GreenGeeks is the best green web hosting for most small sites.
It buys renewable energy certificates for three times the energy it uses, through the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, and has been an EPA Green Power Partner since 2009.
For developers and European projects, Hetzner is the pick: it says its German data centers have run on sustainable electricity since 2008, with a PUE of 1.10 to 1.16.
“Green hosting” is easy to claim and hard to check. So we sorted hosts by the evidence behind their claims, and show you how to verify any host yourself.
What green web hosting means
Green web hosting is hosting where the provider powers its servers with renewable energy, buys certificates that match the energy it uses, or offsets its emissions.
These aren’t the same thing.
- Renewable electricity: the data center runs on power from sources like wind, solar, or hydro.
- Renewable energy certificates (RECs): the host pays for renewable energy to be added to the grid to match what it uses.
- Carbon offsets: the host pays for projects that reduce emissions elsewhere to balance its own.
- Efficiency: Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) measures how much extra energy a data center uses beyond the servers themselves. Closer to 1.0 is better.
A host running on renewable electricity is doing something different from one buying offsets. Both can be called “green.”
The power behind a server is one of the less obvious basics of how hosting works, and few plan pages mention it.
The best green hosting at a glance
- GreenGeeks: best for most small sites
- Hetzner: best for developers and EU projects
- Kinsta: best managed WordPress with a green check we ran ourselves
| Host | What it claims | Evidence we found | Type of hosting | Entry price | Current plans |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GreenGeeks | 300% renewable energy match | RECs bought through the Bonneville Environmental Foundation; EPA Green Power Partner since 2009 | Shared | $2.95/mo for 12 months, then $13.95 | See GreenGeeks plans |
| Hetzner | Renewable electricity for its own data centers | Stated on its sustainability page, with certificates to download; PUE 1.10 to 1.16 | Unmanaged cloud and VPS | $6.49/mo plus $0.60 IPv4, excl. VAT | See Hetzner plans |
| Kinsta | Not assessed from Kinsta’s own claims | Our test site on Kinsta was confirmed by the Green Web Foundation (3-day test) | Managed WordPress | $35/mo or $350/yr | See Kinsta plans |
We read each green claim on the provider’s own sustainability page between September 25 and 28, 2026.
A claim can change without notice, so rerun the checks below before you rely on it.
How we chose the best green hosting
We sorted hosts HostingGuider reviews by the strength of the evidence behind their green claims, then by how well they work as hosting.
- Verified: a named third party, energy certificates, or an independent check we ran ourselves.
- Self-reported with detail: the host’s own page names locations, dates, or efficiency figures.
- Vague or missing: marketing language without numbers, partners, or certificates.
A green claim doesn’t make a bad host good. Every pick still has to pass our usual checks on price, backups, and support.
1. GreenGeeks: best for most small sites
Best for: blogs and small business sites that want green hosting with daily backups on a shared plan.
Skip it if: you need to know your CPU and RAM limits.
GreenGeeks says it has the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, a Green-e partner, buy renewable energy certificates for three times the energy it uses each year.
The US EPA has listed it as a Green Power Partner since 2009, and it plants a tree for every hosting account.
Lite costs $2.95 a month for 12 months, then $13.95. It includes daily backups, unmetered traffic, and a 30-day money-back guarantee, with data centers in Chicago, Montreal, Amsterdam, and Singapore.
Its named partner and EPA listing are why GreenGeeks’ certificate-backed green claim ranks first here, though we haven’t hosted a site there.
If you’re choosing between two eco-marketed shared hosts, the backup and refund gaps between InMotion and GreenGeeks matter more than either green badge.
Limitation: a 300% match means buying certificates, not running the servers directly on renewable power. GreenGeeks doesn’t state CPU or RAM for its plans.
2. Hetzner: best for developers and EU projects
Best for: a developer who wants a low-cost server in a data center with a published efficiency figure.
Skip it if: you need a managed host or servers mainly in Asia.
Hetzner’s sustainability page says its German data centers have used electricity from sustainable sources since 2008. Its Finnish park has run on renewable energy since it was built in 2018.
It reports a PUE of 1.10 to 1.16 as an annual average.
Its CX23 cloud server costs $6.49 a month before VAT, billed hourly up to that cap, plus $0.60 a month for an IPv4 address.
Limitation: the renewable claim is stated for its German and Finnish parks; its US and Singapore locations are colocation.
It’s unmanaged, and on September 25, 2026, its shared cloud plans showed as currently unavailable.
Pick a Falkenstein, Nuremberg, or Helsinki server if the green claim matters. Hetzner’s cloud servers span six sites, and only those three are its own parks.
3. Kinsta: best managed WordPress with a green check we ran ourselves
Best for: businesses that want premium managed WordPress and a green result they can check.
Skip it if: a green result matters more to you than managed WordPress, since cheaper hosts above cover that.
When we ran our test site on Kinsta’s WP 2 plan for three days, the Green Web Foundation check confirmed it as green-hosted.
That’s an independent check of our own site, not a claim we took from Kinsta.
Kinsta runs on Google Cloud, with 30 data centers and a Cloudflare-powered CDN.
For a green-checked managed site, the entry Single 35k plan is $35 billed monthly or $350 billed yearly.
Three days is a short window, so treat Kinsta’s green result from a three-day test as a snapshot.
Limitation: we didn’t assess Kinsta’s own sustainability statements. You’ll also need a separate email provider, and visits over the plan’s 35,000 bill at $0.50 per 1,000.
Green claims we couldn’t verify
- SiteGround: the page we checked made no green claims in its text.
- HostPapa: its green hosting page explains RECs and offsets in general, but doesn’t state its own percentage, partner, or certificates.
- DreamHost: the green page we tried to check returned an error, so we couldn’t verify its claims.
This doesn’t mean these hosts aren’t green. It means we couldn’t find evidence to rank them.
How to check any host’s green claim
- Run the Green Web Check. Enter a site hosted with the provider at the Green Web Foundation’s checker. It shows whether the host is in its dataset.
- Look up the directory. The Green Web Foundation’s hosting directory lists verified providers with their public evidence.
- Ask for the type of claim. Renewable power, energy certificates, and offsets are different. Ask which one the host means.
- Look for names and numbers: a certificate partner, a year, a percentage, or a PUE figure.
- Check it covers your data center. Some claims apply to certain locations only.
Other hosts we considered
- Hostinger: some reviews call it green, but we didn’t find a green claim on the pages in our facts, so we didn’t rank it here.
- InMotion Hosting: we didn’t check InMotion’s green claims, so it isn’t ranked.
Which green host should you choose?
Small site, want certificates and a known partner? GreenGeeks.
Developer or EU project, want efficient data centers? Hetzner.
Managed WordPress, want a check you can repeat? Kinsta.
Run the Green Web Check first: once a host passes, compare plans at GreenGeeks or Hetzner and confirm which data center you’ll get.
Frequently asked questions
What is green web hosting?
It’s hosting where the provider uses renewable electricity, buys renewable energy certificates to match its use, or offsets its emissions. Ask which method a host uses.
How are green hosting providers verified?
The Green Web Foundation, an independent non-profit, keeps a dataset of hosts with public evidence for their claims. You can check any site with its Green Web Check.
Is green hosting more expensive?
Not necessarily. GreenGeeks’ entry plan costs $2.95 a month for the first year, similar to other shared hosts. Prices depend on the plan more than the green claim.
What’s the difference between carbon neutral and renewable?
Renewable means the energy comes from sources like wind or solar. Carbon neutral means emissions are balanced, often by buying offsets, even if the power itself isn’t renewable.
What is PUE?
Power Usage Effectiveness compares a data center’s total energy use to what its servers use.
A PUE of 1.10, like Hetzner reports at the low end, means about 10% extra for cooling and other overhead.
Does green hosting affect site speed?
Not by itself. A renewable power source doesn’t change how fast a page loads; the hardware, caching, and distance to your readers do.
Our green-checked Kinsta test site scored 98 on desktop and 100 on mobile in PageSpeed, but that covers only three days.
How we compared green hosting
We sorted each host’s green claim into verified, detailed, or vague, then checked that the hosting itself was worth recommending.
Our first-hand check comes from a Kinsta account we paid for, listed with receipts for accounts we bought.
We haven’t bought GreenGeeks or Hetzner plans, so their green claims are self-reported with the detail noted above.
The usual HostingGuider scoring process applied on top, and affiliate payouts didn’t change the order.
