Locating a very good hosting solution for a nonprofit organization could be a big challenge. Be ready to be surprised! There are many affordable but top-quality web hosting choices for companies and individuals.
You can maintain your website on the internet even if you need to make modifications, with a fully featured host, including automatic backups and staging sites.
You can accept donations from your site with confidence since they’ve easy PCI compliance as well as security features.
Your site should also load quickly, which every site needs to do. Here’s where a content delivery network (CDN) can truly help your nonprofit organization.
In addition to this, they frequently offer discounts for nonprofit organizations so that you can raise more money for your cause.
Let us jump in!
Which web hosts will help you get the most out of your nonprofit site?
Regarding nonprofit web hosting, this’s most likely the most urgent issue. Free web hosting is one thing that many nonprofit executives are wondering about.
Indeed, some hosting companies provide this service, but you have to realize that there’s a catch. For instance, if you want a nonprofit site, DreamHost is the one hosting company we’d suggest.
There’re, nevertheless, issues with this:
Their lowest tier hosting package is the no-cost choice they provide, and it’s not a great deal. Although hosting is not created for WordPress, you can still have WordPress hosted on it. Like many other web hosts, they do not use cPanel, and it may be very cumbersome to use.
Regrettably, we have discovered DreamHost doesn’t provide the best customer support.
How come? You cannot find free web hosting because it’s grown to be so commoditized and inexpensive to purchase.
Bluehost provides a reasonably priced plan for just below USD 3/month. You will have to pay around USD 29/month for a great host like WP Engine for a WordPress website. Even micro nonprofits can afford to host their own web server for about $5 monthly.
The modest price paid for this kind of support and dependability is worth it. Hence, if your finances are tight and your time is limited, you need to concentrate on finding a great web host within your budget range.
Web Hosting for Nonprofits: 8 Best Providers
On the whole, InMotion is a terrific nonprofit hosting provider.
- InMotion
- A2 Hosting
- Dreamhost
- I Page
- HostGator
- SiteGround
- Bluehost
- HostPapa
For nonprofits, InMotion is a good host with good Value and features. Check it out. Nevertheless, DreamHost is the only recognized nonprofit that provides free shared hosting to nonprofit organizations.
It truly boils down to what kind of service you would like because each provider has its distinctive attributes. This article will compare and contrast several different providers, giving you a concept of what to expect and how they can benefit you.
Best Web Hosting Providers for Nonprofits: Head-to-Head Comparison
Best Overall Nonprofit Hosting Provider
InMotion
One of the leading hosting providers in the industry is InMotion, and they provide a special discount to nonprofit organizations. It is possible to see how it’s performed in our investigation.
InMotion Pros and Cons
Pros
- Awarded Top-Rated Provider for Shared and VPS Hosting.
- Offering unlimited email accounts without caps on the number of messages you can get.
- Upon request, a discount is offered for nonprofit organizations.
- All plans include no-cost backups.
Cons
- Shared hosting plans have a monthly visitor cap on the plans they provide.
- Hosting offered is restricted to Linux servers.
InMotion Pricing for Nonprofits
If you want a two-year deal, you can obtain a shared hosting package from InMotion for only USD 3.99 monthly. If you are planning on processing lots of donations, you will want to think about upgrading your shared hosting service to something more costly, such as a VPS.
We suggest upgrading to a VPS hosting plan if you’re likely to take plenty of donations. With its top-notch security and bulk encryption features, InMotion is unmatched in the fight for VPS hosting requirements. VPS hosting costs range from USD 34.99 to USD 159.99 monthly, and the prices for shared hosting are generally negligible.
Although InMotion provides incredibly low prices, nonprofit organizations are able to make use of a special offer provided by the company.
InMotion Features
It appears to be only appropriate that we ought to check out a few of the features offered by InMotion regarding both VPS hosting and shared hosting.
InMotion’s shared hosting features include limitless email accounts and cPanel, an industry-standard dashboard that’s simple to use and set up with unlimited transfers. The standard plans include a free domain name, SSL certificate, backups, as well as 24/7 customer care.
When you have a worldwide charity or some unusual traffic spikes, your monthly visitor cap of 360,000 shouldn’t be a problem. To conclude, shared hosting from InMotion is a great idea. However, it does include a few security risks.
A far better option for your security is to choose a VPS hosting plan. You can put in your personal security software in addition to the software program supplied by InMotion since it provides you with root access to everything. There are unlimited CPU cores, 260GB of storage, 6TB of bandwidth, and 8GB of RAM.
Best Value for Money
A2 Hosting
Because of its great prices, A2 provides excellent features for nonprofit organizations, and the company also provides a special discount for its clients. Check how A2 Hosting performs in our research for the best nonprofit web hosting:
A2 Hosting Pros and Cons
Pros
- Nonprofit organizations get a discount
- Support and assistance are available 24/7
- Your money-back assurance is valid for any reason, any time.
- Installing a no-cost shopping cart to securely accept donations
Cons
- Typical uptime of 99.9 seconds
- The domain costs more
A2 Pricing for Nonprofits
You will find special rates provided by A2 for recognized nonprofit organizations based in the United States. You have to provide A2 with all of the relevant documentation to prove your nonprofit status to qualify.
It is not easy to provide you with an actual amount since its discounts are used case-by-case. A2 delivers shared hosting packages starting at just USD 7.99 per month up to a whopping USD 18.99 per month, which means you can save a minimum of a couple of dollars per month.
Based on our investigation, the managed WordPress hosting service is among A2’s strengths. If you want a custom WordPress site, the price starts at just USD 24.46 per month, and this’s certainly something worth looking at.
A2 Features
You ought to already know that the best as well as cheapest WordPress hosting offered by A2 is shared hosting, so let us concentrate on these services. “
However, we wish to thank the A2 support staff for their great work. They go through a great deal of training to ensure they can assist you in several ways. This’s the ideal discussion board for tech novices who need assistance with their technical issues.
A2 provides shared hosting plans that include an SSL certificate and unlimited transfer. Much like InMotion, it features a small number of features, including no free domain and limited backups.
A2 provides managed WordPress hosting for individuals who need it. Check it out. A2 proved to be the 2nd best-hosting provider for WordPress sites in our testing.
Best for Free Shared Hosting
Dreamhost
DreamHost is the only top-rated provider to offer free shared web hosting to nonprofits. See how it performed in our testing below:
DreamHost Pros and Cons
Pros
- Web hosting is offered free of charge.
- Domain and backup service is totally free of charge.
- Installing a no-cost shopping cart to securely accepts donations
Cons
- Uptime is 99.95 % in general. It’s averaging.
- Support isn’t available 24 hours per day.
DreamHost Pricing for Nonprofits
Many nonprofit organizations dream about having a free site, and DreamHost has provided an ideal solution.
If you’re a US nonprofit organization, you can obtain a free shared hosting plan (including email hosting) from Rackspace. It isn’t necessary to supply your credit card details.
You can even get deals on managed WordPress hosting through DreamHost, which presently offers nonprofits up to 35% off its regular prices. Prices for a WordPress site start at just USD 11/month (down from $16.95) and go up to as much as USD 71.95/month. This’s a great deal on a hosting package.
Related: DreamHost Pricing: Are These Hosting Providers Plans Worth the Money in 2022?
DreamHost Features
On this page, we will check out a few of the features provided by DreamHost in our evaluation.
If you choose a shared hosting plan, you will get unlimited visitors, a free domain, unlimited backups, and an SSL certificate. Nevertheless, DreamHost doesn’t offer 24/7 support, which means you can only get assistance through the company’s ticketing system or the online help center.
They consist of a free domain, an SSL certificate, a one-click install, automatic software updates, and more. Additionally, you will get limitless bandwidth and storage space, with plans beginning at 30GB to 120GB.
Across all plans, you can take donations easily because there is no cost for shopping cart installation.
Cheap and Simple Web Hosting
iPage
The features list is extensive, and iPage doesn’t offer a nonprofit discount. Nevertheless, it provides a very affordable price starting at just USD 1.99 monthly.
iPage Pros and Cons
Pros
- The introductory cost of USD 1.99 monthly is quite a low cost.
- This consists of a shopping cart setup, a free SSL certificate, along with a domain name for your domain.
Cons
- You have to spend an additional USD 1.14 monthly to include backups
- Includes only one Plan that limits scalability backups.
- No free site migration. There’s a one-time cost of USD 150 for iPage to do this for you.
iPage Pricing for Nonprofits
The main offer from iPage is a shared hosting package for only USD 1.99/month; however, you have to sign up for a three-year plan to get this deal. This will increase to USD 7.99 following the promotional period (similar to what you can get from other hostings).
The prices are low enough that there’s no discount for nonprofit organizations.
iPage Features
iPage is recognized as an inexpensive and cheerful provider, but it has some truly great features. Hosting providers generally offer three distinct tiers of shared hosting with different features, and each tier will have its special features.
IPage’s One Plan gladly competes with these ‘top tier’ plans with limitless disk space and unmetered bandwidth. Additionally, they provide a free SSL certificate as well as a domain name. However, you will pay a small amount each month for backups. Live chat and telephone support are offered.
iPage offers a 99.94 % uptime guarantee which is lower than its competitors. This might be longer than you would have anticipated, but it means your website is going to be down for a lot longer than it’d otherwise.
If you choose to move an existing website to iPage, you will pay iPage staff USD 150 to do this for you (or you can get it done yourself at no cost).
Best for Scalability
HostGator
HostGator is the ideal option for large-scale marketing campaigns and quick growth where iPage fails as it provides only one plan scalability. Listed here are the results of our research.
HostGator Pros and Cons
Pros
- 99.99 % uptime guarantee. Best in the industry.
- There’re various plans to select from, so as you have to upgrade, it’s simple.
- With the majority of plans, you can obtain a no-cost site transfer.
Cons
- The starter plan doesn’t include a no-cost shopping cart setup.
- You have to purchase CodeGuard to safeguard your computer from taking over your backups without any automatic backups.
HostGator Pricing for Nonprofits
HostGator provides a special offer on its first year of hosting, like all other hosting companies. So in case you wish to begin with a plan that costs just USD 2.75 monthly, that is renewed at USD 6.95 monthly. The HostGator shared Starter plan actually has one of the most affordable renewal prices.
HostGator offers a variety of different hosting plans to assist you in getting rid of your shared hosting. If your site is extremely popular, this technique will work best for you.
HostGator Features
When it comes to features, HostGator is quite good. They provide the best uptime guarantee in the industry, with a 99.9 % guarantee, and it’s also the most dependable.
On the shared plans, you will find plenty of “unlimited” – email accounts, subdomains, and disk space. You receive limitless bandwidth and a totally free SSL certificate with the purchase, and this’s a fantastic deal.
Nevertheless, HostGator falls way short in several areas when compared with other providers. To obtain automatic backups of your whole system, HostGator suggests you buy a third-party service known as CodeGuard. To begin with, you can use a 1GB storage plan that costs you $2 monthly. Only the more costly plans include a free shopping cart setup.
If your site runs a big campaign and expects lots of traffic, then a VPS plan is most likely the best option to use. These servers are a cheaper alternative to dedicated servers. That means you won’t have to compete with other websites for bandwidth or risk having people not able to access your site at peak times. HostGator provides VPS services for only USD 29.95 for the initial term, and after that, it costs USD 49.95.
No nonprofit discount is actually offered.
Best for Receiving Donations Seamlessly
SiteGround
A trustworthy platform is SiteGround. Its two primary strengths are when it comes to uptime and support and help.
SiteGround Pros and Cons
Pros
- An uptime of 99.98 %, which is excellent.
- Faster page loading times because of no cost CDN.
Cons
- There’s no free domain name.
- Storage space is restricted.
SiteGround Pricing for Nonprofits
SiteGround offers hosting for nonprofit organizations. Yet, don’t be misled – these are the exact prices that SiteGround charges for all other websites. However, if you take this sleight of hand and look around, you will discover that SitGround offers a lot.
Even though there’re other shared hosting providers available, SiteGround’s main focus is on shared hosting. Its shared hosting plans cost between USD 14.99 and USD 39.99 monthly, without long-term discounts. Pricing ranges from 6.99 to 14.99 monthly with a discount.
Related: SiteGround Pricing: Does Hosting with SiteGround Make Sense in 2022?
SiteGround Features
SiteGround is not perfect. The storage space available is between 10GB and 40GB. This means that if you require a lot of media for your website, as many nonprofits do, you will need to consider an upgrade plan.
Yet, with such a good uptime, you are not likely to encounter any problems. Additionally, you get a free CDN (Content Delivery Network) to accelerate the loading time of your site visitors.
And in case you ever find yourself in a dilemma with something technical, SiteGround is there to assist you through it all. Even though SiteGround is not the least expensive option available, it provides a great base for your web business.
Best for Help and Support
Bluehost
Even though Bluehost doesn’t offer no-cost web hosting to nonprofits, it still has a lot to offer. Look at how well it performs in every one of the key areas.
Bluehost Pros and Cons
Pros
- Having an uptime of 99.98 %, excellent uptime.
- Backups along with a free domain.
- Support can also be found by telephone and email.
Cons
- WordPress hosting is a little more costly compared to Bluehost.
- Free nonprofit web hosting ended.
Bluehost Pricing for Nonprofits
Bluehost might have been at the top of the list of recommended web hosting services in case you’d asked us a couple of months back. It’s no longer providing free web hosting for nonprofit organizations, regrettably. That should not discourage you, however.
Nevertheless, Bluehost provides more than enough features to qualify as a great option for nonprofit organizations. The cost is likewise affordable, at just USD 7.99 per month (and down to USD 2.95 per month for all those who choose to purchase a three-year plan).
If you operate a WordPress nonprofit site, Bluehost is most likely the best place to host your site. The costs for managed WordPress hosting start at just USD 29.99 per month and go up to about $59.95 per month. This’s not cheap, considering what other competitors are charging.
Bluehost Features
Since nonprofits aren’t run entirely on money, we’ll be looking at a few of the features offered by Bluehost in the following paragraphs.
You receive a free SSL certificate, unlimited backups, and a totally free domain name. Also, you get 24/7 technical support. If you are using a shared hosting plan with Bluehost, you have the choice of moving the site to a different server temporarily while the rest of the site loads.
Bluehost is a fantastic option for those who need dependable service and are not afraid to break the bank.
You receive one-click installation and automatic software updates if you are using a managed WordPress hosting account. For individuals who have to host a couple of sites, this’s perfect for them. This service consists of unlimited storage and bandwidth, making it a truly comprehensive package.
Best for Green Hosting
HostPapa
HostPapa is the ideal choice for eco-conscious nonprofit organizations. Despite being in eighth place in our competition, HostPapa compensates with 0 carbon emissions.
HostPapa Pros and Cons
Pros
- 100% offsets the carbon dioxide emissions
Cons
- Customers support isn’t available 24/7
- Limited promotional offer for the first term.
HostPapa Pricing for Nonprofits
HostPapa offers no bonus for nonprofit organizations, but its prices for its shared services start at USD 7.99 monthly. However, the promotional offers are not always so generous: the first term offer is USD 3.95.
HostPapa Features
Regarding CO2 emissions, web hosting is not far behind than the air travel industry. All those data centers are meant to remain cool, and the aircon must use a lot of power.
Because of this, HostPapa is taking measures to help our planet. Investing inadequate renewable energy to counteract its carbon emissions means HostPapa offsets all its carbon emissions by 100 %. Hey HostPapa, good job!
This may be a terrific partnership if you understand the values of your nonprofit organization and the values of your supporters, which are in line with them.
There’re, nevertheless, some significant drawbacks of HostPapa – after all, it’s ranked 8th in the competition.
Not having a 24/7 live chat or telephone support is also something you have to look into. Technical problems frequently interfere with our work schedules, and we wish they could be resolved as fast as possible. If you end up in such a situation, you might find yourself waiting in vain for the telephone to open.
With most plans, you also do not get backups, though you can purchase this separately if you would like.
Best Web Hosting for Nonprofits: Summary
Although we thought it was strange that there were no web hosts for nonprofit organizations, you now realize that many other businesses are hosting similar services.
Numerous web hosts provide special discounts for nonprofit organizations. So we will present to you our top ten picks of the bunch. Let us now look at just who these providers are.
8 Best Providers for Nonprofit Website Hosting
In contrast to several other websites, InMotion provides nonprofit discounts on its products.
A2 Hosting – Great features and great prices. This’s worth checking out.
Get your Name out there utilizing the no-cost shared hosting offered by DreamHost.
IPage is a low-cost option for anybody who needs a basic web hosting service.
Hosting your website with HostGator is the ideal option in case you’re ambitious and wish to see your business grow.
SiteGround is a dependable option with excellent support and uptime.
Bluehost is recognized for offering excellent customer support and great features.
Among the most eco-friendly web hosts on the list is HostPapa.
InMotion offers excellent security features, and it is usually regarded as the best hosting provider around. If your business takes lots of online donations, this’s particularly pertinent.
There’re lots of wonderful features with A2 Hosting, and you get a good price with it. With the lower cost of hosting and additional discounts for nonprofit organizations, we can understand why many want to make use of this offer.
A small number of hosting companies provide free web hosting to nonprofit organizations, and DreamHost is one of them. This’s the main reason we believe you choose this company. It’s worthwhile to update your Plan in case you can pay for it by shelling out an additional couple of dollars every month.
Charity unites humanity. Host your site to help as many people as you can, but be sure you have a lot of backups. Make your mission matter!!
FAQs
How to choose the right web host for a nonprofit?
It’s also crucial you check out the speed of the service and the best prices. Why? Because nonprofit organizations wish to spend as they please. Individuals will not be able to pay if your site is slow.
Are there any other hosting options out there?
There’s plenty. Although this article has focused primarily on the very best web hosts for nonprofit organizations, you can find far more info by looking into our other great hosts here. You can check out both sets of comparison charts or just refer to the charts below.
What is the best hosting service?
Bluehost has been voted the best-shared hosting provider overall by our research team after extensive research and testing. The kind of hosting you require will determine which provider is best for you. About VPS as well as shared hosting, InMotion topped the charts.
Does a website have to be self-hosted?
Just if you use a self-hosted platform. If your site of yours is built holding a content management process, like Drupal or WordPress, then you are going to have to source your very own hosting. Nevertheless, you are able to utilize a site builder and obtain your hosting sorted for you.
In contrast, a WordPress website is self-hosted, and you are able to do anything you want. You will notice you’ve even more functionality with WordPress as you have a lot of different themes and plugins available. WordPress enables you to have even more flexibility with your site as you develop your business. WordPress places you in charge of supplying security and upkeep for your site. Keeping your site up-to-date is essential to stopping hackers from stealing your data, as well as ensuring you back up your site and software regularly.
What are the most important hosting features for nonprofit websites?
There’re a few attributes that are sought after by the majority of businesses, but they are going to be completely different for each business. One element which makes a huge difference with SSL security is having a great deal of storage space as well as fast loading speed and reliable uptime. Before getting inexpensive monthly pricing, these features must be prioritized if possible.