109+ Web Hosting Stats and Facts [Infographic]

Web hosting — the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Entrepreneur. Its mission: to explore strange new online worlds. To seek out new providers and new opportunities. To boldly go where no webmaster has gone before!

Welcome, my fellow passengers. Today we will visit and explore planet Web Hosting with all its might and beauty. It boasts a thriving ecosystem, a well-suited environment for all kinds of inhabitants.

I’ll be your guide for today, and I’ve got a ton of fascinating web hosting statistics and facts in store for you.

Here is an excerpt of the most imperative stats you are about to see. If you are going to learn just a few things on our voyage, these are the ones to remember:

The Most Impressive Web Hosting Statistics of 2022:

• Most internet users are in Asia, but North America has the largest number of hosting providers.
• The US hosts at least 21% of all domains worldwide.
• Worldwide, there are over 330,000 web hosting providers.
• GoDaddy holds nearly 20% of the market, followed by Amazon AWS, 1&1, and Hostgator.
• The projected CAGR for shared hosting is 10.3%.
• Cloud services are expected to grow by 18.3% year-to-year until 2025.
• WordPress is the weapon of choice for most users, with 34% of all websites built on that platform.
• Mobile devices will generate 60% of all online traffic by 2020.

Those are just some basics to get your feet wet — the whole picture will fascinate you even more.

Buckle up your seatbelts, as the ride can get a little bumpy.

Key Hosting Stats

1. As of May 2019, there were over 330,000 web hosting service providers.

(Source: Financesonline)

There are so many providers of web hosting services that no one really knows their exact number. The last one we’re certain about is 338,561 from May 2019.

Given that the Web continues its expansion, the number of hosting services is likely to grow even more. Sure, the competition is fierce, but this apparently doesn’t stop new hosts from popping up.

2. The United States has over 102 million hosted domains, more than any other country.

(Source: Domain Name Stat)

That’s 102,168,740, to be precise. This makes for 18.04% of all hosted websites worldwide as of January 2022.

But how come the country with the most hosted domains in the world would barely take up more than 20%, right? That’s because 320,462,893 registered domains come from an unknown place. In other words, 56.57% of domain registrations keep their place of origin undisclosed.

Based on the known number, it is relatively safe to assume that at least 20% of those are registered by US legal and private entities.

3. In contrast, China only has 22,407,193 registered domains.

(Source: Domain Name Stat)

Despite its population, China doesn’t even come close to the United States. Only 3.96% of all hosted domains come from there. That's four times fewer than the US.

4. The shared hosting market had an estimated worth of around $17 billion in 2017.

(Source: Statista)

Unfortunately, this is only an estimate, even though the data is from March 2017. There wasn’t any research conducted regarding the shared hosting market size in the following years.

The same research estimated that the size of this market could have reached $22 billion in 2020. Given how it rises every single year, we’re guessing they aren’t that far off.

5. Shared web hosting has a CAGR of around 10.3%, while dedicated hosting’s CAGR is around 5.6%.

(Source: Berkaweb)

This impressive annual growth underlines the increasing importance of online presence not only among the general public (who usually opt for shared solutions) but also among businesses and entrepreneurs.

6. Cloud hosting easily tops the CAGR projections with 18.3%.

(Source: Berkaweb)

The new king in the industry rules from the clouds. 18.3% is a staggering growth and cloud adoption statistics indicate that it may be even higher than this.

7. In 2018, the global web hosting market was worth $90.6 billion.

(Source: Berkaweb)

Of course, the web hosting market as a whole is way bigger than $20 billion. Shared hosting comprises less than a third of it.

The global web hosting market is expected to grow by around 15% from 2020 to 2025. In other words, its compound average growth rate (CAGR) should be enough to take it to around $216.6 billion by the year 2025.

1. Web Hosting around the World

The first part of our journey will teach us more about the geographical peculiarities of planet Web Hosting. Is life there evenly spread, and which are the most densely populated regions? Those are just a couple of questions we’re going to answer today.

Now:

Web Hosting as a service came to be around 1995. By that time, the internet was already publicly available, and three US-based companies were quick to recognize the opportunity — Geocities, Tripod, and Angelfire. They laid the foundation of the multi-billion dollar industry that is web hosting today.

• Asia is the continent with the most internet users, but the majority of providers are in North America (almost 5000). Europe comes second, and Asia is third, with just over 1500 web hosts.
• Breaking down the providers by country, the web hosting stats indicate the US as a clear leader, with 58.08%. The next competitor,
• Germany, is trailing way behind at 8.33%.
• Every major country has a different favorite host. GoDaddy is the top choice in the States. 1&1 reigns supreme in Germany, while the clear market leader in China is Aliyun.
• Web hosting is so home-based that 10/10 top hosts in the Czech Republic are local companies. Same goes for Italy (9/10 hosts).
• Iceland is the country with the highest market penetration, with almost 100% of the population online.
• In comparison, a staggering 462 million people in India use the internet, but that accounts for only 34.4% of the population.

2. Industry Statistics

From housing websites to storing data or running an app — web hosting services have proven useful in numerous ways through the years. Adaptable with the needs of every user, the industry has spawned solutions like shared hosting, VPS servers, cloud hosting, colocation services…

But don’t go anywhere:

In the next part of the trip, we will learn more about the state of the web hosting industry and how its inhabitants rose to power.

• The internet has entered our lives like no other technology. It took only four years for the Web to reach 1 million users. Telephone achieved the same penetration in 75 years.
• How many websites are online right now? 1,691 billion. And they all need a host to power them.
• In 2017, the global web hosting market share had a 32.12 billion dollar valuation. The industry is expected to grow to 76.2 billion by 2023.
• The average price for a shared hosting service is around $3-10. A decent VPS server will cost you somewhere in the range of $30-55.
• Speed is crucial for clients and providers alike. By a rough estimate, the US economy loses around $500 million every year because of slow websites.
• 2018 was another successful year for ecommerce store owners. The global pool of clients increased by 8%, reaching 1.8 billion online shoppers.
• The ecommerce industry generated $2 trillion last year, and the numbers keep growing.
• Mobile usage is reshaping the industry, with over 58% of traffic coming from smartphones and tablets.
• Cloud computing is the fastest-growing tech service. Last year alone, the public cloud market grew by a massive 17.6%.
• There are >338,561 web hosting providers around the world, as of May 2019.

3. Domain Statistics

No website on planet Web Hosting is complete without its domain name. It is how citizens recognize and find one another.. You know, just like with the street names we have on Earth.

The market for domains often intertwines with and complements the web hosting industry. So let’s continue with some of the most remarkable domain name facts and stats.

• The total number of hosted domains is 154,608,076, according to web hosting statistics from Webhosting.info.

  .com is the clear market dominator, accounting for over 81% of all domain registrations. A surprising second is the free .tk extension (property of the island country of Tokelau), a suffix to at least 24 million site names.

• An average of 900,000 new domains are registered every week.
• Over 3000 registrars provide domain registration services. GoDaddy is soaring ahead with 56 million names under its belt.
• In the dawn of the Web, there were only nine domain suffixes to choose from (.com, .net, .org, co.uk, .us, .gov, .edu, .mil, .co.il, and .co.us). In 2019, there are over 1200 extensions with new ones coming out frequently.
• Breaking down the domain distribution stats, 51% of site names are gTLDs (like .com), while country-specific TLDs (like .de) account for 36%.
• There are 322 country-specific domain extensions. The most popular are .de (11.1%), .cn (10.5%), and .uk (9.09%).
• Fancy trying something more out-of-the-box? There are just over 25.5 million registered new gTLDs today. The clear crowd favorites are top (12.9%), .xyz (8.8%), and .club (5.8%).
• Some people have adopted domain trades as a successful business model. The most expensive domain name, CarInsurance.com, was sold in 2010 for a whopping $49.7 million.
• Fun fact: The three top trending keywords on .com domains for Q1 of 2019 were Crew, Custody, and Apex

4. Hosting Company Statistics

Becoming a planet Hosting businessman is no big deal. In fact, it’s so easy that even you and I could do it. We simply register a company, set up a couple of web servers, and we are good to go.

Here’s the thing:

The low entry bar is a key reason why the hosting market is so oversaturated these days.

Hundreds of providers are trying to laud their own services, but in reality, most of them will probably be nothing more than a blip on the radar. Gone before you know it. Leaving their clients back to square one, searching for a new host.

Hence why many people prefer to safely bet on the well-known names that have been around for a while. Here are some peculiar web hosting facts about the big boys in the industry.

4.1. GoDaddy Stats

A clear market dominator, GoDaddy was one of the pioneers in the industry, starting its operations in 1997. The company has had a long history of controversy, but that did little to hinder its progress.

In fact, GoDaddy is so far up ahead of the competition, some of its web hosting stats are simply mind-boggling. Let’s check out a few:

• Over 18.8 million clients, 78 million domains, 9000 employees — those are the numbers to beat for anyone who wants to claim the GoDaddy throne.
• GD reigns over 10.38% of the market. The next closest rivals, Amazon AWS and 1&1, barely pass the 4% mark.
• GoDaddy aims to provide across-the-board services. This means you can find anything from a $1 domain name to a $179.99/mo dedicated server.
• Out of the top 10 million websites, GoDaddy hosts about 6.3%, followed by Amazon AWS (4.9%) and OVH (4.4%)
• GoDaddy is the most preferred provider in the US. 2019 web hosting stats reveal over 16% of US clients prefer GD, with AWS in second, with 10.77%.

4.2. Amazon AWS Stats

The rapid growth of cloud technology gave Jeff Bezos an idea. He decided to dip his toes into the cloud game and created a subsidiary of his marketing behemoth. Amazon AWS’s primary goal is to provide on-demand cloud services and let every client take advantage on a per-need basis.

Today, many companies follow the latest web hosting trends and provide their own cloud solutions, but few can come as close to perfecting them as Amazon.

• GoDaddy might dominate the web hosting and domain market, but when it comes to cloud solutions, Amazon AWS is a firm leader with a 64% share.
• Since 2014, AWS has registered a yearly growth of at least 40%.
• The provider has accumulated about $25.6 billion in revenue and $7.2 billion in operating income, according to 2018 reports.
• The majority of Amazon AWS servers run on Windows (75.08%). Other popular system configurations include Unix (7.31%) and CentOS (6.65%).
• AWS hosts over 100,000 customers in 190 countries.

4.3. 1&1 IONOS Stats

German provider 1&1 has been there since the dawn of the internet. The company was founded in 1988 and just recently merged with cloud specialists ProfitBricks to create 1&1 IONOS.

So how does the grandpa of hosting providers stack up with the young guns?

Surprisingly well, actually:

• 1&1 IONOS is a major job creator. The company spawns offices across 10 countries, employing over 7000 people.
• The company prides itself on top-notch connectivity, “8555 faster than the average household connection.”
• 1&1 IONOS is the third largest provider, according to the latest web hosting stats and facts reports. The host accounts for 6.7% of websites in the world.
• While GoDaddy dictates the US market, in Europe 1&1 IONOS still hold the largest piece of the pie. In Germany, for example, 1&1 hosts 26.47% of clients, followed by Hetzner with 13.78%.

4.4. Hostgator Stats

Hostgator was the product of FAU student Brent Oxley, founded in 2002. In the span of just four years, the company passed the 200,000 threshold for domains hosted.

Hostgator was one of the first companies to fall victim to the massive EIG consortium expansion, now including more than 70 hosting providers. But what separates HG from the rest?

• Hostgator secures 2.2% of the market, which translates to 500,000 customers hosting over 9 million domain names.
• EIG acquired Hostgator for a reported amount of $299.8 million, with $227.3 million paid in cash.
• Every hosting company gets a chunk of clients moving away from other providers. HG gets most clients from Bluehost (49.09%) and GoDaddy (36.63%).
• In 2012, Hostgator was one of the victims of a major hacker attack, which resulted in 500,000 account and card details made publicly available.

5. Technology Statistics

In case you haven’t noticed, planet Hosting houses a modern society powered by all kinds of state-of-the-art technologies. From the operating core of their web servers, all the way to the sweet tools that help them build their website.

The next set of web hosting statistics is all about technology.

Who dominates the CMS market? Is Linux more popular than Windows in hosting? Which is the most profitable shopping cart?

Let’s find out.

• Nearly 30% of websites in the world run on WordPress. The web-building software firmly dominates the CMS market with a 60% share.
• Web hosting usage stats by W3Techs put Joomla and Drupal way behind WordPress, at a 5.1% and 3.3% share respectively.
• The free shopping cart WP extension, WooCommerce, continues to hold the reins in the ecommerce field. Over 2.9 million websites rely on the add-on.
• Nginx and Apache now share the market for server technologies, with 29% each. Microsoft is falling further behind each month, closing May 2019 at just under 19%.
• The ecommerce industry has a massive impact on the economy. Online sales are bringing $2 trillion yearly in the US alone.
• Most web projects utilize shared hosting services, while big companies are progressively moving to the cloud. Recent statistics indicate that 71.3% of all cloud services are enterprise-oriented.
• Windows is the most preferred OS for desktops and laptops, but web servers are a totally different story. A staggering 96.5% of the top one million websites run on a Linux configuration.
• On average, companies are mostly spending their tech budget on backup solutions (15%), email services (11%), and web hosting (9%). Smaller businesses tend to spend more on hosting services and less on innovation.

6. A Look into the Future

By the look of it, planet Web Hosting is doing pretty good — a growing number of citizens are moving in, and the technological progress reflects positively on their environment.

So far we’ve traveled through space. Please fasten your seatbelts now, as our next trip is through time. Next destination – the future!

• As of 2019, more than half of the world’s population is online. This translates to over 4.3 billion people and counting…
• In 2016, the global monthly mobile traffic was around 7 exabytes (1 exabyte = 1 billion gigabytes). By 2021, the number is expected to reach an astonishing 49 exabytes.
• IDC predicts that by 2025, 49% of the world’s data will reside in the public cloud.
• The future is mobile — by 2020, over 60% of traffic will come from a smartphone, tablet, or another mobile device.
• By the end of this year, more than 1.92 billion people will have purchased something online.
• Web hosting is expected to maintain a steady revenue increase of 15.5%, with the main profit drivers being Managed and Shared hosting (18.7% and 10.4% respectively).
• Cloud services will continue to exceed expectations. A 2016 Forrester report predicted the public cloud market to grow to $236 billion by 2020. The same company’s forecast in 2014 had that number at $191 billion.
• 2019 State of Web Hosting industry report indicates IT budgets will grow this year. The #1 reason will be increased investments in IT infrastructure.

Conclusion

So how did you like our little voyage around planet Web Hosting? It really was an eye-opener, wasn’t it?

I hope you enjoyed our fascinating web hosting statistics and will put them to good use the next time you come to visit.

From the whole crew of starship Entrepreneur and myself — live long and prosper!