List of Indian Web Hosts with Data Centers in India

Table of Contents

Indian Web Host #1: HostArmada

HostArmada is a global host with servers in India – which is pretty rare. Normally, most providers have just a Singapore data center for Asia and call it a day. But the sheer number of HostArmada’s locations, make me suspect that they’re using Google’s Cloud network for their data center locations.

This means they have the same advantages as Hostgator India in terms of infrastructure. Hence the recommendation. Plus they’ve got some pretty amazing features like a LiteSpeed web server and a Web Application Firewall (WAF). Here’s my review of HostArmada, where I describe these features in detail.

And this is a 75% off coupon for HostArmada:

Added to the India location in Bangalore, HostArmada also has a data center in Singapore. You guys already know that I think that Singapore is a better place to host than India. So with HostArmada, you can start hosting in Singapore, and if you still feel that you need to reduce the latency, you can migrate your hosting to the Bangalore data center. The best of both worlds!

Another benefit of HostArmada is that they offer LiteSpeed.

Indian Web Host #2: Hostgator India

Hostgator India’s operations are independent of the global parent. It has several advantages over its rivals in India, including EMI payment options, unlimited storage on most plans, and a discount period lasting for 5-years, which allows you to lock-in your savings for a long time. Pricing starts at ₹79/m. Here are all the Hostgator India promo codes to get started.

But despite these benefits, Hostgator India is lacking in many features. It doesn’t have free backups, or malware scanning. It uses SSD drives, while competitors like HostingRaja are using NVMes. And surprisingly, it’s more expensive to host on India-based servers than on US servers. This is why I think HostGator India isn’t anything special. Check out my HostGator India review to learn more.

Is the Global Hostgator Better for India Web Hosting?

There’s a good argument to make that the global Hostgator brand is better for Indian customers than the local Indian brand. How can this be?

Hostgator has multiple branches all over the world. But even though they share the same name, they are separate companies. Not just subsidiaries, but entirely different corporations. I’m not sure about the contracts they have with each other, but I suspect that each branch is merely leasing the Hostgator name from the parent company – or something like that.

Everything is different – the support, the products, and the prices. Hostgator India allows you to host its servers in India or the US. The India locations are as follows:

• Mumbai
• Maharashtra
• Hyderabad
• Bangalore

The Hostgator global data centers are in:

• Texas
• Utah

Given this, it’s obvious that the Indian branch is the best choice, right? Wrong. For several reasons shown below, it’s might be better for you to buy web hosting on the global Hostgator servers instead. Here they are.

Reason 1: Hostgator India has Poor Discounts

You might think that Hostgator India is cheaper than its global counterpart. However, this simply isn’t true. This is the complete Hostgator promo code page- and even customers in India can make use of them. As proof, here’s the cost for 3-years hosting with Hostgator India:

And here’s the price for the global branch:

It’s surprising how expensive the local Indian branch of Hostgator is. As Indians, we’re accustomed to things being cheaper here compared to the US, not costlier! So, if you’re looking for higher discounts, the Hostgator India branch is a bad choice.

Reason 2: Data Centers in India are Not Ready for Prime Time

A data center requires a lot of investment and the proper infrastructure for it to be reliable. Unfortunately, the facilities in India aren’t quite up to scratch yet. This is why if you’re searching for the closest server to your customers, I often recommend Singapore instead. However, Hostgator doesn’t have data centers in Singapore, so you’ll have to make do with the ones in the US.

But this isn’t as bad as it might seem. Even though it’s on the other end of the world, Hostgator’s servers are likely to be more reliable than the ones in India with less downtime. Moreover, they own their own data centers, unlike Hostgator India which leases them out from a colocation center.

This is Also True for Africa Web Hosting

India and some countries in Africa like Egypt and Morocco share the same problems. So businesses in Africa should also choose to host outside their home country. For example, Hostgator Egypt is similar to India, and I recommend they use the global Hostgator branch as well.

Bottom line: Server location is is a bit overrated, especially when it comes to countries whose infrastructure isn’t well equipped for top-quality data centers.

Reason 3: Better Support Staff with Hostgator Global

I’ve been an affiliate with Hostgator India for years, as well as for the international branch. The difference is like night and day. The entire Indian operation seems a bit too…disorganized. Your questions don’t get answered promptly, and the support reps just want to get you off the line as soon as possible.

In general, the US operation of Hostgator is much smoother and more well-oiled. They deal with customers from all over the world, and I’ve found them professional and well equipped to handle queries. Keep in mind, that it’s still shared hosting, so there’s a limit to this. Amazing customer support isn’t cheap, but for the cost, I find it pretty good.

In conclusion, I recommend the global Hostgator branch compared to the local one in India. Both for reasons of price, and performance. It might seem weird to say that a server in the US is superior for Delhi customers compared to one hosted locally, but it’s true! At least if you want to remain with Hostgator. Other web hosts like SiteGround have servers in Singapore, but they’re not as cheap as the ones with Hostgator.

Indian Web Host #3: HostingRaja

HostingRaja is one of the most well-known hosting providers in India. It has data centers in the following locations:

1. Bangalore
2. Mumbai
3. Hyderabad
4. Noida
5. Delhi
6. Kolkata
7. Pune
8. Jaipur
9. Chennai

That’s a pretty impressive list of cities, just for India! It means that no matter where your business is, you can find a data center that’s close to you. This is in stark contrast to a giant like Hostgator India, which has data centers only in Bangalore, Mumbai, and Hyderabad.

HostingRaja Uses LiteSpeed Web Servers for WordPress

A great feature of HostingRaja WordPress hosting is that they use LiteSpeed instead of Apache. LiteSpeed is a specialized web server that is many times faster than Apache. Most hosts don’t use it because it’s a paid product. But those that do, have much faster performance. You can read more here about what makes LiteSpeed special.

Another thing to recommend HostingRaja’s WordPress plan is real-time malware scanning. This is something that Hostgator India does not provide, and so this is a major plus point. It’s also cheaper than Hostgator India, so I think HostingRaja’s WordPress plans come out ahead in all aspects.

Moreover, HostingRaja is a homegrown web host, unlike Hostgator India which is just a franchise of a global operation. They bank a lot on their “Self-Dependent India” credentials.

Indian Datacenters Are Suboptimal

There are many good reasons to choose an Indian web hosting provider. But you should also be aware of the downsides.

Datacenters require a lot of maintenance and care. They need a specific environment with state-of-the-art systems for security, redundancy, cleanliness, and operations. Dust-free environments, regular checkups, audits, redundant network connections, maintenance of hardware, strict schedules, and security.

In addition, they need to be built in such a way that natural events have zero impact on their operations. Many data centers in the US for example are built to withstand a missile strike! The entire stack of operations from the building materials, the design, the HR, etc is geared towards maximum protection and reliability. There need to be multiple incoming and outgoing network connections to ensure that if one goes down, the others can easily pick up this slack.

The Indian infrastructure simply cannot provide this level of quality.

Indian datacenters simply don’t have this level of preparedness. They’re a lot more fragile than their US and European counterparts. Even regular weather events like cyclones can make them fail. For example, DigitalOcean – one of the largest web hosting providers in the world – opened a data center in Bangalore. But cyclone Vardah damaged the undersea fiber optic cables for the Chennai region, causing huge latency and packet loss.

Here’s a statement from the official DigitalOcean account in their comments section:

This isn’t an isolated event. India simply doesn’t have the necessary infrastructure and dedication to have world-class data centers on par with its US and European counterparts. And it doesn’t matter how good the intentions of the hosting company are – the external infrastructure like network cables and power systems are out of their control.

Most Indian Web Hosts are Colocated – NOT Ideal!

There are plenty of data centers in India. But none of them are exclusively owned by a private web hosting company. I can only assume because there’s not enough business to justify an exclusive data center just for web hosting customers.

Instead, Indian datacenters are colocated. This means that a single company rents out server space to 3rd parties who then provide hosting services to their clients. It allows cost savings for Indian web hosts who can’t afford the overhead of an entire data center on their own.

The chain goes something like this:

Customer (you) -> Indian web hosts -> Datacenter owner (actual servers)

So what?

It means that web hosting companies in India don’t have direct control over their servers. They have to rely on ticket support from the data center owners who may or may not respond efficiently. The difference is seen when you have an emergency, and your web hosting provider is unable to handle the problem immediately on their own.

Here’s an example of a UK-based web hosting service called SkyNetHosting, which expanded to India with its servers in a colocated data center. One of their customers was hit with a massive 23Gbps DDoS attack, and SkyNetHosting was unable to resolve the problem because their colocation provider didn’t follow best practices:

They actively recommended the user migrate to their US servers! That’s a wonderful vote of confidence!

But You Might Still Need a Web Hosting Company in India

Despite the above problems, you might still need an Indian web hosting company. Here are some reasons.

Reason 1: Datacenters in India Means the Server is Close to Customers

The most immediate benefit to having a hosting company in India is that their servers will be closer to your target audience. This means faster response times and lower latency. Online video game players know this very well, where the server you’re connecting to is of critical importance. While not as crucial as web hosting, it can still make a huge difference to the round trip packet times.

Ideally, you should get round trip times of well under 100ms. 70-80ms is great. But if the packet has to travel all across the world, then you could easily get over 200ms. If you take into consideration server hops and just the basic server response time, then it could be much higher than that.

So going with an Indian hosting company will give you a competitive advantage. Especially considering mobile users with glitchy wireless data on Edge or 2G.

Can you get Away with Using Cloudflare?

Lots of companies use Cloudflare these days. They cache your content and deliver it from Edge servers located across the world. To an extent, this can improve your load times and reduce latency. However, you can’t rely on Cloudflare. You don’t have control over whether it will choose to serve you content using one of their servers. And you might choose to disable Cloudflare at some later point in time – maybe you want customers to see your actual SSL certificate for example.

But these days, Cloudflare is allowing you to cache even dynamic content. Along with QUIC.cloud, this is the new trend in CDN web hosting.

Reason 2: A Hosting Company in India will Use Local Prices

Dealing with a hosting company in India means you can pay them in rupees instead of dollars, or some other currency. All their plans will translate into a currency that you’re familiar with. For example, if you apply the Hostgator India coupons, the discount will be calculated in terms that you intuitively understand without conversion.

Not to mention that you don’t need to have a PayPal account or some other kind of instrument that accepts dollar payments. Your invoices will have local tax information, and you won’t need to deal with any potential complications in terms of documentation. Everything is cut and dried. A company offering web hosting in India will also have its offices located in an Indian city, with an Indian telephone number. So they’re “within reach” so to speak. While that might not be important to you, there are some cases where this could be a factor as we’ll explore below.

However, if you’re only interested in a local hosting center, you should consider Singapore instead as explained below:

As you can see, it’s pretty close with the added advantage that Singapore has much faster connections!

Reason 3: Customer Service in your Time Zone

The true test of a hosting company comes when something goes wrong. You need your website fixed, and you need it now. A hosting company located in India will have customer support in your time zone. When you’re awake and as soon as you identify the problem. A US-based firm might have phone support during US business hours. This means you won’t receive the immediate attention that you need.

This is of utmost importance. You never realize the value of customer support until you need it. Web hosting in India will ensure that you’re never stuck waiting for tech support.

Reason 4: Local Indian Laws might Apply

It’s important to know that certain businesses require their data to be stored on domestic servers by law. Insurance companies for instance are mandated by the IRDA to hold customer data on Indian soil. Your business might not fall under these regulations, but it’s something to keep in mind. The laws are changing quite rapidly in this regard. Indian lawmakers in particular are getting antsy about data out of their control. So look ahead!

A Thought: Consider Singapore Instead

Unless for legal reasons you need web hosting in India, I suggest you choose a hosting provider with Singapore datacenters. Singapore is much better suited for datacenters than India.

Here are two great web hosts with Singapore locations:

1. HostArmada – LiteSpeed web host with fantastic security. Check out my HostArmada review.
2. A2 Hosting (click here for A2 Hosting discount coupons)

And if you have to choose India, I suggest HostArmada. With a Mumbai data center, it’s the best host for India right now.