Do you know your WordPress site’s health will depend on the hosting service you use? Yes, choosing the best WordPress hosting is, by far, the essential aspect of building a website.
What is WordPress Hosting?
WordPress hosting is a web hosting product that has been pre-configured to host WordPress-powered websites efficiently and meets all the performance and security needs of WordPress.
WordPress hosting generally includes single-click WordPress installs to make it easy to start with WordPress. There are two main types of WordPress hosting – shared WordPress hosting and managed WordPress hosting.
WordPress is the Internet’s most popular content management system (CMS). WordPress can run on any hosting setup with PHP, MySQL, and Linux. As it is being used by more than 42% of websites globally, most web hosting service providers offer managed WordPress hosting services.
How to Choose the Best WordPress Hosting?
Buying a WordPress hosting service does not have to be a costly affair. After all, WordPress itself is free. Even the cheapest shared hosting plan comes with a single-click WordPress installer allowing you to have your website ready within a few minutes.
However, when you are a newbie, knowing which is the best WordPress hosting provider is challenging. Because, of course, there are thousands of service providers to choose from. While choosing a WordPress host, ensure that you take care of these critical factors:
- Speed: To provide an ultimate user experience and boost SEO efforts, speed plays a crucial role.
- Availability: You want your website to be live all the time so choose the hosting company with maximum availability.
- Support: Pick the hosting service provider with an excellent reputation for solving customer concerns promptly.
10 Best WordPress Hosting Service Providers
Now, let’s have a look at the top 10 WordPress hosting service providers with their features, pros, and cons:
1. Bluehost
Powering more than 2 million websites globally, Bluehost is among the biggest web hosting enterprises. It is an officially recommended hosting service provider by WordPress.org.
For those who want to start their own WordPress blog with ease, Bluehost is the best option. You can get paid plans to derive excellent results if your website demands premium features.
Features
- Free domain name for one year
- Free domain privacy for Choice Plus or higher plans
- Comes with a free SSL certificate
- Free site migration
- 24/7 customer support
- Live chat support
- Dedicated CPU power to the hosted website
- Daily backup of WordPress blogs
Pros
- Free SSL, free domain name, and free site transfer.
- Officially recommended by WordPress.org.
- Highly customizable WordPress setup.
Cons
- No email-based support for technical help.
- No monthly billing option.
- You need to take a 3-year hosting plan to get the maximum discount.
2. SiteGround
SiteGround provides high-speed technologies and advanced security compared to other inexpensive web hosts. For instance, SiteGround operates on the Google Cloud platform to create an agile and technically superior hosting service.
It might be a little costly affair, but it makes an excellent choice for users who need a secure and scalable hosting service.
Features
- Excellent performance with advanced customer support
- Data centers located around the world
- Uses Google’s Cloud infrastructure for cloud and enterprise plans
- Do daily backups
- Unlimited databases and email accounts
- Free website transfer
- Integrate well with CloudFare’s CDN
- Offers free SSL certificate
Pros
- Get solid-state drives with any SiteGround plan for fast loading of the website.
- For outstanding site experience, data centers are located on 3 continents.
- Flawless performance with NGINX, HTTP/2, free CDN, and PHP7.
Cons
- The initial plan is a little costly.
- It’s not possible to waive the domain name registration fee.
- You must select the expensive GoGeek plan for geeky WordPress features, like one-click WordPress staging and a particular cache.
3. WP Engine
WP Engine is a leading WordPress hosting service provider based in Austin, TX. It is among the first-ever enterprises to provide hosting services to renowned customers, including Asana, PBS, MyFitnessPal, and Yelp.
WP Engine is recommended for users who need a superior level of WordPress hosting service to increase the traffic on a website.
Features
- Global data centers
- Integrated CDN
- Fast performance
- Highly responsive customer support
- Proactive security
- Value for money
- Specialized WordPress hosting features
Pros
- Provides a suite of top-performance solutions for your WordPress website.
- Single-click staging software for testing the latest WordPress plugins and other modern features before pushing it to your production site.
- 24/7 technical help.
Cons
- Plans are costly for small to medium-scale enterprises.
- Designed mainly for users who need to be managed by WordPress hosting services.
- The unmanaged WordPress hosting option is unavailable.
4. HostGator
HostGator is one of the most popular web hosting providers in the market. The hosting service provider has some excellent affordable starter plans.
Also, they offer a 45-day money-back guarantee, so you can quickly try the hosting service without risk. All its plans come with unlimited bandwidth, email accounts, free website migration, and good storage.
Features
- Cheapest web hosting with excellent value for money
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- 24/7 customer support
- 45-day money-back guarantee
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain name
- Dedicated IP
- Unmetered domain options, bandwidth, and email accounts
- Uses cPanel
Pros
- 24/7 technical support via phone, email, and live chat.
- 45-day money-back guarantee.
- Excellent website load time.
Cons
- No free domain name is provided in any of the plans.
- SSD storage is not available for shared hosting.
5. DreamHost
DreamHost is among the leading web hosting service providers. It hosts around 1.5 million websites across more than 100 countries.
It is an officially recommended hosting provider by WordPress.org and provides everything you need to start a WordPress website. For delivering an outstanding website creation experience, your hosting account will be pre-installed with WordPress.
Features
- Instant WordPress setup
- Auto WordPress updates
- 24/7 customer support
- Free domain and SSL certificate
- Free email hosting and privacy protection
- Advanced easy-to-use panel
Pros
- 97-day money-back guarantee.
- Powering countless websites since 1997.
- Offers a drag-and-drop builder.
Cons
- Low uptime.
- 24/7 support is not available.
- Chargeable technical support via phone.
6. GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks is an excellent WP hosting service provider that provides security, scalability, and performance. The platform will meet all your business requirements regardless of your select plans.
It is the world’s biggest #1 green energy WordPress hosting service provider that offers a quick SSD-based hosting solution.
Features
- Stable hosting platform
- Built-in scalability
- SSD storage arrays for fast page loading and maximum redundancy
- The best and latest speed technologies used
- Different channels for customer support
- Simple and transparent
- Ad and upsell-free WordPress auto-install
Pros
- SSD storage for fast website performance.
- 300% green web hosting.
- Free domain name.
- 24/7 excellent customer support.
Cons
- A little bit expensive for having only SSD storage.
- A one-time payment of $15 is necessary as a setup fee.
- Low uptime.
7. iPage
Launched in 1998, iPage offers excellent web hosting services at affordable prices. It backs a million websites worldwide. In 2010, iPage was taken over by Endurance International Group, and now, the company has offices in 6 locations and 2 data centers in the US.
Irrespective of your company size, you can find the perfect hosting plan from iPage that best meets your business requirements.
Features
- Single plan with all primary features
- Plans are worth their value
- 24/7 email, chat, phone, and tickets support
- Unlimited websites
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain for a year
- Free website builder
- Free standard email address
Pros
- A free domain name and SiteLock security tool.
- Signing up for a web hosting account is easy, with no hidden charges.
- Single-click WordPress installer.
- No limit on creating email addresses.
Cons
- The basic plan has no cPanel.
- Only one hosting plan for shared hosting.
- The website builder that comes with the hosting is not free.
8. InMotion Hosting
This is another US-based WordPress web host that comes with 3,50,000 domain names. Each plan has many great features, including CDN, unlimited email accounts, SSL, and 200 or more WordPress themes. It gives you a good choice of data centers too.
InMotion Hosting also offers the best reseller hosting plans that help you distribute web hosting and make good money.
Features
- Low entry-level pricing
- Free Domain
- Free SSL Certificate
- WordPress auto-installed
- Support staff available 24/7
- Live chat support
- Daily backups
- Includes BoldGrid drag-and-drop WordPress site builder
Pros
- Completely free automated data backups.
- Committed to environment-friendly policies.
- Complete assurance of a money-back guarantee.
- SSD storage for all hosting plans.
Cons
- Quite expensive plans as compared to other web hosts.
- A monthly payment plan does not exist.
- Unlimited web hosting is not available in shared hosting.
9. Liquid Web
Liquid Web is a shared WordPress hosting service provider specializing in WordPress hosting, WooCommerce hosting, and much more. It updates test plugins automatically and creates a copy of the website.
The web hosting provider offers a 24-hour technical support service and provides complete access to the database and the server.
Features
- WordPress optimized servers
- WordPress website management
- Automatic daily website backups
- Ability to create a staging site
- Offers free access to iThemes Sync Pro tool
- iThemes Security Pro included comes with all WP-managed hosting plans
- Multiple support channels, including chat, phone, ticket, knowledge base, and support forum
- Unique cloud auto-scaling feature
Pros
- No traffic limits.
- Easy website setup using developer tools and staging site options.
- A hardware firewall that protects from cyber attacks.
Cons
- Expensive option for small-scale business websites.
- The hosting discount is only valid for three months.
- No access to unmanaged hosting.
10. A2 Hosting
Being a developer-friendly website hosting service provider, A2 Hosting provides the flexibility to help you build a website. It gives you unlimited bandwidth and disk space for hosting your site.
Just like SiteGround, you can easily change server locations. A2 Hosting offers data centers in the USA, Singapore, and the Netherlands.
Features
- Outstanding speed
- Premium support
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Offers a wide range of hosting arrangements
- Free guided migration
- Guaranteed 99.9% uptime
- Offers optimized WordPress installation
- All WordPress plans offer SSDs
Pros
- Windows and Linux; 2 options to select from.
- Money-back guarantee fully assured.
- Free Cloudflare CDN.
- Unlimited email accounts.
Cons
- Little costly renewals.
- Low uptime.
- With many WordPress hosting plans, picking the best one can be overwhelming.
Conclusion
Going by this list, we recommend choosing a WordPress hosting service that’s affordable, fast and provides 99.99% uptime. Bluehost seems the most promising here, but you can go with HostGator or any other you like from the above picks.
No matter which web hosting provider you choose, you won’t be disappointed with the features and quality you get at such affordable plans.
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is WordPress, a hosting provider?
Yes, WordPress does offer its hosting services on WordPress.com. It has both free and paid plans available. On hosting your website directly on WordPress.com, there are no upfront costs, and you will not need to purchase a separate domain name.
2. Does GoDaddy host WordPress?
No, WordPress is not hosted by GoDaddy. WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that enables users to create a website or blog from scratch or to improve their already existing website. Whereas GoDaddy is a hosting service provider that offers its services that include WordPress hosting.
3. Which hosting is best for WordPress beginners?
For WordPress beginners, the best hosting plan is shared Linux hosting. The hosting plan ranges from $2.59 to $5.99 per month. We recommend registering your domain name and website with the same hosting service provider.
4. Do I need Bluehost for WordPress?
Bluehost is the best to create a budget-friendly professional website with custom branding, flexible web hosting, a free domain name, free drag-and-drop page builder, automatic WordPress installation, and many other WordPress features. Bluehost is best for beginners as it comes with everything needed to start with WordPress.
5. What kind of hosting do I need for WordPress?
For WordPress, both managed and VPS hosting is good. Managed WordPress hosting specifically supports websites built on WordPress and comes with many features for the smooth running of the website. VPS, or Virtual Private Server WordPress hosting, on the other hand, comes in between shared hosting and a dedicated server. It is an ideal WordPress hosting for those who need more resources at an affordable cost.