Best Dedicated Hosting Companies in 2024 (On-Going Case Study)

SiteGround offer some of the best features I’ve seen in the web hosting market. They also produce incredible servers that deliver on speed and performance. You can choose whether to host your dedicated server in the U.S.A., Europe, or Asia.

SiteGround offers features that other web hosts charge you for (SiteGround provide them for free). All of SiteGround’s dedicated hosting plans are fully managed. You won’t have to worry about setting your server up or monitoring it, as SiteGround does this on a 24/7 basis.

SiteGround’s dedicated servers include Softaculous, covering a wealth of 1-click installations like WordPress. They guarantee they’ll keep your WordPress site updated, a staging server for WordPress, SSH, and WP-CLI, as well as GIT integration.

Pros:

• Packed full of free features
• Fully managed servers with 24/7 support
• Amazing personal customer support

Cons:

• None that we can think of

BlueHost is well known in the hosting industry for offering affordable hosting. The company has been around for a long time and has proven to be very reliable over the years.

BlueHost keeps things simple by offering 3 pricing plans for their dedicated servers. There are 3 tiers to choose from: standard, enhanced, and premium. Prices start from as low as £61.37 per month, which is incredibly cheap for a dedicated server.

All of BlueHost’s dedicated server hosting plans include the following features (at no extra cost): 30-day money-back guarantee, 24/7 customer support, free SSL certificate, fast provisioning (24-72 hours), raid storage, and root access.

One of the things I really love about BlueHost is that they won’t charge you extra if you get more traffic than you expected. Lots of web hosts actually charge for this and penalise you for it. The flip side to this is that your website will perform a lot slower than normal, but you do save money (swings and roundabouts).

I’ve already mentioned that BlueHost is very reliable. This continues to show through the speed and performance tests I performed on my test website. Their dedicated server gave me an uptime of 99.98% which is very respectable. Although it wasn’t the 99.99% uptime that some hosts guarantee, I only had a total of 2 minutes downtime.

Pros:

• Generous storage and bandwidth
• Stable uptime and response times
• Very affordable

Cons:

• Pricing is based on a 36-month term

HostGator is my favourite dedicated web host in terms of reliability. Their services never let me down, and their large customer base reflects how great they are. As well as being very reliable, they also display a good balance between features and affordability.

HostGator may not offer the fastest speeds on their dedicated servers, but they do offer a few guarantees. They offer both HDD and SSD options, allowing for greater flexibility to a wider market.

All of HostGator’s dedicated servers come with 24/7/365 support, including their live chat service. They offer cPanel and WHM on all Linux based servers as well as 3 dedicated IPs, full root access, and DDoS protection.

Unfortunately, HostGator doesn’t offer a free CDN service like BlueHost, nor do they provide automatic backups (like LiquidWeb). However, they do have the option of semi-managed or fully-managed dedicated servers.

HostGator gave me a top score of 100% uptime which is absolutely spot on. I haven’t incurred a single disturbance or downtime during my time with them. Having a website that is reliable is incredibly important to me (and I’m sure will be to you).

Pros:

• Very reliable web host (100% uptime)
• Features versus price is well balanced
• 24/7/365 support

Cons:

• Support isn’t very personal

A2 Hosting isn’t necessarily as well known as some other web hosts, but it doesn’t mean they’re not worth considering. They are well known for their fast loading speeds and good performance.

Aside from being outstanding in the performance area, A2 Hosting doesn’t quite hit the bar when it comes to everything else. For example, cPanel isn’t included in their price plans, which is something you’d actually expect as standard to be included!

Looking at the positives, they do offer high spec servers with a wealth of features already included. 8GB RAM, 10TB bandwidth, and 2x 500GB storage can’t really be complained about. Once you move past their basic plan, you’ll get a free SSL certificate included, as well as upgrades to performance, speed, and storage.

An uptime of 99.96% is very respectable, but it’s not anywhere near as good the likes of SiteGround. I was however very impressed with their response time, coming in at an average of 234ms which is astounding.

Pros:

• Affordable pricing plans
• Very fast site response times
• Lots of features to customise plans

Cons:

• Live chat was unresponsive
• Additional features cost a lot of money

Sometimes spending a few extra £££’s can mean the difference between an alright web host and a great web host. You have to consider what you’re getting for your money; features, performance, and of course customer service. As well as the web host provides you with a great experience, you want to ensure your website visitors feel the same way.

Liquid Web is by far from the cheapest dedicated web host, but they do offer a lot! I’d recommend Liquid Web for any type of user; bloggers, small businesses, or even large enterprises. Their customer support is second to none and their features drive a hard bargain. This is why I feel strongly that they are the best value for money dedicated web host.

Every single one of their dedicated servers guarantees the following features (this is where we consider value for money): DDoS Protection, CloudFlare CDN, Backups, ServerSecure Advanced Security, cPanel, WHM, and Plesk Onyx, IPMI access, Root access, Dedicated IP address (this is very important), SSD storage, and 100% uptime.

I can’t complain about Liquid Web’s speed and performance either. Over the past 3 months, I’ve experienced greater than 99.99% uptime (which is expected from a dedicated server).

Pros:

• Very easy to use
• Excellent value for money
• Fast and personal customer support
• Generous features

Cons:

• Can be very expensive

InMotion is well known for its fast performance and reliability. Although they may not offer the cheapest dedicated servers, compared to other hosts, they do offer a whopping 6 dedicated pricing plans. These range from £92.51 per month to £423.38 per month).

InMotion’s dedicated servers ALL come with FREE managed hosting for 2 hours. If you choose the CC-500 or above plans, you’ll get 4 free hours. This is a very generous offer considering the prices don’t reflect managed pricing – also it’s something I haven’t come across before so I’m really happy with that.

Features between different web hosts can differ quite a bit. However, when it comes to dedicated servers, you want the absolute BEST of the best. InMotion offers speed, performance, and great features (in my opinion). They’re not the cheapest of the bunch but they’re by far not the most expensive either.

I was SO pleased to have 100% uptime across a 30 day period. In the last 24 hours, 7 days, and 1 month, I received no downtime whatsoever. InMotion’s dedicated servers are truly worthy of recognition. I also tested my server response time.

Pros:

• Extremely reliable web host (100% uptime in my tests)
• Great response time (less than 0.5 seconds)
• Expert support

Cons:

• Extras are more tasters than freebies

iPage boast powerful dedicated server solutions. These include managed support, pre-installed scripts, and a FREE domain name for 1 year. I’ve always known iPage to be a reliable and stable host, so let’s take a look at how they compare.

iPage has always been known as affordable web hosts. However, I don’t know if I can agree that their dedicated pricing plans hold up to this title. They have 3 pricing plans, the lowest starting from £119.99 per month. They offer 1 month, 1 year, and 2-year terms.

One of the saving graces for iPage is how they handle their payment terms. Most web hosting pricing starts at a particular price, suggesting the price increases when options are selected. With iPage, they’re completely open and honest about their pricing.

My uptime results were bang on their guarantee of 99.95%. Whilst I admit this is better than some hosts on the market, I expect dedicated servers to offer a lot more. Considering how much money customers are spending on these servers, I wasn’t feeling particularly confident.

Pros:

• Open and honest pricing
• Free backups included
• FREE domain name for 1 year

Cons:

• Support wasn’t very personal
• Uptime only 99.95%

InterServer.net may not be as well known as other dedicated web hosts, but they’re certainly cheap! As well as offering cheap dedicated hosting, InterServer.net provides shared, VPS, and cloud hosting, alongside domain names like most other web hosting companies.

InterServer.net has a wide range of dedicated servers. Their CPUs range from 2-CORES to 24-CORES, 1GB RAM to 256GB RAM, as well as rapid deploy servers that are ready in just 15 minutes.

Each dedicated server can be customised to work just how you want it to. For example, if you like the look of a particular CPU but want to upgrade the RAM, this is entirely possible. Their helpful drop-down lists and pricing total means you always know what you’re spending, and there won’t be any surprises.

In the last 24 hours, my site has had 100% uptime which is great. However, over the last 30 days, my results have averaged out at 99.88% uptime. This is well below their uptime guarantee and doesn’t bode well for those wanting reliable and stable performance.

Pros:

• Very affordable pricing
• Free features are plentiful
• Free DDoS protection

Cons:

• Live chat didn’t work
• Poor uptime of 99.88%