13+ Astonishing Web Hosting Statistics [The 2024 Update]
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We can’t live without the internet.
But what enables users to retrieve all this information in a few clicks?
Where do all these websites live?
Well, there’s a whole mechanism intricately working behind the scenes. If you don’t come from an IT background, you probably don’t know what web hosting even means.
Don’t fret:
Today, we’re here to educate you with some interesting web hosting statistics that will leave you wanting more!
But before we get there…
What is web hosting?
A web hosting service is a service that allows you to create websites that will be accessible through the Web.
In other words:
Web hosting is like a home for your websites. Web hosting providers ensure that your site has a home, and anyone with a URL can access it anytime, anywhere.
So, without further delay, let’s jump right in with some juicy stats and facts!
Astonishing Web Hosting Statistics (Editor’s Choice)
- 1,773,600,800 is the current number of websites on the world wide web.
- $38.5 billion was the value of the global demand for web hosting in 2019.
- The size of the global cloud computing and hosting market industry is expected to hit $156.4 billion in 2020.
- More than 59% of the worldwide population uses the internet as of 2020.
- 854 million was the number of internet users in China as of 2019, making it the country with the highest number of internet users.
- 50.9 % of the world’s internet users come from Asia as of Q1 2020.
- There are around 5,000 host providers in North America.
General Web Hosting Statistics
Choosing the right hosting provider for your website is crucial. Long downtimes and frequent problems with your site are something you would want to avoid at all costs. It can affect your traffic and, subsequently, your profits if you are making money online.
1. As of May 2020, there are 1,773,600,800 websites available worldwide.
(Internet Live Stats)
An interesting web server statistic, which also affects what is the most popular web server application, is that the total number of websites worldwide reached the one billion milestone back in September 2014. However, in 2016, this figure dropped to below one billion.
Then, in March 2016, the number hit the one billion mark once more. There was exponential growth for the rest of 2016, as the number hit 1.7 billion by year-end. And since then, the figure has remained pretty much unchanged until today.
2. As of 2020, there are 4.57 billion active internet users globally.
(Statista)
Almost everyone uses the internet these days.
To put this number into perspective:
There are around 7.77 billion people on Earth. This means that more than half of the global population are active internet users. Northern Europe has the highest internet penetration rate with 95%.
Other countries with notably high internet penetration rates include South Korea, Denmark, and the UAE.
At the other end of the spectrum, North Korea still hasn’t recorded any online usage penetration, coming in last place worldwide.
In 2018, Asia had over two billion users, making it the region with the highest number of online users, with Europe coming in second place with around 705 million.
3. China is the country with the highest number of internet users, followed by India and the US, hosted stats reveal.
(Statista)
As of 2019, China recorded 854 million people online, making it the country with the greatest number of online users. This figure is quite impressive if you compare it with second-place India, which has around 560 million users. In third place, the US has over 292.89 million online users.
4. Asia dominates in terms of the number of internet users with 50.9% in Q1 2020.
(Internet World Stats)
Coming in second place is Europe with 15.7%, followed by Africa with 11.3%, and Latin America and the Caribbean with 10%. Surprisingly, not many internet users come from North America, as it only makes up 7.5% of internet users worldwide.
5. According to web hosting statistics, around 5,000 of the world’s web host providers come from North America.
(Hosting Advice)
While most internet users come from Asia, hosting numbers show that the majority of hosting providers, around 5,000 of them, come from North America.
Europe comes in second place, with Asia trailing in third with around 1,500 web hosts.
Now:
In terms of providers by country, the US is dominant with 58.08%, followed by Germany with 8.33%. Web hosting also seems to be a local affair, as seen in the Czech Republic where ten out of ten top providers are local companies. The same situation can be seen in Italy with nine out of ten hosts.
6. $38.5 billion was the total web hosting market share in 2019.
(Zion Market Research)
Based on an analysis by Zion Market Research, the worldwide web hosting service industry in 2019 was worth around $38.5 billion. With an estimated CAGR of 19.5% from 2020 to 2026, that figure is estimated to $115.3 billion by 2026.
7. The size of the global cloud computing and hosting market industry is expected to hit $156.4 billion in 2020, web hosting statistics reveal.
(Statista)
This is one of the most important pieces of website hosting info you’re likely to come across.
Here’s the scoop:
From 2010 to 2020, the size of the global cloud computing and hosting market has skyrocketed from $24.63 billion in 2010. This is one of the most notable cloud computing trends in recent years.
And here’s how it all went down:
While the industry grew slowly from 2010 to 2013, there was a significant spike from 2013 to 2014. Since then, year to year growth has been substantial, hitting $85.96 billion in 2016 and growing by leaps and bounds in the next four years.
8. The worldwide dedicated hosting market has been growing every year since 2010, and it’s expected to reach $6.53 billion in 2020, hosted statistics confirm.
(Statista)
Dedicated hosting provides large organizations with a dedicated server that only serves one single client. As the global market for cloud computing and hosting grows every year, so does the size of the dedicated hosting market.
The thing is:
In 2010, it was at $3.05 billion and slowly increased to $3.69 billion in 2013. As with the overall market size, there was a jump to $4.56 billion in 2014. The dedicated server market size is predicted to reach $6.53 billion by 2020.
9. The worldwide size of the shared hosting market was predicted to reach $18.7 billion in 2018.
(Statista)
In other web hosting information, the shared hosting services market has also been growing since 2010. In 2018, it was estimated at $18.7 billion.
Shared hosting is where multiple sites can be hosted on a single server. It’s usually a more cost-effective option, but it’s also flexible and easily manageable, making it the preferred option for most users.
10. The Virtual Private Server (VPS) market has a 2025 value projection of $2 billion, web facts reveal.
(GMInsights)
A virtual private server is sold as a virtual machine. Functionally, it’s similar to a dedicated physical server. But because it is virtual, it can be created and configured easily.
In 2018, the VPS market size was at $1 billion. Based on the past years’ figures leading up to 2018, the VPS market is forecast to reach $2 billion by 2025. The estimated CAGR for the period 2019 to 2025 is expected to be around 15%.
11. Each year, slow websites cause companies to lose half a billion dollars to slow websites, web hosting uptime statistics reveal.
(Website Hosting Rating)
Choosing the right web hosting company is crucial to ensure your site is functioning in top condition. In the US, slow loading websites cost around $500 million every year, with conversion rates falling by 7%.
What’s more:
Having a slow or lagging website causes 40% of consumers to abandon whatever they are doing if the page takes over three seconds to load. Unsurprisingly, hosted stats show that the majority of 79% of customers who have a bad experience with a site’s performance are less likely to visit the same site again.
What this means is:
Problems with a website can indeed affect your business. So, you should look to host your website on servers that are close to where the majority of your customers are.
For instance, if you serve customers in the US, you probably want to avoid hosting your website in Hong Kong.
12. 81% of domain registrations end with .com.
(Research Domain Tools)
Domains ending with .com are the most popular, accounting for 81% of all registrations. Click To TweetSurprisingly, in other webhosting info, coming second place is .tk, which hails from the New Zealand territory of Tokelau, with around 24 million registrations. For reference, the entire population of the island is 1,411.
Unfortunately, phishing statistics reveal that many of the .tk domains in use are phishing websites that go as far as trying to scam their users, giving the domain a rather bad reputation in the online world.
13. WordPress is the most widely used content management system (CMS) with a 60% market share, web hosting statistics confirm.
(Website Hosting Rating)
A CMS allows website owners to manage their online content, which facilitates a smoother workflow and better content management. This system is very useful because it enables small business owners to manage their own websites without needing any sort of coding knowledge or background, dramatically reducing the need for any kind of IT professional.
Now:
While 51.3% of websites do not employ a content management system, those that do will most likely be using WordPress. WordPress has the largest market share of 60%, which means it takes the prize for the most popular content management systems.
Further study has also shown that at least 35% of websites on the Web use WordPress as their preferred content management system.
14. GoDaddy web stats show the provider has a 15.2% website market share.
(Host Sorter)
GoDaddy has been in the game for around 20 years and remains a top player in the industry. As of 2019, GoDaddy powered 77 million domain names, with over 8,000 employees managing them worldwide. The largest hosting company in the world, GoDaddy is known in the industry as a low-cost domain provider that also offers ecommerce and website building.
FAQ
Q: How many web hosting companies are there?
The number of web hosting companies is seemingly infinite, with around 5000 hosting providers in North America alone. The market used to be run exclusively by very few, large players. But over the last decade or so, more and more small players have entered the fray.
Obviously, like most online markets, its majority share is still split up among three or so largest web hosts. In general, though, the playing field in the web hosting industry is relatively level.
Q: Who is the largest web hosting company?
Among the top 10 largest web hosting companies, the largest web hosting company as of 2020 is still GoDaddy.com, with more than 15% of all websites hosted on its servers. GoDaddy has dominated the industry for more than 20 years and seems to be people’s first experience with web hosting.
Q: What is the best web hosting site for small business?
Besides being the biggest player in the market, GoDaddy is also the provider you will want to use for hosting small business websites. Its prices are relatively cheap and include free months on most plans.
Besides that, GoDaddy offers a plethora of tools, add-ons, SSL-certificates, and even specialized options that allow you to finetune your website. It comes with a website builder and enables ecommerce, which many of its competitors like AWS do not.
Q: How many websites are there in the world in 2019?
According to webserver stats, there are roughly 1,774,000,000 live websites in the world right now, and the number is constantly increasing, as more and more people all over the world discover the power and usefulness of the Web.
And on that note:
Conclusion
The more important the internet becomes, the more important a web presence becomes. This is where web hosting providers come into play.
Thanks to the huge choice of web hosting providers, you can easily pick the one that best fits your specific needs. There are even plenty of local web hosting companies in most parts of the world, so you don’t have to rely on the biggest web hosting companies in the world if you don’t want to.
Either way:
Web hosting companies are essentially the foundation of the internet. They enable regular people like you and me to host our websites and make use of this incredible infrastructure.
With that in mind, it certainly pays to keep an eye on the latest web hosting statistics.
Sources: