A web hosting provider is a company that runs Server computers which store websites and send their pages to visitors over the Internet. Providers sell shared, virtual private server (VPS), dedicated and cloud plans, which are the main types of web hosting. This page lists the top 10 providers by share of websites.
History of Web hosting providers
Creator: Not applicable (a market category). Ranking by W3Techs, Q-Success. Year: 2026.
A web hosting provider runs the servers that store websites. It sends their pages to visitors. The English Wikipedia article on web hosting service describes several plan types. They include reseller hosting, virtual private servers (VPS), managed hosting, colocation and cloud hosting. Each type changes how much of a server the customer controls.
W3Techs is provided by Q-Success. Its usage pages say that reports are updated daily. The page footer shows copyright from 2009 to 2026. A W3Techs note dated 10 February 2026 says Hostinger overtook Amazon in the ranking. Shopify is first on the October 2026 page.
The W3Techs usage page is titled Usage Statistics and Market Share of Web Hosting Providers, October 2026. It ranks providers by the share of all websites they serve. The top 10 list starts with Shopify at 5.4 percent, Hostinger at 5.1 percent, Amazon at 4.5 percent, Wix at 4.2 percent and United Internet at 2.5 percent. The other five are GoDaddy Group at 2.5 percent, Squarespace at 2.5 percent, OVH at 2.4 percent, Newfold Digital Group at 2.4 percent and team.blue at 2.4 percent.
Three of these ten are website builders: Shopify, Wix and Squarespace. The list keeps them. The W3Techs ranking counts them as hosts. Hostinger was founded in Kaunas in 2004 as Hosting Media. GoDaddy was founded in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1997. OVH was founded in November 1999 by Octave Klaba.
Top 10 web hosting providers
Shopify
Founded 2006 by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand and Scott Lake. HQ Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Owner: public company, listed on the Nasdaq since 2025.
Hostinger
Founded 2004 in Kaunas, Lithuania, as Hosting Media. HQ Vilnius, Lithuania. Owner: ConHostinger holds a 31 percent stake (2021).
Amazon (AWS hosting)
Amazon founded 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington. HQ Seattle, Washington. Owner: Amazon.com, Inc., a public company.
Wix
Founded 2006 by Avishai Abrahami, Nadav Abrahami and Giora Kaplan. HQ Tel Aviv, Israel. Owner: Wix.com Ltd., publicly listed in the US.
United Internet (IONOS, 1&1)
Founded 1988 as 1&1 EDV-Marketing GmbH by Ralph Dommermuth and Wendelin Abresch. HQ Montabaur, Germany. Ralph Dommermuth is the chief executive officer. The company is listed in the MDAX index.
GoDaddy
Founded 1997 in Phoenix, Arizona, by Bob Parsons. HQ Tempe, Arizona. Owner: publicly traded company, incorporated in Delaware.
Squarespace
Founded 2003 by Anthony Casalena. HQ New York City. Owner: Permira, a British private equity firm, took it private in October 2024.
OVH (OVHcloud)
Founded November 1999 by Octave Klaba. HQ Roubaix, France. Owner: Klaba family; listed on Euronext Paris after an IPO filing in 2021.
Newfold Digital
Founded 1997 as BizLand. Named Endurance International Group from 2002 to 2021. HQ Burlington, Massachusetts. Owners: Clearlake Capital and Siris Capital Group.
team.blue
Founding year not stated in the sources checked. HQ Gent (Ghent), Belgium, per its own site. Owner not stated in the sources checked.
Changelog and latest update
The W3Techs ranking changes as providers gain or lose sites. A W3Techs fact-of-the-day post dated 10 February 2026 says Hostinger passed Amazon. Hostinger moved to second place, behind Shopify.
Shopify said on 18 March 2025 that it would move its listing. The listing moved from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Shopify announced the move on 18 March 2025. Squarespace agreed in May 2024 to be taken private by Permira. The deal closed in October 2024.
Endurance International Group used that name from 2002 to 2021. It became Newfold Digital in 2021. Clearlake Capital and Siris Capital Group own it, according to the infobox of its Wikipedia article.
Latest update: W3Techs ranking, October 2026, 2026-10
The W3Techs usage page is titled Usage Statistics and Market Share of Web Hosting Providers, October 2026. It is the newest ranking checked for this entry. The page says its reports are updated daily. It shows Shopify first with 5.4 percent of websites. The ranking changes day to day. The percentages here apply only to the date in the page title.
Usage examples
Website owners check their provider with three DNS queries and one HTTP request. The DNS queries show the name servers and the IP address of a domain. A DNS A record links a name to the address of a server, which the host gives in its control panel. The examples use the dig command and the curl command, which show the same data that a provider uses to serve a site.
dig +short NS example.comThe dig command asks DNS for the NS records of the domain. The answer lists the name servers that the registrar or the host set for the domain. A name server that belongs to a host shows that the host runs the DNS for the site.
dig +short A www.example.comThis query returns the IPv4 address that the www name points to. Compare the address with the one in the host control panel to confirm the provider. The +short option prints only the answer, with no header text.
www.example.com. 3600 IN A 192.0.2.10This DNS A record sends visitors who request www.example.com to the IPv4 address 192.0.2.10. The 3600 value is the time to live in seconds. The address 192.0.2.10 is a documentation address, so replace it with the address that the provider assigns.
curl -sI https://example.com \
| grep -i serverThe curl command requests only the response headers of the site over HTTPS. The Server header names the web server software that answers the request. This header can name the software only and not the company, so it supports the DNS checks above.
References
These sources are outside Websnoogie and were checked on 2026-10-12.
Usage Statistics and Market Share of Web Hosting Providers
W3Techs (Q-Success)
The W3Techs page that ranks web hosting providers by the share of all websites. The page is titled for October 2026, shows the share for each provider, and states that its reports are updated daily. The top 10 in this entry come from this page.
Web hosting service
Wikipedia
The encyclopedia article on web hosting services. It lists the types of hosting plans, including reseller, VPS, managed, colocation and cloud hosting, and it explains how availability and security are measured for a host.
Shopify
Wikipedia
The Shopify article. It gives the founding year (2006), the founders, the headquarters in Ottawa and the move of the listing from the NYSE to the Nasdaq on 18 March 2025.
GoDaddy
Wikipedia
The encyclopedia article on GoDaddy. It gives the 1997 founding in Phoenix by Bob Parsons, the headquarters in Tempe, Arizona, and its acquisitions, including Host Europe Group in 2017.
OVHcloud
Wikipedia
The encyclopedia article on OVHcloud. It gives the founding in November 1999 by Octave Klaba, the headquarters in Roubaix, France, the Klaba family ownership and the 2021 initial public offering filing.
Newfold Digital
Wikipedia
The encyclopedia article on Newfold Digital. It gives the 1997 founding, the headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts, and the Clearlake Capital acquisition of Endurance International Group, with the press release cited.
team.blue
team.blue
The official site of team.blue. It describes the company as a group of European SaaS and digital services brands and gives its address in Gent, Belgium. The site does not state a founding year or the owners.
How to choose a hosting company
Customers often ask us how to choose a web hosting company. A hosting company rents space on a server, so your site files stay online and load for visitors. Ask about uptime, support hours, backups and the cost of leaving later. Price matters, but a cheap host with slow answers can cost more in lost calls than a fair host would charge.
We host sites on our own servers and move sites in from other hosts. Moving a normal-size WordPress site costs nothing, while a larger one costs $199 once. Our uptime is 99.999%, and our phone line is staffed during the day. Before any move, we copy the site, check each page and confirm that the forms still send email to your inbox.
Phone 402-813-4034 and ask us to compare your current host with ours. Or start with a new website for $300, and we will go over your hosting options before we choose a plan. Delivery takes 3 to 5 days. We will answer your questions about hosting costs and support hours in plain words.
