WordPress is easily the most widely used and popular website builder and CMS (content management system) in the world. The platform powers users’ websites that range from personal bloggers and small businesses to globe-spanning companies.
Read our guide to find the best WordPress hosting for your business. We considered criteria essential to most companies, including multiple server types, uptime and load speed, and customer support.
Choosing a web hosting company is an important decision you must invest some time in. Your hosting provider’s service and performance will directly affect your SEO (search engine optimization), sales, website performance, and uptime. As a result, what works for one business may not necessarily work for others. When creating the list of best WordPress hosting companies, we considered multiple server types, uptime and load speed, and customer support.
What Is WordPress Web Hosting?
WordPress is easily the most widely used and popular website builder and CMS (content management system) worldwide. The platform powers websites that range from personal blogs and small businesses to globe-spanning companies.
WordPress hosting providers offer you a hosting product that is conveniently pre-configured to host a WordPress powered site efficiently. As there’s no industry standard definition for the term “WordPress hosting,” note that the exact product can vary from one host to another.
In many cases, WordPress hosting is used for security, simplification, and efficiently speeding up a WordPress installation compared to a standard WordPress install on typical Linux servers.
How To Choose WordPress Web Hosting
You probably know that finding the most suitable hosting provider for your WordPress site is not as simple as it should be. There are many factors to consider. Are uptime and reliability most important to you? Or is it fast servers and page loading times? What if you need it all?
Consider these factors as you choose WordPress hosting:
Multiple server types: You should choose a provider that offers multiple server types. Moving your WordPress site to a multi-server setup from a single-server setup comes with several amazing benefits. Some of these perks include greater speed, more security, reliability, and dependability for your business as well as customers.
Uptime and load speed: These two factors are also very important. The uptime of your site should be close to 100%. However, keep in mind that achieving a 100% uptime is almost impossible. This is because problems are inevitable and maintenance is usually required. However, the good news is that many hosting providers now guarantee a 99.99% uptime.
Load speed is equally important. Many researchers have shown that you have just a few seconds to grab a visitor’s attention. If you lose this short window, then the user may never visit your site again. It all boils down to choosing the fastest WordPress hosting provider to optimize the webpage load time so that your visitors can stay and see what your website is all about.
Customer support: Customer support is another essential factor to consider when choosing a hosting service. If the support being offered leaves something to be desired, you cannot trust that company with your website.
Since your site will be running on a server located within a datacenter, you will not have physical access to it. This means you will be relying on the support team and their technical engineers should anything ever go wrong. Choosing a hosting company with a responsive customer support department that is available 24/7 just makes sense.
DreamHost prides itself on being a reliable and award-winning WordPress hosting provider. Given that DreamHost hosts more than 1.6 million websites for over 400,000 members — and they are one of only four website hosting services that WordPress endorses — the company has good reason to be proud.
DreamHost’s WordPress, shared, VPS, cloud, and dedicated plans all provide a slew of options for webmasters looking to develop attractive and flexible websites. DreamHost is ideal for WordPress hosting, with its managed, shared, and other options. Keep in mind that shared WordPress hosting is DreamHost’s standard shared plans. While there is an option that allows you to pre-install WordPress as well as a template-based and convenient WordPress website builder, otherwise it is just normal shared hosting.
Pros and Cons of DreamHost
Pros
Generous money-back guarantee
Consistent performance
Cons
No telephone support
What customers are saying about DreamHost
A reliable and affordable hosting provider, Dreamhost offers great customer service and a variety of plans. It is easy to use, though there are some complaints that the speed and webmail could be improved.
Why it’s best: Impressive features, consistently fast speeds, and reliable performance
SiteGround has data centers in six countries, and it services over 2,000,000 domains throughout the globe. It offers a special type of shared web hosting for WordPress users. On first impression, it may seem mostly the same: disk space, visits, and features. Its most notable difference is that WordPress comes installed for free.
SiteGround offers a unique bot protection system powered by its effective AI (artificial intelligence) algorithm. When you switch on this system, you will notice a considerable reduction in various alerts from your WordPress security plugins. Note that this system also prevents a wide variety of brute force attacks on your WordPress login screen and also does a great job of detecting any malicious login attempts.
In addition, SiteGround also offers many security options, such as the SiteGround Site Scanner in order to let you know if your website is under attack. It also offers antispam tools SpamExperts and SpamAssassin, hotlink protection, as well as IP (internet protocol) address blocklists.
Pros and Cons of SiteGround
Pros
Feature-packed products
Speedy support response times
Cons
No free domain
What customers are saying about SiteGround
SiteGround is a reliable web hosting company with fast speeds, a user-friendly interface, and solid customer service. Some customers are not thrilled with the price increase and back-end support, however.
Why it’s best: Great value with reliable uptime and solid customer service
Bluehost is a large website host well-known in the industry for its WordPress expertise. It is also popular for its variety of “one-stop-shop” solutions and services, as well as bargain prices.
The host currently powers over two million sites worldwide, mainly out of its huge data center in Utah. The company also offers almost every website hosting service that you might possibly need, such as advanced hosting like VPS (virtual private server), managed WordPress hosting, and dedicated server.
Besides offering a complete range of website hosting services, the company provides SEO services, marketing training, social media marketing, graphic design services, and content creation.
Bluehost also has an advanced and reliable WordPress hosting category called WP Pro. Note that WP Pro is available in three tiers. It is an excellent managed WordPress offering that gives your website’s backend the coveted white-glove treatment and includes amazing social media, SEO, and email marketing tools. And WP Pro’s 3 plans (Grow, Build, and Scale) all feature unlimited website hosting, domains, monthly data transfers, and storage, which is great.
Pros and cons of Bluehost
Pros
Solid uptime
Generous storage
Cons
Poor backup options
What customers are saying about Bluehost
Bluehost is a reputable provider offering shared and VPS hosting. The company is easy to use, affordable, and has great uptime. It is geared toward entrepreneurs and small online startups. Billing might be confusing, but they have solid customer service for any issues.
WP Engine was one of the first hosts to offer managed hosting services specifically for WordPress, which means they have loads of experience. The company’s hassle-free hosting provides you with fast and robust servers capable of handling almost anything.
While most hosts claim that their various WordPress plans are fully optimized for speed, usually that only means installing a couple of standard tools (Varnish and NGINX) and tweaking a few settings. WP Engine is different as it has its customized EverCache system, PHP 7 and HTTP/2 (hypertext transfer protocol/2) support, and a free CDN (content delivery network). It also offers a choice of data centers in regions like North America, Asia, and Europe.
You will also like WP Engine, as it does its best in order to keep the hosting service running smoothly. They also automatically install major WordPress updates and test minor ones prior to recommending them. There is also built-in malware detection as well as blocking.
All hosting plans offer access to WP Engine’s amazing and responsive 24/7 live chat support; you can easily access their live chat support from the control panel.
Pros and Cons of WP Engine
Pros
Loads of premium features
Excellent performance
Cons
Prices are above average
What customers are saying about WP Engine
WP Engine works well for small businesses with WordPress websites, offering fast loading speeds and a secure environment. But this is not the best choice for larger sites or people seeking consistently good customer support, and plans are pricey.
Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting solution that delivers around-the-clock monitoring, automated backups, and regular security fixes. Customers can choose from five cloud providers, including AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Google Cloud. Cloudways offers 24/7 live chat and ticketing support as part of its packages, along with alerts for operational aspects such as performance and security. Businesses needing quicker response times, dedicated support, or deeper technical skills can also upgrade to an Advanced or Premium support plan.
Pros and Cons of Cloudways
Pros
Hourly pay-as-you-go
Strategic server locations
Cons
CDN is not included
What customers are saying about Cloudways
Cloudways offers fast speeds as well as great customer service and pricing. The setup can be a bit hard, and there is no cPanel.
Frequently Asked Questions About WordPress Hosting
What is WordPress hosting?
WordPress hosting is a form of web hosting that provides servers and resources specifically optimized for WordPress-powered websites.
Do I need WordPress hosting to start a website?
You can start a website without using WordPress hosting. But if you want to build a WordPress-powered website, you need a WordPress hosting provider.
Do I need my domain and WordPress hosting from the same provider?
No, you can use one of the WordPress hosting providers on this list and get your domain from any domain name registrar. However, getting both services from the same provider is better if you have yet to buy your domain name.
Can I use these WordPress hosting providers for an e-commerce site?
Yes, all of the WordPress hosting providers listed above provide SSL certificates, which are necessary for operating an e-commerce website.
Do I need any WordPress hosting add-ons?
Most of these add-on features frequently have free alternatives; you can purchase these WordPress hosting additions if you find them more useful. We advise that you get what you need, which is WordPress hosting.
Do these WordPress hosting companies offer website backups?
Yes, all WordPress hosting providers claim that they maintain daily backups of your website. Install a WordPress backup plugin and keep your backups for better security.