Best WordPress Hosting (2023) – The Top 5 WordPress Hosting Services Reviewed and Compared

This article will walk you through the best WordPress hosting providers.

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The term “web hosting” can sound complicated and it can scare people looking to make their way into ecommerce. However, in 2021 web hosting isn't complicated.

Picking between hosting companies should be one of the first things you do as a retailer, right up there with choosing your platform or deciding on your store's name.

If you are set on WordPress and you've found yourself asking any of these questions. Then our guide to the 10 Best WordPress Hosting services can help you out.

  • What is web hosting?
  • What are the benefits of web hosting?
  • How much does web hosting cost?

What is web hosting?

Web hosting is when a hosting provider assigns room for your website on a server.

It's essentially where all the files for your website are stored. When someone types in your domain name, the server on which your website is stored send the files back to the user.

There are a huge number of web host providers for WordPress sites that are vying for your attention. The hosting company you decide to choose will be dependent on the stage you're at on your ecommerce journey. Pricing can start from as little as $1 a month, right through to $1000.

Benefits of web hosting:

Web hosting provides a number of benefits for your WordPress website, here's a few below.

Uptime

Ensuring your website is 24/7 365 is absolutely pivotal.

Performing a quick search for your chosen provider along with the term “uptime” is a good idea. Before deciding on your WordPress host you can see the provider's track record of uptime. You don't want to go anywhere below 98%.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is how much data can be transferred to the user in a specific amount of time. Websites are very complex and contain HTML, CSS, and image files.

Bandwidth is measured in gigabytes, so the higher bandwidth you choose, the more dynamic content you can deliver. Ensuring your hosting plan offers caching is important. This can reduce the amount of bandwidth used by visitors to your site.

Security

A good web hosting provider can provide a firewall and antivirus software for your website, which protects against malware and viruses.

Websites are always prone to hackers, so ensuring the service your web host provides includes a free SSL certificate is a good start. This is a visible indication that your website is secure and gives users peace of mind when placing an order.

Backups

In the unlikely event that your website is hacked, it's good to know that there will be a backup. Speak to your provider's customer support team to see how often your site will be backed up. Daily backups are quite common now.

Support

If any of the issues above occur then it's good to know that there's a good customer support team on hand. Most good providers are available all year round, so don't settle for anything less.

SEO

As well as the optimization of your web pages, having a secure site with a good uptime has major benefits for your website's SEO.

International

A good hosting solution will help you connect to a content delivery network (CDN). In short, this means that your WordPress site can connect to a server that is closer to your website visitors' location. Therefore the page load time will be quicker for them.

Why WordPress.com?

WordPress is more than just a blogging site.

It's an ideal entry-level solution for small businesses and has a great ecommerce integration via its WooCommerce solution. It's one of the best web platforms around.

๐Ÿ‘‰ Read our comprehensive WordPress review.

The 10 best WordPress hosting providers

There are many different hosting options available for WordPress so let's check out a list of the best.

1. SiteGround

siteground wordpress hosting

SiteGround is one of the big players in the web hosting game. Since its inception in 2004, they now boast over 2 million domains.

Pricing ๐Ÿ’ฐ

SiteGroundโ€˜s basic plan starts at $5.99 a month.

You get SSL certification, daily backups, email, free CDN, as well as out-of-the-box caching. Caching essentially increases the number of hits your site can take and improves its overall speed.

The GrowBig and GoGeek packages offer more tailored customer support, options to increase contributors, and faster load times.

You can purchase a domain name directly through SiteGround at a cost of $14.95.

Uptime

SiteGround guarantees network uptime of 99.9%. If they fall below this they offer the following compensation:

  • 99.9% – 99.00% uptime: 1 month free hosting
  • An additional month of free hosting for every 1% of uptime lost below 99.00%.

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Free Migration โ€“ a way that SiteGround sets itself apart is that via their free WordPress Migration plugin. Of the people that reviewed it 80% have given it the full 5 stars. If you are on the GrowBig plan or higher then you can have a specialist do this for you.
  • CDN and SSL โ€“ we've mentioned SSL enough, but Content Delivery Network (CDN) is another big bonus for your site. SiteGround's servers are spread over 3 continents ensuring that no matter where your users are they'll access your site quickly.
  • Unlimited – SiteGround won't charge you extra based on website traffic
  • Servers – to ensure quick load times, you can select where you want your server located

Cons ๐Ÿ‘Ž

  • Pricing โ€“ you get what you pay for, but in comparison, it's much higher than other providers. That price doesn't come with a domain name, plus renewal rates can double in most places after a year.

2. Hostinger

hostinger - best wordpress hosting

Hostinger initially started out in 2007 under a different guise. In 2011 they rebranded as you see them today. Since then their user base has grown to over 29 million users in 178 countries.

Pricing ๐Ÿ’ฐ

Hostinger is a very affordable option that offers plans that start at $2.59 a month.

They have 3 options, Shared Web Hosting, Cloud Hosting, and VPS Hosting, within this, there are 12 options. With all their plans you get a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Uptime

Similar to SiteGround, Hostinger promises a 99.9% uptime. They are fairly consistent but had a slight blip in September in 2020 where uptime was reported as 97.98%, besides that they are near perfect.

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Speed โ€“ their speed is unrivaled. Hostinger has servers in several continents which boast a connection speed of 1000mbps
  • Support โ€“ the live chat support option with Hostinger is fantastic. Their staff is proficient and highly knowledgeable on technical questions.
  • Guarantees โ€“ Hostinger offer a 30-day money-back guarantee and a huge array of options to pay for your web hosting
  • Interface โ€“ Hostinger doesn't use the traditional cPanel, but it's much better for it. It's incredibly clean and the functionality allows you to manage your domains and settings with ease
  • Price โ€“ the most cost-effective option on the market if you're willing to agree to 4 years worth of web hosting.

Cons ๐Ÿ‘Ž

  • Refunds โ€“ only parts of Hostinger's services are refundable. The biggest issue is around domains. Hostinger doesn't offer a free domain name with their basic plan, plus you only have 4 days to refund rather than 30 days

3. Scala Hosting

scala hosting homepage

Scala Hosting is a well-known name in the hosting world, with an impressive selection of awards and reviews. Since it started out in 2007, Scala now hosts 700,000+ websites in 120+ countries.ย 

Pricing ๐Ÿ’ฐ

For WordPress users, Scala offers four price plans. The cheapest is WP Mini which costs just $2.95/mo, an introductory offer representing a 57% discount. In addition, this plan provides hosting for one site.ย 

Other features include 10GB fixed NVMe SSD storage, a one-click WordPress installer, standard security, a free SSL certificate, unlimited email accounts, daily backups, and more.ย 

The next level plan is the WP Basic for $5.95/mo (at a 33% discount). This plan offers the same as WP Mini, plus additional features, including 50GB storage and unlimited websites. However, the higher plans: WP Advanced and Entry WP Cloud offer more advanced features, such as real-time malware protection, a free domain for the first year, and priority skip-the-queue support.

Uptime

Scala guarantees a 99.9% uptime. Itโ€™s easy to access stats on Scalaโ€™s uptime record since 2007. If Scala doesnโ€™t live up to its guarantee, it will issue a refund depending on the uptime percentage; credit applies as follows:

  • 99.9% – 0% credit
  • 99.8% – 10% credit
  • 99.7% – 20% credit
  • 99.6% – 30% credit
  • 99.5% – 40% credit
  • 99.4% – 50% credit
  • 99.3% – 60% credit
  • 99.2% – 70% credit
  • 99.1% – 80% credit
  • 99.0% – 90% credit
  • Less than 99% – 100% credit

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Scalaโ€™s 99.9% uptime guarantee is pretty impressive
  • The one-click WordPress installation is easy to use
  • Scalaโ€™s pricing is reasonable
  • Free migration is available
  • Free domain comes with all plans
  • Free SSL certificates come with all plans
  • Unlimited email accounts are available on all plans
  • You get access to 24/7 live chat and ticket support

Cons ๐Ÿ‘Ž

  • Thereโ€™s no website builder tool
  • Although support is 24/7, thereโ€™s no phone support

4. Cloudways

cloudways wordpress hosting homepage

Since 2012, Cloudways has offered managed WordPress hosting to over 250,000 small businesses, agencies, and individuals.

Pricing ๐Ÿ’ฐ

Cloudways offers eight pricing plans for WordPress hosting. This comprises four Standard and four Premium plans. The Standard plans range from $10 to $48 per month. While the Premium plans start at $12 per month and go up to $96 per month.

You can also choose from a range of data centers offering more premium speeds, which come with different pricing.

Cloudways also offers the option to pay for hosting on an hourly basis, starting from $0.0106 per hour.

There's also a free three-day trial period.

Uptime

Like other hosting providers on this list, Cloudways has a 99.99% uptime and loading speeds of 400 to 600 milliseconds.

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Pricing: Cloudways offers flexible pricing, including hourly plans
  • CDNs: Access to a global network of data centers
  • Bandwidth and storage: You get 1TB bandwidth on the cheapest plan, as well as a minimum of 25GB storage
  • Support: 24/7 support is available

Cons ๐Ÿ‘Ž

  • No email hosting
  • No cPanel/Plesk control panel

5. WP Engine

wp engine wordpress hosting

WP Engine lays claim to over 1.2 million websites in over 150 countries and is the #1 managed WordPress host.

Pricing ๐Ÿ’ฐ

It's evident from their pricing plans that WP Engine is designed for big websites, boasting customers such as Etsy and Hello Fresh.

They have 4 pricing options, managed hosting, managed hosting plus, secure hosting, and ecommerce hosting for WooCommerce. Within this, there are 4 pricing options. Their most cost-effective plan starts at $25 a month if billed annually.

They are the most expensive option in this list, but they do offer a coupon for 3 months free, which is valid for new Startup, Professional, Growth, or Scale plans.

Uptime

WP Engine promises an uptime of 99.95% which is slightly lower than other providers in this list. Over a year this is about 8 hours of downtime. As compensation, you are entitled to 5% of the applicable monthly fees for each full hour of downtime.

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Experts – WP Engine only focuses on WordPress so they know what they are talking about. There's only great added features such as access to 30+ premium themes
  • Management – all plans are managed which means you are not sharing server disk space
  • High performance – as they are managed the performance is superb. You can benefit from industry-leading speed and security

Cons ๐Ÿ‘Ž

  • Pricing – WP Engine doesn't come cheap. If you expecting big things initially it's a good option, but it's not built for startups
  • Plugins – there is a list of disallowed plugins so it's worth checking if you plan to use any of these

6. Dreamhost

dreamhost wordpress hosting

Founded in 1997, DreamHost is one of, if not the biggest names in web hosting for WordPress websites. As of 2021, they host 1.5 million websites, over 100 countries.

Pricing ๐Ÿ’ฐ

DreamHost offers three levels of hosting, Shared, DreamPress, and VPS.

Shared WordPress web hosting is ideal for new startups. You share servers with other websites which keeps the cost down. This starts at $2.59 if you take out a 3-year plan.

DreamHost's VPS plan stands for virtual private server. This allows you to have your own dedicated hosting for very fast speeds. The price of this is $13.75 a month.

Uptime

DreamHost reports the best uptime in this list and guarantees 100% uptime. If they fail to deliver this they will offer a credit for time loss. In the first few months of 2021, they have delivered on this promise.

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Monthly Hosting โ€“ you have the option to use DreamHost on a month-to-month basis and you cancel at any point. Additional to this they offer a 97-day money-back guarantee.
  • Free WordPress Migration โ€“ don't expect hosting companies to provide a free integration with WordPress,. DreamHost offers this on the most basic plan, however.
  • Custom Control Panel โ€“ most hosting comes with a standard control panel called CPanel. DreamHost have built their own which is much more user friendly and actions can be taken in just one click.
  • Unlimited Features โ€“ even on their basic plan DreamHost offers unlimited traffic. This means they don't track bandwidth and you won't be overcharged dependent on how well your site performs.
  • Basic Features โ€“ the features on the lowest-priced plan are phenomenal. You get a free domain name and an SSL certificate.
  • Managed WordPress Hosting – DreamHost offers a plan where it manages all aspects of your hosting such as setup, support, and administration

Cons ๐Ÿ‘Ž

  • Speed โ€“ DreamHost's average loading time is 1320ms which wouldn't put them in the top end of web hosting services.
  • Support โ€“ their support is shown as 24/7 however a lot of this done via a chatbot. If you want to speak to a representative you need to do this Monday-Friday 9am-4pm (PT).

7. Nexcess

nexcess homepage - best wordpress hosting

Nexcess manages over 500,000 websites and has 20 years of web hosting experience. They have 10 data centers all over the world.

Pricing ๐Ÿ’ฐ

Pricing starts from $12.57 annually or $19 monthly. Nexcess has one of the best entry-level plans on this list. Offering a lot of features such as one-click staging, SSL certificate, and daily backups.

There are 7 pricing plans in total and the increase depends on the number of websites you own, storage and bandwidth.

Uptime

Nexcess has had a perfect start to 2021 with 100% uptime. They have an uptime status page which you can check out. They will also list when maintenance is carried out and if there are any incidents.

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Features – it's not the cheapest on this list but the features you get on the spark plan are superb. A CDN and caching is offered automatically to ensure fast speeds
  • Scaling – if you see a boom in traffic in 24 hours then Nexcess won't automatically upgrade your package. They will monitor to see if this is a one-off and adjust from there
  • Users – you can have an unlimited amount of users on all plans. You also have the benefit of having unlimited email accounts which will be great for your team

Cons ๐Ÿ‘Ž

  • Refunds – Nexcess has a 14-day money-back guarantee but this is only available on the entry-level package

8. GreenGeeks

greengeeks wordpress hosting

Since forming in 2008, GreenGeeks now hosts over 600,000 websites. Founder Trey Gardner has been working in web hosting since 1999 and has experience which no fewer than 8 web hosting companies.

Pricing ๐Ÿ’ฐ

They offer 3 pricing plans for WordPress, Lite, Pro, and Premium. The Lite package does offer some great freebies including an SSL certificate as well as a domain name (for the first year) at a price of $2.49 a month.

The Pro package promises much faster performance and unlimited bandwidth and is priced at a very reasonable $4.95 a month.

Uptime

GreenGeeks report some fantastic uptime. This is no surprise as they monitor all of their servers every 10 seconds. Most providers will do this every minute.

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Speed โ€“ Greengeeks is much better than the industry average and reports figures of 487 ms.
  • Domain Name โ€“ they offer a free domain for the first year. From there it's just $13.95 per year for the domain.
  • Ethical โ€“ you'd hope that a company called GreenGeeks would be environmentally friendly and they are just that. GreenGeeks adds up their annual energy consumption and promises to give 3 times as much back via wind energy.
  • Guarantees โ€“ like many of its competitors, GreenGeeks matches the 30-day money-back guarantee, which is available across all 3 of its WordPress plans.

Cons ๐Ÿ‘Ž

  • Pricing โ€“ unlike its competitors there are only 3 options, which doesn't allow for much flexibility. The pricing jump to $10.95 on a monthly basis for its Lite package makes it more expensive than most in the sector
  • Refunds โ€“ if you took them up on the free domain then you will only be deducted the amount that you paid for the registration fee

9. Kinsta

kinsta wordpress hosting

Founded in 2013, Kinsta has gone from strength to strength, growing its client base group by 282% since 2018. It now has major companies in its ranks such as Ubisoft, Buffer, and Trip Advisor.

Pricing ๐Ÿ’ฐ

All of Kinsta's plans are WordPress-specific. They have 10 pricing options ranging from $30-$1,500.

If you are looking to run an ecommerce store through WooCommerce then Kinsta recommends starting on the $100 a month plan. If paid annually then all plans come with 2 free months.

Uptime

Checks are performed every 5 minutes and they guarantee an uptime of 99.9%. Kinsta is more costly than other providers but can justify this with their excellent uptime which has been 100% throughout 2021.

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Speed – this is Kinsta's USP and they deliver it on. Specializing in ecommerce they realize how crucial load times are, their 25 data centers worldwide help provide fantastic performance
  • Interface – Kinsta arguably has the most aesthetically pleasing interface on the list. It's no hassle and is very easy to use and understand
  • Backups – daily backups are ideal to make sure your data is still available as the result of an unlikely hack

Cons ๐Ÿ‘Ž

  • Pricing – it's not cheap. If you are launching an ecommerce store then Kinsta is only applicable if you are expecting major traffic
  • Support – telephone support isn't available

10. FlyWheel

flywheel wordpress hosting

FlyWheel is a WordPress host for 35,000 brands. They only host WordPress sites and are self-claimed experts.

Pricing ๐Ÿ’ฐ

You can get a 14-day free trial to start out for free. FlyWheel's Tiny package is the cheapest option but only allows up to 5,000 monthly views.

All pricing plans are PHP 7.4 ready, which means your site will receive a significant boost in performance. Each plan comes with 30+ premium themes to ensure your site is aesthetically pleasing.

Uptime

Their hosting package is powered by Google Cloud which helps them provide an uptime of 99.9%. FlyWheel has a status page where you subscribe for updates and also a Twitter account to keep you posted on service maintenance.

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Interface – similar to Kingsta they have one of the most user-friendly hosting platforms on the market
  • Offline – an offline feature allows you to create a WordPress site locally before pushing it live. This allows you to perform a new WordPress installation in minutes

Cons ๐Ÿ‘Ž

  • Support – phone support isn't included in the first plans, which means you will need to pay $242 a month
  • Pricing – $13 may seem reasonable but the plan is called Tiny for a reason. As your business scales, you will have to move up quickly to the $25-96 range

11. A2 Hosting

a2 hosting wordpress hosting

A2 Hosting is one of the lesser-known providers on this list. They are an independently run hosting service that's been around since 2001.

Pricing ๐Ÿ’ฐ

A2 Hosting has 4 WordPress hosting services, Startup, Drive, Turbo Boost, and Turbo Max.

Their startup package comes in at a very affordable $1.99 a month if taken on a 3-year basis. All-year-round support is offered in this with free site migration and SSL certification.

This makes A2 Hosting one of the best options in this list for companies who expect small amounts of traffic when starting.

Uptime

A2 Hosting has a 99.9% uptime commitment. According to their website, they provide a “service credit in the amount of 5% of paid fee for the month, for every hour that your website is unreachable”. They are one of the leaders in the industry for uptime.

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Speed โ€“ they are the leaders in this department. They boost up to 20x faster speeds than some of their competitors, which will have an impact on your conversion rates.
  • HackScan โ€“ all of A2 Hosting's servers are protected by HackScan. It's an always-on service that checks for malware and hackers. Ensuring your site is secure.

Cons ๐Ÿ‘Ž

  • Domain Name โ€“ they don't offer a free domain name on any of the shared hosting pricing plans. This is quite rare and a bit of a letdown, meaning you'll need to fork out an extra $14.95 per year

12. Bluehost

bluehost wordpress hosting

Bluehost launched in 2003 and now powers over 2million websites. They are one of the biggest players in the WordPress hosting services game.

Pricing ๐Ÿ’ฐ

Bluehost offers a free consultation to help you choose the right plan, plus they also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. Bluehost offers shared and managed plans so they ideal for really small start-ups right through to enterprise businesses.

They offer huge discounts if you take out a 36-month plan. The Basic plan for example is reduced from $8.99 to $2.95. The features on the Basic are also impressive with free SSL, CDN, and domain.

Uptime

Bluehost has a very impressive uptime over the last 12 months with 99.98%. If there is an issue Bluehost promise to resolve that within 15 minutes.

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Pricing – Bluehost is very flexible, offering both shared and managed pricing plans. Their base packages come with some fantastic features
  • Upgrading – if you wanted to change to managed hosting for better performance then this is a very seamless process and you won't have to move your website

Cons ๐Ÿ‘Ž

  • Storage – assess how many files you have. Bluehost doesn't offer much storage on its lower-priced plans
  • Backups – there are no daily backups and these would need to be performed manually

Conclusion

There are 10 very different options here, despite them all offering the same service.

If you're a business that is just starting up and want a reliable provider at a low cost then Bluehost, A2 Hosting, Hostinger, and Dreamhost are all cost-effective solutions

If ethical ecommerce is a primary concern of yours and you want your service provider to give back then look no further than GreenGeeks.

If you have a higher budget and need a bit more performance then Siteground, FlyWheel, and Kinsta are ideal choices.

Hope you enjoyed this review. Which web host are you going to choose?

Richard Protheroe

Content Marketer at Veeqo. Veeqo allows you to link your Amazon Seller Central account with your other sales channels to better manage your inventory and shipping.

Comments 1 Response

  1. Priya Sharma says:

    Thanks a lot for sharing this amazing blog with us. The entire information is really good. I really enjoyed reading this blog.

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