Australian Web Host Comparison
Shopping around for a new web hosting company? We’ve stacked up our most popular plan against some of the most popular web host providers.
To be as fair as possible we’ve selected the competitors cheapest hosting plan with either the same storage size or closest matching price and where possible, similar specifications. All prices are GST Inclusive where applicable and do not include discounts or promotions.
Date is current as of September 2020. Please let us know of any errors or omissions. An explanation of terms are below the table.
Items with a question mark could not be easily determined from the web hosts website.
Items marked in red should be investigated based on your own needs as they may incur hidden costs or degrade your service.
Explanation of Specifications
Free Trial
Can you try the hosting at no up front cost? Some hosts offer a 30 day money back guarantee if they don’t offer a free trial.
Free Domain
As an incentive you may receive a free domain when your order your hosting. Be careful that you don’t get charged a high price to renew that domain in 12 months.
Australian Business
Is the company an Australian owned business/company? Support Australian business and Australian jobs.
Server Location
Only choose Australian based servers for your website. Not just for speed but also for data sovereignty and data security.
Australian Help Desk
Is support provided by Australians and based in Australia? This is not only important to negate possible language barriers but also for Australian jobs.
Storage
How much storage space is included for your website, database, emails and files.
Storage Type
The type of hard drives used to store your files. SSD should be the minimum. NVMe is very high performance.
CPU
How much processing power your website has available to it to do it’s job. The higher the better.
Memory
More memory means more performance. Some websites like WordPress can require a lot of memory.
Bandwidth
How much data traffic that is included per month. If you go over you may be charged or your website may go offline,
Unlimited bandwidth usually only covers normal usage for hosting a website.
Control Panel
cPanel is the industry standard and is very easy to use and also the easiest to find help with online if you want to manage things yourself.
Email Accounts
The number of accounts (name@yourdomain.com) you can have. Unlimited means you can have as many as you like but keep in mind that this does not include unlimited storage.
Free SLL
SSL secures the data between your web server and your websites visitors. It’s expected that all websites have SSL installed. SSL is now free for standard website use and you should not be charged for this.
Add On Domains
You can host more than one website under the one plan by adding on extra domains. Be aware that this splits your plan resources across the number of add on domains you have. It’s not recommended to run lots of busy sites under the one plan.
Database Type
MySQL is the standard but look for MariaDB as this works the same as MySQL but has much more performance resulting in a faster database and ultimately of faster website.
Databases Allowed
The number of databases you can have on your plan. If you are running multiple sites you may want to split up your data into separate databases for increased performance.
Back Up Cost
Some web hosts may charge to back up or restore your website for you.
Back Up Software
The back up software used. JetBackUp is the cPanel preferred system.
If ‘Manual’ then you need to back up your website manually as there is no included back up schedule.
Install
Automatic software installation for one click set up and install of popular solutions such as WordPress, Joomla and PrestaShop.
Free Migration
Will the host move your existing website and emails to your new plan for free?
Web Server
Apache is the standard web server for cPanel. LiteSpeed is a high performance alternative with built in caching. This is also a bonus if you’re using WordPress as LiteSpeed has built in WordPress performance via it’s free plugin.
CloudLinux
A server operating system upgrade that not only improves the performance of your websites but also secures your website from other accounts on the same server.