hosting.com vs Hostwinds (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, hosting.com grades higher than Hostwinds: 2.4 against 1.8 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
hosting.com grades higher on value for money and platforms. They get the same grade on the free plan, features and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
hosting.com
Shared hosting from the former A2 Hosting, with an API and MCP server
Hostwinds
Shared, business, VPS and cloud hosting with managed support
Which one is for you
Pick hosting.com if
- Fits if you want to manage hosting from scripts, Claude or another AI agent
- Works for restoring one file or database yourself, without a ticket
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you stay past the prepaid term, as Starter renews at $13.99 a month after $95.49 for four years
- Watch out: the plan cards show only 4-year terms, paid upfront; monthly billing is at the regular rate
- Not for you if you need staging, preview URLs or Node.js on Starter, as they start on Pro
- Tight if you need priority support, a premium SSL or an SLA, which come only with Max
- Skip it if you want to try first: there's no free plan or trial, and the domain is free for year one only
Pick Hostwinds if
- Fits if you want shared hosting now and room to move to a VPS later
- Makes sense if you want cPanel and a dedicated IP
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a trial, as none is listed
- Tight if you have several sites, since Basic is 1 domain and Advanced is 4
- Pricey if you want monthly billing, because shared plans are shown only annually
- Watch out: the page meta says from $3.29 a month, which the page itself does not show
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAhosting.comFair | 1.8GPAHostwindsWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AStarter's 4-year term is $95.49 paid upfront, so even if you only want two years you pay $95.49, about $3.98 a month, well under the $5.99 an A needs. The catch is renewal: after the four years it's $13.99 a month. | CShared Basic is $6.99 a month billed yearly, above the $5.28 cheaper-quarter line for web hosts. |
| Free plan and trial | FNothing free on record: no free plan and no trial, so you pay before you can try it. | FNo free plan or trial is listed on the pages read. |
| Features | BDaily backups with 30 days of restore points you can use yourself, Monarx malware removal, a firewall, a first-year domain and free managed migration on every plan. Staging needs Pro, but nothing in the core job is missing on Starter. | BShared, business, VPS, cloud servers and dedicated, with free migration, nightly backups, monitoring and a cloud API. |
| Ease of use | CNo app store rating to go on. The Orbi assistant answers setup and DNS questions and passes you to people when needed, but you're still setting up a site. | CNo store rating on record. cPanel and server setup are yours, and VPS plans are unmanaged at the entry level. |
| Platforms and integrations | BA web dashboard with no app on record, but shared plans come with an OpenAPI interface and an MCP server, and it works with Claude. Pro adds a Claude skills pack. | CWeb only, with cPanel, Softaculous and WordPress installs. |
| Best for | hosting you can run from scripts or an AI agent | cPanel shared hosting with VPS and cloud next to it |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: hosting.com and Hostwinds. How we grade
Price against what you get
hosting.com starts at $13.99 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Hostwinds starts at $4.99 a month and scores 2.3.
hosting.com scores higher, and starts $9 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other web hosts on the chart, none scores higher than hosting.com for less, and 1 scores higher than Hostwinds for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- hosting.com also covers malware protection.
- Hostwinds also covers no-code.
At a glance
| hosting.com | Hostwinds | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| Starts at | $13.99 per month at renewal (Starter), after a first 4 years for $95.49 | $4.99 per month (unmanaged Linux VPS); shared from $6.99 per month, annual |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | hosting.com | Hostwinds |
| Price read from | hosting.com | hostwinds.com |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
hosting.com
- The plan cards show only a 4-year term; monthly billing, and every plan once its prepaid term ends, is charged at the regular rate.
- Staging sites, preview URLs and Node.js need Pro or higher; priority support, a premium SSL and a service level agreement need Max.
- The free domain is for the first year only and then renews at the standard rate.
- A2 Hosting's old plan names are retired: Startup became Starter, Turbo Boost became Pro and Turbo Max became Max.
Hostwinds
- The shared-hosting page shows the annual plan price; the page's own meta description still says plans start from $3.29 a month, which is not shown on the page.
- Shared and business plans are listed only with annual billing on the pages read.
- Shared plans are capped by number of domains: 1 on Basic, 4 on Advanced.
- Cloud servers are billed per hour, starting at $0.006931 an hour for 1 CPU and 1 GB RAM.
Key features
hosting.com
- LiteSpeed, NVMe and AMD EPYC on every plan
- All shared plans run on LiteSpeed web servers with NVMe storage and AMD EPYC processors, with published RAM, vCPU and IOPS limits for each plan.
- Malware removal and firewall
- Monarx scans continuously and removes malicious code itself. Every plan also has a web application firewall and brute-force protection.
- Daily backups with self-restore
- Backups run every day with 30 days of restore points, and you can restore a single file, database or mailbox without opening a ticket.
- API, MCP server and Claude skills
- Shared plans come with an OpenAPI interface and an MCP server for managing hosting from scripts and AI tools. Pro adds a Claude skills pack.
- Orbi AI assistant
- An AI assistant on every plan answers setup, DNS, WordPress and billing questions, and passes you to the in-house support team when needed.
- Free managed migration
- The support team moves an existing site to hosting.com at no charge.
Hostwinds
- Shared and business hosting on cPanel
- Plans come with cPanel, the Softaculous app installer, unlimited subdomains, FTP accounts, databases and email accounts, and free SSL certificates.
- Free migration
- The support team moves an existing site to Hostwinds and sends a preview link so it can be checked before the switch.
- Weebly site builder
- Shared plans include Weebly's drag-and-drop builder for people who do not want to install WordPress or code a site.
- VPS and cloud servers
- Linux and Windows VPS come managed or unmanaged. Cloud servers are billed by the hour and can be paired with load balancers, block storage and object storage.
- Cloud portal and API
- The cloud portal manages IP addresses, load balancers and object storage containers, and Hostwinds describes an API for cloud servers.
- Nightly backups and monitoring
- Shared hosting pages describe nightly backups and 24/7 website monitoring that opens a support ticket if the site has a problem.
Plans
hosting.com
Starter, 4 years$13.99
per month at renewal, after a first term of 4 years
5 websites, 15 GB NVMe, daily backups and malware removal. The first 4 years cost $95.49 ($1.99 a month), paid upfront, then $13.99 a month.
Pro, 4 years$19.99
per month at renewal, after a first term of 4 years
10 websites, 50 GB, staging sites and Node.js. The first 4 years cost $181.93 ($3.79 a month), paid upfront, then $19.99 a month.
Max, 4 years$27.99
per month at renewal, after a first term of 4 years
50 websites, 100 GB, 40 mailboxes, an SLA and priority support. The first 4 years cost $373.90 ($7.79 a month), then $27.99 a month.
Hostwinds
Unmanaged Linux VPS (entry)$4.99
per month for 1 CPU, 1 GB RAM, billed monthly
30 GB storage and 1 TB bandwidth; you run the server yourself. Larger sizes go up to $38.99 a month for 4 CPUs, 8 GB RAM and 150 GB storage, and beyond.
Shared Basic$6.99
per month for 1 domain, billed annually ($83.88 a year)
Unlimited bandwidth and disk space, free SSL, cPanel, Softaculous installer, a dedicated IP and the Weebly site builder.
Shared Advanced$8.99
per month for 4 domains, billed annually ($107.88 a year)
The Basic features with room for 4 domains.
Shared Ultimate$10.99
per month for unlimited domains, billed annually
The Basic features with no limit on the number of domains.
Business Basic$11.99
per month for 1 domain, billed annually ($143.88 a year)
Hosted on servers with fewer sites per server than shared hosting. Advanced is $13.99 for 4 domains and Ultimate is $16.99 for unlimited domains.
Managed Linux VPS (entry)$10.99
per month for 1 CPU
The page shows $7.14 a month beside it as the current price; Hostwinds staff manage the server. Larger sizes run to $79.99 a month and beyond.
Ways to pay less
hosting.com
- Other savings
First 4 years of Starter for $95.49
Starter costs $95.49 for the first 4 years ($1.99 a month), against a regular $13.99 a month. Pro is $181.93 ($3.79 a month) and Max $373.90 ($7.79).
Hostwinds
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, hosting.com or Hostwinds?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Hostwinds is cheaper to start with: $4.99 a month, against $13.99 a month for hosting.com. hosting.com starts at $13.99 per month at renewal (Starter), after a first 4 years for $95.49, and Hostwinds starts at $4.99 per month (unmanaged Linux VPS); shared from $6.99 per month, annual.
Which has a free plan, hosting.com or Hostwinds?
As of Nov 12, 2026, neither hosting.com nor Hostwinds has a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.