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Bluehost is the best WordPress host of 2023 based on our testing. See our other top picks for the best WordPress web hosts.
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For new WordPress sites
Starts at $2.95 per month
- Guided onboarding
- Recommended by WordPress
- 24/7 support
Best security and scalability
Starts at $3.75 per month
- All types of hosting
- Enhanced security tools
- Affordable as you grow
The easiest option
Starts at $2.75 per month
- Great for absolute beginners
- Drag-and-drop website builder
- 150+ free templates
Best WordPress Hosts: Our Shortlist
WordPress is easily the most widely used and popular website builder and content management system (CMS) worldwide. This platform powers websites that range from personal blogs and small businesses to globe-spanning companies. We’ve looked at all the top hosting platforms to bring you the best, keeping in mind what’s important for most companies, including multiple server types, uptime and load speed, and customer support.
Our Top Picks
Best WordPress Host
Best Managed WordPress Hosting Plan
Best Low-Cost WordPress Hosting
Most Reliable WordPress Hosting
Best WordPress Host Uptime Guarantee
Most WordPress Hosting Plan Options
Best Value WordPress Host
Best WordPress Hosting Introductary Rate
Digital.com dives deep into every topic it covers to offer trusted and reliable recommendations for the best business tools. See how we review WordPress hosts.
The Top WordPress Hosting of 2023
Features
- 50GB SSD storage
- Custom themes
- Free domain & SSL for 1 year
#1 Top Pick for 2023
Bluehost shines above the crowd for its performance, reliability, and overall value for WordPress.
Price
$2.95 per month
Uptime Guarantee
99.9%
24-7 Support
Yes
Free Domain
Yes
Read More
Reasons to choose Bluehost
- Hugely popular
- Variety of hosting options
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Official partner of WordPress
Reasons to avoid
- No automatic daily backup
- No monthly billing on shared hosting
Bluehost is a popular web hosting company with millions of sites running on its servers. This company has provided hosting at an affordable price since 2003. Bluehost continues to innovate and expand to meet the ever-changing needs of its customers.
Bluehost, one of the few official WordPress partners, can run just about any type of website you want, including custom-built pages, WordPress or WooCommerce sites, and more. If shared hosting is not sufficient for your website, Bluehost offers excellent VPS and dedicated servers as well.
Bluehost’s parent company, Newfold Digital, also owns Yoast, which is a leading search engine optimization (SEO) WordPress plug-in. Yoast SEO Premium is now available on all plans for an additional $2.99 per month (normally $8.25), and Yoast SEO Free is included on all plans except for the basic one.
Bluehost also helps its customers by providing a variety of WordPress site-building tools. Customers who use these tools can be confident their sites are properly made and configured to be stable and quick to load at all times.
- Who is Bluehost best for?
After extensive testing and a review of everything Bluehost offers, I found it a capable hosting option for individuals, small businesses, bloggers, and others who need a reliable website. Bluehost makes it simple to create and manage a site with its diverse tools, templates, and WooCommerce options, so it’s easy for those new to running websites. - Recent upgrades to Bluehost
Bluehost is constantly innovating and upgrading its systems. For example, it started offering an advanced new site migration tool for WordPress sites and a full marketplace for great site templates. - Bluehost WordPress hosting pricing
Bluehost has options at various price points. The basic shared hosting account starts at $2.95 per month. If you need a dedicated server, on the other hand, you can pay up to $119.99 per month for the top-end option.
The Bottom Line
Customers praise Bluehost’s uptime and features, though some say that the shared hosting options don’t have the fastest speeds and they wish they didn’t have to pay for some extras. Users also say the support staff is friendly and helpful and that the UI is easy to use.
Features
- 1 website
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Free domain and SSL certificate
Price
$3.95 per month
Uptime Guarantee
99.9%
24-7 Support
Yes
Free Domain
Yes
Read More
Reasons to choose HostGator
- Multiple hosting packages
- Free site transfers
- 45-day money-back guarantee
- Unmetered bandwidth
Reasons to avoid
- Upselling features
- Slow customer support
HostGator has something to offer everyone with its stellar uptime guarantees, unlimited bandwidth, and a range of reasonably-priced hosting options. It has one-click installs on shared hosting plans so that you can integrate WordPress on your sites in no time.
HostGator makes it incredibly easy to switch to its platform with free website migration and one-click installation of WordPress. You’ll also get all the support you need with several ways to reach the customer service team, including phone, live chat, and Twitter.
Its managed WordPress plans mean a lot of the backend work will be done for you — HostGator will manage administrative tasks such as the initial install, automated daily backups, WordPress core updates, and server-level caching. This can take a lot off your plate, especially if you’re trying to get a business off the ground.
Keep in mind not all WordPress plug-ins are available with a managed WordPress plan. But the convenience is well worth the limitation since you’re sure to have a lot more on your plate than just website management.
- Who is HostGator best for?
HostGator is a great option for those trying to start a business who need all the support they can get. Managed plans can give you more time to focus on other aspects of your business. - Recent upgrades to HostGator
The HostGator team is always adding new features and improving its services. It redesigned the customer portal to make managing bill preferences and changing contact information easier. HostGator also added many quality of life improvements to its website builder. - HostGator WordPress hosting pricing
A “Hatchling” plan, which includes a single website, unmetered bandwidth, and a free domain for one year costs $2.75 per month. Next is the “Baby” plan, which adds up to five websites and four times the storage for only $3.50 per month. The “Business” plan unlocked unlimited websites and storage for $5.25 each month.
The Bottom Line
Customers say that HostGator is a great hosting company with lots of features and options, but that you need to be careful to not get suckered into paying for extras you don’t need. HostGator is great for hosting standard web pages, but might not be the best option for hosting more advanced websites.
Features
- 50GB storage
- 100GB bandwidth
- Unlimited free SSL
Price
$2.99 per month
Uptime Guarantee
99.9%
24-7 Support
Yes
Free Domain
Yes
Read More
Reasons to choose Hostinger
- Very popular
- Affordable hosting options
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Free domain and SSL certificate for Premium subscribers
Reasons to avoid
- No dedicated servers
- hPanel isn’t as useful as it should be
Hostinger prioritizes WordPress support, with several packages designed specifically for WordPress hosting. Migration of your WordPress-based site from another hosting company to Hostinger is fast and easy. If you’re looking for the best overall experience, it’s hard to do better than Hostinger.
Whether you’re migrating a WordPress site from another service or starting from the ground up, Hostinger is a great option for your current or next WordPress website. One-click WordPress support is included with all hosting packages, making it an easy and affordable option for everyone.
It’s clear that Hostinger has WordPress users in mind, with several packages designed specifically for hosting WordPress-based sites as efficiently as possible. And with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, you’re sure to reach as many eyes as possible without wasting time dealing with technical issues.
It has also recently improved both its migration tools and WordPress security, making it both safe and easy to move your WordPress site to Hostinger from another service. Since WordPress is so popular, it’s a primary target for cybercriminals — this constant support from Hostinger will help keep your website safe.
The impressive balance between cost, ease of use, and support led us to crown it as the top WordPress host of 2023.
- Who is Hostinger best for?
Hostinger is great for a wide variety of people, though business owners may be particularly drawn to it. Small businesses and entrepreneurs will find a service that has a high level of polish but is affordable, with great options for scaling as your business grows. - Recent upgrades to Hostinger
While Hostinger has been around for over a decade, it is still committed to continuous improvement with new technology and features to meet your needs. It has recently added improved WordPress migration, making it easier to import your site from another service as well as updating WordPress security. - Hostinger WordPress hosting pricing
You have various choices when looking for a plan with Hostinger. One option is the Single Web Host plan for only $1.99 per month, which includes one website, 50GB of storage, 100GB of bandwidth, and weekly backups. The next step up is the Premium plan for $2.99 per month which has double the storage, more websites, unlimited bandwidth, and a free domain. And the next tier caters to businesses and runs $3.99 per month, doubling the amount of storage and granting you daily backups.
The Bottom Line
Customers praise Hostinger’s ease of use, particularly if you’re just getting started, saying that it’s reliable and has a lot of great features. WordPress support was a high point. Some users are critical of the technical support, but those voices are almost always countered by those who have had a great experience with the support team.
Features
- 1 website
- 10GB storage
- Unlimited bandwidth
Price
$2.99 per month
Uptime Guarantee
99.9%
24-7 Support
Yes
Free Domain
Yes
Read More
Reasons to choose SiteGround
- Free domain registration
- Website transfer at no cost
- Official partner of WordPress
Reasons to avoid
- No dedicated or virtual private server (VPS) options
- Higher monthly pricing
If you own one of the millions of businesses that use WordPress to build your website, there’s a lot to love with SiteGround. WordPress installs quickly with one click (for free) and there are even hosting packages which have been configured specifically for WordPress sites, making it run faster and more reliably.
SiteGround has data centers in six countries, and it services over 2,000,000 domains throughout the globe, so your website will be hosted in a stable environment worldwide. It offers a special type of shared web hosting for WordPress users — at a glance, it may seem similar to other providers: disk space, visits, and features. However, WordPress comes preinstalled, completely for free.
When you use WordPress on SiteGround, you get a unique bot protection system powered by its effective artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm. When you enable the system, you will notice a considerable decrease in alerts from your WordPress security plug-ins. This system also prevents a wide variety of brute-force attacks on your WordPress login screen and does a great job detecting any malicious login attempts.
SiteGround also offers many other security options, such as the SiteGround Site Scanner, which lets you know if your website is attacked. It also offers antispam tools SpamExperts and SpamAssassin, hotlink protection, as well as internet protocol (IP) address blocklists.
- Who is SiteGround best for?
After putting SiteGround through its paces, I think it suits those running relatively small websites — personal, local, and regional small businesses or hobby or enthusiast website builders. It’s still strong enough to handle hosting your business sites but seems particularly suited for those starting small. - Recent upgrades to SiteGround
SiteGround is always updating and improving its services. This includes adding features, upgrading servers, and opening a new data center in Madrid. It’s also improving the functionality of its site scanning tool and launching a custom content delivery network (CDN). - SiteGround WordPress hosting pricing
SiteGround has three main plan options which scale in price. The “StartUp” hosting account begins at $2.99 per month. If you need more than one website and are expecting higher traffic, the “GrowBig” plan may suit you better at $4.99 a month. The top tier “GoGeek” plan runs $7.99 per month and gives you even more storage and site traffic capacity.
The Bottom Line
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.
Features
- 1 website
- SSD storage
- Unlimited traffic
Price
$4.95 per month
Uptime Guarantee
100%
24-7 Support
Yes
Free Domain
Yes
Read More
Reasons to choose DreamHost
- Excellent privacy
- 97-day money-back guarantee
- 100% uptime guarantee
- Eco-hosting
Reasons to avoid
- Extra costs for certain features
- You may pay for some levels of support
DreamHost supports over 1.5 million sites and 750,000 WordPress installations. Its reliability makes it a great choice if you’re a novice in web hosting. No matter the size of your business, you can easily create and manage all kinds of websites on WordPress.
DreamHost was our pick last year for best WordPress host. While it may have been supplanted by Hostinger, it’s still a great option with a lot to offer WordPress users. Managed WordPress hosting packages have fast, secure, and high-performance solutions that’ll help you configure and optimize your WordPress site to be stable and load quickly all the time.
What sets it apart from the other providers on this list is its 100% uptime guarantee. If that sounds too good to be true, it’s probably because it is. In testing, I found DreamHost’s servers averaged an uptime of 99.8% last year. It’s not unusual for a provider’s uptime guarantee to be inflated, but DreamHost actively backs up its commitment by offering customers compensation for downtime — one day’s worth of fees for every hour.
DreamHost also has a great money-back guarantee. Shared hosting customers have 97 days to figure out if this is the service for them.
- Who is DreamHost best for?
After testing, I think DreamHost is a great choice for everyone: from small businesses to large e-commerce websites. It also has hosting plans that fit personal website builders’ needs. It’s particularly good if you are just dipping your toes in the water with shared hosting, as you’ll have a full 97-day money-back guarantee. - Recent upgrades to brand
DreamHost continuously works on updates and upgrades on all the services it offers. Many changes were made to the websites section of DreamHost, including a new tech stack, the ability to change domains, WordPress Migrations feature, and DNS Propagation Check to check DNS status. DreamHost also revamped its user interface (UI) and redesigned the control panel. - DreamHost WordPress hosting pricing
The lowest price plan is its “Shared” plan, which includes shared hosting for entry-level websites at $4.95 per month. However, an option specifically tailored to WordPress hosting called “DreamPress” offers a managed WordPress hosting experience for $19.95 per month.
The Bottom Line
Customers find DreamHost a reliable and affordable WordPress hosting provider. They particularly like that it has a wide range of plans and features and responsive customer support. However, some customers report that their billing support agents can be frustrating to work with, and their webmail service could use some improvement.
Features
- 15GB storage
- 2TB bandwidth
- Free SSL, email, backups, and CDN
Price
$17.50 per month
Uptime Guarantee
99.99%
24-7 Support
Yes
Free Domain
No
Read More
Reasons to choose Nexcess
- Lots of plan options for hosting
- Liquid Web family of brands
- Free white-glove migration services
- Built-in CDN
Reasons to avoid
- Higher prices versus competitors
- Domain isn’t included
WordPress hosting is one of Nexcess’s flagship offerings. Each of its plans comes with value-added features (such as extra security and included automatic backup) that help Nexcess stand out from its competitors. These features ensure you’ll have a fast, secure, and reliable site no matter which you choose or how you configure it.
Nexcess is part of a group of brands including Liquid Web, known for excellent support and dedicated hosting, and StellarWP, who makes premium WordPress plug-ins. Its speciality is managed hosting services. Managed hosting is when the hosting provider is responsible for things like updating the server’s operating system, database versions, and even WordPress installation. All you need to worry about is your website and the content that you want published.
One of the downsides of Nexcess is you can’t count on an introductory rate. When we did the review of its hosting service, the lowest priced plan was the standard monthly rate of $19. Just a few weeks later, while making this list, I found Nexcess offering a $7.60 per month introductory rate for the first three months. If your website isn’t time sensitive, it might be wise to wait until an offer such as this is live — otherwise, this is one of the more expensive options on the list.
However, there’s no denying many plans are available through Nexcess, so scaling should be as easy as moving up the next tier. At the time of writing there were eight managed WordPress plans available, more than any other service on this list by a wide margin.
- Who is Nexcess best for?
Thanks to its array of plan options, Nexcess is great for small businesses who hope to scale up incrementally or those who want to run a website or storefront without the hassle of managing servers. - Recent upgrades to Nexcess
The team at Nexcess is constantly working to make its platform more stable, useful, and intuitive. Its most recent addition is Enterprise on Cloud, which allows you to deploy faster, increase checkout speeds, and extend fault tolerance. - Nexcess WordPress hosting pricing
There are too many plans to list them all, but the introductory “Spark” plan gives users 15GB of storage, 2 terabytes (TB) of bandwidth, and one website for $17.50 per month when paid annually. At the far end of this scale is the “Enterprise” plan, which includes 800GB of storage, 10TB of bandwidth, and can handle up to 250 websites.
The Bottom Line
Customers give Nexcess high marks for easy website migration and a customer service experience. However, other customers seem to have had trouble with the support team and report their issues not being solved consistently.
Features
- 1 website
- 10GB storage
- 50GB bandwidth
- Free SSL certificate
Price
$24 per month
Uptime Guarantee
99.95%
24-7 Support
Yes
Free Domain
Yes
Read More
Reasons to choose WP Engine
- 60-day money-back guarantee
- Excellent loading speeds
- Effective staging environment
- Consistent and reliable performance
Reasons to avoid
- No email hosting
- Premium pricing
WP Engine offers exceptional uptime, security updates, cloud platform flexibility, one-click restore points, automatic caching, daily backups, and other premium features. It’s an outstanding option for WordPress hosting.
I know what you’re thinking. How can WP Engine be the best value when there’s a service on this list that will cost you $12 for the whole year — half of what WP Engine costs for one month? The simple answer is you get a lot out of a WP Engine subscription and its whole business is based on WordPress hosting.
All of WP Engine’s plans offer various workflow tools to make your website-building process more convenient. These tools include a free automated migration plug-in, one-click staging sites, encrypted Secure Socket Shell (SSH) access, secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) connections, and page performance monitoring.
While many website hosting companies offer site staging with their more expensive plans, WP Engine allows this with all of its plans. This lets you create a duplicate version of your website where you can make changes to the layout, try new themes and plug-ins, and identify any errors before your site goes live.
Add daily backups, premium tools, and free migration, and you have a hosting option that gives you a lot of bang for your buck.
- Who is WP Engine best for?
WP Engine is best for small businesses, developers, agencies, and marketers, offering premium features and outstanding uptime and customer service. - Recent upgrades to WP Engine
WP Engine has recently introduced an optimized e-commerce hosting plan with features like Gutenberg blocks and ElasticPress. It has also upgraded the user experience (UX) for ease of use and made improvements to its smart plug-in manager. - WP Engine WordPress hosting pricing
WP Engine is far from the cheapest option on the block, but it’s still a great value for a managed WordPress service at $24 per month. The plans only get higher from there, with an upper tier that caters to enterprise-level businesses starting at $600 per month.
The Bottom Line
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 the company is pricey.
Features
- One website
- 10GB storage
- Free 24/7 support
Price
$2.99 per month
Uptime Guarantee
99.95%
24-7 Support
Yes
Free Domain
Yes
Read More
Reasons to choose IONOS
- Proven track record
- Automatic daily backups
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Reasons to avoid
- Only one free SSL certificate per plan
- No migration services
- Unreliable live chat system
IONOS is among the best web hosting providers for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and excels in innovation, reliability, and experience. No matter which IONOS web hosting plan you choose, you will get great features, including a free WordPress guide and a free domain name for one year.
The best reason to pick IONOS over any of the other options on this list is the eye-catching introductory rate. A Business plan for only $1 a month is pretty unbeatable. But keep an eye on your calendar — that rate hikes up to $10 a month after your first year is up.
The new WordPress IONOS web hosting plan guarantees loading speeds up to three times quicker than the old one. In addition to limitless bandwidth and storage space, developers get a free cache plug-in, powerful distributed denial of service( DDoS) protection, and more.
The WordPress plug-in was also accessible for installation; however, the WordPress plans offered seemed more practical for an all-around solution. IONOS allowed me to download a “WordPress for Beginners” guide, which was quite helpful from a first-time user’s point of view. It covers the fundamentals of creating a WordPress site your way, including how to implement the sheer variety of free plug-ins and themes.
IONOS has also recently revamped its WordPress hosting service with a new emphasis on providing an isolated environment for increased speed and security.
- Who is IONOS best for?
After extensive testing I found that IONOS is ideal for fledgling companies, providing a good balance between cost-effectiveness and dependability. Plus, it’s super easy to scale when ready. - Recent upgrades to IONOS
IONOS has just revamped its WordPress hosting service with a new emphasis on providing an isolated environment with better speed and security. It is also developing a new feature that will simplify importing pre-existing projects. - IONOS WordPress hosting pricing
Like most services, IONOS offers a one-year introductory rate at all levels. However, unlike most of the others, the cheapest of those plans is the mid-tier “Business” plan, which is only $1 a month for the first year. You can still opt for the “Essential” plan, though you’ll pay $4 a month for less storage, websites, and hosting resources.
The Bottom Line
Customers feel that IONOS is a decent, affordable web host with some drawbacks in terms of transparency and customer service. They praise the wide range of products and features, and find its servers to be generally reliable. However, they say that support can be slow and confusing, and report that they often try to upsell services.
Compare WordPress Hosts
WordPress Host
Best Features
Pricing
Best Managed WordPress Plan
- 1 website
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Free SSL certificate
$3.95 per month
Best Low-Cost WordPress Host
- 50GB storage
- 100GB bandwidth
- Unlimited free SSL
$2.99 per month
Most WordPress Hosting Plan Options
- 15GB (gigabyte) storage
- 2TB bandwidth
- Free SSL, email, backups, and CDN
$17.50 per month
What You Need to Know
What is WordPress?
WordPress is the most popular way to create your website or blog. It powers over 43.3% of all websites.
If WordPress is free, why must I pay to host my website?
While the WordPress tool kit is free, your theoretical website isn’t doing you much good if it only exists on your computer. In housing terms, WordPress is just a blueprint and materials — you still need a plot of land to build. A host is that digital plot of land.
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 not bought your domain name.
Can I use these WordPress hosting providers for an ecommerce site?
Yes, all of the WordPress hosting providers listed above provide SSL certificates necessary for operating an e-commerce website.
Do I need any WordPress hosting add-ons?
Most add-on features 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 maintain backups of your website, though backup schedules can vary. I suggest installing a WordPress backup plug-in and keeping your local backup files for better security.
How We Review WordPress Hosting Providers
I rated web hosts on specific plans and prices, what features are offered, the performance of a hosting company, what type of security is included, and whether the hosting provider is engaging in ongoing improvements.
I signed up for a plan with each provider to test:
I uploaded a basic static site to my web space, including HTML and CSS files and images, and configured Uptime.com to check my site’s availability and server response time at five-minute intervals. This test gave me a general indication of the speed and uptime you will likely experience when you decide on the best web hosting provider.
Learn more about our review methodology.