Not sure which WordPress hosting provider to use for your site? There are hundreds of hosts on the market and it can be confusing and overwhelming. This is my list of the best WordPress hosting providers.
The world of website hosting is a bit like the Wild West. There are multitudes of hosts offering multiple options. There are many more people and websites promoting these by making many promises. I hope that this list will help you choose the right web hosting for your needs.
A2 Hosting
Price: Plans start at $3.92 for one site. Unlimited site plan starts at $4.90. The “up to 20x faster” plan starts at $9.31. They offer a free account migration from other hosts.
What is it: Started in 2001 in Michigan and offers everything from shared hosting plans to dedicated server solutions. They own all of their web servers.
Focus on WordPress alongside other CMS solutions. Partnering with Carbonfund to offset their CO2 emissions. You can cancel at any time and get a refund for unused services.
Amazon Web Services
Price: Has a free tier and free trials after which you can pay as you go according to your usage.
What is it: AWS from Amazon is a cloud computing platform used by some of the most significant websites online such as Netflix and Airbnb.
Best for: Not recommended for beginners. Setting up and running WordPress on AWS is not that easy and is a highly technical process.
Cloudways
Price: Pay as you go charges with the cheapest plan being $10 per month.
What is it: Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform. It basically helps you run and manage a site on one of the large cloud computing platforms such as AWS.
Best for: Non-technical users who want someone to manage their site on AWS or similar.
DreamHost
Alternative host recommended by people behind WordPress.
Price: Plans start at $2.59/month for one site and $7.95 for multiple sites. The “high performance” plans start at $16.95.
What is it: DreamHost is one of the three hosts recommended by WordPress. They focus on WordPress and offer everything from shared hosting to dedicated hosting. Over 1.5 million websites are hosted thereof which 750,000+ are WordPress blogs.
Flywheel
Price: Plans start at $14/month for one site and up to 5,000 visitors. Free migration of sites.
What is it: Started in 2012. Focus on designers and agencies building and managing sites for clients. Helps you automate the process of managing multiple client sites. WordPress only. 70,000 customers.
Best for: Those designing and managing sites for clients and looking for a customized solution for your workflow.
GoDaddy
Price: WordPress plans start at $8.99/month for one site and up to 25,000 visitors.
What is it: Publicly listed web host founded in 1997. The most widely known hosting provider famous for its Super Bowl advertising. It’s also the largest web host with 17 million customers.
I’ve been a paying customer for several years but the value you get for your money is not nearly as good as the hosts that I recommend.
Google Cloud Platform
Price: Free tier and free trial.
What is it: Google’s cloud computing platform that is competing with Amazon Web Services to dominate the web.
Best for: Not recommended for beginners. Setting up and running WordPress on Google Cloud is not that easy and is a highly technical process.
HostGator
Price: WordPress Cloud plan starts at $5.95/month for one site and up to 100,000 visitors. Free migration for one website is included.
What is it: Founded in 2002 and hosts more than 1 million sites.
InMotion Hosting
Price: WordPress hosting starts at $7.26/month for one site, 40GB of storage and up to 20,000 monthly visitors. Plans include a free domain name and a free site transfer too.
What is it: Founded in 2001 and hosts more than 300,000 domains. Committed to being eco-friendly by reducing their carbon output and partnering with non-profits to plant trees.
They also offer a 90-day no-questions-asked money-back guarantee if you’re not happy with their service.
InterServer
Price: WordPress plans start at $6/month for 25GB of storage. Free migration service is included.
What is it: Founded in 1999. They have a price lock guarantee on some plans which means that you keep paying the price you sign up for.
Kinsta
Price: Plans start at $30/month for one site, 5GB of disk space and up to 20,000 visitors. Includes free migration.
What is it: Founded in 2013. Premium WordPress hosting on the Google Cloud Platform. No fixed terms contracts. You can upgrade or downgrade at any time. You get a prorated refund in case you cancel.
Kualo
An alternative for green hosting.
Price: WordPress plans start at $3.99 for the first month ($8.99 after the first month) for one site, 10GB of storage, a free domain name and a free migration.
What is it: Founded in 2000 and hosting more than 100,000 sites. 100% powered by renewable energy. Includes 60-day money-back guarantee and a price freeze guarantee (they will never increase the hosting price you pay as long as you remain the customer).
Best for: Alternative option for those looking for an environment-friendly hosting.
Linode
Price: Plans start at $5/month for 25GB of storage.
What is it: Cloud hosting for designers and developers with more than 400,000 customers.
Best for: Not recommended for beginners. Setting up and running WordPress on Linode is not that easy and is a highly technical process.
Liquid Web
Price: WordPress plans start at $99/month for up to 10 sites, 50GB of storage and complimentary site migration.
What is it: 30,000+ customers and 500,000+ sites under management. No contracts so you can upgrade or downgrade or leave at any time.
Media Temple
Price: WordPress plans start at $20/month for two sites, 50GB of space and up to 250,000 visitors.
What is it: Founded in 1998 and acquired by GoDaddy in 2013. More than 100,000 customers and managing more than 1.5 million websites.
Pagely
Price: WordPress plans start at $299/month for up to 15 sites.
What is it: Founded in 2006, focused on WordPress sites and is the “first-ever managed WordPress hosting platform”.
Pressable
Price: Starts at $25/month for up to 5 sites and 60,000 page views. Includes free migration and a free Jetpack premium subscription.
What is it: Founded in 2010. Focus on WordPress. Acquired by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com. Try it for 90 days and get money back if you’re not happy.
Site5 Hosting
Price: Plans start at $6.95/month for one site and up to 10,000 visitors. Includes free migration.
What is it: Targeting designers and developers. 45-day money-back guarantee.
SiteGround
Alternative host recommended by people behind WordPress.
Price: WordPress plans start at $3.95/month for one site, 10GB of storage and 10,000 visitors. Includes free migration.
What is it: Founded in 2004 and managing more than 1.8 million domain names. One of the three hosts recommended by WordPress.
WPEngine
Price: Plans start at $35/month for one site and 25,000 visitors. Free migration.
What is it: Founded in 2010 and has 90,000+ customers. Owner of StudioPress and the Genesis premium themes so you get access to them for free as part of any plan.
WordPress blog hosting FAQ
Things to consider when deciding and evaluating a web host
Every blog is hosted on a server somewhere. By clicking on a link, your computer or mobile device is connecting to a server where that website is being hosted.
Hosting is essential for you to make your blog visible on the internet and accessible for people to visit from anywhere in the world at anytime that they want.
Here are some things you should consider when deciding which web host to use:
- Your budget, pricing and cost: How much is your budget for a hosting account? What can you afford to spend?
- Your expectations: Do you plan to run more than one blog? Do you want a high-speed and reliable server? Do you plan to upload tons of content? Starting with a broad audience and expecting a lot of traffic? Do you plan to run e-commerce and accept payments? Do you need the additional functionality that some of the more premium companies are offering?
- Speed: How fast will my blog load and does the host have CDN, caching and other speed optimization setup?
- Security: Does the host have a free SSL certificate, measures to block brute-force attacks, scans for vulnerabilities and cleaning of malware?
- WordPress specific features: Does the host have one-click install, automatic updates, and backup?
- Support: Is support provided 24/7? Do you need to call in or can you live chat or email? How responsive are they?
Different types of hosting available
1. Shared hosting
Shared hosting is the best choice for a beginner. They are cheap, easy to start with and simple to maintain and keep running. Your blog is hosted on a server alongside other blogs from other people.
There are no dedicated resources allocated solely to your site. Everyone is sharing the resources of the server. Think of it like living in an apartment building.
Most people start out with a shared hosting account as every new blog has very little traffic. Some may move up in case they get a lot of traffic or want a site to load even faster.
It’s simple to upgrade to a more advanced (and more expensive) hosting if or when you need.
If you’re looking to start your first blog or if you’re a beginner, I recommend a shared hosting option. It’s affordable and easy to use and get started with.
2. Managed WordPress hosting
Managed WordPress hosting companies are a relatively new introduction to the world of blog hosting.
Their rise has contributed to an overall increase in service and quality of WordPress hosting. Many hosting providers now blur the line between a managed WordPress and shared hosting.
Many have introduced features and services of a managed platform and this is great for all of us.
Any server can be a managed WordPress hosting server. The only difference really is that a managed server is specially configured for the WordPress software and the needs of WordPress.
Managed WordPress hosting companies are basically WordPress experts. That’s what they do.
Their servers are designed and optimized for WordPress blogs. For instance, a managed WordPress hosting might ban some resource-heavy or insecure plugins from being installed.
Managed WordPress hosting also integrates other features such as caching, CDN and malware scans.
You can still be on a shared hosting even with managed WordPress hosting or you may be on a dedicated server. It all depends on the hosting company.
The best way to see the difference is by looking at the cost. Managed WordPress hosting with a dedicated server can cost 10 times more per month than managed hosting on a shared server.
3. VPS (Virtual Private Server)
VPS (Virtual Private Server) is similar to shared hosting but with more resources and support.
A VPS server is split into several standalone partitions and each account gets access to a dedicated allocation of CPU, RAM and storage space.
You don’t have a whole dedicated server all for yourself but your account is isolated from other sites and you have guaranteed and dedicated resources only for yourself.
4. Cloud hosting
This is like a virtual private server but your content is spread over several machines rather than one. This brings in extra speed, stability and scalability to high-traffic sites.
Cloud hosting can be managed or unmanaged. With unmanaged cloud hosting you are on your own. You get the server space and you need to set everything up using a command-line interface.
Some cloud hosting companies provide managed cloud hosting. Managed cloud hosting has a control panel which helps you install WordPress and there is the customer support as well.
Managed cloud hosting is, in general, more expensive than unmanaged.
5. Dedicated server
A dedicated server means that you get full access to a server. All of its resources are available to you and you are entirely in charge of running everything.
You don’t share anything with anyone else. A dedicated server is for those more technically inclined who want to manage their own server.
What are the CPU, RAM and hard drive space on my server?
Think of a server as a computer without a monitor. It pretty much works the same way. Servers contain:
- A processor (CPU) responsible for performing all the processes.
- Memory (RAM) accountable for storing current data in use.
- Disk space responsible for storing your files and content.
The more traffic your site has, the more strain it will put on the CPU and RAM. The more data you upload, the more disk space your content will take.
How to improve your blog speed on a shared hosting
- Pick a lightweight and fast WordPress blog design theme.
- Compress all your images as you upload them using tools such as Squoosh by Google.
- Use Jetpack plugin to lazy load your images which means that pictures don’t load until the visitor scrolls down to them.
- Enable also “Site accelerator” CDN in Jetpack to speed up image and static file load times.
- Activate a caching plugin such as “Cache Enabler“.
- Activate a minify plugin such as “Autoptimize“.
See my complete guide on how to speed up WordPress.
What are the signs I have outgrown the shared hosting account?
- Are you experiencing slow loading time that bothers your visitors and impacts your revenue?
- Are you experiencing site downtime?
- Do you often encounter your blog being down with different error messages?
- Has your blog been a victim of random hacking attacks through the server itself?
What is cPanel?
Hosting servers are usually managed with cPanel. This control panel helps you:
- Manage your WordPress installs, databases, security, your email, stats and other apps.
- Quickly move your blogs from one hosting account to another.
Pricing discounts
Many hosts regularly run big pricing discount campaigns. You may even get 50% or more off the price if you purchase during a sale. Something to consider:
- To get the most significant discount you usually need to commit and prepay for up to 3 years.
- Be aware of the full price as at the end of the initial term, you may be renewing with the total amount without the discount.
- It’s advisable to shop around when it’s time to renew just before your initial term has been completed if the host wants you to pay the full price.
- Be ready to move to another host after the initial term expires to get the best deal. Most hosts in this list offer a free site migration to their services.
Should I use free or paid blog hosting?
Free blog hosting exists but is not recommended for several reasons:
- Free blog hosting doesn’t typically include a domain name and you will be under the domain of the host.
- Free blog hosts usually display banner advertising and other messages to your visitors.
- Free blog hosts don’t allow you the full freedom and control over your site as your paid hosting does.
What’s the best free blog hosting?
Some of the popular options to host your blog for free are WordPress.com, Blogger.com and Medium.com. Here’s the full list of all the best blogging platforms.
