2025 Digital Agency Web Host Report

Clear Leaders & A Crowded Middle

Five hosts — AWS, WP Engine, Google, DigitalOcean, and GoDaddy — lead the agency rankings across nine core factors associated with how agency teams select a host. AWS scored 3.1x average for Agency Fit and 4.0x average for Performance & Reliability, the strongest combined performance in the survey.

118 responses (82% Director-level or above) · Fielded June 2025 · 82% U.S. · 39 pages

Top findings

• AWS led every core factor except Support and Partnership Programs, where WP Engine took first place.
• Security, Site Speed, and Uptime carry the most weight in agency host selection. Partnership Programs ranked lowest in importance.
• Tier-1 hosts (AWS, WP Engine) scored 2.5x–4.0x average across both composite dimensions.
• A second cluster — Google, DigitalOcean, GoDaddy, and SiteGround — landed near or above average, with Google at 1.6x/1.8x, DigitalOcean at 1.4x/1.8x, and GoDaddy at 1.3x/1.1x.
• Ten hosts scored below average on both dimensions: Bluehost, Hostinger, Namecheap, Webflow, Flywheel, Hostgator, Wix Studio, Liquid Web, WPMU Dev, and IONOS.
• Pantheon was written in by enough respondents to land as the fifth most-favorited host, despite not being on the initial list.

Inside the report

1. Executive Summary
2. Introduction
3. The Top Hosts
4. The Rest of the Pack
5. Core Factor Rankings
6. Methodology & Demographics

Format: 39-page PDF report, single-license use.

Methodology

118 responses (43 partial, 75 full) from digital agency leaders, fielded June 2025. 82% U.S., 9% Europe, 8% Canada, 1% Asia-Pacific. 82% Director-level or above. Sixteen hosts evaluated across nine core factors: security, site speed, uptime, support, pricing, scalability, workflow integration, brand perception, and partnership programs.

About Promethean Research

Promethean Research has tracked the digital agency industry since 2015. We publish annual benchmark reports used by agency leaders to make decisions on growth, pricing, staffing, and vendor selection.