Pros and cons of Kinsta

ScalaHosting is one of the more experienced web hosting companies on this list, and it shows. Having been around for more than a decade, they’ve been quietly innovating and improving, earning them loyal customers that see value in their services.

ScalaHosting performance

They’ve only got 2 data centers (one in Dallas, USA, while the other is in Bulgaria, Europe). Although the servers aren’t exactly located here in the UK, they still performed pretty well considering the distance.

Average Speed: 158.7 ms – See full result

With 43 ms response time pinged from London, the A+ ranked web hosting provider is not one to be trifled with.

ScalaHosting features and pricing

Feature-wise, ScalaHosting offers quite a lot of value for customers.

They’ve brought out the big guns in terms of features, which is great at making the customer feel like they’re getting more than they’ve paid for.

We could spend days talking about their features. Free migration, free domains, free SSL, 7-day automatic backup, free CDN… ScalaHosting offers all these and more, but we can get these features easily from other providers too.

What stood out for us while using ScalaHosting is their SPanel. It’s only available on their managed VPN plan, and quite honestly, we feel that this alone is worth the price.

Wholly owned and developed by Scala, SPanel is a solid alternative to cPanel, with all of the perks (plus a little extra) and none of the drawbacks.

Aside from being able to do everything that cPanel can, SPanel comes with SShield (able to halt 99.998% of all cyber attacks) and SWordPress Manager (which allows you to control almost anything WordPress admin related directly from the SPanel control panel).

It’s also fully compatible with cPanel, so issues with site migrations are now…non-issues.

With prices starting from a measly £3.16 a month, ScalaHosting provides users with reliable web hosting, fast speeds, and perks aplenty. Read our thorough ScalaHosting review for more information.

ScalaHosting customer support

ScalaHosting offers award-winning 24/7 support via Live Chat and ticketing. They claim that that’s why their customers stay with them for 7 years on average.

What we didn’t like about ScalaHosting

SSD storage is pretty much a must in every web hosting provider these days, but ScalaHosting only provides it fully in their VPS plans. If you intend to use their shared hosting plan, your audience won’t get to enjoy the performance benefits usually associated with SSD.

They also don’t come with a website builder – if they did, they’ll probably be higher on this list!

Pros and cons of ScalaHosting

DreamHost is a world-famous hosting brand that’s been around since 1997. They offer a huge range of hosting options, from shared and VPS, to managed WordPress hosting.

DreamHost performance

After reading around, we decided to try out their Unlimited Shared plan with its promises of lots of ‘unlimited’ features. We ran the test site through our speed checker and the results blew us away!

Average Speed: 118.4 ms – See full result

They scored a top-notch A+ ranking with an average worldwide response time of 118.4 ms. And even though DreamHost only has data centers in the US, our London node still pinged in at a very speedy 77 ms. Impressive indeed! That means that, even if most of your website audience is based in Europe, they should enjoy zippy speeds.

DreamHost features and pricing

Dreamhost offers two tiers of plans – we’d recommend the Shared Unlimited if you want more unlimited resources to play with.

What’s also definitely worth mentioning is their money back guarantee. Whilst most hosts offer a standard 30-day money back guarantee, DreamHost takes it to the next level by extending it up to 97 days!

DreamHost is an active participant of the open-source community, so we weren’t surprised to see that they’re fully GDPR compliant. They have a solid privacy policy, and all users are able to control their personal information from a handy ‘Privacy Center’ interface. Plus, all DreamHost plans come with a free SSL integration – which is a win for your own GDPR compliance.

However, where DreamHost REALLY shine is in their compatibility with WordPress. They’re 1 of only 3 web hosts that are officially WordPress endorsed! Considering WordPress powers 43.1% of the Internet according to W3techs.com, we think that’s a pretty solid vote of confidence.

WordPress runs perfectly on DreamHost’s plans and integrates nicely into their interface. They’ve even got their own drag-and-drop WP Website Builder. As the cherry on top – much of their support staff are WordPress experts, which will make solving any technical issues a breeze.

In short – DreamHost is a fast and fantastic web host, particularly if you’re running WordPress. Read our DreamHost review for more information.

DreamHost customer support

DreamHost offers in-house customer support via Live Chat and ticketing, and from our own trials, they responded within minutes and proved extremely knowledgeable in WordPress.

However, their Live Chat only operates within 5:30AM – 9.30PM Pacific Time, which is 1:30pm – 5:30am in London. Outside that, you’ll need to rely on their ticketing system, forum or knowledgebase. There’s also no free telephone support, but you can request a call-back for a fee.

What we didn’t like about DreamHost

As mentioned – DreamHost’s data centers are all in the US. It can serve the UK and the European region just fine, but if most of your website audience lives in a region far away from the US, they may experience slower speeds. That – and the customer support limitations we’ve mentioned.

Pros and cons of DreamHost

Coming up next is HostPapa, a Canadian hosting company with plenty of tempting plans on offer.

HostPapa performance

We’re happy to report that they have data centers in the US, Canada and Europe, so we weren’t too surprised to see extremely fast speeds reported from our 3 HostPapa-hosted test sites. Here’s what came back from the site hosted from their Amsterdam server:

Average Speed: 143 ms – See full result

Just look at that 8ms response time for London! On top of that, HostPapa’s worldwide average response time was 143 ms, earning them a solid A+ rank. To sum it up, HostPapa’s servers should respond quickly for ALL your site visitors, wherever they’re based – but especially so for anyone in Europe or the Americas.

HostPapa features and pricing

HostPapa’s cheapest plan works well for small single sites, but their Business Plan is where things really ramp up. For £3.16 a month, you’ll unlock unlimited websites, a free domain, unlimited SSD storage, unlimited emails, free SSL and free Cloudflare.

In all, we think HostPapa offers great value for money. Its plans are really cheap, but you’re still getting a solid product. Read our complete HostPapa review.

HostPapa customer support

Beyond speed and features, we love HostPapa for the effort they pour into their customer support. From our experience, their ‘PapaSquad’ are extremely responsive and helpful. Interestingly, you can even request a free 30-minute 1-on-1 consultation with them on anything hosting-related – which is quite an unusual feature!

They also have an extensive user base full of helpful videos and tutorials that cover everything from how to make your site GDPR compliant, to how to improve your WordPress security. In all – very beginner friendly!

What we didn’t like about HostPapa

We can’t help but wish HostPapa had a few more data centers around the world, (especially in the Asia / Australia region) to cater for website owners with audiences further away.

You’ll also need to fork out an extra £38 for automated backups, which isn’t exactly cheap – especially since some hosts throw it in for free!

Pros and cons of HostPapa

Whilst it’s not super fast in the UK, we figured Bluehost still deserved a mention.

Why? Because Bluehost is the official recommendation of WordPress. They claim that ‘No one powers WordPress better or understands it more than we do.’

With a full-time WordPress CORE development engineers in their team, it’s not a stretch to believe.

Bluehost performance

Based in North America, they scored a very decent A+ rating on our server speed checker.

Average Speed: 153 ms – See full result

It pinged from London at a slightly laggier 183 ms. Not the fastest of this list, but still within benchmark.

Bluehost features and pricing

Features offered by BlueHost are quite solid, with 10GB of SSD storage, free SSL, SEO services and a free domain included in their Basic plan. Not bad at all, considering the low entry price of only £2.65 a month (with 12-month plan).

That said, the amount of storage offered at each price point isn’t quite as much as you’d get from several of the other hosts on this list. On top of that, renewal prices do jump up quite significantly.

Key features include:

Their Basic plan starts from £2.65 and includes 10 GB SSD Storage, unmetered bandwidth and free SSL. Read our Bluehost review to find out more.

Bluehost customer support

Bluehost outsources their support team to India and currently offers support via Live Chat and phone. We did run into some hiccups and unhelpful trainees when we first started using Bluehost, but things do seem much better now. They also have a pretty robust knowledge-base filled with useful tutorials and guides.

What we didn’t like about Bluehost

It’s too bad that Bluehost has only 1 data center (in the US). Although they’ve got fast servers, they could be so much faster if only they built more data centers worldwide, covering a wider range of locations.

Bluehost also decided that uptime guarantees aren’t a thing with their services. Some might be okay with this, but to us, that’s pretty sketchy.

Pros and cons of Bluehost

How does web host performance in the UK impact your site?

Web host performance in the UK impacts your site in 3 important ways and these are:

What features should UK businesses prioritize in web hosting?

UK businesses should prioritize the following 5 features when selecting a host:

Remember, the right hosting choice strikes a balance between must-have features and budget, tailored to the unique demands of your website and the UK market.

How crucial is customer support for UK web hosting users?

Customer support is extremely crucial for UK web hosting users. A host’s ability to offer quick solutions, especially during UK working hours, keeps website disruptions low. Teams familiar with UK digital standards will also be able to easily pinpoint issues that might affect you. This includes understanding GDPR complexities or interpreting local website traffic patterns.

The top web hosts provide multiple customer support channels for help. This gives website owners different options. They also feature self-help tools like knowledge bases or tutorials which allow UK users to handle smaller website hosting issues on their own.

Verdict: Which web hosting is best for the UK?

The best web hosting for the UK ultimately depends on your individual needs. There isn’t a single “best” option; it’s all about what aligns seamlessly with your website or business objectives in the UK context.

* Prices are based on a 12-month plan introductory rate (unless stated otherwise). Get lower prices by opting for longer subscription plan.

Essentially, the ideal host for UK websites should tick these boxes:

The good news is, whether you’re budget-conscious, after specific features, or want an all-in-one hosting option, the UK hosting scene has something for everyone. The final choice will be up to you and your personal requirements. Our personal top choice is Hostinger UK.