Alibaba Cloud Cloud Web Hosting, $ 5.90/mo. on Linux Cloud

Cloud Web Hosting has been added on Dec 15, 2019

🔌 Hosted domains :	1
🆓 free domains :	0
📌 Dedicated IPs :	0
💳 Payment Methods :	Credit / Debit / Prepaid Cards
✍️ Support Options :	EmailHelp DeskPhone / Toll-FreeLive Chat
🌏 Server Locations :	China
⚑ Targeting :	CN SG

See also initial Cloud Web Hosting plan location on their website!

📜 Plan description

📄 Editorial Review

Alibaba Cloud is the cloud-computing arm of the wider Alibaba Group and has grown from an internal infrastructure platform into one of the largest public clouds worldwide. The cloud division started operations in 2009 under the leadership of Dr. Wang Jian and now runs as a global business with several thousand employees and an international headquarters in Singapore. In day-to-day use, this feels much more like a full infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service provider than a classic low-cost shared host. Domains, virtual servers, storage, databases, CDN, security services and a rich marketplace all sit under one umbrella and can be combined to host anything from a small blog to large-scale streaming or e-commerce systems.

For pure "web hosting" needs, the backbone product is Elastic Compute Service (ECS), Alibaba Cloud’s virtual server platform. ECS instances provide compute, RAM and storage in many instance families (general-purpose, compute-optimized, memory-optimized, GPU, bare metal and more), backed by modern processors and the in-house X-Dragon virtualization stack designed for high performance and low latency. ECS is aimed at users who want full control over their server: you choose the region, instance type, storage (standard SSD, enhanced SSD, local NVMe and others), attach security groups and VPC networking, then install the operating system and software stack you prefer. Websites, APIs and custom applications all run on top of this compute layer.

To make life easier for typical website scenarios, Alibaba Cloud also promotes a Web Hosting Solution bundle. This groups together ECS or single-server options, managed databases (ApsaraDB RDS), Object Storage Service (OSS) for static files, Server Load Balancer (SLB), CDN and security services such as Anti-DDoS and Web Application Firewall (WAF). Architectures on that solution clearly cover personal websites, small and medium business sites and large enterprises, showing how traffic passes through CDN and Anti-DDoS, is balanced across multiple ECS instances and stored in RDS with options for replicas and in-memory caches. Compared with traditional shared hosting, this approach is more modular and flexible, but also more complex because you design the stack yourself.

Beyond compute, Alibaba Cloud is strong on the supporting services that serious websites eventually need. Domains can be registered directly through their domain platform, with support for a broad range of TLDs (including many country codes and niche extensions). There is an integrated Alibaba Cloud DNS service that provides authoritative DNS hosting with advanced features and upgradeable editions for higher query volumes or enterprise needs.

For performance, Alibaba Cloud CDN offers a global network with thousands of edge nodes and extremely high aggregate bandwidth, aimed at accelerating static and dynamic web content, downloads, media streaming and live video. SSL/TLS can be handled by Certificate Management Service, which issues and manages DV, OV and EV certificates and centralizes certificate deployment across cloud resources and even external servers. This allows a site owner to keep domain, DNS, certificates, CDN and compute in one environment, which is convenient once everything is configured.

A major difference from smaller providers is the ecosystem and marketplace. Alibaba Cloud’s web hosting solution integrates ready-to-deploy images and SaaS-style tools from partners: WordPress images, open-source social networks and forums such as MyBB, website builders like Site.pro and Strikingly, and full web-design and e-commerce frameworks via the Alibaba Cloud Marketplace. For users attached to familiar tools, Plesk and cPanel are available as deployable applications on top of ECS, effectively recreating a classic shared-hosting experience while still running on scalable cloud servers. This is attractive for agencies and resellers that want cloud flexibility without giving up the control panels they already know.

From a regulatory and enterprise angle, Alibaba Cloud leans heavily into security and compliance. They list certifications such as CSA STAR, ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, C5, MLPS 2.0 and MTCS, and the Trust Center explains data-protection commitments, GDPR-related topics and international data-transfer mechanisms, including participation in relevant data privacy frameworks. For customers in regulated industries, this makes it easier to justify hosting critical workloads on the platform.

Overall, Alibaba Cloud comes across as a developer- and business-oriented cloud rather than a beginner-friendly shared host. The breadth of services is a major advantage for growing projects, but the learning curve is steeper than with simple "one-plan-fits-all" providers. Users who are comfortable in a cloud console and with basic networking concepts can build almost any hosting setup they need within this ecosystem.