A website is an organization’s online business card. At the same time, it is one of the most important marketing tools at an organization’s disposal. A quality and performance-oriented website becomes the deciding factor whether a customer will do business with an organization or not. Thus, it is not wrong to say that it pays to have a great website.
While some organizations create a website from scratch, others opt for WordPress, an open-source content management system (CMS). Making a website with WordPress is super easy and doesn’t require any coding experience, but that doesn’t mean the website doesn’t require the right levels of care and attention. If not maintained properly, a WordPress website can become slow, buggy, and unsafe.
To keep the operations smoothly, choosing a good web hosting is critical. It can not only improve your SEO but also increase sales. Thus, to help you choose the best WordPress hosting, we have created a list of the cream of the crop hosting service providers. So, without any further delay, let’s get to it.
5 Best WordPress Hosting Service Providers
The service providers mentioned in our list offer the best hosting for WordPress. These providers are solid in terms of reliable service, pricing, support teams, server speed, and features. Here are our top picks:
- Bluehost
- SiteGround
- WP Engine
- HostGator
- DreamHost
Now, let’s take a deep dive into these hosting services
1. Bluehost
Bluehost is one of the best WordPress hosts if you are searching for cost-effective hosting services with a simple user interface. This hosting provider welcomes casual users, professionals, and anyone who needs a website with open arms. Its new website builder with WordPress integration allows fluid content management and due to this feature, Bluest stands apart from the crowd.
Bluehost services include:
- Numerous web design templates
- Analytics tools
- Essential marketing tools
- Round the clock customer support
- Automated security updates
- Guaranteed reliability
The service provider offers a standard and easy-to-use cPanel dashboard along with a one-click WordPress installation handled by Mojo Marketplace. If a user faces any issue during the installation, the support team is there to assist you via phone calls and live chats.
Bluehost's web hosting options include:
- Dedicated hosting
- Shared hosting
- VPS hosting
Bluehost doesn’t offer cloud hosting, which allows storage of website data across various servers to curb downtime in case the server goes down. But, it does have a reliable uptime making it one of the best WordPress hosts.
It is also one of the most affordable WordPress hosts starting with a $2.95 hosting plan including:
- 1 website
- 1 free domain name
- 50 GB bandwidth
Bluehost doesn’t have a monthly plan and users have to sign up for one, two, or three-year plans. The one-year plan for the Bluehost Plus Package costs $6.95 and comprises unlimited websites, storage, emails, and an anti-spam tool. The Choice Plus plan costs $6.95 a month for a 12-month contract. This plan consists of everything in the Plus package along with free automated backup and domain privacy.
2. SiteGround
SiteGround is a WordPress-recommended web hosting service provider with exceptional benefits such as WordPress optimized servers and affordable hosting for sites of any size and type. With its simple-to-use tools, the platform makes it easy to configure your WordPress website.
A few notable features:
- Effortless WordPress installation
- Free site migration to another website host
- Cache the website with WordPress SuperCacher to improve page loading times
- Develop a staged copy of your website with a single click before going live
- Improve WordPress performance and optimizations with the SiteGround Optimiser plugin
Its WordPress hosting plans are based on a tiered pricing system and a higher-tier web hosting plan offers more features. Here’s the breakdown of the hosting plans:
- StartUp: As the name suggests, it is suitable for startups and small businesses with a single WordPress website and expected traffic of 10,000 or less a month. This plan only costs $3.99 a month.
- GrowBig: For $6.99 a month, this plan is ideal for growing medium to large organizations that have approx. 25,000 monthly visitors.
- GoGeek: This is the most expensive plan costing $10.69 a month allowing large businesses to have 100,000 visitors a month.
The customer support offered by SiteGround is one of the best in the hosting arena. The support team is skilled in resolving WordPress as well as WordPress hosting issues. The team solves issues via a phone calls, social media, and an online chat.
3. WP Engine
Even though WP Engine is a bit expensive, it is still considered one of the best WordPress hosting service providers because it is solely dedicated to WordPress websites. It is a WordPress-only platform and the platform’s proficiency in WordPress parameters and its ability to cater to its customer’s needs is second to none.
Its WordPress-managed plans offer lightning-fast loading times, optimal website security, and more. Here are a few features:
- Free SSL certificate
- Free and Easy migration from other hosts
- Supports staging websites
- Numerous diagnostic and performance tracking tools
- Tools to test website performance and suggest improvements
- GeoTarget to optimize the website for certain locations.
WP Engine is ideal for large-scale businesses that need the flexibility of cloud hosting, the security of their sensitive data, and daily backups to save their critical company information.
Still, there are downsides to this remarkable WordPress hosting provider such as the absence of an email address and a free domain name leaving you with an option of getting them from another company.
With that being said, the specialty of WP Engine is its managed WordPress hosting. It serves as the base of its four WordPress hosting plans. Here’s a quick breakdown of the hosting plans:
- Startup: The entry-level plan gives you one website, 10 GB of storage, a free SSL certificate, and 50 GB of bandwidth at a monthly cost of $20.
- Professional: Costing its users about $39.99 per month, the professional plan allows its users to create three WordPress websites and 75,000 monthly visitors with 15 GB of storage space.
- Growth: This plan costs $76.67 a month and offers the creation of 10 websites, 100,000 traffic accommodations a month, SSL imports, and round-the-clock customer support.
- Scale: At $193.33, this plan might resemble the Growth plan, but it provides more resources such as 30 websites and 400,000 monthly visitors.
With the Premium and Enterprise plans an organization can create bespoke WordPress hosting plans at varying prices. With these plans, you get several resources and support tools, and your hosting is done on dedicated servers.
4. HostGator
Launched in 2002, HostGator has years of experience to back its services and platform. It has become one of the most distinguished web hosting companies in recent years due to its affordable WordPress hosting plans and robust uptime. Along with regular and cloud hosting, HostGator also provides managed WordPress hosting services for bloggers and small businesses. Here are a few features:
- Several WordPress themes via Mojo Marketplace
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain name
- Free WordPress migrations despite the plan
- WordPress SuperCache plugin
HostGator has fewer resources and features than other hosting providers but it makes up for it with its fast loading speed, remarkable uptime, and a few free resources. Moreover, the company offers three managed hosting plans. Below are the details of the plans:
- Starter: This basic plan offers 50 GB of storage space and 25,000 monthly visitors. It is perfect for small businesses, e-commerce sites, or casual blogs all at $5.95.
- Standard: At $7.95 a month, the Standard plan offers two websites and collective web traffic of 200,000 visitors a month. Medium-sized businesses and online sellers may find this plan ideal with a disk space of 150 GB.
- Business: Large organizations and e-commerce sites have to pay $9.95 a month for the Business plan and they can create up to three websites and have 500,000 visitors a month with unlimited storage.
This WordPress hosting service provider has incredible customer support with specialists available via online chat, fax, phone calls, and direct mail round the clock. The users might have to wait for a few minutes to connect with the support team but the team solves the problems very efficiently.
5. DreamHost
DreamHost offers some best WordPress hosting services and is reliable due to its good performance and reputation. It has a lot of WordPress specific features such as:
- A free domain
- Free email hosting
- Free SSL certificate
- In-house WordPress assistance
- Automated backups
DreamHost offers both shared and managed WordPress hosting services and plans. The entry-level plan is called WordPress Basic and it costs $2.59 a month including 50 GB of SSD storage, numerous free WordPress themes, unlimited data transfers, and purchasable email identical to the shared web hosting plans for a three-year contract.
Under its managed WordPress hosting umbrella, DreamHost offers three additional hosting plans:
- DreamPress: It starts at $12.00 a month and consists of one website and up to 100,000 visitors a month. This standard plan also features one-click staging, a pre-installed SSL certificate, on-demand backups, and unlimited email accounts.
- DreamPress Plus: This plan accommodates up to 300,000 visitors a month and includes a new website builder, no-cost WordPress migration, and round-the-clock customer support. It is ideal for large businesses with the costs coming up to $24.00 a month.
- DreamPress Pro: At $79.95, the DreamPress Pro is perfect for high-capacity sites that have over a million monthly visitors. It offers 120 GB SSD storage, round-the-clock priority support, and Jetpack professional plugins.
For $15 a month, users can also get virtual private server hosting for up to five WordPress sites. This service offers expandable RAM, managed security, and unfettered performance.
Final Word
WordPress is a CMS that is ideal for both a casual blogger and a major corporation. The user-friendly CMS benefits its users with its features and functionalities, especially when they shift from a free version to one of the best WordPress hosting service providers. WordPress hosting can vary from shared to managed as well as VPS hosting and thus, you must understand your budget, website needs, and offerings before choosing some of the best WordPress hosting services.