In the following guide, we take a look at the 5 best website hosting providers for WordPress. We often get questions about website hosting, so we’ve put together this resource to share our recommendations.

We have tried and tested all of these website hosting providers and have had good overall experiences with each of them.

  • SiteGround
  • WP Engine
  • Flywheel
  • Cloudways
  • Kinsta

We’ll explain how to choose the best hosting based on criteria such as website speed, bandwidth, storage, latest technology, cost, scalability, customer support, and security. To start off, let’s answer some common questions about website hosting.

What is website hosting and why do I need it?

If you want your website to be available to people online then you’ll need to have a hosting provider. Website hosting is what makes it possible for your website to be accessed online. A hosting provider stores the website’s files on its servers, which makes it possible for the website to be accessed when users conduct an online search.

Website hosting providers may also offer other services such as email hosting, storage, and data transfers. Pricing varies depending on the services and type of hosting needed to support your website.

How often do you have to pay for website hosting?

Usually, there are two options for paying for website hosting: monthly or annually. Most website hosting providers offer a discounted rate if you commit to a year and pay an annual one-time rate. However, the monthly rate offers the flexibility to be able to switch providers much easier if necessary.

Also, be wary of rates increases, most companies offer a large discount when signing. You can expect prices to increase by around 50% after the introductory period.

What type of hosting do I need?

Each hosting option offers different features that you need to take into consideration when choosing a provider. Let’s take a look at the most common hosting options available online.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is the most common type of hosting available to regular consumers. While multiple websites are stored on the same server, this is a cheaper option as they can share the cost. However, it may impact your website’s performance depending on how other websites on the same server are using the space.

If your site has a lot of images, high volumes of traffic, or an eCommerce store this may not be the best option. Then, you may need more bandwidth and storage space to support your site.

Dedicated Web Hosting

Dedicated web hosting provides you with your own server, as there is no sharing. A benefit of having a dedicated server is that it gives you more control. This allows you to choose the type of server, including operating systems and hardware. Additionally, it provides high performance, security, and email stability. However, it can be more expensive yet quite powerful. This option is ideal for sites that need a lot of server resources receiving a high volume of traffic.

Virtual Private Server (VPS)

A VPS acts like a dedicated server but is still in a shared server environment. It shares performance with other websites on the server but there are fewer sites with their own individual resources. A VPS is a nice middle ground between shared hosting and dedicated hosting.

Cloud Servers

Cloud server providers can configure options that best meet the needs of the customer’s website. Usually, they run in the giant public clouds such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure. A benefit to this option is that you can scale seamlessly. If your website size and traffic increases, you just pay the provider to scale your space accordingly.

Things to be aware of is the amount of bandwidth and storage the provider includes in their services. Bandwidth is the amount of data transferred when visitors come to your site. While storage is the allowed space for the storage of your website files. As your website grows, your need for an increase in bandwidth and storage space may need to scale up.

Some hosting providers offer ‘unlimited storage’ for a low price. However, this may not be what it seems. Be sure to check that the plan you are selecting won’t limit you after a certain usage level.

Additionally, the hardware is also an important factor when people are accessing your website. Check if the provider uses solid state drives (SSD) for their servers which can increase the performance of your site. They are much faster than traditional drives and are more reliable and consume less power.

How to choose the best web hosting provider?

We have compiled eight key things to take into consideration when choosing the best website hosting provider. These include speed, bandwidth, storage, latest technology, cost, scalability, customer support, and security.

Website speed

The speed of your website is important, as a slow site can have a negative impact on your user’s experience. Website speed is determined by the hosting type, hardware, and locations of the servers. Having a server in the locations closest to your visitors will benefit your site speed. A good hosting provider will allow you to choose the location of the server for your site.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is the amount of data transferred between your website, visitors, and the internet within a specific amount of time. There are a variety of levels of bandwidth that hosting providers will offer depending on their networks, connections, and system. If your site has more than 5,000 visitors each month then you’ll want to have a good amount of bandwidth.

Storage

Most hosting providers will offer a variety of levels of storage capacity depending on the level of hosting you choose. Some providers even offer ‘unlimited’ storage which may come with restrictions, so make sure to check the fine print. If your website has a lot of videos, music, or images make sure to have a decent amount of storage.

If you’re a small business you may not need more than 2-6GB of storage space for your website. Check the size of your website to understand how much space is needed if switching to a new hosting provider.

Latest Technology

You want to be sure that your hosting provider is staying up-to-date with the hosting trends that benefit your website. With the latest trends today, we recommend a hosting provider that has a control panel (cPanel) or Plesk. These control panels allow you to make changes yourself if the need arises.

Additionally, a provider that uses servers with SSD will be much faster, reliable, and consume less power. Another thing is the ability to choose your hosting provider’s server space to be closer to your visitors. However, if it’s not possible, check if they offer Content Delivery Network (CDN). A CDN uses technology that enables your visitors to access a cached version of your site from the closest server.

Lastly, yet an important service to look for in a hosting provider is backups. This service will automatically back up your data from your website daily. This enables you to restore your website if necessary from any point. This is important in the case of a disaster at the hosting data center, the website getting hacked, or due to human error. Not all hosting providers offer this, so you’ll want to be sure to look for it in a hosting package.

Cost

Another thing to consider is the cost of a website hosting provider. You want to ensure that the pricing is reasonable for the size of your website and traffic. While shared hosting may be the cheapest option, dedicated web hosting is the most expensive. Consider what hosting option best fits your needs not only based on price. If choosing a shared hosting option, choose one with good hardware that uses SSD’s and more CPU’s on their servers.

Scalability

As your website and traffic grows you’ll want to be able to scale the hosting space needed without issues. Hosting providers usually charge based on the storage space and bandwidth used. Consider a fairly priced and scalable hosting plan so that it can grow with your site.

Customer Support

A benefit of using a hosting provider that offers 24/7 support is that you can contact them at any time. Time is money, but if you’re not able to quickly resolve any issue, then reconsider exploring other options.

Having a readily available support team for those issues and questions that may come up is incredibly valuable. Check the reviews of the hosting provider, especially as customers share about their experiences with customer support.  Also, see if they offer a user community where customers are able to share and connect with other users.

Security

You want to be able to provide a safe online experience for your users. Many hosting providers offer security certificates (SSL) that encrypt data going back and forth between the hosting server and browser. This verifies the identity of the owner of a website.

Our Recommended 5 Best Website Hosting Providers

*Note: we may be affiliated with some hosting partners listed below. Our recommendations are not biased as they are based on our own experiences.

SiteGround

Considered the “best value web hosting” SiteGround offers a range of pricing and website hosting options. Their pricing starts at a promo rate of $3.95/mo and regularly $11.95/mo for 10,000 monthly visits and 10GB space. We found that they have really good and helpful customer support. They offer 24/7 support, SSL certificates, site migration, CDN, email accounts, and daily backups.

WP Engine

WP Engine offers specialized hosting specifically for WordPress websites. They offer solutions for agencies, large enterprises, and small to medium sized businesses. Plans start at $35/mo for 20,000 visits, 10GB local storage, and 50GB bandwidth per month. In addition, they are able to offer customizable packages for large businesses and mission-critical websites. They have great customer service and helpful support services. They provide 24/7 support, SSL certificates, CDN, site migration, daily backups, WordPress updates, and personalized options for WordPress plugins. Their services are scalable and this is one of the providers we highly recommend since we use their services regularly. As an affiliate we are able to offer a special annual discount of 3 months free of WP Engine.

Flywheel

This specialized WordPress hosting provider offers services for a range of customers from freelancers to agencies to high-traffic sites. Flywheel offers pricing starting at $25/mo with 25,000 monthly visits, 50GB of disk space, 50GB of bandwidth per month. Overall we’ve had a good customer service experience with Flywheel. They offer 24/7 support, SSL certificates, CDN, and a variety of workflow tools such as free demo sites, client billing, and resources to keep the team organized.

Cloudways

This is another hosting provider that we personally use in our business which offers managed hosting for WordPress and WooCommerce. Cloudways offers scalable pay-as-you-go pricing starting at $10/mo for 1GB RAM, 25GB storage, and 1TB bandwidth per month. They offer 24/7 support, SSL certificates, CDN, automated backups, scalable cloud hosting, and many more tools available especially for experienced developers who want more control.

Kinsta

Offering premium managed WordPress hosting for all websites of any size. Kinsta offers options that are scalable providing 10 tiers of pricing starting at $30/mo for 20,000 visits and 5GB disk space per month. They offer 24/7 support, SSL certificates, site migration, CDN, and daily backups.

Summary

We’ve included 5 key takeaways to keep in mind when considering website hosting providers for your website.

  1. Understand how much space and bandwidth you need for your website.
  2. Look for hosting options that are scalable so as your business grows you can adjust your hosting needs accordingly.
  3. Make sure to read the small print before signing any contracts with a hosting provider. This can help you avoid unknown or hidden. restrictions.
  4. Review customer testimonials and reviews to ensure server reliability and support.
  5. Look for hosting providers that offer 24/7 support, SSL certificates, and use technology with SSD, CDN, and daily backups.