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Editorial policy
Last updated 5 September 2026.
Most "best web hosting" pages are affiliate marketing. The commission on a hosting signup is commonly £50–£150, which is why the same few providers top every table. This page sets out how this site works instead, so you can judge the content accordingly.
How we are funded
No affiliate links. Every outbound link to a provider is a plain nofollow link. We earn nothing if you click it, and nothing if you buy.
No sponsored content. No provider pays to be listed, rated, ranked, featured or removed. There is no advertising package to buy and no guest posts are accepted.
Display advertising. The site may carry third-party display advertising served by an advertising network. Those advertisements are selected automatically by the network, not by us. Nobody at an advertising network sees our ratings before publication or can influence them, and we do not know which providers may appear in an ad slot. If a host you are reading about appears in an advert next to the review, that is the network's doing and carries no endorsement.
Who writes this
Published and edited by Steve. I have run websites and bought hosting in the UK for over twenty years, on both sides of the invoice. Every page is reviewed by a person before publication, and the site carries a review date in the footer.
How providers are selected
We list providers we judge relevant to a UK buyer: British companies, international companies with a UK data centre option, and the major global names people are likely to be comparing. Inclusion is not an endorsement — several listed providers are ones we would advise against for most readers, and we say so on their pages.
How the rating works
The score out of five is editorial judgement, weighted approximately:
- Infrastructure and performance (30%) — storage, web server stack, PHP versions, caching, network, data centre location.
- Pricing honesty (25%) — divergence between advertised and renewal pricing, whether backups and SSL are bundled or upsold, availability of monthly billing.
- Support (20%) — hours, channels, and whether responders understand the platform.
- Control and exit (15%) — full backups, database access, SSH, and whether you can leave with your site intact.
- Ethics and sustainability (10%) — ownership structure, energy sourcing, conduct at cancellation.
A provider is not marked down for being expensive if the price buys something. It is marked down for a £2.99 headline that becomes £14.99 in month thirteen.
Sources, and the limits of what we know
Information comes from providers' own published pricing and documentation, public company records, published incident reports, and long-running community discussion. Where a figure is an approximation, a conversion from another currency, or a typical rather than guaranteed price, we label it as indicative.
We are explicit about two limitations. First, we have not personally benchmarked every provider listed; where a judgement rests on community consensus rather than our own measurement, the page says so. Second, hosting prices change weekly and this is a small publication — figures carry a review date and should be verified on the provider's site before you buy.
Corrections
Errors are corrected promptly and without conditions. Email kingsib@gmail.com with the page and what is wrong. We will correct facts on request from anyone, including the provider concerned. We will not remove fairly held opinion, clearly labelled as such, because a company dislikes it.
Conflicts of interest
We disclose any commercial relationship with a provider on the relevant page. At the time of writing there are none. We are a customer of some providers listed, which is noted where it informs a judgement.
Updates
Pricing and provider details are reviewed periodically and the date of the most recent full review appears in the footer of every page. Individual posts carry their own publication date; older analysis is left up rather than quietly rewritten, so you can see when something was written.